Sehun had lived in quite the selection of hotels throughout his life, from grand five star accommodations with his family to affordable single rooms on business trips. But he had to admit that the suite before him was perhaps one of the most lavish interior places he had ever had the privilege of visiting.

The baronial french styled master bedroom featured what looked like a fur rug underfoot and velvet throw blankets for the bed. Crisp white wool pillow shams and stunning renaissance art tied the overall elegance of the room together. The lounge area at the back took a more of a collected artistic approach, with mismatched feathers and small quaint looking pieces arranged in scattered patterns.

A sudden pang of pain in his head disrupted Sehun’s room tour and he efficiently put the boy down on the large bed before he decided to take a shower to rid himself of the stench of alcohol.

The force of the water gushing out of the showerhead was a little on the heavy side, but Sehun didn’t mind. He only had two things on his mind. One was that he missed his own apartment, and two was that he was going neck Chen tomorrow at work.

When he had finished freshening up, he opened the bathroom door and was just ready to sleep when the boy on the bed screamed and fell off the bed.

Rushing over subconsciously to check if the other was alright, the boy suddenly began shouting at Sehun to go away and leave him alone. Sehun couldn’t help but think that the boy’s behaviour was synonymous to that of autism. The frequent outbursts, indecipherable train of thoughts, avoidance of human contact and eccentric behaviour were surely tell tale signs of being on some kind of spectrum.

However…

Such trivial matters could be solved when dawn broke once again.

Opting to ignore the other presence in the room, Sehun made his way to the couch and drifted off into a deep slumber.

* * *

Amidst the comfort of complete oblivion, a dream came knocking on Sehun’s subconscious. Dreams were not a common occurrence for him. Perhaps it was because his mind was just like his personality, preferring to remain in a state of zero disturbance even during sleep.

The fabrication of his mind did not manifest in the form of a nightmare, nor did it reflect his recent stresses. The scene before him was familiar. His feet stood upon a marble corridor polished ever so cleanly as it reflected the diamond chandeliers above him. The large portrait of a family painting hung against the pristine white wall at the end of the hallway.

Sehun knew this place all too well.

Nostalgia.

Not quite. It felt more like nostalgia without the affection.

Perhaps simple retrospect was the more correct answer.

He walked towards the painting. His footsteps echoed against the hard floor. The crisp tone carried the long moments of his childhood solitude spent gazing at the backdrop of the universe. The mansion, adorned with the stunningest of lights and quite literally the most shocking electricity bills, shone too bright in the darkness of night. In his more youthful years, the artificial beauty of fake diamonds studded in his ceiling could not compare to the historical beings of hot mass which shone from light years away in space.

As Sehun quickly became blinded by those very same lights above him, he recalled that this was a typical occurrence in his life.

The painting of the great Oh family hung proudly in its place. His shelter stood proudly to the left of the chair. His shield smiled beautifully, her teeth as white as the pearls across her neck. His invisibility cloak, despite still being an infant at the time, already had doe-like eyes that glistened of cheerfulness.

And there he was. On the very edge of the painting, with half his face behind his shield.

‘There’s probably another party tonight’

That was fine with Sehun. To him, it was simply another night free of human interaction.

“Hey Sehun!”

……

‘A figment of my imagination’

“Sehu! Sehun! Sehun!”

…..

“Chen?”

Spinning around, Sehun’s mouth opened ever so slightly in surprise. There stood Chen, his annoying colleague who had the talent of appearing when Sehun least needed him.

“See? I told you I have to call you three times! Don’t complain next time when I do it again unless you actually start responding to me like a normal person would do.”

“...”

“Oh come on! Here I am bestowing my great presence upon you and you just ignore me. Honestly, the things I do for you. You better be worth it. God damn it! You really are a once in a blue moon creation aren’t you? You seriously have the wrong set of assets in your personality index, what a waste of potential.”

“Hmm.”

“Don’t just ‘hmm’ me? Come on, aren’t you going to go outside?”

“What?”

“Hello? You always go out when your parents are getting themselves wasted on cocktails.”

“... How do you know?”

“Gosh Sehun! I know puberty hit me hard like a truck but I don’t look that different from when I was a child.”

Sehun suddenly felt a harsh tug on his pinky and he almost tripped from the force.

A thin red thread was looped around his pinky. His skin had now turned pale white due to the constriction cutting off any blood flow. Following along the thread, the thin line of red traced further and further down the corridor until it ended in the grasp of Chen’s hand.

As Chen bolted through the front door, dragging Sehun along, the cool breeze tickled his face and the roots of his hair.

This was more like nostalgia.

* * *

A soft breeze tickled Sehun’s eyelashes. Blinking open his eyes, Sehun got an unexpected shock. He felt a jolt of in his heart, as his sympathetic nervous system was activated, sending signals whizzing through his nervous system.

The boy who had been crying last night was now kneeling in front of him with his head on the floor.

“What are you- ?”

“I-I just wanted to say thank you for helping me last night. A-and for not marking me. I d-definitely wouldn’t h-have m-m-m-made it through the night w-w-without y-you. I-I-I… last n-night was a m-mistake. I-I owe you my life.”

With every passing second, Sehun became more and more certain that the boy had some sort of cognitive disorder. His stuttering did little to aid in Sehun’s interpreting skills. However, he did get the fact that he was being thanked.

Quite a rare occurrence for Sehun.

After all, his three protectors were often the ones being thanked. Unsure of what to reply, Sehun opted to change the subject.

“What’s your name?”

“Omega Xiumin, Alpha.”

“Okay. Nice to meet you Omega Xiumin. My name is Sehun, not Alpha. Just call me Sehun.”

‘Omega is a funny last name.’ Sehun thought to himself.