Cherish These Memories (Oneshot)
Title: Cherish These Memories
Genre: Friendship
Rating: G
Pairing: Hunhan (friendship)
Length: 3275 words
Summary: They promised to be brothers, to be friends forever. And Luhan was determined to keep that promise, no matter what. A friendship oneshot. Luhan-centric.
Cherish These Memories
:: :: ::
From the very beginning, Luhan’s dream was to become a singer.
From the moment he heard his first pop song, he fell in love with the music industry. He would hum quietly to himself all the time, and daydream of all the possibilities that could happen if he could become a singer. There wasn’t anyone who didn’t say his voice was beautiful, and he was often commented on his good looks. Luhan wasn’t sure if it was true, but since most people seemed to tell him that, he decided to take their word for it and his hope to become a singer became something that he felt to be a possibility.
It wasn’t an easy dream. His parents had big plans for his future-they wanted him to become a doctor, and make a name for himself in the medical world. They wanted him to earn enough money to live off well, and take care of his family. But Luhan didn’t want to become a doctor-he wanted to be an entertainer. He wanted to perform and spread his love of music to people around the world. Finally, after much discussion, his parents stepped aside and let him go his way. “As long as you love what you are doing, then we will support you,” they told him.
His first chance came when JYP held global auditions in China. The disappointment he felt when he found out that he didn’t pass the auditions was so great that Luhan almost gave up on becoming a singer. I’m not good enough. How am I good enough if I can’t even pass the auditions? He fell into depression and refused to come out of his room for days. Finally, his mother yelled at him and told him that if his parents had agreed to support him in his dream, then he should at least have tried his best to achieve that dream.
And so while his classmates went off to study for medical degrees and engineering majors, Luhan set his sights on majoring in Korean to increase his chances of getting accepted into entertainment companies. He became a transfer student and went to study in Korea for a year. Yet, in that time, he began to lose hope again-he was lost, unsure of what to do. He began to lose confidence in himself again, and began to question if what he was doing was truly right for him. Luhan spent his days wandering the streets when he wasn’t in class, half hoping that a scouting agent from a company would find him, half dreading that if he tried to audition, he would fail again.
After a few months, Luhan went out shopping with friends one day when a woman walked up to him in in the market. She glanced at him, and then smiled, giving him a business card. “You look sweet,” she said nicely. “Why don’t you try out for SM’s auditions? I think you have potential.”
Potential. She thought he had potential.
And so, he was motivated to achieve his dream once again. Luhan spent the next few weeks practicing for his audition. He stayed up late at night, cramming for tests and doing his homework in the little spare time during which he wasn’t practicing. It was one thought that drove him through his all-nighters and exhausting days at school, sitting at a desk and desperately wishing that he could be at home practicing some more. I will make it, and I will become a singer, he told himself over and over again. I will become a singer. I am good enough. I just didn’t try hard enough before.
The day of the audition, he arrived extra early and spent hours waiting for the auditioning to open up. The judges asked him why he had come so early, and Luhan responded simply, “I don’t want to accidently miss a chance on achieving my dream.”
It was one of the happiest moments of his life when they released the list of who got in, and Luhan found his name at the top.
:: :: ::
It wasn’t easy being a trainee under SM Entertainment. Luhan had half-hoped that once he passed the auditions, training wouldn’t be extremely difficult, but he was wrong. It wasn’t just the amount of effort in training required-Luhan couldn’t even complain about that, because Yixing was far more hardworking than he was-but also the troubles of being in a foreign country, with merely a passable knowledge of the language and culture.
It was easier for Luhan than the other Chinese trainees-he had majored in Korean, so it wasn’t too much of a difficulty to become mostly fluent in a short period of time. Yet being in a foreign country meant that he couldn’t go home often. The homesickness was one of the worst parts of being a trainee-Luhan visited his parents about once or twice a year, sometimes even less, and every time, he almost gave up on going back to Korea because he couldn’t bear leaving his family again. It was only Luhan’s determination that he would not fail his parents’ support that drove him to continue training.
