Sehun dumps their luggage in the corner and takes a look at their living quarters. The room is standard and seems fairly clean, not as bad as Sehun was expecting. There’s a bathroom off to the side, a small desk and a queen sized bed in the - wait.

“Are we supposed to all sleep on one bed?”

“Well, I’m not sleeping on the floor,” Jongin declares, flopping down onto the bed.

Luhan sits down on the edge of the mattress. “It’s just for one night. Minseok says he’s already finding another place for us to stay.”

“Hmph.” Sehun stalks off to the bathroom, which doesn’t look all that intimidating considering it’s about five feet to his left. After stepping inside, he promptly muffles an unmanly shriek as he notices a spider in the bathtub.

“Are you okay?” Luhan asks with slight concern.

“Yeah, fine.” Sehun’s voice comes out pitched a little squeakier than usual. He coughs and tells himself that it’s just a spider, it’s not going to - oh it’s crawling towards him.

He forces himself to walk calmly out of the bathroom, closing the door behind him and hoping that will be enough to keep the spider at bay. Guess he won’t be taking a shower tonight.

Since the room has no TV or wifi, Sehun is forced to crowd next to Jongin and squint at the screen as he streams dramas for teenage girls on his 4G phone. Luhan sits at the desk and reviews his endless pile of notes, underlining certain portions in ink and highlighting others. Sehun does not attempt to understand Luhan’s labelling system. It only gives him a headache.

At around ten, Luhan decides to take a break and heads over to the suitcase to grab his pajamas. Sehun is too engrossed in the newest episode to notice as Luhan picks up a distinctive piece of lingerie.

“What in the world.” Luhan stares at the pair of black lace , a foreign expression of disbelief on his face. “Sehun, did you pack these?”

Sehun freezes. “Uh. No?”

Jongin gives a low whistle and casually leans against the doorframe. “So which one of you likes to wear that? I’m still curious.”

“Not me,” Sehun cuts in, just as Luhan says “Neither.”

“It was a prank gift from Chanyeol a few cases ago,” Luhan explains, going back to his usual, nonchalant expression, as if it’s completely normal to find a pair of lacy black in his suitcase. “I forgot about it.”

Sehun is once again horrified by Luhan’s relations with that crazy waiter dude. “He gave you a gift?”

“Yes. He’s very considerate.”

“I could’ve given you a gift.” Sehun can’t help but pout a little. If he’s Luhan’s best friend, he should reserve the right to give him presents on special occasions. And he’d definitely choose something better than a pair of (what the heck was Chanyeol even thinking?).

Luhan gives him a soft smile. “That’s nice of you to offer.”

“Save the flirting for tomorrow, I’m tired,” Jongin grumbles, interrupting the moment. Sehun glares at him. He can’t wait until this case is over so he can get back his daily alone time with Luhan.

Wait.

Flirting?

He is most definitely not flirting. He’s just being a good friend. Something that Jongin can’t possibly understand. Except that Jongin is a good friend - ugh. Sehun decides it’s a little too late for logical reasoning. After all, he’s still tired from being woken up at the crack of dawn this morning. He needs to get some sleep.

“You’re overanalyzing again,” Jongin whispers loudly (obviously so that Luhan will hear) when Sehun stalks past him huffily, “because your face is turning bright red. Like a tomato.”

Never mid. Jongin is not a good friend. At all.

Somehow all three of them do manage to fit on the bed, but with difficulty and quite a lot of elbowing. But at this point Sehun just wants to sleep so he gets by with minimal complaining. Mostly because Luhan is pressed against him, breathing softly in the dark, soft and gentle - okay, he really needs to stop thinking so much. Brain. Commence shut down. Yes.

Sehun wakes up the next morning shivering as Jongin has stolen all the blankets from his side, but his back is still warm from Luhan’s body heat. As much as he would like to stay in bed, he knows they have a stupid case to take care of. He sits up and rubs his eyes, scrabbling for Jongin’s phone so he can check the time. It’s almost five in the afternoon.

He ends up waking Luhan with a scream of “holy !” that seems to reverberate and shake the ceiling. Damn ceiling. This hotel’s too shady and rundown for screaming.

