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He poured out the change from the cardboard box, filled it into his sweat pockets, and threw the box next to the trash can nearby as he began to sprint towards the school building. The trash collector ahjussi scowled as he saw Kai throw the box by the trash, and Kai quickly bowed in his direction with a sorry look on his face.

“Mianhe, ahjussi!!” He called out.

The ahjussi just sighed and shook his head in disapproval.

“Kids these days...”

Chapter 7:

“Appa, let me help you carry that! It’s heavy, isn’t it?” Luhan whined, trying to take the humongous luggage from his dad’s grasp.

His dad refused.

“It’s not that heavy, Luhan-ah. Let me carry this much, at least. Look how much you’re carrying!”

And of course, Luhan’s appa was right. Luhan wobbled around, lugging a luggage almost 3/4ths the size of himself, and held three boxes stacked one over the other, in his hands. In return for the hard work his friends had been through during the earthquake, Luhan had decided not to ask his friends for help in moving their stuff to his dad’s friend’s house. He knew it would put his friends in an awkward situation as well, telling them to meet the family in the house that Luhan would be living with for quite a while. This is how he ended up carrying all of his possessions, along with his dad’s, by himself uphill to the house of a family he didn’t even know. Seeing that they were in a rich neighborhood, every house had a huge front yard, not to mention the back. Truthfully, it was a pain in the neck to walk in a neighborhood like this with all of your belongings.  

I wonder who the son of this house is...Appa said there was someone from my high school grade living here? I hope...we can become good friends...!

Luhan smiled to himself, and his appa paused to stare at Luhan. Luhan met eyes with his dad and blinked.

“Appa, is something wrong?”

Luhan’s appa shook his head.

“It’s...nothing.” He said, smiling as he continued walking up the hill towards the gate to the house. “I’m just really thankful to your umma for bearing someone as good looking and kindhearted as you. You act exactly like your umma. Have I told you that?”

Luhan giggled. “You’ve told me that many times, appa! I’m sure umma was a really nice person, and I want to act like her too. She left this world because of me, and I’d like to make her as happy as I can. I know she’s watching me from heaven.”

His dad stopped in his tracks as Luhan kept walking, eventually bumping into his dad. Fortunately, his dad was quick to catch the boxes that were on the verge of tumbling over.

“Mian,” Luhan’s dad laughed as he helped his son regain balance.

“Ah, kwenchana, appa,” Luhan laughed, straightening himself up. “Are we here?”

His dad turned to face the house gate that they had just stopped in front of. The name plate hammered by the side of the gate read the korean characters, “Oh Family”.

That must be the family name...It’s written the same way the ‘Oh’ in ‘Oh Sehun’ is written, huh. What a coincidence...

Luhan stood there for a while staring at it until his father snapped him out of his thoughts.

“Han, what are you doing? Let’s hurry and go in. They’ve been waiting for us to arrive for a while now.” Luhan’s dad said, opening the gate that had been unlocked upon their arrival.

“Neh, appa.” Luhan replied slowly, his feet moving to where his dad was standing but his eyes still locked on the surname. He took one last glance at the name plate before tearing his gaze away.

It’s just a coincidence, Luhan. Don’t kid with yourself. You’ll end up disappointed.

He quickly followed his dad from behind, thumping his luggage behind him as he took heavy steps up the stairs. After walking up what seemed like 100 steps, they reached the front door of a house Luhan could never dream of living in. The exterior of the house was very beautiful, vivid flowers coloring the sides of the house. A small man made waterfall made calming noises as the water trickled down between the rocks. The house itself was very modern, and not to mention, big. Of course, another way to describe the size was, the house was humongous. Both Luhan and his dad gaped at the house for a minute or so before they gathered enough courage to approach the door.

"Luhan-ah, ring the doorbell over there by your side of the door." Luhan's dad said.

His voice sounded shaky and Luhan figured it was because he hadn’t seen his friend in so long. He took a deep breath, fixed his hair, and neatened his clothes before leaning in and pressing the doorbell. Almost immediately after he pressed the button, he heard the loud cheerful voice of a woman inside, rushing to open the door. The door clicked and swung open, revealing a pretty woman wearing a dress, small diamond stud earrings, and a pair of slippers. She had quickly put on a bit of makeup, but even without it, Luhan was sure that she’d still be pretty.

