Jongdae presses SEND and leans back in his chair, nervous but satisfied. He has just emailed his application to Seoul University, already confident they’ll let him in, and his phone rings.

“Hello?”

“You .”

Jongdae grimaces. He should’ve checked te see who was calling him first.

“You didn’t even come in for work yesterday,” Baekhyun rants. “What is the meaning of this? Why don’t you ever tell-”

“I’m staying,” Jongdae blurts out. “I’m not leaving Korea.”

The silence is long on the other side. Baekhyun grouches, “come in for work today or else” before hanging up.

“Do you really have everything figured out?” Luhan questions, eyeing Jongdae carefully.

“Yes,” the student sighs, “I applied for Seoul U and I’m dating Sehun now. Everything is working out fine.” He casts a hesitant glance at his hyungs and lowers his head. “And I’m sorry. For being so. You know.”

Minseok gathers Jongdae in his arms and squeezes. “It’s okay,” he whispers.

The gesture seems to break the nervous spell that had settled over the group, and soon, everyone is joining the hug- besides Yifan, who is forcedly dragged in.

“We’re good now?” Baekhyun asks.

Jongdae grins. “Yeah. All good.”

It’s another day spent at Sehun’s house (Jongdae hasn’t been home for a week now- he’s always had clothes and a toothbrush at Sehun’s) and they stay up all night talking.

“I was scared, you know,” Jongdae says quietly, “of losing you. I mean, you were always with Jongin and doing all kinds of and I never thought I’d get you back.” He goes silent but Sehun says nothing- he knows Jongdae still has something to get off his chest.

“You know, I was going to kill myself a couple days before graduation,” Jongdae continues, ignoring Sehun’s sharp gasp. “It’s not because of you, Sehun. There were a lot of other things. But I was ready, I mean, I had the blade to my wrist. But a guy from the store, Kyungsoo hyung, called me. And I decided to pick up for some reason. I guess I wanted to hear a friend’s voice before… before I went.”

Sehun tugs Jongdae into his arms but the shorter boy pulls away, shaking his head. “I was supposed to work that day and I was missing my shift. Kyungsoo hyung tore into me about being irresponsible, but before he hung up, he told me, ‘If you don’t get over here in ten minutes, I will come to your house and drag you out of it. We need you, Jongdae.’ And hyung was probably saying the store was busy and they wanted help, but I was so overwhelmed. Nobody has ever told me they needed me before. I liked that feeling. It made me feel like I was here for a reason. So I threw the blades out and left. I never used them.”

Sehun stays silent. He Jongdae’s back and the two lie in silence for a while before Sehun says, “Stay with me, hyung.”

He’s not sure if Jongdae will know what he’s trying to say. Sehun is young, he doesn’t have all the words to express his feelings. But he wants to be there for Jongdae. He wants to be there forever, and now that Jongdae is finally here, so close, Sehun has no intention of letting go.

And Jongdae understands.

“He wants to be roommates! We’re gonna go to the same college! D-”

“Okay, okay, we get it, Sehun is super awesome and your super boyfriend and you guys are gonna super live together for the same super college yay how super,” Luhan yawns. “You’re so hyper. It’s just like the day Sehun came from the airport and you couldn’t keep still. Nothing’s changed at all.”

Jongdae deflates a little but perks up again. “Yeah, but-”

Luhan smushes his palm against Jongdae’s mouth in exasperation. “Please stop. We get it. I don’t want to hear about your boyfriend anymore.”

“That’s rude.”

The Chinese man whirls around to see a pale boy with blond hair and a dull expression throw a shoulder over Jongdae’s shoulders. Jongdae is positively beaming.

“So you’re the infamous Sehun,” Luhan muses. “Disappointing, I thought you’d be hotter, from the way Jongdae talks about you.”

Kyungsoo’s “aww, you and Jongdae look so cute together!” erases Sehun’s scowl. His new happiness doesn’t last long- Baekhyun’s menacing “if you hurt Jongdae one more time, I will cut off your balls and throw them into the Han River” causes Sehun to loosen his hold on Jongdae a little.

“Oh, lighten up,” Minseok says, rolling his eyes. He holds out his hand for Sehun to shake. “I’m Kim Minseok, the oldest here. Don’t mind Baekhyun or Luhan, they’re unimportant.”

Yifan is nowhere to be seen- “He’s probably doing the do with Kim Junmyeon, if you know what I mean,” Baekhyun says sleazily, and Sehun gags, because “my teacher, Kim Junmyeon?!”

“Your friends are interesting,” Sehun remarks while they’re walking back to his house.

“Sorry, they’re a bit crazy-”

“No, no, they’re fine! I like them,” Sehun declares. “They’re a funny and colorful group to be a part of. I can see why you spend so much time with them outside of work.”

“Yeah,” Jongdae sighs happily. “They’re like a family to me.”

The two turn the corner onto their street. Jongdae’s mother is pacing on the front porch, eyes burning into Jongdae’s when she spots them.

“Where were you!” she shouts. “You haven’t been home in days!”

“It’s not like you care,” Jongdae roars back, his good mood quickly vanishing.

“I have housed and fed you for years, Jongdae! I am your mother, and you listen to me!”

“You and Father don’t even deserve to be called parents,” Jongdae shoots back.

Mrs Kim raises a hand, seemingly about to slap her son, and Jongdae flinches. He’s been in this situation many times before, he’s seen the fists hovering above him before feeling them slam into his sides and his face.

“Don’t you dare,” Sehun utters, but Jongdae seems to think differently.

“Go ahead,” Jongdae spits. “I’ve been hit by lesser people. Go on.”

Mrs Kim’s eyes flicker, and she drops her hand, spinning around to go back into the house.

Jongdae sinks into Sehun’s arms, tears easily falling.

“I hate this,” he sobs, and Sehun holds him. That’s all he can do.

Things are falling into place but life isn’t perfect. They’ll have to realize that as the years go by.

Sehun’s mom cries when the summer is over and their stuff is stuffed into one car.

“You grew up so fast,” she sniffs. “I never thought I’d see the day Oh Sehun would get off his and go to college.”

“Mom!” Sehun pouts as Jongdae laughs.

“Take care of each other,” she says sternly. “Jongdae, make sure Sehun keeps his grades up. No underage drinking, no fights, no -”

“Mom!” Sehun wails. Jongdae is doubled over in hysterics.

“Alright, Mrs Oh,” he says good-naturedly. “We’ll be good.” Jongdae gets into the passenger seat, and Sehun says, “Mom, you’re so embarrassing” before stepping into the driver’s side.

Mrs Oh smiles and wipes away the remnants of her tears. The boys will be okay.

College is hectic, Jongdae’s parents are still unresponsive, and studying is immensely boring, but they have each other.

“I wish we were still in high school,” Sehun whines. “Being old .”

“Shut up,” Jongdae says cheerfully.

Sehun sulks and throws himself on top of his boyfriend, stretched out on top of his bed.

“Ow, what the hell, Sehun, did you gain weight?”

“Meanie,” Sehun mutters, and reaches up to smack Jongdae in the face.

“Ow! Sehun! That was my eye!”

Oops.

Sehun locks himself in the bathroom to escape his boyfriend’s wrath. Jongdae is probably the scariest person in the world, next to Mrs Oh.

“OH SEHUUUUN. YOU CAN'T HIDE FOREVER.”

"TRY ME."

A/N: thus concludes 1/2 of TrinTrin's chen gift fic package! the next one is gonna be a taochen yeah cool

thank you for all of your support on this fic! i never knew so many people would enjoy this, haha. once again, thank you!!

<3