Deer Luhan, With Love

68

Chapter 68 – In Which Yi Begins Transforming Our Living Room Into a Base for Operations

Deer Luhan,

Why is it that every time I think somebody’s normal they turn out not to be?

Leigh

Luhan looked almost as ill as D.O.  He kept spacing out and the water bottle in his hand was trembling so violently he couldn’t drink from it without spilling the water all over himself.  He and Sehun had vanished into their room almost the instant Yi had finished talking, and not that long after, the manager had burst in to say something about today’s schedule going ahead as usual, but everything after that was being postponed for emergency press conferences and meetings with mayors and parents and things.  When I’d excused myself to go after Luhan, the manager had been babbling something I didn’t totally understand about damage control, but he also hadn’t exactly been speaking understandable Korean, and I figured it was up to somebody else to figure out what he was saying, because Luhan had looked like he really needed a hug.

Sehun had been the one who’d let me into the room (practically wordlessly), and he’d vanished into the bathroom, leaving me and Luhan alone.  Luhan seemed content to just sit beside me on Sehun’s bed, legs swinging idly as though he was a small child, but other than that, he was essentially unresponsive and wouldn’t even answer my questions.

With a small sigh, I took the bottle of water off him as he went to drink from it a fifth time in a row with the cap still screwed on (I’d made sure of it the last time he’d spilt water down himself).  He was in shock, and I didn’t blame him at all.

“Luhan,” I said gently, though I had some doubts as to whether or not I’d actually get through to him, “I don’t really think you’re in much of a condition to film that variety show today.  I’ll go instead.”

As expected, there was no response.  Biting back another sigh, I looked up at the ceiling and patted his back.

Finally, he spoke.

“This is all my fault,” he whispered.  I turned to him quickly and found that he’d managed to unscrew the bottle cap and was now fiddling with it, staring down at his fingers.  “I basically gave away where my mum was hiding.  And it’s my fault the fans were taken.  I… I just….”

I poked him lightly on the cheek and he glanced up at me.  “It’s not your fault there’s a sick-minded freak after your mother, Xiao Lu.  You’re just caught in the crossfire.”

He looked down again and continued fiddling with the bottle cap.  “It still feels like my fault.”

“Okay, okay.”  I withdrew my hands and held them up in a stop motion.  “You want something that’s your fault so you can see the difference?  It’s your fault that I’m here right now, and has anything bad come of that?”

Something that wasn’t quite a smile briefly crossed his features.

“Not really,” he said in a low voice.  “But I’m scared it might.”

“I’m a big girl, Luhan, I can look after myself.”

“I know.”  He didn’t look up.  “But what do I do?  I can’t see a way out.”

“Our only hope is that we can find those girls before they want you to show up and that they’re keeping all the girls nearby and in the same place.”

Luhan exhaled heavily and finally met my eyes.  “What are the chances of that?  Be realistic, now.  This isn’t the idiots we blew up in the factory anymore.  This is the guy who broke into the dorm and was cautious enough to have people sweep the building on the off chance you were there and then set up at least one bug we know about in the midst of trashing the dorm to look for you.  He’s going to have his bases covered – he’s clearly planned this out.  The girls going missing will probably have hit national news by this evening and international news by tomorrow night.  Unless my mum has cut herself off from access to the outside world, she’s probably going to turn herself in so I don’t have to.”