Quietly, very quietly, Sehun said, “Luhan’s pretty shaken over the entire matter. You know, he’s solid like a rock, and he doesn’t let things get to him very much. But this?”

On the phone, Suho asked, “Bad?”

Sehun sighed and ran a hand through his sleep messy hair. “Youri used to have a bad habit of trying to climb in our bed at night. And I mean hey, you know I’d have her sleeping with us every night, if Luhan would allow it, but he’s always been very strict about her sleeping in her ow room and us having clear definitions of who’s space is whose.”

“Sehun,” Suho said kindly, obviously trying to get him back on track.

Sehun said, “Youri climbed in bed last night. She had an accident. We’ve been potty training for some time now, and during the day, she only wears her big girl underwear. Sometimes at night, she does too. And last night, she was and had an accident. Usually Luhan will get up, change her, and put her right back to bed.”

“But not last night?”

Sehun was downstairs now, starting coffee in the kitchen, his socked feet sliding across the hardwood floors.

“He let her stay,” Sehun revealed. “He didn’t even think twice about it. I got her into some clean clothes, and Luhan tucked her in close. That’s where she is now. She and Luhan are still sleeping upstairs.”

Leaning a hip against a countertop, Sehun tried to tap his face in order to wake up more quickly. His alarm had been set to go off in roughly half an hour, but he was lucky he’d woken up before it. It gave him a chance to talk things through with the man who really was, for all intents and purposes, his big brother, and also to prep for the day.

Because this was the day.

This was the day of Luhan’s big get together, and when that was happening, Sehun and Chanyeol were going to be sitting on a plane to fly off to Hong Kong for five or six days, depending on how smoothly the initial transition developed.

Sehun hadn’t even told Youri yet, and he felt terrible about it, but he wanted to savor his carefree daughter for just a little longer. Luhan was right when he said Youri was getting old enough now that she was starting to notice when he was away at the office for too long. Surely she was going to notice now when he was missing for almost a week.

How long before she started to resent that?

“Well, I don’t want you to panic,” Suho said, and of course Sehun felt guilty for waking him so early in the morning. Suho, and likely Emily, were jetlagged. Sehun could hear it in Suho’s voice. But Suho had still picked up the phone for him, and was holding an intelligent conversation. Suho was something kind of marvelous.

“Don’t panic?” Sehun asked sharply, turning at the sound of a door opening. Wei was slipping out of his bedroom down the hall, yawning loudly, still dressed in his pajamas. Sehun was quick to wave him over and turned back to the coffee pot to say, “Luhan and I just got a letter from his creepy, terrible, dangerous parents, which all but demanded we hand our daughter over.”

Sharply, Suho said, “No one is giving Youri to anyone, and you know that.”

Sehun forced himself to calm. “I know. I know. I just … you gotta read this thing, Suho. Luhan translated it for me carefully, very carefully, and also let me know the tone of the letter, which is not nice to say the least.”

Suho proposed, “I don’t know if any of us truly believed that Luhan’s parents would stay away for good.”

“No,” Sehun agreed. “But now they’re calling Luhan a mistake, and telling him to do the honorable thing and basically give them control of Youri.”

Wei had an incredulous look on his face when he heard that part, coming into the kitchen, swearing quietly in Chinese.

“I’ll say it again,” Suho reminded. “No one is touching Youri. She isn’t setting foot into China until either she’s a legal adult, or you and Luhan say it’s okay. Luhan’s parents will not do anything to her, in any way, and that’s because we won’t let them.”

Shakily, Sehun put a flat palm down on a countertop and said, “Luhan is scared. I could see it in his eyes last night. He’s terrified they’re going to snatch Youri away in the middle of the night.”

It certainly wasn’t just Luhan who was scared.

Suho supposed, “Or trick her into the country somehow?”

“She’s three,” Sehun ground out. “Nearly four. It wouldn’t take much for her to be tricked.”

With a little laugh, Suho posed, “Isn’t that why we exist? We’re not so easy to trick, and I think Luhan learned his lesson the one and only time he let that happen to him.”

That was something Sehun was still reeling from. So many years later and Sehun remembered too clearly how it all could have panned out. He could have lost Luhan. He could have lost Youri for a time. He could have lost them to China, and to a situation that was wrong on so many levels. He still didn’t know where he’d gotten the gusto and courage to go after Luhan from, only that it was the moment he’d truly known how much he loved Luhan, and the lengths at which he was willing to go for him.

