Chapter 1

Love:

"Veni vidi vici"

“Hi mom”

“Darling! Oh it’s so good to hear your voice again! How are you doing?” Luhan’s mom's voice sounds fake and sickly happy as it flows through the speaker. She’s either too tired or there’s a hundred other things she’d rather do than talk to Luhan right now.

Luhan guesses that it’s a mixture of both.

“Fine. It’s going fine over here” He answers and tries not to sound too cold.

“That sounds great darling!” Yes it really does, doesn’t it?Great enough to come home? “How’s school?”

“It’s good, my grades are going up” Luhan answers, knowing fully well that his grades are the only important part of his school life to her.

“Oh, sweetie that is perfect! You’re such a good student! And what about soccer?”

“We’re getting better as a team. I am the team captain and it seems like they’re respecting me, we won the first game of the season some weeks ago” Luhan says and tries not to sound to bitter but it’s hard when he secretly thought his mother would come to see his first game as a team captain.

Now afterwards he wonders why he even got his hopes up.

“Oh right, that’s really good hunny! I’m so sorry that I couldn’t go, they really needed me here but you should know that I and your father are both really proud” He’s sure they are very proud, who’d not be with a son like him?

But a little love alongside their pride would be nice.

“I understand. How’s Ethiopia?”

“Oh it’s like it always is, it’s so sad to see all these people in need! But we got new material yesterday and I am so glad that we can help these people! It’s such a refreshing experience from my normal work at the clinic. Let me tell you, just yesterday…” And Luhan’s mom launch into a long explanation of how she helped the little African child and his family that had caught tuberculosis.

Luhan does his best to listen and elicits small gasps and approving sounds when necessary. He should be happy that his mother is spending a year in Ethiopia with “Medecins sans frontiers” ,helping people in need, but all he can feel is emptiness when he hears how happy his mother is.

He knows that he’s being selfish but sometimes it would be really nice if he could mean a little bit more to his mother than a little kid in Africa.

"Oh no it's you again!" Sehun groans and slumps on the counter. Luhan simply laughs it off with a wave and strides through the café. The other guests look curiously at him but he ignores them and only keeps his eyes on Sehun. He’s used to people looking at him, especially girls and now days he mostly finds it annoying.

“Hello to you to” Luhan answers with his most charming grin. “I can sense that you’ve missed me!”

“You were here yesterday” Sehun deadpans. “And the day before.”

“Yes I were and there is no point in trying to deny that you do not hate every minute we’re apart Sehunnie.” Luhan sing-songs and Sehun snorts.

“Yea, right. And stop calling me Sehunnie, it sounds annoying”

“But Jongdae calls you Sehunnie” Luhan says with a pout, fighting back a grin as Sehuns frown deepens.

“I never said I liked when he calls me that either.” Sehun mumbles “Now, do you want the usual?”

“You know what I want” Luhan wiggles his eyebrows and he swears that Sehun turns slightly pink, from embarrassment or annoyance he can’t tell. “But I guess I’ll settle for a cappuccino for now.”

“Coming right up and I guess you’re staying here and no I’m not sitting with you during my break” Sehun mutters monotony and Luhan tilts his head to the side disapprovingly.

“What if I swear not to hit on you during the entire time?” Luhan asks sweetly but Sehun only glares at him.

“No.” He finalizes and Luhan sighs.

He decides to admit his defeat and pays for his coffee before walking to sit down at the small round table in the corner. It has become his favorite spot in the café since it feels slightly more private than the rest while he still can see everything going on inside and outside the café.

Luhan must admit that even though he initially only visited the bun because of Sehun it has now been two weeks and Luhan is getting really attached to the place. It’s so different from the usual environment he’s in and it is strangely relaxing not to be in the luxury solitude of his home, the grey environment of his school or at some crazy, luxury party with his friends. He enjoys drinking his coffee in silence while doing his homework and even though Sehun seems to hate him the rest of the staff sometimes talks to him occasionally, probably because he is a regular.

It makes Luhan feel strangely at home.

Sehun walk over with his cappuccino and Luhan leans forward slightly over the table.

“Can you at least give me a clue to why you hate me? So that I can change” Luhan asks with the most sincere smile he can master as soon as Sehun is in hearing distance. Sehun walks to him with a frown and put down his coffee on the table. For a second Luhan thinks he’s just going to walks away and ignore Luhan’s question but then Sehun starts to speak.

“You’re too much of a rich boy” He says shortly and Luhan’s eyebrows shot up.

“A rich boy?” He asks in surprise. No one has ever minded the amount of zeros on his bank account before.

