Incidental
Title: Incidental
Pairing: Sehun/Lu Han, minor!Kris/Tao
Rating: PG
Genre: Fluff, Humour, AU
Word count: 5685
Summary: Lu Han meets someone on the bus and his friends are very (well, kind of) supportive.
Lu Han hummed happily as stepped into the bus, dangling bags of groceries on too-thin arms, and squeezed in between a gangly university student, obviously surviving on caffeine and dying willpower judging from the dazed look on his gaunt face, and a rather frightening-looking business man who was shooting off numbers into his phone at breakneck speed before the doors closed behind him. It was uncomfortable, as it always was at rush hour, but it didn’t bother him one bit since today was a good day and nothing could rain on his parade.
He smiled as he thought of the many things that made this particular day exceptional. He was finally going home from work before 9 pm which meant that he could actually sleep early for once (though he was probably not going to do that and spend the evening on the internet, as always, but it was the thought that counted). He even got his salary today which meant that he was able to stop by the grocery store and get ingredients for dinner and didn’t have to choke down the rather embarrassing excuse for a meal his flatmate, Wu Fan, left for him before he collapsed on the bed from exhaustion (after chatting until 2 am with his online friends, of course). The snow even stopped falling so it wasn’t that cold anymore!
Yup, it was definitely a good day.
It was a good day despite arriving late to work because some idiot had decided to make a ruckus on the bus, yelling “your mom” insults at a poor, unfortunate soul who had merely stepped on his toe by accident, and had to be forcefully escorted out by the driver. Then spilling hot coffee all over himself after slipping on ice-covered stairs. And getting fired because “this has been the fourth time this week you’ve been late and don’t try to pull ‘a commotion on the bus’ as an excuse again” (even though it was always true - stupid bus) and for accidentally falling off the ladder while putting up a display and ending up right on top of a customer (though he should really be more worried about Lu Han considering: a) he had just fallen off a ladder which may not have been very high but it was high enough to b) make him freaked out since he was deathly afraid of heights and c) give him a bruise and that’s just not nice).
Totally a good- no, it was a bad day - a horrible day! He was grumpy and all he wanted was to go home because he was tired and cold and hungry and the bruise still hurt so he needed Wu Fan to baby him while he vented about his terrible day on the internet. He scowled, unintentionally frightening a little girl who had just stepped into the bus with her mother but he didn’t care one bit - the girl needed to learn about misery one day, anyway.
Just when he was about to apologize to the little girl (because Lu Han was not by any means a grouchy person but he just really needed to coo at cute little cat gifs to become “annoyingly chirpy”, as Wu Fan so often put it), someone pushed him from behind and made him drop one of his many plastic bags.
“No! My eggs!”
Lu Han scrambled to gather his things - or what remained of them - and mentally sobbed at the cruel world for his unjust fate.
“Sorry about that… Are your, um, eggs okay?”
Lu Han stopped his inner tirade to look at the perpetrator, ready to transfer his anguish onto him, when his eyes fell on one rather attractive young man. ‘Darn it.’
“Ah, they’re fine.” He heard something slosh inside the plastic. “Mostly fine.” He let out an awkward laugh, turning away because his face was probably an unflattering shade of pink and Lu Han was definitely not made for talking with strangers (which may have been another reason why he was fired but he wasn’t going to dwell on that anymore, at least not when an unfairly handsome man was within breathing radius thanks to the claustrophobic crowding of the bus).
“Oh, that’s good.” There was a beat of silence between them filled with the honking of horns outside the confines of the bus. “So, um, I like your scarf?”
Lu Han was sure his face was a hideous red now and mentally cursed the winter chill and Wu Fan, who had a terrible sense of humour and had gifted him with the deer-covered accessory.
The man seemed just as flustered at his remark and began to sputter as Lu Han tried to hide his face in his scarf. “Sorry if that sounded weird! I just thought it was nice and it suits you and, um, it’s kind of cute?” His words only served to make them both redder in the cheeks.
“Thank you, I guess? It was a gift from my friend - a silly play on the meaning of my name.” He chuckled awkwardly, wishing for the bus to move faster and slower at the same time because this had to be the longest conversation he ever had with someone cute and he was bound to do something stupid any second now. But luck had never been Lu Han’s friend and had chosen that moment to spontaneously cause a traffic jam on their route. Lu Han just really wanted to bash his head on the pole the drowsy student was leaning on right now.
“Oh… and that name would be?” The man offered a shy smile. ‘Look away, Lu Han, look away!”
“Lu Han. It means ‘deer of the dawn’ in Chinese.” Lu Han couldn’t help but feel awed at how he had not said anything horribly embarrassing yet. It had to be a good day! (Ignoring everything pre-cute-bus-guy, of course.)
“That’s cool. I’m Oh Sehun, by the way.”
“Nice to meet you.” They exchanged customary pleasantries before settling on a bout of silence that left Lu Han looking at every possible direction except in that of Sehun lest he end up staring.
Sehun coughed politely. “So… what do you do? Like an occupation or something.”
“I major in linguistics at Yonsei.”
“Really? I’m in software engineering at KU. But I work near Yonsei.”
“That’s a little far, isn’t it?”
Sehun shrugged. “I’m friends with the manager and the hours are pretty flexible so I don’t mind.”
Lu Han shuffled his feet. “Ah, I see.” Silence fell again and Lu Han cursed his fate as an uninteresting toothpick. (Actually, toothpicks were more interesting since you could poke things with them. Lu Han just made weird gurgling noises when he was poked. It was an unfortunate fate.) Finally, after what felt like hours, his stop approached and he turned to the brunet next to him. “This is my stop. It was nice meeting you.”
“Oh, okay.” Sehun smiled, waving at him. “Take care. Don’t talk to strangers on your way home.”
Lu Han quirked at eyebrow, watching the man’s face flush prettily under silver hair. “Okay? Don’t talk to strangers too?” He gave a last wave before hopping off the bus, accidentally bumping the sleep-deprived student and jolting him out of his semi-slumber against one of the poles. He watched the bus leave and quirked his head to the side. “Uh, what the heck was that?” He shook his head, deciding instead to hurry up to his shared apartment in order to tell Wu Fan all about his wonderful day. (Bad day? What bad day?)
“Wu Fan! You’ll never guess what happened to me!”
The blond glanced up from his laptop briefly before returning his attention to his paper. “Spilled coffee on yourself again, apparently. And broke eggs, if that yellow goo is any indication.”
Lu Han made a face as he shuffled into the kitchen to dump the grocery bags on the table before bounding back to the living room to squeeze himself into the remaining space on Wu Fan’s musty old couch. (“My couch so I get most of the space. Don’t make those puppy eyes at me. I’ve grown immune to it since you used it to make me buy you that ridiculously expensive Manchester United jersey. Hey, stop! When I said that I’ve grown immune to it, it doesn’t mean that you’re supposed to try making an even sadder face!”) “Forget about all that! I met someone! And it was like it came right out of those dramas you watch with Zitao!”
“I do not watch those dramas. You cannot prove anything.”
Lu Han rolled his eyes and grabbed his friend’s flushed face to turn it in his direction. “No one cares about your love for romance dramas, okay? All that matters is that I met someone really cute on the bus and we talked until we reached my stop! Okay, maybe not the whole time but we had a relatively normal conversation - which is more than I can say for the majority of the cute guys I’ve pined over - and he initiated it! His name is Sehun and he’s taking software engineering at KU and, oh my gosh, he talked to me! Asdfghjkl!”