Before Luhan and his dad could even make their greetings, the woman quickly ushered them in.

“Aigoo, you two must’ve worked hard to bring all this stuff here alone! You should’ve called for my husband’s help!” She gushed, grabbing two of the boxes out of Luhan’s hands and motioning for them to come in.

“A-ah, kamsahmnida!” Luhan smiled, bowing slightly as he dragged the luggage into the house and put his boxes down.

His dad followed in afterwards with a few boxes of his own.

“Anja, anja! Sit down here!” She said happily as she sat down on the couch and pointed to the other couch across from her.

Luhan and his dad quickly made their way to the couch and stiffly sat down. There had been previously fresh brewed tea on the table and the woman poured the tea into 3 cups, setting it in front of the two guests, and one for herself. Luhan’s dad was the first to talk.

“I am so sorry for burdening you by bringing my son and myself here to live with you guys. I will find another place to live as soon as possible and_”

“Aniya, Mr. Xi, kwenchana! You don’t know how long I’ve waited to have a son like Luhan!” The woman said excitedly, staring at Luhan with a grin. “My son is no fun at all...All he does is study, read, and act handsome. He doesn’t even go to hang out with his friends. I have no way of finding if he even has friends at all! I guess the only thing he got from me is the handsome part...”

She sighed, and Luhan politely agreed with her and smiled. Her eyes lit up.

“Aiyoo, Mr. Xi, your son’s smile is soooo cute!!” She said, clapping her hands together in delight. “Oh, I set up a room for Luhan and a room for you to live in here. I spent the past few days decorating Luhan’s room, but I’m not sure if he’ll like it...”

She turned to Luhan. “I hope you’re okay with it when you see it, Luhan-ssi...”

Luhan shook his head.

“I’m grateful enough that you offered a place for us to live, and can’t thank you enough. I’m actually pretty flattered that you would decorate a room for me to stay in!”

He gave her his eye smile and she couldn’t contain her excitement.

“Let’s go see your room then!!”

She bounced up from the couch, only to sit back down with a look of realization on her face.

“Omo, omo, omo. How impolite of me...I didn’t even introduce myself!”

She laughed at her own mistake.

“My name is Hwang Geum Hee, a mother of two and also the wife of Oh Soo Chang.” She smiled, before muttering a few words under her breath. “Where the heck are those two kids...”

She awkwardly chuckled until she heard the sound of footsteps shuffling towards the living room. Luhan proceeded to take a sip of the tea as he waited for the woman to continue talking.

“Yah, come over here!” She shouted towards the sound of the footsteps.

Luhan heard the footsteps stop, then a sigh before the footsteps started again, towards them.

“Ah, here comes my older son,” She grinned as he appeared through the doorway.

“What, umma?” Her son said as he shuffled into the living room wearing a white long sleeve shirt, a pair of sweatpants, and a pair of slippers almost identical to his mom’s. In one hand he held a glass of water, and in the other, he held a book titled, “Great Expectations” by Charles Dickens. Though, of course, the title of the book isn’t really important; the main point is that the whole book is in complicated English.

Luhan was the first to choke on his tea as Mrs. Oh stood up, took the book out of her son’s hands, and pulled on his arm, leading him to sit in the empty spot next to her on the couch.

“This is my son.” She said to Luhan and his dad.

She then smacked her son lightly on the arm.

“Yah, introduce yourself!” She whispered, annoyed at her son’s lack of communication skills.

The boy sighed once more, smirking as he leaned back on the couch and took a sip from his glass of water.

“I don’t really think it’s necessary to introduce myself to Xi Luhan right here, but I’ll be polite and do it anyway.”

Luhan, who had just recovered from choking, resorted to staring at the cup of tea as if it was the most astonishing cup of tea he’d ever had.

“My name is Oh Sehun, a senior at Seoul High, first in the class. Nice to meet you.”

He held out a hand across the table, and Luhan just stared at it, refusing to move.

“Luhan, what’s wrong? Shake his hand!” His appa urged Luhan, surprised at Luhan’s attitude.

Mrs. Oh quickly shook off the awkwardness.

