Luhan had been seven when he'd gotten lost in the woods - a grave mistake any boy or girl his age could've made - and all because of a bright, neon-pink ball that he had gotten from his aunt. He'd dropped it while playing catch with his friends, and it had rolled towards the directions of the woods, the very same woods that was rumored to house a witch who would use your bones to brew her stew, or worse, a beast so fearful that it'd tear you from limb to limb without even batting so much of an eyelash. The worst he had heard of the being who had lived inside of the woods was that it was a man. A man who was casted out of the village they lived in because he held desires that were very wrong, almost sinful, and he wasn't allowed back into the village ever since. They say that this man waited for children like Luhan to come by, and then he snatched them up, brought them into his house, and they were never seen again. 

At that young, tender age, Luhan had decided that all those rumors were malarkey. It wasn't as if any of the villagers had lived long enough to see the man being banished; wasn't as if any of the villagers had actually seen any living being inside of the forest, but they say that if you had a heart of pure gold, you would be led down the path to the hut in the woods. Despite his friends calling out for him to return to the borders where the sunlight reached, he shook off their pleas and cries, letting his tiny legs carry him throughout the thick, dense undergrowth that didn't make any sense to Luhan because the canopies of the trees were thicker than thick should be, and there shouldn't be any sunlight to filter through to get the undergrowth to grow so dense. He doesn't question Mother Nature, though, and he prayed that he'll find his ball soon.

When he had reached a deeper part of the forest, he spots the bright pink abomination lying innocently on the grass, standing out against the soft hues of green. He ran over, picked the ball up and looked back the way he came, only to find a different winding path in front of him. With wide eyes, he turned left and right, finding himself surrounded by dense undergrowth, by large green giant trees that were the size of skyscraper buildings, like those he'd catch a glimpse of in the city he'd frequent with his family. 

Left without much of a choice, Luhan walks on the path, suddenly reminded about the legend and the rumours of the witch, the beast, the ; his legs subconsciously picking up speed as he hurries along the winding path, something akin to fear clenching around his heart and squeezing it tightly. Something rustles in the bushes next to him, and with a loud squeal, Luhan bursts into a full sprint ahead, not caring about where he was going as he races forward, the trees seeming to run right beside him. 

His breaths leaving him in short pants as his lungs burned from the lack of oxygen, his legs stumbling a little from the sudden exertion of energy. When Luhan finally stops, he looks up, and he freezes, eyes going wide as he stares at the hut in front of his eyes.

The hut. He had found the hut. 

Luhan didn't know what had possessed his young mind back then, because seven-year-old Luhan had marched up to the door, pounded on the wood and demanded to be let in because 'the beasts in the forest will get him'. Now, he hadn't been expecting for the door to actually swing open - the door was weird in his mind because it swung in and not out like normal doors - and there the figure had stood, in a large cloak with a hood over his head, so large it cast shadows over his facial features and Luhan couldn't see anything, the ends of it trailing against the wooden flooring.

Without a word, the figure sweeps Luhan out of the doorway and ushers him into the thicker parts of the woods, and all seven-year-old Luhan could do was grab hold of the draping, hanging cloak and pray that he wouldn't get eaten, torn or as the figure steers him towards another direction he had come from previously. But his seven-year-old mind wouldn't shut up, screaming questions in rapid fire succession at him mentally as he gets gently guided out of the thick woods.

"You're not a witch," He starts in protest, still walking wherever the figure pushed him to. "You're not a werewolf, and you're not a if you're not touching me. So what are you?"

Suddenly, light greets his vision and he blinks- and oh! The figure is gone and Luhan is out of the woods, standing by the roadside with a dumbstruck expression on his face. Where had the figure vanished to? He swivels his head left and right, only to be greeted by the sight of his friends running up to him with tears on their faces, crying about how they were worried for him that the beast, witch, had taken him and how they didn't dare to step into the woods because they didn't want to be taken too- and all little Luhan could wrap his head around was that he was holding his ball and he had seen the so-called figment of imagination living in the woods.

It wasn't a beast, neither was it a witch, nor was it a .

So what was it?

❊

The blaring ring of his alarm clock cuts through the silence Luhan had been enjoying, and he blearily blinks his eyes open as his hand s around the table to find the blasted device, finally succeeding in smashing the snooze button after five hits. Just when he successfully stops the noise echoing throughout his empty room, his phone decides to blare an obnoxious "you don't know me" from Miss A's Bad Girl Good Girl, and Luhan groans, pushing the covers off his face as he s around the bedstand for his now vibrating, complaining, singing phone.

"Hello?" He grunts into the device once he's managed to grab hold of it and plaster it to his ear. "What the fuc-"

"Lu, are you awake yet? Get up, we're meeting at the cafe to finish our report that's due today afternoon, in case you forgot." The soft voice of his best friend and partner in college flows into his ear, cutting off his rage at being woken up at--- he glances to the clock - a rather reasonable timing, seeing as to how it was almost 9AM in the morning. At least it wasn't 7AM, he tells himself to think positive as he mumbles an agreement and hangs up on Minseok. 

