Luhan
Apartment 23 | 2.0 || hiatusbus (bʌs)
n, pl buses or busses
1. a large motor vehicle designed to carry passengers between stopping places along a regular route. Moreformal name: omnibus
2. short for trolleybus
3. miss the bus to miss an opportunity; be too late
20th of January, 2014
Descending the steps of the familiar and only blue and green building in Busan, Luhan pressed his lips together into an accomplished smile. It was already past six but he had done it on a whim and it might have been the best decision he had ever made in his life.
Track and Co was not a big company; with its four offices in town, together with their headquarters located in the outskirts of the unlikely Ulsan, this delivery establishment was probably the smallest of all. Yet it was successful and always on time with their package deliveries, therefore one of the favorites of consumers all over South Korea. Luhan was not cut out for the job - his mindset was completely different than the ones the lower class workers held, knowing that his social status was higher than probably the whole company itself.
But like every bad boy or villain in a movie, Lu Han had lost any hierarchic position with one single blow to his father’s jaw. To say that the boy was hot-tempered was an understatement, but to say that he was a dangerous delinquent would go a bridge too far. It was just that he did not agree with the way his parents lead their lives - extorting the poor to glamorize the rich - so whenever he witnessed another homestead going to waste as his father claimed it, another brittle piece of his love for his family dissipated into thin air.
Luhan had to leave the home he had grown up in at the age of seventeen, with a wallet containing enough money to rent an apartment and survive for a week, tops. After this, he was left with no other option but to find a job that would earn him a respected spot in society again and work himself up until he earned enough to show his face at home again. His parents did not know, however, that he was not planning on coming back and that they had mainly fuelled the boy’s rebellious side to do whatever he wanted, whenever he wanted.
It was then that he felt lighter than a feather and freer than a bird, but it was now that he felt like he had done the right thing.
It had been a struggle but now, at the age of twenty-five, the feeling had resurfaced again and Luhan could not have felt any better.
There were many things that had irked him during the job but the early hours he had to make were the worst. His time management skills were not the strongest so it was highly unlikely for the man to be on time every single day - scratch that; it was highly unlikely for him not to be late at least seven days of the week. He had received a bunch of warnings that did not go any deeper than the occasional ‘I will have to take this out of your payment’-dig but even with that, he had never lost an ounce of sleep because of it.
It was a bad habit and he had to change that; but say whatever you want but his bad time management had earned him an adventurous and undoubtedly loving three years.
“Trust me, this boy might be the one!” a chirpy nineteen year old Chaeri nearly flung herself over the table as she tried to convince Mr Yoo, who was watching the girl’s outburst with a wide grin. “I find it highly amusing to hear something like that from you, my dear,” Mr Yoo winked at the girl. He had no ill intent with his words, Chaeri knew that but she also knew that he was hinting at the fact that she was still playing around with men, while also trying to find ‘the one’ for her friend.
She playfully stuck her tongue out at him and slapped his lower arm, leaving the man to laugh more. At that moment, a brash redhead made his entrance and bowed apologetically at the two. “I’m so sorry for being late! The bus decided to take a detour and add ten more minutes to the timer.”
He had not even properly introduced himself yet but Mr Yoo could not help but narrow his eyes slightly before nodding curtly. Chaeri noticed the the change in the happy man’s behavior but shook the edgy feeling off. “No it’s fine, Luhan,” she smiled at the male and motioned at the empty spot next to her, “you’re just in time for lunch.”
Luhan stuffed his hands into his pockets because it was still cold, as it was already nearing six-thirty. The remote snowfall had already stopped but the icy wind that passed still managed to brush the freshly fallen flakes off the branches of the surrounding trees to create a play of drizzling white against the black sky.
It was already mid-January and yet the weather was still as cold as it had been at the beginning of December. Luhan did not celebrate Christmas, for it was a holiday that was mostly spent with loved ones and family members and judging from his current status, he was not exactly someone people were waiting for right now. As for New Years, Luhan went against everything his father was by spending it at a shelter, feeding the poor and homeless - since he was alone and had nothing better to do anyway.
It had been a lonely ending of the year; an even lonelier start of the new one but Luhan had set himself out a plan. One that would erase all of this to make place for something that was worth it.
With a small smile on his lips, the redhead walked to the bus stop near his old job. Not to his surprise, he found it empty and leaned against the glass overhead that protected travelers from the weather. “So cold,” he muttered to himself as he watched lost snowflakes drizzle to the ground. He must have been lost in thought because he had not heard the low humming of the the bus that had arrived.
Carefully, he stepped into it and paid his fare before walking through the aisle. When he passed a spot that allowed two people to sit, someone bumped into his shoulder. “Oh sorry!”
