Oh Sehun brushes the invisible dust off of his school uniform and smiles at his reflection in the mirror.  It’s his senior year in high school; his last year.  It has to be perfect, because Sehun will never get a chance to go back to high school again after this year.

    He walks downstairs, stepping on the soft white carpet noiselessly.  Sehun sits at the large table already laid with French toast, eggs, ham, and a couple of small pastries.  He nods to his parents, and they nod back.  Sehun doesn’t notice the puffiness of his mother’s eyes, or the way her hand gripped her fork so hard her fingers turned white.  It is all about himself right now.

    He cuts his toast meticulously, eating a small bite, then stands up.  “May I be excused?”  He asks quietly.  His father waves his hand, and Sehun walks out of the dining room and to the front door, tying on his polished black shoes.  A servant hands him his school bag, and then Sehun is ducking into the chauffeured limousine and on his way to school.

    Sehun’s school is, of course, a private school for the rich.  It’s a school that none but the higher workers of the government can attend, even if someone is particularly smart.  And because all of the children of the rich people are spoiled brats, Sehun can comfortably hold the top position in grades.

    School is easy for Sehun, as is life.  Get good grades, learn business, take over his father’s job.  It’s what he was born to do, and it’s what he will do.  Sehun has never known anything else.

    Sehun eats lunch alone.  He is in another league, even among the elite.  As usual, he only takes a couple bites before finishing.  Sehun has never ate a lot; he just never felt the need to, and food to him is only energy to keep going in the day.

    The first day of school is somehow boring and repetitive as usual.  Sehun doesn’t feel any different walking the halls as a senior in his last year.  He was a fool for thinking, for hoping, that maybe something this year would change.

    When Sehun gets home, it is quiet as usual.  He doesn’t bother announcing that he is home; if his parents want to know, then a servant will inform them.

    He walks up the stairs to his room and sits in front of his desk, bored because the teachers decided to not assign homework on the first day of school.  He opens up his laptop and searches up the stock rates.  Apple is falling again, he thinks to himself.  How unreliable.

    Sehun stretches, feeling the starched sleeves of his uniform jacket pull on his arms.  He shrugs it off and opens his wardrobe to choose a change of clothes.

    And then his jaw drops, surprised, because there are next to no clothes in his wardrobe.

    Sehun leaves his jacket and tie on the bed and hurries downstairs in his white button up shirt.  He catches a servant by the elbow as she passes by him.

    “Hey, how come I don’t have any clothes?”  He asks.  The servant looks surprised as well.

    “I don’t know, sir,” she mumbles.  “Maybe the mistress has something to do with it.”

    “Thanks,” Sehun says, then walks to his mother’s lounge room.  He knocks on the door, calling out, “It’s Sehun.”

    “Come in,” he hears, and he turns the knob and opens the door.  His mother is sitting there, pale, with bloodshot eyes.  

    “What’s going on?”  Sehun asks, dread filling his every fiber at the serious look on his mother’s face.

    “I’m sorry, Sehun,” she says quietly.  “Just know that whatever happens, I love you.  And be ready.”

    And then Sehun is ushered outside the door and it is closed in his face.

    Dinner is tense.  At least for Sehun.  He keeps glancing up at his mother, but she resolutely refuses his gaze.  His father reads the stock news, uninterested the battle between his wife and child.  Not that he’s ever interested in anything they do.

    Finally, Sehun puts down the piece of beef he has abused with his fork and stands up.  “May I be excused?”  He asks, and his father waves a hand at him without looking up.

    Laying on his bed, Sehun can’t help but wonder what the heck is going on.  Why are his clothes gone, servants acting weird, and his own mother obviously keeping secrets from him?  He’s tired.  Sehun never liked not knowing what was going to happen.

    He falls asleep uneasy, tossing and turning.  He runs his hands so much through his hair that it is tangled mess.  His eyes close with the red numbers of the clock imprinted into the backs of his eyelids.

    

---

 

    Sehun wakes up when someone forcefully shakes his shoulder.  He groans and turns over, only to have his blankets yanked off of his body.  He shoots up, pulling his skinny legs close to his body.  “What the heck?”  He tries to snarl, but it comes out as a sleepy mumble.

    “Please, young master, you have to hurry.  The servant tugs Sehun’s arm and pulls the shivering and shocked Sehun to his chair.  A pair of pants, shirt, socks, and a jacket are hanging over it.  The servant motions to it, eyes darting around.