He lets himself lie in bed, counting the seconds ticking by in his head as he shuts his eyes. Slowly, his thoughts drift to the dream, the memories he had when he was seven. It had been about thirteen, fourteen or so years now, and he was in college - aiming for a literature major, because he doesn't know what else he should plan for in his life since it revolved around literature works and finding interesting stories to decipher. It was in his college that he met Minseok, a fluffy (though he doubts that word can be used to describe anyone but Minseok) student who had the most adorable smile. They'd gotten along fine at their first encounter, and so Luhan had extended an offer for them to be partners for their final year report.

You don't know me- You don't know me- You don't know me-

Luhan reaches for his phone, groaning an "Yes, Minseok, I know" into it before he locks it and slides off his bed onto the floor, bumping his head in the process and cursing the day that he set the song as his ringtone for his friend. Well, it was now or never, he thinks to himself as he stretches his arms out in front of him and attempts to sit up groggily, his body protesting by creaking and cracking joints as he sighs and ruffles his hair in an attempt to get himself awake.

Knowing that Minseok wouldn't like it if he was late, Luhan manages to find the energy to get off the oak floor and shuffle into his bathroom, brush his teeth and wash his face before he throws on a pair of random pants he can get his hands on and a sweater since the weather was cold, and he was out of the door quicker than two shakes of a lamb's tail-

Only to race back in and grab his wallet, reports and keys.

And locking the door after himself.

❊

Minseok greets him with a cup of iced coffee - Americano - and Luhan is grateful that his friend has the sense to at least buy him a cup of coffee to wake him up enough to start racking his brain on how to finish their report. While they start to phrase their words carefully so that they could make one simple sentence into two, Luhan's thoughts start to drift back to the hut in the woods. Surely there was a reason why he'd started to dream of it again, and getting flashes of the cloaked figure from his memory every once in a while. Was something wrong with him? He doubted so, and suddenly he blinks, noticing that Minseok was waving a hand in his face.

"What?" He asks dumbly, blinking innocently at his friend, who looked more annoyed than not.

"I've been calling your name for like the umpteenth time," Minseok tells him, huffing and crossing his arms. "What's wrong with you? You don't usually space out often, you know."

"I was just... thinking," Luhan offers weakly, flinching a little when he hears Minseok scoff. "I was!"

"Right, and my boyfriend Jongdae is an innocent little angel who doesn't troll people," Minseok rolls his eyes before shaking his head and placing his hand over Luhan's, which was rested on the table top. "You've been thinking about that, haven't you?"

Luhan bites his lip - Minseok had been the first one he'd told about the hut and the figure, seeing as to how they had been friends for a while now, and since Minseok wasn't really from around their area, wasn't local, so he probably wouldn't think that Luhan was a crazed lunatic who should be locked up behind bars because of some imaginary figure living in the forest. 

"Yeah," He admits quietly after a while, looking down at the hand that's rested on top of his in a comforting manner. "I really want to go back and find it. I feel like something's happening, because I didn't use to think about it, but I keep getting dreams about it. They're really vivid, and I can remember walking through the woods, and when I wake up, I feel as though I've walked miles even though I was asleep."

His friend offers him a look full of sympathy, which Luhan barely glances at because he doesn't want to be pitied for nothing. He wasn't insane, really, and he didn't need his one and only friend running off because he was having visions about a nonexistent, yet existent hut and figure. 

"Maybe you should try to find it," Minseok mumbles at last, clutching at Luhan's fingers quietly. "Maybe it would give you a peace of mind."

He lifts his eyes off their hands to look at his friend in shock - was Minseok really asking him to go back? - and his friend just shakes his head with an uneasy laugh at the dumbstruck expression on Luhan's face. 

"But first you gotta finish this report," Minseok finishes, raising his eyebrows and flashing that cheeky smile. "I'll turn it in to the professor later on, so don't worry about it. You can place all your worries about passing the semester aside after you finish this, and then you can go and find that... Whatever you want to find."

Minseok's voice drops to a whisper because he knows that talking about the hut in their village isn't really advised. People talked all the time, and if they knew that they were talking about the hut, they'd come barging in with all their silly rumors that Luhan didn't need to hear. Smiling brightly at his friend, Luhan picks up his pen and starts to paraphrase the information they had found online for their report, and Minseok smiles at his friend as he starts to work on the report at last.

While Minseok doesn't really understand what the root cause of the rumors were, he was sure that Luhan had been affected more ways than one because of the strange encounter, and he really, really...

Well, he really just wanted Luhan to be happy.

