Lu Han fiddled with his smart phone, dragging a finger across the screen to answer the impending call.

"Yeoboseyo?" 

"Lu han-ah! How have you been?" The edges of his lips curled upward slightly as he recognised that the voice was his father's, "have you been well?" 

"Yeah, I'm alright." 

"That's good to hear." Lu Han heard a woman's voice shouting over the phone, and it sounded like his mother. There was a brief pause before his father spoke again, "oh right, I almost forgot to tell you. We're coming over for dinner tonight." 

Lu Han nodded, despite the fact that he was talking on the phone and his father couldn't see, "Okay." 

"Oh and can you please tell Nayoung as well?" 

"Didn't Mr and and Mrs Kang tell her?" 

"They tried, but the girl refused to pick up her phone." 

"Okay, I will. Bye dad." He hung up with a frustrated sigh. Running errands for Nayoung. Again. Everything would be so much easier if she just picked up her parent's calls. 

That damn idiot. 

Geez, she was so spoilt. Why couldn't she pick up the phone when her parents were calling her? She already acted like a brat toward them, the least she could do is answer the phone. Was she so conceited that she couldn't even do something as small as that? The thought sent waves of fury rippling through his body. He couldn't stand people like that. 

________

"Our parent's are coming over for dinner today." 

Nayoung jumped at the sound of Lu Han's voice. She turned around to face him, eyes wide with surprise. They never talked at school, and so she was extremely shocked when he had suddenly appeared behind her. 

She hadn't even heard what he had said, "What?" 

Lu Han sighed heavily, obviously annoyed by the fact that he had to tell the girl himself, "Our parents are coming to visit us, at around 7." 

Nayoung's eyes darkened, the small smile she masked on her face falling. Her lips pressed into a thin line, eyes looking everywhere except the tall male in front of her. Her usually sharp orbs were dull, almost void of emotion. Except that if you looked close enough, you would be able to notice the hint of anxiety, almost fear, in her pained eyes. 

