YEAR 2005

 

“Sehun! You have to be careful with that!” Luhan scolds when his clumsy assistant trips for the third time that day while handling concoctions of all sorts. 

“Sorry…” says Sehun with a sheepish grin. He fails to see another spill in front of him and takes another step towards Luhan. The result isn’t pretty.

CRASH

“Oh Sehun!” Luhan yells at the boy on the floor in a pool of liquids and stomps his feet, “I spent three days making that essence! And now I have to fix you up too…” His eyes and voice both soften when he says that last bit.

“Sorry Lu… again…” Sehun apologises for the fourth time that day, “I thought I told Jongin to clean the spill up…”

“Jongin’s a lazy , Sehun, he doesn’t do .” Luhan says as he holds out his hand for Sehun to take.

Sehun takes his hand and gives him a playful smirk, causing a light blush creeps up onto Luhan’s face.

 

If you were wondering what was Luhan, one of the most well-known scientist-inventors in the world, thinking when he hired his new assistant, the above is exactly the reason.

Sehun had been the only one to catch Luhan’s eye during the interview where more than three thousand applicants showed up, all hoping to become the assistant to the prestigious scientist. All of them were great and had potential, Luhan had to admit, but there was just something about a certain bubblegum pink haired boy that intrigued him. Firstly, of course, his hair. Who even shows up for job interviews with such bright pink hair? Secondly, his face. It was void of all expressions, he almost looked like a robot. The other applicants were either nervous as hell or smiling. Thirdly, also his face. Gosh, this boy is handsome and Luhan means handsome.

So what was Luhan thinking when he hired his assistant? That’s right; he was thinking of Sehun.

Now, Luhan isn’t the type to just hire someone by looks, Sehun had an amazing portfolio, his face was simply a bonus. And although his interview didn’t go too well, Luhan thought Sehun would be a worthy assistant, since communication skills weren’t exactly needed in a way which required his assistant to be an eloquent speaker. Besides, Luhan thinks, if he’s going to be seeing the same face five times a week for another ten years, he’d better like it.

 

Luhan leads Sehun into the infirmary and has him sit down while he gets the first aid kit. The poor boy had cut his arm when the flasks and test tubes broke.

 

Again, if you’re wondering why Luhan doesn’t just fire his incompetent but very good looking assistant, it’s the same reason as why he hired him in the first place. Except now, Luhan isn’t just curious and drawn to Sehun because of his appearance and behaviour, Luhan doesn’t have the heart to fire the boy he’s grown to love and adore over the past five years. He’ll probably never have the heart to do anything that could potentially hurt Sehun’s feelings. 

 

“Hold still, Sehunnie…” Luhan says as he gently lifts Sehun’s injured arm and inspects the cut.

His boss probably doesn’t know it, but Sehun really loves the way Luhan calls him with such an affectionate name. 

 

Sehun never actually applied with the intention of becoming Luhan’s assistant, he did it because his mother told him not to laze at home all day or his brains might rot, while handing him the application slip. He didn’t want to do it, but he didn’t want to displease his mother either. So he went all out to dye his hair the most hideous shade of pink available to deter probably any sane boss from employing him. He tried his best to sound disinterested and bored during the interview and acted all calm and cool but fails since he was interested in science and all. That cool image Luhan initially thought Sehun had, however, was ruined when he saw him trip on the way out, Sehun probably doesn’t know, but it made the scientist giggle. So when he opened the mailbox one day to find a letter from Luhan’s laboratory saying that he got the job, he was bewildered. Was this a joke from the scientist? Was there a ‘not’ written in fine print before the ‘hired’? Should he reject the offer?

He turns up for the first day of work anyway, the acceptance letter stated his starting pay, and hell, it was a lot of money. He figured he could stay for a few months, earn some cash, and then finally come up with an excuse to quit. Simple really, earn a few bucks before going overseas to pursue his studies.

 

“Hi! You must be Oh Sehun,” Luhan says with a smile, “I’m Luhan.” He stretches out his hand for a handshake.

 

Sehun bows before taking Luhan’s outstretched hand, “nice to meet you, boss.”

 

Luhan simply smiles again and reaches out to ruffle Sehun’s hair, “I’m glad you got rid of the pink hair.”

 

Sehun couldn’t help but roll his eyes.

 

 Oh, but how wrong was he to think that his plan would go through. Just a mere six months later, Sehun wasn’t staying for the high pay anymore. There is just something that involves a certain deer-looking boss that makes him want to stay. 

 

 

“Stop squirming…” Luhan says as he dabs antiseptic onto Sehun’s wounds.

 

“It hurts Lu! You try dripping alcohol on your wounds, it hurts like a !” Sehun retorts, flinching when Luhan glares at him. 

 

 

Sehun used to call Luhan ‘boss’ when he first started working, but Luhan rejected it after a while, it made him sound old, he said. Soon, ‘boss’ became ‘Luhan hyung’ and ‘Luhan hyung’ became ‘Lu hyung’. Now, even the formalities are dropped, ‘Lu hyung’ eventually became ‘Lu’. Of course, Luhan wasn’t exactly very happy with that, he was four years older than Sehun after all, and a well-known scientist at that, he thought he’d at least get some respect from the boy, but no, Sehun is just a brat that clings onto him like a wet shirt. Not that he minds or anything, he probably likes it.

 

 

“You and your foul language…” Luhan sighs, unwrapping a pink bandage to place over Sehun’s disinfected wound. 

 

“You picked the pink one on purpose didn’t you,” Sehun says and narrows his eyes at the obnoxious pink bandage.

 

Luhan simply grins, “yup, same colour as your hair back then, ah the memories…” he sighs contentedly, “there were like a thousand people better than you, why did I pick the tiest piece of ?” 

