Ubiquity
Title: Ubiquity
Pairing: Sehun/Lu Han
Rating: PG-13
Genre: AU, Romance
Word Count: 5900
Summary: Lu Han ends up spending his summer helping out at his aunt’s bed and breakfast and encounters Sehun, the ice cream boy who is absolutely everywhere.
(Cross-posted from selubration)
Ordinarily, Lu Han loved summer just as much as any overly-stressed university student did. But, just like any overly-stressed university student who was finally released from the clutches of school, the last thing he wanted was to be forcibly put to work for the whole summer vacation without his consent (but when did he ever get a say?) at his aunt’s bed and breakfast while his parents frolicked throughout China for their second honeymoon or something - he had tuned his parents out the moment they had sprung their announcement on him, immediately sinking into a pit of sadness at the knowledge that his summer plans had gone down the drain.
So , with a heavy heart that his mother immediately dismissed as him being overly dramatic, he gave his friends an unhappy farewell as he boarded the plane to Jeju.
Jeju greeted his scowl - induced by sitting between an overly chatty middle-aged man and a new mother with a wailing baby - with warm sunshine, a pleasant breeze and the familiar dimpled smile of his cousin, Yixing, who had come to pick him up at the airport, late as usual.
“Sorry, ge, I was busy with chores,” Yixing explained as he dragged Lu Han’s luggage to the back of a sedan that had definitely seen better days. “I got out as soon as I could but, the roads, you know?”
Lu Han rolled his eyes, climbing into the passenger’s seat. “Yeah right. You probably forgot about the time of my flight again.”
“You know me so well.” Lu Han responded with another eye roll that quickly turned into a worried stare when he noticed that the driver’s side of the vehicle was empty, and that Yixing had climbed into the vacant spot.
“Wait - what are you doing? Yifan isn’t here with you?” he asked, referring to Yixing’s older brother. Usually, the siblings came in a set, despite being very different in terms of character and appearance, which generally meant that Lu Han had twice the headache and twice the amount of trouble to deal with (not that he didn’t partake in that trouble with them and inflict his own variety in return) , so Yifan’s absence was a surprise. For Lu Han, the older brother’s absence was more of a concern than anything else because Yixing’s driving abilities were, as far as he knew, non-existent.
His cousin grinned at him cheekily, the single dimple decorating his cheek making him look more innocent than Lu Han was inclined to believe. “Nope. Yifan-ge accidentally spilled a whole pot of stew in the kitchen so Ma made him stay and clean the whole place up. And you know how he is when he cleans.” He started the engine and Lu Han clutched his seatbelt instinctively, mind immediately chanting off prayers to every deity he could think off, begging them to have mercy on his pitiful soul. “Don’t worry, ge! I just got my license! I’m a great driver!” He gave Lu Han a reassuring smile and Lu Han was almost willing to believe him, until the younger man looked down at his feet and wondered aloud which pedal was the gas and which was the break.
The grip he had on his seatbelt cut off the circulation to his fingers and he closed his eyes so he, at the very least, wouldn’t have to witness his sad, sad end. Best summer ever.
-
“Hey, Fuckface.”
“Nice to see you again, too, Asshole.” Yifan returned his greeting nonchalantly, sidestepping out of the way when Lu Han attempted to clap him on the shoulder, nearly dropping the pail full of dirty water and what Lu Han assumed was every possible piece of grime contained in the kitchen, if Yifan hadn’t already began his battle of cleanliness with any other rooms in the modest little house, in his hands. He glared at his cousin who merely laughed.
Unlike Yixing who was deceivingly reckless and happy-go-lucky, Yifan was a package of over six feet of awkward and clumsy. He also, oddly, had a mildly neurotic compulsion to clean everything until every microscopic spec of dirt had vanished from within the house, something that was rather helpful in running a successful bed and breakfast but one of the sources of his deep troubles especially when Lu Han was around. (Suffice to say, Lu Han didn’t really believe in the saying “cleanliness is next to godliness”.)
“So how is my favourite cousin?” Lu Han asked, grabbing an apple from the basket on the counter before lifting himself to sit next to it, mindlessly swinging his feet against the cupboard beneath. Yifan resisted the urge to let out a strangled screech with each tap of Lu Han’s stained socks on the newly sanitized doors.
“What do you mean ‘favourite cousin’?” Yixing asked, walking into the kitchen to hang the car keys on the hook by the pantry and ignoring the agonized expression on his brother’s face upon seeing him drag his feet across the previously sparkling floor tiles. (Another reason Lu Han’s presence increased Yifan’s problems was that Yixing and Lu Han together was never a good thing.)
Lu Han glared at the younger brother. “You nearly got us killed! You should be banned from the roads forever!”
Yixing pouted. Lu Han flung grapes at him until Yifan finally snapped and threw, almost literally, the two out the kitchen.
-
It didn’t take long for Lu Han to fall into the routine of the bed and breakfast. Jeju was, after all, a spectacular place, especially early in the season when the place wasn’t littered by mobs of tourists, and his aunt was usually less strict on him than her own sons. As it was, after finishing his assigned chores of the day and engaging in polite chatter with any guests they had, Lu Han spent most of his days exploring the island on his own or with his cousins. While it wasn’t exactly how he had imagined his summer to be like, he was enjoying himself immensely.
“Lu Han! Could you buy some eggs from the store?” called his aunt from the kitchen, where she and Yifan were double-teaming blackened pots at the sink. Their resemblance, though his aunt was at least a foot shorter and didn’t look perpetually angry, was uncanny. “There’s some money on the counter.”
“Sure. I’ll be back soon.”
He slipped out the door, money in hand, and began his journey on foot. The sun was high in the sky at that point and, by the time he had turned the corner, the skin along the back of his neck and shoulders was beginning to prickle, making him lament his decision to skip using Yifan’s absurdly expensive sunblock earlier that morning - without his knowledge, of course.
“So. Freaking. Hot,” He whined, fanning himself with the front of his shirt and cringing at how the fabric clung to his skin awkwardly. As he neared the neighbourhood mart, he noticed a long line up at an establishment he didn’t recall being there on his last visit a year earlier. “Woah, what’s happening here?”
Hearing him, a middle school-aged girl with bright eyes and hair neatly tied into two pigtails at the top of her head, looking like she’d just stepped out of some cartoon, turned to him and replied, “The new ice cream parlour just opened and there’s a special for today.” At her words, her friends giggled and blushed.
“Odd,” Lu Han thought, looking at the increasing line before him and noticing that it was largely composed of similarly giggling girls. “They can’t all possibly want discounted ice cream…” He thanked the girl and her friends, ignoring the way one of them fluttered her eyelashes at him, before moving closer to the storefront to peek over the heads of the girls gathered there and stifled a gasp.
Standing behind the counter was a veritable Adonis glowing under the terrible fluorescents of the ice cream parlour, looking more like he sold something much more sensual than frozen treats. He nearly had to bite his tongue to stop himself from whispering “So. Freaking. Hot.” in the presence of minors, who were probably all thinking the exact same thing anyway - the only difference being that being closer in age, from what he could see, to this unnamed Greek god and being very much homosexual, gave the thoughts a different weight.
He shook his head when his thoughts were threatening to wander in a very dangerous direction and turned away to finish his errand before he was tempted to show everyone there just what a bad adult he was.
