In the end, the song this was supposed to be based on (Dark Side) got lost in the story I wanted to tell so your final day is just a Xiuhan oneshot from my own mind.  I hope you enjoy it. <3

---

Minseok met Luhan online.  No, not Minseok, Xiumin.  Xiumin met Luhan online. 

They met when he responded to one of Luhan’s comments on a soccer article, and pretty soon they were talking back and forth about fifty other things.  They liked the same players, the same teams, the same movies, even the same colors.  They should have been the best of friends.

There was only one problem. 

They weren’t in the same country.  Luhan just hung out on the same forums to practice his language skills, and Minseok had changed his name to Xiumin because all the modifications he could think of for his name were taken.

When they figured this out, Minseok was sad, at first.  Then, he came to realize just how convenient it was to have a friend that never saw your face.  A friend that you could tell anything to.  A friend for all your secrets.

Minseok had a lot of secrets.

Luhan knew when Minseok maybe kinda-sorta glanced at his neighbor’s paper during a test to check and see if they got the same answer.  He knew when Minseok sourced his paper using Wikipedia.  He even knew when Minseok lied and told his parents he was sleeping over at a friend’s house when, in reality, they both were at a party.

In turn, Luhan told Minseok secrets too, but sometimes, it was easy for Minseok to forget that.  Except for the big one, the very big one, Luhan was gay too.

In fact, he was the one to admit it first, although he took the long way around of doing it, but as Minseok read the same words, the same doubts, and the same confusions he’d been grappling with for months all he could feel was relief. He had someone he could tell, and moreover, someone who could understand.

When Minseok fell in love with the guy two seats over and one seat up who already had a girlfriend, Luhan could relate.  He had a crush on a guy who had even had two girls at the same time, which Minseok was quick to point out probably meant his personality wasn’t exactly the best.

Luhan had agreed, and so it went.

All through high school, they stayed in contact, and they told each other everything. 

Well, everything except one thing. 

They never sent a single picture.  In four years, not a single one, until Luhan was accepted to the same college as Minseok.  Then, Luhan sent a picture.

Minseok didn’t open it, not at first.  He let it sit in his inbox for an entire day first as he just worried about what would happen if they actually met.  If he actually met the person who, for the past four years, had been his best friend and confidant.

Sure they’d talked about actually meeting before, but that had always been more in the realm of wishful thinking, rather than that of feasible possibility. 

Now, with the real opportunity set before him, Minseok found himself hesitating, afraid that if they met for real, he’d lose the best friend he had ever had, but when Luhan sent another message later that day, worried that Minseok hadn’t responded yet, Minseok realized that it was too late for that worry.  Luhan was coming regardless of whether Minseok liked it or not, so he opened the picture.

Immediately, Minseok felt inadequate.  Luhan was flawless, unreasonably so.  His skin was fair, his eyes were wide and his hair was dark and well styled. In short, he looked perfect, and Minseok found himself writing a diatribe about how Luhan had been making things up when he had said he didn’t look good, and that he should never feel insecure about how he looked, or feel that he didn’t look masculine enough or…

Minseok stopped typing.  He read everything he had written, eyes widening as he went. 

He deleted the paragraph and instead wrote one line. 

I changed schools.

It was a coward’s move.  Minseok knew it when he did it, but it was safer.  Luhan… Luhan wouldn’t even want to be friends with him if he knew him in real life, not when he looked like that, and he definitely wouldn’t want to be more, and every second Minseok looked at Luhan’s picture, Minseok realized that in his head, Luhan was already a lot more to Minseok, a lot more.

Luhan was disappointed by Minseok’s message, but he moved on, asking for other advice anyways.  It was advice that Minseok was more than willing to provide so long as Luhan didn’t ask for his picture.

He didn’t.

Minseok was pretty relieved about that.  It made things simpler.  Luhan and Xiumin could stay friends, and Minseok could keep his secrets.

It was better that way.