He was not alone in this. Oftentimes, Luhan would see Wu Fan take out his phone as it was ringing, and ignore the call. When asked who the call was from, Wu Fan would shake his head and refuse to speak, tears evident in his eyes. It was common. Many of the Chinese trainees wouldn’t answer the phone when their parents, or refused to call their parents because of the fear that if they heard the voices of their parents, they would be too homesick to continue training.
In the company, the Chinese members were the most likely to be bullied by the other trainees. The Korean trainees would often gather together to laugh and make fun of Chinese trainees, especially on their Korean pronunciation. Out of the Chinese trainees, Zitao was the one who got bullied the most. He could have frightened anyone away with his wu shu skills, but his soft, kind nature and the fact that he hadn’t been learning Korean for long made him an easy target for disdainful Korean trainees who found his pronunciations overly hilarious.
Zitao had Wu Fan, though. Every time someone reduced him to tears, Wu Fan would always be there to comfort him-“exactly why he will make a good leader,” Luhan heard one of the instructors say to another once.
Luhan, however, had no one to help him. He didn’t need it. His friendly personality and cute, innocent looks (as much as he hated to admit it) kept even the most condescending Korean trainees from making fun of him. It was something he was grateful for-but every time he saw Wu Fan patting Zitao’s back soothingly as Zitao sobbed into Wu Fan’s jacket, Luhan couldn’t help but wish for a friend who would care for him like that. He had a lot of friends-he was a friendly person, and people just got along with him. But no one ever was that close to him.
And then he was put into EXO.
The twelve of them all met as a group for the first time in a small room. Luhan was relieved to see that all the Korean members were the nicer trainees who didn’t go around bullying others-he had been worried that Zitao would get teased mercilessly for the rest of his life.
They began their introductions. A boy who looked a few years younger than Luhan came up to him, and smiled. “Hello, I’m Oh Sehun,” he said, with a slight lisp, so that it came out as “Annyeonghatheyo, nan Oh Thehun imnida.” He held up his hand and seemed to wait expectantly for a response.
Luhan took his hand and shook it. “I’m Luhan,” he said. “I hope we’ll become great friends.”
Sehun smiled again. “I hope so too.”
:: :: ::
Over the next few weeks, Luhan often found himself with Sehun as he trained.
It wasn’t as if it was on purpose or anything, but gradually, he found himself coincidentally alone with Sehun in the training room or in the dorm a lot. It was a bit awkward at first, because they had just met, but after a while, Luhan began to view Sehun as a friend. Not an extremely close friend, but still, a good friend he could depend on.
Whenever the twelve of them practiced together, Luhan found himself next to Sehun more often than not, and after a couple of weeks or so, the two of them began chatting more often in the dorm and going out together for food. Luhan began to trust Sehun more and more-talking with Yixing late at night and drinking tea together on the bed was fine, but Sehun was someone Luhan could really open up to. It didn’t matter that there was a four year difference between the two of them-Sehun understood Luhan, and that was all that mattered.
They spent their time walking together in the park, dancing together, eating together. They would help each other with their training, gossip under the covers together at night (when Yixing wasn’t there), and feed each other, pretending to be mother and son-it was childish, but it was fun, and Luhan felt perfectly happy with Sehun because Sehun became that close friend who cared for him in the way Luhan had always wanted to be cared for whenever he saw Wu Fan and Zitao together.
Once, the two of them were out shopping when they ended up lost after taking too many wrong turns. They could have easily taken a taxi back immediately, but Sehun insisted that they walked a bit-just to see some more sights in the city, he reasoned when Luhan refused. They found themselves in a park afterwards, and it was an afternoon Luhan would never forget-Sehun laughing as he slid down the slide; Sehun dragging Luhan over to the swings; swinging so high that Luhan was afraid he would either fall or break the swing set; getting strange looks from the passerby as they rolled around in the grass, laughing hysterically and pushing each other around-
On the way back home in a taxi, Sehun dozed off, exhausted by their day, but Luhan just sat there and smiled (rather giddily) throughout the entire ride, grateful for the friend who came and lit up his life.
