The mattress hit their backs loudly as they crashed down with Luhan’s arm wrapping tightly on his shoulder. Sehun tried to break the connection between them but no success. He finally gave in, loosened up his body and waited until the older one drowned into his deep sleep. A small incoherent mumble drove him aside. The fact that Luhan’s face was just few inches away made him have butterflies in his stomach. Sehun wanted to capture every single part of this moment and put in a box so that he would be the only one who had access to it.

Could it be you?

 He whispered under his breath to himself, studying the soundly sleeping one next to him. It had been twelve years already and to be honest, Sehun’s memory faded as each year went by. All he had left was the bright doe-like eyes and stunning smile that melt his inner ice. Back then, even with the cap and tomboy clothes, he believed that was a teenager girl, a very talented artist on Paris street but after his encounter with the Chinese male, he lost his confidence.

Was it just a coincidence? People look alike?

The more he thought about it, the more his mind became confused. Sehun sighed heavily, reached out to wipe Luhan’s bangs hanging over his forehead. He lay there for another minute then gently lifted the other one’s hand to get up. Covering Luhan with a blanket, Sehun tiptoed quietly out of the room. However, when he was about to grab the doorknob, something on the wall caught his attention. It was a framed painting of a colorful butterfly. In the shimmering light of the lamp on the nightstand, that piece of art seemed to glow to his bare eyes. Sehun bewilderedly stared at the painting then looked back to the peacefully sleeping Luhan.

And he knew for sure it’s definitely not a coincidence.

“You’re up early Sehun ah.”

Jongin’s yawn yanks him out of his recollection. To tell the truth, he hardly got any sleep last night and he’s hoping two cups of coffee might help him have enough energy to go through the day.

“Coffee?” He raises his cup, earning a yes, please in return.

“What time did you come home?” Jongin flops into the sofa and happily receives his caffeine from the owner of the house.

“Past midnight, I guess.” Sehun answers briefly, sits down beside his best friend.

Noticing the tiredness in his voice, Jongin gives him a nudge on his shoulder.

“What’s wrong? You sound… distressed.”

He forgets that he can’t hide anything from the tan skin man. It’s still amazed him how his friend can read his mind like a book. Normally Sehun will share the first thing on the top of his head but this is different, it’s too important to say a word before he’s 100% positive about it. That’s why he avoids the question by simply shrugging and conceals his secret with a white lie.

“Nothing, it must be the beverage they gave me.”

Jongin seems to buy the reason easily because even though he knows his friend’s alcohol tolerance is quite good lately (thanks to him, of course), Sehun can be suffered from a hangover the next day. But what lights up his mood in a morning if he doesn’t make fun of the house’s owner.

“Are you sure it’s because of the beverage? Not someone.”

He emphasizes on purpose, awaiting an annoyed glance from the other. Just like he’s expecting, Sehun throws him a warning stare without mercy then stands up to get dressed.

“Remind me why I have you here.”

His friend bursts into laughter as his morning target is completed

“Because I’m lovable, duh.”

That earns another grimace before Sehun walks out on him. They might drive each other crazy all the time, well mostly because of the choreographer’s bothering sense of humor, Sehun can’t deny the fact that he’s lucky to have Jongin in his life, particularly when the other one decides to move back to Seoul with him.

“Hey, don’t forget I need your help with my moving this Saturday, Sehunnie”

Jongin calls out as he sees his friend rushing out to work.

“Oh, didn’t I tell you about the museum’s team building this weekend?”

Sehun titles his head aside, hand already on the doorknob

“No, you didn’t.” the tan skin man pouts, imagines the gloomy future of him doing all the stuffs all by himself “Aishh, it means Luhan hyung can’t come either?”

The mentioned name obviously catches his friend’s attention as Sehun turns around to face him with querying glint in his eyes.

“Luhan hyung?”

“What?” Jongin regrets his slip of the tongue, pretends to play innocent.

