Did Yixing just hitch a ride with a stranger or did he actually know the people in that car? Anxiety and concern jabbed at Luhan’s nerves and he found himself stepping on the accelerator to catch up with the BMW. They weren’t kidnapping Yixing, were they? Luhan’s lips curled in annoyance. Was it even legal to have their windows so tinted? He couldn’t see if Yixing was struggling inside or not!

“Maybe I should call him,” Luhan muttered under his breath and blindly patted for his mobile phone on the passenger seat next to him. Some time during the month, he had accidentally set Yixing as speed dial #1 and forgot about it; thank goodness he didn’t remove it.

His worry grew when Yixing didn’t pick up the phone for the third time. He did bring it out, didn’t he? Luhan chewed on his lower lip as he redialled his number but Yixing continued to ignore it. Perhaps he didn’t mean to? Perhaps whoever kidnapped him took away his phone? Swallowing his panic, Luhan narrowed his eyes and pressed his foot hard on the accelerator without a second thought. A sickening crunch blasted his ears as his dearest Porsche jerked forward to smash into the boot of the black BMW and he probably would have flown forward if it wasn’t for the safety belt digging into his shoulder.

Immediately releasing the safety belt when he saw Yixing stagger out of the car, he shoved open the car door and stumbled towards him. The shocked expression on Yixing’s face did not quite register when he caught up to him; at least not until Yixing grabbed his shoulders to make a frantic check.

“Are you injured anywhere??” he asked agitatedly, twisting Luhan’s arm this way and that to confirm.

Luhan shook his head, inwardly pleased that Yixing was worried about him. “Just my shoulder. Bloody seatbelt was too tight.”

That, for some reason, was the wrong thing to say. Dropping his arm abruptly, Yixing gaped at him in horror. “You crashed the car on purpose? Are you nuts?” A quick glance around and Yixing dragged Luhan back to the car, pushing him into the driver’s seat before he went around to the passenger’s seat. “Drive. Now.”

Normally Luhan did not take well to being ordered around but the tension in Yixing’s voice told him to just do it. Belatedly he realised that the little car crash had garnered some attention, and quite a few people had their phones out. . He hoped nobody captured his face or car plate number.

“Are you okay?” Luhan spoke finally after fifteen minutes of aimless driving. “Who was in the car?”

If Luhan had been paying more attention, he would have noticed how the younger man was sitting in his usually polite rigid position, hands clasped together on his lap and eyes almost unblinking. “I don’t think it’s any of your business,” said Yixing stiffly. “Stop butting in on my affairs.”

Luhan’s jaw went unhinged. Yixing was seldom – make that never – rude nor demanding and his words now made him seem like a different person. He took his eyes off the road in bewilderment and looked at him, surveying the other from top to toe as if Yixing was possessed by some spiritual being and noted the slight tensing of his jaw.

“Watch the road, please,” he said flatly. “I’d rather not die in your car.”

“W-what?” Luhan stuttered, dumbfounded. Did something happen? Yixing wouldn’t talk like that!

“I mean it, Luhan,” Yixing continued, as if the idol hadn’t said a thing. “I want you to stay out of my affairs. I’m sick of you always hovering around me. We lead separate lives now. We just happen to live in the same house.” He exhaled slowly. “That little car accident earlier? Unnecessary. If it weren’t for our past, I would have sued you for personal injury.”

“What?” Luhan said again. He knew he sounded like a spoiled record but he found it difficult to comprehend what Yixing had just said. He blinked at the other in utter disbelief, confusion etched on every inch of his face.

Yixing rolled his eyes at him and the next thing he knew, the younger man had reached for the car door and was stepping out of his banged up Porsche in front of a red light. Luhan felt his insides ice over when Yixing bent down with a glare fierce enough to shrivel the most ferocious of dragons. “You’re the worst thing that ever happened to me. I’m begging you. Stay out of my sight and give me a shot at happiness with Kai.”