---

It would have been even better if, by the time Luhan was supposed to arrive, Minseok had also deleted Luhan’s picture, but he hadn’t.  Instead, he had looked at his picture far too many times for it to have been healthy.  He’d even loaded it onto his phone, and looked at it on the train, so yeah, Minseok knew exactly what Luhan looked like, but Luhan didn’t know what he looked like, and Minseok intended to keep it that way.  He intended to avoid Luhan. 

…Minseok wasn’t very good at doing what he intended.

“Hey, is this Chinese 1001?”

Minseok just stared open mouthed for a few seconds before the first thing that came to his mind popped from his lips.  “It’s not fair for you to take this class.”

Luhan blinked before letting out a nervous laugh.  “Is it that obvious?  I thought my accent wasn’t that bad.”

Minseok instantly felt bad and started to shake his head.  “No, that’s not… sorry, let’s start over.  This is Chinese 1001, and I’m Minseok.  Who are you?”  Minseok asked, sticking out his hand.

Luhan laughed again as he answered while taking Minseok’s hand.  “Luhan, and I’m not taking this class for credit.  I’m just here to tell everyone about Chinese Conversation Club.”

“Chinese Conversation Club?”  Minseok asked.

Luhan nodded with a smile.  “Yeah.  We meet once a week on Wednesday’s at 6 and talk for an hour, just to get some practice.   I was enlisted to help out before I even realized it and then, somehow, I was the only one with a free period now, so here I am to tell you guys about it.  You should come, if you’re not busy.”

Minseok laughed uncomfortably, spending more time with Luhan wasn’t really the plan, and besides, “I don’t really think I would have much to say at this point.”

Luhan laughed.  “Don’t worry about that.  I’ve been told we split it up based on ability.  I’m sure the beginner group will mostly consist of us just talking in whatever works best, which will be great for me since apparently I still need more practice too.”

Minseok shook his head.  “You sound fine, really.  I can hardly tell.”

“Really?”  Luhan asked, expression hopeful.

Minseok nodded.  “Really.”

Luhan smiled.  “Thanks.  I keep feeling like I’m just rambling on without a clue all the time.”

“You’re not,” Minseok reassured, “I promise I’d sound worse if I tried to say anything in Chinese.”

Luhan smiled.  “Which is why you should come.  We can practice.”

Minseok wanted to sigh.  It would seem that Luhan’s dogged persistence to convince Minseok to do things persisted in real life.  Instead though, he just said yes, because really, how could he say no when Luhan was looking so smiley and hopeful.

Luhan had let out another laugh when he said yes, and with a promise of see you next Wednesday, had proceeded to announce his message to the rest of the class before departing the room.

Minseok sunk into his chair.  So much for avoidance.

---

How was your first day?  I met someone really cute.

Minseok stared at the message on his computer from Luhan in surprise before shaking his head.  Surely, Luhan wasn’t talking about him.

It was pretty boring.  Lots of syllabuses.  Who’d you meet?

A guy in Chinese class.  Did I tell you I joined a club?  I’m going to be helping students who are studying practice speaking Chinese. 

Minseok blinked and swallowed hard while trying to rack his brain for whether or not Luhan had talked to anyone other than him.  Maybe he’d gone to another Chinese class besides just his?

Sounds like fun.  You’ll have to tell me how it goes with him.

I will.

---

“How’s your week been?”  Luhan asked as Minseok popped into the room he had identified as the gathering place for their little club. 

“Okay, how’s yours?”  Minseok answered hesitantly as he slid into a seat alongside a guy he recognized from his class, who Minseok was fairly certain was named Jongdae, several seats away from Luhan.

“Great, except I’m going to probably fail Lit 1001.”  Luhan responded as he moved closer to the pair.

“I’m in your lit class.  It didn’t seem that bad.”  Jongdae said with a laugh.

Luhan shook his head.  “You’re not trying to read books and write papers in your second language.  I’m going to die.”  Luhan lamented pitifully.

“I could help.”  The words slipped past Minseok’s lips before he could stop them.  Luhan had just seemed too depressed about the whole thing, and it wasn’t like Minseok could just let him fail, not when he could help.

“You could?”  Luhan asked, turning to him, mood instantly brightening.

