If you want to make friend with Oh Sehun, there are two things you have to keep in mind.

One, he hates onion so if you happen to eat some at lunch and forget to bring any minty gum, remember to stay away from him at least 10 meters or else you will be suffered the most hateful stare in your whole life.

And two, he doesn’t talk much which means you’ll surely receive many shhh-you’re-too-noisy facial expressions if you continue your blabbering.

He’s weird, you might think, but just because he’s a little too picky and arrogant, it doesn’t mean he has no friend. In fact he has quite a lot, more than he asks for.

There’s Kyungsoo, the finance officer, who always brings home-made lunch to work and shares food with his colleagues. He’s a good guy with big eyes that makes him look like he’s scared of everything (but he’s not, you should see how he slapped Jongin’s hand hard when it accidently landed on his cute ).

There’re Baekhyun and Chanyeol from Sale department who like to make joke everywhere they go. Sehun doesn’t remember what miracle made they become friends, but he does remember how he hated them when they first met (they’re too noisy I told you).

And there’s Jongin, who’s sitting two cubes to the left of his, tanned skin, plump lips and always seems to be under a delusion of his iness could get him any woman in a record of time. They’re working at a same company and sharing a same apartment so there’s no need to say Jongin is Sehun’s best friend.

Oh and don’t forget Joonmyun, CEO’s secretary, the big rich brother among six of them. He’s very generous and treats them well but sometimes, when he’s not confident (or too lazy) to do something, he would pass it to one of the younger ones.

Like today, he drops a bomb at Sehun’s desk.

“Why me?”

Sehun unpleasantly retorts, hand slipping off the latest campaign report he’s reviewing.

“Because you know Seoul well and you obviously don’t have any plan tonight except for curling up in front of TV on your sofa.”

Joonmyun shrugs, propping his elbow on the plastic partition, earning a sideways look from the younger. This is clearly a ty quibble and even if he’s right about the part “don’t have any plan”, taking the CEO’s nephew for sightseeing around the city was definitely not written in Sehun’s job description.

“I don’t want to hyung. It’s your duty.”

Sehun nonchalantly rejects, continues gluing his eyes into the computer’s screen but doesn’t miss the slight pout on the older one’s face.

“Oh c’on Sehunnie. The expense will be covered.”

“No. And what did I say about you guys calling me Sehunnie?”

“It’ll be added as your OT.”

“Still no.”

“Please, I can’t go. I…I have a date tonight.”

Joonmyun seems to reach an impasse, making a lame excuse which surprisingly succeeds to fool Sehun. He looks up again, eyebrow arches suspiciously.

“A date? With who?”

“I don’t know. It…It’s a blind date. Jongin sets me up.”

Although the probability of a girl suits Jongin’s taste will meet Joonmyun’s high standards is quite low, like an unspoken rule, for your brother’s (maybe) future happiness, you have to take whatever you can. And in this case, Sehun has no choice to snatch a piece of folded paper which has the necessary information out of his hyung’s hand, knowing he will sacrifice his precious time tonight for a boring musical play at Seoul theatre with a stranger.

It turns out Joonmyun is also a terrible liar. He didn’t have a blind date, he didn’t even walk into a girl at the club later that night when five of them met up and had fun behind Sehun’s back.

When the CEO told him about how his lovely nephew who flew all the way from Beijing to visit his favorite uncle wanted to see “Catch me if you can” play as well as a tour around Seoul, Joonmyun immediately planned on passing this honor to one of his cute dongsaengs. A lovely person would certainly get along with a cute one wouldn’t he? And since Sehun was too wrapped up in his work and not be there at lunch, they all agreed that the maknae was the most suitable candidate.

Beyond their expectation, Sehun doesn’t seem to be either fretful or make any complaint the next morning and that no doubt brings up a lot of questions.

“How was last night Sehun?”

Kyungsoo starts sharing his special Cesar salad for everyone. He learnt a new tip on the cooking channel last weekend and can’t wait to hear comment from his five white mice.

“It was good.” Sehun shrugs, take a full mouth of vegetable while his hyungs all drop their jaw at that unpredicted answer “Uhmmm, yummy. It tastes better than last time hyung and……Why you guys are staring?”

“Really?” Jongin’s brows meet in confusion.