That really had been the moment, Sehun had known. The idea of a life without Luhan had stolen his breath away. That’s how he’d known it was love.

Just as Sehun was setting out a coffee mug for an anxious looking Wei, Suho said, “I want to see that letter as soon as I can. My Chinese is terrible, but there’s an expert I want to see it. And I’ll also make a few calls to a couple of influential and powerful people I know. We’ll set the right guards and buffers in place, Sehun. At the very least, I have a good friend in customs. If Luhan’s parents try to enter the country at any time, or anyone affiliated with them, we’ll get an alert.”

Sehun slid the mug over to Wei and said shakily, “It’s not just Youri we’re worried about. Luhan’s parents are very traditional. Youri wasn’t their first choice, we all know that, but she’s their most legitimate one right now. If they find out the baby Luhan’s carrying is a boy?”

Sehun shivered in fear. At least Youri was old enough to recognize some threats. She could kick or scream or fight, if necessary. She could be resourceful. But the baby? For a long time the new baby was going to just be a baby, with no defenses.

More firmly and surely than Sehun had heard him before, Suho promised, “No one is going to touch your family, Sehun. We’ll do whatever it takes. Do you believe me?”

Of course Sehun did. This was Suho. And Suho … Suho was the big brother who made promises that he never failed to keep.

“I believe you.”

“Good,” Suho said sharply. “Luhan’s parents don’t have any legal claim to Youri, in either country. They don’t have any leverage, and they don’t have any advantage. Stop thinking they do, and yes, I can practically hear the fear in your head vibrating on those notions. Stop it. They’re just grandparents who want a shot at a child that they can mold into what they want. And they know that underneath it all, Luhan is still looking for their approval, no matter how little he may realize it or want it. He’s still their son, and children always want that from their parents. They’re trying to prey on that. They’re master manipulators. They’re powerful people who think they know how to coerce people into getting what they want. But they’re about to learn one very important thing.”

“What’s that?”

Sehun could imagine the arch to Suho’s eyebrow as he said, “They don’t know who they’re messing with.”

And against the odds, Suho’s words calmed him.

Suho urged, “Tell Luhan I’m on this. Tell him we have the resources and the manpower. Tell him I’m saying everything is going to be okay, and not to worry, and to trust me.”

Softly, Sehun said, “We always trust you, Suho.”

Suho made an agreeable sound. “Okay. Then get some coffee and wake up. I’ll see you and Luhan in a couple of hours. Emily’s really looking forward to meeting everyone, and you know what, so am I.”

The phone line clicked over and Sehun’s mouth went dry. He hadn’t told anyone, outside of Luhan and Chen, and Chanyeol who already knew, about not being there for the party. He felt like Suho should have been told, but Sehun had never found the right moment, and then there’d been a distraction. A big one.

Wei startled him a little by saying roughly, “That’s what it said, then?” Sehun swung fully towards him. “They want at Daiyu?”

“Youri,” Sehun corrected instinctively, now more than ever eager to distance her from her Chinese roots. “And yes, Luhan said you called it. His parents want at Youri.”

Wei looked pensive for a moment, and Sehun poured coffee into his mug. Then Wei said, “Youri is their future. Han’s family is particularly known for its instability within its members. They’re always vying for power and jockeying for position. Han being born really quieted that down for some time, but when he fled to Korea, and then got disowned, it stirred things up again. A company in China, at least in part, is only as strong as the family backing it. It only makes sense his parents would look at Youri as the way to turn it all around.”

“They’re bat crazy,” Sehun said bluntly, “if they think they’re getting anywhere near my daughter.”

“Agreed,” Wei said without hesitation. “Han and I grew up in that world, with that pressure, and that feeling of … of suffocation. We wouldn’t want that for her in a million years. Especially not considering the kind of free spirit that Youri is. She’s a beautiful flower in a lot of ways, and in China, she’d wither and die in months.”

Sehun felt his stomach clench down at those words.

He told Wei, “Luhan translated the letter for me. He said his parents are only asking for her for the summer, but neither of us think that they just want to spend time with Youri. Neither of us are buying their fake innocent bull, especially since there’s a lot of talk about the future of the family, in which it’s pretty obvious they’re trying to guilt trip Luhan into this.”

