Long chapter ahead (and this is the shortened form of it).

I wish I could say that things got better in terms of our living arrangement, but the opposite might have been true instead. This was never more obvious than a couple of mornings later when it was only Sehun and I in the apartment. Sitting at the kitchen table alone, I had been eating my cereal (well, Sehun’s cereal) when my phone buzzed causing me to glare at it rather irritably. It was Luhan. It turned out he had forgotten a file from his computer that he needed for some meeting, so he was coming back to get it but needed me to print it out to save time.

I slumped my way into the office and dragged the file up, pressing print. I then patiently waited for all the contents to print off, stapler ready. This office really was a stuffy little place, but my life had been a little stuffy lately as well. Maybe a change of scene would be nice. I was dragged from my thoughts by the sound of the doorbell. Sehun happened to walk past the office at that point, pausing when he saw me there.

“The door went,” he informed me rather unhelpfully.

“I know. It’s probably Luhan. He asked me to print these for him." The doorbell went again, and I glanced in the direction of it. “Would you mind letting him in? He might've forgotten the code.”

Sehun shot me a displeased look before disappearing, giving no indication either way on whether or not he was actually going to get the door. He reappeared a few moments later just as I was about to leave the office. His expression was grim to say the least. “It’s not Luhan,” he told me rather uncomfortably. “It’s your father.”

It felt like my back tense instantly, a move I doubted Sehun missed. “My father?” I affirmed.

He nodded his head back down the way he had come. “He’s in the living room.”

I internally cursed before hurrying along the corridor, horribly aware that I had just sent Sehun to answer the door to him. My eyes latched straight onto him when I entered the living room, my brow furrowing when I saw what he was doing. Along with him were two men wearing overalls.

“We want it in floral white. Not cream or any of that other rubbish. And fumeless paint only.”

The two men nodded confidently, producing fabric protectors which they then began covering the furniture with.

“What are you doing here?” I called out, interrupting the DIY masterclass.

My father turned to the sound of my voice, looking rather indignant as he did so. “What sort of way is that to greet you father?” he demanded, voice booming a little.

Taking a long inhale, I began again, “Hello. What are you doing here?”

My father glanced to the workmen who were paying no attention to us at all, yet he still seemed to feel embarrassed by their presence. “Kitchen!” he barked at me, striding off as if he owned the place. 

In the kitchen there was a small pile of paperwork that I had been working on. “Not finished that yet?” my father grunted, motioning towards the files. “I could have an intern complete it in this time.”

“Maybe you should have an intern do it then,” I retorted, voice bitterly sweet.

I received a hard glare from my father for that one. “I came by to see how the two of you were settling in.”

“The three of us,” I corrected, voice still bitterly sweet. “You moved Sehun in here as well, remember?”

“I saw him,” my father replied, looking rather displeased. “If there had been another option, I wouldn’t have wanted it either.”

“Do you even realise how uncomfortable it is?” I demanded, feigned sweetness gone now.

“Don’t use that tone with me,” my father snapped. “Where’s Luhan?”

“He’s on his way to get this,” I held up the files in my hands. “He forgot them.”

My father shook his head as if being forgetful was a crime. “When will he get here?”

“I don’t know,” I shrugged. “Soon.”

The grunt issued by my father was replied to by the sound of the front door opening and Luhan calling out my name.

“Now, apparently.”

Luhan called out again, “Are you there?”

“I’m here,” I returned, moving into the hallway with my father following closely.

When Luhan saw my father his head automatically dipped into a bow. “Mr Lee,” he gushed. “I didn’t know you were visiting today.”

My father nodded rather curtly. “I was just passing by.”

Luhan glanced my way, clearly unsure about his motive.

“Let’s take a photo together,” my father announced suddenly. Again, Luhan and I glanced at one another. “Quickly!” my father pushed, seeing neither of us move. Luhan and I sort of shuffled around beside him, not quite sure how he was planning to take it or with what. “Call him,” my father demanded, looking to me.

“Who?”

“Sehun. Call him to take it.”

I indignantly raised an eyebrow. “You can’t just boss him around like that.”

“Call him to take it,” my father repeated, sounding out each word with force.

“No.”

My father’s eyes darted between the pair of mine, anger ripe. 

“I can take the picture,” Luhan interrupted the silence quickly.

“You need to be in it,” my father retorted with bite, eyes still staring at me. “It’s for the records.”

“Then you take it,” I shot at him.

“Call. Him.”

I pursed my lips and gave a small shake of my head.

Glancing over his shoulder at Luhan, my father barked, “Then you call him.”

Luhan’s eyes flitted to me, asking me what he should do. It wasn’t in his nature to be defiant, but I knew he didn’t want to go against whatever I was trying to do here – whatever that was. Opening his mouth several times, Luhan bore a strong resemblance to a fish for a moment before he finally stuttered out, “I-I think-”

“Sehun!” my father bellowed, cutting off Luhan. It was obvious that he knew Luhan wasn’t going to play along – at least not easily – with his plan. “Sehun!”

“Don’t. He’s not your employee to push around.”

“Sehun!” my father called again, voice like knives.

