Xiumin was worried.  Once she had calmed down enough to hold a mug of hot chocolate without tremors splashing the liquid all over her, Semi could see as much in his eyes.  He’d draped her in towels and then in blankets, then presented her with clothes, then left so she could get changed, and then returned again with food, and he looked like he genuinely didn’t know what to do.  Eventually, her hair hanging in rats tails, and bundled up in clean pyjamas and blankets with a towel around her shoulders, Semi felt she could speak.

“I didn’t have a panic attack,” she murmured, almost in a daze.  It was a complete surprise for her.  A panic attack would have been normal.

“Are you okay?” he asked her immediately, glancing at the pregnancy test sitting on the floor at Semi’s feet.  “Do you want to talk?”

Semi chewed on her bottom lip.

“I rang Sehun,” he added.  “He wanted to know why you came here instead of going home.  I want to know too.  I’m confused.”

“Luhan threatened me with Sehun.”  Semi took a gulp of hot chocolate, letting it scald down .  “He said he wanted you, me and the phone and he implied that he’d use Sehun if it meant he could get them.”

Xiumin stared at her.  “Luhan sp… you met Luhan?”

Semi nodded.

Xiumin exhaled loudly and sat down on the floor in front of her.  “ing hell.”

“He followed me all the way back.”

“From where?  University?”

Semi nodded again.  “And I saw the assassin.  Luhan said she’d killed seven of the undercover police officers.”

“Wait, which assassin?  The one that killed Song Qian?”

“She looks like she could be your twin.  I thought she was you at first.”

“How did you get away?” Xiumin asked her softly.

“Luhan….”  Semi took another gulp of hot chocolate.  Xiumin waited patiently.

“Basically,” Semi said, “Sohee and Luhan were both on campus and Sohee killed a bunch of people and Luhan tailed me the entire day disguised as a girl.”

Xiumin looked completely unsurprised at the prospect of his best friend in drag.

“And I stayed on late because I had work to complete, then left to take the bus home and Luhan followed me.  Except he took off his disguise.”

Xiumin raised an eyebrow.

“And I was really scared so I got on a bus even though it wasn’t the one I wanted, because I thought he might kill me in the street or abduct me or something, and then Luhan got on the bus after me and then Sohee got on after him.”

“Sohee’s the assassin, right?”

Semi nodded.  “Luhan told me who she was and that she’d poisoned the cops and also that he’d put a sample of the poison in one of my pens.  And then he followed me off the bus again.”

“He probably wanted you to give the sample to the police,” Xiumin murmured.  “I wonder if it matches with the one used on Song Qian.”

Semi just shrugged.  “It really scared me, though.  He just followed me for ages without doing anything, and my phone was dead so I couldn’t ring anybody, and he knew that, so I went into the nearest shop because I didn’t feel safe alone with him, and then he told me that he wanted you, me and the phone and that he was going to find out where Sehun was if he didn’t get them.”

Xiumin reached out with a hand as if to pat her on the leg, then apparently thought better of it.

“So what did you do?”

“Well, initially I was going to ask the shop owner if he could ring the police, but Luhan implied he’d kill him if I did that, so I bought a pregnancy test instead and ran for it.”

“Why did you—?”  Xiumin looked back at the pregnancy test and let out a surprised laugh before shaking his head.  “Smart.  That was an exceptionally smart move.  That must have really shaken Luhan up.  The Code would be all manners of ed up if you really were pregnant with my kid.”

“I hoped he’d back off if I got it,” Semi mumbled.  “I mean, he’d have to if you were serious with me, or it would be a violation of the code, right?”

“There’s a technical issue that I’d probably be violating the code first by falling in love with somebody he’d placed a bounty on and acting on that desire, but yes.  It would be a serious issue.  Anyway, what happened after that?”

“He chased me all the way back here.”

“Ah.”  Xiumin shifted uneasily and moved the pregnancy test kit out of the way.

“He seemed so angry.  And he really wanted to catch me.  At first I just thought he was trying to freak me out or maybe protect me from Sohee, but it was like he wanted to prevent me getting away from him, so I came here instead of going to the police because it was closer.”

“Yeah,” Xiumin said slowly.  “Abducting you wouldn’t have done him much good except for trading you for me, but that essentially would have led him into a police trap.  I doubt Lay would have handed me over.  He was probably more concerned about whether you genuinely were pregnant and the implications of that, so I suspect he wanted you to take the test in his presence to see whether or not you were bluffing or whether y