The next day began a little earlier than the couple past ones and the sun was met with an already awake young man. Eyes still a little sleepy but willed to stay open, his brown orbs kept staring at the handsome face, not because of interest, but of longing.

However he tried, he couldn’t reason the strange feeling he felt when the other was right next to him. To him, even if they were side by side, it felt like there was an endless Sahara in between them. As if years and years of steaming sand was spread and as much as he wanted to reach him, something made him far too exhausted to even start trying. It wasn’t something he wanted to feel, but deep in his chest, he also wondered how long they would stand like this; sleep together and wake up together.

How long would it take them till it was too late?

Another pair of eyes slowly opened, blinking the sleep away as his vision slowly focused on the pair that stared at him. A glance was more than enough for the blonde to know what was passing through the elder’s mind; worries, anxiety, fear. Moving a little under the covers, he formed a barely visible smile to reassure him but it didn’t seem to affect the other in any way. If anything, it only made the elder sadder and sulkier.

“Did I wake you up?” The elder asked lowly, almost scared to disturb the comfortable silence.

Luhan shook his head and his smile widened just a little. “Let’s run away.” His words pulled a better reaction and Minseok stared at him as if he was insane.

“Wh-What?”

“Let’s leave everything behind. Completely. Let’s just up and go.” Luhan moved his hand to the door. “Escape.”

“And where would we go?” The elder voiced in curiosity, Luhan shrugging.

“I don’t know. We don’t go anywhere. We just, leave. Let’s do that.” A smile etched his lips, a lot brighter than before. “Let’s become strays.”

Minseok knew he had lost it. He was insane, already too deep in his little insane world with his little insane thoughts in his little insane head. But, being insane had never felt this good before.

All his life he had been taught what was right and wrong by people who had taken less than half of the risks they spoke of. Reminded how life should be, how everything should roll and how he should live. To the point he was at the verge of marring a woman he still vaguely knew and was more of a stranger compared to how much he knew Luhan.

He never believed in love, it never fascinated him. Romance books and Shakespearean sonnets did not cause anything in him. Korean dramas that took love and stretched it too far, it wasn’t his style. Little cards during Valentine and chocolates during White day; not in his interests.

Love was a word he knew by definition, knew because he had been once asked to write an essay that had happened to contain it; must have been the only reason he knew it in the first place. Loving someone was still an enigma and he never had reached to a point that he would stop midway while walking down the street, wear a surprised expression and exclaim; “wait! I’m in love, aren’t I?”.

That had never happened.

Until the previous night.

When he felt the pain and worry which was caused by Luhan, he knew that whatever he felt, it was not just as simple as it could get. Luhan took it light-heartedly, seemingly uncaring about showing his emotions and feelings towards him boldly. Whether it was the different ways the two of them had grown up or not, Minseok could not be so blunt.

He knew by fact that Luhan roamed his thoughts daily, twenty-four hours a day for the past three weeks, going through anything and everything in Minseok’s mind, so he probably already knew how confused the elder was. But, his mouth had never voiced it directly.

Until the sunrise which embraced slowly the early of the day.

Minseok’s eyes stared ahead, his body leaning against the front of his expensive car, his hands crossed and one foot over the other as he stared at the sun that slowly made it’s way up in the sky. The beauty of the colors was something Minseok had yearned for and now that he didn’t rush to go to University or study in his bedroom, he could admire it as much as he wanted.

He could hear light footsteps approach him, the shoes stepping on the dirt road towards the edge of the cliff, Minseok’s eyes falling on the blonde standing a couple meters away looking down at the city from the uphill.

They had left as soon as Luhan had said so and, deciding that it would be best to leave by car, they had taken a road which somehow had lead them to this spot. The view of the barely awake city was beautiful and the blonde seemed to enjoy it as much as the brunette who watched him now instead of the city itself.

Luhan turned around, stepping to Minseok and standing in front of him, leaning down just a little to place a gentle kiss on the elder’s forehead, pulling a smile from him. “I love you.”

The words felt like they melted Minseok’s heart and for once, he felt like he had just flown somewhere in the high skies, somewhere accompanying the early sun and dancing to the tunes the birds had started to sing. Something in him also felt to just burst and he knew that whatever it had been that he felt for the blonde, he had already figured out the name for it.

“I love you too.”

“I know.” Luhan placed another kiss on his forehead, pulling back to look in the other’s eyes. “Your mind has been screaming it at me. Indirectly, but still, screaming.”

Minseok let a chuckle, shaking his head at him. “And I knew you loved me too.”

“I didn’t try to hide it.”

