'hey,' luhan shouts to get the crowded table's attention when they are still half the guad away.  'i brought a freshman whelp for our entertainment today!'

sehun staggers at the sentence and wonders for a second if he just dug his own grave, but all to no avail because luhan is pushing him in front with an obviously evil cackle.  he feels like a sacrifice presented to a pack of starved wolves.  his arms cross his torso self consciously at their open staring and he tries to calculate how hard they will all laugh if he chances a break to make a run for it.

'this is sehun, you know, the mud puddle guy from last week,' luhan explains with absolutely no tact or thought of how sehun is liable to turn as red as a boiled lobster in embarrassment.

there are a few chuckles at the introduction but when sehun braves to look up no one is sneering at him.  everyone just looks at him curiously as he fumnbles with proper introduction etiquette until he settles with a quick bow and wave because he hasn't even looked at any one of them long enough to even speculate over their heritage.  

'cute,' cooes a girl making grabby hands that he vaguely thinks might have been the goalie the tuesday before.  'i want one.'

'he is not a ing kitten,' luhan ruins his own argument by ruffling sehun's hair.  he almost didn't flinch away that time.

'okay then.  the she-wolf who wants a piece of your pretty kitty self is amber.  best to steer clear of that one,' luhan murmurs.

amber continued to make the grabby, gimme hands especially after the pretty kitty comment colored sehun impossibly redder.  her hair was bottle ash blonde and she was wearing a shirt big enough to engulf sehun which swallowed her thin figure.

'next to her is baby bacon,' luhan indicates a petite guy with piano fingers that had plum colored polish on their perfectly shaped nails.  'then the cool glass of water beside him is taetae, his girlfriend.  or should i say womanfriend?'

baby bacon growled at luhan before tucking the obviously taller brunette taetae under his arm awkwardly until she scooped him into her lap with a waggle of eyebrows at sehun.

'on this side we have, in order of height least to greatest, soo-man then trol. then panda wushu style a--  , what is it again tao?'

'jesus, can't you get anything right, ge?  kungfu panda ab style tao, aka prince of gucci and darkness,' came the response from a contradiction of humanity if sehun had ever saw one.

the guy was obviously tall with impecibly styled hair and a cutout dudebro tank that proclaimed he had been head volunteer at camp disney princess 2011.  he had what looked like a billion ear piercings and a perpetual look of murder on his face that amber kindly explained was his default expression of contentment.

working with the height clue, sehun pieced together troll was the guy with lethal cheekbones and curled cat lips that smirked like he knew something no one else did.  tao elbowed him in the ribs and he laughed with a weird hybrid bleeting bray that made sehun jump back until he hit luhan's side.

that left the ridiculously cute squishy shorty to be soo-man.  sehun was appalled at himself at how bad he wanted to pinch the guy's cheeks until luhan reached forward to do just that and almost lost a finger.  soo-man tilted his chin down and pulled an evil grin that had sehun whimpering in dismay.

'where is everyone else,' luhan asked as he propped a hip on the table and stole a slice of pineapple from tao's bowl of every fruit imaginable.

sehun only vaguely met krisus kevin wu and chanyeol (he was weird enough not to need a nickname proclaiming his eclectic self) because they were napping in a tangle of irrationally long limbs on a blanket at the other end of the table.

before he could make his excuses, sehun was dragged down on the six inches left at the bench beside tao as luhan took baby bacon's now empty spot.  five minutes later amber ordered they make more room for the freshman whelp and sehun was given more space on the bench in exchange for soo-man perched in his lap.  it was all just so weird but in a surprisingly good way.

everyone piled their lunches in the center of the table like an all-you-can-eat-buffet line so everyone could share without fights outbreaking.  amber and luhan debated over the miracle properties of pulled pork sandwiches while troll flicked slices of carrots at baby bacon as taetae used him as a human shield.  soo-man balanced on sehun's thighs while bouncing softly everytime he nibbled on a peanut butter cracker.  tao offered sehun fruit on pretzel stick cabobs until he stopped insisting and simply shoved them in his mouth mid protest.

they were all so vibrant and just generally nice that sehun felt himself easily slipping back into the shadows until luhan asked him a question or tao forced more fruit on him. sehun hated to eat in front of people, self conscious and full of self doubt, but slowly he found himself easing around them.  his cheeks began to ache from smiling so much.

eventually two more people approached the table much to luhan's excitement if his deafening high pitched squeal was anything to go by.  around the fluff of soo-man's deep burgundy hair, sehun could make out luhan tackling a shorter guy that looked like a hamster on steroids, what with all his muscly bare arms that swung luhan around and out of the way so he could steal his spot and half of amber's smushed croissant.

the other newcomer needed no new introduction.

