It had been about a week since Luhan had seen Jongin. Luhan continued to notice how strange the people were. Every time he attempted to speak to someone they would either ignore him or tell him to continue working. The only other reason people spoke to him was to tell him the type of tea they wanted. Luhan had two co-workers. One of them was Kyungsoo. He was one who made the tea, so Luhan spoke to him the most, but Kyungsoo hardly spoke. His other co-worker was Chanyeol. Chanyeol did the same as Luhan, taking orders from their customers. They have never spoken to each other. Luhan had become uneasy and suspicious about this city. Something was definitely wrong with this place, but he didn't know what.

After work today, Luhan walked into a store where they sold lots of different cell-phones. He had saved money from his last paycheck and with his new paycheck that he got today, he finally had enough for a phone. He began to look at the different types of cell phones that they had. All of them were smart phones and Luhan had never really owned a phone, so he wasn't sure which one to pick. Suddenly, he heard someone clear their throat and he turned around to see who it was. The one and only Jongin was standing right in front of him.

"Jongin. What are you doing here?" Luhan asked. Jongin smiled and began to look around at the phones too. Luhan followed him curiously.

"I followed you. You haven't even stopped by to visit. What was the point of showing you my house then?" Jongin eyed the phones curiously. He looked around the shop. It was completely empty.

"I've just been busy with work" Luhan mumbled.

"C'mon let's get out of here" Jongin had a bad feeling about this store. He grabbed Luhan's arm and pulled him out. He quickly walked away far from that weird store.

"Hey! I was going to buy a phone. You can't just pull me everywhere you want you know" Luhan pulled his arm away from Jongin's grasp. He began to walk back to the store but Jongin grabbed his arm again and stopped him.

"That store's expensive. We should look for a different place" Jongin held on tightly. What if that store had something bad in there, he didn't want Luhan to go through anything like that. Luhan was lucky to be free, he has to be careful.

Luhan sighed. "Fine"

Jongin let go of Luhan and continued to walk. It was quiet for a while.

"Why do you need a phone?" Jongin asked Luhan. "I don't have one and I'm just fine"

"But how do you communicate with people?" Luhan asked.

I don't, Jongin thought to himself. Who was there to talk to. Luhan noticed Jongin kept quiet. He remembered how he realized Jongin was lonely and immediately regreted his question.

"To be honest... I wanted to talk to my parents" Luhan looked at the ground and placed his hands into his pockets.

"Your parents?" Jongin repeated. Luhan nodded and Jongin stared at him. He looked like he missed his parents a lot.

"Come with me" Jongin lightly pushed Luhan's shoulder and began to walk towards his home.

"Jongin, why are we at your house?" Luhan asked as he followed Jongin through the gates.

"You said you wanted to talk to your parents didn't you?" Jongin locked his gate and looked at Luhan.

"Well yes but-"

"Follow me" Jongin cut him off and went towards the small building at the side of his house. He opened the door and the smell of dust immediately hit him. He coughed a bit and walked in. Luhan stood outside, too scared to walk into the dark room. Jongin looked for the lightbulb hanging from the roof. Once he found it, he pulled the string and the lightbulb illuminated the small room. There was a small table and two chairs at the far end. Besides that there was a bunch of tools and papers.

"Come in" Jongin waved to Luhan. Slowly Luhan walked in and observed the small room.

"Why are we here?" Luhan asked Jongin while he moved his fingers over the table and rubbed the dust away.

"I have an old phone in here. If it works, you can keep it. I never use it anyway" Jongin began to look around in a few of the boxes on the floor.

"Are you sure?" Luhan asked hesitantly while bending down and also looking in one of the boxes.

"Yeah don't worry. It should be in here. It's white and the charger should be with it too" Jongin walked over and pulled a box off of a shelf. He opened it and inside he spotted a medium sized black box.

"Ah here it is!" Jongin placed it on the table and began to put the box back on the shelf. Luhan walked over to the table and picked up the box. He removed the top and inside there was a white touch screen phone with the charger right next to it.

