Chapter Text
One year, Sehun thought as he backed away from their not-quite laughter. One whole year. There was no way it could last — of course they would find out. He racked his brains for the appropriate memory. Was it that time that he pulled out the cute panda stationary that Tao had bought him and they all laughed? Or when they had caught him giving Kyungsoo that plate of cookies that he’d managed to bake by himself? Or when they saw him spying on Jongin dancing in the school studio… or the mostly-naked TVXQ posters in his locker… and maybe a bit of Chanyeol and Tao and himself hanging all over each other basically always…
Sehun sighed. It was probably a combination of all of those. He was brought violently to his senses as his head crashed against the locker that he had slowly been backing into.
In a moment of panic, he realized that he had been completely spaced out and missed all of the taunts and threats they had been throwing at him, had no idea what they had in store for him and how determinedly he should be struggling — or if it would be better to stay still so that it was all over soon. But, as usual, his daydreaming made him hesitate too long and they were grabbing his hair and limbs and pinning him fast against the lockers. He tried to wrench himself free but there were too many of them, and there were about six hands fisted in his hair, and he couldn’t move his head at all, just clenching his eyes shut as the marker drew close.
*
FAG, his right cheek displayed proudly; GOT, advertised the left. Salty tears stung the skin of his face, rubbed red and raw, and he kept scrubbing furiously, but the permanent ink stubbornly refused to even fade. He paused to take a breath, washed the suds off his face and stared desolately at his reflection. It was ten minutes into his class, but he couldn’t go in like this. And there was no way he could cover it up that abided to uniform rules. He sank to the floor and hid his face in his knees, wondering if he could just stick it out in the bathroom until school ended and he could go home.
He sat there for a long time, the cold of the tiles slowly seeping through his pants, with the constant drip of one of the broken taps drilling into his mind, and the occasional footsteps of someone walking past. He nearly jumped out of his skin when the door opened and someone came in, hurriedly burying his face deeper into his knees.
“Hey… are you alright?”
Sehun stiffened, ignoring the voice as though it could have been addressing someone else.
The newcomer crouched down beside him and touched his shoulder. “Hey,” he repeated. “What’s wrong?”
Sehun just shook his head and didn’t look up, shying away from the touch. The other boy sighed. “Hold on, I need to pee.” Sehun heard him relieve himself a short way away, wash his hands, then return to crouching by his side. He laid a hand on his shoulder again, his fingers cold and slightly damp. Sehun shivered.
“I’m Luhan,” the boy said gently.
Sehun lifted one hand and waved shyly. Luhan laughed quietly. “What’s your name?”
“Thehun,” Sehun mumbled into his legs after a pause.
“Taewoon?” Luhan asked.
Sehun shook his head, mentally cursing his lisp. Luhan waited, clearing his throat quietly when Sehun didn’t say anything. “Sorry… I didn’t quite hear it.”
Sehun shrugged and Luhan tightened his grip on his shoulder. “Hey, come on. Don’t worry, it’s okay. What happened?” Sehun felt a finger run over his cheekbone, just below his eye. Luhan traced the cross of the “T”. “Is this the matter?”
Sehun violently shrugged him off, lifting his arm slightly to cover all the ink.
“I won’t laugh,” Luhan said, so gently and quietly that Sehun wanted to run away and go home so that someone so nice would never have a chance to reject him.
“Come on.” Luhan placed a hand on the back of his head and gently turned it to face him, and Sehun, lost again in his daydreaming, let him
“Oh,” Luhan said, almost just an exhalation. Sehun blinked, unable to focus on his face under the fluorescent lights since his eyes had been closed for so long. "I see. Permanent?”
Sehun nodded once, cheeks burning in shame. Luhan stood up abruptly and patted Sehun’s back. “Come with me. Maybe my friend can help you.”
“H-huh?”