    Even though Sehun has no clue what’s happening, he obediently tugs the shirt over his head and dresses.  Then he’s out of his room, with a finger held to his lips, running silently down the hall.  At the door, he’s handed a heavy winter coat even though it is mid autumn, and instead of his usual leather shoes he’s forced into a pair of sneakers.

    No matter how much Sehun wants to ask what is going on, he is silence by the look of terror on the servant’s face.  “Hurry,” the servant mouths, and he ushers Sehun through the door into the sharp night air.

    A car is waiting.  Not a limousine, but a car.  Still a good one, at that, but still not what Sehun is used to.  The back door is opened and Sehun is pushed inside.  It slams closed behind him, and then the car peels away.

    Sehun sits there for a second, still in shock, until a face pokes from the front seat.

    “Mother!”  Sehun explodes, indignant and frightened.  “What is going on!?”

    “I couldn’t stand it anymore,” she says, looking frightened herself.  “Please, Sehun, I’ll explain there.  Please trust me.”

    Please trust me.

    Sehun shouldn’t have trusted her.

 

---

 

    It started small, of course.

    Just a bottle of wine in the cupboard every day, a cup of alcohol during their sparse dinner.

    But then it turned into late night drinking bouts, but still at home.  And Sehun would have to deal with his drunk mother trying to explain, tearily, once again why they were living this life.

    “He was beating me, threatening to disown you so you couldn’t take over his position,” she would sob, hiccupping.  “And then I found the number in his phone, met the woman, who admitted everything, and that was the breaking point.  I couldn’t take it anymore.”

    And before, when it first started, Sehun would shake her shoulders and demand, “And so you thought it was a good idea to just run away without anything but the clothes on our back and some spare cash?”

    But now he just sits there, tired of her explanation, tired of her pleading, tired of life.

    Sehun doesn’t see her the whole of next day, not even when he comes back from the overpopulated public school he now goes to.  He finally goes to sleep with unease weighing on his heart, and wakes up the next morning to find a man rummaging through the cereal boxes and nosing through their fridge.

    “Yah!  Who are you!?”  Sehun shouts, grabbing the nearby broomstick and aiming it at the man.  The man whips around, shock, dropping the Cheerios and spilling them all over the floor.  Sehun winces at the loss; they’ll have to go without cereal for this week.

    “Who are you?”  The man asks. Then he frowns.  “She didn’t tell me she already had a lover...”

    “What the hell!?”  Sehun asks.  The old Sehun would never have talked this crudely.  “Who didn’t tell you that?  Who?  I’m nobody’s lover!”

    Just then, Sehun’s mother stumbles into the kitchen, mumbling, “Sehun, is breakfast-”

    “Who is he!?”  Sehun shouts immediately, jabbing the broomstick in the man’s direction.  

    His mother’s eyes widen at the scene taking place in the kitchen.  “Ah... it’s nothing.  Uh... what was your name again?”  She asks the man.

    The man grits his teeth.  “You were screaming it so lustfully last night, how could you forget?”

    Sehun pales and his hands tremble.  “You... you...”  His mother turns to him, eyes suddenly wide.

    “Oh my god, Sehun, I-”

    Sehun grabs his bag from the table and slams the door against her words.

 

---

 

    On the bus, Sehun stands even though there is a row of empty seats.  He glares outside the window and fumes.  But soon he feels his own eyes filling up with tears.

    He can’t believe what had just happened, doesn’t want to believe it.  It’s been far too long, and Sehun has long accepted that this is what his life has become.  But he never imagined his elegant, proud mother getting trashed and then bringing home a man to .

    The first couple periods pass in a haze, then Sehun is sitting down at his table for lunch.  When he realizes that not only did he skip breakfast, he didn’t have enough time to pack lunch before he ran away.

    That bastard, he growls to himself.

    “Sehunnie~ how are you today?”  A voice asks and a man with bright red hair sits down beside him, grinning ear to ear.

    “Hi Hakyeon,” Sehun replies.  As if on cue, his stomach growls loudly.  Sehun slaps a hand over his belly, blushing pink.

    “Oooo, is our baby hungry?”  Hakyeon asks, smirking.  “I’ll tell Wonsik to get you a lunch.”

    “No, you don’t need to,” Sehun protests, but Hakyeon whips out his phone and sends Wonsik a quick text.

    And soon, Taekwoon and Wonsik are sitting down together in front of them, and Wonsik is sliding a plate with a steaming hot slice of pizza and a chocolate milk across the table to Sehun.  Sehun salivates at the sight.