But Lu Han was too careless to notice. He was too distracted by his frustration to see, and he was too angry to care. He turned away from her, "Be home early, and make sure you stay out of the kitchen. I don't want another disaster like the last time you made breakfast." 

~~~~

The sound of the doorbell ringing shook the house unpleasantly. Nayoung shivered, feeling her heart drop to her stomach. Anxiety was gnawing at her insides, and she had to swallow a lump that had unknowingly formed in . Each step she took down the stairs made her feel ten times heavier, and by the time she had reached the door it felt like she had the whole world weighing on her shoulders. The girl let out a shaky breath that she hadn't known she had been holding.

The door opened, revealing four individuals. 

"Hello dear!" Nayoung almost yelped in surprise at the cheerful tone of the older woman she realised was Lu Han's mother. She stared blankly for a few minutes, her perplexed expression not going unnoticed. "Nayoung-ah, you look so shocked to see us," There was a moment of laughter, "Have you even forgotten what we looked like?" 

Nayoung blinked a few times to get her mind focused again. 

She smiled at Lu Han's parents, "Sorry, please come in. Lu Han's in the kitchen." Mr and Mrs Lu walked in, calling out their son's name as they disappeared from view. The air turned significantly colder when they had left. She stood up straight, lips sealed in a stubborn silence as her parents came past her. She flinched unwillingly when her father glanced at her intimidatingly. His gaze was fierce, scary almost, and laced in with the coldness and hatred, Nayoung noticed contempt. She hated the way he stared at her. She had lived with it for her whole life, but every time someone sent her a contemptuous look, it would still send the same white rage coursing through her body. Her parents walked passed her without a second glance, as if she was dirt beneath their feet, as if she wasn't even worth looking at. 

The dinner table conversed in a light atmosphere. They all seemed in a good mood, except for the small girl on the edge if the table. But no one seemed to notice. 

"Wow, this food is surprisingly good. Who made it?" Mr Kang's booming voice entered his ears. 

Lu Han felt a harsh pinch on his thigh. He sent an angry look at the girl sitting beside him; Nayoung was giving him a warning glance. He felt a little bit of irritation grow inside his chest. He shook her grip away, and the girl shot him a warning look, as if she was scolding him for talking to Mr Kang. She had been doing that for the whole night, secretly poking him and nudging him whenever the Kang's spoke. Her immaturity was getting extremely annoying. He eyed the girl in an unpleasant way as she still refused to look up at the table. Geez, not only was she incompetent, she was rude as well. 

Lu Han suppressed his frustration and faked a pleasant smile at the four adults at the table, "I cooked." 

"Lu Han? You did?" There was a subtle hint of disapproval, but Lu Han missed it. The doe eyed male nodded solemnly, completely missing the sudden stiffness in Nayoung's posture. He picked at his food with an unnoticeable frown. Why was he feeling so uncomfortable? He was having dinner with his family, and he should be enjoying the night, so why did he feel as if something was wrong? It didn't feel right. But then again, nothing about today seemed right. 

________

Nayoung felt her parent's eyes on her, boring into her skull. She shrunk back in the chair, loosing her appetite completely. The food that had seemed delicious just a few minutes ago revolted her. She looked up for the first time that evening, scanning the table with her anxious eyes. Her gaze fell back down to her food before it reached her parents. She felt so insignificant, like a feeble pest that could do nothing but be unpleasant. Nayoung was so used to being strong, loud, confident. She had grown used to living as a queen, used to having a large presence. And right now she felt anything but it. She was so small and weak and worthless, and all she wanted to do was crawl into a hole and never come back out again. 

She looked up sheepishly at Lu Han, without anyone noticing. He looked visibly irritated, and pretty pissed off. There was literally a dark aura emanating from him. Nayoung felt a tiny pang of guilt, feeling kind of bad because she was giving Lu Han such a hard time. But that didn't mean she was going to be any less stubborn. 

___________

One hour passed by pleasantly. There was light chatter, and exchange of stories and all the other stuff people did at family dinners. Everything went well, more than well in fact, but Lu han couldn't  shake off the uncomfortable feeling in his gut. Something just felt... off. A motherly voice called him from his thoughts.

"Has she been giving you a hard time?" Lu Han lifted his gaze to see Nayoung's mother staring at him, "I know she's a bit if trouble, so if she goes out of line, just call us." The woman smiled warmly and handed him a sheet of paper with an array of numbers scrawled upon it. 

"No, no, everything's fine," Lu Han lied. 

If only she knew. 

"Well have a goodnight." 

"You too Mr and Mrs Kang." 

After exchanging a short conversation with his father, and receiving a massacre of kisses on his face from his mother, Lu Han waved goodbye to his parents. He bid them farewell with a light heart, grinning as widely as humanly possible. The male hadn't noticed how much he missed his parents until they already disappeared into the darkness of night. Maybe it was Nayoung's loud presence that filled up his life, or maybe school work had distracted him, but he had been so preoccupied that he didn't even think twice about his parents. It was nice to have dinner with them after so long. How long had it been sine he had moved in here? 2 months? 3? He didn't really remember. His heart almost ached when he couldn't see his parents any longer. 
 
