The clock is ticking and it’s all Sehun hears; not the dog’s whimpering, not their daughter’s feet tapping, not even his own stomach grumbling.

The clock strikes 9 and Sehun sighs. He looks over to his daughter, whose arms are folded on the table, chin resting on them. “Hey,” he reaches out to ruffle her hair, messing it up a little. “If you’re hungry, you can eat now.”

She glances up slowly, a pout evident on her face. “What about baba?”

Sehun his lips and then shrugs. “I don’t know,” he answers truthfully. “I really don’t know. But I do know that you’re hungry,” he says with a small grin and tickles her under her chin. She giggles and tries to push his finger away, both hands holding his index finger tightly. Sehun stares at her tiny hands around his finger. They’re so small. She’s still so small. “You know how worried baba gets when you get a stomachache, we don’t want that now, do we?”

She contemplates. “I do…”

Sehun frowns a little. “No. Oh Hana, we never want you to be sick.”

Hana looks away. “When I’m sick, baba is always with me.”

Sehun’s hand freezes and he stares at his daughter, unsure of what to say. He watches as the little finger slides along the table surface. She’s writing something and he knows exactly what. Luhan taught them both how to write that just a week ago. 爸爸.

“Hana, do you miss baba?”

She tilts her head up and gives Sehun a small nod. “A lot.”

“Okay,” Sehun replies. “Eat before your food gets cold,” he pauses and realizes that the food has gone cold for almost an hour now. He chuckles. Oh, silly him. “Let appa heat that up—“

The front door swings open and in comes a panting Luhan. “Sehun,” he exhales. Sehun and Hana wait for Luhan to appear. When he’s in their vision, they can see how much Luhan is sweating. “Hana,” Luhan calls, looking at their daughter and his shoulders drop. “I’m really, really sorry.”

Sehun stands up, pushing his chair back as he does so. He grabs two plates and none of them his. “Are you hungry? I’m going to heat up our dinner now.”

Before Luhan can reply, Sehun turns away and Luhan jogs up to him. “Sehun,” he grabs the man by his arm, stopping the other from walking further. “Sehun, I really am sorry.”

“It’s okay,” Sehun mutters without looking at Luhan. “I’m not the one you should apologize to,” he states and nudges his chin towards the dining table, where their 4-year-old daughter is. “She misses you.”

Luhan’s eyes start to water and he looks away, staring at nothing particular. “What about you?”

Sehun shrugs Luhan’s hand off him, careful enough to not drop anything in his hands. “You know very well that I miss you every second, Luhan.”

 

 

 

The next day, Sehun drives to work alone. Even though they work in the same building, for the past three months, they’ve been waking up at different hours, going to work in different cars and coming back home separately.

Sehun sighs as he chucks another scrunched up paper into the waste bin and leans back into his office chair. He rubs his face and closes his eyes, thinking of resting his eyes for a few minutes. That’s when someone decides to knock on his office door and walks in without Sehun’s permission. Only two people do that, and Sehun knows it isn’t Luhan because Luhan is too busy apparently to even visit his own husband.

“You look like and your daughter is only what? 5?” Yixing asks as he drops down into the chair across Sehun, whose eyes are still shut. “You’re going to look like my grandfather when she’s 18, that’s when hell starts.”

“She’s 4, Yixing,” Sehun corrects with a sigh. Then, he opens his eyes to look at his boss. “Your daughter is 17 and you still look the same.”

Why Yixing and his partner decided to adopt a girl big enough to be their younger sister, Sehun has no idea. But they seem happy. Even their daughter is fine with that.

“That’s because Kris will beat up anyone who comes close to her.”

Sehun eyes Yixing weirdly. “What?”

“Eh,” Yixing leans forward and knocks Sehun’s table with his knuckles, “you and Luhan have a daughter. A daughter. You’re so protective of Luhan, you gotta be more protective of your little princess.”