He would have thought that his cheeks would have stopped changing colors by now, but he could almost feel the blush. “Idiot.” He muttered, uncrossing his arms and wrapping them around Luhan’s waist, pulling himself closer to the unmovable body.

“Your idiot.” Luhan muttered back, almost inaudible, as he wrapped his arms around the shorter, tightening him once before pulling back. “Let’s go, we should buy some food.”

Minseok only smiled, nodding his head, as they parted ways, both heading for their seats in the car. With so much smiling, he wondered how long it would take him till he couldn’t feel his facial muscles anymore. A look at the blonde in the passenger’s seat and the tug of his lips proved that it would be soon enough.

They ended up eating while driving, choosing against making a stop and just going somewhere, anywhere. The sun was already up but the day was still not yet in it’s middle and Minseok stared at the road in forced concentration since his early awakening was still hitting him in the head, patiently waiting for the bitter coffee he had picked on their way to kick in.

He saw a hand outstretched, offering him a dumpling. He opened his mouth, having it placed in over his tongue by the pair of chopsticks before he munched gleefully on the food he had been fed.

“Thanks.” He voiced with a muffled voice and Luhan shrugged, munching on his own.

“At least you won’t fall asleep if you are using your jaw.” The blonde said simply and Minseok sent him a sideways glare. “What? I can’t drive!”

“Whatever, I’ll let that slip.” Minseok muttered and Luhan grinned innocently.

Slowly, signs started showing up at the side of the wide road, informing them about the next city they would enter and Luhan jumped in his seat, staring at the elder with a sudden burst of energy.

“Can we stay here? Can we?”

Minseok glanced at the blonde, confused at the sudden change of plans. A couple hours ago Luhan had said to go on the road and see where they would end up. But now, he was suddenly changing his mind and if Minseok didn’t trust him this much, he would find it strange enough to question him. “Sure.” He replied instead, the word a little slow and cautious. He slowed down a bit so he wouldn’t pass by the right turn that would get them into Suwon, still throwing glances at the blonde whose attention was beyond what the windows showed.

The city started spreading in front of them and Minseok could see the energy of the younger almost overflowing from him. He followed a couple cars till he stopped at the street lights, taking the time of waiting to finally look straight at Luhan.

“We can go to a hotel if you want to stay here so bad.”

“Yes! That’d be perfect!” Luhan beamed and Minseok furrowed his eyebrows a little.

“What are you so happy and jumpy about?”

“I can sense someone.” Luhan grinned at him, his usually sparkly eyes shining more than ever.

“Who?” Minseok asked cautiously but the other shrugged.

“I don’t know. But I know it’s one of my friends. I sense them easily.”

Hearing a car horn, Minseok snapped back at the road, starting to drive again since he hadn’t noticed the green light. “And if we stay at one place, can they sense you as well? As in, find you?” He questioned and from the corner of his eye, he could see Luhan being restless.

“Yes. We should head for a hotel. They’ll sense me and pay a visit to us once they see that I am not moving.”

Just as asked, Minseok looked through his GPS for a nice enough hotel and he ended up driving to the first which popped up and was the closest. Following the instructions, he tried to focus and not pay any attention at the blonde who jumped from one side to the other, head turning to every direction as he seemed to be frantically searching for something he had lost ages ago—and maybe he had done just that, what did Minseok know anyway?

Parking the car in the parking lot, he grabbed the bags from the backseat while Luhan jumped off the car and started pacing from side to side quickly. Ignoring him, Minseok took his time and once he made sure he grabbed all of their few stuff, he locked the car and started heading inside the building.

The hotel turned out to be pretty fancy compared to what Minseok expected, but he wasn’t going to complain either. The light beige walls, the white marble flooring, the expensive decorating, the clean and shiny uniforms the employees wore; it all made him miss the fancy life of his. And blinded by all that, he asked for the best room in the hotel.

He guided the way to the room since Luhan was too distracted, leaving only Minseok to listen to the instructions and the way. Their room was on the seventh floor and at the end of the long and fancy corridor. Unlocking the door with the card he had been given, he pushed the door and revealed a big room, enough to fit six more people along with them—and maybe more.

The room had everything they would need, along with a small kitchen and a huge bed placed behind half of a wall which stood in the middle of the room. The huge windows let the sunlight pour in from every side and the room was bright, painted in colors just as welcoming. It didn’t take much for Minseok to head for the bed and jump face first in it, the soft mattress almost swallowing him in as he bounced a little from the force.