His gaze shifted to Nayoung, who hadn't even bothered to bid farewell to her parents. He held the piece of paper Mrs Kang gave him in his hand, reading the illegible numbers as best as he could. Was that a 1 or a 7? He couldn't tell, it just looked like a bunch of scribbles. For such a sophisticated woman, Mrs Kang had really messy handwriting. Really messy. 

"Hey give me your phone, I need to check your contacts." The girl roughly handed him her phone, still not breaking her stubborn silence. His finger swiped the screen as he searched for their contacts, searching for her parents. But no matter how many times he ran through the list, there was no 'mum' or 'dad' not even a Kang was on the list. 
"Hey Nayoung, where are your parents' names?" 

After a long pause, she replied. "They're not there." 

"What? Not there? What do you mean." 

Silence. 

"Nayoung, answer me." 

Again, she gave no response. 

Lu Han blew a raspberry in annoyance. He felt like he was talking to a brick wall, she wasn't responding to anything. What was going on with her? Was she having one of her immature little tantrums again? He just couldn't understand why she was being so rude. The nerve of this girl, not even bothering to save her parents' numbers, not picking up their calls. 

"Help me wash up," he had spoken in a harsh, almost scolding, tone. And that was something he hadn't intended, he was just a bit peeved at the fact that Nayoung was being so spoilt. There was no response from the girl. 
"Yah Na-" He paused mid sentence, the words being lost before they could leave his mouth. As soon as his eyes found her, all the anger and frustration vanished. 

The whole day hadn't felt quite right, and now Nayoung was acting strangely too. He had never seen the girl like this. He usually fiery eyes were dull. Her expression twisted into a scowl, but it wasn't the type of scowl that she usually wore. It wasn't a scowl of disgust that she gave others, it was a scowl of discomfort. She looked hurt, defeated, and almost scared. And he saw a glimpse of loneliness in her lifeless eyes that he hadn't noticed until now. And the whole time, she hadn't looked up at him once, and that meant something was wrong. 

"Hey, never mind. I'll go clean up." He didn't know how to comfort her, he didn't even know why he had such a strong urge to comfort her in the first place. Lu Han didn't want to ask 'are you okay?' because she obviously wasn't, hugging her was out of the question. He just ended up patting her on the shoulder awkwardly, trying his best to avoid her sullen expression, he probably already had enough guilt to deal with. After a few slow seconds, the male, realising that he wasn't really helping much, left to clean up the kitchen. 

Lu Han set to work, washing dishes and putting all everything back into cupboards, shelves and on top of kitchen benches. His mind drifted off toward the girl upstairs, biting his lip as he pondered over her strange behaviour. The first question that popped up into his mind was what he knew about her. Nayoung was a stupid, clumsy, inconsiderate, spoilt, stubborn brat. She was the school queenka, and relished in her popularity. And she couldn't cook to save her life. He scrunched up his nose at the unpleasant memory of her glob of goo that she had called breakfast. A thought occurred to him that hadn't even crossed his mind before; If she couldn't cook, what did she eat at home then? 

It was like the kitchen heard his thoughts, because when he opened the cupboard to put away a few spices, he spotted a large stack of two minute noodle packets filling the cupboard. And when he opened the freezer, he noticed that most of the freezer was filled with microwaved meals. How he hadn't noticed something so blatantly obvious amazed him. Was this all she ate at home? That didn't exactly look like the healthiest of meals. Maybe he should make a little more breakfast in the mornings. He shook off the thought with a heavy sigh, he didn't want to worry about another problem just yet. 

Lu Han's thoughts kept travelling back to the day's events as he cleaned. He tried to ignore the feeling of uneasiness in his stomach, but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't shake off the feeling that the whole day hadn't felt quite right. It was like the answer was right on the back of his head, but he couldn't figure it out. He knew there was something off, but he just couldn't quite pinpoint what it was. 

It wasn't until he was in bed, covered in the warmth of his bed sheets, that he realised what was so off. It hadn't occurred to him the whole night that Nayoung's parents hadn't even glanced at her once, that they hadn't even uttered her name. They hadn't even acknowledged her presence. 

The guilt shot him in the heart, spreading an uncomfortable numbness through his body. His bed no longer felt comfortable, and he tossed and his bed, with the thought of his narrow mindedness hanging over his head like a persistent fly. To think he had been so inconsiderate and hot tempered toward her when she probably already feeling like crap. He buried his face into his pillow, Taemin's words ringing fresh in his mind.

Maybe you're just not looking hard enough .

Yeah, maybe he wasn't. 

____________

Hello everyone again!

It was Sehun's birthday yesterday <3 Awww he's already 20/21 TT.TT UHUHUHUHU. Here's a gif to celebrate. Oh gosh I miss MAMA days so much, Sehun you adorable dango D:

EXO's comeback is only two days away.. The mv teaser for Overdose was so good. *squeals and fangirls*

Thanks to leena0731, myungster97 and shafinaz98 for upvoting. *hugs you* 

And of course, thanks to everyone that's reading and commenting on this story too. 

I'll see you guys next week~ *waves*