I’m so sorry for being terribly late :( I’ve been in a small city with a crappy Wi-Fi connection and my Mozilla just hates me to the guts urgh.

Anyway, happy new year everyone ~

Sehun finds Luhan next to him again.

“It’s okay, hey,” Luhan whispers, gently grabbing his trembling shoulders, “look at me. Look into my eyes.”

So he does. And somehow, he finds comfort. The way Luhan looks at him with so much warmth and calmness, it soothes his heart too.

“Breath in, breath out, slowly.” Luhan instructs. “You’re trembling too much.”

He tries to inhale and exhale without choking. After a while, he finally gets the full control of his lungs again. Luhan’s hands don’t really left his shoulders; the right one stays at his left.

The older smiles slightly. “Better?” he says as he reaches for the glass on the bedside table. He gives it to Sehun, who takes it gladly and starts to gulp down the liquid.

After finishing the whole glass, Sehun nods tiredly and gives the glass back to Luhan, who then put it back on the table. They don’t say anything for a while, letting Sehun calming his mind down.

“Hyung,” Sehun whispers, “do you mind if you stay with me for a while?”

Luhan chuckles. “I’ll stay with you until the morning.”

“Is that okay?”

“It’s more than okay.” Luhan says before he settles down next to Sehun on the bed.

Following the older, Sehun rests his limbs again. They both fall into silence, letting the darkness swirling around the room. The moonlight shines through the baby blue curtains at the window. He finds it calming, the silence, plus the rhythmic sound of their breaths.

“You can tell me, you know...” Luhan whispers quietly, his voice blends with the cold air.

Sehun thinks about it. He’s not even sure of what he had been having a nightmare about. How could he tell Luhan if he doesn’t really understand himself?

But maybe, Luhan wants to help him in understanding.

“I only see black… nothing but black,” Sehun starts off slowly, “but there were voices. Not a lot, but there were many. I don’t really remember what words were said, but I do remember that the voices… they were somehow familiar. And that they… they…”

“They kept calling your name.” Luhan finishes it for him.

And that successfully made Sehun turns his head towards Luhan with another perplexed look.

“You can’t see anything, but you can hear them just fine. And they were talking. Somewhere along the talk they mentioned your name. And there was someone crying for you.” Luhan’s voice trails off. “They sounded familiar, yet you just couldn’t figure out who were the voices belong to.”

‘Lu ge used to have bad dreams too. Well it was a pretty long while ago, I think. Right, ma? Remember when we found him on his bed –‘

So this was what Zitao had talked about the morning before.

“You’ve had those nightmares too.” Sehun finally acknowledges the situation.

Luhan keeps looking over the ceiling. “Mine were worse.” he whispers. “There was… no one, to wake me up.”

“But… Zitao and Aunt Liu…?”

“They didn’t know at first.” Luhan sighs. “It was for days before they found out. And after that, the nightmares stopped.”

Sehun blinks. “Just like that?”

“… yeah.”

“Then why is it not working for me?” Sehun asks. “If you’ve found out about it and had helped me to wake up, why is it still not stopping?”

To that, it seems like Luhan has no answer either. He closes his eyes for a while. “Just give it a try for a while. Maybe tomorrow, it will stop. Mine was hard to stop too.” he says before he opens his eyes again and turns to Sehun, offering a soft smile. “And I’ll be there to help you.”

Sehun returns the smile, if only not brighter. And somehow this scene feels familiar to him; Luhan, laying by his side, doing nothing but to accompany him in silence.

“So technically today’s Christmas.”

“Yeah. It’s Christmas already.”

They don’t fall asleep anymore as the morning comes.

===

“Do you have some new batteries?”

“Huh? Why?” Zitao asks, circling his neck with a scarf.

Sehun points at the wall clock right above the couch on the living room. “It’s dead.” he says the obvious. The shorter hand stopped at eleven while the longer one has been resting at the twenty eighth minute.

Zitao frowns at the clock. “Just let Lu ge takes care of that later. Come on! They’re waiting outside!” he grabs Sehun’s hand and pulls the latter with him outside the house.

He can’t really shrug off the odd feeling that has been swirling inside his chest. Something must be not right, but he just can’t figure out what exactly. Trying to put his feelings in the back of his mind, he follows Zitao climbing down the patio to the ground. Aunt Liu is already urging them to get inside the car. Luhan’s at the driver seat, tapping his fingers against the wheel unknowingly.

