The second time Sehun wakes it’s with his usual post-drinking groan. He normally stretches his arms up above his head, arches his back to crack it, but he finds himself unable. It’s with an unfortunate flash of last night that he remembers, and realizes why his chest feels so unusually heavy.

“Oh ,” he whispers, eyes wide. Baekhyun’s head lies on his chest, rising and falling with Sehun’s panicked breathing.

Baekhyun is curled so cutely against him with his hands balled into fists tucked close to his chest, and his cheek resting on Sehun’s chest causing his face to scrunch up in a way that would make Sehun laugh if this wasn’t such a weird position. He can just make out soft snores and little whines coming from Baekhyun. Can feel it when a muscle in his leg spasms and he twitches, causing him to stir. Sehun holds his breath.

“Morning,” Baekhyun rasps, smacking his lips. His eyes are still closed and he’s stretching now, finally rolling over and off of Sehun. He sits up and crosses his legs, hair askew as he smiles sleepily at Sehun whose eyes are open but staring straight ahead at the wall above his desk.

Baekhyun rubs his puffy face with both hands. He stretches a little more, twists around until his back cracks, sighing when it finally does. “I slept so good last night.” He wiggles his toes against where they’re pressed against Sehun’s ribs. “Your bed is so much better than mine. I’m officially jealous.”

With a yawn, Baekhyun stands. “How am I supposed to get a good night’s sleep in my bed ever again knowing that your bed is across the hall being so much more comfy than mine?”

Sehun’s still not looking at Baekhyun, still transfixed on the wall. He shrugs.

“Sorry,” Baekhyun says with a cute little pout, “forgot you’re not a morning person. I’m gonna go shower.”

Sehun spends the entirety of Baekhyun’s shower under his covers trying to remember how they ended up in the same bed. He so clearly remembers Baekhyun being on the couch when he finally crawled into bed. He remembers all too well Chanyeol being angry with him, and the reason why. He wanted to kiss Baekhyun; he almost did. He would have, had it not been for Chanyeol stopping him. Now that he’s able to think clearly, he’s grateful for Chanyeol’s intervention. He’s also blown away that Chanyeol did it not out of jealousy, but for Sehun’s own good. Sehun grimaces; he would have been writhing with jealousy had it been him witnessing Jongin trying to kiss someone.

At the fleeting thought of Jongin, Sehun’s mood sours. He’d almost forgotten how much he hates Jongin at the moment. He stops and thinks and, really, he doesn’t think he’d feel anything if he saw Jongin kissing someone now. Maybe relief, if he’s being honest. He just wants to put this all behind him and move on with his life. But, he knows it’ll take some time for his heart to fully mend; he just wishes the process would speed up some. He’s sick of feeling lost, like he has nowhere to place all of this love he’s had bottled up for so long.

“I can tell you’re very deep in thought right now,” Baekhyun says as he sits at the edge of Sehun’s bed beside him, “but we should go get breakfast. I’m starving.”

Sehun huffs, still not really awake enough to begin talking for the day. But he sits up and looks, and Baekhyun has a towel wrapped around him held up under his armpits, and another towel wrapped around his head, and it's ridiculous and makes Sehun smile. 

"You look stupid right now," he says, but his smile is still wide as Baekhyun readjusts his towel to keep himself properly covered.

Baekhyun stands and huffs, stomps his foot childishly on the ground. "Don't make fun of me." He grabs the corner of his towel and tightens it around his body. "I did this for you, you know. I covered myself so as not to tempt you with my amazing body," he says with a flourish of his hand.

Sehun raises an eyebrow and then, at the same time, both boys break out into loud laughter. 

"Go get dressed and we'll get breakfast."

Baekhyun talks Sehun’s ear off as they walk. Sehun smiles, eyes narrowed at the sun shining bright in his face and the voice constantly ringing in his ears. At some point between the apartment and the student center, their knuckles brush between them and, without thinking, they lace their fingers together. It’s not until Baekhyun squeezes his hand that Sehun realizes they are, in fact, holding hands on a cute little morning stroll. He rips his hand from Baekhyun’s.

“We probably shouldn’t do that,” Sehun says, unable to look at Baekhyun.

“Aw, why?” Baekhyun pouts and leans in so he can make eye contact with Sehun. “I hold Chanyeol’s hand all the time.”

Sehun gives Baekhyun a look, one pointed eyebrow raised at him.

Baekhyun hums, “I see your point.” He smiles, it’s forced, Sehun can tell. “No holding hands then.”

