“What are you getting all dressed up for?” Wu Fan asks over his cutting board and tomatoes, Sehun fruitlessly trying to tie his tie in the mirror that leans against their wall by the entrance.

    Sehun sighs, finally deciding against a tie at all and throwing it over the back of the couch. “If you must know, I have a date tonight.”

    The rhythmic sound of the knife against the cutting board ceases. “But I was making spaghetti,” Wu Fan’s voice sounds disappointed, but Sehun turns around to find a smirk on his lips.

    “I have a feeling I’m not the only one with a date then,” Sehun smiles.

    “So is it with that cute teacher you’re always gushing about?” Wu Fan continues his cutting, now with the cilantro.

    Sehun scoffs. “I do not gush.”

    “Oh, but you do.”

    Sehun rolls his eyes, but doesn’t try to argue. Wu Fan is about as quick-witted as he is responsible. That is, very. “Yes, it’s with Kyungsoo. Now who’s your date? I feel like I deserve to know who will be in our apartment tonight since I do help pay for it.”

    Wu Fan just laughs and empties his chopped cilantro into a small bowl. “The lease is under my name, therefore you have no right.”

    “Well, whatever. I’m going to be late,” Sehun takes one last look at his reflection in the mirror, his shirt neatly pressed and slacks just tight enough around his thighs. He looks pretty good, if he does say so himself.

    “Shocker,” Wu Fan quips as Sehun walks out the door, rolling his eyes at his sometimes amazingly immature roommate.

    Sehun is supposed to meet Kyungsoo at a local restaurant that Junmyeon had recommended. Apparently it’s Kyungsoo’s favorite place to go when he wants to splurge. Junmyeon had informed him that the dress code was semi-formal, and since Sehun had no idea what that meant, he dropped by the place a few times to see what other patrons were wearing. He now knows what semi-formal means.

    Sehun taps his dress shoes on the concrete, checking his phone for the nth time just to make sure that he’s there at the right time and didn’t accidentally stand Kyungsoo up or arrive two hours early. But indeed, it is 7:30 PM on the dot, and no Kyungsoo--

    “Sehun-ah!”

    Sehun’s head whips up at that familiar voice, pocketing his phone and allowing that stupid grin he gets whenever he sees Kyungsoo to slip onto his face. “Hey, hyung. You look nice,” Nice? Nice is an understatement, Sehun thinks as he sweeps his eyes over Kyungsoo’s small frame clothed impeccably in a white dress shirt and matching grey jacket and pants.

    Kyungsoo looks at the ground, but Sehun can still see the flaming blush on his ears. “Thanks, so do you.”

    Of course Kyungsoo was just saying it to be nice, but Sehun blushes at the comment anyway. He clears his throat. “So, should we go in?”

☼

    “Thank you for dinner, Sehun-ah. It was very nice. And you really didn’t have to pay for everything, I could have--”

    “It was really no problem. I was the one who asked you out, anyway,” Sehun cuts off Kyungsoo’s polite rambling, rubbing the back of his neck nervously. He’s walking Kyungsoo home.

    They’re both painfully silent, and it’s awkward. Before it was comfortable silences in the classroom, but now, now that both of their feelings are somewhat known and in the open, the silences they share have more weight to them.

    “This is me,” Kyungsoo stops in front of a small apartment complex, painted a clean white. Sehun thinks it looks like somewhere he would expect Kyungsoo to live. He wonders what it looks like on the inside. “Thanks for dinner, again. And for walking me back here.”

    “My pleasure,” Sehun smiles at Kyungsoo, a genuine smile to go with genuine words because really, it is his pleasure to be able to walk Kyungsoo home.

    Kyungsoo fidgets with the sleeves of his jacket for a moment before exhaling quickly, and before Sehun knows it, Kyungsoo has just kissed his cheek.

    “See you on Monday!” Kyungsoo squeaks before darting into his apartment.

