14 years ago

“Say it!”

The nine year old grabbed the smaller boy by his messy blonde hair and yanked him down so he fell to his knees. A small group of boys of similar age surrounded them, laughing and jeering at the scene in front of them.

“C’mon pansy boy, say it! Say, ‘Stupid-Sehun-sells-sea-shells-by-the-sea-shore’. Come on, it’s not that hard!”

Sehun let out a shaky breath of air and blinked back tears as he felt the familiar sting in his scalp, where more than a few blonde strands of hair were pulled out under Jonghyun’s grip.

“Just punch him, Jonghyun! Maybe then the brat will talk.”

Sehun thrashed and pulled, trying to get Jonghyun to let go of his hair. He felt a few more of his hairs being pulled out and he feared that he’d end up leaving this fight bald. Sehun grabbed Jonghyun’s hands and tried to pry each of his individual fingers free but with the amount of strength the leader of the child gang was putting into his grasp, Sehun would probably need a wrench to pull his hair out of Jonghyun’s hands.

He squeezed his eyes shut, tears spilling freely from his eyes as Jonghyun swung his fist again, landing another punch into Sehun’s stomach.

“Say. It. Stupid. Sehun. Sells. Sea. Shells. By. The. Sea. Shore.” With every word that left Jonghyun’s mouth, Sehun’s gut received another not so friendly meeting with a hard set of knuckles.

After Jonghyun was satisfied with the amount of hits he’d dealt to the poor boy, he flung Sehun hard against the gravelly ground, causing a choked yelp to escape from the younger’s lips. Sehun pulled himself into the foetal position, burying his head in his arms as he shook with muffled sobs.

One of Jonghyun’s friends scoffed at the pathetic sight in front of him and bent down to pick up a rock. He hurled it at the crying boy causing him to flinch at the sharp pain as it hit his back.

“I think our little friend here needs a little more convincing, don’t you think so guys?” Sehun heard shuffling of feet, followed by a few menacing chuckles. He lifted his head out of his arms slightly and looked up to see the gang with their hands filled with rocks.

“Ready your weapons.” Jonghyun ordered. 

 Sehun’s eyes widened with fear and just before he could get assaulted with the rock shower, he quickly sat up and held his hands up in front of his face as an act of surrender.

“W-wait…!” He spluttered.

The boys held their rocks in their hands, their faces waiting with anticipation. Sehun sniffed and let out a shaky sigh before repeating the phrase that seemed oh-so important to the bullies.

 “T-Thtupid…Thehun  …thells thea thells…by the th-thea thore…”

Jonghyun and his friends dropped their rocks and erupted with laughter, some of them doubling over due to the hilarity that was Sehun’s lisp.

Sehun let out a defeated whimper as he wiped the tears from his flushed face. His face had grown so red that if you held a blood red apple up in front of his nose, it would be completely camouflaged into invisibility. Sehun hated his voice—more specifically, his lisp. He was constantly teased and bullied by this group of boys. They forced him to talk and say tongue twisters that involved sounds that were difficult to pronounce for Sehun. For some reason they found his speech impediment hilarious and would stop at nothing to get their weekly dose of lisp laughs.

Sehun saw an opening in the little circle the boys had formed around him and decided to bolt through while he had the chance. There was no way he was sticking around any longer because he knew the group’s routine like the back of his hand—they beat the lisp out of him, laughed, then beat him up some more because, well, why not?

It was no surprize to Sehun when he heard angry yells and the thumping of feet coming from behind him as he tried to make his escape. He tried to mentally get his bearings straight so he could direct himself back to the village but with the fear and adrenaline pumping through him, he just couldn’t focus enough to care. All he could think of was—run.

So that’s what he did. He forced all of the little strength he had into his scrawny legs and powered through the trees. He felt his muscles strain, his tears whipped backwards as the cold air pushed against his face. Every muscle in Sehun’s body was telling him to stop and rest but the slowly fading sounds of the bullies’ threats kept him going—he was almost free.

Unfortunately, that feeling of near freedom came to a sudden halt when he arrived at a certain fence—the very same fence that his parents told him to stay away from—the same fence that separated the two warring tribes.

“You’re dead when we find you, freak!”

