fic for aurics, Art of Deception (1/2)
For: aurics
From: weatherworn
Title: Art of Deception
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 11100
Summary: Sehun, a bookstore owner, meets Lu Han, an undercover art thief, and things don't go as planned.
Sehun's bookstore is one of the only independent bookstores left in Seoul. It occupies a quiet street in the middle of the city and is called Oh! Books! He gets most of his foot traffic from the National Museum of Korea a few blocks away and more often than not, gets foreigners from all over the world pointing at him and going "Oh! Books!" with a wink or a wiggle of their eyebrows when they see his name tag. He would muster a smile for them and welcome them to the store.
"You should show more enthusiasm," Jongin tells him.
"I never should've named the store Oh! Books!" Sehun says sadly.
But other than that, Sehun enjoys his job as owner of a bookstore. Thanks to the museum, he gets a steady string of business everyday, immune to the encroaching threat of giant bookstore conglomerates. And in return, he offers a 20% discount to anyone who shows him their museum admission ticket. His best friend, Jongin, mans the coffee bar in the back of the store, which Jongin insisted would increase Oh! Books!'s profit margin. As always, he was right, so Sehun lets him stay.
Life is good, albeit a little boring, that is, until Lu Han crashed into his life.
---
Oh! Books! closes promptly at nine every night. If someone so much as set foot through the door at 8:59, Sehun would shoot them a glare that has them scrambling back out into the darkness.
"Seriously, Sehun," Jongin chides, "you seriously need to improve your customer service."
One night, Sehun is counting his cash register when the door chime rings wildly and he hears the muffled thud of someone falling hard onto the floor of his book store. He glances up quickly to see a thin figure in dark clothing sprawled, limbs askew, with a large, flat rectangular shaped object strapped to his back. It looks like he had tripped over the threshold.
The figure scrambles to his feet. "Um, hi," he says.
Sehun doesn't know what to say, so he says the first thing that comes to mind. "We're closed."
The figure turns back to peek through the large glass partition of the store, like he was checking for something. Seemingly satisfied with what he sees, he turns back to Sehun.
"Oh hey, your name is Oh Sehun and you named your store ‘Oh! Books!’" the guy chirps. He sounds proud of himself, like he's the first one to make that discovery.
Sehun is about to go over and just forcibly drag the guy out of the store. But then, Sehun suddenly remembers what Jongin said about improving customer service and he doesn't think pushing customers out the door by force qualifies as good customer service.
"We're currently closed, but you are free to peruse our wide selection of books during business hours," Sehun says haltingly, every word a struggle. It was one of the phrases that he had to memorize in the business owner etiquette manual Jongin forced him to read.
Sehun notices that the guy turns back around to peek through the windows again as he's talking, ignoring him.
"Sure, yeah yeah, I completely understand," the guy says distractedly. "I'll come back during business hours." He turns back to flash a grin at Sehun. "See you around, Oh Sehun of Oh! Books!"
With Sehun staring, bewildered, the guy vanishes into the night.
---
To Sehun's surprise, the guy does return during business hours a week later. What doesn't surprise him is how he trips over the threshold again, but quickly rights himself with an embarrassed look on his face. From Sehun's vantage point at the cash register, he can see the guy survey the room before disappearing behind the shelves.
Sehun turns back to the book he is reading, but finds himself struggling to focus. There's something fishy about that guy, but Jongin might say that Sehun was just being a misanthrope and suspicious about everyone. He takes care of a batch of customers who are ready to pay for their purchases. At the end of the queue is the guy with a tall stack of books in his arms that he has to hold in place with the help of his chin. His tiny chin.
"Are you always that clumsy?" Sehun asks, nodding towards the threshold as he starts scanning the barcodes.
The guy hands him a credit card and makes a face. "You have an unusually high stoop."
Sehun glances at the name on the card. "Lu Han," he reads out loud.
"That's me!" the guy says cheerfully. He leans forward, his eyes sparkling. Sehun shrinks back. "Your friend told me that you're free this evening for dinner."
"My friend?" Sehun asks, confused. "Oh, Jongin. He's not my friend. He's an employee who's about to be fired."
Lu Han is undeterred. "Coffee?"
"How about you have a nice day and let me take care of the customers behind you," Sehun says. This guy is weird.
Lu Han smiles, as if he's enjoying this. "You're a tough nut to crack, but I like it." Grabbing the tote bag that Sehun gives to customers who spend more than 35,000 wons, he leaves without a backward glance.
---
Lu Han enjoys being underestimated. It's not that he wants people to think he's inept, but he likes to catch people when they're off their guard. It makes his job much easier.
He stands on the ledge and checks the line again to make sure it's secured. He has already scoped out the place for about a week, poring over the blueprints of the building. Most museums employ around the same measures of security, it's just a question of where everything is situated. The thrill is always different each time.
He adjusts the plastic tube that he has slung across his shoulder. They still haven't discovered that the Portrait of a Beauty at the National Museum of Seoul is a forgery and Lu Han doubts they ever will. He had spent months recreating it, aging the paper meticulously and obsessively, after painstakingly examining every stroke of paint Hyewon had laid on the original. It's a masterpiece and it now belongs to Lu Han.
But all the preparation boils down to about fifteen minutes of either triumph or failure. And failure is not an option.
Lu Han takes a deep breath and gets ready to jump.
