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at age seven, little prince sehun arrives at the park with his parents, small hands tightly wrapped around the pumpkin-shaped basket filled with candies and chocolates. every halloween since he was five, sehun’s parents have started bringing him to the park’s playground, letting him play with the other kids to his heart’s content. this year is definitely not an exception. sehun is looking forward to going to the park after a day of trick-or-treating, reasoning to his parents that he wants to share his candies this year to his playmates.
the sun is just starting to set when sehun sets his eyes on them already in the playground. his steps then started getting quicker as he excitedly pointed at them. “they’re already there!” sehun’s parents’ laughter brings sehun’s gaze up at them, a little pout already forming on his lips because what is taking them so long?
sehun’s dad then places a hand on sehun’s shoulder to stop him in place, crouching down in front of him. “be a good boy okay?” his dad gently reminds him, unable to stop the fond smile forming as he could practically feel the excitement and urgency from sehun to play with his friends.
“of course i will!” sehun says, as impatiently as a seven-year-old could be, and raises his pinky finger towards his dad, who immediately wraps his own pinky finger around his son’s little one. it’s a habit sehun is starting to develop - whenever his parents ask something of him to do, he will always end it with a pinky promise. satisfied, sehun’s dad stands up and gently pushes sehun towards the playground, letting him know they will be back later to pick him up.
sehun’s little blue robe blows behind him as he runs towards the playground, the happiest grin plastered on his lips as he hugs the basket close to his chest to keep his most precious sweets from spilling all over the place, his plastic crown almost falling from the speed he was going.
“i have candies!” prince sehun announces his arrival as he raises the orange basket over his head. his little pearly whites, although still imperfect, is almost blinding with how big his grin was.
“sehun!” cute dinosaur jongin screams and runs over to his best friend, the tail of his onesie waggling behind him. soon enough, all the other kids follow jongin and have sehun surrounded, everyone trying to get their own share of the prince’s sweets. of course, jongin gets his favorite lollipop - it's the best friend privilege.
the kids enjoy their time together running and playing around and eating most of the candies sehun had brought when the moon finally peeks out from behind the clouds as the sun takes its rest. one by one, parents come by and pick up their kids. jongin stays with sehun at the swingset until it’s his time to go home. jongin shouts a happy halloween, sehunnie! before leaving and then sehun is left by himself to wait for his parents to come.
sehun passes the time by climbing up and going down on the slide, playing by himself as he still waits for his parents. he’s not too worried since his parents tend to be late sometimes and they say it's usually because of heavy traffic. he goes up and slides down a few more times, before he stops for a moment at the top to look around the playground and the park, taking in the view. his eyes roam around the place while he fixes the crooked crown on his head, and little prince sehun thinks he’s the ruler of the land. it would have been more fun if he had jongin and his other playmates here with him, then it would really feel like he was the prince.
as he was about to go down, his gaze lands on a small figure sitting by the nearest bench. his face is covered in the shadows, the light of the closest lamp post only illuminating half of the person’s body. is he another kid? sehun thinks as he finally slides down, feet gracefully landing on the ground.
sehun picks up his candy basket and determinedly makes his way to the bench. he also fixes the crown on his head as he steps up, much to his pleasure of being right, to the kid sitting alone on the bench.
“hi!” sehun cheerfully greets the boy as he stands before him, the same bright grin from earlier today makes its way to his lips. sehun has never had a problem with making friends. he's not the type of kid who gets shy around new people, and instead he approaches them first to strike up a conversation or ask them to play with him, especially when they seem like they have the same age as him- just like this boy right in front of him.
the boy looks at him with a confused expression, and then eyes sehun up and down as he leaned back against the bench. it doesn’t faze sehun really, but it only makes him even more determined to talk to him.
with the boy’s movement it finally gives sehun a chance to get a glimpse of his face. wide eyes are looking up at him in scrutiny, his fringe barely touching the lower part of his eyebrows, and lips formed into a small pout.
“i’m sehun! what’s your name?”
a moment of silence, before the boy finally speaks up. “baekhyun.”
“hi baekhyun! here-” sehun reaches inside the basket he is carrying and he picks up one of the leftover strawberry lollipops, before reaching out to offer it to baekhyun. “happy halloween!”
baekhyun stares in confusion at sehun, at the candy, then back to the boy standing in front of him for a moment. this doesn't deter sehun though, and he only shoves it further into baekhyun's direction with determination.
baekhyun eventually relents. and takes the lollipop from the little prince's hand.
sehun, being the bubbly kid that he is, takes this as a signal to take a seat beside baekhyun, rattles off about how he and jongin won the never ending game of tag earlier.
as sehun talks and baekhyun just listens, he notices how baekhyun is not dressed up like he is, wearing only a plain shirt and pants.
"what's your costume?" sehun couldn't help but ask.
"huh?"
"what are you dressed up as? it's halloween! you should have your costume on!"
"i don't-" baekhyun gets cut off as they heard a shout.
"sehun!" he hears his parents' call for him, and sehun jumps down from the bench to exaggeratedly wave his hands for his parents to see where he is.
"mom! dad!" he calls out to them, grinning ear to ear in excitement. he can't wait to tell them about his new friend, baekhyun.
"sehun! what are you doing there alone?!" his mom more or less shouts, a tinge of anger evident in her voice as they come closer.
alone? sehun thinks briefly before he speaks again. "mom! dad! meet my new friend, baek--" and when he turns around to introduce baekhyun, he was gone. sehun blinks and stares at the empty spot on the bench where his companion has surely been just a minute ago.
"sehun come on! it's getting late! we need to go home!"
sehun follows right after, all the while glancing back and trying to see where his new friend has gone off to.
at age eight, sehun meets baekhyun again in the park.
he spots baekhyun again while he's playing on his own. his playmates had joined another group on the playground, but he wasn't exactly up to playing with such a big group today.
so cowboy sehun immediately decides to leave his place, the other kids not noticing his absence as they were all busy arguing on who gets to go on the swings first. he then skips over to the brunette, holding onto his cowboy hat that's threatening to fall any time soon.