Wei gave him a flat look. “Do they think you and Han are stupid?”

Sehun sighed. “They must. But they’re going to learn in about three seconds how not stupid we are. Luhan doesn’t wish any ill will on his parents. He’s a saint like that. He’s willing to put them in the past and keep them in the past, without any animosity or anger, and that’s something I wouldn’t be able to do. But he doesn’t care whether their company crashes and burns, or flourishes and succeeds. He doesn’t care if Youri is their heir apparent right now.”

Wei lifted his coffee cup and drank down some of the liquid black. Sehun wasn’t quite so daring with his own coffee, adding cream and sugar.

“That sounded like you had someone who can get things done, on the other end of the line.”

“Suho,” Sehun agreed.

“Oh,” Wei said. Sehun had no doubt that Luhan had said something to Wei about the way Suho was tied to Sehun, and about Jae. But it said something about Wei’s character that he didn’t push it. Instead, he commented, “The truth is, Han’s parents play dirty. They always have. The good news is, Han and I know most of their tricks. We know the things to look out for. So that’s one less thing for you all to worry about. At least it’s one last thing for Han to worry about.”

Sehun hummed quietly to that. Anything less for Luhan to worry about, was worthwhile.

The sound of bare feet on hardwood floors brought Sehun away from the conversation, and he looked over to see Luhan making his way slowly into the kitchen.

With a smile on his face, Sehun pointed out, “Shouldn’t you be sleeping still?”

Luhan berated, “You know how much there is still to do today. You shouldn’t have let me sleep so long.” But there was no anger him as he leaned over to garner a kiss from Sehun. Luhan’s breath was touched with a tint of mint, and it meant he’d been up long enough to brush his teeth already.

Sehun asked nervously, “The smell of coffee okay today?” Some days it was nothing to Luhan, and others it could have him in the bathroom for a half hour.

“Aside from what a dirty cheat you are for drinking it,” Luhan pointed out, leaning against Sehun’s side, “yes, no urges to run for the bathroom yet. I think … I think it’s going to be a good day for the nausea.”

Sehun brightened at that. “Good. Good.” He made sure to kiss Luhan properly then, tapping out a hello to the baby, pleased when the baby kicked back, and savoring the feeling of Luhan against him. When he left that afternoon for Hong Kong, it would be far, far too long before he held Luhan in his arms again.

“Is Youri still sleeping?” Sehun asked, reluctantly releasing Luhan to start getting ingredients out for breakfast. He’d never been a great cook, but he wanted to make something special for Luhan. He wanted to make the morning perfect.

“She is,” Luhan said, a touch of worry in his eyes still. “I want her to sleep as long as possible, too. She’ll be worn out by today, to say the least, and I don’t know if she’ll get a nap in at all.”

Sehun chuckled out, “She’s only sleeping so well and so late into the morning because she’s in our bed. You know that’s her favorite place to sleep.”

Softly, Luhan said, “I wanted her close last night.”

Sehun couldn’t disagree.

“Well,” Wei announced, moving to put his mug in the sink. “If you two don’t mind, I’m going to step out for the morning. I need to sneak some work in before this party of yours. But I’ll be back in the afternoon if you need any help.”

“You sure?” Sehun asked with a frown. He didn’t want to feel like he was running Wei out. Sehun didn’t consider Wei family, but he couldn’t speak for Luhan in that regard, and to Sehun, everything now was about keeping Luhan happy. “You could stay and grab breakfast real quick.”

Wei’s eyes drifted between Luhan and Sehun, and with a grin, he admitted, “Actually, I asked Minseok if he’d meet met for breakfast.”

Luhan asked, “Things seem to be going somewhere with him, don’t they?”

On his way from the sink, Wei mused Luhan’s hair and teased, “You’re still my favorite Han. You don’t have to worry about losing that spot.”

Luhan protested, “I’m not worried at all.” He sobered to say, “I just think, well, maybe keep things slow for a while? Xiumin hasn’t really taken a chance on anyone in a long time. I’m not saying he’s fragile glass, but this isn’t something small, either. So please, just take it easy?”

