July 11th, 1991

Sehun woke up pleasantly, his fingers curling around the fabric of his bedsheets as he smiled into his pillow. 

He had been thinking carefully about what Luhan had said the night before and he was more than sure now that Luhan did say that he loved Sehun. It was too bad that he had to whisper it. Sehun turned over in his bed, lying on his other side as he thought of different things he could say to trigger Luhan to repeat what he had said. About half the things he imagined he thought he didn't even have the courage to do. 

Sehun could hear his parents far away, probably in the main hall. That was when he remembered that Jodi would be leaving for good now and that he wouldn't have to worry about Luhan getting caught up in her business any longer. He actually wanted to get up and bid her farewell so that he could see with his very own eyes that she was leaving, but when he glanced at the clock on his bedside table, he freaked out when he saw the numbers 10:12am blaring on the screen. He quickly shut his eyes, knowing that if Luhan saw him up at that time, Luhan would actually get mad and he didn't want Luhan to get mad. 

There was the dragging sound of bag wheels and more quick sharp words being said. He could hear Mr. Kim's loud voice amongst it all and he scowled. Then he could hear Jodi's voice and Luhan's. His hands twitched, wanting to get up and go, but he managed to hold himself down. Then he remembered his window and he shot up from his bed.

Sehun stood up and glanced out the window, seeing Jessica, Krystal, one of the butlers, Kyungmi, Luhan, his parents and Mr. Kim and Jodi standing outside. Luhan was by Jodi's side, his head down staring at the floor. The servants and his parents were looking at Luhan, Jodi and Mr. Kim and seemed to be telling them something. Then suddenly, Sehun's mother reached out and patted Luhan on the head. They seemed to exchange words before all three, Luhan and Jodi and Mr. Kim, bowed and started to board the car waiting out front the house.

Mr. Kim got in first, followed by Jodi and then Luhan. It was only when Luhan got in that he started to feel sick to his stomach. He threw himself out of bed and went rushing out of his room. He dashed down the hallways and turned the corner to reach the front door. Sehun threw it open and sprinted out, ignoring the sounds of his parents shouting at him.

"Why did you make him go with them?!" he shouted behind his shoulder. "He hates Mr. Kim! How could you do that to him?!"

"Sehun!" his mother shouted desperately. "You don't have to panic!"

"Shut up!" Sehun shouted back and managed to catch up with the car before it left the gates.

Sehun approached the side Luhan was sitting on and he started to bang his fists rapidly on the window. Luhan turned his head and his mouth fell open in shock before he opened the door to see what Sehun was trying to say.

"I thought I told you to sleep in and-"

"Luhan! Why are you in the car?!" Sehun shouted. Luhan froze for a second before he smiled gently and reached out to pat Sehun's cheek.

"Don't panic, Master. I'm escorting Mr. Kim and Jodi to the airport," Luhan explained. Sehun stood there, panting heavily with a still not satisfied look on his face.

"Why couldn't they bring someone else?" Sehun asked.

"Because I know English, Master Sehun and someone needs to navigate them through the airport," Luhan replied. Then he reached out and patted Sehun's air affectionately. It wasn't something Luhan had done before, so Sehun reached up and grasped Luhan's hand.

"Come back quickly then," Sehun said. Luhan nodded in reply.

"As fast as I can," Luhan replied and Sehun reluctantly let Luhan's hand go and Luhan shut the door. Sehun stood by the gates and listened as the car started up again and drove off. Sehun stared through the back window, watching as one of Jodi's arms suddenly reached out and pulled Luhan in. The sudden gesture had Sehun boiling and he kicked at the ground, sending stones into the air.

Sehun stomped back towards the house, pushing past his parents who tried to stop him.

"Son, calm down," his father warned him. "You have your training at twelve. I suggest you get ready."

"Yes father," Sehun sighed and lazily walked into the house. 

"That poor boy," Mrs. Oh muttered and Mr. Oh rested a hand on her shoulder in comfort. 

The training was horribly long. The only reason he managed to stay awake was because he was always partnered up with Jongin throughout it and even thought they were partners, it was like they were working against each other than with each other. They were always trying to outdo the other's work. In the end, they both ended up being awarded as the top students anyway, holding the joint trophy. Sehun couldn't believe he had to work with the guy for four hours straight. And that wasn't all. They had a team building activity afterwards, as if it couldn't get any worse, and there was leg races of the sort. There was also lunch too, where they had no choice but to sit together at a table secluded from everyone else because they came in late (due to the fact that they almost killed each other in the last soccer game and had to get patched up). 

