Saturday morning started off in the police station.  Semi was still half asleep and Xiumin looked thoroughly unamused.

“Can somebody please explain how I’m supposed to look after her without attaching her to a leash?” he demanded.

Lay and Chen were leaning against the door in Siwon’s office while the boss himself was resting with his elbows on his desk and his head in his hands, massaging his temples vigorously.  He looked like he needed several espressos.

Semi purposely avoided meeting everybody’s eyes.

“The thing that really pisses me off about this is that I know that you all know where she was because he—” Xiumin jabbed a finger at Chen, “—told me not to worry when I rang here to report she was missing.  I know there are things you need to keep from me, but Jesus, this takes the biscuit.  The whole point of dragging me out of prison was so I could keep an eye on her, wasn’t it?”

“Semi was out with friends,” Siwon began, but Lay cut across him.

“You know, you could always exchange phone numbers.”

That shut everybody up.

“What, really?” said Lay.  “Nobody else thought of that?”

Siwon lifted his head and looked at Lay like he was the world’s greatest genius.  Xiumin was the first to speak up, though.  He cast an anxious look at Semi.

“I-I didn’t think….”

Chen snorted.

“You two are idiots,” Lay said.  “You should have done it on the first day.”

Xiumin’s glare returned and Semi almost flinched at the intensity of it.  “From Semi’s point of view, she’s living with a convicted criminal and if I were her I would definitely not want my number.  It would be bad enough that we had to live in the same place together—”

“And you’re sensible to that so you’re treating her nicely,” Lay shut him down, waving an airy hand.  “But look into the psychology of people whose lives are at stake and comfort and personal preferences take a back seat, don’t they, Kim Minseok?”  He smiled.  Semi wasn’t sure, but she thought she saw a hint of why Xiumin found him scary in that smile.  Lay’s eyes were just a tiny bit too wide, his smile just a little too broad, and it sounded very much like he was challenging Xiumin to contradict him on each of the statements he’d made.

Xiumin was silent, though he didn’t stop glaring.

“You two literally could have exchanged a couple of text messages,” Siwon took up.  “Go on.  Do it now.  Exchange numbers in front of us so we know we’re not going to get dragged out at four in the morning again to sort out something so juvenile.  In fact, Chen, you do it so we can be sure it’s done.”

Chen stepped forwards, holding out his hand to receive the phone Xiumin was already holding up.  Semi dug hers out of her pocket and quickly put in the code for him.

There was silence as everybody watched Chen ring one phone from the other, save the numbers, and then hand them back.

“Now both of you,” Siwon said tiredly, stifling a huge yawn and scratching at his moustache, “you’re both adults and we shouldn’t have to be solving your problems like you’re little kids.  Semi, please keep Xiumin updated on where you are.  Xiumin, allow her a little breathing space.  I understand you were concerned and it’s good you were, but you both have personal lives.  Now go away.  It’s far too early in the morning and I want to sleep.”  He flopped his arms down onto the desk and rested his head on them.

Realising that they were dismissed, Xiumin strode over to the door, only to pause when he realised Semi wasn’t following.

“Semi?” he called, startling all three police officers.  “Are you coming?  I’ve got the car.”

It was several moments before Semi looked up from her seat and then stood up.  She bowed politely to Siwon and then to Chen and Lay before following Xiumin out of the room.

“Well, that was interesting,” Yixing said once the door had closed behind them.

“It’s weird,” agreed Jongdae.  “He does actually seem to take making sure she’s alive pretty seriously.”

“That too – I mean, we told him we’d kill him he didn’t, so it would be odd if he didn’t care – but have you noticed how mellow he is compared to normal when Semi’s in the room with him?  He wasn’t trying to scare you.  He actually lost an argument with me.  It’s a first.”  Yixing stretched with a wicked grin.  “I like it.  I vote we bring Semi in every time we have a problem with this guy.  How many additional offences do you reckon he’d confess to if she was in the courtroom?”

“I don’t like how he backs off around her,” Jongdae grumbled.  “I really don’t.”

“Neither, but he seems prepared to dance around a grave of his own making sometimes and I’m kind of hoping he’s going to fall for her because that would solve a lot of our problems and it’s what always happens in stories,” Yixing pointed out.  “I mean, it would be really mucked up if they both fell in love, but have you heard how honest he’s being with her over some of the things he’s done in the past?  He didn’t even admit to some of the stuff at trial.”

There was a loud sigh from the desk.

“Lay,” Siwon mumbled without looking up.  “We made a deal with him and signed a contract.  We can’t actually re-imprison or re-indict him for anything beyond the sentence we agreed to cut it to unless he actually commits another crime while he’s out, and he hasn’t done that yet.  Not one we can concretely prove.”