“I’m not going to ask him to marry me by the end of the week,” Wei said comically. He afforded Luhan a more serious look after that and said, “You want to know the truth? The truth is, I like him. I like Minseok. I like that he’s easy to talk to, and we have a lot of the same interests, and on top of all that, he’s very, very handsome. I like that when I touch him, I feel something, and it’s been a long time for me, too, since that happened. I’m not rushing into anything, Han. I’m not going to break your best friend’s heart.”

Sehun could hear the strain in Luhan’s voice as he said, “I don’t want you to get your heart broken either.”

Wei nodded certainly to Luhan. “Have a little faith, okay?” He was out of the house in twenty minutes after that, just when Sehun got breakfast on the table, and just as Youri was thumping her way down the stairs.

“This is nice,” Luhan said when the three of them were gathered around the breakfast table, food spread out. Youri was already happily digging into her breakfast, utterly preoccupied by it.

Sehun countered, “Spending time with the people I love the most is always nice.”

Luhan found Sehun’s hand under the table. “We’re going to be okay, you know. We always manage somehow. We’ll manage now.”

Sehun squeezed his hand back. “As long as I have you and Youri, and our baby, nothing else matters.”

Breakfast was slow and delightful, and everything Sehun had wanted it to be. It was the perfect way to start the day, and Sehun made it a point to really think on the feeling of it. He and Luhan were usually rushed in the morning, and rarely had breakfast together with Youri. Sehun wanted that to change.

But afterwards, after breakfast, Luhan was all business.

He told Sehun unequivocally, “I know your flight is this afternoon, but I really need your help this morning. I need you down at the place we rented out, getting things set up. I need you to do the heavy lifting while I make sure everything else is running smoothly.”

Youri cheered, “We’re have a party. Yay!”

Sehun snorted a laugh and kissed her head. “Yes, there’s a party.” He turned to Luhan and promised, “I’ll get whatever you need done. You can count on me.”

Luhan ordered, “Take Chen with you get it all set up.”

“Chen?”

“Yes, Chen,” Luhan said, starting to gather up their breakfast dishes. “Get him and make him talk. I want to know what’s going on with him and Eunji. Find out.”

“You sure that’s any of our business?” Sehun asked, uncertain.

Luhan pointed out, “Chen is your best friend, and there’s something not good going on between him and his wife. It’s your job to find out, and to help fix it if you can. Do it.”

Sehun snuck his way to Luhan’s side and wrangled an arm around his waist. His pressed his lips to Luhan’s ear and mumbled, “You know I find it incredibly hot when you order me around like that.”

“You ,” Luhan teased.

Sehun angled their mouths together quickly, taking as much of Luhan as the man offered.

“Icky!” Youri protested from her spot still at the kitchen table in her booster seat.

“Go,” Luhan said, giving Sehun a little push. He grinned brightly. “Have I mentioned that I love you?”

Sehun insisted, “Not nearly as much as I love you.”

“Debatable,” Luhan insisted. “But I’d be happy to argue it with you at a later date.”

“It’s a promise,” Sehun said, and couldn’t wait.

Baekhyun came by no less than an hour later to pick Luhan up. Luhan pecked the side of Sehun’s mouth, more like a tease than anything else, and said, “We’re going to make sure everything is okay with the food. Please, please try and get to the bottom of the mess with Chen. He’s always been there for us, even when we didn’t know how to ask for his help. Now’s the time to be there for him.”

“I’ve got this,” Sehun insisted, and then pulled Luhan in for a much better kiss.

After Sehun had wrangled Chen into helping him set up the hall that had been rented out, not that much later after parting with Luhan, Chen pointed out darkly, “I don’t really see why I’m the one you ered into helping you set up. I was promised good company and better food. Not hard labor.”

Sehun snorted, “If you think this is hard labor, Chen, we need to drop you off at the North Korean boarder for a quick refresher.”

Chen held up a sharp finger. “Don’t even joke about that.”

Rolling his eyes, Sehun pointed out, “I’m not even asking that much of you.” Really all they had to do was move the tables into the right spot, get all chairs set up, and put the finishing touches on the room. Luhan had done a spectacular job picking out a conference hall that boasted floor to ceiling windows on the side of the room that overlooked the Han river. The sight was idealic, serene, and downright beautiful.

“I know, I know,” Chen grumbled.

Sehun bit back a smile.

