Semi didn’t even attempt to stay awake during classes, leading to concern from the others.  Eventually, when Semi was slumped across her desk in the lecture theatre at the end of an afternoon talk, Wendy managed to elicit information from her.

“What’s happened?” she demanded.  “You’re not normally this tired.  What’s he been doing to keep you awake?”

“Murder at the police station,” Semi mumbled before turning her head to the other side in an attempt to get Wendy to go away.

“What, Minseok killed somebody?”

“No.”

“Then what happened?”

“Witness statements and alibis.”  Semi let out a yawn.  “Don’t ever be an alibi.”

Wendy tried to persist in finding out more, but Semi just went back to sleep.

By their final seminar of the day, Semi was awake enough to be coherent, but her head felt like it was being squeezed tightly from all sides and her eyes a little raw.  Tao made some comment about not having known the zombie apocalypse had started (Seulgi bopped him on the head with a calculator) and Wendy started trying to ask more questions about the murder without alerting the others to it.  Semi ignored them all in favour of the text which had just come through from Minseok, asking if he could take her out to dinner that evening.  She wondered if it would be too cheesy or flirtatious to reply that he was her personal five-star restaurant and settled for a simple “sure”.  After that, she got distracted by messages from her brother asking if everything was okay, and then saying that Jongin had gone to bunk with him and Chanyeol and was in an absolute state.  There was a bit of toing and froing with the typical “do you know…?” “I can’t tell you if you don’t know” “how much do you know?” “Has Jongin said…?” before they established they both knew as much as each other, and also that Jongin needed a very big bear hug, plenty of hot chocolate, and a lot of space.

“And if he wants good food,” Semi added, now on the phone as she trudged up the stairs to her apartment, “I’ll make Minseok cook him some.  Just say the word.”

“Can you just get him to cook all of us food and stock us up every week?” Sehun asked.

Not quite able to manage a chuckle, Semi said her goodbyes and put the phone in her bag so she could scan herself into the apartment.

To her surprise, notes were chiming out from the piano as she made her way down the hall, and after a considerable amount of bolstering her nerves, she peered around the door into the room in which Byun Baekhyun had cornered her.  The curtains were drawn as it was already dark, but the room was brightly lit, which made it seem less scary.  Semi forced herself to take several deep breaths.

Minseok was sitting at the piano, a frown directed at his laptop as he followed instructions from a youtube video.  Semi stared, wondering what on earth had possessed him to sit down at the instrument in the first place.

He tried out a few notes slowly, repeating them after the youtube video, and then abruptly seemed to realise he had company.  Within seconds, the laptop and piano lids were shut and he was standing in front of her, scratching at the back of his neck and not quite meeting her eye.

“The place we’re eating at is kind of formal,” he told her, “so we’ll need to dress up.”

“Okay.”  Happy for an excuse to back out of the living room again, Semi did just that.

“Semi!” he called after her.

Semi turned back.

“How was university?”

“I learnt nothing,” she admitted with a shrug.  “I was exhausted, so I slept.”

There was a pause of a moment or two before a smile spread across Minseok’s face.

“No nightmares?”

“Not unless you count Tao trying to sing.”

This time, Minseok chuckled.  Semi found herself chuckling too, even though it had been an exceptionally bad joke.

“We need to leave around seven,” he told her, absently placing a hand over the injury on his side.  “So you have half an hour.”

“Are you all right?” Semi asked him, pointing to his side.

Minseok nodded.  “It’s just a bit painful.  Normal for a cut, really.”

“And also, since when did you start learning the piano?”

Minseok shifted awkwardly from foot to foot.  “Since we moved back in.  Jongin said he managed to keep the piano safe for you and you haven’t been playing it very much recently, so….”  His voice trailed away and he looked around the hallway as though for inspiration.  “I’m going to get changed.”

Semi stared after him.

Apart from the first time going to dinner at the Kangs that had ended so disastrously, Semi didn’t think she’d ever spent so long trying to pick out something to wear.  After a good twenty minutes of contemplation, she settled for the dress Minseok had once told