Heejin plopped into the awfully comfortable couch while the men ordered drinks with the sleekly butler-style-dressed waiter.

‘Champagne’s fine. Beer’s fine.’ She cut in when Chanyeol tried to order juice. How can you not drink when you’re supposedly at a gathering?

‘I’ll make sure she doesn’t drink too much.’ Daehyun added just in time, giving her a grin, before Chanyeol had a chance to say anything more.

‘Anything you want? Or do you not have beer before in your life?’ Chanyeol’s ‘sour grape’ alter ego emerging, throwing Luhan a narrowed glance while the other male just shrugged.

‘Anything. I have good tolerance.’ He replied dryly or so that was what Heejin noticed. She could put the lovey-dovey-mind-messing-thoughts aside, something was bothering him and that, equally bothered her.

‘We’ll have shots then.’ Chanyeol told the waiter at once and Heejin thought she’d heard Luhan chuckled quietly beside her. Right, he was just an arm’s length away from here and as usual, man of a few words. She tried to ignore that and then Joon myun was back from the Gents right on time when she was having her self-conscious anti-Luhan moment.

He ordered another few bottles of beer for Daehyun before plopping into the sofa too and giving Heejin another gentlemanly smile. She thought her face was heating up at that eye smile of his. At least new friend here left a very pleasant first impression.

‘Alright let’s pick a song.’ Daehyun picked up the controller and scrolled through the songs directory on TV. Finally settling with a slow song – It’s All Lies, and passed the controller to Joon myun.

‘Gotta start slow and steady.’ He joked and gave Heejin a thumbs up in addition to a not so humble self-pointing movement. She rolled her eyes and smiled but her eyes darted to Luhan who was clearly foreign to all these music.

‘Have you been listening to the radio these days?’ She leaned over to ask, raising her voice slightly against Daehyun’s, who was practically taking constant glances at her yet, was being ignored. His face twisted at their closeness but managed to not miss a beat.

Luhan nodded but shrugged at Heejin’s question. ‘I’ve been listening to this girl group recently.’ He practically whispered into her ears, in which she froze at the contact of his breath on her skin. She sat up straight in an awkward motion immediately.

‘What girl group?’ her voice was much softer but Luhan had heard her. He shrugged again. ‘SNSD.’

There was a sudden pang of jealousy being ignited within her when he said the name of that particular seemingly superbly popular girl group in the country or worldwide at it seemed. So he likes pretty girls like any other men out there.

‘I see..’ that was inaudible and Luhan frowned leaning towards her to hear it again but all she said was. ‘Nothing.’

Chanyeol passed the remote controller to Heejin after his song selection and noticed that she wasn’t putting up a very good expression.

‘What isit?’ He gave her a light nudge and the glanced over her to the ever innocent-faced Luhan. She shook her head and snatched the remote away from her brother’s hand and begin frantic selection of songs, mainly, SNSD’s.

The waiter was back with their drinks and in the corner of her eyes, she thought Luhan smiled. Not sure if he was smiling at the shots Chanyeol ordered or at her deliberate selection of songs.

Finally Daehyun’s song ended after much dread. He was watching the two of them throughout the whole song and as much as he wanted to into their ‘private’ conversation, he wanted to know who exactly that Luhan was. It wasn’t going to take him long to find out since being an agent himself, there was a lot of information he could get hold of. He never intended to buy that ‘friend’ theory anyway.

A smirk appeared on his face at the thought. So much Joon myun noticed too. He gave Daehyun a pat on his shoulders as he slumped back beside him taking a shot glass and swallowed the contents in one fierce gulp.

The next song was up. Joon myun offered Chanyeol a duet so both of them got off their seats, confidently beginning their mini concert for there are at least 3 more of their selected songs queued. Heejin gave her brother a round of exaggerated applause and went back to her dry contradicting jealousy. It’s perfectly fine to be jealous over your own brother’s choice of idols.

‘So Luhan, what are you doing now? Studying? Same faculty as our Heejin?’

Looks like the alcohol gave Daehyun a significant amount of confidence as he shouted over Joon myun and Chanyeol’s singing voices, to the blank-face male at the other end of the sofa.

Heejin shot him an annoyed gaze. The usage of ‘Our’ in this context was plain wrong. She wasn’t anybody’s and she wouldn’t want anyone to decide that for her. Not even fate. No.

Luhan looked up from his song selection and placed the controller absentmindedly on Heejin’s lap. Daehyun’s inner self twisted with anger at their suddenly zero awkwardness contact, but his face showed otherwise. Of course, professional side needed to complete mission. First step? Start from unidentified ‘friend’.

‘I was home schooled and I’m here on extended vacation to Korea.’ He replied without breaking a sweat. Mostly because he wasn’t lying, he just didn’t finish the truth.

Heejin narrowed her eyes at Luhan and he simply shrugged at her before taking another sip of his beer.

Daehyun mouthed an ‘O’ with arched eyebrow. ‘Extended vacation in Korea, means you don’t live here. Where do you live at then? Middle East? South America? Crawled out of an Anime?’ He gave a sarcastic laughter and waved it off as a joke but Heejin was staring right at him with that what-is-wrong-with-you look written all over her face.

Flustered, she turned to the still exceptionally calm Luhan. He smiled and held her gaze for a split second before replying after another sip of beer. He was expecting that question from his answer, but he wasn’t exactly comfortable with this version of Daehyun. The other Daehyun was soft-spoken and more likable. He felt as if he was being interrogated.

Daehyun was glaring daggers at him through those smiling eyes of his. The thing was, he certainly felt that he’d seen him before and then remembered what Luhan told him when they first met, ‘We’ve met.’ He had almost forgotten about that because hospitalized Heejin was main priority then.