    “No need to pay me back,” Wonsik says in his gruff voice, opening his own milk.  “Seriously.”

    “You’re so generous!”  Hakyeon says admiringly, beating Sehun.  Sehun rolls his eyes at the lovesick look on Hakyeon’s face, which turns into ugly jealousy when Taekwoon taps Wonsik’s shoulder, then leans in close to whisper in his ear.

    “Thanks, though,” Sehun mutters.  Wonsik grins his toothy grin.

    “No problem, man.”

    Just then, another boy sits down beside Wonsik.  Lee Hongbin, another one of Sehun’s friends.

    “Hey guys!”  Hongbin says.

    “Hi, Bin!”  Wonsik says, and the two brohug.  Sehun can feel the frowning aura radiating off of Taekwoon and Hakyeon.  Seriously.  He honestly doesn’t understand why clumsy, deep voiced Wonsik is so popular.

    “I saw you in line with two lunches,” Hongbin teases Wonsik.  “Are you trying to get fat?”

    “No!”  Wonsik says immediately.  “I was doing our Sehunnie a favor.  He forgot lunch.”

    “Really?”  Hongbin asks, an eyebrow raised.  Sehun looks down from his gaze in favor of biting into the cheesy goodness of his pizza, but Hongbin has always been more intuitive than the others.  “Did something happen?”  He asks gently.

    “Nothing,” Sehun mutters, frowning at his milk.

    “Hmm...” Hongbin says, but lets it slide.

    Just then there are two new arrivals to the table.

    “Hey, children!”  Jaehwan giggles, sliding into the seat beside Hakyeon.  Sanghyuk laughs and sits next to Sehun.

    “Ya!  Who are you calling a child?”  Hakyeon asks, frowning.  “Karate chop!”  He chops Jaehwan in the neck.

    Jaehwan falls backward onto the spare seats next to him, feigning death.

    “Hey, did you guys hear about the new teacher?”  Sanghyuk says, ready to gossip.

    “Oh my god, yes!”  Hakyeon squeals, making Sehun feel slightly uncomfortable sitting between them.  “She’s like 23 or something and teaches senior classes, and I heard that she’s super hot!”

    “Really?”  Wonsik asks, suddenly interested.  “Does she have nice legs?”

    Hakyeon frowns, suddenly annoyed.  “Why does it matter if she has nice legs?  You have nice legs.  I have nice legs.  Sehun has nice legs.  We don’t need more nice legs!”

    Sehun facepalms internally, because that didn’t make any sense at all.

 

---

 

    It turns out that she does have nice legs.

    Her name is Lee Hyori and she is Sehun’s Physics teacher, Physics being right after lunch so that’s the reason why Sehun didn’t hear the news until now.

    She’s got a nice smile, too, eyes crinkling up.  Sehun’s always had a thing for smiles that make eyes crinkle up.  That is, until she whips out a ruler and smashes it on her desk.  “Get in before the bell rings, es!”  She howls at the two students that walk in right after the last bell.

    Sehun shivers, because scary women are his worst fear.

    He’s trembling even worse when she asks to see him after class.  Sehun wipes his palms on his jeans and swallows as he approaches her desk.

    “I’m sorry for whatever I did wrong!”  Sehun says immediately, bowing down ninety degrees.

    The teacher chuckles.  “Relax, Sehun.  You’re not in trouble.”  Sehun frowns because she’s called everyone by their last names until now.  Maybe it’s just because class is over, Sehun tells himself.  “Actually, I just need to ask you a favor.”  Hyori leans forward and rests her elbows on the desk.  She blinks her long lashes up at Sehun.  “I just moved into my new house, so I’m in need of some help as I am moving everything alone.”

    “You don’t have a boyfriend?”  Sehun asks before he can stop himself.  He mentally slaps a hand over his mouth.

    Hyori just laughs again.  “Nope.  That’s why I need help.  I’ll pay you, of course,” she adds.  “Ten dollars an hour.  Pretty good rate, huh?”

    Sehun wonders.  He does need the money; he’s pretty much sure that his mother will be drinking again, and it’ll be worse if she goes to the club like she probably did last night judging by what she brought back.

    “Alright,” he finally says.  Then another thought occurs to him.  “Am I the only one?”

    The teacher laughs and slaps Sehun’s chest lightly.  “Of course not, you pabo.  If I’m going to kidnap young boys, I need a group.  You’ll meet the others when you come over.”  And while Sehun stood there, in shock, because he is an innocent young boy who just got touched on the chest by an older woman, Hyori typed her contact information and address into Sehun’s phone.

