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EXO dressing room was a mess after their concert. The eleven members were evenly spread around the room, talking with crew members and other random people crowding the room. The distant voices of another performance on the stage could be heard but not many really paid attention to it: this was just part of their everyday routine.

The only exceptional thing in the room was the amount of bodyguards: this was just for the young men’s own safety. Today was one of the days a bunch of lucky fangirls had won a chance to meet their favourite idols backstage. It was well-known thing that some of them always got a bit too excited around their oppas.

Even though the atmosphere in the room was mainly cheery, there were two persons looking not too excited. They were both sitting on a small red couch in the corner of the room, absentmindedly following the chaos around them. These grumpy faces could be identified as Yixing and Sehun.

Yixing had an actual reason to look a bit down: the poor boy had been suffering from a serious flu for several days, and performing as one of the lead dancers wasn’t exactly the best solution for that problem. Sehun, someone might say, looked always kind of grumpy, but this time grumpiness was not the emotion inside of him. He was busy waiting for something. Or – someone.

“Hyung, any idea when the fans are supposed to come here?” Sehun sighed out suddenly, nervously stretching out his skinny legs. Yixing kept his expression blank, which was understood as a no by the maknae.

Sehun gave out a frustrated little sigh and glanced the screen of his phone. The SNSD noonas were soon going to end their performance, which meant that it was time for Sehun to start carrying out his sneaky plan. But there was no way he would leave the room before the fan meeting: the manager hyung would kill him for that. “Aish, with these people really.” Sehun murmured almost inaudibly, glancing the door nervously. He knew exactly that his attitude was now completely wrong but…could those bloody over-excited little girls come already and leave?

“Fans are here!” Someone yelled from the door, all 11 idols straightening up everywhere in the room. “Hey, gather up, they can’t see you! The time is limited!” The manager hyung run around kicking the idols to stand up and greet the fans as a group. Sehun slowly got up from the couch, not looking too enthusiastic. The manager gave him a murderous glance while pushing him towards his group mates who were already greeting the fans. “Sehun, behave yourself!”

The fan group consisted of three small girls (Sehun approximated them to be under twelve years old) and one girl in a high school uniform. They all looked over-excited, and the youngest girl started immediately crying when spotting Luhan’s face from the crowd. Sehun faked a smile on his face and stood next to Jongin, grabbing the taller boy’s waist in a way that surely initiated at least four fanfictions tonight.

After the fans had taken pictures with their “oppas” for long enough, the staff member taking care of them started nagging about time running out. The girls looked like their life would be on a balance right now. The youngest girl attacked Luhan with a fierce hug, the boy handling the situation calmly.

“Sehun-ah oppa, could I take one more picture with just you?” The girl in the high school uniform suddenly asked with a bright teeth smile. Sehun smiled quickly with a polite nod, bending down a bit so that he could fit in the same picture with the short girl.

“Do you remember me?” The girl suddenly whispered in Sehun’s ear as soon as the boy had reached her head level. Sehun glanced the girl in confusion. “Err…sorry?” “You remember me, right?” The girl nodded, blinking and obviously trying her best to look as attractive as possible. Bad for her, she wasn’t exactly Sehun’s ideal type. Or gender.

Sehun smiled awkwardly, shaking his head. “I’m sorry, I don’t…” Something in the girl’s face was weirdly familiar though…and creepy. Sehun glanced at the camera in her hand, hoping she would just quickly take the picture and disappear. The girl looked really disappointed, suddenly hiding the camera behind her back. “Yes you do, oppa, just think! Look at me!” She protested, forcing the boy to stare at her for a while. Sehun honestly stared the girl but he couldn’t recall the girl. The members saw hundreds of fans every day, how were they supposed to remember each one of them?

“Now, girls, it’s time to go and see SNSD unnies. Come on, say last goodbyes to the oppas.” The staff member started chasing the girls out of the dressing room. The girl in the high school uniform gave one last disappointed glance at Sehun, bowed at him and left the room.

As soon as the door closed, all the members of EXO with an exception of Sehun blurted out the same sentence: “It was her!” “Who?” Sehun moaned, grabbing Luhan’s arm in confusion. “The girl!” Luhan said, pointing at the door. “The oldest girl!” “Sehunnie, don’t say you didn’t recognise him?” Baekhyun shouted and laughed embarrassedly. “She’s like the worst sasaeng of them all!”

Suddenly Sehun knew who the girl was: she belonged in the group of their most obsessed sasaeng fans. She just looked so different while dressing up like that, wearing make-up and everything. “Ahh…” The maknae nodded, with a shiver running through his spine. The mere thought of sasaeng fans made him feel uncomfortable.

“This kid, I thought he was just playing smart and not giving the sasaeng the pleasure of being recognised! But he was actually stupid!” Baekhyun laughed at Sehun, poking his arm playfully. Sehun gave him a rude face and suddenly realised he was free now. He quickly glanced the clock from his phone. It was the time. After checking himself from the huge mirror wall and making sure he looked fierce the maknae rushed out the room without further explanations.

