---

A few days later, Luhan's on the phone chatting with Sehun about college, a random old classmate who's apparently a cam-girl now and about basketball, among other things. At some point during their conversation, Sehun brings up the same topic that he's been asking about one too many times now.

"You found a job yet?"

And the answer is still the same like it was the last time he asked.  

"No. Stop asking me that. ."

And Luhan feels like he's getting déjà vu every time he gets asked this. Heck, he can already predict what Sehun will say next. Because for some reason, just like the other times, Sehun will keep pressing on about the topic and it gets to the point where Luhan has to go off on him.

It's only been two months since he left his last job, and really, he worked his off at that dump so really he deserves a little ing hiatus from the job scene. He tells Sehun as much and the conversation stagnates.

Luhan takes the time to look out of his bedroom window to stare at the snow for a moment. It's been snowing on and off since Christmas and it's now reached a few feet high, so tons of stores and other places are closed because of the weather. It wasn't a big deal to Luhan at first, even if he did have plans with Minseok (since video calls are definitely a helpful thing). But, being stuck at home because of snow means that his parents are there too and it's just too awkward between him and them.

He suddenly turns to grab his Rubik's cube off of his bedside table to mess around with it. And at the sound of its sides clacking, Sehun finally speaks up again.

"Yo, um...I saw a place that's hiring?"

"Mhm," Luhan replies in a bored tone.

"...It's right off of--" Sehun names a specific street and Luhan's more than halfway done with solving the cubic puzzle. "It's like." A pause. "Um. Damn, what was it called...?"

Then, Luhan faintly hears tapping on the other end and assumes it to be from Sehun tapping away at his computer. After a few seconds, Sehun tells him the name of a pizza chain and Luhan immediately pauses his hand movements and says, Hell no to the idea of working there.

"Oh my gosh," Sehun says in a monotonous tone. "You're hopeless!"

Luhan goes back to solving the cube. "Man...if you want free food that bad, why don't you apply there?"

"That's not why I--"

"Right."

"Shut up, you--you..." Sehun grumbles.

"Hm? What was that?" Luhan says in a mocking voice. Sehun's apparently been trying to curse less as a new year's resolution.

"Ah--just forget it."

Luhan frowns and finally finishes the puzzle in the next second. Usually it'd take way less time to solve, but talking always messes with his muscle memory for some reason. Sehun still doesn't say anything on the other end and so Luhan randomly twists the sides of the cube to start the puzzle all over again. He tries goading Sehun into telling him what he was gonna say but Sehun continues to stay quiet, and so he starts talking some more to segue back to before.

"Yo, you know Carlos, right? The one up in N.Y.?" He quickly solves the puzzle again and twists it all randomly again.

"...Who?"

Luhan pauses with his hands. "I never told ya about him?"

"No?"

"Damn. Well, uh, we were dorm-mates for like a semester. Chill dude. Uh, smoked a lot of pot. Had these funky glasses too and played in this jazz band for like I think a year before he quit. Anyways, he used to work there and he'd always get me like free bread sticks when he came back from work and he'd like--he'd come home and-- that sounds freakin' weird--anyways, he'd come home--come back..."

He starts laughing and Sehun lets out an annoyed groan to wordlessly tell him to get to the point.

"So anyways hahaha...Suddenly one day he quit and became vegan, and I was like What the ? And he was like the place scarred him. Like, yo. If you so much as mentioned the word pizza to him he'd give that one uh long--uh--thousand-yard stare?"

"Yeah."

"Ha yeah he'd give that and start muttering about cheese in the crust hahaha." Sehun inevitably starts puffing out air from his nose in amusement at Luhan's funny laughter. "I'm not even kidding hahaha...So, yeah it just kinda--it brings back memories. I couldn't eat pizza for like six months after the he told me about the food, man. And to this freakin' day--I haven't eaten from there since, yo."

They continue chatting more about pizza and the like before the conversation somehow drifts into wild parties that Luhan had been to back when he was still in college. The Rubik's cube alternates between his hands and his bed as they chat.

---

Later that evening, Luhan ends up thinking about the pizza place during dinner with his parents. The two elders chat and eat quietly with each other while Luhan eats too--feeling awkward as hell. He can count on one hand how many words they said to him throughout the entire dinner.

He can't wish for it to end fast enough and when the plates are in the sink and they head off upstairs to their bedroom, he heads back to his own room with his mood completely soured.

Family photos are lined on the wall in his peripheral vision, and he lifts his head to glance at them before heading into his room and shutting the door. Some photos are of him and his parents and their friends back when they still lived in Beijing. Then during his angsty teen years, the pics verge to new locations and...regrettable outfit choices. And somehow, that angsty teen grew up to be the man he is today and, he hates to admit it, but he feels like he's still got a ton of growing up to do.

Even now, with the awkwardness between him and his parents