Black Pearl
The Teaser Era
Sehun
Modern Day Seoul, Slice of Life!AU
Rating: G
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One. There was always only one.
~~~~~
“Sehun!” The brown haired male looks up from his planner. “Hurry, will you?” Sehun brushes off the voice and looks back down at the little book in his hands. ‘April 20th, 2020’ is typed out in large bold print. He traces the letters and numbers with his fingers before sparing a glance at the empty space on the page below. He knows something should be there, but he cannot remember what.
~~~~~
For Christmas, Luhan – with his bright purple hair and all – gave Sehun a planner. “You’re only 16, but you always forget things and dates. So get used to using this, okay?” he said when Sehun gave Luhan a curious look.
“Look, I even filled out a few important dates in. On May 4th, Baekhyun’s birthday is noted, and May 22nd has Joonmyun’s. All our birthdays are in there.” Sehun thumbed through the pages and smiled at all the other random dates Luhan filled in.
“You know, Luhan, ‘International Pay Luhan $20 Day’ is not a real thing,” Sehun says as he looks at April 8th 2013, “and don’t expect me to celebrate ‘Buy Luhan a New Bike Day’, either.”
Luhan feigned hurt, gasping at his best friend’s cruel attitude.
“Can you at least tell me if something important is actually happening on these days?” He asked after seeing “Drive Luhan to the airport” scrawled on January 11rd, 2013.
Luhan rolled his eyes. “No, most of them were me trying to get you to do things for me. But I hope you at least remember what April 20th and December 23rd are.”
“’Course I do. I said I would remember.” Sehun closed the planner and pulled Luhan into a tight hold. “Besides, how could I ever forget my best friend’s birthday and my mom’s anniversary?”
~~~~~
On December 23rd, 2016, there were fewer flowers than the years before. Sehun knew it has been eight years, but he couldn’t help but expect there to be as many flowers as there were the years before. Jongin had magically disappeared and no one had heard from him since January 14th, 2014. Tao was on an indefinite business leave effective May 2nd, 2015, and Jongdae moved away on September 21st, 2015 and is unable to make it out these days.
But this year, Sehun notices that Yixing is missing and the entire time, he can’t help but wonder where Yixing could possibly be or how long he had been missing before he even noticed.
~~~~~
Jongin walked into Sehun’s bedroom all nonchalantly as if it were his own. “Hey, Sehun, where’s the book I lent you last week? I have to return it to the library on Thursday.”
Sehun got up from his desk and looked at a stack of book that accumulated over the past few years. His bookshelf was too full for anything else, but Luhan insisted on buying him more books for every birthday, congratulation, and holiday. Sehun didn’t mind since he was such an avid reader, but it was a little inconvenient looking through the pile of books on the floor.
The book in question was near the top of the stack. He chucked it over at Jongin before diving back into his homework. “Now quit bugging me; I have to finish this paper for Friday.”
“Yeah, yeah, maybe you should pull out the stick that’s up your before you sit back down.”
“What did you-“
“See ya, Sehun!”
That was the last conversation they had.
~~~~~
The weirdest thing to Sehun was that everyone else accepted everything. No one questioned Jongin’s disappearance or called Tao to see if he knew when he would be coming back. Joonmyun went to visit Jongdae once, but when Sehun ran into Joonmyun next, it was like the visit never even happened.
~~~~~
Sehun didn’t even notice when Minseok disappeared. It was hard to notice when everyone acted like he never even existed. He only realized it when March 26th, 2017 came around and no one had made plans for Minseok’s birthday.
“Don’t you remember?” Baekhyun asked, somewhat incredulously, “He was sent to a private school and his parents cut him off from the outside world completely.”
Sehun quickly processed the bit of information. He didn’t question it, though. In fact, it made total sense. It had just been so long he forgot.
…right?
~~~~~
Kyungsoo and Baekhyun disappeared within a few months of each other. By now, Sehun was quite used to his friends dropping off the face of the earth and never being heard from again. He did miss Kyungsoo’s cooking, but Chanyeol made do for everyone by supplying snacks on demand.
He looked at the old 2013 planner that Luhan had given him years agi. It started a good habit that Sehun has been able to keep up even now, but he finds it hard to toss the little books away at each year-end. It was already August 2018, and he had a new planner that was not dated five years. Sehun chalked his little packrat problem up to liking a physical pieced of evidence of things that had happened.