His callous declaration coiled itself tightly around Luhan’s throat. The loud slam of his precious car door did little to startle him further. Luhan’s mind was in a haze. Did he really push Yixing too far? Sure, Luhan admitted that it had been his initial plan, when he first came to Qiuyue’s house, to ruin the other man but he hadn’t thought that way for a long time. Everything that had happened recently was out of his control. He hadn’t meant to make Yixing suffer...

Something distinctly damp rolled down his cheek and the sudden realisation of what it was made him feel incredibly stuffy. He watched Yixing’s retreating back with hazy vision and pounded a fist hard on his chest as if the physical pain would rid him of the feeling of walls being closed in.

The last thing he truly needed right now was for Bi Ren to call him. Luhan in a deep irritable breath and channelled all the hurt into anger. “What do you want?” he snapped hoarsely into his mobile phone, cringing at the sound of his raw voice. “I don’t have the energy to deal with you.”

“Is this how you speak to your fiancée?” the voice on the other side retorted but she continued on as if she hadn’t expected him to answer the question. “I’m at your agency. We need to discuss damage control—”

“Is that Luhan?” a voice interrupted and the next second Zitao was talking through the speaker. “Come over now. This is urgent.”

. “On my way,” he said through gritted teeth and slammed his foot down on the gas pedal, putting more and more distance between him and the disappearing figure in the rear-view mirror.

***

The music had stopped for a while now but Yixing made no move to take his earphones off. The muffled silence was a preferred option than the loud conversations going on in the bus. He leaned his head against the cool glass of the bus window and stared at the road, eyes unfocused. The ruthless words echoed in his head even though he had uttered them several minutes ago but still he winced, when he recalled the look on Luhan’s face.

Unconsciously clenching and unclenching his fists, Yixing closed his seemingly swollen eyes and willed himself to blank out but it felt impossible to do that for once. Luhan would probably hate him now, wouldn’t he? That was a good thing. That was what he wanted. So why did he feel like ? Why did he feel like running off the bus and going back to apologise to the idol? Obviously they could never be together. There wasn’t going to be a future with Luhan.

He struggled to get up when the bus neared the bus stop by Qiuyue’s house. The thought of seeing Luhan so quickly was frightening but Yixing pushed aside his increasing panic and determinedly trudged towards the house. Luhan will probably be furious at him; with any luck, he’d be so angry he wouldn’t want to acknowledge him at all. The silent treatment was much preferred than a confrontation. He didn’t know how calm he could stay if they were to continue that conversation.

Much to his relief, Luhan (or Zitao) was nowhere to be found when he reached home. Instead Kai was standing in the middle of the living room with a stack of papers in his hands, in front of an expressionless Sehun. Yixing raised an eyebrow at them wearily.

“What’s going on?” he asked. “Kai, you didn’t tell me you were coming over.”

Right away, Sehun was at his side, tugging at his arm. “Ge. Ge, don’t listen to him. Let’s go to your room,” he said, his voice breaking despite the blank face. Yixing’s gaze darted quickly from Sehun to Kai, wariness and worry increasing tenfold as he let Sehun pull him towards the stairs a bit but he forced them both to stop when they were next to Kai.

“What is going on?” he asked again. His gaze flickered to the papers in Kai’s hands. “What did you say to Sehun?”

 Kai silently passed the papers to Yixing but not two seconds passed before Sehun snatched them away and flung them to the floor. Yixing’s eyes widened in shock at his brother’s lack of manners and opened his mouth to lecture him when he watched, in horror, Sehun’s eyes welling up.

“Yixing ge is the only brother I know! I won’t go with you. I won’t!” he yelled and raced up the stairs in record speed. Sehun slammed the door so hard, a picture frame fell off the wall in the living room. Blood rushed to his ears. Yixing’s eyes caught the words ‘GENETIC TEST REPORT’ and slowly squatted down to pick the paper up.

