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A small thought crossed his mind as he headed down the street. It was a scary realization that made Sehun feel both insecure and scared for the first time.

He realized that right now, at this very moment, he would much rather spend his time at home with an idiotic boy named Luhan than stay in the karaoke room with his friends.

There was one question swimming around Sehun’s head the whole time he ran home.

When did spending time with Luhan become more enjoyable than spending time with my friends?

Chapter 25:

Luhan’s ears perked up as he heard his phone’s alarm go off in the middle of an intense game of League of Legends. The screen lit up and he glanced over his notifications. One particular message made him stand up and gather his belongings.

“Guys, I’m leaving first!” Luhan called out as he stood by the door. He sighed when he did not get a response. Instead, he saw a bunch of teenage boys shouting at their computer screens as if their lives were on the line. If someone had only heard their voices, they would have thought a war had actually started.

“No, no, no! Leave! NO, DON’T COME OVER HERE, OH MY GOD! 走开，走开，不要过来!,” Tao shouted in fear for his avatar life.

There are only two situations where you can see Tao scream. The first is when the newest Gucci bag has been released, but he does not have the money to get it. The second is when he is playing a game of League of Legends and he does not want to be the first man down. Luckily for him, Kris always saves his from being last place and today was no exception.

“JONGIN, YOU BETTER GET YOUR OVER HERE RIGHT NOW BECAUSE I AM BEING ATTACKED.” Xiumin screamed at the top of his lungs. “And Kris, how many ing TIMES HAVE YOU DIED?!”

“I’D RATHER GO TO HELL THAN COME TO YOU, I WILL BE ATTACKED BY THOSE SCARY THINGS OVER THERE IF I COME TO SAVE YOU. SORRY MAN BUT I VALUE MY OWN LIFE!” Jongin cried out as his avatar ran in circles, desperately trying to find a hiding place. Poor Jongin was clearly missing the point of the game.

“XIUMIN, WAS THAT A QUESTION? BECAUSE I THINK I DIED ALMOST TWENTY TIMES ALREADY.” Kris replied, raising his voice so his fellow teammates could hear him.

No one noticed as Luhan slipped through the glass doors and exited the computer room. He shivered as a soft yet crisp breeze of cold air blew and the tree branches began to sway with the wind. He shoved his hands into his coat pockets.

As much as he loved his friends, he felt an obligation to return home early now that Mrs. Oh made dinner for them every night. He was a little too shy to admit it, but he loved the motherly feeling he received from her every time he entered the house, the feeling that someone was at home waiting for him and welcoming him home. He huddled closer to the scarf wrapped around his neck and quickly shuffled down the sidewalk.

By the time he reached Sehun’s residency complex, he could only think of one thing: a warm steaming mug of hot chocolate. He needed hot chocolate, and he needed it now. Luhan continued to stare down at the ground as he briskly walked up the small incline to the house. Because it was freezing outside, the cold distracted Luhan from watching where he was walking. He bumped straight into a warm, firm body.

“W-whoa!” Luhan wobbled backwards. A hand grabbed onto his arm in time and helped him regain balance.

Luhan glanced up and his eyes met with the ones of Sehun who happened to be wearing a Canada Goose jacket. It had a fuzzy hoodie and a long body which made him look like a hot winter wear model. Luhan's lips immediately formed a pout. The one thing he wanted at the moment was hot chocolate, not a confrontation with the antipathetic being he was still holding a grudge on. However, unlike what he was telling himself, Luhan could not ignore the subtle warmth that spread throughout his body.

“A...Aren’t you going to go inside?” Sehun asked, his chapped lips pursed together from the cold.

Luhan cast him one cold glare before awkwardly squeezing himself between Sehun’s body and the opening of the house gate. After a short ten seconds, his scarf got caught onto one of the sharp edges on the gate and he couldn’t make the cool entrance he was aiming to do. Flustered, Luhan struggled between freeing himself from the gate and keeping his scarf intact.

