lost in paris
inspired by this picture.
lost in paris
rated g - friendship (could be real subtle romance :v) - lu han/sehun
when lu han the lost tourist runs into sehun the french boy.
-z-
Looking this way and that, confusion seems to settle itself deeper and deeper into Lu Han’s ever knitting brow. This was just supposed to be a fun sightseeing trip around France, around Paris, but suddenly he’s alone, he’s lost, and he can’t read any of the signs (because they were in French, you know, and Lu Han is beginning to almost regret that he decided to learn Korean instead of French all those semesters ago).
Yixing had been with him at this corner - something about looking for a bookstore to buy a map - before he pretty much vanished. When he tries calling the younger boy, he hears ringing nearby, his hopes going up only to plummet once he realises it’s coming from the other boy’s bag. That he’s holding onto.
He groans, kicking the side of the curb. He could be eating, seeing the sights - one that wasn’t the Eiffel Tower that he could see from pretty much every direction - but no. He is lost in the middle of Paris. With no map.
He scrolls up and down through the contact list on his phone, it really is useless when the only other person he was with was Yixing, and the guy had forgotten his phone with him. He hopes that Yixing remembers how to get back here. Or back to their hotel. Because he isn’t very sure how to get back there either.
Tucking his phone in his pocket, he gropes around in his backpack for his water bottle, his fingers closing instead around… a book?
Lu Han takes it out, and his face lights up. For once he was glad Yixing had forgotten something behind - it’s one of those Korean to French translation books the younger boy bought at their university’s bookstore when they were still planning their trip. A Chinese to French one would’ve been even better, but he isn’t going to complain.
He flips through the pages, looking for a phrase he could use.
Je suis perdu. - I’m lost.
Okay that one’s good, he thinks, I can use that. But he also has to ask for directions back to the hotel. What’s the name again…? He searches through his bag for the bill he got from the dining hall last night. Right. Hôtel d’Albe.
He flips through the book again, searching the pages for something helpful.
Savez-vous comment se rendre à [place you’re looking for]? - Do you know how to get to [place you’re looking for]?
Okay… so it would be…
Savez-vous comment se rendre à Hôtel d’Albe?
Lu Han blinks. Now that was a mouthful. He starts practicing under his breath, pronouncing the syllables slowly so he won’t mess up. Twice, thrice, and four times, he slips up, a frown settling itself into the corners of his mouth.
Though he doesn’t notice, several people who had been standing nearby him slowly distance themselves from him, the more he keeps repeating to himself, Je suis perdu. Savez-vous comment se rendre à Hôtel d’Albe? He isn’t that quiet about it really.
“Euh… Excusez-moi…”
At the quiet voice, Lu Han jumps and turns around, realising he’s gone from standing against the bridge to pacing back and forth in little circles in the middle of the sidewalk. He looks over in the direction of the voice to find a skinny boy standing there with his bike, his expression a bit bored. Or sleepy. He fixes the little scarf around his neck - wow, people really do dress like that normally, Lu Han vaguely thinks.
It isn’t until he toes the ground with one foot awkwardly that Lu Han realises he was probably waiting for him to move out of the way. But wait! This is the perfect opportunity to ask for directions.
“Uhm… Je suis perdu. Savez-vous comment se rendre à Hôtel d’Albe?” He mentally winces; despite his talking slowly to try and not sound so bad, he can tell he’s butchered more than one word.
The boy blinks at him several times. “Attendre, quoi?“ he replied. No doubt he hasn’t understood a thing that just came out of this strange tourist’s mouth.
Lu Han tries repeating what he said, but when all he gets is an even more confused expression, he puts his face in his hands, the most unhappy and weird strangled sound seeping from behind his palms. Between his fingers, he can that the French boy’s expression change to an uncomfortable one.
As he bemoans his bad luck of getting lost on the first day of his trip, the boy spies the book that he’s dropped on the ground, raising an eyebrow before he pokes at Lu Han’s shoulder, though he doesn’t seem to have noticed. He pokes him again.
“…Hé.. Hé…” Getting frustrated, the boy jabs him harder with his finger. “Yah!”
Lu Han jumps back, putting a hand to his ear and rubbing it, “Hey! What did you do that for?”
“You weren’t paying attention!” The boy huffs in reply, finger poking him in the chest to emphasise his point.
“Well you didn’t have to-” It’s then that Lu Han realises he understands every word coming out this kid’s mouth, his eyes widening to almost the size of Kyungsoo’s back at university. “You’re speaking Korean!”
By the look on his face, Lu Han expects some sort of sarcastic reply, but as he watches incredulously, the French boy is suddenly that quiet, awkward boy from before again.
“Yeah, uh… I’m Korean. I was born here though but I sort of.. saw your book while you were… um. Despairing. And stuff. My name’s Sehun, by the way…” His hand grips onto one of his bike’s handles, flexing his fingers after a second or two nervously. He clears his throat when Lu Han continues staring at him in disbelief.
“So… you’re lost.. I’m guessing?” He starts, putting a hand to his neck. Lu Han snaps out of his daze, nodding vigorously, “No, my name’s Lu Han- OH, I mean, yes, I’m lost. Would you happen to know how to get to the Hôtel d’Albe?”
Sehun snickers at his mistake, but nevertheless he nods in reply. “I live in that direction actually. So I can show you the way.”
Lu Han is so happy, he hugs the boy and even lifts him off the ground more than a few inches. He’s about to kiss him because he really is that happy, but then he sees Sehun’s bewildered face and lets him go, taking several steps back.
“Sorry! I didn’t mean it, I’m just really happy because I’ve been lost for hours. Hours.”
Sehun blinks, still a bit shocked. “Al.. right.” He clears his throat again, colour staining his pale cheeks. “So, let’s get going… Shall we?”
Lu Han beams. “Yep, you lead the way, Sehun-ssi.”
“Just.. Sehun is fine.”
“Alright, Just Sehun. You lead the way! Come on, move that butt of yours!”
Sehun isn’t sure what he’s just gotten himself into. He’s not sure why he asks Lu Han if he wants to ride on the little back board of his bike, the one he usually lets his younger cousins sit on when he bikes along the Seine. He isn’t sure why he insists on convincing Lu Han to do it, when he says no at first.
By the time they get to the Hôtel d’Albe, the sun has long set, and Sehun is sure his older brother is going to have his head (because he only remembers now that he’d promised to go with him to the Louvre for the 600th time, he doesn’t really understand his obsession with Monet at all).
He drops Lu Han off at the hotel and thankfully, his friend Yixing is already there waiting for him (it seemed he’d made a friend too, a short boy he hovers over in the lounge until he’s swatted away).
Lu Han smiles brightly at him at the hotel’s doors. “Hey, thanks for everything, I thought I was doomed earlier. And I really had fun seeing the sights with you.”
Sehun can’t help but smile back - Lu Han’s cheerfulness is contagious. “No problem. I had fun too.”
“Well… good night then?” Lu Han says, tilting his head a little before laughing for no reason. Sehun laughs along with him anyway.
“Yeah, good night.” Lu Han smiles again and goes inside, Sehun standing in the lobby with his bicycle till he sees the elevator doors close behind Lu Han.
For the next week, his parents question why he’s suddenly interested in working in the family bakery (“I really like the pastries here in France, mille-feuille is one of my favourites”) or why he’s started frequenting the cafe down the street that serves bubble tea - more than usual anyway - (“My favourite flavour is taro! You’ve really never tried it? You’re missing out!”).
He’s also become the most frugal person they know, but the reason why is only clear to Lu Han, who on the second-to-last day of his and Yixing’s Paris vacation, finds himself surprised by a valet bringing up to their room, a basket with carefully wrapped mille-feuille and a thick stack of phone cards.
“Ohoho, looks like someone’s got himself an admirer.” Yixing teases. Lu Han rolls his eyes and thanks the valet. As he carries it into the room, he shoves Yixing off his bed with a foot. The younger boy laughs as he falls off.
“Why don’t you go play with your new friend and let me enjoy my present.”
Yixing gets off the floor. “As a matter of fact I will. Enjoy your fancy French pastries, I’m off to the hotel pool.”
He’s one foot out the door when he pokes his head back in. “And his name~ is Jongdae, okay.”
Lu Han laughs, “Whatever, go on. Off to your little playdate.”
He gets a card the next day at the desk. In it is a phone number and something along the lines of,
“I hope you enjoyed your stay in Paris ^^ I’m glad I was able to make a new friend.”
Sehun’s Korean is a bit of a mess, and so is his signature - Lu Han thinks it’s too messy to even be a signature, if that’s possible - but he sees the silly stick figure doodle of a scarf wearing boy and a bike and a boy with a tan backpack and question marks over his head, and he just laughs.
Sehun surprises him again when he shows up at the hotel on his bike the afternoon just before his flight. “Just wanted to say good bye in person.”
Lu Han shakes his head. “I’ll call you when I’m back in Korea. And one day soon…” He musses Sehun’s hair, “You are going to come visit me.”
Sehun laughs and nods. “I’ll save up.”
“I’ll pay for your ticket.” Lu Han says with a grin. Sehun splutters.
“But-” The older boy gives him a stern look.
“No buts.” He grins again, “I have to make sure you’ll come. And if I pay for it, you’ll have no choice, because you’ll feel guilty that I bought it and you won’t waste it.”
Sehun stares at him. Lu Han laughs, and Sehun follows. It feels like it’s always been that way, even though they’ve only known each other for a week.
“Alright then, you pay for my ticket. But I’m paying for all the bubble tea once I get there.”
They laugh again. Two hours later, Sehun says good bye to Lu Han at the airport, watches the plane take off, and bikes back home. Two days later, Lu Han calls and they start making plans for Sehun to come visit.
They go through a whole phone card on their first call, and it ends with them conspiring against Yixing and his new friend, whose name Lu Han discovers to be Jongdae, another student vacationer who actually attends the university on the other side of the city.
“Once you get here, we’re going to get them laid.” Lu Han cackles from his end of the phone line. Sehun laughs and forgets that while it’s only 12 noon for Lu Han, it’s 5am for him and his family is sleeping.
But it doesn’t matter, because even when his brother comes in and throws a pillow at his head for waking him up too early, the two of them keep talking and talking until the phone card runs out of minutes.
Sehun hangs up at 10am. Though he’s more tired than he can remember, he can’t sleep. Two months seems far too long, but he can do it - he can’t wait to visit Seoul.