Sehun let his eyes roam around the place when we reached the apartment. He looked impressed but said nothing either way.

“We haven’t sorted out the rooms yet,” I told him, pointing down the corridor towards where the bedrooms were. “Just pick whichever one you want and we’ll move the rest of the stuff around after that.” I was far too tired to squabble with anyone over a bed right now. I slumped myself into a chair, and watched as Sehun awkwardly stood near the doorway as if ready to make his escape.

“The passcode is nine-seven-three-two-three, by the way,” I told him, reading it off my hand. “Just in case you need to get in whilst you’re alone.”

His head bobbed in acceptance of this information, then his eyes flitted over my slumped position. “Did you get in a lot of trouble about the photograph?” he asked quietly.

I was honestly a little surprised that he had asked me that. Closing my eyes over and briefly pursing my lips, I nodded, “An awful lot of trouble.”

“Thought so. You look tired.”

“I’m not too bad,” I said, getting up as if to prove a point. "My father's just a bit mad right now, hence this situation," I explained, motioning to Sehun and the apartment as I did so. 

"Your father seems very money-centred," Sehun commented, tilting his head as if to hear my answer.

I grimanced a little bit. "You aren't wrong there."

Sehun nodded almost awkwardly."I know the feeling . . ."

This caused my own head to tilt a little. It had been a while since I had heard anything about Sehun and his father, specifically their relationship."How're things with your father?" I meekly asked.

There was a pause. "Fine."

"Did you-" I paused, my lip a little. "Did you tell someone about what happened?"

"What happened?"

I glanced away from him, suddenly feeling very uncomfortable about having to say it. "When he hit you," I barely scraped out. "You said you were going to think about telling someone. I was just wondering if you did."

Sehun stared at me for a moment before slowly shaking his head.

All I could do was accept this answer for now, hoping that one day he would. I then remembered the note he had written me yesterday. “What was it you needed to ask me about by the way?” I asked to change the subject.

Sehun looked confused for a moment before realising I meant the contract. He ruffled his hair lightly as if switching to business mode before beginning, “Yeah, I don’t really see how that clause helps your side and not mine.”

“Well, it states that if any sort of attempt by either side to take part in any insidious work at the other's expense, the contract will end.”

“So why does that go against Oh Hotels? Surely it helps us.”

I shook my head. “That’s what it’s there for – to make it seem like everything is secure and safe. I wouldn’t be surprised if that was the clause in your father’s mind when you told him about it. He probably thinks it makes him untouchable.”

“I’m sort of new to this whole business thing,” Sehun admitted rather sheepishly after a moment. “Could you explain it?”

“Basically, since your father thinks this clause is protecting him, he doesn’t realise what will happen if my father is able to takeover Oh Hotels; the contract will break and all ties your family has to Oh Hotels will be completely severed. Your father won’t even be able to appeal because mine has a rather extensive list of tax avoidance schemes that he’s probably planning to waft towards the authorities if things don’t go his way.”

Sehun frowned a little as he came to understand what I was talking about. Just then his stomach growled angrily.

“Want some ramen? It’s the only thing we’ve got in.”

“No, thanks. But-”

There was a click from over Sehun’s shoulder and the door swung open to reveal a frazzled Luhan who had clearly just returned from a fruitless attempt to persuade his father. When he realised I wasn’t alone, his eyes widened a little as he stared at Sehun, who stared right back at him, making me feel a little uncomfortable.

“Sehun’s here,” I announced, as if it wasn’t already the most obvious thing in the world.

Luhan shut the door over and walked over to me, eyes staying on Sehun. “My father says it’s only going to be a very temporary thing. We just need to clear up the misconception floating around the media.”

“Fine,” I replied, still not feeling very comfortable standing here with the pair of them.

It seemed Sehun was feeling the same way since he picked up his box from the floor and headed down the corridor I had pointed out earlier. “You said any room, right?”

“Yeah. Just let me know when you pick one.”

Luhan let out an exhale the moment Sehun was gone from sight and sagged into the chair I had vacated a moment ago. “This is going to be awful,” he weakly said, rocking his head gently in his hands.

“Try to get on with him,” I urged Luhan, earning a dubious glance. “You said he was a nice child – he’s a nice adult too. Please, Luhan.”

He let out another exhausted exhale and sat forwards in the seat. “I really can’t understand your fixation with him. Since you met him though you’ve been different.”

“You sound like my father.”

Luhan shrugged innocently, “It’s true.”

Sehun reappeared from the corridor then, looking a little lost and with his boxes still bundled into his arms. Both Luhan and I waited to see what he was going to say.

“Where’s the third room?”

Luhan got up with a groan, shoving his hands into his pockets. “There isn’t one. It’s a two-bed apartment.”

Sehun blinked at him for a moment before looking at me. “There’s only two bedrooms?”

I ducked my head in agreement. “And the couch is like a rock, so it’s no good.”

“Then where will we all sleep?” Sehun looked genuinely confused.

“Two will sleep in on in one room and one will sleep in the other one,” Luhan explained almost condescendingly.

“Together?” Sehun asked, eyes latching onto mine again as if willing me to contradict the statement.

“Well, we are getting married. It’s not like we wouldn’t be sharing a room eventually anyway,” Luhan said with a shrug as walked to his laptop to check his emails.

Sehun stared at him for a moment before slowly nodding. “Right, yeah.”

“It doesn’t have to be the two of us that share,” I piped up, earning a curious glance from Luhan. “You two could share, since you’re both boys.”