Sehun’s master plan would have started with “accidentally” bumping into this one special person on the corridor but as soon as he opened the door he realised that his plan hadn’t been exactly polished up to perfection. On the corridor there were idols, crew members, random people, and even some small kids (why?) running back and forth as a never-stopping flow. There was simply no way he could just spot the person he was looking for just passing by him on the corridor like this.

“Aish…” Sehun repeated a few times before backing up into the dressing room again.

“Sehun-ah…what are you trying to do?” Sehun suddenly heard a teasing voice behind him. “Not your business.” Sehun spat out, feeling how two eager hands wrapped around his neck.

“Did you think you could just leave me here with these freaks?” Tao laughed, pointing his head at Luhan and Xiumin who were busy having a fierce tickle fight, and at Baekhyun who was again showing off with his girl group dance skills.

Sehun didn’t answer, but just coldly unwrapped the muscular arms from his neck. “Please don’t tell anyone I left” Sehun said expressionlessly, meeting Tao’s disappointed eyes for a second before holding the door handle again. Tao nodded just as expressionlessly. The maknae was having this mood again, he thought and walked back to his hyungs. Sehun sighed and walked out of the room with his eyes full of stubborn determination.

As soon as Sehun succeeded in finding the one dressing room door he was looking for, the first obstacle hit him in the face hard. What was he exactly going to say to this person? What was he even doing? The words he wanted to say sounded so cheesy even to his own ears. Was this a good plan? Did he seem like a stalker, coming into their dressing room just before their performance like this?

Sehun’s deep thoughts were wiped away with one push as some crew member accidentally poked the tall boy with a pile of carton boxes at the same time the dressing room door opened: the boy found himself inside the crowded room before he even realised what had happened.

“S-Sehun!” A familiar voice shouted immediately from the moving mass of faces, Sehun gulping and realising he wasn’t ready for this. Not at all.  

“D-Donghae hyung…” Sehun answered awkwardly even before recognising where the man was standing. He couldn’t help but swipe his hand girlishly through his own hair from the sight of seeing the person he had been thinking all day. But in what an embarrassing way…

Donghae, in his full stage outfit and make-up, bowed quickly at the make-up artist adding powder to his face. He started walking towards embarrassed Sehun with an honestly surprised smile.

Sehun opened his mouth, trying to blurt out what he came to say before it was too late: ”I-I…I came to say…” but suddenly felt a cold hand creeping on his neck.

“Oh Sehun. We don’t need any extra people here right now, your hyungnims have a performance soon.” It was the Super Junior’s manager. Sehun had always felt like the manager had something against him; he was always commanding and talking rudely to the boy ever since his trainee days. Sehun bowed at him immediately, trying to somehow justify his existence for Donghae but was pushed out of the room as quickly as he came, confused Donghae left standing alone in middle of the room.

Oh Sehun could not be defeated like this! The boy firmly took a place next to the door, pushing his back against the wall so that he would take as small amount of space as possible from the crowded corridor. At some point Donghae would have to leave the room. And Sehun would be here. The man couldn’t escape.

Luckily Sehun didn’t have to wait for long: Eunhyuk opened the door and started making his way towards the stage with a serious expression, followed by Kyuhyun, Ryewook and Siwon. Sehun swallowed nervously, making a mental note of how people let the Super Junior hyungs walk on the corridor like kings but earlier paid no attention to Sehun trying to make his way through.

After every single member with an exception of Donghae had left the room in their full stage make-up, Sehun started becoming frustrated. What was taking his favourite hyung so long?

Sehun was just about to open the door and walk in for a second try when the manager hyung walked out the room. Sehun tried to sneakily pretend he was just passing by but it was too late.

“Oh Sehun! Still here? Aish, go into your own dressing room, you rascal!” The manager pinched Sehun’s ear painfully and the boy had better back off and accept his defeat.

The other members were all seriously post-gig-tired so their maknae’s grumpy faces were not acknowledged. On their ride home, barely a word was changed between the 11 young men. Even Baekhyun was too exhausted to speak (and it was a lot). He kept on smiling at his phone screen in such a way it was easy to guess who he was chatting with.

Sehun sighed and tried to stop thinking about the earlier. Whatever, he thought. It was just a silly plan anyway. Donghae had always been so nice for him, making sure he greeted the boy and wished him good luck every time he happened to see the younger boy before their stage time. Sehun would’ve just wanted, just for once, to return the favour. Seemingly even this simple task for too hard for him and his inexistent social skills.

All the idols glanced Baekhyun doubtingly when he suddenly started to giggle by himself, looking like he would kiss his phone’s screen. Such young love, everyone thought and returned to their own gloomy worlds.

Sehun moved his stare out the window again. I would be just like that if Donghae would text me, the maknae thought and tried to wipe the pleasant thought away without a success. Donghae would never text me, he admitted to himself with a sad smile. He is just a nice hyung trying to act nice towards an especially pitiful dongsaeng. The special attention Sehun had been receiving from the older idol lately could mean nothing else. I don’t want to even know what he thinks about me, Sehun gulped. The way Donghae always acted so polite, the way he was never rude for anyone, the way he smiled at Sehun…

Even though not admitting it to himself, inside his heart Sehun had a long time ago accepted that his growing attraction towards his favourite hyung was something more than a friendship.

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