"baekhyun!" sehun shouts as he got nearer to where baekhyun was standing - just on the edge of the park where it meets the forest, staring blankly into the line of trees.
sehun wouldn't realize until much later how unusual it is for baekhyun to be standing there on his own, as his mind is set on only two things: one, to talk again with baekhyun, and two, to share his candies with baekhyun.
"baekhyun!" sehun calls out again and this time he successfully catches the latter's attention. cowboy sehun excitedly waves at baekhyun as soon as he sees him look towards his direction.
"sehun?" baekhyun asks in disbelief, not quite expecting to see the boy again- not even exactly a year from when they first met. with one last longing look into the vast forest, baekhyun finally turns around just in time to greet sehun with a shy smile.
sehun returned the smile as he stood in front of baekhyun. “happy halloween!” he cheers with the most cowboy-like voice he could muster and he reaches inside his cowboy satchel to offer baekhyun an obscene amount of chocolate candies he secretly saved for the other boy.
baekhyun looks at sehun in confusion but still takes the candies a moment later anyway. sehun remembers this exact moment happening last year, almost at the same time too. he tries to bite back a giggle, and instead flashes a rather expectant grin towards the other.
he watches the other open the treats, his eyes following baekhyun's movements as he takes in one, two, three chocolate candies in his mouth. the brown-haired boy looks up at sehun, cheeks puffing out as he chews.
"what?" he says with his mouth full, and sehun would have called him out on it (because his mom has always told him that ‘it's wrong to talk with your mouth full sehunnie’ ) if only he didn't find it funny and adorable.
"nothing.." sehun trails off, his grin turning into a sheepish one as he avoids his eyes from baekhyun's.
"sehun? what?" baekhyun squints his eyes at him, tilting his head to try and catch sehun’s gaze.
"don't you have candies too?" sehun pouts as soon as he meets baekhyun’s eyes.
a look of bemusement crosses baekhyun’s face. "uhm..no? you just gave me some?"
sehun huffs indignantly. "yeah, but you have to give me some too!"
"why?"
"because it's halloween!"
and then sehun talks about great his favorite halloween activity is and how much he loves it, how having the best costumes also means getting the best rewards of candies, the importance of exchanging candies because "not everyone gives the exact same candies" and " my mom said you have to share what you have to those who don't have it so they'll do the same to you!"
(and baekhyun listens with a smile on his face, quietly taking into heart everything sehun was saying.)
sehun eventually hears his mom call out for him, walking over to where they are, he turns to shout back and wave at his mom, and when he turns back around to say goodbye to baekhyun, the boy is nowhere in sight. as if he has melted into the dawning darkness of the forest behind him.
sehun has no choice but to go.
at age nine, baekhyun is the first one to offer candies.
sehun's eyes lit up at the sight of it and this marked the first time they finally exchanged candies.
“did you finally go trick-or-treating today?” sehun asks, a proud grin plastered on his face because finally, baekhyun has now experienced the fun that is trick-or-treating.
a pause, before baekhyun quietly agrees, though he sounds a little hesitant.
sehun doesn’t call him out on it though, and instead goes on about his recent halloween adventure (trick-or-treating in a mummy costume is not as fun as it looks like- the sweat i had to endure earlier baekhyunnie! ). as they talk, sehun thinks the light is playing tricks on him because surely, baekhyun’s eyes are not red right? that’s impossible, eyes don’t glow red , he thought. and if it truly is, then how did he only notice it now?
but sehun doesn’t get to ask because baekhyun is gone like the wind once again the moment he turns his head around at the direction of his mom’s voice calling for him.. at this point, sehun honestly had already expected it to happen, but it doesn’t mean it doesn’t leave a small pang in his chest whenever baekhyun leaves him hanging like that.
when sehun gets into their car, his parents ask him "baby, who were you playing with earlier?"
"baekhyun." sehun says as he opens the remaining pack of chocolate covered almonds that baekhyun has given to him earlier.
sehun completely misses the concerned look his parents had shared.
sehun is ten years old when he asks baekhyun, "where do you live?"
baekhyun pauses halfway of opening his packet of popping candies. he stares at sehun, which at this point, doesn't bother sehun anymore and he just stares back at the other boy.
"uhm." baekhyun starts, and sehun, being the observant kid that he is, notices the way baekhyun's fingers fidgets with the packet for a moment before he completely opens it. "just a few blocks up north from here."
sehun tilts his head, staring at baekhyun as he expected for him to say more, but when the other stays quiet he figures that’s the end for that topic. in all the years they have talked to each other, baekhyun rarely talks about his family and his home, so sehun had learned not to push it.
eleven-year-old sehun is handing over the pack of skittles to baekhyun for a handful of chocolate bars when he declares, “this is our own tradition now.”
“exchanging candies?” baekhyun asks, as if they have been doing something else for the past few years.
“yes!” sehun flashes the brightest and widest grin he can.
(baekhyun may or may not feel like he’s seeing the sun up close for the first time, and how he’ll gladly blind himself all over again to see that grin one more time)
sehun raises his pinky towards baekhyun, waggling it as he exclaims, "let's pinky promise on it!"
baekhyun looks confused, but he still raises his own pinky as well. sehun then takes his chance to wrap their pinkies together, squeezing it as he announces, "now this is a promise we can't break. we'll always have this tradition, okay?" when sehun pulls back, he doesn’t comment on how cold baekhyun’s pinky felt like around his.
“okay. happy halloween, sehunnie!” baekhyun mirrors sehun's smile earlier, and sehun swears he feels the happiest as they sit down together munching on their candies, with baekhyun leaning against his side, with the thought of their pinky promise lurking in the back of his mind.
sehun is twelve when he asks where baekhyun goes to school, because frankly, he’s been wondering to himself why he never sees baekhyun at his school, or anywhere else, besides the park during halloween.
they’re lying down on the grass side by side, on a space they had unknowingly claimed as their own years ago, that is away from the general swarm of people that stay in the park. the stars are shining brightly up in the sky, along with the moon that illuminates the ground beneath it.
