#291: De Nuevo
From: pocketdeer
Title: De Nuevo
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 2,100
Summary: Maybe their blood vessels are composed of celestial dust originating from the same star, or perhaps their souls are born from the same flame. But with Luhan and Sehun, no matter how many times they run into each other, they can never seem to find their happy ending.
If I had one call to make,
I would dial yesterday and warn myself.
- Rascal Flatts, Better Now
The most beautiful thing about alternate universes is the assumption that regardless of how many times you remove two people from one world and put them down in another, they will always find each other and fall in love. It’s the theory that between the hurried brushes of decades, the rushed translations between centuries, and the brief passings of millenniums, they would meet and linger long enough to hear something thud like a drumbeat in their chests.
Maybe their blood vessels are composed of celestial dust originating from the same star, or perhaps their souls are born from the same flame. But with Luhan and Sehun, no matter how many times they run into each other, they can never seem to find their happy ending.
one
It starts with hello, the first time.
“Are you new here?” Sehun asks curiously.
His pants are rolled up to his calves and his shoes are slung over his shoulder, tied together by the laces. He’d gone out to catch fish in the river with his friends earlier on in the morning, but someone let the net slip and all the fish had fallen back into the water, splashing all of them wet from the knees down. The boy before him looks much cleaner and better put together as he steps off the bus, pulling a suitcase behind him.
“Yeah, I’m new,” the boy answers. “I’m from Beijing.”
“You’re from the city?” Sehun’s eyes light up. “How is it there? Are there skyscrapers and computers like they show in the newspapers?”
“That’s nothing to be excited about,” Luhan says dismissively, beginning to walk down the dirt path. Fourteen houses from the bus stop, he remembers his parents telling him, that’s where his grandparents are. The house with the wooden birdcage hanging out front. “Haven’t you used a computer before?”
“No,” Sehun says. “But in the newspapers - ”
“Forget about the newspapers,” Luhan says irritably. “Do you not have anything else to do here?”
“Of course we do,” Sehun exclaims. “When it’s nice outside in the summer, we go down to the river there with nets and we catch fish, and we climb the hills on the other side of these houses to watch the stars come out, and there’s a house down this street with a nice grandpa that makes cool bird cages. There’s a truck that drives in and out once a month, and we get to hop in the back and go to a nearby city, and they have things like chocolate bars and pretty pens that we can buy. I think you’ll like it here a lot.”
“I’m only staying here for one summer,” Luhan tells him as they approach the fourteenth house from the bus stop. “I’m living with my grandparents, see?”
“The grandpa who makes bird cages is your grandfather?” Sehun gasps.
“I suppose,” Luhan says, wondering why this country boy is so easily excited by anything and everything he mentions. “Would you like to come inside and say hello to him?”
“Would your grandpa be okay with that?” Sehun sounds like he’s asking for permission, but he’s already moving towards the house. “I forgot to ask you, what’s your name?”
“Luhan.”
“That’s a pretty name. I’m Sehun.”
two
They’re a few years older the second time. It’s the week of final exams at NYU, and every waste container on campus is full of empty coffee cups, chargers plugged into every available outlet in the library.
Luhan has an essay due by midnight and an exam the following morning, neither of which he’s begun preparing for. He looks down at his watch. It’s almost nine, and dread twists in his gut as he uselessly regrets his decision to put off this essay until the last minute. He musses his hair and blows his bangs out of his eyes.
“You look like you could use some help,” someone says. “What are you working on?”
“I have an essay due in three hours,” Luhan sighs, pushing his hair off his forehead to look at the student speaking to him. “Plus an exam in the morning.”
“That sucks.”
“Shouldn’t you be studying too?”
“I’ll get a ninety-one percent in this course even if I don’t attend the exam,” Sehun says, sitting down next to Luhan and dropping his bag on the table. “I should be okay.”
“There’s a special place reserved in the depths of hell for good students like you,” Luhan tells him, signing into his laptop and opening up a blank document. “I just want to pass.”
“I can write your essay for you,” Sehun offers. “You could study meanwhile.”
“Good students who help out horribly irresponsible procrastinators during exam week are going straight to heaven,” Luhan backtracks. “Can you really write an essay in three hours? It’s on DNA forensics.”
“I gave a speech on DNA forensics before graduating high school,” Sehun says, rolling up his sleeves and taking Luhan’s laptop from him. “My name is Sehun, by the way, in case you wanted to put a name to the face of your hero.”
