Chapter 4

Sehun

The first thing Sehun noticed was that he was ing freezing. His knees were practically touching his nose, he was so curled in on himself. The second thing was that it felt ridiculously, painfully early. “Ugh,” he groaned, checking the display of his phone. “Why am I awake at ing 4:30 in the morning?”

An answering groan sounded from above him. “Why are you talking, rather loudly and obnoxiously, might I add, about being awake at ing 4:30 in the morning?

Oh. Oh right, Sehun thought. That explains why I’m seriously tense and slept for, like, 3 hours.

“Sorry, Seul,” Sehun sighed, rubbing his hands over his face. “Wait. Did you… did you steal my blanket?”

“It’s cold in here,” Seulgi sulked. “And we discussed this, Sehunnie. Seulgi is my name, not Seul.’” 

“Yeah, well, my name isn’t short for anything. You know that right? It’s just Sehun. So.” He sighed, trying to remember that Seulgi was known as a brilliant handler with a great future. And that there were probably more annoying people. Somewhere. Somewhere he had never been, but probably somewhere.

“Seulgi-yahhh” Sehun whined, emphasizing the third syllable of his partner’s name.

“Yes, Sehunnie?” Seulgi replied.

“I told you. That isn’t my name!”

“At this point, you’re lucky I’m not calling you ‘that who won’t ing let me sleep! What do you want?”

“My blanket. Please?” Sehun added sheepishly. He really had been tossing and turning all night No wonder Seulgi was angry.

The blanket whapped him in the forehead. “I’m sorry, Seulgi,” he slurred, drifting off.

A quiet sigh was his only answer, but Sehun grinned. He’d never met anyone who could stay mad at him before. He doubted Seulgi would be any different.

-

A timid voice darted in and out of his consciousness. “Um… Sehunnie? Sehun? Sehun!”

“Wha-what?” Sehun startled as a hand grasped his shoulder.

Seulgi was sitting on the edge of his bed. Her hair was shooting every which way, her eyes were bloodshot and shadowed by dark bags. “Sorry, dude,” she said quietly. “It’s still early, but we should talk now, when I’m exhausted and slightly befuddled. I’m bad at saying serious things when I’m wide awake.” She rubbed at her eyes with two tiny fists, and Sehun barely resisted the urge to coo at him and drape a blanket over her shoulders.

“Coffee?” he asked instead, swinging his legs over the side of the bed and stretching until his back made a satisfying popping noise. Seulgi wrinkled her nose.

“You really ought to get that checked out, Sehunnie. It can’t be normal. Sorry, sorry. I meant Sehun. Sorry.” Seulgi looked slightly panicked. It was alarmingly endearing.

“You can call me Sehunnie if you really want to call me Sehunnie. But then I get to call you Seul or any derivative of your name that I want to. It’s only fair.”

“How good are you at making breakfast? Seulgi tilted her head.

“Ace,” Sehun answered arrogantly. His fry up was legendary in uni. Best hangover cure in the world.

“Then make me some eggs and I’ll consider it.”

They stumbled out to the kitchen, and Sehun began to crack some eggs into a frying pan. “So are we going to talk about it?” Sehun started. He was using all of his best tricks to keep himself calm – breathing slow, keeping his heart rate down, concentrating really, really hard on the eggs – but he was flailing around and screaming on the inside.

Because Seulgi was about to walk away, he just knew it. She was going to resign, and then Sehun couldn’t do his dream job. He’d end up at, god forbid, a desk job, filing paperwork instead of wearing tuxedos and seducing gorgeous women who carried knives in thigh-sheaths and yeah, okay, maybe he had watched a few too many Bond flicks when he was 13, but he deserved this. He had worked his off for this. He needed it – more than he cared to admit.

“Sehun? Sehunnie? Jesus. Oh Sehun!?” Sehun glanced up and brown tired eyes finally came into focus. “Where did you just go?”

“The thing is,” Sehun said very firmly. “The thing is, I kind of need you to be my partner. I’ll be really, really good, I swear. I’l