-
As the summer weather grew warmer with each passing day, the urge to casually slip inside the ice cream parlour grew as well. Each time it came, he reasoned that it was merely because the shop had a great air conditioning system and that cold desserts on a hot summer day were perfect - not because there was a cute server that had begun to smile at him each time he passed. Though that might have been because he passed by way too often and was being so obvious that he was just a source of amusement to the ice cream server. It didn’t help that he had started to run into him in various other places on his walks around town, and these encounters always resulted in momentary eye contact before not-so-covertly stumbling off into a different direction as quickly as possible.
Lu Han groaned and nearly splashed himself with soap water from the pail he was carrying.
“Are you okay? You’ve been glaring at the windshield for the past five minutes,” Yixing asked, raising the nozzle of the hose to rinse off the suds on the hood of the car. He had dragged Lu Han out to hide from Yifan after they had taped all the drawers in his bedroom shut. They had, of course, been caught and were made to clean the garage and car right when the sun decided that everything on Earth should melt. (Lu Han was regretting his involvement for this sole reason, but the twenty minutes it took Yifan to realize what they’d done was fairly amusing. In any case, his regret would probably even out when Yifan found out that they switched the contents of his lotion and conditioner bottles.)
“No, I am dying of heatstroke and I think I’m going to dump this nasty water on my head just to stop myself from burning to death.”
“Ah, ever the optimist, I see.” Yixing laughed and sprayed him with the hose, making Lu Han sputter indignantly because, as welcome as the reprieve from heat was, he wasn’t actually serious. (In his defence, wet denim felt really irritating on his skin.) “There! All better!”
“You suck.”
“You love me.” Yixing only laughed harder when Lu Han’s only comeback was making a crude gesture in his direction, but stopped abruptly to wave at someone on the road. “Oh, hey Sehun! I didn’t know you were back for the summer already.”
“Yeah, came back last week. I’m working at the ice cream parlour for the summer so drop by some time. It’s probably a more practical way to cool off than drenching yourselves with water.”
Lu Han, who had been preoccupied with preventing his clothes from sticking to him in uncomfortable areas, froze on the spot. He’d passed by that very same ice cream parlour too often now to know that there were only three people who worked there: an old man who was presumably the manager and someone he’d seen at the drug store when he was trying to avoid Yifan making him clean his room, a peppy high school girl who flirted with Adonis each and every time he passed by (so a fucking lot), and Adonis himself. It didn’t really take much to find out who Yixing was speaking to and who had a back view of him rearranging certain body parts at that very moment.
While Lu Han was having the mental breakdown of his life, Yixing suddenly seemed to remember his presence and said, “By the way, this is my cousin, Lu Han. He’s visiting for the summer. Ge, this is Sehun.”
Not wanting to appear rude and further tarnish whatever disastrous impression Sehun had of him (he was pretty sure he had been labeled as the creepy stalker who scratches his balls in public in his mind - oh the agony), he turned his head slowly, only having a nanosecond to process how much more attractive the boy was when not viewing him through the shop’s window and under terrible lighting, and gave a little wave. “Hey.”
To his surprise (or horror - he couldn’t decide), Sehun appeared to recognize him. “Oh! I’ve seen you around before!”
“You have?” Lu Han asked, blinking at him.
“You have?” Yixing echoed, mildly surprised. He quickly glanced between the two of them and Lu Han bit his tongue to prevent himself from swearing aloud because the gears in Yixing’s head were turning fast, if that stupid dimple was any indication.
“Yeah, I see you walk by the shop from time to time. You should come in some time and I’ll give you some ice cream, on the house.” He grinned, giving an almost boyish smile that Lu Han would have melted at if he could only just stop noticing his physique and try not to think of how nicely his arms would fit around him. “Anyway, it’s nice meeting you. I have to hurry to catch my shift though so see you!”
With a final wave to the cousins, he hopped on his bike (“Cute,” Lu Han couldn’t help but think before he could stop himself) and pedalled away. This only gave Lu Han three seconds before Yixing started snickering at him.
“Oh my god. You’ve only just been here a couple of weeks and you’ve already found someone to hit on.”
Cheeks reddening, Lu Han glared at his cousin and tried to resist the urge to choke him with the sponge in his hand - it was the least he could do for introducing Sehun to him, after all. “I didn’t hit on him!”
“Yet.”
“I fucking swear Yixing.”
“But you’d probably have to wait in line because literally everyone wants to.”
Remembering the line of girls that seemed to magically appear at the start of Sehun’s shift every day, Lu Han sighed. “Don’t remind me… Is he gay, at least?” From experience (in the form of a certain TA named Jung Yunho), Lu Han had come to realize that attractive men who happen to be nice to other men didn’t necessarily equal to gay, unfortunately.
Yixing shrugged and raised his hands defensively when Lu Han squinted at him suspiciously. “What? I actually don’t know! He only really comes to Jeju to visit his grandparents for the summer and holidays, and I never hear him talk about his relationships back in Seoul. If it’s any consolation, it might mean he’s single?”
“You are no help at all.”
-
“Man, Lu Han, you should’ve been there! Baekhyun got so wasted and he ended up throwing up on some poor underclassman. It was hilarious.”
“Don’t remind me, you prick. It’s not my fault I got shipped off to Jeju instead,” Lu Han grumbled into his phone as he wandered through the different stalls of the night market alone. He had arrived with his cousins an hour prior, but got separated when Yixing saw a sale for guitars and dragged his brother away just as Jongin, a friend from Seoul, had called him.
“But it can’t be that bad. Jeju’s really nice. Oh, by the way, don’t forget to get me something to give to Krystal - I need the perfect anniversary present. I’m counting on you!”
Lu Han rolled his eyes, stooping down to examine some handmade jewelry. “Yeah, yeah. I’m looking at stuff right now. Honestly, can’t you look for gifts for your own girlfriend? Krystal’s-”
His sentence was cut short when he stood to ask the vendor about the price and was met with a face full of Sehun instead.
“Shit, sorry! I happened to see you when I was passing by so I was going to surprise you but you suddenly stood up and- I’m just really, really sorry.” Sehun apologized hurriedly, looking flustered as Lu Han rubbed at his nose and forehead in pain (though, on the plus side, he now knew that Sehun smelled like heaven on top of being good looking - it seemed like a fair trade-off though that may have been the pain messing with his head). “Here - you dropped your stuff…”
Lu Han, suddenly realizing that Sehun was now staring at his phone which had Jongin’s stupid face kissing the screen appearing as the contact display picture (his memory about how it came about was fuzzy, but Lu Han was fairly certain it involved a drunk Jongin fiddling with his phone. It was always amusing to watch Jongin blush when he reminded him of the picture so he had never changed it - big mistake.), hurriedly grabbed the phone out of Sehun’s hand. “Sorry Jongin, I’ll call you later. Bye!”
“Er… Was I interrupting an important conversation?” Sehun asked sheepishly.
“No, not at all. Just my friend making me buy something for his girlfriend,” Lu Han replied, a little too quickly. So smooth, Lu Han. “What about you? Funny seeing you here of all places.”
