DOUBLE UPDATE!!!

If you don't know why the contract was signed, then you've wandered too far and should probably hop back a chapter.

When I saw Sehun on the Monday, I was almost itching to ask him if he had spoken to his father about the situation but I couldn’t do that with Luhan here. Instead I just kept looking at Sehun in the hope that he would see me doing so and nod. Although we did make eye contact several times, it seemed that he wasn’t really getting what I was angling at as I was always met with a blank stare.

“Aren’t you going to ask me about it?” Luhan suddenly said, drawing my focus back to him.

“Mm? What is it?”

“I asked if you were going to ask me about it?”

I frowned. “About what?”

He stared at me incredulously for a moment before letting out a little sigh and setting his pen down. I noticed Sehun glancing at him sideways.

“The apartment. Moving in tomorrow. Aren’t you going to ask me about it?”

Oh damn. I had completely let the whole apartment moving slip my mind. I remembered Paz telling me that it had been Luhan who had agreed to the whole thing.

There was sudden irritation in my words, “Yeah, actually, I do have several questions to ask you about that.”

Luhan nodded like he had been expecting it. “Well ask then.”

My gaze flicked to Sehun who was watching me closely now. I looked back to Luhan. “I’ll ask you later.”

Luhan’s gaze also skipped to Sehun. “Just ask me now.”

I sighed, knowing he wanted me to tell Sehun about it. “I don’t want to,” I told him simply.

“Mira,” Luhan said almost sternly. “Ask me now.”

With a grimace, my eyes flashed back up at Luhan. “Why did you sign it without even asking me? You know how much I hate people doing things like that.” I could see Sehun continue to watch us from my peripheral vision.

Luhan seemed contented with my asking this. “Why not? We’d be living together anyway once we’re married.”

I flinched a little at the term. “But that’s not for ages anyway,” I protested.

Luhan shrugged, “A couple of years isn’t that long really.”

Without replying, I looked back down at the book in front of me. “Too soon for my liking,” I grumbled.

I heard Luhan let out a little sigh. “Well don’t worry about packing any furniture. The whole place is already furnished. All you need to take are your clothes and gadgets.”

When the lecture ended, Luhan stood and stretched before packing his things away. “If you want, I can come help you pack since I’ve already done mine.”

“Go ahead without me,” I told him, glancing in Sehun’s direction to see he was still at his desk.

“I don’t mind waiting.”

“Please just go. I have to do something first.”

Although looking thoroughly displeased, Luhan gave a curt nod and glanced once more at Sehun before departing.

I moved to Sehun’s side as he packed up his books. He didn’t acknowledge my presence but I knew he knew I was there.

“Did you speak with your father?” I asked as he slipped his jacket on.

“Yeah. He doesn’t believe me. He thinks I’m just firing off again.” He shot me a displeased look that almost said if you are messing me around about this then I really hate you more than I thought.

“How can’t he believe you? Did you show him the stock figures?”

Sehun nodded as he headed for the door. “He doesn't think there's anything strange about your father having shares.”

I tsked and shook my head almost disapprovingly. 

“Why are you so upset about it? You’ll get a hotel company if this goes through.”

Shaking my head, I said, “But it’s you and your family I’m concerned about. My father is ruthless to the point of being savage. It’s likely he’ll make it so that none of you can ever get back into business again.”

Sehun let out a derisive snort. “I don’t think that’s such a bad thing.”

“It is.”

“I don’t even want the damn company. You can take it for all I care.”

“And Kyungsoo? What happens to his future?” Sehun said nothing for a moment so I continued, “You shouldn’t let my father do this to you anyway.”

He shot me an obvious sort of disbelieving glance “You really think I would if I could see a way out of it?”

I shook my head as we left the building. “Obviously not. But you need to find some way to stop it from happening.”

Sehun thought about this. “What do you think I should do?” he finally asked.

I was a little surprised that he would actually ask me my opinion on the matter. Thinking about it for a moment, I replied, “Get a copy of the contract if you can and see if there is any sort of loophole for your side to get out of it based on our side’s clear attempt to violate it.”

Sehun nodded slowly, listening carefully to what I was saying. “And if I can’t get a copy?”

“Then I’ll get one. I know where my father keeps all his contracts and I’m freely allowed access to it.”

“Sehun!” a voice called out from behind, causing both of us to turn. When the figure saw me, he also called out, “Mira!”

Sehun let out a little sigh, “What is it Baekhyun?”

