Mirae’s POV

“Hi, Jongin...” I said to make my brother focus his attention on me instead of Luhan. Jongin looked at me. “Aren’t you happy to see me?” I asked hesitantly.

“Of course. I’m just not happy to see him,” Jongin replied. He opened up his arms to me and I stepped forward to hug him. In the process, I needed to let Luhan’s hand go, but he didn’t quite want to so when I stepped forward Jongin noticed our intertwined hands. He put down his arms and glared at us both. I bit my lip. “I told you he’d changed,” I whispered.

“Han, can I talk to you?” Jongin said, ignoring me completely. Luhan let my hand go and walked into the house with Jongin after him. I frowned. What would my brother tell him? I didn’t want Luhan be pushed back into the bad habits he had before; it would hurt me, didn’t Jongin get that?

“Mirae, what are you doing?” Mi Song questioned. I met her eyes.

“What are you talking about? I’m not doing anything,” I answered sternly. Mi Song sighed – it sounded overdone and dramatic in my ears.

“He’s fooling you. And Jongin only does it because he cares about you. Nothing else.”

“You’re sounding like my mother,” I snapped at her. “I don’t care if Jongin thinks badly of Luhan or not. I don’t, so why should he?”

“You’re really in love with him, aren’t you? That’s why you’re protecting him.”

“I’m not in love with him!” I didn’t mean to raise my voice, she just made me so angry. All of a sudden I heard footsteps behind me. I swung around and saw Luhan and Jongin there. Jongin walked to Mi Song, wrapping his arm around her waist. I tried to meet Luhan’s eyes but he avoided my gaze at all cost. I wished I knew what he thought about and what Jongin had told him, I even wished I could gone back in time and stopped Jongin from talking to him in the first place. Luhan lifted his head, looking at me.

“I’m leaving. How about you? Are you coming with me or staying?” he asked me.

“Mirae’s staying,” Jongin answered in my place. I took a deep breath. I wasn’t going to stay with Jongin and Mi Song, that was out of the question. I grabbed Luhan’s hand and pulled him with me inside, all the way into my room where I closed the door.

“Can’t we stay a bit longer? My parents won’t be pleased otherwise.”

“Who the cares about their opinions? I’m not staying in the same room as your ‘dear’ brother for one more minute! I don’t care about what you say!” Luhan shouted.

“Please, don’t shout at me. What did he tell you?” I asked, a frown growing on my forehead. Luhan took a deep breath and turned his head away from me.

“It doesn’t matter.”

“Of course it matters! I don’t want you to listen to anything of what he says. Please, Luhan. I really like you now. I mean it.” Luhan rolled his eyes at me. It caused me to do something I hadn’t planned on doing ever; I walked up to him and gave him a tight hug, wrapping my arms around his neck. It took a while but soon I felt Luhan’s arms wrap around my waist as well. We stood like that, just hugging, for a few minutes then let go. He was still looking the other way, but I saw that his expression had softened. “Can’t you please stay longer?” Luhan sighed again. “For me?” I added, using my sweetest tone and smiled.

“Fine,” Luhan agreed. I took his hand again and we went out to the porch where the other guests still stood in the same positions. Luhan and I decided to walk around to greet the guests before we could relax and talk to each other instead, which at least I preferred. Mrs Lu, my mother and the other ladies talked about how great of a match Luhan and I were, while Mr Lu, my father and the other – boring – businessmen talked about just that: business.

As I went around the guests and eventually ended up with the ladies, I now and then glanced at Jongin and Mi Song to see what they were doing and, more importantly, assured myself that they weren’t talking anymore to Luhan. On the one hand, I nearly felt a little surprised by my own will to protect Luhan, but on the other hand, I knew that he needed someone on his side. And who else would that be besides me? Without Sehun near, I felt responsible for encouraging Luhan to remain as the nice, sweet gentleman he had returned to be, thanks to Sehun and myself. After ten minutes of talking to my mother-in-law about the ‘honeymoon’, I realised that Mi Song and Jongin both had disappeared. Though it soon became apparent that Luhan hadn’t gone anywhere. “What are you doing?” I wondered, sounding pleasantly surprised for once.

“Hm, what?” Luhan asked with an innocent smile. I glanced down at our folded hands and then at him. “Oh! You mean