Deer Luhan, With Love

53

Chapter 53 – In Which Suho Is Utterly Awesome

Deer Luhan,

I can totally see why Suho was chosen as leader.  Kris is a master of bullsh*t, but Suho can really get you thinking and make you feel uncomfortable and bad about yourself without shouting at you.  He’s worse than my senior school headmistress.  Her guilt trips made grown men cry.  I’m kind of wondering if Suho would be able to tame tigers.

Leigh

I woke up to hushed voices arguing.

“No.”

“Don’t you think you’re all being a bit much?”

“No.  It’s too dangerous!”

“Kris, there are six of us; I’m sure it’ll be okay—”

“Suho, she’s a walking magnet for trouble.  Something happens every time she leaves the building, and it’s so close to her going home that we just can’t risk it.”

That sounded like Luhan’s voice.  Blinking groggily, I sat up and looked around.  Suho’s mattress on the floor between the two beds and Luhan’s bed were both empty, as was the room.  Suho had taken it upon himself to put up with Chen’s ribbing over his ideal girl and had claimed the mattress Luhan had set up, which had initially annoyed me, but had spared me and Sehun all the excruciating awkwardness unleashed at us by pretty much the entire group, who’d been trying to insist that Sehun stayed with the two Luhans instead.

“It’ll be like a harem of your wildest dreams!” Chen had maintained, and I hadn’t even bothered to restrain myself from throwing the punctured basketball at him.

“But it’s really unfair to keep her cooped up like this,” Suho retorted.  “Look, I know I agreed with you last night, but it’s not right.  You’re all caging her in and it’s frustrating her to no end – I spent a long time discussing it with Sehun last night because he didn’t know what to do to cheer her up.  She’s thousands of miles away from home because of you, Luhan, she’s missing out on an expensive university education she doesn’t yet know how she’s going to repay, she’s marooned without her friends and she’s done so much for you in goodwill that it’s just not right to deny her basic freedom and the ability to enjoy herself, particularly now that she’s not actually required to stand in for you during schedules.”

“Fine, I’ll pay for her university tuition or whatever if that’s what you’re really getting at!”  Luhan sounded exasperated.  “I know this is all my fault, but dammit, Suho, I’m trying my best to make sure she’s comfortable!”

“No, it’s not what I’m getting at.  Have you actually stopped to consider the amout of emotional trauma you might be putting her through by forcing her to remain in the dorm?  Let’s not forget this was the place she actually got trapped in last Monday by people hunting you down.  Extra security or not, those memories aren’t going to fade any time soon.”

“But… she seems to be okay….”  Luhan’s voice trailed off; Suho’s point was clearly getting under his skin.  I shook myself.  Being in the dorm wasn’t ideal because broken and missing pieces of furniture reminded me of what had happened, but it was fine when there were other people around to distract me from it.  And honestly, I was pretty sure it was worse for Kris and Tao, who were the ones who’d discovered the body in the kitchen.  Chen and I were the only ones who hadn’t seen it.  Their overprotectiveness as far as that was concerned was completely welcome.