“Yes. You walk around as if everyone and everything should adore you just because you could probably buy everything you see without blinking. I don’t like it, I don’t like arrogant people” Sehun scoffs and crosses his arms.

For a moment Luhan can only look at him in silence, thinking through what Sehun just said, before he slowly smiles.

“Then I guess I’ll have to stop being so arrogant then” He answers, voice lower than usual and his smile smaller. Sehun only snorts at this, like he doesn’t believe Luhan can be anything else than arrogant, before he walks back over to the counter. Luhan watches him go and thinks about what he said.

Luhan doesn’t know if he’s arrogant. He’s never really been good at social situations but he’s never needed to because people will love him anyway because of his looks and his money. He’s always been able to be rude and get away with it and no one has every complained about it before (well except Baekhyun maybe but Baekhyun complains about a lot of things).

Strangely it makes him smile. It is somewhat relieving that Sehun is so rude to him and Luhan’s smile only widens at the thought of having to actually fight for Sehun.

It has been a long time since he had to fight for something.

Luhan shakes of his thoughts and reaches down to pick up his computer from his bag.

He has about two essays and two tests on top of his normal workload and Luhan can feel the heavy weight of stress and anxiety settle in his stomach as he presses the power button. A sip of his coffee does nothing to calm his suddenly high strung nerves and he takes a deep breathe.

The coffee is amazing, Minseok would love this place.

But Luhan want this café to be hidden from the rest of his life for a while.

Luhan’s mom went to Ethiopia for a year ago with the excuse that she wanted to see something else, that she was tired of her normal work at the clinic. She’s always been a bit like that, not being able to fully settle and always searching for something new. Both of Luhan’s parents have and it has resulted in Luhan moving from Beijing to Korea and back again more than once. His parents are successful and has always had the money so it has never been a problem.

For them.

When Luhan was little he wanted nothing more than for it to stop, for him to be able to fully settle down in one of the countries and find friends that lasted longer than for a year or two. He had begged his parents to just let him stay at one place so that he could feel at home somewhere.

And finally they had granted his request.

What Luhan didn’t realize is that although he settled down his parents had no intentions of doing the same. They continued to move around and found new ways to work with what they loved so much, which in Luhan’s mom’s case was being a doctor and for Luhan’s dad was working with his company. Luhan’s vision of a happy home turned in to dust at the realisation but he couldn’t complain to his parents.

He got what he wanted after all.

And as he now sits alone in the empty house, the familiar panic cramping in his chest as he tries to focus on math and his muscles screaming from two much soccer practice, he thinks that he’d much rather be in Beijing or Ethiopia or wherever as long as he wouldn’t be alone.

But he’s learned one thing from this.

It can always get worse

“So are you coming to the party on Saturday?” Luhan asks Joonmyun happily as they walk through the corridor.

“Oh, no I don’t think I can” Joonmyun mumbles and blushes furiously as he squirms uncomfortably.

“But Joonie-hyung~!” Baekhyun whines. “Jonghyun-hyung arranges the best parties!” Joonmyun only seems even more uncomfortable.

“Well you see there has occurred certain events-“ Joonmyun starts but gets irrupted as Jongdae slinks up beside him.

“Hi babe” Jongdae chips up and gives Joonmyun a small peck on the cheek. “I’m kind of in a hurry, but I’ll see you later?”

“Of course” Joonmyun answers as he stops and flashes an angelic smile towards Jongdae. The other returns the smile happily, looking positively love-struck before he skips of, Joonmyun watching him until he turns around a corner and disappears.

When he turns around he sees the looks of the others and blushes deeply.

“Me and Jongdae are together” Joonmyun explains after a brief silence and fiddles with the hem of his shirt, obviously very nervous of their reaction.

“We got that, ‘babe’” Chanyeol says before he bursts into laughter. Joonmyun turns positively bet red but he is having a hard time keeping the smile of his face.

“WHY HAVEN’T YOU TOLD US?!” Baekhyun screams and Luhan sends him an annoyed look that the other ignore. Baekhyun is looking slightly frantic as he envelops Joonmyun in a chocking crush and demands the other to tell him everything. Joonmyun really can do nothing but oblige.

And Luhan really should be happy for his friend as Joonmyun recalls the story of his and Jongdae’s study session yesterday that turned into adorable confessions and a little bit less adorable make-out session but he can barely muster up a smile as a weird feeling settles in his stomach. He tries to laugh along with the rest of them but the feeling of jealousy when he sees the stupid grin on Joonmyun’s face is hard to ignore. It just feels unfair that even Joonmyun manages to find someone that can make him smile like that while Luhan is paddling along with his rushed hook-ups and one night stands that means nothing.

But he’d never complain about it to anyone.

Because it can always get worse.