Large brown eyes fixed on the TV screen, Lu Han sat on the couch without actually paying attention to what was on the screen. His thoughts had drifted again, but this time they had not drifted into the distant past. They had drifted to what had happened a few hours and...a few minutes ago.
He’d picked her up from work and when she’d given him a grateful smile, he’d felt his heartbeat accelerate.
Sunjung had retired to her bedroom just a few minutes ago and just as she’d closed the door, he had started to feel...lonely.

Lu Han wasn’t stupid, he was pretty sure of that but there was often a conflict between the smart part and arguably stupid part. The smart part was telling him it was just his craving for maternal love because he was so far away from his mother. The stupid (and the immature one, in Lu Han’s opinion) just wanted to hold Sunjung and have her smile up at him because it warmed him.

Lu Han was smart, so he decided, even if Sunjung wasn’t very maternal, it was his craving for maternal love that caused his reactions to Sunjung.

Very probable.

But perhaps not entirely true.

Switching the TV off, Lu Han headed to his bedroom, hopeful for a good night’s sleep. He hadn’t slept well the previous night. No, hadn’t been in a woman’s bed and he hadn’t had a woman on his bed.

Lu Han had entirely stopped flirting with the woman he’d met at the bar and she had been pissed, for the lack of a better word. Hana...(or was it Haneul) had stalked off, calling him a waste of time. He had not been offended in the least; he’d thought the same about her. And Sunjung had made him realise that.

Diving onto his bed and lying on his stomach, Lu Han buried his face into a pillow and willed himself to go to sleep.

Suddenly the sight of Sunjung with the Yixing fellow crossed his mind, he turned over to stare up at the ceiling. His stomach churned. From afar, it looked like a date and he had assumed it to be one. After a closer look, he has realised Sunjung was not comfortable at all.
Had the man not noticed her forced smiles and the hand that ran through her hair too often to be normal?

Lu Han had. And a smile graced his features as he thought about how she’d smiled and how far they had come from the tentative, forced relationship they has a month ago.

Seo Sunjung to Lu Han was...a...friend.

When he thought about her saying his name, the ‘smart’ part of his brain had receded into the background. Lu Han realised what he felt for Seo Sunjung was...affection.

***

Hours later, Sunjung’s slumber was broken by the incessant buzzing of her phone on the night stand. Letting out an annoyed groan, she turned over in bed and reached for the cause of disturbance. Taking the vibrating phone in her hand, she squinted at the screen which was illuminated by a dull glow.

The name on the screen almost made her drop the phone on her face. Her heartbeat quickened as she slowly pressed the ‘answer’ button.
“Junyoung?”
There was silence on the other side which was only broken by a heavy breath every now and then. Sunjung’s chest kept tightening.
“Junyoung? Is anything wrong?”

“Everything is wrong,” a voice slurred from the other side of the line and Sunjung could hardly recognise it at her brother’s.

“You’ve been drinking,” she said, her voice now calm, almost chillingly so.

“My friend kept pestering me about you, you know?” Junyoung continued speaking.
“He kept asking me to talk to you.”

Sunjung took a deep breath and said nothing. She didn’t have anything to say.

The line went silent for quite a while. Again, Junyoung broke the silence.
“He loves his sister so much. I feel so inadequate everytime I see them...what happened, noona?”

Yes, what happened?
Su