Sehun falls asleep almost immediately, and though I fight it off, my eyelids fall before I can stop them.

I wake up at I don’t know what hour, though it hasn’t been long since I fell asleep. Lay’s lightly snoring but all that I can focus on is Sehun’s steady breathing on my neck, his arms still protectively wrapped around my waist. My back is pressed against his chest and I have no room to move, though I still attempt to release myself.

I slowly remove one of his arms from his tight grip and then the other, quietly crawling off the bed. He squirms slightly, and I fight off the coldness that envelopes me the second I remove myself from his tight grip.

I tip toe to the door and my hand just touches the handle when a whisper from behind me makes me freeze.

“Eunji,” The whisper calls and I flinch, hoping Sehun won’t tell me to stay with him. I don’t want anyone to catch us… like that.

I grab the door knob but the voice whispers again, a little louder. “Eunji!”

I spin quietly and my eyes pop out when I see Suho looking at me from the top bunk, a kind smile on his face.

Oh .

He wasn’t really supposed to be awake.

My heart thumps at the thought of him telling someone, or worse, him telling Kai. I don’t want to die so soon, and I know Kai’ll make sure to kill both me and Sehun if he found out… what happened.

I expect him to yell or scream or pull out hair or throw things around but instead his eyes glint with gratitude.

“Thanks for taking care of our maknae,” He whispers, watching me carefully.

I don’t respond, his words hitting me with a pang and I turn around, leaving before he can say anything else.

My breathing picks up and I enter my room hurrying up the ladder, flinching as one of the steps cracks. I hop under my covers and shut my eyes tight, trying to swallow the lump that is stuck in my throat, refusing to go anywhere.

A series of alarms set off at 4:30 am, and I grimace, shoving my head into my pillow.

“EUNJI, GET UP!” Kai screams and whacks my stomach, jumping down from the ladder at the speed of light and zipping out into the hallway.

I groan and sit up, rubbing my eyes. “What the hell...” I mumble, collapsing back down.

I hear footsteps on the ladder and sigh, expecting Kai to lecture me again.

Instead I’m greeted by Luhan’s voice. “Come on, Eunji! You have to pack and get ready! We’re leaving in an hour.” He pokes my nose and hops down, running out of the room.

I sit up and rub my nose. Did I give him permission to poke my nose?

Oh whatever.

I trudge into the kitchen and collapse in one of the chairs at the table, a bowl of cereal appearing in front of me out of thin air. “Eat up!” D.O chirps, rushing off.

After eating I lay my head down on the table, my mind automatically rushing to last night.

I hope Sehun’s okay.

But he has a load of explaining to do. I don’t know how I’ll get him to be alone with me but I want to know why he was out so late, bruised and close to passing out.

As if knowing the topics that float across my mind, my phone buzzes with a text from an unfamiliar number.

            hey eunji it’s eunhyuk, I got your number from taemin. did you find out what happened to sehun? everyone here’s curious ^^         

I smile and save his number into my phone, replying back afterwards.

            no I haven’t talked to him yet but I’ll tell you when I find out :\

Buzz:

Okay ^^ have fun in china~~! :D

I slip my phone in my pocket and lay my head on the table, trying to enjoy a few minutes of rest. I struggle to keep from falling asleep, knowing I have to get ready but seeing as that I got approximately three hours of sleep… My defense is slowly dropping, my eyelids dragging over my vision.

Just as my eyes shut, a cough jolts me up and I look around, prepared to yell at whoever scared me.

Instead I see Sehun leaning against the wall, looking at the ground. I sit up, opening my mouth to say something but nothing comes out. My heart ignites, butterflies traveling up from my stomach and invading the steady beating of my heart, sending it on a crazy frenzy.

I look up and see that he’s staring at me, his face hiding whatever emotions he’s feeling. The makeup’s still on his face and it surprisingly looks fine. You wouldn’t notice his swollen cheek unless you stared at it from a weird angle.

His eyes bore into mine and I break the tension. “What happ-“

“Eunji, come on! We have to get ready and pack!” Kai grabs my arm before I can continue and drags me away, my eyes glued on Sehun as he watches me leave the room.

Kai drags me to our room and inside are clothes thrown everywhere as Luhan and him hurry to shove all their things into their suitcases. I roll my eyes and climb up to my bed, crossing my legs as I watch them rush around like little ants around stomping feet.

Kai notices my lack of packing and throws his arms around. “Eunji, PACK!”

I point at my suitcase, which is in the corner of the room. I haven’t used any of their closet or drawer space, just because it’s easier for me to use my suitcase as storage. “I’m already packed.”

