Between the two of us, time seems to stop

In that split second, misunderstandings occur.

I no longer understand myself

Yet I seek your understanding

-Black (G Dragon ft Park Bom Japanese Version)

#

Luhan swings the passenger’s door open and gets inside before Yifan can utter a word. The manager just points at the seatbelt when he gets in and Luhan rolls his eyes so hard they nearly fall out of their sockets. But he put the seatbelt on anyways because Yifan once told him that love isn’t just about loud gestures; it could be a small and mundane gesture like telling someone to put on their seatbelt.

Yifan smiles approvingly before he pulls out his phone to call someone as he starts the engine.  He hands Luhan the phone, their fingers brush and Luhan curls his digit around the curve of Yifan’s palm. The manager withdraws his hand, gripping onto the steering wheel tightly and tells Luhan “Put it on speaker.”

A few more ringing and the receiver finally answer the call. A squeaky voice that Luhan identifies as Zitao’s echoes throughout the van “Hi ge.”

“Hey Tao. Are Jongdae and Xing free right now?”

“They’re having a photoshoot right now. Why?”

“Oh, you know Luhan’s here and both of them mention that they wanted to meet up with him for some shopping and stuff.”

Zitao makes a sound of recognition and Yifan continues “Tell me when they’re finished. I’ll bring Luhan over.”

There’s a thoughtful hum echoing through the speaker of the phone before Zitao answers “I’ll drive them to Luhan’s.”

Yifan gulps and denies quickly “Don’t be silly Zitao, I’ll drive him to the boys; they must be exhausted. They need to rest.”

“Ge, you do know they live with K right?” Zitao says matter-of-factly and Yifan sighs in defeat.

“Fine. Come to my house. Luhan’s staying there.”

There’s a long stretch of silent before Zitao mumbles a vague okay and hangs up hastily.

Luhan looks up from the phone and asks “So?”

“So.” The manager repeats, gesturing for Luhan to put his phone on the dashboard. He sees Luhan eyeing him when he chances a glance at the idol. Luhan catches his eyes and says “I want to go shopping.”

“You told me you don’t want to go shopping last night.” Yifan replies, looking back onto the road.

“Yeah, but now I wanna go shopping.” Luhan says with and eye-roll, emphasizing on the word ‘now’.

“What’s with the change of heart?” the manager asks and Luhan has to hold his tongue from blurting out that he just wants to go out with him. 

-

Luhan does his shopping without Yixing and Jongdae but he does buy some stuff for them both. He can’t really complain since he need to buy them stuff so it won’t make it too obvious that he just want to go out and have fun with Yifan. Honestly, even with those gifts; Luhan is pretty sure Yixing and Jongdae can still see through him. They did spend four years together after all.

Luhan’s shopping spree is more like Luhan’s adventure in avoiding fans he doesn’t want to have anymore. It comes to an end when Zitao phones Yifan to tell that he’s getting the boys over to Yifan’s place. The idol heaves a sigh and on his straw harder. Yifan outstretches his hand toward Luhan and he inches toward the manager, inserting himself in front of Yifan and allowing Yifan to wrap his arm around his shoulder.

“Excuse me.” Yifan says in clear Korean, his expression is stoic as he maneuvers his way around the crowd. Some fans sneakily put their gifts into the shopping bags that Yifan carries for Luhan. And others scream nonsense into Luhan’s face until he flinches and nearly drop his drink. Yifan has to lean down and tells Luhan to keep his smile on, causing a ruckus to erupt.

When they finally get into the safe confine of his car, Yifan heaves a sigh and says “No more spontaneous shopping spree.”

Luhan snorts and says “Yeah, like that’s gonna happen. You’ll end up going shopping with that Sehun kid sooner or later.”

“Yeah, but at least there will be bodyguards.” Yifan mumbles in reply.

“Like that’s gonna keep the saesangs away.”

Luhan sees Yifan tightens his hold on the steering wheel so he continues “Does he have saesang fans?”

The manager’s expression changes and he spits bitterly “Saesangs are not fans. They are stalkers.”

Luhan reaches out to pats Yifan’s hands on the steering wheel softly until he relaxes his hold. The manager continues “I don’t know. Maybe. I never ask him about it.”

