CHAPTER 4:TALENT FEE

Seven years ago, Luhan fell in love.

Seven years ago too, he had his heart crushed and broken.

Five years ago, he had finally convinced himself to move on.

Three years ago, he thought he had completely healed.

Two years ago, he fell in love again.

And five months ago, he swore he won't ever love again only to be broken in the end. He swore he'd make sure to find the right person who's really worthy of his heart and the person who would finally reciprocate his love...

-/-

The first thing that came to Luhan's mind when he saw this 'dazzling' creature slowly and smilingly approaching him was an image of an angel. His heart figuratively fluttered to the ground when the guy stopped by in front of him, his blinding smile never leaving his lips which made Luhan's every fiber tremble. He bit his lower lip and looked at his side, thinking a person might be there that might be this dazzling guy's real target and not him; but alas, there's none, so he's 200 percent sure that he was the dazzling guy's real target.

And the huge obvious question was: What would this guy be needing from him?

Just as though the dazzling guy had read his mind, he brought his hand towards Luhan's (and he blushed!), and prompted for a handshake. "Hi! My name is Byun Baekhyun," the guy greeted-slash-introduced in a cheerful way, showing off his rectangular-shaped mouth when he smiled, making him amused. "What's yours?"

"H-hello," he shyly greeted back. "I'm Luhan. What can I do for you?" Luhan's stomach was raging with butterflies. He couldn't explain the feeling––there was confusion and nervousness, yet, he sort of liked it. He liked how his heart was beating rapidly as if it was about to jump off his ribcage.

The feeling was new.

But he liked it.

"Oh, nothing, really," and Baekhyun laughed, making Luhan want to close his eyes and just listen to him. Because heck, why did this guy’s laughter sound… good in his ears? "Are you a freshman?"

Are you single? "Y-yeah..." Luhan wanted to slap himself. Jesus Christ! You just met the guy!

Baekhyun's face, much to Luhan's amusement, suddenly lit up. "Cool! I am, too. Can we be friends?" Baekhyun draped an arm around his shoulders and 'shock' wasn't enough to describe how he was feeling. It took Luhan all of his energy just to keep himself conscious and avoid fainting, which for him was very hard to do since Baekhyun's scent ('Chocolate! he smells like chocolate,' his mind told him) made him go crazy. No, scratch that, the mere presence of Baekhyun was enough to take him out of his 'caged world'…

"HUH!"

LUHAN woke up with a terrible headache. His vision was unclear and his world was spinning. He discovered a bottle of liquor in his hand––the obvious reason why he felt like that time––when he tried to massage his forehead. The light that was emitting through the curtains added to his misery, much to his dismay. When he was finally on his senses, he hardly closed his eyes and covered his face with his hands.

That... that dream, that memory... It haunts me whenever I have thought about him even just for a split second. A tear unconsciously fell off his eye. Baek... hyun... How is he? Does he think about me, too? Or has he already completely forgotten me?

Luhan suddenly shook his head. What was he thinking? Of course Baekhyun had already forgotten him! He was just nothing to him anyway. He had clearly heard of that — the confirmation that he was just a mere nothing to Baekhyun, when on the other hand, Baekhyun was his everything.

With a heavy heart, Luhan finally got up from bed and did his morning routine before heading off to work.

-/-

BAEKHYUN decided to fight off the boredom that was slowly creeping its way into him by eyeing the people who were loudly grooving and enjoying themselves on the dance floor, occasionally taking a sip of the drink he asked from the bartender. 

Well, he was at a bar, sitting at the stool that was not too far away from the entrance, fighting off the urge to contact a person he had been longing to meet. And reconcile with.

The tip of the glass was just a few centimetres’ away from his plump lips when an excited voice of greeting boomed into his ears, letting his lips curve into a wide smile – his infamous rectangular smile. That voice, which belonged to the person who was the reason he was waiting. "Baekhyun-ah! I'm so glad you're finally back!" 

Baekhyun turned around and tightly hugged the said person without even checking its face.

"Yixing! I thought you wouldn't come. I missed you, amnesiac guy!" He replied with an