Behind him, he could still hear the restless Luhan pace here and there and he aimlessly guessed that he was trying to make himself be noticed by whoever he had sensed. He closed his eyes as he decided to take a short nap, seeing how the blonde would keep his act for a lot longer than he expected.

Light chuckles reached him and he slowly stirred in his sleep, slowly waking up when his brain lazily registered the sound. Sitting up on the bed, he rubbed his eyes tiredly, the sunlight falling in his eyes too painfully after getting used to darkness.

“No… I had not!”

“Yes you had! I remember when Suho had told you!”

Another series of laughing reached him before he recognized Luhan’s voice.

“Shh..! Minseok’s sleeping!”

With curiosity eating him alive, he slowly jumped off the bed, patting his hair in a hopefully acceptable look before he peeked from around the wall, seeing three forms sprawled on the couch and loveseat. He narrowed his eyes in attempt to make out their faces through his sleepy state but only jumped when he heard someone call for him.

“Minseok! You’re awake.” Seconds later Luhan was by his side, leaning close and placing a kiss on his forehead with a grin plastered on his face. Whatever made the blonde so happy, he wished to forever stay by his side to cause more of these wide smiles. “Guess what! It wasn’t just one of my friends; it was two of them!”

Minseok blinked at him, a small smile forming on his face at how Luhan’s happiness was practically blinding him. “Is that so?”

“Yes. You had asked me to meet them, let’s go meet them.” The blonde held on his hand with a swift move but Minseok hesitated to take a step. “What is it?” The younger looked back at him in question, his smile faltering a little. “Don’t you want to meet them?”

“No.” Minseok shook his head quickly. “It’s just that… you are practically glowing from happiness.”

Luhan let a soft chuckle, wrapping an arm around the elder’s waist and guiding him ahead. Slowly but quickly at the same time, the two boys’ faces came into view and Minseok couldn’t but wonder how they could be so good-looking. They were both handsome, wearing hoodies but pulled down, revealing their perfect characteristics—yet, not as perfect as Luhan’s however Minseok looked at it.

One of them stood with a grin on his face while the still seated started laughing loudly, his laugh bouncing off the walls of the room and Minseok had the slightest suspicion that Luhan wasn’t the only one able to read his thoughts anymore. The one that approached him was the same height as him and his grin was of an interesting rectangular shape. He stretched his hand out, his eyes shining with interest.

“I’m Baekhyun.” He said with a soothing voice, a little soft and whatnot. At least now, he would not be the only one who was brunette; this Baekhyun had a nice shade of very dark brown.

Minseok took the hand but bowed his head a little as well. “I’m Kim Minseok. Nice to meet you.”

The other only grinned wider, glancing at Luhan and then back at Minseok. He sniffed his nose a little, a knowing look directed on him. “No need to be formal, Luhan already told us practically everything about you.”

“Everything..?” Minseok questioned and a sudden uncomfortableness washed him over. He was flattered that Luhan had talked about him to his friends but, he couldn’t but worry how much had he said.

“Don’t worry, he didn’t tell us anything embarrassing. Though, we could see everything juicy through his head.”

Minseok squeaked, his hands hiding his face as a bright red blush spread over his whole body. He could hear laugher around him and he couldn’t but feel like he had been teased, incredibly so. Or maybe had his privacy greatly violated—he wasn’t exactly sure.

“Luhan, I will kill you.” Minseok muttered and he felt the blonde by his side hold on him tightly.

“Nah, don’t worry, no big deal.” Baekhyun waved it off, sitting back in his place and placing his legs back on the coffee table. “By the way, that idiot is Chanyeol. Don’t stand near him, you’ll feel too close to Earth.”

Minseok looked from over his hands, bowing his head and muttering another greeting to the other young man who laughed again at his flustered face. “Seriously, I will kill you.” Minseok glared at Luhan who only waltzed his way to his former seat, pretending to have not heard anything. He let a sigh, sitting on a cushion stool and his eyes staring at the ground.

“Hey, don’t feel down. If it makes you better, we can reveal stuff about Luhan.” Baekhyun suggested, probably the most sensible of the two. Luhan shot him a glare but he ignored it.

“Luhan has loads of stories.” Chanyeol added, surprising Minseok a little with his deep and low voice.

“Alright, so, we have these things in our planet that look like huge seashells…” Baekhyun started, a knowing grin spreading on Chanyeol’s face at the sound of the story, perking Minseok’s interest immediately. Luhan, though, sat silent in his seat, his hand brought to cover his face in quickly growing embarrassment.

Talking with Luhan’s friends had been more fun than Minseok would have ever expected. The duo had stayed with them till the afternoon, spilling one story