He looks between me and my suitcase, sighing after a moment of probably deciding whether to call me a liar or just focus on his own packing. “Fine, go do something useful then!”

“Like what?”

He groans. “I don’t know! Make us food!”

I roll my eyes and enter the kitchen, pouring out cereal for twelve. Noticing all the flakes falling onto the counter, I breathe deeply to calm myself.

I really prefer when Kai’s in a good mood.

I place each bowl on the table and go back in our room. “Food.” I say blatantly, pointing at the kitchen.

“Thank you!” Luhan chirps as he skips to the kitchen, Kai grumbling as he trudges behind. I shove Kai so he moves faster as he passes by and ignore the glare he shoots at me, heading to the room across from ours.

I knock and the door opens widely, revealing a yawning Lay.

“Breakfast in the kitchen,” I say, and Lay nods, smiling in his yawn as he walks past me.

Suho climbs down his bed and smiles at me. “Sleep well?” He asks, his voice heavy with a double meaning.

I look away, not knowing how to reply.

“Thanks again,” He says softly as he leaves the room and I ignore him, my eyes locked on my feet.

“And by the way,” He adds, turning on his heel.

I look at him expectantly, my stomach churning at the possibilities of what he might say.

His smile shows nothing but warmth and kindness. “Lay’s a deep sleeper.” He winks and heads off to the kitchen.

I breathe out heavily, the statement lifting a load off my shoulders.

So only Suho saw us.

Only Suho.

He doesn’t look like he’d tell anyone, right?

I swear to god, if he tells Kai, my guts’ll be falling off the side of the building faster than I can think-

“,” I mutter, lifting up my foot. Underneath where my foot just stepped is a nice little thumb tack, just sitting there looking all cozy with fresh red liquid covering its metal point.

“Are you okay?”

I turn and my eyes widen slightly when I see Sehun standing there, leaning against the door frame. His eyebrows are crinkled together, and I grimace at the pain coming from the bottom of my foot.

“I-“

“EUNJI! What happened?!” A voice shrieks.

Luhan steps out from our room, seeing me holding onto my foot. There’s a tiny puncture where the thumb tack stabbed me and a little smear of blood surrounding it.

“I’m-“

“Come here.” He grabs my wrist and pulls me, and I’m forced to walk on the small injury. I let out a small squeal when the pressure lands on my foot and immediately hop onto the other, yanking my hand away from Luhan. He turns and his eyes widen.

“Crap I didn’t mean to do that! Here,” He quickly scoops me up, holding me bridal style as he carries me to the bathroom.

I immediately blush as I realize how quickly he picked me up and I turn my head away from him to hide the color staining my cheeks. “L-Luhan, what the hell-“

“Shh!” He silences me, and carefully sets me on the counter of the bathroom. He kneels down and looks at the bottom of my foot, bringing out a first aid kit from one of the drawers beneath the sink.

“Luhan, you don’t have to-“

“No, I do!” He says, almost complaining.

“But really-“

“Shh!”
I roll my eyes, giving in.

He wets a towel and cleans off the little puncture, carefully putting pressure on the stab. I wince every now and then as he puts a disinfectant on it, wiping it clean.

Why’s he doing this? I can take care of my foot myself.

He’ll probably just interrupt me if I try stopping him. People love to interrupt me these days, don’t they?

I watch as he tapes a small bandage on the small wound before he stands up, wiping his hands as if he’s just finished a complicated task. “There you go,” He smiles, meeting my eyes.

I thank him and hop off the counter onto my good foot, carefully making my way out of the bathroom without putting pressure on the stab. Once I enter the hallways I see Sehun leaning against the wall next to the bathroom, his eyes closed. Upon hearing me enter, his eyes snap open and he looks at me urgently.
“Are you okay?” He asks abruptly as he stands over me.

“Yeah,” I mumble, not meeting his eyes as I head to my room.

Wait a second.

Why am I being a wuss?

I don’t have any reason to be afraid of him, yet I’m acting like I know he has a knife hidden in his shoe.

It was awkward when we…when he hugged me and made me sleep with him last night.

Doesn’t mean that I have to act like it’s affected the out of me.

I stand up straight and turn around, looking him straight in the eyes. He looks surprised, like he wasn’t expecting me to be confident all of a sudden.

Neither was I, young Thehun, neither was I.

I cross my arms and raise an eyebrow. “You have a lot of explaining, you know that right?”

His eyes widen slightly and he looks down. “I-“ He opens his mouth, just about to speak as a hand grabs my wrist and yanks me back before I can force him to say something that counts.