"Here let's go charge it" Jongin took the box and began to head out of the small room. Luhan followed after him but he accidentally knocked his shoulder into a file cabinet and a manilla folder with papers fell on the floor. Luhan quickly bent over to pick up the mess. He began placing all the papers back into the folder. He grabbed the last paper on the floor and was about to place it inside until he noticed it was a picture. He turned it over and saw a picture of a man and a woman standing next to each other and a young boy standing in between them.

"Are these... his parents?" Luhan whispered to himself.

"Luhan? Why are you taking so long?" Jongin walked back in and saw Luhan crouched down and looking at something in his hands.

"What's that?" Jongin asked him. Luhan looked up and met eyes with Jongin.

"Are these your parents?" Luhan flipped the picture over. Jongin's eyes widened and he quickly snatched the picture away. Luhan stood up straight and placed the folder back on the file cabinet.

"Umm yeah" Jongin looked at the picture and quickly put it back into the folder. "Let's go" Jongin pushed Luhan out of the room and turned the light off. He closed the door and then began to walk to his house.

Luhan looked at Jongin curiously as he sat on the couch waiting for the phone to charge. He placed his hands on top of his legs and curled them into fists. He felt uncomfortable and so did Jongin. It felt like forever until Luhan finally got the guts to talk.

"Jongin" Luhan spoke and looked at Jongin who was sitting behind him at the kitchen table. Jongin nodded not looking at Luhan. "What... what happened to your parents?" Luhan stared at Jongin. Jongin stared at his hands. He had been trying to avoid this conversation but now it was inevitable. He couldn't avoid it forever. Jongin sighed and began to talk.

"They left me. Around the time when I began high school, they left. They left me here, all by myself. They promised me that night, that they would come back for me. That they wouldn't let anything happen to me. They never came back..." Jongin whispered the last part but Luhan heard it. Jongin's eyes were watery, but he refused to cry.

"Why would they leave just like that?" Luhan looked at Jongin with pity. He couldn't believe someone would do that to their own child. Jongin had opened his mouth to tell him, but he remembered Luhan didn't know anything about the city. He couldn't explain why his parents had really left him. In reality, his parents left him because they were involved with the government. They had worked on this project with the government. They saved themselves and left Jongin to be a victim. He hated them for that. They couldn't even spare their own child. Jongin quickly made up a story instead.

"My dad got offered a job in the US. They didn't want me to go because they thought I could get a good education here. So they left me, with all of this" Jongin met his eyes with Luhan's. Luhan's eyes were filled with pity, as if that was the saddest thing he heard. Jongin quickly tried to lighten the mood and smirked. "I did just fine without them. I don't need them" Jongin assured Luhan. Luhan believed him and nodded.

Jongin stood up and walked over to the charging phone. It was now fully charged. He unlocked it and looked through his things. He saw all his old contacts. He really missed all those people he used to talk with. He deleted all his contacts. Even pictures he had with his family and friends. That was all a lie now. He finished and disconnected the phone.

"Here. It's yours" Jongin smiled and handed Luhan the phone.

"Thank you." Luhan took the phone and smiled back at Jongin. "Did you work today too?" Luhan asked.

"I'm working late today. From 5 to 10" Jongin looked at the clock. It was 4:30 pm.  "I should probably get going."

"Can I come too?" Luhan asked a bit too excited. "I mean. I'll go with you. That way I can see the tallest building in Seoul."

"Sure. I'm going to change. I'll be back" Jongin left towards his room and Luhan sat quietly looking at his phone is awe.

"Wow!" Luhan's jaw dropped as he looked up at the building. It was really tall and it was a really nice building too. Jongin smiled as Luhan stared at the building he hated the most.

"You should go home now" Jongin looked at his watch. It was 4:55 pm. "I think I should start working. I have a lot to do"

"Can I ride the elevator with you? I promise I'll leave right after" Luhan begged Jongin and clenched his hands together.