“And I guess it’s worth it,” Chen decided. “I talk to you all the time on the phone, and I do a couple of video chats once in a while with Suho and D.O, but for the most part, I’m never with you guys.”

Sehun gave a thoughtful hum. “I feel the same way, you know. It’s hard have my best friends I love so far away. It’s harder to have my very best friend in a different country.”

A terse look pulled at Chen’s face. “I miss Korea a lot.”

This was his opening. Sehun saw it like a parting of the sea. This was where he started digging.

“Have you and Eunji given any thought to coming back to Korea?” Sehun posed, trying to sound as casual as possible. “I know her research grant was for two years, and it’s been longer than that. She’s obviously enjoying her work, she’s very good at what she does. But have you guys started talking about coming back to Korea at any point?”

Suddenly Chen was leaning more of his weigh on the back of the chair nearest him, looking weary and defeated.

“Chen?”

Patience paid off eventually, because Chen admitted, “Eunji and I aren’t really talking very much these days … about anything.”

“Why not?” Carefully, Sehun broached, “Is this all coming back to the baby thing?”

Chen looked to him and returned, “Didn’t we already establish, days ago, that it always comes back to the baby thing?”

Fed up with them skirting the issue, Sehun abandoned his position across the room and moved to where Chen was, he took him by the elbow and sat them down in two chairs that faced each other.

Jokingly, Chen tried to ask, “This isn’t an intervention, is it?”

“Tell me what’s wrong,” Sehun said, maybe a little too brashly, but open and honest. “Maybe I can’t help you in any way, but maybe you’ll also feel good if you can get it off your chest. You know I’ll never judge you. You know you’re my best friend and your problems are my problems.”

Chen wouldn’t meet his gaze.

“I know a little,” Sehun edged out. “And I thought it was nothing, but that was a wrong assumption, obviously.”

Hands clutching at is knees, Chen told him, “It is the baby thing.”

Sehun nodded in understanding.

In the baby department, Sehun and Chen had always been radically different. Sehun had always known he wanted to be a father. He’d always known, in a lot of ways, that he specifically always wanted a daughter. And when Seoyoung had been snatched from him, he’d thought that was done for. But then Luhan had come along, and they’d conceived Youri so easily, and though it had been rough, eventually everything had fallen into place.

Chen had always wanted a career, more than anything else. He wasn’t one to be swayed by toddling toddlers, or grinning babies, or the mere idea of being a father. In fact, Sehun knew that Chen and Eunji hadn’t even broached the subject of children before getting married.

But when they’d talked after, it had also been clear that both Chen and Eunji didn’t want kids right away. They wanted to play the role of doting aunt and uncle to Youri, but they wanted to continue to lead professional lives, and concentrate on their marriage.

“It’s kind of admirable,” Sehun had said to Luhan once, with Youri screaming in the background, throwing a tantrum over something or another.

“Admirable?” Luhan had laughed, eyes jerking in Youri’s direction, always so aware of where she was and what she was doing. “Who wouldn’t like a lovely screaming toddler?”

It was admirable, Sehun had thought back then, that two people wanted to concentrate on each other, and not a bigger family, especially when their culture and society pushed the notion of family so heavily.

Eventually though Chen and Eunji had decided to try for a baby. And that was the issue at hand.

Sehun said, “I know you guys were having trouble conceiving, but come on, Chen, you know it’s just a luck thing. You’ve got to be patient. You’ve only been trying for a year—a little over a year. Give yourself time.”

“Time?” Chen asked, laughing roughly. “Time has nothing to do with the issue.”

Suddenly Sehun felt guilty for how easily Youri had come into existence. And then he and Luhan had gone off birth control for only a short while before a second pregnancy had followed. Chen and Eunji had been trying and waiting for some time with nothing.

“I didn’t want to tell you,” Chen said sadly, “maybe I feel a little ashamed, but it’s not just that we’re trying and it’s not happening. It’s … there’s …

Sehun urged, “You can tell me anything, in utter confidence, and know that it stays right between us. I won’t even tell Luhan if you want.”

Chen scoffed a little. “Tell Luhan for all I care now. I’m so tired. I’m so done. Tell the whole world.”

“Tell the world what?”

Gritting his teeth, Chen revealed, “I’ve got a low count.”

Sehun balked a little. “A low count?”

