They had fallen into a nice new routine by the end of the next week. Luhan would be over every day after school was over. Sehun’s mother thought the older was helping her son with his homework which was only partly true. She didn’t need to know that the two boys were busy exploring each other bodies before she came home and they saw themselves forced to actually get some work done. Sehun thought it had been the best week of his life even though Jongin kept teasing him. He figured his best friend only did it because he was jealous since he only got to see his boyfriend in school during the week. At least the two of them could spend their weekends together now that Jongin’s father was totally comfortable with the idea of his son dating another boy. And his mother had had to tolerate it after she had seen how Kyungsoo had taken care of her son when he had been sick.

“Does your mother know that Luhan’s over the second you’re home?” Jongin wanted to know on Friday.

“No… She thinks he arrives about half an hour before she does… Why?”

“That’s why she doesn’t get suspicious when you’re still working on your homework when she comes home… I thought she was just being really dumb…”

“Don’t you dare call my mother dumb!”

“Sorry… It’s just… No one would believe their kids when they tell you they’re doing homework those three hours they’re home alone,” Jongin explained while munching his muffin that Kyungsoo had made for him the day prior while he’d been working in the restaurant.

“Well… She thinks Lu’s only been there for 30 minutes when she comes home… And she knows that I’d never have with her in the house… So she’ll never know we have more than enough time to finish before she even leaves work…”

“You have all the time?”

“No… I mean…We spend a lot of time with other things as well…”

“Like?”

“?”

“I see… Isn’t that boring? Doing the same every day?” Jongin wondered aloud.

“It’s not the same everyday… And it’s not boring yet… We’ll stop when it gets boring, don’t worry.” Sehun rolled his eyes and popped another grape into his mouth.

“Are you guys up for a movie evening at Baek’s on Saturday or does that cross your plans of having more ?”

“Haha… I’d love to come… I’ll ask Lu… But I guess we’d meet after choir practice anyway… Who else is going to be there?”

“Me… Kyungie… Baek of course… Yeol and his girlfriend… Nayeon! Because I thought it would be time to introduce her to Baekhyun officially… And Joonmyun and Jongdae…”

“Hey… We just found ourselves some singles for our circle of friends… That’s nice…”

“You’re right! Thank god... I was worried we’d all end up in relationships…”

“And why exactly would that be a bad thing?” Sehun wanted to know because he’d been wondering about it for a while.

“No one’s going to do the awkward flirting… No stories of embarrassing first dates that didn’t work out… No one will get turned down when asking for a phone number… Where would all the fun be?”

“You’re cruel to wish for your friends to stay single so you’ll hear some nice stories…”

“Who cares?”

“That’s true… Everybody already knows that you’re an …”

“Did you just call my boyfriend an ?” Kyungsoo suddenly asked.

“Aren’t you supposed to be in your class and wait for your teacher there?” Sehun raised an eyebrow.

“I am… But I forgot to give Jongin his English book back… I thought he might need it for English classes…” He handed the book over to Jongin. “So why did you call him an ?”

“You would agree with me if you would have heard why he wants Joonmyun and Jongdae to stay single…”

“That really doesn’t sound nice… I’ll leave before I have to agree with Sehun, okay?”

“Sure,” Jongin smiled a little while taking Kyungsoo’s hand to squeeze it before the older left them again.

“It must be hard to keep a relationship a secret all the time,” Sehun said when he saw the longing look Jongin shot his boyfriend’s retiring back.

“It is sometimes… But I won’t keep it a secret forever… Only until we know how his class would react… The problem is that no one in there is gay… Or at least no one is so openly…”

“He’d still have Huey, Dewey and Louie… They’d never do anything funny to him with those three dorks around…”

“Still… I want him to make some friend there that are not those three… He needs some sane friends as well…”

“He still has us and Luhan…”

“I was talking about sane, normal people, Sehun,” the older laughed. “I wouldn’t call us either… We’re loud and weird… I mean we’re fun… But we’re in no way normal!”

“Well… Being normal is boring anyway…” Sehun shrugged and got his English notes and books out. “I hated the homework… It nearly killed me… Who has us write a five page long essay?”

“Why five pages?”

“Didn’t she say it was five?”

“Yeah… Five paragraphs on ONE page… All the kills your brain, watch out!”

“Oh this … I wrote five pages,” Sehun whined.