“I am,” Sehun answers. “I will be, when she’s 18? She’s 4, who can she attract other than lovely old people?”

Yixing looks at Sehun as though he’s the dumbest person on earth. “4 year old boys.”

Sehun stares back as though Yixing is the dumbest person on earth.

“Okay?” Sehun laughs. “Yixing, you worry too much. Where on earth can you find a group of 4 year old boys surrounding my baby girl—“ Sehun stops suddenly, staring into distance.

Yixing glances at his watch. “Would you look at that? It’s time to go home—“

Sehun grabs his briefcase and gets onto his feet. “I need to go get Hana from the daycare center.”

“Oh, you mean the place where other 4 year old boys are?” Yixing snickers and Sehun is already walking towards the door. “Oh, wait, Sehun!”

“What?” Sehun turns around.

Walking up to Sehun, Yixing inhales before letting out a big sigh. “Hey, man,” Yixing begins and places a hand on Sehun’s shoulder. “When you see Luhan, mind helping me to tell him I’m sorry?” Sehun’s eyebrows furrow and Yixing continues, “You see, a few months back, I gave him this huge business deal that requires him to be in Japan for two whole months—“

“What—“

“He rejected it immediately,” Yixing goes straight to the point. “I told him to think about it. Japan’s most famous model is getting married and she wants Luhan to help her plan it. Can you imagine Luhan’s future if it goes well? Can you imagine this company’s future?”

Sehun takes a moment to think about it.

Yixing chuckles. “But he insisted on not doing it. That dumb man. You know what he told her when we had our first meeting with her?”

“What?”

“That he can’t leave his two babies at home,” Yixing answers and bursts out laughing.

Sehun scowls at first but as times passes, he realizes how accurate that statement is. He is a big baby. He has been acting like one the past three months.

“And the model started tearing up because she understands how he feels because when she was young, her father was too busy at work to even spend time with her and her younger sister.”

“Oh my god,” Sehun sighs. “I screwed up.”

Yixing doesn’t hear that. “Yeah, but I was a and I got sort of pissed because Luhan declined a huge deal. I told him that he has to take up triple the cases he usually handles just to cover up the lost—there isn’t any lost to begin with. I am dumb and childish, I know.”

Sehun nods, not because he agrees that Yixing is dumb and childish but because he knows he’s dumb and childish.

“Anyway, yeah,” Yixing speaks again and claps Sehun’s shoulder, snapping Sehun out of his train of thoughts. “Tell Luhan that I’ll be taking over half of the cases he’s working on right now and tell him I’m sorry.”

Sehun nods.

 

 

 

On the way home, Sehun sighs for the umpteenth time when his call goes straight to Luhan’s voicemail again. He’s pretty sure Luhan will feel extremely bad when he sees the missed call he has from Sehun. Sehun feels worse for making Luhan feel that way.

After Sehun parks his car, he grabs his briefcase and Hana’s bag before walking over to the other side of the car to carry his little girl. Hana plays with Sehun’s hair as he carries her up the stairs and into the elevator. It doesn’t take long to reach their apartment.

Right after Sehun puts Hana down, the little girl runs straight into her room.

“Luhan?” Sehun calls out but there isn’t any reply. He sighs and walks to the kitchen instead to prepare dinner.

By 9pm, Hana is fed, bathed and ready for bed. After taking a warm shower, Sehun puts on his sweatpants and doesn’t bother to put on a shirt before walking to Hana’s bedroom to tuck her in.

He stands by the door, towel over his head as he dries his hair. Hana is on her bed with a thick book on her lap and a crayon in her hand.

“Hey, what are you doing?” Sehun asks, walking over.

Hana looks up from the book and Sehun recognizes it as Luhan’s wedding book. “I’m decorating my page!”

“Your page?”

