Dream Seller - Part 2
 

Boy in wine red came back sooner than he had expected, but that was partly because he had not thought the other would actually come back after his rude behavior. Lu Han thought he had made it clear that the boy was not welcome anymore, but maybe he should have spoken the words out loud just to make things obvious and clear. He was not the type to get so straight to the point, so cruelly honest, but if that was what was needed to make this boy stop, then he would really just have to pass that threshold and speak those words.

The boy smiled softly, his voice coming out slightly hesitant, “Hello.”

“And goodbye,” Lu Han said emotionlessly, “you know your way out.”

The pained expression on the other’s face confirmed to Lu Han just how heartless he was right now, but he decided to consciously ignore that fact. Heart of stone, heart of stone, he just had to remember that and everything would be alright.

“You never answered my answer…” Sehun shuffled nervously on his feet, “You never told me what a dream is…”

Lu Han bit his lip harshly, his hands turned into tight fists. He did not have time for this. He had to clean, clean, clean and lots of other things to do. There are so many things to do, and entertaining this boy was not one of them. Certainly not.

“You,” He eyed the boy sternly, “you want to know what a dream is, to me?” Lu Han grinned sadly as he grabbed one of the dreams on the shelves, “A dream is a product, an item to be sold. It’s something to be bought for a dollar. A dream is nothing but emptiness in a bottle.”

Lu Han watched the expression of the young man crumble, turn into nothing but bitter blankness, and for a moment, he really felt like he had said something wrong. Maybe he really should not have been so harsh, because that was so not like him, but he felt the need to. This boy was not supposed to be here, near him. Boy in red was supposed to be somewhere else. Why? He did not know, but he just knew.

“You don’t mean that…” Young man dressed in the same dark red coat said, shaking his head, “You don’t mean what you said…”

“I’ve never meant anything I said as much as I do now,” Lu Han threw back.

“You… You sell dreams… Don’t…” The boy’s eyebrows knitted together in consideration, “Don’t they mean anything to you?”

“Of course they do,” Lu Han’s heart fell as he saw the other’s face lit up expectantly, “they provide me a living. I mean, if they didn’t sell, I wouldn’t have a home and food to survive.”

Pain was written all over boy in red’s face, “Oh, I see.”

“Look,” Lu Han was getting tired of this already, “I don’t know what your reason is to come here, because you obviously don’t want to buy a dream. You just… Are you finding pleasure in torturing me? Because if that’s what you’re aiming for, then you’re doing an excellent job at that.”

Lu Han had shelves to clean, bottles to put on clean shelves, an ever dirty counter to clean. He had so many things to do. He really did not have time to entertain this person, whoever he was and whatever his reason was for all his frequent visits to the shop. The shop was not even aesthetic to look at, very honestly.

“I… I just wanted to find some answers…” The young boy said softly.

“What answers?” Lu Han asked with a raised eyebrow.

The straightforward words made the other shuffle on his feet nervously, “I… My boyfriend… He bought a dream here.”

Lu Han blinked his eyes. He did not know why that would be any reason to make Lu Han’s life a living hell, except if something terribly bad had happened to that boyfriend of his. The thought alone caused Lu Han’s heart of stone to crack yet a little bit more.

“Is… Is he alright?” The dream seller asked tentatively.

The boy nodded, “Yes, yes, he’s all well, safe and sound.”

Lu Han let out the breath he had been holding, relief washing over him. At least nothing happened, nothing happened. The dream seller had not killed yet another soul.

“Then what’s wrong?”

The stranger bit his lip, “I… I wanted to know who the dream he bought belonged to.”

“That I won’t tell you,” Lu Han said matter-of-factly.

“Why not?” Paradoxical boy asked, his eyes pleading.

“At least grant those who sold their dreams their privacy.”

“Where do you get these dreams?” The boy pointed to the bottles on the shelves, cringing visibly as he looked at them, “You’ve got to have gotten them somewhere.”