“... You took Sehun’s hair to do a DNA test,” Yixing said flatly. The words on the paper were becoming difficult to read; they appeared to be dancing around his vision as if mocking him. Sehun was related to Kai by blood. They were... they were brothers.

The sound of paper tearing snapped him out of his own thoughts. He was gripping it so tightly his finger punched a hole through it. A part of Yixing knew he really shouldn’t be mad at Kai because the other merely wanted to find his sibling but the fact that he was losing another of his family members caused a sudden onset of nausea. Maybe it was ridiculous but Yixing felt betrayed. He trusted Kai but it seemed he too had an ulterior motive to get closer to them.

“Yixing...”

“Go, please,” Yixing said quietly, lips pressed tight against each other. “Take the papers and go. I’ll talk to Sehun but I. I can’t look at you right now.” He dropped the torn piece of paper in his hand as though it burned him and wobbled up the stairs, nearly tripping in his haste to get away. He had to persuade Sehun somehow. It was only right for him to reunite with his family.

***

Minutes later, the agency building came into sight and with that, the hordes of reporters and fans waiting around outside. Luhan groaned aloud and checked his reflection in the rear-view mirror. , his eyes were red. Of all days, this was certainly not the day he wanted to deal with them. He drove past the agency, towards another carpark a short distance away. Once he stopped the car, Luhan opened the glove box to take out his trusty pair of aviators, briefly running his fingers through his hair in an attempt to tidy it up before he stepped out.

Stuffing his hands into the pockets of his acid-wash jeans, he started towards the agency but Luhan hadn’t taken more than 5 steps when someone grabbed his elbow. He spun around and froze, taken aback to see the man he hadn’t seen for weeks.

“Why are you getting engaged to that woman?” Abel hissed. His fingers pressed tightly into Luhan’s elbow but the idol felt more annoyance than pain.

“Abel, I don’t have time for this,” he said as patiently as he could, which wasn’t much considering the terrible mood he was in.

Abel narrowed his eyes, glaring so hard at Luhan he could probably drill a hole through the idol with his eyes. “When do you ever have time?” he snarled. “I’m sick of this too. You weren’t supposed to get together with that woman after your dear brother was exposed to be related to her. Why didn’t they cut off ties with you – or why didn’t you with them!?”

Luhan could hear blood pounding in his ears. “For ’s sake, Abel, did you have something to do with Yixing's identity being exposed?” he retorted incredulously, recalling the accusations the Zhang family threw at Yixing, and balled his hands into tight fists. He grabbed Abel’s collar furiously. “Do you know how much you had stirred? I really ought to—”

He didn’t get to finish his sentence. His outburst drew the attention from the nearby people and before he knew it, reporters were rushing towards them from the agency.

“Are you two having a lovers’ tiff?”

“Are you cheating on Bi Ren?”

Just when he thought things could not get worse, Bi Ren appeared. Luhan would have laughed at the expression of horror and humiliation on her face if he wasn’t so mad at Abel. Bi Ren looked at them and as if she suddenly remembered her position as the Zhang heiress, she stalked forward and slapped Luhan hard on the face. The reporters went wild, cameras flashing and voices overlapping each other.

“How dare you, Luhan,” she screeched. “You promised you wouldn’t see him!”

How anyone could think she was speaking the truth was beyond him. Her acting was about as stiff as a wooden plank. His cheek stung and so did his pride. Screw propriety, he wanted to reach over and strangle her, but it seemed he wasn’t the only one who thought that way. Abel launched himself at Bi Ren, grabbing both her wrists, and was yelling something the reporters looked almost gleeful to hear. Luhan slipped away while they were busy filming the quarrel, feeling a little sorry towards Abel for once for ditching him but he needed to save himself first. Abandoning the crowd, Luhan sprinted back towards the carpark, restarted the Porsche and sped away from the scene.

But he didn’t know where to go.

A/N: The truth comes out about Kai! /brbcrying@growl/