“Yeah, try it. It’s quite fresh and the mayonnaise is….”

“No no, I meant last night.” Jongin cut off before he could finish the sentence, finger waggling.

“Last night was fine I told you.” the younger one is still digging into his plate “We saw the play, we went to Myeongdong, walking until I couldn’t feel my legs. Yep, I had great time.”

If they drop off the topic right here, they are not either his friends or normal people because this is so unlike Sehun. The corner of his mouth curves up a little and everyone at once gets the message. They exchange a subtle look before Chanyeol speaks up, nudging him by the side.

“What’s the play about?”

“I have no idea.” Sehun responds without a second thought, finishes the last bite of his salad “I didn’t even know when it ended.”

“Don’t tell me you fell asleep the whole time.” Joonmyun’s face turns on an anxious mode because if the lovely nephew of his boss by any chance reports it, he will be dead meat.

“Oh no I was totally awake.”

“So what did you do?” Baekhyun teases with a playful grin “Counting that guy’s eyelashes?”

“You have me.”

Everyone drops their lunch and stare at him as if it’s the biggest joke ever. To their dismay, Sehun doesn’t flinch. He leans against the chair comfortably, an idiotic smile plasters all over his face

“I think I got Cupid’s shot.”

**********

After a week going out with the lovely nephew of the CEO, under his hyungs’ pressure, Sehun has to arrange a date so they can meet the mysterious man. People say a leopard cannot change it spots but everything happened in the last week broke that idiom into pieces. Sehun’s mood was extremely good. He spruced himself up, smiled more often and daydreamt more often too. The frosty expression was hardly found on his face and even though they felt happy for him, a part of them missed the old version of him. That’s why they need to see what kind of saint that guy is to give Sehun a mental derangement like this.

The corner they usually hang out is essentially fulfilled with a mess of Chanyeol’s joke, Baekhyun’s imitation, Jongin’s free laughing now suddenly becomes more quiet, only an strange accented voice can be heard from here.

Chanyeol and Baekhyun shoot Sehun resentful laser when they watch their maknae propping elbow against the table’s surface, leaning head on his palm, totally wallowing in contemplation of those pink lips’ chirping. This is literally just noise, how come he treats their noise and that Chinese guy’s noise so differently.

Love is sooo unfair.

“So Luhan” Baekhuyn puts down his cup of latte, swoops in between the conversation “What do you do in China?”

Luhan startles a bit at the mention of his name when he’s discussing about how to make the best dumpling with Kyungsoo, turns aside to see the curiosity in not only the question owner’s eyes but also the rest of people’s gathering around the table.

“Well, I’m a paleontologist.”

“A paleontologist?” Jongin shrieks in surprise, takes a quick glance at his best friend because as much as he remembers, a geek is surely not Sehun’s type but the younger one is simply gluing his eyes to Luhan without any reaction and the tanned skin boy wonders if his mind is still here with him “You work at a museum?”

“Oh no.” the Chinese male shakes his head slightly “I teach paleontology at university.”

“Ah I see.” Jongin nods understandingly, lips curve up into a smirk “So what do you excavate this time? A million-year-old dinosaur bone?”

Sehun’s snapped out of his dreamland and throws an icy glare at his friend for the lame teasing. He doesn’t want Luhan to feel uncomfortable or be a joke in front of them. In fact he doesn’t want to introduce them at all because time with Luhan is precious and it’ll be wasteful if both of them spend it meaninglessly.

“Try sixty five million and nope I didn’t come to Korea for that purpose.” Luhan seems not to mind being the center of topic then bashfully darts his eyes towards Sehun’s direction and smiles lovingly “But I found something more interesting though.”

The atmosphere suddenly becomes suffocated with pink heart and rainbow for five other single males and they feel like there is an invisible wall wrapping around these two love birds that they can’t break through. It makes them jealous yet want to puke so bad.

“Of course a grumpy lively one must be more interesting than a dead one.”

Joonmyun bitterly comments, pondering on how inequitable life is when he’s been trying his best to find a perfect girl for him since forever but no success while Sehun even prefers staying at home and watching TV but still gets a man completing him well.

“Grumpy?” Luhan’s small giggle makes everyone forget what they’re thinking for a moment “He’s actually really nice to me. He walked with me to Myeongdong, volunteered to drive me to China Town early in the morning so that I could buy my favorite fresh herbal tea.”