“I’m Luhan,” he laughs.
three
They’re both well into their twenties the third time, and they meet - like in all cliché romance movies - at a small café in a quiet little town, on a beautiful spring morning.
“One medium Americano and a bran muffin,” Luhan orders off the menu. “No sugar in the coffee, please.”
“That’ll be five seventy-five, sir.”
“Oh, no.” Luhan’s stomach sinks when he reaches into his pocket. “I must have left my wallet at home, can you hold my order while I run back for it?”
“I’ll pay for him,” someone behind him says, holding out a ten-dollar bill to the cashier.
“That’s very kind of you,” the cashier tells the customer, finding him change and looking up to smile at Luhan. “Enjoy your breakfast, sir.”
“Thank you,” Luhan says as they step away from the counter. “Can I have your name and number? I’ll pay you back.”
“Sehun,” he smiles, shoving his hands into his pockets. “Don’t worry about paying me back, it wasn’t much anyway.”
“I’m already a couple minutes late for work,” Luhan says apologetically, glancing down at his watch. “But I work at the bookstore just at the end of this street and I’m off at five, come find me then and I’ll for sure return your money, okay?”
“Okay,” Sehun says.
“Thanks again!” Luhan calls as he wedges the café’s door open with his shoulder, coffee in one hand and muffin in the other, hoping no one else can hear his heartbeat go wild. The boy is just handsome, Luhan tells himself, it’s absolutely nothing more than that.
one
They end in goodbye when summer comes to rest. The night before Luhan’s designated to take a bus back into the city, he sneaks out with Sehun after everyone else in the village has fallen asleep. Sehun takes him up onto the highest hill, where the stars look the brightest.
“Are you coming back here?” Sehun asks.
“I don’t think so,” Luhan answers. “My parents say I need to start working a part-time job next summer. It looks good on university applications and all that.”
“I want you to stay here,” Sehun mumbles, leaning his head on Luhan’s shoulder. He shivers when a gust of wind rustles his shirt. “Everyone likes you.”
“Do you like me, Sehun?”
“I like you the most,” he says. “Maybe I’ll see you when the truck takes us into the city. I’ll save some money before then and buy you one of those books with pressed flowers inside them.”
“Why do you keep wanting to give me a gift?”
“You might forget me otherwise.”
“Would you give me anything I asked for?”
“Well,” Sehun hesitates. “I don’t really have a job yet, except sometimes I get paid for helping out around some stores after school, so I don’t really have a lot of money, but - “
“I won’t forget you if you kiss me,” Luhan cuts him off.
“Kiss you?” Sehun sits up. “Now?”
“Can you?”
Sehun leans in hesitantly, and his hand brushes Luhan’s. He presses his lips briefly to Luhan’s cheek. He hopes Luhan can’t see him blush under the moonlight, but he puts a hand over his own pounding heart, willing it to calm down. He’s overly preoccupied with biting back a smile to see Luhan looking the other way, timidly touching the skin where Sehun’s lips had been seconds earlier.
Sehun is almost lost in the small crowd that comes to see Luhan off the next morning, but right before Luhan boards the bus, he turns back to push through everyone and pecks Sehun quickly on the cheek.
“Return gift,” he says, the corners of his mouth turning upwards shyly. Then he waves, finds a seat on the bus, and he’s gone.
That’s that.
two
“What do you mean you’re going abroad?” Luhan’s never raised his voice at Sehun before. “You told me we were going to keep studying together here, you said we would!”
“The school didn’t tell me they wanted to send me,” Sehun tries to explain. “I just got their letter a few days ago, I have it in my bag - “
“No!” Luhan’s voice starts to tremble. “You said!”
“Please don’t cry,” Sehun pleads, abandoning his bottom line altogether. “I’m so sorry.”
“I’m not crying,” Luhan mumbles, squeezing his eyes shut and burying himself head-first in Sehun’s chest. “I’m not going to cry for a liar like you.”
“I’m sorry,” Sehun whispers, wrapping his arms around him. Luhan gets childish when he’s upset. “I’m sorry.”
