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“How could you even do something like that to me? I’ve liked you for 4 years now!” Luhan said, biting his lip to keep himself from releasing the tears that threatened to fall from his eyes.

Luhan turned to march out of Sehun’s room, but Sehun managed to stop him one more time.

“Aren’t you forgetting this?”

Luhan turned around and saw Sehun waving around his math binder.

He stomped up to him, pulled the math binder out of Sehun’s hands, and ran out of Sehun’s room, tears beginning to fall. By the time he reached his own room, he had already broken down into a sea of tears. The only way he could comfort himself was to sob in the depths of his covers and lash out at his stuffed teddy bear.

It’s all Sehun’s fault. It’s all Sehun’s fault.

Chapter 21:

“Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. It’s time to wake up!” Luhan’s talking alarm blared early in the morning.

Luhan winced as he shuffled in his bedsheets. He knew morning had reached him as the sunrays peered disturbingly through the window shades. The sudden light brought warmth to his skin and he flinched as he felt the natural heat radiate across his exposed legs and arms. As he tried to open his eyes, however, his eyelids refused to listen to him. Immediately, he thought back to last night when he cried until he ran out of tears -- now, he could only imagine how swollen his eyes were.

Although unwilling to get up, he still tried to push himself out of bed. His stomach felt tense and uneasy; the last thing he had wanted last night was for morning to come. Luhan absolutely dreaded the thought of seeing Sehun’s face this early in the morning.  Suddenly recalling the scene from last night, his face automatically heated up in embarrassment. He rarely ever tried to put himself in the hot seat, but for some reason, he always found himself sitting in it. He hated it, the embarrassment, the degradation of pride, the lack of power. Well, life never did go his way.

The moment Luhan finally lifted himself up from the bed, he immediately stumbled over his blue bear slippers that were laying idly on the floor.  

“Oh, oh, oh! Aish!”

He grabbed onto his teddy bear’s head out of impulse, and let out a breath of relief as he realized he was not landing on the ground.

“Aish, I almost died...” Luhan muttered with a sleepy coarse voice. He regained his balance and absentmindedly gave his teddy bear a few pats on the head.

He then struggled with the doorknob as he tried to snap himself out of dreamland. Luckily, he found his calling when he swung the door open. The strong scent of bacon and eggs wafted straight into Luhan’s face, and he could not help but stop to appreciate it before he shuffled over to the bathroom across the hall and opened the door. Unfortunately, the first thing he saw was a more than unwelcome face.

“Ah!”

Luhan blinked a couple of times as a half sleepy and half irritated Sehun turned toward the bathroom intruder with a blue toothbrush in his mouth.

“Don’t you know how to knock?”

His voice was muffled by the toothbrush in his mouth and Luhan spotted small traces of toothpaste foam by the sides of Sehun’s mouth. Sehun was wearing a mid-low white V-neck t-shirt and a complementing pair of plaid blue and black sweatpants. The outfit, or rather, pajamas was very simple, yet looked...okay, it looked damn good on Sehun. His hair was a big bed mess but it added to his overall appeal. In conclusion, Sehun was a being that was worth drooling for.

Handsome...Ignore it, ignore it, ignore it.

Luhan abruptly turned around and closed the door behind him. Sehun could only blink as the door slammed close in his face, and he was too shocked to even react. Luhan, on the other hand, was determined to follow through with his “Operation-Cold-Shoulder”. He was irritated. He was mad. He was frustrated.

“Son! You’re awake? Did you wash up yet?”

Luhan turned around and squinted in the direction of his father’s voice. His dad was standing in the hallway, all changed and ready to go. He was always more of an early bird.

“Not yet, dad...” He mumbled, “Sehun...ssi is in the bathroom.”

“Ah, really? Maybe it’s because you woke up a little early today. Why don’t you use the bathroom in my guest room?”

His father smiled warmly and gave Luhan a little hair ruffle. However, without replying, Luhan shuffled past his father and returned to his room.

“...Luhan?” He faltered off. “Are you okay?”

He jumped up in surprise as Luhan slammed the door with force, an action that seemed nearly impossible because of Luhan’s physical state of drowsiness. His son looked completely out of it, but he was not sure why. Before he dad could follow after Luhan, Sehun exited the bathroom and briefly greeted Mr. Xi.

