"So what are we going to do next?" Lu Han asks, exhaustion echoing in his voice. He is, fortunately, back in his own clothes. He knows how tiring it is to go shopping with Lu Hee, but he's never realized how tiring it is to shop with her while posing as a girl.

"Oppa," Lu Hee says as she leads him to some place in the mall, "you wanted to cure your boredom, remember? Stop acting like you're tired."

He bites his lips to contain his sob. He is tired, but he decides that it's better to shut his mouth than to feel the wrath of his twin. "Sorry," he mumbles tiredly. He's not going to pretend he isn't exhausted though.

"Apology accepted," she chimes. She walks briskly and stops in front of a serene-looking store. "We're here!" she proclaims.

He raises his head to look at the sign and wishes he didn't. He feels a chill run down his spine and for the first time since he left the convent, he cries, "Mother Superior, help me."

Pierre

Waxing Salon

He wakes up with a start and sits up. His hand goes straight to feel his legs and realizes that they're hairless. He raises his hand to his thighs and feels the soft texture of his dress. He looks down in horror and opens his mouth to scream.

"Lulu?"

He halts his oncoming scream and looks up to see Chanyeol. "Chanyeol-ssi," he whispers, horrified. "My—" he stops when he sees other people behind Chanyeol. He recognizes the tiny man who dolled him up, but not the man with sparkling skin and a brilliant smile. "What's happening?" he whispers and looks at Chanyeol for an answer.

"You fainted when you saw us," someone says helpfully and plops down on the couch where Lu Han is.

He turns to look at the person and cringes when he sees Sehun. The evil Adonis, he thinks. "What are you doing here?" he asks and points his finger at him accusingly.

Sehun raises his brow and stares at him. "Have we met before?"

He scoffs. "Are you serious? Wemph mph mpph—"

Chanyeol laughs nervously, his hand firmly covering Lu Han's mouth. "No, you two haven't met before."

Lu Han forcefully removes the manager's hand and takes a mouthful of breath. "What are you doing?"

Baekhyun laughs loudly and everyone shifts his attention to him. "Oh, my. Lulu's still recovering from the flu and she's still sort of delusional." He claps his hands and grins. He takes Lu Han's hand and pulls him up. "I'll borrow Lulu here for a while," he says and pulls him out.

He slams the door and glares at the clueless blond. "Are you out of your mind?" he hisses.

"What—" He stops when it finally dawns on him that he's posing as Lu Hee. He stares at Baekhyun guiltily. "Sorry," he mumbles.

"Now, go inside and apologize. We're going to talk later." The tiny man glares at him and he nods.

He opens the door and walks in timidly. He bows deeply at the people inside the room and smiles sheepishly. "Hello. My name is Lulu. I'm sorry for fainting earlier."

The members of EXO nod offhandedly. Lu Han notices that Kris is on his phone and smiling a tiny bit. He realizes that Jongin is nodding because he’s fallen asleep and not because he understood what he said. On the other hand, the maknae is staring at him intensely. He can’t bring himself to look back, afraid that he’ll melt if he meets Sehun’s eyes.

There’s something about Sehun that makes his heart beat fast and his palms sweat. He wants to figure out what it is, so that he can go back to being himself.

The man with the brilliant smile disturbs his train of thought when he grins and walks to him. He offers his hand and says, "I'm Kim Joonmyeon, the new president of this company. It's very nice to meet you."

Lu Han forces out a laugh and shakes his hand. "Hello."

Joonmyeon looks at him dreamily and sighs. “I think this is love! It’s love, I’m telling you!”

Baekhyun shoves the president away and rolls his eyes. “You’re overreacting again, pres. And stop it with the weird English phrases.” He looks at the fidgeting Lu Han and smiles encouragingly, but the glint in his eyes is a different matter, subtly telling the crossdresser to act normally or else he will kill him.

He turns to the president and the nervous manager. “Pres, Chanyeol, I’d like to talk to you regarding EXO’s new concept,” Baekhyun says and pulls the two of them outside the room.

Lu Han doesn’t even have time to react and he is just left standing in the middle of the room awkwardly. He takes a deep breath. I’m doing this for Lu Hee, he reminds himself. He clears his throat and says, “Please take care of me.” He smiles his billion-dollar smile that everyone falls for.