---
Sehun likes having routine in his life. It makes him feel better when he knows what to expect in this chaotic world. He likes to go home after work, eat his dinner, take a bubble bath, and go to bed. It's this exact reason why he opened up a bookstore in the first place. It offers solitude, organization, and stability. He likes that he has somewhere to go everyday, and that once he gets to work, nothing would be a surprise. He would put the shelves in order, by subject, then by author, then by title of each book by each respective author. Customers are the only unpredictable factors, but even then their needs are often predictable after a while.
"So, this guy...," Jongin begins.
"What guy?" Sehun says.
"The one who asked me if you're seeing anyone," Jongin says.
"What about him?"
"Well, did you say yes?"
"What? No, he's weird," Sehun says.
"Really, I thought he was kind of cute," Jongin says.
"You do what you want," Sehun says, going back to his book. "Although, I'd like to remind you that you already have a loving and occasionally murderous boyfriend."
Jongin snatches the book from Sehun's hand, followed by a searing glare from Sehun.
"Why don't you just go out to dinner with him at least once?" Jongin suggests. "Ever since you came out of the closet, you've kinda just shuffled back in there to hide."
"I am not hiding," Sehun insists. "I'm just not interested in anyone."
"You mean, no one is interested in you," Jongin says, cackling. "You own a bookstore, for fuck’s sake."
Sehun snatches the book from Jongin. He isn't sure why he had started reading the book in the first place. It is about the life stages of monarch butterflies.
"Could you go away now, please?" Sehun grouses, trying to swat Jongin away like an annoying insect.
"Gladly," Jongin huffs. "I'm going to go call my boyfriend and ask him out on a DATE and have tons of FUN, you sexless fetus."
Sehun decides that the book about the life stages of monarch butterflies also makes a great object to throw at someone.
---
Lu Han isn't quite sure what draws him back to the Oh, Books bookstore. He likes to think it's the comprehensive selection of books that it carries, but who is he kidding really? The owner is cute and Lu Han likes cute things. That's why he got his nose fixed. He appreciates things that look good, plus things that are hard to get. He always has.
He enters the bookstore, mindful of the threshold, which for some reason he can't seem to traverse without any trouble. He plays it cool, slipping into the travel section in the rear of the store, which provides a suitable place to hide and stare.
Sehun is currently assisting a customer, climbing a small foot ladder to reach for a book on the top shelf. The movement of lifting his arm causes the hem of his shirt to rise just a bit, revealing the smooth, pale plane of his stomach. It needs to be immortalized, Lu Han decides, already planning the pencil strokes of his sketch.
When Sehun hands the book to the customer with a smile, Lu Han thinks that he should start with the face first instead. Sehun's face has a way of transforming from an unwritten page to one that opens like a book for the reader's pleasure.
Sehun seems to sense that Lu Han is staring because he glances up to look directly in Lu Han's direction. Lu Han doesn't bother to hide, his face lifting into a smile that he can't help.
"You!" Sehun exclaims.
"Me," Lu Han agrees mildly, gliding over. "Any second thoughts on dinner?"
"No," Sehun says firmly. Then he thinks about what Jongin said last night. "No," he says even more firmly. He then thinks about Jongin's annoying voice calling him a sexless fetus. He scowls.
"If he won't go out with you, I'd go out with you," the woman Sehun assisted earlier offers, smiling at Lu Han. Lu Han returns the smile, a bit flirtatiously, in Sehun's opinion.
A man sidles over from the self-help section of the bookstore. "If you need help saying yes," he says, "there's a book for that." He hands Sehun the book he had been perusing. Sehun reads the title: "Commitmentphobes and why you will always be alone." There's a caption that offers: "1001 ways to be in a happy and committed relationship."
"OK, fine!" Sehun says, relenting because this is getting a little ridiculous. "I will go out to dinner with you, one time."
Lu Han beams as the two customers offer their congratulations.
---
Sehun adjusts his tie and tries not to look awkward sitting alone at the restaurant table. He better have not been stood up, especially after all that trouble Lu Han went through, including coercing Sehun into a date with peer pressure.
Luckily, he watches Lu Han breeze in through the doorway a heartbeat later. There is a certain grace to him when he's not tripping through the door, Sehun thinks begrudgingly. And there is a certain attractiveness to him that’s unmistakable. Sehun shakes his head to clear it and raises his hand to catch Lu Han's attention. Lu Han sees him and his face blooms into a smile.
"Sorry, I'm late," Lu Han says, sliding into the seat. "Have you ordered yet?"
Sehun shakes his head and takes a sip of water to calm his nerves. It's not that he's nervous about Lu Han, not at all, but because he doesn't want to make a fool of himself.
After putting in their orders to the waiter, Lu Han leans forward to rest his chin in his hands that are propped up on the table. He looks completely relaxed and slightly predatory. Sehun thinks he should've ordered a glass of wine too.
"So," Sehun says, clearing his throat. "What do you do for a living?" He realizes he knows virtually nothing about Lu Han. He could be a member of an evangelizing religion trying to recruit Sehun and Sehun's just not interested in exploring his spirituality at this stage of his life. Maybe wine is not a good idea after all. Sehun needs to have all his faculties intact tonight.
"You can say I'm an artist," Lu Han replies. "I restore paintings."
"Oh?" Sehun says, perking up. He had not expected Lu Han to be much of anything, to be honest. "That's really interesting. I used to intern for a curator before I opened my bookstore and met a lot of artists who did stuff like that."
"And what did you think of them?" Lu Han asks.
"I don't know. You guys are kind of a secretive bunch," Sehun says, scratching the side of his head, which Lu Han finds adorable.