❊

Luhan stretches his arms over his head, enjoying the silent popping of his joints and his spine as he finishes packing the last of his necessities into the small bag he would be bringing with him on his trip. Beside him, Minseok looms over his haunched figure, eyes clouded with worry as he watches his friend pack for the trip into the woods. He wasn't sure what to expect, really, because maybe Luhan would return in one piece... and maybe he wouldn't return at all. He pushes all those negative thoughts away.

"Are you ready?" He flashes a smile that he hopes doesn't come off as strained at Luhan, who stands up and throws his bag over his shoulder. "I'll drop you off at the edge of the woods. I have to see Jongdae later on... and I'll see you when I see you, yeah?"

"Yeah," Luhan answers, smiling as Minseok pats him on the back, and really, he couldn't ask for a better, more understanding friend. 

They head out of the small apartment and pile into Minseok's old car, which is rusted and really, really creaky, but Luhan has to take what he can get, because Minseok didn't have a lot of cash and he probably couldn't afford to fix this 'piece of junk', as Jongdae had so kindly christened it. It rattled as it traveled across the rocky road, and Luhan found comfort in the rickety sounds it produced as Minseok drives as slowly as he can down the dirt road towards the direction of the woods. The radio doesn't work that well, and sometimes it blasts out words of lyrics of the music playing on the radio station, and sometimes it's so soft you just tune it out totally only to be shocked later on by one loud blast of lyrics.

Luhan starts to wonder belatedly if he can even find the path again, because the rumors had said you needed a pure heart to be able to led to it, and Luhan was anything but. He'd gotten his first kiss at thirteen, and then proceeded to lose his ity at fifteen, and experimented with his first boyfriend at seventeen. Beads of regret passed off as sweat due to the heat roll down his temple as he sees the lines of trees get thicker and denser as Minseok drives further and further down the road towards the deeper parts of the woods, and he his chapped lips, trying to keep his mind off things. He felt a little sick to his stomach as the car slowly rumbles to a stop, and he bites his lip, trying to swallow his nausea down.

Slowly, he opens the door and notices that his arms are shaking slightly as he grips the handle. His knees knock together slightly as he slides off the seat and stands outside the rattling car, glancing back at his friend once, twice before he bites his lip and reaches for his bag in the seat. Turning to the line of woods, he breathes in deeply a few times to regulate his sudden, frantic heartbeat, and he waves a goodbye to Minseok as he takes his first few steps forward, letting the thicket swallow him alive.

"Be safe, Lu," Minseok whispers a little too late as he watches his friend disappear beneath the thick foliage. "Be safe."

❊

Luhan doesn't know exactly how he had gotten into this situation - although at the back of his mind, his logical mind is screaming non-stop at him 'see? see?! I told you not to go wandering around in the woods alone looking for that stupid hut, but you insist on going anyway. Now you're going to die in the dark, in the woods, all alone- and guess what? It's all your own fault.' He shakes the voice away and manages to continue his way through the dense vegetation, cursing all the branches that snap and crunch under his feet noisily. He doesn't know - and doesn't want to the know - what kind of animals lived in the woods, and he could only pray that he wouldn't be mauled to death by some wild boars or wolves, or whatever that ate humans and attacked humans for no reason - well, other than trampling around in their territory, which was exactly what Luhan was doing right now.

There's a resounding hoot through the woods, and Luhan jumps in surprise as an owl takes flight from a nearby low branch after sensing his presence. He curses himself for being such a scaredy-cat, and continues to move as silently as he can throughout the forest. Briefly, he wonders if he's even going in the right direction, or if he's getting lost because the whole forest seemed to look the same at night, and he couldn't really see where he was going, really.

A growl sounds on his left, and it's echoed by another on his right, and Luhan can't scramble back fast enough such that he falls flat on his face when he attempts to turn and run - and he's immediately surrounded by what seemed to be starving wolves eyeing him like a piece of meat. Fear grips his body and heart in a cruel, frozen way, and his limbs lock in place while his voice catches in throat - it doesn't feel like he can breathe properly anymore, and he prays to God that he won't hyperventilate and cause the creatures to attack him. They close in one by one, stepping forward cautiously despite the ravenous hunger evident in their eyes, and he tries his hardest to very subtly scoot backwards so that the distance between him and the creatures can be maintained so much that hopefully, he wouldn't get eaten even though he knows that it would take a miracle to save himself from his predicament right now.

Luhan shuts his eyes - squeezing them so tightly spots start to dance beneath his eyelids, and starts to pray so fervently under his breath he feels like the air in his lungs are never coming back again as he listens to the creatures' advances. He waits for the moment that they will strike with his back against a rough tree, and he bites his lip to prevent a whimper from escaping.

The attack never comes.

All is silent around him, and curiousity gets the better of Luhan as he slowly peeks one eye open - gasping when he sees that the beasts are gone, the last of them seen slinking away into the undergrowth as if they were scared of something - only to gasp again when he sees exactly what had deterred their attacking and making a meal out of him.