Nodding, Chen explained, “Eunji thought something was wrong, when we tried for a year and nothing. So we both went and got checked out. We both got a full workup done. Of everything. And you know what they found? Eunji? She’s amazingly healthy. There’s nothing wrong with her. But me?” He broke off. Then, in a much softer voice, he said, “It’s a chromosomal thing. A birth defect. I shoot blanks, essentially. My count isn’t a fraction of what it should be, and all the specialists we’ve been to see, think the chances of a natural conception are slim to none.”

Sehun sat back hard. “Wow.” He didn’t know what to say to that, or how to make it better—if he even could.

“And now we fight,” Chen said matter of factly. “All we do is fight about it.”

Aghast, Sehun asked, “She doesn’t blame you, right? That’s not something that’s your fault, Chen.”

“No,” Chen said tersely, “she doesn’t blame me. She knows I don’t control my count. But she feels like we’ve don’t nothing but waste time. She wants to move on. She wants to go back to her career and pretend like none of this happened.”

“And you,” Sehun guessed, “don’t.”

Now there was an unexpected wetness in Chen’s eyes when he said, “I didn’t picture myself a father, you know. I thought it might happen, but it wasn’t something I really wanted. And Eunji and I really had to talk ourselves into it. That could have been a mistake. But when we did, Sehun, when we decided to go for it, I realized I wanted a baby so badly. I wanted a daughter like Youri, or a son. I wanted what you have. And now I have this. I have nothing.”

Sehun urged quickly, “You said next to impossible, not actually impossible. Chen. You can’t give up.”

“Don’t you get it?” Chen asked harshly. He rocked up to his feet and Sehun was quiet.

Sehun felt at a loss.

“Eunji doesn’t want to try anymore.” Chen crossed to the window on the other side of the room and looked out at it, at the Han river. “She says she’s done. She says she won’t try anymore. She won’t let herself get her hopes up, only for her period to come each and every month. She won’t do it, Sehun. And me? I can’t stop wanting it. It’s all I can think about now. It’s the most important thing in the world to me, and my wife thinks exactly the opposite.”

“Chen,” Sehun said softly. “You two should talk, you should—”

“We have talked enough!” Chen had shouted, but that was so unlike him, and he quickly lowered his voice to say, “Sehun, I think we’re done talking at this point. I think … well, Eunji and I are at a divide here. We love each other, we love each other so much, that’s not the problem. But she wants our family to be two. I want three.”

Sehun tried to imagine what his life would have been like without Youri, and he absolutely couldn’t. It wasn’t just that Youri had brought Sehun and Luhan together, but that she was a part of them. She was a part of what made them who they were. And a life without her was no life worth living.

Sehun wondered if Chen looked at Youri and knew that very thing.

Shakily, afraid of the answer, Sehun asked, “Are you two going to separate?”

Chen replied, “Don’t you think that’s the reason Eunji’s with her parents and I’m right here? We had a huge fight right before I came here. I basically gave her an ultimatum. I said we had to keep trying. We had to at least try, and that we owed it to ourselves. And she accused me of trying to control her—control her body. It was … it wasn’t good. So we’re taking a little break now. We’ll see how little in the end, I guess.”

Eunji and Chen couldn’t get a divorce. They just couldn’t. Sehun had known they were perfect for each other for a long time, maybe even before Chen realized. They’d been together so long, and had so much history. They couldn’t just give up on each other.

“I said it wrong,” Chen broke in suddenly, looking to Sehun. “I was an and I know it. I was just frustrated, and I said the words wrong to Eunji. I’m not trying to control her. I’m not trying to force her into anything. I would never presume to tell her what to do with her own body. But I want a baby, Sehun, I want one so badly. I want to be a father. And I don’t know if I can be with a woman who doesn’t at least want to try.”

And that, Sehun understood, was the bottom line. It was just about fatherhood.

“Chen.” Sehun angled himself towards Chen on the chair. “You’re so caught up in your low count. Have you stopped to consider your other options?”

“Like IVF?” Chen asked. “Do you know how expensive that is? And time consuming? Do you know how low the chances of it actually working are, too? We didn’t just stumble our way to this point, Sehun. And it’s not as easy as just throwing ideas out there at the wall and hoping something will stick.”

Fatherhood, Sehun reminded himself. This was ultimately just about fatherhood.