They graduate a month after that. Sehun gives Luhan a bouquet of flowers at their graduation party that wilt several days later, and Luhan regrets not pressing them inside a book while they were still fresh.
three
It’s the fourth night in a row now where Luhan’s gotten impatient and an argument has broken out, ending in Sehun grabbing his car keys off the counter and slamming the door shut behind him. Luhan is left facing a suddenly silent house, a feeling that’s become uncomfortably familiar. He closes his eyes and rubs his temple, willing his headache to go away. He wonders what happened to the kind stranger in that café six years ago.
Luhan makes his way to the living room and lies down tiredly on the couch. He and Sehun are no longer good for each other.
But still he remembers Sehun smiling, shy and bright, the first evening he’d come to find Luhan outside the bookstore. He remembers Sehun picking him wildflowers before their first proper date, the cuffs of his jeans muddy from trekking through fields to find those flowers; Luhan still has them, pressed flat in one of his favourite books. He remembers Sehun holding his hand, kissing his neck, pulling him into his arms from behind, and the way his eyes had been aglow with excitement the night they moved in together.
Luhan wishes desperately to have those days back, but stars no longer explode every time they collide. They have fallen out of love.
He gets to his feet and heaves a sigh, beginning to collect his things from around the house. It’s midnight when the place is clear of his belongings, and Sehun still isn’t back. Luhan writes a quick note, drops his key onto the kitchen table, and departs.
Luhan’s long gone when Sehun returns; he almost turns the town inside out looking for him that night, crying and begging his name until he’s hoarse, but not one piece of him is left. There’s just those dried flowers between the pages of a book, and a handwritten note, and a key.
The end of the note reads: “If I had one call to make, I’d dial yesterday and warn myself. I’d tell myself, Luhan, bring your wallet so that charming stranger won’t have to pay for you, keep your heart close by and intact so he doesn’t steal it, and do not fall in love with that boy named Sehun. He will smile his brilliant smile and speak those kind words and do those beautiful things, but do not fall in love with him. You will only break your own heart.”
one
Luhan gets off the bus. He looks around, sees nobody, and heads fourteen houses down from the bus stop to his grandparents’ home.
Author’s Note: this is my first time writing for selubration (i’ve missed it for the past 53 zodiac cycles oh my good lord), so i’d like to give many many thanks to the sweet mods for putting in so much effort and making everything so easy!! and i hope my prompter and other lovely readers all enjoy this fic even though it blew completely out of control within days of my claiming the prompt ;;
Title: De Nuevo
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 2,100
Summary: Maybe their blood vessels are composed of celestial dust originating from the same star, or perhaps their souls are born from the same flame. But with Luhan and Sehun, no matter how many times they run into each other, they can never seem to find their happy ending.
If I had one call to make,
I would dial yesterday and warn myself.
- Rascal Flatts, Better Now
The most beautiful thing about alternate universes is the assumption that regardless of how many times you remove two people from one world and put them down in another, they will always find each other and fall in love. It’s the theory that between the hurried brushes of decades, the rushed translations between centuries, and the brief passings of millenniums, they would meet and linger long enough to hear something thud like a drumbeat in their chests.
Maybe their blood vessels are composed of celestial dust originating from the same star, or perhaps their souls are born from the same flame. But with Luhan and Sehun, no matter how many times they run into each other, they can never seem to find their happy ending.
one
It starts with hello, the first time.
“Are you new here?” Sehun asks curiously.
His pants are rolled up to his calves and his shoes are slung over his shoulder, tied together by the laces. He’d gone out to catch fish in the river with his friends earlier on in the morning, but someone let the net slip and all the fish had fallen back into the water, splashing all of them wet from the knees down. The boy before him looks much cleaner and better put together as he steps off the bus, pulling a suitcase behind him.
“Yeah, I’m new,” the boy answers. “I’m from Beijing.”
“You’re from the city?” Sehun’s eyes light up. “How is it there? Are there skyscrapers and computers like they show in the newspapers?”
“That’s nothing to be excited about,” Luhan says dismissively, beginning to walk down the dirt path. Fourteen houses from the bus stop, he remembers his parents telling him, that’s where his grandparents are. The house with the wooden birdcage hanging out front. “Haven’t you used a computer before?”
“No,” Sehun says. “But in the newspapers - ”
“Forget about the newspapers,” Luhan says irritably. “Do you not have anything else to do here?”
“Of course we do,” Sehun exclaims. “When it’s nice outside in the summer, we go down to the river there with nets and we catch fish, and we climb the hills on the other side of these houses to watch the stars come out, and there’s a house down this street with a nice grandpa that makes cool bird cages. There’s a truck that drives in and out once a month, and we get to hop in the back and go to a nearby city, and they have things like chocolate bars and pretty pens that we can buy. I think you’ll like it here a lot.”