    He starts later that week, jogging through the harsh air that is still unwilling to turn into spring to the address in his contact information.  He finds himself at a large house with a spacious lawn, a trailer truck in front and the front door propped open.  Even so, Sehun rings the doorbell.

    Another boy pops out from behind the door.  “Hello there!”  He says cheerfully.  “I’m Bambam.  Are you Sehun?  Madame Hyori said someone else was coming to help.”

    “Uh... yes,” Sehun says quietly.

    “Great!  I’m a junior,” Bambam adds.  “Let’s get started!”

    For the next hour, Sehun moves boxes and furniture, helping Bambam organize the boxes in one corner and the furniture where it’s supposed to go.

    Finally, Hyori shows up around 6, three hours after they started.  “Boys!”  She says, delighted, when she spots them.  “Thanks for coming over!  Here’s your pay,” she adds, pulling out her wallet and taking out six ten dollar bills.

    “Thanks,” Bambam says, bowing and smiling a bright, white smile.  “Text me if you need help!”  He calls as he walks away.  “See you at school, Sehun hyung!”

    Sehun wonders when he said Bambam could call him  hyung.  He also turns to Hyori.  “Thank you, seonsaengnim.”

    “Don’t call me that outside of school!”  Hyori says.  “Just call me noona.  I’m only six years older than you.”

    “Okay, noona,” Sehun mutters, and runs away, because for some reason it felt weird on his tongue.

 

---

 

    Sehun doesn’t bother announcing he is home.  In fact, he’d rather not be home at that moment, but unfortunately he has nowhere else to stay and can’t bear to burden one of his friends with his own family problems.

    She’s not home, though.  Probably ing another man, Sehun thought bitterly to himself.  Like she doesn’t have a 17 year old son already.

    Sehun runs a hand through his messy black hair, contemplating whether he should study for the quarter final next week or not.  He glances to the side and sees the glossy cover of a fold peek from a cardboard box.  Sehun swallows and stands up abruptly, the chair falling over behind him.

    What the hell.  He already failed the semester exam anyway.  He shouldn’t have to study.

    But all the same, he feels a little guilty as he pulls on his shoes and locks the door behind him.

    He runs down the street, jacket flapping and hair blowing back from his forehead.  Older men and women frown disapprovingly at this abnormally tall high schooler swerving between people.  He arrives at the park out of breath, because Sehun is usually too lazy to exercise.

    The only schedules he had today were helping Hyori-seonsaengnim with her boxes.  It’s a day off for the whole store Sehun works at, so he doesn’t have to rush there.  He heads into the small woods in the park and lies down underneath a tree, not minding the dirt soaking into his pants or the leaf that is probably poison ivy tickling his cheek.

    It’s a different world, a vast change achieved simply by a few towering trees and some natural undergrowth.  If Sehun closes his eyes, then he can’t even see the houses just visible through the trees.  It’s silent, too; the bushes and ivy soak up sound like a sponge.

    Suddenly, an acrid smell fills the air.

    Sehun’s eyes fly open and he shoots to his feet, barely missing the branch just above him.  He lifts his nose into the air and sniffs, frowning.  He walks around a couple of trees, steps over some logs, and there he is.

    A high school aged boy, probably around Sehun’s own age, leaning against a tree and ing smoking.

    That is a big no no.  No smoking in Sehun’s special trees, clogging up the tree’s leaves and causing mass death to the undergrowth as well as Sehun’s own lung cells.  He lunges forward, taking the person by surprise, and the two of them watch Sehun stamp out the cigarette, ashes mixing into the moist dirt.

    “What the was that for!?”  The boy shouts, pushing Sehun back.  He tense as if to punch Sehun and Sehun ducks away, stopping and standing a couple meters away.

    Sehun glares at the boy with fires burning in his eyes.  “There is no smoking here.”

    The boy looks indignant.  “That was my last!  I don’t get allowance until next week, and it’s only Friday!  And who the told you that you could make the rules, anyway?”

    “I did,” Sehun says nonchalantly.  “And that’s too bad.  Maybe your lungs will thank me.”

    “Who are you, anyway?”  The boy asks.  “If you’re a middle schooler, I swear-”

    “From what I see, you’re the middle schooler here,” Sehun interrupts.  “There’s only a height difference of about... ten centimeters?”

    “You little ,” the boy says.  “I’m 174 centimeters, thank you very much, and you certainly don’t look six feet!  Besides, I’m a senior.”

