his reality

"You wouldn't believe it, someone called Lee Minseol a -"

"Did you say Lee...Minseol?"

Luhan knew his friend was absolutely lost to the said girl the second he'd glanced the look on his face when her name escaped his mouth. It was the kind that told everyone in blatant manner, 'Life is great because I have someone in my life that makes me feel like I'm as high as a kite!'.

"And? Go on." The pale boy urged with sudden invigorated interest.

"Gee, Oh Sehun. What makes you so excited to hear my story now? Is it because I mentioned someone special?" Luhan smirked satisfactorily when the younger promptly assumed the human representation of a tomato.

"No!" He was quick to shoot him down, and that only spurred on Luhan's glee.

Albeit his undying curiosity to know how exactly he had come to love her, Luhan decided to close that door for the time being, and to open it again one day when his friend was ready.

"Anyway, as I was saying, this new kid in our class called Minseol a...really rude word because she wouldn't go out with him. He's new and I already freaking hate his guts."

Sehun nodded, listening intently.

"Kim Myungsoo, that prick." His tone was full of contempt, which caused Sehun to wander off in his imaginations of how horrible this Myungsoo would have to be even for the easygoing, kind Luhan to wrinkle his nose at. But as the latter had said, he'd thrown names at Minseol, and for that reason along with Luhan's thoughts about him, so on that very basis, Sehun decided that he, too, disliked Kim Myungsoo.

"It's gonna be torture having to endure through another one and a half years with him going through girls like tissues with his ego inflating, ready to explode as it is!"

Sehun smiled at his hyung's worked up state.

Luhan was so lively, yet soft spoken and only at the rarest of times would he burst and unleash his wrath. It was nothing shy of terrifying. The scariest people were kind people when they were mad, Sehun decided.

Silence ensued after that, not a descent in an atmosphere of awkwardness, but more that the both of them had nothing more to say and merely enjoyed the other's company.

Sehun had a sudden realisation. With a completely necessary and audible 'ah!', and him reaching over to the seat beside Luhan's, he clasped a tidy looking, black book in his hands.

"What's that?" Luhan asked. Now it was his turn to be curious.

"Nurse Jung gave it to me. Said I should write down memories, in case they're forgotten. That I should cherish them."

Nurse Jung was his favourite; not just because she sneaked him extra helpings of his beloved boysenberry ice cream, but also because of the slight twinkle in her eye, like she knew the way of life.

He opened it, felt the fresh, crisp pages under his fingers, and inked the first words.

Luhan saw the boy writing in that thing every time he saw him from then onwards, and was surprised to find that sometimes, he would zone out of his story and instead scribble down mysterious inklings in his barely legible handwriting.

"Tell me, Oh Sehun, what are you writing that could possibly be more important than my story, hm?" Luhan flicked the other on the forehead, evoking a yelp followed by admittedly, a deserved slap to the arm.

After a few moments of simple gazing into space, he responded.

"It's a secret." Sehun smiled then, if not a bit mysterious.

He'd pay the smidgenest bit more attention to Luhan, but that was only because of his frequent mentions of Lee Minseol, as that was pretty much the only way to draw attention.

Sehun didn't talk much, just listened serenely. Luhan knew he loved listening to him talking about life as a normal kid, and he loved telling it because Sehun always reacted in curiosity to his words. He knew he would act the exact same way if he were surrounded by four white walls each and every day; living, yet not living.

Cancer was a . A total, party-pooping, worst of the kind, . In fact it was so much of a that it didn't shed a single scrap of mercy, albeit Sehun being a nine year old when cancer and he had shook hands and exchanged numbers.

He didn't let it hinder his mental mood, so it seemed to Luhan.

He'd also noticed that many of his questions included the mention of a certain Lee Minseol.

"So what kind of reaction did she have?"

"What? To the blue icing on the cake, or our surprise?"

"Both."

"Bad and good, respectively."

"Yeah but how did she react to the blue icing? Like could she not breathe? Or did she get rashes?"

It was certainly suspicious now, for who in the world would want to know Lee Minseol's allergic reaction to blue icing down to the finest details?

He was glad that the kid had found some sort of love, though not being able to see her didn't seem to bother him much. He himself, was seventeen when he'd found his love.

The meeting was simple, yet so fated and cliche. A small bump amidst the crowded hallways led to first name basis and his utter demise to her.

"Park Nayoung." Her voice was soft and tinkling.

"L-luhan. Y-you're...you're very pretty!" He on the other hand, sounded like a seventeen year old - bingo - and his recall of the memory had him wincing in second hand embarrassment.

She'd pinked and returned the same kind of shy smile that adorned his own face and he knew, that one day, he would stare - actually no, gawk - at her walking down the aisle.

Nayoung never visited Sehun with Luhan after the initial meeting, saying it was a special kind of thing that they shared, and she didn't want to intrude on its 'specialness'.

When Luhan announced their pregnancy, Sehun's lips had stretched in the widest smile Luhan had seen since the end of his 'normal' days.

"Oh god, a girl, a girl! I'm so excited and nervous and scared at the same time, but I also feel like my stomach is being shaken like a tambourine or someone just released a cage of doves inside my stomach!" Luhan rambled on, pacing back and forth across the small room, unable to be rooted to one spot.

He had been doing exactly that for approximately - Sehun checked the digital clock on his bedside - 32 minutes.

"I'm happy for you hyung, I really am."

Luhan beamed at him, rushing over to perch at the foot of his bed like a giant cat.

"Any name ideas? And no - please don't say Minseol."

"Minseol." Sehun smirked, enjoying the rise he evoked in Luhan.

"Aish, c'mon now."

"Okay..how about..."

Sehun closed his eyes for a moment, relishing the supposed relief it brought to his heavy lids. Slowly, his mind