"Fine. But hurry" Jongin grabbed Luhan's arm and walked in quickly. As he opened the door for Luhan, his glasses fell from his pocket and he quickly bent down to grab them. He looked up and thought he saw someone staring at him by the parking lot. He squinted his eyes, trying to get a better look but there was no one there.

"Jongin hurry. You'll be late" Luhan grabbed Jongin's arm and pulled him towards the elevator but Jongin didn't take his eyes off the parking lot. This was the second time he thought he saw someone looking at him. Was it just his imagination? He decided to deal with it later and quickly followed Luhan into the elevator. Once it got to his floor he got off and waved.

"Go straight home okay? Don't wander around." Jongin told Luhan. Luhan rolled his eyes and waved him off. "Just go" Jongin nodded and turned to leave but he quickly turned back.

"Let's get ice cream tomorrow. I'll see you after work" Jongin quickly walked off as the elevator door slowly closed.

Luhan pushed the button to go back to the first floor. Slowly the elevator began to descend and it came to a stop at the second to last floor. The elevator door opened and a man in a black suit stepped in. He was slightly taller than Luhan, he had black hair and he had dark eye bags. As he walked in he smiled at Luhan. He smiled?! Luhan found that really strange. Most people were emotionless, besides Jongin he's the only one who seemed normal. Or maybe he had just been exaggerating. Maybe everyone was normal and he had been imagining things. Suddenly the man spoke up, startling Luhan.

"Do you work here?" The man asked as he turned to face Luhan.

"N-no. I just came to drop off a friend." Luhan replied.

"No wonder. I've never seen you around that's why I asked" the man suddenly pulled a phone out of his pocket and began to text someone.

"Oh" Luhan said. Suddenly the elevator doors opened and Luhan quickly stepped out. It felt awkward in that elevator and he wanted to get out. He went towards the front and walked out. He began walking down the road on his way home and he felt fine until he heard other steps behind him. He slowly turned around only to find the man from the elevator following him. His eyes widened in surprise and he faced frontwards again.

"So you're walking too huh?" The man asked Luhan as he walked a little faster to catch up to Luhan. Soon he was walking side by side with Luhan.

"Do you live close by?" The man asked. Luhan nodded. "Me too. We should accompany each other. What's your name?" The man looked at Luhan. Luhan was hesitant but so far the man seemed nice, so he answered him.

"My name is Luhan" he spoke softly.

"Nice to meet you Luhan. My name is Tao" Tao held his hand out and looked at Luhan with a smile. Luhan kindly took his hand.

"You seem to have an accent. Are you korean?" Tao asked Luhan while he looked at him curiously.

"No. I'm Chinese" Luhan responded

"Really? Me too!" Tao grinned at Luhan and Luhan stared at him in shock.

"What part of China?" Luhan asked him

"I was born in QingDao. What about you?" Tao looked at Luhan.

"I'm from Beijing" Luhan smiled at Tao. He was glad to have met someone else from China and that he had someone else to talk to. It was as if things were starting to get better for him. He walked with Tao all the way home and they talked about all different kind of things they did in China and how they ended up here. Tao had arrived a year ago and also worked in the car company that Jongin worked in but at a higher position. He also got Tao's number and agreed to meet him again. Luhan was always the friendly kind. He would always answer people's questions and let them get close to him easily.

When Luhan walked into his apartment, he took his shoes off and threw himself on his couch. He sighed happily and smiled at the roof. Then he remembered his new phone and how he intended to call his parents. He quickly walked into his room and looked for the little paper that contained the number of his parent's store. They owned a small store where they did laundry and dry cleaning. He found the number and punched it into his contacts. He saved it and then his finger hovered over the green call button. What would his parents say to him? They had never approved of him coming here in the first place. He nervously breathed out, touched the green button and pressed the phone against his ear. It rang about 5 times when he finally heard his mother pick up.

"Lulu's Dry Cleaning, how may I help you?" His mother's voice sounded so precious to him. He missed her a lot.