“I’m only staying here for one summer,” Luhan tells him as they approach the fourteenth house from the bus stop. “I’m living with my grandparents, see?”
“The grandpa who makes bird cages is your grandfather?” Sehun gasps.
“I suppose,” Luhan says, wondering why this country boy is so easily excited by anything and everything he mentions. “Would you like to come inside and say hello to him?”
“Would your grandpa be okay with that?” Sehun sounds like he’s asking for permission, but he’s already moving towards the house. “I forgot to ask you, what’s your name?”
“Luhan.”
“That’s a pretty name. I’m Sehun.”
two
They’re a few years older the second time. It’s the week of final exams at NYU, and every waste container on campus is full of empty coffee cups, chargers plugged into every available outlet in the library.
Luhan has an essay due by midnight and an exam the following morning, neither of which he’s begun preparing for. He looks down at his watch. It’s almost nine, and dread twists in his gut as he uselessly regrets his decision to put off this essay until the last minute. He musses his hair and blows his bangs out of his eyes.
“You look like you could use some help,” someone says. “What are you working on?”
“I have an essay due in three hours,” Luhan sighs, pushing his hair off his forehead to look at the student speaking to him. “Plus an exam in the morning.”
“That sucks.”
“Shouldn’t you be studying too?”
“I’ll get a ninety-one percent in this course even if I don’t attend the exam,” Sehun says, sitting down next to Luhan and dropping his bag on the table. “I should be okay.”
“There’s a special place reserved in the depths of hell for good students like you,” Luhan tells him, signing into his laptop and opening up a blank document. “I just want to pass.”
“I can write your essay for you,” Sehun offers. “You could study meanwhile.”
“Good students who help out horribly irresponsible procrastinators during exam week are going straight to heaven,” Luhan backtracks. “Can you really write an essay in three hours? It’s on DNA forensics.”
“I gave a speech on DNA forensics before graduating high school,” Sehun says, rolling up his sleeves and taking Luhan’s laptop from him. “My name is Sehun, by the way, in case you wanted to put a name to the face of your hero.”
“I’m Luhan,” he laughs.
three
They’re both well into their twenties the third time, and they meet - like in all cliché romance movies - at a small café in a quiet little town, on a beautiful spring morning.
“One medium Americano and a bran muffin,” Luhan orders off the menu. “No sugar in the coffee, please.”
“That’ll be five seventy-five, sir.”
“Oh, no.” Luhan’s stomach sinks when he reaches into his pocket. “I must have left my wallet at home, can you hold my order while I run back for it?”
“I’ll pay for him,” someone behind him says, holding out a ten-dollar bill to the cashier.
“That’s very kind of you,” the cashier tells the customer, finding him change and looking up to smile at Luhan. “Enjoy your breakfast, sir.”
“Thank you,” Luhan says as they step away from the counter. “Can I have your name and number? I’ll pay you back.”
“Sehun,” he smiles, shoving his hands into his pockets. “Don’t worry about paying me back, it wasn’t much anyway.”
“I’m already a couple minutes late for work,” Luhan says apologetically, glancing down at his watch. “But I work at the bookstore just at the end of this street and I’m off at five, come find me then and I’ll for sure return your money, okay?”
“Okay,” Sehun says.
“Thanks again!” Luhan calls as he wedges the café’s door open with his shoulder, coffee in one hand and muffin in the other, hoping no one else can hear his heartbeat go wild. The boy is just handsome, Luhan tells himself, it’s absolutely nothing more than that.
one
They end in goodbye when summer comes to rest. The night before Luhan’s designated to take a bus back into the city, he sneaks out with Sehun after everyone else in the village has fallen asleep. Sehun takes him up onto the highest hill, where the stars look the brightest.
“Are you coming back here?” Sehun asks.
“I don’t think so,” Luhan answers. “My parents say I need to start working a part-time job next summer. It looks good on university applications and all that.”
“I want you to stay here,” Sehun mumbles, leaning his head on Luhan’s shoulder. He shivers when a gust of wind rustles his shirt. “Everyone likes you.”
“Do you like me, Sehun?”
“I like you the most,” he says. “Maybe I’ll see you when the truck takes us into the city. I’ll save some money before then and buy you one of those books with pressed flowers inside them.”
