Suho opened the door to apartment unit 112, stepping aside as he let the others enter before him.

“I’ll go get the first aid kit. For now, make yourselves comfortable,” he said, locking the door before going inside one of the bedrooms.

“I’m so glad that’s over,” Xiumin sighed, propping his elbows on his knees and sitting down on the couch. “But now we can’t go back there anymore. And it’s because of you!” he exclaimed, childishly pointing a finger at Hyerin. “How can you just make a scene like that! You should have kept silent and stayed away! God, what do I do?”

“In case you didn't know, he grabbed my .” She gave him a pointed look. “And it’s better this way. That place is rubbish anyway,” she said, lifting her sleeves up to see if she had any bruises.

“She’s right. We shouldn’t have been associated with URBAN in the first place,” Kris said, rubbing his wounded shoulder. Hyerin gave him a look of consideration. She was amused to hear him agree with her - they weren't really on good terms - and even more so when Kris returned her gaze.

“And even if we wanted to, we’ll be in their wanted list. Isn’t G-Wiz one of the people running URBAN? We better not have anything to do with that place,” Kai said, patting Chen’s back. The boy was shaking and staring down at the ground, stunned. “Keep it together, man.”

Suho came back with the first aid kit and they proceeded to tend to their wounds.

Seeing that she didn’t have anything except for minor scratches, she resorted to helping the others. Taking the necessary aids, Hyerin settled herself in front of Luhan who was sitting down on the edge of the living room table.

Luhan sat upright. “What are you doing?” he asked, arching an eyebrow.

“What the hell do you think?” she mumbled distractedly, pouring disinfectant on a cotton ball. “That cut looks pretty nasty,” she commented, nodding at his cheekbone.

He reached up but she stopped him. “You better not touch that,” she said, hesitantly reaching over his face. “May I?

Without having any choice, he nodded and looked away. “Fine.”

Hyerin proceeded to dab his face with the cotton ball, ignoring his little winces.

“That’s not really necessary, is it, Hyerin?” Lay appeared beside her. “Healing abilities remember?”

"Oh, damn." Hyerin ran a hand through her hair. “I forgot. Go ahead, he’s all yours,” she said, standing up from her kneeling position and heading over to the kitchen.

She was surprised to see Suho inside, leaning against the table and staring blankly down at the floor with folded arms. The kitchen was small and stuffy, making it appear crowded with the appliances inside.

“Hey, Suho,” she greeted, snapping the boy out of his thoughts.

“Oh hey, Hyerin. Did Lay fix your injuries already? I forgot that we have a real-life healer with us,” he said, rubbing the back of his head bashfully. 

“No, I don’t have any,” she said. “What about you? Aren’t you going to get rid of that black eye?” she asked.

“Maybe later. The others have it worse so…” he trailed off, grinning.

Hyerin nodded, still wondering how he was able to smile despite what happened earlier. “So you live alone in here?" she asked, walking over to him. "I saw there were at least three bedrooms.”

“Well one is a spare bedroom,” he said, leaning back against the counter. “The other one is Jongin’s.”

Hyerin’s eyes widened. “Wait. You mean Kai? You live with Kai?”

Suho chuckled. “Yes. Since I was a junior and when he was a sophomore. Shocking, isn’t it?”

Hyerin’s brows furrowed. How can two polar opposites possibly live together without being on each other’s throats? “That's more than shocking. You guys don’t even talk at school.”

“Well we both have our own group of friends. And no one really knows we live together other than some of them,” he said, referring to the boys outside.

“Wow. How did you end up in here though?” she asked, but soon realized how rude the way her question turned out. “I mean, how did you guys end up living together?What about your parents?”

Suho opened his mouth to reply, but thought otherwise. his gaze dropped to the tiled floor. “It’s a long story. Maybe I’ll tell you some other time,” he said, offering a hesitant smile. She nodded silently.

“Hyerin, your dad’s on the phone!” Sehun yelled, bursting inside the kitchen.

“Oh, ,” she hissed, running outside with Suho following behind.

The boys were crowded around the phone, looking panicked and at loss for words. Quickly, she grabbed the mobile, covering the receiver with her hand. “We cannot tell him what happened tonight,” she whispered.

“You got that right. He would kill us if he found out Tao used his power in public,” Sehun said.

“What do we say to him?” Tao asked. Beside him, Chen was biting his fingernails nervously.

“Just tell him we went to this really hip bubble tea place somewhere downtown,” Kai instructed.

Hyerin nodded, placing the receiver against her ear. “Hey, dad!” she said with false cheerfulness.

“Hey, pumpkin! So how’s your little outing? Where did you go? Was it fun?”

“Oh, yeah! It was...good. We went to this bubble tea place downtown,” she said, looking up at the others for assurance. “There were lots of teenagers there, too,” she added. “And it was fun. Really fun.”

“That’s nice to hear. I’m so glad you’re all enjoying yourselves!” he said. “Well, it’s half past eleven so you better get home now, Hyerin. Tell the others I said hi!”

“Sure, dad. I will.”

“Okay, I love you.” Click.

“You too,” she sighed, putting down the phone on the table. “Well, he said hi. And it sounded like he bought it so everything is okay,” she said. The others sighed in relief.

"He said I need to get home now, too. It’s getting late.”

There were whines of protest. “Don’t go home yet!” Sehun pleaded.