    Sehun just stands there, the moment finally hitting him. He waits until he rounds the corner to let out a loud “Yes!”

    Sehun is humming to himself when he unlocks the door to his apartment, his tune ceasing as soon as he sees what is on the other side of the door.

    “Oh. You’re home earlier than expected,” Wu Fan greets, setting down the wine glass on the kitchen island.

    “Hello, Sehun-ssi,” Lu Han waves shyly from his place on a barstool.

    Sehun drops his keys on the side table. “Do I want to know?” He looks at Wu Fan, pointing to Lu Han.

    “Well you mentioned a doe-eyed teacher that taught at the primary school you work at one time who was Chinese...” Wu Fan half-explains.

    Sehun gives him a look that says he isn’t exactly following.

    “Remember that one time you left your lunch at home and I brought it to you?” Wu Fan asks and the light bulb switches on above Sehun’s head.

    “Oh.”

    “Yeah. So if you’ll excuse yourself to bed,” Wu Fan makes a shooing motion, and Sehun would be offended or make a smart remark if he weren’t just so stunned and happy to find out that Lu Han is no threat to him as far as Kyungsoo is concerned.

☼

    Monday morning is sufficiently awkward. Some of the kids give their teachers strange looks, but of course Jongin is the only one who asks about it.

    “Are umma and appa fighting or something?” Jongin has taken to calling Kyungsoo and Sehun “umma” and “appa” respectively, and neither have been able to talk him out of it as of yet.

    Sehun sighs and hands Jongin the blue crayon he’d been searching for a second ago. “No, we are not fighting. Don’t worry about that.”

    Jongin gives Sehun a look that says he wants to know more, but he doesn’t ask. Sehun appreciates Jongin’s maturity so much sometimes.

    “Okay, class, let’s get in our seats and listen for a bit.”

When everyone has sat down, Kyungsoo gets the kids attention and informs them that they’ll be going on a field trip next week. There’s a collective shout of joy from the class, some more excited than others.

“Where are we going?” Chanyeol, a little boy with shortly cropped, black hair manages to get Kyungsoo’s attention over the noise of the class chattering about the adventure they’re about to go on.

Kyungsoo smiles and Sehun swears he’s more excited than the children are. “The petting zoo!”

The kids cheer again, and Kyungsoo’s smile grows. Sehun lets his lips tilt up at the sight of the elder’s heart-shaped lips (it’s always been one of his favorite things about Kyungsoo).

It takes Kyungsoo and Sehun a while to calm the kids down, but eventually they’re settled into their morning routine of mathematics practice. They’re doing subtraction today, and Sehun watches as some of the children smile in triumph when they finish a problem while others stare hard at the paper in front of them, gears turning in their heads to try and figure out the answer.

There’s a boy named Minseok who’s breezed through the whole worksheet already, already trying to explain to the boy next to him why exactly Johnny would only buy 8 crayons.

“But then he’ll be missing colors!” The boy, Jongdae, wails.

“How many colors?” Minseok asks, much too amused with his friend’s predicament.

Jongdae looks up at the ceiling as if the answer is written up there, mouthing out numbers and counting on his fingers absentmindedly. “Four?”

“Yes!” The two boys high five each other, Minseok watching excitedly as Jongdae writes his answer down in messy, Kindergarten handwriting.

Sehun figures they’ll be okay and moves onto the next child in trouble, Jongin.

He’s been staring at his paper for the past five minutes, and Sehun doesn’t know if he’s zoned out or just that focused.

“You okay, Jongin?” Sehun crouches down beside the boy, noticing that his paper is blank.

Jongin blinks a few times before looking at Sehun. “I don’t get it,” he says, eyes big and sad.

Sehun has to keep himself from smiling because the boy is absolutely devastated that he can’t subtract seven from fourteen when it really isn’t that big of a deal. “Okay,” Sehun starts, grabbing fourteen crayons from the middle of the table where Kyungsoo stocks the kids with pencils, crayons, and markers. “I have fourteen pencils,”

Jongin watches Sehun’s every movement, nodding along.