“Stand up!” Luhan grabbed his elbow and helped him to his feet, straightening out his jacket for him. Sehun stared. He wasn’t sure he had seen the other boy before, so he inspected his face. His eyes were kind of strange in a way Sehun couldn’t quite explain, and he had a small, pointy nose. He was also blond, which made Sehun smile. It was within school rules to have coloured hair — provided it was only one shade and of a reasonably natural colour; no rainbows or wacky colours like white or green; but still, it pissed off the disciplinarians no end. He could have been a first-year, which would account for Sehun never having seen him before. It was only the second week of school, after all.
“Let’s go~” Luhan sang, taking Sehun’s elbow and almost skipping from the bathroom. Sehun let out a noise of protest but stumbled along, covering his face with his hands. Luhan kept a hold of his elbow as he led him down the corridors, and Sehun peeked through his fingers to see where they were going. There were not many people around, so Sehun guessed it was still class time.
“Th… shouldn’t you be getting back to class?” he asked the shorter boy hanging off his arm.
“Free period,” Luhan explained breezily.
Sehun sighed, pressing his hands harder against his face as Luhan dragged him into the library, where there were many more people than the basically empty corridors. Luhan pulled him to the very back of the room, patting him on the back and starting to talk in rapid Chinese.
Sehun peeked through his fingers again and stared at the senior Luhan was talking to, who he had definitely seen before. They called him Kris, the foreign student, resident ladykiller. Seducing them all without even trying, never dating. He stared back at Sehun while responding to Luhan, and Sehun felt himself grow incredibly hot, panic tugging at the edges of his mind because it was stressful enough just being here without also being unable to understand what either of them were saying.
Luhan tugged at his wrists and Sehun shook his head frantically, backing away and pressing his hands harder against his face.
“Show him, don’t worry, we don’t bite.” Luhan’s eyebrows lowered at Sehun’s blank expression and then grinned sheepishly. “Sorry.” He reverted back to Korean. “Open up and let him see.”
“Why?” Sehun took a couple more steps back.
“Please? Trust me.” Luhan smiled encouragingly and Sehun reluctantly let him pry his hands from his vandalized cheeks.
Kris sighed and leaned back in his chair. “What do you want me to do, Luhan?” he asked in perfect Korean, “It’s not like I keep makeup at school.”
Luhan’s face fell. “Nothing? Not even a wet wipe?”
Kris shook his head. “Wipes wouldn’t do anything for that anyway,” he gestured lazily at Sehun, who lowered his head in embarrassment.
Luhan rubbed his arm comfortingly, then his face lit up again. “Anyway, now that you don’t have your mouth in your knees, want to tell me your name again?”
Sehun blushed even deeper, concentrating on not letting his lisp through. “Oh Sehun.”
“Sehun?”
“Sehun.”
Luhan suddenly clapped and laughed, catching Sehun off guard. “Ah, he has a lisp! Isn’t that adorable,” he said to Kris in Mandarin, and Kris cracked a small smile. Luhan turned serious again. “Well, what to do?” He inspected Sehun’s face. “What’s the time, Yifan?”
Kris looked at his watch. “Quarter to four.”
Luhan tapped his lip. “So, not enough time to go and come back before last period…” he suddenly lunged forward and grabbed Sehun’s forearm. “Sehun.”
“Y-yes?”
“Are you one of those kids who is extremely, violently and determinedly opposed to playing truant?”
“U-um… well…”
“If you have to hesitate, then obviously not!” Luhan beamed. “Come on, guys.”
“Why do I have to go?” Kris asked.
“Because we’re using your house, so I assumed you’d want to be present,” Luhan informed him.
“Aiyah.” Kris pushed himself to his feet and slung his bag over his shoulder. “Fine. Let’s go.”
“What?” Sehun squeaked. He was going to Kris Wu’s house?
Luhan gave him a look that told Sehun the blond knew exactly what he was thinking.
Sehun sighed and pressed his hands to his face again, letting Luhan lead him out of the library; and a fair walk later, he found himself in the second storey of Kris’ enormous house, sitting on the edge of his expansive bathtub, while Luhan drowned his face in makeup remover.
*
Luhan was a senior.
“You’re older than me?” Sehun nearly fell off his chair.
“Thut up,” Luhan pouted, mocking the younger student’s lisp, and Sehun blushed.