Sehun grinned at him, giving him that megawatt smile that was probably the cause of the ice cream parlour’s booming success. “I’m looking for something for my mom, actually. She loves these things. Maybe we can find something together?”
Thankfully, Lu Han’s brain-to-mouth filter was still intact after being hit in the head or the “fuck yes” he was thinking of would have left his mouth. Instead, he said as nonchalantly as he could, “Sure. I came with my cousins though so let me just check where they are.”
He dialed Yifan’s number quickly, since Yixing had a terrible habit of forgetting to turn on his phone, and waited until Yifan picked up on the third ring. “Hey, where are you?”
“Uh… Some lady started talking to me about how good her street food stall was and she even gave me free samples - which were really good, by the way - and I couldn’t just leave because that would be rude so-”
“Did you get suckered into buying something again?” Lu Han sighed. Trust Yifan to get into these situations every time he went out to buy things.
“…Maybe…”
Lu Han rolled his eyes. “Anyway… I bumped into Sehun so we might go around for a while and I was wondering where I should meet with you guys after.”
“You met Sehun?”
“Yes.”
“What a coinci- wait, what did you say, Yixing? …Oh really?” There was a snicker on the other line and Lu Han really didn’t like where this conversation was heading. “Okay, have fun on your date and get home safely! Bye!”
“What?! Yifan? Yifan, I swear I will murder you!” He punched in the number again and was only met with a dial tone. The only thing holding him back from throwing a fit was Sehun watching him curiously, though, in all honesty, he probably didn’t have much of an image to maintain any longer. “My cousins are evil.”
Sehun laughed good-naturedly, eyes crinkling in a way that invited his own lips to turn up at the corners. “If you want, I can drop you off later? You’re staying over at their place, right?”
Lu Han smiled sheepishly, “If you don’t mind…?” He figured he could thank his cousins for this miraculous chance before he murdered them, at the very least.
The next two hours of his life were glorious, in his completely biased opinion. It was so tempting to let his infatuation delude him into thinking that casually walking through stalls with Sehun, laughing about dumb things that really made no sense when he tried to rewind the memory in his mind and exchanging spoonfuls of information about each other, was a date rather than acquaintances spending time together because of his two conniving cousins. It would have been so easy to hold onto Sehun’s arm a little longer than necessary when he’d stopped him from being knocked over by some rambunctious little kids, or tilt his head a little higher when Sehun turned to face him so his lips would land squarely on the sharp curve of his cheek but the shred of self-control he’d retained managed to prevent him from doing so.
Soon, they were stopping at the gate of his aunt’s bed and breakfast, bidding farewell in the most platonic way possible, with a brief wave and a smile. Lu Han had never felt so deflated in his life.
-
“And here’s your orange sorbet. Enjoy!” Sehun said with a practiced smile but Lu Han could already see the twinkling in his eyes that always seemed to appear and dazzle Lu Han breathless when Sehun found something funny. At present, it wasn’t difficult to see that Lu Han was the source of his amusement.
“You know, you really don’t have to do this every time we pass by…” Lu Han said in a small voice, shrinking under the glares of the multitude of females in the parlour. He swore they had doubled in number since the day before. Whether or not Sehun noticed this, he wasn’t so sure.
Sehun waved a hand dismissively. “It’s no big deal. The boss doesn’t mind anyway since I get free ice cream for working here but I never have any.” Lu Han was fairly certain that the real reason his boss never objected was the fact that a couple of ice cream cones were nothing in comparison to the revenue Sehun’s smile and lean physique brought in, but he kept that opinion to himself.
Somehow, ever since they had spent the day shopping together, Sehun had made it a point to persuade Lu Han, and whoever he happened to be with at the time, to have a gratuitous treat when they passed by the ice cream parlour (which was probably still too frequent to be normal but Lu Han couldn’t bring himself to stop). It was sweet, in Lu Han’s opinion, though a little confusing since Sehun had never made any indications of his intentions other than friendship and, to be perfectly realistic, people didn’t go out of their way to give someone they wanted to be just friends with free ice cream practically every day. Besides, with the terrible first impression he had given, Lu Han was surprised Sehun still even wanted to be around him at all.
“Yeah, listen to the man and just enjoy the free ice cream, Lu Han. Don’t you know that the best flavour in the world is free?”
Lu Han glared at Yifan as the taller boy carefully wrapped layers of tissue around his ice cream cone to prevent it from dripping. “I will shove that cone down your shirt and laugh at you as you take three hours to make sure it doesn’t stain your dumb Givenchy shirt, you little shit.”
Sehun burst out laughing, letting out child-like giggles that really shouldn’t sound so endearing to Lu Han, while Yifan took a step away from the counter, making sure to keep the hand bearing his treat as far away from his cousin as possible. “And I’m out. See you, Sehun. Thanks for the ice cream again.”
“Sehun, could you come to the back and help stack these boxes?”
Sehun pulled back the arm that was waving at Yifan’s retreating figure and turned to Lu Han with an apologetic smile. “And that’s probably my cue to get back to work. If you come a little bit earlier tomorrow, we can probably talk a little longer?”
Lu Han nodded. “Sure. I feel bad for always taking up your work time anyway.”
“Nah, it’s alright. I like talking to you.” Sehun grinned at him and Lu Han may have had a little too much sugar in his system from all the ice cream he’d ingested, but he was pretty sure the hike in his heart rate had nothing to do with his current sugar high. Just when he thought his heart could take no more, Sehun reached out to swipe a finger against his hand, cleaning off the sorbet that had trickled down to his fingers, and licked it off with a teasing smile. “Careful. You should probably copy what Yifan does if you’re going to eat ice cream like a kid.”
He let out a chuckle when Lu Han flushed, then he hurried to the back room, leaving Lu Han to his thoughts and the swarm of jealous admirers who probably never imagined that a man would be their greatest competition.
-
As touristy as the notion was, Lu Han firmly believed that a summer at Jeju was never complete without going to the beach. So, on a day that miraculously saw no work to be done at the bed and breakfast, Lu Han managed to convince his cousins to drive out to the closest beach with relatively little resistance. (Yifan being Yifan always made it a little more difficult than it should be to go to places involving crowds and the possibility of becoming sweaty.)
“If I get a tan line, it will be all your fault.”
Lu Han rolled his eyes at the older of the brothers and let out a sigh as a sunblock-drenched Yifan continued to cover himself with beach towels and crawl onto a large blanket spread flat against the sand, perfectly devoid of any grains of sand and completely shaded by a humungous umbrella.
“You are such a fucking loser.”
“We’ll see who’s laughing when you look like a fried potato.” Lu Han decided not to mention that he’d used his super expensive sunblock again before heading out.
Beside him, Yixing mimicked Lu Han’s eye roll. “Forget it. Let’s just go swim without him.” They sprinted towards the oncoming tide, making sure that they kicked sand behind them just to hear the panicked yell of Yifan at the sudden onslaught, and dove straight into the welcoming coolness of the sea.
“Hey, what’s that?”
Lu Han popped his head out of the water and turned in the direction in which Yixing was pointing, eyes landing on a crowd of overexcited girls on the shore. “Is there something happening today…?” He asked, shaking excess water from his hair, but the other only shrugged in response. Before he could suggest moving closer, the crowd parted and Lu Han swore that those stories about people so beautiful that even gods were jealous of them needed to be rewritten because he was so very sure that nothing could compare to the god standing on the shore right at that moment.