Sehun sighed. He leaned over and carefully removed Luhan’s entangled scarf from the gate.

“Jja, it’s untangled.”

Sehun's broad chest was centimeters away from Luhan's back. Some of his warmth spread toward Luhan's body, and Luhan shuddered at the contact. From behind, Sehun lightly wrapped the longer side of the scarf around Luhan’s neck.

“It’s cold. Let’s go inside.”

Without another word, Sehun stepped around Luhan and descended the steps to enter the house.

Luhan could feel a growing blush flood his cheeks as he watched Sehun walk up to the front door. For a second, he thought he felt some form of warmth radiate from the cold prince, some form of warmth he had hope for all along.

“What are you doing? Aren’t you coming in?” Sehun asked, sticking his head out of the front door. He stared at him with the same stoic face Luhan had seen on the first day. A few seconds later, the door slammed shut along with the words, “Suit yourself” and a shrug.

Luhan quickly shook his head. Still hella mean. He begrudgingly swung open the door and trudged in. Inside, Luhan successfully avoided all possible obstacles, such as the adorable Mrs. Oh and his super caring dad Mr. Xi, as he made a beeline for his room. His eyes caught onto Sehun’s closed bedroom door before he entered his room.

Hm...He must be reading again or something.

~*~

Inside the house, it was warm and toasty, the complete opposite of the frigid conditions outside. The heat inside the house became too hot to bear. In one swift motion, Sehun took off his long coat and draped it over his desk chair. The sleeves fell limp onto the chair and the coat’s zippers jingled against each other. Sehun ed the top three buttons of his shirt, drew up his sleeves, and began to twist his body left and right in an effort to loosen his muscles.

“God, I didn’t even do today but I feel like I just sat through a field trip at the zoo.” Sehun groaned.

His shoulder muscles strangely felt knotted and tight, and he squeezed his eyes close a couple of times. His vision became a little blurry until his eyes readjusted again.

Even my eyes are dry now.

Sehun laughed scornfully at his own ridiculous condition. He pulled the top drawer out and grabbed his eyedrops, hoping they would get rid of the fatigue in his eyes. Sehun quickly blinked a few drops of solution out of his eyes and grabbed a tissue to dab at the drops so it wouldn’t look like he was crying.

When he put his eye drops away, he noticed an envelope sitting quietly at the bottom of his drawer, the one he had picked up in the library. His lips unconsciously curved upwards into an amused smile.

I almost forgot about this little thing. I guess I should probably open it now.

Almost excitedly, he grabbed the envelope from the drawer and prepared to rip it open. However, one glance at the deer sticker sealing the envelope together, and he sighed. He never liked to rip stickers apart, and this was no exception -- it wasn’t because he thought he would feel bad about ripping Luhan’s counterpart or anything.....right? He merely wanted to open the envelope a different way today.

Grabbing the paper blade from his pencil holder, he quickly sliced through the top of the white envelope and pulled the letter out. The letter was written on thicker tan stock paper and felt firm underneath his fingertips. He plopped onto his bed and propped up a pillow to rest his head on as he nonchalantly unfolded the letter. The letters were written in very neat Korean words, albeit the prominent grammar and spelling mistakes Sehun tried his best to ignore. He began to read.

To 오세훈:

My name is Luhan and I am a student at Seoul High like you...except maybe not exactly in the same class. I have always wanted to talk to you, but I lacked the guts to approach you every single time I thought about it. Sad, right? So I decided to express my feelings through a letter. Honestly, it’s already hard for me to write a letter to you. I have been agonizing over every word, every sentence, and asking myself if you would like it; it’s a joke to think that I would ever be able to talk to you in person. But I figured, if I don’t write this letter to you right now, I will probably regret it for the rest of my life.

It all started four years ago. That was the first time I noticed you walking through the school gates, ignoring everything and everyone around you and just...being yourself. You heard nothing, only what you wanted to hear, and everything had to go your way. And I was fine with that. I wish I could tell you these next few lines wouldn’t have a cliche storyline, but I can’t. I really didn’t believe in love at first sight that much back then, but when I saw you, it all changed.