    “It might surprise you that I am six feet, and a senior as well.  Do you go to school?”  Sehun asks curiously.  He’s never seen the other around before.

    “Pft.  No.  Well, technically I do, but I never show up.  It’s pointless.  I’m Jackson, by the way,” he adds.

    Sehun eyes Jackson’s sudden friendliness warily.  The minute before this dwarf was cussing him out.  Well, Sehun was doing the same, but that’s not the point.  Finally, Sehun relents.  “I’m O- uh, Sehun.”

    “Well, Oa Sehun, I must say your last name is quite unique.  Never heard it before, actually.  Then again, I don’t have the best vocabulary.  Good for a non native speaker, of course!  See you later, Oa!”

    Okay... Sehun thinks as he walks back to his tree and lays down again.  Best not to question things.

 

---

 

    Sehun runs a hand through his hair and smacks himself mentally over and over again.

    He didn’t mean to fail the Physics test, of course.  It was just super hard.  And even if he did fail it, there is no reason he should have to stay after school.  The other teachers never make him.  Or maybe they’re just used to it by now, and have given up.

    He stands up and walks over to the trash can, which is newly emptied thanks to the custodians.  He takes a small packet out of his pocket and drops it in with a disgusted frown, remembering Jackson’s stupid smirk as he pressed the into Sehun’s hand.

    “Get laid and tell me how it is, Oa!”  He had said, way too loudly.

    Sehun had slapped Jackson over the mouth and asked him, very nicely of course, why he had decided to show up at school.

    “Well, there’s really no avoiding the tests.  If I don’t do it now, I have to do it later, so might as well get it over with.  Gotta go, have fun with Lee-seonsaengnim!”  And with a lewd wink, he had skipped away.

    Sehun groans and heads back to his seat, plopping down in the hard plastic chair.

    The door slides open and Sehun stands up, bowing to his teacher.  “Seonsaengnim,” he mutters.

    Hyori walks to her desk, heels clicking on the floor.  Sehun tries not to stare at her tiny minidress, but he’s still a hormonal high school aged boy and can’t help himself.

    Hyori sits down at her desk and motions Sehun closer.  Sehun gulps and walks next to the desk.  She leans forward, beckoning him.  With her lips next to his ear and shivers running down Sehun’s back, she whispers, “Close the door.”

    Sehun closes the door with a vivid red blush on his face that he hopes the teacher doesn’t notice.

    When they’re both seated, Hyori clasps her hands and sighs heavily.

    “Sehun, Sehun, Sehun my boy.  You seemed like such a nice boy, too.  Is there an explanation for why you got a 47 on my Physics test?”  Hyori asks.

    “Because... it’s... hard?”  Sehun asks.

    “It shouldn’t be,” she sighs.  “There’s nothing hard about friction and thermodynamics, which is a fancy word for heat and how it is transferred.  Besides, if you ever need help, you are always welcome to come to me.”

    Would it be wrong for Sehun’s mind to be taking every single word the wrong way?  And it didn’t help that today Hyori was wearing a tiny minidress with a very low front.  Sehun tears his eyes away from her chest and looks at her eyes.

    Only to swallow hard because she’s staring at him with a smirk on her face and there’s something dark in her pupils.

    Sehun rips his gaze away and stares at the individual wooden grains in the desk.  He is acutely aware of Hyori standing up and walking around the table to stand next to Sehun.  He feels her breath on his ear.  “I can answer all your questions.  Just ask me and I’ll teach you.”

    “I-” Sehun croaks, swallowing dryly, because despite his outward appearance and facade, Sehun is an innocent, well brought up boy at heart.

    Sehun tries to quell the heat rushing down between his legs, but his situation is made worse when Hyori suddenly swings a leg over Sehun’s lap and settles onto his legs.  He finds himself staring as her skirt rides up, swallowing again at the sight of very thin, lacy underwear.

    “Don’t worry about it, Sehunnie,” Hyori coos into Sehun’s ear.  “The door locks automatically when it’s closed.  Everybody has already left the building.  It’s just me and you; I’ll teach you everything.”

    And then Hyori is tipping Sehun’s chin up, not even bothering to kiss him first as she locks her teeth onto his neck and her fingers underneath his shirt.

    

---

 

    The first time Sehun contemplates suicide is when he climbs, laboriously, to the top of one of the trees in his forest and just sits there, ignorant of the thirty or forty foot drop beneath him, leg swinging freely in the breeze.

    He wonders what it would be like if he just slid forward a few feet, over the edge of the branch.