“Take away seven of them.”

Jongin plucks seven crayons, one at a time, from Sehun’s hands and sets them on the table beside him.

“And how many do I have left?”

Jongin’s black hair falls in his face and he pokes his tongue out from pink lips as he concentrates on counting the remaining crayons. “Seven.”

“Right!” Sehun says, smile bright and encouraging.

Jongin’s face immediately lights up and he hugs Sehun tight around the neck. “Thanks, hyung.”

☼

Sehun decides that having field trips on Monday mornings should be illegal. He’s on fall break from college, and he hadn’t really planned on spending his first morning off getting up even earlier than usual just to go see gross and smelly animals at a petting zoo.

“But Kyungsoo,” is what Wu Fan reminds Sehun that morning, handing him his cup of coffee, as per usual.

Sehun grunts in response; he knows. Kyungsoo is the only reason he comes home with marker on his arm and glitter in his hair and gets up too early when he should be sleeping late.

Wu Fan just laughs and calls out a smug “Whipped!” from the doorway as he heads out.

If Sehun weren’t so tired, he’d throw something at him.

The classroom is almost already full when Sehun arrives. The children had obviously convinced their parents to drop them off early since they had a field trip. Sehun is attacked from every side when he walks in, legs immobilized and hands useless as they are occupied by smaller ones.

“Okay everyone, go stand behind your seats and put your lunches on your desk!” Kyungsoo claps his hands twice, the children copying him, before hurrying away to their seats, bouncing up and down on their heels in anticipation.

Sehun finally gets a chance to set down all his stuff, save for the small backpack he’s bringing for the field trip.

Kyungsoo takes attendance and concludes that everyone is there, and that only two kids forgot to tell their parents to pack their lunch in a paper bag. (Kyungsoo always packs extras because it’s bound to happen.) “So,” he begins, and he sounds much too chipper for such an hour of the morning. “who’s ready to go on a field trip?”

The whole class cheers, and Kyungsoo has to quiet them down before having them line up to head out the door.

Sehun stands at the back of the line with Jongin clutching onto his hand, as if he’ll get lost if he doesn’t.

Kyungsoo has fun ways of keeping the kids quiet. Well, at least the kids think they’re fun. They play the quiet game in the hall, and no one dares to talk lest they not get their cookies next class. Sehun wishes his high school teachers would have had the same idea; cookies would have kept Sehun quiet in chemistry class (well, maybe).

The quiet game stops once the class exits the building, then they’re free to be as loud as they want for the rest of the day. They take one of the smaller buses, one just big enough to fit everyone with one seat left over.

Sehun tries to get Jongin to sit beside someone else besides him, but Jongin is reluctant until a boy, Baekhyun, pulls out a handheld game with the tell-tale sounds of Pokemon blipping from the speakers. Jongin doesn’t look at Sehun for the whole bus ride.

There’s an open seat right at the front, but Kyungsoo is sitting by himself in the seat nearest the door, and for a moment Sehun stands awkwardly in the middle of the isle.

“Do you want to sit here?” Kyungsoo finally asks, probably noticing the distressed look on the younger’s face.

“Oh, um,” Sehun stutters, his eyes darting back and forth between the empty seat and the space beside Kyungsoo. “I don’t want it to be too crowded.”

Kyungsoo smiles, tossing his own backpack over the isle to the empty seat. “It’s okay, we can just put our stuff over there.”

Sehun swallows thickly and nods, placing his backpack beside Kyungsoo’s before sliding in beside the elder.

“Excited?” Kyungsoo asks, turning to look at Sehun.

Their close proximity throws Sehun off a bit, and he has to blink a few times to make the world stop spinning before answering. He swears he can still feel where Kyungsoo’s lips had presses lightly against his cheek just a few days ago.

“Yeah, sure,” he answers dumbly.

