Love Me Right | EXO | OT12

The Past | The Age of Luhan

Rewritten: 10/21/2018

Love Me Right
The Past | The Age of Lu Han
Episode 1

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The commencement of this Melodrama is one that begins several years before the child in this episode even inhaled his first breath. For this is a tale of cause and effect; a rendition of how one's actions can lead to consequences beyond their control. Thus, we must perceive the past to understand the present, and the circumstances that left six orphaned children to face the world together. A tale of misfortune and tragedy is the premise for a great love story, as fate intervenes time and time again to intertwine the lives of these twelve, in an intricate weave that is only waiting to be undone. A Perplexity, that I, the narrator implore you to solve. For every Tragedy has an Adversary, and, theirs may be closer than they realize.

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Warning: References to drugs and sex

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| Lu Han |
| The Age of Four |

Tears roll down his smooth pale cheeks as he hugs the teddy bear to his chest, his back pressing against the cheap particleboard of his bedroom door. All he hears is the deafening voices he tries so hard to ignore; yelling, always yelling, so constant it's normal; he wonders why it can't be different. The reverberating sound of a bottle breaking chills him to his core and he flinches with the echo of the shatter. 


He sniffles, more tears falling as he lets his mind wander to somewhere, anywhere but here. Eventually, the house quiet downs and he's brought back uneasiness bubbling within. Slowly he reaches up, turning the knob while rising to his feet as he grips the stuffed bear tighter. The hallway is dark and cold as he makes his through, his little heart thumping within his ribcage so loudly it rings in his ears. 


The house is in disarray, objects strewn across the floor; broken glass and creamy carpet stained a dark red. A noise resounds, and he flinches all the while hoping it's not her. It's not, for the scene he shuffles upon is one that makes his heart lurch. The sight before him alarming, for it's his father slumped on the edge of the couch; shoulders tense and head lowered in apparent exhaustion. He avoids the glass, sidestepping until he's standing in front of his father's form. He watches silently as his father runs his hands through his hair with a drawn-out sigh. 


A gasp escapes from his parted mouth when he catches sight of the glass shards protruding from a red-stained arm. The audible response is enough to garner his father's attention, who hides the injury from view as he moves to cup the child's face; a large and masculine hand tracing the delicate features of the tiny face. The child is the spitting image of his mother, a plaguing thought for he loathes her with a passion. Nonetheless, he loves their child dearly, his flesh and blood; if he could take him away he would. 

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"Am I interrupting this familial bonding?" A woman slurs, making her presence known, as she stumbles into the living room disheveled and reeking of alcohol. The woman downs the last drop of the bottle of wine in her hand, before tossing it to the side, where it clatters briefly rolling under the couch. 

"You're a mother Lu Yan, is this the example you want to set for our child?" He chides in disproval, feeling resentment and disappointment that his son would be left with her. 

"An example? I'm unwed with a bastard." She slurs, a brief vulnerability flickering across her face before as she continues in snide. "We could have been a family, but you threw it away for them, it's all your fault that I've become this."

"This is your own doing." He retorts icily for the conception of their child had been downright manipulative and distasteful, an event buried in his memories. 

These frequent visits were never for her, only for him, always for him; his precious little carrier. 

"Mommy's mean...is that why you don't love her?" The child questions, looking up at him with swollen eyes and tear-stained cheeks.

"It's not so simple, my sweet little deer." He states as he lifts the small child into his arms, embracing him in a way he's never done before, as he holds him closer. "Sometimes we have to make certain choices and your mother was never an option."

"I want to go with you." The child articulates, holding on to his father with all his might, translating his desperation with clinginess.

"Han, that's enough, it's time for bed." Lu Yan directs tightly, begrudging the attachment of her son to his father, along with the blatant comparison to the other woman. 

Already he can see the darkening expression on her face, and not wanting to encounter another fit of anger directed at him, he sets his child down wincing in pain as his arm flexes and the shards in his arm dig deeper. 

"Don't go daddy, please stay!" The child pleads, grasping onto his father's trousers the desperation heart-wrenching as swollen doe-like-eyes swell up with a fresh cycle of tears.

"Han, to your room...now!" Lu Yan orders with her voice shrill, the effects of the alcohol are still present and the last grasps of containing her emotions was wearing thing. 

"Come Xiaolu, I'll tuck you into bed." He says and the child sniffles as his father does just that giggling slightly when his father hands him his teddy bear, with a big smooch to his forehead as he tucks the bear in with him. "Don't forget to treasure this teddy bear...remember it's a set." 

"...little brother?" The child murmurs, eyes growing heavy from all the crying, but the excitement is still evident for he loves hearing about the sibling he hopes to meet one day. 


"That's right. One day, I'll be able to take you home, there's nothing I want more." He replies, continuing with a wavering in his tone, as the child's eyes begin to flutter. The corners of his lips pulling into a smile that doesn't quite reach his eyes as he wipes of the remains of the child's tears with a thumb, peppering kisses over the expanse of soft baby-fat as the child succumbs to sleep. "Never forget I love you Xiaolu."

..............................

The man shuts the door gently behind him as he makes his way down the hall and to the entrance... wanting to see himself out before he'll have to deal with Lu Yan.

"You've turned my son against me." Her bitter voice addresses him as his hand wraps around the door handle.

He doesn't reply to her accusation for its her own doing. "I want to take him home." 

Lu Yan laughs acerbically as she sips from a wine glass. "We're a packaged deal."

He clenches his jaw, barely reigning back the infuriation. "You're a drunk, unfit mother, he's better off with me." 

"It's never going to happen." 

"I'd continue paying you support, even if he came to live with my permanently."

"You can't take him away from me, he's only your bastard, you have no rights. Your name isn't on any of his birth records, legally he's only mine." She gloats with a knowing vindictive smile, receiving glee at the look of disbelief he sends her. "If you want to remain in his life then stay here with me."

"You're a cold-hearted bitch."

"It's only fair, you were mine first."

He scoffs, shaking his head as he opens the door already crossing over the threshold. "You're delusional."

"I'm warning you, if you walk out that door, that means your choosing them over us."

"There is no us, it's only ever been Lu Han, and them, never you."

The final sentence before he's gone, ignoring the shrill shrieks of the woman hysterically calling after him.


"Zhang..."

"Zhang..."