Luhan’s fever didn’t last more than two days, which meant he didn’t have much to catch up on. After speaking with Baekhyun, the three of us had decided that it was a good idea to have a little celebration for Sehun for his birthday. Baekhyun told me that he usually didn’t celebrate it very extravagantly, so a party wouldn’t be something he’d like. But he did say that cake and gifts would probably be appreciated.

I had done my best to organise some sort of small event without Sehun knowing, and around my other work and university. It hadn’t been easy, and had depleted my sleep intake for the past couple of days but now that it was only a day away, I focused all my energy on making it a nice day for him. He deserved that much. And after all, the day that Sehun was born was a great reason to celebrate.

Since the morning after Luhan’s fever started, I hadn’t really had a chance to speak with Sehun as he seemed to be either ignoring me or avoiding me as much as possible. He almost treated it like it was only Luhan and him living here, which was in itself odd. I tried not to let that deter me from my birthday efforts though, and the day before, I took Luhan shopping to get a gift for him.

Although Luhan had been a little reluctant to buy him anything, with a little gentle persuasion he had agreed. It was hard to know what to buy for Sehun, though. At Christmas it had been easy, especially given how close we were then. But now it was sort of like I had to get him a less personal present. Having said that though, apart from very recently, I think Sehun and I had been very civil towards one another. Maybe I could give him the Grumpy toy back to him. But if he rejected it, it might be a little too hard to bare. In the end, I bought him a rather impersonal gift card, and Luhan did the same.

On the way back from shopping, we stopped in by a lawyer’s office. I told Luhan it was because I had to give something to one of my father’s lawyers because I doubted he would be overly impressed by the truth.

“You wait here,” I instructed Luhan as I was lead through to one of the main office suits by a smartly dressed man. Luhan looked a little confused, but obeyed.

I was taken to a room with a golden plaque on the door that read: Zhang Yixing.

“Please go in when you’re ready, Miss Lee,” the assistant said, bowing a little.

Tepidly knocking on the door, I received a call from the other side telling me to enter. When I opened the door, my eyes instantly found their way to a handsome young man sitting behind a large and imposing desk. His dark hair was sitting perfectly against his head, and he had a pair of reading glasses perched on his nose. When he saw me, his lips lifted to a little smile that revealed a set of dimples and he stood, bowing to me.

“It’s lovely to meet you following our phone conversation, Miss Lee,” he sincerely told me.

“You too, Mr Zhang,” I replied, happy with my choice to contact this man.

“Please take a seat,” he motioned to the chair opposite his as he sat back down again.

“Did you have a chance to look at the files I sent over?” I asked as I sat, eager to get to the matter at hand.

He nodded. “Yes, but unfortunately the issue is a lot bigger than you anticipated.”

Great. “How so?”

The young lawyer shifted a little in his seat, reaching for a set of files and reading through them. “The list here is so extensive that if nothing is done, Oh Hotels will eventually be liquidised if the current CEO remains. These accounts need sorting out, and quickly.”

I felt my brow furrow a little. “What do you suggest I do then?”

He tilted his head to the side a little, thinking about it. “You said there’s a son not closely linked with the father. Couldn’t he replace him?”

Whilst it was true that Sehun was an eligible heir, he had neither the shares nor the experience to manage the company at this point. It would be like asking a fish to fly. “He’s not ready for that. And he doesn’t have much of an interest in succeeding his father, either.”

Mr Zhang’s brow furrowed a little. “Then why are you trying to nullify the contract in the first place?”

“There’s a younger son who will most likely inherit it. We’re safeguarding it for him.”

The lawyer nodded, looking impressed. “I like your conviction. But this contract is very tight. It’s actually pretty fortunate that there is a clause that could fix both your problems at once.”

“What is it?” I asked, sitting forwards a little.

“Put simply,” Mr Zhang began, also leaning forwards, “a new CEO would fix both. He or she would be entitled to renegotiate the terms of the contract under this clause, and could also deal with the tax evasion issue. Both are obviously not as easy as I’m making them sound, but this would be the best and simplest ways to get what you want.”

Of course it made sense, but that still left me with a problem: Sehun didn’t want to be a CEO. “I don’t have a candidate ready.”

Mr Zhang sat back in his chair, swinging a little and pulling his glasses from his nose. “Unless you want it to just go to the general board, I suggest you find an interim with enough shares.”