(sehun is old enough now to be trusted by his parents to go home by himself, but of course, he still has to be home before ten in the evening. curfew sucks, but he’s a good boy who begrudgingly obeys it. he’s also old enough to not mind not having a halloween costume for the year.)
sehun tries to remember the name of the constellation he’s currently staring at as he waits for baekhyun’s reply.
a moment later, a soft pop can be heard as baekhyun pulled out the lollipop he was sucking on, before a quiet “i don’t,” escapes his lips.
“you don’t?!” disbelief colors sehun’s voice as he props himself up on his elbow so he could look down at baekhyun, whose eyes immediately land on him.
"yeah." baekhyun only hums in agreement, flashing a half-hearted smile towards sehun. silence falls between them, with sehun unsure on how to continue their conversation. he waits for baekhyun to say something else, to explain or at least give him some context as to why he doesn't go to school. but of course, sehun knows baekhyun doesn't owe him an explanation. he's more than willing to wait for the time baekhyun voluntarily talks about his family.
so, sehun more or less expects it when baekhyun breaks their silence only to ask why he isn't wearing a costume this year, effectively avoiding their last topic like he always does.
at age thirteen, sehun comes to their usual spot only to find it empty. baekhyun is nowhere in sight.
weird , sehun thinks. baekhyun has always been, without fail since their third year of meeting, the first one to be at the park. sehun has been so used to seeing baekhyun patiently waiting for him with candies in hand that this situation is throwing him off of his feet.
except to wait. baekhyun has been doing the same thing for him for years, so of course, sehun will do exactly just that.
sehun waits. and waits. and waits.
but baekhyun never comes.
sehun gets home just a quarter before his curfew with his shoulders slumped in defeat, hands buried deep in his jacket's pocket with the snicker bars resting beneath his palms. he refuses to entertain the voice at the back of his head asking if this is what it feels like to be stood up on dates, just like in those romcom movies he had watched with chanyeol, jongin's other best friend who also became his best friend through the years the three of them spent together in school.
though it's as if the universe is still not done letting sehun down, because his parents has just chosen this exact time to tell him to stop and get over with his imaginary friend ( you're already thirteen sehun, please!) and get himself together.
"stop!" sehun shouts out of sheer frustration and distress, his hands forming tight fists at his sides as he tries to bring his voice back down. "baekhyun is real and i'm going to prove it to you!" he marches angrily to his room, slamming and locking the door behind him.
one. two. three deep breaths later and sehun calms himself down. he feels bad for shouting at his parents, but he's also mad that they keep thinking baekhyun is not real. sehun knows baekhyun is real. it's completely impossible that he could have just conjured all of their meetings in his mind, right? plus all the candies he received, those can't be just his imagination, right?
sehun swears to himself he'll prove his parents wrong no matter what.
(baekhyun is fourteen when he comes to the park again, waiting for sehun - a habit he thinks he won’t ever grow out of at this rate. this year, he brought two packs of sehun’s favorite sour candies. a weak attempt of trying to make up for his absence last halloween, but sehun doesn’t need to know that.
except sehun doesn’t come this year.
and maybe baekhyun is just an overthinker, but he thinks he may as well have lost the only friend he ever had.)
"what does he look like?" chanyeol asks. he has an arm around jongin's and sehun's shoulders as the three of them walk through the park.
"yeah, how will we know if it's him?" jongin pipes up, his eyes roaming around to try and spot baekhyun, even if he's not sure how the boy looks like.
sehun is fifteen, and he sighs in exasperation and tries to shrug off chanyeol's arm so he could walk a bit more ahead of his friends. "i answered that so many times this week and even if i tell you guys again i don't think you'll see him before i do." sehun quips, glancing back briefly at his two friends before he led their way to his and baekhyun's spot.
chanyeol and jongin both laugh in response, but say nothing any further as they follow sehun. they've been pestering him to let them meet baekhyun since two years ago, when they met with a grumpy and annoyed sehun the day after halloween. and sehun had finally told them about baekhyun, their tradition of exchanging candies during halloween, and how he waited for baekhyun that night before but ended up with nothing but a scolding from his parents.
for a while, sehun was teased by his two best friends for how he was getting so worked up over a boy he only sees and talks to once a day every year, over someone that might as well not be real since they’ve never heard nor seen baekhyun around before sehun had mentioned the boy.
until they realized sehun was genuinely upset, until they understood that baekhyun had really made his place in sehun’s life. so chanyeol and jongin annoyed sehun until he agreed for them to have a "meet and greet" (as the two would like to call it) with baekhyun the next halloween. but coincidentally, sehun was on a family trip last halloween, so that's why they decided to do it this year.
as the three of them get closer to their destination, sehun tries not to get his hopes up. but it doesn’t mean he isn’t disappointed to see their usual spot void of any trace of baekhyun, just like two years ago.
"i guess that meet and greet isn't happening this year," sehun says quietly, and jongin knows from the tone of his voice that he's trying his best to stay calm and collected.
so jongin walks up to sehun to pat and squeeze him on the shoulder, the reassuring gesture bringing a small smile to the latter's lips. "hey, we can still have it next year."
chanyeol makes an approving noise. "yeah, there's always a next time sehun." he then ruffles sehun's hair quickly to lighten up the mood. "i can have your candies now, right?"
sehun rolls his eyes but the three of them burst into laughter as sehun relents and splits the candies he saved for baekhyun between chanyeol and jongin, eating it as they walk back to where they came from.
then sehun parts ways with chanyeol and jongin, as his house is in the opposite direction of where they were headed. he goes home with the thought that if he still doesn't see baekhyun next halloween, then maybe their tradition has finally run its course.