“Yeah, we didn’t even have that much time to party at URBAN!” Chanyeol pouted, clinging to her arm.

“You should stay for a while, Hyerin,” Suho said. “I’m making hot chocolate.”

“As much as I want to, guys, I really need to go home," she said with an apologetic grin. "So yeah, I'll catch you later.”

“Wait, I’ll walk you home,” Kai offered, standing up.

“Uh, no. I really wouldn’t want you knowing where I live,” she teased, earning a pout from the dancer.

“Yeah, and you might try something on her, Kai,” Xiumin said, sticking his tongue out.

“Really? Am I that much of a ert to you guys?” Kai scoffed. Everyone nodded.

“I’ll take you home," Luhan offered.

Hyerin whipped around. “Huh?"

“I’ll walk you home. Is it far from here?” he asked, looking unfazed by the weird looks the others were giving him.

“Uh, no. Not really,” she answered, eyeing him skeptically. She appreciated it and all, but she wasn't on good terms with Luhan either.

Only Xiumin seemed to think nothing of it. “There you go! At least Luhan seems a bit decent! Let Luhan walk Hyerin home,” he said, leading the two out of the apartment forcefully.

“Bye guys! See you at school!” he said, slamming the door shut in front of them.

- - -

Hyerin rubbed the back of her head and looked anywhere but Luhan, distracting herself from the very uncomfortable walk back home.

She wrapped her jacket tighter around her as she sneaked a glance at the boy. He was staring straight ahead, looking unfazed. Of all people who could have offered  to walk her home, it was Luhan. Hyerin didn’t understand this, seeing how he treated her like the antichrist a few weeks ago. And didn’t he think about how this would be awkward for the both of them? She sighed. Maybe she should have taken up Kai’s offer. His sly antics were much more tolerable than being with someone who probably hated her.

Luhan cleared his throat, and Hyerin realized she was staring at him the whole time. Embarrassed, she looked away.

“Thank you for earlier,” he said faintly. “For helping me.”

“Oh," she mumbled. “It was kind of useless, actually. I mean, the cut isn’t even there anymore thanks to Lay.”

Luhan sighed, rolling his eyes. “No, idiot,” he said. “I meant earlier at URBAN. When you told me to go dance.”

“Oh, that. Well, it wasn’t really me. It was mostly you. All you needed was a little push. It was obvious how you wanted to go for it.”

“Yeah, well thanks,” he said, and it was his turn to shyly rub the back of his head. “I’ve never really done that before. Well, in front of the others anyway.”

“Yeah, I read it in your files,” she blurted out. He glared at her.

“I mean, I just caught a glimpse of it. For the mission, remember? No one really knew who you were,” she said. “Why don’t you want to show others how good you are anyway? 'Cause you really are, you know.”

“I know.”

“Aren't you an arrogant one," she said disbelievingly.

“It’s not being arrogant. There’s just no use denying the truth that I’m good at dancing. I know I’m good, so I let you know of that fact,” he explained, tucking his hands inside his jacket pockets.

“Woah, sheesh, okay,” Hyerin scoffed, sarcastically raising her hands up in surrender. Luhan rolled his eyes, and she swore the corner of his mouth twitched upward.

“Anyway, so you know you’re good. Then what’s the matter? Why don’t you flaunt it to everyone’s face and show it to the world?” she asked.

“Not telling you.”

“Figured.”

“Since when did you care anyway?”

Hyerin looked up at the sky and thought about it. “I don’t know. Since the day I first met you? I really don’t know. It’s just that you were so insistent on leaving the matter alone. You even forced me to get out of the room then, remember? Which was, by the way, a big douche move,” she scoffed. “Anyway, it just seems like you’re always uptight about everything, you know. How can someone as talented as you be so hesitant in showing the world what you got?”

Luhan chuckled bitterly, kicking a pebble along the way. “I have issues,” he muttered. “Remember? You said it yourself, Hyerin."

“...I said that?” she whispered after a long pause. “I did say that,” she said in disbelief. “Wow, I’m sorry, Luhan. I guess I was too caught up in the moment at that time.”

“It’s fine. It’s true anyway. I do have issues,” he said, stopping in front of a two-story estate. “I’m too insecure for my own good,” he whispered.

“Then you have to get rid of those insecurities, Luhan,” she said, frowning at him. “You won’t be able to do anything comfortably if you don’t.”

Luhan chuckled, folding his arms as he stood up straight. “It’s not as easy as it sounds,” he said. “It’s hard to get rid of something that’s been there for as long as I can remember,” he murmured, smiling slightly. “So long that it’s ruining my life.”

Hyerin shivered at the thought. It was such a sad idea that she couldn’t wrap her head around it. “Luhan, you can’t just live your life feeling like crap all the time. You said it yourself—you’re really good at the things you do. But then you say you’re insecure?” She sighed, frustrated. “I don’t get it.”

“I’m a big mess, Hyerin. A disaster, even.” Luhan tugged on the front of her jacket, pulling her closer to him, teasing her. “You don’t have to understanding anything. This is my problem and you don’t have to have anything to do with it,” he said quietly. “Thank you for the concern, though,” he added, tilting his head to the side.

Hyerin looked away. How can he take these things so lightly? “Fine, whatever. But this is not the end of this discussion,” she said.

He stepped back. “I’ll see you around.”

She nodded. “Take it easy, Luhan.”

He his heels, walking to the opposite direction. “Yup.”