Hearing the taunt, Sehun realized that he had stayed stationary for far too long staring at the fence, allowing his pursuers to make up quite a bit of ground between them. There was no more time for thinking. Sehun climbed the fence and hopped over without hesitation and ran towards the bushes on the EXO-M territory.

He crouched down in a thick bush and peeped through the gaps as he saw his predators emerge from the trees.

 “What?! Where’d that stupid brat go?” Jonghyun hit his taller friend over the head. “Minho! How could you lose him like that, ?!”

Sehun watched as the tall one rubbed his head and huffed at his leader. He clasped his hands and prayed to Mama to make the boys give up their search and to just go away. He then closed his eyes and listened to the sound of his own breathing as he tried to calm himself down.

However, this plan to calm himself down failed when he heard another set of steady breaths coming from behind him. His breath got caught in his throat and he felt his already fast beating heart quicken even more. Feeling a warm tickle of air on the back of his neck, he slowly turned his head, already giving into the thought that he would possibly be eaten by some wild boar or wolf or any other dangerous creatures that could be lurking in the forest with him. But instead of coming face-to-face with an evil, hungry beast like he’d expected to, he turned around to a pair of large, curious and all too innocent puppy dog eyes—only inches away from his own. To say he almost peed himself was an understatement.

Before he could let out any form of scream, the boy with the puppy dog eyes tackled him to the ground, slapping his hand across Sehun’s mouth. Sehun looked up at the boy with wide, alarmed eyes. He looked him up and down and took in his appearance.

 

Pale white skin

Small oval face with delicate features.

Blonde head of hair—just like his own.

 

Sehun’s eyes travelled down towards the hand that was clasped tightly over his mouth and he saw a very familiar bracelet around the young boy’s wrist—it was a trainee warrior bracelet, worn by young future warriors. There was an engraving on the small hexagonal pendant.

EXO-M

Luhan

Sehun’s body started to tremble as he begun to wish that it was a wild beast instead. He tried to push the boy off of him but the M-trainee was simply too strong. Sehun whimpered and tears started to recollect in his sockets. He was scared—very scared. If the kids back home beat him to a bloody pulp, he could only imagine what an EXO-M trainee warrior would do to him.

“Shh..!” The boy, possibly named Luhan, whispered as he looked up towards the border, his face strained with a concerned expression.

“There’s no way he’d jump the fence right?” Sehun heard a distant Jonghyun ask.

“Of course not, he’s dumb but he couldn’t be that dumb right?”

“He must’ve gone this way…come on before we lose him completely!”

Shuffling of feet and crunching of leaves and twigs were heard.

“Pfft. Even if he has gone to the other side, good riddens. I’m sure the EXO-M tribe would make a good meal out of him.” And with that last comment from Jonghyun, the young gang walked back into the trees to continue their search for Sehun somewhere else.

The EXO-M trainee let out a relieved sigh and let his grip on Sehun loosen allowing Sehun to wriggle out from under him with a small pig-like squeal. He scampered backwards until he was as far away from the boy as possible. He wanted to bolt but he knew that there was no way he could out run someone training to be a warrior. After all, Sehun was just a scrawny little village boy with little to no muscle tone and the little strength he did have was already used on his little escape with Jonghyun.

Sehun watched warily as the other blonde boy looked at him with curiousness and wonder. Sehun braced himself, waiting for the moment the doe eyed boy pounced on him; then maybe tie him up and take him home for dinner.

But he did nothing of the sort. Instead he relaxed and cracked a friendly smile.

“Hi I’m Luhan!”  The older boy crossed his legs and rocked back and forth on his bum, “What’s your name?”

Sehun stared at the boy before him, scrutinizing his every move. He searched his eyes for any sign of deviousness or danger—nothing. In fact, all he saw in the boy’s eyes was innocence and naivety. His body language was that of a 5 year old, despite the fact he was clearly older than Sehun. Sehun wasn’t sure what to think. He couldn’t understand how un-dangerous this Luhan boy looked. How normal he looked. How harmless he looked.

It’s a trap.

Sehun’s messy fringe curtained his eyes but that didn’t stop Luhan from seeing the nervous, suspicious glare that was being shot at him through the golden drapes of hair. He noticed how Sehun seemed to get more and more tense with every second that flickered by. Luhan didn’t get offended with the boy’s actions though, he understood why there was so much distrust in the boy—being from two different tribes is not something that should be taken lightly.