(but what sehun doesn't know is that baekhyun had only left a few minutes ago before they had arrived, thinking he had spent enough time waiting for sehun this time around. what sehun doesn't know is that baekhyun's thinking if he should finally get over the habit of waiting for him.)
sehun is sixteen when he finds himself sitting alone on the ground, fingers mindlessly brushing along the blades of grass beside him. there’s a small box filled with candies in front of him, inside was a couple packs of kitkat, sour worms, and even some of the small halloween trinkets and toys he had gotten from previous years of trick-or-treating.
he’s not sure what came to his mind when he had brought all of this. it might be a little too much, yes, but sehun thinks it would be worth it when he and baekhyun finally meet again. he supposes they can have their own celebration later. that is, if baekhyun ever comes.
seconds, minutes tick by. or has it been hours already? sehun doesn’t know. he believes time is relative, anyways. until he hears the one voice he’s been missing for the last three years.
“sehun?”
and he looks up to the direction of the voice,to meet a wide-eyed baekhyun frozen in place, just a few meters away from where he’s sitting.
suddenly, sehun’s limbs move on its own accord because the next thing he knows he’s up on his feet and taking the quickest strides over to baekhyun to wrap the smaller one in his arms. sehun’s growth spurt in the past years allows him to tuck baekhyun’s face into the crook of his neck, his temple resting against the side of baekhyun’s head. he tries not to think how this feels too intimate but also perfect when baekhyun clings tightly to him.
(baekhyun doesn't even know how to start comprehending the relief he felt when he saw sehun sitting there, and now being in his arms and held tightly against his chest. if there are tears forming in his eyes, it’s not anyone’s business except baekhyun’s as he discreetly wipes them against sehun’s shoulder, hoping the latter won’t notice or ask about it)
they stay like that for a while, both of them basking in the feeling of being wrapped around each other. sehun belatedly realizes this might be the first time they’ve ever hugged each other after all these years.
baekhyun is the first one to pull away to look up at sehun, and sehun pretends not to see the redness in baekhyun’s eyes. “you changed your hair?” the other asks quietly, (mindlessly) bringing up a hand to brush his fingers once against sehun’s ash blonde locks.
sehun lets out a surprised laugh at the sudden question before he nods in response. “yeah, i dyed it a few months back.” it’s surprising, how they naturally fell back into place with each other, like the three years apart from each other were nothing. but sehun supposes, they’ve always been like that, that they’ve always had this special connection between them that kept them friends all this time, even if they only ever meet during halloween.
“oh.’ baekhyun then mutters, bringing sehun back from his thoughts. a smile then blossoms on the (still) brunette’s lips, and his gaze shifts from sehun’s hair to meet sehun’s gaze head on. “i like it, it suits you.”
the redness of sehun’s ears does not go unnoticed by the both of them, but neither says anything about it. instead, sehun mirrors baekhyun’s smile and mutters his thanks. he then comes back to reality that he still has his arms wrapped around the other, but he finds that he doesn’t care how this looks to anyone outside their little bubble.
sehun squeezes baekhyun’s waist - an assurance, perhaps a reminder for himself, that baekhyun is indeed here, solid and real in front of him - before he pulls back from their hug to grab a hold of baekhyun’s wrist, pulling him over to the spot he had been in earlier .
“i guess bringing the stack of candies was worth it.” sehun says, pride coloring his voice as he gestures over to the lone box sitting on the ground. he ignores the way his heart might have skipped a beat when he saw baekhyun’s eyes sparkle when he catches a glimpse of the amount of halloween treats in the box.
sehun reluctantly lets go of baekhyun’s wrist to pick up the box, handing it himself to the other boy with the brightest grin. “happy halloween, baekhyunnie.”
baekhyun happily accepts the box with a mirroring grin, and in exchange, he hands over to sehun a couple of snickers bars. “happy halloween, sehunnie.”
sehun can feel his cheeks hurting from smiling too much, but he doesn’t care.
“you should really meet my friends. chanyeol and jongin have been dying to meet you.”
sehun laughs when baekhyun sputters in response to what he said. they're both seventeen, and sehun is a head taller now than baekhyun, long legs stretched out on the grass and feeding himself sour flavored gummies.
baekhyun, on the other hand, seems like he hasn't aged at all, if it only weren't for the additional inches on his height. he still got the same youthfulness, the same childlike view to the world as to like when sehun had first met him. he's sitting cross-legged beside sehun, a lollipop stuck in his mouth as he looked at sehun like the latter has grown another head on his shoulder. he pulls out the lollipop before he speaks.
"why would they even want to meet me?" baekhyun asks incredulously, as if the very idea of other people, much more sehun's friends, wanting to meet him was impossible.
"because you're my friend too?" sehun ends up asking with the same tone of voice as baekhyun had. its only when baekhyun has been staring at him for a moment that it dawns on him what he might have had implied that he backtracks real quick.
"you're my friend, baekhyunnie." sehun starts, his gaze fixed on the other boy. "you're special to me. and i want you to meet the other important people in my life too." sehun's tone is almost reverent, and baekhyun is almost taken aback by his sincerity. (but also, hearing from sehun how he was his friend and that he was special may have brought the butterflies in his stomach and tears in his eyes.)
"besides, i already told you i was supposed to introduce them to you two years ago." if only i was early enough , goes unsaid. sehun remembers the regrets they both had when they talked about it- sehun regretted not being able to come earlier then, and baekhyun regretted not waiting for him a little longer.
"yeah, i know." baekhyun says quietly. sehun isn't sure why baekhyun sounds defeated.
"next year then, we'll make it happen." sehun swears. "oh! you also have to meet my parents too.”
"okay." baekhyun has no other answer but to agree. "we'll still meet here first, right?"
sehun hums in response, "of course."