The sizzling sound of coins transforming into liquid filled his ears, the sight of it making his eyes glister. Not all coins were meant to undergo this metamorphose, but many of them did. People still had the last bit of their original dream lingering somewhere inside them before they gave it to Lu Han in the form of a dollar. Others had been lost, the soul making no place for a dream anymore, and those were the people who could not afford the infiltration of another dream in their head.

“He’s dying!”

“I wouldn’t be the finest dream seller there is if I were to tell you all the secrets.” Lu Han merely responded, though inside of him it was a chaos, with screaming voices and unspoken strings of words.

“You… You sold your dream, right?” The boy asked softly, “Do you know who you sold it to?”

That was the last straw for Lu Han, “What do you want?! Why can’t you just leave me be! Why can’t you just let me alone! I’ve things to do! Lots of things to do! I don’t have time for this!”

Lu Han was outraged, beyond furious. This was supposed to be a cold business. He was supposed to be cold with a heart of stone, but always with the warm passion he did not even know he possessed anymore. He did know who he sold his own dream to, knew it all too well. He did not remember his dream itself, but he knew how painful it had felt to have the bottle with his own dream handed over to someone else. It was as if he gave a part of his heart away, a piece of his mind that was sincerely him. It had been so torturous, so life draining. It had always been a part of his life he did not want to be remembered of.

“You… You never wanted to sell your dream, right?”

“Who would want to sell their own dream, damn it! Of course I didn’t!”

Lu Han yelled angrily. The young boy smiled to him all of a sudden, and that was when he realized what he had just said. It was a painful realization, making his blood rush and his eyes widen in horror. No, this was not supposed to happen. No such words were meant to leave his lips. Yet it had, and it was all the boy in red’s fault. His body was shaking, his head dizzy. He quickly looked down at his counter.

“Leave.”

“You finally admitted it-”

“I said,” Lu Han hissed dangerously low, “leave.”

“You finally see in-”

“I’m not going to ask it politely again-”

“That dreams aren’t supposed to be sold.”

Lu Han bit his lip harshly, a childish automatic habit he always possessed whenever he did not want to show weakness. Of dreams and hopes, it had never been Lu Han’s choice to sell his own. It had just happened like that, and there was no room for regret, no space to drown oneself with what if’s. So he cleaned and cleaned, trying to at least lessen the vivid memories of particular dark moments.

“You,” Lu Han spoke, intently cursing himself for sounding so vulnerable, “don’t ever come back here again.”

And for the first time, Lu Han did not mean it.

☼

Jonghyun’s next visit was much earlier than he had expected, as in that he came for the second time in a week, which he had never done before. Lu Han intently already had suspicions that he was keeping an eye on him after their previous conversation. Dream sellers who threw themselves in the cold business as passionately as him were rare if any, so he knew that Jonghyun wanted to keep him at all costs.

“Hello there, my dear Lu Han,” Jonghyun said with a sickening sweet voice.

“It never seems a pleasure seeing you,” Lu Han said coldly, “and I wonder if that’s just my fault or yours.”

Jonghyun’s face darkened instantly, “Watch yourself, because I’m not one to enjoy jokes.”

Says the one who always jokes around with life, Lu Han muttered intently, “What’s it this time? Did something happen?”

“No,” Jonghyun replied instantly, earning a raised eyebrow of Lu Han, “no, not at all. I just wanted to come visit you again, that’s all.”

“Well, I’m delighted to hear that,” Lu Han said sarcastically, “really, truly delighted.”

Lu Han saw the flash of dissatisfaction in Jonghyun’s eyes, but it was soon replaced by seriousness, “I just wanted to make sure nothing happened.”

“What could possibly happen?” Lu Han asked.

“Well, I don’t know…” Jonghyun’s fingertips traced over the cold counter Lu Han was busy cleaning, “secrets could be spilled and things that aren’t supposed to happen could all happen here… Without me knowing…” Jonghyun quickly moved his hand back, “I just wanted to make sure that my dear dream seller doesn’t forget the rules, and won’t make any mistakes he isn’t supposed to make.”

