January 10th, 1989

Sehun was tired.

That seemed like a rather neutral statement, but on the inside, Sehun was tired. He didn't even have the energy to find Luhan. It took him all the willpower he had to get himself out of bed and out into the sunshine. It was a lovely day though, Sehun had to admit. There was a small breeze and the air was neither warm nor cold. Sehun remembered that when he was little, he would play with Luhan during this kind of weather. Sometimes it was just the common game of tag, but most of the time, it was hide and seek. Sehun always insisted to be the seeker. For some reason, Sehun always knew that if Luhan was the hider, he would really badly at it. Sehun always found joy in finding Luhan, although he was also quite disappointed at how much Luhan lacked at creativity.

Sehun chuckled to himself as he sat down underneath a tree. He lowered himself down until he was comfortably seated on a patch of grass. Then Sehun turned around and glanced at the tree itself. He ran his hand down the trunk and his finger ran over something that was carved. Sehun chuckled when he saw that a couple's name was engraved and that was when Sehun got an idea. He pulled out of his pocket one of his father's old pens. Sehun was going to give it to Luhan as a gift, but what Sehun was going to do was going to be an even bigger gift.

Sehun carved all day. Not once did he leave that tree all afternoon. He even stayed until dinnertime. Hyoyeon and Eunhyuk stopped by about an hour before lunch and helped Sehun out too. Eunhyuk wasn't really into things that took patience and time, so he excused himself off after a while to visit the market. Hyoyeon, however, was really immersed in it and Sehun chuckled when he turned around to see her working hard at the tree with her tongue poking at the side of .

"Enjoying yourself?" Sehun asked.

"Shh! I'm working!" she hissed and continued to work. Sehun wondered who would last out there longer. Eventually, Hyoyeon had to leave. One her maids had come over to Sehun's place to pick her up and Hyoyeon left the premises reluctantly.

"Thanks, Hyo," Sehun said.

"I can always come back tomorrow," Hyoyeon suggested with a hopeful look.

"It's okay. I'll be finished by tonight," Sehun said.

"Okay then. It looks really good by the way. The lucky girl..." Hyoyeon mumbled.

"Pardon?" Sehun asked.

"Oh nothing! I'll be going now," Hyoyeon said. She waved to Sehun and turned around, but along the way, she bumped into someone and she wobbled on her feet for a bit. The person quickly began bowing to her and helped her stand straight.

"I'm so sorry, Miss Hyoyeon!" a familiar voice cried.

"It's okay. Ok, now I'm going!" Hyoyeon said and quickly ran off, catching up with her maid.

Sehun turned to see that the familiar person was a maid, who Sehun had seen around the household a few times. 

"Oh, what are you doing out late at night? Why aren't you working?" Sehun asked.

"I work for another family in the weekend, Master Sehun," the maid replied.

"What's you're name?" Sehun asked.

"Kyungin," she replied.

Luhan was whistling as he worked in the backyard. He tutted when he saw cigarette buts scattered around and picked them up with a disgusted face. He pocketed them before moving on.

"Luhan!" a familiar voice called out. Luhan was leaning down to pick up a rake, when he heard that voice. He stopped, stood up straight and turned around to face the called.

"Oh, Mr. Lang!" Luhan cried and rushed forward to greet the friendly gardener with a hug. He felt Mr. Lang tense up in the hug, but eventually softened up and melted into it.

"My boy, you sure have gotten taller," Mr. Lang said.

"Very funny, Mr. Lang. I haven't grown since I was thirteen," Luhan laughed. 

"You're still taller than me though," the gardener replied. "Ah, by the way, I happened to pass the young master on the way here and he was out in the field." 

Luhan's eyes widened and he quickly bowed to the gardener. "I can't leave him alone out there at night time. Mr. Oh will have my neck. Goodbye, Mr. Lang!"

"Ah, of course. Work hard, Luhan," Mr. Lang said and patted the boy on the back. Luhan bowed once more before running off to the fields. 

There were so many trees. Over a hundred and Luhan knew that Sehun loved being under trees. If Luhan was trying to find Sehun nine years ago, it would've been almost impossible to locate him. Sehun liked climbing them when he was little, so not only would Luhan have to look at the ground, but also int he treetops. However, Sehun was grown up now and no longer climbed them. He stuck to lying on the ground underneath the shade. It was slowly getting easier. Eventually, Luhan was able to figure out which tree Sehun was under, as Sehun usually visited the same one.

Luhan had predicted right and saw Sehun lying underneath that same tree. He chuckled, remembering how they used to play hide and seek around there. Sehun aways made Luhan the hider, which just failed, because Luhan wasn't very good with hiding himself. Sometimes, Luhan would miss playing around like kids, but they had already lost all their energy. They no longer had the time either. It saddened Luhan. He was only fifteen afterall; still legally a child.

"Master Sehun..." Luhan whispered as he approached the sleeping boy. When Sehun didn't answer, Luhan bent down and quickly duble checked the boy for injuries in which the result was none. Luhan sighed in relief and glanced down at his master.

Silence engulfed the fields and all that could be heard was the sound of crickets and the brushing of grass strands. Luhan liked these sounds. He couldn't hear them from his room and it were these kind of sounds that made him relax. Made him feel slightly sleepy too... Luhan quickly shook away the thought and looked closely at the thirteen year old boy. A few strands of hair was lying awkwardly across his face, so Luhan brushed it out and tucked it behind his ear. Luhan chuckled when he saw a small pimple growing underneath the boy's fringe.

"Ah, puberty..." Luhan sighed and patted Sehun's hair gently. "Master Sehun, you need to wake up. Mr. Oh won't be happy."

"Five minutes," Sehun whispered, shocking Luhan.

"You're awake!" Luhan cried and sat up. Sehun did too, while rubbing his eyes.

"It seems I had fallen asleep," Sehun stated.

"Oh Master, what were you thinking? Staying out here in the cold? What if you were robbed or kidnapped or injured or-"

"No more talking, Luhan," Sehun whispered and lied his head against the trunk of the tree. "I was working on som-"

"Hm?" Luhan asked when Sehun cut himself off. Then Sehun's eyes suddenly widened and he frantically got to his feet. He grabbed Luhan by the shoulders and made him turn away from the tree. In his head, Sehun was hoping that Luhan hadn't seen anything.

"Did you see anything?" Sehun asked.

"See what?" Luhan asked.

"Oh thank God. Just wait there for a minute," Sehun cried and patted Luhan's shoulder. Obeying his master, Luhan sat there still. He was immensly curious about what Sehun was doing as Sehun was making a lot of noise. Then suddenly, a bright light came from behind him and Luhan resisted the urge to turn around. There was more shuffling before Sehun patted Luhan's shoulder again.

"You can turn around now," he said.

At first it took a while for Luhan to register what was going on. His head was throwing words and pictures at him like spit fire.

Fire. Wax. Tree. Drawing- no, carving. Sehun. Luhan. A crooked love heart.

Then Luhan cried. 

He didn't know why. Was it because Sehun had just carved everything he felt for Luhan on a tree that both of them shared their childhood with? Was it because Sehun was looking at him with a difference look in his eyes that Luhan hadn't seen before? Was it because everything was so beautiful and Luhan didn't think he deserved something like that? Was it because Sehun put so much effort into and Luhan felt bad that all the time was wasted on him?

Was it all of the above?

It's just a tree. Just a tree, Luhan, Luhan thought to himself. Just a big tree with writing carved into it about their childhood and their memories, while being surrounded by a few candles. First dance, hide and seek, the cake! It was all written. Every moment that meant something to both boys was written. Luhan was just surprised how there was enough space to fit it all in.  

"U-Um...Luhan...are you sad? Do you not like it?" Sehun asked nervously. Luhan only cried in response. Sehun quickly swooped down and brought Luhan into his arms, only which made Luhan stiffen a bit. Sehun expected Luhan to relax, but Luhan stayed stiff.

"I'm sorry," Luhan whispered and turned his face off to the side.

"What are you sorry for? Are you rejecting me, Luhan?" Sehun asked. Sehun pulled away and he had this look of hurt on his face. He didn't want to be rejected. He can't be rejected. He wanted Luhan. He wanted him and no one else.

"Why?" Luhan sobbed. "Why are you doing this?"

"I wasn't happy before, Luhan," Sehun said, "I wasn't happy with the fact that you weren't mine and that people were free to take you. All I could rely on was being your company, but you had those free weekends where you disappeared. You went to Kai, didn't you?"

"I didn't disobey you, Master. I didn't go to Kai," Luhan said.

"No, Kai went to you. But you didn't reject him, didn't you, Luhan? You let him stay with you? Why?"

"Because he is the mayor's son and he deserves respect and-"

"Luhan, he likes you! And you know it! You know it very well! So why did you let him stay with you?!"

"You're scaring me, Master," Luhan trembled and Sehun took a deep breath.

"Why did you let him stay with you?"

"I...I...because Master Sehun never said that Kai could visit me..." Luhan said truthfully and looked away.

"So in the end it was my fault," Sehun whispered. Luhan looked at him with panicked eyes and gripped the boy's sleeve.

"No! It's not your fault! It's all my fault! It's my fault!" Luhan cried.

"Luhan, you have the right to think. If you think that what you did wasn't wrong, then I will accept that. If you think that what you did was wrong, I will accept that too, but you must be very sure," Sehun said. "What do you think?"