In front of him lays a path that winds into the heart of the woods, the very same path that he had taken so many years back, and Luhan finds himself unconsciously following the winding direction of the small trail. He clutches the straps of his bag in his hands tighter as he worries his bottom lip with his teeth once again, worried that perhaps that hut wouldn't be there anymore, that perhaps the hut had been a figment of his imagination; a fantasy that his seven-year-old mind had conjured up to fit with the rumors circling in the village since he was the only one who didn't believe them.

The path seems to be longer than he remembers; his heart dropping when he thinks that perhaps the path wasn't the same one as the one he had taken when he was seven - maybe it was that he had already grown up and lost some of his purity in the form of his first kiss and his ity - and he lets out a disappointed, heavy sigh. Nevertheless, despite being disheartened by his own theories, Luhan continues on his way since the path could very well lead him to the outskirts of the woods once more, leaves crunching under the soles of his sneakered feet as they stroll leisurely along the path.

When Luhan finally feels exhausted and the path doesn't seem to end, he contemplates giving up and camping for the night - looking around to find some sticks to begin a fire with. As he glances upwards to survey his surroundings, Luhan freezes in his place, his eyes going wide and his mouth dropping in shock and awe.

Right in front of his eyes, the hut from his memories and the rumors in the village stood.

❊

Luhan timidly cups his hands around the cup of tea that's sitting on the table, offered to him. He's barely shaking, but it's not because he's met the figure in his childhood - in fact, he's yet to come face to face, or hood, in the figure's case, with said figure living in the hut; when he had knocked on the door, it had swung open to reveal a small fire lit in the small brick fireplace, and a cup of steaming tea on the table, freshly brewed as if the figure had known he was coming and had expected his arrival.

Barely able to keep his sanity intact, he glances around the hut in the glowing light of the crackling fire, drinking in the barely-there decorations - there were no pictures of anything, only empty frames, some wilting flowers near the fireplace, the wooden table and a small armchair - and thinks that the figure living in this hut was definitely frugal with his spendings. It creeped him out a little when he had found that the tea was just hot enough to burn his tongue, as if the water had just been boiled and left there to cool. Was it for him, or had the figure living in here just leave it to cool for himself? Luhan didn't know, and he felt that he should apologize since he had taken a big gulp of the drink already.

Tapping his feet against the wooden floors, he tries to keep himself occupied as he waits for the figure to make its appearance, waiting to see that same cloak, that same hood, that same shadowed-over, covered face, and he finds himself pacing along the wooden floorboards in his anxiety and fear of seeing the figure. His heart jumps in his chest erratically, as if anticipating the meeting of his childhood savior - because if the figure hadn't guided little Luhan out of the woods, Luhan would've probably gotten mauled by some hungry wolves like those creatures from earlier, and died. Then there wouldn't be a twenty-year old version of him. 

He walks over to the fireplace, skin being lit an orangey color as he studies that empty frames lined on the top of the shelf. There are no pictures, as he had noticed earlier, just empty frames with glass that had a thin coat of dust on them. Briefly, he wonders if the figure likes to collect these kinds of things, and he starts to wonder whether any of the rumors he heard as a child was true. Maybe he was in a witch's house. Maybe the figure was a witch, and had spared him just because he knew that Luhan would come back when he was older, and then Luhan would be, as they put it, 'ripe for plucking'. Was that why the figure had guided him out of the forest?

Buried too deep in his thoughts, Luhan doesn't hear the door clicking open softly, signaling the arrival of the figure he had been waiting for. When he finally looks up because he feels a slight chill in the air, he freezes in his spot again, eyes going wide as he stares at the cloaked figure---

Except this time the figure doesn't have the hood covering his face.

Luhan can barely stop himself from gaping at the ethereal beauty of the man before him - long, thick lashes lining sleepy eyes, perfect nose, sharp jawline, heavy eyebrows and soft, small lips set in a permanent mini-frown; soft, platinum-white hair that sweeps across pale skin - and he barely manages to swallow in his awe. The male couldn't be any older than Luhan was, he manages to think at the back of his head, but it's not processed as a warfront was taking place in his mind right now as he continues to gape unintelligibly. 

He had found the figure living in the hut.

He had seen the figure's face.

He wasn't dreaming.

It was real.

❊

The male hadn't kicked Luhan out of the hut for attempted break-in of property, or anything logical of that sort. He had, in fact, walked over to the armchair whilst taking off his cloak and placed it over the arm of the chair before turning to regard Luhan with a stoic face. Luhan had marveled at his beauty as the light of the fire danced across his exquisite features, almost drooling before he remembers that the figure was staring at him in what seemed to be contemplation.

He decides to wing it anyway after a few beats of silence.

"Hi, I'm Luhan," He manages to squeak out, and he curses himself for sounding like some highschool girl. "I- You- Kid- You're really handsome."