A woman’s voice.
“This is my stop!”
“Oh excuse me!” a pleasant female voice reached Luhan’s ears after he found himself in the midst of quite a rough collision. Still a little disoriented because he was nearly flung to the other side of the bus when it braked and the person he had ran into. “No, I’m sorry, I wasn’t watching where I was - ” Luhan began apologizing but his voice hitched in his throat when he met eyes with the girl he had run into.
“... going,” he finished his sentence softly, too taken by her deep brown orbs that were framed by the same shade of shoulder length hair and the most beautiful face he had ever seen. Her full lips slightly parted, they were almost the same cherry blossom tint as the skin of her cheekbones. Luhan took that she was flustered because of the situation but he saw no reason for her to feel that way - he had been at fault. Still, her beauty was really something and it made something shift in the man’s body; an eruption of feelings that he had experienced only once before.
“Are you getting off or what!” a booming voice interrupted Luhan’s reminiscent thoughts and pulled him back to the situation at hand. The girl visibly flinched at the loudness of the voice and quickly picked up her bag that had fallen to the floor earlier.
“It’s okay,” she answered with a small smile and before Luhan could say another word, she slipped off the bus and rushed towards the building block that bordered the road - and where Luhan actually had to be. When the redhead heard the sound of the bus doors closing, he snapped out of it a second time and with swift movements managed to slip through the doors before they closed.
Just in time, he caught the girl disappear behind the clear sliding doors of the complex before he began walking. Luhan smiled to himself when he recalled her beautiful eyes and how she managed to take away his breath and mind with just a single glance of them.
Breathless, Luhan ran through the crowd towards the location of a cafe he had visited once. When he had gotten off the bus at the streets of the Busan National University, he was instantly taken by clutches of people that walked on the sidewalk. Many restaurants and shopping spots were located here, therefore popular with the youths and young adults. Luhan had attended university here - it was a miracle that he was even allowed to go there because of his family situation - so the man knew the area like the back of his hand.
Walking through Jangjeon-dong, Luhan spotted the cafe and quickly entered, replacing the everlasting cold with delicious warmth. He bowed at a busboy before he entered the bar area and spotted a head with short blond hair.
“Sorry, the bus was running late,” Luhan apologized when he had approached the bartender. Sehun jumped a little at the sudden voice and turned to his right to meet with the redhead’s frame. “Don’t you have a license?” he cocked an eyebrow as he asked but Luhan remained silent, a small smile playing his pale lips. “I do but no car to use anymore,” he spoke up after a moment as he recalled that when he gave up his job, he had to hand in the keys of the company car as well.
Sehun nodded at this, seeing no reason for him to verbally respond and motioned for the other to sit. It was silent for a while until a waitress came to their table to take their order. “Two coffees, coming right up,” she smiled before leaving, a slight bounce in her step as she swayed her hips. The blond took no notice of this because he was still eyeing Luhan.
“I reckon there is a reason why I am here,” he remarked smoothly, his hands resting in front of him on the table. Luhan nodded as he sat straighter in his seat. “How’s Hana?” he asked to somewhat lighten the heavy mood that had settled between them and also folded his hands in front of him. “Good, I suppose,” Sehun answered as he averted his eyes. For obvious reasons, it still was not entirely comfortable talking about the girl with the man because they all were part of each other’s history.
It felt like he was entering forbidden territory.
It seemed that Luhan did not feel the same because at the blond’s answer, he smiled lightly and looked at his hands. “Good.”
“How is she?”
“Good, I suppose,” Chaeri said as she blew warm air into her hands, “I mean, if you take away her undying annoyance of having to go on a date with a semi-complete stranger, that is.”
Luhan nervously laughed at this and rubbed his palms over his jean-covered thighs as he, for some reason, felt hot. His whole mind was a mess because it all went pretty fast when he had met her father and her. The frantic man took a deep, shaky breath and nodded to assure himself. “Good.”
“Oh there she is!” his friend exclaimed in a loud whisper when she had spotted the girl exit a bus. When she met with a still panicky Luhan, she laughed and patted him on the shoulder. “You’ll be fine!” she smiled and pushed him towards the searching girl before disappearing to her car. Luhan was still not calm and felt his heart only beat faster when he met eyes with the girl he had become infatuated with the moment she laid eyes on him. It was like fate had a weird way of twisting lives and made sure that the two bus buddies would be entwined in some weird ending.
Her hair was still a warm chestnut color as her cheeks forever held the rosy blush that made Luhan’s knees go weak. Her lip that formed a beautiful smile the first time he had met her, however, stood in a grimace today. He could not really blame her.