About five hundred feet away, the Chinese lady wakes up from her afternoon nap with a jolt. She curses and regrets renting those hookers a room. Always so noisy. Even though the one with the tan and the nice is really cute. She wonders if she has any salary to spare this month.

Sehun’s scream also disturbs Jongin, who yawns and rolls over, mostly unaffected. Sehun sighs and decides to leave him.

“Does this place provide breakfast - er, dinner?” he asks Luhan, then realizes what a stupid question that is. It’s quite doubtful that a place like this would offer anything complimentary, let alone something decently edible.

“Actually yes. I think she offered a bowl of rice.”

“I wouldn’t trust that if I were you,” Jongin mumbles, apparently awake.

Sehun is normally picky about what he eats, but they’re kind of in the middle of nowhere and he’s starving after his eighteen-hour coma. He had no idea he was physically capable of sleeping that long. “Rice is rice. Unless you somehow packed food, we should probably take it.”

After ten minutes of attempting to look more presentable and giving up, the three of them show up at the main door again. Chinese lady eyes their disheveled clothing and thinks they’ve been turning tricks. Kids these days - what is society coming to?

As Sehun wolfs down his bowl of rice, Luhan asks the lady about any areas of Shanghai they should visit. For some reason, she keeps on giving them directions to nightclubs with extremely shady names, in extremely shady parts of the city.

“I asked her about shopping malls and she said ‘no, don’t go there. Lots of police on patrol.’ What does that have to do with anything?” Luhan shakes his head.

“I dunno,” Sehun says in between mouthfuls.

“Wait, maybe she’s figured out what we’re trying to do?” Luhan snaps his fingers. “Of course! Nightclubs are the best places to find suspicious people. We could get a tip there.”

“Xie xie,” Jongin says to the lady, demonstrating more of his spontaneous ability to speak Chinese. She responds with something that Jongin doesn’t seem to understand, but he nods politely anyway.

He turns to Luhan with an expression of confusion. “I think she said something about a discount.”

“On the hotel room? That’s nice of her,” Luhan replies absently.

“I’m not sure that’s what she meant...” Jongin falls silent as he mulls over his assorted (but limited) knowledge of Chinese vocabulary. After a few moments he chalks it up to miscommunication and decides he needs to study more.

Sehun looks up, having finished the last spoonful of his rice. “So where is this nightclub?”

Luhan stares at the tattered subway map the lady provided, mentally tracing a route. “Eight stops. We should get there in half an hour or so.”

After braving the horror known as the Chinese subway during rush hour, they make it mostly unscathed to the entrance of the club, rough lettering over the doorway dubbing it The Shelter.

What sort of name is The Shelter? Sehun wonders. The homeless shelter? The animal shelter?

At this point, it’s starting to get dark outside, but still too early for most club-goers. Not that the people in this area seem to care, as there’s already a small group checking in at the door. Luhan observes from the side as cash changes hands and the bouncer steps aside to reveal a narrow staircase that descends into a darkened concrete tunnel. The bouncer returns to his post to accept the next handful of bills.

“Well. This certainly looks sketchy enough,” Jongin comments. Sehun agrees.

“We have to do some dirty work if we want to get any leads,” Luhan says, already pulling out his overused wallet. “Come on, Sehun.”

The bouncer raises an eyebrow at their appearance, but accepts the money anyway. Sehun doesn’t blame him. None of them are dressed for a night out, except maybe Jongin but that’s because Jongin looks good no matter what he’s wearing. Sehun looks disappointedly at his own rumpled t-shirt and jeans that he forgot to wash last week. Oh well. He’s not here to impress anyone anyway. At least, not anyone from the club.

Sehun discovers that the club is aptly named, because it resembles a bomb shelter. In fact, he’s pretty sure at one point it might have been used as a bomb shelter, judging by the external plumbing and the unpainted walls. But what the place lacks in fancy decoration, it makes up for in pure energy. Once they step into the main area, the bass is so loud he can’t hear himself think. There’s no lighting except for the strobe lights that flash across the dancefloor and the place is already packed with people.