*
“Sehun!” Luhan called as he passed by where Sehun was just opening his lunch box on the oval with Tao and Chanyeol. “Want to come sit with us?"
“U-uh…” Sehun glanced at his friends and started as he saw them staring at Luhan with their mouths open. Chanyeol’s was full of food and Sehun gently pushed his chin up to close it. “Maybe another day, I’m— ouch!” he stared at Chanyeol, who had punched him in the arm. “What?”
“You just got invited to sit with Kris Wu,” Tao breathed in awe.
Chanyeol nodded seriously. “If you don’t go, we’re disowning you.”
“You don’t own me in the first place,” Sehun pointed out. “And besides, I’ve already been to his house.”
Chanyeol rolled his eyes. “Just go, or Tao will go all Kung Fu Panda on your ass,” he said, attempting to mimic Tao’s moves and falling over backwards. “Wait a minute.” He sat back up. “Did you just say that you’ve been to his house?"
“Hurry up! He’s waiting!” Tao urged, pushing Sehun to his feet and in Luhan’s direction. “Tell us everything! Everything!”
“Were you not listening, Tao?” Chanyeol screeched as Sehun walked away from them, “He just—! He just said—!”
Tao rolled his eyes and patted Chanyeol’s curly head. “He was lying, Yeol.”
Sehun chuckled to himself and bowed shyly at Luhan. “Hi.”
Luhan frowned. “You don’t need to bow at me, Sehun,” he ordered crisply as they approached the patch of grass where his friends were waiting. “Bowing makes me uncomfortable… it’s so formal. And it makes me feel old.”
One of the others snorted. “Please, Luhan. You? Feel old? You’re still in high school. And if you’re old, what does that make me?”
“No-one asked you, Baozi,” Luhan shoved the back of his head. “Sehun, this is our resident baozi, you met Kris, and that’s our resident rainbow-pooping sparkly unicorn."
“Um,” Sehun bowed awkwardly. The two guys that Luhan had pointed at rolled their eyes.
“I’m Kim Minseok,” the first said, holding out a hand that Sehun shook as Luhan fell down in the grass beside him. “And a baozi is a type of steamed dumpling. It’s a side effect of hanging out with Chinese guys: they name you after food.”
Sehun grinned shyly. “Yeah. Tao likes to call me—”
“Ttat ttat ttat ttat ttat!” Minseok cut him off with a warning expression. “Be careful! If you say it out loud, this kid will never call you anything else.” He pushed Luhan’s head playfully.
Sehun smiled a bit wider and kept quiet.
“I’ll find a nickname for you either way. Doesn’t he look like a dumpling, though?” Luhan grabbed Minseok’s face and pulled at his cheeks. It looked painful and Minseok swatted at Luhan to get him off.
“I’m Zhang Yixing,” the other senior introduced himself with a heavy accent, opting to wave instead of stand up from his seated position and shake Sehun’s hand. “And… just ignore the unicorn thing.”
“Sit down!” Luhan waved his hand at Sehun, who lowered himself to the ground cautiously.
Minseok smiled at him. “Relax! We don’t bite.”
“Unless you’re into that sort of thing.” Luhan wiggled his eyebrows and Minseok flicked his forehead.
“Inappropriate, Lulu.”
“Seriously, though.” Luhan grabbed his knee and shook his leg. “Calm down.”
“I’m calm,” Sehun said, wrapping seaweed around his rice and sticking it in his mouth.
Luhan cupped a hand around his mouth. “We’re all queer too,” he stage whispered, “But shh!”
Sehun paused, chopsticks hanging out of his mouth. “Just because I had ‘faggot’ scrawled across my face doesn’t mean I’m gay, you know,” he mumbled.
Luhan blinked. “Of course not, but you are,” he reasoned.
Sehun blushed and looked down. “How did you know?”
Luhan just laughed.
“Do you get bullied a lot?” Minseok asked quietly while Luhan started chattering loud Chinese things at Yixing with his mouth full of food.
Sehun shook his head silently.
Minseok raised an eyebrow. “Okay. We all were at some point or another too, you know. Give us a shout if you ever need anything. We’ll help you out.”