“You saw him again?”

“You didn’t say I couldn’t” the choreographer tries to defend himself with the best reason he has “Besides, as far as I concern, you don’t own him so why be bothered anyway?”

Sehun opens his mouth to fire back at the other one but his mind suddenly goes blank. He hates to admit but Jongin is right about the part he doesn’t own the Chinese male and he doesn’t have any right to decide who can or can’t approach him. To his rational consciousness, it’s unreasonable for him to act like this but he just can’t help it, especially after what he found out last night.

“Whatever!”

Sehun mumbles merely to himself and slams the door. All he can do is to find the answer quickly before Jongin crosses the line and causes any damage.

******

This can be listed as the worst hangover Luhan has ever suffered in his life and he blames Yixing on half of its consequences. First of all, it started with that bloody hell beverage that taught everyone a lifetime lesson: never messing around with their boss, again. Then there came the stupid game which was also his colleague’s idea resulted in a countless glasses of beer he had to consume. However, none of them was more unacceptable than letting Sehun taking care of him under his unconscious circumstance. He’s so embarrassed that he almost called the office to take a day off this morning.

“You can’t be mad at me. It’s not my fault.” Yixing points out, handing him a cup of jasmine tea

Receiving the cup with a pout, Luhan gives the other one a good glare for not taking the full responsibility.

“Oh, really?” he retorts sarcastically “It’s mine then.”

“Well it’s kinda, you know.” his colleague shrugs shoulder, grinning big as he knows that the blond male is gonna making his typically scowling face in response.

 “In my defense, he dragged you away insistently. There’s nothing that I could do.”

Luhan purses his lips, trying to recall but it only makes his head experience more ache. Finally giving up, he decides to let this go and tries to act normally if any chance he comes across with his boss today. It’s not like he did anything inappropriate anyway, just some clinging and yelling at the younger one. He really crosses his fingers that Sehun doesn’t take all of those actions personally.

“So, anything happened?” Yixing’s uses his fingers to stress the word anything mischievously.

Luhan is taken back a bit then realizes what his friend implies. His cheeks out of blue blush lightly at the thought of being alone with Sehun. He slaps the other one’s shoulder real hard it definitely leaves red mark there.

“Yah, nothing happened. What were you thinking, ert!”

“Ouch, it hurts.” Yixing rubs the hit spot in pain, doesn’t expect to be attacked like that “I just thought he might have a thing for you.”

“No, he does not.”

Luhan responds faster than his thinking. It’s supposed to be a strong denial but when it came out, it sounded like a sad confession instead. Of course Sehun doesn’t feel the same way as he does. In fact, he really can’t put a name on his feelings either because he knows his broken heart wouldn’t open up for anyone else easily anymore. That’s why he was surprised at his own reaction in the last few days whenever they accidentally met.

“Ah, I forget to tell you.” Yixing’s voice snaps him out of his endless flow of thoughts “About the collector you asked me to contact.”

“Kris Wu?” Luhan leans forward eagerly, his work is always one of the priorities “Good news?”

The head shaking from his friend frowns him at once even though the probability of mission failure was predicted higher.

“That guy demanded working with you only.”

“More like above me.” he mumbles only to himself but the disgusting expression on his face is enough to worry Yixing.

“Should I report to Mr.Oh? Maybe we can find another one to replace.”

Luhan exhales a long sigh, tapping his finger on the keyboard of his laptop.

“We can't.” he pushes the laptop toward the other one so that they both see the screen clearly “Look, Kris Wu is the one who possesses grand collection of art works from the Great Han Empire to the 1950s which perfectly matches our coming exhibition. We need him.”

 “I still think you should talk to Mr. Oh.” Yixing finally suggests after a long pause “See if he can come up with a solution.”

“Yea…yeah, I will.”

