Hours later and Luhan still can’t get Sehun and Tao’s departure out of his mind. It felt surreal, almost as if tomorrow he’d find out that it was all a joke, or that Sehun had changed his mind and returned.

Minseok is already in bed by the time Luhan makes it to his room, and the former model settles down on the edge of the bed, staring at him in thought.

“What,” Minseok asks. His voice is edged with sleep and Luhan grimaces, a spark of regret igniting within him for disturbing the secretary.

"If I asked you to drop everything and run away with me, would you," Luhan says, asking the question that’s been on his mind since he’d decided to give up on finding Sehun.

"What," Minseok repeats, sitting up in bed and squinting tired eyes as he stares at Luhan under the dim light of the bedroom.

"If I asked you to run away with me, would you," Luhan asks, repeating the question as he moves closer to Minseok. "If I said let's leave tomorrow, could you drop everything and go with me?"

"Where would we go," Minseok asks, tilting his head in thought as if imagining it.

"Anywhere you wanted," Luhan replies.

"Okay," Minseok says. "We'd have to leave really early if we wanted to sneak out of the city, otherwise we’d have to deal with reporters."

Luhan’s finds himself biting his bottom lip in thought as he plans out his next question. "What if instead I said let's go to a compound, and join the Red Devils?"

"You'd never join the Red Devils," Minseok retorts.

"Hypothetically," Luhan says.

"Well," Minseok starts off slowly, "If you woke up with a completely different personality and decided you wanted to run off to a compound, I'd come along, and make sure you didn't do anything as suicidal as joining the Red Devils."

"But you wouldn't want to," Luhan asks.

"I wouldn't want you joining the Red Devils," Minseok specifies. "If you wanted to run away to a compound I'd come with you.”

"Are you being serious," Luhan asks. "If I really asked you to come with me, you would without questions? You could do that?"

Minseok turns towards him, eyes studying him, roaming over every inch of his face. "Yes," he says a moment later. "If you were serious about leaving this city, I'd come along. Wouldn’t you do the same for me?"

"No," Luhan says, he catches Minseok's scrutinizing eyes and drops his gaze. "Maybe," he admits after barely a minute of thought.

He had thought Sehun and Tao were being illogical and immature by running away without a second thought, but if Minseok woke up tomorrow, asking him to leave the city, to run away from it all, he would. After all, he had stayed for Minseok.

The desire to leave Capital City had swelled up within him the moment President Kim had given him his new position within the company. More than his previous childish fantasies, or even the brief urges to leave after a confrontation with the man, that feeling like a tidal wave climbing higher and higher within him, had washed over him until he was making step-by-step plans to leave.

It had only relented when he realized Minseok wouldn't accompany him. Luhan had believed that the man, more rational than he was, wouldn't drop everything for a brief relationship when he hadn't even left the city with his parents, and he didn’t want to leave Minseok behind to face President Kim’s wrath alone.

****

Luhan enters his office with two cups of coffee in each hand, Joohyun is already at her desk, head in her hand as she stares ahead with a bored expression. She sits up at the sight of Luhan, just as he places the cup in his left hand on her desk.

"What's this," she asks, her hands placed across her lap in a manner that reminded him of the proper girls that he'd meet at social gatherings.

"A thank you," he replies, smiling down at her. "We’ve hadn’t been here for a week and I already have you lying to our president for me."

Joohyun grins a conspiring grin at him. "Well," she starts off, "looking out for you and helping when I can is a pretty big part of my job description. However, I'll be taking this," she adds on quickly as if worried Luhan might take it back.

"It's black," Luhan tells her, "I'm not sure how you like your coffee, so I figured you could steal a few creamers and sugar from one of the other offices." She quirks a brow at Luhan's statement and lifts her cup as if making a toast.

"I'll be sure to keep that in mind," she adds, with a grin as she stands. Luhan watches her leave the office and sighs.

Talking to Joohyun had been a distraction amid his whirlwind thoughts in the same manner talking to Minseok on the elevator up had been, brief but all-welcoming and much needed. With every moment of silence, Luhan was forced back into thinking of what he should be telling President Kim. Yesterday's promise of tomorrow had somehow transformed into a promise of later. He'd tell President Kim of Sehun's betrayal later, at the last moment of the day when he could just escape afterwards and deal with the real repercussions the next day.

