Chap Fifteen

Evening time.

“Happy bithday, Hyeri!” Everybody cheered as the now six year old Hyeri blew out the colourful candles on the chocolate berry-forest cake; which again filled the living room with celebratory cheers and applause. Happily, the little girl clapped her hands excitedly as Taeyeon moved beside her to cut the cake with a knife.

It was near the end of the celebrations, which meant Hyeri becoming more excitable with hyper anticipation as it was nearing the time to receive her presents! Casual chit chat went on between the young adults at the party while the children began eating their slice of cake, some of them even getting chocolate on their faces while taking huge and messy bites.

Loud amused laughter could also be heard from the joke Tao had been telling to the ladies, which resulted in a playful and jealous pout from Kai when he saw the sight. It was a successful party and get-together, everyone had on a bright smile, clearly enjoying the events that had been played out earlier in the day.

With the exception of one person, or rather, two people.

Luhan frowned when a certain male came into his line of sight, but quickly covered it up with a small grin, he didn’t want to spoil the happy atmosphere in his home. Across the twenty two year old, was Sehun, who was sitting next to his elder brother and a plate of barely touched cake.

The boy placed the metal fork he was using to the dining table, listlessly staring at the delicious looking slice of berry filled chocolate, like it was something horrible that he was forced to eat. Sehun lifted his head upwards after a few seconds, causing him to catch Luhan’s eyes unfortunately, which made the teenager turn away towards his elder brother instantly.     

Luhan cringed mentally at Sehun’s actions, feeling a small tinge of pain pricking him.

Am I too terrible to even look at for a mere second now? The young parent exhaled a heavy sigh, hurt by the younger male’s response. But Luhan could understand why Sehun was like that though, it was the natural thing for him to be cold and distanced after the incident in the kitchen, the boy was probably blaming himself for it. And Luhan could not blame him for feeling like that either, the elder male had his own faults for initiating the kisses between them, if only he had more control and restraint.

Luhan had meant to talk to Sehun as quickly as he could, but he figured that it would be better if the conversation was held after the party. The boy had been putting on an anti-social mood after the incident and he could possibly spoil Hyeri’s birthday celebration if Luhan had approached Sehun without giving him a chance to settle down his emotions.

Besides, Luhan couldn’t really be found around or talking to the sixteen year old too often during the whole time at the party, it might raise suspicions and it would also be rude to the other guests if he did not socialise with them. Having a guilty feeling in his gut, Luhan turned away to strike up a half-hearted conversation with Sooyoung.

--

“Jongin hyung, can we just go home now?”

“Eh, so early? Do you have some work to do at home?”

“No… but I -” Sehun his lips nervously. “-don’t… want to be here.”

Kai paused shortly after hearing the teenager’s bothered tone, something had definitely happened between Sehun and Luhan, he was sure of it. And his younger brother wasn’t exactly doing a fantastic job of hiding his emotions; he had been looking troubled ever since he came back to the living room. Turning all of his attention to Sehun, Kai scanned the younger’s face briefly before receiving an imploring tug on the hand from him. “Are you really sure that you want to leave?”

“Yeah, I’m… tired.” Sehun whispered slowly, holding onto his elder brother’s hand.

“Okay then, let’s go.” Kai already knew that Sehun was telling a lie but decided against commenting about it, because sooner or later, the younger male would probably come to his side and tell him about his problems anyway. If he guessed correctly, it was Sehun’s moods acting up again, he was still a teenager who is searching for his own identity after all. It was only just recently did the younger male sort of settled down with his uality and it was perfectly normal and expected for Sehun to question himself and his actions. As much as he tried to deny it, he was having a illegitmate relationship.

People don't usually just fall in love with their elder brother’s best friend who was married, with a child and of the same gender and then be perfectly fine with it. Of course, Kai knew of the obstacles in Luhan’s relationship with Sehun and