“Fucking Adonis.”
“Be careful, ge. Your crush on Sehun is showing. If you think about him just a little bit more, everyone will be able to see it too, if you know what I mean.”
Red-faced, Lu Han glared at a snickering Yixing. “I will fucking end you.”
“I would like to see you try.” Before Lu Han could even consider what he meant, Yixing turned around and waved his hands above his head, yelling, “Hey, Sehun! Come over here!”
Upon hearing his call and catching sight of them, thankfully too far away to hear Lu Han hissing out a string of cusses at his cackling cousin, Sehun grinned widely and broke away from the mass of women around him. “Hey! What a coincidence!”
“I know, right? Fancy that, huh, ge?” Yixing inquired Lu Han with an innocent smile as the other sunk deeper into the water, hoping that its coolness would control the heat rising up his cheeks because he was in no way ready to face Sehun in all his shirtless glory within touching distance. “What brings you here?”
“Actually, the parlour has an ice cream cart that circles around different beaches in the area. Apparently our cart sales haven’t been doing as well as our parlour sales so the boss wanted me to check out what was different. It’s weird though; I’m already halfway through my stock even though I’ve only been selling for over an hour. So I’m taking a break while waiting for a co-worker to come and deliver more ice cream.” Sehun explained, gesturing to the blue cart by the vending machines. Yixing and Lu Han couldn’t help but think that the ice cream parlour boss was way smarter than they gave him credit for. “Hey, if you guys want any, I can always give you some. Free ice cream privileges still apply!” He aimed a particularly charming smile at Lu Han, though that might have been his jellified brain speaking.
Lu Han offered a smile in return. “You really don’t have to but thanks. Maybe later?”
Yixing snickered. “He just doesn’t want to get fat from all the ice cream you’re giving him.”
“You’re not fat at all though!” Sehun remarked, effectively stopping Lu Han from glaring at Yixing. He reached out to tap light fingers against Lu Han’s temple, pushing back wet strands that clung to his forehead. “Although you may want to stay out of the sun for a while. I think the heat might be starting to get to you; you’re turning a little red.”
Lu Han jerked back and ducked into the water again. “Yeah, maybe. I’ll just. Cool off in the water. For a bit. Yeah.” He resisted the urge to pinch Yixing’s submerged leg when the other looked like he could barely hold in his laughter.
“Okay… Well, I think I see my co-worker. I’ll come by later with some ice cream to help you cool off.” He flashed Lu Han a concerned smile before bidding them farewell and jogging away.
“Good news: I think he’s taken by you. Either that or he’s very platonically concerned that you’ll pass out from heatstroke.” Yixing offered with a devious smirk. “And, while the redness of your face is pretty convincing…”
“Oh shut up.” Lu Han snapped, wading back to shore. When he sunk down next to Yifan, he couldn’t process his mocking him for his flushed skin tone and Yixing’s laughter; the only thing in his mind was Sehun.
-
“Are you sure you can’t get your housemates to take care of your apartment documents instead? Two months really is too short for a vacation,” His aunt said and Lu Han shook his head with a smile. “That’s too bad. Well, thank you for helping out, dear. Come back anytime to visit soon, okay? And tell your parents to come with you too.” She said, pulling him in for a hug and patting his cheeks affectionately when he pulled away.
“It was nothing, auntie. Thanks for having me; I had lots of fun. I’ll make sure we all visit soon; I promise!” He allowed her to give him one last peck on the cheek before gathering his bags and hauling them out the door. Outside, he could see Yifan waiting in the driver’s seat (he breathed out a sigh of relief at that) and yelling at Yixing, who appeared to be immersed in his phone, to get off the hood of the car for fear of dirtying it.
“Damn it, guys. Can’t you at least help me?” He grumbled, scrambling to make sure the souvenirs he got for his friends wouldn’t tumble out of his improperly zipped bag as he clambered down the steps.
“Relax, ge. Someone’s already got that covered,” Yixing called out, not bothering to look up from his phone.
“What-” He jumped up when a hand came out to grip the bag that was falling off his shoulder and couldn’t stop the “Holy shit” that came out of his mouth when he looked up to see Sehun’s face grinning at him.
“Hey. Sorry for surprising you. Yixing called me earlier to tell me you were leaving and I wanted to see you before you left.” Lu Han glowered at Yixing. The nerve of him to keep important information like Sehun’s cell number a secret from him! “So…” Sehun looked up at the two brothers.
“Oh, right!” They scrambled away snickering to themselves, leaving Lu Han and Sehun in an awkward silence.
“So…” Sehun began again, “I’m going to be going back to Seoul soon, too. If possible, do you think we could meet?”
Lu Han blinked at him. “Huh?”
Shoving his hands in his jean pockets, Sehun let out a laugh. “I kind of figured that you might not have realized it, but I kind of like you.”
“...You’re not pulling a prank on me, right? Yifan and Yixing didn’t tell you about me calling you Adonis or anything?” Lu Han questioned, narrowing his eyes suspiciously. “I swear, those little shits...”
Sehun laughed again, making Lu Han’s insides twist in that wonderfully uncomfortable way. “No, they didn’t. But knowing that you think I’m Adonis makes this whole confessing to you thing a lot easier.” Lu Han flushed, causing more chuckles out of the other. “But, if you really want more confirmation…”
He pulled Lu Han in, guiding their lips together with a gentle touch to his chin. A grin made its way to his lips when Lu Han responded by threading fingers through his hair and pressing closer. Soon, necessity urged them to pull apart, though their arms remain firmly around each other.
“As much as I want to continue, I hardly think your aunt would appreciate us making out in front of her house and making you miss your flight,” Sehun said, earning a chuckle from Lu Han as he buried his nose into the juncture of his neck and shoulder. “Besides, I don’t want this to only be a onetime thing. I really do like you.”
Lu Han didn’t think his affection for the man in front him would grow so much in the span of a few minutes but, then again, he’d already been proven wrong once in that same time span. “It’s a good thing you’re coming back to Seoul soon then, huh?” He smiled when he felt Sehun’s own lips turn up into a grin against his temple.
“So… are you two done?”
The pair jumped apart, blushing fiercely, at the sound of Yifan’s voice by the door. Beside him, Yixing was bearing a smug expression. “For the record: called it!”
“Oh, shut up!”
-
It was another day full of clear skies and warm weather, as characteristic of a summer in Jeju; the thought made Lu Han smile.
“I hope you’re ready to face some crazy.” He said to his companion with a laugh.
“Don’t worry; I am perfectly aware of how your cousins are. They’re fun. I like them.”
“You’re only saying that because you’re dating me.” The hand holding his squeezed his affectionately and he hid a grin. “By the way, they were saying that the boss was disappointed that you aren’t working at the ice cream parlour this year.”
Sehun gave a mock sigh. “It can’t be helped because my boyfriend wants to keep his Adonis all to himself.” He laughed when Lu Han slapped his arm, a blush already decorating his cheeks. “Besides, I can’t possibly bear to be away from him either.”
“You’re disgusting.”
“You love it.”
“…Sehun?”
“Yes?”
“I love you.”
“I love you, too.”