“I said…what’s your name?” Luhan asked again with a playful ring in his voice. He got on his hands and knees and crawled towards Sehun but with every step he took towards the boy, Sehun just sunk further and further into the bush behind him. Sehun shot up onto his feet when Luhan had gotten too close for comfort and with a swift movement he turned his back to the older boy to begin his second attempt of escape for today—but within seconds, Luhan had dashed in front of him, blocking his path. He leaned forward and tilted his head to the side like a confused puppy, their noses almost touching. He fluttered his eyes cutely as Sehun flinched backwards, uncomfortable with Luhan’s lack of knowledge about personal space. Sehun noticed that the boy was almost a head and a half taller than himself.

 “Why so quiet? What, don’t you have a name?” Luhan asked when Sehun continued to stare dumbly at him. Sehun stuck his lips out in a pout and shook his head stubbornly. Luhan couldn’t hold back his smile due to how adorable he found Sehun’s stubborn nature. He’d only just met the boy and he already started to like him. “Okay, fine, don’t tell me. Guess I’m going to have to call you Shorty until you fess up!”

Sehun’s eyebrows furrowed and he instinctively opened his mouth to protest against this stupid nickname—he hated being called short—but he quickly stopped himself just in time before anything left his mouth. He’d already got beaten up enough for today—both physically and mentally. There was no way he could take any more teasing or laughing. He needed to keep his weird way of talking a secret from the EXO-M boy.

He pursed his lips together into a straight line and shot a glare of disapproval to the taller boy. Luhan chuckled and poked his tongue out playfully as he pressed his index finger between Sehun’s eyes where a wrinkle had formed. Sehun looked away as he batted at Luhan’s hand like a pissed off cat. He let out a small frustrated grunt when Luhan giggled sweetly at him. He didn’t want to look at Luhan’s happy face any longer—it was annoying him. Someone from EXO-M wasn’t meant to be that happy looking. They were not meant to look so innocent. They were not meant to look so…not evil.

Sehun tried to look for another way to escape when his eyes were drawn to the bow and arrow strapped to Luhan’s back. He remembered watching the archers back home practicing their shots at the training grounds and he’d always wanted to learn. His mother however, told him he was too clumsy and fragile for anything like that and that he should stick to easier hobbies like gardening or sweeping.  

Luhan watched as Sehun’s expression changed, awe and envy taking over his face. He looked back at his bow and then back to Sehun.

 “Do you…want to see it?” Luhan asked as he took the archers bow from his back and held it out to Sehun. Sehun jumped a few feet backwards out of the bush. He stared at the outstretched weapon with fear, as if the thing would come to life any minute and bite his head off.

“It’s okay! It’s not dangerous. You can hold it if you want.” Sehun looked up at Luhan, unsure on what he should do. Luhan tilted his head to the side and flashed a warm smile at the younger.

“Take it. I trust you.” Luhan nodded his head and placed the weapon is Sehun’s little hands. Sehun grasped the bow, his arms trembling as he stared at it with awe. He had only ever held a weapon once in his life when he sneakily went to the weapons hut and picked up a spear. It didn’t end well of course because due to his clumsiness he ended up dropping it on his foot and screaming so loud that it alerted the whole village to his whereabouts. He was grounded for 30 moon cycles and was forbidden to ever take foot in the weapons hut ever again. 

Sehun averted his gaze back up to Luhan and saw the boy’s innocent, carefree smile shining at him. Despite being part of EXO-M, Luhan looked like a really kind hearted and friendly person. Not to mention naïve—after all, who in their right mind would simply hand over their only weapon to someone from an enemy tribe and say that they trust them after 30 seconds of meeting them. Not someone who was smart, that’s for sure.

“Do you know how to use it?” Luhan asked, receiving a slow, uncertain head shake from Sehun. Luhan nodded knowingly and flashed a smug grin causing Sehun to feel beyond nervous.

Sehun’s eyes widened as Luhan trotted around him and rested his chin atop his head, placing his hands on top of his. Before Sehun could blink, Luhan had positioned the bow in Sehun’s hands so he was holding it correctly. He took out an arrow from his arrow case, placed it in the bow and manoeuvring Sehun’s hands like a puppet, he pulled the arrow back expertly and fired it at a nearby tree, hitting it dead in the middle.

Sehun blinked at the arrow stuck in the tree and looked down at the bow still in his hands. He let out a shaky breath as he realized how fast his pulse was—to say Sehun was exhilarated by this was an understatement. He shivered subconsciously as he felt himself slowly come down from his high and Luhan was instantly worried that he’d over stepped the boundaries. But when he saw the amazed look on the shorter boys face, his worry faded and he patted him on the back.

“Well done, Shorty!” Luhan pried the bow out of Sehun’s sweaty fingers and slung it over his back again. He winked at Sehun and smiled. “You’re a natural.”

Sehun looked around shyly as he shuffled his feet nervously in the dirt. He felt a smile trying to creep its way on to his face but Sehun bit his bottom lip to put it back in its place. He still didn’t fully trust Luhan just yet and didn’t want to show any signs of weakness. And in Sehun’s opinion, smiling was a very big weakness. It displayed a person’s likes and desires—both of which could be used against you. Other kids from the village were so easy to read based on when they smiled or when they frowned. Sehun hated that and didn’t want to be as manipulable as the others, which is why he always wore his stone cold mask. As much as his gut told him that he could trust Luhan, his parents voice in his head stopped him from fully giving in to that happy smile of his.

“Stay away from EXO-M. They can’t be trusted, they’re all savage dogs.”

 “Anyway Shorty,” The distant sound of a gong pulled Sehun out of his thoughts, “My parents want me back for dinner and it’s starting to get dark so I have to head off now.”

Sehun looked up at Luhan and saw the pout the older boy was wearing. Sehun resisted the urge to laugh at him and he wondered if Luhan knew how feminine he looked sometimes.

Sehun nodded his head, glad to be able to finally part ways with the EXO-M boy. He turned and started to scamper away when he felt a hand pull his shoulder back, forcing him to turn back to Luhan. He saw sadness all over the older boys face and he felt a pang of guilt hit him.

“Not even going to say goodbye?”

Sehun let out a hushed sigh and rolled his eyes which earned him another one of Luhan’s girly pouts. Sehun pulled his shoulder back releasing himself from Luhan’s grip and took a few quick steps backwards to let him know that he was not comfortable with the contact. Luhan’s pout formed into his sad frown again and he opened his mouth to apologize to Sehun but stopped when he saw the younger boy lift his hand, giving Luhan a small, shy wave. Luhan’s eyes crinkled at the sides as a huge grin formed across his face. Luhan waved back at Sehun in return.

“Bye-bye to you too, Shorty!”

Sehun’s eyes snapped up to meet Luhan’s with a glare, still unhappy with Luhan’s choice of nickname. Luhan simply poked his tongue out and made a ‘V’ with his fingers, forming the peace sign. Sehun ignored this cute gesture and walked away with a brisk speed.

“Shorty!” He heard Luhan call from behind, causing him to stop in his tracks and look at the blonde boy over his shoulder.

“Meet me here again tomorrow at the same time!”

Sehun’s eyes widened with shock—and maybe with a little bit of fear too. He shook his head vigorously; thoughts of what the M-warrior had planned for him speeding through his mind. He turned back towards the forest and continued on his way home.

“Aw, come on! I’ll teach you how to use a bow and arrow by yourself?”

Sehun stopped again, absorbing his words. Learn how to use a bow and arrow. Sehun wanted to. He really wanted to. But to come back here on purpose to meet an M-trainee?

Impossible.

It was too dangerous.

He looked back at Luhan for what he thought would be the last time, a frown of uncertainty painted on his face.

“I’ll see you tomorrow,” Luhan said with a reassuring smile, “I’ll be waiting!”

With one last wave, Luhan ran into the forest towards his own village, the thick green foliage swallowing him whole. 

 

Impossible, Sehun told himself. There was no way he was coming back.

 

 

But he did.

 

 

Multiple times throughout that week, actually.

“Your aim really does , Shorty.”

Sehun threw the slingshot to the ground in frustration and let out an angry huff as he plonked himself crossed legged on the ground. He and Luhan had met up a few times already for archery lessons but Luhan wouldn’t let Sehun use the bow and arrow by himself until he perfected his aim with a slingshot. Sehun thought it was utterly ridiculous and couldn’t see why Luhan was being so annoying. They only got about roughly half an hour to spend together before the gong sounded for dinner time, so they couldn’t waste time during their lessons.

