"You know..." Sehun thought, "You're not her brother! At the very least, not her brother-in-law anymore... she doesn't need you to protect her."

"I DONT FEEL LIKE HER BROTHER!!!" he yelled so loudly that one of the neighbours banged at the wall in annoyance, "AISH!! I'm going for a walk. Lock the door when you leave... SINCE YOU HAVE A KEY!!!"

And then he slammed out of there. 

Luhan was not in a good mood.

Translation: He needed a drink.

And he would have gotten it too, if not for the fact that he bumped into Chorong. Fate must be laughing at him somewhere up there, because this was definitely not the confrontation he wanted.

"Luhan! Long time no see," she greeted him.

And of course, if you were a jerk to Chorong, you just felt like the lowest of the low, so he gave her his indulgent smile,  "Chorong-ah, you're out pretty late tonight."

She lifted the small plastic bag in her hands, "I realised I needed pencils for my exams."

He laughed. It was just like her to go out tonight when she could've easily waited the next day, given that her exams were at least a few weeks away. But she'd always been the conscientious type, and once she put her mind to it, she didn't like to procrastinate.

"Glad you were able to get them. Are you going home now?"

"I guess so," she sighed and checked her phone again, "I wanted to meet up with Bomi but she's not answering her phone. I'm a bit worried."

Luhan's smile faded a little bit, remembering that she was probably also angry with Kai and Sehun about their earlier conversation. Heck, he was angry with them, and he could just imagine how embarrassed Bomi had been in front of Suho. Seriously, he needed to have a talk with his dongsaengs about tact and sensitivity.

"You shouldn't be," he said, processing Chorong's last comment, "I'm sure she's probably just letting off steam with Suho-ah."

"Suho-oppa?"

Luhan looked at Chorong funny, and she in turn looked at him guiltily, "Since when have you started calling him oppa?"

"Well..." she coughed lightly before giving him her innocent eyes, which he knew were not quite as innocent as people thought, "All the girls in class call him 'oppa', and they tease me for being too formal and calling him "Suho-sshi"... so I changed it."

Luhan laughed, "Yes, it always did hurt his feelings a little that out of everyone, he was the only one you called with '-sshi'."

Chorong suddenly looked pained, "It was hard."

"I know, and he knew it too," Luhan assured her, "How's school going?"

He realised they were standing in the middle of the street, and it was actually getting quite chilly, "I was just going for a drink, I know you won't have alcohol, but do you want to have a coffee?"

"Ah, that's a good idea, you're not busy?" Chorong grinned.

"Not really. And I can't go home as I have a pest problem," he thought of Kai and Sehun, "But before that-- can we pass by a club? It's where EXO will be performing gigs from now on. It's a new place and they said they should be almost done constructing a stage."

"Oh, that's great, Luhan! I want to see it!"

"Let's go then," he grinned.

Luhan was actually in high spirits as he pushed the doors open for Chorong. His eyes were on the stage already, and he was excited at how great it looked and actually wanted to get up there and just play around with the guitar lying idly for awhile.

Plans changed when Chorong exclaimed, "Bomi-ah!"

<><><>

It definitely didn't look good.

Bomi was a little bit intoxicated, she could feel it. Everything was light and happy, and she and Suho had been laughing like idiots for awhile now as they spoke of being unlucky in love.

But when they heard Chorong's voice, and what was worse, turned around to find both Luhan and Chorong there...

Things got serious.

As the smile dropped off from her face and she re-arranged her clothes (nothing suspicious, just that she'd been moving around a lot on the bar stool), she was relieved to realise that most of her intoxication was from good company rather than alcohol.

Suho sat quietly next to her.

"Chorong-ah, you're here with Luhan?" she cleared .

"Bomi! I tried to call your phone, but you didn't pick up."

Bomi was confused why Chorong looked so jittery. She would've expected a similar response if she'd been sitting there with Luhan but she was here with Suho...

Suddenly she looked at Suho, who was looking at Chorong like he wanted to say something or explain himself and suddenly everything clicked.

However, before she could comment, her eyes moved to Luhan, who was looking at her with such coldness, that she was surprised she didn't freeze.

Suddenly she snapped.

"Yah! What's your problem?" Bomi guessed her tongue was looser than she expected, as she called him out on his glare.

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