Sehun tries his best to shake the awkwardness between them. This is what he was afraid of, getting too close, things getting weird. He sighs, clears his throat, and just says it. The face Baekhyun makes when Sehun snatches his hand up makes everything okay. Sehun is the one who squeezes Baekhyun’s hand this time and Baekhyun beams at him, eyes lost in his happiness.

“So what do you want to eat?”

He’s had to change his entire routine in fear of running into Jongin. Luckily for Sehun, he knows Jongin’s schedule as much as his own, and knows which path Jongin takes to each class. It’s a little stressful, but fairly easy to assure he won’t bump into Jongin at any point during his day. And, for the past three weeks, it’s worked flawlessly. He just hopes it stays that way.

With this new route, he now passes a coffee shop on his way to class, and this is where he runs into Luhan.

Sehun hasn’t seen him in a while, but they both perk up upon noticing each other. Luhan doesn’t speak fluent English, but enough to get him by. Enough to pass his classes with decent grades. Sehun’s helped Luhan with essays more than once, going over them for grammar and spelling mistakes while Luhan sat beside him asking him to explain what he’d done wrong. Luhan is someone Sehun could have seen himself dating once upon a time were it not for Jongin being in the picture. Now that he thinks about it, maybe he does have a type, because Luhan is small and cute, and Sehun finds himself unable to stop staring as they stand in line beside each other and chat.

“Where is your friend?” Luhan asks as he’s handed his coffee. “The handsome one,” he clarifies.

Sehun chuckles. “We’re not friends anymore.”

“Oh. Why not? Did you fight?”

Sehun takes in a long, thoughtful breath, and sighs. “It’s a long story.”

Luhan grins, “I have some time for a long story!”

They take their coffees to go and walk slowly toward the center of campus. Luhan is frowning hard by the end of Sehun’s rant about how horrible Jongin is.

“He always was so nice, too. I can’t believe him.” Luhan’s little frown has his whole face scrunched up and it reminds Sehun of Baekhyun, when he pouts to get his way. “Can I punch him?”

Sehun laughs now, “No dude, that’s okay. I think he’d totally destroy you anyway.”

“Oh, I don’t want to get destroyed.” Luhan stares down at the sidewalk for a moment, then looks back to Sehun with a small smile. “Would you like to go to a party with me tonight?”

It’s the most robotic way he’s ever been invited to a party, so unmistakably Luhan. “Sure,” Sehun agrees, and makes a mental note to text Baekhyun later to see if he wants to go too.

“Ah good! I can text you later!”

Baekhyun turns down Sehun’s invitation; he has a paper he’s been neglecting due in the morning, so he has to stay home and work on it. Sehun doesn’t let that deter him though, and he follows his phone’s map leading him to the address Luhan messaged him a few hours ago. It’s been a ridiculously long time since he’s gone to a party, even longer since he’s gone to one without Jongin by his side. He expects it to feel weird, off in some way, like the night won’t be complete without Jongin cheering him on as rowdy frat boy’s hold him up to do a keg stand.

But, surprisingly, once he’s inside the house and has a beer in his hand, everything feels…normal. In place of Jongin, Luhan is pressed to his side, half-shouting mangled, slurred, mixed Chinese-English sentences at him. And, Sehun is happy. So happy, in fact, he hasn’t stopped laughing since he finished his sixth beer. He’s not even sure what Luhan is saying sometimes, but when he laughs, Sehun feels the need to laugh along.

He recognizes some of the people there, none that he’d go as far as calling friends. More like, party acquaintances. Drinking buddies, he’d call them, if he were feeling generous. And of course, they all come talk, all ask where Jongin is. Let him know how strange it is to see him without Jongin close by. And, he doesn’t feel like explaining things. None of these people are worth digging into that long story. So, he shrugs off their questions, tells them he doesn’t know where Jongin is tonight.

Luhan must be able to tell Sehun is uncomfortable with all the attention; he whisks Sehun away, out of the kitchen with the heavy foot traffic, and into the less crowded living room. A few people are dancing, mostly girls giving it their all, trying to attract one of the muscled frat boys in their backwards hats.

“Are you better here?” Luhan asks. He’s got one hand circled around his cup and the other hovering just centimeters over actually touching Sehun’s arm. He says something then, in Chinese, and only realizes it when Sehun gives him a confused look. “Ah, I mean, they were asking a lot of questions and you didn’t look happy about them.”

Sehun watches Luhan’s finger twitch, like he wants to place his hand on Sehun’s arm, but in the end, he put his arm down by his side.

“Yeah it was a bit much. I came here to have fun, not be interrogated about my bes— about Jongin.” He mentally kicks himself for that one. It’s going to take some time getting used to referring to Jongin as something other than his best friend.

Luhan picks up on Sehun’s inner monologue and asks him to dance with him. “Something to get your brain thinking happy again,” he persuades.

So they dance. And, Luhan is pretty good. Sehun finds it easy to fall into step with Luhan as they sway and rock, and Luhan even shakes his around in a way that reminds him of a drunk Baekhyun.

It’s just so much fun, drinking and dancing to loud music, watching other drunk people attempt to dance. Sehun hasn’t been this carefree in what seems like years. Luhan says something to him in Chinese again as he turns so he can press his back into Sehun’s front. Sehun’s free hand grabs Luhan’s hip and he bites his lip, loving how free he feels at this exact moment. Loving the way it feels to have a cute guy grinding his into him. It really has been much too long.

Sehun’s phone vibrates and, as much as he wants to ignore it to give Luhan his full attention, he slips it from his pocket, wondering if it’s Baekhyun needing help with his essay.

so how drunk are you already?

Sehun smiles, still swaying lighting with Luhan, and types up a quick response to Baekhyun.

dancing wth luahn. Ill prbly br home soonn tho

The reply comes instantly and Sehun has to hold his phone close to his face to discern if Baekhyun had sent a happy or a sad face.

Just as he’s about to reply, a hand pushes his phone out of his face, down by his side; the fingers wind around his wrist and slide up to his elbow where they squeeze. The other hand, Luhan’s hand, Sehun realizes it is, grabs at his waist and pulls him closer. They’re still dancing. Well, Luhan is; Sehun had stopped moving to text Baekhyun back.

The lips that press to his are unexpected, but not unpleasant. The kiss tastes like beer and whatever chapstick Luhan uses.

Sehun takes a deep breath in through his nose and lets it out, harsh as he tilts his head to deepen the kiss. His head is swimming with intoxication and want, and he wants nothing more right now than to take Baekhyun home and strip his clothes off, make him feel good, hear him moan.

His eyes snap open. He’s not kissing Baekhyun. What the .

“What’s wrong?” Luhan asks, looking scandalized with a hand over his mouth. “Should I not have kissed you?”

Sehun isn’t sure what he wants to say. Luhan looks upset with himself, and Sehun feels bad.

“I-I…I’m sorry,” is what stutters out of his mouth. “I have to go.”

He’ll text Luhan tomorrow, when he’s not so confused, and more thoroughly apologize to him. But right now, he needs to get out of this house. He needs to get away from the alcohol and noise, and find somewhere quiet to think. He needs to clear his head.

Sehun finds himself somewhere halfway between the party and home, sitting alone at a table for two in a restaurants outside patio area. The restaurant is closed; he’s not sure if he’s allowed to sit here, but his drunk body didn’t want to walk any further. A few people, other drunk college kids on their walk home, pass by and give him odd looks, but he’s not worried about it. He’s sure people have seen him in much stranger situations than this.

He sighs. He really should get home.

Sehun has to take a deep breath to steady himself before opening the door to the apartment. It’s late and he’s sure Baekhyun is sleeping, and he doesn’t want to wake him. So, he turns the knob slowly and pushes the door open gently.

He’s not expecting to see Baekhyun sitting on the couch, still awake, so he freezes in the doorway.

“You’re up.”

Baekhyun wraps his arms around himself and nods. “You stopped replying to me. I got worried.” He looks away from Sehun when he says it, shrugs to try lighten the sentiment.

All Sehun can do is smile. Baekhyun was worried about him; he thinks it’s cute.

Whatever happened back at the party, Sehun’s clouded brain nearly forgets about when he watches the way Baekhyun smiles. Sehun pouts and moves forward, dropping carelessly onto the couch. He wiggles his way against Baekhyun, curling into his side, tucking his face against Baekhyun’s shoulder and resting his hands on Baekhyun’s thigh. He breathes, finally home safe. He’s tired all of a sudden.

“Guess what happened at the party?”

Baekhyun hums as he begins his fingers through Sehun’s hair. “What happened?”

Sehun hums now too, thoroughly enjoying the little scalp massage. “I kissed Luhan.” The fingers in his hair stop; if Sehun wasn’t so drunk he’d have felt Baekhyun’s entire body tense up. “And, I’m sad.”

Baekhyun clears his throat. He looks down at Sehun; he’s half-asleep. “Whys that?” Baekhyun asks, trying his best to keep his voice steady.

“Because for a second, I thought it was you.”

Even if Baekhyun could form a thought in his head, he doesn’t have enough time to respond before Sehun is snoring gently.