Warm sunlight sneaked through the gap where the heavy floral curtains did not cover, into the spacious room where Yixing was already awake and staring at the ceiling chandelier. It was Day 4 of living in the “Palace” and like previous days, he was up before the maid came to wake him. There were several learning points he gained living with his new family and one of them was that his half-siblings were all late risers.

He stretched his arms above his head slightly and let out a muffled yawn. There was that nagging feeling in the back of his head again to call home but there wasn’t a phone in his spacious bedroom and he had so cleverly left the mobile phone in his bedside table when he packed. The only way for him to be able to hear his foster mother’s voice was to use the phone out in the living room, but Yixing found it uncomfortable to do so when his half-siblings were around.

Though, they might not be awake at this time.

Yixing sat up quickly and one glance at the clock sent him out the door. It was early, but Sehun should be up to get ready for school. He missed the little brat and they hadn’t even ended things on a good note.

Heaving a small sigh of relief when he saw that there wasn’t anyone in the living room, Yixing picked up the phone and pressed the familiar digits of his home phone number. He in a deep hopeful breath while he waited for someone to pick up on the other line but the phone rang once, twice before going to the answering machine. Were they still asleep?

 “Look at the gold-digger calling home to report his progress,” a voice said mockingly from the top of the stairs. Yixing turned around slowly to meet the hostile gaze of his older half-sister, Bi Ren. His mouth turned dry; she – and his half-brother Zhi Ren – had never been openly nasty towards him the past 3 days even if it was obvious they didn’t like him.

“I-I’m just—” he stuttered but he couldn’t form a reason before Zhi Ren appeared. Zhi Ren did not even spare him a glance as he strode towards the dining table where breakfast was already laid out. Flushing, Yixing carefully placed the phone receiver back in place and trailed behind the siblings. His eyes widened at the breakfast spread on his plate: poached eggs, hash browns, bacon, croissants… it was a far cry from the sandwich he normally just had for breakfast.

“You got to be kidding me,” Bi Ren snarled when she saw Yixing about to sit at his usual seat, on the left of Uncle Heng. Yixing froze in his spot, confused, when Zhi Ren swung his hand and swept Yixing’s plate crashing onto the floor.

“Dogs shouldn’t eat at the table,” he told Yixing, in such a matter-of-fact voice it sounded as though… as though Yixing was one. “Get out of our sights. I had enough of acting civil to you. If you’re smart, you ought to disappear from this house before my father comes back from his business trip.”

Ah… no wonder they were behaving like this. Blinking rapidly at the cutting insult, Yixing stumbled away from the dining table and was about to escape back to the safety of his room when he heard one of the maids announce that he had a visitor. Yixing whipped around straightaway to hear her say that the guest’s name was a Sehun. Sehun!

“Don’t let him in,” ordered Bi Ren who looked almost gleeful at the fallen expression on Yixing’s face. “One piece of trash in this house is more than enough.” She arched her eyebrow challengingly at Yixing. “If you want to see him, then go out and never come back.”

How badly he wanted to leave right then. Yixing bit hard on his lower lip but didn’t move, hating that by doing so he was agreeing to the names they called him. Gold-digger, dog… His cheeks reddened with humiliation but instead of storming out of the lavish manor, he only returned to his room silently. Uncle Heng would be upset if he left. He didn’t want to disappoint yet another person.

***

“I am going to strangle you, Zitao,” Luhan said through gritted teeth, fingers clenching the counter so tightly his knuckles were white. “Or shove you into that tower of books right there. I don’t ing give a damn there are customers in here.”

His manager looked unruffled at the idol’s threats, but he did pick up the thickest book on the counter just to have it away from Luhan’s reach. Zitao let out a loud sigh that could rival a battered old man’s. “Look, in my defense, I only did it for your own good,” he argued calmly. “If I didn’t approach Qiuyue and insist she do the DNA test with your hair, the two of you might never meet each other in this lifetime.”

“But you did it behind my back!” he blurted out, lunging over the counter to grab Zitao’s collar but only managed to successfully grab the Attic customers’ attention instead of the stupid piece of cloth.

Zitao smacked Luhan’s hand away with the hardcover book he was holding. “You? Please. If I told you, you’d confront your foster p—guardians and start screaming your head off at them again for keeping it from you.” He watched Luhan warily. “You ought to be a little more grateful to your guardians. They sacrificed a lot for you.”

A scowl formed on Luhan’s lips.”Grateful?” he spat, finally lowering his voice when he noticed the curious stares. Last thing he needed was for someone to eavesdrop and sell the story to the press. “They should have told me earlier so I can find my real parents.”

“Why? So you can shout at Qiuyue earlier for abandoning you?” Zitao arched his eyebrow. “You’re not even giving her a chance to explain or make it up to you. Would it be any different if you knew earlier?”

Luhan ing hated it when Zitao was right. He almost praised the Lord when the door opened to reveal Sehun and saved him from having to come up with a snarky comeback to the world’s most irritating manager.