Minseok nodded even as his mind internally berated him.  “Yeah, sure.  I’m not saying I’m an expert though.”

Luhan laughed.  “It’ gotta be better than what I could come up with on my own.”

“I’m sure you’d be fine.  It’d at least be better than anything I wrote in Chinese.”

Luhan just laughed and shook his head.  “Perhaps.”

---

He agreed to help me edit my papers.  That’s a good thing right?

Minseok sighed.  Yeah… pretending it wasn’t him would be kind of like sticking his head in the sand, but still, this was bad.  He wasn’t the right person for Luhan.  If he hadn’t already been sure of that based on their conversations online and Luhan’s picture, meeting Luhan had cemented it.

Luhan was just too nice.  He had spent the better part of an hour trying to teach Minseok how to pronounce words that Minseok could barely wrap his tongue around, and he’d never once gotten upset or sighed in impatience, although he had laughed, but Minseok figured that was perfectly understandable when he would try to say something, mess up and swear instead.  (Luhan had also said it was very informative.)

Minseok on the other hand, well, Minseok was short, and sometimes short tempered, and most definitely not that smart.

I’m sure he’s just being nice.  And I would have helped you with that.  You just had to ask.

…yeah, you’re probably right.  And you’ve already helped me so many times before.  I don’t want to be a burden when you’re not even here.

Minseok sighed.  Luhan wasn’t a burden, and Minseok was there.  Luhan just didn’t know it.

---

“Hey, thanks for all your help.”

Minseok shook his head, “Don’t mention it.  Now where is this paper?”

It had been a few weeks since that first meeting.  During those weeks, Minseok had gotten progressively worse at avoiding Luhan.  In fact, if it was a class, he’d be pulling straight F’s in the subject because somehow, conversation club had segued to shared Wednesday night dinners, which had, much like their conversations online, led to shared likes and dislikes, which were, once again, all the same, which meant that pretty soon, Luhan was meeting up with and dragging Minseok everywhere, including LGBT alliance meetings when Minseok hadn’t managed to duck out of the first one before Luhan saw him there.

And all those meetings, and football games, and waking up early to catch British Premier League matches lead to Minseok finding himself in Luhan’s room while being handed his laptop to edit Luhan’s first paper.  Luhan settled down next to him on the couch and leaned in.

“So?”  He asked.

“Give me a second to read it first Lu.”  Minseok responded instantly as his eyes started scanning the page.  It wasn’t too bad.  A few agreement errors, and a few instances of confusing past and present among other things, but conceptually, it seemed pretty sound.

He told Luhan as much, even asking how he’d managed it.  Luhan just smiled.

“I’ve gotten a lot of practice over the years online.”  He answered.

“Online?”  Minseok asked, playing dumb.  He knew that.  Although he was fairly certain that Luhan’s skill was far too good to be attributable only to that.

Luhan nodded.  “Yeah, I met a guy and we’ve been talking for years.  He’s always helped me out.  We were supposed to both be going to this school, but then he changed his mind.  I was really disappointed honestly.  I’d been looking forward to meeting him.”

Minseok nodded in understanding.  The tiny part of him that hadn’t been nervous had been looking forward to meeting Luhan too, until he saw him, and then, well, then meeting Luhan became a bundle of insecure nerves and self-doubt and somehow he had ended up here, sitting on Luhan’s couch while listening to Luhan talk to him about himself. 

“I’m sure he wanted to meet you too.”  Minseok said quietly.

“You think so?”  Luhan asked.

Minseok nodded again.  “Sure, why would you think he wouldn’t?”

Luhan sighed.  “I sent a picture and he didn’t even send one back.  Don’t you think that means he didn’t want to meet?  I mean, if he did, he could have sent me his phone number or something.  We live in the same country now.”

Minseok sighed.  “Maybe you should ask.”

Luhan sighed right back.  “Yeah, maybe, but it feels kind of weird now.”

Minseok blinked surprised.  “Why is that?”

Luhan ducked his head, curling up in on himself slightly. “It’s kind of embarrassing to admit it, but well… I kind of had a crush on him.  We told each other everything, you know, and well now… I don’t know how I’d feel if we met now.”