To his credit, Wu Fan didn’t flinch away when Lu Han started flailing about incoherently, but that was probably only due to the fact that he had known him since freshman year of high school and the number of times he had to endure such behaviour was embarrassingly frequent. He waited for Lu Han to catch his breath before saying, “That’s great, Lu Han. I’m so proud of you for managing to have a relatively not-so-awkward conversation with a person you’ve never met before!” Lu Han made a gurgling sound before shooting him a glare that was rendered less than intimidating by the pout that accompanied it. “So… did you get his number?”
Lu Han blinked. “His number…?”
“Yes, his number. You know… to call him? So that you can get to know him better?”
Wu Fan counted the seconds until the metaphorical exclamation points of understanding appeared above Lu Han’s head.
“…Oh… Oh!”
The succeeding sound that left Lu Han’s mouth as Wu Fan planted his face into his palm was a bizarre cross between a moan of agony and a cry of dying moose, if he knew what that even sounded like. Lu Han had a very vivid imagination. “I am doomed to be forever alone in this world!”
The blond patted his back awkwardly as he continued to bemoan his future as a lonely llama breeder with an oddly hyperactive llama that he would name Chanyeol and how he would probably also fail at that because, with his luck, the llama would end up being gay and try to mate with another one named Baekhyun instead, or some nonsense like that. (Wu Fan had learned to adopt a Lu Han filter after all these years so most of what he said fell on deaf ears.) “There there. I’m sure that’s not true. Who knows - maybe you’ll meet him again? Like in those dramas. It happens all the time.”
“No, I won’t! No one loves me!”
“Aw, don’t say that. I love you.”
They both shared mutual expressions of disgust that clearly conveyed the fact that the statement was never to be spoken of again.
“How about this: I’ll make you some nice soup and you can rest, okay?”
Lu Han nodded as he stood and began to make his way to his room, mumbling something about how “he was going to die alone anyway so it didn’t matter if he died from Wu Fan’s horrible cooking today or not.” That earned him a pillow to the face and he scurried into the safety of his room before anything else could happen to him. As he booted up his laptop, ready to proclaim to the world his woes of having loved and lost before anything could even be started via social networking, he poked his head of his room.
“Hey, Wu Fan!”
“What?”
“You just admitted that you watched romance dramas! Haha!”
He closed his door just in time to evade the projectile (he didn’t get a good look at it but he was pretty sure he saw the glint of something metallic) from the kitchen.
-
He had somehow survived Wu Fan’s attempt at chicken soup (note: that definitely was not chicken soup) and was heading to class with a slightly lighter step thanks to the encouraging messages from his online friends.
Minseok @notabaozi
@xiaolu Don’t worry! I’m sure you’ll meet him again!
XingXing @laynicorn
@xiaolu OMG THIS IS JUST LIKE THOSE MANGAS! AND THEY ALWAYS MEET AGAIN! JUST YOU WAIT LU! IT WILL HAPPEN!
Dansheen Masheen @heavenlycheekbones
@xiaolu if you dont meet him again, we can be forever alone together! I WILL STAY BY YOUR SIDE COMRADE! #LOVEMEWORLD
“You are all I have in this world.” He sniffed as he tugged the stupid deer scarf tighter and tucked his phone into his pocket. Morning lectures were always a pain and it didn’t help that the snow was being whipped into his face by the unforgiving wind. When the bus arrived, he all but ran inside, not caring that it was filled like a sardine can once more as long as he was warm. He was going to continue his inner ramblings when someone tapped his shoulder.
“Lu Han?”
Lu Han squeaked out a greeting upon catching sight of silver hair.
“I didn’t think I’d actually catch you on your way to school,” Sehun chuckled shyly. “But I saw you’re your scarf and there can’t be that many people with the same scarf, right?”
Nodding absently, Lu Han wasn’t sure whether to be happy or ashamed of the deer-covered accessory. “Are you on your way to work? This early?” Mentally, his brain was already chanting, “phone number phone number phone number” on repeat.
“I have class later in the afternoon.” They shuffled closer together as people tried to push past them to leave the bus. “Say,” Sehun began, his breath fanning against Lu Han’s cheek making the shorter male feel very uncomfortable. “I was wondering if you’d give me your number? It’s okay if you don’t, of course.” The last sentence was added hastily with a faint blush that made Lu Han kind of feel like cooing at him and petting his cheek but he figured that would make this whole thing even more awkward for both of them.
“Sure. Here, give me your phone.” After a few seconds of awkward fumbling (touch phones hated him, to be perfectly honest) during which he could practically feel Sehun’s laughter (“TOO CLOSE! OH MY GOSH!”), Lu Han managed to return the phone with his number safely. “There you go. My stop is coming up so… I’ll see you later?”
Sehun smiled brightly, leaving Lu Han breathless (as if he really needed another reason to be more attracted to the silver-haired man), waving the hand clutching his phone. “I’ll text you.”
Lu Han hopped out with a final wave, watching the bus continue on its way, then immediately whipped out his phone once it was at the next light.
M.U IS THE BEST \(^O^)/ @xiaolu
OMG I JUST SAW HIM AGAIN AND GAVE MY NUMBER!!! (((o(*ﾟ▽ﾟ*)o))) ASEOFLKJNWAE #BESTDAYEVER
He stopped and waited for a few seconds then, as expected, his phone immediately exploded with replies.
Dansheen Masheen @heavenlycheekbones
@xiaolu YOURE SUPPOSED TO BE FOREVER ALONE WITH ME!!!
Dansheen Masheen @heavenlycheekbones
@xiaolu TRAITOR!!!
Dansheen Masheen @heavenlycheekbones
@xiaolu #NOONEWHOCAREABOUTME
XingXing @laynicorn
@xiaolu I AM SHIPPING THIS #OTP
Minseok @notabaozi
@xiaolu Really? Woah! That’s amazing!
Minseok @notabaozi
@heavenlycheekbones @xiaolu Shut up, Jongdae.
XingXing favorited this.
XingXing @laynicorn
@xiaolu I TOLD YOU THAT YOU WOULD MEET AGAIN IT IS FATE
XingXing @laynicorn
@xiaolu TELL ME EVERYTHING AND TELL US HIS REPLY
Lu Han laughed to himself at the antics of his friends, nearly tripping on the steps up to his class. He quickly sank into an empty seat and furiously typed up an over-embellished version of what had occurred on the bus. Once he sent the last tweet, the exhilaration in his blood was finally starting to settle, leaving anxiety to take its place.
M.U IS THE BEST \(^O^)/ @xiaolu
what if i messed up typing my number ⊙︿⊙ omg
M.U IS THE BEST \(^O^)/ @xiaolu
it’s totally something i would have accidentally doneヽ(´Д｀ヽ
M.U IS THE BEST \(^O^)/ @xiaolu
OTL #FML
Dansheen Masheen @heavenlycheekbones
@xiaolu THATS WHAT YOU GET
Dansheen Masheen @heavenlycheekbones
@xiaolu I HAVE CURSED YOU WITH SINGLE-NESS
Dansheen Masheen @heavenlycheekbones
@xiaolu NOW HE WILL /NEVER/ TEXT YOU
Dansheen Masheen @heavenlycheekbones
@xiaolu AND YOU WILL END UP ALL ALONE WITH 23 CATS
Dansheen Masheen @heavenlycheekbones
@xiaolu ALL NAMED MR MCFLUFFIKINS JUST BECAUSE ITS STUPID SOUNDING
Minseok @notabaozi
@heavenlycheekbones ISTG GO TO CLASS YOU IDIOT
XingXing favorited this.
