Once the two arrived at Byul’s apartment, she went straight to firing up her laptop and setting up the DVD. Sehun went into the kitchen to stick his popcorn in the microwave. While it was popping, Sehun found himself already wandering to the windows to check the outside as if it was instinct. He drew the curtains slightly to the side and peeked out with an eye. Again, nothing was out of the ordinary. It was almost too peaceful in the neighborhood—as if someone pressed a pause button on the view outside the window. Baekhyun still had his motives. It wasn’t safe to assume he gave up just because no one has shown… yet.

Sehun began to wonder why Baekhyun wanted Byul dead. Maybe she wasn’t as innocent as she seemed.

He glanced at her in thought.

Byul was sitting on the sofa cross-legged with her laptop and a blanket over her lap. Sehun thought about how she was so unaware of the world outside her. That all she wanted to do was watch a movie even though she knew that there was someone out there who wanted her dead. Byul seemed calmer than Sehun, even if it wasn’t his life that was in danger.

Still. The girl was harmless, but why did Byun Baekhyun want her dead?

“Byul?” he called her name out, his voice sounding softer than he intended. He immediately cleared his throat.

“Yes?” She glanced up from her laptop screen.

“Is there any reason why someone would want you gone?”

“Gone?”

“Gone as in… dead.”

“I don’t know.” She shrugged. “I think it’s the cake lady. I feel like she holds the meanest grudge.”

Sehun waited for her to list off people until she hit the bullseye, but she said nothing after that. “Anyone else?”

“No idea.”

He tapped his foot, wondering how he could squeeze information from her. Hearing that the microwave’s timer was finished, Sehun made his way back to the kitchen to shake the fresh and hot popcorn into a bowl. His mind was occupied with ideas the whole time on how he could possibly steer their conversation directly about Baekhyun.

Returning to the living room, Sehun took a seat beside her. “Who’s the last guy you dated?”

“Why are you asking me that?” Byul snorted. “Are you interested in me? Don’t fall for me, Sehun.”

He tossed a popcorn into his mouth and glared at her. “Get your head out of your . I’m just making small talk.”

She laughed at him, but nonetheless answered him. “Well, this guy named Baekhyun. We broke up a couple weeks ago, actually.”

Bingo.

“Who’s he?” he asked even if he already understood everything he needed to know about Byun Baekhyun—a richy-rich with money coming from Father that he could spend on whatever he pleased. That apparently included spare money to strike out his ex-girlfriend from the face of the world.

Byul checked through her emails while she absentmindedly answered Sehun. “He’s taking Business Administration in uni so he can run his dad’s company. Anyway, we were dating for six weeks before I had to end it.”

“What happened?”

“The whole relationship crashed on that one day,” Byul said, suddenly reminiscing. “Everything before then was okay. I didn’t feel a connection with him though. After six weeks, I asked him out to dinner so that I could gently break up with him.”

Sehun remained silent, waiting for her to continue.

“I noticed something… unsavory with the way he did business,” she began again, choosing her words carefully. “He always led his investors into thinking he had more than he actually did. It was practically fraud. Actually no, it was fraud. Like, enough-to-go-to-prison fraud.”

“Mmhm,” Sehun mumbled, not surprised to learn this.

“Anyway, that day that I planned to break up with him, I was waiting for him in the lobby of his building. I ended up having small talk with a woman who was also there. We were talking about Baekhyun’s company and I... may or may not have accidentally mentioned that Baekhyun was a huge liar.”

“So?”

“So she turned out to be a major investor in the company,” Byul guiltily admitted, though she knew deep down that she had nothing to feel guilty about. “I heard that their stocks went crashing down the next week and Baekhyun’s project was killed. I think several of his investors suddenly pulled out.”

Sehun nodded slowly in thought. Is that why Baekhyun wanted her dead? That she cost his company probably thousands, maybe millions, in money?

“But that’s not all. We went to dinner, the two of us having no idea what I just did to the company. Out of nowhere, he proposed.”

He almost did a double-take. “What?”

“You heard me!” Byul disregarded her laptop on the table in front of them, completely into the conversation they were having now. “He proposed after six weeks and we honestly still didn’t know a lot about each other. I knew he was kind of a crazy guy. Very controlling and possessive. I had to list everyone I was with if I was hanging out with my friends. Texts had to come at least once every hour. Stuff like that. But then he proposed. He told me that if I said no, he’d kill me so that no one else could have me. Weird, right?”

