One week later, very little had changed at all. In fact, things might have been even shakier than what had become normal to us. The bickering between Sehun and Luhan had continued all this week, both at university and at home. It had gotten to the point where Luhan only spoke in quick Chinese around Sehun, and Sehun would only speak in very fast slang that was almost too much for me to understand when Luhan was around. So in the end, no one could understand what anyone else was saying. It wasn’t a great situation at all.

“Look,” Luhan said, attempting to hand me a sheet of paper with a lot of numbers and words on it. The prospect of having to read it was almost too much for my frazzled mind to handle. Sehun had decided he was going out this afternoon, so it was just Luhan and I at home. I wanted nothing more than to sleep for a year.

“Can’t you read it to me?” I asked, peeking my head up from its position on the kitchen table.

Luhan shook the paper at me to take. “No. There’s too much. It’s easier if you just read it yourself.”

Grumbling, I took the paper and tried to scan it as quickly as possible. My eyes widened a little as soon as I read it: it was a document saying that several more shares in Oh Hotels had been transferred into Luhan’s name.

“Did you know about this?” Luhan asked when I set the sheet down.

I shook my head. “Not about you getting shares. I knew about shares that had been transferred into my name and my father’s.”

“It’s an engagement present from your father,” Luhan told me, taking the sheet back. “Seems a little extravagant though, doesn’t it?”

If Luhan had four percent in Oh Hotels, and his father had more, then it really wouldn’t be long before my father could strike. I was glad that Sehun wasn’t home yet, since I really didn’t have a strategy to help at all right now.

“What do you think of it all?” Luhan asked as he sorted through more files.

I watched him working away for a moment before deciding it wouldn’t be worth lying at this point. “I don’t like it at all.”

He nodded. “I guessed as much.”

“It’s not fair, Luhan. Sehun never did anything wrong. He doesn’t deserve to have everything taken away from him.”

Luhan paused for a moment. “You feel guilty?”

“Yeah. Very.”

“You shouldn’t. It’s not your fault.”

My eyes flashed to Luhan’s. “It is though.”

“It would have happened anyway, even if you hadn’t been involved at all.”

Somehow, I couldn’t believe him.

“You and Sehun,” Luhan went on, still riffling through his documents. “I know I’ve asked before but, just what were the two of you? I’ve never seen you like this before.”

I let out a deep sigh. When he had asked me this before, I hadn’t been able to answer. Perhaps now I should – or at least try to – since Luhan was now a shareholder in Oh Hotels. There was a time when Luhan had been my closest friend, maybe that wouldn’t count for nothing. I just hoped I wasn't wrong about that.

“We were . . . special.”

Luhan’s eyebrow cocked. “Special?”

I inhaled deeply. “I . . . think . . . I fell in love with him.”

Luhan’s face turned to stone as he stared at me for what seemed like an eternity. His gaze finally shifting back his papers, and he cleared his throat. “I must admit, I wasn’t expecting that.” Luhan stayed silent then, focusing on his papers but he was definitely listening and waiting for me to go on. I was glad he wasn’t looking at my face though, that would have made this a lot more difficult.

“He lived on the floor below me,” I continued quietly, barely a whisper. “And he sat beside me in school. We spent almost every minute we were awake together. He became a really good friend to me at first, despite how he initially came across. And  then I slowly started to feel other things for him. It might not have been my wisest decision to let things grow like that, but before I knew it everything was about him. I liked the way he was; the way he stayed near me without fussing about what I was doing, and the way he would sulk over stupid things and then act like nothing happened at all. And he was so, so kind all the time. He seemed like a different breed of human; I’d never met anyone like him before.”

I sniffed a little, feeling strange to talk about these things with someone else, but oddly relieved. It was almost like affirming that these things weren’t just figments of my imagination. “I was walking home one day alone and this man tried to attack me. Sehun found me and carried me home, then he watched over me all that night. He made me feel safe. And when my mother’s birthday came around, I took him with me because I wanted to have him near to me more than anything else. He made me feel like I wasn't alone, like he understood too.”

Luhan had now stopped looking at his paperwork, but was not looking at my face, instead at my hand. “I didn’t know it was like that,” he admitted after a moment. “I-I thought he was bothering you. I thought he hurt you in some way.” He swiped his tongue back and forth on his bottom lip. “But even I’ve never been to your mother’s grave with you.”

I nodded almost guiltily to this.

“Did you two ever talk about it – your feelings?”

Again, I nodded. “Only right at the end. But I never told him I loved him.”