"Pass the salt, dog," Jongin muttered and Sehun reached out and flicked it towards him, but he had flicked it a bit too hard and it fell into Jongin's lap. 

"Oops," Sehun muttered and went back to his food. But it was a second later when suddenly a gollop of salt dropped into his soup and Sehun recoiled in shock before pushing his chair back and standing to his feet. 

"," Jongin muttered. 

"," Sehun shouted back and everyone was now looking at them in curiosity. 

"I have no idea what you're talking about," Jongin smirked and Sehun jumped forward and tackled Jongin to the floor, his hands around Luhan's neck. 

"What you did to Luhan was wrong! How dare you put him in that kind of position?!" Sehun cried. 

"Get off!" Jongin struggled to cry out. Someone grabbed Sehun from behind and pulled him off before whispering something harsh in his ear. 

"Both of you, get up and out before the trainers find out about this," one of the older kids demanded and Sehun huffed as he wrenched himself away from his holder and stomped off out the door. Jongin did the same too, following his suit but walking into a different direction. Sehun hated trainings. Year after year of leadership and frendship building. Made him sick to the core. 

"Mum, I'm home," Sehun called out and his mother came rushing from the dining hall area. Sehun heard his father shut the door behind him and Sehun approached his nearing mother. 

"How did it go?" she asked him and Sehun nodded his head. 

"I won a trophy," Sehun told her and she brushed his hair with her fingers lovingly. 

"My boy, you make me so proud," she whispered, a sad tone in her voice. He was about to ask he what was wrong when his father suddenly stepped in, grabbing his mother and gently holding her. 

"We have something we need to tell you," Mr. Oh said and Sehun raised his eyebrows. 

"Can it just wait for a few minutes? Luhan's back already, right? I need to ask Luhan to fetch me some of my exam papers," Sehun said and dashed off, his hand out with his palm facing towards his parents. 

"He's going to find out," Mrs. Oh said, her voice trembling. 

"Brace yourself," Mr. Oh whispered. 

"Luhan!" Sehun shouted and knocked on Luhan's door. There was no reply. "Luhan, did you just have a shower? Are you decent?" Still no reply. So Sehun just did what he always did and pushed the door open and walked in.

A sight so terrible stared at him in the face.

It was a sight that was going to haunt him for the rest of his life.

Sehun felt the bile rising in his stomach.

A stripped bed.

Bare walls.

Empty closet.

Dead silence.

And for a second, Sehun was still, reeling emotionally. 

"No..." Sehun whispered into the bare room and he rushed forward, grabbing onto the hooks of the drawers and wrenched them open. He pulled them so hard, thinking that it would be heavy, but it was so light that he pulle them out completely and three empty drawers fell to the ground and clanged together. Sehunn shook his head even more and jumped over to the closet and flung the doors open. Empty. The hooks were still there, swaying a bit from the momentum. Sehun turned around and started pulling at the mattress, flinging it off and scratching his nails against the wires underneath.

He screamed. He screamed as he dragged his nails down the wall, scratching the wallpaper on the wall to uncover the old white paint underneath. Sehun imagined Luhan's shocked face when he saw the tree. He scratched past that too, until his nails were broken and bleeding. He imagined dancing with him when they were little, their co-ordination messed up but beautiful in itself. Sehun screamed as he grabbed the swaying coset doors and brutally ripped them off it's hinges before grabbing the whole closet and tipping it over. He imagined Luhan kissing him for the first time. He screamed and shoved the drawers so hard into the wall that it created cracks and holes. Sehun imagined Luhan's glowing warm smile the morning they had woken up after they had given up themselves to each other.  

Then he dropped to the ground, his heart throbbing in pain, his head heavy and a sob settling the silence. He wrapped his arms around himself and bent over, the tears streaming down his face, seemingly dragging him towards the ground.

He imagined Luhan sitting in the car, head turned away as he drove off with the words as fast as I can lingering in the air.

Sehun felt like he was dying. His heart was rotting, wasting away as his resistence drove further and further away from him.

"Sehun!" a woman shrieked and a pair of warm arms wrapped themselves around Sehun. Ice glazed over him and he turned rigid in the hold.