His eyes widen in horror as he clamps both hands over his mouth after he blurted out that compliment. The figure doesn't seem impressed as his facial features remain impassive, and Luhan doesn't know whether to be happy or devastated. He curses himself again for lacking in any charm or decorum, and clears his throat before attempting to speak again. You saved me when I was younger, he recites in his head. Say it.

"... Say it."

How Luhan wishes he had a gun so that he could shoot himself in the mouth right now. Covering his face with one hand, he rubs it along the expanse of his skin and bemoans the fact that his mouth was so unhinged and uncooperative with his brain. "I'm sorry, just- give me a moment."

The male remains silent, as if granting Luhan time to recollect himself and present himself in a less-than-embarrassing manner, and when Luhan finally gathers his incoherent thoughts and words, the male speaks.

"You're the boy I helped out thirteen years ago."

Luhan blinks in surprise - the figure actually remembers, he squeals inwardly - and somehow he manages to nod in reflex. 

"Yes, I- I wanted to thank you," He begins, muttering a thousand thanks to his mouth for actually listening to the brain-to-mouth filter right now. "So I thought I'd come and find you again. You know, to thank you. So... thanks."

It certainly couldn't get any more awkward than that, he thinks to himself as he lets his upper torso dangle forward in a deep bow of gratitude.

"No need," The male mutters, and that's when Luhan finally registers the fact that the male's voice sounds a lot like chimes, like those that clinked and clanked in the wind whenever it blew, and that it was very soothing. "However, I regret to inform you that you probably won't be able to leave now."

Luhan blinks again, his lids going at about fifty flutters per second, as he stares at the male in confusion and surprise. Why wouldn't he be able to leave? As if to prove his point, he marches over to the door and yanks it open- 

Only to fall back onto his behind as he stares into the swirling vortex of nothingness greeting him.

"W-Wha?" He mutters in shock, mind barely registering the fact that the hut didn't seem to be in the woods anymore, there were no trees, no winding paths, no nothing. His breaths start to become shallow as Luhan's body slowly sets into panic mode once his mind starts to comprehend his situation.

One, he was stuck in the hut.

Two, he was stuck in the hut.

Three, he was freaking stuck in the hut.

Luhan screams.

❊

It had been a very bad choice to come back, Luhan thinks to himself as he stares at the crackling fire dancing in its place. Behind him, the figure - named Sehun, he had found out after he had pretty much fainted from the news of being locked in the hut forever - bustles about the kitchen, preparing some food for Luhan. Luhan would've cooked for himself, but the most he can make is cup ramen, and Sehun didn't seem to have any. In fact, the house was empty of any necessities that a normal human would have - for example, food, water... a television to keep oneself entertained when living alone at home.

Luhan had thought about what exactly Sehun was. He didn't seem human for sure, for he lacked the behavior of one, and he also didn't seem like he practiced any sorcery of sorts; neither did he look like a dangerous shape-shifting werewolf, but Luhan knew he couldn't be too sure. Sehun definitely wasn't human, his gut told him that, and he chose to believe it. If anything, Sehun would be less than human to Luhan, mainly because his beauty was astounding, inhumane- surely nobody could be this breathtakingly handsome. It was as if the gods had all fallen in Sehun's favor when they decided to make him. Luhan wouldn't blame them.

He hasn't tried to speak to Sehun, seeing as to how the male was bustling about in the kitchen after Luhan's stomach had rumbled oh so ungraciously after he had woken up, and the question he wants to ask the most is at the tip of his tongue. Why was the hut suspended in the middle of nothingness? Why was he stuck here in the hut? What exactly had happened? Why did Sehun live here by himself? Did he know about the village, and the rumors being spread? Was he human? What was he? Was he a murderer, a witch, a beast hiding in a human body, or just a misunderstood loner who couldn't associate with people?

Just then, a plate is placed in front of him, and he glances down at the scrambled eggs, pieces of slightly-burnt bacon and badly-chopped vegetables before turning to look up at the stoic face he'd gotten used to in less than thirty minutes. 

"T-Thank you," He manages to stutter, and he picks up the fork, hesitantly picking at his food because what if Sehun poisoned his food like in those rumors where he was going to pick him from limb to limb, or trying to fatten him up to eat him later on? 

Pushing away the negative thoughts, he takes a timid bite of the eggs, and his eyes light up in awe. As he mumbles another thanks towards Sehun's direction, he starts shoveling food into his mouth as if he's been starved for a year, and he would've missed the quiet chuckle if all his senses weren't tingling with hypersensitiveness.

Once the food is finished and out of the way, Luhan offers to wash the plate, picking it up before Sehun can stop him- only for the heavy ceramic to slip past his feeble fingers and crash onto the floor, breaking into pieces. Apology after apology stream from Luhan's mouth, and he bends down to pick up the pieces.

"Don't," Sehun tells him, ghosting his hands over Luhan's to stop his frantic movements. "Just take a seat."

Sehun cleans up the mess, and Luhan couldn't feel any more guilty.