"Mom, it's me Luhan" He waited for a response from his mom.

"Luhan? Really? Is that really you?" His mom excitedly asked.

"Yes. It's great to hear your voice." Luhan smiled and sat down on his bed.

"How have you been? We miss you... I wish you had stayed with us you know. Your dad seems sad without you around. He's not here right now he's out working his other job"

"Really? Don't be sad mom. I'm doing fine here. I've met people, I have a job and I have my own small apartment. You would like it here. There's so much to do and see."

"I'm proud of you. I'm sure your dad would be proud as well. We'll try not to be too sad. You seem to be doing well." Luhan's mom sighed. "When will we see you again?"

Luhan stared at the floor and bit his bottom lip. He didn't know how to answer that question. At the moment he didn't have enough to afford an airplane ticket. It would take a while for him to be able to save enough.

"I don't know. It's so expensive to travel..." Luhan's eyes started to get watery. "But don't worry. I promise when I get the chance I'll run over to help you and dad at the shop"

Luhan's mother sighed again. "I understand. Will you call often?"

"I'll try to every week"

"Okay then. I have to get back to work. Please take care of yourself. Eat well."

"You too. Have a good night mom"

"Goodnight"

Luhan hung up. He stared at his phone and then layed down on his bed. He began to wonder if coming here was a good idea. His mind drifted off and he thought of Jongin. He was glad he met him so maybe it was worth it. Slowly he began to fall asleep and soon his eyes were completely shut and he fell asleep with his phone in his hand.

The next day after work, Jongin quickly walked over to the tea shop where Luhan worked. He exited the tall building and made his way through the parking lot. Once he was on the road he put his jacket on and placed his hands in the pockets. It wasn't very cold that day, in fact it was a little warm. Still Jongin put his jacket on because he didn't want to carry it all the way. Suddenly, he heard the crack of a twig behind him. He quickly turned around to see what it was but there was nothing there. Again he had that feeling that he was being watched. It made him uneasy and the rest of the way he walked while keeping an eye out for anything suspicious. Once he arrived at the tea shop he saw Luhan waiting outside. Luhan spotted him and walked over.

"Sorry, I got out late today. Did you wait long?" Jongin asked.

"Not really. We also closed late. So where were we going?" Luhan looked at Jongin curiously.

"To get ice cream. There's this store two blocks down. They sell pretty good desserts" Jongin smiled with excitement and began to walk down the street. Luhan followed quickly.

"I called my parents" Luhan stated while staring at the floor.

"Oh. How are they doing?" Jongin kept his eyes straight ahead. Talking about parents made him uncomfortable.

"They're fine. I just miss them..." Luhan's voice trailed off at the end. Jongin didn't know what to say so he just kept quiet the rest of the way to the store.

"We're here" Jongin said and opened the door for Luhan. Luhan gave Jongin a half smile and he walked in.

"You can sit, I'll order for us. What do you want?" Jongin asked as Luhan sat at a table by the window.

"Hmmm..." Luhan looked at the menu contemplating on what to pick. "Strawberry with chocolate sprinkles" Luhan smiled.

"Sure thing" Jongin suddenly felt a bit too warm so he took off his jacket and placed it on the chair in front of Luhan. He walked over to the cash register and ordered Luhan's ice cream and his own. Jongin ordered one that had chocolate and vanilla mixed together. He waited as they prepared the ice cream and walked over to sit when his desserts were ready. He handed Luhan his and took a seat.

"Were you... glad that you got to talk to your parents?" Jongin slowly began a conversation.

"Yes. I miss them a lot. So I'm really thankful you gave me the phone" Luhan smiled sincerely at Jongin.