"We are," Lu Han admits. "It's because we have to keep our projects secret until they're unveiled. But anyway, tell me more about your internship. I'm really interested." Strangely enough, Sehun thinks he actually was.
---
They tumble out of the restaurant, limbs askew, totally oblivious to everything but each other.
"Do you know," Lu Han breathes in between kisses, "how sexy you are?"
Sehun doesn't really, since the last adjective used to describe him was sexless, but Lu Han seems to think otherwise and the last thing Sehun wants to do is stop the kissing. His head is spinning and he's not exactly sure of what's going on around him because all his senses are assaulted with Lu Han, in the best possible way. He feels like he's being wrapped around like a blanket, comforting and safe. But like a sexy blanket too, because Lu Han's mouth is doing things to Sehun that feels like punches to his gut, leaving him gasping for air. Certain parts of him were also tingling with pleasure, but he'd rather not talk about it.
It's Lu Han who pulls away from their kiss, and it feels like a vacuum of warm air gets sucked away along with him. Sehun is left dazed and wanting more.
"It's time for you to go home," Lu Han murmurs, resting his head against Sehun's. Sehun can see each single strand of Lu Han's lashes.
"Huh, what?" Sehun manages to string together.
"I have to leave something for the second date, right?" Lu Han says, winking. Or he tries to wink because both eyes blink, one right after the other. Sehun kind of wants to go in for another kiss.
He thinks Lu Han can read his mind because he smiles like he knows and presses his lips against Sehun's softly, and Sehun can feel the smile in the kiss.
There is a brief moment of awkwardness as Sehun tries to get his bearings and call a cab, but has forgotten how. He's too far gone to even remember the direction of his apartment, it's like he drank three glasses of wine instead of the one, but luckily Lu Han places him into a cab and prompts Sehun for the address.
Sehun looks back through the rear window and sees Lu Han getting smaller and smaller as he's driven away until his tiny chin disappears completely out of view.
---
It takes a day and half for Sehun to recover from his Lu Han hangover and afterwards, he rubs his temples and wonders what the hell just happened.
"What the hell just happened?" Sehun wonders out loud.
"I don't know, but that's a really nice looking hickey you got there," Jongin remarks while drying out a coffee mug with a towel.
Sehun takes another deep sip of coffee and pulls up his shirt collar to hide it. "First we were talking and then we were making out. I don't even like the guy."
"Hmm," Jongin says.
"What?"
"What?"
"What's that 'hmm' noise?" Sehun says, narrowing his eyes.
"Well, clearly you like him if you're making out with him, right?" Jongin points out. He stops. "I feel like I'm talking to a child who's just learning about cause and effect right now."
"Don't make me throw this hot cup of coffee at you," Sehun warns. He sobers and his heart softens a little. "But you know what he was, though?"
"What?"
"He was a really good listener," Sehun says. "And he does this thing with his eyes, like they're staring into my soul or something." He makes vague hand gestures to try to express how it feels, but it doesn't quite convey it either. "And they're so...pretty. Ugh."
"Aw, our Sehunnie is in love," Jongin says. "I'm happy for you, man." He slaps Sehun on the shoulder and resumes his chores.
The thing that troubles Sehun most of all about all this is that he has absolutely no control over anything. Lu Han comes and goes as he please and apparently, now Sehun's feelings (ugh) are refusing to cooperate as well. He finds himself wanting to see Lu Han trip through the door of the bookstore again right now and tries to squash those thoughts. He is a man and he is in control of his emotions and thoughts, he reminds himself.
He lays his head down on the smooth, cooling surface of the coffee bar counter and groans some more.
---
For as long as he could remember, Lu Han was afraid of heights. The fear is visceral, debilitating, and completely irrational. He remembers his father taking him on a holiday trip to Yunnan province once to see the mountains. They went up one of the ranges, the path steep and exhausting. The view at the top hits Lu Han like a full force tackle, knocking all the air out of him. The landscape and other mountains laid before him, spreading to the horizon, and Lu Han learned that day how truly small he is. It was beautiful, but it was also terrifying. Lu Han felt his legs give way and he panicked that he was going to fall over the guardrails that lied beside the path, but his father steadied him.
"You have to learn to conquer your fears," his father told him.
Lu Han has been trying to do that ever since.
---
The first time they discovered that a painting had been swapped out of the National Art Museum in Beijing, they could not believe it at first. The counterfeit was a perfect recreation of Guo Xi's Early Spring down to the smallest brush stroke. Whoever the thief was, he was a professional. Several high level cadres came by the museum the day after the discovery of the fake and instructed them to keep it under wraps until they could get to the bottom of this. For this, they sent out Beijing-based detectives Wu Yifan and Zhang Yixing.
"So what do we have so far?" the captain inquired after asking them into his office. "Any leads?"
"Reports of counterfeit paintings seems to have tapered off in the last six months and the trail seems to have gone cold," Yifan reports, rubbing his temple in frustration.
"We believe he might have gone abroad. South Korea has reported several of their paintings to have been stolen and replaced with fakes," Yixing says.
The captain sits back in his chair and rubs his chin in contemplation. "Any information on the thief himself?"
"We know he's an artist, unless he's been contracting an accomplice to create the counterfeits for him, but all evidence seems to be that he's working alone," Yifan says.
The captain nods. "Okay, you two are going to Seoul."
