When Sehun wakes the next morning he finds half his body hanging off the bed and the space that had been occupied by Luhan during the night empty. It takes him a further five minutes to actually get out of bed- who instantly jumps out of bed just after waking up anyway?- and by the time he's making his way down to the kitchen for breakfast it's well past ten in the morning and he realises that ideally he should have been up an hour earlier.

"I see you're finally awake" his mum calls from the living room as Sehun grunts in reply and gets to work warming up some milk to go with his cereal

"I was quite comfy sleeping but seeing as you would probably start nagging, I had no choice but to get up" he replies and finally joining his mum in the living room notices a very familiar looking photo album lying between the laps of her and Luhan "Please don't let that be what I think it is" 

"You were a very cute child Sehun" Luhan says with a laugh as Sehun's face reddens slightly, putting his cereal down to try and take the album away but failed only because his mum stuck her arm out and continually pushed him away.

"You haven't even known Luhan that long and already you're showing him my baby pictures? How could you do this to me?" he whines and sits down on a separate seat away from them to eat and whine by himself 

"They're really not that bad Sehun, they're extremely cute" Luhan pipes in, hoping to save just a little bit of Sehun's remaining dignity before stumbling across one particular picture and began to laugh again "Oh baby Sehun in the bath pictures" this time Sehun practically leaps out of his seat and snatches the album away from them before anymore pictures can be discovered.

"Alright enough pictures for one day!" he exclaims, before back tracking to Luhan's previous comment "And what do you mean I was cute? I'm still cute, just a little bit older that's all!"

Getting over his initial embarrassment, Sehun is able to get over it and spend some time with Luhan before his mum wants both of them back to get ready for the party and to help give an extra pair of hands in making sure final preparations are perfect. Sehun's brother and his fiancé won't be arriving until late afternoon, so until then Sehun is going to use this time to allow him and Luhan to let their hair down and have some fun before the real task of having to spend the evening convincing family they were dating came around.

"I've not been to this part of the city yet, everything is all new for me" Luhan comments and Sehun takes it upon himself to show Luhan around and- most importantly- take him to where Sehun enjoyed going to the most as a kids, where he had the most fun with his friends.

Their day starts with Sehun giving Luhan a general tour of the area, a chance to do some window shopping and to actually buy a few things in some shops Luhan passes by and really wants to check out. They spend their lunch in one of Sehun's favorite cafe's his mum would take him and his brother when they were younger, and to top the rest of the time they had together he then takes Luhan to his favorite arcade. The games were just a little bit more dearer than what Sehun remembered, but that didn't stop them from spending a good amount of time in the place, so much so that the two of them returned home late (after a phone call from a very stressed mother becaise she was now behind schedule). 

Pushing Luhan up the stairs before him, the two had managed to avoid some serious shouting and blaming when they eventually got home- they were even ready in record time so it wasn't as if she could shout at them anyway! There was a particular moment where Luhan had walked in on Sehun in nothing but his underwear and backed up blushing, though Sehun couldn't understand why; back in their university dorm if Baekhyun was feeling particularly lazy he walked around in nothing but his underwear and Luhan never seemed phased by it. 

Whatever the reason, Sehun quickly got over it and in no time were they all ready (Sehun even had time to properly introduce his brother and his fiancé to Luhan) in good time before they had to head down to the venue where the party was being held. See, Sehun's mum had no reason to worry after all! 

"I don't think I can do this" 

The party has only just started and yet Sehun wants nothing more than to bolt out the door, get home and lock himself in his room for the rest of the night. Whilst it seemed easy to do, he was suddenly very scared and nervous, worried that maybe this wasn't going to work out after all. 

"No way, you're not backing out on me now!" Luhan exclaims and grabs his arm when it looks like Sehun is about to make a break for it through one of the fire exits 

"I should have just stuck to your first suggestion of saying that this 'boyfriend' of mine couldn't make it. At least then I wouldn't have to do this" he admits and doesn't miss the expression that falls on Luhan's face; what appears to be a mix of genuine hurt and disappointment. Sehun notices it but Luhan is quick enough to change into a gentle and knowing smile as he rubs Sehun's back. 

"Don't worry about. You're not in this alone are you?" he asks but seeing that this is doing nothing to comfort Sehun, sighs and reaches for his hand. He doesn't miss how Sehun flinches at the contact, but persists and gives him a reassuring squeeze. "Sehun, trust me, this won't be as catastrophic as you think it will be. If you're worried about what people will think or say, it's pretend, remember? Besides, your family loves you for who they are, so it shouldn't matter what everyone else thinks, right?" 

If this translation job that Luhan wants in the future doesn't work out, then Sehun would definitely recommend that the guy became a counsellor or a public speaker or something. He certainly has a way with words and it actually works in calming Sehun down as the first of the guests begin to arrive, and he knows he's expected to go up and greet them. 