Lu Han did not know what he might have possibly done wrong to get a warning, but he was sure Jonghyun had been watching him very closely these days, for a reason he did not know. The thought of not even being granted his privacy hit a vulnerable string inside of him, but he decided to stay silent. It was futile, after all, to argue against Jonghyun.

“I just want to remind you, Lu Han, that if it’s not a customer,” Darkness swam in the other’s eyes as he spoke, “then there’s no need to entertain that person at all. There are more important things to attend to.”

“What’s a dream?”

“I…” Lu Han quickly averted his gaze, “I’ve no idea what you’re implying, but I don’t think anything like that has happened.”

“Dreams aren’t supposed to be sold.”

Jonghyun’s stern reply sent shivers through his spine, “Make sure to keep it like that.”

“Y-Yes, I know,” Lu Han tried to sound calm, but failed terribly hard in doing so, “I know.”

“Good,” Jonghyun said with an icy grin, “then all’s well.”

Lu Han watched Jonghyun walk out of the shop with wary eyes, a sudden tiredness falling upon him. Jonghyun’s words had long lost their threatening effect on the dream seller, but it still did not completely diminish the dangerous undertone in every single word the other spoke from reaching him. It still managed to somehow creep under Lu Han’s peaceful façade, just to make sure he got alarmed and would remember his position. There was no escaping, no running away. One wrong action and it would be game over.

His hesitant eyes landed on the counter that was glistering, but still dirty in Lu Han’s eyes.

A cold business did not permit mistakes.

☼

“I hate people who don’t take my words serious the most.”

Lu Han was truly a nice person at heart – whatever was left from his once compassionate heart – but that did not mean he was a saint who knew no such thing as anger. So when he found the boy sitting next to the door outside, again, he was beyond furious. The anger really did not last as long as he thought it would, probably because the boy was shivering visibly, snowflakes decorating his whole body while parts of his face was a red shade that contrasted horribly with his pale complexion. He had been sitting outside for quite some time, that Lu Han knew for sure.

“How long have you been sitting here?”

The boy slowly looked up, “Quite some time.”

“It’s below zero,” Lu Han stated emotionlessly.

The boy smiled, “But it warms your heart.”

Paradoxical boy always perplexed him in every possible way. There was something, from the childish cheekiness to the masculine maturity that told Lu Han that this boy was not just anybody. This feeling of remembering and this nostalgia of forgetting told him a lot, but never enough. All he did was smile, because he could not really force himself to frown or stay angry at the boy. There was no way he could, ever could, not as long as his heart still possessed this warm passion.

Lu Han took a deep breath, the cold air reaching his throat piercingly, “If it’s the same question again, I’m sorry, but I can’t answer it.”

“I know you won’t,” The boy continued to smile, “you would never tell me, I know. However, I just wanted to ask some questions.”

“What questions?” The delicate dream seller asked with furrowed eyebrows.

“The dreams you sell…” The boy’s voice softened audibly, “Tell me more about them.”

This confused Lu Han. There was nothing to be told about the dreams he sold for a living, nothing he could possibly share with this boy. Nobody ever asked him this question either.

“What do you want to know?”

The other smiled slightly, “Everything.”

“I’m afraid everything won’t do,” Lu Han threw a quick, hesitant glance at the other, “but there’s no better way to deafen curiosity other than satisfy it. So, what’s it you want to know precisely? How to buy them?”

“I already know how to buy them,” The boy smiled a little, “you just didn’t let me buy one.”

“And I had all the reason to.”

Lu Han said in his usual calm voice before sitting down beside the boy, glancing at how the other was trembling because of the cold. He sighed before taking of his own yellow and black patterned scarf, wrapping it around the other’s neck gently. The other’s eyes fluttered in surprise at this, almost causing Lu Han to chuckle, but it did successfully manage to bring out a small smile on the dream seller’s lips.

“You’re really a little kid,” Lu Han said as he moved his hands away from the other, eyes glistering with warmth as he looked at his own soft scarf wrapped around the other’s neck.