“Eunji, get dressed,” Kai commands, pulling me into our room.

I roll my eyes and grab some clothes, heading to the bathroom to change as I awkwardly hop on one foot, using only the heel of my hurt one to walk.

“Are you tired?” Kris asks, poking my arm. My head involuntarily collapsed on his shoulder right when we sat down in the van and I’m making no attempts at moving it, the sleepiness weighing my head down.

At least it’s Kris that’s next to me. I’m comfortable around him, but if it were someone else, it’d be sufficiently awkward, especially since even then I’d be too sleepy to move my head.

“Yeah,” I yawn.

“How much sleep did you get?” He asks, and I tense up slightly.

“Uh…” What’s a reasonable amount of sleep that can still cause me to be tired? “Like 5 hours, I guess,” I yawn again, hoping that sounds convincing.

Everyone in the van’s sleeping, apart from me, Kris and Kai. Kai’s staring out the window and Kris is fiddling with his fingers.

“Hey.” Kai turns his head and noticing where my head is, he glares at Kris and moves my head from Kris’s shoulder to his. “My sister! She’s not Lin!” Kai whines, but his head falls on mine and after just about thirty seconds, he begins his incoherent mumbling of nonsense.

I tilt my head on Kai’s shoulder so I can see the angry bird. “How is she?” I ask.

Kris’s face softens and he meets my eyes. “Still in the hospital,” He sighs. “She’s better, but not really.”

My heart tears a little, seeing him look so sad.

I carefully remove my head from Kai’s shoulder, tilting his head so it leans against the window. Thankfully he doesn’t wake up, and I scoot closer to Kris, laying my head on his shoulder and wrapping my arms around his arm.

I feel like this’ll help him. If I remind him of her… then I guess I can be his fake sister every once in a while.

He leans his head on mine, breathing out heavily. “Thanks Eunji,” he mumbles, and I smile, happy to make him feel a little better.

I walk with the manager through the airport behind EXO, hordes of fangirls squealing at every corner. I duck my head like the manager does, hoping to not photo bomb as their cameras flash away. I wouldn’t want the fangirls to see a random, sleepy, disheveled girl in the background of their pictures.

We walk through the security gates and one by one we walk through the scanner, each of us grabbing our shoes and slipping them on afterwards. I tie my shoes on a bench next to Tao, our heads looking up as we hear a familiar voice speak up over the crowds.

“No! I don’t have a gun! Seriously, you don’t have to pat me down,” Xiumin complains as a security guard pats his sides, stopping at his pockets. The guard points and Xiumin rolls his eyes, fishing through his pockets. “Really, I don’t have any metal, or- Hey! I was looking for this!” Xiumin holds out a little keychain with a bao zi plushy attached, waving to get Tao’s attention. “Tao, look! I found it!” He turns to the guard. “It’s fine, it’s just a keychain. Does it look like me?” He asks the guard, who walks away slowly.

“Alright, have a nice day!” Xiumin chirps, waving at the vanishing guard. He skips over to us, holding his keychain proudly. “Guys, look! I’ve been looking for this thing for forever...” Xiumin trails off as he pulls his shoes onto his feet.

Tao and I exchange looks before getting up and ditching the hyperactive bun.

“WAIT FOR ME!” He calls, thundering up to us. He pounces on Tao’s back and Tao immediately shrieks, twisting around so Xiumin’ll get off.

“GET OFF YOU FAT LUMP” He screams, and I rush forward, awkwardly half-hopping to catch up with Lay and Kai, ignoring the scene they’re creating behind us.

We get in line to hand our tickets to the worker at the gate, and I hand mine off, hurrying through the walkway to the plane to catch up to Kai. “Which seat are you?” I ask him.

“Two,” He says, and I pout.

“I’m six,” I mumble, sulking. I hope I’m not stuck next to Chanyeol or Xiumin or someone who’ll keep me awake the whole time.

We enter the plane and Kai stops at one of the first seats, plopping down. I head a couple rows back and sit in my seat, pushing my backpack underneath the seat in front of mine. We’re in first class and I lean back in the comfy chair, closing my eyes.

The sound of the compartment above the seats alerts me and I open my eyes, seeing Sehun putting something up there. He eyes me, before sliding into the seat next to me, his head facing straight, though he’s staring at me from the corner of his eyes.

“You’re… sitting here?” I ask tentatively. He nods, and my insides begin to churn.

He looks as surprised as I am, though I know this is more negative for him than it is for me.

So.

Sitting next to Sehun on a plane for two hours?
This’ll be interesting.