****

Later, Luhan soon realizes while the sun is shining at its highest point, was taking its time to come around and that was tortuous. He had given up all hope of finding and stopping Sehun, it was much too late now, but that didn’t end the worry. It was his duty to report Sehun’s accident to President Kim before the media found out or worse, and Luhan knew how President Kim would react if he found out Luhan was withholding such monumental information, but it didn’t make it easier.

His thoughts were consumed by his worries, and no matter how hard he tried to focus on work or on different thoughts he couldn’t. His mind continued to linger on Sehun, President Kim, and his duties, and despite how frustrating and maddening his thoughts were he was still far from wishing the time would go by faster.

The sun does eventually set, and Luhan finally leaves the confines of his office, walking with stiff steps to the elevator. He’s more aware of every muscle and nerve in his face than he’s ever been and so he keeps his expression as neutral as possible, not wanting President Kim to pick up on anything.

The elevator moves too fast, and the walk towards President Kim's office seems longer than ever before, as if the floor and walls have elongated to give him more time to change his mind and flee.

Minseok isn't at his desk, when Luhan enters the main office, and that does nothing to abate the nerves he's trying to hide.

He knows he should wait and see if President Kim is alone, but the coward in him, the broke Perfect side that forces him to still feel fear, is telling him it’s now or never. If he doesn’t push forward then he’ll end up not telling President Kim until tomorrow or later, if ever. He takes a step forward and then another, pushes himself to stand in front of President Kim’s office.

He draws in a deep shaky breath, his last show of weakness and clasps the metal door handle in his hand. It’s cold to touch, but he ignores that, pushing it and his nerves down at the same time as he opens the door slowly. He stops wants he hears President Kim’s voice, waiting to gauge rather he’s in an important conversation or not, even though Luhan doubts everything could possible top his announcement.

He can only catch the very end of President Kim’s words just as the man erupts into laughter. It’s his usual mocking laughter, the one he tends to subject Luhan to when he thinks Luhan’s very existence is a joke created for his amusement. Luhan nearly pushes forward at that moment, the remnants of past shames driving him onward. He only stops when he hears the man’s next words, and instead he settles back, curiosity erupting within him.

"Are you sure you're not a Perfect," is what Luhan assumes he hears, the words are loud in the silent office, but Luhan’s still not sure he heard it correctly. President Kim would call him an Imperfect every time Luhan revealed a new flaw or failed in some way. He had a hatred for Imperfects so deep it made Luhan's own dislike look like love when compared to it. Luhan couldn't think of any circumstances that would have President Kim talking amicably with one.

“You’re better at pretending to be one than that pathetic excuse for one I allowed to become my heir.” Anger and embarrassment twists in Luhan’s gut at being talked about in such a way to a stranger, but he continues to listen in. He instead focuses on a new, twisted but hopeful, thought that if he caught President Kim in a scandal with an Imperfect he might finally be free of his tyranny. The person he's talking to speaks too softly compared to President Kim’s loud and boastful tone, and all Luhan can make out is soft mutterings that he chooses not to pay attention to. He no longer cares about the person President Kim is talking to, instead he focuses on his new plan to catch President Kim saying something incriminating.

"How long do you have to keep pretending," President Kim asks, his tone mocking. "Well how would I know? Weren’t you the one that came to me looking for employment and pretending to be a Perfect? Are you planning to quit soon?"

Luhan hears a mutter of what he assumes is a "No, sir."

"Ah," President Kim says next, and Luhan can just imagine the smirk on his face from the countless times President Kim has played this game with him. "Are you already bored of him? You used to get so indignant and flustered when I insulted him, but now you see it as well, right? He's weaker than even your kind.”

Luhan’s stomach drops at President Kim’s words. So used to the verbal abuse President Kim would subject him to, it sounds as if he’s being talked about once more, and it makes him nervous as he continues listening in.