Sehun, once again, finds it oddly familiar. Why does everything about Luhan seem so familiar?

“This is perfect.” Zitao whispers in awe.

Sehun looks at the Bambi keychain on Zitao’s hand. “You’re not going to hang it on the Christmas tree, right?”

“No.” Zitao deadpans. “But this is perfect for Lu ge.”

“What? How?”

“This little fella resembles him somehow, right?” Zitao giggles evilly as he throws the keychain into the cart.

True, though, somehow Luhan’s expression will look like a deer getting caught in a spotlight.

They have been strolling along the aisles at the supermarket downtown. Zitao had dragged Sehun around to coo over unnecessary things and takes some stuffs only to put them back on the shelf, while Aunt Liu had went away to do the actual shopping for Christmas tree decorating and other ornaments. Luhan is surprisingly nowhere to be found.

“He must be wandering around. He loves doing that when we’re shopping.” Zitao rolls his eyes as he keeps pushing the cart. “Don’t follow him, okay? Just follow me!”

“As if you’re not wandering around as well.” Sehun snorts.

“Hush, don’t be such a killjoy like gege.”

After thirty minutes of tortures, alias following Zitao around, squealing over stuffs, Sehun finally finds Luhan between the snack aisles. Zitao doesn’t even bother to ask why did Sehun stop, only half shouting to him that he would be looking for his mother. Sehun walks towards Luhan, who he notices is talking to someone.

Thinking all over again, Sehun can’t really recall the last time he saw Luhan talking to other person, or if he ever did at all. The guy seems all bright yet actually creepy, considering the serious look on his face. It’s like they’re having a not really pleasant conversation.

However, the guy is the first to notice his presence.

He awkwardly bows to the guy, who replies the same gesture. Luhan turns around, only to find him also staring back, and for some unknown reason, pales right away. He looks at the guy and him, back and forth, as if he’s expecting some contact between the two.

“You must be Sehun.” the guy speaks up first. The voice sounds casual, yet it makes him shiver.

Sehun nods awkwardly. “Yes. And you are…?”

“I’m Luhan’s friend. My name is – “

“He’s Suho.” Luhan suddenly walks away from the guy, reaching for Sehun’s hand in process. “He isn’t a friend. And he’s someone you’re not supposed to be talking to.” he whispers as he drags him away.

Sehun frowns, looking back, only to find the guy’s nowhere to be seen. “And why is that?”

“Let’s just say he’s not a really nice person to get along with.” Luhan grunts. “Just forget his existence, believe me.”

“Uh, I get it, but hyung,” Sehun says nervously, “you can let go of my hand now. It kinda hurts…?”

As if he’s being snapped out of a trance, Luhan immediately lets his hand go as if it’s burning. “I’m so sorry!” he squeaks. “I’m really sorry, I didn’t realize!”

“It’s fine.” Sehun chuckles rather awkwardly as he rubs the slightly reddening part of his hand. He realizes then that they’re already outside the building. They’ve walked long enough, which makes Sehun wonders just how much Luhan despises the guy. “But really, what did he do that you get so worked up just by mentioning his name?”

Luhan sighs heavily. It looks like he really wants to explain, yet he just can’t find the right words to say. He turns away to look over the horizon instead. Soon the frown between his eyebrows dissipates, and a soft, melancholic smile starts to bloom on his lips. Sehun finds it amusing, how Luhan’s eyes sparkle over the tiny snowflakes floating down onto the ground before them.

“Why are you looking so happy?” Sehun asks with a similar smile on his face. “It’s just snow.”

Luhan unknowingly grins as he reaches his hand out and waits for a snowflake to land on his palm. “I love snow. They’re really pretty.”

“Just like your face?”

“... why do I feel so offended with that.”

“Nah, don’t be so wounded.” they share the same cheery laugh. Sehun thinks over the other’s previous words. Snow is pretty indeed. Although it unknowingly sets a not so pleasant feeling in his heart. It’s like snow has something to do with a certain unpleasant memory. But seeing Luhan so happily waiting for them to fall down, he can’t bring himself to hate the innocent thing.

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