“Very weird.” Sehun bit his lip. If only she knew that Baekhyun wasn’t kidding around.

“I should have seen it coming. Before we were even dating, he stalked me wherever I went, bugging me about getting coffee with him or going to dinner. He’d send bouquets of roses every day with a cheesy note. After I said no to his proposal, I left… and took his dog.”

“You took his dog?”

“He didn’t treat it nicely at all!” Byul said to defend herself. “I gave it up for adoption at a shelter.”

Sehun ran his hand through his hair, feeling suddenly exhausted. It looked like Baekhyun had several reasons why he wanted Byul gone. Were they bad enough to hire hitmen? Not really, but Sehun was now dealing with a crazy person. Great. In his line of work, it shouldn’t have been a surprise anyway.

Byul looked down at her lap and hesitated for a few seconds before she asked, “You don’t think he’s the one after me, right?”

“Umm—”

She burst out laughing. “I’m kidding! He’s crazy, but not that crazy.”

You have no idea, he wanted to say.

“Anyway,” Byul opened up the movie player on her laptop and pressed play, “enough gossip. Let’s watch.”

Byul spread the blanket over both their laps to share. Shoulder to shoulder, they settled down as the movie rolled with their own type of popcorn within reach. Sehun was a bit distracted with thoughts on how he could possibly get Baekhyun to drop the hit he put out for Byul. Should he fake her death? No, that meant she’d have to hide. Move to a new city? It was unreasonable and too much to ask for.

“Hey, Byul? ...Byul?” Looking at her, Sehun noticed that she had fallen asleep forty-five minutes into the movie. He shook his head in disbelief but nonetheless continued to watch the movie and allowed Byul to rest beside him where she would be safe.

Do Kyungsoo’s party was a huge turnout—as usual. Sehun and Chanyeol walked up a front yard that was riddled with plastic red cups and paper plates littering the grass. From outside, they could see the neon lights that were flickering over the windows and the shadows of people jumping to the beat of the heavy bass. Upon opening the door, music spilled out from inside and covered the streets. The house was big enough to keep together the endless dozens of party-goers that were scattered around the area.

“Check out the chicks,” Chanyeol said, sending a wink to a group of girls who were eyeing the two newcomers. “It’s like a buffet in here.”

“Urgh,” Sehun groaned. “Don’t let me hear you say that again. You’re disgusting.”

“Jeez, you gotta loosen up, man. Don’t be scared to take a dip in the pool.” Chanyeol slung his arm over his friend’s shoulders while he dragged him towards the food table.

Sehun wrinkled his nose. “What the hell does that metaphor even mean?”

“Are you afraid of running into Minah? Look, if I see her here, I’ll do my best to steer her away from you. Will that help you loosen up?”

“No need. Look after yourself.” He shrugged off Chanyeol’s heavy arm from his shoulders.

Chanyeol rubbed his hands together in anticipation while he eyed the nachos on the food table. “You’re right. Last I heard, she’s dating someone anyway. Does that piss you off?”

“She can do whatever the hell she wants. We weren’t even dating,” Sehun corrected him. The girl wanted to be officially dating Sehun, but as always, he got out of that situation before it went too far. If there was one thing that Sehun believed, it was that girls just weren’t worth the effort. They always wanted something from him that he just could not give. That included basic attention and care.

Chanyeol squeezed by the crowd, eyes zeroing in on the nachos. He reached out to take one, but a girl was grabbing handfuls of the nachos from right under his nose.

“Save some for the rest of us, pig!” he yelled, grabbing her by the shoulder.

“Hands off!” The girl turned to glare, shrugging off his hand as if it was on fire.

“Byul?” Chanyeol immediately backed off, recognizing the girl’s face despite the lack of proper lighting in the house.

“What are you doing here?” the three of them asked in unison. There was a long pause while their eyes flickered to one another.

“Kyungsoo’s a friend,” Sehun answered first.

“My friend’s boyfriend’s lab partner knows Kyungsoo,” she said, waving a nacho around before eating it.

“What a small world. Fascinating. Sehun and I are gonna go now,” Chanyeol quickly rambled, getting ready to grab Sehun and make a run for it.

Byul interrupted before Chanyeol could slip away. “I heard what you called me earlier, Chanyeol.”

“This is awkward enough as it is. Don’t point it out,” he whined.

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