The boy frowned slightly at this, “Am not.”

“Waiting outside on such a freezing day isn’t something a child would do?” Lu Han asked while raising an amused brow, “Then what do you see yourself as? An adult?”

“I just want…” The boy’s eyebrows knitted together before a tired smile crept on his lips, “I just want to know where those dreams you sell come from. I just… Is there really no way you can tell me that?”

Lu Han could hear the desperation in the other’s voice, could clearly notice how much this boy wanted to get answers. But those were questions he could not give answers to, was not allowed to give answers to, and as much as Lu Han wanted to tell him the answers just to get this over with, it really was not possible. Dream sellers had strict rules to obey.

“Is it really that important to know that?” Lu Han instead asked, eyeing the other, “Where those dreams come from, who they used to belong to, does it really matter?”

“It is,” The young boy answered, lips buried in the scarf, “when the original owner of the dream didn’t want to sell the dream in the first place.”

“They don’t know it.” Lu Han said, causing the other to look up curiously, “Most of them don’t know they’ve sold their dream. Specifically, they don’t even know they had dreams to sell in the first place.”

Dreams stepped into his shop like an abandoned child, waiting for someone to appreciate them for what they really are. Dreams were brought to Lu Han in the form of futile attempts and broken hearts, and it was up to Lu Han to give them a second chance to be appreciated. The dreams that survived waited patiently on the wooden shelves for the day someone would come that truly appreciated its worth.

This caused the paradoxical boy to frown, “But how?”

Lu Han sighed at this, a tired smile dancing on his lips, “It’s better that you don’t know. Certain things… They aren’t pretty enough for the innocent mind.”

The boy smiled sincerely at this, and for a moment, it took Lu Han by surprise. For a moment, another flashback popped in his mind, urging him to remember something he was not supposed to ever recall anymore.

“I knew that you weren’t a bad person,” The young man said with a childish grin, “I knew for sure that you could never ever be a bad person.”

Dream sellers had a heart of stone for a justified reason, and one of them was because emotions never made a person think rational, never made a person see clear, and it was so much better without them. Dream sellers do needed a warm passion, though, a kind of passion that could withstand the strongest storm and the roughest rain, because they needed some kind of intensity that could be hold onto. They were not a good person, or a bad person, and not even something in between good and bad because that continuum did not seem to include the category dream sellers appropriately. No, dream sellers were a kind of their own.

Lu Han grinned sadly at this before standing up, “Come on, get up.”

“Eh?” The boy said surprised.

This caused Lu Han to laugh softly, and both their eyes widened at this because it was the very first time that Lu Han had laughed in front of the other. In fact, Lu Han had not laughed for such a long time, that he almost forgot how the sound of his own laughter sounded like, how the way his lips curved up felt like. It was such a sad feeling to realize just how much like a living death he had been spending his life these days.

“Come on, let’s get something warm to drink. You look as though you’re going to faint on me anytime soon, and I hate taking care of other people,” Lu Han said before walking away, hiding the smile that was on his lips from the other when he saw the other’s shocked expression.

“W-What? W-Wait for me!” The boy exclaimed before chasing after him.

It never daunted to him just how easily he had let this boy slip into his life, through the little cracks of his heart of stone and into the warm passion he held onto desperately. He always realized those things too late, but it never really mattered anyways, because this boy had something that seemed to mesmerize him. This boy had something that made him remember how life used to be before he turned into a dream seller, and nobody could stop him from savoring this little blissful happiness he found himself. He knew that happy endings were not meant for him, but he wanted to at least hold onto it while he was granted the opportunity.

☼

Lu Han’s eyebrows were knitted together as he tried to write the words with utmost precision on the board, the chalk already gradually warming up between his fingers as his tongue darted out slightly. Intense concentration swam in his eyes as he tried to perfectionize the last word, before it turned into shock at the playful slap on his shoulder. He was about to curse out loud when he realized that in his momentarily surprise, his hand had shot out and now a thin white line had flawed his work he had been working on for a whole good ten minutes. A serious frown was plastered on his face as he turned around, before it softened at the sight of the by now familiar boy.

“Hello,” The boy said with a bright smile, “what are you doing?”

Lu Han almost wanted to scoff amusedly at the way the other cocked his head to the sight like a little child just to see what he was writing on the board, but managed to compose himself, “I’m trying to create a masterpiece, as you can see, and you just happened to ruin my work. I hope you’re proud of yourself.”

The boy, who was wearing a soft yellow coat today and his scarf, was already accustomed to his sarcasm by now, all to Lu Han’s dismay, and would merely smile back as a response. It really worked on Lu Han’s nerves, but never enough to make him snap at the boy.

“And give me back my scarf; you’ve worn it long enough.” Lu Han said mock angrily, “I need it or I’ll get a cold.”

His hand instinctively went to the scarf, but before he could do so, the other quickly dodged his hand. A childish grin lingered on the other’s lips as he held onto the scarf protectively.

“No, that won’t do.” The boy said cheekily, strands of hair slightly covering his glistering eyes.

“Excuse me?” Lu Han’s wide, crystal clear eyes blinked at this, “You do know that you’re wearing my scarf, right? And I’ve all the right to-”

“Can’t hear you! Can’t hear you!” Was the yellow dressed boy’s reply, hands covering his ears as he sang, and Lu Han did not even know whether to get angry at this ridiculous attitude or to smile at this lovely innocence.

“I don’t understand,” Lu Han said instead with a sigh, “why would you want a stranger’s scarf?”

Maybe Lu Han had been locked away from the outside world for too long already, but he did not remember it was a custom keeping stranger’s possessions as a first meeting gift. Had it not been a cold day and had he not been too friendly for his own good, he would have let the boy freeze to death without second thoughts. Yet, that image had haunted him and made him take off his own scarf immediately, and Lu Han still did not understand why it had affected him so much.

“Because it smells like you,” Was the dark haired boy’s reply, and he took a quick sniff of the scarf before another smile crept on his lips, “and you smell comfortably peaceful.”

Lu Han had no idea how this boy could possibly think that he possessed the scent of such sort, and the mere fact that this boy just said this to him without the slightest bit of hesitance should have rung warning bells, but all it did was numb Lu Han’s mind for a moment. For that one moment, he felt a kind of warmth he did not remember ever feeling, a wave of nostalgia hitting him that he used to cherish these kinds of moments a lot, which was horrifying because he did not recall to have ever encountered such times. He did not remember feeling this kind of bliss ever before in his life.

“What’s your name?” Was all that managed to slip out of Lu Han’s mouth.

The young man smiled innocently, “Secret.”

☼

Lu Han was not permitted to go back to his peaceful dream selling days, for this secretive young man with a smile that could outshine the sun and his cheeky attitude that Lu Han began to grow a liking for decided to make it his life mission to pop up in Lu Han’s daily life as often as possible. For the first time since his career as a dream seller, shelves had specks of dust on them and the counter was not cleaned for more than a day, because Lu Han was busy throwing sarcastic remarks to the boy who liked annoying him. For the first time since his career as a dream seller, dreams in bottles seemed to have taken another meaning because soon he found himself sitting on the ground with the boy, observing every bottle on its true elegance. He found himself discussing with the boy about why this dream had been sold, who would be the new owner, and if it would one day come true.

“Who would buy a dream to be the weather boy?” The boy said amused while trying to hide a chuckle.

“Are you trying to make fun of dream right now? I’m quite sure a lot of people have dreams on becoming the weather boy.” Lu Han said defensively, snatching the bottle out of the other’s hands.

“But a weather boy?! Come on, how many would dream of wanting to be that?” The tall boy said before looking around for another dream bottle.

“Yah,” Lu Han said in a serious tone when he saw the other standing up to reach one of the bottles that was on the top shelf, “be careful will you?”

“Yeah, yeah, I will,” The  boy dressed in soft black said, tongue darting out as he tried to reach for the bottle, “I just want to see this one. This one’s pretty.”