I shot Luhan a pleading look but he glanced away rather ashamedly. Him refusing to obey my father seemed like all he was willing to do, but I was glad for that much at least.

Sehun’s head appeared in the corridor then, eyes hard but a little confused. My father pointed at him with his stubby index finger. “You. Come here and take this photo.”

“You can’t just do that,” I hissed lowly.

“And why can’t I?” he challenged.

My eyes flicked first to Sehun and then to Luhan. Both were looking at me rather expectantly.

“He’s a person!” I exploded. “You can’t treat people like that!”

“And as I person,” my father ground out, looking back to Sehun now. “It’s time he learnt his place and stops butting into other’s lives.”

“You’re the one who moved him in here to begin with!”

“And why did I have to do that?” My father bellowed, turning back towards me then. “Why the hell did I have to push this so far?”

I drew back a little, not liking the way he was yelling so close to my face. “I tried to explain before that the photo was pure coincidence.”

“She’s right, Mr Lee,” Luhan inputted, again surprising me. He glanced quickly at me, and almost warningly, before continuing. “I was with them at the time. It’s just a misunderstanding.”

My father grunted. “Be that as it may, my daughter still needs to come to understand a little something here.” He once again looked at Sehun. “Take a photo of us.”

Sehun remained silent but walked over towards my father, hand stretching out for a camera. My father produced a small digital one and it into Sehun’s hands rather roughly.

“You two stand together,” my father barked at Luhan and I.

Although unwilling, I waited for Luhan to shimmy in beside me and then for my father to move beside Luhan, hand firmly gripping the boy’s shoulder.

“Everybody look happy,” my father instructed.

I did try, but watching Sehun set off the flash had me grimacing and I was pretty sure that’s how it would come out in the photo.

“How did it turn out?” my father demanded.

Without looking at the photo or my father, Sehun held out the device. “Spectacular.”

The camera was snatched from his hand. “Insulant boy,” my father hissed at him, then pointed to me. “I can see where her attitude started.”

Sehun just stared at him, glaring slightly. I didn’t know who looked more annoyed: Sehun or me.

“Maybe it’s just genetic,” Sehun said bitterly, turning to leave again.

“What did you just say to me?” my father bellowed suddenly, causing Luhan and I to flinch a little but Sehun didn’t. 

Instead he tilted his head back towards my father. “The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.” His eyes then flicked to mine, then to Luhan’s. “And the tree belongs to the orchard.”

“Wait!” my father shouted when Sehun turned to leave. “I want a picture of the three of you as well. The next Financial Times will be out next week. It would be good if it was in it.”

“I don’t want one,” Sehun replied, glancing quickly at me.

“Don’t, Father,” I said firmly, stepping around in front of his glare towards Sehun.

The result of which was that the glare moved to me. “I’ve really had enough of your tantrums now!”

Luhan moved around beside me suddenly, tugging my arm out of the pathway of my father’s glare. “Leave it, Mira,” he mumbled barely audibly in my ear before turning towards my father. “She’s just tired. Maybe the two of us should take some time off work.”

Although my father gaze softened a little when he looked at Luhan, it was only marginally softer. “Just take the damn picture,” he grumbled, moving to where Sehun had been standing a moment ago.

Luhan led the way, moving back to where we had been standing a moment ago and I followed, albeit reluctantly. Sehun was motionless for a moment. There was a part of me that just wanted him to walk away. But he didn’t. With a heavy sigh, he came to my side.

“Move closer,” my father demanded, motioning for Sehun to move closer to me. Again, he sighed but did so.

“Luhan, take her hand.”

Luhan cleared his throat a little, but complied with the request.

“Smile.”

I highly doubted any of us were actually smiling when the flash came, but the whole exercise seemed to be more about making us feel uncomfortable than anything else. I suppose of that front, it had succeeded.

“Aren’t they a lovely couple, Sehun? I really don't think I could have picked anyone any better for her,” my father pushed. I could almost see Sehun’s jaw tightening.

“Just great,” he retorted with venom.

“Tomorrow you will have an interview here,” my father informed us as he stashed his camera away again. “So you better all be here and be smart for it.” I got the impression the first warning was for Sehun, and the second one was for me. “Mira,” my father pointedly said. “Walk me to my car.”

The walk out to the car was silent, so I didn’t know why he even asked me to walk with him at all. It’s not that I felt awkward, I just felt annoyed. 

“I’m giving you a chance tomorrow,” he told me lowly when we reached the car. “It’s a different publishing firm to the one that other woman was from. But you’ll have to do the interview with her at some point as well. Probably within the next few weeks. This first one is just to disregard the rumours circling around you now, so make sure it does. You can’t treat Sehun like that tomorrow, and you can’t look so miserable either. You just have to put on a smile and hold Luhan’s hand, and stand amicably beside Sehun. It isn’t hard.”

I looked away, thinking about how he was making it sound so unbelievably easy. In reality, I doubted it would be like that at all. “What if I don’t want to have anything to do with any of this anymore? What if I’m sick and tired of it all?”

The door was opened for him and he slipped inside, pausing before shutting the door and rolling down the window. “Behave,” he said and then the car departed.