Kyungsoo just laughs. “I can tell.”

☼

So maybe petting zoos aren’t that bad.

That’s what Sehun thinks when he steps off the bus, green grass and bright sun permeating his vision for miles. They’ve driven all the way out to the countryside, far away from the honking horns and stale air of the city. The children are as excited as ever, jumping and pointing at the farm that’s yards away, already spotting animals like goats and sheep.

“I wanna see the sheeps!” Jongdae exclaims, tugging on Kyungsoo’s shirttail.

“They’re called ‘sheep,’ and we’ll get to see them eventually,” Kyungsoo pats Jongdae on the head before having the class line up to enter the farm.

“Do they have pandas?” Zitao, a small black-haired boy that just transferred from China this year, asks, looking up at Sehun expectantly.

“No, not at this kind of zoo,” Sehun replies, patting the boy on the head just as Kyungsoo had with Jongdae. It seems to placate the kids well enough (most of the time).

Once they enter the farm through a small fence, the owner, a short and wrinkly old man, comes out to greet them excitedly. “Hello kids! Are you ready to see the animals?”

Of course, the class cheers in response, jumping up and down and ready to get moving.

“Alright then, let’s get started.”

The owner shows them over to the main area of the small farm, where he keeps some of the animals for occasions like this. There are sheep, goats, chickens, calves, pigs, and rabbits all in separate pens, with the pens set up in a circle so that the children can make their rounds. After the owner explains how and how not to feed the animals, he lets the class roam free, free to play with the rabbits and pigs as they wish since they’re the most gentle and smallest of all the animals.

“I wanna see the rabbits,” Jongin states to Sehun before dragging the elder over to the pen, where Baekhyun and Minseok have already picked up two of the small creatures.

“It looks like you!” Baekhyun exclaims, pointing to the copper-colored rabbit Minseok is cradling in his arms.

Sehun smiles, noticing how their hair does seem to be the same color. And that Minseok has this cute little nose that resembles that of the rabbit’s.

“I do not!” Minseok yells back, though there’s no malice behind his words. He’s laughing just as hard as Baekhyun is.

“Which one do you want to hold?” Sehun asks Jongin, who is hesitantly staring at the rest of the rabbits, who are either munching happily on lettuce or hopping slowly around their pen.

“That one,” Jongin points to a solid black rabbit, lying in the far corner of the pen by itself.

Sehun helps Jongin hold the rabbit so that it won’t scratch him, but also so the bunny has enough support and Jongin won’t drop it.

“He looks sad,” Jongin mumbles, staring down at the animal as he gently the space between its ears. “Why was he all alone?” Jongin asks, looking up at Sehun imploringly.

“I don’t know, but I think he’s happy that he’s found a friend now,” Sehun says before giving another little piece of his heart to Jongin.

After a while, Baekhyun and Minseok move on from the rabbits, so naturally Jongin follows, though he’s loathe to leave his black bunny all alone again.

“I’ll come see you again before I leave, okay?” Jongin calls to the rabbit as he and Sehun exit the pen, bound for the pigmy goats next. (Jongin seems to take the creature’s twitch of the ears as an “okay” and is then satisfied with leaving.)

Jongin seems to have taken a liking to both Baekhyun and Minseok, following them around in secret at first, then blatantly after he gave up on trying to be inconspicuous.

Baekhyun and Minseok have no problem with it, welcoming him into their friendship without any fuss.

And Sehun’s glad, because, as much as he loves getting attention from Jongin, he’s been a bit worried about the state of Jongin’s social life as a Kindergartener. He read in some book somewhere (to impress Kyungsoo, of course) that it’s not good if children don’t socialize while they’re young.

Eventually Jongin is so wrapped up in dwarf piglets and his new friends that he forgets Sehun was even there, giving Sehun some free time to walk around and look at the animals himself. And watch the kids, of course.

Sehun spies out of the corner of his eye a little head of black hair on the outskirts of the pens, though the little head of black hair isn’t alone.