Jongin could tell Luhan meant it. He then realized he was thankful for Luhan. He finally had someone to talk to and someone he cared about. He would give Luhan anything as long as he was safe and happy. Luhan was also glad Jongin was in his life. He had someone to guide him and to watch over him. He hoped Jongin would stay in his life much longer. They both stared at each other for a while before Jongin broke the eye contact and cleared his throat, slightly blushing at the awkward moment they just had. Luhan also pinked a little and continued to his ice cream. Luhan noticed that Jongin was wearing a short sleeved short for once and he looked at his arms. His eyes landed on his large scar that was shaped as an 'X'. His eyes widened and his jaw dropped. Jongin noticed what he was staring at and he pulled his arm under the table.

"What happened to your arm?" Luhan asked Jongin worriedly. Jongin mentally slapped himself for being so careless. How would he explain this?

"Uhh... w-well" Jongin stuttered and avoided Luhan's eyes as he made up an excuse in his head.

"It's okay. You don't have to tell me if it's personal" Luhan assured Jongin and continued to nibble on the cone of his ice cream.

"It was just an accident when I was smaller. It's not a big deal" Jongin tried to assure Luhan.

Luhan nodded and smiled at him. He didn't need Jongin to explain. It was just a scar, maybe one day Jongin would tell him the story. Jongin smiled nervously and rubbed the back of his neck. He barely made it out of that one, he thought. Good thing Luhan was so understanding. This was another thing he really like about Luhan. That's when Jongin noticed, he liked everything about Luhan. His eyes, his smile, his hair, his personality and especially his laugh. He noticed that he was staring at Luhan again and quickly turned his head and blushed at his actions. Why was he acting like this, it wasn't like him.

"Jongin. Your ice cream is melting!" Luhan quickly grabbed a napkin and wipped Jongin's hand. Luhan laughed at Jongin who hadn't noticed until now. Jongin smiled as he heard Luhan laugh.

"Thanks." Jongin told Luhan as he finished wipping his hand. He began to eat his own ice cream.

"So... I uhh. Met a new friend yesterday." Luhan suddenly told Jongin. Jongin stopped eating his ice cream and his eyes widened. He began to panic inside, who could he have possibly met?

"Who did you meet?" Jongin asked as he stared at Luhan seriously.

"His name is Tao. We walked home after I dropped you off at work. He works in the same building as you"

Tao? Jongin had never heard of such a person before. And if he worked in his building he would have seen him before. Or maybe he has seen him and he wrote about him in his notebook and forgot. He made a mental note to look through his notebook later.

"He was really nice and he's also Chinese. It's really nice to meet someone from my home country. Isn't it great that I made a new friend?" Luhan smiled at Jongin. Jongin faked a smile and nodded. Who in the world was this man? Jongin hoped he could figure it out soon. What if he was dangerous, or worse. What if he was part of the government. He could not allow Luhan to see this man again if that was the case. They would surely turn him into their slave the moment he got too close. Jongin clenched his hands into fists. He would never allow that.

"Anyway, I agreed to see him again. So I won't bother you as much anymore." Luhan smirked and finished off his ice cream.

"But you don't bother me" Jongin muttered.

"I know you like to be alone Jongin. No need to be nice. I'm so glad that my life is beginning to look better. For a while, I was starting to feel weird about this place. But now I'm sure I'll get used to it." Luhan looked at the city through the window. His eyes were filled with hope and the desire to finally settle down and have a stable job and permanent home.

"Luhan..."

"Yeah?" Luhan looked at Jongin

At that moment Jongin really wanted to tell him the truth. He really did, but the words wouldn't come out. He exhaled and shook his head. "It's nothing" he replied. "Let's go home"

Jongin stoop up and walked Luhan home. The whole way he could not stop thinking about Luhan's new "friend". So many possibilities popped into his head that he began to get headaches. He dropped Luhan off and quickly went home to analyze his notes. He looked and looked. It was already 12 am yet he had failed to find any information about Tao. After he double checked and went through all his notes he gave up and went to lie down. He was determined to figure out who this guy was. He would protect Luhan at all costs.

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Hello people who are reading this, I'm sorry I took so long to update. I was kind of busy since I was finishing summer school but I will try to write more now. I hope you liked this chapter c: