Chapter Text
“Hey Luhan, come here! There’s someone I want you to meet!” Yelled the all too familiar voice of my best friend Yixing.
That was the moment everything in my life would change…
“This is my cousin Mei,” He gestured to the young girl standing beside him. Short and straight raven hair that fell just above her shoulders, striking milk chocolate colored eyes, and impossibly pink lips. I couldn’t really tell over the loose fitting clothing but it seemed like she had an ok body. She was definitely cute but other than their fair skin, she looks nothing like Yixing. “She just moved back to Korea and it’s her first day here. I was wondering if you could show her around?” They both smiled at me and that’s when I noticed the binding factor: that single dimple on their right cheek must be a family trait.
I sighed, not really wanting to be held down when I had better things to do than babysit the new freshman. “Why can’t you do it gege?”
“A few of the other seniors and I are going out since it’s our last year. And you know how Kris is, trying to live in the moment, and Xiumin is tagging along too.”
“What?! Baozi too?” The mention of my other best friend left me even more confused. “Minseok-ge isn’t even a senior.”
“Yeah, but they are letting him graduate with our class. Can you believe it? Guess we underestimated the little guy.” He smiled again, completely unaware that he had just revealed the huge riff that was coming between our friends and I. I guess I’ve been so caught up in my own thing that I’ve kind of forgotten to consider my friends.
“Yeah… Great…” I bit the corner of my lip out of habit, looking away from that Mei girl’s intense staring. It was bad enough that my trusting ge Yixing is practically thrusting his adorable cousin on me, that I had never heard of until today, but why does she keep looking at me like that? “Fine, I’ll show you around campus. I’m done with classes for the day anyway. You owe me ge.” I turned around and headed towards the classrooms, the pitter-patter of small feet following after I heard Yixing telling his cousin that he’ll meet up with her later and to make sure she keeps up. “So… You’re name is Mei?”
“Y-Yes…” She looked around at the surrounding buildings mesmerized as I nonchalantly pointed out the more important facilities. “But you can just call me Yuri.”
I snickered, stopping in my tracks, causing her to unknowingly walk into my back. “That’s an odd name for a Chinese girl. Do you have your schedule with you? I can show you where your classrooms are.”
She handed me a paper which I took a small glance at, already committing it to memory as I changed my direction to her first class. “My mother is Korean and since I’m going to be living here, I thought it would be easier to have a Korean name. And before you ask, yes I can speak it.”
“Hmmm… Mei…” I let the name flow out of my mouth and it felt oddly comforting how perfectly it fell from my tongue. “You’re pretty quick to catch on. Ok, so it looks like most of your classes are in this building. How convenient.”
“Yixing-ge helped me make my schedule. Apparently my previous schedule involved too much ‘transferring from room to room’ for his liking. My ge seems to really like you a lot. He’s always talking about his ‘best friend’ and all the fun stuff you used to do.” She peeked her head into one of the classrooms before following me once again to the outside of the building. I’m glad she didn’t notice the bitter smile that graced my face at the mention of our old friendship.
We ended up finding a nice secluded area behind the school with a lone bench that was placed beside a bright flower garden. I wonder when they built this place. “So, how did you get into this place? It’s a progressive school so you would typically have to be enrolled from one of the younger grades to get here.”
“Family connections I guess.” She kicked her legs back and forth, holding onto the edge of the bench as she spoke. For some reason I found the small action kind of endearing. “But, what about you? I was terrified when Yixing-ge said he was moving to Korea. He’s always been kind of fragile since we were young and I was worried he would be really lonely here...” Her words trailed off as she refused to meet my eyes. I could see the love she had for her cousin and I could feel the guilt eating away at my heart. “He used to sound so miserable when he would call me. He used to be so full of life and energy that I just couldn’t believe it was the same person. Yixing-ge had always been there for me and I felt so helpless being so far away and not being able to do anything for him. He’s like my big brother, how can I just let him suffer like that? That is, until he met you.” I could see her smiling to herself as she continued. “I hadn’t seen him that happy in a long time and it was all thanks to you. Now he has you, Wu Fan-ge, Zitao-ge, Jongdae-ssi, and Minseok oppa.”
I felt a shiver go down my spine when the word ‘oppa’ escaped her lips. What the hell was that? Out of all the moments for this to happen… She’s trying to have a meaningful conversation with me about Lay-ge and I’m getting turned on from hearing her say ‘oppa’? Just great.
To make matters worse, she looked up at me with her shimmering eyes that were on the brink of tears and smiled. She was smiling because of me. “Thank you Luhan gege.”
My eyes widened and I coughed feeling like the worst person in the world. Here I was having inappropriate thoughts about my best friend’s cousin while she poured her heart out to me. She shouldn’t be thanking me, I’m a horrible person. I’ve been distancing myself from Lay-ge and the rest of my friends just to indulge in my little ‘hobby’. I didn’t know it meant this much to them. I definitely need to apologize to them tomorrow. For now, I need to take care of my problem and get rid of this little raven haired beauty. Wait, beauty? Oh fuck. “Umm, you don’t have to thank me really.”
She pouted and I could feel my heart softening. No, no, no this is not happening. “But—“
“I’m sorry, I just remembered I have somewhere to be soon so I have to go.” I stood up thanking whatever gods there were for loose fitting pants.
“Oh, I’m sorry. Well it was nice meeting you.” She bowed and I shamelessly looked down her shirt to see the two full mounds that were hiding beneath her clothes. Yixing-ge was holding out on me. Shit I’m doing it again. “Maybe I will see you around sometime.”
“Yeah, I’ll definitely be coming over.” I licked my bottom lip, catching what I just said. “T-to see Yixing! I will definitely be coming over to Yixing-ge’s place so maybe I’ll see you there.”
“How did you know I’m living with Yixing-ge?”
“You are?! I mean,” I tried to find a quick way out of this but I just couldn’t think of anything.
She smiled again and I needed her to leave before I explode. “Well, you two are best friends so I’m sure he told you. Oh! You said you had to go didn’t you? I’m sorry for holding you up! Bye!” She bowed once again and turned to leave.
Once she was out of sight I walked back into the hallway, catching a familiar figure. “Hana-ssi!” I walked up to her, tilting her head up towards me as I leaned in to whisper in her ear. “Do you want to get out of here for a bit?”
The overzealous nod I received was enough confirmation. I suppose she’ll have to do for now. I led her to one of the empty classrooms and locked the door with only one thought on my mind: Mei.