"You...y-you knew," Sehun stuttered.

"You're hurt, Sehun-"

"You knew!" Sehun cried and stood up, pointing a figure at his mother who was still kneeling on the ground. 

"He wanted-"

"He. That bastard? Luhan?" Sehun spat with venom. "God I hate him."

"No! You love him and he loves you," his mother protested. Sehun scoffed.

"I know, mother. I love him and not in the way you're thinking. I love him," Sehun said and Mrs. Oh found herself frozen to the spot. "But I don't know if he loves me. He always s around with me, with my feelings. He's just twisted and sick like that."

"Shut up, Sehun! You know very well that-"

"Are you not even going to reprimand me on my forbidden feeings for him?" Sehun questioned, an eyebrow raising. "Did you know we've already had ?"

"Enough, Sehun! Enough! That boy loves you, he loves you. I don't care what you've done, but you've known him long enough to know that he's not like that!" Mrs. Oh cried, her eyes beginning to prick with guilty tears. 

"You know what?! Yeah, I've known him for eleven years, but I feel like he's a stranger! He was always pulling away from me, too scared to get near me! He never liked me! He only did all that stuff with me because I was in charge of him," Sehun said, sounding like as if he was trying to convince himself.

"We did that to him, Sehun! He's like that because of us, this family! We've taken everything away from him and even when we gave him things, those things controlled him too! We gave him you and well of course you were his master, but he was also your friend! You don't know what that boy would say when you weren't around. He basks in your presense, he proudly serves you, but most of all, he willingly loves you and cherishes you and it's sad that you can't see how he shows you that, because you're looking for the material things. You're looking for physical things that he could offer you, but Luhan's not like that! He gives his all to you, his heart, but you're so angry right now that you don't even awknowledge it!" his mother shouted and suddenly she was panting and holding his chest in pain. 

"Mother..." Sehun whispered.

"You're not the only one who is angry about Luhan leaving," she whispered. "But you're the only one who is too selfish to understand why Luhan left." And that was all. She was done and was walking out of the room, her footsteps light but heavy with sorrow.

"You're tearing us apart, Luhan," Sehun barely managed to say.

Luhan stared down at his ticket. It was his name on that paper, right? America was written on it, right? This isn't a dream. He didn't even know he was crying until a droplet of water fell over his gate number. He quickly wiped his tears away just in time, when someone shouted his name from behind him.

"Luhan!" Luhan spun around and saw Hyuna dashing towards him at top speed and he didn't have enough time to tell her to slow down before she collided into him. She was hugging him- no, holding him, in comfort and it was more than what Luhan could have ever asked for.

"We are boarding now, I think," Luhan told her.

"Who cares about boarding? What about you? How are you holding up?" she asked.

"I..." Luhan started off on a good note, about to tell about how excited he was, but then a look of dread fell over his face when he realise that Sehun was going to find out about his disappearance.

"We should go guys," Jodi informed them, interrupting Luhan mid sentence. She gave them both a soft look before glancing at Hyuna to lead the way. Hyuna threw a pointed look in Luhan's direction before she looped her arm through his and walked forward heading towards their gate.

But for Luhan, it was more heading towards the freedom he thought he had to buy once upon a time.

I...I can't leave. I don't want to leave you, Sehun. 

And that's the reason why I left you.

Because knowing that I don't want to leave you means that if I decide not to leave you, I'll be forever trapped here, an eagle thinking he's a chicken who cannot fly. I will never know my limits.

Luhan pulled out a purple scarf from his bag and wrapped it around his neck. 

It's sadistic, I know, but I was entertained by your response to the last chapter. I'm sorry guys. I'm done the whole word trick thing all over again. Well, it was funny because a whole lot of people who hadn't commented before did and I'm so happy to see you guys! Anyways, onto the comments:

MinHa-Chu - Welcome new subscriber! I hope you liked it *nervous fiddle*

katie_oh - *pulls out first aid kit*

To everyone else who were like 'yay Luhan figured out his feelings and he's going to stay' - :'(( I'm so sorry. I'm so so so so sorry. I just...I just like tricking everyone, but I got a much bigger response from this than I thought. Like, I thought there would be at least one person that would be like 'Hmmm not sure about this but we will see later' but AAEMEGLjnsaf983iUN. Okay.

sapphire_22 - OMG UR A NEW READER HELLO HELLO HELLO. Hahaa welcome!!!