“Hello.”

Luhan wakes up from his daze and looks up to a smiling dimpled man holding a guitar.

“May I sit here?” Yixing asks

“I’m not sure why you’re even asking” Luhan replies, rolling his eyes.

The man laughs. That friggin’ dimple is still highly distracting. Luhan thinks.

“You were lost in some planet that I thought all the seats were taken up by your alien friends created out of your drool so I just had to check first” Yixing says playfully.

Luhan grunts and continued at the book he was reading prior Yixing's arrival

“Hey, when did Mr. Sarcastic become Mr. Grumpy?" Yixing pouts at him, "You’re no fun today.” which made Luhan stare again.

“In case you haven’t notice, I’m kinda busy.”

After a few minutes, Yixing creeps behind Luhan without the latter noticing and asks “What are you reading anyway?”

Surprised by the sudden proximity, Luhan was not able to mask his face fast enough to hide the blush that formed on his cheeks. He just sat there and welcomed the feel of Yixing breathe near his neck.

After regaining a bit of his sanity back, Luhan snaps a None of your business and a You really need to relearn the concept of personal space remark.

Yixing gets back to his seat leaving a disappointed Luhan. He already misses the younger's proximity.

“You’re weird today. Did Sehun neglect you last night? And why is he not with you?”

“He went out and hasn’t returned yet” Luhan replied not meeting Yixing's inquiring eyes.

Yixing has that kind of effect to him. Yixing's gentle eyes were always full of genuine warmth and concern that one could not help but get lost in it. Unfortunately, Luhan is one of those people who are helpless against it. He would not be able to control himself from bursting out last night's disagreement with Sehun if he has looked into those eyes.

But then again, almost everything about Yixing could leave Luhan defenseless. Almost.

“Do you want to tell me what happened?”

“No.”

“Okay.”

“I’ll make a song for you now, if you want?” Yixing says with a bright smile.

“Thanks.”

And just like that the topic was dropped and neither party had said any word about it. Luhan continues reading his book while Yixing concentrates on with his composition. This is another reason why Luhan liked Yixing. Everything about him is easy and peaceful. They don’t need to talk or dwell on things but they know how important one is to the other. And yet Luhan wonders why everything is still complicated when it could have been this simple with Yixing. Luhan got lost in his own thoughts again that he did not notice Yixing’s attempt at a conversation.

“Earth.to.Luhan. Honestly, are you even here?” Yixing says with a gentle punch to Luhan’s arm.

 Luhan, finally out of his reverie after Yixing's punch, answeres, “Sorry. What were you saying?”

“I was asking why are you so lost in thought?”

“Nothing. I was just thinking about… a bit about the past.”

Yixing gives him an inquisitive stare in response.

“Just random stuff. And no. Recollecting does not mean I’m that old," Luhan says after seeing Yixing's snide smirk.

Yixing laughs, “I’m not saying anything.”

Luhan just rolls his eyes.

Luhan was indeed reminiscing about the past. After the confrontation with Sehun the other night, he wanted to determine exactly when everything got all messed up. His childhood memories were a bit hazy to him but he could still remember the strong feelings that came with the thoughts of it; pain that came before the time he met Yixing and as well as the happiness he had felt after meeting him.

-

Luhan met Yixing during their elementary school years. The years he first knew about what sadness is.

It was at the time Luhan’s parents got divorced. For a young kid, he did not know the implications nor what a divorce truly is but he was not numb or that ignorant not to feel that there was something wrong. He would go home to his parents screaming at each other and often times throwing the things they would randomly pick up at each other without any regard who they were going to hit even if it was Luhan himself. They would hurl words at each other; words he did not know yet, but he knew it was something hurtful because his mother would sob or his father would start shouting louder. Parents conferences, family days, award ceremonies passed but Luhan never told his parents about it because his parents had never looked at him properly ever since the start of their fight. If they did, he could feel the scorn and the why were you born spoken in hushed tones. And although his mother would still cook him meals and his father continued to provide him with the allowance that needed for school, everything ended there and he was left to do everything for himself.

However, Luhan did not let anyone at school know about his problems at home, and thankfully, he had no classmates within their neighborhood that could hear or catch the gossip about his parents’ infamous fights. He did not let his situation affect his image as one of the most popular boys in school as well as his class performance. He was smart enough to know that getting a good education could lead him away from the miserable home that he was currently living in.

Luhan would go to the school library and study before homeroom and stay there until it was closed. If he gets bored, he hangs around with his friends at another neighborhood and played soccer until it was time to go home. His parents never bothered about his whereabouts nor cared about what time he gets home. He became a master of coming up with excuses for his parents’ absences during school events and the teacher believed him because he was, after all, still one of the top students in school. Luhan’s smiling face at school was supposedly one of the brightest in the campus, but after the bell rings’, his sunken face was another story.

It took several months before his parents’ divorce got finalized and when it did, it was the first day in fourth grade. He stayed with his mom because apparently his mom fought over for his custody which he overheard involved for reasons of tax exemption purposes but he did not know what it meant. Regardless nothing changed anyway. Although he welcomed the silence from his parents’ fights after his father moved out, his mother’s treatment towards him did not change nor did he expect it to. He had already lost the faith that he would feel the love that was gentle and unconditional from his parents in the same way that he could see it being given to his classmates from their own.

But he continued with his mask. He become so good at hiding his true feelings that everyone was fooled by the smiling angel, the charming school prince that everyone portrayed him to be.

His fourth grade started with a blur. Luhan’s plan was the same; to stay consistent, pretend everything was fine. The usual first day hype was in the air, his classmates rowdy and most people was updating everyone (who cares) what happened over their summer break. Luhan was talking to a bunch of his classmates when their homeroom teacher came in, along with a shy boy introduced as a transfer student from China.

His name... Yixing.

~

A/N:

I got all inspired by the photo of Luhan (and from all the views from the first chapter) so I edited this chapter and uploaded it much sooner than I initially planned. But meh. I need a break from all the studying. 

I would love to hear what you guys think or if I should still continue writing this. Because right now I'm kinda lost as to where this story is going to go. I swear I have an ending to this one but my mind has the inner workings of a drunk driver that can't seem to find a way back home though he knows the route. lol

The next few chapters will focus more on flashbacks. I think most of the story would be composed mostly of flashbacks ORZ. 

EDIT: changed the main photo header for this chapter since it was more appropriate.. 

Photo credit from tumblr