---
Lu Han breezes through the door of Oh! Books!, forgetting about the damned raised threshold again and trips through the door ungracefully, arms pinwheeling to keep himself upright. He straightens himself and smooths his hand down his shirt sheepishly and glances around to see if anyone noticed.
Sehun is by the cash register, watching this, and thinks it's adorable.
Lu Han spots him and floats over. "Hi," he says, resting an arm on the counter.
"I just saw you trip over the doorstep again," Sehun says. "I think you're a little too late in trying to impress me."
"Hey, I have to try, don't I?" Lu Han says. He moves out of the way so Sehun can ring up a customer. "I had a really good time at dinner last time." There's a teasing edge to Lu Han's voice that has Sehun flushing with the memories of that night.
"Yeah, it was an alright time," Sehun croaks out.
"Hmm, sounds like you need more convincing," Lu Han says, amused. "Dinner tonight?"
"Tonight? What if I had plans?" Sehun retorts.
Lu Han looks at him.
"Okay, you have a point," Sehun relents. His plans for tonight includes a date with Netflix and his cat, Boo Boo.
"Sooo, date?" Lu Han says cheerfully.
"Okay, yeah, fine, whatever," Sehun grouses, waving Lu Han away. He is trying to appear uninterested, and he hopes it's working.
Lu Han looks pleased, much like the way Boo Boo looks when she's caught a dead mouse and laid it in front of Sehun and looks up at him like she was expecting a reward. It is a very disconcerting similarity.
"Hey, will you be interested in going to a gallery showing tonight?" Lu Han asked. "There is an artist named Oh Jeong Il and he has a showing tonight to reveal some of his pieces. His work is interesting."
Sehun looks at Lu Han. This is the first time Lu Han has shown an interest in something that was not Sehun and it made him more real, more human, and less creepy to Sehun. "Yeah, okay," he agrees.
---
"You brought me here to show me paintings of hair," Sehun says.
"Shhhhh," Lu Han hushes, aghast. "It's not just hair, it's about the contrast between light and dark, life and death, and the ways life interact with inanimate objects."
"But...it's hair," Sehun insists.
It is hair. The gallery showroom, the walls stark white, is decorated with large canvasses full of Oh Jeong Il's paintings of braided hair set against negative space. Granted, Sehun is impressed that Mr. Oh had painted each strand of hair and the paintings are so meticulously drawn, so full of detail and realism, that they look like photographs rather than paintings, but still. It's hair.
By this time, Lu Han has wandered over to the artist himself, who is sipping champagne from a delicate wine glass. Sehun scurries after him, feeling like this is less than a date and more like he was being dragged to something that only Lu Han is interested in doing. Actually, maybe this is a date after all.
Lu Han chats with Mr. Oh for a while while Sehun drifts in and out of the conversation, although he makes sure to nod every once in a while to pretend that he is listening. When Lu Han introduces Sehun to Oh Jeong Il, Sehun blurts out in response, "We have the same surname."
"Ah," Mr. Oh says politely. "Well, it was very nice meeting someone who understands on such an intimate level the goals I was trying to achieve here. It was an honor to meet you, Mr. Lu."
"Oh my goodness, the honor is mine," Lu Han gushes. "Thank you for the lovely evening." When Mr. Oh drifts away to speak to another one of his admirers, Lu Han sighs. "What an inspirational man."
"I'm hungry," Sehun says, glaring at Mr. Oh's departing back. As if on cue, his stomach growls in agreement.
"Oh, I'm so sorry, Sehun-ah," Lu Han says, rubbing Sehun's arm comfortingly. Sehun kind of melts into his touch. "I did sort of abandon you here while I was off admiring other men. I'll make it up to you, I promise."
They go for dinner and to make it up to Sehun, Lu Han takes him for some ice cream afterwards. Sehun is appeased.
"That's it? You guys just went for ice cream?" Jongin asks the next day, incredulous. "No taking you back to his place and getting down to kinky business?"
"Yes, it was a surprisingly chaste date," Sehun admits. "But I had a good time. You don't always have to get naked to have a good time."
Jongin snorts in derision. "Yeah, but you guys were ready to get down to kinky business right on the first date."
"Could you stop saying the word 'kinky'?" Sehun says, his toleration of Jongin particularly low before his first cup of coffee. "A person should not have to say the word 'kinky' so many times, especially you."
"What am I going to do with you, Sehun," Jongin says, shaking his head.
"He did give me a good night kiss?" Sehun offers.
Jongin groans and walks away.
---
From his luxurious twenty-sixth floor apartment in Gangnam district, Lu Han has a particularly spectacular view of Seoul. In the mornings, he can see the sun rise on the horizon, gradually spreading its fingers across the expanse of the city, and at night, it is a mosaic of lights, small pixels that make up the picture of this elegant city. It reminds him a lot of Beijing.
He misses Beijing like he does his own parents. But like most desires, wistfulness and nostalgia will wane over time and soon it will become just a distant memory. Lu Han learned long ago that attachment is a weakness. He is driven by what he wants, but he never gets too attached.
He turns away from the glass floor-to-ceiling window and looks around the living room. Canvasses lied around the spartan room, all in different stages of completion. Some, he will sell as his own works under a pseudonym. Thanks to some associates from the black market, he had been able to sell Portrait of a Beauty for a nice sum. He was sad to let it go and had nursed thoughts of keeping it for himself. It was such a simple painting, but for reason, Lu Han had the most difficulty recreating it. He feels like it's his greatest achievement so far, the patience he had invested into the piece. It won't be long before the museum discovers that it's a fake, but by then, Lu Han will be gone.
