Deer Luhan, With Love

33

Chapter 33 – In Which Luhan Confronts His Fear of Heights

Deer Luhan,

If adrenaline was a drug you could get high on, then I think the sporting world would be in danger.  Also, do you reckon it’s a coincidence that I look like a deer and my flight instinct is almost as good as a deer’s?

Leigh

Fortunately or not, there weren’t nearly so many people in this subway, which meant navigating the passages was easier and much faster, and I came barrelling out onto the platform just as the doors of the train halted there began to close.  Putting on a last spurt of speed, I fairly flew onto the train, clocking my head on one of the doors as I did, and then set about frantically desnagging the corner of Luhan’s coat, which had got caught.

Bye, millions of pounds, I thought as I caught sight of the frayed material when I pulled it free, but then again, the coat wasn’t mine, so Luhan could deal with its price depreciation when I gave it back to him.  Gasping for breath, I slumped down against the train doors and looked around the compartment.

Several people were staring at me, which I guess was kind of merited, given the manner of my entrance, but nobody approached me and most of them looked like they weren’t of an age to be obsessing over Korean boy bands, which comforted me a lot.  In fact, the two women closest to me edged warily away.  I decided to make the best of a bad situation, tucking the beanie more firmly around my hair and closing my eyes as I tilted my head back against the doors.

I was so busy trying to catch my breath that I actually fell backwards out of the train when it rumbled to a halt at the next station and the doors hissed open.  I lay there dazed for a few seconds until somebody hauled me to my feet and said “the exit’s that way”, pointing helpfully at the exit sign.  Thanking her, I trotted off with the rest of the crowd heading out.  My head was spinning and I felt exhausted – my legs were shaking with the sustained exertion of my little night time run, and all I really wanted to do at that moment was topple into bed and ring Sehun to tell him about how traumatic my day had so far been.  I owed him a video call, in any case, and probably one to D.O. as well as we were supposed to be heading over to Zhengzhou in Henan in a few days’ time and there was a possibility I might have to sing.  Needless to say, I wanted to keep the possibility as much of a possibility as possible, because if it got translated into a high likelihood or a certainty, Luhan and I were pretty much screwed.  We still needed to figure out what we were going to do about his aunt – if he’d actually managed to find her – and about swapping back.

Distinctly relieved that nobody appeared to recognise me for the time being, I swiped myself out through the ticket barriers and decided for good measure to do what any normal teenager slouching around in a winter coat and beanie would do if they didn’t want to be disturbed: I unwound the earphones from around Luhan’s phone, popped the buds into my ears, and pretended to listen to music as I climbed the stairs.  I was halfway up them before it struck me that there was nobody else beside me, and also that I hadn’t turned the phone back on after ringing Abbie and that I ought really to get in contact with the EXO-M members and let them know where I was.  And I didn’t have a f*cking clue where I was, either.

The phone’s start-up tone blared into my ears as I reached street-level, now more concerned with trying to work out where I was than potential hordes of fan girls and police.  I’m still not totally sure how it took me a full fifteen seconds to figure out I was surrounded, though it could have had something to do with the fact that I was looking up, hoping for a brightly-lit landmark that I had about a one-in-a-billion chance of recognising, rather than around me, right up until the moment I bounced off a very muscular guy dressed in black leather and wearing sunglasses.