“She’s going to love you… You’re going to be her new favorite student… That doesn’t have to be something bad… Ask Joonmyun… He likes living like that…”

“Well… It could help my grades… I didn’t do too well on my presentation… My pronunciation is nearly as bad as in Chinese…”

“You were second best from our class,” Jongin rolled his eyes.

“I want to be top of the class!”

“Now that’s a goal I’ll never have… It sounds boring and like something Joonmyun would want… No one wants to want what Joonmyun wants! He’s the personification of boring!”

“He dated your boyfriend before… So I guess there are some people that like boring people like Joonmyun,” Sehun countered.

“Okay… Maybe it’s a goal I should think of… In my next life… I’d like to enjoy this one…”

“Float your boat… Or however the saying goes… Now shut up… I need to revise the vocabulary from the last lesson… I still struggle with a few words…”

“Well… At least you know that there were new words… I’m going to text Kyungie some more… And ask him how to turn you back into a human being…”

“Suit yourself…”

~~~~*~~~~

Luhan had left after lunch on Saturday to go to his choir practice and Sehun had been sulking ever since because the older wouldn’t join them at Baek’s that night. He had to work on a project for university and Saturday evening seemed to be the only time of the week where all the group members had time for a meeting. At least he’d been depressed enough to get a lot of studying done. Studying seemed to get his mind off things for a while and he was grateful he’d finally found out. He’d always stared at his ceiling before and that clearly hadn’t helped for anything.

He’d gone over to Jongin’a a little before seven since his sister would be driving them that night.

“No bambi?” Jongin wondered.

“Nope… He has to meet the people from his group for that project and Saturday evening seems to be the only day every student has to spare… Why can’t they go clubbing like normal people?”

“Stop pouting… I’m sure bambi would want you to enjoy yourself… And hey… Joonmyun will be there,” Jongin winked.

“So what?”

“I think he likes you…”

“Would you finally stop with that?” Kyungsoo pleaded. “Joonmyun knows very well that Sehun isn’t available… He’d never try anything!”

“I’m not saying he’ll try anything… I’m saying he has a crush on him…”

“Whatever, Jongin…” Sehun sighed. “I’m on Kyungsoo’s side this time… I’m sure he doesn’t like me like that…”

“Suit yourself…”

~~~~*~~~~

The evening had been surprisingly uneventful and no one had gotten hurt. A first. Normally at least one of them got salt into their eyes or cut themselves while trying to open some snacks. That was a reason why no one wanted to stop after the second movie...

“How about we start ‘Lord of the rings’?” Baekhyun suggested. “I have extended versions of all three of them…”

“I love those movies,” Nayeon clapped her hands.

“Then it’s settled,” Baekhyun decided and flashed her a smile.

“I’ll throw up if he keeps that up,” Sehun mumbled and Joonmyun laughed at that.

“Don’t be like that… I think it’s rather cute…”

“Is there anyone who already wants to leave?” Their host asked them and everyone shook their heads and hurried to get more snacks and drinks before they settled for their third movie for the night.

Sehun left for some fresh air somewhere during the second movie. It hadn’t taken long until Joonmyun had joined him in the garden.

“What are you doing here all alone?” The older asked as he sat down.

“I’m not alone anymore,” Sehun laughed. “I don’t know… It got a little too much… My eyes got dry and my head started to hurt from all the noise… And I thought a little fresh air would wake me up… What about you?”

“Pretty much the same… And Jongdae finally woke up… I got my legs back…”

“Have you known him and Kyungsoo for long?”

“My whole life… More like… their whole lives… Our fathers went to school together and they still meet a lot… Our mothers get along really well too… So we were forced to spend lots of time together…”

“So you’re just friends with them because it’s a habit?”

“No,” Joonmyun shook his head. “They’re like family and I know that, no matter what happens, they’ll always be there for me…”

“I see… They’re your Jongins…”

“Yeah… You could say it like that… Can I ask you something?”

“Sure…”

“Why didn’t you bring your boyfriend along?”

“Oh… He had to go home today… He has this huge group project for university that’s really important and like 90% of his grade… Saturday evening’s the only time of the week all of them have to spare… So yeah… No movie night for Luhan…” Sehun looked at the sky and wondered if his boyfriend was already asleep or if he was still typing away on his computer.