Baekhyun smiled a little, shrugging innocently. “I was just wondering if you two wanted to go for food with me. I’ve been singing all morning and I’m so completely starving that I think I might collapse.”

“She can’t,” Sehun answered before I even had a chance to. There was a sharp edge to his voice.

Baekhyun seemed to notice it was well as he looked between the two of us questioningly. “Why can’t she?”

“She has to pack,” Sehun informed him in the same tone, one eyebrow jutting up in annoyance.

“Pack?” Baekhyun and I inquired simultaneously.

Sehun shot me an incredulous look before starting to walk again. “You’re moving in with your fiancé tomorrow. You wouldn’t want to miss that now, would you?”

I cursed internally before looking apologetically to Baekhyun.

“Are you moving in with pretty boy?” Baekhyun asked, looking a little sad about the idea.

Shrugging, I dismally replied, “Apparently so.”

That evening after ramming about a tenth of my clothes into a bag, I made my way to my father’s office with the intention of getting the contract just in case Sehun wasn’t able to. I entered without knocking, believing my father to be out at the moment but this proved not to be the case.

Looking rather disgruntled, my father set down his pen and peeled his glasses from his face. “Why are you barging in here like this?” he demanded. The way he was saying it made it sound like I had hired a bulldozer to take down the wall.

“I didn’t realise you were in here,” I admitted, still standing by the door.

Scowling at me for a moment, my father then placed his glasses back onto his nose. “What is it?”

“Could I see the contract we have with Oh Hotels?”

His eyebrow twitched at my words but he pointed to the cabinet where they were all kept. “Make it quick.”

Nodding, I quickly walked to the cabinet and undid the padlock. The files inside it were arranged alphabetically and I was able to find the contract quickly.

“Why do want to see it anyway?” my father asked, not looking at me.

“I wanted to see what sort of conditions are in it. The project Luhan and I are working on at university is looking at this sort of thing so I thought I’d check it.”

My father made a noise of acknowledgement. “Just take one of the photocopies that’s in there then to keep.”

“Really?” I asked, taking out one of the photocopies.

He nodded, still not looking up from the paperwork in front of himself. “Yes. And by the way, is it tomorrow you’re moving into the apartment with Luhan?”

Once again, I had let it slip my mind. “That’s right. Did you know about it before he agreed?”

“Of course. It was my suggestion. Sometime in the next few weeks the two of you will have an interview and photoshoot there.”

I puffed out my cheeks, heading for the door, feeling a little like a show dog that was only ever taken out and paraded when it suited. I really should have known that he was behind this. “Thanks for the contract,” I mumbled begrudgingly, probably shutting the door a little more firmly than was needed.

Luhan was horribly happy the next day. To him, it seemed like there was nothing more exciting than moving in with his best friend. And maybe there would have been a time when I felt similarly, but that certainly wasn’t what I was feeling now.

“So we’ll just go straight over there once we’re finished here, ok?” It didn’t escape my notice that Luhan had waited for Sehun to appear before saying this to me. I didn’t know what he was trying to do, but I certainly felt an awkward tension in the air after he said it.

“I really think you’ll love it,” Luhan continued, seemingly either oblivious or ignorant to my discomfort. “There’s this really nice balcony view, and the kitchen has this really old-fashioned style of oven in it.”

I almost scoffed at this, just trying to imagine myself cooking at it. Neither Luhan nor I could cook really, at least not in the normal sense, so having such a fancy stove would be pointless. “I can’t cook,” I admitted honestly. “And I know you can’t either.” Although he looked a little offended, Luhan didn’t correct it. I shook my head, realising how awful this whole situation was. “I think we might starve.”

Luhan looked blankly at me for a moment before chuckling with a goofy grin on his face. “Oh yeah, I never thought about that.”

“Guess it’ll be street food until we die then,” I deadpanned.

Glancing up at Sehun quickly, I saw that he was staring off somewhere. “Luhan, could you fill my water bottle?” I asked, handing him my half-empty one. “I don’t know where the fountain is.”

“Neither do I,” Luhan admitted. “But I’ll buy you a new one.”

Shooting him a grateful smile, I watched as he left the room before turning to Sehun.

“Did you get the contract?” I asked hurriedly, scared about how quickly Luhan might be walking.

“No,” Sehun replied, looking at me finally. “We apparently don’t keep copies at the house and I can’t get into the office that does keep them.”

Reaching into my bag, I produced my copy. “Here. This is one of our copies of it. Just use this one.”