 

Sehun knows why. He smirks and says in a teasing tone, “It’s because you like this ty piece of , Lulu.” 

 

Luhan doesn’t even bother arguing, with the slightest smile playing on his lips, he looks at Sehun dead in the eye and says, “I like you very much, Hunnie.”

 

 

So there they were, the scientist-assistant duo with the most chemistry (pun intended) between them. It was cute to the fellow scientists in the faculty at first, but after a while, the ‘aw’s turned into ‘ew’s. One time, one of Luhan’s close friends and fellow scientist, Yixing, walked into his lab to ask for help, but he immediately wrinkled his nose in disgust and with a “nope”, he turned around to walk out. Yixing figured that he’d rather have his lab burn down and explode than sit through Luhan scolding him for ‘ruining his break time with his precious Sehunnie’. Thankfully, he didn’t have to go through either. 

 

 

“Lu, letter for you,” Sehun says casually and tosses it over to the scientist.

 

Luhan sees the seal from the International Science Association and tears it open excitedly. 

 

“Thank you for sending in your proposal… yadda yadda yadda… it has been… oh my god Sehunnie!” Luhan’s eyes widen and a huge smile breaks out on his face. “It’s been accepted! I can continue with my time travel project!!” 

 

Sehun, of course, is happy for his precious boss (also boyfriend). He carries the smaller and spins him around, “I knew you could do it Lu,” he smiles adoringly and kisses Luhan’s forehead which brings another huge smile upon Luhan’s face. 

 

 

Of course, even busy scientists working on time travel and their clumsy assistants take breaks sometimes. Luhan and Sehun usually have frequent dates in the park near the faculty. They do cute couple things like take polaroids, share ice cream cones, feed the ducks and fishes in the pond, sneak a few kisses behind a tree and uh, other more personal things in the faculty which would probably make Yixing want to tie them up and scream at them to keep their hands to themselves. 

 

 

“Lu, what if your time machine really works?”

 

“That’ll be great!” 

 

“What if… you forget about me…? You know… all the dramas and stuff.”

 

Luhan snorts, “who could forget your ugly face huh, Sehunnie? It’s practically carved into my head.”

 

That gave Sehun an idea.

 

“Why don’t we carve it somewhere then?”

 

 

Even so, Sehun doesn’t feel relieved. He’s read too many books about people forgetting about their partners once something big happens; like car accidents and stuff like that.  Time travelling is something even bigger than that. He doesn’t want the both of them to forget each other. So the ambitious Sehun begins working on a memory serum, in case something terrible happens. 

 

 

“There, all done,” Luhan says, admiring their work. It isn’t easy at all to carve words into trees, let alone into a flat stone. After half an hour, they only managed to carve a very crooked letter ‘I’, and so to put themselves out of their misery, they ended up using a permanent marker Sehun had in his pocket. 

 

I love you 

Love, Luhan

 

And on the back,

 

I love you

Love, Sehun

 

 

“Now we’ll never forget!” Sehun says, flashing Luhan his signature eyesmile that made the scientist melt into a pile of goo.

 

 

Sehun didn’t tell his adorable boss that he was working on a memory serum alone, Luhan was too busy with the time machine. Furthermore, he didn’t want to be a bother to him. He put all his years of practice into use, trying to perfect the serum. He reread the pages over and over to make sure that he got the formula right, he can’t afford to be careless and clumsy now. 

 

Half a year has passed and Luhan’s almost done with the machine. Sehun’s sure that it’ll work. His memory serum has already been done, it’s been sitting on the shelf for months already, he’s just waiting for his precious to finish his project. 

 

“Looks good love,” Sehun says and backhugs his unsuspecting boyfriend. 

 

“Aw, thanks babe,” Luhan grins and removes his goggles, turning around to give Sehun a kiss on his chin, where he can reach without standing on his tiptoes. 

 

This basically repeats every day until Luhan’s done with the machine. Sehun would sneak into the lab which Luhan locked him out of (but gave him a spare key anyway), saying he was too clumsy and might break something, give him a few words of encouragement, earn a kiss, and leave to let Luhan continue his work. 

 

With Sehun’s constant encouragement, Luhan’s done within the next two months. He’d have to send a letter to the International Science Association and receive approval before he tests it out, it might be dangerous after all. Sehun thinks that now is a good time to show Luhan his own memory serum and rushes over to retrieve it. Just as Luhan’s pasting the stamp onto the letter, Sehun rushes in with a bottle in hand. 

 

“Lulu! Look at this! I made it myself!”

 

However, bad habits are hard to change. Sehun fails to see a screwdriver on the floor and trips, sending the bottle flying and spilling all of its contents over his boyfriend. 

 

Luhan gasps and splutters and stumbles backwards towards the machine as he attempts to wipe the serum off of his face.

 

“Oh Sehun!”

 

“Oh my god Lu! I’m so sorry!” 

 

Sehun immediately scrambles back up onto his feet and hurries over to Luhan, but he’s too late. Luhan had accidentally activated the machine. 

 

Everything starts slowing down, the wind is blowing slower, the waves are calmer and calmer, people are walker slower, and just as Sehun’s about to grab onto Luhan, the world comes to a complete standstill.

 

Time still goes on, but everything else is stopped. In a way, Luhan’s time machine did work, but probably not how anyone else expected it to.

 

Sehun’s right, time makes people forget, a lot can be forgotten in a year, and a lot more can be forgotten in 2000 years. 

 

Except, of course, for that one person who had memory serum dumped all over him. But Sehun had already forgotten about it.

 

---

 

a/n: honestly I have no idea how to continue this, my ideas are all over the place. A little help please? I might consider your comments if it fits in with what I have in mind. Love <3