Dansheen Masheen @heavenlycheekbones
@notabaozi 凸(｀△´＋）
XingXing favorited this.
XingXing @laynicorn
@xiaolu fate brought you together again so he’ll probably text you, don’t worry about it
M.U IS THE BEST, Dansheen Masheen and Minseok favorited this.
And so Lu Han waited. But Lu Han was never a patient person and his constant finger fiddling and phone checks every two minutes were starting to get on Kyungsoo’s, his fellow linguistics major and the main person who had the misfortune of dealing with him at school when Wu Fan was not around, nerves.
“Would you please stop? You are making me want to chuck that phone out the window.” gritted out Kyungsoo, the last of his patience finally slipping away when Lu Han poked his phone to life again for the umpteenth time. “Doing that won’t make him send a text faster, you know.”
Lu Han pouted at him, rolling his head from where it was resting on the desk to face Kyungsoo, and whined, “But what if he doesn’t even text me? What if I really did mess up my number and he tries texting but, since he can’t reach me, he thinks I don’t want to talk to him? But I do want to talk to him even though I suck at it and can’t even make eye contact and he’ll probably find me weird!” His face scrunched up into what Kyungsoo thought was a rather accurate depiction of a crying Japanese emoticon. That or a hungry puppy. It was hard to decide. “I just want to be loved and not a sad loner like Jongdae!”
“I’m pretty sure this Jongdae fellow wouldn’t be very pleased with that.”
“That’s what he gets for making fun of Manchester United.”
Kyungsoo squinted at Lu Han’s pouting face and chose to ignore the statement. Just as he was about to say something, however, the offending white phone in Lu Han’s hands buzzed to life and nearly fell to the ground with Lu Han’s panicked scrambling.
“OH MY GOSH, IT’S HIM!”
From: Unknown Number
Testing~ Testing~ It’s me, Sehun! ( ・ω・)∩
A sly grin crept onto Kyungsoo’s face as he watched a pink tint rise up to Lu Han’s cheeks. “He seems nice.” Lu Han made weird gurgling sounds and buried his face into his scarf. “What are you going to reply?”
The speed at which Lu Han whipped his head towards him was both alarming and amusing. “Should I reply now? Wouldn’t that seem too eager? And what do I say? I don’t know what to say to attractive people!”
Kyungsoo blinked at the face that was suddenly mere inches from his and gently pushed Lu Han away with a poke to his cheek. “Wow, how have you survived on this planet, Lu Han? It really baffles me.”
“Same here, to be honest.”
“Here, give that to me.” He grabbed the phone before Lu Han could protest and sent a quick hello, complete with emoticons (because no text from Lu Han was ever without emoticons. It could be a bit annoying sometimes, in Kyungsoo’s opinion). “There! All done! Now let’s go to class.” He dragged Lu Han away, ignoring the other’s sputtering whines all the way to class and threatened to trash the phone that was still in his possession (he couldn’t sit through another class of Lu Han fiddling with the darn thing). He regretted it, though, when the phone buzzed during the lecture and Lu Han tackled him to the ground to get to it as quickly as possible.
Sometimes, Kyungsoo wondered why he was friends with Lu Han in the first place.
(But by exam time, he would wonder why he even questioned such a thing while poring over Lu Han’s impeccable notes. Ah, the things he did for a passing mark.)
From: Sehun-husband❤
I’m glad I got the right number! （*＾ワ＾*） If you’re not busy, do you want to grab a bite to eat after class some time?
“He’s asking me out to dinner!” Lu Han began breathing so quickly that Kyungsoo was worried that he would pass out but then an accusing finger was pointed right between his eyes. “And why did you put his contact info as that?”
Doe eyes blinked innocently at Lu Han’s flushed face. “What? Don’t you like it?”
Lu Han made a frustrated noise and buried his head in his arms for the rest of the lecture so that only pink ears could be seen.
Later on, when Lu Han was replying with an affirmative and what seemed like a dozen different emoticons, Kyungsoo couldn’t help but notice the lack of change in the contact name.
-
“Why am I here?”
“Because I am a bundle of awkward and you love me very much?” Lu Han fluttered his eyes at a suspicious Kyungsoo. When the action only prompted the other to squint at him judgmentally, he continued, “I am willing to pay for your dinner.”
“I’m in.” Lu Han clapped happily. “But isn’t it more awkward if I tag along? It’s supposed to be your date, isn’t it?”
Lu Han sputtered at him, wide-eyed. “Date? We are just acquaintances meeting to have a meal. And I already said I was bringing you.”
“Not a date. Right…” Kyungsoo squinted at him again; this was starting to become a habit now. He watched as Lu Han hid his flushed face behind his hands and sighed. “Oh dear; I worry for you two. I really do.”
“Hey! You aren’t allowed to mock my social awkwardness because you are my friend!”
“Lu Han, I mock your social awkwardness because I’m your friend.”
Lu Han swore that the sweet smile on his “friend’s” face was sent straight from hell. He was just about to say so, plus a few other choice words, when a familiar head of silver approached from the corner and all forms of speech suddenly left him.
“Sorry I’m late. I came from class and got off a stop too early.” Sehun smiled bashfully, pushing his windswept fringe out of his eyes but the action only made Lu Han want to flail at him incoherently because, darn it, even that was attractive. “Is this your friend? Nice to meet you.”
Lu Han could already feel the evil radiating out of Kyungsoo as he shook hands with Sehun. “Hi there. I’m Kyungsoo. It’s so nice to finally meet you.” Lu Han jabbed at Kyungsoo’s back, looking everywhere but at the personification of perfection in front of him. “I’ve heard so m- OW!” Kyungsoo whipped around to Lu Han’s innocent smile; the man just laughed.
“To dinner, shall we?”
They finally settled down in a Korean barbeque restaurant after spending at least half an hour wandering around with no destination in mind because Lu Han was the most indecisive person ever, Kyungsoo didn’t want to choose when he was just a tag-along, and Sehun thought it would be rude to choose for the other two when he was the one who invited them (well, Lu Han, at least) out, which only led to worsening their indecision because note: previous reasons. In the end, Lu Han was accidentally pulled into a Korean barbeque restaurant by a crowd of high school students on their way inside and the trio just stayed there so that they didn’t have to worry about choosing anymore.
“So, Sehun… tell us about yourself.” Kyungsoo began when the meat was adequately cooked and they had started eating. Lu Han promptly gulped down his tea the wrong way as warning signals went off in his head. A curious Kyungsoo was a dangerous Kyungsoo. The last time he was curious about something, aka that guy named Jongin who was learning to be a hairdresser, Lu Han ended up with pink hair for a month. His poor manly ego was still bruised.
Sehun, however, was blissfully oblivious to this and was already beginning to reply with the cutest look of concentration on his face. “Well, I guess I already told you that I’m in software engineering at KU… I work at the convenience store a couple of stops away from your campus.”
Kyungsoo perked up, a smile spreading on his face. “Oh? The one run by Joonmyun?” Lu Han internally groaned. Joonmyun was Kyungsoo’s latest source of curiosity (that Lu Han had, thankfully, not yet been dragged into and was not planning to be a part of any time soon, thank you very much).