    It’s at night, too, and the stars are shining.  Wherever Sehun turns, there are stars.  And he wonders if there are stars reflected in his own eyes as well.

    He thinks about how strange it is that this never occurred to him before.  How he can just leave it all behind.  Leave the messed up ritual of losing his ity to his ing teacher behind, leave behind his mother entering the house grinding on a man who is probably ten years younger than her.

    But then he realizes that if he died, he would just be running away.  It would be just like his mother with alcohol.  And maybe nobody really cared about him, but there is still a chance that maybe, just maybe, Sehun would be missed.

    And he can’t do that to someone else.  Because he knows how it feels to be left behind.

    Then the branches start shaking and Sehun doesn’t bother to put out a hand to steady himself as Jackson swings onto the branch right below Sehun.

    “Thinking about life?”  Jackson asks sympathetically.

    Sehun snorts.  “Like you would know how it feels.”

    And for some reason, Jackson doesn’t give a snarky reply.  He’s silent for a few moments before stating, “You’d be surprised.”

    Sehun feels tears pooling in his eyes because he feels disgusting, dirty, inhuman.  He thinks about how he used to be, how everything was alright, and his chest hurts because he’s changed way too much, and he can’t even recognize himself anymore.

    “Why did you do that?”  Sehun asks suddenly.  “Is it nothing to you?  Is nothing but animalistic desires for you?”

    “Listen, kid,” Jackson says, voice stone hard.  “Humans are driven by nothing but their primitive desires.  Desire for , for land, for power.  Believe in love while you can, because once you open your eyes, like me, you’ll realize that there’s no such thing as devotion and love.  Be glad that your first time was at least with someone y.”

    Sehun is rendered speechless, until he notices the bitterness in the last statement.  “And your’s wasn’t?”  He asks softly.

    Jackson is silent, and then the branches are rustling and he’s gone.

    Sehun gets up as well, climbing down with the ease of someone no longer afraid of falling.  He’s surprised when he finds Jackson at the bottom, facing away from him.

    “Sehun...”  Jackson says.

    “So it’s not Oa anymore?”  Sehun says, smiling slightly.

    Jackson sighs.  “I’m trying to be serious here.”  Sehun mutters a quiet okay.  “Look.  I guess what... happened earlier today was kind of my faught as well.  I told Lee-seonsaengnim that you wanted her.”  Sehun’s eyes widened with shock.  Jackson laughs humorlessly.  “But I was just trying to look out for you.  I know your eyes, Sehun.  They’re the eyes of someone whose life changed way too quickly.  And I’m the same.”  Jackson turns around, eyes hollow.  “Be glad your first isn’t with your own father.”

    “Jackson...”  Sehun says, shocked.

    “Please punch me, now.  I deserve it,” Jackson says.

    Sehun raises his fist slightly, and Jackson closes his eyes.  Sehun trembles as he remembers the aftershock of what had occurred after school, the disgust at himself and the desire to die.  This man had a hand in it.

    But instead, Sehun’s body betrays him and he strides forward two steps and pulls Jackson into a gigantic bear hug, squeezing as hard as he can with what strength he has in his bony limbs.

    Jackson stiffens, then relaxes and tentatively touches Sehun’s back with his fingers.

    “You know what,” Jackson says.  “I know they say you have to be a long time with someone to feel like brothers, but I think that near death experiences are way more effective in creating a bonding relationship.”

    Sehun laughs lightly, glad that Jackson is back to his snarky self.

    “Okay, it’s getting uncomfortable now,” Jackson says, and the two of the step away from each other.  

    “So...”  Sehun says awkwardly.  “It’s... uh... getting late... I should...”  His heart sinks as he remembers his mother lagging her drunken home with a drunk man and suddenly doesn’t want to go home.

    “Hey, you can come with me,” Jackson says suddenly.  “I mean, I don’t sleep at home anymore.  I ran away ages ago.  Me and my boys sleep in a warehouse down the street.  It’s actually quite comfortable, except when winter comes and you have to do your business outside.”

    Sehun laughs again.  “Really?  That sounds much better than home, even if I have to watch out for peeping squirrels,” he says.

    And he finds out that, somehow, being with these boys is better than facing what’s happening back at home.

 

 

 

 

 

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A/N:  This turned out MUCH MUCH MUCH longer than I thought it would be.  This is the first of I don't even know how many chapters.  Sehun's story just barely started, and it's already at 5,000 words.  Thanks for your patience, everyone!