(Originally written for shixuna for selubration)
Pairing: Sehun/Lu Han
Rating: PG-13
Genre: AU, Romance
Word Count: 5900
Summary: Lu Han ends up spending his summer helping out at his aunt’s bed and breakfast and encounters Sehun, the ice cream boy who is absolutely everywhere.
(Cross-posted from selubration)
Ordinarily, Lu Han loved summer just as much as any overly-stressed university student did. But, just like any overly-stressed university student who was finally released from the clutches of school, the last thing he wanted was to be forcibly put to work for the whole summer vacation without his consent (but when did he ever get a say?) at his aunt’s bed and breakfast while his parents frolicked throughout China for their second honeymoon or something - he had tuned his parents out the moment they had sprung their announcement on him, immediately sinking into a pit of sadness at the knowledge that his summer plans had gone down the drain.
So , with a heavy heart that his mother immediately dismissed as him being overly dramatic, he gave his friends an unhappy farewell as he boarded the plane to Jeju.
Jeju greeted his scowl - induced by sitting between an overly chatty middle-aged man and a new mother with a wailing baby - with warm sunshine, a pleasant breeze and the familiar dimpled smile of his cousin, Yixing, who had come to pick him up at the airport, late as usual.
“Sorry, ge, I was busy with chores,” Yixing explained as he dragged Lu Han’s luggage to the back of a sedan that had definitely seen better days. “I got out as soon as I could but, the roads, you know?”
Lu Han rolled his eyes, climbing into the passenger’s seat. “Yeah right. You probably forgot about the time of my flight again.”
“You know me so well.” Lu Han responded with another eye roll that quickly turned into a worried stare when he noticed that the driver’s side of the vehicle was empty, and that Yixing had climbed into the vacant spot.
“Wait - what are you doing? Yifan isn’t here with you?” he asked, referring to Yixing’s older brother. Usually, the siblings came in a set, despite being very different in terms of character and appearance, which generally meant that Lu Han had twice the headache and twice the amount of trouble to deal with (not that he didn’t partake in that trouble with them and inflict his own variety in return) , so Yifan’s absence was a surprise. For Lu Han, the older brother’s absence was more of a concern than anything else because Yixing’s driving abilities were, as far as he knew, non-existent.
His cousin grinned at him cheekily, the single dimple decorating his cheek making him look more innocent than Lu Han was inclined to believe. “Nope. Yifan-ge accidentally spilled a whole pot of stew in the kitchen so Ma made him stay and clean the whole place up. And you know how he is when he cleans.” He started the engine and Lu Han clutched his seatbelt instinctively, mind immediately chanting off prayers to every deity he could think off, begging them to have mercy on his pitiful soul. “Don’t worry, ge! I just got my license! I’m a great driver!” He gave Lu Han a reassuring smile and Lu Han was almost willing to believe him, until the younger man looked down at his feet and wondered aloud which pedal was the gas and which was the break.
The grip he had on his seatbelt cut off the circulation to his fingers and he closed his eyes so he, at the very least, wouldn’t have to witness his sad, sad end. Best summer ever.
-
“Hey, Fuckface.”
“Nice to see you again, too, Asshole.” Yifan returned his greeting nonchalantly, sidestepping out of the way when Lu Han attempted to clap him on the shoulder, nearly dropping the pail full of dirty water and what Lu Han assumed was every possible piece of grime contained in the kitchen, if Yifan hadn’t already began his battle of cleanliness with any other rooms in the modest little house, in his hands. He glared at his cousin who merely laughed.
Unlike Yixing who was deceivingly reckless and happy-go-lucky, Yifan was a package of over six feet of awkward and clumsy. He also, oddly, had a mildly neurotic compulsion to clean everything until every microscopic spec of dirt had vanished from within the house, something that was rather helpful in running a successful bed and breakfast but one of the sources of his deep troubles especially when Lu Han was around. (Suffice to say, Lu Han didn’t really believe in the saying “cleanliness is next to godliness”.)
“So how is my favourite cousin?” Lu Han asked, grabbing an apple from the basket on the counter before lifting himself to sit next to it, mindlessly swinging his feet against the cupboard beneath. Yifan resisted the urge to let out a strangled screech with each tap of Lu Han’s stained socks on the newly sanitized doors.
“What do you mean ‘favourite cousin’?” Yixing asked, walking into the kitchen to hang the car keys on the hook by the pantry and ignoring the agonized expression on his brother’s face upon seeing him drag his feet across the previously sparkling floor tiles. (Another reason Lu Han’s presence increased Yifan’s problems was that Yixing and Lu Han together was never a good thing.)
Lu Han glared at the younger brother. “You nearly got us killed! You should be banned from the roads forever!”
Yixing pouted. Lu Han flung grapes at him until Yifan finally snapped and threw, almost literally, the two out the kitchen.
-
It didn’t take long for Lu Han to fall into the routine of the bed and breakfast. Jeju was, after all, a spectacular place, especially early in the season when the place wasn’t littered by mobs of tourists, and his aunt was usually less strict on him than her own sons. As it was, after finishing his assigned chores of the day and engaging in polite chatter with any guests they had, Lu Han spent most of his days exploring the island on his own or with his cousins. While it wasn’t exactly how he had imagined his summer to be like, he was enjoying himself immensely.
“Lu Han! Could you buy some eggs from the store?” called his aunt from the kitchen, where she and Yifan were double-teaming blackened pots at the sink. Their resemblance, though his aunt was at least a foot shorter and didn’t look perpetually angry, was uncanny. “There’s some money on the counter.”
“Sure. I’ll be back soon.”
He slipped out the door, money in hand, and began his journey on foot. The sun was high in the sky at that point and, by the time he had turned the corner, the skin along the back of his neck and shoulders was beginning to prickle, making him lament his decision to skip using Yifan’s absurdly expensive sunblock earlier that morning - without his knowledge, of course.
“So. Freaking. Hot,” He whined, fanning himself with the front of his shirt and cringing at how the fabric clung to his skin awkwardly. As he neared the neighbourhood mart, he noticed a long line up at an establishment he didn’t recall being there on his last visit a year earlier. “Woah, what’s happening here?”
Hearing him, a middle school-aged girl with bright eyes and hair neatly tied into two pigtails at the top of her head, looking like she’d just stepped out of some cartoon, turned to him and replied, “The new ice cream parlour just opened and there’s a special for today.” At her words, her friends giggled and blushed.
“Odd,” Lu Han thought, looking at the increasing line before him and noticing that it was largely composed of similarly giggling girls. “They can’t all possibly want discounted ice cream…” He thanked the girl and her friends, ignoring the way one of them fluttered her eyelashes at him, before moving closer to the storefront to peek over the heads of the girls gathered there and stifled a gasp.
Standing behind the counter was a veritable Adonis glowing under the terrible fluorescents of the ice cream parlour, looking more like he sold something much more sensual than frozen treats. He nearly had to bite his tongue to stop himself from whispering “So. Freaking. Hot.” in the presence of minors, who were probably all thinking the exact same thing anyway - the only difference being that being closer in age, from what he could see, to this unnamed Greek god and being very much homosexual, gave the thoughts a different weight.
He shook his head when his thoughts were threatening to wander in a very dangerous direction and turned away to finish his errand before he was tempted to show everyone there just what a bad adult he was.