“Hey,” she greeted him, not at all enthusiastic but managed to show him a small smile. Even though the gesture was insincere, Luhan knew that that front held a beautiful person so he took whatever he got from her with a wildly beating heart and clammy hands. “Hi,” he greeted her back and played with the hem of his shirt because he promised himself he would not show her his weakness.
“So the Seoul tower, huh?” Hana asked rhetorically and eyed the gray building behind the boy.
Even her voice was stunning.
Luhan nodded faintly, and stepped aside in a somewhat gallant manner to let the girl walk first but he had the feeling she was not exactly the type that liked that kind of gestures. “I guess I’ve had cheesier first dates,” she began as she walked past him but threw the boy a small smile over her shoulder, “but it’s cute.”
The color red had many shades but Luhan was sure he had become the deepest and darkest red mankind had ever seen. He got compliments from people, girls even, but now it was different. He had, for one, been rendered speechless because when he had met Hana together with her father, she had been nothing but rude towards him, so this was a pleasant surprise. Secondly, ‘cute’ was a word he normally despised because he knew his looks had softer features than a manly man had, in his eyes.
But Hana was something different.
He smiled gently, accepting the compliment with a satiated heart, before he quickly hurried after the girl into the building and searched for her in the hall. He found her at the elevator but before he could say anything, she had already slipped through the metal sliding doors. Luhan swallowed once before he followed after her, pushing his shaking hands into his pockets when he stood next to her and the doors closed.
“Are you planning on buying us a lock?” Hana asked casually as she watched the numbers above the doors light up with every level they reached. Luhan was too focused on the seam between the sliding doors that he stumbled over his words with his heart pumping ferociously in his chest. He could not think straight, let alone form coherent sentences that could express his feelings clear and vividly.
Hana frowned at his behavior but an amused chuckle escaped her peachy lips. “It’s okay, Luhan. No need to start hyperventilating,” she smiled and patted his shoulder to assure him but it only made him flinch. Again, Hana felt a little suspicious, even more so when Luhan quickly stepped out of the elevator as soon as it had reached the platform.
He walked up the steps with the girl on his heels but stopped abruptly when he felt light vibrations under his feet and saw the metal structure move. “Oh, it’s shaking,” he said softly as he let the other visitors pass him into the cable car. Hana, too, walked passed him and entered, standing at the side when she met eyes with the boy. “Are you coming?”
“I’m thinking about it,” he muttered in response as he ran his eyes over the cable car again.
Hana laughed at this and cocked a hip as she watched him. “Thinking about it?”
“It’s shaking,” Luhan repeated again and took a few steps closer to the car to examine it. Hana pursed her lips and looked around for a moment. “It’s not,” she stated lightly and looked back at the boy before she realized something. “You’re scared of heights,” she deadpanned as she watched Luhan with an amused grin.
The male carefully eyed the metal structure she was standing in before he met eyes with her again, “I might be.”
Neither of the two had expected this to happen but suddenly, Hana let out a laugh that had been more genuine than ever. Luhan might have been the most surprised because only the sound of it already made his insides melt. Hana stepped out as she was still chuckling a bit and began approaching him.
“You shouldn’t worry so much,” she smiled at him, “it’s bad for the heart.”
Luhan let her smile sink into his mind and calm him as he nodded still a little insecure. The girl, however, noticed that he was still jumpy and nowhere near calming down so she pressed her lips together, as to set aside her pride, before she slid her hand into his pocket where his was, and entwined her fingers with his before taking them out. Luhan was too surprised to say anything but Hana just smiled at him. “You’ll be fine,” she spoke softly and gently began pulling him with her.
Again, his heart squeezed in his chest. He did not know why he followed her into that small enclosed area that would rattle its way up until it reached the top of the hill but it might have been her soft voice that pulled him in or the gentle way she held him.
“See?” she asked, still not letting go of his hand, and watched Luhan’s expression as he looked around. “C-can we stand on one side?” he asked and eyed a corner of the car. “Sure,” Hana smiled at him and let him walk to the other side, still not letting go of her hand. The doors closed after this with Luhan letting out a small yelp in surprise when the structure began moving. Hana wanted to move away a little to watch the view but to her surprise it was Luhan who kept her in her place. “Please s-stay closer?” he asked and unconsciously pulled her until there was barely any space between them.
Hana was a little astonished but nodded anyway, “Of course.”
Luhan was relieved for the moment being but the higher they got, the more he felt his stomach turn into a tight knot. At one point, Hana felt his hand slipping away and when she looked at the boy, she found him crouching in the corner. She unintentionally snorted at the sight but quickly put on a neutral expression to show him that she was not making fun of him. The others around them did not take notice of the two and just continued to comment in awe when Seoul’s scenery came to sight, but Hana’s eyes remained on the boy.
