“What the , Jongin!” Joonmyeon yelled, slamming his hands on the table.

“H-Hyung-”

“Shut it. I don’t want to hear your .” Joonmyeon let out huffs of breath that sounded like the breathing of a dragon. To Jongin at the moment, his oldest brother seemed like an angry dragon that was going to rip his head off at any moment. After a few moments, Joonmyeon spoke again. “Why did you do it? Do you know what you just got us in?”

“I didn’t do it. Hyung please listen to me!” Jongin swallowed the saliva pooling in his mouth to try to alleviate the lump in his throat and clenched his hands together. “I didn’t do anything!”

Joonmyeon stood up abruptly, causing the chair he was sitting on to make a loud scraping noise on the ground. “You didn’t do anything? You were ing kissing Sehun. Kissing. If this gets out, we’re dead. Their company is so much larger than ours; they can crush us in a matter of seconds if they wanted to.”

The words registered in Jongin’s mind seconds after Joonmyeon said them. “So this is all about the company? What about me? Did you ever ask me how I was after Sehun left me?”

~OoO~

Sehun felt the slap on his left cheek clearly. He felt the sting of it ripple throughout his face and he closed his eyes.

“What did you think you were doing?” Sehun winced. He hated that tone. His father was disappointed in him, and it hurt. “Sehun!”

“I’m sorry,” Sehun said.

“Sorry is not going to fix anything. You’re taking the blame on this.”

Sehun hung his head and mumbled a, “Yes,” to his father before leaving the room. He could still feel the sting of the slap on his face and his fingers touched the spot gingerly. He made his way to his car and sat inside it. How was he supposed to explain anything to Luhan?

Pillows, magazines, and even a pen were thrown at Sehun the moment he opened the door to Baekhyun’s house.

“You-”pillow thrown

“Son-” another pillow

“of a” a magazine

“!” an open ballpoint pen that nearly hit Sehun’s face.

Sehun eyed the red pen on the floor before looking at his best friend, who was fuming on the couch. “It’s all over the ing news. Oh Sehun Cheating On His Newlywed Husband Do you know how much this is hurting you? Hell, do you know how much this is hurting Luhan?!”

Sehun flinched at Baekhyun’s tone. “Well I know one thing now,” he said.

“What’s that?” Baekhyun asked sarcastically, “That you deserve to be slapped ten thousand times by Luhan?”

“No, that I don’t feel anything for Jongin anymore.”

~OoO~

Luhan couldn’t stop his tears from coming. There was no one to listen to him, no reassuring arms wrapped around him, no comforting words, no one to wipe his tears away. He let out another choked sob and curled his legs closer to his body, hugging them. The pillow was wet and the room was suffocating.

Luhan used one hand to wipe the tears away from his eyes. He felt so empty and alone. The scene of Jongin and Sehun kissing kept replaying in his head and no matter what he did, it wouldn’t go away.

“He doesn’t love you Luhan,” he said to himself, testing his voice. “He loves Jongin. You’re nothing to him.” He let another round of sobs rock his frame and he fisted the blanket in his hands.

Luhan didn’t hear the door opening, but he did feel the arms wrap around his body, pulling him into a sitting position, and his hair.

“It’s okay Luhan. I’m here. You don’t need that bastard to comfort you,” Minseok’s soft voice said. The blanket was pulled away from Luhan’s hand and Minseok intertwined his fingers with Luhan’s. “I’m always here for you. Even if you think I’m busy, I have a lot of time on my hands. Just call me and I’ll be here.”

“What about Jongdae?” Luhan asked.

“He knows that his dongsaeng screwed up. He told me I should be here with you,” Minseok answered. Luhan felt even worse. Minseok was Jongin’s brother-in-law. He should be at home right now, not here.

“Minseok, go home...” Luhan mumbled.

“I’m staying here. I’m not leaving until you’ve stopped crying.”  Minseok rubbed circles into the back of Luhan’s hand with his thumb. “Don’t be afraid to cuss out that horrible excuse of a husband. I’ll listen.”

Luhan, whose sobs were now reduced to sniffles, broke out into another crying session. “But I can’t...” he said. “I still love him. Even after all the pain he’s put me through, I can’t get myself to hate him.”

Minseok sighed and let his best friend continue to cry. There was nothing he could do. Luhan loved Sehun with his life and was willing to go through hell and back for him. What could stop someone who loved someone else to that extent?

~OoO~

Yifan spit out the coffee in his mouth when he read the headline of the newspaper.

“Yifan, what’s wrong?” Zitao asked. Yifan shoved the newspaper into Zitao’s hands as he started to cough. The coffee went down the wrong pipe. Zitao’s eyes scanned over the Mandarin words on the page and he threw the newspaper on the ground then stomped out of the kitchen.

“Where are you going?” Yifan asked croakily.

“I’m calling Luhan and asking what the is going on?” Zitao dug through the drawers and found his phone. He scrolled through his contacts and clicked on Luhan’s name. He waited and waited until the machine came on and told him to leave a message. He huffed and ended the call, then tried again. The fifth time he called, Luhan picked up.

“What is going on?” he asked.

The voice who answered wasn’t Luhan. “Who’s this?”

“I should be asking you. I’m looking for Lu Han. This is his brother-in-law speaking.” Zitao wasn’t in the mood to play games. He wanted answers. Fast.

“Luhan isn’t available right now. Leave a message.”

Zitao huffed. “What’s he doing? Why are you picking up his phone? Who are you?” he asked, not caring if he came off as rude.

“It’s Minseok, the person taking care of a sobbing, broken-hearted person. You’re Zitao aren’t you?”

Zitao resisted the urge to roll his eyes. “He only has one brother-in-law.”

There was rustling from the other side and a muffled voice that sounded like it was saying, “Rude.”

“What do you want?” Minseok asked.

“I heard about the news here. In ing China. Do you know how big this is? I want answers.”

Zitao heard Minseok sigh. “There’s nothing to know. Luhan walked in on Sehun kissing Jo- his ex-boyfriend. He fainted and when he came to, the first thing he did was burst out crying. When asked why, he blurted it out. That’s it. Anything else?” Minseok sounded drained, like explaining that to Zitao took much of his strength.

Zitao’s jaw dropped. “You’re serious?”

“Would I lie about something like this? Luhan’s my best friend and someone I cherish a lot. Why would make up some lie?”

Zitao had nothing to say and saw down on the bed. He was stunned. He was only gone for two weeks and this happened? What the hell? He heard the door creak open and Yifan stepped in.

“What’s going on?” he asked.

Zitao shook his head. “Alright, thanks. Tell Luhan when he’s feeling better to call me.”

“Alright.” Then he hung up. The hand that was holding the phone fell to the bed.

“Zitao, what happened?” Yifan asked. He sat down beside Zitao and eyed his husband carefully.

“Sehun cheated on Luhan. That’s what happened.” Zitao turned to look at Yifan. “We have to go back.”

Yifan shook his head. “I can’t. I have to stay here.”

Zitao chewed on the inside of his mouth. “I feel like Luhan needs someone...”

Yifan patted Zitao’s hand. “He has Omma and Minseok. He’ll be fine.”

“But that’s not enough! Do you know how attached he is to Sehun?! This is hurting him beyond repair!”