“Chen,” Sehun said curiously, “you just want to experience it, right? To be a father? To hold a child in your arms and know it’s dependent on you for everything, and know that it’s your responsibility and your privilege to raise that child right?”

Chen gave a shaky nod.

“Then … does it have to be your child biologically?”

Chen looked jarred. “Are you talking about adoption?”

Sehun challenged back, “Did you ever consider that with Eunji? Obviously you talked about IVF, but what about adoption? Do you have an idea how many kids are out there, who desperately need a home, and who would have such an amazing life with you guys if you picked them?”

Numbly, Chen admitted, “We didn’t talk about adoption. We didn’t even think about it.”

Sehun pressed, “Babies get abandoned all the time. Toddlers. Small children. And when there’s nowhere for them to go, they end up in the system. They need homes, Chen. Would it matter to you if your child didn’t share your blood?”

Chen gave a visible pause, and then he only shook his head.

“Call your wife,” Sehun told him. “Maybe this changes nothing. Maybe Eunji doesn’t want to adopt a kid, or be a mother. Maybe you two just can’t work it out in the end. Who knows, Chen. But can you repeat to me what you said earlier? About what you owe to yourself?”

Chen frowned and asked, “To keep trying?”

Sehun laughed a little and said, “Maybe not in the physical sense anymore, not if Eunji doesn’t want to and you guys are exhausted by a lack of results, but you have to keep going. You have to keep trying, and trying can mean thinking, and talking, and just not giving up.”

Honestly, Chen said, “I don’t think Eunji wants to talk to me right now.”

“Maybe she just needs to hear you say the right things,” Sehun posed.

Looking the most fragile he ever had, Chen said, “I don’t want this to be the end, Sehun. I don’t want this to be it for us. We’re stronger than this, and better, too. We deserve more than this. But I can’t give up on wanting a family more than just the two of us, not now that I know it’s what I want more than anything else.”

Sehun decided, “Enjoy today, okay? Enjoy time with your friends who are friends, and friends who are family. And then tonight, when you’re getting ready to go to bed, call Eunji. I know she loves you. I get the feeling she’ll pick up the phone for you and listen to what you have to say.”

Pensively, Chen turned back to the Han river and was quiet for some time.

But the passage of time was like a march to the hangman’s noose, for Sehun. People were beginning to trickle in, first Lay and Yiru, then Suho and Emily, then Wei and Xiumin who were an odd pair to Sehun, but nothing Sehun wasn’t willing and ready to support. They had Youri swinging between them and had even managed to get her dressed in the outfit Luhan had particularly purchased for the event—and that naturally Youri had hated.

“Sehun,” Luhan said, just when Sehun’s phone was buzzing to indicate to him how little time he had left before his flight. He appeared at Sehun’s side with a sad look. “It’s getting late.”

Sehun took Luhan by the hand and led him out into a nearby hallway. It was deserted, and almost tucked to the side in a way that meant they wouldn’t be interrupted.

There Sehun took Luhan’s face in his hands tenderly, and kissed him in a forthright way. “I love you,” he told Luhan, desperate for Luhan to know how much. “You’re my everything, and you always have been.”

“You’re going away for five days,” Luhan protested with a small smile, “not five years.”

“I know I’m letting you down,” Sehun pressed on. He rubbed his thumbs slightly against the softness of Luhan’s face. “I said I’d be here every second of every day for this pregnancy, and do everything in my power to prioritize you. I lied then, when I made that promise, even if I didn’t know at the time. And I feel terrible for it.”

“I think,” Luhan assured, leaning into his touch, “we’ve been through much worse than this, Oh Sehun.”

Sehun tilted his head in for another, much longer kiss, letting his hands drift down to Luhan’s bump.

“If I could stay,” Sehun swore, “I would.”

“I won’t let you,” Luhan insisted, hooking his fingers into the belt loops on Sehun’s pants. “You need to do this for your job, and regardless of everything that’s going on with your job right now, it’s your dream. You love what you do. It’s important to you, and you being happy is important to me.”

“This,” Sehun insisted, putting pressure on Luhan’s stomach, “is the most important thing.”

Luhan hooked an arm around the back of Sehun’s neck. “So we deal with this, then. You go to Hong Kong and seal that deal of yours that you put so much into, and that we all believe in. And then you come home to me, and to Youri, and to the baby. You come home to the most important thing.”