'lulu, i heard you almost socked some in bio this morning,' yixing murmurred from where he had settled in a giggling amber's lap.

'what,' tao spewed ginger ale down his shirt front.

'well the was shooting spitwads at my hunnie's face and i just would not have it,' luhan huffed with his hands on his hips until hamster hulk reluctantly offered his lap.  luhan looked like a rabid squirrel at the offer.

sehun blushed and hid his face against soo-man's back with a whine.  what the hell did he mean 'my hunnie'?

'hunnie,' yixing questioned.

'peek-a-boo,' troll shouted as he reached sideways over tao and shoved soo until sehun was visible.

'sehun!'

sehun nodded his head in acknowledgement and adverted his eyes.  luhan sent him a pouting look with a hand raised level with sehun's head like he was air patting his hair across the table.  right about then tao shoved a piece of pineapple in his mouth that made him drool much to his own horror until tao pulled up his own shirt tail to wipe sehun's chin.  tao was lean and muscular and sehun squeezed his eyes shut at the vast expanse of skin tao seemed in no hurry to cover.

'why did you never come to the studio,' yixing asked as he tried to wallow a more comfortable spot in amber's lap.

sehun peeked open one eye and blinked at the intensity of the attention suddenly directed at him.

'wait a second,' hamster hulk peeked around the constant squirm of luhan.  'this is the dancer guy you were telling us about?'

sehun wondered how long it would take him to unblush after everything today.  'i'm not a dancer.'

'xing said you are really good,' luhan cooed disgustingly around half a pocky stick dangling out of his mouth.  'better than troll by miles.'

'what?!'  troll slammed his fists down on the tabletop before he gave sehun an once over with a snarl.  'this punk.  he doesn't look like much.'

sehun recoiled.  he knew he wasn't much.  just excess flesh and brainpower.

'kim jongdae!  you take it back right this second,' soo suddenly yelled from his perch before fixing troll with a nasty glare.  he twisted until he could smoosh sehun's face into his chest and petted his head with small cool fingers that he wished would never leave his scalp.

'only after a dance off,' jongdae lept to his feet and made odd shapes with his arms in the air like he was trying to stretch.

'no way,' sehun groaned but was hauled up anyway.

yixing was helping in no way at all by pulling out his ipod and shuffling through until he finally selected a song.  the bass was whistling through the small device but it was loud enough to make out the beat atleast.

everyone chanted 'troll' as sehun glanced around embarrassed to see how full the quad was.  luckily only a few people glanced their way before continuing on towards various buildings.  jongdae bounced around on his tiptoes before nodding smartly at sehun and beginning what could hardly be called a dance at all really.  he flailed and fistpumped and tried to shuffle to the roar of his friends.  he flopped about and struck poses until even sehun was smiling and laughing along with every one else until he realized a panting jongdae smacking his arm meant it was now his turn.

frantically sehun inspected his clothes, pleased he had worn a loose t-shirt under an even looser hoodie zip up and simple jeans.  he looked up at all the eyes on him, some curious and others faintly judging.  yixing caught his attention for a moment and mouthed 'you got this' before he changed the track to a slower piano piece.

sehun knew it by heart, had mirrored jongin for three months in preparation for his recital.  the build was slow.  four eight counts before sehun was even suppose to move.  in the gap of stillness he could feel the burn of being stared at but ignored that small belittling voice inside that told him he couldn't do it and everyone would ridicule him.  when he opened his eyes he saw luhan smiling brightly and yixing counting time under his breath in mandarin and he danced.

his feet propelled him in tight circles on the grass, legs pumping him into the air in staccato leaps before he plied so deep he was afraid his inseam would rip before he straightened.  the choreeography flowed through his limbs and he executed complicated techniques with just a slight sloppy edge.  he was out of practice so he had to skip over several more difficult maneuvers until he finished with a tight piroquette that left him breathless as the music ended.

he took a moment to steel himself before facing the verdict of the audience and gaped as luhan scrambled over the tabletop, shoved tao aside hard enough to draw out a yelp, and leapt onto sehun's frame like a spider monkey.

sehun was stunned.

he had an armful of babbling luhan that alternated between petting his hair and pinching his cheeks while purring 'my hunnie' repeatedly.  tao was eyeing him with what sehun prayed wasn't ual interest.  soo-man was consoling a faux sobbing troll and clapping like a special seal.  taetae, baby bacon, and amber were all pretending to swoon. hamster hulk had his cheeks crammed with peanut butter crackers that showed grossly when he smiled with a thumbs up.

yixing was staring over sehun's shoulder into space his head tilted and finger to his chin as if in deep thought before he caught sehun's look and beamed back with a smile and mouthed 'told you so'.