It had been a long time since Luhan had seen anyone from the city and today, his old friend Sehun was coming to visit him in his new house. He did not miss the city, nor did he have the slightest regret about moving. He didn’t miss it at all. But he did miss Sehun. He had been a good friend for as long as he could remember. They had never been particularly close because of their difference in interests and opinions but they were brilliant friends none the less. Sehun was the kind of friend that you didn’t need to spend much time with to know well. No matter how long it had been since they had seen each other, the situation would always feel the same.

Sehun was coming for lunch at 1pm and Xiumin was coming a bit later, at 3pm, to meet him. Xiumin had helped Luhan to shovel the snow off of the driveway and from around the gate so that Sehun would be able to drive his car through. It had taken ages and both of their arms were extremely sore. Luhan had then begun to make lunch. He was just finishing the final preparations when he looked up at the clock on the wall. It was 1:15pm – of course Sehun was late. Just then, the doorbell rang. Luhan hurried to answer it and swung the door open to greet a shivering Sehun. Sehun was tall, much taller than Luhan and had a naturally moody-looking face, even when he was happy. He had a sharp jawline and dark brown hair that swept off of his face.

Luhan quickly ushered him inside and closed the door, shutting out the cold of the winter snow.

‘Sehun!’ Luhan exclaimed excitedly.

‘Luhan, it is bloody freezing.’ Sehun grumbled, ‘you had to pick a house in the middle of the snowing forest, didn’t you?’ he scolded, before laughing and pulling his old friend into a long-awaited hug. Luhan laughed too as he mentioned that it wasn’t snowing when he bought it and directed him to the dining room to sit in front of the fire. They chatted and ate for hours, catching up with the things they had missed in each other’s lives, and soon it was 3pm.

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Xiumin rang the doorbell. Luhan and a stranger answered the door to let him in, and Xiumin immediately recognised the stranger as Sehun.

‘Hi!’ he said, ‘I’m Xiumin.’

‘Nope, you are Baozi,’ Sehun corrected, laughing, ‘This one talks about you non-stop,’ he said rolling his eyes as he pointed to Luhan. Luhan began to blush and distracted them by moving into the dining room. Xiumin sat next to Sehun in front of the fire whilst Luhan went off to make tea.

‘So, you are a writer?’ Xiumin asked.

‘Yes, I only write small articles for newspapers and magazines at the moment, but I hope to do something bigger in the future,’ he looked moody and thoughtful, ‘and you are?’

‘Well, I am sort of a farmer,’ Xiumin replied shyly, ‘but I don’t like to think of it that way, I prefer…’ He paused and laughed, ‘I don’t really know what, but not a farmer!’

Luhan came in with the tea and sat down between them. He passed one to each of them and interrupted their conversation, ‘Baozi is a farmer!’ They all laughed. Luhan then said to Sehun, ‘Sehun, tell us about the time you got attacked by the lady with the umbrella!’

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Sehun’s hilarious stories seemed limitless. Any time he finished one, there would be another to tell and Xiumin found that if he tried to input into the conversation, his words were just lost under the laughter.

He suddenly felt really upset as he remembered that his high school experience was very similar. He was always quiet, he knew that, but it seemed that any time he wanted to talk, no one would listen because there would always be something better to hear. He learnt not to speak as much and isolation had become a habit. It was very easy to shut himself away in his room rather than spend time with other people. And so that was what he did now, he kept to himself in his farmhouse in the middle of the country, away from anyone and anything.

Expect, he had found, with Luhan it was different. He didn’t need to keep quiet around Luhan, he didn’t need to worry that he wasn’t paying him any attention, or that he would be ignored, because there was no one else here, and Luhan would never do that anyway.

Or so he thought.

Here he was sat in the exact situation that went against that. His pure angel Luhan had ignored him more than once whilst talking to Sehun. A horrible feeling was rising up inside him, a hotness that flushed his face and made him feel sick. Jealousy. He could have never admitted it to anyone, he could barely admit it to himself, but he was jealous. Really jealous. He had never felt this way before, usually he could block out his annoyance towards other people, but not this time. Not with Luhan. Luhan had always paid him attention, so why now? It was Sehun. This stranger had come in and stolen him away.

‘And then he told me that I couldn’t stand there!’ Sehun finished, ‘It was so rude!’

Luhan laughed again and Xiumin plucked up the courage to speak,

‘One time…’ he started, before being immediately interrupted by Sehun. It was humiliating! His face was scarlet red with embarrassment, not that either of them noticed. His upset began to be replaced with anger, boiling up inside him. It had been very clear that Sehun was finished, and they must have heard Xiumin speak! So why did he choose to interrupt him? Xiumin did not want to run the risk of exploding with anger, or worse crying out of upset frustration – both of which did not occur often. So he politely got up, thanked Luhan for the tea (to which he received a mere nod) and left the house quietly.