-
As the summer weather grew warmer with each passing day, the urge to casually slip inside the ice cream parlour grew as well. Each time it came, he reasoned that it was merely because the shop had a great air conditioning system and that cold desserts on a hot summer day were perfect - not because there was a cute server that had begun to smile at him each time he passed. Though that might have been because he passed by way too often and was being so obvious that he was just a source of amusement to the ice cream server. It didn’t help that he had started to run into him in various other places on his walks around town, and these encounters always resulted in momentary eye contact before not-so-covertly stumbling off into a different direction as quickly as possible.
Lu Han groaned and nearly splashed himself with soap water from the pail he was carrying.
“Are you okay? You’ve been glaring at the windshield for the past five minutes,” Yixing asked, raising the nozzle of the hose to rinse off the suds on the hood of the car. He had dragged Lu Han out to hide from Yifan after they had taped all the drawers in his bedroom shut. They had, of course, been caught and were made to clean the garage and car right when the sun decided that everything on Earth should melt. (Lu Han was regretting his involvement for this sole reason, but the twenty minutes it took Yifan to realize what they’d done was fairly amusing. In any case, his regret would probably even out when Yifan found out that they switched the contents of his lotion and conditioner bottles.)
“No, I am dying of heatstroke and I think I’m going to dump this nasty water on my head just to stop myself from burning to death.”
“Ah, ever the optimist, I see.” Yixing laughed and sprayed him with the hose, making Lu Han sputter indignantly because, as welcome as the reprieve from heat was, he wasn’t actually serious. (In his defence, wet denim felt really irritating on his skin.) “There! All better!”
“You suck.”
“You love me.” Yixing only laughed harder when Lu Han’s only comeback was making a crude gesture in his direction, but stopped abruptly to wave at someone on the road. “Oh, hey Sehun! I didn’t know you were back for the summer already.”
“Yeah, came back last week. I’m working at the ice cream parlour for the summer so drop by some time. It’s probably a more practical way to cool off than drenching yourselves with water.”
Lu Han, who had been preoccupied with preventing his clothes from sticking to him in uncomfortable areas, froze on the spot. He’d passed by that very same ice cream parlour too often now to know that there were only three people who worked there: an old man who was presumably the manager and someone he’d seen at the drug store when he was trying to avoid Yifan making him clean his room, a peppy high school girl who flirted with Adonis each and every time he passed by (so a fucking lot), and Adonis himself. It didn’t really take much to find out who Yixing was speaking to and who had a back view of him rearranging certain body parts at that very moment.
While Lu Han was having the mental breakdown of his life, Yixing suddenly seemed to remember his presence and said, “By the way, this is my cousin, Lu Han. He’s visiting for the summer. Ge, this is Sehun.”
Not wanting to appear rude and further tarnish whatever disastrous impression Sehun had of him (he was pretty sure he had been labeled as the creepy stalker who scratches his balls in public in his mind - oh the agony), he turned his head slowly, only having a nanosecond to process how much more attractive the boy was when not viewing him through the shop’s window and under terrible lighting, and gave a little wave. “Hey.”
To his surprise (or horror - he couldn’t decide), Sehun appeared to recognize him. “Oh! I’ve seen you around before!”
“You have?” Lu Han asked, blinking at him.
“You have?” Yixing echoed, mildly surprised. He quickly glanced between the two of them and Lu Han bit his tongue to prevent himself from swearing aloud because the gears in Yixing’s head were turning fast, if that stupid dimple was any indication.
“Yeah, I see you walk by the shop from time to time. You should come in some time and I’ll give you some ice cream, on the house.” He grinned, giving an almost boyish smile that Lu Han would have melted at if he could only just stop noticing his physique and try not to think of how nicely his arms would fit around him. “Anyway, it’s nice meeting you. I have to hurry to catch my shift though so see you!”
With a final wave to the cousins, he hopped on his bike (“Cute,” Lu Han couldn’t help but think before he could stop himself) and pedalled away. This only gave Lu Han three seconds before Yixing started snickering at him.
“Oh my god. You’ve only just been here a couple of weeks and you’ve already found someone to hit on.”
Cheeks reddening, Lu Han glared at his cousin and tried to resist the urge to choke him with the sponge in his hand - it was the least he could do for introducing Sehun to him, after all. “I didn’t hit on him!”
“Yet.”
“I fucking swear Yixing.”
“But you’d probably have to wait in line because literally everyone wants to.”
Remembering the line of girls that seemed to magically appear at the start of Sehun’s shift every day, Lu Han sighed. “Don’t remind me… Is he gay, at least?” From experience (in the form of a certain TA named Jung Yunho), Lu Han had come to realize that attractive men who happen to be nice to other men didn’t necessarily equal to gay, unfortunately.
Yixing shrugged and raised his hands defensively when Lu Han squinted at him suspiciously. “What? I actually don’t know! He only really comes to Jeju to visit his grandparents for the summer and holidays, and I never hear him talk about his relationships back in Seoul. If it’s any consolation, it might mean he’s single?”
“You are no help at all.”
-
“Man, Lu Han, you should’ve been there! Baekhyun got so wasted and he ended up throwing up on some poor underclassman. It was hilarious.”
“Don’t remind me, you prick. It’s not my fault I got shipped off to Jeju instead,” Lu Han grumbled into his phone as he wandered through the different stalls of the night market alone. He had arrived with his cousins an hour prior, but got separated when Yixing saw a sale for guitars and dragged his brother away just as Jongin, a friend from Seoul, had called him.
“But it can’t be that bad. Jeju’s really nice. Oh, by the way, don’t forget to get me something to give to Krystal - I need the perfect anniversary present. I’m counting on you!”
Lu Han rolled his eyes, stooping down to examine some handmade jewelry. “Yeah, yeah. I’m looking at stuff right now. Honestly, can’t you look for gifts for your own girlfriend? Krystal’s-”
His sentence was cut short when he stood to ask the vendor about the price and was met with a face full of Sehun instead.
“Shit, sorry! I happened to see you when I was passing by so I was going to surprise you but you suddenly stood up and- I’m just really, really sorry.” Sehun apologized hurriedly, looking flustered as Lu Han rubbed at his nose and forehead in pain (though, on the plus side, he now knew that Sehun smelled like heaven on top of being good looking - it seemed like a fair trade-off though that may have been the pain messing with his head). “Here - you dropped your stuff…”
Lu Han, suddenly realizing that Sehun was now staring at his phone which had Jongin’s stupid face kissing the screen appearing as the contact display picture (his memory about how it came about was fuzzy, but Lu Han was fairly certain it involved a drunk Jongin fiddling with his phone. It was always amusing to watch Jongin blush when he reminded him of the picture so he had never changed it - big mistake.), hurriedly grabbed the phone out of Sehun’s hand. “Sorry Jongin, I’ll call you later. Bye!”
“Er… Was I interrupting an important conversation?” Sehun asked sheepishly.
“No, not at all. Just my friend making me buy something for his girlfriend,” Lu Han replied, a little too quickly. So smooth, Lu Han. “What about you? Funny seeing you here of all places.”
Sehun grinned at him, giving him that megawatt smile that was probably the cause of the ice cream parlour’s booming success. “I’m looking for something for my mom, actually. She loves these things. Maybe we can find something together?”