Kris looks at him emotionlessly. He feels his heart drop a little, confused as to why the tall leader of the group isn’t paying him any attention.

“Your smile looks fake.”

He whips his head to look at Sehun, who is frowning at him. “Excuse me?” he splutters.

“I said, it looks fake,” the maknae says. He stands and walks to him. He doesn’t exactly tower over Lu Han, but he looks like a giant compared to the latter’s frame. “It’s pretty, yeah, but there’s no emotion.” He leans in and scrutinizes the smaller man’s pale face.

Lu Han deftly pushes him away, wanting to get as much distance away from him as possible. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he says, a bit breathlessly. He mentally chides himself for letting Sehun unnerve him.

“Alright, that’s enough,” Kris says, standing up from the couch and walking to them, and pulls Sehun away. He forces the gigantic maknae to sit down. He looks at Lu Han apologetically and says, “I’m sorry. Sehun likes annoying people.”

Sehun starts protesting, but Kris silences him with a glare. The leader clears his throat and looks at Lu Han coldly. “As you know, EXO has a very large fanbase. We currently have 3, 012, 195 fans all over the world, but that’s not including those who still haven’t signed up.”

Lu Han scoffs. “You have that many fans? You’re kidding me. That’s like the population of Busan in 2005.”

The leader stares at him blankly and he realizes that he said something he shouldn’t have. He likes spouting random facts and Lu Hee always calls him weird whenever he does that. And now I even did it when I’m pretending to be her. She’s going to flip if she finds out. He closes his eyes and grimaces. He made too much mistakes already and it’s just the first day. How am I going to survive for two months?

He opens his eyes and sees Kris staring at him curiously. “Is—is there anything on my face?” he says softly. He feels his heart thumping loudly in his chest.

The taller man just shakes his head, as if he’s trying to pinpoint something, but can’t figure out what it is. “Nothing,” he says slowly, “I just think you’re interesting.”

Lu Han almost raises his hand to his chest to calm its erratic beating, but stops when he sees Sehun looking at him with narrowed eyes. He starts sweating nervously, afraid that Sehun knows who he is. He even forgets that Kris is standing near him and staring at him.

Sehun catches his gaze and then smirks. His heart’s beating increases speed and he believes that it’s from anger. He wants to say something, but Kris finally resumes his speech.

He clears his throat—for the second time, Lu Han notices—and continues, “Anyway, as I was saying, we have a large fanbase. If you’re just joining because we’re already famous and you want to ride on our coattails—“

He gasps and shakes his head angrily. “I didn’t even know you were that famous.” He glares at Kris, momentarily forgetting that he’s glaring at the person he was fantasizing about just moments ago, and rants, “I mean, I know you’re famous. Our customers are always talking about your group like they don’t have anything else to talk about.”

“Customers?” Sehun pipes up. He looks at him curiously, ignoring the way Jongin is dozing off on his shoulder.

“Yes,” Lu Han says nonchalantly, “We own a bubble tea—“ He shuts up when he realizes that he’s revealing too much information. He looks at Sehun, who is looking at him expectantly, with wider-than-usual eyes. “I-I mean—we—I—“

Sehun looks at him and smiles gently—he’s never seen that smile before—and says, “I like bubble tea.” He pushes Jongin away from his shoulder and the latter wakes up with a start.

“What? Have sasaengs invaded the building?” he says and looks around wildly.

Kris rolls his eyes and Sehun laughs. The other two members of EXO look at the maknae in shock. A laughing Sehun is not a daily occurrence. It only happens occasionally, when he’s taken off-guard. He doesn’t laugh in front of people he doesn’t know either.

The maknae stands and stretches. Jongin collapses on the couch and closes his eyes. “I think I’m still dreaming. I’m not sure if this is a dream or a nightmare,” he murmurs deliriously. But he suddenly opens his eyes and sits up, proclaiming, “My Kyungsoo sense is tingling!”

The leader sighs again as Sehun walks to him and taps his shoulder. “I’m going to go out and buy bubble tea.” He grins at him and turns to Lu Han. He gives him a bright grin and waves. “I’ll see you later, Lulu.”