(baekhyun finally makes up his mind. next year it is.)
sehun and baekhyun are eighteen when they meet much earlier than usual in the park. the sun is still shining brightly up in the sky, though sometimes partially behind some clouds. baekhyun had suggested last time to meet way before sunset if sehun does plan to introduce him to his friends, and sehun had agreed without hesitation. it seemed practical, sehun thought then, not knowing baekhyun had another reason for it.
sehun sees baekhyun waiting for him by the far edge of the park, a few more steps and he would be by the forest’s border. deja vu, sehun thinks as he runs up to baekhyun, shouting to catch his attention.
“baekhyun! hey! what are you doing there?” sehun asks once he’s closer, his gaze fixed on baekhyun.
“hi.” baekhyun turns around and greets him with a wave.
“what are you doing here?” sehun asks again, genuinely confused.
baekhyun looks at sehun for a moment, before he asks, “do you trust me?” and he takes a step back into the direction of the forest. he maintains eye contact with sehun, and that’s how the latter notices the guarded expression passing over baekhyun’s face, and the sudden glint of fear and uncertainty in his eyes. sehun doesn’t like that at all.
“of course,” though he was taken aback with the question, sehun answers it almost immediately. it pays off when the smile reappears on baekhyun’s lips, and he mirrors it with his own smile as he takes baekhyun’s outstretched hand. with their hands linked, sehun pretends he doesn’t notice the way his pulse rise up, nor pay attention to the stupid thought of how their fingers fit perfectly together.
baekhyun leads him further into the forest and away from the park. it doesn’t take long until sehun couldn’t see any view of the park, and that they’re now only surrounded by trees all around, the chirping of the birds starting to sound ominously in the otherwise silent and still forest.
sehun thinks that whatever baekhyun’s plan for the both of them may either be the most dangerous or outrageous thing he’s going to do. he doesn’t realize it might just end up being a mix of both.
a soft murmur of “be careful,” can be heard from baekhyun as he steps over a tree root, making sehun do the same. sehun doesn’t ask, doesn’t say anything, just blindly follows baekhyun to wherever he’s taking him.
eventually, baekhyun stops as he reached a clearing in the dense growth of the forest. despite the small size of the area, and the huge and tall trees surrounding them, sehun feels a little too exposed than he would like to be. it’s not that he feels unsafe - the presence of baekhyun beside him is enough for him to fall into some sense of security - but there’s still the smallest hint of vulnerability tingling under his skin.
“so..” sehun starts, looking at baekhyun, confusion evident on his face as he starts to look around, for what, he doesn’t know. “what are we doing here?”
baekhyun squeezes sehun’s hand before he lets it go.
“i wanted to say something to you.”
sehun is utterly confused. “and you can’t say it to me back at the park? you know chanyeol and jongin are waiting for us.”
“no. well, i want to say and show something to you. something others shouldn’t see.”
sehun’s eyes widen, his mind buzzing with a million thoughts, half of which was definitely inappropriate but baekhyun’s words cannot exactly be taken as completely innocent, especially in the situation they’re currently in.
baekhyun must have realized what his words may have implied, because he also widens his eyes and his ears go red, cheeks flushed as he quickly shakes his head. “it’s not what you think sehunnie!” he huffs defensively, punching sehun in the shoulder. sehun only laughs in response, rubbing the spot baekhyun had hit.
“okay fine, start the show and tell baekhyunnie. we don’t have all day.”
“but first, can you promise me one thing though, sehunnie?”
“yeah? what is it?”
“no matter what you’ll see, don’t run away.” the please is unsaid, but sehun has become adept at reading in between the lines of people's words to pick it up. baekhyun raises his pinky towards sehun, looking up expectantly at him. it brings sehun back to when they first agreed on their own halloween tradition, only the roles are reversed now.
sehun purses his lips. baekhyun is being really cryptic, but sehun’s a man of his words. he trusts baekhyun, wholeheartedly. so, he raises his own pinky to wrap it around baekhyun’s, squeezing it as if sealing the deal. “i promise.”
satisfied, baekhyun smiles as he pulls away. sehun watches him walk away and then stands a few feet from where sehun is, creating a substantial amount of space between them.
baekhyun closes his eyes, and sehun doesn’t know what’s happening or what he’s supposed to see until he sees it. the image of baekhyun starts to blur along the edges, and he starts to transform. baekhyun starts becoming sickeningly thin, skin turning sallow, the bones underneath elongate until it's all pointed and jagged, his ears disappear and a pair of huge antlers protrude in its place. he towers menacingly over sehun like this, and when sehun looks up, he sees baekhyun’s mouth full of sharp, gnarly teeth and his glowing, red eyes.
“what the fuck?” sehun breathes out, his fingers digging against his thighs as he fights the urges to run far, far away from whatever this creature is standing before him. yet despite the gruesome image, sehun can’t keep his eyes off of it. he looks at it horrified, but also with a hint of curiosity, and that makes him take a step closer to the looming creature.
“baekhyun?” he calls out with caution, yet he realizes the second after that this thing is baekhyun, right in front of him. baekhyun, the one he shared candies with, the one he spent halloween with all these years. baekhyun, one of the people he treasures a lot, the one he adores. with this, he pushes the fear far back into the deepest part of his brain the best he can.
he’s scared, of course, because who wouldn’t be when one of your closest friends suddenly turns into a visual representation of horror and nightmares?
“sehun.” the creature, no, baekhyun , calls out, but it comes out as a low growl.
with the sound of his name, sehun takes another step forward, and another, until he’s standing close to baekhyun that he has to crane his neck up to look at his rather messed up face. baekhyun stares down at him, and in this close proximity, he can see the familiar glint in the glowing red eyes, and also a hint of awe and pride.
“you’re taking this much better than i ever thought,” baekhyun drawls out. hot, acrid breath wafts into sehun’s space that makes the latter make a face.