Luhan replies fleetingly to assure his colleague but he knows having a conversation with the art director right now is the last thing on his wish list. He has to deal with this problem by himself, just having an appointment at somewhere people can witness the whole thing and he’ll be safe.

******

It turns out his wish doesn’t get to God because he was arranged to cross path with Sehun so many times against his will. There was hallway encounter which he pretended to be on the phone with an imaginary person to walk pass the younger one without saying anything. Then came the cafeteria where he dragged Yixing along with him ordering something to eat for lunch to avoid eyes contact. After that was the hallway again, but this time, he hurriedly opened the nearest door to hide which happened to be Minseok’s office. Needless to say, his colleague was startled at his out of blue appearance and Luhan had to bring up the Kris Wu issue for distraction.

However, there is no chance for him to run away when Sehun calls both him and Minseok to his office later in the afternoon. In order to promote the 10^th anniversary as well as develop a new attraction from public, especially young people, the Board finally approves Sehun’s proposal of using virtual technology on their website. Luhan is aware of the fact that virtual museum tour becomes more and more common and he himself actually experienced this application. When the set up process completes, it will enhance the museum to approach digital visitors who might never be able to visit in real life.

“I need you two work with our partner to provide them all the information about our art works.” Sehun demands as he passes the plan to each of them “starting tomorrow”.

The two older males go through every pages to see what kinds of art their boss wants to put in 3D and what they have to prepare for the meeting with technical company.

“We’ll do a demo with 30 samples first then moving to the next stage” Sehun doesn’t hesitate to express his ambitiousness “This is a long run project. If possible, I want to show the audience what we have in storage as well.”

Both men sitting on the other side of table can’t help nodding in agreement. Exhibition area is too small to display everything and frankly then museum have a huge amount of objects behind the scenes. It is brilliant to show the public just how many things they have to look after and how expensive it can be to store all of them.

“So where are we going to meet? Here or their company?” Minseok lastly speaks up with eagerness in his voice.

“Their place.” their boss short answers, fishing out his phone and tapping fast on it “I’m sending you guys their contact and address now.”

He waits until both of his employees’ phone vibrates, signaling a new message received then gives them permission to get back to work. However, as soon as they walk away to the door, he suddenly hails back.

“Ah, Luhan. A word please.”

It sounds like the Chinese one did something wrong and being called up to the principal’s office which makes his colleague exchange a concerned look with him. He flashes a reassuring smile and pushes his back slightly, whispering go ahead, I’ll catch up with you.

The moment Minseok disappears behind the door, Luhan turns back to see a curious director staring at him. He knows what is waiting for him and the fact that he can’t use the bypass forever.

“Please sit down.”

Sehun’s stern voice sends chill to his spine and he has no choice to obey quietly.

“What’s going on? Are you advoiding me?”

Here comes the interrogation.

“I’m not sir.” it’s a natural instinct to deny at the first time even though he’s fully aware that doesn’t work.

“Yes, you are.” the Korean male emphasizes “And now you call me sir after insisting to be a hyung?”

So he takes it personally. Danm!

“I was drunk and….”

Luhan can’t finish the sentence because that’s all he has to clarify himself. After a few seconds pause, he gathers his inner strength to look straight in the other one’s eyes, using his angelic sincere voice as usual.

“Anyway, I’m sorry. And thank you for driving me home safely.”

And just like that, they’re sitting there with eyes drilling hole on each other face without a word, pondering on their own theories. The energy in this room at the moment is so much that it’s almost suffocating the Chinese man. He stirs uncomfortably in his spot and breaks the eyes contact with the other one.

“Why are you so afraid of me?” Sehun chuckles, leaning forward to close their distance. His movement catches the older male off guard and sends heat to his face.

“I…I’m not.” Luhan stammers with his frozen body “It’s just you’re the boss and…I..I don’t know.”

“Then don’t see me as your boss.” Sehun lowers his voice to the extent that it sounds like a husky whisper “I want to know you better.”