Lu Han watched the other as he sat down next to him again, hands wrapped around a bottle with heavenly white liquid, slightly transparent and sparkling secretly. Lu Han’s eyes landed on the text he had written on the bottle before his gaze went to the boy’s face. He frowned confused upon seeing the blank expression on the boy’s face, rid of all the excitement he had been wearing just a moment ago.

Do Kyungsoo.

“This is a person, right?” The boy asked in a soft whisper, looking at Lu Han’s with an unreadable expression.

All Lu Han could do was nod hesitantly, remembering vaguely the person who had sold this dream, but left the door with a whole other dream. Situations like those occurred too, but they were never pretty. Selling dreams like those were never meant to provide any happy endings.

“Are people dreams too?” They dark haired boy continued, an almost invisible sadness wrapped around his words.

“Everything’s a dream, I’m afraid. Everything’s a dream, and some are pretty,” Lu Han’s gaze wandered around the endless bottles on the shelves, “and some don’t.”

“Selling dreams, buying dreams… Making dreams look like objects, products that can be put into bottles. But people… You can’t put people in bottles. You can’t buy yourself a person, not even if it’s a dream.” The boy said coldly, “That’s just wrong.”

“It’s just a dream, and dreams don’t always come true,” Lu Han merely replied.

Certain dreams were not meant to come true, were not meant to ever see daylight. Some dreams were meant to be locked up in a bottle, spending its forever on wooden shelves, because not every dream was pretty, not every dream was worth buying, and not every dream was valued for its true worth.

“I don’t think there’s a need to buy a dream.” The other said, catching Lu Han’s attention.

“Why?” Lu Han asked curiously.

“Because the beauty of some dreams lies in that they can never be reached.”

They always came in flashbacks. Colored with a fury red and ever so vividly that Lu Han almost lost his sense of time, they always seemed to haunt him with a kind of deadly desire to break him apart. Sometimes, the flashbacks were colors, sometimes they would be images, but never anything he could grasp onto. This time, however, there was this tingling feeling on his fingertips, burning the flesh intently. This time, his body was filled with a poison that made him terribly, terribly sad. His eyes looked down to the hand with the burning feeling, and his eyes widened immediately when they landed on his fingers.

Fingers that were laced loosely with the boy’s.

☼

“He’s really nice, treats me very well,” The boy said while looking in front of him, an overly sweet beverage in his hands while his eyes scanned the scenery, “But there’s something unnatural between the two of us. Something between us feels like pretense.”

Lu Han listened attentively to the other, own lips touching the paper cup of his warm coffee. He knew the other had a boyfriend, but he never had heard much about this boyfriend. It was not his business to ask either.

“He… He seems really happy with the dream he bought,” The boy continued, “but it doesn’t seem like real happiness. He doesn’t seem completely happy.” The boy’s eyes glanced at him, “Why‘s that?”

“I’m only in charge of selling dreams.” Lu Han answered honestly, “What happens next isn’t something I’ve control over.”

Lu Han was a dream seller, in charge of selling dreams for a dollar and making sure that new dreams would be on the shelves, but he had no control over the dreams themselves. Once outside, dreams had a life of their own, and that was something Lu Han never thought too much about. Whether dreams would create angels or demons was not up to him to care about. All he could do was sell with a heart of stone and a warm passion.

“Do you ever think about your dream?”

“I saw the person who bought your dream today. He seemed really, really happy. Doesn’t that make you happy? Your dream is save with him.”

Lu Han never dared to bring himself to think about his dream, about whether it was in good or bad hands. Lu Han knew it would be futile, and he could come up with a thousand possibilities how his dream could have ended, but not one could he be sure of as the truth. It was not his dream anymore anyways, so even thinking about it was a futile act. He could better spend his time cleaning, selling dreams, because that was all his existence was meant to do now.

“It’s not my dream anymore,” Lu Han replied, “and there’s no need thinking about things that aren’t mine.”