“i obviously need explanations. but right now, i’m more surprised at the fact that i have to look up at you to see your face.” sehun says matter-of-factly that it brings laughter to baekhyun, a loud, booming sound that surely echoed within the woods. yet despite that, sehun can hear familiar traces of the laugh he's grown fond of through the years.
baekhyun then reaches out to brush, almost affectionately, a long, bony finger against sehun’s cheek, causing a sudden shiver to run down along sehun’s spine due to how cold it is against his skin.
after that, baekhyun moves away from sehun as he slowly transform back into his human form, the antlers receding and his ears going back into its place, his skin thickens over his bones, his teeth going back to its normal, rounded form, and he shrinks back into his usual height. the clothes he was wearing earlier also materialize over his body. the red eyes are still there, but it’s not glowing like it did before.
sehun walks over to where baekhyun is standing and immediately wraps a hand around his arm, squeezing the muscle there before he pokes him dead center in the chest. he then lets out a breath he didn’t realize he was holding in, and he sees baekhyun just watching him, and sehun figures he must be waiting for him to say something.
“just had to make sure you’re solid, and real.. and human.” sehun murmurs, pushing his finger against baekhyun’s shoulder one more time before he lets his hand fall back to his side. though baekhyun immediately reaches out to hold onto his wrist, his grip loose, letting sehun know he has all the freedom to pull away. as if sehun will ever do that.
“i'm not human.” baekhyun says, his eyes downcast as he finally starts to address all the questions that’s buzzing through sehun’s mind at the moment. “i’m a wendigo, sehun.”
silence falls over them and sehun tries to find baekhyun’s eyes. baekhyun eventually tells him about being a wendigo. he tells sehun that he is a child of two wendigos who have claimed this very forest for decades, marking this their territory, and home. he tells sehun of the curse that binded his parents to the life of a wendigo a hundred years back, and that his existence is the silver lining in their curse, until they found out that the same curse was passed down onto him.
"i eat human flesh and blood to survive," baekhyun says, his voice serious, though the brief fidgeting of his fingers around sehun's wrist was enough of a tell that he's nervous. "my parents say that if we don't feed, we'll live on the edge of death, that we feel like we're about to but never truly die."
"this, all this that you see of me right now” baekhyun gestures over himself with his free hand “it’s all just glamour. this was what my parents wanted me to look like, their dream child i suppose." he laughs, but there's no humor to it.
"we use our glamour to lure humans to trust us so we could bring them back here to feed on. that first time, when we didn't see each other, it was the night my parents made me feed on my own for the first, and last, time." baekhyun then lets go of sehun's wrist, covering and rubbing his face with two hands, hiding himself briefly from sehun's gaze.
it takes sehun a moment to process everything, because first of all he wasn't even aware such a creature exists. then he thinks about what baekhyun had just said about the feeding, he hates himself for thinking that maybe whatever baekhyun is about to do here might lead to his demise.
"so.. is this it? is this some kind of a long con thing where you befriend me for years only to end up feeding on me?" sehun shakily asks, his brain to mouth filter suddenly non-existent, which is probably a valid thing, given the amount of things he's witnessing right now.
"no! no. sehun, i'm not that patient enough to keep you around for so long only to feed on you." baekhyun argues, and sehun thinks, okay that's fair.
but sehun is still so confused. "why are you telling me this then? and now, of all the times you could have told me? plus implying that i will still be alive after this?"
baekhyun pinches the bridge of his nose, sighing in exasperation before he speaks, "because you're my friend sehun. you're my only friend. and since you’re going to introduce me to chanyeol and jongin, then it is about time for you to know. i wasn’t brave enough in the past to bring it up."
it feels like a bucket full of ice was just thrown over sehun when baekhyun's words hit him, and he feels like a jerk for even thinking of baekhyun like that. he really had the audacity to have those kind of thoughts when he told him earlier, with his whole chest, that he trusts baekhyun wholeheartedly. it’s like he understands all of a sudden, you can’t exactly just casually say “ hey buddy, i’m a wendigo by the way, happy halloween!” and exchange candies with them afterwards like it’s not a life-changing statement.
sehun is once again lost in his thoughts for a brief moment. but baekhyun takes this silence as a cue to start speaking again.
"i've always watched kids play along the park from afar. from afar, because i was just always in my true form back then, and every time, i see children playing, especially in the playground, i felt a little sad, because i wanted that too. i wanted to have someone to play with, laugh with, and just do things a child would normally do. but of course, since i wasn't normal, i couldn't have that." baekhyun lets out that self-pitying laugh. sehun hates it so, so much.
"you were pretty hard not to miss that day, you know?" baekhyun continues with a soft smile as he starts reminiscing the hours before he personally met sehun. "with your blue cape and shiny crown.. and everyone cheering and laughing when you were giving them candies." sehun involuntarily smiles at the memory.
"i didn't know what i was thinking then, but after seeing you and your friends, i wanted to join you guys too. but i know i can't." sehun sees the sad smile fall over baekhyun's lips, and his heart hurts at the thought of baekhyun just being there , unable to do anything but watch them from afar.
however, baekhyun talks about how at that age, he was scared to be around humans that were beyond their territory. he was scared of being found out, that his glamour might break, that he might not be able to control himself around so many temptations of food, that he didn't know what he was capable of doing.
"you weren't supposed to see me that night, you know?" baekhyun huffs, a pout forming along his lips when his brows furrowed as he recalled that night. "it was the first time i ever stepped out of the forest, and i timed it too that there weren't too many people around. but you appear out of nowhere and gave me candies, and i really didn't know how to act." they both let out a laugh at that, because sehun clearly remembers how awkward it had been between them at the start.
"you were the first human i ever interacted with, and i didn't know why you kept talking to me back then, but i'm just really glad that you did."
now it's only sehun who laughs quietly. "i was a nosy and lonely kid when my friends left. i wanted to have some company and i saw you were alone, so yeah.”
"i know," baekhyun smiles, and he ducks his head as he says his next words, trying to hide his face from sehun embarrassment. "you made me feel normal that first night, sehun. you made me feel what it was like to have a friend to talk and play with. you made me feel human, even if it was only for one night every year."
baekhyun looks up then, and sehun sees the tears forming in his eyes, and his voice is quivering, holding back his tears, when he says, "thank you for being my friend, sehunnie."
with that, sehun immediately grabs baekhyun by his arm to pull him into an almost bone-crushing hug. he feels, more than hears, baekhyun’s soft cries, the other’s back moving under his palms as he rubbed it soothingly. he ignores the few drops of tears rolling down his cheeks, putting all of his attention on comforting baekhyun.
while holding baekhyun in his arms, sehun mulls over through his own whirlwind of emotions- he’s hurt, knowing now how much it must have burdened baekhyun to keep his secret from him for so long; he’s still uncertain about a lot of things as different questions continues to plague his mind; but he’s also moved from baekhyun’s words, never had he known that he'll get to experience such genuine appreciation and gratitude from someone, and it makes him happy, to be the one that made baekhyun feel that way.
sehun also feels the urge to protect baekhyun, to take care of him, to always be the constant assurance for baekhyun, that deep down the beast he had seen earlier, is a heart and soul that is so kind and pure, and that that is enough for baekhyun to be human.
it’s then when sehun recognizes what this is, the feelings he’d been trying to repress and ignore in the past rears its head in full view. he’s overwhelmed at the realization that he’s been in love with baekhyun all along.
a moment passes, and sehun takes a deep breath to recenter himself. he’ll deal with his own feelings later. but first, baekhyun. sehun gently pulls back from their embrace so he could look at baekhyun, whose eyes are now slightly puffy and red around the edges. he notices the tear tracks on the other's cheeks, and he instinctively brings up his hand to wipe with his thumb the remaining tears away from his cheek.
"hey, you okay?" sehun keeps his voice low, as if raising his voice would break this very intimate moment they were sharing.
baekhyun nods, whispering a "yeah, i am," in response. sehun feels baekhyun's fingers curl against his lower back, holding tightly onto his shirt. he then reaches back to grab baekhyun's wrists, easing them out of their tense grip and bringing their arms down.
sehun tries not to think too much about the way his thumb had started softly caressing baekhyun's pulse. it's his own simple gesture to help and keep baekhyun calm, to keep him (and himself) grounded, to remind him that he's not going anywhere.
"i still have a lot of questions," sehun starts, and he sees baekhyun nod along. "but i want you to know that this won't change anything, okay? thank you, for telling me." the tone of sehun's voice is dead serious, borderline reverent even, as he gives baekhyun a strong gaze and tries to convey his sincerity and all the feelings he's feeling.
baekhyun then lets out a soft and relieved sigh, his smile coming back on his lips when he returns sehun's gaze. this makes sehun smile as well.
"if i only knew you would take this so well.." baekhyun laughs with a small shake of his head. "i expected more screaming and anger from you honestly."
sehun laughs as well before he shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly. "i think i'm still in a state of shock," his voice is firm but there's still an underlying tone of humor under it. they both laugh at that, and spend a fleeting moment just looking at each other. sehun still has his hands wrapped loosely around baekhyun's own. suddenly, the idea of kissing baekhyun fills his mind because this feels like the perfect place and time. but, is it really? a voice speaks over the mess of thoughts in his mind, and sehun has to fight back the urge to do such a thing, and instead squeezes baekhyun's wrists.
it's then sehun notices the light changing around them, the sun is already starting to set and it won't take long until the forest is enveloped in darkness. he remembers that he had promised to introduce baekhyun to his two best friends, and that they would meet them at the park around dusk.
"i think we should go, chanyeol and jongin might already be waiting for us."
"oh, right. okay." baekhyun was about to pull back from sehun's hold when, in a split second decision, sehun holds firmly onto one of baekhyun's hands, lacing their fingers together. when baekhyun looks up to him in surprise, sehun only smiles sheepishly, averting his gaze out of embarrassment and offers nothing but silence. he doesn’t really have any explanation, other than that he wants to hold baekhyun’s hand.
fortunately, baekhyun lets him get away with it. in turn, sehun doesn’t comment on the flustered cheeks and the redness of the tips of baekhyun’s ears as the both of them walk back to the direction they came from, walking side-by-side.
on their way back, sehun asks baekhyun the things he couldn’t stop thinking about at the moment. first and foremost, he asks about the candies baekhyun has been giving to him all these years. baekhyun tells him that it was his parents who gave him the candies - the first few years he kept asking for it, until eventually they hand him the sweets on their own when they know it's time for baekhyun to meet sehun.
second, sehun asks how the feeding actually goes. baekhyun tells him that after his first hunt, he told himself and his parents that he didn’t want to go out for feeding ever again. he tells sehun that it felt wrong, despite his need for it. sehun is surprised when baekhyun casually mentioned that he was the reason his self-control got better. sehun squeezes baekhyun’s hand in his as his heart swells with what baekhyun said.
as they reach the edge of the forest and the entrance they went through earlier, sehun asks the one he thinks is the most important question he has.
“is there a way to lift the curse?”
baekhyun momentarily stops in his tracks, looking at sehun with a surprised expression. sehun sees the way his eyes turn sad before he looks away, and he only answers the question once they’re back on the park grounds, heading their way to their usual spot.
“my parents said there is one.” baekhyun starts quietly, and he gently pulls back his hand from sehun’s grip. “that when we meet and end up with the one who is.. destined for us, then the curse will be lifted.”
“so your parents…?”
baekhyun shakes his head. “no, apparently they weren’t the ones meant for each other. but i guess that’s just how love is? cursed or not, they love each other very much. they said it was enough to have each other.” he explains a little too casually, but sehun hears the sadness in his voice.
sehun furrows his brows at that. he can’t even start to comprehend how painful it must have been, to love someone, but to be subjected in the same curse and unable to save each other no matter how great that love is, just because the universe, or the stars, or whoever it is that said no.
“do you think.. you’ll ever have your curse lifted?” sehun asks, the hopeful tone in his voice doesn’t go unnoticed. he thinks it’s now probably the time to take his chance.