The date January 12th, 2013 catches his eye. He knows something was written there ages ago, but any traces of the writing were erased. Not scratched out. Erased.
Sehun flipped through more pages. January 14th. May 2nd. October 7th. All of them wiped clean of whatever he had written, but for the life of him cannot remember what was written.
Maybe nothing ever actually was written.
Sehun breathed a bit and got a grip on reality just in time for Luhan to walk into is room and crash on Sehun’s bed.
“Uh, since when did you barge into my house like this?”
“Uh, I always do?” Luhan said with a mocking tone.
Sehun paused. Oh, right Luhan did always walk in like it was his own. Sehun looked back at the planner. Something still felt wrong about this revelation, but who else did Sehun know who waltzed into a room as nonchalantly as Luhan? No one, I guess.
“Come on, you didn’t forget, did you?” Sehun looked at the calendar sitting on his desk. December 23rd, 2018.
“’Course not.”
~~~~~
When Joonmyun stopped showing up to make sure Sehun was eating properly, Sehun went a week without having a proper meal.
“Eat better, you idiot.” Wufan said one day.
Sehun glared as he finished off a second back of chips. “You sound just like…”
“Like?”
“…I don’t know.”
~~~~~
Joonmyun was always the nag of the group. He nagged all of them – Sehun, Luhan, Wufan, and Chanyeol. It’s why he was the mom of the group even though he wasn’t a great cook.
That was…wait, who of us cooked?
Chanyeol walked back to their card game with a plate full of snacks.
Right. No one ever cooks anything other than ramyun. Chanyeol just always has snacks.
~~~~~
Sehun barely noticed the absence of two giants, which was weird because he no longer had to look up to talk to people. Luhan was always shorter than him, after all.
“You’re always hanging out with your new friends.”
“Am not,” Sehun retorts, “you’re the one who is never around.”
“I am! We all are. You just never pay attention to us anymore.”
“We? What are you-“ Sehun’s phone cuts in.
“Yah, I’m outside now. Hurry up!”
“Be there in a sec, Jiyoung.” Sehun hangs up and grabs a jacked. “Lock up, will you?” Sehun is out the door before Luhan can object.
~~~~~
Sometimes, they jokingly called themselves the 12 musketeers: totally inseparable and loyal to the bitter end.
That was the idea, at least.
~~~~~
Sehun walked to the cemetery, a single bouquet of flowers in his hands. The tombstone on the grave was slightly dirty and moss had begun sticking to the sides. I should clean this for you next time, mom. Sehun thought as he laid down the bouquet. His fingers traced the engraved letters as he said a little prayer. It had been twelve years. And like every year before, Sehun was the only one to bring flowers on December 23rd.
~~~~~
“Sehun!” The brown haired male looks up from his planner. “Hurry, will you?” Sehun brushes off the voice and looks back down at the little book in his hands. ‘April 20th, 2020’ is typed out in large bold print. He traces the letters and numbers with his fingers before sparing a glance at the empty space below. He knows something should be there, but he cannot remember what.
He knows something should be there. And he knows he promised to never forget. Still, the entire memory escapes him.
“Hey Jiyoung, is something happening on April 20th?”
The other man pulls out his phone and looks at this calendar. “Not that I know of. Maybe your other friends know?”
“Jiyoung, you know I don’t have and friends other than you and people from work.” Sehun is surprisingly not bitter at the admission.
“Well you got me beat, then.” Jiyoung ruffles Sehun’s hair and walks ahead before he can retaliate.
Sehun fixes his hair before walking into the company building.
Oh well. I guess it wasn’t important.
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thanks again to my friend Chrissy for betaing for me <3
the ambiguous backstory is something like Sehun's mom passing and he copes by creating imaginary friends to fill the void. As he gets older he looses the need for his friends as work and reality encroaches on his life, but in the back of his mind he still knows something (or someone) is there.
fyi: everyone disappears in the order they were revealed with the exception of Luhan because
a) hunhan
b) i liked that he had an april birthday for some reason
and the actual date of their disappearance is their birthdate. December 23rd is the day their first teaser dropped (I think...I got 2 or 3 different dates), January 11th is the day the HunHan Angel teaser dropped, and April 8th is their debut stage date.
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