Luhan appeared to have made himself at home in the room that Taeyong had stayed in over the weekend.  When he knocked on the door and let himself in, Minseok saw a laundry basket full of his clothes (Semi had probably picked them out as they were ones he didn’t use very often) sitting on a chair in front of the bookshelf, and a stack of DVDs and a pair of Chinese books were already resting on the bedside table.  Luhan himself was sitting on the bed, stripped to the waist, with a bowl of warm water beside him as he cleaned out his injuries.  Minseok winced.  His old friend’s torso was a mass of cuts and bruises, and while his face was relatively clear of injuries, bar a scattering of scratches and bruises, he looked incredibly pale.

“Do you want help?” he asked, closing the door behind him.  Luhan glanced up briefly and then waved a hand.

“Maybe with the bandages.  Should I be worried they’re leaking pus?”  He gestured to two large gashes on the left side of his chest.

“Probably,” Minseok admitted.  Luhan squeezed the broken skin between his fingers to force more pus out.  “Luhan, that’s disgusting.”

Luhan barely batted an eyelid.  “Do you have antibiotics?  I think they’re infected and I’m actually feeling pretty ill.”  He wiped the excess pus away.

“We don’t normally keep them in the house, but I can have a look in a bit.”  Minseok moved the basket of clothes onto the floor and sat down on the chair.  “You’re only going to get miserable if you lock yourself away in one room the entire time.”

Luhan prodded experimentally at a few bruises and then retrieved some anti-inflammatory cream from the bed covers.

“Nobody wants me here,” he reasoned.  “I’m the bad guy, right?  I’m the one who broke in and threatened your family, and the one who spent a year terrorising your wife.  Out of sight, out of mind’s much better, don’t you think?”

Minseok sighed.  “Everybody will find it easier if you integrate.  You don’t make friends by isolating yourself.”

Luhan raised an eyebrow and continued applying the cream.  “I’m pretty sure your family don’t want to be friends with me.”

“You’re our guest,” Minseok said softly.

“I’m under house arrest.”

“That doesn’t mean you need to punish yourself.”

Exhaling loudly, Luhan slapped the cap back on the tube of cream.  “Easy for you to say.  You got attached to this kind of life and were lucky enough to be able to escape into it.  Me?  I’m stuck in limbo right now.  I’m not stupid.  Once Weiyi’s found, I’ll be carted back to prison to spend the rest of my life there, or I’ll be living my life on the run.  No point getting my hopes up, especially if it won’t be for long.”

“You’ll have at least two weeks.”

Luhan gave him a judging look.  “Great.  The day of doom’s already set.”

Patiently, Minseok closed his eyes and sat back.  “Can you stop being so cynical?  This isn’t like you.”

“This isn’t like how I was eight years ago,” Luhan corrected sharply.  “You were right when you told me prison changes people.”

Minseok opened his eyes again.  Luhan had scooted back to the corner of the bed and was trying to bandage himself up again.  Removing the bowl of water and the cream and placing them on the floor, Minseok hopped up onto the bed beside him and took the bandages, quickly and efficiently binding him up.  Luhan let him silently, his gaze averted the whole while.  Minseok finished by slipping his arm around his shoulders.  Luhan flinched, but after a few seconds began to relax.

“Weiyi’s out of harm’s way for the moment,” Minseok told him.  “It was a very close shave, but we’ve got her out of Seoul.”

Startled, Luhan turned to look at him.  “Wh-where is she?  Is she coming here?”

“That’s the catch.  Not right now.”

Luhan slumped back again.

“Seoul PD right now is like a completely rotten apple – you were right,” Minseok told him.  “Lay wasn’t sure if the rumours you’d heard were an exaggeration, but it looks like it’s true.  Our men over there managed to rescue Weiyi from hospital, they’ve all basically been turned into criminals or fugitives doing so.  The original plan was to have Weiyi on the first train over here as soon as she’d been rescued, but that unfortunately fell through.  Heo Youngsaeng found her first—”

“Jesus Christ.”  Luhan shuddered.

“But our people reached her just in time.  Whatever he tried to put in her wasn’t fatal.  But she’s still unconscious as of yet, and because the people with her were injured and Sangchu’s men and the police were at the station searching for her, we weren’t able to get her down south.”

“Then where is she?”

“With my brother-in-law on Jeju Island.  He’s tied up there on a business trip for two weeks, but he thought it would be possible to keep her in the hotel with him without raising too much suspicion.”

Luhan blanched.  “S… Sehun’s helping with this?”

“Yes.”

Luhan’s eyes closed.  “Why?” he breathed out shakily.  “Why would he help out?  I pretty much had him tortured at Byun Baekhyun’s hands.”

Minseok squeezed his shoulders, but before he could reply, there was a knock at the door and Jaehwan burst in, followed closely by Semi.

“Dad, what’s for dinner?”

“Jae,” Semi said impatiently, “Daddy’s occupied right now.”

“Dada!”  Jaera bounced into the room.  Semi rolled her eyes heavenward, and Minseok stifled a grin when he caught sight of the pepper in her hands.  Jaera caught hold of his ankle and started pulling on it.  “Dada food!”

Minseok wriggled his leg in a mock attempt to shake her off.  “Ey, rascal.  I’m busy right now.”

“Dad, I’m hungry!” Jaehwan whined.  Semi absently shoved the pepper into his hands and reached for Jaera.  The toddler looked a bit disgruntled for a moment, but once she’d tugged on her mother’s hair, she cooed happily and allowed herself to be picked up.

“Mum!” Jaehwan complained as Semi started to leave the room.  “I’m not pregnant!  Don’t go giving me weird stuff to eat!”

“Go get some fruit,” she retorted, Jaera pulling a face over her shoulder and then hissing at Luhan as an afterthought.  Jaehwan grimaced at the thought of something healthy.

“Dad,” he said, “please stop getting Mummy pregnant.  It makes her really weird.”  He still took a bite out of the pepper before leaving the room, and Minseok burst out laughing at the boy’s disgusted expression.

Luhan just looked bewildered.  “Your family’s really weird,” he said weakly as he slid off the bed, reaching for the clothes.  Seeing his expression contort with pain, Minseok beat him to it, selecting a green polo shirt and a jumper.  Luhan had barely managed to put them on before Semi was back, this time without the children.

“Minseok darling, you’d better come cook,” she said.  “The children are going to drive me insane.”

“Give me a moment.”  Minseok collected the various things Luhan had been using to patch himself up with.  Luhan himself stood there a little awkwardly for a moment, fiddling with the collar of his polo shirt, but as Semi turned to leave, his hand flashed out and caught her wrist.

There was a very tense pause.  Semi flinched noticeably and tried to tug her hand away, and Minseok wondered if he needed to intervene, but then Luhan cautiously let go and sank into a formal bow.

Semi stared.  Minseok did