I was just the puppet for the puppet master here. I wasn't my own person, at least not completely. And it was suddenly so suffocating.

There was an odd and slightly awkward air in the apartment when I returned. Luhan was watching the decorators work, seemingly forgetting he actually had a meeting to go to. And Sehun was banging around in the kitchen making a heck of a lot of noise.

“Shouldn’t you go to the meeting?” I asked Luhan on my way to the kitchen.

He snapped his fingers like he had just totally forgotten about it until just then. “Oh god, you’re right!” He seemed to not know which direction to go in first, grabbing whatever items happened to be nearby. He flew out the door without another word.

When I entered the kitchen, Sehun was sitting there, texting away. 

“I’m sorry about my father,” I told him as I sat down in front of my paperwork.

He didn’t reply or even look up, just kept texting. Sensing I wasn’t going to get an answer, I lethargically dragged a file from my bundle to look at. There were numbers - thousands of numbers - and it made my brain hurt just thinking about trying to analysis them. My eyes then trailed to the files I was supposed to give to Luhan.

“I should have remembered...” I mumbled, knowing I would now have to get these to Luhan again.

"What?" Sehun asked, surprising me a little.

"These files. I was supposed to give them to Luhan."

"Oh," he grunted tossing his phone aside.

I let out a sigh, realising I wouldn’t be able to reason with him when he was in a mood like this. I decided it would be better if I just left to give these to Luhan.

“Where are you going?” Sehun asked, looking a little startled that I was apparently leaving him.

“Going to give these to Luhan," I explained.

“I thought he went out,” Sehun frowned.

“He did but I’m going out too,” I said as tucked in my chair and headed for the door.

Sehun snorted humourlessly. “What a good little lap dog you are.”

All my movement stopped and I slowly turned back around to face him, eyes wide. “What did you just call me?”

He paused as if deciding if he should repeat it. “A lap dog.”

I took slow and measured steps back to him, calmly asking, “In what way am I a lap dog?”

Making a flicking motion towards the door, he replied with a little sneer, “Just the way you traipse around after him like this.”

“And what about when I traipsed around after you? Was that somehow ok?” It came out a little more defensive than I had intended, but really the only difference in the situation was that I literally would just traipse around after Sehun.

Sehun stared at me for a moment as if he didn’t know what to say to that. “It wasn’t the same,” he finally muttered. “You were told to do that.”

“And wasn’t I told to do this with Luhan, too?”

Again, he didn’t look like he knew what to say to that. He glanced to his phone again. “But you’re happy with him.”

I felt like I’d had a similar discussion with him before, and I recalled it not ending particularly nicely. “I was happy with you, too.”

“Don’t lie.”

“I’m not.”

“Then why do you treat him like that?”

“Like what?”

Sehun inquisitively looked up at me, clearly unsure if he should say whatever it was. With a little voice, he replied, “Doesn’t matter.”

I watched him for a moment before realising this was a pointless argument. I shook my head a little, my patience with this situation quickly running out. “Suit yourself,” I snapped as I left the room. I didn't have to go far before I bumped into Luhan, so returning the files was easy. But when I returned to the apartment I made a point of avoiding the kitchen. 

At some point that morning, Sehun went out. But it was only after I had spent about fifteen minutes searching the apartment for him that I realised this. With a grunt to myself, I mumbled about how it would have been nice – or courteous, even – to tell me before doing so. 

I decided that, rather than do paperwork, I would prefer to do laundry so proceeded to gather it all up and put a load on. It was my first time doing laundry since returning to my old life, but it felt oddly soothing to be doing so again. The sound of the door unlocking reached me just as I was folding up the last of the load. In a sort of twisted way, I couldn’t decide who I wanted it to be least right now. On the one hand, Luhan might nag me about work or Sehun. But on the other hand, Sehun’s mood hadn’t been great today and he might nag me about Luhan.

It turned out to be Luhan, who was by all accounts amazed at my ability to do laundry. He told me it was a relief since he thought he would have to call a member of staff from his family home to come to do it. I was quite pleased with the complement, I must admit. Before I could reply to it though, the door opened again and in sulked Sehun. What he was upset about really was anyone’s guess but I doubted he wanted to chat with me of all people about it.

When Luhan saw Sehun, he clapped his hands together almost happily. “Good. Now that we’re all here we should talk about the interview tomorrow.”

Sehun scoffed loudly, throwing us both an irritated glance. “No thanks.”

Luhan put his hands onto his hips, giving Sehun his best dad expression. “Sehun, it’s in the interests of all of us to cooperate on this. Let’s all make the effort.”

I almost rolled my eyes at Luhan’s ‘motivational’ speech, but Sehun went one step further and actually rolled his. “Am I supposed to care?”

Luhan threw his hands up in the air like he was reasoning with someone who spoke a completely alien language and any form of communication was thereby impossible. “Mira, help me out here,” Luhan beseeched me, again acting like Sehun couldn’t see or hear him.

Although I didn’t really want to sit in on Luhan’s lecture about behaviour, I also didn’t want to upset either boy. And at the moment, it seemed like Luhan was the one most likely to have a strop.

I looked to Sehu