"You're right" he says and takes a deep breath in to compose himself "Come on, I'll introduce you to some people, get into the swing of things". Sehun opens his hand up to direct Luhan that he could let go, but the latter made no attempt to do so. Frowning at him, it looked as though Luhan doesn't see the fact that he is questioning his actions, but wanting to get this over and done with, Sehun goes back to holding hands with him and walks him over to meet his extended family. It's all a part of the show he reminds himself. 

Introductions go a lot better than Sehun had originally thought. Between him and Luhan, the two of them made sure that they were consistent in their story telling and by the fifth family member he's introduced Luhan to, Sehun is confident that they're doing an excellent job in convincing people they were indeed boyfriends. There was a particularly hairy moment where an uncle of his brother's, fiancés family had a thing or two to express on his opinion on the two boys dating, but Jiyeon had quickly stepped in to help and save them. 

"This is an aunt you'll want to meet. She's been in America for a few years but of course, me and Sejoon are her favorite nephews so she would not miss this for the world!" Sehun gushes as the woman next to him rolls her eyes and nudges him. 

"You two are my only nephews" she corrects before turning to Luhan and smiling widely "Oh Sehun! Your mum told me over the phone last night how handsome your boyfriend is but he's so much more handsome up close!" 

Managing to keep his face to a suitable shade of red, Luhan is able to introduce himself to Miyoung and answer the questions being fired at him. The one thing that sticks out the most is that Miyoung had surely been in America for a number of years now; though a native to Korea, there is a strong American accent in some of the sentences she speaks and Luhan finds himself falling in love with the accent. 

"Now, you two have only been dating for a short while, right? I was just wondering if you've had a chance to introduce Sehun to your dad and whether it's been difficult getting over any language barriers because I know for a fact that the amount of time you two have been dating has not allowed Sehun the chance to master Mandarin" 

"My dad doesn't even know I'm gay, let alone have a boyfriend!" Luhan begins, throwing the other two completely by his answer "But I mean give me some time to talk to him and he should be fine. My mum knew I'm gay and she was pretty cool with it but she's not around anymore so" and this throws the two of them off even more. Instinctively the hand Sehun had placed on Luhan's waist previously (though extremely hesitantly and at Luhan's insistance) squeezed him in an attempt to offer some sort of comfort, he honestly had no idea about this! 

"Oh Luhan I'm so sorry!" Miyoung exclaims, but Luhan waves her comment away with a wave of his hand 
"It's fine, you didn't know. She's been gone for about... four years now, but I know that if she was still alive today she would have absolutely loved Sehun" 

Miyoung eventually excuses herself when she spots an opportune moment to speak to Sehun's mum. In doing so this gave Sehun the chance to pull Luhan aside for a little conversation of their own. 

"How come you never told me about your mum?" he asks and Luhan smiles at him sheepishly before shrugging his shoulders 
"You never asked. We were so caught up in trying to figure out convincing stories and you telling me about your family that mine didn't really crop up" he explains and his answer makes Sehun groan and run a hand through his hair. 

"You should have interrupted or something! Made sure I listened! You completely surprised me with that admission back there and now I feel completely bad because most of this has been all about me and not sharing it with you. I even cost you that weekend trip!" 

"Okay now you're beginning to sound ridiculous again! Don't let this stupid slip up of ours ruin the evening, let's just go out and have fun, we'l talk about my family later... and I thought I told you that the trip was way too expensive and not worth the weekend for anyway?" Luhan replies as Sehun sighs and nods his head. 

"You're right, come on I'll try to introduce you to people more our age for once this evening!" 

Eventually the two of them gent wrangled into dancing with some of Sehun's younger cousins; the traditional having the girls stand on their feet whilst they do all the dancing for them. Being dragged out for his fifth dance, Sehun galcnes to the edge of the dancefloor where Luhan is stood happily chatting to Sehun's cousing Chanyeol. The two of them had hit it off immediately over a common love for football and video games, which gave some comfort to Sehun knowing that whilst he was off dancing he wasn't exactly abandoning Luhan and leaving him to himself. 

Finally being ditched for someone else, Sehun rejoins Luhan just as Chanyeol dashes off to the toilet. Sehun is about to make a comment on how Luhan should get out and dance more, but stops dead in his tracks when he spots something in the far back of the room. 

"What's wrong?" Luhan asks when he see's how frozen Sehun is 
"That over there is Kim Minseok" Sehun replies and when Luhan looks to where he's looking, see's a guy chatting and laughing with Sejoon, slightly smaller than the other men he's been introduced to so far this evening. 

"What about him?" he asks 
"He's one of my brother's best friends. He's one of my brother's best friends who- one summer when I was about thirteen- happened to be my first kiss over a stupid game of spin the bottle I got wrangled into with a few of their other stupid friends. It was that kiss that made me spiral into a uality crisis of whether I liked boys more than girls before I realised that I liked both" Sehun explains and turns his gaze back to Luhan when he see's hsibrother point in their direction. 

