On Christmas morning when Sehun came to my door, I wasn’t expecting him to be as smartly dressed as he was. He had on a simple pair of black trousers, a white shirt and a burgundy red jumper on top. Draped over his arm was a long black coat. His hair was flicked back a little out of his face, and framed it nicely. In a word, he looked handsome.

I had actually chosen to wear very similar attire since I wasn’t sure what would be acceptable. I wore a pair of dark navy trousers, a grey shirt and a dark blue jumper on top. It must have looked like we were going for a theme with our attire.

“Ready?” he asked, eying me with a little, apprehensive smile on his lips. To me, it sounded like he was asking himself more than he was asking me.

“Not really. You?”

“No, but let’s go.” His gaze flickered to the presents in my arms: one for his father, two for his brother, and a final one for him. Of course, he hadn’t known about the one for him before now. A small furrowed formed on his brow, “What’s in that one?” I could tell he was trying to remember where we had bought it, and what it was for that matter.

Shrugging lightly, I smiled a little, “You’ll just have to wait to see.”

Sehun, too, had a couple of present with him in a bag so he took my bundle from me and placed them together with his own. From what I could guess from the wrapping paper, all of Sehun’s gifts were for his brother and there weren’t any for his father - figures.

We drove to Sehun’s house in his Mustang and, much to my surprise, he didn’t actually live too far away from my father’s house – maybe only a fifteen minute drive or so. This did pose another problem though; the scale of Sehun’s house. It was – almost – the same size as my father’s house, with a large security gate and vast gardens decorating the mansion-like building in the centre of the land. This wouldn’t have been a problem if it weren’t for the fact that Sehun had told me his father worked for an executive in some big company – not that he owned the infamous Oh Hotels, and had a fortune to match. To be honest, I wasn’t sure how to play this.

A security man greeted us at the gate, wishing us a Merry Christmas before looking over me quickly. Sehun’s house was, upon closer inspection, a lot like a traditional American house. I let out a low whistle to show that I was impressed by it.

“I have something to tell you quickly,” Sehun announced as he undid his seatbelt. He looked like he had been chewing over the words for a while, probably trying to decide what to say. And I knew what it was going to be.

“Your dad must be a very highly-ranking manager,” I replied lightly, trying to sound casual and hoping he would let the whole thing go. He didn’t.

“That’s sort of what I needed to speak to you about . . .” he looked uncomfortable as he fiddled with his car keys, avoiding all eye contact. “My dad actually owns a company.”

I didn’t know whether I should react to this with surprise or indifference, but in the end all I said was, “Oh really?”

Sehun’s eyes left his keys to find my impassive eyes staring back at him. “Yeah . . . what I said before – it’s not true about him being some executive’s underling, I just don’t like people knowing about him.”

It made perfect sense to me. “Sure, I understand.” When Sehun flashed me a slightly baffled and unsure look, it occurred to me that perhaps I should have just acted more surprised by the news. But really, I was pretty sure I knew why I hadn’t done that: I didn’t him to feel guilty about lying to me when I was lying to him on a whole other level.

The two of us didn’t say another word to one another as we made our way up the steps at the front of the house and to the door which was already open with a small, aging woman standing in the doorway, shuffling from one foot to other excitedly as we approached.

Lifting an arm to greet her, Sehun forced a smile. “It’s good to see you.”

The woman bowed low, “You too, young master. Your family is waiting in the main living room for your arrival. I have been told to send you straight there,” her eyes flickered to me then, “and you are to take your guest there as well.”

Once we were inside the door, the woman quickly hurried off to get tea whilst Sehun and I took off our shoes.

“She seems nice,” I commented lightly as I looked around the large cream hallway that was decorated with an assortment of fine art.

“She is. I’ve known her since I was born,” Sehun waited for me to store my shoes before beckoning for me to follow him. “It’s this way.”

There was no denying that Sehun’s house was nice; very nice. And it was large as well, airily so. The door he finally stopped in front of was no bigger than the others, but was made from what looked to be a slightly different style of wood.

Sehun didn’t knock on the door, instead he just opened it up and slid half of his torso through the gap as if confirming that this was where his family was. The sound of a child laughing when Sehun opened the door told me that it was.

I could hear intelligible grunting from the other side of the door, a voice I assumed to be Sehun’s father. Sehun replied in an almost identical collection of grunts that I couldn’t understand despite how close I was standing to him. Then there was silence. Poking his head back around the door, Sehun nervously glances at me, his lip being gnawed at by his teeth anxiously.

I forced a smile, although I doubt it was as comforting as I had intended it to be. To be honest, I was very nervous and had an urge to bolt back down the corridor with all the speed I could muster just to flee from this situation and the look of unease on Sehun’s face.

My chances were dashed when the door was pulled open away from Sehun’s face to reveal a small boy with dark hair and eyes smiling up at me excitedly. Sehun looked a little surprised at having the door snatched from him like that, but his face broke into a tiny smile when he saw it was the boy.

“Mira?” the boy asked, hopping about excitedly.

Glancing quickly to Sehun, I nodded. “And you’re Kyungsoo?”

The boy nodded excitedly, clearly delighted that I knew his name. I didn’t know why, but this boy seemed to emit a different aura than Baekhyun’s cousins did. Maybe it was something to do with his genes.

“Kyungsoo!” a pitchy voice called from within the room causing the boy to jump and scurry back inside instantly like a puppy that had just been scolded. I saw Sehun’s jaw clench tightly as the boy returned to the room.

“Come on,” Sehun mumbled, stepping into the room with the same clenched jaw. I wondered why he had suddenly become so tense, but my hunch told me that it was something to do with the pitchy voice.

I followed Sehun as he stepped into the room properly. My eyes instantly found his father who was sitting on a large armchair which a retractable desk on his lap, pen poised. Then there was Kyungsoo who was now sitting near a vast Christmas tree surrounded by countless new toys and presents; it reminded me of my usual Christmas. Finally, in another chair in the room sat a tall and thin woman. Her lips were pressed into a tightly, thin line as she glowered at both Sehun and I, her eyes s