“That’s good… I was worried you guys had a fight or something…”

“Why would you think that?”

“You didn’t talk about him all week… Normally you’re always like ‘Lu did this today’ and ‘Luhan is eating that right now’ and stuff… I never heard about him this week… I was just worried… Wondering if you were okay…”

“Thanks, Joonmyun. I didn’t even know… I don’t think the others noticed as well…”

“Well… I tend to listen more to what other people have to say than actually be a part of the conversation… It’s easier to notice stuff like that when you’re only there as an observer…” Joonmyun started to play with the grass. “What is he like?”

“Luhan?” The older gave a nod. “Well… He’s nice… He… Where do I start? He’s 19… Turning 20 a few days after I’ll finally be 16… He’s from Beijing and had a rather… rough lifestyle over there… But he prefers staying at home nowadays… And… We met when he ran into me and spilled my bubble tea all over me… It took a while until we finally got together though… He was worried because of our age difference a lot. He still is sometimes… He taught me lots of things… I got to know myself a lot better ever since I met him and… He makes living so much easier… Brighter…” Sehun stared at the stars again.

“What do you like best about him?”

“That being with him feels like being at home… I can be only myself… Without hiding anything… And he makes me feel save not even from others but also from myself… Does that make any sense?” Another nod.

“He sounds pretty perfect, if you ask me.” Sehun had to laugh.

“No… He’s anything but perfect… But that’s okay… Because neither am I… But we complement each other…”

“Doesn’t that make him even more perfect? … At least for you?”

“Yeah… Yeah, I guess… It does… Why did you ask?” Sehun looked at the older again.

“I was just curious… I like to know that my friends are in good hands… I knew all of Kyungsoo’s and Jongdae’s ex-girlfriends… And ex-boyfriends… I know Kyungsoo’s current boyfriend… But I never met this Luhan…”

“Well… It’s not like you really think Jongin is the best choice for Kyungsoo, or do you?” Sehun giggled a little.

“I thought so… At first… Before I met him… Because Kyungsoo used to cry a lot because of him… I thought someone who caused my best friend so much pain wouldn’t be a nice choice… But now… I mean Jongin will never be a close friend for me… Especially not as long as he hates me for having dated Kyungsoo long ago… But I think he and Kyungsoo fit really well… They’re good for each other… So I think that, at least for the moment, Jongin is the best choice for Kyungsoo,” Joonmyun told him and smiled.

“It’s nice how you put your own feelings away and focus on the important stuff… I really admire that. I don’t think I would be okay with my best friend dating someone I clearly don’t get along with…”

“Why not? It’s not worth fighting with your best friend because of stuff like that… The only thing you will get from that is losing someone that’s important to you, Sehun… It’s easier when you keep that in mind…”

“Why do you always know the right things to say?”

“Huh? I don’t… I just… You should really see me when I try to flirt… You would totally take that back in an instant! I’m only good when it comes to stuff you read in books or other people’s feelings… I at keeping my own advises though…” Joonmyun laughed and nearly fell over.

“It can’t be that bad,” Sehun said and had to laugh a little as well.

“We’ll talk about that again after you saw me try… It could take a while though…”

“Why?”

“It takes me forever to make up the courage to talk to someone I like… And when I finally do… All that comes out of my mouth is stupid stuff… Actually if someone came up to me and say all those things I wouldn’t want to date them as well…”

“But… Isn’t is normal to get really nervous around your crush? People tend to say stupid stuff in situations like that,” Sehun said to cheer him up.

“I’m a lost cause, trust me…”

“I still don’t believe you… I’ll judge after witnessing it!”

“You’ll think to have a completely different person in front of you… Just warning you…”

“I’m best friends with Jongin… I saw how he tried to flirt with four college-girls at once… Trust me… I’ve seen worse than what you will do,” Sehun declared and stood up. “We should probably go back inside… It’s a little chilly out here and I bet the other miss us already… Actually… No… I wouldn’t bet on that…”

“Neither would I… But going back inside sounds nice… It’s really cold… I hate being cold…”

“Who doesn’t?”

“No… I’m… I’m a little afraid of the cold,” Joonmyun mumbled and Sehun laughed at him for a while before they finally got back inside where Jongin shot him a judging look the younger didn’t really know how to interpret.

A/N: Have some more Joonmyun... Because he's an important friend now XD