21/06/2015

I've been through TBBC and proofread for typos etc. - I think I've caught most of them, but if you spot any, please let me know so that I can correct them!

Also, if you feel moved to create a poster/send me fan art or anything similar, then please do! I will always feature them at the top of a chapter even though the story has finished updating.

Happy reading!

I didn't want to start off with an A/N, but there are a lot of new readers, so:

1) First of all, enjoy!  This is the first Xiumin/OC fanfic to be featured, so I'm rather excited.

2) There are spoilers in the comments section now that this has been completed, so just be aware of that if you're planning to comment on something.  Then again, if you do comment, you'll be pushing comments that contain spoilers further down out of sight :D

3) Comment away!  I love comments and always reply.

4) Please do not a) call me authornim (I hate it and find it patronising and rude – call me Korey); b) ask me to update soon or nag about updates; or c) add me as a friend unless we have spoken multiple times.  This may seem cold of me – I'm just quite a withdrawn person and I don't see the point of adding people as friends unless I've actually interacted with them.  My wall, PM and comments are always open, and if you hang around them and we get to know each other, I am more than happy to add you as a friend.

“Ma’am, I’m really sorry, but we’re just not capable of keeping you safe.  This is already the third time this month and we’re all just exceptionally lucky it wasn’t fatal.”

Oh Semi’s eyes followed those of her chief bodyguard of the past nine months as he glanced at her brother’s shattered phone.  Sehun had lent it to her earlier that week to compensate for the one that had been stolen from her in downtown San Francisco – that all-important iPhone 5 with its all-important video that she really ought to have left with Officer Chen back in Seoul – and she’d also been extremely lucky she’d left the building that morning wearing one of her big brother’s office shirts with a pocket, because placing his phone in that pocket had prevented the bullet from hitting her heart.

“Third time?” asked Sehun in a hollow voice.  Kris Wu nodded.

“Last month it was eight.  Kai and I are only human.  We don’t have eyes in the back of our head, and the assassins are only getting better.”

Kai shrugged and waved a crutch at them.  He’d somehow only managed to break a leg by tackling the sniper off the roof of the bungalow, and even though he’d nearly been just a fraction too late, Semi still thought he deserved an A for effort.  She didn’t know many people who would throw themselves off a building for her, especially a young man who she’d spent the first month of their connaissance flicking ink pellets and plum stones at.

Sehun heaved a sigh and glanced at his sister.  “What are we going to do when I have to return to Korea for the end of my internship?” he asked quietly in Korean.  “I don’t want to leave you here alone, especially if you’re not safe.  Where you are doesn’t seem to be making a difference anymore.”

“But it’s just the phone he wants, right?” Semi said quickly.  “If we could somehow let him know I no longer have it, then wouldn’t he stop—?”

Sehun dragged his hands through his hair, turning away.  “That’s naïve, Semi, that’s naïve.”

Semi deflated.  Her big brother was right, as usual.  Luhan might be chiefly after her phone and the video and photos she’d taken of him and the murder, but he probably wouldn’t stop wanting her dead.  After all, a dead person couldn’t testify.  Semi and her phone were needed for the strongest case against him.  He was a wary person – evading the police for the best part of a decade, and with the only member of his gang caught managing to walk free because he’d insisted the photo evidence of him caught in the act was photoshopped – and would probably assume she was trying to pull the wool over his eyes by saying she’d lost her phone.  In fact, he’d most likely play it safe, like he always did, sending people out to look for the phone and keeping a close eye on her in case she was double-bluffing.  It wasn’t like he didn’t have people to spare.

She was snapped out of her reverie about the deceptively docile-looking mafia boss by her brother getting to his feet.

“Excuse me,” he said in polite English to Kris Wu.  “I need to make a call.”  He plucked his work phone out of his pocket – casting a wistful look at the personal one that had been destroyed – and slipped out of the ward.  Semi was left alone with the two men who had been her bodyguards since the day she’d set foot in America.  Nine months ago, the atmosphere would have been incredibly awkward, but she’d seen Kris by accident and Kai had prevented her from being spiked with a date drug at a house party after her sixth week there, so there wasn’t exactly anything to be embarrassed about in front of them anymore.

Especially when Kai came out with one of his usual random lines.

“You’ve been away from Korea long enough to have had a baby now.”

Semi screwed up her nose.  “Ugh, Kai!  I’m only nineteen.”

Of course, Kris couldn’t help joining in.

“It’s been long enough for that baby to have been yours, Kai.”

Kai threw his crutch at him and Kris ducked it, laughing.  “Ew, God no!  That would mean and is for adults!”

“You mean OhDults.”

“Okay, Kris, you can get out.  I’ve had enough of you and your lame- puns.”  Semi folded her arms as best she could across her chest.

Kris saluted her.  “Yes, Ma’am.”  He tried to put on a straight face.

“Wait a second,” said Kai, hopping over to retrieve his crutch, “are you trying to insinuate that I have a with the delectable siblings or that I’m cheating on Semi with her brother?  Because I’m happily single here.”

“You were also voted most likely to become a monk in your yearbook when you graduated,” Kris reminded him, and Semi gave a dry chuckle.  It hurt her chest, and she quickly shut up.

“We are actually professional, you know,” Kai told Semi for the hundredth time, looking up at her as he straightened the crutch and put his weight on it.  “This is all a cover to make people lower their guard.”

“Sure, sure.”  Semi couldn’t be totally sarcastic in her response, though, because she’d seen both of them at work.  Kris could shoot a pigeon through the eye from several feet further back than ought to be normal, and Kai… well, Kai tackled people off buildings when they tried to shoot her.  And basically just reminded her of James Bond, except he was pretty much hopeless around girls and far too childish to pull off Bond properly.  He’d proved that by sulking for a week straight and refusing to speak to her when she’d told him that.

Kris snapped his fingers like Kai’s talk of professionalism had reminded him of the fact he actually had a serious job.  “Speaking of being professionals, now that you’re awake, I need to file a case report.  Kai, your gun’s at reception.”

“Oh yeah, because I’m totally going to be walking downstairs to go get that,” scoffed Kai.  “They have broken in through third floor windows before, you know.”

“Get Sehun to pick it up for you.  I need to go.  Bye, Miss Oh.  I hope you recover quickly.”

Kris strode out of the room, almost knocking Sehun over as he returned.  They exchanged quick greetings and then Sehun slumped back down in the chair he’d been sitting in for the past eight hours.

“You need to sleep,” he told Semi.  “It’s past three in the morning.”

“So do you,” she retorted, adjusting the oxygen clip on her index finger.  “You have work in five and a half hours.”

He pulled an expression that was almost a smile.  “It’s okay.  I can take the day off – you’re family and this is a medical emergency.”

Kai held up the crutch in sudden excitement.  “Oh, oh, oh, I understood that!  He just said the two of you are related!”

Semi gave him a flat look.  “I’m sure you know more Korean than that by now.”

Grinning sheepishly, Kai lowered the crutch.  “Yeah, I do.  I actually understood most of the conversation.  Just thought the atmosphere was getting a little tense.”

Both siblings let out a loud snort of laughter.

“Ow,” Semi whimpered as the convulsions pushed through her painkiller-raised pain threshold.  “Kai, don’t make me laugh, please.”

“But laughter is the best medicine,” he told her with a cheesy grin.