Sehun blinked. “Yeah. He’s a friend of mine. He was my senior in high school.”
“Wait… Senior? What year are you in?” Both Lu Han and Kyungsoo eyed the other man expectantly.
“Me? I’m in second year…”
“Oh? You’re a year younger?”
“I am?” Sehun blinked, looking at Lu Han for confirmation. “Oh, I guess it never came up. You don’t seem older though.”
Lu Han pouted. “I know I look young. Is that bad?”
Sehun laughed, eyes turning up into crescents and, wow, that so was not fair at all. How could he possibly get mad at someone who looked like that? “No, of course not. It’s cute.”
Lu Han didn’t need to look over to see that evil smile on Kyungsoo’s face. (He was too busy hiding his face in his hands anyway. Darn Sehun with his stupid face and words and gah!)
Dinner proceeded relatively normally, or as normal as one would get from a socially awkward Lu Han and a secretly evil Kyungsoo, but, by the end of the night, when they had all parted ways and Sehun had waved a bashful farewell as he stepped off the bus, Lu Han found himself falling deeper for the silver-haired man and, frankly, he didn’t know how to feel about that.
-
“You are being ridiculous, Lu Han.”
“Shh! You can’t say my name! You’re giving me away!”
“Well, if you were serious about avoiding him, you wouldn’t be taking the same bus you normally see him on, at the same time you usually see him, wearing the same scarf you always do (you’re welcome, by the way) instead of hiding behind me. I may be tall but I am pretty sure he’s not blind. Or stupid.”
Lu Han blinked up at Wu Fan then down to the obnoxious yellow around his neck and cursed under his breath.
It was one of the rare days Wu Fan had to wake up early for class (meaning that the tall blond was in an exceptionally grumpy mood because he liked his sleep very much) so the other had joined him at the bus stop. Lu Han had been rather twitchy the whole time they were waiting and it was starting to get to him; he didn’t have enough caffeine in his system for this.
“Why are you avoiding him anyway? I thought you exchanged texts all the time? And you obviously like him a lot.” It had only been a couple of months but Wu Fan was already tired of waking up to Lu Han giggling across the hall during their late night texting sessions. Sure, he was his best friend but no.
Lu Han fidgeted with his scarf. “I don’t know how to face him in real life. I mean, yeah, we’ve met a number of times already but… I don’t know. I like him a lot but I don’t know if it’s the same with him.”
“You are clearly over-thinking all this.” Wu Fan said, staring into the travel mug in his hand. Alas, empty already and he hadn’t even reached campus yet. The day was already turning out bleak. He sighed; woe was him. “Look, the only way to know for sure is to ask him yourself. Even if it turns out not to be anything, at least you know how he feels and you can go on being all bffs.”
“Easy for you to say. Zitao was the one who confessed to you.”
“Hey now. I never said it was easy. And the challenges we seek are not to be chosen; fate is the dealer of our destinies and our only choice is how we deal with what it gives us.” Wu Fan nodded gravely, shaking his mug a little. Nope, still empty.
“You stole that from Zitao.” Lu Han squinted at him judgementally as the bus pulled up in front of them. Wu Fan only shrugged and pushed him toward the door.
They were just about to clamber onto the bus when someone rushed out, pulling Lu Han along with him.
“Sorry, I just need to borrow Lu Han for a bit. Thanks!”
Wu Fan stared at the mixture of panic and surprise on Lu Han’s face as he was dragged away by a silver-haired figure then looked back down at his sadly void mug before shrugging and entering the bus. Lu Han could fend for himself while his mug could do nothing to fill itself; it wasn’t too hard to decide, really. Besides, the figure looked just like that really blurry picture (Lu Han wasn’t good at taking photos secretly) Lu Han had once shown him of the object of his admirations (if he squinted a bit). He was doing his friend a great favour, in his opinion, and he should feel proud of himself. He mentally patted himself on the back. So much work done before he was even fully awake; he would reward himself with a cookie to go with the coffee he would buy the moment he got off the bus.
Helping friends was so rewarding.
-
The extremely loud thudding in his ears was definitely not coming from him. And it was definitely not because Sehun’s hand was clamped around his and he was pushing his hair out of his eyes in that horribly attractive way again and - crap - even his panting was sexy. Frankly, the only reason he knew that he was alive and not viciously murdered by the spontaneous assault of emotions caused by the one and only Oh Sehun was the fact that Sehun’s hand was so wonderfully warm against his frost-chilled ones and the fact that Sehun was saying his name at that moment.
“Lu Han…”
Yeah, that was attractive too. Darn it all to hell.
“Lu Han… Did I do something wrong?”
Eyes widening in surprise, Lu Han shook his head quickly. Sehun doing something wrong, to Lu Han at least, would have defied the laws of nature. How could someone so nice, thoughtful, sweet and charming possibly do anything wrong? If anything, Lu Han firmly believed that Sehun was a saint in some past life because how else could he explain the utter perfection that was Oh Sehun?
“No, of course not!”
“Then why are you being so distant?” Sehun let go of his hand and looked at him with such sad eyes that Lu Han had to look away. “I’m not blind, hyung. I can tell that you’ve been avoiding me on the bus recently. And when we hang out after my work once in a while, you don’t really talk much.” He sighed. “I guess I thought we were friends but was I wrong?”
“No!” Lu Han slapped a hand over his mouth the moment it left his mouth, his face colouring when a momentary glance in Sehun’s direction revealed his surprise at Lu Han’s outburst. Too embarrassed to move the hand shielding his face, the next string of words that left him ended up muffled against his palm. “It’s nothing that you did… I just… don’t know how to face you.”
“Why? It’s just me?” A pout formed on Sehun’s face, his head tilting to the side in confusion, and Lu Han had to cover his whole face to hide his increasingly pink face but even that couldn’t stop the river of words that slipped out.
“That’s exactly why! It’s because it’s you! You don’t notice how attractive and nice you are and that you’re driving me crazy because of it! I can’t look at you or else I’d turn red and speaking to you face-to-face will only lead to me rambling like I am right now and I just really need to shut up now because rambling makes me say stupid things.”
There was a period of silence during which all Lu Han could register was the heat of his cheeks against his palm and the internal sound of his brain going haywire. Frankly, he was surprised that there was even anything left of his brain to have a meltdown
“Sorry…” came Sehun’s voice at last as Lu Han tried to brace himself for heartbreak. “But you’ll have to get used to that then.”
“What?” Lu Han asked, peeking through his fingers, and - hey, Sehun’s face was a lot closer than he remembered it being just a second ago but, wow, it looks a lot better up close and was that a hint of citrus he smelled? Lu Han liked citrus and - oh.
-
SEHUN IS NUMBER 1 (´ε｀ )♡ @xiaolu
Going to dinner~ (ღ˘⌣˘ღ) #Happy100Days
XingXing and Minseok favorited this.
Dansheen Masheen @heavenlycheekbones
@xiaolu 凸(｀△´＋）
AN: This fic is for Maria~ (I wonder if you remember what this was kind of, sort of, not really, based on haha)
I wrote the part about Lu Han's hair before he dyed it and about Kyungsoo being his classmate before we found out about them being roommates. Uncanny, isn't it? This fic wouldn't have happened without tlist either. ilu~❤
Happy birthday, Lu ye~ I'm still on time!