He whistles as he walks to the door while the others stare at him in disbelief. He opens the door to reveal a startled Kyungsoo, who is about to open the door himself. “Hi, hyung,” he says and walks away.

Kyungsoo follows him with his wide eyes, mouth agape, and turns to the ones in the room. “Is he high?” he asks innocently.

Jongin squeals and says in a shrill voice, “My Kyungsoo sense is never wrong!” and jumps up from the couch to tackle Kyungsoo with a hug.

Lu Han doesn’t remember how he ended up in the company’s cafeteria with Kris. But it doesn’t matter because he’s currently sitting in front of his crush, breathing heavily and sweating bullets. “What did you want to talk about?” he says softly.

Kris raises his mug to take a huge gulp of his drink. “I just wanted to continue our earlier conversation,” he says. He puts down his mug and looks at him straight in the eye. “If you’re talentless and you’re only joining to get famous, then you might as well quit now.”

What Kris said triggers Lu Han’s brotherly instincts. Right now, the leader thinks he’s talking to his sister and Lu Han’s not going to allow him to push him—pretending to be Lu Hee—around just like that. He gets ahead of himself and loses his temper. He slams his hands on the table, surprising Kris.

“Lu Hee has always dreamed of becoming an idol. She learned different instruments to prepare herself. She’s not doing this for the fame and fortune. She wants to make music,” he says angrily. “Sure, she also thinks she’s going to find her mother if she does this, but that’s not the only reason.”

He glares at him and hisses, “But you know, Lu Hee doesn’t need to bear being with disgusting people like you. She can make it out on her own without your help.” He stands up and turns on his heel, intending to walk straight and not look back.

But Kris stops him, holding on to his hand tightly. “Lulu,” he says softly.

Lu Han cringes at the name, but composes himself and faces the leader.

“I’m sorry,” he says sincerely. “I thought you were just like the others.”

He melts at his words and decides to forgive him. “It’s okay,” he says, “You were just being cautious.”

Kris smiles at him and he inwardly swoons. “Thanks.”

“You’re welcome!” he says brightly and smiles his billion-dollar smile. He remembers Sehun’s remarks about his smile being fake, but ignores them for the meantime. It’s not like I can actually show everyone my true smile, he thinks. His smile getting more restrained the more he thinks about it.

The leader looks at him curiously and asks, “Are you okay?”

He stops smiling and giggles to distract. He nods earnestly, hoping that he’ll get off his case.

“I have a question though,” Kris says.

He nods to encourage him.

“Why were you speaking in third person?”

Sehun, decked in full ninja gear, runs around the building, looking for his manager. He spots him in the lounge, serenely sipping his coffee. He runs to him and screams, “Hyung!”

Jongdae gasps in surprise and accidentally spills the coffee. Fortunately, the liquid is spilled on the floor and not himself. He stares at the young EXO member, not amused.

He smiles sheepishly and says, “Hyung, I need to go to BaoZi.” He’s half-expecting Jongdae to disagree, but the manager just nods.

Jongdae takes tissues to wipe the coffee on the floor. “Are you craving for bubble tea again?” he asks.

Sehun watches the reliable manager clean up the mess he made and answers, “Nope. I just want to visit the workers there.”

The manager looks up at him and grins. “Me too.”

A few moments later, they’re both strapped in their seats and riding towards the bubble tea shop. Before he knows it, they’re standing in front of the shop. He takes a deep breath and enters the strangely empty shop. He needs to confirm his suspicions. He needs to know if the newest member of EXO is really Lu Han. He also wants to find out why he’s pretending to be a girl, but he has a feeling that it has something to do with the girl who looks exactly like him.

There’s no one inside and the two workers—the boss and the refreshing kid—are sitting on the chairs looking bored. The refreshing boy stands up excitedly when he sees him enter and says, “Welcome!” The boy looks at the boss and tells him, “Hyung, we have a customer. Move it!”

The boss sighs exasperatedly and pulls him back down. “Yixing, they’re visitors.”

Yixing looks at them and his face falls. “Oh. It’s Sehun-ssi and his manager.” He still smiles at them and bows. “Hello.”