---
Part 2
From: weatherworn
Title: Art of Deception
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 11100
Summary: Sehun, a bookstore owner, meets Lu Han, an undercover art thief, and things don't go as planned.
Sehun's bookstore is one of the only independent bookstores left in Seoul. It occupies a quiet street in the middle of the city and is called Oh! Books! He gets most of his foot traffic from the National Museum of Korea a few blocks away and more often than not, gets foreigners from all over the world pointing at him and going "Oh! Books!" with a wink or a wiggle of their eyebrows when they see his name tag. He would muster a smile for them and welcome them to the store.
"You should show more enthusiasm," Jongin tells him.
"I never should've named the store Oh! Books!" Sehun says sadly.
But other than that, Sehun enjoys his job as owner of a bookstore. Thanks to the museum, he gets a steady string of business everyday, immune to the encroaching threat of giant bookstore conglomerates. And in return, he offers a 20% discount to anyone who shows him their museum admission ticket. His best friend, Jongin, mans the coffee bar in the back of the store, which Jongin insisted would increase Oh! Books!'s profit margin. As always, he was right, so Sehun lets him stay.
Life is good, albeit a little boring, that is, until Lu Han crashed into his life.
---
Oh! Books! closes promptly at nine every night. If someone so much as set foot through the door at 8:59, Sehun would shoot them a glare that has them scrambling back out into the darkness.
"Seriously, Sehun," Jongin chides, "you seriously need to improve your customer service."
One night, Sehun is counting his cash register when the door chime rings wildly and he hears the muffled thud of someone falling hard onto the floor of his book store. He glances up quickly to see a thin figure in dark clothing sprawled, limbs askew, with a large, flat rectangular shaped object strapped to his back. It looks like he had tripped over the threshold.
The figure scrambles to his feet. "Um, hi," he says.
Sehun doesn't know what to say, so he says the first thing that comes to mind. "We're closed."
The figure turns back to peek through the large glass partition of the store, like he was checking for something. Seemingly satisfied with what he sees, he turns back to Sehun.
"Oh hey, your name is Oh Sehun and you named your store ‘Oh! Books!’" the guy chirps. He sounds proud of himself, like he's the first one to make that discovery.
Sehun is about to go over and just forcibly drag the guy out of the store. But then, Sehun suddenly remembers what Jongin said about improving customer service and he doesn't think pushing customers out the door by force qualifies as good customer service.
"We're currently closed, but you are free to peruse our wide selection of books during business hours," Sehun says haltingly, every word a struggle. It was one of the phrases that he had to memorize in the business owner etiquette manual Jongin forced him to read.
Sehun notices that the guy turns back around to peek through the windows again as he's talking, ignoring him.
"Sure, yeah yeah, I completely understand," the guy says distractedly. "I'll come back during business hours." He turns back to flash a grin at Sehun. "See you around, Oh Sehun of Oh! Books!"
With Sehun staring, bewildered, the guy vanishes into the night.
---
To Sehun's surprise, the guy does return during business hours a week later. What doesn't surprise him is how he trips over the threshold again, but quickly rights himself with an embarrassed look on his face. From Sehun's vantage point at the cash register, he can see the guy survey the room before disappearing behind the shelves.
Sehun turns back to the book he is reading, but finds himself struggling to focus. There's something fishy about that guy, but Jongin might say that Sehun was just being a misanthrope and suspicious about everyone. He takes care of a batch of customers who are ready to pay for their purchases. At the end of the queue is the guy with a tall stack of books in his arms that he has to hold in place with the help of his chin. His tiny chin.
"Are you always that clumsy?" Sehun asks, nodding towards the threshold as he starts scanning the barcodes.
The guy hands him a credit card and makes a face. "You have an unusually high stoop."
Sehun glances at the name on the card. "Lu Han," he reads out loud.
"That's me!" the guy says cheerfully. He leans forward, his eyes sparkling. Sehun shrinks back. "Your friend told me that you're free this evening for dinner."
"My friend?" Sehun asks, confused. "Oh, Jongin. He's not my friend. He's an employee who's about to be fired."
Lu Han is undeterred. "Coffee?"
"How about you have a nice day and let me take care of the customers behind you," Sehun says. This guy is weird.
Lu Han smiles, as if he's enjoying this. "You're a tough nut to crack, but I like it." Grabbing the tote bag that Sehun gives to customers who spend more than 35,000 wons, he leaves without a backward glance.
---
Lu Han enjoys being underestimated. It's not that he wants people to think he's inept, but he likes to catch people when they're off their guard. It makes his job much easier.
He stands on the ledge and checks the line again to make sure it's secured. He has already scoped out the place for about a week, poring over the blueprints of the building. Most museums employ around the same measures of security, it's just a question of where everything is situated. The thrill is always different each time.
He adjusts the plastic tube that he has slung across his shoulder. They still haven't discovered that the Portrait of a Beauty at the National Museum of Seoul is a forgery and Lu Han doubts they ever will. He had spent months recreating it, aging the paper meticulously and obsessively, after painstakingly examining every stroke of paint Hyewon had laid on the original. It's a masterpiece and it now belongs to Lu Han.
But all the preparation boils down to about fifteen minutes of either triumph or failure. And failure is not an option.
Lu Han takes a deep breath and gets ready to jump.
