I’m not sure how long Sehun and I stood there together in silence like that, but it was a while because by the time we finally pulled apart and I tried to walk my leg was dead, so in the end I sort of had to hobble away from him.

“I thought you were going out,” I mentioned quietly to him as he followed my limping form back to the kitchen. It seemed he was intent on keeping close right now.

“It was to meet Baekhyun,” Sehun gently replied. “He hasn’t really spoken to me since my birthday so I thought I ought to try make up with him.”

I almost smiled, happy that Baekhyun had been just as angry about the situation. “You should meet him then.”

Sehun was quiet for a moment, then I turned to see what he was doing. His face looked a little torn. “Do you want to come with me?” he asked hopefully.

I honestly wouldn’t have thought such a small question from him would ever make me feel so happy but it really felt like birds were suddenly singing in my head once again. I wasn’t going to rush this though. We had to get back onto our feet slowly, otherwise we would just get a head rush and fall again. Walk before you can run, and all that.

“I really should finish up my paperwork,” I informed him rather bleakly.

He suddenly looked a little disappointed. “Can’t you do it later?”

I let out a thoughtful hum for a moment before answering, “I don’t think so. It’s for a meeting tomorrow so I really should get it done now.”

Sehun let out a long sigh, hands finding their way to his pockets. “Business Mira is a lot more serious than Gnome Mira.”

I snorted rather loudly. “Well, yes. I sort of have to be.”

Sehun just stood there, staring at me as if trying to change my mind. The only thing that broke his gaze was when his phone rang.

“Baekhyun?” he answered with a long exhale.

Although I couldn’t hear what Baekhyun was saying, I could hear his raised voice on the other end. Sehun puffed out his cheeks, scuffing his foot on the ground like a child as he listened.

“Yeah, I know we said eight…  I’m at the apartment still… Mira’s with me.” This time there was a significantly longer pause whilst Baekhyun spoke. “No, we’re fine… Yeah, I apologised to her and told her… I said I told her!” Sehun turned and rolled his eyes at me like whatever they were talking about was the most obvious thing in the world. “We’re fine… She said we’re fine… Just come here then and see for yourself,” he glanced to me, “I don’t really feel like going out anyway.” The call ended shortly after that.

“Baekhyun’s coming round here now,” Sehun informed me, hopping up onto the kitchen counter.

I hummed, having just heard Sehun’s invitation to him, as I rummaged through the fridge for some sort of food. “Good. I need to speak to him,” I said, pulling out a yoghurt that seemed like a safe option.

Sehun’s eyebrows scrunched a little bit. “Why do you need to speak to him?”

“I need to tell him how generally great he is,” I told him as I stirred my yoghurt absentmindedly with a spoon.

“That’s an odd thing to tell someone,” Sehun remarked, shifting his weight so he could slide his hands under his thighs.

I shrugged lightly. “Well, he is. He’s always been so great to both you and me. He really deserves more credit than we give him.”

He pointed towards the doorway. “Shall I just give the two of you some alone time when he arrives then?” he asked playfully. Playfully. Sehun was actually being playful again.

“That won’t be necessary,” I countered instantly. “Since you should tell him too.”

Sehun curled his lip distastefully. “That doesn’t sound like something I’d enjoy doing.”

“I know it might seem a little awkward, but I really do want him to know how grateful I am for all he’s done. Without him, I don’t think we would have come as far as we have.”

Although Sehun sighed agitatedly, I could tell that he knew I was right. I popped my waiting spoonful into my mouth, only to spit it out seconds later, covering the sink in white splatters in a rather grotesque manner. Washing my mouth out, I then checked the lid of the packed to find that it was several days out of date. I glanced towards Sehun who was looking at me like I’d just grown a tail.

“It was mouldy,” I defended, wiping at my mouth.

He shrugged innocently like he hadn’t been thinking I was gross for spitting out yoghurt everywhere. “I didn’t say anything,” he garrisoned himself.

I puffed out some air, giving him an unconvinced glance. “You were thinking it though.”

His lip quirked up the side and he tilted his head towards me a little. “You know what’s funny? You’re just the same.”

I shot him a questioning look. “What do you mean?”

He rolled his shoulders where he sat, tilting his head even further to the side as he thought about the words to use. “It’s just that, after everything happened, you were just Mira all along.”

“Well, yeah. I honestly don’t know why you’d think I’d act like I do deliberately,” I pointed to the sink full of yoghurt, “it’s a little embarrassing being me sometimes.”

Sehun let out a bark of laughter, nodding along in agreement. “Yep, just plain old, simple Mira.”

I bobbed my mouth like a fish for a moment. “I can’t tell whether you’re complimenting me or insulting me.”

To this, Sehun tittered. “Believe what you want to.”