“You’re always with Sehun these days,” Yixing complained jokingly one night as they lay on the bed together, staring up at the ceiling and talking quietly under the dim yellow light in their room.
“Jealous?” Luhan teased, and they laughed, then moved on to other subjects, talking about their day and how it went. But afterwards, as Luhan reflected upon Yixing’s words, he realized something.
Oh Sehun did mean a whole lot to him.
:: :: ::
Sometimes, in the middle of the night, Luhan would be trying to fall asleep when he would suddenly think of his family in Beijing. And once he remembered how his mother used to sing him to sleep sometimes, even though he often told her not to because he was embarrassed that his classmates would find out, Luhan would feel his eyes grow heavy with unshed tears, and he would bury his face in his pillow, unwilling to have anyone hear him crying.
He was sitting in his dorm room with Sehun a few months after they had first met, watching the night sky. It was a full moon that night, and he suddenly remembered how he used to watch the moon with his family, and how his mother would tell him, over and over again, stories of deities and the moon. Without warning, he felt his cheeks grow wet as tears filled up in his eyes and spilled out. Involuntarily, he gave a heaving sob, despite his efforts to not be heard.
Sehun glanced over at him in concern. “Hyung, are you all right?”
He nodded despite the obvious fact that he was crying. “I’m fine,” he said automatically. “It’s nothing.”
Needless to say, Sehun did not look very convinced. He scooted closer to Luhan and put his arm around Luhan’s shoulders. “Hey,” he said softly in Luhan’s ear, “you don’t need to pretend. I’ll be here for you whenever you’re sad. What’s wrong?”
Luhan shook his head and blinked rapidly, trying to force back the tears as they continued flowing out. “It’s nothing much,” he mumbled softly, not entirely willing to cry in front of Sehun. “It’s just that…it’s just that I miss my family so m-much…” He gave up on controlling his emotions and buried his face in Sehun’s shoulder as the boy wrapped his arms around him comfortingly.
“Shh,” Sehun whispered, gently rocking Luhan back and forth as Luhan continued to cry, “I know it’s hard. Just hang in there, and do your best, Luhan-ah. They’re proud of you. I know that. Your family is proud of you, just like I am proud of you, and we’re going to debut someday and they’ll be even prouder. Okay? It doesn’t matter if you’re away from your family-as long as you hold each other in your thoughts, you’ll be with each other.”
Luhan just nodded, unable to speak, but he told Sehun thank you in his thoughts and Sehun seemed to understand.
:: :: ::
“Hyung, take me out to dinner,” Sehun wheedled, giving Luhan a pout. “Please?”
Luhan sighed and shook his head. “Why? I want to eat in the dorm. Kyungsoo’s making his kimchi spaghetti today.”
“But…” Sehun pouted again and gazed up at Luhan with wide eyes. “I’m tired of eating in the dorm! Jongin hyung is always following me around, Kyungsoo hyung never says anything when he cooks, and Junmyun hyung is always bothering me and telling me to do something. I only want to be with you. Please?” He hugged Luhan and refused to budge when Luhan tried to walk away. “If you don’t take me to dinner, I’m going to start bu-buing like Zitao hyung…”
“Okay, okay!” Luhan threw his hands up in defeat and laughed. “You act so much like a child, you know,” he joked, messing up Sehun’s hair fondly. “Fine. I’ll take you out to dinner.”
He took Sehun out to the noodle shop Sehun loved to eat at and they sat across from each other, Luhan playing games on his phone while Sehun stared sullenly at the wall despite the fact that Luhan had taken him out to dinner. Their orders arrived and they began to eat, although no one said a word.
“You’re in a rather serious mood after all that pleading, Sehun-ah,” Luhan commented dryly after they had been eating for several minutes without speaking. “Is there anything wrong?”
