“I am still absolutely amazed that they haven’t found us yet,” Kyungsoo murmured, half an eye still on the computer screen that displayed video feeds from the building they still hadn’t left.

“Well, they’ve noticed that their instant noodle supply is diminishing incredibly quickly,” Jongin replied as he filled two instant noodle cups up with boiling water from the kettle he’d stolen a few days previously.  “It was causing a lot of dissent among them when I last went to get some.  They’re all blaming each other for being too greedy.”

Kyungsoo snorted softly.  “You’re the greedy one.”

Jongin rolled his eyes, but otherwise ignored him.  “So, how’s it going?  Have you managed to locate us yet?”

“Somewhere in Shanghai,” Kyungsoo replied, eyes darting from the computer with the security feeds back to the other three he and Jongin had stolen, one of which was running a programme he was still trying to code that would help him hack into Mighty Mouth’s firewalls, one of which was in the middle of trying to hack one, and the third of which had been running an IP location detector for the past couple of days.  “I’ve got our coordinates and everything – just trying to see where in the d*mn city we are.”

“Shanghai is technically the largest city in the world,” said Jongin as he waited for the noodles to be ready.  “Though if you include suburbia and satellite towns, I think it’s probably supposed to be Tokyo, followed by Jakarta.”

“Interesting, but irrelevant.”

Jongin smiled to himself.  There was a moment of silence before Kyungsoo sat up straight.

“Ah, whatever,” he groaned.  “I’m going to see if I can get in touch with Yixing for help.  Should have done it as soon as I’d constructed those firewalls.”

Jongin nodded and crossed to the window, looking carefully outside before tipping out the water from the noodles.

“Food?” he offered, holding one out to Kyungsoo, who grimaced.

“Can you steal some fruit next time too?” the technician asked.  “Or anything, frankly, that’s not instant and in a cup.”

Weiyi had absolutely no idea what to do about her revelation on Shixun and Luhan’s connection.  She wanted to ask one of them about it, but she was afraid – afraid of how they would react, but also afraid of what the answer would be.  She also got the impression that neither of them would want to talk about it, and she had absolutely no idea how to even bring the subject up.

The other thing that really nagged her, though, was how Luhan had kept insisting that Shixun was a lovely person and would look after her well, and that she should trust him when Shixun clearly did not think the same way of her brother.

Shixun was a little more distant after the nightmare, and for a couple of days, Weiyi found herself more or less alone in the hotel.  Shixun would accompany her to breakfast, give her a wan smile, say that he needed to do work, and then vanish for the day.  Weiyi had no idea where he was going or what he was doing, but he usually turned up again at about six or seven in the evening looking very tired, looked appalled when he discovered that she hadn’t eaten lunch in his absence, and then hurried her down for dinner.

On the third day, he pressed a yellow note into Weiyi’s hand before he left.

“Use this to pay for lunch,” he told her.  “Honestly, spend as much as you want – just eat, please.  I don’t want you to starve.”

Weiyi had made it as far as the hotel restaurant at noon that day before uncrumpling the note to look at it, but when she saw the number 50000 printed on it, she balked.  It was a big number, which meant that he had given her a lot of money, and she would feel awful if she spent it.

She felt worse when she tried to give it back to Shixun later, though.  He just gazed at her, expression impenetrable, as his hand robotically closed around the money.  Not a word left his lips, but Weiyi automatically cowered away from him, scared by his reaction.

Eventually, Shixun sighed and stuffed the money into his pocket.

“Weiyi...” he said, then shook his head.

Weiyi wondered if it would have hurt more if he’d hit her.  He just sounded so disappointed.

She jumped as the springs creaked when he sat down on the edge of his bed, loosening his tie with one hand and running his other hand through his hair.  Then he sighed again and looked up at her.

“Do you want to come to work with me tomorrow?” he asked her.  “We’ll have lunch together on the beach.  I think I remember a really good Chinese restaurant, if that appeals at all.”

Hesitantly, Weiyi agreed, and the relief in Shixun’s expression was unmistakable.

Weiyi had absolutely no idea what was going on when she accompanied Shixun.  He spoke entirely in Korean and lots of his work seemed to involve, well, just speaking to people.  He introduced her to each person, of course, and Weiyi responded with a polite bow, eventually copying the cheerful greeting that Shixun would give in Korean whenever he met somebody.  This seemed to take Shixun by surprise, and when they arrived at the restaurant for lunch, he asked her about it.

“Do you want to learn