Sehun smiled gratefully. “Thanks.”
“You like Chinese food?” Luhan pushed a container full of meat at Sehun that was very suspiciously bright red.
“Luhan, that’s my lunch!” Yixing complained in Mandarin, and Luhan smiled at him sweetly while Sehun frowned in confusion.
“You don’t mind giving some to Sehun, though, do you?” he replied, before reverting to Korean and directing his words at Sehun. “Try it.”
“What is it?”
“Pork.” Luhan grabbed a piece with his chopsticks and managed to daintily push the whole thing into his mouth. “Yixing makes the best char shao.”
“You made this?” Sehun asked as he took a piece for himself.
Yixing nodded, narrowing his eyes at Luhan. “Now give me back my lunch.”
Luhan smiled innocently and pushed the container back at Yixing. “Thanks, mama unicorn.”
Yixing sighed.
*
“You’re very friendly with the seniors lately,” Chanyeol said, hands on his hips as he loomed over Sehun at his locker. “Should we be getting jealous?”
“Yes.” Sehun took out his lunch box and shut his locker again. “You should be very jealous. They don’t call me names,” yet, “They don’t tackle me in the corridors, steal my homework, copy off me, invite themselves to my house and crash in my kitchen, get me in trouble, oh — and they also give me lots of really good Chinese food.” He stared pointedly at Tao, who couldn’t wait until they got outside and had already started eating.
“What?” he said, cheeks stuffed full of rice and meat. “I need to eat to keep up my strength for all my wushu badassery. I don’t have any food left over for you guys to scoff.”
“See what I mean?” Sehun turned back to Chanyeol, who had folded his arms and was rolling his eyes.
“Not to mention that they’re ridiculously attractive and you have the biggest thing for Kris Wu.”
“Please.” Sehun scoffed as the three of them started heading towards the oval. “The ‘thing’ you two have for Yifan is about twenty times the magnitude of mine.”
“Who’s Yifan?”
Sehun stopped in his tracks. “Um… Kris.”
Tao gasped. “He lets you call him by his real name?” he whispered, using the hand that wasn’t holding his lunch to grab Sehun’s arm painfully.
“Case in point,” Sehun jabbed a finger in Tao’s direction.
“Not me,” Chanyeol shrugged and put his hands in his pockets. “I’m straight.”
“Sure you are.” Sehun rolled his eyes. “You just choke, trip over your own feet and walk into things whenever he passes by you for no reason."
“He does that stuff normally, Sehun,” Tao argued, both of them thoroughly failing to notice Chanyeol’s cries of indignation.
“No.” Sehun shook his head. “Normally, he chokes, trips over his own feet or walks into things. When Yifan’s around he manages to do all of that and sometimes more.”
“Anyway, while you’ve been off fraternizing with those guys, you’ve been missing some choice news,” Chanyeol changed the subject while Tao snorted gracelessly.
“You mean gossip.”
“No.”
“Yes.”
“It doesn’t matter. Check this out.” Chanyeol grabbed both of Sehun’s shoulders and aimed him at the wall of lockers.
“What am I checking out?”
“That guy.”
“Who is he?” Sehun asked blankly.
“Transfer student called Baekhyun, but just look.”
Sehun looked and blinked twice. The boy, tiny and petite like he could break at any moment, was wearing pants that were a size too small so they clung to his butt and thighs, had stuck a small mirror to the door of his locker and was fixing his hair in it, and—
“Is he wearing eyeliner?”
Chanyeol nodded vigorously. The boy closed his locker and slung his bag over one shoulder, walking off upright and confident.
“What is he, some kind of idol?” Sehun wondered aloud before glancing over at Chanyeol’s face and snorting loudly. He patted his friend on the back, nearly knocking him over — not because it was a particularly strong pat, but because Chanyeol was just that lacking in balance and co-ordination.
“Yeah. You’re straight.”
“I… I am!” Chanyeol’s eyes went wide as Sehun took Tao’s arm and walked ahead of him. “I wasn’t— Hey! Sehun!”