“I was thinking. You know,” Sehun said quietly, “in the future, after we debut, we’re going to be in different groups. We won’t be able to eat out together as much. We won’t see each other as much.”
“I know,” Luhan responded, staring down at his chopsticks. “I don’t really want to think about it.”
“It’ll happen one day,” Sehun insisted, placing his chopsticks down and looking sincerely at Luhan. “We can’t just keep on running away from that, because sooner or later, it’ll come and we won’t be prepared. So I want you to promise me something.”
“Promise what?”
“Promise me,” Sehun murmured solemnly, leaning forward and taking Luhan’s hand, “promise me that we’ll be brothers forever. That we’ll always be friends, and that we’ll always think of each other. Promise me we won’t forget each other, no matter what. Okay?”
Luhan smiled and put his other hand on top of Sehun’s. “I promise.”
:: :: ::
The day of the showcase finally came. Luhan woke up in the morning and stared at himself in the mirror, unable to register that he was to perform at his first concert.
“We’ll want to get ready early,” Yixing called out as he walked out of the room they shared. “Don’t sit there for too long, Luhan.”
Luhan nodded distractedly and continued staring at the mirror, not actually paying attention to his reflection, too lost in his thoughts to notice anything else. How long had he been dreaming of the day? All the days auditioning, training, crying due to homesickness, laughing, becoming part of a new family-all those days had passed by so quickly, in the blink of an eye. Time had flown by, and Luhan-Luhan, who began his singing career by failing the JYP auditions-was about to perform on a stage, about to debut in a few days.
The car ride to the concert sped by-everyone was too nervous to talk much, and the constant jitteriness that refused to leave seemed to linger in the air-even the managers looked exceedingly worried and anxious. When they arrived, the coordinators bustled about, putting on makeup and arranging clothing. Already, fans were lining up outside the concert hall-still, no one said much.
Wu Fan and Junmyun each made a short speech, but Luhan barely heard them, and in the end, even Wu Fan and Junmyun looked like they had to make a huge effort to finish their speeches. There was so much to say, so much to tell, but there wasn’t enough time, and words were simply not enough to express what everyone was feeling.
Panic and anxiety began to overwhelm Luhan-a million thoughts raced through his mind, each replaced by another before he could even think much about it. What if I mess up? What if someone else messes up? What if the fans don’t like us? What if there’s a technical difficulty? What if…what if…He clenched his hands together, attempting to take deep breaths and calm down.
“Hey, don’t stress about it.” Sehun’s voice came from behind him and Luhan turned around to see the boy standing there, smiling reassuringly. “I believe in you. I believe you can do well. You can do this, Luhan. Everyone will love you.”
“Sehun-ah…” Luhan was at a loss for words. “Thank you,” he said, and hugged the boy, the realization that they would be in separate groups after the showcases finally washing over him. We walk different paths. No matter how much we would like to be together, we cannot, because we’ll be in different countries, talking in different languages, promoting to different people.
He thought of the phrase the manager had told the group a few days ago to introduce themselves with. At first, he thought their introduction was rather ironic, since they were obviously not together, but then he realized that it did make sense-it didn’t matter if the members were in different countries, they would always think of one another. And it reassured him-I won’t forget you; I’ll always think of you, he had promised Sehun. Always.
Luhan let go of Sehun as the lights dimmed and the showcase began-this is the last time we’ll be together for some time. This is the last time we’ll be together as merely trainees, with only training and debuting in mind.
“Good luck,” he whispered into Sehun’s ear and walked away to his position behind the stage. As he stepped towards the stage, a small smile tugged at Luhan’s lips as he glanced back at Sehun, watching as the boy stared at the stage in front of them, a concentrated, focused expression on his face. And thank you for everything you’ve done for me. Thank you for your friendship.
