~Chapter 30 – Results of the Plan~

          Sehun is indifferent; this was established a long time ago. And with being indifferent it allowed Sehun to control his emotions, carefully and skillfully. It allowed him to put on a blank face and act as though there was nothing at all bothering him. It also allows him to think clearly and assess situations throughly, just like with Luhan's situation with his parents which Sehun was able to come up with a quick plan almost on the spot and initiate it the previous day. His indifference made everything seem normal… key word in that sentence was seem because if anything, Sehun did not feel as indifferent as he usually does at all.

            The entire group decided that today would be a great day to just hangout at the local shopping area and not even a full twenty minutes into the trip the entire group lost each other…

            ‘Great, where the heck is everyone?’ thought Sehun as he continued walking past the different stores, worry was starting to eat at him as he lost track of Luhan who he preferred to keep in his sights just in case anything were to happen to the older. Sehun was actually pretty accepting of his feelings of Luhan although he wasn’t really sure as to what he should be doing with his feelings, because in all honesty he hasn’t really felt this way before and it was strange for him, but one thing Sehun knew he should be doing is find the others because knowing all of them, they could be wreaking havoc on the innocent civilians at this shopping area. ‘Why didn’t anyone pick up their phones?’ thought Sehun sighing as he shoved his phone back into his pocket after attempting to call any of them in hopes that they’d actually pick up.

            ‘I am so over this…’ Sehun continued walking through the cold street looking through the windows of the different stores in hopes of at least spotting someone he knows ‘Who’s idea was this? Why did they choose an outside shopping area instead of one that’s located indoors?’

            Just then a bright blue sleeve caught Sehun’s attention from one of the toy store windows, remembering that Chanyeol wore a bright blue jacket that morning before leaving for the shopping area, Sehun walked straight into the store. ‘I’m pretty sure that was Chanyeol because there isn’t really anyone that tall walking around in a bright blue jacket…’ Sehun walked past a few of the racks and display cases looking for hopefully Chanyeol but just as he was about to turn a corner he walked straight into something ‘Ack what the-’ and stumbled a bit backwards but unfortunately that something actually turned out to be a someone as he heard the familiar voice let out a “Oof” and land on the store’s carpeted floor behind the display shelf.

            Sehun heard the other and quickly apologized “Ah, I’m sorry” and went behind the shelf to help the other person up but instead of just a random stranger like he was expecting, Sehun’s eyes widened as he saw Luhan on the floor with a pout on his lips.

            “Ah, Luhan. Sorry about that,” apologized Sehun as he bent down to grab on to Luhan’s hand and help the other up, feeling guilty that he had knocked him over.

            “It’s okay,” Luhan still had a slight pout on his lips as he stood in front of Sehun “Although I don’t know why you were in such a rush,” Luhan continued in a quiet mumble “I was looking everywhere for you, I thought I lost you in the crowd.”

            Sehun felt that weird rush in his heart again as he heard what Luhan had mumbled, but ignored it as he replied “I was looking for you too, what are you doing in here though? I could have sworn I saw Chanyeol but it just might have been the same sweater.”

            Luhan looked at Sehun with wide eyes with red coloring his cheeks “You heard my mumbling!?”

            Sehun hummed, ‘Is Luhan embarrassed?’

            Luhan groaned quietly before putting his hands to cover his face and then saying in a slightly muffled voice “I saw you enter here while I was walking around outside looking for everyone so I thought I could catch up to you if I went in and my phone ran out of battery so I couldn’t call anyone either. I also saw the blue sweater person too but it wasn’t Chanyeol it was another random person.”

            Sehun nodded “Oh, okay.”

            Luhan put his hands down from his face and gave Sehun a sheepish smile “Let’s go somewhere else to look?”

            Sehun nodded again as he made his way out of the toy store with Luhan following right behind him saying “Let’s check out the clothing store a little further down from here I think some of them might be in there.”

            Sehun hummed in agreement as the two walked out from the nicely heated toy store and straight into the freezing air. “Ah, it’s a lot colder outside than expected,” shivered Luhan.

            “Yeah,” replied Sehun in an indifferent tone looking back at Luhan who was shivering ‘He looks like he’s going to freeze over any second, we should get to the next store quickly.’

            Luhan looked at Sehun questioningly as the younger didn’t move “Let’s go then?”

            Sehun kept his expression blank as he reached for Luhan’s hand and held on to it tightly “Yeah let’s go, this way we can’t get separated and we can move quickly through the crowd.”

            Sehun felt his cheeks heat up a bit and it had nothing to do with the cold weather ‘What am I doing? I don’t even initiate skinship unless I have to… Was that even a good enough excuse to hold Luhan’s hands?’ but when Sehun felt Luhan’s hand tighten around his own, his stomach fluttered a bit at the returning gesture.

            Luhan stammered a bit as he looked towards their held hands with a renewed redness on his cheeks “Ah, ye-yeah you’re ri-right, let’s g-go.”

            Having heard Luhan give his consent Sehun began pulling him along through the crowd of people. Sehun felt oddly light as the two neared the clothing store ‘Is being in love supposed to feel this way?’ he wasn’t really sure himself but he sort of liked the feeling, he liked being in Luhan’s company, and he certainly liked how Luhan’s hand felt so warm in his own despite the dropping temperatures surrounding the two. His indifference was slowly evaporating as his mind filled with the thoughts of the older and in all honesty Sehun didn’t really mind, it was nice.

            Entering the clothing shop together, the duo initially didn’t see anyone from the group that they could recognize so they figured that walking around the store for a bit would be a good idea since the others might have been hiding in the back area or something. “I know this is one of Tao’s favorite stores, he has to be in here…” mentioned Luhan as he glanced around while Sehun pulled him along by their linked hands.