Pairing: Sehun/Lu Han, minor!Kris/Tao
Rating: PG
Genre: Fluff, Humour, AU
Word count: 5685
Summary: Lu Han meets someone on the bus and his friends are very (well, kind of) supportive.
Lu Han hummed happily as stepped into the bus, dangling bags of groceries on too-thin arms, and squeezed in between a gangly university student, obviously surviving on caffeine and dying willpower judging from the dazed look on his gaunt face, and a rather frightening-looking business man who was shooting off numbers into his phone at breakneck speed before the doors closed behind him. It was uncomfortable, as it always was at rush hour, but it didn’t bother him one bit since today was a good day and nothing could rain on his parade.
He smiled as he thought of the many things that made this particular day exceptional. He was finally going home from work before 9 pm which meant that he could actually sleep early for once (though he was probably not going to do that and spend the evening on the internet, as always, but it was the thought that counted). He even got his salary today which meant that he was able to stop by the grocery store and get ingredients for dinner and didn’t have to choke down the rather embarrassing excuse for a meal his flatmate, Wu Fan, left for him before he collapsed on the bed from exhaustion (after chatting until 2 am with his online friends, of course). The snow even stopped falling so it wasn’t that cold anymore!
Yup, it was definitely a good day.
It was a good day despite arriving late to work because some idiot had decided to make a ruckus on the bus, yelling “your mom” insults at a poor, unfortunate soul who had merely stepped on his toe by accident, and had to be forcefully escorted out by the driver. Then spilling hot coffee all over himself after slipping on ice-covered stairs. And getting fired because “this has been the fourth time this week you’ve been late and don’t try to pull ‘a commotion on the bus’ as an excuse again” (even though it was always true - stupid bus) and for accidentally falling off the ladder while putting up a display and ending up right on top of a customer (though he should really be more worried about Lu Han considering: a) he had just fallen off a ladder which may not have been very high but it was high enough to b) make him freaked out since he was deathly afraid of heights and c) give him a bruise and that’s just not nice).
Totally a good- no, it was a bad day - a horrible day! He was grumpy and all he wanted was to go home because he was tired and cold and hungry and the bruise still hurt so he needed Wu Fan to baby him while he vented about his terrible day on the internet. He scowled, unintentionally frightening a little girl who had just stepped into the bus with her mother but he didn’t care one bit - the girl needed to learn about misery one day, anyway.
Just when he was about to apologize to the little girl (because Lu Han was not by any means a grouchy person but he just really needed to coo at cute little cat gifs to become “annoyingly chirpy”, as Wu Fan so often put it), someone pushed him from behind and made him drop one of his many plastic bags.
“No! My eggs!”
Lu Han scrambled to gather his things - or what remained of them - and mentally sobbed at the cruel world for his unjust fate.
“Sorry about that… Are your, um, eggs okay?”
Lu Han stopped his inner tirade to look at the perpetrator, ready to transfer his anguish onto him, when his eyes fell on one rather attractive young man. ‘Darn it.’
“Ah, they’re fine.” He heard something slosh inside the plastic. “Mostly fine.” He let out an awkward laugh, turning away because his face was probably an unflattering shade of pink and Lu Han was definitely not made for talking with strangers (which may have been another reason why he was fired but he wasn’t going to dwell on that anymore, at least not when an unfairly handsome man was within breathing radius thanks to the claustrophobic crowding of the bus).
“Oh, that’s good.” There was a beat of silence between them filled with the honking of horns outside the confines of the bus. “So, um, I like your scarf?”
Lu Han was sure his face was a hideous red now and mentally cursed the winter chill and Wu Fan, who had a terrible sense of humour and had gifted him with the deer-covered accessory.
The man seemed just as flustered at his remark and began to sputter as Lu Han tried to hide his face in his scarf. “Sorry if that sounded weird! I just thought it was nice and it suits you and, um, it’s kind of cute?” His words only served to make them both redder in the cheeks.
“Thank you, I guess? It was a gift from my friend - a silly play on the meaning of my name.” He chuckled awkwardly, wishing for the bus to move faster and slower at the same time because this had to be the longest conversation he ever had with someone cute and he was bound to do something stupid any second now. But luck had never been Lu Han’s friend and had chosen that moment to spontaneously cause a traffic jam on their route. Lu Han just really wanted to bash his head on the pole the drowsy student was leaning on right now.
“Oh… and that name would be?” The man offered a shy smile. ‘Look away, Lu Han, look away!”
“Lu Han. It means ‘deer of the dawn’ in Chinese.” Lu Han couldn’t help but feel awed at how he had not said anything horribly embarrassing yet. It had to be a good day! (Ignoring everything pre-cute-bus-guy, of course.)
“That’s cool. I’m Oh Sehun, by the way.”
“Nice to meet you.” They exchanged customary pleasantries before settling on a bout of silence that left Lu Han looking at every possible direction except in that of Sehun lest he end up staring.
Sehun coughed politely. “So… what do you do? Like an occupation or something.”
“I major in linguistics at Yonsei.”
“Really? I’m in software engineering at KU. But I work near Yonsei.”
“That’s a little far, isn’t it?”
Sehun shrugged. “I’m friends with the manager and the hours are pretty flexible so I don’t mind.”
Lu Han shuffled his feet. “Ah, I see.” Silence fell again and Lu Han cursed his fate as an uninteresting toothpick. (Actually, toothpicks were more interesting since you could poke things with them. Lu Han just made weird gurgling noises when he was poked. It was an unfortunate fate.) Finally, after what felt like hours, his stop approached and he turned to the brunet next to him. “This is my stop. It was nice meeting you.”
“Oh, okay.” Sehun smiled, waving at him. “Take care. Don’t talk to strangers on your way home.”
Lu Han quirked at eyebrow, watching the man’s face flush prettily under silver hair. “Okay? Don’t talk to strangers too?” He gave a last wave before hopping off the bus, accidentally bumping the sleep-deprived student and jolting him out of his semi-slumber against one of the poles. He watched the bus leave and quirked his head to the side. “Uh, what the heck was that?” He shook his head, deciding instead to hurry up to his shared apartment in order to tell Wu Fan all about his wonderful day. (Bad day? What bad day?)
“Wu Fan! You’ll never guess what happened to me!”
The blond glanced up from his laptop briefly before returning his attention to his paper. “Spilled coffee on yourself again, apparently. And broke eggs, if that yellow goo is any indication.”
Lu Han made a face as he shuffled into the kitchen to dump the grocery bags on the table before bounding back to the living room to squeeze himself into the remaining space on Wu Fan’s musty old couch. (“My couch so I get most of the space. Don’t make those puppy eyes at me. I’ve grown immune to it since you used it to make me buy you that ridiculously expensive Manchester United jersey. Hey, stop! When I said that I’ve grown immune to it, it doesn’t mean that you’re supposed to try making an even sadder face!”) “Forget about all that! I met someone! And it was like it came right out of those dramas you watch with Zitao!”
“I do not watch those dramas. You cannot prove anything.”
Lu Han rolled his eyes and grabbed his friend’s flushed face to turn it in his direction. “No one cares about your love for romance dramas, okay? All that matters is that I met someone really cute on the bus and we talked until we reached my stop! Okay, maybe not the whole time but we had a relatively normal conversation - which is more than I can say for the majority of the cute guys I’ve pined over - and he initiated it! His name is Sehun and he’s taking software engineering at KU and, oh my gosh, he talked to me! Asdfghjkl!”