Until Sehun flashed him that kicked puppy expression and Luhan had to swallow hard to not run out of the book café to murder whoever who made Sehun sad.

“I didn’t get to see Yixing ge,” he whimpered miserably. “The security guards refused to let me in. I even tried to get them to pass Yixing ge his mobile phone but they just looked at me like I was giving them a bomb…… I miss Yixing.”

Sehun? Zitao mouthed over the younger boy’s shoulders, to which Luhan responded by giving him a brief nod. Luhan’s eyebrows furrowed at the upset boy in his school uniform and glanced at the clock on the counter. It was 11am. The silly boy had skipped school to see Yixing.

“I’m sure there’s some reason why he didn’t see you,” Luhan told him gently, awkwardly patting Sehun’s shoulder from over the counter. “Maybe he couldn’t? Or maybe he wasn’t even home? You shouldn’t have played truant though. He’ll be unhappy if he found out.”

Sehun jerked up at the comment and shot Luhan a pleading look. “You won’t tell him, would you? Ge would be mad if he knew…”

Sehun was obviously concerned with how Yixing thought of him. Why did he have to pretend to be rebellious in front of the other then? To look cool in front of Luhan? Kids. He ruffled the younger boy’s hair and nodded.

“Look, why not I go over and try to see if I can get him?” Luhan suggested. “Maybe the guards will let me in when they realise who I am.” He shot Zitao a look and discreetly nodded at Sehun. “Zitao, get Sehun some lunch and send him home later ok? I’ll just grab a cab.”

Satisfied that his foster brother was in good hands, Luhan gestured for one of the staff Qiuyue hired to stay at the cashier counter before he headed out of the bookstore. His intuition was normally quite accurate and ever since Yixing left the house to live with his “real family”, he had been feeling suffocated. Luhan hoped this wasn’t a sign that Yixing was having a tough time with the Zhangs.

He was so concentrated in getting a cab that he didn’t even realise a red Lamborgini had stopped in front of him until Abel stepped out of the flashy sports car. Talk about ostentatious.

“What do you want?” Luhan asked dryly. “I don’t have time for you.”

“Why are you avoiding me again?”

Luhan couldn’t help but roll his eyes again. Why was this man so oblivious? And he thought Yixing was bad enough. “Haven’t I told you the other time that it’s over between us,” he said impassively. “Why do you still keep appearing in front of me?

“But I did you the favour,” spluttered Abel, whose hand had reached out to take hold of Luhan’s wrist, much to the idol’s exasperation. “The lawsuit remember? I could have had that dingy bookstore shut down.”

Good Lord, could there be a more frustrating person? Luhan was beginning to wonder why he even liked this man in the first place. He tried to wrench his hand away but Abel only held onto it tighter, fingers digging onto his wrist. “Well, I paid you 10 ing million yuan,” Luhan pointed out impatiently. “What more do you want? Love?” He snorted incredulously, just as he heard the familiar dreaded sounds of clicking. Luhan’s head snapped up, right into the camera lens of the reporter.

***

Yixing missed home. He missed his family. The family he was used to the past decade. What was Sehun doing? Or his Ma? Yixing buried himself underneath a thick fort of blankets and pillows, wishing the hours would pass quickly enough. Here he was, surrounded by dozens of staff in this gigantic manor and he couldn’t feel more alone. His blood-related half-siblings despised his existence even though he tried to tell them he wasn’t interested in the family’s finances whereas his birth father was hardly around. Yixing was beginning to realise just how affluent the family was; even if he wasn’t up to date with how the Chinese elite worked, Yixing knew that the stocks in the $200billion-worth ZH Group would drop if they knew Zhang Heng had a bastard son.

He wanted to go home badly. Sure, Luhan was mean to him at times but he was practically Bambi compared to the hyenas here. (Yixing promptly felt guilty for calling his half-siblings hyenas. This was usually where Kris started shaking him hard.)

His stomach growled, reminding him that he had yet to have any meals for the day and it was already eight in the evening. The only solution was to sneak to the kitchen later when they were all asleep but that meant he had to wait for at least another 4 hours.

Trying to distract himself from his hunger, Yixing crawled out of the blankets to the computer in the corner of his room and turned it on. With one hand rubbing his complaining stomach, Yixing idly surfed the Sina homepage for news when a particular headline caught his eye. He clicked on it hesitantly, and his heart caught in his throat at the picture splashed across the page. Reluctantly he dragged his gaze up to read the sub-headline.

LUHAN AND ABEL CHUNG – BACK TOGETHER?

It occurred to him a second too late that the choking sound he was hearing came from his throat. Yixing stared at the photo emotionlessly before realising his fingers were touching his own lips, reminding him of his first kiss with the idol on his computer screen. They belonged to different worlds and the picture in the news article was evidence of it. It was foolish of him to think the kiss would mean something to Luhan. Luhan was right. He really was dim.

A/N: Luhan is actually behaving like a proper brother. -sobs- Poor Xingderella though. /: Anyway, thanks for the comments! I love reading them, hehe. They make me write faster.