“Business is slow today, huh?” Jongdae says, strolling in and taking a seat beside the boss.

The boss snorts and hits his head jokingly. Sehun realizes that his manager and his Lu Han’s boss are probably childhood friends. He walks to them and takes a seat beside Yixing, who is doing something on his phone. “Where’s your other employee?” he asks.

Yixing looks at him in amazement. “Sehun-ssi,” he says, jaw dropping. 

“Sorry?”

The employee shakes his head and answers with a laugh, “You just look better up close.” He gives him one last smile and returns his attention to his phone.

Sehun can’t help but take a peek at what Yixing is doing and is overjoyed when he sees him messaging Lu Han. He quickly scans what he can see and his heart speeds up.

Hyuuuuung~ How are you doing?

-Yixing

The president is weird!!!

-Lu Han

But he can’t be that bad, right?

-Yixing

Nope. The other members (except for the devil) are great, especially the leader! I’LL CALL YOU LATER <3

-Lu Han

Kris hyung is a great leader~

-Yixing

Sehun frowns when he sees Lu Han’s message. He thinks Kris is great? He stares at the phone murderously. What if Lu Han ends up liking Kris instead of him? Yixing’s phone buzzes as he receives another message. As he is about to read it, the phone is put down and someone clears his throat.

He raises his head and comes face to face with an unamused Yixing. The boy, who is usually smiling, is frowning at him and even seems to be glaring at him. He offers him a sheepish smile and says, “I didn’t know you could make that expression?”

Yixing’s expression doesn’t change and he answers, “I’d appreciate it if you minded your own business, Sehun-ssi.” He sends one last spiteful glare at the younger boy and gets up and leaves the room.

By the time Sehun has recovered from the deadly glare, Yixing is already gone. He looks at Jongdae and Minseok to see if they noticed what happened, but they are still happily chatting without a care in the world.

“So why did you start a milk tea shop? I thought you liked coffee more.”

“I do like coffee more. But I promised someone that we would open a coffee shop together.”

Sehun is too distracted—worried about angering Yixing and excited that he’ll be able to spend time with Lu Han everyday—to notice the smiles Minseok and Jongdae are sending each other.

“What do you think about the new recruit?” Jongin asks as he sits beside Kyungsoo. They’re in the company’s entertainment room, watching Prince of Tennis, Kyungsoo’s favorite show.

Kyungsoo keeps his eyes trained on the screen and answers, “A friend of mine hired me to be Lulu-ssi’s bodyguard. I’ll be staying here for the time ”

Jongin sits up straight and looks at him with wide eyes. “What?”

The older boy ignores him and continues watching the show. He already knows all of the drummer’s quirks.

“Why did you agree?”

He mentally cheers when Ryoma smashes the ball and evens out the score with his enemy. He reaches to his left and grabs a handful of popcorn and eats it slowly.

“Do you like Lulu?” Jongin is becoming more and more nervous. He grips the edge of the couch tightly.

Kyungsoo hums, neither agreeing nor disagreeing. He’s too focused on the show to understand what Jongin is talking about. Unfortunately, the drummer of EXO takes it the wrong way. He thinks that Kyungsoo’s humming means he likes Lulu. He stands up and stares at his language tutor, waiting him for to say something—anything.

But Kyungsoo continues watching and Jongin’s heart falls as he realizes that maybe Kyungsoo doesn’t really like him. He realizes that maybe the older boy hates it when he clings to him. Maybe he only puts up with him because the company hired him and he can’t really do anything about it.

He curls his hands into fists as he stares at the person he loves with all of his heart. He backs away and leaves the room. He walks slowly, hoping that Kyungsoo will follow him and ask him to return. But he reaches the entrance of the building and Kyungsoo is still nowhere to be seen. With a heavy heart, he heads to the cafeteria where he’s supposed to meet up with Kris and Lulu.

Kyungsoo finally finishes the episode with a triumphant smile. He turns to his side to talk to Jongin, but is surprised to see him missing. He’s confused that the boy who almost never leaves his side left without a word. He deduces that Jongin just went to restroom and decides to wait for him.

But he doesn’t understand why his heart feels so heavy.