"Distant Memories – HunHan"

The first walk that Sehun and Luhan took as a couple was on Meelup Beach in Australia. Why Australia, though? It’s far, far from Korea. The entire group was on hiatus because Kris had just up and left and they had to stop their schedules until his law case was settled. The members were dispersed to do their own things. Most of them went home, that was the only place that came to their minds. They could finally spend quality time with their parents, siblings, the rest of the family.

But Sehun and Luhan, they had just started dating a few weeks ago. So they decided to spend time together in the state of Western Australia.

Luhan knew a little English that was passable. That was that, because a part of his widespread family were Australians. Luhan wasn’t exactly related to them, the children that were his age were his distant cousins. Luhan’s mother, however, was close to their mother. Hence, he traveled to Australia a lot. The down point was that, the kids spoke only English. And it was much harder to understand them with their on point accent too. And Luhan knew that if he wanted to play with them, he had to speak their language too. He didn’t have to learn it, but who would he talk to on the rest of his trips there? His own mom? Their mom? No way.

Luhan wanted to share a small part of his heritage with Sehun too. Hence, Western Australia. That part of his family, they lived in that state. Western Australia was Luhan’s second home, if you count Beijing as his first and Korea as his third.

Luhan smiled sadly at the memory. He reminisced the way Sehun’s and his hands fit together perfectly. He remembered their footprints in the sand. He remembered too, how the cool seawater washed up against their ankles. The sea breeze was strong that very day. December, January and February were supposedly Australia’s summer months, but it was cooler down south. Luhan’s family lived in the city of Albany, in Western Australia to be exact.

The hall of Luhan’s house was empty. His eyes swept across the small family portraits on the shelf just behind the dining table. That walk on the beach felt like it was ages ago. At that time, Luhan was sure he would stay in EXO so he could be with Sehun. But his health problems had to arise. Had to. It was his turn to leave. And he left. He admired each photo frame and the pictures it contained.

There was one, that gave him another memory. It was situated in Australia too, where else?

Luhan was just at the door step of his cousin’s house. He rang the doorbell and waited. Sehun was with him too. The door opened, it was Sarah, his cousin.

“Luhan! How are you?” Sarah asked. She smiled genuinely and Luhan could only agree that she was indeed beautiful. Chinese-Australian, huh? A girl walked just behind her and stayed close to her. She had a daughter now? How many years had it been since Luhan’s last visit?

“I’m good. I hope you don’t mind that I brought a friend. His name is Sehun.” Luhan answered. Each passing year, his accent got better.

“Of course not. Come on in. We were just about to have dinner,” Sarah said, welcoming both Luhan and Sehun into her humble abode.

There was a well built Australian man in the kitchen and Luhan assumed that he was Sarah’s husband. Luhan walked to the hall. This was the very house he stayed in, during every visit. All those pictures on the shelf of when they were kids...

“Luhan. This is James, my husband. James, this is my cousin, Luhan,” Sarah said. James smiled at Luhan and then turned back to continue with the dish.

Luhan noticed that the girl who looked about five wasn’t the only one. She had a younger brother, he was still an infant, considering his size.

“Mama, who’s that?” The girl remained by Sarah’s side all the while.

Sarah bent down to answer her. “Sophia, that’s Mama’s cousin, Luhan. He’s your uncle, so address him with respect.”

Sophia nodded and walked into the kitchen. Sarah went ahead to the baby boy. “Aaron, eat your food.”

Sehun was at the shelf filled with their pictures and Luhan walked towards him. “Hyung, you were so cute, then.”

“What about now?” Luhan asked and Sehun turned around.

“Even cuter.”

Dinner was served with Sehun and Luhan on one side of the table, Sarah in between both her kids and James at the far end. The atmosphere was quiet until Sarah asked how Luhan was doing.

“You’re an idol, right? I can’t really remember what Mom said. I asked her why you didn’t come anymore, she said you went to Korea to be an idol,” Sarah said, cutting up the succulent steak.

“Yeah, a Korean idol. KPop, you know. Korean pop. EXO has twelve people. Six for Chinese, six for Korean. But there are only four Chinese members. The other two in my sub group are Korean. And, singing, dancing, that’s what we do. Sehun here, is the lead dancer of the Korean sub group. It’s just that. Nothing more, nothing less,” Luhan answered.

“Can Sehun dance for us after dinner?” Sarah asked with a smile and Luhan chuckled. He translated Sarah’s request to Korean for Sehun and Sehun just blushed.