Thankfully, Lu Han’s brain-to-mouth filter was still intact after being hit in the head or the “fuck yes” he was thinking of would have left his mouth. Instead, he said as nonchalantly as he could, “Sure. I came with my cousins though so let me just check where they are.”
He dialed Yifan’s number quickly, since Yixing had a terrible habit of forgetting to turn on his phone, and waited until Yifan picked up on the third ring. “Hey, where are you?”
“Uh… Some lady started talking to me about how good her street food stall was and she even gave me free samples - which were really good, by the way - and I couldn’t just leave because that would be rude so-”
“Did you get suckered into buying something again?” Lu Han sighed. Trust Yifan to get into these situations every time he went out to buy things.
“…Maybe…”
Lu Han rolled his eyes. “Anyway… I bumped into Sehun so we might go around for a while and I was wondering where I should meet with you guys after.”
“You met Sehun?”
“Yes.”
“What a coinci- wait, what did you say, Yixing? …Oh really?” There was a snicker on the other line and Lu Han really didn’t like where this conversation was heading. “Okay, have fun on your date and get home safely! Bye!”
“What?! Yifan? Yifan, I swear I will murder you!” He punched in the number again and was only met with a dial tone. The only thing holding him back from throwing a fit was Sehun watching him curiously, though, in all honesty, he probably didn’t have much of an image to maintain any longer. “My cousins are evil.”
Sehun laughed good-naturedly, eyes crinkling in a way that invited his own lips to turn up at the corners. “If you want, I can drop you off later? You’re staying over at their place, right?”
Lu Han smiled sheepishly, “If you don’t mind…?” He figured he could thank his cousins for this miraculous chance before he murdered them, at the very least.
The next two hours of his life were glorious, in his completely biased opinion. It was so tempting to let his infatuation delude him into thinking that casually walking through stalls with Sehun, laughing about dumb things that really made no sense when he tried to rewind the memory in his mind and exchanging spoonfuls of information about each other, was a date rather than acquaintances spending time together because of his two conniving cousins. It would have been so easy to hold onto Sehun’s arm a little longer than necessary when he’d stopped him from being knocked over by some rambunctious little kids, or tilt his head a little higher when Sehun turned to face him so his lips would land squarely on the sharp curve of his cheek but the shred of self-control he’d retained managed to prevent him from doing so.
Soon, they were stopping at the gate of his aunt’s bed and breakfast, bidding farewell in the most platonic way possible, with a brief wave and a smile. Lu Han had never felt so deflated in his life.
-
“And here’s your orange sorbet. Enjoy!” Sehun said with a practiced smile but Lu Han could already see the twinkling in his eyes that always seemed to appear and dazzle Lu Han breathless when Sehun found something funny. At present, it wasn’t difficult to see that Lu Han was the source of his amusement.
“You know, you really don’t have to do this every time we pass by…” Lu Han said in a small voice, shrinking under the glares of the multitude of females in the parlour. He swore they had doubled in number since the day before. Whether or not Sehun noticed this, he wasn’t so sure.
Sehun waved a hand dismissively. “It’s no big deal. The boss doesn’t mind anyway since I get free ice cream for working here but I never have any.” Lu Han was fairly certain that the real reason his boss never objected was the fact that a couple of ice cream cones were nothing in comparison to the revenue Sehun’s smile and lean physique brought in, but he kept that opinion to himself.
Somehow, ever since they had spent the day shopping together, Sehun had made it a point to persuade Lu Han, and whoever he happened to be with at the time, to have a gratuitous treat when they passed by the ice cream parlour (which was probably still too frequent to be normal but Lu Han couldn’t bring himself to stop). It was sweet, in Lu Han’s opinion, though a little confusing since Sehun had never made any indications of his intentions other than friendship and, to be perfectly realistic, people didn’t go out of their way to give someone they wanted to be just friends with free ice cream practically every day. Besides, with the terrible first impression he had given, Lu Han was surprised Sehun still even wanted to be around him at all.
“Yeah, listen to the man and just enjoy the free ice cream, Lu Han. Don’t you know that the best flavour in the world is free?”
Lu Han glared at Yifan as the taller boy carefully wrapped layers of tissue around his ice cream cone to prevent it from dripping. “I will shove that cone down your shirt and laugh at you as you take three hours to make sure it doesn’t stain your dumb Givenchy shirt, you little shit.”
Sehun burst out laughing, letting out child-like giggles that really shouldn’t sound so endearing to Lu Han, while Yifan took a step away from the counter, making sure to keep the hand bearing his treat as far away from his cousin as possible. “And I’m out. See you, Sehun. Thanks for the ice cream again.”
“Sehun, could you come to the back and help stack these boxes?”
Sehun pulled back the arm that was waving at Yifan’s retreating figure and turned to Lu Han with an apologetic smile. “And that’s probably my cue to get back to work. If you come a little bit earlier tomorrow, we can probably talk a little longer?”
Lu Han nodded. “Sure. I feel bad for always taking up your work time anyway.”
“Nah, it’s alright. I like talking to you.” Sehun grinned at him and Lu Han may have had a little too much sugar in his system from all the ice cream he’d ingested, but he was pretty sure the hike in his heart rate had nothing to do with his current sugar high. Just when he thought his heart could take no more, Sehun reached out to swipe a finger against his hand, cleaning off the sorbet that had trickled down to his fingers, and licked it off with a teasing smile. “Careful. You should probably copy what Yifan does if you’re going to eat ice cream like a kid.”
He let out a chuckle when Lu Han flushed, then he hurried to the back room, leaving Lu Han to his thoughts and the swarm of jealous admirers who probably never imagined that a man would be their greatest competition.
-
As touristy as the notion was, Lu Han firmly believed that a summer at Jeju was never complete without going to the beach. So, on a day that miraculously saw no work to be done at the bed and breakfast, Lu Han managed to convince his cousins to drive out to the closest beach with relatively little resistance. (Yifan being Yifan always made it a little more difficult than it should be to go to places involving crowds and the possibility of becoming sweaty.)
“If I get a tan line, it will be all your fault.”
Lu Han rolled his eyes at the older of the brothers and let out a sigh as a sunblock-drenched Yifan continued to cover himself with beach towels and crawl onto a large blanket spread flat against the sand, perfectly devoid of any grains of sand and completely shaded by a humungous umbrella.
“You are such a fucking loser.”
“We’ll see who’s laughing when you look like a fried potato.” Lu Han decided not to mention that he’d used his super expensive sunblock again before heading out.
Beside him, Yixing mimicked Lu Han’s eye roll. “Forget it. Let’s just go swim without him.” They sprinted towards the oncoming tide, making sure that they kicked sand behind them just to hear the panicked yell of Yifan at the sudden onslaught, and dove straight into the welcoming coolness of the sea.
“Hey, what’s that?”
Lu Han popped his head out of the water and turned in the direction in which Yixing was pointing, eyes landing on a crowd of overexcited girls on the shore. “Is there something happening today…?” He asked, shaking excess water from his hair, but the other only shrugged in response. Before he could suggest moving closer, the crowd parted and Lu Han swore that those stories about people so beautiful that even gods were jealous of them needed to be rewritten because he was so very sure that nothing could compare to the god standing on the shore right at that moment.