“It’s really high,” he mumbled to himself as he watched everything through the lower part of the clear glass. As she watched on, Hana found the sight a little endearing and felt herself warming up to the boy. He was not all that bad.
“When we come down,” Luhan spoke up, not taking his eyes off the sight outside the cable car for a moment before looking up at Hana, “do we have to ride this again?”
“Yes,” she nodded, feeling a little apologetic.
“Ah, really…” Luhan muttered more to himself, rather than to Hana before he looked outside again. Hana chuckled at this and pushed her hands into her pockets, letting out a sigh before she leaned against the glass so she still could keep an eye out for Luhan.
“Are you good?” she asked with a small smile, still feeling amused.
Luhan nodded before he answered with a slightly breathless voice, “I’m good.”
“Good,” the girl responded with a smile before watching their beautiful view pass by through the opposite window.
“It’s weird for you to suddenly pop up like this,” Sehun deadpanned and eyed the redhead that had not lifted his eyes from his fingers the moment Hana came up. “I needed time,” he answered softly but Sehun was not as careful. “Three months?”
“Feelings like these don’t disappear that easily, Sehun,” Luhan answered as he was starting to feel a little annoyed. The feeling had no to time to boil, however, because the waitress of before brought their drinks and wisped any negativity away from the two. They remained silent as they stirred their drinks; Sehun adding milk to his coffee as Luhan prefered it black.
“They don’t need to fully disappear for you to show that you’re actually alive and such,” Sehun countered after a moment and took a sip from his coffee as he eyed the silent Luhan over the rim of his cup. “She misses you, you know,” he added, his voice lowered as he did not fail to notice the spark in Luhan’s eyes.
“Why would she miss me, she has you now, hasn’t she?” he asked and also took a sip from his drink. The blond scoffed, feeling frustrated because he knew Luhan was acting here; he had seen how he reacted when he first saw the two together - aggression would fuel his actions whenever the girl came up. “Oh I don’t know, maybe because you were a big part of her life and she saw a future together with you?” Sehun sarcastically remarked and set his cup on the wooden counter.
Luhan did not respond to this and found refuge in his hands again as he fidgeted with his fingers. “I’m leaving,” he spoke up softly, still not looking up. Sehun frowned the slightest at this because for one, he found the redhead’s behavior a little off - not like he knew the man that well but something was definitely off - and two, he doubted if running away would do the man any good.
“If going away is what you need, then go,” he chose to answer him this way to see what he could get out the man. “I wasn’t seeking for approval,” Luhan instantly countered, reassuring Sehun a bit because that was the harsh answer he was waiting for. “Then why are we still talking.”
“Because I am leaving possibly the love of my life in your care,” Luhan did not leave any time between their answers and bit back, “and I need to be sure that I am not making the dumbest decision of my living days.”
Sehun felt something stir at this. “Are you?”
Luhan met eyes with him.
“Are you making the dumbest decision of your living days?”
A small smile was Sehun got.
“Probably.”
Sehun let out a humorless chuckle when he averted his eyes to look outside, meeting with a new snowfall that was piling up outside. The two barely knew each other but it was as if they did not need any words to communicate and Luhan knew exactly what the blond meant with his laugh. He shook his head with a small smile before he downed his drink, hissing slightly at the warm and disgusting beverage that slid down his throat. He never knew why he drank coffee.
Carefully moving his chair, Luhan stood up and slid back into his jacket as he glanced at Sehun before also looking outside. It seemed like the snowflakes had grown in size because the white canvas on the ground got thicker and thicker with every passing second.
“Take care of her, okay?” he muttered, his voice sounding broken as he did not take his eyes off the sight. Again, Sehun did not respond but for the slightest second, he met eyes with the redhead in the window.
Taking this as his answer and his cue, Luhan nodded faintly, his small smile never faltering as he left Sehun behind in the small university cafe.
AN: [16.07.14] and today we kick off the official continuation of Apartment 23! i'm so so so happy that there were that many people that enjoyed it and asked for a sequel since i never expected it to be that successful. i want to thank all of you for giving Apartment 23 | 2.0 a chance and i really hope this will clear out many things for you so the first installment will be clearer! lately, i've been busy with figuring out who i wanted in this and what was still left to be explained and i came to the conclusion that some of the characters will get multiple chapters, like luhan, to explain them. i have no idea how long this whole sequel will be - i usually come up with ideas as i go - so i guess you all will have to wait and see :) i'd really appreciate if you could comment so i can see what you all think and hopefully share have some ideas? so without further ado, thank you all so much again and i hope this first chapter will not be a disappoinment!
im not even sure if people read this but if you do, then thumbs up and maybe drop a message?
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