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There was nothing out of the ordinary on that day. The sun still rose from the east, and the sky was still in a particular spectrum of blue. Trees were still as green as they could be, the coffee maker he’d gotten for Christmas still made the ugliest tasting coffee to ever exist, and Oh Sehun, well he was still himself.
It was a Tuesday. The worst has passed and yet he still has three more days to get through alive until he gets to take a breather again. Another pile of unsorted documents had arrived at his desk not too long ago, and honestly, he had been fighting the urge to just douse everything with gas and make a bonfire in his office. Unfortunately, he knew better, and it would take forever to pay for everything if he so happens to accidentally burn the place down. And so Oh Sehun, bitterly, decides to take it one stride at a time and starts his day with a small spark of hope that something exciting would finally happen in his life.
Three knocks on the door came before a familiar face pops in. it was Luhan. A colleague and good friend of three years.
They had met during their post-college job hunting at the stuffy lounge where they are both currently working in. It had only been him, a foreign caucasian guy named Richard--who was really insistent of being called Dick for some unknown reason--and Luhan who had gotten past the initial interview. The waiting time was worse than the actual interview he’d had with the boss, and the reason mostly was because Dick had sat way too close for a stranger.
Three years ago. ‘Congratulations!’ he remembers Luhan saying as soon as he emerges from the CEO’s office. They got a chance for a quick exchange before Luhan got called inside. He had given Sehun a look and for some reason, he found himself waiting for the other man back at the lounge.
“You got in too, right?” Sehun asked. Luhan nodded with a smile, goofy and full of charm, and the rest was history.
✦ ✦ ✦ ✦
“Did you eat already?” Luhan slumps down the couch right across Sehun’s desk, looking way too comfortable with his legs and arms splayed out like a ragdoll. He was chewing on a piece of bread. His hair was a mess and the signs of a week-long trip to Hawaii still showed in his sun-kissed skin.
Without looking up from the computer screen, Sehun shakes his head and mutters a “no” whilst continuously typing down a month’s worth of progress report.
He fails to notice the pout on Luhan’s face. Luhan loosens up his tie, gets up from the couch and quite literally tosses himself over the desk.
“Luhan, what yo—” sehun exhales, annoyed. But then, he sees.
He sees Luhan’s freckle-speckled face, sprinkled across his nose to his cheeks. His lips, soft like pillows and tinted cherry red. And holy shit, Sehun must be going insane. The last time he checked, his good friend was “straight”.
“Don’t ignore me.” Luhan orders. Sehun swallows the lump in his throat and he says he wasn’t, that he was just finishing up a stupid report. “Well, are you done?”
“Y-yeah, let me just save this.” Sehun wishes to the heavens that his face hasn’t turned red and obvious enough for Luhan to notice.
“Faster! I haven’t seen you in nearly two weeks!” Luhan jumps off the desk and stands right in front of Sehun with his hip cocked to one side and hand resting on it. He looks at Sehun knowingly, because ‘ ha, I can't believe it took him a year to realize.’
Sehun grumbles as he finally gets to shut down his computer. When his eyes meet Luhan’s, a wave of silence follows.
“I missed you too, Lu.” he says then.
✦ ✦ ✦ ✦
They carry on to their usual routine. Sehun busies himself with managing accounts, and Luhan paves his way through the week at the advertising department. It’s always the same place and time during lunch when they meet up for a session of catching up and basically just judging everyone they have to go to work with.
At the end of their day, it is always Sehun who sends Luhan off with a more tired smile. And it’s Luhan who wipes it away with a quick hug and pat on the head despite their significant difference in height. “Fighting, Sehun!” he would always say.
On some days, it is Luhan who shamelessly sheds tears in front of the other. With the exhaustion and all pent up emotions, it does get hard to steel yourself for a long time. Sehun’s usually stoic demeanor would immediately change, his expressions would soften like a worried child. He lets Luhan cling on to him for as long as he needs to, rubbing his back comfortingly and lending a shoulder to a dear friend. He cannot count how many handkerchiefs he had lost along the way but for Luhan, he’d give anything, no questions asked. And when Luhan is done crying, he offers Sehun a thankful smile before heading off to their homes.
It was during lunch break on Friday when Sehun finally cracked, like an egg falling to the concrete, spilling everything out uncontrollably to the floor. Good thing Luhan was around to catch whatever Sehun was spilling.
They both hadn’t been doing anything, nothing special or spectacular or out of the ordinary. Actually, they were just lounging around in Sehun’s place and watching an episode of Hell’s Kitchen. But suddenly, holy shit . It took one more look at Luhan for him to lose balance and fall. Crash and plunge into an ocean that he calls his best friend.
“I think i love you” he blurts out loud while Luhan was mid-chew on his xiao long bao.
Luhan looks at him knowingly, and then, “I love you too, Sehun-ah.” he replies, one cheek bulging with food inside. He smiles, the goofy and charming smile he’d given Sehun on the day they’d met just three years ago.