---
Sehun likes having routine in his life. It makes him feel better when he knows what to expect in this chaotic world. He likes to go home after work, eat his dinner, take a bubble bath, and go to bed. It's this exact reason why he opened up a bookstore in the first place. It offers solitude, organization, and stability. He likes that he has somewhere to go everyday, and that once he gets to work, nothing would be a surprise. He would put the shelves in order, by subject, then by author, then by title of each book by each respective author. Customers are the only unpredictable factors, but even then their needs are often predictable after a while.
"So, this guy...," Jongin begins.
"What guy?" Sehun says.
"The one who asked me if you're seeing anyone," Jongin says.
"What about him?"
"Well, did you say yes?"
"What? No, he's weird," Sehun says.
"Really, I thought he was kind of cute," Jongin says.
"You do what you want," Sehun says, going back to his book. "Although, I'd like to remind you that you already have a loving and occasionally murderous boyfriend."
Jongin snatches the book from Sehun's hand, followed by a searing glare from Sehun.
"Why don't you just go out to dinner with him at least once?" Jongin suggests. "Ever since you came out of the closet, you've kinda just shuffled back in there to hide."
"I am not hiding," Sehun insists. "I'm just not interested in anyone."
"You mean, no one is interested in you," Jongin says, cackling. "You own a bookstore, for fuck’s sake."
Sehun snatches the book from Jongin. He isn't sure why he had started reading the book in the first place. It is about the life stages of monarch butterflies.
"Could you go away now, please?" Sehun grouses, trying to swat Jongin away like an annoying insect.
"Gladly," Jongin huffs. "I'm going to go call my boyfriend and ask him out on a DATE and have tons of FUN, you sexless fetus."
Sehun decides that the book about the life stages of monarch butterflies also makes a great object to throw at someone.
---
Lu Han isn't quite sure what draws him back to the Oh, Books bookstore. He likes to think it's the comprehensive selection of books that it carries, but who is he kidding really? The owner is cute and Lu Han likes cute things. That's why he got his nose fixed. He appreciates things that look good, plus things that are hard to get. He always has.
He enters the bookstore, mindful of the threshold, which for some reason he can't seem to traverse without any trouble. He plays it cool, slipping into the travel section in the rear of the store, which provides a suitable place to hide and stare.
Sehun is currently assisting a customer, climbing a small foot ladder to reach for a book on the top shelf. The movement of lifting his arm causes the hem of his shirt to rise just a bit, revealing the smooth, pale plane of his stomach. It needs to be immortalized, Lu Han decides, already planning the pencil strokes of his sketch.
When Sehun hands the book to the customer with a smile, Lu Han thinks that he should start with the face first instead. Sehun's face has a way of transforming from an unwritten page to one that opens like a book for the reader's pleasure.
Sehun seems to sense that Lu Han is staring because he glances up to look directly in Lu Han's direction. Lu Han doesn't bother to hide, his face lifting into a smile that he can't help.
"You!" Sehun exclaims.
"Me," Lu Han agrees mildly, gliding over. "Any second thoughts on dinner?"
"No," Sehun says firmly. Then he thinks about what Jongin said last night. "No," he says even more firmly. He then thinks about Jongin's annoying voice calling him a sexless fetus. He scowls.
"If he won't go out with you, I'd go out with you," the woman Sehun assisted earlier offers, smiling at Lu Han. Lu Han returns the smile, a bit flirtatiously, in Sehun's opinion.
A man sidles over from the self-help section of the bookstore. "If you need help saying yes," he says, "there's a book for that." He hands Sehun the book he had been perusing. Sehun reads the title: "Commitmentphobes and why you will always be alone." There's a caption that offers: "1001 ways to be in a happy and committed relationship."
"OK, fine!" Sehun says, relenting because this is getting a little ridiculous. "I will go out to dinner with you, one time."
Lu Han beams as the two customers offer their congratulations.
---
Sehun adjusts his tie and tries not to look awkward sitting alone at the restaurant table. He better have not been stood up, especially after all that trouble Lu Han went through, including coercing Sehun into a date with peer pressure.
Luckily, he watches Lu Han breeze in through the doorway a heartbeat later. There is a certain grace to him when he's not tripping through the door, Sehun thinks begrudgingly. And there is a certain attractiveness to him that’s unmistakable. Sehun shakes his head to clear it and raises his hand to catch Lu Han's attention. Lu Han sees him and his face blooms into a smile.
"Sorry, I'm late," Lu Han says, sliding into the seat. "Have you ordered yet?"
Sehun shakes his head and takes a sip of water to calm his nerves. It's not that he's nervous about Lu Han, not at all, but because he doesn't want to make a fool of himself.
After putting in their orders to the waiter, Lu Han leans forward to rest his chin in his hands that are propped up on the table. He looks completely relaxed and slightly predatory. Sehun thinks he should've ordered a glass of wine too.
"So," Sehun says, clearing his throat. "What do you do for a living?" He realizes he knows virtually nothing about Lu Han. He could be a member of an evangelizing religion trying to recruit Sehun and Sehun's just not interested in exploring his spirituality at this stage of his life. Maybe wine is not a good idea after all. Sehun needs to have all his faculties intact tonight.
"You can say I'm an artist," Lu Han replies. "I restore paintings."
"Oh?" Sehun says, perking up. He had not expected Lu Han to be much of anything, to be honest. "That's really interesting. I used to intern for a curator before I opened my bookstore and met a lot of artists who did stuff like that."
"And what did you think of them?" Lu Han asks.
"I don't know. You guys are kind of a secretive bunch," Sehun says, scratching the side of his head, which Lu Han finds adorable.