“i.. don’t know. i’d like it to be,” (baekhyun is puzzled, because why would sehun ask that? yes he likes for his curse to be gone, but also at this rate he doesn’t think it’ll ever happen. unless, by some great intervention of the universe or something, that it’s sehun who can help him with it all along. and if baekhyun’s being honest, he’s been hoping for it for a long time now.)
sehun takes a deep breath and he laces his hands together behind his back, trying to hide his fidgeting from baekhyun as he ponders if he should say it now. a confession for a confession, he supposes.
“i like you, baekhyun.” sehun says head-on, better rip off the bandaid as soon as possible so as to lessen the pain, as people would say. “and i don’t know how the curse thing works out.. but i’ll always be here for you and with you.” his confession just spills out his mouth, the nervousness he was feeling earlier was just gone in a second,
sehun is not sure if he’s the one who could break baekhyun out of his curse, but he desperately wishes to be the one to. but until then, he’s going to help baekhyun in any way he can, and keep the sense of human in him alive for as long as he's allowed to.
but for the second time this day, baekhyun catches him off-guard with another confession. sehun thinks he might just lose his mind. “sehun, i like you too.”
out of sheer happiness and excitement from what he heard, sehun bravely leans in to kiss baekhyun’s cheek for the first time, leaving the boy stunned in his place. it also happens to be the perfect moment for chanyeol and jongin to call out for them, approaching them with wide grins. well, i guess we’ll figure this out later , sehun thinks.
(baekhyun touches the cheek sehun had kissed, his cheeks going red as it finally sinks into him. sehun likes him too. and it’s more than enough.)
sehun and baekhyun share a look before they meet the other boys halfway, and reassurances fill their minds and hearts that they would find a way to make this work, and that they would be okay.
a year later, sehun and baekhyun find themselves back at the park. they’re sitting on the same bench where they first met, the view of the forest just in front of them, with their hands clasped tightly together.
it was crazy how wild of a ride the past year had been, sehun thinks. it feels like it was only yesterday, when baekhyun had confessed about his true form and nature with sehun, when sehun had his own confession about his feelings for baekhyun, when chanyeol and jongin met baekhyun and immediately approved of him for sehun (not that their opinions would have changed anything, but sehun was grateful for it anyway), when everything in their life just simply slid perfectly into place.
his parents had met baekhyun shortly after last halloween, and sehun couldn’t help but feel smug at the shocked expressions on his parents’ face at the sight of baekhyun formally introducing himself to them.
after that, they have been inseparable whenever they had the chance. it’s either sehun who spends more time out in the park (or in the forest, when they’re just both in the mood to spend time along with each other surrounded by nature), or it’s baekhyun who goes out with sehun and his friends when he had finally gotten over his fear of being away from his home for too long (with the help of sehun, of course).
in that year, baekhyun had also had his curse cured. if sehun was going to be honest, that whole thing felt like a blur. they were at the forest clearing, lying down on the soft grass as sehun was telling baekhyun about the names of the stars and constellations up in the night sky, his arm outstretched as he pointed and traced them out, until he exhausted all that he knew. eventually, sehun had opted to look at baekhyun instead, the latter looking over to him a few moments later.
there really wasn’t any explanation for what happens after, perhaps it was the existing sexual tension they both tried hard to ignore, or maybe it was the pent-up feelings they both had for each other. whatever it was, it led sehun to move closer to baekhyun, hovering over him once he was close enough to do so. baekhyun looks up at him questioningly but also expectantly.
it was now or never, sehun had thought. whatever doubts he had felt by then, each and every one of them had jumped out of the window once he saw baekhyun’s eyes fall onto his lips. sehun leans down and seals their lips together, ignoring the way baekhyun’s lips felt slightly cold against his.
they kissed for a while, keeping it sweet and slow as they enjoyed the new intimacy between them. it’s not until they pulled apart for air that sehun noticed the way baekhyun was suddenly warm under him and a bright white light was emanating from his body that illuminated their surroundings.
sehun remembers the way baekhyun’s eyes widened in horror, both of them had no clue what was happening. the light became brighter that sehun had to move away from baekhyun and shield his eyes with his arm, shakily calling out baekhyun’s name when the latter was consumed by the blinding, golden light.
baekhyun let out an agonizing and pained scream, and the sound had seared into sehun’s memory that just the mere thought of it made his chest ache. but as quick as the light had appeared, it dissipates into the air with a soft hiss. baekhyun was left laying there, chest heaving in deep breaths as he stayed unmoving.
sehun had moved closer then, and he saw the tears in baekhyun’s eyes. when baekhyun mouthed that it’s gone, i feel it, the curse is gone, sehun found himself crashing down baekhyun’s chest and they cried their hearts out in relief.
that night marks baekhyun’s salvation, and also the first time they declared their love for each other.
in the present, sehun and baekhyun watch as the sun slowly goes down, bathing them in hues of purple and orange. it feels like they’re kids again as they sit there with lollipops in between their lips, and basking in the comfortable silence between them, despite the noise of children playing by the playground and the people milling about the park.
baekhyun lets his head fall against sehun’s shoulder, and sehun looks down at him with the sweetest smile. baekhyun looks up at him eventually, and sehun sees the same smile reflected back to him on baekhyun’s lips as he took out his strawberry-flavored lollipop.
(nostalgia washes baekhyun as he remembered the first time sehun had handed him the exact same kind of lollipop around twelve years ago. it’s insane, he thinks, how far they’ve come. and that regardless of how childish their halloween tradition may look like at their age today, it’s still going strong as ever.)
“happy halloween, sehunnie.”
sehun takes out his own green apple flavored lollipop as he mutters a “happy halloween to you too, baekhyunnie,” before he leans in to softly kiss baekhyun on his (warm) lips, the sickly-sweet taste of their candies flooding his mouth. sehun presses their foreheads together when they part for air, and he whispers. “i love you.”
baekhyun smiles against sehun’s lips. “and i love you too.”