The next day, Luhan woke up on the couch feeling sore from all the running the day before. 

 

Victoria, who was walking past him, gave him a smile. “Good morning!” 

 

Luhan smiled at her good-heartedly. “Good morning, Victoria noon-I mean, Victoria-ssi,” scratching his head at his mistake. 

 

Victoria just chuckled at him. “Call me noona. It’s okay.” 

 

Luhan grinned. “Alright, noona.” She smiled at him before walking over to the kitchen with the other f(x) fairies. 

 

Luhan suddenly felt stifled in the small living room and stood up from the couch. He headed for the door and walked outside of the cottage to get some fresh air. 

 

He closed his eyes, stretched his arms out, yawned loudly. He shook his head, golden locks bouncing as he did. He looked around at his surroundings, absorbing everything in. The green grass, the bright colored flowers, the gentle stream rushing near the cottage. 

 

From the corner of his eye, he spotted a figure sitting by the stream. He silently tip-toed over to the figure to get a better view of them. As he got closer, he realized that it was just Hyewon. 

 

She was just simply sitting on the grass by the stream, the wind gently blowing through her locks. She had a book in her hands and was so immersed in reading it, she didn’t even notice that Luhan had plopped down right next to her. 

 

Luhan cocked his head to the side, admiring Hyewon’s beauty. *She really is one of the most beautiful girls I’ve ever laid eyes on.* Hyewon flipped to the next page and continued reading, totally oblivious to the man-child sitting staring at her. 

 

They sat there like that for who knows how long. Letting the sun bounce off their skin, breeze twirl around them, smell of the flowers surround them. Just content with life. 

 

It wasn’t until Hyewon gently closed her book and set it beside her that she notice Luhan. She jumped in fright and placed her hand to her heart. “Oh, my goodness! How long have you been sitting there?” 

 

Luhan shrugged nonchalantly. “I don’t know. Maybe about half an hour?” 

 

Hyewon’s eyes widened. “Really? Wow...” She trailed off, turning her head towards the stream. 

 

Luhan nodded like a kid. “Mhmm.” He looked at the distracted girl and pouted, but his lips slowly tugged up into a mischievous smile. 

 

Poke. Poke. 

 

“Yah, what are you doing?” 

 

Poke. Poke. 

 

“Yah. Luhan, stop it.” 

 

Poke, poke, poke. 

 

“I mean it, Luhan. Stop.” 

 

.............Poke. 

 

“YAH!” Hyewon whipped her head around and threw daggers with her eyes. “Why do you keep poking me?” 

 

Again, Luhan shrugged his shoulders. “I was bored.” He smiled at her angelically and ruffled her hair., causing her to pout at her now messy hair “Tell me, kiddo. How did you not notice me sitting next to for the last half hour? Is that book really that good?” 

 

Hyewon sighed with a hint of sadness. “No, it’s just that when I have too much on my mind, and I need to think, I get lost in reading.” 

 

Luhan eyed her curiously. “What are you thinking about? Running away again?” Luhan joked, but Hyewon could hear a slight hardness in his voice. 

 

She shook her head. “No. Not anymore. It’s too late to do that,” she muttered vaguely. 

 

“Yah, yah, yah.” Luhan pushed the side of her head with his finger. “Stop being so vague. Tell me what’s on your mind. Tell oppa what’s wrong.” 

 

Hyewon looked at Luhan, surprised that he called himself oppa. She pinked slightly. “A-ah, well... Aish. I’m not good at voicing out my problems.” She ran her hand through her hair, looking like a lost puppy. 

 

Luhan chuckled. “It’s okay. I won’t laugh or anything. Just tell me.” 

 

Hyewon bit her lips nervously. “Well. Remember the day when I found you?”

 

Luhan nodded. *Of course not. That’s when I met you.*

 

“Well... That day, Victoria, Krystal, and Amber told me that they had exciting news for me. And you know, almost nothing exciting happens around here in the middle of the forest, so if something exciting happened, you’d know it’d be exciting. So they sat me down and had a long talk with me. They told me all about me being a princess and everything. I was really excited by the fact that I was a princess. I mean, this is the kind of thing that only happens in storybooks, ya know?” 

 

Luhan weakly grinned at the irony of her words. “But when I met you, you seemed so bitter about being a princess.” 

 

Hyewon nodded. “Well, yeah. At first, I was excited. But there’s ALWAYS a catch.” Luhan looked at her, curious and intrigued. “I...you know what, I don’t want to say it anymore.” She shook her head and hugged her knees, hiding her face.

 

All she could hear was Luhan sighing. Then she felt a hand running through her hair. She peeked up and saw Luhan looking down at her with care. “It’s okay.” He smiled, making him look like an angel with the sun beaming down at him. 

 

Hyewon looked away from Luhan and stared at the stream. *Lucky stream. At least you can go somewhere.* Her jaw clenched, and her eyes turned uncharacteristically hard. “I...” Luhan looked at her expectantly, making her sigh. *This is hard...* “I found out that my parents.... who I haven’t seen since I was a baby are making me get.... married,” she said as if it was painful to say out loud. Now that she officially said it out loud without denying it inside, she felt the unbearable truth push down on her shoulders like a burden.

 

Luhan’s hand stilled as he stared at Hyewon, appalled by her words. He instantly felt sympathy and pity towards her, and his gaze on her softened. He felt horrible for thinking that she was a sasaeng fan and kidnapped him when they first met. He could not imagine what it felt like to be in her position, and he wanted to comfort her but didn’t know where to begin. “I’m sorry,” he simply said. He knew it was lame, but he was genuinely lost for words. He kept thinking of countless dramas he watched where two families merged for business and married off their kids.

 

Hyewon turned her head to look at him again and smiled. Luhan blinked blankly, taken aback by her sudden smile. “Don’t be sorry. It’s not your fault.” She laid straight onto her back on the damp grass, hair splaying all over, and Luhan followed suit, lying down next to her. 

 

They lied in silence. Just staring at the sky and the clouds that passed over them. 

 

Luhan’s fingers twitched slightly as he moved his hand, looking for something. He found Hyewon’s hand and grabbed it. She turned her head, looking innocently surprised at him. She gave him a confused look and opened to say something but faltered when Luhan’s lips tugged upwards to a smile, his eyes crinkling in the process. 

 

He squeezed her hand and assured her that everything would be okay. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ahhhhhh fluff. I can't write fluff ;A; ...

 

LOL I was looking through the old chapters and stuff, and you know what? My author notes used to be so explosive because I used to do EXO spam gifs/pics and stuff xD. And also, I had a lot more pictures for the chapters o-o ...... I've been getting too lazy to find pictures OTL I'm a disgrace. Haha.