:: :: ::
We are one!
the end-of the beginning
a/n: Um, this is my first time posting on LJ and I'm still kind of confused about how this site works meh :/ But I hope you enjoyed this ^^
Genre: Friendship
Rating: G
Pairing: Hunhan (friendship)
Length: 3275 words
Summary: They promised to be brothers, to be friends forever. And Luhan was determined to keep that promise, no matter what. A friendship oneshot. Luhan-centric.
Cherish These Memories
:: :: ::
From the very beginning, Luhan’s dream was to become a singer.
From the moment he heard his first pop song, he fell in love with the music industry. He would hum quietly to himself all the time, and daydream of all the possibilities that could happen if he could become a singer. There wasn’t anyone who didn’t say his voice was beautiful, and he was often commented on his good looks. Luhan wasn’t sure if it was true, but since most people seemed to tell him that, he decided to take their word for it and his hope to become a singer became something that he felt to be a possibility.
It wasn’t an easy dream. His parents had big plans for his future-they wanted him to become a doctor, and make a name for himself in the medical world. They wanted him to earn enough money to live off well, and take care of his family. But Luhan didn’t want to become a doctor-he wanted to be an entertainer. He wanted to perform and spread his love of music to people around the world. Finally, after much discussion, his parents stepped aside and let him go his way. “As long as you love what you are doing, then we will support you,” they told him.
His first chance came when JYP held global auditions in China. The disappointment he felt when he found out that he didn’t pass the auditions was so great that Luhan almost gave up on becoming a singer. I’m not good enough. How am I good enough if I can’t even pass the auditions? He fell into depression and refused to come out of his room for days. Finally, his mother yelled at him and told him that if his parents had agreed to support him in his dream, then he should at least have tried his best to achieve that dream.
And so while his classmates went off to study for medical degrees and engineering majors, Luhan set his sights on majoring in Korean to increase his chances of getting accepted into entertainment companies. He became a transfer student and went to study in Korea for a year. Yet, in that time, he began to lose hope again-he was lost, unsure of what to do. He began to lose confidence in himself again, and began to question if what he was doing was truly right for him. Luhan spent his days wandering the streets when he wasn’t in class, half hoping that a scouting agent from a company would find him, half dreading that if he tried to audition, he would fail again.
After a few months, Luhan went out shopping with friends one day when a woman walked up to him in in the market. She glanced at him, and then smiled, giving him a business card. “You look sweet,” she said nicely. “Why don’t you try out for SM’s auditions? I think you have potential.”
Potential. She thought he had potential.
And so, he was motivated to achieve his dream once again. Luhan spent the next few weeks practicing for his audition. He stayed up late at night, cramming for tests and doing his homework in the little spare time during which he wasn’t practicing. It was one thought that drove him through his all-nighters and exhausting days at school, sitting at a desk and desperately wishing that he could be at home practicing some more. I will make it, and I will become a singer, he told himself over and over again. I will become a singer. I am good enough. I just didn’t try hard enough before.
The day of the audition, he arrived extra early and spent hours waiting for the auditioning to open up. The judges asked him why he had come so early, and Luhan responded simply, “I don’t want to accidently miss a chance on achieving my dream.”
It was one of the happiest moments of his life when they released the list of who got in, and Luhan found his name at the top.
:: :: ::
It wasn’t easy being a trainee under SM Entertainment. Luhan had half-hoped that once he passed the auditions, training wouldn’t be extremely difficult, but he was wrong. It wasn’t just the amount of effort in training required-Luhan couldn’t even complain about that, because Yixing was far more hardworking than he was-but also the troubles of being in a foreign country, with merely a passable knowledge of the language and culture.
It was easier for Luhan than the other Chinese trainees-he had majored in Korean, so it wasn’t too much of a difficulty to become mostly fluent in a short period of time. Yet being in a foreign country meant that he couldn’t go home often. The homesickness was one of the worst parts of being a trainee-Luhan visited his parents about once or twice a year, sometimes even less, and every time, he almost gave up on going back to Korea because he couldn’t bear leaving his family again. It was only Luhan’s determination that he would not fail his parents’ support that drove him to continue training.
