Happy (slightly belated) birthday to Kekeyo, and to kpoplovr323 (since I don't think I'll have time to update on Thursday)!

Round about lunchtime, Lay popped down into Kyungsoo’s office with the intention of speaking to Jongin before he realised the agent was still after the assassin who looked like Xiumin.

“By the way,” Kyungsoo called him back as he turned to leave the room, “there’s something from the mountain hike that you might want to see.”

Lay glanced between Kyungsoo and Hwasa, who had taken over Jongin’s desk.  “Why?  What’s happened?”

“Well, Xiumin flat out kissed Semi.  But more importantly, do you know how mad Siwon is going to go because you hired a helicopter to follow them out?  Why did you even let them leave the city?”

“Oh, the copter?  That’s Taemin’s private one.  He mentioned he was going out for a spin today as it’s his day off and I asked him to do some stalking instead.  No extra cost to us.  Xiumin has a new microchip and since it wasn’t blowing the budget, I figured it wouldn’t do Semi any harm to let her get out into the countryside.  Taemin’s trained as a sniper, in any case – he would have been able to take Xiumin out if he tried anything funny, or initiate a rescue mission for Semi.  He had a couple of friends with him.”

Kyungsoo raised a highly dubious eyebrow.  “And Xiumin and Semi kissed,” he reiterated.

“That’s….”  Lay frowned.  “That could be good news.  Hwasa, what do you make of it?”

The psychologist didn’t even look away from the computer screen or take out her earphones.  “Send me the footage and I’ll check it when this lot is all done.”

“Why is that potentially good news?” Kyungsoo demanded.  “Semi’s clearly smitten by him.  You don’t want him taking advantage of that and running off with her or something.”

“No, I don’t,” Lay agreed.  “But given his attitude towards unwanted ual advances, I’d like to think he wouldn’t have done it without some kind of feelings towards her, and if they’re strong enough, it could be a tipping point of some kind.”

“He could just be playing the game really, really well.”

“That’s why Hwasa’s here.”  Lay tapped his fingers against the doorframe.  “I’m going to get lunch.  See you—”  Just as he was about to withdraw, all the screens attached to Kyungsoo’s computer flashed red, then orange, and then went blank.  “Whoa.  Malfunctioning technology overload.”

“Nah, that’s a hacker,” Kyungsoo said distractedly as he slid a laptop out of a drawer.  “D*mn pain.”

“You seem unconcerned.”

Kyungsoo paused to eye him.  “Panicking rarely gets you anywhere.  If I leave this hacker alone, it’ll probably take about five hours to get through most of my firewalls.  That leaves me time to counteract.  He’s already breached the first, which was what caused everything to shut down as an emergency response to get the servers offline.  Now I need to concentrate.  Good bye and go eat.”

Lunch at the top of the mountain was cold, but that didn’t bother Semi too much because it gave her an excuse to sit on Minseok’s lap.  He folded one arm around her waist as they munched happily on the burritos he’d made and they gazed out at the view.  Neither of them spoke, but neither felt the need to.  Finally, when they’d polished off all the food between them, Semi snuggled back against Minseok’s chest and closed her eyes.

After a moment, he unwrapped his arm from her waist and shook her gently.  “Hey, come on.  You can’t fall asleep here.  My legs are already going dead and we need to climb back down the mountain.”

“I’m comfortable,” she protested.

“Semi.”  He nudged her shoulder.  “Move.  I mean it.  Please.”

Grumbling, Semi got up and stood there shivering as Minseok repacked the rucksack.

“We should do this again sometime,” he said cheerfully once the rucksack was on his back, reaching for her hand.  “It’s nice out here.”

Descending the mountain took longer than climbing it had done.  While she wasn’t averse to exercise, the number of injuries Semi had sustained recently and the resulting unfitness made the walk strenuous.  Minseok, however, was content to stop with her every so often and chatter while she regained her breath, but there was nothing that could quash the feeling of embarrassment when she so dearly wanted to impress him.

It was beginning to get dark when they reached the car, the temperature having noticeably plunged, and Semi was beginning to get jittery.  She clutched at Minseok’s arm, skittering around a pool of ice that had frozen beside the car’s front wheel.  He seemed taken aback until he saw where she was looking and raised a hand to turn her face away.

“I’ll drive carefully,” he promised.  “Do you want to sit in the front or the back?”