“Good morning, Mr. Xi.” He bowed 45 degrees, politely greeting Luhan’s father. As much as he did not get along with Luhan, he still could not ignore the elder etiquette that he was taught since young.

“Ah, neh, neh. Good morning!” Mr. Xi smiled. He patted Sehun on the shoulder a couple times. “Hurry and get ready for school. Breakfast is ready downstairs!”

Sehun nodded and bowed yet again as Mr. Xi headed downstairs to the breakfast table. As he returned to his room, he passed by Luhan’s room and hesitated. He knew Luhan had to use the bathroom earlier in the morning and Sehun had taken a few extra minutes in the bathroom just for the heck of it. He felt a little bad. Just a little.

Should I knock...?

He turned to leave, but turned back and stared at the door. For some reason, something in his conscience was not letting him leave his spot in front of Luhan’s door. He awkwardly knocked a couple of times and cleared his throat.

“You can go wash up now.”

His ‘kind-hearted’ reminder was met with silence. Normally, this much would not hurt a pride as strong as Sehun’s, but for some unknown reason, it bothered Sehun more than it should have. He was just about to knock again but his damaged pride got the better of him and he decided to leave Luhan alone.

“I almost lost my rationality there..” Sehun muttered as he returned to his room. “Hold it in, hold it in, you have to go change.”

He unhooked his blue dress shirt with white polka dots from its hangar in the closet and tossed it onto his bed, before quickly pulling off his pajama shirt in one fluid motion. He pulled open the top drawer of his dresser and grabbed a white tank top. It slipped over his head and fit snugly onto his upper body.

“Jeez, who does this kid think he is? Confesses to me and then ends up in my house bringing along a disaster.”

Sehun ruffled his hair and combed it with his fingers as he talked to his reflection on the stand-up mirror in his room. He continued to mutter to himself as he prepped for school.

“That stupid deer should just hurry up and find another place to live!”

He then picked up the dress shirt from his bed and swung it around his shoulders, effortlessly slipping his arms into both sleeves before turning his wrists and buttoning the hems. He glanced at the clock positioned on the right hand side of his desk. It read 7:45am.

“I might not have enough time to enjoy breakfast...”

He hastily searched for a pair of black skinny jeans and at the same time, slipped out of his sweatpants, revealing a grey Calvin Klein pair of boxers. Almost immediately after he had stripped down to his underwear, he found his pair of black skinny jeans and jumped up and down a couple of times to get them on.

“Sehun-ah! Breakfast has been out for a while. If you don’t come down soon, it’ll get cold and you’ll be late for school!” His mom called from downstairs.

“Arasseo, I’m coming, I’m coming!” Sehun shouted. Why did it seem like everything and everyone was against him today?

He fumbled with his backpack, outer jacket, and cell phone as he exited his room and skipped down the stairs to the breakfast table. He was ready to cast his glares toward everyone this morning and he was not in the mood for jokes. However, when he marched into the dining room and settled himself down in a chair, things were not looking too bright for Sehun. Especially when he noticed the empty chair across from him. He glanced around the room before meeting eyes with his mom.

“Where’s Luhan?” He asked, working an effort to sound nonchalant.

“Ah,” Sehun’s mother chuckled. “He left early and in a rush, saying that he had something to do early at school and that he was going to be late. That’s why he left without you.”

Sehun could not help but let out a small scoff.

Tch. Something to do early at school? Since when was Luhan a part of any club? As far as I know, he does not even ask his teacher any questions that he needs help on. Based on what I’ve seen so far, it looks like Luhan’s set on ignoring me. Let’s see how far that’ll go, huh.

After devouring a small slice of toast and taking a huge gulp of scorching hot coffee, Sehun got up to leave.

“Aren’t you going to eat any more?” His mother called out, “You’re definitely not going to be late to school!”

“It’s okay, I’m not hungry.” Sehun said as he slid his feet into his shoes and tied his shoelaces by the main door.

“Oh Sehun, take that glare off of your face right now. This is why everyone is afraid to approach you at school!” Mr. Oh said disapprovingly as he looked up from his newspaper.

“I don’t need any more attention than I have right now, dad.” Sehun said rolling his eyes.

