Happy birthday to Sehunjoy and JJ_lovekpop for tomorrow! I know there are others of you as well - and some of you like exo_sj were yesterday and LimaLemon the day before, so happy birthday! I haven't forgotten you - I'm just updating from my phone which makes going back through all the comments and messages very painstaking.

Sehun spent some time trying to calm Semi down so that he could take her back to his condo, but it wasn’t until Chanyeol returned that he managed to get anything out of Semi.

“To be fair,” he muttered, “it’s not like this wasn’t to be expected.”

Chanyeol whacked him around the back of the head.  “Your sister’s heartbroken.  Be nice.”

Frowning, Sehun hugged Semi tightly to him and allowed her to cry on his shoulder.  “We still knew Xiumin was untrustworthy in the first place.”

With a shrug, Chanyeol said, “Not trying to defend the guy as he’s been pretty despicable, but he was the one who rang you and said Semi might need you so you could pick her up.”

“She had a ing panic attack!”

Semi flinched at the sound of her brother’s raised voice and he immediately apologised to her in a soft murmur, her hair.  She calmed down after a few minutes and fell asleep against his shoulder.

“I’m going to ring the police,” Sehun said as he picked her up.  “I want to know if there are any charges to press.”

“If there are, I suspect the police will already be pressing them.”

Semi seemed a little fretful when Sehun laid her down in the bed, and after tucking her in and deciding he was probably going to have to stay with her to prevent her from getting nightmares, Sehun returned to the living room to get his phone and tell Chanyeol.

“Phone’s ringing,” Chanyeol told him around a mouthful of pizza as he pointed to the device, which was buzzing against the table.  Sehun glanced at the caller ID and immediately rejected the call.

“I’ve already tried that,” Chanyeol told him as the phone started ringing again.  Sehun rejected the call a second time, and then a third, but gave up with a huff when it started ringing a fourth time.

“What?” he demanded tersely.  “Why should I talk to you?”

“Your sister’s university things are still here.  I thought she might want them – and some clothes.”

Sehun scoffed.

“I’ll leave them down in the lobby so someone can pick them up for her,” Xiumin added.

“Don’t you think it’s time to give up the caring act?” Sehun demanded.

“I’m not heartless,” Xiumin snapped at him.

Sehun laughed and pointed to his phone.  “Hey, Chanyeol, he says he’s not heartless.”

Chanyeol reached for another slice of pizza.  “He wouldn’t be alive if he didn’t have a heart.”

“Chanyeol’s there?” Xiumin asked.  “Can I speak to him?”

“No.”

“This is important.”

“So is my sister’s mental health.  What kind of human helps to rebuild somebody just to crush them?”

There was silence for a moment or too.  Satisfied, Sehun took the phone away from his ear and made to press the hang up button, but he was halted at the last minute by a tinny “is she okay?”

He put the phone back to his ear.  “No, she’s not.  She had a ing ginormous panic attack.”

“Jesus.”  There was a hesitation.  “Is that my fault?”

Sehun raised his eyebrows and nodded.  “Yup.”  He heard Xiumin muttering to himself.

“Can I speak to Chanyeol?” he asked again.

“No.  Try the police.”

“Sehun—”

Sehun hung up and turned his phone off.  The satisfaction from cutting Xiumin off mid-sentence felt like a huge victory after the mental stress of looking after his sister all evening.

Semi was still feeling very shaken when she returned to university the following Monday.  Everybody seemed to sense something was wrong, but the only one who actually attempted to broach the topic was Wendy.

“Have you been sleeping?” the girl asked her after shooing a curious Seulgi and Tao away.  “You look awful.”

That was all it took for Semi to break down in tears.  Taken aback, Wendy patted her awkwardly on the shoulder when Semi collapsed against her.

“Okay, okay, we’re going to get coffee and then you’re going to tell me everything,” she said, trying to get Semi to support some of her own weight.  After a little pushing, it worked.  She put her arm around her to steer her along.

A very condensed version of the story came out with the help of hot chocolate and a lot of marshmallows.

“I don’t know if I hate myself or him more,” Semi sniffed at the end, wiping her nose on the back of her hand and picking at a stray marshmallow.  “I was so sure he was changing—”

“Whoa, whoa.”  Wendy held up her hands.  “What kind of reason do you have to hate yourself?”

“I completely fell for it—”

“I think anybody would have done, to be honest.  He is very charming.”

“But you suspected him from the beginning—”

“Yes, but I wasn’t in your position.  And there were a lot of weird coincidences that led to me drawing semi-incorrect conclusions.”  Wendy reached for her mug, realised it was empty, and pushed it away again.  “How do you feel now that you’re away from him?”

“Rotten.”

“I know you’re feeling rotten in general, but just in relation to Minseok.  Is it nice not being around him for a bit?”

Semi slumped on the table top, resting her