He was not alone in this. Oftentimes, Luhan would see Wu Fan take out his phone as it was ringing, and ignore the call. When asked who the call was from, Wu Fan would shake his head and refuse to speak, tears evident in his eyes. It was common. Many of the Chinese trainees wouldn’t answer the phone when their parents, or refused to call their parents because of the fear that if they heard the voices of their parents, they would be too homesick to continue training.
In the company, the Chinese members were the most likely to be bullied by the other trainees. The Korean trainees would often gather together to laugh and make fun of Chinese trainees, especially on their Korean pronunciation. Out of the Chinese trainees, Zitao was the one who got bullied the most. He could have frightened anyone away with his wu shu skills, but his soft, kind nature and the fact that he hadn’t been learning Korean for long made him an easy target for disdainful Korean trainees who found his pronunciations overly hilarious.
Zitao had Wu Fan, though. Every time someone reduced him to tears, Wu Fan would always be there to comfort him-“exactly why he will make a good leader,” Luhan heard one of the instructors say to another once.
Luhan, however, had no one to help him. He didn’t need it. His friendly personality and cute, innocent looks (as much as he hated to admit it) kept even the most condescending Korean trainees from making fun of him. It was something he was grateful for-but every time he saw Wu Fan patting Zitao’s back soothingly as Zitao sobbed into Wu Fan’s jacket, Luhan couldn’t help but wish for a friend who would care for him like that. He had a lot of friends-he was a friendly person, and people just got along with him. But no one ever was that close to him.
And then he was put into EXO.
The twelve of them all met as a group for the first time in a small room. Luhan was relieved to see that all the Korean members were the nicer trainees who didn’t go around bullying others-he had been worried that Zitao would get teased mercilessly for the rest of his life.
They began their introductions. A boy who looked a few years younger than Luhan came up to him, and smiled. “Hello, I’m Oh Sehun,” he said, with a slight lisp, so that it came out as “Annyeonghatheyo, nan Oh Thehun imnida.” He held up his hand and seemed to wait expectantly for a response.
Luhan took his hand and shook it. “I’m Luhan,” he said. “I hope we’ll become great friends.”
Sehun smiled again. “I hope so too.”
:: :: ::
Over the next few weeks, Luhan often found himself with Sehun as he trained.
It wasn’t as if it was on purpose or anything, but gradually, he found himself coincidentally alone with Sehun in the training room or in the dorm a lot. It was a bit awkward at first, because they had just met, but after a while, Luhan began to view Sehun as a friend. Not an extremely close friend, but still, a good friend he could depend on.
Whenever the twelve of them practiced together, Luhan found himself next to Sehun more often than not, and after a couple of weeks or so, the two of them began chatting more often in the dorm and going out together for food. Luhan began to trust Sehun more and more-talking with Yixing late at night and drinking tea together on the bed was fine, but Sehun was someone Luhan could really open up to. It didn’t matter that there was a four year difference between the two of them-Sehun understood Luhan, and that was all that mattered.
They spent their time walking together in the park, dancing together, eating together. They would help each other with their training, gossip under the covers together at night (when Yixing wasn’t there), and feed each other, pretending to be mother and son-it was childish, but it was fun, and Luhan felt perfectly happy with Sehun because Sehun became that close friend who cared for him in the way Luhan had always wanted to be cared for whenever he saw Wu Fan and Zitao together.
Once, the two of them were out shopping when they ended up lost after taking too many wrong turns. They could have easily taken a taxi back immediately, but Sehun insisted that they walked a bit-just to see some more sights in the city, he reasoned when Luhan refused. They found themselves in a park afterwards, and it was an afternoon Luhan would never forget-Sehun laughing as he slid down the slide; Sehun dragging Luhan over to the swings; swinging so high that Luhan was afraid he would either fall or break the swing set; getting strange looks from the passerby as they rolled around in the grass, laughing hysterically and pushing each other around-
On the way back home in a taxi, Sehun dozed off, exhausted by their day, but Luhan just sat there and smiled (rather giddily) throughout the entire ride, grateful for the friend who came and lit up his life.
