---

The next day after seeing a horror movie that Seulgi still won't admit was scary as heck, Sehun's hanging out with Luhan at the bubble tea shop near that pizza place that they applied to. Luhan has an interview there starting later on in the day and so he's been trying to convince Luhan to not purposefully mess it up.

At first he felt kinda salty about not getting a call back, but now the completely self-less part of him is glad that he could get his best friend an interview after how long. Even if it was his idea to apply there in the first place.

So currently, he's barely listening as Luhan gives him driving advice (after he brought up that he wants to learn how to drive).

"...So, like you really gotta watch out for those cones, man," Luhan says. "That's why I failed my last one--I hit like two and then the instructor was like Nope you failed trololol."

Sehun blinks boredly. "Uh-huh..."

Luhan already told him this story like not even a minute after he left the dang place. And that was just early last month.

"Seriously, you even listenin'?" Luhan chides with a frown. "You been studying yet?"

"I just decided like today, man."

Luhan laughs. "Well when you do study then, remember--"

Sehun groans. "Ya know what--I'll ask Taozi about it, okay?"

Luhan blinks and frowns. "...Alright."

Okay, so maybe Sehun's still a bit salty.

---

Later when they've left the bubble tea shop to head over to a bus-stop that'll lead to Sehun's home, Sehun spots the same woman that he saw at the diner yesterday sitting on the bus-bench. The woman that he went to high school with. But what gets his stomach clenching all of a sudden and what triggers a pile of bad memories is the bumhole sitting next to her. Sehun stops walking at the sight of him, and Luhan turns to say something only to ask if he's okay when he notices his expression.

Sehun can't help but stare at the now-man that used to bully him the whole second semester during the seventh grade. The guy looks less angry than he used to back then, older but still mostly the same in that weird way that old classmates can tend to look. And by some force in the universe, he glances at Sehun and Luhan only to do a double-take and nudge the woman next to him--getting her to turn as well.

To anyone around them, it must seem like they're having a mental showdown as Sehun hasn't moved from the same spot now. While he stands there, Luhan looks between them in utter confusion and Sehun quickly goes through his options in his head. Shoud he pretend he doesn't know the guy, acknowledge him, ignore him because that dude can fall into a flippin' ditch for all he cares or--

In the end, the guy, Brandon with his jock-, decides for him by getting up and walking over to them with a smile. He holds up his hand while telling him that it's been a while and Sehun looks from his face to his hand and back to him with the blankest face he can muster.

Brandon's smile falters a bit but then he grins even brighter and faker before clapping his hand on Sehun's back and wrapping an arm around his shoulders like they're old friends. As if the time he told him he should go freakin' die, or the time he placed a dead frog in his backpack or the time he pantsed him in front of their whole gym class...like all those things he did never actually happened!

Luhan's still standing there and his eyes widen when Sehun locks eyes with him--hoping he can freakin' do something. Because the more that he feels Brandon's weight on him--the more memories show up and the more he gets the sense that he might try out this one wushu move that Zitao had taught him this one time.

Luckily, Sehun doesn't have to worry about snapping though when Luhan suddenly produces his phone out of nowhere and raises it to his ear. "Hello?" Luhan says in Mandarin before letting out an Ah and turning to Sehun. "Hey bro...uh, ma wants us back home."

And with his almost intermediate knowledge of Mandarin (thanks to books, and his friends, and boyfriend), Sehun catches his drift and just nods and breaks away from Brandon to stand closer to his 'brother'.

"Okay," he mumbles back in Mandarin.

Luhan gives an apologetic smile to Brandon and switches to English. "Please. Forgive my brother. He really doesn't speak English too well yet."

And Brandon seems to buy it and looks between them while blinking. "Oh, my bad, dude. You..." He squints a bit. "You just--you looked like this one guy I knew..."

Sehun inaudibly scoffs and Luhan, with his phone still to his ear, sighs and says some random thing that Sehun's pretty sure doesn't even make sense in Mandarin before turning to grab his hand while looking at Brandon. "Sorry, gotta go man."

Then, he drags Sehun away from the bus-stop back to where they came from until Brandon and that old classmate are out of sight. When Luhan doesn't spot the guy anymore, he lets go of Sehun's hand and pockets his phone with a grimace.

"Augh, your hand, man," he says, wiping his hand on his jeans.

Sehun doesn't even say anything though, just still a bit...disoriented from what just happened. Then he feels a tap to his chin and turns to look down at a sympathetic-looking Luhan.

"Come on, man. Let's go to the one over there," Luhan says, pointing to a bus-stop in the distance and Sehun simply nods.

So, they head off to the bus-stop another block away--Sehun with his face still blank and Luhan wondering who that guy was. "Like I can't believe that worked haha! You know what this means right?"

"What?"

"We really do look alike, yo," he says with a laugh. "Man, if only we met earlier--you could've been the bad twin and like taken all my tests for me and ."

And that shakes Sehun out of his mood for a bit--getting him to argue with him.

-------

The next evening, Luhan gets picked up from his house by Minseok for their usual (now it totally is a) Friday hot-pot date. They chat all the way to the Chinese hot-pot place, alternating between laughs and smiles (and Luhan massaging Minseok's thick thigh after the latter complained of a muscle cramp).

Unsurprisingly, builds up between them, so much so that by the time they