“You should get to that you know.” Luhan mumbles.

“I know.” Yifan mumbles guiltily and Luhan wonders if Yifan still blames himself about those incidents involving Exo-M’s saesangs.

-

Jongdae doesn’t look please when he steps out of the van. He shoves his phone into Luhan’s face; Luhan’s name is the most searched for on Naver and #Luhanisback is trending on twitter.

Luhan smiles sheepishly at the vocalist and Jongdae rolls his eyes. Yixing laughs and says “He’s just jealous you get to go shopping.”

“Aw, don’t be Chen-Chen. I bought you guys some presents.” Luhan coos, patting the space on the couch next to him.

Jongdae raises an eyebrow and replies “You mean the presents that Yifan-ge forced you to buy.”

“Hey! It doesn’t matter, I paid for them.”

Jongdae rolls his eyes again and flops onto Luhan. The older lets out a painful groan and thumps the vocalist on the back repeatedly “Get off you big baby.”

Yixing chuckles and sits next to Luhan, dropping his head onto Luhan’s shoulder. The older pats him on the cheek and says “Not you too Xing.”

Both make no move to get off so Luhan complains “You two are so heavy. I’m gonna be crushed. Get off.”

Yixing hums softly in agreement under his breath.

“Yifan-ah! Zitao-ah! Get these idiots off of me!” Luhan yells and only gets the clattering of kitchenwares in reply.

Luhan groans “Ugh, why does the universe hates me? What did I do to deserve this pain?”

“Ge, stop complaining. You’re getting annoying.” Jongdae tells him and Luhan lets out a yell.

Jongdae chuckles and tightens his grip on Luhan.

-

Luhan has another two days before the shooting and he spends them running around with Yifan as the manager balances between taking care of Sehun and getting Luhan off his back.

-

When he stutters for the third time on the same word, the director growls out the word ‘cut’ angrily; clearly not happy with Luhan’s poor performance.  Luhan rolls his eyes openly at the director, uncaring that it is rude. The director’s face turn red from anger and Luhan smirks smugly.

Good he thinks, he’s not here to be bossed around by the directors or producers or whoever SM hired. They need to know they don’t ‘own’ him anymore. They’re the one begging him for a favor not vice versa and they need to get that through their thick brain.

Yifan rolls his eyes at him but Luhan can see that the corners of his mouth are curling upward into that fond smile that Luhan always wanted to kiss away and knows that he will be indulged. The manager is walking toward him when the director gestures him over. And Luhan walks over toward him with confidence dripping out of his footstep, Yifan rushing over quickly.

“Luhan-sshi, I need you to focus on filming. Failure is not tolerable.” The director tells him.

Luhan releases a humorless laughter and flickers his eyes to his right to see Yifan standing next to him. The idol replies matter-of-factly “And comfort is essential when filming, director-nim.”

His steady voice makes the director goes red once again with anger. The man in front of him snarls and moves his hands as if to point his finger at Luhan. But before he can say anything insulting to Luhan, Yifan steps in and says sternly “I must have you know that there are a plethora of directors waiting to work with Luhan-sshi and I will not hesitate to pull you out of the team director-nim.”

The man turns to Yifan and snarls “Then why did you hire me in the first place?”

“Oh no, it’s not me who hired you director-nim. It was SM Entertainment.” Yifan pauses slightly for effect and Luhan hides his grin by biting his lower lip.

Then the manager continues “If it was up to me, I would’ve hired someone more qualified than this. Don’t give me the chance to do that even if it would pleasure me greatly”. His words are clear and precise; every vowels are enunciated slowly to make sure that he is understood and Luhan finds himself loving Yifan a little bit more.

The director glares at Yifan, there’s a mixture of fear and anger in his eyes, and Yifan glares right back. After all, Yifan’s reputation as a manager is widely known; there is little he wouldn’t do for his artists. And that includes going against SM Entertainment and stepping on their ideals like they’re nothing but the dirt beneath his boots. And he takes great pleasure in doing just that.

Luhan would know.

(After all, Yifan was the one who smiled at him across the hospital bed, when he fainted for the third time due to exhaustion, and told him to fill in the form so that he can sue SM for their .)