            Sehun hummed in acknowledgment towards Luhan’s comment and continued on, but he was stopped suddenly when Luhan pulled on his arm and pointed to the other direction opposite of where they were going “I think I just saw Tao walk over there!”

            Sehun nodded and let Luhan lead the way, as the two approached the clothes racks they heard a recognizable voice call out “Xiumin! Isn’t this a nice jacket? I think I’ll buy it.”

            Upon a closer look, the duo saw that it was Tao and Xiumin, there was even Chen and Lay there too. Chen looked up when he saw Sehun and Luhan approach them “Hey! There you two are, where have you bee-” Chen suddenly stopped in his sentence and smirked at the duo “Oh, so you ditched everyone to have some alone time? I didn’t realize you two finally hit it off.”

            Luhan was the first to react as he spluttered “What in the world are you talking about!?”

            Chen pointed his index fingers at Sehun’s and Luhan’s linked hands with another teasing laugh “So does this mean that your anniversary is today or has this been on going?”

            Tao gasped “How could you not tell me Luhan! I thought we were close enough to tell each other everything!”

            “Congratulations you two,” said Xiumin with a smirk.

            Sehun actually felt a bit warmer than usual at hearing Chen’s joking accusations but still didn’t let go of Luhan’s hand. “NO! That has- We aren’t- UGGGGHH NO! We were just getting through the crowd and we didn’t want to get lost,” explained a clearly flustered Luhan.

            “Suuuuuure you were,” teased Chen as he began laughing along with Xiumin and Tao.

            “We were!” insisted Luhan.

            “Uh-huh, we believe you,” laughed Chen once more.

            Luhan was definitely becoming more flustered as the conversation went on but Lay suddenly spoke up “Um…” Everyone looked over towards him as he continued innocently “Chen, you said the same thing about holding hands when we were walking through the crowd to get to this store too….”

            A silence ran through the group for a moment before a grin spread widely on Luhan’s face “Oh, really now?”

            Xiumin and Tao snapped their heads over at Chen “Is that why you were way behind us when we walked into the store!?”

            Chen’s face remained blank as he said cautiously “It’s not what you think.”

            Luhan’s grin got impossibly wider “Oh really? Way to make a move Chen, how adorable!”

            ‘Luhan is definitely going to have fun with this information,’ thought Sehun with a slight laugh ‘Payback is never going to be so fun.’

            “Shut up!” snapped Chen as he blushed in embarrassment “I just didn’t want Lay to get separated from everyone else!”

            Lay looked at Chen with innocent eyes “Oh, thank you,” to which Chen replied with a flustered “It’s no problem.”

            “Uh-huh suuuuuure,” replied Luhan.

            “I knew it! See? I was right Chen does have a thing for-” Tao’s mouth suddenly got muffled by Chen’s hand as he told the younger in a hushed whisper “Let’s not go there, okay?”

            Which earned a narrow glare from Tao as Chen removed his hand from Tao’s mouth and a grumble of “Fine, whatever but I want to hear more later,” from the younger who was beginning to pout.

            “Chen has a thing for what?” asked Lay questioningly.

            Chen groaned which caused Luhan to let out a laugh.

            “Don’t worry about it Lay, I’m sure you’ll find out soon enough,” said Xiumin as he patted Lay on the shoulder.

            “Mmmm, okay, I guess…” replied Lay.

            Chen groaned again as he looked back at Luhan and Sehun “Don’t tell Granny, I beg you.”

            This time Luhan and Sehun let out a laugh together as Sehun let curiosity get the better of him, he asked “Why?”

            Chen shot Sehun a look “You know why, remember the Korean barbeque restaurant?”

            “Oh yeah, that was fun,” responded Luhan with a cheeky smile.

            “For you, because it wasn’t surrounding you and Sehun,” shot back Chen “Don’t tell about this and I won’t even breathe a word about you two holding hands.”

            “It’s not like we were even-” Luhan began his sentence but one look from Chen’s expression and Luhan stopped “Yeah okay deal.”

            Chen nodded “Exactly.”

            “That’s great but if you really don’t want Granny knowing then what about the others?” reminded Sehun as he watched Xiumin and Lay give their opinions on the jacket that Tao tried on.

            Chen shrugged “I’ll handle it.”

            Luhan nodded “Okay, oh by the way why weren’t you guys answering your phones? I tried calling like all of you.”

            Chen gave Luhan a confused look “You called?” Chen took out his phone to check “Oh, oops I guess the others and I didn’t hear, sorry.”

            Sehun and Luhan sighed and Luhan suggested “Why don’t we all meet up at the café next to the toy store at around four then, hopefully Sehun and I can go find everyone else before then.”

            Chen nodded “Okay, I’ll be sure to pay more attention to my phone if you need to call us, and I’ll tell the others too.”

            “Okay, see you at four then,” said Luhan as the duo waved and walked out of the clothing store.

            Although as they left they didn’t manage to catch what Xiumin had said “Sehun and Luhan are still holding hands, they are so getting together soon.”

            Tao laughed “I know! I bet that they’ll get together by the end of the school year!”

            “Oooh, I want in but I bet by the end of winter break, they can’t hold out for that long, they’ll be all over each other soon enough,” grinned Chen.

            Lay heard the conversation and laughed “I wonder if either of you will win.”

            “Like seriously,” said Xiumin as he watched Chen and Tao shake hands.

            Back outside on the walkways Sehun and Luhan were making their way towards a shoe store that they were pretty sure they just saw Kris enter through.

            “I think I saw Kris walk down that aisle over there,” said Sehun as Luhan and him walked down the same aisle with multiple boxes of shoes lining the shelves.

            “Those are not my style,” said a sudden deep voice at the corn