It seemed that within the space of about half a week, Sehun had found himself both ideal girlfriend and ideal best-friend-forever material in Jia and Chen, and Yeonhee found herself in the bizarre situation of having to cope with his combination of excitement and mental meltdown.  Jia was apparently more than down for coffee dates once he’d plucked up the courage to ask her out on one (she was apparently finishing off a two-year masters in economics and political theory and welcomed any kind of distraction from completing her thesis), and Sehun spend most of Monday and Tuesday popping up at odd moments asking Yeonhee what she thought he should wear and what kinds of things Jia might like to do and whether or not she would consider it a proper date rather than an intellectual meeting of minds (Yeonhee hadn’t even known how to respond to that last one since she considered it so obvious that there was romantic interest).

Jongdae, on the other hand, slotted himself into their friendship group as if he’d always been there.  Yeonhee had to explain who he actually to those who knew she was dating the prince, and get used to calling him Jongdae (which he took in good spirits, sometimes screeching his name jokingly at high volume when she mistakenly referred to him as Chen), but he was extremely easy-going and Yeonhee did feel much safer with him around.

More than ever, though, it turned Yeonhee’s room into a social hub.  Jongdae was in there almost whenever she was for practical security reasons, and often as not Sehun trailed in after him as a willing disciple to anything Jongdae had to say.  Baekhyun half-lived in Yeonhee’s room anyway and that often brought the band round.  Mihae’s presence also increased, though Yeonhee was unsure whether that had anything to do with Sehun or possibly Chanyeol, or whether Chanyeol’s increased presence had something to do with Mihae.

By midday Wednesday, Yeonhee was beginning to wonder if it was worth moving out.  Jongdae and Sehun were sitting cross-legged in the corner of her room with five laptops between them, analysing data of some kind.  Chanyeol was lying on the floor with his feet up on her bed, ankles crossed, trying out new tunes on a ukulele and popping bubblegum with increasing loudness while Kyungsoo and Jongin argued over song lyrics for a new composition.  Mihae was taking photos of everybody and Baekhyun was bouncing off the walls like a hyper puppy.  Yeonhee was trying to paint a caricature for Jongin that she’d promised him after he’d seen her sketch of Chanyeol, and she was regretting agreeing to it because it was absolutely impossible to concentrate.

“Say, Yeonhee!”  Baekhyun landed in a breathless mess on her desk, narrowly missing Juan.  “Mihae and I have been doing some digging.”

Yeonhee carefully shifted his leg away from her paint palette.

“What have you been digging?” she asked, only half paying attention as she tried to mix the right colours to catch the lighting in Jongin’s hair.

“Jongdae is Agent X,” Baekhyun declared loudly.  “You are officially being guarded by the most mysterious man in the country.”

There was a bark of laughter from the corner.

“You kids have way too much time on your hands,” Jongdae said with amusement.

“You are, though, aren’t you?” Mihae pressed.

With a snort, Jongdae leant forward to read something on his computer screen.  “Of course I am.”

“Minseok says you’re pretty badass,” Jongin contributed from his corner of the room.

Jongdae’s only response was a small smile.

“Oh, come on,” complained Baekhyun.  “You’ve got to give us more than that!  Surely there’s some juicy stuff—”

“Not really.  Most of what I deal with is classified information.”

“If he told you, he’d have to kill you, Baekhyun,” Sehun said without looking up.

“He tells you,” objected Baekhyun.

“I have security clearance.”

Baekhyun sighed dramatically.  “Your dumb having security clearance is the biggest joke of the century.”

The most difficult thing about the week was a close toss up between the lack of privacy and being unable to see Yixing.  The prince was busy anyway, constantly in meetings and having to meet an unusual number of foreign dignitaries, but even after looking at Yeonhee’s phone in great detail and concluding none of the spyware was on it, Jongdae had still requested that they not use Yeonhee’s phone as a contact method until either they had some idea of what Antiroyo and ZPX knew and what they were going to do about it, or until after they’d gone public.  It had been bad enough having to wait on Sehun to contact the prince over the weekend, but Yeonhee found it even more restrictive despite the option of using both Sehun’s and Jongdae’s phones to do it.  On the plus side, she did now have a functioning computer again, and Jongdae reckoned there wasn’t an issue with them communicating via Easyl.

“Well, I should probably stay away from home this weekend,” Minhee said when Yeonhee complained to her about it on Thursday morning.  “You two are going to be all over each other after this forced separation.”

“I’m pretty sure Dad would go out of his way to purchase a shotgun,” Yeonhee pointed out.

“On second thoughts,” said Minhee after a moment’s silence, “will you be bringing Jongdae with you?”

“I don’t bring Jongdae anywhere, he just follows,” Yeonhee said.  “And no, Minseok’s with me for the weekend.  I don’t know which bodyguard will be staying over, actually.  It’ll probably be him or Junmyeon.  Yixing said he’d rather bring one that has actually met you all.”

“Good God, how do you two even date?” Minhee grumbled.  “You’re permanently bringing a third wheel with you.”

“I resent that,” said Jongdae suddenly, making them both shriek.  Heart pounding, Yeonhee twisted in her chair to see that he’d come up behind her, holding a couple of newspapers and a tablet.  He held them up in Yeonhee’s direction, raising an eyebrow at her to indicate that he wanted to talk to her once she’d finished, and sat himself down on the end of her bed.  Distracted, Yeonhee signed off and turned to see what he had to say.

He passed her the tablet and newspapers.  Yeonhee noticed that they were all already open to specific pages.  He watched quietly as she read through them.

Her confusion grew the more she saw.

Famed Republican Activist Jumps Ship to Separationists ran the first headline.  There was a photo of the Antiroyo starter kit underneath