❊

Luhan actually doesn't know how much time he's spent inside of the hut, but he presumes that it's been long enough that Minseok would've thought he was dead. He doesn't know what to think if his friend had thought he had passed away in the woods, and probably was attending his funeral - his mind blanks even at the thought of death, and it reminds me of the close encounter he has with the creatures in the forest. His body shudders in memory of almost being mauled to his death, and he glances around the empty hut.

The first thing he had noticed after the plate-breaking incident was that there didn't seem to be any bedroom in sight. All the hut had was the small kitchen, the living room, and that was it. No other rooms had been installed in the small space, and Luhan briefly wonders if Sehun ever needs to sleep. Sehun always left early at the crack of dawn - Luhan only knows this because he woke up one time at 4AM with a sore neck in an uncomfortable position on the armchair, and heard the creak of the door closing - and returns home after 8PM. Breakfast would be settled by Luhan himself, and when it was evening, Sehun would bring him back some food. Luhan doesn't know where Sehun gets it from, but it's food, and he gladly accepts it.

It's easy to fall into routine though, and Luhan's body becomes clockwork now as he rises out of the armchair at 7AM in the morning, stretches his limbs and feels the pops in his joints before he walks into the kitchen and makes some breakfast for himself. Then, he busies himself the entire day by pacing around the hut, raiding the fridge, sometimes even dusting the sparse furniture in the small space, and sometimes he takes a nap - long enough to wake up to Sehun shutting the door as gently as he can. 

Curiosity gets the better of him one day, and he decides asking is better than just being a sitting duck, waiting for a solution to roll about. He had just finished the chicken Sehun had brought to him for dinner, and the male was standing at the window, looking up at what seemed to be the moon, judging from the soft, silvery light emanating through the window. The rays of moonlight does nothing but flatter and compliment Sehun's special, striking features, and Luhan bites his lip as he realizes that his heart is beating too fast for his own good. He shakes it off and goes to stand beside Sehun at the window, not looking out of it as he was afraid that he would see the swirling void that the hut was trapped in.

"Sehun... What exactly... are you?" He asks timidly, afraid that the male would become angry at his questioning despite knowing that said male had a rather indifferent disposition. 

"I'm nobody," Sehun answers easily, not facing away from the window. "I just exist in this space."

Luhan bites his lip and stares at the wooden floorboards, pretending to study them in interest so that he doesn't feel tempted to lift his head and gaze into those intense eyes. "The hut..."

"The hut exists in this space with me," Sehun says after a moment of silence. He reaches out and rests a hand on the windowsill. "You can't go back."

Silence takes over as Luhan lets the weight of Sehun's four words sink in. 

You can't go back.

Meaning, you can't go home.

❊

If Luhan knew of a way to get back home, he would've tried it. He was this close to driving himself to the brink of insanity- he was teetering dangerously of the edge, his sanity shredded and his mentality overwhelmed in the short period of time he'd been trapped in this hut. Should he be able to turn back time, he would've gone back and stopped himself from going into the hut - and then maybe he wouldn't be in this mess.

He sighs as he takes down a black frame from the mantle and polishes the clear glass with a cloth he'd found in the kitchen, admiring the way the glass shone even with only the dim light to reflect and bound off its shiny surface. After he deems the glass clean, he places the frame back and picks up the next one, a burgundy, circular frame, and he spaces out as he rubs the cloth along the surface, earning a slight squeak in protest of the rough and wet material against the glass.

Just then, the door swings open and Sehun walks in, cloak billowing out behind him majestically as he shuts the door. Spying Luhan, he gives a small upturn of his lips - his way of a smile, Luhan had learned - and walks over to the male polishing the glass.

"You are spacing out," He tells Luhan, and the boy jumps, startled. Luhan's fingers slip and he almost drops the frame onto the floor, except his clumsy flailing limbs don't fail him this time and he manages to somehow save the frame from shattering into millions of pieces. Who knows whether Sehun would blow up at him then? "Did I scare you? I am sorry."

Luhan offers him a smile that told him it was okay, and Sehun drifts to the kitchen. Placing the frame back on the mantle, Luhan ponders over how Sehun manages to make even walking look so pretty - though the male was pretty close to floating, really - and then he briefly has the thought that perhaps Sehun was just a soul stuck in time. If his theory was right, then perhaps if the hut was some place stuck in time, there should be a trigger to stop it- at least, in his opinion there should be something to stop something from being stuck. For example, you had toothpicks for pieces of food stuck in-between your teeth, and weird devices to get wax out of your ears. So, in his kind of logic, Luhan figures that perhaps there's a trigger for the hut.

He tells Sehun of his theory during dinner, and Sehun just shrugs when he asks if Sehun knows anything about the hut.

"When I woke up, I was here," Sehun tells him, staring straight at him as he places his fork down after finishing his food. "I've just been here all the while, so I don't know. I go out of the hut, but I walk around the void and there's no holes or anything."