Minseok held back a gasp and instead asked another question.  “Why not?”

Luhan sighed.  “Because I think I’ve been falling for someone else, but he reminds me of him, so it makes things really confusing, and I can’t help but feel if we meet things will get even more messed up.”

Minseok let a small sigh push past his lips as he took in Luhan’s form.  He was clearly frustrated, and confused, and Minseok knew, Minseok knew from their online conversations, that it was all his fault.  He had to fix this.  At this point, all he was doing was proving he was bad for Luhan, in every way.  “You should ask him to meet you.  It’d probably help you work things out.” 

Luhan turned to face him.  “You really think so?” 

Minseok nodded, “Yeah, I do.”

It probably wouldn’t help Minseok, since he’d be losing two friends at once, but at least Luhan wouldn’t be looking nearly so confused and upset.  Looking like that didn’t suit him.  He should only be smiling.

---

Can I have your phone number?  If we could text, we could talk more easily.

Minseok sighed as he read the message.  So Luhan wasn’t asking to meet him.  Well, this would work too.  He had already had Minseok’s number.  He was about to have Xiumin’s too.

Minseok typed it in and hit send.

Luhan didn’t respond. 

He didn’t call or text either.

Minseok sighed and clicked his laptop shut.  Well, that was that.  Two friendships down with one click of a button.

No sooner had he had that thought then there was a pounding on his door.

“God damn it Minseok.  Open this ing door.  I knew it.  I ing knew it.  Why the hell did you lie to me you—“

Minseok moved quickly to pull open his door and drag Luhan inside, lest Luhan teach the entire hallway every word Minseok had apparently managed to teach him during their Chinese practice.

Once he was there, and the door was shut, Luhan just stared at him for a couple seconds, chest heaving before he opened his mouth again.  “You—“

Minseok reached out his hand and covered Luhan’s mouth.  “I know.  I’m an .  I’m sorry.  You don’t have to ever talk to me again.  You can—“

Luhan knocked his hand away.  “Why would I not want to talk to you?”

Minseok swallowed.  “Well, aren’t you… mad at me?”

Luhan nodded.  “Pissed.  Completely pissed.”

“Well… most people don’t like to talk to people they’re completely pissed off at.” 

“Well yeah, but at this point, you not talking to me would just piss me off more, not less.”

Minseok sighed.  “Well… um, what do you want to talk to me about then?”

Luhan sighed right back.  “Well, should we start with the fact that you’ve been lying to me for the past month, or with the fact that the reason you’ve been doing it makes you really ing stupid?”

Minseok blinked.  “You know why I’ve been doing it?”

Luhan nodded, tone stubborn.  “We’ve been talking for years.  I know you, and so I know what happened.  You saw my picture and got some stupid convoluted idea about being inferior to me, even when you’re not, and therefore you lied and didn’t tell me you were here, to avoid me because you like me, and you’re dumb.”

Minseok blinked again.  “When did I say I liked you?”

Luhan sighed and pulled Minseok towards the couch.  “When you sent me your phone number.  You do, right?  I’m not wrong, right?  Please don’t tell me I’m wrong.”

Minseok sighed as they sat down.  There wasn’t much point in denying it now.  “You’re not… so now what?”

Luhan let out a relieved laugh.  “Now, we date.”  He responded as if it was obvious.

“You’re already done being mad at me?”  Minseok asked, surprised.

Luhan shook his head, “Nope, I’m still mad.  You’re going to be making this up to me for a while.”

“How?”

Luhan smirked.  “I can think of a few ways.”

Minseok would soon learn he didn’t mind most of those ways.

---

And with that, 25 days of fics comes to an end.  This has been a project that has been equal parts exhausting and entertaining.  Seriously, some of you guys gave me suggestions that had me puzzling till my puzzler was sore.  A few still are, which leads me to…

If I didn’t get to your request, I’m sorry.  I do have them written down and I may get to them when I have time (I'll message you if I do) but for now I am going to have to disappear to focus on cramming for my exam on the third (Woohoo taxes and contract law)

<3