One of the first things I told Luhan when he returned about a week later was about the group project, which we were in the midst of by that point. He shook his head a little when he heard what had happened with Sehun and told me that I had really rotten luck. I wanted to correct him to say that it was Sehun who had really bad luck but I held my tongue.

To say Sehun and I were currently civil towards one another would be a gross overstatement. Actually, to say we were speaking would also be an overstatement. We spent the vast majority of the time sitting in awkward silence unless one of us needed a book the other was using, which would either be pointed at with a grunt (if you were Sehun), or gingerly asked for (if you were me).

When Luhan and I entered the room together, I didn’t fail to notice the way Sehun seemed to shift a little. Maybe he hoped I wouldn’t have to hover around him any longer and could work with Luhan instead. This possibility was dashed when the lecturer told Luhan to just pick any group to join. I didn’t even need to hear Luhan’s answer to know he would join my group.

Walking to Sehun, I made to take the seat next to him like usual but Luhan’s hand reached the seat first.

“I’ll sit here,” he quietly told me, probably trying to lessen my discomfort.

I quickly glanced at Sehun, not knowing which of us he would least like to sit next to. In the end, when I saw nothing but his blank face, I nodded and took the seat next to it.

“Miss Lee!” the lecturer called suddenly, jolting my attention. “Move your chair in front of their desk so you’re involved.”

With a silent sigh, I obeyed the whiney woman and dragged my chair around so that I was in front of Luhan and Sehun. I could just tell today was going to be hellish.

I didn’t bother explaining the project to Luhan, instead just handed him my notes – which I had actually managed to write – for him to read through.

“Seems simple enough,” he smiled up at me, completely ignoring Sehun who seemed to be writing something in his notebook. I watched Sehun do this for a minute. Even though I didn’t know what he was writing, it seemed to cause his brow to furrow a little.

“Mira?” My head snapped to Luhan who was looking at me expectantly. He seemed to get that I hadn’t been listening to him. “Are you finished with that book?”

I blinked down at the book in front of me, realising I hadn’t read more than a dozen words from it. “Sure,” I said, handing him the book.

Luhan glanced uncomfortably to the side at Sehun then, clearing his throat a little. “There’s a section in this book we should all have copied into our reports.”

Sehun said nothing, but paused his writing as if to show he was listening.

“Why don’t you read it out?” I prompted. “I didn’t copy it either.”

Luhan willingly did so, reading at a pace that was comfortable enough for us to write at. I finished writing before Sehun did, and looked up in time to see him blinking at the words he had just written down. He appeared a little confused. Unlike Luhan or I, he hadn’t been exposed to business matters all his life so this was probably a little foreign to him.

“The example in this book is wrong,” Luhan mumbled to himself, frowning at the book. “The profit should be about point four percent more than that.” He got up, still staring at the book, “I need to speak with the lecturer about this . . .” And off he wandered without even a glance back at the pair of us.

Sehun’s eyes were on the notes he had just copied out, but he still had that almost vacant gaze as he tried to make sense of them.

“The book overcomplicates it,” I said aloud, my eyes fixed firmly onto my own notes. “It just means that because the value of the deal was more than the value of the individuals’ assets, there would be a greater net profit.”

I glanced up to see Sehun looking at me with a small frown. I didn’t know how his father had managed to convince him to enrol in this course, but it was very clear that it wasn’t his forte or what he enjoyed doing.

Instead of saying anything else, or potentially sparking more hostility, I just picked up my pen again and pretended to write until Luhan returned with the news that all the textbooks were going to be upgraded.

At the end of the lesson, Sehun exited the room almost too quickly for me to pick up on.

That night I had such a sore head that even after taking several pain meds, sleep was almost impossible. The most ironic thing was that I thought it was because of my lack of sleep that the headaches had started to begin with.

A couple days later, the three of us were in our lecture room as usual, Luhan and Sehun doing their utmost to ignore the existence of the other, and Sehun ignoring me as well. The project wasn’t really getting anywhere since the three of us were such a terrible team. The fact that I might fail didn’t even motivate me into trying to participate more.

“Oh! By the way,” Luhan exclaimed, causing me start. “I got a call from Tao when I was in China. He says he’s surprised that they speak so much English in America.”

I shook my head, the thought of Tao being let loose in America making me fear for the American population, “He should have maybe opened a book before he went.”

Luhan nodded, still smiling, “I wonder what made him choose university abroad.”

“Probably just wanted to get away from his parents,” I grumbled, taking my notebook back from Luhan.

“You shouldn’t give your father such a hard time,” Luhan softly told me, leaning a little closer.

I sighed, becoming very aware of Sehun sitting there again. “I don’t want to talk about this.”

“But he’s really-”

“Luhan!” I snapped suddenly, surprising both him and me. I took a little breath, trying to even out my voice again, “I don’t want to talk about this.”

Although taken aback, Luhan nodded before scribbling something onto his notepad. “By the way,” Luhan quietly began. “Do you want to come round for dinner tonight?”

I noticed that Sehun had stopped writing and was now sitting there completely motionless with his pen pressed to the paper in a very unnatural looking way.

“I’m actually pretty tired,” I told Luhan honestly.

“What are you going to eat?” he asked, seeming genuinely concerned.

I let out an exasperated sigh, “I’ve been eating fine.”

Luhan glanced around himself unsurely, clearly wondering if anyone had overheard me. “Since graduation, yes. But you still don’t look well.”

I glanced quickly at Sehun to see that, not only had his pen not recommenced moving, but he was now staring at me. It wasn’t a hateful look, but I definitely wasn’t comfortable being on the receiving end of it.

“He’s right,” Sehun said in a monotone, surprising me a little. He threw a quick dirty look at Luhan before moving his eyes back to me.