Zitao has foregone the goats, pigs, rabbits, and whatnot in favor of one animal: a cat. He’s sitting in the dirt, no doubt getting his jeans dusty, holding a sleek black cat in his lap.

Sehun can’t help but wander over. “Don’t you want to see the other animals?” he asks, crouching beside Zitao and the cat, who purrs like a little motorboat in return, the bell on his collar jingling with even the slightest movement.

“No,” the boy shrugs. “I like this one more.” Zitao’s Korean is accented and broken, but Sehun finds even that cute.

“Well, if you do, just let me or Kyungsoo hyung know, okay?”

Zitao nods, but keeps staring at the cat and petting it like it’s his job.

Sehun wanders away again, this time finding Kyungsoo amidst a group of children and an alpaca.

The thing is huge, a big ball of creamy fluff with a snout and some ears sticking out of its head. Sehun absently thinks that it looks like Wu Fan. He’ll have to remember to tell him that when he gets home, just to get back for that “whipped” comment he made this morning.

The kids shriek every time the alpaca so much as moves in their direction. Probably because the farmer had told them that, if they get too close, the alpaca might spit on them.

So maybe that’s why it reminds Sehun of Wu Fan.

Sehun finds himself flinching with one particularly jerky movement the alpaca makes and hears Kyungsoo chuckling off to the side. “What? I would like to return home unscathed.”

Kyungsoo’s still smiling, that heart-shaped smile Sehun loves so much, seemingly not worried about an impending spit rocket being launched his way. “It’s just a little saliva, Sehun-ah. You’ll be okay.”

Sehun scrunches his nose at the thought of that happening. Gross.

☼

Eventually everyone gathers together for lunch, Kyungsoo and Sehun passing out classic, brown paper bags accordingly.

They’re having a picnic, complete with blankets on the grass and a pretty pond to look at while the kids munch happily on their sandwiches.

Jongin insists on sharing his cookies with Sehun, even though Sehun says he doesn’t like oatmeal raisin. But how can he say no to those eyes?

Kyungsoo is beside Sehun, watching the kids who have already finished their lunch play by the edge of the pond with the frogs and dragonflies.

“Hyung! Hyung, look what I found!” Chanyeol bounds over to Kyungsoo, his hands cupped tightly together.

"What is it, Chanyeol?" Kyungsoo curiously tries to peek in between Chanyeol's hands, and is met with a deep croak.

Everyone laughs hysterically at Kyungsoo’s reaction, which includes knocking over a few juice boxes and landing his elbow in Zitao’s jello. All after a quite high-pitched girlish scream making its way out of his throat, of course.

Sehun is hiding his contained laughter behind his hand, trying to help Kyungsoo up so he can clean the sticky snack off his nicely pressed plaid shirt.

Kyungsoo grumbles as Sehun helps him up to a standing position, trudging off to ask the farmer if he can use a bathroom.

Sehun watches as the elder stomps off, wondering if he should tell Kyungsoo that he has dirt on his , too.

☼

    After a very tiring day at the petting zoo, the kids have completely passed out on their way back to the school. The silence is somewhat welcomed, though Sehun finds it easier to ignore the slight tension between he and Kyungsoo when there’s plenty of noisy children in the background.

    Finally, Kyungsoo clears his throat, picking at a stain on his jeans to avoid eye contact. “I’m sorry if what I did the other night made you uncomfortable, I just thought--”

    “No, no, no, it’s totally okay,” Sehun immediately stops Kyungsoo. The last thing he wants is Kyungsoo thinking that he doesn’t like him that much. Because he really likes Kyungsoo. Like, more than just that much. “I just. I didn’t know how to act around you after. I guess because I’m still kind of a kid, you know?” Sehun tries to laugh, rubbing the back of his neck nervously. It’s a habit.

    Kyungsoo smiles that amazing smile that Sehun loves so much. “Good. Because I was being shy.”

