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Sehun's currently at an ice-cream shop in the same strip mall where Yixing and Jongin work at. After getting his order from an older woman whose expression matches his own naturally bored-looking one, he moves to the right to not be in the way of the person standing behind him in line then looks around, pondering to himself on whether or not he should stay inside to eat his ice cream.

The place is full of people and almost all of the tables and seats are occupied except for one. The free seat being across from a guy who quickly looks away when he makes eye contact with him. And one part of Sehun thinks that maybe he shouldn't disturb the guy who's now biting on a fingernail and focusing on a poster near their table. But then, another part of him doesn't want to be standing up while eating his ice cream.

it, he thinks.

So, he walks towards the stranger, ready to ask if the seat's taken, when a group of people seemingly around his age get up from their table near the one that the stranger's sitting at. He turns to look at the unoccupied table and notices that the group left a huge mess of straw wrappers, spilled ice cream, pecans, sprinkles, and other remnants of toppings scattered about.

He looks at the mess in disgust, and turns to look at the group just as the last person exits the shop. With a slight shake of his head, he then glances at the stranger who's surveying the mess with furrowed eyebrows and slightly pursed lips. When they notice Sehun's eyes on them again, they blink at him in confusion and give an awkward smile and Sehun decides to ask what he wanted to ask already.

"Uh, is it alright if I sit here?" Sehun asks, pointing to the empty seat. He turns his head to look down at the messy table again before looking back at them. "You know 'cause of this mess."

"Huh?" The stranger looks towards the seat then back up to him. "Meth?"

Sehun in his lips and them because they suddenly feel dry now. "No, uh...mess."

"Meth?" the stranger repeats again, still looking confused.

With a sigh, Sehun spells the word 'mess' in the air with an index finger and then looks at the guy with a frown already on his face in case they laugh at him. He's truly not in the mood to be made fun of--just wants to sit down and eat his chocolate ice cream before it melts.

"Ah..." they say. "So you have like a lisp or somethin', eh?"

Sehun refrains from rolling his eyes and nods his head.

"Born with it or...?"

Now usually when he's met someone new and they've heard him lisping, more times than not they'd either make fun of him or assume he's dumb because of it (or both). But this guy doesn't even seem amused by his lisp, just...curious. It's been a while since that's happened.

"It's 'cause of my retainer," Sehun finally mumbles, opening his mouth to show it for a quick second. The stranger's eyes look sympathetic now and Sehun doesn't want to be talking about his lisp any longer. "So uh can I sit here or...?"

"There?" They point to the seat while still looking at him. "Yeah, I don't own it."

"Thanks," Sehun mumbles.

The guy says No problem and watches as he sits down on the seat and sets his cup of ice cream in front of himself on the table. Then, the guy takes out his phone and starts tapping rapidly on the touch-screen while Sehun just glances down at his cup of ice cream that's already melting a bit and begins to eat.

After eating a few scoops of ice-cream, he decides to take out his own phone and unlocks the screen by inputting his password. His lips then curve upwards as he gazes at his phone's wallpaper--one that depicts his boyfriend Zitao smiling in the seat that was across from his, at the diner that they first met at three years ago. (The picture was taken a few months ago when they had their third year anniversary.)

He then decides to text Zitao to ask how he's doing as he scoops another spoonful of ice-cream into his mouth. And while he waits for Zitao to text him back, he continues eating and looks to see what the guy across from him is doing. They're looking down at their phone, tapping on it again and Sehun can't tell if they're texting someone or playing a game on it.

Suddenly, the guy's phone vibrates and the guy frowns while reading something on the screen before they tap on it once again. Sehun's own phone beeps twice, telling him that he has two new texts so he looks down at his phone to see what the messages are. The first one is from Luhan who randomly just asked if he wants to go on some double-date for this new movie that's coming out this Friday. Sehun immediately texts back, asking what movie they'd even see and names one that he's been dying to see since he saw the trailer some months ago.

He then checks the second text which ends up being just Zitao complaining about stupid job applications that take at least an hour to fill out. He lets out a soft snort through his nose and scoops the last of his ice cream into his mouth before he texts Zitao back--saying that he's proud of him. Then, he texts Zitao again, asking if he wants to go on a double date with him, Luhan, and Minseok at the movies, and Zitao texts right back, asking what movie they'd be watching.

He hasn't told me yet, Sehun texts. He then gets a text back from Zitao saying that he's gonna go back to applying to more jobs now and can easily imagine Zitao rolling his eyes as he sent that.

K, Sehun texts. He then chuckles silently when Zitao texts back not to 'K' him and is just about to text back something funny when he hears the guy across from him say, "Um, excuse me?"

He looks up from his phone and glances at the guy with slightly raised eyebrows. They're looking right at him so he figures that they were indeed trying to get his attention. "Sorry, I was just wonderin'...do you go to the um...the art college down by--?" the guy asks, naming a specific street.

"Huh?" Sehun thinks aloud. He doesn't even go to college, so he shakes his head No at them and they reply with an Oh. "Why, do you?"

"Yeah. Uh, three years now."

"Oh."

"Sorry, it's just--you look kinda familiar to me somehow."

Sehun's pretty sure that he's never seen this guy before in his life, but, he does tend to forget faces easily. "Oh uh...huh."