18. Old Property
The Blood Brother CodeIt was rare enough for Semi to be the one to start a conversation that Xiumin nearly spilt coffee all down himself when she opened at breakfast on Thursday morning.
“Didn’t you mention once that Siwon’s giving us an allowance?” she asked around a mouthful of bun.
“Y-yeah.” Xiumin took a moment or two to compose himself and check that his coffee had calmed.
“How much is it?”
“More per week than a shopaholic could ever spend in seven days.” He gave her a little grin. Semi chewed thoughtfully.
“Mind if I use some of it?”
“Go wild. Want me to give you the credit card?”
She left the building with it in her purse and the code written on the back of her hand – and for once, she, rather than Xiumin, had been the one wielding the ink.
“Movie marathon at mine this Saturday!” Tao chirped, jumping on her the second he saw her. “We were thinking the entire Star Wars series, and my housemates are joining!”
“But some of the acting’s crap,” Semi objected.
“But it’s Star Wars,” he whined, letting go of her so she could turn to see his puppy eyes, and Semi instantly caved.
“Fine, I’ll come,” she said, “but on one condition.”
“Yes, I will put up with the sacrilegious disgrace to popcorn that is sugar-flavoured specially for you,” he said immediately. “But I still don’t understand why you don’t like salted—”
“No, I want Henry’s phone number. Or email address, at the very least.”
Tao blinked at her, apparently speechless. It was Wendy who spoke up.
“I thought you were married.”
“Yeah, didn’t you make up with your husband?” Seulgi chipped in.
“We never fell out in the first place—”
“Is angsty make up all it’s cranked up to be?” Wendy asked with curiosity. “This is assuming you aren’t lying about being abused and you’re not looking for a fling on the side in Henry.”
Semi’s face went scarlet. She was saved from having to reply by Junhong plonking himself down into the chair beside her. Tao hadn’t quite adopted him in the way he’d adopted Semi because of the occasion Junhong had given her a panic attack, but it still didn’t stop him from launching himself over the three girls to jump on the newcomer.
“Junhong!” he whined. “Semi thinks the acting in Star Wars is terrible! Tell her she’s wrong!”
Looking disturbed as he leant away from Tao, Junhong glanced around at the others.
“I don’t like lying, though,” he said.
Tao glared at him and he relented.
“Okay, only some of the acting’s bad. You can’t criticise the entire thing for, like, two people,” he amended.
Beaming, Tao sat up in Junhong’s lap and unscrewed a bottle of ice tea so that he could take a large swig. Junhong tried to reach around him to place his laptop on the desk, but failed because Tao kept shifting around.
Finally, when the lecturer walked in, Junhong gave up with a grunt.
“Hyung, could you please get off me?”
“You’re comfortable and I want to sleep.”
“Come on, hyung, please. My dance supervisor said he’d make me drop this module unless I got full marks in it, and it’s hard enough to stay awake in this lecture to pay attention to it, and I’m not going to be able to open up a dance academy without some understanding of business and finance.”
With huge reluctance, Tao slipped off Junhong’s lap and onto the seat next door.
“Who’s your dance supervisor?” Wendy asked, looking up from shredding the previous week’s lecture notes down the back of Seulgi’s top.
“Professor Lee.”
“Which Professor Lee?”
“Seunghyun.”
Wendy wrinkled her nose. “He’s a control freak.”
“Yeah, I kn—” Junhong clamped his mouth shut when the lecturer stopped to glare at him.
“He’s the reason why I dropped dance as my minor,” Wendy went on, doodling on the back of her hand and initially making Semi shudder, but then reminding her of the card’s PIN.
Junhong glanced back at the lecturer to check he wasn’t being watched before leaning across Semi to ask Wendy a question.
“Are you sure that had nothing to do with him being a ert?”
Semi couldn’t help noticing that Junhong was nibbling on his bottom lip and that the arm resting on the desk to balance himself was shaking.
“I always thought he was gay,” Seulgi chipped in.
“No, that’s the instructor for the dance club,” Wendy and Junhong responded together. Wendy absently jotted down something the lecturer was saying before looking up to find Semi pressed back in her seat and Junhong still pretty much in her face. “Nah, Lee never made a pass at me. He just stressed me out expecting me to be as flexible as a rubber band in half a second flat.”
“You two should join up,” said Semi, making both of them jump. Wendy looked scandalised and Junhong positively terrified. She looked from one to the other. “You know… Junhong can run a dance academy and Wendy could do the singing side of it or something. Or Seulgi. Both of you sing.”
“You could open up a karaoke joint!” Tao suddenly butted in. “But a special one with a dance off to the choreography of the songs played!”
“Yeah, and how would a machine be able to grade that?” sco
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