Luhan thinks back to how the hut had appeared in front of him twice. "Do you think it has something to do with someone who has a pure heart?"

Sehun just shakes his head, "I heard of your village's ridiculous rumors. Why would some hut open to only those who have a pure heart?"

"I don't know, maybe it's just a trigger for the hut to appear in front of someone who has a pure heart?" Luhan offers, frowning a little as he turns over the theories and reasoning in his head. "Maybe there's a link, but we're just not seeing it. Don't you want to get out, Sehun?"

"You learn to accept things as they come when you get stuck in time," Sehun replies in a flat tone. "I don't mind if I don't ever get out... But you, you have a life back in the village, and you should find the way to go back. I will help you, but you will have to find the trigger yourself."

A smile blossoms on Luhan's lips; at least Sehun had said he was willing to let Luhan find the way out.

❊

What was it like to be stuck in time, Luhan wonders as he stares at the numerous frames littering the mantle of the fireplace. Sehun had just gone out a while ago, telling him that he'd be back in five minutes, and so Luhan had taken to looking at the frames. For some reason, Luhan still didn't dare to look out of the main window facing the void slash woods, and he bites his lip as he feels a tingle down his spine.

It felt as if he was close to solving the mystery of how to get out of the hut, to get unstuck from this void, but he still hadn't found anything that could've been the possible trigger. He had thought that it was the door, so he'd tried to open it, but all he got greeted with was the empty swirl of nothingness - so that idea was scraped. Perhaps it was the window, he thinks to himself, and that's when the door swings open quietly, and Sehun steps into the hut.

"I was thinking... Maybe it's the window," He tells Sehun as the male removes his cloak, folding it and placing it over the arm of the chair. "Could you stand behind me while I look out? I-I... I'm a little scared, to be honest."

He hopes the smile on his face isn't quivering, but Sehun complies silently anyway, walking over to the window and standing there. Luhan joins him slowly, his snail-like pace dragging out the time he takes to cross the short distance. Once he reaches Sehun's side, he relaxes a little as he realizes that the male is beside him - Sehun had quite a calming effect that he couldn't explain - and inhales a deep breath as he steels himself to be greeted with the swirling patterns of the void vortex.

Slowly, he peeks out of the window, worrying his bottom lip with his teeth as he stares into the swirls of the nothingness. It's almost normal, and he heaves a sigh of relief, not missing the way mild amusement flickers across Sehun's eyes - before a twinkle catches his attention, and he almost falls over himself to press his face closer to the window. He has to narrow and squint his eyes before he makes out something in what seemed to be fireflies of some sort dancing outside, and he pulls back immediately as if he's been burnt, running back to the armchair and falling into it.

If Sehun is surprised, he doesn't make a sound as a pale Luhan trembles in the couch, curled up into himself as he rocks himself back and forth. His mind was racing a mile a minute - what exactly did that mean? Sehun studies Luhan's shivering frame before he sighs and picks up his cloak, draping it over the male's quivering stature. He doesn't know what Luhan has seen to cause the male to fly into such a state of panic and desperation, but he knows that Luhan will tell him when he's ready.

Luhan's mind is still reeling when Sehun moves towards the fireplace, eyes empty as he studies the several frames on the mantle. The quivering male wraps the cloak tighter around himself, his dry lips with his tongue as his heart thuds loudly in his chest, his mind working to decipher the message he had, no doubt, seen.

Break.

❊

An accident. That was all it took for everything to start running again. Like a drop of water from the heavens into the still river, it ripples out, again and again, affecting the stillness of the water that had been at rest. Like the rising of the sun, making the birds chirp and flutter their wings in the midst of daily activities, causing the people to stir awake. Like the seasons slowly turning, changing, as time slowly creeps by; Luhan realizes that cause and effect takes place around people all the time. Had he not dropped the ball when he was seven, he would not have went into the woods, and then he certainly wouldn't have found the path, and he most certainly wouldn't have met Sehun. Or perhaps, in the light of the events that day, if he had listened to his mother and not went outside to play with his friends, he wouldn't have had lost his ball, and he wouldn't have found the hut.

Maybe it was his fault in the first place. All the problems had stemmed from him. He remembers Sehun's face, the clear engraving of those handsome facial features in his mind; imprinted on the back of his lids so defined, every time he shuts his eyes, he thinks that Sehun is there. He remembers broken glass, shattered frames, and blood on the floor. He distinctly recalls the hut falling apart in shambles, breaking and rotting, the wood crashing all around them.

He remembers that Sehun is the last thing he sees before he blacks out.

Luhan had awoken in a white room, hearing the soft beeps of a machine that indicated his heart rate, to a slight pain in his elbow veins, and all over his body. If anything, he felt as if he'd been run over by a freight train, and his body ached as he tries to move - only managing to twitch his fingers as he surveys his surroundings, eyelids heavy. In a minute he'd figured out that he was in the hospital, and he had been so afraid to ask for Sehun.

