"Writing another song, Lu?"

"Yup. I'm almost done with this one."

"You already have a title for it?"

"My Princess."

"That is so cheesy..."
 

"What~ It is a song about you, my one and only princess."

Luhan woke up, his head feeling as heavy as a rock. He can't believe that at his age, he cried hard enough to actually get this drained and fall asleep. He haven't had that dream for a really long time, but now it seems like all of his past memories are reviving by themselves. Everything feels so fresh; like they just happened yesterday. Just because someone had stirred up the part of his life he was trying to ignore. At the sudden reminder of what happened earlier that day, he is starting to break down again. He had tried so hard to convince himself that he is living the present but today's events had showed him the reality of his life. Nothing had changed in these 5 long years. Nothing.

Yixing peeked inside the room and saw Luhan already sitting up on the bed.

"Do you want coffee?" the younger offered.

Luhan just gave a nod and Yixing disappeared once again to prepare the drink. He came back to the room and gave Luhan the hot drink.

"I'm sorry for bothering you guys. I'll be on my way home after I finish this." Luhan said, he kept his head low, avoiding Yixing's gaze. He doesn't want the younger to notice the misery in his eyes, he worried s enough for one day, he can't afford to give them more problems than he already caused.

"I'm afraid we can't let you do that, Lu-ge." Yixing answered.

Luhan gave a questioning look at the younger. At the eye contact, Luhan saw the worry painted on Yixing's face and he realized that he had already showed them his vulnerable side.

"Stay here, Lu-ge. We don't want to leave you alone right now. We already failed to give you any support before, so let us do it now. Won't you lean on us this time?" Yixing pleaded. He was talking in behalf of the three of them. Luhan already felt very guilty about leaving the group so he didn't want to burden them any more than that. He didn't know that they saw it the other way around. And Yixing was right, he can't be left alone right now. He doesn't know what he might do, with reality crashing on to him at the moment.

"Kris and Tao left for a while to pick up some of their stuff, they said they'll stay here as well." The younger added.

"Thanks Yixing. And sorry for the trouble." 

"Good thing you already have your clothes in those luggages. If you need anything else, we can go by your place."

"Will you accompany me? I'd like to go somewhere else." 

~*~

Minseok didn't have a problem reaching the address of the dorm his dad gave him. His father had taken care of where he'll live, so he can settle down as soon as he arrives. The university's dorms are all inside the campus so it wasn't that hard looking for the place. He used the key given to him and opened the room he'll be staying in from now on.

The first thing he saw was the guy approaching the door. Minseok immediately turned nervous at the sight of his probable roommate. He rehearsed in his head the Chinese greeting he prepared. He's pretty fluent in Chinese but he's having a panic attack at the moment.

"Annyeong~" The guy greeted merrily.

"You speak Korean?!" He couldn't hide his shock. Minseok just wished that his response didn't sound rude.

His roommate just laughed, his cheekbones getting higher, and it already is high to begin with.

"I am Korean." his roommate announced. "Kim Jongdae." Jongdae offered his hand to Minseok.

"Minseok. Kim Minseok." And he shook Jongdae's hand. "I thought you were Chinese." Minseok confessed.

Jongdae smiled. "Well, I can say the same for you. If I didn't know that my Korean roommate will be coming today, I would've think that you're Chinese."

"I get that a lot." he shyly admitted.

"Your things are already here. Do you want to unpack now? Or should we go out and shop first, for the things that you still need?" Minseok's roommate offered.

He met his roommate for not more than three minutes and he can already tell that he's a nice guy, although he's also sure that he can feel the air of mischief around him. It's not that he had interacted with a lot of people thus far, but he do have a good sense of analyzing those around him; and he can tell that he'll get along with Jongdae just fine. 

"Let's go out now, I'll unpack later."

With that, the two roommates head out to the nearest mall. While buying stuff here and there, through their conversations, Minseok found out that Jongdae is already in his last year at the university. Before the younger found out the older's age, he had kept calling him "Minseok" but when the older confessed that he's already turning 25 in a few months, the shock on Jongdae's face was priceless.

"No way you're 24!" Jongdae shouted at the supermarket. They attracted some unwanted attention from the other shoppers but Jongdae didn't seem to notice that as he was fixated on his young looking roommate claiming to be two years older than him.

Minseok tried to look for his black leather pouch where all his IDs are but he can't seem to find it. In the end, he told Jongdae to wait until they're back to the dorms, before he can show any proof of his age. But even without the proof, the younger had already started using formal language with him and calling him "Minseok-hyung".

After a couple of hours shopping, they head back to their place so Minseok can start unpacking his stuff. At the supermarket, the older was already worrying about his pouch because he always kept it in his back pack but he still hoped that he just misplaced it in his other bags. He searched his other belongings but he still couldn't find what he was looking for. This is bad. His passport, IDs including his new ID for his new university are in there. He tried to remember where he might've lost it and remembered the chaos that happened when he arrived. He could've dropped it when he was struggling to escape the crowd or when the guy had dragged him away or maybe when he was running out of the airport. Whenever it was, he's still sure that he lost it at the airport. 

With a quick, unclear farewell to Jongdae, he dashed out of the room. When he reached the exit of the dorm a voice yelled at him, which made him stop on his tracks. 

"Wait!"

It was in Chinese so Minseok was sure that it didn't come from Jongdae but the voice sounded really familiar. As he looked back to see who it was, he couldn't believe his eyes as he saw, if his eyes weren't fooling him, Luhan approaching him. He had only seen him in photos and videos and it was nothing compared to the real thing. Luhan was tall, despite his small build compare to Kris, and his small beautiful face. The old vocalist closed their distance instantly, then when he was an arm's reach away, he handed Minseok a familiar looking pouch.

"I think this is yours." Luhan said in a calm voice. Even his voice was nothing compared to all the songs he have stored in his mp3. Everything was so dream-like, making reality feel so unbelievable.

Minseok wondered how his pouch ended up with Luhan but for now he took it back and bowed to express his thanks.

"Sorry. I mistook you for someone else earlier." the vocalist said with a pained expression on his face. Minseok then realized that the hooded guy that had dragged him earlier was Luhan. The same broken stranger that had caged him in his arms. A lot of questions floated in his mind, but it seems that Luhan will not be staying to hear any of it. After bowing one more time and saying his apology, he smiled at Minseok with the most pained smile he had ever seen, as if just looking at Minseok causes him so much grief, then bid him farewell.

Minseok was left, following Luhan's back with his gaze, already forgotten about the IDs he was worrying about earlier, because now, his mind thinks off of every possible reason behind that expression, as his own heart shares the same pain painted on Luhan's face.