Flicking my eyes up to meet his with the intention of scowling at him but instead felt my brow softening at the sight of him sitting there. Sitting here; looking at me; waiting to hear what I was going to say; watching for my reaction. His attention was totally on me, and it made me feel like I was suddenly the most significant person in existence. At least to him at that moment. Maybe trying wouldn’t be nearly as hard as I thought it would be at all.

“Can we do something together tomorrow?” he asked hopefully. “If you finish all that paperwork first, obviously.”

My lip quirked up into a small smile. He motioned with his head for me to come over to him, his hand stretching out towards me.

I wordlessly approached him, stopping when I was just out of his hand’s reach. When he saw I wasn’t going to step any closer, he allowed his hand to drop, still smiling lightly.

“Did you have something in mind?” I asked him quietly.

“I don’t know. Just anything.”

Before I could say anything else, the sound of the doorbell went.

With a little sigh, Sehun looked towards the doorway. “That’ll be Baekhyun,” he quietly speculated. “I’ll go let him in.”

I nodded, telling him I would be in the living room working on the paperwork if he needed anything.

It’s amazing how doable paperwork seemed in my current mood. Nestling myself on the floor in front of the table, I puffed out my cheeks as I decided what to begin with. In the end, I settled on the number-crunching side of things. I still had to run the final plan by Sehun, but I really didn’t see what there was for him to feel dissatisfied about.

Beside the bundle of stock prices and charts sat my university forms, all filled out with the exception of Luhan’s signature. I felt almost a little guilty seeing them there, knowing I was about to leave everything behind. Telling my father was something that I wasn’t looking forward to, but at least now I didn’t have to tell Sehun.

“Mira, is he lying to me?” came Baekhyun’s voice, sounding very suspicious as he entered the room.

I looked up and smiled at the newcomer, glad to see him. He was wearing a pair of patterned summer shorts despite the fact that it was raining today. “What about?”

Baekhyun shot a glance at Sehun when he appeared in the doorway behind him.

“I said she was busy, Baekhyun,” Sehun said, sounding exasperated. Despite saying this though, Sehun moved around Baekhyun and into the room, gravitating towards me as he did so.

“But I didn’t believe you,” Baekhyun shot back, watching as Sehun plopped himself onto the couch behind where I was sitting. “Although I’m starting to,” he mumbled to himself afterwards.

“Tell him,” Sehun murmured to me quietly. “He doesn’t believe me.”

Baekhyun pointed between the two of us. “This is new! When did the two of you become so close again?”

I tilted my head back to look at Sehun who was tilting his own one forwards to look at me. A small smile crept onto our faces as our eyes met.

Baekhyun cleared his throat a little, attracting both our attentions again. “Would either of you care to explain how your volatile relationship simmered back down to this in the space of three days?”

Sehun and I peeked at each other, neither sure what to say.

“Well?” Baekhyun probed, crossing his arms like the parent who had just found out that their child had put glue onto their teacher’s seat. “I’m waiting.”

“Mm… It just sort of happened,” I replied, glancing to Sehun who gave an affirmative nod.

“It… just sort of happened?” Baekhyun asked disbelievingly. “Do either of you even realise the sheer brainpower I have used just to get the two of you in the same room, let alone talking to one another? I've spent the last month making charts and graphs of your interactions, and I have been planning your big reunion for ages now! And then the two of you just make up when I’m not even here to see it. Talk about inconciderate... ”

Sehun and I shot one another a look then, both amused by Baekhyun’s outburst.

Baekhyun huffed to himself for a moment, mumbling away. “So you aren’t going to mope around anymore? Either of you?” Baekhyun pressed, glancing between the two of us sternly.

“Sehun always mopes,” I interjected before Sehun could say the same about me.

“Mira always mopes too,” Sehun added. “She isn’t called an angry gnome for nothing.”

My face scrunched up at his words, and I saw Baekhyun glance at me uncertainly as if to see if I was about to bite Sehun’s head off.

“Says the king of moping himself,” I shot back, happy with myself. The sound of the front door opening could be heard then so Baekhyun excused himself to see who it was, probably knowing full well it was Luhan. It was possible that he just wanted to leave the two of us.

“I want to ask you something,” he said, leaning forwards a little so that his head was hovering above mine.

“Before you even try to deny it, you do mope. And you might even be worse than I am at doing it.”

Sehun chuckled before poking the end of my nose. “That’s not what I was going to say,” he scolded. His face was pretty close to mine by this point and it all felt so familiar, yet so different. It was like watching everything begin again.

“I want to ask you about it before when we were… ” he seemed to struggle to find the word.

“Fighting?” I offered.

“I wouldn’t call it fighting, it was more like discussing heatedly.”

I pretended to agree with him, “Oh yeah, I know the word for th