To his credit, Wu Fan didn’t flinch away when Lu Han started flailing about incoherently, but that was probably only due to the fact that he had known him since freshman year of high school and the number of times he had to endure such behaviour was embarrassingly frequent. He waited for Lu Han to catch his breath before saying, “That’s great, Lu Han. I’m so proud of you for managing to have a relatively not-so-awkward conversation with a person you’ve never met before!” Lu Han made a gurgling sound before shooting him a glare that was rendered less than intimidating by the pout that accompanied it. “So… did you get his number?”
Lu Han blinked. “His number…?”
“Yes, his number. You know… to call him? So that you can get to know him better?”
Wu Fan counted the seconds until the metaphorical exclamation points of understanding appeared above Lu Han’s head.
“…Oh… Oh!”
The succeeding sound that left Lu Han’s mouth as Wu Fan planted his face into his palm was a bizarre cross between a moan of agony and a cry of dying moose, if he knew what that even sounded like. Lu Han had a very vivid imagination. “I am doomed to be forever alone in this world!”
The blond patted his back awkwardly as he continued to bemoan his future as a lonely llama breeder with an oddly hyperactive llama that he would name Chanyeol and how he would probably also fail at that because, with his luck, the llama would end up being gay and try to mate with another one named Baekhyun instead, or some nonsense like that. (Wu Fan had learned to adopt a Lu Han filter after all these years so most of what he said fell on deaf ears.) “There there. I’m sure that’s not true. Who knows - maybe you’ll meet him again? Like in those dramas. It happens all the time.”
“No, I won’t! No one loves me!”
“Aw, don’t say that. I love you.”
They both shared mutual expressions of disgust that clearly conveyed the fact that the statement was never to be spoken of again.
“How about this: I’ll make you some nice soup and you can rest, okay?”
Lu Han nodded as he stood and began to make his way to his room, mumbling something about how “he was going to die alone anyway so it didn’t matter if he died from Wu Fan’s horrible cooking today or not.” That earned him a pillow to the face and he scurried into the safety of his room before anything else could happen to him. As he booted up his laptop, ready to proclaim to the world his woes of having loved and lost before anything could even be started via social networking, he poked his head of his room.
“Hey, Wu Fan!”
“What?”
“You just admitted that you watched romance dramas! Haha!”
He closed his door just in time to evade the projectile (he didn’t get a good look at it but he was pretty sure he saw the glint of something metallic) from the kitchen.
-
He had somehow survived Wu Fan’s attempt at chicken soup (note: that definitely was not chicken soup) and was heading to class with a slightly lighter step thanks to the encouraging messages from his online friends.
Minseok @notabaozi
@xiaolu Don’t worry! I’m sure you’ll meet him again!
XingXing @laynicorn
@xiaolu OMG THIS IS JUST LIKE THOSE MANGAS! AND THEY ALWAYS MEET AGAIN! JUST YOU WAIT LU! IT WILL HAPPEN!
Dansheen Masheen @heavenlycheekbones
@xiaolu if you dont meet him again, we can be forever alone together! I WILL STAY BY YOUR SIDE COMRADE! #LOVEMEWORLD
“You are all I have in this world.” He sniffed as he tugged the stupid deer scarf tighter and tucked his phone into his pocket. Morning lectures were always a pain and it didn’t help that the snow was being whipped into his face by the unforgiving wind. When the bus arrived, he all but ran inside, not caring that it was filled like a sardine can once more as long as he was warm. He was going to continue his inner ramblings when someone tapped his shoulder.
“Lu Han?”
Lu Han squeaked out a greeting upon catching sight of silver hair.
“I didn’t think I’d actually catch you on your way to school,” Sehun chuckled shyly. “But I saw you’re your scarf and there can’t be that many people with the same scarf, right?”
Nodding absently, Lu Han wasn’t sure whether to be happy or ashamed of the deer-covered accessory. “Are you on your way to work? This early?” Mentally, his brain was already chanting, “phone number phone number phone number” on repeat.
“I have class later in the afternoon.” They shuffled closer together as people tried to push past them to leave the bus. “Say,” Sehun began, his breath fanning against Lu Han’s cheek making the shorter male feel very uncomfortable. “I was wondering if you’d give me your number? It’s okay if you don’t, of course.” The last sentence was added hastily with a faint blush that made Lu Han kind of feel like cooing at him and petting his cheek but he figured that would make this whole thing even more awkward for both of them.
“Sure. Here, give me your phone.” After a few seconds of awkward fumbling (touch phones hated him, to be perfectly honest) during which he could practically feel Sehun’s laughter (“TOO CLOSE! OH MY GOSH!”), Lu Han managed to return the phone with his number safely. “There you go. My stop is coming up so… I’ll see you later?”
Sehun smiled brightly, leaving Lu Han breathless (as if he really needed another reason to be more attracted to the silver-haired man), waving the hand clutching his phone. “I’ll text you.”
Lu Han hopped out with a final wave, watching the bus continue on its way, then immediately whipped out his phone once it was at the next light.
M.U IS THE BEST \(^O^)/ @xiaolu
OMG I JUST SAW HIM AGAIN AND GAVE MY NUMBER!!! (((o(*ﾟ▽ﾟ*)o))) ASEOFLKJNWAE #BESTDAYEVER
He stopped and waited for a few seconds then, as expected, his phone immediately exploded with replies.
Dansheen Masheen @heavenlycheekbones
@xiaolu YOURE SUPPOSED TO BE FOREVER ALONE WITH ME!!!
Dansheen Masheen @heavenlycheekbones
@xiaolu TRAITOR!!!
Dansheen Masheen @heavenlycheekbones
@xiaolu #NOONEWHOCAREABOUTME
XingXing @laynicorn
@xiaolu I AM SHIPPING THIS #OTP
Minseok @notabaozi
@xiaolu Really? Woah! That’s amazing!
Minseok @notabaozi
@heavenlycheekbones @xiaolu Shut up, Jongdae.
XingXing favorited this.
XingXing @laynicorn
@xiaolu I TOLD YOU THAT YOU WOULD MEET AGAIN IT IS FATE
XingXing @laynicorn
@xiaolu TELL ME EVERYTHING AND TELL US HIS REPLY
Lu Han laughed to himself at the antics of his friends, nearly tripping on the steps up to his class. He quickly sank into an empty seat and furiously typed up an over-embellished version of what had occurred on the bus. Once he sent the last tweet, the exhilaration in his blood was finally starting to settle, leaving anxiety to take its place.
M.U IS THE BEST \(^O^)/ @xiaolu
what if i messed up typing my number ⊙︿⊙ omg
M.U IS THE BEST \(^O^)/ @xiaolu
it’s totally something i would have accidentally doneヽ(´Д｀ヽ
M.U IS THE BEST \(^O^)/ @xiaolu
OTL #FML
Dansheen Masheen @heavenlycheekbones
@xiaolu THATS WHAT YOU GET
Dansheen Masheen @heavenlycheekbones
@xiaolu I HAVE CURSED YOU WITH SINGLE-NESS
Dansheen Masheen @heavenlycheekbones
@xiaolu NOW HE WILL /NEVER/ TEXT YOU
Dansheen Masheen @heavenlycheekbones
@xiaolu AND YOU WILL END UP ALL ALONE WITH 23 CATS
Dansheen Masheen @heavenlycheekbones
@xiaolu ALL NAMED MR MCFLUFFIKINS JUST BECAUSE ITS STUPID SOUNDING
Minseok @notabaozi
@heavenlycheekbones ISTG GO TO CLASS YOU IDIOT
XingXing favorited this.
