***Potentially a double update if you haven't already read chapter 54***

By the time that Yixing and Jongdae joined them at the hotel round about midday, Luhan had made his mind up.  He told Minseok first in private, sitting in the bay window of his hotel room and staring out over the view.

“It sort of makes things easier if the hospital’s being watched,” he mused, not meeting Minseok’s eye.  “With Heo Youngsaeng out of the equation, Sangchu’s bound to turn up there himself sooner or later to deal with everything.  If you think you have enough people to pull it off, Weiyi and me meeting can be your sting, because he’ll come after us.”

It was something Jongin had suggested to both Minseok and Yixing when he’d followed up the call Weiyi had made to the latter.  Everyone acknowledged it was risky, but there wasn’t an option that wasn’t.  Delaying until they had reinforcements was just as much of a risk as getting on with things as soon as possible.  It was just a matter of planning things out as best they could and dealing with the situation they were in.

“And after that?” Minseok asked.

Luhan tried and failed to smile.  “I want to be able to talk to Weiyi in private when we meet, no witnesses.  I’m going to tell her everything.  If she accepts me, I’ll stay and take whatever Lay gives me, since I’ll have the assurance of knowing she’ll be able to visit me.  If she hates me, I’ll run.”

Something felt a bit off.  “And we won’t know until after you’ve made that call.”

“No.”

Minseok waited for Luhan to elaborate, but he didn’t.

“Luhan,” he said eventually.  “There’s something you’re not telling me.”

Luhan managed a very bleak smile, finally turning to meet Minseok’s gaze.  “It’s hard,” he said, his voice weak, “balancing what you want against what’s best.”

And that shut Minseok up, because he knew.

It was not a strategy anybody considered safe, but they all eventually agreed that Jongdae would drop Luhan off near the hospital and that Jongin would get Weiyi out to meet him.  A of good luck had had two of Jongin’s fellow agents arriving in from the States that morning for consultation with the Korean secret service.  They were good friends of Jongin’s and he had persuaded them  to help him out quickly with this one favour, and it had given them a schedule to work to because of when the men were arriving.  Jongin had also sweet-talked the hospital into giving them a good number of the place’s security guards so that Kyungsoo and Sehun were more at ease about being left behind (Kyungsoo had still been given a gun just in case, but he had quickly put it aside and instead set to work with the computers he’d been loaned).

Planning meant a lot of phone calls back and forth and Luhan was unusually subdued during it all.  After a while, Minseok was no longer able to take it either, but it was the time after they’d finished planning and before Luhan was due to leave that he just couldn’t handle.  Fighting back tears and a hollow numbness he hadn’t felt in years, he squeezed his old friend tightly in an embrace as he whispered goodbye and good luck.  Luhan saw right through him and laughed as he patted him on the back.

“I didn’t envy you the choice you made eight years ago when I came to terms with it, but now I have to make a similar one myself it’s much worse,” he said.

Minseok went down to the hotel swimming pool rather than watching Luhan playing with his children.  He knew he’d been exceptionally luck to be able to cut the deal he had done with Yixing, but it didn’t seem fair that Luhan couldn’t be offered one on a similar level.

After swimming out some of his aggravation, he sat on the pool side drying himself off, and then he got dressed and steeled himself to talk to Chanyeol.

The poor man sounded stressed out of his mind.  He was at least relieved that Minseok and Semi would be able to join him in Seoul the next day, and after some back and forth, they agreed to worry about things when they met and to sort out the details then.  Minseok thanked him profusely for all his help, but Chanyeol waved it off.

“I couldn’t possibly have left the poor boy in such a horrible situation, don’t be so silly.”

In the background, Minseok heard the boy in question asking if he could have the phone, and then Taeyong came on the line.

“Hyung?”  His voice cracked midway through the word.  “When are you coming?”

“Tomorrow.”  Minseok trapped his phone between his shoulder and his ear as he put his watch on.

“My parents keep ringing.”  Taeyong sounded distressed.  “They keep threatening to—”  He sniffed.  “What do I do?”

“Have you told Chanyeol?”

“Yes.”

“Whatever they’re threatening isn’t going to happen,” Minseok soothed him, slumping down into one of the deck chairs on the poolside.

“Hyung, I’m scared