“Yah, Kim Mirae wake up!”

Ignoring the familiar yelling, Mirae rolling over in her blankets, and buried her face in the pillows.

“I’m coming in you brat!”

The door to her bedroom swung open, and her brother stepped in. “If you’re not going to college, come help me in the HQ will you? There’s a ton of work left since Chanyeol’s on sick leave.”

“Leave me alone oppa...”

“That dude had his reasons. I’m not saying what he did was right... But he had his reasons Mirae-yah.” Junmyeon started, sitting on the edge of her bed. The girl sat up in a trice, throwing aside the blankets and glaring at him through a curtain of bed hair.

“Oppa are you on my side or his side? Why are you trying to defend him?”

“Just look at you...looking like an absolute troll...” Junmyeon sighed, pushing aside her stray hair with two fingers. “Can’t get what that guy saw in you. I guess love really is blind.”

“Stop talking about him oppa please!” Mirae whined, raised her voice by another octave. “It embarrasses me to death every time I think how foolish I was to help him putting aside all my studies, and that too, not knowing who he exactly was. And I was kicked out by my professor just like that! What if the next research instructor tells me to start over? Do I have to throw away all my work of two years?”

“Yah...stop panicking for a moment Mirae...” her brother leaned forward, and started the girl’s head. “You’re panicking right now. You’ve been doing nothing but worrying over and over for a week now, and panicking over something that’s yet to happen.”

The girl buried her face in a pillow, and heaved a sigh. “That jerk...”

“Your Professor had wanted to sell his research off to some company... You know JYP Pharmaceuticals I guess.”

Junmyeon patted on her head, signalling her to listen. “That old man must have suddenly felt greedy after years of being locked up in the lab... But it was not only his work right? Sehun also worked with him. So...which scientist would want his invention to get labelled with some other company’s name, if he’s a proper scientist?”

Finally Mirae raised her head from its hiding place.

“That’s why he had joined hands with Nakamotos to launch it in his name and his dad’s name. So it’s not Sehun who was greedy for money. It was his dad. What Sehun wanted was the credit for his work.”

“Oppa how do you know these things?”

Her eyes were rounded as large as possible.

“Because he told me.” Junmyeon shrugged with a smile. “Yeah...yeah... I met him just once. And yes...that’s when he told me. He revealed me his real identity as well. That’s why I said he had his fair share of reasons to lie.”

“But still...”

“Geez kid...let’s be a bit more sensible shall we? Let’s get outta this cave first.” He got off the bed, and went to pull the curtains aside to let some sunshine into the room. “Just look at this house child... you’re not someone who lives like this. Get up! You lazy brat... Put on something presentable and come out, I’ll take you out to brunch.”

Mirae stared pouting at her brother who walked out of her room.

Why did Sehun tell oppa everything when he was lying to me all the time?

“When was your phone charged last time???”

Junmyeon threw her phone onto the couch when the girl exited her bedroom. “I just saw fifty eight missed calls and it died before I could see the number.”

“Whatever...just buy me food.”

She was lazily digging into her French toast casserole in Junmyeon’s favourite restaurant, when he decided to push his phone towards her. “Check your email Miss Stone Age... and check who’s appointed as your new instructor.”

“I don’t want to.”

“Kim Mirae.”

“They won’t inform that soon oppa!”

“Just check! You good for nothing brat!”

Huffing, she took his phone, and logged into her gmail account.

Junmyeon couldn’t hide the smile that threatened to escape his lips when he watched his sister’s face struck with undeniable horror. “What is it? You got an email?”

“What kind of gibberish is this...” she started frantically scrolling down the email. “Has the department gone mad?”

“Why?”

“Oppa they say...” she raised her head from the phone and gaped at Junmyeon. “I need to go to the faculty.” She was on her feet the next second.

“Back on your seat! Finish your food before leaving!”

“Oppa! They’ve put Oh Sehun as my new instructor’s name! What kind of joke is that? I need to ask them!”

“Maybe he’s now working at your college!”

Mirae blinked thoughtfully. Maybe that was right. The academic year was coming to an end so new academic staff recruitments were not a surprise.

“I gotta check–”

“After. Having. Your. Meal. Now sit back.”

“Oppa!”

“You’re gonna miss the hazelnut gelato dessert.”

That was enough to get the girl back on her chair.

* * * *

The siblings were back in Mirae’s apartment, and as soon as they stepped into the small living room, the sight of a painfully familiar figure made the girl freeze on her track.