“Hyung, you’re acting weird this morning.” Lay commented as he slathered another slice of butter onto his piece of toast. “You didn’t even notice me here.”

Sehun glanced up as he finished putting on his shoes.

“Oh, Lay!” He mustered a small smile as he caught his younger brother taking a bite out of his toast. “Why are you up so early? School starts so much later for you.”

“I have no school today, remember? It’s parent-teacher conferences!”

“Ah...” Sehun’s voice faltered as he remembered the date. It was not like him to forget important dates that his brother wanted him to remember. “Sorry, I suddenly forgot. I’ll be home early and maybe we can go out and grab something to eat before your math competition tonight. Mian!”

After a small apology, Sehun escaped from the house and started his walk to school. Back at the house, Lay’s vision lingered by the door for a few seconds. He let out a disappointed sigh.

“Hyung never says sorry.”

“Mwoh?” Mr. Oh said as he took a bite out of his apple. “Did you say something?”

“No, it’s nothing.”

He resumed his breakfast.

~*~

There were never students who voluntarily came early to class. Normally, the only students in the classroom super early in the morning were students who had no choice because their parents had to report to work at an early time. This bunch of students included Kris, Xiumin, Kyungsoo, and Tao, though Tao was only there for extra help from the teacher. He could choose to come late if he wanted to, but he was technically one of the few “studious” kids in the class. Technically.

That is why several heads turned to stare as the classroom door of Class F swung open at 7:55am in the morning. All of the students who were expected to come early had already arrived. Who else could it be? Their eyes widened as they watched Luhan avoid their gazes and settle down at his desk in the back of the room. He placed his backpack by the side of his desk and shrugged off his jacket. It fell onto the back of his chair. The teacher who was busy explaining a math problem to Tao, took this chance to get up and leave the room because it seemed that no one was paying attention to his mini lesson anymore.

“Yah, Xi Luhan! What’s wrong with you?” Tao turned his chair around and sat down backwards with a sly smile on his face. “You’re never here this early, man!”

“Don’t make such a big deal out of it,” Luhan murmured.

Luhan merely sighed as his friends began to gather around his desk. Xiumin dragged a chair over and sat down and Kyungsoo quickly joined the group after throwing away the paper airplane he had been folding for almost 20 minutes. Before Luhan could say hi to any one of them, Xiumin beat him to it and launched his arms around his beloved Lulu.

“I missed youuuu!!!” Xiumin grinned, squeezing Luhan until he was an orange pulp.

“X-Xiumin!” Luhan choked as he struggled to pull Xiumin off of him. Xiumin was too happy to listen.

“What a stupid baozi, “  a particular someone thought from across the room.

“Ughhh...someone save me!” Luhan tried again, calling for help to escape Xiumin’s loving wrath.

Several students by the side of the classroom shot each other glances before staring at the scene in front of them, figuring that someone would soon help. After all, Class F was full of cowardly bystanders who only cared about their own activities. They continued their conversations in small voices as Xiumin’s attempted murder continued. With a sigh indicating that he could not have been more bothered, Kris finally decided to get up from his chair and pry the koala off of the poor deer.

“Please. Can’t you act your age for once?” Kris commented as he propped himself up on a nearby desk. “There’s only so many times that a dragon savior like me can be a hero for this poor deer. I’ve got more important things to attend to.”

Xiumin scoffed as he swung his arms around Luhan’s shoulders protectively.

“Like what?”

Kris pondered an answer and using his silence, Xiumin threw a double punch without thinking twice.

“A-Plus Suho, maybe?”  

The moment this question left Xiumin’s lips, he immediately regretted it. In normal circumstances, Xiumin would use Suho against Kris as a light joke since it irritated him, but this time, he realized he had said it in too harsh of a tone. Kyungsoo instinctively smacked Xiumin over the head when Kris wasn’t looking.

“H-hey, I didn’t really mean that.” Xiumin said, voice faltering as he slowly let his arms fall from Luhan’s chest. “It came out wrong.”

Kris simply nodded before leaping off of the desk. He was wearing a long -- notably fashionable -- petticoat over his grey v-neck and navy skinny jeans, and the edges and sides of the coat swung out from under him as he landed on the ground.