“He said he’ll try,” Luhan said.

“One question,” It was James this time. “Do you guys get stalked?”

“Of course. In Korea, they call them sasaengs. They’re crazy, close to possessed. They wait outside our dorm, or try to go in, or even throw things in. Some of them even go to the extent to get our numbers too. They’ll call us but we don’t answer cause we are told to ignore them. And for say, one of us decides to go out of the dorm for a while? They’ll curse at us if we ignore them. It’s crazy,” Luhan laughed.

Sarah noticed something else about Sehun. He always whispered things to Luhan and blushed often. Why was he so shy?

“Luhan, is he alright? He keeps whispering to you, does he want anything?” Sarah asked, a little concerned.

“Ah no, I can’t believe I forgot to tell you. He doesn’t know English well and he’s too shy to say anything. He keeps asking me what we are all talking about and he also wants milk, that is, if you have it,” Luhan laughed.

“Oh my, he’s so cute you know, just like my little Sophia when guests come. And of course we have milk, Sophia loves it. Vanilla? Chocolate? Strawberry? Full cream? Low fat?” Sarah said.

“Do you really have all those?” Luhan didn’t believe her for a second.

“Yeah. Low fat’s mine. Rest is Sophia’s.”

“Right. He says full cream is fine,” Luhan replied.

Sarah got out from her chair. “Sophia, baby, Uncle Sehun here is going to take some of your full cream milk, yes? No, don’t be angry. You must share, people will like you if you share.”

Luhan only laughed at Sophia’s reaction when Sarah said that she was gonna pour some milk for Sehun.

“Oh, Sarah, you asked if he’s alright? Well, yes. He’s not usually like this, it’s just that he has never met you guys before,” Luhan said.

“Teach him English then.”

“Why me?”

“Why you? It’s your second language and it’s close to perfect. Share your knowledge,” Sarah knocked Luhan’s head.

“What if I teach him the wrong things?”

“You won’t.”

That dinner had been an enjoyable one. Luhan placed the photo back on the shelf and walked further into the hall. The grand piano was there at the side and Luhan headed towards it. The cover was dusty and he lifted it. The keys had yellowed slightly and Luhan wondered if it was really that long he had been away.

Luhan knew many songs but only one, he knew at his fingertips. It was Kiss The Rain by Yiruma. When his fingers touched the keys, it was like the rest of the song flowed out.

Luhan wanted to stop playing the song but his fingers seemed to move on their own accord. The song brought back memories to Luhan. Memories that could be replayed. But never relived. The first time Luhan had played the song for Sehun, he had received a warm hug and a passionate kiss.

Luhan left the piano and ascended the stairs to the second level. His room was the first on the right of the staircase and he felt the oakwood door beneath his fingertips. He pushed the door open and it creaked. The layout of the room hadn’t changed, it was still the same as it was for years. The only thing that changed was the linen sheets on his bed. Luhan moved to his desk. There was no dust at all and Luhan assumed his mother cleaned it for him. There was something new though. A Macbook Air.

Luhan walked to his bed with the laptop and opened it. There was a yellow sticky note stuck on the screen which read:

 I wanted to give this to you before you left for Korea. But when I came back you had already gone. So I left it here.

Dad

Hours passed as Luhan configured the laptop to his taste. Then the shrill voice rang. Luhan missed his mother’s regular dinner bell. He was so used to Joonmyun shouting for dinner that even his own mother’s voice didn’t register to him. But Luhan got out of the bed anyway.

At dinner, Luhan was quiet. He ate what his parents put on his plate and the rest he took on his own. Seeing that Luhan was in such a solemn mood, Luhan’s mother didn’t engage him in a conversation. She didn’t want to anger him so she let him be.

It had only been hours since Luhan departed from Korea but he was missing EXO already. Sehun, especially. Luhan felt so cold now, that he wasn’t here. He remembered those warm cuddling sessions they had after dinner. He missed them.

Luhan looked up from his plate. “Mom. Dad. I’ll be in my room if you need anything.”

Luhan cleared his plate and headed up to his room. It was only ten minutes later when his dad entered.

“You made the right choice in coming back, you know that?” Mr Lu began.

Luhan pulled his headphones over his head. “I know. I know. But Dad, please. Just for a while, please stop reminding me that I left the group.”

“And why is that?” The elder Lu frowned.