Luhan laughed and picked up the slingshot from the dirt, brushing off the grains that had attached it selves to the toy. He held it back out to Sehun but Sehun brushed it out of his hands and huffed stubbornly.

“Oh come on, that’s not the type of attitude that will fix your aim.” Luhan forced the slingshot back into Sehun’s hands and pulled him back up to his feet. He spooned Sehun from behind so he could position him in the proper shooting stance with his slingshot but Sehun was about as compliant as a rag doll. “You will shoot this rock at that tree Mr Shorty, even if I have to make you do it! Do you want to move on to the bow and arrow or not?”

Sehun let out a grumble and gave in to Luhan’s inner puppeteer skills, allowing him to move his limbs around to force him into the correct stance. Luhan then repeated the instructions that he’d been repeating for the last few days every time they had met up.

“Station the fork of the slingshot along with your line of sight. Then, aim a teeny, tiny bit higher than your target. Pull the slingshot back. And…fire!”

The rock catapulted through the air and hit the deep X that Luhan had etched on the tree with one of his arrow heads. Sehun sighed and hung his head, saddened that he couldn’t seem to do anything without the help of Luhan.

Luhan smiled at Sehun and hugged his head; petting it fondly.

“You’ll get it eventually, I know you will.”

Sehun blushed and wriggled out from under Luhan’s arm while rubbing his own subconsciously. The unknown warm feeling welling inside his chest was making him feel uneasy. He wasn’t used to this sort of closeness with anyone other than his mother.

So this is what it feels like to have a friend.

Sehun felt a smile beginning to form on his lips but quickly forced a frown to cover it up. This didn’t go unnoticed by Luhan.

“Why do you do that?” Luhan asked, finally questioning Sehun’s efforts to hide his smile. “This isn’t the first time I’ve noticed you stopping yourself from smiling.”

Sehun didn’t answer him of course. He just stared stoically at Luhan, face unmoving, showing no signs of emotion.

 

 

Sehun sprinkled water over the patch of flowers that his mother helped him grow. She had said that since he was too little to do anything worthwhile around the village, he should try planting some seeds to help the island flourish with more beautiful flowers.

He smiled at how much they had grown, there were so many fresh buds waiting for their time to flourish.

“What you are you smiling at pansy ?”

Sehun turned his head to see Jonghyun and Minho smirking at him; Jonghyun with his arms crossed in front of this chest.

“The flowers. Aren’t they pretty?”

 

 

Plucked. Every single one of them. Sehun had gone back to his crop that night because he had a crushing feeling that he couldn’t shake off. And sure enough, his instincts were correct.

He picked up a sad looking white flower and held it in his arms like how you would hold a child. Tear after tear trickled down his cheek as he silently sobbed for his dead flower friends.

 

Sehun kicked a small rock all the way back home that evening after archery practice with Luhan. He tried to distract himself from all the memories of times where smiling had brought him pain, but they rolled through his mind anyway. Happiness never lasted. Why give in to happiness when there was always someone there to take that away in the end.  

 

After days of practicing with the slingshot, Luhan finally allowed Sehun to upgrade to the bow and arrow.

And after weeks of practicing with a bow and arrow, Sehun finally hit the target on his own.

“You did it, Shorty!” Luhan grabbed Sehun’s hands and danced around in circles with the smaller boy almost flying off his feet. “You did it, you did it, you did it!”

Sehun was so happy and proud of himself that he was shaking with joy. He let himself be twirled around by Luhan, not even caring when Luhan picked him up and spun him around.

His mask cracked slightly as he forgot his ‘serious face’ façade and he let out a small smile. It was only a quick little grin and the wall was instantly raised just as fast as it had dropped. But it wasn’t quick enough to go unnoticed by Luhan. He saw it, but he decided to pretend he didn't.

“Think you can hit the X again?” Luhan asked, handing another arrow to Sehun.

Sehun hesitated for a bit before nodding and giving it a second shot. He bit his tongue subconsciously as he focused his entire mind on aiming for the X.

He missed though; his high instantly dropping back down to his previous depressed state. He turned and pouted at Luhan when he heard his shrill laughter erupt from his throat. Luhan held up a hand with an apologetic smile, laughter still seeping from behind his teeth.

