The policemen came and left, after a gruelling three hour “talk” with Kris. Yixing insisted on staying by Kris’s side, arguing that the other man suffered a head wound and he didn’t want them to tire Kris out. On the condition that Yixing kept silent, they allowed him to stick around. They needn't have worried because Yixing honestly did not know what Kris and Luhan schemed.

The story Kris sold to the cops had some lies, but also some truth to it. He told them he didn’t know about Myung Hee's involvement in drugs despite being acquaintances for years and met up with her that day because she had something she wanted to show him. He had trusted her because his friend Luhan was there too, so there wasn’t anything to fear if they outnumbered her, right?

When the police were gone and Luhan appeared in Kris’s hospital ward with Kris’s manager Minseok, Kris and Luhan finally told Yixing that Luhan had been digging around Myung Hee’s files and computer while he was working as her chauffeur and he had been the one to call the cops when he found out about the drug trafficking. He was the anonymous tipper.

Yixing was certain his jaw had permanently detached itself from the rest of his face. “Wow, Xiaolu,” he said finally, swallowing in awe. “I don’t know what to say.”

“He’s amazing,” Minseok agreed, and Yixing smirked in amusement at the sight of Luhan blushing. The smirk changed into a genuine smile when his gaze fell onto Minseok’s hand sneakily reaching over to Luhan’s. They made a rather cute couple.

“I can’t believe that woman is still alive,” Luhan muttered, pretending to put on a struggle before eventually giving up and letting Minseok hold his hand.

Yixing glanced at Kris when Myung Hee was brought up and unconsciously squeezed the actor’s hand. “I’m actually kind of glad she is,” he admitted quietly. “I don’t want to be responsible for her death.”

The ward immediately burst into loud voices speaking over one other.

“She deserves it!” Luhan said heatedly.

“It’s nothing compared to what she has done,” argued Kris.

Even Minseok added, “You only did it for self-defence.”

A warm flush spread over Yixing’s cheeks. He blinked at them speechlessly and quickly dropped his gaze onto his lap out of embarrassment. “You guys are real supportive,” he remarked mildly. “I hope this means all of you are buying my albums instead of waiting for me to give it to you.”

Minseok snorted at that. “Kris already had me pre-order a hundred copies of it,” he said pointedly, with Kris grinning sheepishly on the bed.

“What about you, Luhan?” he challenged, ignoring Yixing’s groan. “How many copies are you getting?”

For a moment, Yixing worried that they were going to fight, with the way Luhan was narrowing his eyes at Kris. Until Luhan opened his mouth and childishly claimed that he was going to buy “110 copies just to shove it in Kris’s face”. Yixing tuned them out when the two started quarrelling about which shops they were going to call to reserve more albums, and glanced over to Minseok.

“Aren’t you going to stop your boss from spending so much money?” he asked jokingly.

Minseok contemplated the question for a moment. “Nah,” he decided. “Kris has a lot of money. I should stop my boyfriend though... we need all the money we can get if we are moving in together.”

Yixing’s eyes widened in surprise, not at all expecting their relationship to have gone that far. Didn’t they only start dating a few months ago?

His expression must have been obvious because Minseok chuckled then. “I’ve actually been waiting for this for over 2 years,” he admitted shyly. “But Luhan wouldn’t give me the time of the day.”

At the mention of his name, Luhan abruptly broke off his argument with Kris and stared at Minseok and Yixing suspiciously. “Were you saying nasty things about me?” he demanded to know.

“Nope, just talking about Yixing’s promotional activities for the album,” Minseok said with such a straight face Yixing decided he was spending way too much time with Luhan.

“Yeah, we were." Yixing quickly nodded when Luhan directed the glare at him, hoping that he sounded convincing. "Baek Hyun and I have a few radio shows next week.”

He still found it difficult to believe that he wasn’t dreaming. After his time in prison, Yixing got used to the idea that the years he spent as a trainee would be wasted because no agency would be willing to sign on a criminal. And now, nearly 7 years since he decided to become a musician, he was finally going to debut. 

***

“So why the concept? Why are you hiding your faces from the public?” the radio deejay asked curiously. “From what I can see, you two have faces girls would fall for.”

Yixing and Baek Hyun exchanged a look, knowing that they couldn’t avoid this question. Since they started their promotional activities three days ago, they had been taking care of hiding their faces behind masks and beneath caps, especially when they were between locations. It seemed silly at first because no one knew who they were, yet they were so heavily disguised, but the more the interviewers question about their choice to stay hidden, the more interest the public showed. Before they knew it, they had a small group of girls following them around, trying to pull apart their disguises. Junmyeon had to hire a Wushu expert as their bodyguard, and along with Chanyeol as their manager, the two of them could be quite intimidating with their over 1.8m heights.

“We want people to concentrate on our music, not our physical appearances,” Yixing answered finally, as if he hadn’t been practising that line and said it a dozen times in previous interviews.  “Music is meant to be listened to anyway, not watched.”

“So what makes you different from the other idols?”

Baek Hyun cleared his throat and moved closer to the microphone. “The Black Sheep is not an idol group mass-produced by some huge agency. Every song in this album is written by us.”

“Like an indie band?”

Yixing mused over the term thoughtfully before he nodded. “I suppose you can call us that.”

It didn’t take too long for the interview to wrap up, and soon they were shaking the deejay’s hand, posing for a group shot with their caps and masks on. Yixing had just stepped out of the studio when someone grabbed his hand and tugged him towards the exit.

