STORY FUN FACTS

 A lot of people didn't realize that the little bits of monologue in between sections of the story were Sehun's memories! All of them were him remembering scenes from his childhood. They were primarily used to set up what his life was like before and after the big day when his mom got super tazed and Luhan snotted everywhere.

 Conceptually, in this story, Luhan is not a . He’s very innocent as far as love-based relationships go, but he’s had his fair share of carnal interactions. This stems from his swan-dive into troubled waters around high school. He drank and did quite a few illegal things in his day in a crazy attempt to fit in, but he simmered down around the time Jongdae got to high school because Jongdae was a total straightedge.

 Luhan and Minseok were friends from the beginning of their freshman year. Luhan is a Graphic Design major, and Minseok is a Computer Science major, but they both somehow ended up in Psychology 101 together. That was the start of a beautiful friendship.

 By the end of the story, Luhan is graduated with a steady job. Although Sehun helped, Luhan was the one who put forth the most money to buy the house in their old neighborhood.

 Both Luhan and Sehun go to Kyungsoo and Baekhyun’s apartment regularly for game nights. Sehun goes more often by himself because Luhan considers himself awkward, but Sehun makes it a point to drag him out every once in a while because he gets antsy otherwise.

 Sehun and Minseok still don’t get along very well, but Luhan visits Minseok regularly, too, when he gets the chance. Minseok is also graduated with a pretty good job and a part-time at a coffee shop (woo predictability). He checks in on Luhan a lot, even though he knows he’s in good hands.

 There are a lot of color idioms used in this story, especially concerning Luhan. If you ever want to reread it, try to find them all!

 The final memory in the story is Luhan’s (in case that wasn’t clear!). Note that Sehun’s final memory is only at number 13, while Luhan’s is 174. This is to contrast the two of them – Sehun as the forgetful one and Luhan as the one who remembers everything, right down to the details. This also shows how Sehun remembers big parts of his life in big chunks. He likes routine because he’s all about the big picture and the sections of living that really count, and when you have a routine, there’s fewer changes to remember. Luhan, on the other hand, is all about the little things – what someone was wearing on the day that something happened, or how many steps it took him to get to school, or whether he lost his ity on a Tuesday or a Thursday. He has categories in his brain for every little detail of every moment of his life, which is why his memory number is so dang high. Even though, in the story, Sehun is the one who remembers Luhan and Luhan is the one who forgets Sehun, this is very much different than how they actually are. The only reason Sehun remembers is because Luhan is important to him, and the only reason Luhan forgets is because he doesn’t want to remember, and actively struggles against remembering anything about Sehun at all.

 Most of Luhan’s other 173 memories also contain/are about Sehun. (and no one was surprised)

 The memories are all timestamped. Note which ones match up date-wise.

 The story between Luhan and Sehun as adults all takes place within a time period of about two months.

 Luhan and Jongdae never dated because Luhan was not about that dating life in high school anyways, but Jongdae definitely maintained unrequited feelings for him at some point. He doesn’t really anymore, and he’s completely happy for Luhan and Sehun, but there’s still a lingering thing there.

 Tao and Jongdae have never dated, either, but both of them are thirsty for each other omg. LOVE IS IN THE AIR. /spin-off story about Jongdae and Tao like farealz/

 Baekhyun and Kyungsoo met each other on an MMORPG when they were in high school. Baekhyun thought Kyungsoo was joking when he went on rage rants about their group balls and therefore thought he was the funniest person on planet Earth. (He wasn’t joking.) They later decided to become roommates because they both were too poor to afford an apartment on their own, but they were sick of their parents. They pool money to keep their subscriptions to the MMORPG, even though Kyungsoo doesn’t have much time to play anymore.

 Kyungsoo, as a kid, was probably the most devious little er you ever saw. He had to grow up quickly because his parents put a lot of pressure on him to succeed in life, get an education, AND take care of his younger siblings on top of that. He also usually cooked and cleaned for the entire household when he was growing up.

 Jongin’s parents were the nicest parents to ever nice. Jongin’s mom and Luhan’s mom were basically besties. They actually went about organizing Sehun’s leave together, although Luhan’s mom took the brunt of it.

 Sehun’s mom moved out of the neighborhood a couple months after Sehun got taken away. No one ever heard from her again tbh.

 Sehun’s dad disappeared, too, but not until after he confronted Luhan’s mom about the whereabouts of his child. Luhan’s mom almost called the police, but he left pretty soon after he arrived because he really didn’t care all that much.

 Tao’s parents still live in the neighborhood, but everyone else has moved since then.

 The reason Jongdae was so unresponsive when Luhan was in the hospital was because he could not fathom Luhan being so hurt that he ended up there. When I say Jongdae sees only good in the world, I am *not* lying. This also means that, when things this serious happen, he basically shorts out because he doesn’t understand how it possibly could happen when all of his friends are so good. This is his major character flaw – not being able to function in emergency situations. (Sehun almost calls him along with Kyungsoo to help find Luhan initially, but he decides against it based solely on the fact that Jongdae would have been completely and utterly useless to them due to this flaw.)

 The beer under Sehun’s bed was given to him by a foster kid who had been trying to set him up for trouble before he left for good. He planted them in hopes that Sehun would get arrested, but Sehun had outsmarted him and made out with the case of beer. It was a win-win situation, honestly. The case serves as more of an unopened trophy.

 “Sool” is the Korean word for alcohol (술). Baekhyun calls Kyungsoo Kyung-sool because he’s always goofing around now and acting as if he’s drunk.

 Sehun had always lived in the neighborhood up until the time that he was taken away, but Luhan didn’t move in until he was about 8 from Beijing. Sehun was about 4, but they still got along really well, right off the bat.

 Jongdae sort of knew Luhan liked Sehun. Luhan never told him though, even though Jongdae has tried to tell him that a bunch of times.

 Yo I know quotes are way overrated sometimes but that Maya Angelou quote was perfectly fitted to this fic and I appreciate it monumentally and you should too.

 “Beneath this mask is more than flesh. Beneath this mask is an idea.” and “Do you tell me lies because they sound better?” were two other quotes that I based this story off of, although they didn’t make the final cut.