“Hold on.” Kyungsoo holds up his hands “China Town? You meant he woke up early all by himself and took you to Incheon, which is 40 miles from Seoul just to buy some sort of tea? I’m shocking.”

“No of course we shopped a little bit more than that…“

Luhan’s voice trails off as he doesn’t understand why everyone’s reaction to the news is excessively weird like this. What he doesn’t know is Jongin always spends at least ten minutes rolling Sehun out of bed almost every morning, another ten minutes to usher him from bedroom to bathroom or else they will be both late for work because Sehun is the one who has a car while Jongin is too lazy to take a bus. Weekend? Forget it, he’s never up before noon and Jongin doesn’t care that much. So the real question is, what kind of spell Luhan casted on Sehun to change this young boy 180 degree without leaving any trace.

Then again, what he doesn’t know won’t hurt him, plus they’ve only known each other for like a week, they still have time and Luhan still has chance to run away.

“Well, sorry for that.” Sehun finally explains for the very first time of this meeting since he’s too busy admiring every little inch of the Chinese’s face “I’m not a morning person so…you know, it’s new to them. By the way they just overacted.”

“Oh…”

Luhan is touched, being treated specially by someone he really likes somehow makes his heart flutter and if there was no one here, he would definitely take this hint to pull the younger one down into a sweet kiss. It might sound crazy but since everything happened in the last few days was already crazy too, he thinks he’s probably falling love with Sehun.

“When are you going back?”

Chanyeol tries to change the topic and accidently chooses the wrong one. That is the last thing Sehun wants to talk about, even though he’s completely aware that Luhan still has a class to teach next week, a life to live or maybe a boyfriend in China. He never mentions and Sehun never asks either. They both read between the lines that it’s just a fling and will end after Luhan flies back home. But what if he wishes for more? Does Luhan feel the same way as he does? Those are the questions hanging around the last few nights when he drops the other at his hotel’s rom.

“This Sunday.” Luhan mumbles, seeing the anxious glint at the corner of Sehun’s eyes “I have class on Monday.”

“How about we’re throwing you a farewell party?”

For the very first time, Chanyeol’s toothy grin can do a good job of lightening up the mood.

********

Never once before Sehun wishes there were more than twenty four hours a day, not even when the marketing campaign was in the middle of sprint and he had to work until midnight. He loves working under pressure but counting down to the moment of saying goodbye to Luhan is such a terrible feeling. He doesn’t want to think about it but somehow it keeps haunting him, scratching into his heart.

The Chinese starts asking him stay over the night after they share numberless hot deep kisses with tongue twirling, hands groping under the shirts and breath ghosting over the skin. Sehun lets the emotional passion take control, telling himself that they need to live at the now and not worry about tomorrow. But right when he sees the angelic face sleeping next to him the following morning, he knows he has to deal with the truth no matter what and it hurts so bad.

The more time ticks away, the more he doesn’t want to let go of Luhan’s hand and those heavy sighs don’t slip out of his friends’ attention.

Jongin approaches him when he almost finishes his third beer outside the balcony. Luhan is busy chitchatting happily with the others and Sehun just wants some time alone to calm down his nerves.

“Luhan is a good guy.” the tanned skin boy states the matter of fact, handing him another can but Sehun shakes his head in denial, he has to stay sober for a long drive in few hours.

“Yeah I know.”

They remain silent for good long minute, each is deep in their own thought then Jongin taps his shoulder saying seriously

“You can’t let him go like this.”

“What can I do?” Sehun flashes a pained facial expression “We agree it’s nothing. No string attached. It won’t change anything if I tell him I love him and begging him to stay.”

“No, you totally can do it.”

“You’re not kidding me right?” Sehun jerks back at the sudden advice, earning another squeeze.

“Why not? What else will you lose right? At least tell him that you love him. If he feels the same as you do, he’ll know how to work thing out.”

Sehun stares at his buddy one more time before darts his eyes back to the living room, where Luhan is surrounded by his hyungs, talking nonstop, bright smile never leaves his lips. He never thinks that someday he will fall in love with someone within two weeks or consider a long distance relationship or marry a foreigner. Marry? It doesn’t sound like him at all, a twenty-five-something guy who two months ago forcefully declared homoual marriage only existed in his dead dream but now he couldn’t care more, he will do anything to keep Luhan by his side forever.