‘China.’ Luhan replied and spoke a sentence that nobody understood.

‘What did you just say?!’ Heejin sounded like she was hissing under her breath.

‘I said I was from China and I just said nice to meet you in Chinese.’ Luhan replied, with minimum movements on his lips, and a wide smile at Daehyun.

Heejin’s jaw dropped. How the hell did you learnt that? Luhan chuckled as if heard the voices in her head. Daehyun however, couldn’t be convinced of his validity.

‘How have you guys met? I’m known you since forever and you never once mentioned knowing a friend from China.’ He was speaking to Heejin now and she was sipping on her champagne to hide her nervousness.

‘We met recently. I’ve helped him while he was lost here. So I kind of offered him our apartment out of goodwill,’ she explained, yet she wasn’t exactly lying. ‘But he didn’t take that offer though.’

She sounded a little disappointed somehow and Daehyun certainly didn’t like that. She finished her glass right after her last word and took a shot from the shot glass and gulped down quickly again only to gag at the strong burning sensation of the liquor in .

‘You shouldn’t drink that.’ Daehyun pointed and moved the tray away while pushing a glass of water towards her.

‘You’re right.’ She mumbled, and she was beginning to feel the same burning sensation from her neck all the way to her cheeks.

‘You okay?’ Luhan handed her the glass of water and noticed that Daehyun’s face hardened at once. So that’s what’s happening. His inner self laughed silently at the surprise findings.

Meanwhile Heejin was sort of in a daze and her vision was slowly getting dimmer by the second.

‘How long do you intend to stay?’ Daehyun asked again, his anger boiling. Luhan shrugged, as if on purpose and took another nonchalant sip of his drink.

‘Enjoy your stay in Korea then.’ The other male mumbled inaudibly under his breath and stood up; snatching the mic from Joon myun’s hands, whose eyes narrowed at his partner’s behavior at first and then turned to Luhan who laughed with another innocent shrug.

Taking a shot glass, he went to join Luhan. His partner had already told him about his speculations about Luhan being someone he’d met before, so it was kind of his intention to go striking a conversation with the man in question.

‘Have you been to Korea before?’ He asked casually.

‘This is my first time.’ Luhan replied casually too. At least for now, this version of Suho was similar to the Suho he knew. They’ll have to know this. He thought about the scribbles on the diary. Though he had no means to know if they’ll read it, he could at least write it down just in case.

And by this time Heejin was already seeing stars. That one shot was too strong for her and the fact was she doesn’t even have a tolerance to begin with. Nonetheless that glass was what she drank by mistake over her puny champagne, so before she could even fight it, her head landed on Luhan’s shoulders.

Slightly surprised, Luhan turned to realized that Heejin was almost unconscious. But that was enough to create another great whirlpool in his heart as he fought the urge to caress her sleeping face. Beside him, Joon myun chuckled at the sight and glanced up at the totally engrossed Daehyun.

‘I didn’t wash…my… *burps* face…to..day.’ Heejin mumbled just audible for Luhan and he couldn’t help but laughed at her drunken confession. That loud laughter caught the attention of both Chanyeol and Daehyun and their expressions were quick to change from emotional to total worry.

‘She’s drunk.’ Chanyeol facepalmed literally while Daehyun had reached his limit.

‘Let me bring her home.’ He grabbed Heejin by her arm only to be stopped by Luhan who reached over and grabbed his.

‘What isit?’ He snapped. Daehyun snapped. Joon myun couldn’t hide his surprise at his usually calm partner’s sudden outburst.

Chanyeol was staring at the two males intensely when Heejin shook Daehyun’s hands off sharply.

‘Get away from me! IT HURTS!’ her voice was an octave higher as she flung the other male’s hand away. She wasn’t exactly conscious as she was saying all that with her eyes closed but nonetheless she clung onto Luhan like a koala, wrapping her arms around his waist.

Luhan looked away, first to give up on his glaring battle with Daehyun. But somehow his instincts told him to keep her within his sight.  Daehyun released her arm reluctantly but seeing the way she held onto him was definitely a breakdown. He backed away and took one last look at the couple.

‘Joon myun I think we should go.’ He said coldly not forgetting to throw Luhan one last dagger glare.

‘See you guys again,’ He was looking at Chanyeol when he said that. Behind them Heejin had a whole look of bliss while Luhan held her in his arms carefully.

‘-when she is sober.’ He continued unable to stand another second in the same space, his tone however was dull and lifeless.

Chanyeol nodded apologetically. He wasn’t all that oblivious to what was happening. He’d heard how Heejin cried herself to sleep some nights after knowing Luhan’s identity. He’d know the way Daehyun looked at his sister since a long time ago. He was just feigning ignorance so that she would feel better without an over protective brother around her all the time.

Seeing how things were, he couldn’t just walk over and threw Heejin into Daehyun’s arms because he knew that he wasn’t the one Heejin’s heart wanted.

As screwed up as everything already was, he knew that even if Heejin was being foolish, he was hoping that a miracle would happen so his sister would be happy. If she was, he would be.

‘Bring her home safely will you?’ He said at last when they were the only ones left. Luhan took a glance at the gleefully child-like drunk Heejin and nodded.

‘She’s our sister.’ He said lastly, as a form of reminder, when the lift door reopened. Luhan nodded again closing his eyes briefly. At least for now, they were on the same page. She is my sister.

‘You’re not coming with us?’ He asked after a brief pause but Chanyeol shook his head quietly and stepped into the lift.

‘I have to work later. Received a call from my boss, I'll leave her with you.’ He lied and the door closed. Taking out his phone, he dialed Daehyun’s number. Sorry Luhan.