“Don’t panic, I already told Chanyeol I’m kidnapping you,” Kris chuckled, amused at the horrified look on Yixing’s face. Yixing tried to wrench his hand away from the actor since they were still in a public place, but Kris’s grip only grew tighter.

“Where are we going?” Yixing asked, breathlessly, because Kris forgot his legs weren’t as long as his and damn, it was taking quite a bit of effort for him to match Kris’s strides.

Flashing him a lopsided grin, Kris practically shoved Yixing into the car. “Home.”

Yet oddly, the route to Kris’s place was not the least bit familiar. Was this a new road?

Before Yixing had the chance to ask, Kris was getting out of the car and gesturing for him to do the same. He gazed at the impressive apartment building that looked to be at least 16 floors, trailing a step behind Kris in confusion as they took the elevator all the way up.

“Are we visiting somebody?” he asked slowly, his heart thumping loudly in his chest for some reason. A thought popped in his head and he watched Kris’s face carefully. The mysterious smile on Kris’s face was enough to confirm his suspicions. Yixing smirked, partly amused at Kris’s attempt to be secretive and partly glad that he could read Kris’s expressions again.

“You wouldn’t happen to be surprising me with a new apartment, would you?” asked Yixing innocently, who started to laugh when Kris’s face fell.

“It’s supposed to be a surprise,” Kris muttered under his breath, childishly stopping outside the elevator with folded arms. Seeing Kris sulk only served to make Yixing laugh harder and respond with his arms wrapped around Kris’s waist. He kissed Kris lightly on the lips, then again, and again, until he felt the latter smile and he too couldn’t resist smiling back.

“Why so sudden? We’re fine living in your house,” murmured Yixing, resting his face on Kris’s shoulder and studied his neck.

Kris brushed a small kiss on Yixing’s forehead before he reluctantly pulled away from the embrace. “I was just thinking—” Yixing snorted. “—even Minseok is getting an apartment with Luhan. I like having you in my house, but it’s not the same. I don’t want you to be a guest... I want you to be part of my home.”

The steady beat of Yixing’s heart grew faster. Was that considered a confession?

“I hope you aren’t calling me fat. I’m too small to house you,” he joked weakly.

Clearly this wasn’t a reaction Kris was expecting. He scowled at Yixing, probably expecting him to jump around happily and declare his love for the taller man. Kris violently jabbed the passcode on the door digital keypad (Yixing noted, in amusement, that it was a combination of their birthdates – very original) and yanked open the door, revealing a jaw-dropping view of the city from the living room of the penthouse.

Yixing all but pushed Kris aside as he blindly staggered forward to the full-length windows and peered downwards. Woah. If he stood at the very edge, it’d feel like he was at the top of the world.

“... mine?”

He tore his gaze away from the view below and blinked at the earnest expression on Kris’s face. “Did you say something?” he inquired, almost choking on his words when he realised the tips of Kris’s ears were red. How cute; he’d hardly remember seeing Kris ever looked so embarrassed. “Can you repeat that?”

Kris groaned loudly, burying his head into his hands. Yixing vaguely heard him mumble a “I hate you” and was half-tempted to torture him some more.

“I said,” he in a deep breath, “Would. You. Be. Mine?”

A small red velvet box was shoved unceremoniously into his hands. Without even opening it, Yixing could already tell what was inside. There was an odd feeling in his stomach, as though there were butterflies (or maybe buffalos) in it.  His tongue darted out nervously to his lips. They had never talked about their relationship. Even after everything that had happened, the two of them just fell back into their old patterns, and back into each other lives, without having to put a label to what they had or were.

Kris faltered in front of him and coughed awkwardly, probably expecting a larger reaction out of Yixing. “I’m not trying to pressure you or anything it’s fine if you think this is too much we can talk about this another time—”

He suddenly stopped his rambling when Yixing abruptly shoved the ring box back into his hands. Feeling the brunt of his rejection, Kris stared at the latter with round, hurt eyes until he realised the reason Yixing’s eyes were exceptionally bright was because those were tears.

“If this is a proposal, shouldn’t you be putting the ring on me?”

Watching Kris fumble with the ring box and curse at how tight the stupid lid was made Yixing cry. The idiot. His idiot. Kris panicked even more and struggled even more with the ring box. “I’m sorry, I should have tried to open it beforehand,” he blabbered, “, I’m ruining this—”

Yixing silenced him with a long kiss, closing his hand around Kris’s over the ring box.

“I’m already yours, stupid.”

/// HIGHLIGHT FOR HIDDEN PART. (Can be skipped.) ///
 

“The doctors say she’s in a vegetative state. Highly unlikely that she would recover.”

A satisfied smile curled on Junmyeon’s lips as he leaned back against his swivel chair and looked at the taller man seated across him. “Good. You did a good job starting that fire. Nobody seemed suspicious at all.”

The other man didn’t seem happy at all with the compliment. “Hyung, if I knew Kris was in there, I wouldn’t have done it.”

Resisting the urge to roll his eyes, Junmyeon opened his drawer to pull out an envelope before proceeding to take the documents out of it. “Don’t forget the original reason why you got close to Kris, Chanyeol,” he reminded. “To take revenge for what Myung Hee did to you.

“All we need now,” Junmyeon continued, “Is for the lawyers to declare her incapable of managing a company, and all her shares to be transferred to me. Then it’s just a matter of time Legacy Entertainment is mine.” 

Author's Notes: