The way Tao greeted her the next day made Semi feel like they’d been lifelong friends.  He attacked and nearly flattened her with a hug before either Wendy or Seulgi could react, and then stood up, pulled her to her feet, and dusted himself off before trotting off to lectures with the three of them as though nothing had happened.

Tao continued to attach himself to her hip for the entire day, since they shared all their classes and lectures.

“This means I’m not going to have to memorise your timetable and look like a complete creep!” he exclaimed, absolutely ecstatic, when he figured this out after the second seminar he’d accompanied her to, and Semi wondered if hanging around him was really a wise choice.  “Oh, and here are Wendy’s notes from the lectures yesterday,” he added, shoving a sheaf of papers into her hands.  “We’re putting together a bunch from the beginning of the semester for you.”

Semi concluded it was.  And she was seriously touched that they’d decided to be so thoughtful when they really didn’t know her at all.

“You really don’t have to—” she began, but Tao held up a hand to shut her up.

“We insist.  Thank us later.”

Tao was just as talkative as he had been the day before.  By the time they’d left the cafeteria and were lounging on the grass in one of the small gardens, Semi’s head was reeling with information about what felt like every person Tao had ever met and she felt like she knew his roommates in person.  Zhou Mi was apparently the BFG and doing a master’s in something to do with finance, and Henry, who was from Canada (Tao appeared to know a lot of people from Canada) was doing some kind of PhD in music and “oh my God, you need to hear him play the violin because it’s the closest thing to having raw with an instrument, I swear”, Fei apparently knew some traditional Chinese folk dances and cooked like a total goddess, and Jia— “Just wow, you know.  She can really bust the moves on the dance floor – tell you what, we can go clubbing on Friday and you can see for yourself.”

Semi’s mind was so busted up from Tao’s bombard that she agreed without really knowing exactly what she was signing herself up for, but he just beamed at her and snatched her phone out of her pocket.

“Great!  I’ll see you then!  What’s your code? – I want to put in my number.”

Unable to help smiling at his exuberance, Semi took the phone back off him and unlocked it.  “Here.  Go ahead.”

Tao hummed happily to himself as he rang his phone from hers and then hung up.  “There!  And if you need help for this week’s essay, just call me any time, okay?”

They were joined seconds later by Wendy, who slumped down on the grass and placed her head in Tao’s lap, eyes closed.

“Feed me,” she whined, opening like a baby chick.  “I’m hungry.”

Tao dug a chocolate bar out of his pocket and balanced it on her lips.  It disappeared within seconds as she chewed on it.

“Wassa plan for this afternoon?” she mumbled, tongue darting out to away some chocolate that had smeared around .

“Semi and I have two seminars and then I was planning to go to the library to study,” said Tao.  “Er… wanna come join?” he added to Semi.  “Do you know where the library is yet?”

Semi was about to happily agree, but then her face fell.

“I can’t.  I’m going out for dinner this evening – I have to get home.”  That, and what Xiumin had said to her the previous day about human interaction was beginning to prey on her conscience.  It was fine while Tao was babbling away because he was just fabulous at being a distraction from anything and everything, but when she was actually allowed time to think… Xiumin had literally just got out of prison.  She had absolutely no idea what he even did all day, because she’d never bothered to ask and she still didn’t really care, but he was always in the apartment when she was and he always spoke to her when they actually came face to face, and she highly doubted he’d managed to make a huge range of friends for himself within the space of a week.  That was probably why he’d jumped at the chance to accept the dinner invitation, and also why… well, the more she thought about it, the more she became convinced she was reading in ulterior motives where there weren’t any.  Maybe he genuinely was happy she was making friends.  His faint smile replayed over and over in her mind, becoming tighter and tighter.  Maybe her memory was playing tricks on her, but could she recall a faint tinge of envy or bitterness in his expression at that moment?  Was that what the “I’m human too” thing had been about?

Tao left off tugging on Wendy’s blue hair to look up at her.  “You don’t sound too enthusiastic about it.”

“I’m not.”

“Family meal?” he guessed.

“Of sorts, I guess.”

“You could always ditch,” Wendy mumbled, snuggling up to Tao with her eyes still closed.

“It wouldn’t be fair.”  Semi sighed.

“Then we’re grabbing dinner together tomorrow after dance.”

Semi accepted the offer, making a mental note to ring her brother at some point to tell him she probably wouldn’t be over to his until much later in the week.  Half a week without actually seeing him, even though they spoke daily, was really beginning to make her miss him.

Xiumin was lounging on the living room sofa watching TV when Semi got back at ten past six.  After dumping her stuff, she went out of habit to the kitchen first, almost expecting to find food laid out on the table, but of course there was nothing.  And so she went in search of Xiumin.

“What time are we leaving?” she asked him, halting in the living room doorway.

“Oh, you’re back!”  Xiumin scrambled into a more dignified sitting position and muted the cooking programme he’d been watching.  “We’ll go over at five to.  It’s just a walk down the hallway.”  He looked her up and down, opening his mouth again in what was evidently about to be a comment on the very casual clothing she’d gone to university in, but then he hesitated, a flicker of uncertainty in his eyes.

“You want me to change.”  Semi couldn’t help feeling a little put out, and as though she ought to cover up, even though she was wearing a football shirt her brother had bought her in the States and her trousers were just short of being classified as tracksuit bottoms.

“Smart casual would be nice,” he admitted.  “I don’t think it needs to be full-out formal.  Can’t really see little Taeyong showing up in a suit.”

“Right.”  Semi retreated.

She got a similar scrutinising eye-appraisal when she appeared in the hallway just before five to and found Xiumin waiting by the door, looking (and she really didn’t want to admit it) extremely handsome in a navy blue shirt (top two buttons open, revealing a glimpse of his collarbones) just tight enough to hint at a very, very nice chest and cuffs and collar in a paler blue when they were folded back, alongside well-fitted black jeans and a smart black pair of shoes.  Semi had opted for a sky-blue knee-length dress and white cardigan which Tao had suggested after she’d accidentally rung him instead of Sehun requesting help with her wardrobe choices.  It turned out he was something of a fashion guru (self-proclaimed, of course), and when she hadn’t been able to name a single brand or line of clothing in her closet, he’d actually demanded she sit down and photograph every item in her collection to send through to him so that he knew what he was working with.  After a fair amount of bickering when Semi had told him that she was not photographing everything and that it would start eating up her allowance of free text messages, he’d grumblingly agreed to dresses only, since he didn’t trust her opinion on what classified as smart casual.

From the smile that played about Xiumin’s lips, though, Tao had done a pretty good job.  Either that or Xiumin was happy to see that she hadn’t forgotten to wear the ring, which felt heavy and cumbersome on her finger, for all its delicacy.

“Permission to touch if necessary?” he asked as he opened the door for her.  “We might need to act like a lovey-dovey couple.”

She glared at him over her shoulder.  “Not unless I’m dying.  Every couple argues at some point.”

She thought she actually heard a soft chuckle at her response.

“I thought you might say something like that.”

“Then was it really necessary to ask?” she bit off, slightly more vicious than intended.

“Just in case it’s needed,” he replied, tucking the