Sehun eyed the paper in my hands before hesitantly stretching out and taking it.

“Why did you get this for me?” he asked quietly.

I shrugged. “I was worried that you wouldn’t be able to get a copy of it.”

He watched me closely for another moment before mumbling a thanks.

Luhan reappeared then before we could say anything else to one another, and after shooting Sehun a wide-eyed look, he knew to put the paper out of sight. It’s not that I didn’t trust Luhan, it’s just that I doubted he would take it well.

Unlike other days, today Baekhyun was waiting outside our room for us. Luhan and I had left ahead of Sehun and when Baekhyun saw me he smiled brightly, shooting Luhan a displeased glance.

“Mira!” he chimed, stretching out a hand for my arm and tugging me away from Luhan in a rather obvious manner. “Come round to mine to eat,” he pleaded.

Looking miffed, Luhan stepped forwards and sized himself up against Baekhyun. “Who are you?” he demanded.

Baekhyun looked just as miffed at being addressed by Luhan. “So rude,” Baekhyun scolded, releasing my sleeve. “We’ve met before.”

Luhan raised an eyebrow. “It clearly wasn’t a memorable meeting then.”

“Come on, Baekhyun,” a voice from behind me said, causing me to move out of the way and let Sehun pass through. “Let’s go.”

“We should take Mira with us,” Baekhyun said adamantly as he made to reach for my sleeve again as if to save me. Sehun hauled him away by the hood before he could make contact with me though.

“Forget it. She’s busy.”

When the two of them had disappeared around the corner and Baekhyun’s cries of protest died down to nothing, Luhan turned to me again with a look of minor horror on his face.

“That really must have been a barbaric school you went to.”

“It wasn’t actually,” I quickly contradicted, surprising both myself and Luhan. “If I could have stayed, I would have.” 

Luhan had been right about the apartment being nice. It was spacious and bright, and had been finely decorated using a lot of imported goods. He gave me the choice of the two bedrooms, so I chose the slightly smaller one. We separated for most of the evening whilst we unpacked our belongings into our rooms. It seemed I had taken a lot less stuff than Luhan had since I was finished long before he was.

Sauntering into the kitchen, I saw what he meant about the oven being large and old fashioned. It made the rest of the apartment look more homely but it didn’t feel that way at all. As I looked at the knobs on it, it occurred to me that I didn’t even have the faintest idea how to turn the thing on.

Hearing my stomach growling, I decided that I would have to go out to get some food for the two of us – preferably something that was already cooked.

“Lu, I’m going to go get something for us to eat. What do you want?” I asked, standing on the edge of his bedroom since there was no clear passage into it because of the boxes he had piled high.

“You’re finished unpacking already?” he asked, clearly shocked.

“Yeah. I didn’t take all that much with me.”

He glanced at the boxes around him that he still hadn’t unpacked. It was obvious that he was regretting taking so much.

“What do you fancy eating?” I repeated.

Luhan heaved a sigh, still looking at the abundance of boxes that sat around him. “I don’t mind. Whatever you want is fine.” I nodded and began turning away but I heard him call me back. “But if you’re getting alley food please don’t get me any.”

I smiled and told him I wasn’t getting that anyway. As I headed to my room to grab a jacket, I felt my phone buzz against my thigh.

Pulling it out, I saw it was Baekhyun.

What are you doing?

I raised an eyebrow at the slight randomness of the text, but replied all the same.

Just about to go get some food.

There was a short pause and I used the opportunity to slip on my thick jacket before checking my phone again.

With Luhan?

I almost rolled my eyes at my phone.

No, he’s unpacking. I’m going shopping for us both.

Baekhyun barely missed a beat in replying.

Let’s meet and do food shopping together.

I scrunched up my face at the idea, but there was no real reason to say no to Baekhyun.

Sure. Where do you want to meet?

After receiving yet more unusual directions from Baekhyun, I called out to Luhan that I was heading off and made my way to find this obscure place.

When I did reach it, it wasn’t anything like I had anticipated. I had been expecting a little café or diner somewhere that I could grab a quick takeout snack from but instead Baekhyun had misunderstood and I now found myself in front of what can only be described as a wholesale warehouse. I shook my head at no one, not quite able to believe that out of every place in the whole of Seoul, here was where he had decided to meet me. In fact, I didn’t think that it was surprising. This was a weird place, and he was a weird kid.

Speaking of weird kids, two were heading my way at that moment and only one of them was supposed to be here. My eyes locked onto