“Sorry, sorry! I’m not laughing at the fact you missed,” Luhan put an arm around Sehun’s shoulders, “I’m laughing at how quickly your face went from confident and determined, to sad puppy who got his bone stolen. Why are you so cute, Shorty? Stop being so cute! Your big brother’s heart can’t take it!”

Big brother? My big brother?

Sehun’s chest filled up with that warm feeling again. It was like the feeling of hot milk traveling down your throat on a cold night; only the feeling didn’t go away within 8 seconds. It felt like someone had blocked the passage down and the warm milk just stayed within the chest, its walls acting like an incubator, forever acting as an internal heater.

“Hey Shorty?”

Sehun snapped out of his embarrassing internal comparison and saw that Luhan had on a very mischievous grin.

“We still have lots of time before I have to go back for dinner. I want to show you something.”

 

 

 

Sehun looked down at his and Luhan’s joined hands as Luhan ran through the forest, dragging Sehun along with him. He wasn’t sure where the older boy was taking him but he grew more and more nervous the further he took him into EXO-M territory.

Sehun’s ears perked up as he heard the sound of a distant trickle of water. The sound grew as they ran forward.

“We’re here!”

Sehun’s eyes darted around like a pin ball machine, not sure of where to look first. In front of them was a beautiful lake with a small rocky waterfall, lily pads covering the surface of the water on the opposite end of the waterfall. There were large ranges of different flowers and fruit trees surrounding the lake and by one of the large rocks, there was a small deer. There were sounds of birds roosting and crickets chirped loudly in harmony with each other. Everything in the air sounded like a relaxing symphony to Sehun and he instantly felt all his worries come to a halt.

“This is my sanctuary. I come here all the time just to relax and think.” Luhan let go of Sehun’s hand and walked towards the deer who was still drinking from the lake. The deer looked up when she heard Luhan walking towards her and Sehun expected it to run away.

Instead, she trotted up to Luhan and leaned in to his outstretched hand.

“Only one other person has been to this place. And now you’re the second!”

Sehun tip toed over to Luhan and the deer, worried that he’d scare the deer off. He paused when the deer’s ears popped up and she looked around, alarmed by the new face.

“It’s okay, come.” Luhan stretched his hand out and Sehun took it. Sehun allowed Luhan to place his hand on the deer’s head and the deer, at first wary of Sehun, relaxed and nuzzled into Sehun’s hand, just as she did to Luhan. “She likes you.”

Sehun couldn’t take it anymore. He was so overjoyed with happiness that he gave up on holding up his wall. He couldn’t remember the last time he was this happy and he was tired of biting back his feelings.

So he smiled. 

He had a friend. A friend who taught him archery. A friend who brought him to his secret sanctuary. A friend who introduced him to his deer friend.

He had a friend.

“Wow.”

Sehun peaked up at Luhan to see his mouth had dropped open slightly and his eyes were wide.

“You have the cutest smile, Shorty. Seriously. Smile more often.”

Sehun stared at Luhan as words begun to build up at the back of his throat. He wanted to talk. He wanted to tell Luhan thank you for being his friend and showing him all these things. He wanted to ask Luhan if he would always be his friend. He had so many questions of why Luhan was being so nice to him; why he chose him to be his friend.

So many things he wanted to say, but only one thing left his mouth.

“Sehun. My name is Sehun.”

Back to the present

Sehun watched from behind a tree as you said goodbye to your EXO-M friend, Tao. You hugged him and Tao limped away, back towards M-territory. 

Sehun reached under his shirt and pulled out the necklace he kept concealed from everyone—a handmade necklace that he strung together using the pendant off an old bracelet that used to belong to a good friend. He rubbed his thumb over the hexagonal pendant, feeling the rough edges of the engraving. He forced himself to smile as he felt a strong wave of saddness hit him, but the darkness clouded his mind and he couldn't hold his lips up any longer. The corners of his lips turned downwards as he silently mouthed the engraving on the pendant.

EXO-M

Luhan.

 

---

A/N: Hey beautifuls! So here is how Sehun met his EXO-M friend! :D I bet you all have many more questions about this side story! Rest assured that you will slowly find out more and more about what happened later on! 

Thank you all so much for sticking with me and not un-subscribing! I promise you won't regret it :) Let me know what you thought of this chapter in the comments section below if you have time! :) 

Saranghae angels <3