Yixing waved an airy hand.  “It’s only a matter of time.  I think.  Or maybe not.  He’s obviously aware of all this.”

Neither Semi nor Xiumin spoke until they reached the car.  Xiumin unlocked the vehicle and made to open the passenger door for Semi, but she shook her head briefly and got into the back.  He sighed and rubbed his eyes, catching the door before she could close it.

“Look, I’m really sorry,” he said tiredly.  “I was worried.  And frustrated.  You promised me you wouldn’t do this again.  You even left me a note saying you’d be back by eleven.  What else was I supposed to do?”

Semi looked like she was chewing her tongue.

“I understand if you’re annoyed with me.  I hope you at least had a good time with your friends, though.”

Semi spoke up without warning.  “I don’t like sitting in the front of cars.”

He blinked at her.  “I’m hardly going to make you if it’s something you don’t like.”

Semi nodded.  “I’m not that annoyed.  Just tired.  My friends didn’t want to let me come home anyway.”

When she’d said she wasn’t annoyed, Xiumin had been about to close the door out of satisfaction, but her last sentence made him pause.

“How come?”

She fiddled with her hands a little, clearly unsure of how to continue.

“We can discuss this later, if that would make you more comfortable,” he suggested.  Semi started chewing her tongue again.

“They think you’re abusing me,” she said, and her tone held a tinge of bewilderment.

Xiumin’s jaw actually dropped.  “Wow.  I wasn’t expecting that.  Why?”

Semi shrugged.  “Just… lots of things.”

“Okay,” said Xiumin.  “I think we should definitely continue this conversation at home, then.”

Since it was already December and the weather was turning cold, Xiumin decided the conversation merited steaming mugs of hot chocolate.

“We really should have done this as soon as we got here,” he said, laying down a couple of sheets of paper on the dining table and handing Semi a pen.  “Could have avoided a couple of situations.  Never mind.”  He settled in his chair, leaning forwards with his forearms on the wooden table top and both hands around his mug.  His sleeves rode up a bit as he did so, revealing a black watch that looked about as expensive as Semi’s on his left wrist.

Semi looked at the paper, nonplussed.

“I don’t expect you to remember everything right off the bat,” he explained.  “I’ll probably note a few things down myself.  We’ve been running into problems because we don’t really know each other and that in turn means we don’t really trust each other.  I totally understand.”  He took a sip of hot chocolate as Semi remained silent.  “If I was in your position, I probably wouldn’t trust me either.”

Semi made a noise of agreement.

“I’m not suggesting we tell each other everything, either,” Xiumin went on.  “I’m pretty sure there are things you don’t want me to know and things that those guys also don’t want me to know that you know—” he pointed to one of the hidden cameras “—and I’m pretty sure you don’t want to know things like the number of people I’ve killed or my favourite torture method, so if something’s not entirely relevant either to your safety or to our ability to put up a front as a couple, particularly when we’re in an environment where we have to interact with other people for a prolonged period of time, then you don’t need to say it.  We’re going to have to establish one or two rules that really can’t be broken, as well.  I don’t particularly like getting angry—”

“It feels like you’re my dad or something when you’re annoyed,” Semi mumbled.

Xiumin winced.  “I’m only eight years older than you.  Please don’t say that.”

Semi warmed her hands on the mug.  “You don’t look it.”

That seemed to please him.  With a satisfied smile, he picked up his pen and started making a few marks on the paper.

“I’m going to list the things I know about you which I think are vital,” he said, “and then you fill me in on everything else, okay?  So, you’re Oh Semi, you’re nineteen… actually, when’s your birthday?”  He looked up expectantly.  Semi blinked.  Did this classify as information she would do better withholding?  She could see no harm in saying it, though.

“End of February.”

For some reason, this made Xiumin hesitate.  Then he nodded and wrote it down, asking for the date.  Semi gave it to him without much thought.

“What about you?” she returned.

“Mine’s March 26th.”  He looked up at her.  “So, you’re a university student, studying business management and finance.  Family company to take over or something?”

Semi fiddled nervously with her pen.  That would be Sehun when he turned twenty-five and the trustees handed it over to him.  She’d probably be managing one of the subsidiary branches or just helping out.  It was nothing Xiumin needed to know.

“I just find it interesting,” she mumbled.

“Fair enough.”  He clearly wasn’t fooled as he twirled the pen around his fingertips, but he made no comment.  “I never went to university.  Didn’t exactly have a conventional education.  What about languages?  You speak Korean and English, obviously.”

“Conversational Japanese.”

“Really?”  Xiumin raised an eyebrow.  “Korean and Mandarin for me.  One of my closest friends was Chine