“Sehun. I miss him,” Luhan answered.

The elder Lu inched a little closer. Luhan had his fingers on the bridge of his nose. His eyes were closed and he was desperately trying to shut reality out. “Why him? Why... a particular member of the group?”

“Sehun is my boyfriend,” Luhan said. Mr Lu had nothing to say to his son. He only turned away for a second.

His memory only brought him to the point when Luhan was a child. He was an only child that was. And he played alone just fine. Mr Lu and his wife looked out for Luhan as much as they could, nursed him back to health when he was sick and treated him very nicely. But as the years passed, Mr Lu noticed that Luhan never really needed their help. He was independant, even in his early years. And he realised that life was a tight rope over a sea of crocodiles for Luhan. And his son was balancing on it perfectly.

“You know that boy Yifan?” The elder Lu turned back to face Luhan. “His parents invited us over some months back and when I saw him, I saw the difference. He looked so healthy and now I’m glad that you came back. Rest well, I’ll be going now.”

Once the door closed behind the elder man, Luhan took out his phone. Seeing the look on his father’s face, he was glad to know that his father finally realised. Luhan never needed them much. He looked to them as his parents, respected them as his elders, but never really needed their help. Luhan dialed Sehun’s number into the dialpad with heavy fingers. And pressed the ‘Call’ button after much hesitation.

Luhan was sure Sehun wasn’t going to answer because the ringer kept sounding. But a cheerful voice sounded on the other end, just as the ringing was about to stop.

“Hyung... are you okay?” Sehun asked.

“Yeah... I’m just a little tired, that’s all,” Luhan half lied. He was very tired, very drained rather. And he missed Sehun to no end.

“I miss you, hyung. Will you come visit?” Sehun blurted out, like a kid.

“I can’t, Hunnie-yah. And you don’t seem so sad that I left,” Luhan joked with a heavy heart.

“I am!” Sehun shrieked. “Even Suho-hyung won’t listen to me talk about you anymore...”

“Mm...” Luhan mumbled. “Sehun? Even now that I am not there, you must do you best, okay? Don’t disappoint everyone, including yourself. Do hyung proud. I love you.” Luhan tried to suppress a cough, but it came out anyway.

“Hyung! Are you sick?” Sehun asked worriedly.

“No, no, I’m fine,” Luhan tried to assure the younger male.

“Don’t lie.”

“I’m fine, Sehun, I am,” Luhan replied weakly. Tears welled in his eyes. Sehun was so concerned. So concerned.

That night, Luhan snuggled up in his blankets and slept, holding a picture of Sehun close to his heart. It was only Sehun that filled his thoughts, only Sehun he could dream of. When Sehun was in the picture, even his life didn’t matter. There was only one thing that Luhan wasn’t aware of. Sehun was on his way to Beijing.

The house was empty by morning. Luhan was unsure what his parents’ profession were. He only knew that they left for work together every morning. Luhan placed the picture of Sehun on the bedside table and walked down the stairs. The entire household was eerily silent, Luhan felt like he could actually hear a pin drop. There were steamed buns in the refrigerator and Luhan heated those up.

While he watched the ceramic plate rotate in the microwave, the doorbell rang. Luhan wondered of all the people that could visit him. But the only possible option that came to him     was the middle aged woman who lived three doors down. Luhan shuffled towards to door and unlocked it. Of all people...

“Sehun? What are you−“

Sehun fell onto Luhan’s chest and tightened his arms around the elder’s waist.

“Talking to you on the phone isn’t enough,” Sehun mumbled into Luhan’s shoulder. “I had to make sure you were okay.”

“Sehun. This is too much. How did you even manage to come here? By now, they would’ve have noticed you were gone!” Luhan said, shutting the door.

Sehun walked up ahead of him. “I didn’t sneak out, hyung. I told manager-hyung that my aunt passed away and that my cousin was in the hospital. He kept asking me if I was going to see you and I kept saying no. Just make sure the paps don’t catch us together or I’ll be a dead chicken when I go back.”

Luhan took the plate out of the microwave and began to eat the steamed buns. The filling was well marinated and Luhan wondered if it was bought or hand made by his mother.

“Have one,” Luhan placed one in Sehun’s mouth.

Sehun didn’t close his mouth immediately after Luhan placed the steamed bun inside. “Hot...” He choked out.

“It’s not,” Luhan replied nonchalantly. “Eat it.”

After finishing the last steamed bun, Luha