Poster is by Wallyyy!

Happy birthday to forevermimosa and SarangRae, and to fefedove and athena1496 for tomorrow, and to misa-misa and myra_lynette for the 17th!  There's been a lot of birthdays this week :D

Semi wasn’t sure at which point she had ceased to think of Xiumin as somebody she just called Minseok and he just became Minseok to her.  It had been a while since she’d drawn the distinction between Minseok-the-man-living-in-her-apartment and Xiumin-the-criminal – it was much easier to deal with him on a regular basis that way – and she’d thought she’d managed to keep that line relatively clear, but it occurred to her as she was writing her fraud essay the next morning that it had become extremely blurred during their dinner conversation the previous night.  She’d become used to Xiumin the Criminal popping out at random moments and freaking her out, even if she managed to hide it, but the amalgamation of the two into a person who chatted about how he’d somehow defrauded the government out of two and a half million dollars the way Tao chatted about Disney during a boring lecture threw her somewhat.  The two didn’t compute.  Or at least, they shouldn’t.  And it didn’t particularly help that it was by far the longest and most interesting conversation they’d ever had.

Her stomach rumbled, and a quick glance at her watch told her it was lunchtime.  Saving the document, Semi closed her laptop and made her way through to the kitchen, pulling up her sleeve as she went.  Minseok had left at around nine in the morning, according to what he’d written on her arm as she slept, and despite her insistence that she was capable of cooking for herself, he’d decided that food suggestions and preparation instructions were still in order.

As she waited for the food to cook, she sent a text to Junhong asking if he was going to be at dance that evening, and then crossed to the windows to shut the blinds.  Minseok had been right when he’d said it would snow.  Hopefully it would settle before she needed to head out.

Junhong still hadn’t replied by the time she decided to set off.  After a moment or two of indecision, she took his Christmas present with her anyway in case he was going to be there, then made sure to do some breathing exercises to calm herself before heading out into the now-settled snow.

Everybody was huddling around the heaters when she got into the dance school.  Greetings to Hoya and Dongwoo out of the way (they were munching on sandwiches as Hoya fumbled in his pockets for the keys to the dance room), she spotted Junhong among a crowd of other young males.  He looked a little alarmed when she tapped in on the shoulder.

“Where have you been?” she demanded.  “Is everything okay?”

Junhong managed a wan smile.  “Not really.”  Pause.  “I didn’t realise you were coming tonight.”

“I texted saying I would.”

“My phone’s been off.”

“For a week?”

He nodded, fidgeting absently with his fingers.

“Is everything with your sister okay?”

“Not really,” he repeated.

Semi hesitated.  She’d kind of expected that answer, even though it wasn’t one she’d wanted to hear.

“Is there anything I can do to help?”

He shook his head.  “Can we talk about something different?”

“Oh!”  Semi dug in her backpack and took out the book she’d got for him.  “Merry Christmas.  I thought you’d like it.”

Taken aback, he accepted the book and stood there, at a bit of a loss as to what to do or say.  “This… are you sure?”

Semi nodded.

His face cracked into a grin.  “Thanks.”

“My pleasure.  Oh, and by the way, one of your friends said you were dropping the business course.”

Junhong sighed.  “Yeah.  Need to focus on my major.”

“I thought you only needed to do that if your grades were being affected.”

“Best to be on the safe side.”  He tucked the book under his arm.  “I think they’ve started.  We should go in.”

Xiumin couldn’t deny that it was a little unsettling being in the same room as fifty odd policemen who he knew a couple of years ago had been trying to get him caught and locked up, and for a briefing to raid people doing exactly the kind of thing he’d used to make a living out of, though it could just have been because Lay had insisted on sitting next to him.  The police sergeant had stared unblinkingly at him the entire way through the pep talk delivered by the head of the SWAT team, a stocky man called Kangin, and Xiumin wondered what Lay intended to achieve by trying to bore holes in his head with his eyes.

“Am I really that devastatingly attractive?” he asked eventually when he could take no more.  Lay smiled softly.

“I win,” he proclaimed and turned away.

Confused, Xiumin side-eyed him and returned his attention to Kangin.  It was a bit ironic just how much of the information Xiumin had provided the police were using, but then they didn’t really have a choice and it had knocked more years off his sentence.

When Kangin was done, they were split into squad units of six and told to await further instruction from their squad leaders.  Xiumin was irked to find himself in one of the backup squads, even though he’d seen it coming, but at least Lay had been assigned elsewhere.  The person he’d been partnered up with reminded him somewhat of the Jongin boy who’d taken Semi out not that long ago, except with paler skin and ash-blond hair.

“I’m Taemin,” he introduced himself as they both got into the police cruiser and followed the rest of the squad down the road.  “And your next door neighbour’s little kid is awesome.”

Sighing, Xiumin looked out of the window.  “Then you already know who I am and I assume you’ve had the pleasure of camera-monitoring the apartment.”

“You got it.”  Taemin grinned tightly and his knuckles whitened as he gripped the steering wheel.  Xiumin rolled his eyes.

“Relax.  Not like I can kill you in this environment.  I prefer using weapons to do that anyway, and I currently don’t have any.”

Taemin’s gaze flickered to the glove compartment before it went back to the road.  Xiumin waited a few moments before deciding to call him up on it.

“So what kind of gun do you have hidden away there?”

The man’s jaw clenched, but he seemed to come to the conclusion he wasn’t going to get away with lying.  “Standard issue for a cop.”

Xiumin appeared to lose interest.  “We’re going to have such a boring day just staking the place out,” he grumbled.  “Much more fun to be in on the action, whichever side of it you’re on.”

It got much worse when it started snowing later on.  Taemin had eventually caved to the idea that he genuinely only had Xiumin for company unless he wanted to get told off for using the radio waves to chat to people for unrelated work purposes, and he eased up, eventually offering Xiumin some cup ramen from a local c