“You will continue to watch over him and report to me on any behavior that might impact my company's image in any way.  You will not tell him about this, and you will not quit the company until I think your job is done,” President Kim tells the mystery person, his voice taking on a tone that was a mixture of threatening and business. “You might think that just because your parents are gone and your tracker's been removed you're safe, but I can assure you, Kim Minseok, you are not. Your lies will have you imprisoned, and if the world finds out you were trying to turn Luhan into a Red Devil, and steal government secrets, well then you'll be dead.”

****

Luhan sits alone in his dark office. He hadn’t bothered to turn on the lights after his swift escape from President Kim’s office, all thoughts of Sehun had finally eased from his head as he came back to his office. He sits at his desk, eyes staring into nothingness as his mind repeats President Kim’s words. The words loop around his brain, crashing hard into mental blocks every time he tries to understand, to comprehend what he’d overheard.

His subconscious whispers the word “denial” like a taunt, but that wasn’t right because what he heard couldn’t be right. Minseok, because it had to have been Minseok President Kim was talking to, was an… he couldn’t even stomach thinking the word. Minseok was a First Gen, that was a fact. He had to be, because Luhan would have figured out that he wasn’t by now. He ignores the memories trying to push forward, memories of suspicious behavior Luhan had dismissed without a second thought, and tries to analyze what he overheard.

President Kim wanted Minseok to keep watch over him. Luhan had thought he'd won Minseok over, that he had proven himself to be more than the fickle with love model Minseok had perceived him as, but that seemed fabricated now.

He leans forward then, elbows planted on the desk and hands reaching up to cradle his head. It didn't feel fake though, the attraction hadn't felt feigned, and the way Minseok looked after him after restless nights seemed real. And last night when Minseok had promised to run away with him, he thought his willingness was over-exaggerated, but it hadn't felt false either.

His fingers tangle into his hair, clutching tight enough that Luhan can feel stabs of pain here and there. According to a one-sided conversation that Luhan had overheard between the man he cared about, and the man he hated, he was being fooled. He remembers the man he’d spoken to about leaving the city with Imperfects, and the disfiguring scar on Minseok’s chest, so close to his heart. Minseok was an Imperfect and President Kim had ordered him to watch over Luhan, that at least seemed like a fact. He ignores the swirl of disgust in his stomach, and the way his throat tightens as if his body's trying to strangle itself, and continues on as objective as possible. President Kim was threatening Minseok, another fact.

Minseok was not trying to convert Luhan to a Red Devil. A lie? He remembers the conversation from last night, and shakes his head in disagreement at the side of him wondering if it was secretly true. Luhan had brought up the Red Devils because of Sehun and not Minseok, Minseok seemed against the idea of Luhan joining the Red Devils in even the most hypothetical of scenarios.

Minseok was not trying to steal government secrets from what Luhan could tell. If he was, Luhan would assume he'd try to wheedle out as much information from him being that Junmyeon and Yixing had family in the high ranks of Government, and they were high-ranking CNS officers. That was also a lie.

He starts over once more, now only listing the facts, the few things he'd overhead that he was sure held more truth than the others. Minseok was an Imperfect. No matter how real or false his feelings were he was with Luhan on President Kim's order. He had committed fraud. And, Luhan had fallen for it all, he'd always been cautious and weary and the first person he'd decided to really give his heart to had given him nothing but lies and secrets in return.

A sudden knocking has him jerking his head up. He hears the call of his name, Minseok’s call of his name, loud and clear in the empty office, and he stares. He waits for a moment, and then pushes out of his chair as quiet as possible crossing his office to stand in front of his door. He imagines the confrontation in many different ways as he struggles with just opening the door. He imagines yelling and cursing and threatening to tell CNS about Minseok's lies, but it all seems so far away, so impossible at the moment. The anger that should be there, that should be catching fire to his insides, doesn't exist. He hears Minseok huff in annoyance as the knocking stops, and he walks back to his desk, sitting there and staring at the door in bewilderment.

He doesn't feel anything anymore, the disgust has ebbed away, and so have the feelings of sadness. There's only a heaviness to his limps, and an emptiness inside.

How many of you guessed it? This chapter went a lot differently than what I had planned since my phone hates me and I lost most of the beginning before I was able to back it up, and it feels as if it took years to write when it only took two and 1/2 weeks but it's finally done. The next update will be the aftermath of Luhan finding out this secret and few more things will come to light.