For a moment, Semi’s world spin as constricted and her breaths became strained.

“It’s all right,” she heard Minseok’s voice saying in the background.  “Everything will be fine.”

With a titanic effort, Semi forced herself to take a deep breath, and she felt the panic beginning to recede.

“I’m scared,” she admitted.  An arm crept around her shoulder.

“That’s natural, sweetheart.  But you’re also brave, remember?”  She felt a thumb the side of her cheek.  After a few moments, Semi managed to nod.

“Come on.”  Minseok nudged her gently towards the car.  “Let’s go home.”

She ended up opting for the front seat so that she’d have access to the comfort of Minseok’s hand, and managed to lull herself into a fitful sleep for most of the journey, waking again as they were going down into the underground carpark.  Minseok was tucking his smartphone into his pocket with a worried expression and Semi realised that the phone call was probably what had woken her up.

“What was that about?” she asked as he killed the engine.  Minseok jumped, apparently unaware that she had woken up.

“Ah… just… hackers at the police station.”

“You’re being shifty,” she protested.

“Kyungsoo didn’t recognise the pattern, but it specifically targeted files from our case, so he strongly suspects it might have something to do with Mighty Mouth.”  He undid his seatbelt.  Semi copied him and got out of the car.

“Why did Kyungsoo ring you, then?” she asked him as he joined her and they headed over to the lift.

“It wasn’t Kyungsoo – it was Jongin.”

“Jongin?” Semi repeated.

“Yeah.  He and Kyungsoo are worried.  Jongin said the trail for the assassin he was after had run cold not long before the cyberattack came.  It could just be coincidence, but—”  He broke off as his left trouser pocket started buzzing and frowned at it.  Semi stopped walking to look too.

After a short moment of thought, Minseok pulled his other phone out of his pocket and gave a confused, then worried, glance at the screen.

“Go on ahead,” he told Semi.  “I need to take this call.”

Semi didn’t budge.  “Luhan’s ringing you,” she guessed.  Minseok’s finger hovered over the accept call button.

“Semi, please.  Go on up.”

Semi narrowed her eyes.

“You’re not going to understand unless you speak Mandarin.  There’s no point staying because you’re not going to learn anything from it.”

Miffed, Semi stepped away and called the lift.  She heard Xiumin pick up behind her and a couple of words floated in her direction, but he was right: she barely even understood them.  Cursing the fact that she hadn’t taken proper Mandarin classes at school, Semi stepped into the lift.

On the first floor, she was joined by a little old lady she vaguely realised from passing on the stairs the odd occasion she’d taken them rather than the elevator in the morning to set off for university, and it was with some relief at finally being home that she stepped out onto the plush red carpet and started along the corridor to her door.

It was outside the door that Minseok found her seven minutes later, sitting despondently on the floor.

“Didn’t you bring your keys?” he asked her as he stuck his left index finger on the fingerprint scanner.  His hair was sticking up at odd angles and he looked a little unsettled.  Semi shook her head.

“Figured I didn’t need them since you took yours,” she mumbled.  “What was that call about anyway?”

Minseok hesitated before ducking to meet the iris scanner, but he gave no reply.

“Minseok!” Semi complained, getting to her feet.  The iris scanner bleeped happily, allowing Minseok to insert the key into the final lock.

“This wasn’t how I wanted this to end,” he muttered.  Once again, though, he hesitated before stepping to allow Semi through before him, though he did grab her arm to make her turn.

“There’s something I need to tell you.”

Semi paused and gave him an enquiring look.  “In here or outside?”

“It doesn’t matter.  Here – there are sofas and comfy chairs in here and there aren’t any in the passage.”

Semi let him pass her and followed him into the sitting room, where he gestured for her to sit on the newly reupholstered couch – the original material had suffered serious damage from Jongin and Baekhyun’s fight – before sitting cross-legged on the floor in front of her.  She noticed him gnawing on his bottom lip and it took her by surprise.  Minseok was not normally a nervous person.  In fact, it was rare to see him being anything other than confident.

“What’s wrong?” she asked him.  He didn’t meet her gaze for a few moments.

“You’re going to hate me,” he told her when their eyes finally made contact.

“Why would I?  You haven’t called Luhan here or something, have you?”

“No.”

“Then what’s wrong?”

Minseok