“You’re always with Sehun these days,” Yixing complained jokingly one night as they lay on the bed together, staring up at the ceiling and talking quietly under the dim yellow light in their room.
“Jealous?” Luhan teased, and they laughed, then moved on to other subjects, talking about their day and how it went. But afterwards, as Luhan reflected upon Yixing’s words, he realized something.
Oh Sehun did mean a whole lot to him.
:: :: ::
Sometimes, in the middle of the night, Luhan would be trying to fall asleep when he would suddenly think of his family in Beijing. And once he remembered how his mother used to sing him to sleep sometimes, even though he often told her not to because he was embarrassed that his classmates would find out, Luhan would feel his eyes grow heavy with unshed tears, and he would bury his face in his pillow, unwilling to have anyone hear him crying.
He was sitting in his dorm room with Sehun a few months after they had first met, watching the night sky. It was a full moon that night, and he suddenly remembered how he used to watch the moon with his family, and how his mother would tell him, over and over again, stories of deities and the moon. Without warning, he felt his cheeks grow wet as tears filled up in his eyes and spilled out. Involuntarily, he gave a heaving sob, despite his efforts to not be heard.
Sehun glanced over at him in concern. “Hyung, are you all right?”
He nodded despite the obvious fact that he was crying. “I’m fine,” he said automatically. “It’s nothing.”
Needless to say, Sehun did not look very convinced. He scooted closer to Luhan and put his arm around Luhan’s shoulders. “Hey,” he said softly in Luhan’s ear, “you don’t need to pretend. I’ll be here for you whenever you’re sad. What’s wrong?”
Luhan shook his head and blinked rapidly, trying to force back the tears as they continued flowing out. “It’s nothing much,” he mumbled softly, not entirely willing to cry in front of Sehun. “It’s just that…it’s just that I miss my family so m-much…” He gave up on controlling his emotions and buried his face in Sehun’s shoulder as the boy wrapped his arms around him comfortingly.
“Shh,” Sehun whispered, gently rocking Luhan back and forth as Luhan continued to cry, “I know it’s hard. Just hang in there, and do your best, Luhan-ah. They’re proud of you. I know that. Your family is proud of you, just like I am proud of you, and we’re going to debut someday and they’ll be even prouder. Okay? It doesn’t matter if you’re away from your family-as long as you hold each other in your thoughts, you’ll be with each other.”
Luhan just nodded, unable to speak, but he told Sehun thank you in his thoughts and Sehun seemed to understand.
:: :: ::
“Hyung, take me out to dinner,” Sehun wheedled, giving Luhan a pout. “Please?”
Luhan sighed and shook his head. “Why? I want to eat in the dorm. Kyungsoo’s making his kimchi spaghetti today.”
“But…” Sehun pouted again and gazed up at Luhan with wide eyes. “I’m tired of eating in the dorm! Jongin hyung is always following me around, Kyungsoo hyung never says anything when he cooks, and Junmyun hyung is always bothering me and telling me to do something. I only want to be with you. Please?” He hugged Luhan and refused to budge when Luhan tried to walk away. “If you don’t take me to dinner, I’m going to start bu-buing like Zitao hyung…”
“Okay, okay!” Luhan threw his hands up in defeat and laughed. “You act so much like a child, you know,” he joked, messing up Sehun’s hair fondly. “Fine. I’ll take you out to dinner.”
He took Sehun out to the noodle shop Sehun loved to eat at and they sat across from each other, Luhan playing games on his phone while Sehun stared sullenly at the wall despite the fact that Luhan had taken him out to dinner. Their orders arrived and they began to eat, although no one said a word.
“You’re in a rather serious mood after all that pleading, Sehun-ah,” Luhan commented dryly after they had been eating for several minutes without speaking. “Is there anything wrong?”