“You’re right. I should tell him.” Sehun clenches fist to gain all his confidence “And I will.”

“Yeah, way to go my boy!” Jongin cheers, slapping his encouragingly “Now go talk to him.”

“No no, not now. I’ll wait until there’re only two of us.”

As expected the moment they have their privacy is only on the way to the airport but Sehun can’t bring himself to confess. He’s not sure what Luhan will react to these big three words, he didn’t think through when having this conversation with Jongin earlier. It might scare him away, they’ve known each other in just two weeks for God’s sake. And what if the Chinese doesn’t feel the same way, it would be so heartbreaking if you get rejected and have to drive a long way home all alone, crying over your own mystery.

That’s why there’re quite amount of times he opens his mouth with “Luhan I….” and ends up with either “wish you a safe flight.” or “can’t wait to watch the rerun of 2 days 1 night show tonight.” which makes Luhan think he really wants to be back home as soon as possible, but none of them is weirder than the phrase “need to go to the bathroom” when they’re waiting at the airport, which makes him want to dig his own grave as being teased a bit “You don’t ask for my permission do you?”

Not until the last call for boarding is broadcasted, seeing Luhan going to walk pass through that door is he brave enough to call out.

“Luhan?”

The older one turns back, wrinkles tracing on his forehead questioningly as Sehun keeps playing with his own fingers while sputtering “I..I…” and he soon lose his temper.

“Jesus Sehun. If it’s about the bathroom once again I swear I will….”

“No no not that.” Sehun waves his hands, bewilderedly pulls him closer and takes a deep breath “I think…I think I’m in love with you.”

This is it. I say it. I freaking say it.

Five blinks and they still lock their eyes in an incomprehensive gaze.

“Sir, your boarding pass?”

The officer’s voice from behind breaks them apart. Luhan blinks one more time to collect himself and suddenly chokes Sehun with a tight embrace, mumbling “Thank you.”

Then before Sehun could process what’s just happened, he already disappears behind the door, leaving the Korean male frozen in his spot, mind completely goes blank.

**********

Jongin tosses the magazine aside when he hears the door knob twisting open, excitement written all over his face

“So?”

“Thank you.”

Sehun short answers and harshly throws the jacket on the couch, walking toward the fridge to find something cold to drink.

“I know. You’re welcome.” the tanned skin boy hits his shoulder jokingly “Okay, now tell me what he said? Did he bounce up and down in joy? Did he jump into your embrace happily? Did you guys kiss?”

“Thank you, that’s all he said.” Sehun bitterly repeats, swallowing a huge gulp of beer down his throat. He still couldn’t believe he gained all of his sanity to confess and got a simple thank you in response.

“Thank you?” Jongin’s eyes widens in doubled size “It doesn’t sound right.”

“Yep. No bouncing, no jumping, no kissing. Just thank you.”

“What does it mean?”

“I don’t know.” Sehun slings the empty can into the trash bin in frustration, he himself has been thinking about that question all the way back here and it didn’t help him to feel any better.

What does it mean? Thank you….for spending time with me in the last two weeks? Thank you…for sending me off to the airport? Thank you….but I can’t love you back? The more he thinks about it, the easier he goes crazy.

“It must be a misunderstanding.” Jongin speaks up again, tapping his chin concernedly “The way he looked at you totally saying that he’s smitten with you.”

“Well then you’re wrong. We’re all wrong.” the younger dispiritedly sighs, feeling his stomach ties a knot in pain. He’s about to go to his room when a hand grabs his elbow and yanks him back

“You can’t just give up like that.” his roommate earnestly stares at him.

“What do you want me to do? It’s over.”

“No it’s not. You think there will be another person who could get you out of bed at 4 a.m on your third date just for herbal tea? You think there will be another person who could make you look like you’re being mesmerized by just a smile? NO, it’s your only chance.” Jongin points his finger at the front door’s direction and pushes “Go after him, fly to China and have a serious talk with him. Fight for him!”

Sehun doesn’t understand what’s taking over control him at this time but every word coming out of Jongin’s mouth is like the light at the end of the tunnel, enlightens his problem and gives him more hope about his future with Luhan. He pauses a second to compose himself, then rubs his hands together in delight.

“Alright. I’ll do it. But I don’t have his address in China.”

“Joonmyun hyung does. Just go. I’ll text you later.”

“Okay, but if it does not work out, you should be prepared yourself for an earful whine and a super grumpy .”

With that scary warning he stomps out of the room and heads to the airport the second time on a windy Sunday.

It must be a real bad day for Sehun since he both gets rejected and then spending an hour outside Luhan’s house doing nothing because apparently the Chinese is not home yet. He goes around the house about five times, the bell button insanely until some neighbors walking by stare at him suspiciously, he has no choice to sneak to the back, waiting for them to walk away. Having problem with the police in a foreign country where you cannot even defend by yourself is not a good choice. Sehun’s about to leave when he hears the phone from inside ringing as well as the voice of Luhan saved in answering machine, speaking in Chinese.

Luhan, where are you?

When Jongin goes back to his apartment after having dinner at the coffee shop nearby, he sees someone sitting grasping knees in front of his door. At first he thought it was Sehun but it’s just 8pm so Sehun couldn’t return that soon. He gets closer and almost has a heart attack since he recognizes who it is.

“Luhan?”

The person slowly lifts up his face and springs up as he sees it’s Jongin.

“Oh thank God you’re here.” he dusts off his pants, tiptoes to look over the latter’s shoulder to find a particular man but there is no one except Jongin standing in the hallway. “Where’s Sehun? I can’t reach him on the phone.”

The tanned skin boy is rooted in his spot with dumfounded expression on his face. This kind of situation should only happen in freaking romantic drama series right? He and his friends used to yell at the TV as if the main male could hear them “She’s right there you idiot.” when the characters running back and forth, trying to find each other but one of them is always late because of some stupid reasons. In this case, his advice accidently is that stupid reason.

“Jongin?”

Luhan’s waving hands bring him back to the earth. He startles a bit then quickly opens the door, biting on his lower lip

“Err… why don’t you go inside first?”

Even though he can feel something not right happened before, the Chinese still calmly steps in and sits down on the couch, patiently waiting for the other boy to talk but Jongin seems too busy finding the not-so-lame excuse for his best friend’s absence to pay attention to him.

“Jongin?”

“Yeah?” he spins around too fast, his head gets dizzy.

“Where’s Sehun?”

“He…he might have run after you to China.”

“What?” Luhan shrieks in shock, his doe-like eyes widens into an owl or eagle’s size “What do you mean he might have?”

“Well after hearing the story of your dramatic thank you at the airport, I might have suggested him flying to Beijing to have a serious talk with you about you guys’ feeling. I didn’t know you would come back here for him.”

The explanation brings up the mysterious thank you again so Jongin takes this chance to clear out the confusion.

“But why did you reject him? I thought you had feeling for him too.”

“I do. I really do. It’s just….” Luhan cries out, he has so many things to tell Sehun but now this is totally messed up. His lips tighten into a thin line when he fishes out his phone and taps the small green button. He’s not sure if it works, but at least it’s the best he can do at this moment.

Five sharp tones and he hears his own voice from the other line, then a long beep signals the voice massage machine start recording.

“Sehun, it’s me Luhan. I don’t know if you can hear this or not but I still want to try. I’m sorry for what happened at the airport. It’s all a sudden and I couldn’t think what else to say. I’m an idiot, I know. I should have said I love you too and peppered your ridiculously handsome face with kisses but I didn’t. I have a life in China, a job that I love, a family that I care but two weeks with you was so special that I was torn inside. When I stepped out of the plane, I realized I couldn’t live without seeing you because I do, I do love you Sehun. Yes, I love you. I lo…. !”

“What’s wrong?” Jongin blinks in surprise, doesn’t expect a cursing word in the cheesiest confession he’s ever witnessed.

“Nothing, the machine cuts me off.” Luhan smiled bashfully “But that’s enough I guess.”

“Yep, I think so.”

They sink into an awkward silence where Luhan is too flushing after his long embarrassing talk and Jongin simply needs some time to suppress himself from bursting out laughing.

“Beer?” the tanned skin boy finally offers

“Yes, please.” and Luhan couldn’t be more grateful.

Thousands miles away in Beijing, Sehun happily hails a cab to the airport, lips curving up into a big grin.