He was back in her apartment.

Clad in a navy blue and grey floral Hawaiian shirt with matching washed denim jeans, he was sprawled on the couch as he always used to be, with a Mac book on his lap and a leather backpack wide open on the couch next to him, which had countless documents spreading out of it and over the cushions. The slender pale digits were typing away at a remarkable speed, completely different from the days when he pretended to be suffering from all the diseases on earth and make her do all the work while he happily munched away on Cheetos.

“Hola!”

Junmyeon’s cheery greeting made him avert his attention from his PC screen, and within seconds, the device was on the cushions, and he was on his feet. “Hyungnim,” his bow was quick, but full of respect. And he turned to the girl who was staring at him the whole time. “Anyeong, Kim Mirae.”

His greeting wasn’t returned, and the girl continued to stare at him in silence, mentally coming up with the exact question to ask him first.

“She saw the mail. And she knows it’s you, her new instructor.”

“Ah, yes...hyungnim.” Sehun nodded awkwardly, in acknowledgment.

“How did you know the pass code to my apartment? I changed it recently.”

Both guys smiled at Mirae’s question, and Sehun rubbed the back of his neck. “I tried Johnny Suh’s birthday and it didn’t work, so I tried Mark’s next. It didn’t take me long to figure that out.”

The answer left the girl speechless, reddening in embarrassment.

“Whatever guys. Solve the problems by yourselves. I’m off. I have a blind date.” Junmyeon held up his hands, before retreating towards the door, and he vanished leaving his sister all helpless in front of the guy, whom he planned on approving for her.

“What was that mail about...? Are you working for our college now?” Mirae asked, pretending to be fascinated by the door mat and not intending to step indoors. Before answering her question, Sehun decided to approach her, which made the girl take another step backwards, towards the exit.

“Stop acting so ridiculous and come in.”

His voice showed that he had returned to his usual self and was sulking now since her brother had left. And she was dragged into the living room, where he stood in the middle, holding her by both hands. “I told you to meet me after the press conference, remember? And you didn’t. Then I told you I need to talk outside abhuji’s office. And you left just like that. And I called you for a whole week and how could you ignore my call the entire time?”

It surprised Mirae how his hold on her hands was so gentle, even at a moment when he was so irritated.

“Why did you have to lie to me in the first place? And why would I waste my time listening to someone who took advantage of me while deceiving me the whole time?”

Mirae wasn’t the type to solve problems with tears, or at least she wasn’t the type to show her weak aspects to anyone.

But today, bursting into tears in front of him had no other options.

“Listen... Kim Mirae...” he released her hands and held her face, bending down to her eye level. “If I had told you who I am, you’ll definitely tell my dad. Won’t you? And if you did, he’ll just drag me home and all my work for years will be wasted just like that. I know...i was being selfish. But you’re also a budding scientist. You should understand how I felt.”

His words were followed by a silence, which finally Sehun decided to break again.

“It’s okay... you can take your time. For now come and take a look at what I did.”

And the girl was escorted to the couch, where he sat with her in an unbearably close proximity before carefully choosing one of the multiple tabs open on the display to show her. “See, I resumed your work where you had paused them. I even proof read for the typos!”

Now that he was properly dressed up, (with perfume or aftershave or shampoo or whatever), having this Sehun was making things harder for the girl than it did back when he lived with her in loose tees and track pants.

Oh Sehun is way lethal than Lee Sehun. Noted.

“Aren’t I getting any compliments? Which instructor does the work on behalf of his student on earth huh?”

Mirae stared at the letter head on the half typed letter on the Word Document on the screen.

Dr. Oh Sehun,

Faculty of Pharmacy,

Seoul National University.

So he really is working for our college now.

“What the hell is this wifeu...!!! I was hoping for at least one proper kiss or two hours of head massage or about four hours of cuddling with you as the reward! Just how long are you planning to stare at that darned Mac book???”

Mirae blinked at him.

Hoping for what?

And why is this grown man with a doctorate whining and stomping like a kindergartener?

Placing the laptop aside in a second, he ran his arm around her waist in one swift movement. And before she knew it, Mirae was on his lap, her legs dangling off his thighs.

“You owe me a Yes.”

A cheeky smile adorned his lips, as his fingers started playing with the hem of her baggy sweater, waiting for her reply. “Come on Kim Mirae.”

“I’m not even over my anger you know, Oh Sehun-ssi,”

“No one can stay mad at me for long... You have the re