    Sehun blushes at that, but it gives him that bit of courage to move his hand that much more to the right and link Kyungsoo’s smaller hand with his.

    Kyungsoo squeezes Sehun’s hand in reassurance and Sehun doesn’t really hate Monday mornings anymore.

☼

It’s 6 AM. Oh Sehun is now used to being up at 6 AM.

Wu Fan is also used to Sehun being up at 6 AM, and knows the only reason the younger is up at such an hour when his classes don’t start for another three hours is because of a certain Do Kyungsoo. Kyungsoo is, according to Sehun, the cutest and kindest person ever. Oh, and they sit beside each other in Mandarin 101.

Sehun still stumbles into the kitchen every morning, though, taking the coffee Wu Fan always has ready for him and eating the breakfast Wu Fan has made. Except now, Sehun sometimes gets out a joke or two about Lu Han before Wu Fan is shooing him out the door, nagging that he’ll be late if he doesn’t leave now. And Wu Fan still comes home to a messy thank you scrawled on a sticky note, and just laughs.

It’s 6:47 when Sehun gets off the bus in front of the primary school. He blends in pretty well now, some parents greeting him while children run up to him and hug him like they hadn’t just seen him yesterday.

Sehun navigates his way through the hallways before he comes to a door littered with Pororo character cut-outs. Kyungsoo’s room. As usual, Kyungsoo is inside tidying up the last bit of scattered toys. And Sehun smiles because they both know the toys will be out on the floor in the next ten minutes anyway.

Sehun doesn’t knock (he stopped doing that after the first week after Kyungsoo made fun of him for it) before entering the room and setting his stuff down behind Kyungsoo’s desk where the other’s belongings are also.

“Good morning,” Kyungsoo greets, and Sehun looks up to see that bright smile he’s grown so fond of.

“Morning,” Sehun returns, smiling as best he can, though he knows it’ll never measure up to Kyungsoo’s.

The door clicks again and there’s a sudden pressure on Sehun’s right leg. Jongin.

“Someone’s energetic for such an early morning,” Sehun comments, heaving the boy into his arms to settle on his hip. Jongin, though always happy to see Sehun, is usually bleary-eyed and yawning when he walks through the door.

“He practically passed out from dance practice last night, so he definitely got enough sleep,” Jongin’s father smiles from the entrance where he’s hanging Jongin’s coat and backpack up on a hook. “Good luck.”

Sehun and Kyungsoo wave bye to Jongin’s father as he leaves Jongin’s backpack by the door.

Sehun lets Jongin down after the boy complains about wanting to help Kyungsoo pass out papers for the day.

It’s 7 AM, a steady stream of sunlight pouring through the large windows in the room, bathing Sehun’s two favorite people in yellow light. He watches how Jongin smiles widely just knowing that he’s helping out his “appa,” and sees how Kyungsoo watches Jongin like he’s his own child. And there’s that swelling feeling in his chest, the one that makes his heart feel like it’s going to burst.

He smiles, and thinks that maybe, just maybe, one day, he can have this all to himself.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa what's it been? like a year? i'm so sorry you guys. i seriously just totally lost all inspiration on this for the longest time. i needed to get all the dark, sad story plots out of my system before i finished this.

i actually finished the bulk of this a year ago when i started it, but churned out the beginning and the end just today, in about an hour orz so i understand if you're all disappointed ;;;;;;;

but! i want to thank the 218 subs i have for this story!!! like, woah. it's been a steady stream of subcribers, day by day, for the past year that has given me this many as of today and it's just so amazing. like you guys have no idea, i'm excited when five people subscribe to one of my stories, so this is unbelievable.

again i'm sorry for the (very very very) long wait, but i hope you all enjoy this xo

p.s. sorry about the title change ;;;;; it was last minute when i realized the original title had nothing to do with the story that i ended up writing. but fear not! it has gone to live with my other plot bunnies to one day (hopefully) be written.