Sehun felt his eyes burn and he wrapped himself around Luhan, face pressing into the crook of his neck. “You’re too good to me. You’re too forgiving, and too generous. You are … you’re just amazing.”

“What I am,” Luhan said, “is someone who loves you, and someone who understands a hard choice when he sees it, and knows what sacrifice is. We can endure this, Sehun.”

“We shouldn’t have to,” Sehun said back just as fiercely. He insisted, “I made that promise to you. When we found out you were pregnant, I made that promise. What kind of a man just leaves his family like this? What kind of a man would leave you?”

Luhan used the arm around the back of Sehun’s neck to drag him closer, and say emphatically, “You’re the kind of a man who is hard working, and dedicated, and kind. You’re a good husband, and amazing father, and at the end of the day, you’re the kind of man who gets on a plane, and flies to Hong Kong not because he wants to, but because he has to.”

There weren’t enough words in the world for Sehun to describe Luhan.

“I’ll call you,” Sehun promised, feeling the baby move from where he was pressed up against Luhan. “I’ll call you every morning, and every night. I’ll talk to Youri, too. God, I should have told her I was going.”

“It’s better this way,” Luhan insisted. “She has Wei to distract her, and all her favorite uncles are in town. She’ll be upset for a little, but if you call often, and promise her some wonderful presents from Hong Kong, I’m sure she’ll forgive you.”

“This will never happen again,” Sehun swore, and was willing to bet his life against it. “Thank you for understanding. Thank you for forgiving. But this is the last time this happens. Never again.”

“You’re going to do great over there,” Luhan said confidently. “I can’t wait for everyone to see how brilliant you are.”

“If I’m brilliant,” Sehun protested, “it’s only because I have you backing me up. And anyway, nothing I’ve ever created will come close to matching the masterpieces you produce. You’re a genius, Luhan, and one day the world is going to recognize that.”

Sehun’s mouth had just turned to catch Luhan’s one more time, when his phone vibrated once more. A quick check revealed a message.

“I’ve got to go,” Sehun said with a sigh. “Chanyeol’s out front. I think he’s scared I’m going to back out at the last second.”

Luhan scoffed, “You’re no coward.”

Sehun wished he had that kind of confidence in himself.

Luhan went on, “You remembered to pack your suitcase in the trunk before coming here, right? I don’t think you have to time to go all the way home for it.”

“I did,” Sehun insisted, and it struck him in that moment how long it would be before he held Luhan in his arms again, or slept in the same bed as him. They weren’t exactly attached at the hip, but they also never were far from each other.

“Then go,” Luhan said. “Go before I lose my resolve and beg you to stay.”

Once more, with fervor, Sehun said, “I love you, Luhan.”

Luhan told him back right away, “Not nearly as much as I love you.”

Sehun had to wrench himself away then, too afraid that he’d give in completely and stay. And then he was jogging down to the car to get his suitcase, and then over to where Chanyeol was waiting for him.

“Oh thank god you’re here,” Chanyeol breathed out, looking frazzled.

“I’m here,” Sehun said slowly.

Chanyeol’s face crumpled even more. “Sorry about this. I know … I know this .”

“Let’s just go,” Sehun said, holding tightly to his suitcase. “We can’t miss out plane.”

They were off and to the airport quickly enough. And for once, Seoul cooperated, with there being a steady flow of traffic and plenty of time to get to the airport. They breezed through security, checked their bags, and then just around the time Sehun knew the party was supposed to be starting, he and Chanyeol were buckling into their seats.

“We just gotta get through this,” Chanyeol said. He was pressed to his window seat while Sehun sat next to him with a growing sense of unease.

This was wrong.

Everything in Sehun told him that what he was doing was wrong. Every intelligent thought in him, and most importantly his gut, all reeked of wrongness.

He had no place being on the plane. He had no place being away from his family at a critical time. And he certainly had no place asking Luhan, especially after his accident, to be okay with all of it.

Sehun had never been so certain in his life he was making a mistake.

“Sehun?” Chanyeol asked, watching him oddly.

For the first time, Sehun said out loud, “This is a mistake.”

The last of the passengers were shuffling on the plane as Sehun sat back and closed his eyes.

“Sehun,” Chanyeol tried again.

It was a mistake, and Sehun felt wretched for it.