What if it had all been a figment of his imagination?

Sehun moved closer as the hut continued to fall apart.

"Luhan," He whispers so softly, Luhan almost misses it. Those long arms reach for him, holding him close, protecting him from the debris falling all around them. "Luhan, you found it."

He couldn't comprehend. What had he found? His mind didn't seem to be working, thrown in the state of confusion as he watches the hut continue to tremble and shake, breaking and breaking, shattering and shattering into pieces. 

"T-The frames," He manages to stutter, and Sehun gives him a soft smile. An inviting hand finds its way into his hair, and Luhan's lulled to a more calm state with the soft . "How?"

"The hut isn't stuck anymore, so it's starting to fall apart," Sehun explains in an apathetic tone, as if he was talking about the weather. "Because it's been here so long, it's already rotted. You broke the spell, so it's beginning to catch up with time now. The hut should've never existed for so long."

"But- You-" Luhan manages again, and somehow he wants to slap himself for not being able to form proper words in his frazzled state. "What about you?"

"I have to go too," Sehun smiles, almost sadly as he eyes Luhan. "It has been so, so far past my time."

"You can't go," He gasps, clutching at that damned cloak tightly. It's hard to breathe, so hard to breathe. "Don't- Don't leave me."

Gentle hands are trying to pry his hands off the silk-like material, and Luhan chokes, attempting to babble what he had felt for so long. It had been stupid at first, thinking he liked Sehun. Sehun was attractive. Sehun was kind. Sehun was stoic, but he was still concerned about Luhan. Sehun, who cooked for him, who smiled at him, who took care of him. Kind, kind Sehun, who he had, without realizing it, slowly fallen in love with. Sweet, sweet Sehun, who he had slowly become enraptured with. It couldn't end like this, it shouldn't end like this, and Luhan finds himself taking shuddering breaths as he sobs helplessly like the little boy he feels like he is.

"Thank you, Luhan. Maybe we will meet again."

Sehun's hands are slowly fading. His warmth, his comforting presence, his everything. Sehun is fading, and Luhan can do nothing about it.

"I-" He swallows, throat dry and scratchy as he tries to keep his fingers in the cloak, a valiant last attempt to keep Sehun there.

"-love you," He whispers too late to the air that surrounds him. "I love you."

Sehun is gone.

If he hadn't dropped the frame, he wouldn't have triggered it. Why did his theory have to be correct now, of all times? Why? If he hadn't dropped the frame... If he hadn't gone into the hut... If he hadn't been so stubborn and went to retrieve his ball. If, if, if.

Maybe it was his fault after all.

❊

"Luhan!" 

The male turns, blonde hair forming a halo-like shape on his head. He spies Minseok running towards him, tie loose - probably from making out with Jongdae during break - and smiles at his friend.

"What's up?" He asks, watching in amusement as the male finally catches up to him, asking for a minute by waving one finger around and placing his hands on his knees, panting hard. Giving Minseok a few second to catch his breath, Luhan just raises his eyebrows at his friend once he actually straightens up. "What's gotten you in such a hurry to fly after me?"

"There's a new student in your class," Minseok gasps out, still panting hard as he places he head against the cool marble wall beside them. "Thought you wanted to know that."

"Oh, thanks," He smiles at his friend and gives him a pat on the shoulder. "Now go back to Jongdae, you."

He hears a muffled groan from Minseok, and he laughs to himself in glee as his friend shuffles, exhausted, back in the direction he had come from. "Don't forget to sign your paperwork and don't just make out with Jongdae! Just because you're the headmaster of the school doesn't give you special privileges!"

Minseok waves a certain finger in the air, and Luhan barks out in laughter.

It had taken a few years, but Minseok and Luhan had finally graduated, and they had decided to part their teachings to the generations after them. Thus, they had gotten together and opened a school for those interested in literature, and occasionally singing lessons from Jongdae, who had the voice of an angel despite being an evil little troll. Luhan had been in the hospital for over a few good weeks, body and heart too numb to do anything. When he had been resting in the hospital, though, his friend had been busy making preparations building the school - and once Luhan had been released, it had been such a good coincidence that the school had just opened its gates then.

Luhan continues his way to class, files in hand as he pushes the door open with his elbow in the handle and his against the wood. His class greets him politely, their excited chatter about the new students like music to his ears as he places his files on the table and arranges them. The door clicks open, and he knows that it should be the new student. Without looking up, he ushers the student in.

"Come in, stand here and introduce yourself," He tells the student as he continues to arrange his files and find his lesson plan. 

Someone clears their throat, and Luhan looks up at the new person standing beside him. Intense, hazel eyes greet him, a languid smirk on small pink lips, a column of pale skin revealed by the ed uniform shirt, and Luhan blinks at the familiar sense of deja vu. 

"Nice to meet you."

A nice, melodious voice - not too deep, not too high.

"I'm Sehun."

❊

The End.