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The next morning, Yixing woke up, disoriented and with a pounding headache. The sunlight pouring through the curtains made him snuggle down against whatever it was he way laying against. Whatever he was snuggling against was breathing. He opened his eyes again to see Luhan curled around him in a loose hug on the sofa, breathing lightly. Yixing was so surprised he tumbled off of the sofa with a crash that startled Luhan into consciousness.

“Na, Yixing, how are you?” he asked sleepily in Chinese.

“What are you doing here?” he demanded before his head began throbbing and he winced.

“You got drunk. I was just making sure that you didn’t hurt yourself or something,” he yawned staring down at his friend on the floor. They were both still fully dressed in the same attire they had been wearing the night before. All of the time after Yixing’s third glass was a gone him and the time before that was fuzzy. The last thing he remembered clearly was Luhan pushing him into his bathroom to get changed. There was something about a club and a guy going by the name of, what was it? Chen? That sounded familiar although he didn’t know why. Lying on the table in front of the sofa was a napkin with ten numbers written in a beautiful script on it.

“What is this?”

“It’s someone’s phone number. I don’t know who it was. Might’ve been the bartender or it might’ve been Chen?” he replied, rubbing sleep from his eyes.

“I feel terrible.” Yixing planted his face firmly into the carpet; wanting to die from the migraine he was experiencing.

“You shouldn’t have had that much then. I swear, you never learn. You do not do well with alcohol. I’ll go make you some coffee.” He paused. “At least lay down on the sofa. It will be more comfortable than the carpet. I know you carpet is nice but it will still be more comfortable on the sofa. Don’t fall off again while I’m in the kitchen.” He picked his begrudging friend and laid him down, face up before leaving and heading down the hallway into the kitchen.

Rummaging through the pantry, he found some at the very back, noting that the next time he went shopping, he should buy some more. It took about five minutes for him to get the coffee brewing in the machine and he returned to find his friend face down again. He sighed in exasperation, debating whether he should yell at the other or to go about this calmly. He decided that yelling would get him nothing but an even more depressed friend.

“I’m sorry for taking you to that club. I thought that you getting out would be better than you moping around for another day.” He pulled the other into a sitting position and wrapped an arm around him, his head. It was possible for him to be mature when he needed to. “I probably shouldn’t have let you drink that much and I admin that this is probably my fault.” He sighed and Yixing leaned on his shoulder.

“It’s okay. I forgive you. I guess I am still avoiding my problems and thought that that escape was the best way to do it.” He closed his eyes against the intruding sunlight as the rising sun sent an especially bright ray piercing his hung over brain and also to hide the tears coming to his eyes. He groaned and buried his face in his friend’s neck. Luhan knew that this wasn’t the best time to tell his friend that he ­really needed to get over Sehun and he would discuss it later.

They sat like that for who knows how long, then Luhan remembered the coffee. “I’ll be right back. Hopefully the coffee will make you feel better.” Yixing nodded numbly and Luhan disappeared down the hall. The tears he had held back all this time began to spill from Yixing’s eyes and he sobbed silently as Luhan made the coffee, a little sugar and cream. He returned to find a sobbing mess curled up on the sofa.

He quickly crossed the room and put the mug on a cork coaster on the coffee table.

“Don’t cry. It’s not worth it. Really. Please don’t cry. I hate to see you like this,” he soothed, kneeling in front of the sofa. “I’m still here for you.” He internally debated whether he should say it but Yixing beat him to it.

“I know. I should get over him. I know that I shouldn’t cry and that he isn’t worth my tears, but,” he hiccupped and stopped. Luhan looked down. Yixing just knew him too well. He should have known that Yixing realised this already.

Luhan took a shuddering breath. “Listen, I think that you should go at your own pace getting over him, but at the same time, you shouldn’t dwell on it as much as you are doing now.” He looked up again and met Yixing’s teary gaze with his own.