To put it in the simplest terms, I fell hard. For you.

I fell for the way your body moved when you listened to music through your headphones...the way your eyebrows would scrunch when you were concentrating on solving a math problem.

I fell for the small temper tantrums you would throw at yourself when you thought no one was looking...the small smiles I noticed you hide when your friends bickered about pointless things with you.

The way you bite the bottom of your lips when you’re in deep contemplation...even that arrogant smirk you shoot at girls who swarm over you after school. You might not believe it, but...I couldn’t help but fall for that too.

I guess that makes me no different from anyone else. I just silently hoped that maybe I could be different, maybe I could be the one for you. I still do. I might not have talked to you at all these past four years, let alone introduce myself, but there is one thing I know for sure. I like you, Oh Sehun. I have liked you, I still like you, and I am completely positive my feelings won't change.

I guess it’s just a misfortune on my part that I happened to fall for one of the most popular guys at this school. But I have, and there’s not much I can do about it. I just want to genuinely let you know how I feel right now, and finally get this burden off my chest.

And...Okay, I admit it. I wasn't completely genuine. I lied about something earlier. I don’t actually like you.

I love you.

- 루한

Sehun’s eyebrows furrowed as he finished reading, and he unconsciously bit the bottom of his lip. Something about the letter just irritated him, and he couldn't quite put his finger on it. He didn't know how to react. Normally, he didn't care much for love letters at all, even if he read them out loud in front of his friends. He never took them personally. However, this one was different. He knew who wrote it. He knew this person almost a little too well. There were too many emotions attached and conveyed through a piece of paper, and Sehun was someone who didn’t deal with emotions if he didn’t have to. He has lived a life storing emotions into a back drawer, and he was not about to change that.

Therefore, his first reaction was to simply insert the letter back into the envelope and store it away, almost like it never happened. He hastily placed it back into his desk’s top drawer, but before he could do anything else, his room door swung wide open and Mrs. Oh barged through.

“Sehun, I said it’s dinner time!” Mrs. Oh shouted, putting her hands on her hips as she glared at her son. She had on a flowery apron that was draped over her homey clothes and a pair of slightly charred oven mitts that covered her delicate hands.

Sehun, startled, jumped away from the drawer and immediately frowned, trying to cover up his embarrassing reaction.

“Why didn’t you knock before coming in, mom?” He retorted coldly.

“Excuse me, mister, but I knocked 100 times before coming in. You were just pretending to be deaf!” Mrs. Oh said in a fury. “Hurry up and come downstairs. Everyone’s waiting for you so we can start eating. Jesus, what am I going to do with a stubborn son like you?”

With that, she stomped out of Sehun’s room, slamming the door as she made her exit. Sehun let out a breath that he didn’t know he was holding. His heart was beating unusually quick and he could still feel adrenaline rushing through his veins. He brushed it off with excuses.

It must be because mom just barged in so suddenly. And...I’m probably hungry. I should hurry down for dinner before she tears the house down.

He strode back to his desk and gave the envelope one last stare. Sentences from the letter continued to run through his head.

“The way you bite the bottom of your lips when you’re in deep contemplation.”

“To put it in the simplest of terms, I fell hard. For you.”

Sehun gave his drawer a hard shove and stormed out of the room.

“Damn it, Luhan.” He muttered under his breath.

Sometimes, it to have good memory.

~*~

A/N:

I’m cringing and dying. I wrote a love letter. I mean, Luhan wrote a love letter and I helped him with it. All of it, LOL. Omg. /le dies/ I hope you liked this update, and welcome to the new subbies! Seriously, thank you to all my readers for sticking with me and this story and dealing with my serious case of senioritis. I love you all, as much as Luhan loves Sehun, and after this chapter, I hope you know how much that is. XD