“Since my son seems to know your son’s name, I take it that they both personally know each other from school. I understand it must extremely awkward for one of the students from my son’s grade to suddenly move into my son’s house. After all, Sehun isn’t one with too many words nor is he friendly.” She said, sneaking a glare in Sehun’s direction. “Don’t take Luhan’s behavior in the wrong way. If I was in his position, I’d be doing the same exact thing to Sehun.”

She gave the two a sweet smile before turning to Sehun.

“Go help bring up the luggage and boxes to Luhan’s room and show him where he’ll be sleeping. I’m going to kill you if you just go back to reading your English books, araso?”

“Nehhhhhh.” Sehun said with a sarcastic tone to his voice as he stood up from the couch and grabbed a few boxes.

He turned to Luhan, who was just sitting there staring into space.

“Yah, you coming or not?” He said annoyed.

Luhan, realizing he had spaced out, stood up quickly and nodded. He took his luggage, and the few heavy boxes left before he followed Sehun up the stairs.

That jerk just took all of the light boxes and left me with all this heavy stuff to carry up the stairs...

Luhan grimaced as he made his way up the stairs, struggling to keep up with Sehun’s pace. When they finally reached Luhan’s room, Luhan almost collapsed, dropping everything to the floor and letting out a deep breath. Sehun hung by the doorway with an amused expression on his face.

“Need help unpacking? My mom said I should help you.” He said, almost mockingly.

Luhan bit his lip in annoyance.

“I don’t need your help unpacking, thank you very much.” He retorted as he ped his luggage and flipped it open.

Sehun shrugged.

“Ah....that’s right. You said you would never need my help, right? That’s what you shouted to me this morning, huh.”

A boy who seemed around 14 years old appeared behind Sehun as he continued speaking and had the same facial expression as him. He caught Luhan’s attention, and right when Sehun said, “Suit yourself”, the boy stuck out his tongue.

Sehun, who finally noticed the boy behind him, smiled and stuck his tongue out at Luhan as well.

“Forgot to introduce him. He’s my brother, Lay, a new freshman in our high school.” Sehun put his hand on Lay’s shoulder. “He’s taking after me, so don’t expect too much friendliness around the house.”

He pat Lay on the shoulder, and Lay’s eyes brightened up.

“Anyway, good luck on unpacking all your stuff!” Sehun said.

With one last smirk, Sehun left and walked into his own room, closing the door behind him. Lay gave Luhan a look as if he were belittling Luhan and copying his brother, said “Good luck”. He left, but not before giving Luhan a smirk as well.

Luhan, with the last bit of patience he had, slammed his door close and plopped on the floor frustrated.

“Aish!!!” He said, hurling a random stuffed animal he found on the floor towards the door. “How come nothing seems to go right for me today?!?!”

Luhan turned back to his boxes and with a pout on his lips, he began to unpack.

~*~

A/N:

Hehe, Luhan and Sehun finally meet...in the same house! :3 I wonder what their interactions are going to be like from now on...Hmmm... ;D Welcome to all the new subbies and thank you for all of your support!

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[EXTRA]

“Besides...” He murmured to himself irritatedly. He turned around and was faced with a whole army of stuffed animals, from puppies to bears. “Why is this whole room full of stuffed animals anyway?”

He groaned as he remembered Mrs. Oh’s words: “I hope you’re okay with it when you see it, Luhan-ssi...”.

“So that’s what she meant, huh.” Luhan said as his eyes caught onto a giant teddy bear on the bed.

He then threw another tantrum, throwing a stuffed pony at the bear.

“Even this teddy bear seems to be mocking me today!”

He glared at the teddy bear as it smiled back at him, not once faltering it’s cheerful expression. Strangely, the teddy bear kind of reminded him of Oh Sehun. Except the real Oh Sehun wasn't that chubby. The real Oh Sehun was also much more handsome than the teddy bear. Luhan shook his head violently to get the second thought out of his head.

“Oh Sehun, you jerk of a teddy bear..." He said, gritting his teeth. "I am so going to get you one day...”

Just like that, this teddy bear's fate was cruelly decided right from the start, precisely from the moment Luhan addressed it with the name, "Oh. Se. Hun."