WARNING: **Slight Domestice Violence ahead**

Once Kyungsoo had opened all the presents Sehun and I had brought him, the three of us sat on the floor playing with the set of cars that he had received from Sehun – six cars for each of us. In the end, I didn’t give Sehun’s father his present for the simple reason that I didn’t want Phyllis to know that I hadn’t bought a gift for her either on account of my not knowing that she even existed. That may have been a little awkward.

I have to admit, neither Sehun nor I were exactly brilliant at playing with Kyungsoo. I think it was probably just because it had been so long since we were this age ourselves, but then again, a lot of adults seemed to manage it just fine. On the whole though, it was a lot easier and more enjoyable than the time we had spent with Baekhyun’s cousins. As I’ve said already, just different genes.

“Brooooooom!” Kyungsoo called out, driving a particularly flashy car up my arm and onto my shoulders before making t fly through the air and onto Sehun’s. “The car’s going to get away!” Kyungsoo cried desperately as if he couldn’t just stop his hand and solve the problem.

Sehun seemed to catch on more quickly than I did, scooping up his own car and driving it towards Kyungsoo’s one on his own shoulders, making the angle difficult. Although Sehun didn’t say anything or add the sound effects as he did this, I could see a small upturn of his lips that looked happy, if a little unsure. He was honestly adorable to watch.

There was a clicking sound, causing me to spin towards the sound. Sehun’s father had left the room a while ago to take a business call, and Phyllis was nowhere to be seen. Standing there though was the lady who had showed me into the house. In her hand was a large Polaroid camera, an old one.

When she saw the three of us looking up at the sound, she shrugged with an almost playful smile plastered onto her withered lips. “Just making memories,” she declared as she quickly retreated from the room. It seemed that she was right to do so as within ten seconds the youthful and slender figure of Phyllis came sauntering back into the room through another door. As she walked, she looked around herself disdainfully until her eyes landed on the three of use sitting on the floor. She ignored Sehun and instead looked pointedly at me, then to Kyungsoo who had suddenly become all but silent in the presence of his mother. On closer inspection she didn’t look old enough to have an eight year old son. I wondered how old she was when she had him because now she looked like she was only in her mid-twenties.

“Kyungsoo,” she reprimanded sharply, causing the boy beside me to jump a little before dropping the cars and getting to his feet. He approached his mother almost timidly before standing silently at her side. Once Kyungsoo had returned to her, Phyllis turned to us with a hateful glare. “Take those away now. I don’t want him to play with them.”

I glanced at Kyungsoo who was staring at the spot where he had just dropped his toy. He looked so far beyond sad that I couldn’t help but feel bad for letting him play with them in the first place.

“Why?” Sehun challenged, distracting my gaze. I looked around at him and saw that once again his jaw had clenched into a tight line as he glowered at Phyllis. The toy car in his hand was being squeezed so tightly that I feared for its safety.

“Why?” Phyllis asked incredulously as if she couldn’t believe the boy was asking her this. “He can’t have toys like that! What good would it do him?” Although I hadn’t known her long, I couldn’t help but feel a little irked at the way she was speaking to Sehun right now. She was speaking to him like he was stupid, or otherwise invalid of receiving her attention. I didn’t like her, not at all.

“He could have fun,” Sehun replied simply. “He’s eight. Let him act it.”

The woman scoffed. “Not all of us can act as you do,” her hand reached for Kyungsoo’s shoulder and she squeezed it like she had done before. “Kyungsoo is going to be a very successful man when he matures.” Her eyes narrowed at Sehun, “Take that as a warning,” she said in a lowly voice, one that I suspected was to prevent any eavesdroppers from overhearing.

This time it was Sehun’s turn to scoff as he stood up. “A warning for what? Oh Hotels? He can have them! I don’t give a damn about them!” Sehun looked angry once again. I also stood up and shuffled as inconspicuously as I could towards Sehun who seemed to be very aware of my presence as he too moved back towards me until only a thin sliver of air stood between us.

“Don’t push me, Sehun!” Phyllis shouted suddenly, sending Kyungsoo to wait outside the room wish a push. I don’t know why, but when she did this Sehun became even tenser than before. I even saw his Adams apple bob as he swallowed hard. Why had he suddenly become so nervous? I noticed him glancing around at me, but I remained still.

Phyllis looked back at us once Kyungsoo was out of the room safely. “You shouldn’t have come here!” she sneered, looking only at Sehun. “You haven’t spent Christmas here in over four years, then you come trailing back in with,” she shot a disgusted look my way, “any old tramp from the street.” My mouth fell open. Had I really just heard those words from such an elegant looking woman whom I had barely known for an hour? From the way Sehun’s breathing became jagged, I guessed that I had. What I would’ve given to tell Phyllis who I actually was, I really don’t know. But I felt an itching to clear my name. Never before had I been referred to as a tramp. Once I was back home again, perhaps I would sue her.