“Why do you keep wanting to give me a gift?”
“You might forget me otherwise.”
“Would you give me anything I asked for?”
“Well,” Sehun hesitates. “I don’t really have a job yet, except sometimes I get paid for helping out around some stores after school, so I don’t really have a lot of money, but - “
“I won’t forget you if you kiss me,” Luhan cuts him off.
“Kiss you?” Sehun sits up. “Now?”
“Can you?”
Sehun leans in hesitantly, and his hand brushes Luhan’s. He presses his lips briefly to Luhan’s cheek. He hopes Luhan can’t see him blush under the moonlight, but he puts a hand over his own pounding heart, willing it to calm down. He’s overly preoccupied with biting back a smile to see Luhan looking the other way, timidly touching the skin where Sehun’s lips had been seconds earlier.
Sehun is almost lost in the small crowd that comes to see Luhan off the next morning, but right before Luhan boards the bus, he turns back to push through everyone and pecks Sehun quickly on the cheek.
“Return gift,” he says, the corners of his mouth turning upwards shyly. Then he waves, finds a seat on the bus, and he’s gone.
That’s that.
two
“What do you mean you’re going abroad?” Luhan’s never raised his voice at Sehun before. “You told me we were going to keep studying together here, you said we would!”
“The school didn’t tell me they wanted to send me,” Sehun tries to explain. “I just got their letter a few days ago, I have it in my bag - “
“No!” Luhan’s voice starts to tremble. “You said!”
“Please don’t cry,” Sehun pleads, abandoning his bottom line altogether. “I’m so sorry.”
“I’m not crying,” Luhan mumbles, squeezing his eyes shut and burying himself head-first in Sehun’s chest. “I’m not going to cry for a liar like you.”
“I’m sorry,” Sehun whispers, wrapping his arms around him. Luhan gets childish when he’s upset. “I’m sorry.”
They graduate a month after that. Sehun gives Luhan a bouquet of flowers at their graduation party that wilt several days later, and Luhan regrets not pressing them inside a book while they were still fresh.
three
It’s the fourth night in a row now where Luhan’s gotten impatient and an argument has broken out, ending in Sehun grabbing his car keys off the counter and slamming the door shut behind him. Luhan is left facing a suddenly silent house, a feeling that’s become uncomfortably familiar. He closes his eyes and rubs his temple, willing his headache to go away. He wonders what happened to the kind stranger in that café six years ago.
Luhan makes his way to the living room and lies down tiredly on the couch. He and Sehun are no longer good for each other.
But still he remembers Sehun smiling, shy and bright, the first evening he’d come to find Luhan outside the bookstore. He remembers Sehun picking him wildflowers before their first proper date, the cuffs of his jeans muddy from trekking through fields to find those flowers; Luhan still has them, pressed flat in one of his favourite books. He remembers Sehun holding his hand, kissing his neck, pulling him into his arms from behind, and the way his eyes had been aglow with excitement the night they moved in together.
Luhan wishes desperately to have those days back, but stars no longer explode every time they collide. They have fallen out of love.
He gets to his feet and heaves a sigh, beginning to collect his things from around the house. It’s midnight when the place is clear of his belongings, and Sehun still isn’t back. Luhan writes a quick note, drops his key onto the kitchen table, and departs.
Luhan’s long gone when Sehun returns; he almost turns the town inside out looking for him that night, crying and begging his name until he’s hoarse, but not one piece of him is left. There’s just those dried flowers between the pages of a book, and a handwritten note, and a key.
The end of the note reads: “If I had one call to make, I’d dial yesterday and warn myself. I’d tell myself, Luhan, bring your wallet so that charming stranger won’t have to pay for you, keep your heart close by and intact so he doesn’t steal it, and do not fall in love with that boy named Sehun. He will smile his brilliant smile and speak those kind words and do those beautiful things, but do not fall in love with him. You will only break your own heart.”
one
Luhan gets off the bus. He looks around, sees nobody, and heads fourteen houses down from the bus stop to his grandparents’ home.
Author’s Note: this is my first time writing for selubration (i’ve missed it for the past 53 zodiac cycles oh my good lord), so i’d like to give many many thanks to the sweet mods for putting in so much effort and making everything so easy!! and i hope my prompter and other lovely readers all enjoy this fic even though it blew completely out of control within days of my claiming the prompt ;;