“Fucking Adonis.”
“Be careful, ge. Your crush on Sehun is showing. If you think about him just a little bit more, everyone will be able to see it too, if you know what I mean.”
Red-faced, Lu Han glared at a snickering Yixing. “I will fucking end you.”
“I would like to see you try.” Before Lu Han could even consider what he meant, Yixing turned around and waved his hands above his head, yelling, “Hey, Sehun! Come over here!”
Upon hearing his call and catching sight of them, thankfully too far away to hear Lu Han hissing out a string of cusses at his cackling cousin, Sehun grinned widely and broke away from the mass of women around him. “Hey! What a coincidence!”
“I know, right? Fancy that, huh, ge?” Yixing inquired Lu Han with an innocent smile as the other sunk deeper into the water, hoping that its coolness would control the heat rising up his cheeks because he was in no way ready to face Sehun in all his shirtless glory within touching distance. “What brings you here?”
“Actually, the parlour has an ice cream cart that circles around different beaches in the area. Apparently our cart sales haven’t been doing as well as our parlour sales so the boss wanted me to check out what was different. It’s weird though; I’m already halfway through my stock even though I’ve only been selling for over an hour. So I’m taking a break while waiting for a co-worker to come and deliver more ice cream.” Sehun explained, gesturing to the blue cart by the vending machines. Yixing and Lu Han couldn’t help but think that the ice cream parlour boss was way smarter than they gave him credit for. “Hey, if you guys want any, I can always give you some. Free ice cream privileges still apply!” He aimed a particularly charming smile at Lu Han, though that might have been his jellified brain speaking.
Lu Han offered a smile in return. “You really don’t have to but thanks. Maybe later?”
Yixing snickered. “He just doesn’t want to get fat from all the ice cream you’re giving him.”
“You’re not fat at all though!” Sehun remarked, effectively stopping Lu Han from glaring at Yixing. He reached out to tap light fingers against Lu Han’s temple, pushing back wet strands that clung to his forehead. “Although you may want to stay out of the sun for a while. I think the heat might be starting to get to you; you’re turning a little red.”
Lu Han jerked back and ducked into the water again. “Yeah, maybe. I’ll just. Cool off in the water. For a bit. Yeah.” He resisted the urge to pinch Yixing’s submerged leg when the other looked like he could barely hold in his laughter.
“Okay… Well, I think I see my co-worker. I’ll come by later with some ice cream to help you cool off.” He flashed Lu Han a concerned smile before bidding them farewell and jogging away.
“Good news: I think he’s taken by you. Either that or he’s very platonically concerned that you’ll pass out from heatstroke.” Yixing offered with a devious smirk. “And, while the redness of your face is pretty convincing…”
“Oh shut up.” Lu Han snapped, wading back to shore. When he sunk down next to Yifan, he couldn’t process his mocking him for his flushed skin tone and Yixing’s laughter; the only thing in his mind was Sehun.
-
“Are you sure you can’t get your housemates to take care of your apartment documents instead? Two months really is too short for a vacation,” His aunt said and Lu Han shook his head with a smile. “That’s too bad. Well, thank you for helping out, dear. Come back anytime to visit soon, okay? And tell your parents to come with you too.” She said, pulling him in for a hug and patting his cheeks affectionately when he pulled away.
“It was nothing, auntie. Thanks for having me; I had lots of fun. I’ll make sure we all visit soon; I promise!” He allowed her to give him one last peck on the cheek before gathering his bags and hauling them out the door. Outside, he could see Yifan waiting in the driver’s seat (he breathed out a sigh of relief at that) and yelling at Yixing, who appeared to be immersed in his phone, to get off the hood of the car for fear of dirtying it.
“Damn it, guys. Can’t you at least help me?” He grumbled, scrambling to make sure the souvenirs he got for his friends wouldn’t tumble out of his improperly zipped bag as he clambered down the steps.
“Relax, ge. Someone’s already got that covered,” Yixing called out, not bothering to look up from his phone.
“What-” He jumped up when a hand came out to grip the bag that was falling off his shoulder and couldn’t stop the “Holy shit” that came out of his mouth when he looked up to see Sehun’s face grinning at him.
“Hey. Sorry for surprising you. Yixing called me earlier to tell me you were leaving and I wanted to see you before you left.” Lu Han glowered at Yixing. The nerve of him to keep important information like Sehun’s cell number a secret from him! “So…” Sehun looked up at the two brothers.
“Oh, right!” They scrambled away snickering to themselves, leaving Lu Han and Sehun in an awkward silence.
“So…” Sehun began again, “I’m going to be going back to Seoul soon, too. If possible, do you think we could meet?”
Lu Han blinked at him. “Huh?”
Shoving his hands in his jean pockets, Sehun let out a laugh. “I kind of figured that you might not have realized it, but I kind of like you.”
“...You’re not pulling a prank on me, right? Yifan and Yixing didn’t tell you about me calling you Adonis or anything?” Lu Han questioned, narrowing his eyes suspiciously. “I swear, those little shits...”
Sehun laughed again, making Lu Han’s insides twist in that wonderfully uncomfortable way. “No, they didn’t. But knowing that you think I’m Adonis makes this whole confessing to you thing a lot easier.” Lu Han flushed, causing more chuckles out of the other. “But, if you really want more confirmation…”
He pulled Lu Han in, guiding their lips together with a gentle touch to his chin. A grin made its way to his lips when Lu Han responded by threading fingers through his hair and pressing closer. Soon, necessity urged them to pull apart, though their arms remain firmly around each other.
“As much as I want to continue, I hardly think your aunt would appreciate us making out in front of her house and making you miss your flight,” Sehun said, earning a chuckle from Lu Han as he buried his nose into the juncture of his neck and shoulder. “Besides, I don’t want this to only be a onetime thing. I really do like you.”
Lu Han didn’t think his affection for the man in front him would grow so much in the span of a few minutes but, then again, he’d already been proven wrong once in that same time span. “It’s a good thing you’re coming back to Seoul soon then, huh?” He smiled when he felt Sehun’s own lips turn up into a grin against his temple.
“So… are you two done?”
The pair jumped apart, blushing fiercely, at the sound of Yifan’s voice by the door. Beside him, Yixing was bearing a smug expression. “For the record: called it!”
“Oh, shut up!”
-
It was another day full of clear skies and warm weather, as characteristic of a summer in Jeju; the thought made Lu Han smile.
“I hope you’re ready to face some crazy.” He said to his companion with a laugh.
“Don’t worry; I am perfectly aware of how your cousins are. They’re fun. I like them.”
“You’re only saying that because you’re dating me.” The hand holding his squeezed his affectionately and he hid a grin. “By the way, they were saying that the boss was disappointed that you aren’t working at the ice cream parlour this year.”
Sehun gave a mock sigh. “It can’t be helped because my boyfriend wants to keep his Adonis all to himself.” He laughed when Lu Han slapped his arm, a blush already decorating his cheeks. “Besides, I can’t possibly bear to be away from him either.”
“You’re disgusting.”
“You love it.”
“…Sehun?”
“Yes?”
“I love you.”
“I love you, too.”
(Originally written for shixuna for selubration)