“Finally skipping school? Took you long enough.”

Lana smirked wryly at Baekhyun. He pulled the schoolbag from her shoulder and tossed it aside. After shoving the teenage girl down into a makeup chair, he threw his hands into her hair and set to work combing through it with his fingers. The brunet, baby-faced man was a stylist; he worked exclusively for his husband, Chanyeol, in the couple’s photography studio. He was also the first person Lana went to when she needed to vent about Mom.

“I’m having some issues with my parents.”

Baekhyun dropped her locks and gaped at her disbelievingly. “Bad enough that you had to run away from school? Ooh, girl, this must be serious. Tell Auntie Bacon all about it while she fixes you up.”

He set to work washing her face and then caked it with makeup as she relayed the story to him. “I’ve been waiting all week to see this Titanic exhibit, and then my mom goes and misses her flight because Kevin’s evil wife up and abandons her in the middle of the airport.” She paused as Baekhyun snapped her chin upward. He dabbed her lips with cherry-red gloss. “I mean, she should know Mom can’t even tell left from right, right? How is she going to find her way through an airport terminal? So, now Dad has to pick her up from the airport, and he can’t take me to the museum. But it gets even worse: he chooses now to tell me that Mom—”

Cutting her off midsentence, Baekhyun spun the chair around so that Lana faced the mirror. She took in her reflection, immediately ascertaining that she looked like a doll. Aside from the pink blush highlighting her cheeks, her pale skin was ghostlier than ever, setting a stark contrast to the bright-red coloring of her lips. If Dad saw her like this, he would undoubtedly double the frequency of her self-defense classes and never let her near Uncle Baekhyun ever again. She would have to wash it off as soon as she got home.

“Wow, how wonderful,” she remarked through gritted teeth. “Thanks a lot! I love it.”

“You’re very welcome!” Baekhyun plopped down in the chair next to her, unscrewing the cap to his water bottle. After taking a quick swig of the liquid, he prodded, “So, where were we?”

“Oh, right,” Lana said, having all but forgotten about her rant for a moment. She opened to continue when a wild moan suddenly erupted from somewhere behind the two, silencing her before she could even begin.

Lana whirled around in her seat. In the background, the tall, elflike photographer was in the middle of a shoot. Today’s model was an old, heavily-botoxed woman with long, pink hair. She wriggled atop a bare mattress as half a dozen underwear models crawled on top of her. Beneath the woman’s lacy lingerie, Lana could make out the biggest pair of fake melons she had ever seen. The mounds rivaled basketballs.

She eyed the woman critically, to which Baekhyun smirked. “That’s Dr. Ayu,” he tutted. “You know, that woman birthed you.”

Lana gaped at Baekhyun, jaw dropped in horror. “You have got to be kidding me.” She shuddered in her seat and groaned, “As if I needed another reminder about babies...”

“Oh, so you know?”

“Yeah,” she sighed before shooting him a rapid double take. “Wait, you mean you know?” She scoffed in disbelief. “How could they keep this from me?”

“You should be happy for them,” Baekhyun clucked.

“But,” Lana interjected, “I don’t get it. How could Mom do this to Dad? It’s not fair to him.”

Baekhyun furrowed his eyebrows. “Not fair? Girl, stop being so mean to your mom,” he sassed, fluffing his hair pompously. “Your parents went through a lot of heartache trying to have this baby for the past two years. Your mom even asked me to carry the baby. I swear, the fact that she graduated and I didn’t...” He shook his head and turned to file his nails. “Anyway, they had already given up hope when this happened.”

Lana’s heart sank. What did Baekhyun mean by trying to have a baby? Why would Dad want that? He already had two kids with Mom, and another one would only ensure the nest wouldn’t be empty until he was in his early sixties. But...

What if Baekhyun was telling the truth? What if her parents really did want to have another baby? If they had been trying for two years without success, especially to the extent that Mom resorted to asking someone else to carry the baby, then there must have been fertility issues. To finally conceive after all this time, the two were probably overjoyed.

Suddenly, Lana felt like a massive witch. Dad entrusted her with an important secret and likely expected her to share in his happiness, but all she had done was storm away without a word. If Lana were in his shoes, she would feel incredibly hurt right now. A pang of guilt stabbed her in the stomach. The last thing she wanted was to hurt her father. She only wanted what was best for him.

“Girl,” Baekhyun’s voice sounded, snapping Lana back from the midst of her thoughts, “shouldn’t you be getting home? School’s almost out.”

Lana rose from her chair, gathering her book bag with a rueful sigh. “I’ll see you later,” she sighed, limply waving him goodbye. As she left the studio, joining a crowd of pedestrians on a busy sidewalk, she wondered how she would apologize to her dad. The sooner the better, she decided. She didn’t want him in a sour mood when he picked Mom up from the airport.

She pulled a tiny cell phone from the pocket of her bag and turned it on. It loaded up within seconds, instantly flashing a message: “27 new voice mails.” Lana groaned. She flipped through the missed calls list, quickly realizing that every single incoming call came from her father’s phone. When he realized she cut school, he must have left the classroom to spend all of sixth period blowing up her phone. He was probably livid... On second thought, it might be better to delay the apology until he got home and cooled off first.

Lana turned down a quiet alleyway, a shortcut she commonly took when heading home from the Byuns’ studio. A disheveled man walked in circles halfway down the lane, tripping over his own feet. Lana stared down at the ground, carefully avoiding eye contact as she approached.

“Hey, baby,” he slurred as she passed, tugging on the elbow of her school uniform. “Show me a good time, and I’ll pay you good!”

Lana shook him off, shooting him an insulted look. Did he really think she was a hooker dressed like this? This was all Baekhyun’s fault. If he didn’t always insist on going overboard with makeup, drunken old men wouldn’t mistake her for a call girl.

When Lana quickened her pace, the man began to stumble after her. She hurried toward the end of the alley, hoping she could lose him on the next street over. By the time she turned the corner, she was already several meters ahead. The road was completely empty except for a single bus parked by the sidewalk, its doors propped wide open.

Salvation.

Lana dashed up the steps, hurrying onto the vehicle before the drunkard could catch sight of her. But when she got inside, she froze in place. Her eyes flitted across the bus, and what she saw made her jaw drop in shock.

“What the?”

Author's Note
Hello! ( ´ ▽ ` )ﾉ Have you guys had a nice week? We reached 500 subs sometime since the last update! Pat yourselves on the back!!! Really though, thank you guys so much for subscribing. It means a lot to me. ❤ I made a new Tumblr a few days ago. Please ask me stuff, because I'm bored and need entertaining, and I like to talk to you guys!

Anywho, as you may or may not have already guessed, this is the last chapter we'll spend focusing on Lana's relationship with Yunee and Kris for the time being. ^o^ Because the show must go on, and new stuff must happen! ^o^ Thanks for all the comments you guys have left me so far! ^o^ I'm really pleased by all of them! ^o^