It seemed that Sehun was just as upset as I was until I heard a burst of laughter erupt from his lips. The laughter was definitely not from amusement though, it was laced with dark undertones. He walked towards Phyllis with an almost cocky swagger until he was right in front of her. His face sobered up within a second. “Coming from the woman who hounded down my father when she was only eighteen years old, despite him being forty-two at the time, I don’t think much of what you have to say is even relevant in, well, any situation.”

There was a loud smacking sound, and if I hadn’t been staring right at it then I wouldn’t have believed that it had just happened. Sehun’s face was now turned away Phyllis, her hand still in the air from where she had swung it. Lifting a hand to his face, he wiped his lip gently, checking for blood. “Bad luck this time,” Sehun mused, but coldly, showing his dry hand up to Phyllis for inspection.

Without waiting another moment, I walked over to where Sehun and Phyllis were standing. The left side of Sehun’s cheek was very red and his lip looked a little puffier than normal. A quick glance at her hand told me that it was because of the extortionate rings that she was wearing on her witch fingers.

“You impudent brat!” Phyllis sneered, dragging her hand back again as if to once again strike.

She was interrupted though when a maid called out from the doorway, “Dinner is ready. Mr Oh is waiting in the dining room.” Glancing back at the pair of us, Phyllis’ lip curled up into a silent snarl as she made to leave the room without another word to either of us, smoothing her skirt as she went.

As soon as she was gone I turned to Sehun, staring up at his reddened cheek. “Are you ok?” I couldn’t recall a time where I had ever actually seen an adult hitting a child, at least not in real life. My own parents had never once laid a hand on me.

“Yeah, fine,” Sehun mumbling rather abashedly. My hand reached out instinctively to him when he moved past me to the door. I don’t know why I did it, or why I retracted it so quickly but Sehun seemed to notice it. Turning to face me again, I saw him searching my eyes for a moment before glancing to my fallen hand and letting out a gentle sigh that was neither agitated nor sad. “Honestly, I’m fine. I’m sort of used to it now.”

Motioning for me to walk through to the dining room, Sehun seemed to constantly be looking around at me as if checking I was ok. And, although I fought to keep my face straight, I wasn’t really ok. How could he have become used to something like that sinister woman hitting him? It churned my stomach.

Thankfully, dinner passed – mostly – with very little conversation and therefore very little incident. Sehun’s father reminded me of my own one; constantly taking phone calls at the table. Phyllis seemed to spend the vast majority of her meal correcting Kyungsoo’s eating habits or glowering at Sehun and I. Sehun spent his meal shooting glares at both his father and Phyllis, whist occasionally glancing at me and asking if I wanted more carrots. I, unable to take the awkwardness in the air, elected to remain mostly silent during the meal. Well, until it was time for dessert.

When the desserts had been laid on the table in all their creamy glory, Mr Oh turned to me, a questioning look on his face. “So, Mira,” he began in an interrogative tone as he motioned for a nearby server to fill up his glass. “What do your parents do for a living?”

Swallowing away my mouthful, I placed my spoon to the side politely. “My father works at a finance company and my mother passed away when I was only young.” This line seemed to leave my lips so frequently these days that it also seemed like the truth now. My stomach knotted a little at how easy it was to tell lies now.

“I see,” Mr Oh returned, he looked neither impressed nor unimpressed. Perhaps, indifferent. Or so I had thought. “Well then, I’m sure you are aware of just how different you and Sehun are. It would be best if you didn’t linger around for too long.”

On one side of me, I noticed Sehun clenching his fist around his cutlery a little tighter, opposite me I saw an almost smug smile lift Phyllis’ thin lips, and diagonally I saw both Kyungsoo and Mr Oh staring at me expectantly. Although I guessed that both were waiting for a slightly different response.

For the second time that day I felt myself wanting to whip out my My-Father-is-Bigger-and-More-Powerful-Than-Yours card but bit my tongue. If nothing else, I had a little restraint.

“Of course I can understand that,” I began in an almost bitterly sweet and innocent voice. Perhaps I was laying it on too thickly. “But what you are worried about is of very little consequence since Sehun and I are only friends.” I don’t know why, but as I uttered the last part, my stomach knotted uncomfortably once again but this time not in guilt. This time it felt different.

Mr Oh nodded lightly, clearly appreciating that I understood the situation we were in. Well, of course I did! I was in the same position, after all. My father would only let me socialise with those he deemed to be beneficial to the company, and more specifically those who would not