"Is that why you're acting this way?" Luhan asks 
"Uh-huh. He was my first kiss and my first male crush. We've seen each other sporadically but it's not easier each time" Sehun replies and this is exactly like those other times, though it must be a new record because Minseok hasn't even spoken to him yet! 

"Well he's on his way over right now" Luhan points out and Sehun grabs his arm to walk away but Luhan shakes his head and pulls himself away from the grip "I'm going to go get us a drink, you're going to stay here and chat to him. It's obvious he wants to speak to you anyway" and walks off, leaving Sehun to whine and contemplate if he should go after him or not to save his skin before- 

"Sehun!" 

"Mi-Minseok, hey!" 

The hug between the two of them is extremely awkward on Sehun's part, but he tries his best not to look like too much of an idiot in front of him and smiles nervously when the hug is released and they're back to facing each other. 

"It feels like forever since we last saw each other! You were still in school, actually, and now you're in university!" Minseok gushes 

"And the last I heard of you, you had just gotten out of the army and gotten yourself a job, right?" Sehun asks as Minseok grins and nods his head 

"Though every childs least favorite subject at school, maths teacher right here!" he says and the two of them stand there comfortably before Minseok smiles and pats Sehun on the back "I'm proud of you Sehun" 

This was not something he was expecting to hear from Minseok. Seeing how surprised he looked, Minseok takes the liberty to explain his words "I'm proud of you because you actually took the courage to admit to your family that you're bi. You know how society can be sometimes but you've just faced it head on, nothing like the shy little boy your brother grew up with! And you're here tonight proudly showing off Luhan when you've only been dating for a short while and I can't even do that with Jongdae so-"

"Woah, wait a minute" Sehun interrupts and brings a hand up to stop Minseok from talking "Backtrack a second; Jongdae?", this time Minseok laughs nervously and shrugs his shoulders 

"He's just someone I've been seeing for a little over a year now, just after I got out of the army. He's in his final year studying psychology at university. He's told his parents about us... but I haven't told my folks I'm even interested in men so you know... nerves got the best of me" 

Sehun spends this time reassuring Minseok that everything would be fine. It was a difficult thing; coming out to parents and hoping that they'll accept their child in the process. There was a slight possibility that Minseok parents could react badly to the confession; Sehun was terrified his would when he came out bi, but even if they did, Minseok would have Jongdae and his friends there for him if the worst came about. Sehun was serious about this, giving all the advice he wished he had when he was planning on telling his parents! 

"You've certainly matured" Minseok jokes, looking over to the bar where Luhan has finally gotten his order placed "He really adores you" 

"Luhan? Adore? Really?" Sehun asks 

"Oh yeah. I've been catching a few glances at you for most of the evening and I can tell you it's so obvious! Have you not seen the way he stares at you? Laughs at whatever funny thing you say? Heck, he latches onto every single word that comes out of your mouth, have you really not noticed?" 

This can't be true. Sehun want's to deny it, tell Minseok that it's all just a show and Luhan's only doing it because of some stupid lie Sehun blurted over the phone to shut his mum up. But then he got to thinking about how flustered Luhan had looked earlier that day walking into the room when Sehun was in his underwear, how Luhan wouldn't let go of his hand during early introductions to the family, how... easy it looked to convince people he genuinely looks like he likes Sehun. It was all falling into place... 

"I'm still inexperienced with this whole boyfriend thing, forgive me if my inexperience clouds my judgement" he manages to joke and Minseok laughs along with him, staying until Luhan makes his way back with their drinks and tells Sehun they'll need to catch up more often before leaving to go back to his friends. 

"Are you okay? You look terrified!" Luhan asks, handing Sehun his drink 
"I'm fine... just been a while since I've spoke to him, like that" Sehun replies and chugs half his drink down in record time, Luhan watching him as he laughs and shakes his head. 

"You're fine!" he reassures but Sehun begs to differ, he is certainly not fine! "Come on, the food will be ready soon and we'll need to find a table to sit at" and this time Luhan takes charge, walking through the hall to find a suitable table and Sehun just follows, still trying to comprehend what Minseok had told him, still trying to figure out if it was indeed true or not... 

Phew this is a long chapter! Good thing I split the party in two otherwise it would have been twice as long and I wouldn't be able to leave people on cliffhangers! 

In this chapter the party gets underway, the 'boyfriends' role comes into play, cameo's from a few people and finally Minseok... oh Minseok, not only Sehun's first kiss, male crush etc. but also the catalyst in making Sehun think "Oh my God what the hell is going on here?" aha I love it! 

Plus we also get a little back story from Luhan... I felt like it was necessary to add it... give a little background to him... plus we come back to it later, so keep a look out! 

Until part 2!!!