25. Comfort
The Blood Brother CodeHAPPY (slightly early) BIRTHDAY TO STASITY25'S SISTER AND TO xoxoExotic10.
The dream was worse, somehow. It may have been because she got as far as touching the dead body and realising that its eyes were lifeless, or it may have been because she’d been in a car. Either way, Semi decided at twenty past three in the morning that sleep was no longer a good idea and to fix herself up with some coffee to ensure that she wouldn’t drift off again.
Outside the bedroom door, she nearly tripped over a tray. Xiumin had once again left her some warm soup and a choice between a toddy and a sleeping pill. Once again, Semi went for the toddy. She’d been drinking earlier anyway; a sleeping pill probably wasn’t going to mix well with alcohol. There was no note, though.
In the end, she did fall asleep again, and as with the previous day, Xiumin was nowhere to be found when she woke up. Then she remembered it was Sunday and twigged he had probably gone to Mass, so after fooling around on the piano for a bit and looking through the piano books he’d bought for her (as usual, he’d struck gold and managed to pick out some of her favourite pieces and composers), she rang Sehun and asked if she could go over. Particularly after having such a nasty panic attack, she wanted the comfort of her brother.
Sehun was extremely sympathetic and they spent most of the day in the condo’s living room watching Disney films with Chanyeol, who provided entertaining insights into the psychology of the bad guys.
“If you’re getting panic attacks,” said Chanyeol as he cooked dinner, Semi having texted Xiumin to tell him she’d be back before eleven, “you probably ought to see somebody.”
“Honestly, they don’t happen often,” Semi insisted. “And it’s literally only because some creepy drunkard grabbed me in the wrong place.”
Chanyeol shot her a disparaging look, but didn’t argue. Sehun groaned, though. Semi ignored them both to deal with Xiumin’s reply, which was asking her if she wanted him to save her some food.
No, she texted back. I’m eating here.
Xiumin’s day had been much more active. Semi had been asleep when he woke up, and he figured she was probably tired and stressed enough to continue sleeping for a while, so when the Kangs dropped Taeyong off just as he was arriving back from Mass, Xiumin decided it would be a good idea to take the boy out into the city rather than keeping him in the apartment where he could – and would – make a lot of noise.
They ended up in one of the parks, where Taeyong befriended a middle-aged man who was walking his dog and offered to play fetch with the animal. He was too adorable in asking to be refused. Chuckling to himself, Xiumin sat down on the nearest bench so that he could watch, and after checking that nobody nearby seemed to be keeping a specific eye on him, he pulled out his second phone and rang Luhan.
Luhan seemed very surprised to hear his voice.
“What’s happened? Is it an emergency?” he demanded.
“Not particularly,” Xiumin replied in Mandarin, tracking Taeyong with his eyes as the boy bounded after the dog, which had shot after the tennis ball he’d thrown. “I have a feeling I was followed into the Cathedral today, so I thought I’d screw the police over by obviously contacting you from my second phone and making them wonder exactly how I’m communicating with you. They can probably see me right now, but I don’t think they will have put a Chinese-speaking policeman onto me because I don’t think they have many – if any – Chinese-speakers among them, even though they’ve got a fairly wide Chinese demographic. And there’s nobody close enough to overhear me right now, in any case.”
“Why? Where are you?” asked Luhan. “Is there any chance they might have found your notes in the confessional?”
“No – I’m pretty sure I would have been able to lose somebody easily in that crowd,” said Xiumin. “It was a joyous occasion sort of day today, after all. Something Sunday in Advent. The priest wore pink instead of purple and spent a long time preaching about it in the sermon. And I’m out with the neighbours’ kid. He’s the sweetest thing ever.”
“Is he close enough to Semi to—?”
“No. We didn’t know the family at all until we moved in, and I spend much more time with the boy than Semi does.”
“How annoying.” Luhan sighed. “And what about Semi?”
“She’s in clear need of psychiatric care, and it’s making her extremely vulnerable. I had to calm her down from a major panic attack yesterday, and she has some kind of trauma that appears to stem from a car accident, though I don’t know whether it happened to her or somebody close to her yet. She’s horribly confused at the moment because I keep freaking her out, but I can see in her eyes that she’s expect
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