Luhan slowly bobbed his head. “Did he ever kiss you? Or, you know, anything like that?"

I hesitated, wondering if I should answer this. It was rather personal, after all. “Yes. But I kissed him first.”

Luhan blinked at me for a moment, before a sad smile settled on his face. “I didn’t realise it was so serious at all. I thought you were just feeling guilty about it all; I didn’t know you loved him. I thought he hurt you." He suddenly looked very guilty. "I-I’m sorry for being so pushy about it before.”

I settled on a gentle smile and shrug. "I’m sorry for not telling you sooner.”

He scratched the nape of his neck, sitting back in his chair. “You know, you’ve not been the same since you got back. You just look sad all the time. I thought it was being there that had made you sad; being with Sehun that made you sad.” He looked up at me. “But the other night I heard you laughing again, and it was when you were with Sehun. Then I thought that maybe you were sad to be away from him. I-I didn’t know why, though.”

I looked away; I hadn’t even noticed I had done that.

“You’re my closest friend, and you're like a sister to me, Mira,” Luhan said quietly. “I would be happy marrying you, but I don’t think you’ll be happy that way. I want you to be happy.”

My eyes peeped up at him to see he was smiling almost sympathetically at me.

“What does that mean?”

He let out a sigh. “I want you to be happy more than I want our joint stock price to rise. You’re honestly a very important person to me.”

I still didn’t know what he meant, and he seemed to see the confusion on my face.

“What I’m saying is,” he went on with a little sigh. “That I won’t stop you from doing what you want. I’m not supporting it – not by a long, long shot. And I honestly can't see the draw, but if it’s what you want, then who I’m not going to stand in your way?”

There was a sudden rush of gratitude within me for Luhan. Although it wasn’t by any means conclusive or able to fix anything, hearing that from Luhan filled me with sudden confidence that perhaps everything could be mended. I got up and moved around to the other side of the table, throwing my arms around his neck. I think it was the first time I was able to hug him so comfortably.

He hugged me back tightly. “I can’t see how this can possibly work out, and I don’t think you should get your hopes up by any means. There's not a snowball's chance in hell your father will give it the nod, but if it doesn’t work just know I’ll be here for you. That's all I can really do in a situation like this.”

“Thank you,” I whispered, holding him tighter.

“Do you remember the first time we met?” he asked me suddenly, pulling back to look at me.

I hummed as I thought about it, a little surprised by the sudden question. “Wasn’t it just in school?”

He shook his head. “Nope. It was before that, actually.”

I really couldn’t remember at all. “When was it, then?”

“It was just after you moved here. You were crying in the street when we found you.”

“We?”

He hesitated before glancing at me. “Sehun and I.”

“Sehun? When was this?”

“Before I knew who you were,” Luhan admitted a little embarrassedly. “You had run off, and Sehun and I happened to find you. I . . . I wanted to just leave you but Sehun wanted to help you.”

I was very surprised by what I was hearing. The fact that I had met Sehun so long ago seemed so odd. “I really don’t remember that at all.”

“I suppose it doesn’t really matter,” Luhan added with a chuckle.

When Sehun returned late that evening he had bags of groceries – proper groceries – with him. Although Luhan and I were quick to flock to the sight of real food, Sehun was quick to shoot us down. Apparently he didn’t want to share this food with us. Maybe he wanted to see us die from either starvation or overeating ramen.

With a despairing sigh, Luhan turned to me. “I don’t think we’ll live much longer if we just keep eating ramen.”

I hummed in agreement as I intently watched Sehun unload his groceries. “I’d give us two weeks max.”

Luhan also watched Sehun closely, his gaze perhaps a little softer than usual. It seemed like telling Luhan about Sehun and I hadn’t been such a terrible idea after all.

“Want to go out to eat?” Luhan asked, tearing his eyes from the food.

Sehun peeked around at the question but said nothing.

“Depends where,” I replied, not really liking the idea of eating more ramen, but still not wanting to go to some fancy restaurant.

“You can just come round to mine. My parents want to see you, anyway.”

I grimaced. “But your father’s angry at me. And your mother probably is as well.”

Luhan opened his mouth as if to deny it, but then shut it again after realising it would be a lie. “Well somewhere else, then.”

“Baekhyun’s coming round later,” Sehun suddenly said before tacking on, “if that’s ok.”

“Of course that’s ok,” I quickly replied earning a disparaging look from Luhan.

“Let’s just hope he’s gone before we get back,” Lu