Luhan was silent for a while. In his mind, it was a complete mess. He was debating so hard, because he knew the answer. He knew that answer that lied in his heart and his mind was trying to get rid of it. Luhan knew he shouldn't open his mouth and answer. He shouldn't. He shou-

"I think I'm at fault," Luhan whispered, but now he couldn't stop. "But I don't think you're not at fault either. You had something specific in mind and I wormed and tricked my way through, just because I wanted to."

"Thank you, Luhan. For telling me," Sehun said and pulled the boy into a hug.

The boys actually just laid there for the next few minutes, letting the night fill in what was gone. Somewhere during that time, Sehun had managed to link hands with Luhan, which went totally unnoticed by the latter. Luhan kept staring up at the sky with a weird expression on his face.

"So what was all this about?" Luhan eventually asked. The shake in his voice was now gone.

"I wanted to ask you a question."

"Okay."

"No, Luhan. This is a big question."

"...Okay?"

Sehun sat up and looked down at Luhan with this determined expression on his face. Luhan knew he was being really serious this time.

"I love you, Luhan," Sehun said.

Luhan stared up at him with blinking eyes, filtering what Sehun had just said. He had probably heard Sehun say that phrase more than twice but he was still coming into grips with it. He was so unnerved, that his defence mechanism to the phrase rose.

"Sehun, I think you don't understand. What you're feeling isn't love, but this is just your ho-"

"Don't start that crap with me," Sehun intterupted and Luhan was shocked to silence. He swore. 

"I love you, Luhan and I will continue saying that until you finally understand that. It may seem weak because you think that I have only ever liked you. I used to like Hyoyeon, a long time ago. I liked her when she befriended you after you nursed her to health. I also liked Hyuna for a short time," Sehun began, "I go to school, Luhan. I see plenty of girls there, but you know what's weird? When they talk to me, I only think of them like as if they are my sisters. I don't feel the need to impress them, nor talk to them and these are girls who I hve only been with for only a short period of my life. You, however, are different. I've known you my whole life, but I always feel this urge to do something to make you proud of me or admire me."

"But I already admire you, Master Sehun," Luhan whispered. 

"You don't get it. Even though I knew that you admired me, I felt like it wasn't enough. That was when I figured it out. I was so fixed on wanting you to notice me, even though you already had. You had already noticed me from the beginning. But I just wanted to be your everything. I wanted to be your center of of attention. I wanted you to think of me and only me. You may have admired me, but I felt like you didn't admire me as much as I admired you and all I was trying to accomplish, was trying to get our admiration on the same level. But that was when I realised that the amount of admiration I had for you wasn't normal. People don't usually feel like this to my extent."

"Master Sehun...what are you trying to say?" Luhan asked.

"I love you and I want to know if you love me too. I need an answer right now. I can't wait. I'm too scared," Sehun said. "I need to know if we will walk away from this spot as lovers or as master and servant."

"I..." Luhan started. 

He tried to avoid Sehun's eyes, because the look in them was so intense. There was a fire in there that wasn't going to be extinguished until there was an answer. But it didn't work anyway. Even though Luhan was looking away, he could still imagine those dark eyes.

"Luhan..." Sehun whispered and reached out. He placed his hand on Luhan's cheek and brushed his thumb against his cheekbone. Luhan closed his eyes, trying to relax and melt into Sehun's touch. But it was so hard, when that question was poking at his mind. 

"What's your answer, Luhan?"

What's my answer?

Answer?

What is it?

Then Luhan turned towards Sehun with a determined look on his face. He was trying so hard not to break down in from of his master. He didn't want to be harsh to him. Luhan knew he had to let out the answer nice and slow, so that Sehun wouldn't hurt himself. 

Yes. I know my answer. I'm so sorry...

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OMFG. How long was I gone for?! You don't know how long I was agonizing over this chapter, wondering how to write it. But this writer's block came up and then stupid thoughts like deleting this fic started arising and I had to push it away because I love you guys so much!

Thank you so much to everyone who waited patiently. Also, thank you to that one subbie who even PMed me, which was a shock. I didn't know you would go that far. Man, you guys are freaking awesome. 

Okay, onto the comments:

kpopbadgirl: omg, I love those kind of stories too! I love love love those ones, but will I put it into the story? I don't know...

EXO_SHINee: Enthusiastic as usua. Haha :)

justanotherasiangirl: I was really wondering about that, but will I put it into the story?

babypeach: Hahahahahahaha! Are you a Kailu shipper or something? hehe

Anoniem_Anime: Thank you so much! I will just have to finish writing it off and also finish writing this story before I release it.

HotChoco_Lover125: OMG you're awesome. niga chongmal daebak. (see what I did there???) haha.