“That’s not true,” The other said with a small smile, “once your dream, always your dream. If it’s your dream, then nobody can ever completely buy it.”

No, Lu Han wanted to scream. Once a dream was put inside a bottle, it was completely erased from the previous owner’s body. No lingering feelings, no faint pieces of the dream swimming inside his body. Yet, Lu Han remembered the flashbacks, the haunting of a past he did not remember anymore, and that made him stop himself from drawing the conclusion that his dream was not in him anymore. It might have been ripped out of his body, but never completely. It still lingered inside him, somewhere, holding dearly onto its truthful owner.

“I think you possessed a brilliant dream,” The boy said earnestly, “a dream that was worth holding onto. You’re a person who can possess such a dream, I’m sure.”

“Do…” Lu Han began as he glanced down to his cup of steaming coffee, “Do you have a dream?”

The other shook his head at this, “No, no dream I’m conscious of. Just vague memories, unclear thoughts about something I think I used to hold dear.”

Silence was the most beautiful sound for them, a kind of sound that was not blemished by human voices and irrelevant words. Silence in the form of chirping birds and rustling winds is by far the most pleasant kind of sound to fill the ears and tired mind. Lu Han could not help but think how this boy that sat next to him felt so real, yet not completely able to grab onto. The boy was a kind of vivid illusion that would slip out of his hands before he could even touch it. His fingers itched to touch the other, to hold onto him, burned with a kind of desire he did not know he still possessed, but he knew not to let those emotions take over him. Those emotions were not supposed to take over his heart of stone. Warm passion was all he was ever meant to feel.

“What makes a person want to buy a dream?”

Lu Han grinned sadly at the question, because he did not think he would ever be able to know the answer to it.

“I’ve to go,” The boy suddenly said as he stood up, “I promised my boyfriend we would go do something fun tonight. He should arrive here anytime soon.”

Lu Han merely nodded, standing up slowly as he watched the other. Long, slender fingers tugging gently onto the fabric of his coat, sleepy looking eyes that seemed to tell a thousand stories and a smooth soft voice Lu Han did not think he would ever get bored of listening to.

“Have a pleasant time with your boyfriend then,” Lu Han said before a smug grin appeared on his lips, “and really, try spending more time with your boyfriend instead of me. The shop isn’t a hang-out place.”

The boy frowned unhappily at this, “I’m just trying to provide you some company.”

“I always tend to terribly under-appreciate that, I’m afraid,” Lu Han said with a smirk.

“I’ll make sure to come visit you soon again,” Was all the other said before turning around, making Lu Han sigh in defeat.

Lu Han walked off to the other direction, the cup of coffee still held onto dearly as he thought about the time he spent with the other, moments he was not supposed to enjoy so much, and he was on the point of turning around the corner, when a loud voice reached his ear.

“Sehun!”

Lu Han’s whole body froze completely at this, the name echoing in his head loudly as his eyes widened in horror. The name triggered a thousand flashbacks at the same time, clearer than usual, more intrusive than usual, more detailed than usual. He could see hands linked together, the scent of coffee and thick chocolate flavored drinks he remembered taking small sips of frequently. He could remember heaven and hell, but most clearly, he remembered a face that he promised himself to never forget.

He almost did not dare to turn around, but he pushed himself to because he needed to confirm it, needed to know for sure if this was really reality. And the moment his eyes landed on the familiar person standing next to the boy, holding his hands lovingly, he knew for sure he could not have mistaken it. A lump grew in his throat as the realization hit him, mixed emotions filling him and damaging his heart of stone. No amount of warm passion could protect him from the sight of those two holding hands and being happy.

There, standing next to the paradoxical boy, stood the person he sold his dream to.



Here is part 2~ Hope you still enjoy it keke~ Oh, and the cliffhanger, so lovely! No, just kidding, it's not that special or anything keke. Sigh, once again that scarf lol. I don't know what's wrong with me, really. Last part will be posted... Tonight or tomorrow, so anticipate the last chapter! Sigh... This story has so many quotes I adore... :'< Well, until soon!