AUTHOR'S NOTES:

Italicized text = Lu Han's thoughts.

Chapter cover picture coming soon (general)! //shot

Wow, I'm so not lazy.

I'm really sorry to my subscribers who thought this story would be updated MUCH sooner. I also thought that, too! But, you know, family stuff. I'm on my Summer break until 7/30. \(^o^)/

Please look forward to more frequent updates! I'm not keeping any promises, but I think a week for each chapter from me is more than enough time.

One more thing, this chapter is purely build-up. It'd be better if you read it, though.

I'm rambling on again! Thank you; enjoy now!

--

After 15 minutes of sketching ideas out and throwing them all away in crumpled paper balls, he felt himself dozing off again.

I really should get at least my drafts done. Editor-ge is gonna kill meeeeeeee!!

 So he took a caffeine pill and put on a coat to head out. He needed to clear his head of stress and let the outside world possibly give him ideas he can work on. Whether it be the scenery of the early morning, the people talking on their phones, or even the dogs sniffing each other’s butts at the park. He needed inspiration from SOMETHING.

So he walked to the bubble tea shop he was a regular at for what he called his “slump remedy,” a taro-flavored bubble drink.

Lu Han saw from the end of the block that the shop’s lights were out and jogged to the door of the shop. He took a look at the hours they were open and felt like an idiot. They didn’t open until 9 AM… and it was about 5:15.

“Agh, really,” he said, scratching the back of his neck.

“Plan B time.”

He jogged to the convenience store across the street and bought an iced latte. Large.

He gulped down what felt like gallons of it at a time, but really, when he stopped to breathe, he only finished about a third of the drink. He sat on a bench outside of the store, set his latte down beside him and massaged the temples of his head to ease the pain of a brain-freeze.

“Ugh, this isn’t opening any doors to inspiration…” Lu Han mumbled to himself.

He sat there for another five minutes and he felt the caffeine pill PLUS the caffeine from the latte kicking in. His hands began shaking and he started to tap his foot, which soon turned into him getting up and stretching, then jogging in place.

Lu Han was lucky that not many people were out at this time. Only the two cashiers inside the store stared at him a bit, and he noticed that. So as he jogged in place, he looked at the cashiers and “waved.” However, Lu Han didn’t know what his body was doing fully at the time; his arms were flailing around and he was smiling like an idiot while still jogging in place.

After he calmed down enough to stop spazzing in the middle of the sidewalk, he decided to go cruising around the area a bit before going back to his crazy shared apartment. He hadn’t really looked around here for a while because… well, he didn’t need ideas as much as he did now.

--

He walked around blocks and blocks, still lightly sipping his latte. He then reached a rather familiar-looking logo on a building, stopped, and stared at it.

SM Entertainment, huh. I can be cool like their idols. I’m handsome, too. He scoffed, developing into a hysterical laugh. The caffeine was still in him.

He turned back to walk to his apartment and write down what he saw, possibly piecing them together to form a decent story. There was still half of his drink left, so he was sipping again as he walked. And then…

Bump. SPLASH.

Some tall guy wearing a cap ran into him and made Lu Han spill the latte on himself.

Lu Han didn’t care what came out of his mouth now because the caffeine wasn’t going to fade any time soon.

“DUDE, WHAT THE HELL?!” Lu Han shouted at the top of his lungs.

The guy looked back at him and his eyes widened. “OH! I’m so sorry, sir, but I’m REALLY in a rush now! I have to get back to the dorm and get my luggage and get to the airport soon. I hope you understand!” The guy bowed down to a 90 degree angle and looked like he was about to start running again, but Lu Han still had something left to say to him.

“WHY WOULD A YOUNG PERSON LIKE YOU NEED TO BE AT THE AIRPORT SO EARLY?!”

“SSSHH! I can’t really tell you now because you never know when THEY’RE following you.”

Heh, he has a bit of a lisp. “And what will we do about my latte?” Lu Han didn’t really care about his latte. He wanted to get a better look at this guy’s face, so he tried to make chitchat with him. DAMN, he’s handsome.

“I REALLY, REALLY have to go,” the mysterious man sighed, “look, if I ever meet you again, I’ll get you another drink, whatever it is. Except alcohol. Because I can’t purchase alcohol, hehe.”

“I wanna know your name so I can call it for you to know I see you, if I happen to see you again.”

The guy sighed and bent over so his mouth was centimeters away from Lu Han’s ear and whispered, “Not a good idea. Me knowing your name would be better.”

Lu Han had to think about this for a moment. He had two aliases he used as his name on his published manga, one for his more shounen-type stories and one for his more shoujo-type stories. None of his readers knew his real name.

“Lu Han,” Lu Han told him plainly. “You needn’t tell anybody that.”

“Okay then. Lu Han,” the guy repeated, looking at his watch, “OH OH OH OH, IT’S 6:05 ALREADY! I’M REALLY SORRY again, sir. I’m sooo going to get scolded when I get back!!”

And there he went, leaving Lu Han shivering in his iced latte-soaked clothes.

Lu Han ran back to his apartment and immediately took his t-shirt and pants off, filled the kitchen sink with hot water and soap, and let his clothes soak in there while he took a hot shower.

Aish, that handsome son of a gun. I’m not made of money. I liked that shirt, too!

--

By the time Lu Han got out of the shower, Yixing was in the kitchen to cook breakfast. It was now 7:03 AM.

“Lu Han,” Yixing began, “why are your clothes in the sink? I have cooking to do, you know.”

“Coffee.”

And that was that. Lu Han left the kitchen to crash again on the sofa. He was woken up about two hours later because of Tao clapping and jumping up and down watching TV with Kris.

“Ahhh! Baekhyun is sooooo coooooool…” Tao swooned as Kris watched him with a slight frown on his face.

“Well… Chanyeol is really… uhhh… charismatic,” Kris tried to make Tao jealous.

“Really? Chanyeol? He looks like he’s always trippin’ on crack,” Tao pouted.

Success.

Lu Han glanced at the TV to see what they were watching. It was a re-run of a performance that was on TV yesterday. Six oddly-dressed men dancing to a serious-sounding song. Lu Han only mocked them by repeating the line saying, “Ma Ma Ma Ma Ma Mama, TEON BAEK.” But as he watched a little more closely, he saw a face he could easily recall.

“OH MY GOD! IT’S THAT GUY!” Lu Han shouted without noticing his volume.

“…….. That guy?” Tao pointed at the screen, clearly confused, “Yeah, that’s Sehun.”

--

Again, THANK YOU!!

Excuse the crappy image lol. Top image (c) me [sketch-pan] on devaintART.