“I was thinking. You know,” Sehun said quietly, “in the future, after we debut, we’re going to be in different groups. We won’t be able to eat out together as much. We won’t see each other as much.”
“I know,” Luhan responded, staring down at his chopsticks. “I don’t really want to think about it.”
“It’ll happen one day,” Sehun insisted, placing his chopsticks down and looking sincerely at Luhan. “We can’t just keep on running away from that, because sooner or later, it’ll come and we won’t be prepared. So I want you to promise me something.”
“Promise what?”
“Promise me,” Sehun murmured solemnly, leaning forward and taking Luhan’s hand, “promise me that we’ll be brothers forever. That we’ll always be friends, and that we’ll always think of each other. Promise me we won’t forget each other, no matter what. Okay?”
Luhan smiled and put his other hand on top of Sehun’s. “I promise.”
:: :: ::
The day of the showcase finally came. Luhan woke up in the morning and stared at himself in the mirror, unable to register that he was to perform at his first concert.
“We’ll want to get ready early,” Yixing called out as he walked out of the room they shared. “Don’t sit there for too long, Luhan.”
Luhan nodded distractedly and continued staring at the mirror, not actually paying attention to his reflection, too lost in his thoughts to notice anything else. How long had he been dreaming of the day? All the days auditioning, training, crying due to homesickness, laughing, becoming part of a new family-all those days had passed by so quickly, in the blink of an eye. Time had flown by, and Luhan-Luhan, who began his singing career by failing the JYP auditions-was about to perform on a stage, about to debut in a few days.
The car ride to the concert sped by-everyone was too nervous to talk much, and the constant jitteriness that refused to leave seemed to linger in the air-even the managers looked exceedingly worried and anxious. When they arrived, the coordinators bustled about, putting on makeup and arranging clothing. Already, fans were lining up outside the concert hall-still, no one said much.
Wu Fan and Junmyun each made a short speech, but Luhan barely heard them, and in the end, even Wu Fan and Junmyun looked like they had to make a huge effort to finish their speeches. There was so much to say, so much to tell, but there wasn’t enough time, and words were simply not enough to express what everyone was feeling.
Panic and anxiety began to overwhelm Luhan-a million thoughts raced through his mind, each replaced by another before he could even think much about it. What if I mess up? What if someone else messes up? What if the fans don’t like us? What if there’s a technical difficulty? What if…what if…He clenched his hands together, attempting to take deep breaths and calm down.
“Hey, don’t stress about it.” Sehun’s voice came from behind him and Luhan turned around to see the boy standing there, smiling reassuringly. “I believe in you. I believe you can do well. You can do this, Luhan. Everyone will love you.”
“Sehun-ah…” Luhan was at a loss for words. “Thank you,” he said, and hugged the boy, the realization that they would be in separate groups after the showcases finally washing over him. We walk different paths. No matter how much we would like to be together, we cannot, because we’ll be in different countries, talking in different languages, promoting to different people.
He thought of the phrase the manager had told the group a few days ago to introduce themselves with. At first, he thought their introduction was rather ironic, since they were obviously not together, but then he realized that it did make sense-it didn’t matter if the members were in different countries, they would always think of one another. And it reassured him-I won’t forget you; I’ll always think of you, he had promised Sehun. Always.
Luhan let go of Sehun as the lights dimmed and the showcase began-this is the last time we’ll be together for some time. This is the last time we’ll be together as merely trainees, with only training and debuting in mind.
“Good luck,” he whispered into Sehun’s ear and walked away to his position behind the stage. As he stepped towards the stage, a small smile tugged at Luhan’s lips as he glanced back at Sehun, watching as the boy stared at the stage in front of them, a concentrated, focused expression on his face. And thank you for everything you’ve done for me. Thank you for your friendship.
:: :: ::
We are one!
the end-of the beginning
a/n: Um, this is my first time posting on LJ and I'm still kind of confused about how this site works meh :/ But I hope you enjoyed this ^^