"We are," Lu Han admits. "It's because we have to keep our projects secret until they're unveiled. But anyway, tell me more about your internship. I'm really interested." Strangely enough, Sehun thinks he actually was.
---
They tumble out of the restaurant, limbs askew, totally oblivious to everything but each other.
"Do you know," Lu Han breathes in between kisses, "how sexy you are?"
Sehun doesn't really, since the last adjective used to describe him was sexless, but Lu Han seems to think otherwise and the last thing Sehun wants to do is stop the kissing. His head is spinning and he's not exactly sure of what's going on around him because all his senses are assaulted with Lu Han, in the best possible way. He feels like he's being wrapped around like a blanket, comforting and safe. But like a sexy blanket too, because Lu Han's mouth is doing things to Sehun that feels like punches to his gut, leaving him gasping for air. Certain parts of him were also tingling with pleasure, but he'd rather not talk about it.
It's Lu Han who pulls away from their kiss, and it feels like a vacuum of warm air gets sucked away along with him. Sehun is left dazed and wanting more.
"It's time for you to go home," Lu Han murmurs, resting his head against Sehun's. Sehun can see each single strand of Lu Han's lashes.
"Huh, what?" Sehun manages to string together.
"I have to leave something for the second date, right?" Lu Han says, winking. Or he tries to wink because both eyes blink, one right after the other. Sehun kind of wants to go in for another kiss.
He thinks Lu Han can read his mind because he smiles like he knows and presses his lips against Sehun's softly, and Sehun can feel the smile in the kiss.
There is a brief moment of awkwardness as Sehun tries to get his bearings and call a cab, but has forgotten how. He's too far gone to even remember the direction of his apartment, it's like he drank three glasses of wine instead of the one, but luckily Lu Han places him into a cab and prompts Sehun for the address.
Sehun looks back through the rear window and sees Lu Han getting smaller and smaller as he's driven away until his tiny chin disappears completely out of view.
---
It takes a day and half for Sehun to recover from his Lu Han hangover and afterwards, he rubs his temples and wonders what the hell just happened.
"What the hell just happened?" Sehun wonders out loud.
"I don't know, but that's a really nice looking hickey you got there," Jongin remarks while drying out a coffee mug with a towel.
Sehun takes another deep sip of coffee and pulls up his shirt collar to hide it. "First we were talking and then we were making out. I don't even like the guy."
"Hmm," Jongin says.
"What?"
"What?"
"What's that 'hmm' noise?" Sehun says, narrowing his eyes.
"Well, clearly you like him if you're making out with him, right?" Jongin points out. He stops. "I feel like I'm talking to a child who's just learning about cause and effect right now."
"Don't make me throw this hot cup of coffee at you," Sehun warns. He sobers and his heart softens a little. "But you know what he was, though?"
"What?"
"He was a really good listener," Sehun says. "And he does this thing with his eyes, like they're staring into my soul or something." He makes vague hand gestures to try to express how it feels, but it doesn't quite convey it either. "And they're so...pretty. Ugh."
"Aw, our Sehunnie is in love," Jongin says. "I'm happy for you, man." He slaps Sehun on the shoulder and resumes his chores.
The thing that troubles Sehun most of all about all this is that he has absolutely no control over anything. Lu Han comes and goes as he please and apparently, now Sehun's feelings (ugh) are refusing to cooperate as well. He finds himself wanting to see Lu Han trip through the door of the bookstore again right now and tries to squash those thoughts. He is a man and he is in control of his emotions and thoughts, he reminds himself.
He lays his head down on the smooth, cooling surface of the coffee bar counter and groans some more.
---
For as long as he could remember, Lu Han was afraid of heights. The fear is visceral, debilitating, and completely irrational. He remembers his father taking him on a holiday trip to Yunnan province once to see the mountains. They went up one of the ranges, the path steep and exhausting. The view at the top hits Lu Han like a full force tackle, knocking all the air out of him. The landscape and other mountains laid before him, spreading to the horizon, and Lu Han learned that day how truly small he is. It was beautiful, but it was also terrifying. Lu Han felt his legs give way and he panicked that he was going to fall over the guardrails that lied beside the path, but his father steadied him.
"You have to learn to conquer your fears," his father told him.
Lu Han has been trying to do that ever since.
---
The first time they discovered that a painting had been swapped out of the National Art Museum in Beijing, they could not believe it at first. The counterfeit was a perfect recreation of Guo Xi's Early Spring down to the smallest brush stroke. Whoever the thief was, he was a professional. Several high level cadres came by the museum the day after the discovery of the fake and instructed them to keep it under wraps until they could get to the bottom of this. For this, they sent out Beijing-based detectives Wu Yifan and Zhang Yixing.
"So what do we have so far?" the captain inquired after asking them into his office. "Any leads?"
"Reports of counterfeit paintings seems to have tapered off in the last six months and the trail seems to have gone cold," Yifan reports, rubbing his temple in frustration.
"We believe he might have gone abroad. South Korea has reported several of their paintings to have been stolen and replaced with fakes," Yixing says.
The captain sits back in his chair and rubs his chin in contemplation. "Any information on the thief himself?"
"We know he's an artist, unless he's been contracting an accomplice to create the counterfeits for him, but all evidence seems to be that he's working alone," Yifan says.
The captain nods. "Okay, you two are going to Seoul."
---
Lu Han breezes through the door of Oh! Books!, forgetting about the damned raised threshold again and trips through the door ungracefully, arms pinwheeling to keep himself upright. He straightens himself and smooths his hand down his shirt sheepishly and glances around to see if anyone noticed.
