It wasn't as if Sehun was unpleasant that he had to wear the red Santa hat in public. No, it didn't feel like that at all, it was extremely embarrassing for him.

 

With slightly flushed cheeks, which he would blame on the cold and biting wind, should anyone ask him about it. 

 

He walked through the mass of students and tried in vain to ignore the looks from astonished, irritated to extremely amused. What he did really well, at least externally, unfortunately not internally.

 

He had actually considered whether he shouldn't reporting sick today instead of leaving the house with that stupid thing on his head, but his pride thwarted his plan.

 

So after breakfast he went back to his room and got the hat, just to get it out of his pocket and put it on just before the school gate.

 

At least he had made it halfway to the classroom and had gotten through so far without major incidents.

 

Which was definitely positive, but Sehun didn't feel the slightest urge to see it positively.

 

Especially not when the whispering started behind him and a few girls giggled and pointed their fingers at him. They hadn't learned manners at home, had they?

 

And certainly not at the sight of his math teacher, who eyed him extensively with raised eyebrows and crossed arms and Sehun could only well guess what he would have liked to ask him, but the worst was yet to come.

 

Because, of course, there were more rooms in the corridor in which his classroom was located, which were already filled with students at this time or some of them were romping in front of the doors to chat with friends from other levels and classes.

 

He heard someone laugh in front of him and didn't know a second later, that it was meant to him and his terrible accessory, because their eyes met for a moment as he ran past him and that laugh wasn't an amused laugh, no, this laugh was mocking and from above.

 

And even if Sehun, as a born Oh, always kept control of his emotions and never got out of his skin or allowed someone to know what was going on inside him, but he still had to grit his teeth tightly to resist the feeling to turn around and punch this idiot in his face, because of his mocking laugh.

 

Instead, he clenched his hands in his pants pockets, and apparently untouched, ran on to his own classroom.

 

Sehun entered it with an expressionless expression and a collective groan went through the room, which he only commented with a roll of his eyes, before going to his place, put his bag on the floor and sat on the chair.

 

However, he had no time to breathe deeply, as soon as he had sat down, Chanyeol suddenly stood in front of him with a broad grin and waggled his eyebrows meaningfully.

 

»I knew you wouldn't pinch. I told you, he would do it, Baek!«

 

With these words, he was near to lose his facial features and with a bad feeling in the stomach area, he turned his head slightly to the pink-haired boy, who was standing next to his buddy and obviously had to suppress a loud laugh, to look into the eyes.

 

His heart jumped treacherously, but he ignored the emotion by leaning back in his chair and forcing himself to look back at his best friend.

 

»Yes, you did and I still can't believe it.« Baekhyun replied, the amusement in his voice hard to miss.

 

If sehun had just got upset about the mocking laugh, it was nothing compared to what he felt, when he saw Baekhyun's reaction to that stupid cap.

 

He didn't like the fact that he had to walk around like a circus clown under his eyes.

 

»Believe it. Even an Oh Sehun can lose.«

 

Sehun still couldn't believe, that he had actually lost against Chanyeol, in something as simple as goal-shooting in the snow and had actually lost that stupid bet.

 

Only because he caught him in a weak moment last week, which meant pressing the right buttons to appeal to his ego, and that Baekhyun said he wanted to see that, was a deny of the proposal also not particularly helpful.

 

»Oh, yeah. We had agreed that you would wear the hat all day. That includes at home and, as I learned from your brother, you went to breakfast this morning without a hat.« Chanyeol continued with a mock shocked tone.

 

»Excuse me?«, He said sourly. That couldn't be true now. His brother was involved in this whole story? Oh, he could only imagine how amused Junmyeon was, about the fact that his little brother had lost a stupid bet.

 

»But I'll forgive you if you wear the hat the rest of the day. Even at home.«

 

Sehun noticed that his friend really enjoyed sitting on the longer lever. How happy he would have thrown his best friend off with his Christmas hat, just so that he no longer had to endure this stupid grin.

 

»What nonsense.«, he said instead, crossing his arms over his chest. Sometimes he really wondered how it was possible, that he'd made friends with this idiot.

 

»Come on Sehun.« Baekhyun replied before Chanyeol could start another provocative answer. »After all, betting debts are honor debts and and you look good in red.«

 

He wasn't sure if he wanted to keep teasing him or at least to be a bit honest about it.

 

That he didn't really care whether he looked good in red or not was at least as clear to Baekhyun as him was, but the way how he said it sounded almost conciliatory, so he didn't know what to say, the School bell actually came to the aid at the right moment.

 

 

 

❄

 

 

 

Sehun's mood didn’t lighten up all day and because he had to refuse to take off his hat, he was given cleaning service for a week in the third lesson, with what was probably the most humorless teacher of all time - to his satisfaction Chanyeol wobbled with the chair during the lesson and was condemned to keep him company.

 

When they were finally allowed to go, he got up as quickly as possible, without appearing too hasty, and was one of the first to leave the classroom, because he didn't feel the need to speak to Chanyeol or Baekhyun, who had already enough during the break.

 

Although at least Baekhyun had made an effort, not to let the teasing go on indefinitely, because he didn't know how much his patience could endure, before it broke at some point.

 

Ignoring everyone who came towards him with a funny look or stupid comments on his way outside, at least nobody laughed mockingly, he actually reached the room with the shoe lockers, before the big crowds and was already in his winter boots and out the door, before he could even hear Chanyeol's voice in the hallway.

 

It had been snowing heavily during the school day and there was a thick, white layer on the floor, except for a narrow path, that the caretaker must have cleared.

 

After all, only a few snowflakes danced to the ground now, because he really could do without more on such a day.

 

How he would like to just pull this hat off his head and pepper it somewhere in the next corner, but Baekhyun wasn't wrong with his statement, even if Sehun had put it differently than he did.

 

On the way home he met some people,