“An interim?”

“Yes, a good and reliable one so that when the younger son wants to take over there will be nothing to stand in his way. Think of them as a guardian.”

“But who should I ask?”

To this, the lawyer shrugged, swinging in his seat a little. He reminded me of a child a little. “I can only offer you legal advice, not suggest candidates to you. Your best bet would be to look at the list of major shareholders though. A candidate from there would have the best chance at being selected.”

“Would there need to be a special contract in place for that?”

“I would highly recommend one.”

I nodded along. “Would you please make one? Then if someone is found we can just present them with it straight away.”

“Of course. But I also recommend you request the board meeting sooner than later. These things sometimes take a little time to organise.”

“Could you please do it anonymously for me?”

“Of course, Miss Lee,” the Lawyer responded, smiling with dimples again. I hadn’t known him long, but he certainly was likable. The only problem now was to find a suitable interim.

“What about a cake?” Luhan asked when we were on our way back up to the apartment, seemingly becoming quite excited by the prospect of a birthday celebration – even if it was Sehun’s.

“There’s the cake shop near where I used to live,” I explained. “I’ve had one made from there. It’s a special one made from his favourites that he’s had before, so I know he’ll like it a lot.” I smiled a little as I remembered Sehun and I’s quest to the cake shop. It had been such a nice day.

“Why are you smiling?” Luhan asked, smiling himself.

“I’m not!” I quickly defended, sobering up my face again.

Luhan nudged my side gently as we reached the door to the apartment. “You were. Share!”

I shook my head softly. “It really doesn’t matter,” I told him, fighting the smile in my head.

“Is it about Sehun?”

For a moment I considered lying, but then I gave a shy nod. “We went to the cake shop I was talking about together before. I was just thinking about it.”

“Seeing you like this,” Luhan began as he opened the door to let me in. “I don’t know, it’s sort of endearing.”

“Not pathetic?”

He chuckled. “Not until you see who is it that makes you like this. If you put smiley you and grumpy Sehun in the same frame, then you look a little pathetic.”

“It used to be the other way around.”

“He was pathetic?”

“No! I meant that it was him that was smiley and me that was grumpy.”

Luhan raised an eyebrow incredulously. I considered tell him about the Grumpy toy, but somehow I didn’t think he’d find it very funny.

“Oh my god!” Luhan suddenly exclaimed, clutching his chest upon entering the kitchen. “I didn’t know you were here,” he exhaled, glancing at me rather worriedly.

Peeking around Luhan’s shoulder, I saw Sehun sitting at the table with a magazine. He wasn’t looking up at us, yet still managed to give off a thoroughly irritated vibe.

Luhan mouthed to me, “Do you think he heard anything?”

I shook my head, giving him a reassuring pat on the back. Glancing once back at Sehun, it seemed like he really wasn’t in the mood for company since he had ignored us the entire time we had been here.

“I’m going to go to sleep,” I announced, turning and leaving.

Luhan followed closely behind me. “Yeah, me too.”

Once Luhan and I were behind the closed door of his room the two of us wrote our cards and prepared our giftcards for Sehun.

“Do you think he’ll like it?”

Shrugging, Luhan puffed out his cheeks. “After all your effort, I hope so.”

The next morning I was ready to greet Sehun happily for his birthday but he was nowhere to be seen at all.

“Do you think he left early?” Luhan asked upon also realising Sehun wasn’t around.

I shrugged. “I suppose we’ll see when we arrive at university.”

He wasn’t there either. And I could tell that even Luhan was worried by his sudden absence.

“Are you sure he didn’t visit his family?” he confirmed.

I nodded rather unsurely, and checked my phone for any messages from Baekhyun: none.

In fact, the whole day passed like that. Luhan and I were constantly looking out for Sehun, and yet he was nowhere to be seen. When we caught up with Baekhyun at the end of the day, he reassured us that Sehun was fine. He told us that Sehun usually visited his mother’s grave on his birthday but that it was quite a drive away so probably would take all day.

“Don’t worry,” he reassured me when he saw my rather dampened expression. “He’ll be back later.”

“Do you want to come round to ours now rather than later?” I asked him, ignoring the look Luhan was shooting my way. I somehow felt like having Baekhyun around would soothe me a little.