Sehun is by the cash register, watching this, and thinks it's adorable.
Lu Han spots him and floats over. "Hi," he says, resting an arm on the counter.
"I just saw you trip over the doorstep again," Sehun says. "I think you're a little too late in trying to impress me."
"Hey, I have to try, don't I?" Lu Han says. He moves out of the way so Sehun can ring up a customer. "I had a really good time at dinner last time." There's a teasing edge to Lu Han's voice that has Sehun flushing with the memories of that night.
"Yeah, it was an alright time," Sehun croaks out.
"Hmm, sounds like you need more convincing," Lu Han says, amused. "Dinner tonight?"
"Tonight? What if I had plans?" Sehun retorts.
Lu Han looks at him.
"Okay, you have a point," Sehun relents. His plans for tonight includes a date with Netflix and his cat, Boo Boo.
"Sooo, date?" Lu Han says cheerfully.
"Okay, yeah, fine, whatever," Sehun grouses, waving Lu Han away. He is trying to appear uninterested, and he hopes it's working.
Lu Han looks pleased, much like the way Boo Boo looks when she's caught a dead mouse and laid it in front of Sehun and looks up at him like she was expecting a reward. It is a very disconcerting similarity.
"Hey, will you be interested in going to a gallery showing tonight?" Lu Han asked. "There is an artist named Oh Jeong Il and he has a showing tonight to reveal some of his pieces. His work is interesting."
Sehun looks at Lu Han. This is the first time Lu Han has shown an interest in something that was not Sehun and it made him more real, more human, and less creepy to Sehun. "Yeah, okay," he agrees.
---
"You brought me here to show me paintings of hair," Sehun says.
"Shhhhh," Lu Han hushes, aghast. "It's not just hair, it's about the contrast between light and dark, life and death, and the ways life interact with inanimate objects."
"But...it's hair," Sehun insists.
It is hair. The gallery showroom, the walls stark white, is decorated with large canvasses full of Oh Jeong Il's paintings of braided hair set against negative space. Granted, Sehun is impressed that Mr. Oh had painted each strand of hair and the paintings are so meticulously drawn, so full of detail and realism, that they look like photographs rather than paintings, but still. It's hair.
By this time, Lu Han has wandered over to the artist himself, who is sipping champagne from a delicate wine glass. Sehun scurries after him, feeling like this is less than a date and more like he was being dragged to something that only Lu Han is interested in doing. Actually, maybe this is a date after all.
Lu Han chats with Mr. Oh for a while while Sehun drifts in and out of the conversation, although he makes sure to nod every once in a while to pretend that he is listening. When Lu Han introduces Sehun to Oh Jeong Il, Sehun blurts out in response, "We have the same surname."
"Ah," Mr. Oh says politely. "Well, it was very nice meeting someone who understands on such an intimate level the goals I was trying to achieve here. It was an honor to meet you, Mr. Lu."
"Oh my goodness, the honor is mine," Lu Han gushes. "Thank you for the lovely evening." When Mr. Oh drifts away to speak to another one of his admirers, Lu Han sighs. "What an inspirational man."
"I'm hungry," Sehun says, glaring at Mr. Oh's departing back. As if on cue, his stomach growls in agreement.
"Oh, I'm so sorry, Sehun-ah," Lu Han says, rubbing Sehun's arm comfortingly. Sehun kind of melts into his touch. "I did sort of abandon you here while I was off admiring other men. I'll make it up to you, I promise."
They go for dinner and to make it up to Sehun, Lu Han takes him for some ice cream afterwards. Sehun is appeased.
"That's it? You guys just went for ice cream?" Jongin asks the next day, incredulous. "No taking you back to his place and getting down to kinky business?"
"Yes, it was a surprisingly chaste date," Sehun admits. "But I had a good time. You don't always have to get naked to have a good time."
Jongin snorts in derision. "Yeah, but you guys were ready to get down to kinky business right on the first date."
"Could you stop saying the word 'kinky'?" Sehun says, his toleration of Jongin particularly low before his first cup of coffee. "A person should not have to say the word 'kinky' so many times, especially you."
"What am I going to do with you, Sehun," Jongin says, shaking his head.
"He did give me a good night kiss?" Sehun offers.
Jongin groans and walks away.
---
From his luxurious twenty-sixth floor apartment in Gangnam district, Lu Han has a particularly spectacular view of Seoul. In the mornings, he can see the sun rise on the horizon, gradually spreading its fingers across the expanse of the city, and at night, it is a mosaic of lights, small pixels that make up the picture of this elegant city. It reminds him a lot of Beijing.
He misses Beijing like he does his own parents. But like most desires, wistfulness and nostalgia will wane over time and soon it will become just a distant memory. Lu Han learned long ago that attachment is a weakness. He is driven by what he wants, but he never gets too attached.
He turns away from the glass floor-to-ceiling window and looks around the living room. Canvasses lied around the spartan room, all in different stages of completion. Some, he will sell as his own works under a pseudonym. Thanks to some associates from the black market, he had been able to sell Portrait of a Beauty for a nice sum. He was sad to let it go and had nursed thoughts of keeping it for himself. It was such a simple painting, but for reason, Lu Han had the most difficulty recreating it. He feels like it's his greatest achievement so far, the patience he had invested into the piece. It won't be long before the museum discovers that it's a fake, but by then, Lu Han will be gone.
---
Part 2