“I’m gonna go get some drinks at the machine.” He said as he stuffed his hands into his coat pockets. The coins jingled as he fished them out from his coat. He placed them onto the desk in front of him.  “You guys want anything?”

There was silence as Xiumin glanced at the others and turned back toward Kris.

“N-no...Nothing. You can get a drink for yourself.”

“Okay,” He nodded with an uncomfortable smile, “Then I’ll be back.”

With a small wave, Kris left the classroom empty handed. All of his friends chose to stay silent once Kris left. They chose to stay silent even after they noticed that Kris had left his money in the classroom.

~*~

“Guys, I heard karaoke was open for another few hours tonight with a 20 percent off discount!”  

Baekhyun jumped up and down a few times with a big grin. First period was finally over and the Sehun trio was taking their sweet time to walk to their next class. None of them were planning on getting to class on time anyway. Baekhyun swung his arms around Suho’s shoulders and pouted. Sehun had zoned out of the conversation the moment Baekhyun opened his mouth, so only Suho was available to take Baekhyun’s wrath.

“I haven’t been to karaoke in a moooonth!! It’s time for me to pay my beloved microphones a visit. They miss me so much already!”

He hung onto Suho and whined as much as bacon could sizzle on a frying pan.

“Pretty please? Pretty pretty please? With a cherry on top? Pleeeeease?”

Baekhyun then pulled off his pleading eyes.

“I’ll do anything! I’ll even introduce you to one of the pretty girls I know!”

Suho rolled his eyes. He knew Baekhyun had many girl-friends, but he also knew that he was not interested in any single one of them -- truth be told, he never found them attractive like everyone else did. Sometimes he wondered why. As Baekhyun kept tugging on Suho’s sleeve, Suho looked to Sehun for help. Unfortunately, the ice prince was too busy staring at classroom doors as they walked by. He did not even notice Suho’s SOS call for help. Knowing Baekhyun, he would continue whining all day until he got the answer he wanted to hear.

“Arasseo, arasseo. We’ll go tonight.” Suho sighed, pushing Baekhyun’s head off of him before ruffling his hair. “Are you satisfied now?”

Baekhyun grinned and nodded his head a couple of times.

“After school, let’s meet up by the gates and we can go together!” Baekhyun cheered. “Sehun, do you wanna come too?”

Baekhyun leaned over Suho’s shoulders to get a good look at Sehun, but Sehun seemed as if he had not heard Baekhyun.

“Seh_”

Suho quickly covered Baekhyun’s noisy mouth and stifled his next few words. Baekhyun stumbled backwards in surprise at Suho’s sudden force. The moment Suho removed his hand from Baekhyun’s mouth, Baekhyun threw him a glare.

“Yah, why’d you cover my mouth like that?! I was going to suffocate!” He whispered fiercely.

“Is that how you talk to your hyung? Jeez!” Suho retorted before removing Baekhyun’s hands from his arm.

In the midst of their small bickering, Sehun suddenly stopped in his tracks. The two students bickered for another thirty seconds before they realized that Sehun had stopped. Both of them turned to look at what Sehun was staring at.

Kris’s classroom? Why is Sehun looking in there? Suho thought in confusion.

“Don’t tell me he’s actually fawning over Xi Luhan now.” Baekhyun scoffed sarcastically.

However, before anyone else had the time to process Baekhyun’s playful remark, Sehun’s expression turned dark. Without any warning, he picked up his pace and left the hallway, leaving his two best friends behind.

Knowing Sehun’s personality, Suho and Baekhyun were far too scared to catch up.

~*~

“So are we all up for gaming tonight?” Tao grinned as he tucked his first period binder back into his backpack. He pulled his math binder out onto his desk in replacement, getting ready for next period.

“Gaming?” Kris raised an eyebrow. “Weren’t you the one who said you had to study tonight for the test tomorrow?”

Tao scoffed and waved his hand up and down at Kris as if he were shooing him away.

“I already had a small tutor session with the teacher this morning. I’ve tried enough. More than you guys, anyway.”

Kris reached over and smacked him in the head.

“Aiya, ge! What’d you do that for?” Tao exclaimed loudly. Other heads turned to stare at his sudden increase in volume.