The whole room is overwhelming, crowded and uncomfortably hot and Sehun starts to feel dizzy. He’s not used to this sort of environment at all. I am never going to a club again, he thinks, barely avoiding crashing into someone. It throws him off balance and he grabs Luhan’s hand on instinct. To his surprise, Luhan doesn’t back away and let go, instead grasps his hand reassuringly and carefully leads him through the crowd.

A rush of adrenaline crashes over him and he’s ninety-nine percent sure that it’s not the atmosphere, but more of the way Luhan’s fingers fit almost perfectly against his. He mentally smacks himself for feeling sappy here, of all places.

The area along the bar is less crowded and dimly lit. Sehun feels much better now that he can actually breathe. Luhan orders an outrageously overpriced water from the bartender and offers it to Sehun, who takes a few sips appreciatively.

“Where’s Jongin?” he asks, noticing that his friend isn’t in the nearby vicinity.

“Over there.” Luhan gestures at one of the far corners, where Sehun can just barely make out Jongin’s lean figure lazily grinding up against one of the raver girls. Or guys. It’s too dark to tell.

“Are you serious? He’s trying to pick someone up at a time like this?” Sure, Jongin is a single, young adult male and has needs, but really. Sehun can control himself at least. Sort of.

“I’m sure he has his reasons,” Luhan says mildly and Sehun feels a twinge of annoyance because Luhan seems to put more faith in Jongin now, despite the fact that Sehun has known him for much longer and has no trace of a criminal record.

“But what if - ” Sehun begins, then shuts up when Luhan shoots him a look of disapproval. He stops grumbling and moves in closer to hear what Jongin is saying.

Jongin notices Sehun moving towards them and gives him a ‘chill, I got this’ look but Sehun’s not about to miss out on anything important. Assuming that Jongin is doing anything of importance. Picking up random girls in a nightclub in a different country is not something of importance in Sehun’s opinion (because who needs to pick people up when there’s Luhan - ).

“So what’s it like in the city?” Sehun hears Jongin asking the dancer in a sultry voice, and cringes, because Jongin and a sultry voice do not add up to good things. He knows from experience.

“Which part of the city?” the person responds, and Sehun can literally see the beginnings of a smirk spreading across Jongin’s face. Okay. So information gathering time. But still, with questionable methods.

He should’ve known Jongin would have an ulterior motive for something like this. Not like he takes his job lightly. Sehun decides to leave Jongin to his work and go chill out with Luhan.

He sits back down next to Luhan at the bar and has a silly urge to ask, “Do you come here often?” So he does.

“What.” Luhan stares at him and Sehun realizes that it’s a pretty stupid question considering they just came here after a random tipoff from a lady who rented them a sketchy motel room.

“Never mind.” He looks away from Luhan and notices that Jongin is already heading towards the exit and motioning for them to follow. Sehun glances nervously at the throngs of people between the bar and the doorway. He’s about to brace himself, but Luhan smiles and takes his hand again.

As they exit the club, someone stops Sehun by pulling on his arm, and Sehun realizes rather too late that he’s still holding onto Luhan’s hand. Before he can let go, a scantily dressed figure (it’s too dark to tell the person’s gender) whispers huskily in his ear, “You look nice with your boyfriend.”

“He’s not my boyfriend!” Sehun shrieks loudly, catching the attention of several clubbers nearby. Luhan turns around to stare at him for a few minutes, and the shady figure disappears with a smirk. Sehun feels his face go red and is suddenly extremely glad for the brilliantly neon strobe lights that are currently flashing across his expression and hiding his embarrassment.

They reach the entrance of the nightclub without any other incidents, where Jongin is waiting for them with a satisfied grin, looking like a drunk puppy of all things. “I got her number.”

Sehun stares judgmentally but Jongin continues. “And her boyfriend’s number.”

“What. You’re shameless.”

Jongin shakes his head and scoffs. “No, you idiot. Her boyfriend has a few connections with the group we’re looking for. I got lucky this time.”

Leave it to Jongin to find a tip by picking up someone’s girlfriend. “So, did you even figure out any information?”

Jongin’s smirk is a little too much on the border of dangerous for Sehun’s liking. “Yup. Trust me, we’re going to be having some fun.”

Sehun has a bad feeling about this.