Dansheen Masheen @heavenlycheekbones
@notabaozi 凸(｀△´＋）
XingXing favorited this.
XingXing @laynicorn
@xiaolu fate brought you together again so he’ll probably text you, don’t worry about it
M.U IS THE BEST, Dansheen Masheen and Minseok favorited this.
And so Lu Han waited. But Lu Han was never a patient person and his constant finger fiddling and phone checks every two minutes were starting to get on Kyungsoo’s, his fellow linguistics major and the main person who had the misfortune of dealing with him at school when Wu Fan was not around, nerves.
“Would you please stop? You are making me want to chuck that phone out the window.” gritted out Kyungsoo, the last of his patience finally slipping away when Lu Han poked his phone to life again for the umpteenth time. “Doing that won’t make him send a text faster, you know.”
Lu Han pouted at him, rolling his head from where it was resting on the desk to face Kyungsoo, and whined, “But what if he doesn’t even text me? What if I really did mess up my number and he tries texting but, since he can’t reach me, he thinks I don’t want to talk to him? But I do want to talk to him even though I suck at it and can’t even make eye contact and he’ll probably find me weird!” His face scrunched up into what Kyungsoo thought was a rather accurate depiction of a crying Japanese emoticon. That or a hungry puppy. It was hard to decide. “I just want to be loved and not a sad loner like Jongdae!”
“I’m pretty sure this Jongdae fellow wouldn’t be very pleased with that.”
“That’s what he gets for making fun of Manchester United.”
Kyungsoo squinted at Lu Han’s pouting face and chose to ignore the statement. Just as he was about to say something, however, the offending white phone in Lu Han’s hands buzzed to life and nearly fell to the ground with Lu Han’s panicked scrambling.
“OH MY GOSH, IT’S HIM!”
From: Unknown Number
Testing~ Testing~ It’s me, Sehun! ( ・ω・)∩
A sly grin crept onto Kyungsoo’s face as he watched a pink tint rise up to Lu Han’s cheeks. “He seems nice.” Lu Han made weird gurgling sounds and buried his face into his scarf. “What are you going to reply?”
The speed at which Lu Han whipped his head towards him was both alarming and amusing. “Should I reply now? Wouldn’t that seem too eager? And what do I say? I don’t know what to say to attractive people!”
Kyungsoo blinked at the face that was suddenly mere inches from his and gently pushed Lu Han away with a poke to his cheek. “Wow, how have you survived on this planet, Lu Han? It really baffles me.”
“Same here, to be honest.”
“Here, give that to me.” He grabbed the phone before Lu Han could protest and sent a quick hello, complete with emoticons (because no text from Lu Han was ever without emoticons. It could be a bit annoying sometimes, in Kyungsoo’s opinion). “There! All done! Now let’s go to class.” He dragged Lu Han away, ignoring the other’s sputtering whines all the way to class and threatened to trash the phone that was still in his possession (he couldn’t sit through another class of Lu Han fiddling with the darn thing). He regretted it, though, when the phone buzzed during the lecture and Lu Han tackled him to the ground to get to it as quickly as possible.
Sometimes, Kyungsoo wondered why he was friends with Lu Han in the first place.
(But by exam time, he would wonder why he even questioned such a thing while poring over Lu Han’s impeccable notes. Ah, the things he did for a passing mark.)
From: Sehun-husband❤
I’m glad I got the right number! （*＾ワ＾*） If you’re not busy, do you want to grab a bite to eat after class some time?
“He’s asking me out to dinner!” Lu Han began breathing so quickly that Kyungsoo was worried that he would pass out but then an accusing finger was pointed right between his eyes. “And why did you put his contact info as that?”
Doe eyes blinked innocently at Lu Han’s flushed face. “What? Don’t you like it?”
Lu Han made a frustrated noise and buried his head in his arms for the rest of the lecture so that only pink ears could be seen.
Later on, when Lu Han was replying with an affirmative and what seemed like a dozen different emoticons, Kyungsoo couldn’t help but notice the lack of change in the contact name.
-
“Why am I here?”
“Because I am a bundle of awkward and you love me very much?” Lu Han fluttered his eyes at a suspicious Kyungsoo. When the action only prompted the other to squint at him judgmentally, he continued, “I am willing to pay for your dinner.”
“I’m in.” Lu Han clapped happily. “But isn’t it more awkward if I tag along? It’s supposed to be your date, isn’t it?”
Lu Han sputtered at him, wide-eyed. “Date? We are just acquaintances meeting to have a meal. And I already said I was bringing you.”
“Not a date. Right…” Kyungsoo squinted at him again; this was starting to become a habit now. He watched as Lu Han hid his flushed face behind his hands and sighed. “Oh dear; I worry for you two. I really do.”
“Hey! You aren’t allowed to mock my social awkwardness because you are my friend!”
“Lu Han, I mock your social awkwardness because I’m your friend.”
Lu Han swore that the sweet smile on his “friend’s” face was sent straight from hell. He was just about to say so, plus a few other choice words, when a familiar head of silver approached from the corner and all forms of speech suddenly left him.
“Sorry I’m late. I came from class and got off a stop too early.” Sehun smiled bashfully, pushing his windswept fringe out of his eyes but the action only made Lu Han want to flail at him incoherently because, darn it, even that was attractive. “Is this your friend? Nice to meet you.”
Lu Han could already feel the evil radiating out of Kyungsoo as he shook hands with Sehun. “Hi there. I’m Kyungsoo. It’s so nice to finally meet you.” Lu Han jabbed at Kyungsoo’s back, looking everywhere but at the personification of perfection in front of him. “I’ve heard so m- OW!” Kyungsoo whipped around to Lu Han’s innocent smile; the man just laughed.
“To dinner, shall we?”
They finally settled down in a Korean barbeque restaurant after spending at least half an hour wandering around with no destination in mind because Lu Han was the most indecisive person ever, Kyungsoo didn’t want to choose when he was just a tag-along, and Sehun thought it would be rude to choose for the other two when he was the one who invited them (well, Lu Han, at least) out, which only led to worsening their indecision because note: previous reasons. In the end, Lu Han was accidentally pulled into a Korean barbeque restaurant by a crowd of high school students on their way inside and the trio just stayed there so that they didn’t have to worry about choosing anymore.
“So, Sehun… tell us about yourself.” Kyungsoo began when the meat was adequately cooked and they had started eating. Lu Han promptly gulped down his tea the wrong way as warning signals went off in his head. A curious Kyungsoo was a dangerous Kyungsoo. The last time he was curious about something, aka that guy named Jongin who was learning to be a hairdresser, Lu Han ended up with pink hair for a month. His poor manly ego was still bruised.
Sehun, however, was blissfully oblivious to this and was already beginning to reply with the cutest look of concentration on his face. “Well, I guess I already told you that I’m in software engineering at KU… I work at the convenience store a couple of stops away from your campus.”
Kyungsoo perked up, a smile spreading on his face. “Oh? The one run by Joonmyun?” Lu Han internally groaned. Joonmyun was Kyungsoo’s latest source of curiosity (that Lu Han had, thankfully, not yet been dragged into and was not planning to be a part of any time soon, thank you very much).
Sehun blinked. “Yeah. He’s a friend of mine. He was my senior in high school.”
“Wait… Senior? What year are you in?” Both Lu Han and Kyungsoo eyed the other man expectantly.
“Me? I’m in second year…”
“Oh? You’re a year younger?”
“I am?” Sehun blinked, looking at Lu Han for confirmation. “Oh, I guess it never came up. You don’t seem older though.”
Lu Han pouted. “I know I look young. Is that bad?”
Sehun laughed, eyes turning up into crescents and, wow, that so was not fair at all. How could he possibly get mad at someone who looked like that? “No, of course not. It’s cute.”
Lu Han didn’t need to look over to see that evil smile on Kyungsoo’s face. (He was too busy hiding his face in his hands anyway. Darn Sehun with his stupid face and words and gah!)
Dinner proceeded relatively normally, or as normal as one would get from a socially awkward Lu Han and a secretly evil Kyungsoo, but, by the end of the night, when they had all parted ways and Sehun had waved a bashful farewell as he stepped off the bus, Lu Han found himself falling deeper for the silver-haired man and, frankly, he didn’t know how to feel about that.
-
“You are being ridiculous, Lu Han.”
“Shh! You can’t say my name! You’re giving me away!”
“Well, if you were serious about avoiding him, you wouldn’t be taking the same bus you normally see him on, at the same time you usually see him, wearing the same scarf you always do (you’re welcome, by the way) instead of hiding behind me. I may be tall but I am pretty sure he’s not blind. Or stupid.”
Lu Han blinked up at Wu Fan then down to the obnoxious yellow around his neck and cursed under his breath.
It was one of the rare days Wu Fan had to wake up early for class (meaning that the tall blond was in an exceptionally grumpy mood because he liked his sleep very much) so the other had joined him at the bus stop. Lu Han had been rather twitchy the whole time they were waiting and it was starting to get to him; he didn’t have enough caffeine in his system for this.
“Why are you avoiding him anyway? I thought you exchanged texts all the time? And you obviously like him a lot.” It had only been a couple of months but Wu Fan was already tired of waking up to Lu Han giggling across the hall during their late night texting sessions. Sure, he was his best friend but no.
Lu Han fidgeted with his scarf. “I don’t know how to face him in real life. I mean, yeah, we’ve met a number of times already but… I don’t know. I like him a lot but I don’t know if it’s the same with him.”
“You are clearly over-thinking all this.” Wu Fan said, staring into the travel mug in his hand. Alas, empty already and he hadn’t even reached campus yet. The day was already turning out bleak. He sighed; woe was him. “Look, the only way to know for sure is to ask him yourself. Even if it turns out not to be anything, at least you know how he feels and you can go on being all bffs.”
“Easy for you to say. Zitao was the one who confessed to you.”
“Hey now. I never said it was easy. And the challenges we seek are not to be chosen; fate is the dealer of our destinies and our only choice is how we deal with what it gives us.” Wu Fan nodded gravely, shaking his mug a little. Nope, still empty.
“You stole that from Zitao.” Lu Han squinted at him judgementally as the bus pulled up in front of them. Wu Fan only shrugged and pushed him toward the door.
They were just about to clamber onto the bus when someone rushed out, pulling Lu Han along with him.
“Sorry, I just need to borrow Lu Han for a bit. Thanks!”
Wu Fan stared at the mixture of panic and surprise on Lu Han’s face as he was dragged away by a silver-haired figure then looked back down at his sadly void mug before shrugging and entering the bus. Lu Han could fend for himself while his mug could do nothing to fill itself; it wasn’t too hard to decide, really. Besides, the figure looked just like that really blurry picture (Lu Han wasn’t good at taking photos secretly) Lu Han had once shown him of the object of his admirations (if he squinted a bit). He was doing his friend a great favour, in his opinion, and he should feel proud of himself. He mentally patted himself on the back. So much work done before he was even fully awake; he would reward himself with a cookie to go with the coffee he would buy the moment he got off the bus.
Helping friends was so rewarding.
-
The extremely loud thudding in his ears was definitely not coming from him. And it was definitely not because Sehun’s hand was clamped around his and he was pushing his hair out of his eyes in that horribly attractive way again and - crap - even his panting was sexy. Frankly, the only reason he knew that he was alive and not viciously murdered by the spontaneous assault of emotions caused by the one and only Oh Sehun was the fact that Sehun’s hand was so wonderfully warm against his frost-chilled ones and the fact that Sehun was saying his name at that moment.
“Lu Han…”
Yeah, that was attractive too. Darn it all to hell.
“Lu Han… Did I do something wrong?”
Eyes widening in surprise, Lu Han shook his head quickly. Sehun doing something wrong, to Lu Han at least, would have defied the laws of nature. How could someone so nice, thoughtful, sweet and charming possibly do anything wrong? If anything, Lu Han firmly believed that Sehun was a saint in some past life because how else could he explain the utter perfection that was Oh Sehun?
“No, of course not!”
“Then why are you being so distant?” Sehun let go of his hand and looked at him with such sad eyes that Lu Han had to look away. “I’m not blind, hyung. I can tell that you’ve been avoiding me on the bus recently. And when we hang out after my work once in a while, you don’t really talk much.” He sighed. “I guess I thought we were friends but was I wrong?”
“No!” Lu Han slapped a hand over his mouth the moment it left his mouth, his face colouring when a momentary glance in Sehun’s direction revealed his surprise at Lu Han’s outburst. Too embarrassed to move the hand shielding his face, the next string of words that left him ended up muffled against his palm. “It’s nothing that you did… I just… don’t know how to face you.”
“Why? It’s just me?” A pout formed on Sehun’s face, his head tilting to the side in confusion, and Lu Han had to cover his whole face to hide his increasingly pink face but even that couldn’t stop the river of words that slipped out.
“That’s exactly why! It’s because it’s you! You don’t notice how attractive and nice you are and that you’re driving me crazy because of it! I can’t look at you or else I’d turn red and speaking to you face-to-face will only lead to me rambling like I am right now and I just really need to shut up now because rambling makes me say stupid things.”
There was a period of silence during which all Lu Han could register was the heat of his cheeks against his palm and the internal sound of his brain going haywire. Frankly, he was surprised that there was even anything left of his brain to have a meltdown
“Sorry…” came Sehun’s voice at last as Lu Han tried to brace himself for heartbreak. “But you’ll have to get used to that then.”
“What?” Lu Han asked, peeking through his fingers, and - hey, Sehun’s face was a lot closer than he remembered it being just a second ago but, wow, it looks a lot better up close and was that a hint of citrus he smelled? Lu Han liked citrus and - oh.
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SEHUN IS NUMBER 1 (´ε｀ )♡ @xiaolu
Going to dinner~ (ღ˘⌣˘ღ) #Happy100Days
XingXing and Minseok favorited this.
Dansheen Masheen @heavenlycheekbones
@xiaolu 凸(｀△´＋）
AN: This fic is for Maria~ (I wonder if you remember what this was kind of, sort of, not really, based on haha)
I wrote the part about Lu Han's hair before he dyed it and about Kyungsoo being his classmate before we found out about them being roommates. Uncanny, isn't it? This fic wouldn't have happened without tlist either. ilu~❤
Happy birthday, Lu ye~ I'm still on time!