Jin Taohua was following Luhan everywhere. 

 

Or maybe he was following her.

 

Either way, he seemed to be ultra aware of her presence today, something he hadn't experienced for a long time. 

 

 

Her long black hair blew past him in the hallway, her brown eyes glittered at his for a second as she walked into class, and her perfectly disguised voice entered his ears during calculus. At lunch, he watched her wave to Jongin as he walked behind her. Barely noticing Jongin's embarrassed face, Lay’s confused expression, Kyungsoo’s eye roll, and Chanyeol's teasing punch, he almost tapped her on her shoulder before Chanyeol loudly yelled his name.

 

Taohua turned around and stopped to look at him. "He calls you hyung?"

 

 

"And?" Luhan was shocked she had even noticed him. He always had a knack for silently following people.

 

"Like 哥?" (Ge, means older brother)

 

 

"Exactly."

 

"So you are Chinese," she smiled. "Your friends over there told me. Jongin is really nice."

 

 

Luhan couldn't tell if he had a reaction to her words. "I am." Then remembering he was supposed to barely know her, he asked, "Not to be rude, but why are you talking to me?"

 

"Not to be rude, but why were you following me?" she shot back with a grin. "You're not as smart as you think you are."
 

 

And she was gone in an instant, faded into the crowd of students in the hallway. 
 

 

So she knew how to be a ghost, both digitally and in real life. That told Luhan she wasn't just a normal kid. 
 

 

She had a past. 
 

 

Just like him. 
 

 

Luhan didn't know her at all, but he felt as if he knew everything about her at the same time.

 

He made his way over the other boys slowly, his mind filled with her words. Jongin spoke first, “What did she say, Luhan hyung?”

 

Chanyeol smirked. This whole Jongin thing must have been a dream come true for his fun-loving self. “Jealous much?”

 

Jongin’s ears turned red. “Can you guys please stop?”

 

“Chanyeol, leave him alone,” Kyungsoo said, keeping a straight face that looked slightly annoyed. He and Chanyeol were best friends, albeit complete opposites. In fact, Luhan was surprised he hadn’t killed Chanyeol out of annoyance at this point.

 

“Why? What happened?” Yixing asked, clueless as ever. Despite his sharp planning and coordinating skills, Yixing was the most oblivious person in real life.

 

 

Luhan just smiled. These were the idiots he chose to be his brothers, but he loved them anyway.

 

***

 

 

Luhan tried to even his heartbeat as he made his way to the fence after school, finding the youngest ones already there, probably overly excited for the most interesting thing to happen to them in real life, not over a computer screen.

"Hyung! Jongin won't stop talking about Taohua!" Sehun whined like a baby, earning him a slap on the arm from Jongin. 
 

 

"Shut up! I don't have anything to do with her!" Jongin denied, but Luhan just chuckled. They were funny when they were acting like boys their age. "But hyung, why were you talking to her earlier?"
 

 

"More like why she was talking to me," Luhan shrugged. "She's your friend, not mine."
 

 

"Why Jongin, are you jealous?" Sehun teased, causing Jongin to turn red and raise his arm to hit Sehun, only to have Junmyeon and the rest of EXO to show up in that instant. 
 

 

"Whatever it was, I don't want to know," he said with a sigh as both boys meekly muttered "hyung". Junmyeon checked his watch, and a minute later, he said the two words everyone was waiting for.
 

 

"It's time."
 

 

Not a half a millisecond later, a figure came out from the shadows to the west of the fence. 
 

 

They were wearing a large face mask, but Luhan could recognize that long black hair from miles away. 
 

 

The hacker that had managed to outsmart EXO was none other than Jin Taohua.