“Jesus, you get sassy too much for your age,” Kyungsoo said, giving Tao the look. “Besides, it’s not like you paid attention to the teacher when she was teaching you. You were too busy doodling the latest model of Gucci onto your notes. She gave up on you the moment Luhan entered the room this morning.”

It was Tao’s turn to glare.

“Hey, hey, hey. Let’s drop it.” Xiumin called out, holding both hands out in an attempt to stop the staredown. “Let’s all face the fact that we won’t be studying right after school today. Let’s go to Jang Dongmin’s PC Bang later! Luhan, are you up for it?”

Luhan puckered his lips together and pondered the proposal.

“Come onnnn!” Tao whined. “We know you looooove studying, but students have to take breaks too, right?”

Kyungsoo laughed at Luhan’s seriously conflicted expression.

“Yeah, man. You have to know when to let loose and have some fun with your lovely friends.”

Luhan giggled.

“Right, maybe I should spend some time with my lovely friends.”

“Why don’t you just invite Sehun to our gaming session while you’re at it?” Kyungsoo winked.

“No, no, no. You did not just say what I think you did.” A loud voice echoed from the hallway into the classroom.

Everyone turned to see Kai enter, Chanyeol following closely behind.

“Whatever we’re planning to do after school, I’m just letting you know that that frozen jerk is NOT going to be there!”

Luhan laughed and pulled out a chair to the side for Kai to sit in. He patted the seat, gesturing him to sit. Kai pouted as he sat down, still in one of his temper tantrums. He was waiting for Luhan to console him, and indeed, he got what he wanted.

“Calm down, Jongin. I never said I’d invite that jerk anyway. He evidently hates my guts and I hate his too.  Besides, that guy doesn’t know how to have fun. Baekhyun and Suho just follow him around and then after school, they have fun all by themselves.”

“I heard about that too!” Xiumin exclaimed. “Isn’t it a bit weird though? I mean, everyone wants to have some type of fun, but I’ve never seen Sehun let himself have some fun. It’s a little irking, to be honest.”

“Agreed.” Kris said simply.

Kyungsoo rolled his eyes before muttering, “For once.”

Kris kicked him in the shin.

“I heard that, Soo. And it’s the second time I’ve agreed, not the first.”

He groaned in pain as Kris basked in victory.

“Krisss, don’t do that! That must’ve hurt, you know!” Chanyeol said as he quickly rushed over to Kyungsoo’s side to examine his leg.

“Don’t even bother.” Kyungsoo said as he patted his own leg gently and turned away from Chanyeol’s help.

Luhan coughed loudly for attention. He couldn’t believe how sidetracked his friends could get.

“ANYHOW, I don’t plan on inviting a lifeless boring ice prince to our meeting. We’re all going to meet after school to go gaming, right?”

“Yup!” Chanyeol cheered from the sidelines.

Everyone nodded and cheered, already forgetting about the rest of the classes laid ahead of them before the end of the school day. Gaming was a traditional ritual for this group of kids, a ritual that usually took place the day before a test. Kris was the only calm and well-composed friend out of the whole group every time, and because of that, he was able to catch something surprising, that no one else did: a few seconds of Sehun staring intently through the classroom door, before marching off and leaving his two minions behind.

Did Sehun hear everything?  Kris thought as he watched Baekhyun and Suho leave the premises. But then again...why does Sehun even care? Luhan’s nothing to him.

He turned back to the classroom and watched as all of his friends laughed, cheered, and grinned together. He smiled. However, as much as he was happy, for some reason, he could not erase Sehun’s angry expression out of his head. He felt like he was missing a piece from the puzzle. What did this all mean?

~*~

A/N:

Omg. I am so very sorry. Did I say I would stop apologizing in all my author’s notes? Because if I did, I just broke that statement and I think I’ll continue apologizing for a while XD. I wrote this chapter within a few months, and each time I opened this chapter, I wrote a few more sentences, a few more lines, or a few more paragraphs. I hope you guys enjoyed this and I’m just super happy because I never expected this much support from everyone. I love you guys, and keep the feedback coming! I swear it’s like motivation for me when I check this website at school all the time LOL. Much love <3 P.S. I kinda didn't know how much to give you guys in one chapter, so this might be a bit too long...is that okay? XD