“That sounds fun!” Baekhyun chirped, hooking my arm up with his.

I was right: it was better having Baekhyun about. Although that still didn’t change the fact that Sehun wasn’t home yet.

“Has he left you any messages?” Luhan asked me as we began setting out the cake, hopeful for his imminent return.

“I don’t even have his number,” I admitted, glancing to Baekhyun who suddenly looked uncomfortable.

“He is taking an awfully long time… ” Baekhyun began, checking his phone again anxiously. “I’m just going to call him quickly.”

When Baekhyun left the room to call, and Luhan gone to find matches, I began setting out the cake. It was a little worrying that Sehun hadn’t been seen by anyone today at all. A small part of my brain worried that perhaps he had gone to visit his family, and that something bad might have happened to him whilst he was there.

As I turned to reaching into the fridge, my arm caught the edge of the plate that the cake was sitting on, sending it catapulting in a rather tremendous fashion onto the floor. Cussing to myself, I dropped to the ground and appraised the smashed cake. It had been well and truly destroyed to the point where it now looked more like cake batter than actual cake. I couldn’t help but whimper - it really had been one of the nicest looking cakes that I’d ever seen.

“Oh, god,” was Luhan’s reaction when he reappeared in the doorway. “What happened?” he asked, stooping to help in any way he could.

“My elbow caught the plate,” I explained as I attempted to peal the cake off the floor. It was just a sticky mess.

“Sehun said he’ll be about half an hour,” Baekhyun announced, re-entering the room. “What happened to the cake?” he asked, seeing me make my way to the bin with the mess of sponge.

“My elbow caught it.”

“You must have very sharp elbows.”

Luhan rolled his eyes at Baekhyun before turning back to me. “Will we be able to get another one?”

I glanced at the time. It was a little after ten o’clock. “Not a good one,” I whimpered.

We fell into silence for a moment, all probably thinking about the cake in the bin. I can’t speak for the other two, but the thought in my head was perhaps it was somehow salvageable into something that didn’t violate every food hygiene rule there was.

“Why don’t you make one?” Baekhyun asked me, clearly not going in the same thought direction as I was. Although his suggestion would probably cause just as much of a food hygiene risk.

“I can’t cook. Or bake.”

Baekhyun waved his hand away as if it was a completely irrelevant part of baking to actually be able to bake. “It’s always the thought that counts. We’ll help too, obviously. And my mum is really great at cooking. I’ll call her to give us a run-through.”

I shot Luhan a pleading look to see if he had an alternative suggestion. He shrugged in response. “Baekhyun’s right: it’s the thought that counts.”

I don’t know whether it was at the point when I burnt the first attempt, or when Baekhyun and Luhan decided they couldn’t touch anything, or when Baekhyun’s mother was yelling instructions down the phone to me that I decided this whole baking fiasco was hard. The next time I was in a bakery, I was definitely going to give more credit to the people who produced the goods.

“Does this look ok?” I asked Luhan and Baekhyun who had perched themselves by the kitchen table, chatting animatedly together. They definitely weren’t a pair I would have put together as friends, but they were certainly getting on well right now.

“Guys!” I tried to get their attention again. “How does this look?”

They both made their way over to me then, eyes ready to make judgement. To my joy, they both looked satisfied by the slightly squint sponge I had managed to produce.

“This actually looks good,” Luhan said, surprise clear.

Baekhyun nodded along with him. “Yeah, I might actually try it.”

Luhan checked the time. “I’m going to change quickly before he arrives.”

“Do you think I should try putting icing on it?” I asked Baekhyun once Luhan had departed the room.

He shook his head. “You’ve done well with the cake. But we don’t really want to push our luck.”

I snorted at this, “You might be right.”

“I’m surprised you’ve put in as much effort as you have,” Baekhyun admitted, watching me closely. “Very surprised, actually.”

“Well, if you’d told me a month ago I would be baking a cake for Sehun’s birthday I probably would have just laughed in your face.”

There was the sound of the door opening in the main section of the house. Both Baekhyun and I shot one another panicked expressions before we composed ourselves. I still hadn’t taken the cake out of the baking tin or put the candles on.

There was the sound of laughter from the main part of the house. Perhaps Luhan had gone out to meet him.

“Can you go and distract him for about two minutes whilst I put candl