He rested his hand on top of Yixing’s and smiled encouragingly and Yixing slowly wiped his swollen red eyes. Luhan helped him to an upright position again and handed the mug of steaming coffee, which he sipped slowly. “Thank you Luhan ge.”

“Just know that I’m always here for you.” He kissed Yixing’s forehead and then sat next to him, wrapping an arm around his shoulders.

—

Luhan really had been there for Yixing for as long as he could remember. When they were little, they were neighbours and Yixing could remember the first time they met. He was wandering around the garden after a butterfly when he noticed a kid on the other side of the shrubs standing on a chair and leaning on the hedge lightly, watching him.

“Annyeonghaseyo,” said the older boy.

Yixing thought back to the phrase his parents had taught him. “My Korean isn’t very good. I am Chinese,” he replied with a heavy accent.

“Zhen de ma? Really? Wo ye shi zhong guo ren. I am also Chinese.” He smiled down at his neighbour and Yixing felt a lot better that he had someone to talk to in a language he could speak. That was just the beginning of their friendship. Because they lived in the same district, they went to the same school, even though Luhan was two years older that him. They walked to school together every day. In high school, they still walked to school together, but after school they did different activities, so they couldn’t walk home together. They still saw each other on the weekends.

Luhan had taken up singing and Yixing had taken up dancing along with writing songs on the side. Luhan sang Yixing’s songs better than he could have ever done himself. At the end of a recording, they would just grin at each other. Yixing did the instrumentals and Luhan covered the vocals; their duets always sounded perfect. When Luhan graduated, he went to a university within the city, but he moved into an apartment downtown and they got to see less of each other. They texted every night and met every weekend that they could.

One day Luhan got no replies to his texts. It felt so empty without his best friend to talk to. The next day, he got an apologetic text from Yixing. Yixing had met a new boy in the dance club by the name of Sehun. That night all the conversation was about this Sehun person. Luhan felt something in the pit of his stomach that he couldn’t explain. It couldn’t be jealousy. Yixing was just a friend. Luhan had friends at university and Yixing had friends of his age as well, so why was this one special?

Maybe it was the fact that Yixing talked about him incessantly, more incessantly that needed. For a while, it was only that night that Yixing had talked about Sehun, but after a couple of months, Sehun crept into the conversation again just in passing, but soon he was invading Luhan’s time talking to Yixing quite often, just in passing, but that was enough. Luhan still couldn’t exactly define the feeling he had in the pit of his stomach and it bothered him, almost as much as the times when Sehun was brought up in their conversations.

—

The year after Yixing had met Sehun, suddenly he dropped out of all of the conversations for a period and Luhan was relieved. They were having normal conversations again with no sign of Sehun, until one day, Yixing told Luhan that he thought he had fallen for him. Reading that, Luhan’s stomach fell through the floor and he gasped and sat up in his bed, disturbing his roommate. Yifan grumbled at him, something about him needing to be quiet if he was going to be texting all the time and that they acted like a couple and he should just confess already.

Luhan realised that Yifan was probably right, but it was too late at this point because Yixing was already in love with someone else. Luhan turned his phone off without replying and curled up, facing the wall just beside his bed. His mind was spinning and his sleep was disturbed, haunted with nightmares of Yixing forgetting about him completely.

He didn’t turn his phone back on for a couple of days and Yixing got worried, so he decided to find the apartment. 421 b. He knocked on the door and found himself face-to-face with the tallest person he had ever met, a good fifteen centimetres taller than he was.

“I’m sorry. Does Luhan live here?”

“Yeah he lives here but he isn’t here at the moment. Should I take a message for him?”

“Just tell him that Yixing came by and that he should call back. I’ve been worried sick about him and I hope he’s okay.”

The man before him smirked and leaned against the doorframe. “So you’re the infamous Yixing. I’ve heard things about you. Don’t get me wrong, they were good things,” he said quickly when he saw a hurt look on Yixing’s face. “Luhan just talks about you a lot. That’s what I meant. I’ll relay the message to him and tell him you stopped by.” He smiled when Yixing nodded.

“Thank you.” He his heel and left without another word.

Yifan went back into the apartment. “You heard all that right Luhan? Are you sure that you don’t want to talk to him? He’s cute and he really cares about you,” he said casually to the sulking lump on the sofa.

“You already have a boyfriend don’t you?” Luhan grumbled.

“Doesn’t mean I can’t look. Tao doesn’t really mind.”

“Whatever.” He turned to face the back of the couch. “That he likes someone else doesn’t matter to me.” He had told Yifan what had happened a couple nights ago and had been this sulking mess ever since.

“We both know that is a blatant lie.” Luhan grumbled something that Yifan couldn’t make out, something like another “whatever.” Yifan just sighed. “Suit yourself. Just do the kid the favour of turning on your phone okay?” He walked out of the room rubbing the back of his neck.

Luhan had been holding his off phone to his chest for the past couple of days without actually turning the thing on. Finally it buzzed to life as he turned it on. “80 new messages,” it read. Luhan was touched until he read through them. Except for the last 5 messages, Yixing had been really worried about his gege, but the last five messages were just about him confessing to Sehun about his feelings and Sehun agreeing to go out with him.

Luhan screamed angrily and threw his phone across the room. It bounced off of the wall and landed on the soft carpet before burying his face in a pillow and crying. Yifan sighed in the other room, leaving the guy to get it out of his system.

—

After the initial tantrum, Luhan began lying through his teeth to Yixing. He said congratulations and that he was happy for the two of them. Sometimes Yixing brought Sehun along when they met on the weekends and it took all of the self-control Luhan had to not puke. After these he just complained and screamed to and cried at Yifan and he listened.

Halfway through the second year of Yixing and Sehun’s relationship, Luhan finally got over it, well he more just started to ignore it and go to the History club, where he met Xiumin. It was good enough to have that relationship, even if it was just an illusion.

—

Two years after the start of Yixing and Sehun’s relationship it was time for them to graduate from high school and move on to university. Yixing was going to the same university as Luhan. He was renting a house closer to the university alone. He was on a scholarship for his dancing and the school was paying for the house. Sehun was contracted into a company to become a pop star, but he didn’t tell Yixing. He was also attending a different university.

They only had time to see each other on about one weekend a month, but Yixing was spending a lot more time with Luhan and Luhan was secretly feeling victorious. One day, the manager found out about Sehun’s relationship and told him to break it off. Sehun wanted Yixing to hate him and to just let him go even though this would break his heart. He asked a girl within the company to help him.

Sehun called Yixing up to schedule a date. They were going to meet at his house and then go out. He gave Yixing the wrong time “by mistake” and when Yixing walked in, Sehun was making out with a girl by the name of Amber. Yixing’s heart stopped and he ran, somehow ending up at Luhan’s apartment. Sehun sent him a text, “Well I guess this means that we’re over.” He had to have Amber type and send it because he couldn’t see through the tears. He had to rip his boyfriend’s heart out and stop up and down on it multiple times. The distraught look on his face before he raced away burned itself into Sehun’s mind. Luhan gave Yixing a shoulder to cry on when he came to the door sniffling with swollen red eyes.

—

At a later time, Luhan confronted Sehun about breaking his best friend’s heart and Sehun’s eyes began leaking as well. He told Luhan about his manager but told him not to tell Yixing. Just tell him to forget about Sehun. He didn’t want to hurt Yixing anymore.

A/N: This was supposed to be a three-shot but it began to lengthen. I’m getting carried away and it seems to be getting longer and longer. Sorry for more LayHan feels. I didn’t mean for it to turn into this but it did. Also just some random TaoRis. I don’t know why. This story is really random. The LayKai will be coming up hopefully within the next chapter. This story wasn’t really planned and I’m organising as I go.