Hana nods as Sehun sits down on the bed. “Look, this is appa and baba,” she says, pointing at the page with two stick figures. Sehun unconsciously smiles. When they were six, there was a cut out of Luhan’s face on the groom’s body but now, it’s replaced by a cut out of Sehun’s face. He looks over to the bride and his smile widens when he sees the cut out of Luhan’s face. “Baba says this page is for me,” Hana points at the blank page next to their page. “This is Hana,” she tells Sehun, pointing at a poorly drawn stick figure as well. “And this is Hana’s appa.”

Sehun laughs. “Hana’s appa?” The little girl pouts at her father. “You mean, Hana’s husband?”

“Appa is bad!” Hana hisses and crosses her arms.

“I’m so sorry!” Sehun laughs again and carries Hana onto his lap despite her protests. Hana struggles in Sehun’s hold and she squirms even more when Sehun attacks her face with kisses.

“Stop!” she begs, giggles filling Sehun’s ears. “Appa!”

Sehun places one last kiss onto her temple hugs Hana tight. “Don’t grow up too fast and leave appa, okay?”

“Hana will never leave appa!” she shakes her head. “Hana will never leave baba too!”

“Good.”

Sehun puts her back down onto the bed and grabs the book, placing it on the side table. After tucking her in, he turns off the light and kisses her once more before making his way out.

“Appa,” Hana calls softly and Sehun turns around. “Tell baba Hana says good night.”

Sehun nods. “Goodnight to you too, baby girl.”

When Sehun steps out of their daughter’s room, the front door clicks open and he watches as Luhan closes the door gently with his foot. Luhan stretches his body and tosses his briefcase onto the couch, not noticing the pair of eyes that is watching him. He yawns and is about to walk into the kitchen when he sees Sehun.

“Oh my god,” Luhan gasps, pressing his hand on his chest. “Sehun, you scared me.”

“You’re back.”

“Look, Sehun, I know it’s very late and I—“ Sehun throws himself onto Luhan and hugs him firmly, cutting Luhan’s sentence off. “S-Sehun.”

“I miss you so, so much,” Sehun admits and buries his face in Luhan’s neck.

Luhan smiles, arms circling Sehun’s waist. Sehun feels so warm, his bare chest pressing against Luhan’s clothed one. “I miss you too.”

“I’m sorry,” Sehun says in a soft whisper. “I’m very sorry. I’ve been a brat when you’re doing all you can to not leave us, even for a day. I—“

“Stop talking,” Luhan interrupts, holding Sehun closer. “I understand.”

“No!” Sehun pulls back. “I’m 30 and yet I’m still so immature. You should be mad at me. I deserve—“

Luhan shuts Sehun up by pulling him down and kisses him hard. Sehun sighs into the kiss as he carries Luhan up and into their bedroom without tripping. Closing the door with a kick, he then walks to their bed while Luhan tugs onto his hair and kisses him deeper. Sehun drops Luhan onto their bed and hovered over him.

“I love you.”

Luhan grabs Sehun by his neck. “Actions speak louder than words, hun,” the smaller man growls and pulls Sehun back down for another kiss. Three minutes into their make out session, Luhan pulls away suddenly. “Is Hana asleep?”

Sehun blinks and then nods dazedly, hair sticking in every direction possible.

“Can we do it in the kitchen?” Luhan blurts out.

“What—“

Luhan’s stomach rumbles and his face flushes red. Sehun only laughs.

 

 

 

At the age of 30, Sehun finds himself falling for Luhan again and again.

 

 

 

No hashtag this time because I have a lot to say (sort of). I'm currently not in California~ A few days ago, I flew back to my home country! So yeah, I guess I'm still coping with jet lag (lol), I slept at 7pm and woke up at 2am. Anyways, I'm not abandoning this fic, probably not going to update that much but then again, this fic only has, what, 3 chapters left...? Thank you for being patient with me ;; THATS ALL FOR TODAY YES IM AWARE THERE'S NO YET. Let's love!

p.s. their daughter's name is Oh Hana. Get it, get it? O(h)hana means family. Family means no one gets left behind.

I know I'm lame.