Semi returned home on Sunday evening to find Xiumin curled up on the living room sofa with a paperback copy of the Bible, absently taking swigs from a bottle of pineapple juice beside him.

“Oh, hey,” he said without looking up, apparently sensing her pausing in the doorway.  “Did you have fun with your friends?”

Semi just stared.  “What are you doing?” she asked.

“Reading,” he responded, holding up the Bible.  “Bumped into a street preacher yesterday afternoon who gave me this.  I always wondered why my fellow inmates were getting so hung up on Christianity, but now I think I know why.  It’s got some great stories in it.  Ever come across it before?”

It took Semi several moments to respond.  “That’s the Bible,” she said, nonplussed, “not a book.”

Xiumin contemplated for a moment and then shrugged.  “Still has some great stories.  I really like the one about the Prodigal Son.  It speaks to me.”

Semi genuinely didn’t know what to think.  Here was a man who’d told her to her face that he’d killed people before, all curled up like a harmless chipmunk and engrossed in Bible stories like a little kid.  Something about the image just seemed so bizarre.

“I’m thinking about going to Church,” he announced, startling her out of her gobsmacked daze.  “I want to see more of what this Lord and Saviour thing is about.  The ideas in the Prodigal Son are really nice.”  He paused and finally looked up.  “Are you Christian?”

Semi shook her head.  “Atheist.”

He actually pouted.  “I was going to ask you to come with me, but I guess not.”

Is he changing for the better? Semi wondered as she backed out of the room.  All it took was a street preacher?

“Dinner’s on the kitchen table!” he called after her, and Semi immediately forgot about dumping her bags in favour of food.

He was still reading Bible stories the next day when Semi wandered half-asleep into the kitchen for breakfast.

“You need coffee,” he told her, flicking the switch on the kettle.  She just yawned at him.  “What’s your schedule like for today?”

“Lectures,” she mumbled, slumping down on the table and resting her head on her arms.  She could feel his gaze on her.

“Are you sure you don’t need to go back to bed?”

Semi managed to shake her head, although she agreed with him.

“What time do you reckon you’ll be back?”

“Half six.”

Even with the coffee, she was still in a pretty much incoherent daze when she reached university and Tao pounced on her.

“Semi, Semi, Semi, have you seen the new weekend drama that’s just started airing?  It’s amazing, like, seriously the best thing ever!  And….”

Whatever else he was saying was lost between a combination of Semi’s yawn and Wendy elbowing Tao out of the way to inspect Semi.

“Hmm.  You don’t seem to have any new bruises,” she said after running a critical eye over her.  “And you’re wearing your ring again.  I hope he apologised well.”

“Wendy!” Semi whined.  “I’ve already told you he’s not doing anything bad to me!”

She looked sceptical but dropped it.  Seconds later, they were joined by Seulgi and headed off to their first lecture, where Semi promptly fell asleep.

“It’s supposed to start snowing next week,” Jongin observed casually to Jongdae as he leant through the open doorway.  “You’re going to miss Siwon’s nose.  Little to the left.”

Jongdae looked up at him in surprise, pausing with the dart in his hand.  “What are you doing here?”

“Your favourite person showed up requesting to see you.”  Jongin stepped out of the way to reveal Xiumin behind him.  “Also, I have something important I need to tell you later.”

“Love confession?” remarked Xiumin as he stepped past him, making Jongin flush.

“I don’t swing that way!” the agent called as he departed.

“He did have an unhealthy number of flowers on his desk,” Xiumin muttered, looking around the room.  “Wow.  Do you really dislike your boss that much?”

Jongdae quickly put the dart away, wishing that Yixing was there.  He hated having to handle Xiumin on his own.  “What do you want?”

“I can identify fifteen people personally from the first case you wanted me to look at,” Xiumin said, “but rounding them all up would give away that it’s me.”

Jongdae just looked at him.  “And?  They’re criminals.”

“And I have a lot of enemies, Chen.  Luhan won’t be the only one after Semi once news filters around that I’m out, and knowing Luhan, it will probably already be doing so.”  He paused for a moment before adding: “It would be his way of helping me, after all.”

Jongdae was silent.  He was pretty sure Xiumin had no qualms about releasing that little nugget of information, but he couldn’t tell if the man was trying to scare him or trying to say he wasn’t going to help with the cases.

“But surely Luhan’s ego means he wouldn’t want anybody to know his life kind of hangs in the hands of a mere girl?” piped up Yixing’s voice from the doorway.  With interest, Jongdae noticed the way that Xiumin almost i