Deer Luhan,

I’m not sure where you came up with that excuse about your mum for dress shopping, but whatever floats your boat.  Those journalists really must have taken “the truth is stranger than fiction” to heart to fall for it.

Leigh

Kris was adjudicating a game of table football between Tao and Xiumin when we returned to the dorm later, several bags of clothes and Kai and D.O.’s presents in tow.

“Yo, Luhan!” Kris called as Luhan kicked off his shoes and set down the shopping backs.  “Or Leigh, actually.  Both of you.  I don’t even know.  You’ve made headlines.”

Luhan paused in the act of placing his shoes on the shoe rack and lifted his head.  “Both of us?”

“Yeah.”  Kris didn’t look particularly pleased.  “There are photos of you two out in town.  The first one’s right outside the embassy and then there are three of you with a grass mud horse pratting about in a clothes store.  Our manager wants a word.  He said he’d—”

The doorbell rang, and before I knew quite what was going on, Tao had vanished from the table football table and was hustling me into the bathroom.

“Wait!”  Luhan ran after us with the shopping bags.  “There’s a dress in here; he can’t see it.”

Tao held the door long enough for Luhan to fling the bags inside and then shut and locked it.

“We can’t let him see you,” he explained to me.  “Luhan’s probably going to have to make some kind of public statement about having relatives or something ridiculous, but things will turn ugly if the manager sees you in the dorm with us.”

I sat down heavily on the floor.  Being alone in the bathroom with Tao right next to the shower was making me feel a little awkward.  It didn’t seem to bother Tao in the slightest, though.  Which only made it more awkward for me.

“Did you get the visas sorted, then?” Tao asked.

I nodded.  “It’ll take a week for them to process and I have to go pick them up once they’re done.  The embassy offered to pay for the flight home because Luhan told them I’d been abducted.”

“It’s kind of true,” Tao pointed out.  “Fortunately things are ending happily, but it’s not like you chose to come.”

“Luhan told Kris he’d swap with me all over again if he had the option to go back in time.”

We lapsed into silence.  Sharp voices were audible on the other side of the door, but Tao didn’t give me much chance to dwell on it.

“I think Luhan likes torturing you,” he mused.  “You were only originally supposed to stay for, what, a week?  And it’s already been well over a month.”

“He’s not very good at keeping deadlines,” I agreed.  “Last one he set, we were supposed to swap back last Monday, but then he wanted to go rescue his aunt.”

“You should have told me where you were going when you left the dorm that night.”

“But you would have followed me.  And no offence, Tao, but you were being a little intimidating that day and I was scared you might try to stop me.”

“You still should have told me.”

“Are you dating her or not?” bellowed the manager’s voice, and we both jumped.

“No!” Luhan yelled back.  “Just look at the photos, please!  Why would I be dating an identical twin sibling?”

“Oh, Jesus,” I groaned, burying my head in my hands.  “We told the embassy we were cousins and now this?”

“That’s your brother?” we heard the manager say, and Tao started laughing quietly.  “Identical twin… that’s your brother?  Then why are there photos of you with dresses?”

“This is going to be amazing when it hits the press,” Tao breathed out.  I took my hands off my face to glare at him.  The voices on the other side of the door had quietened to more of a murmur.

“Don’t even think about that,” I growled.  He changed the subject.

“Luhan took you dress shopping, though?  Which brands?”

“He took me everything shopping.  He even got me a bracelet—”

Tao seized my hand immediately so he could inspect my wrist.  He scratched a fingernail against the pearls, raised both eyebrows, and then turned it around to inspect the silver charm that dangled from the clasp.

“He got your name engraved on it along with the EXO symbol?” he said in surprise.  “That’s really sweet.”

“He did?”  I took my hand out of Tao’s so I could see.  Sure enough, the hexagonal EXO logo had been etched into the silver on one side, and on the other, Leigh, 13th member was inscribed in flowery English.  “Huh, he really did.  No wonder it took him ages.  It’s kinda cute.”

“It’s not fair, though,” Tao went on with a pout.  “Why didn’t he get one for the rest of us too?”

My phone buzzed, and I took it out of my pocket to see that Sehun had sent me the two photos I’d sent the other guys.

I’m genuinely traumatised right now, he’d written in English.  Apparently one of these is Luhan.

Tao took my phone out of my hands before I could reply and bit his lip, holding back a laugh as he glanced at the photos.

“These are amazing,” he told me, forwarding the pictures to himself.  “If you’re ever forced into an arranged marriage with a d**che, you just need to call in Luhan to impersonate you.  He can’t refuse because you’ve done the same for him.”  He handed the phone back.

“I’ll remember that,” I said wryly.

There was a knock on the bathroom door before either of us could say anything else.

“You can come out,” Kris’ voice said.  “Luhan’s managed to get him out of the dorm.”

I still had to hide away from the manager several more times over the course of that evening and most of Sunday until Luhan left shortly before dinner for an emergency press conference about the fact that, yes, he did indeed have family.  By and large, I kept myself occupied in the various places I got locked away in by reading up people’s reactions to the photos of me and Luhan.

“Netizens are the weirdest things ever,” I said, scrolling down the newest batch of comments rolling in after the press conference was set to start.  “Look at this – ‘I can’t believe Luhan lied to us about having siblings.  My innocence is ruined and I can no longer trust Luhan and EXO.’”

“Drastic, that,” said Kris.

“‘OMG, can you imagine how cute their kids would be?’” I continued.  “Ew, no.  How did that get four thousand likes?  ‘I smell more twincest fanfics, LOL.’  I’m… ugh, how disturbing.  And what the is this: ‘If their agency tries to pass this off as another brother-sister good friends relationship, I’m so outta here.’  We clearly look like each other….”

Lay popped up beside me and started reading off more of them.  “‘So, I’m confused as to whether Luhan’s sibling is a boy or a girl.  Weren’t they spotted dress shopping?’  Oh, look at the reply: ‘It’s obviously a guy – can’t you see the chest?  Looks like the innocent baby deer is into some stuff.’”

“‘I hope they are dating!’” Chen joined in.  “‘Can you imagine how perfect it would be, having a couple that looked so perfectly identical and kids that were practically clones?’”

“‘Guys, they were spotted come out of the British embassy.  Do you reckon this has something to do with Luhan’s girlfriend?’”  I raised my eyebrows.  “They don’t want to let that one drop, do they?”

“Well, technically, you would be Luhan’s British girlfriend if you did date,” Lay pointed out.  “Oh, wow, this one’s a howler.  ‘Apparently couple clothing and couple accessories isn’t enough anymore.  Now it’s even couple faces.’”

Kris turned up the volume of the TV.  “Hey, interview’s on.  Tao, Xiumin, Luhan’s on TV!”

A basketball thrown from the direction of the bathroom sailed cleanly through the hoop and bounced off the edge of the TV screen.

“Tao!”

Tao caught the ball as it bounced and jumped onto the sofa beside Kris, hugging the ball to him.  Xiumin emerged from the kitchen eating some left-over cake.

“This is going to be fun,” he said as he took a seat on the floor in front of me.  “Luhan’s got a choice between cousin, brother or sister and whatever he opts for is going to raise awkward questions.”

Chen let out a sudden snort, drawing our attention away from the TV as he showed us his phone.  “Baekhyun’s asking whether he should be worried about Sehun having competition.”

I glared at the phone.  “Tell Baekhyun he can have my grass mud horse.”

Xiumin was right about awkward questions whatever Luhan went for.  It looked like he’d been told to quell dating rumours no matter what, or else the manager had got h