“Men,” Luhan corrected. “And I don’t think so.”

Sehun nodded, looking displeased by the suggestion as well. I was more surprised that he had agreed with something that had come out of Luhan's mouth at all.

“Unless . . .” Luhan suddenly looked aghast, turning back to face me. “You want your own room?”

I glanced between the two boys. “I don’t really mind,” I replied. “Although it’s sort of weird sharing a room with someone so suddenly.”

Luhan's face screwed up like he was about to throw a tantrum, then it relaxed and he glanced sideways at Sehun. “We’ll room together then,” he ground out. Sehun looked like he was about to protest, his mouth opening several times and outraged glances were thrown every which way, but instead he settled for just sighing agitatedly and rolling his eyes.

Sensing a weird tension in the room once again, I headed down the corridor, motioning for Sehun to follow me.

“You can pick which room you want, since you’re the one being put out by all this. Luhan’s room is bigger, but mine has a nicer bathroom,” I said as I pushed open the door to my room for him to look in. He did so, then blinked down at me.

“I don’t mind sleeping on the couch,” he mumbled. “It’s not going to be for long anyway.”

“Be that as it may,” I shrugged. “I think the two of us have spent enough time sleeping on couches and floors to last a lifetime.”

He didn’t look too amused by my attempt at humour. Awkwardly looking away, I moved to Luhan’s door.

“And this is Luhan’s room.” It was jammed with stuff; he really had taken his entire life with him.

Begrudgingly, Sehun pointed to my door. “I’ll take this one.”

It made sense, given the amount of stuff that would have to be moved if he chose Luhan’s one.

“Ok, but I think I might have to leave some of my stuff in there . . . if you don’t mind. It’s just that,” I glanced into Luhan’s packed room. “There isn’t much space in there.”

Sehun nodded along. “Just leave it all in your room.”

“That would bug you though,” I told him honestly. “Imagine me creeping in at midnight to get a jumper or something.”

He thought about it. “It probably wouldn’t disturb me.”

“Oh!” I suddenly remembered, pushing a surprised looking Sehun into my room and closing the door behind us. “Luhan doesn’t know that I’m helping you with breaking the contract, so please don’t say anything.”

“Why doesn’t he know?”

“Because he might tell my father. He’s a little too business-minded like that.”

Sehun’s head tilted to the side a little. “You don’t like it.”

“I never said that.”

“Your face did.”

I grimaced. “Fine. I don’t like it.”

Sehun’s lip curled up quickly before he controlled it. “Are you sure you should be helping me?”

Attacking my lips with my tongue, I thought about it briefly. “I don’t intend to let them find out.”

“But if they did, would you get in trouble?”

“Yes. A lot. So please don’t talk about it when Luhan’s around.”

Sehun seemed to consider this for a moment. “Ok,” he finally said.

The bedroom door opened behind me then, and a rather suspicious looking Luhan emerged. He really did have a knack for showing up at random and slightly awkward times. Perhaps he could talk to Baekhyun about timing.

“Mira?” he said questioningly. “What are you doing here?”

I rolled my eyes. “I’m showing Sehun the room.”

“Why is the door shut?”

Because I was telling him to keep a secret from you. “It just is.”

Luhan’s eyes narrowed a little. Maybe he was too sharp for his own good.

“Want ramen?” I asked him, voice higher than normal.

Although hesitant, Luhan nodded. He motioned for me to leave the room with him.

I turned to Sehun who looked rather unamused before I left with Luhan. “Come out once you’re unpacked.”

Sehun’s face seemed to soften a little but he said nothing.

I stopped following Luhan, my eyes fixed only on Sehun. “Please.”

Blinking several times at me, his eyes seemed to pour over my face. He finally nodded once.

When Sehun did appear a considerable amount of time later, Luhan was sitting at the kitchen table with several bundles of documents in front of him and was speaking down the phone in Mandarin. I was sitting opposite him with an untouched pile of documents, but when I saw Sehun all thoughts of possibly starting evaporated and I shot up. Luhan was too engrossed in whatever he was arguing about to notice me flitting to the cabinet to point to a carton of juice and look to Sehun. Although he looked a little amused by my action, Sehun shook his head.

Instead of returning to my pile of work, I vacated the kitchen with Sehun silently following behind me. I walked until we reached the living room which was close enough to the kitchen that Luhan’s angry calls in Mandarin could be heard still.

“I have a question for you,” I said bluntly, turning to face Sehun.

He sat down on the couch, crossing his legs like a child and looked up at me almost expectantly.

I had asked him this already, but his answer had been less than satisfactory. “The other day, when you left here, you said Luhan was right. You said we should both forget it. What did you mean?”

Pursing his lips, he watched me as I sat down on the adjacent couch. He let out a long exhale through his nose. “I still don’t know.”

I quietly tsked to myself. Why did everything always have to be so complicated?

“It’s strange being here with you,” I said after a moment of silence.

Sehun seemed to consider this. “Baekhyun said you felt lonely.”

I hummed lowly, not wanting to respond to that properly.

“Is that why it’s strange?”

The inside of my cheek received some abuse as I gnawed on it. “In a weird sort of messed up way, it's kind of nice with you here.” The words felt odd and almost a little convoluted coming from my mouth, but I just let them hang in the air.

Sehun leaned against the armrest of the chair, staring at me intensely. I couldn’t make out his expression, but the longer he remained silent the more I wanted to take back the words.

“S-sorry!” I finally stuttered out, getting to my feet abruptly. I ignored Sehun surprised expression and moved to turn the TV on – anythin