“Which led to you hiding in here?”
“Yes, because I know Minhyuk won’t come in here. He’s probably cleaning up all those rose petals.” He dropped his head again. “I should have known with the rose petals.” Jun’s head snapped up, his eyes wide. “That’s why no one else went upstairs.”
I let out a long sigh. “To be fair, I hadn’t twigged that was what Minhyuk’s intentions were. I just thought he was being romantic. I’m fairly certain that makes me just as bad.”
“You didn’t walk in on you having sex.”
“That’s kind of impossible,” I muttered, but Jun wasn’t paying attention. He was staring thoughtfully at the door.
“Which, come to think of it, was a bit weird. Which, considering I was the one pushing us to do this, but seeing you with Minhyuk?” He shook his head and looked at me. “I kinda wanted to rip him off you.” He pouted. “But I didn’t realize that’s what the flowers were for. And what’s worse, I’m the reason we’re all home.”
“I was wondering who had made that decision, but I’m surprised Manager Kim went for it.”
“I wanted to apologize.”
Tilting my head, my nose wrinkling up in confusion, I looked down at him. “To me?”
Jun nodded. “I wasn’t thinking with what I was saying earlier—about the CEO at Meropis.”
Ah.
I folded my arms and rubbed my elbows. “It’s fine.”
“No, it’s not,” Jun said, snorting. “I can tell by looking at you you’re not OK with it.”
“It’s not that I’m upset with you for what you said, it’s that it’s true, and how is it different from us? I was your manager, and now I’m the Vice Chairwoman of Atlantis.”
Jun stood, stepping in front of me. “It’s not the same. You got out of there before I could tell you everything, but I know Theo Lee—he’s a member of Pure—and let me tell you, that is not a company anyone wants to be a part of. That CEO is evil and corrupt. He makes your brother—”
“Half-brother, and that’s a half too much.” I wrinkled up my nose. At this point, there was probably little chance of me never not doing that.
“Butt goblin?” Jun offered.
I stared at him before bursting out in laughter. “That works.”
“He makes the butt goblin look almost angelic.”
“Angelic?” I arched an eyebrow. Considering Sejin had hired a woman to break into our apartment who had held a knife at Kyun’s throat, Mo Daesik really had to be a piece of work.
Jun nodded his head. “According to Theo, the CEO expects the women in his company to do things they don’t want to. Subin is just one of them. And none of them are in dorms anymore because he didn’t pay the rent.”
Chewing at my lip, I hoped that wasn’t the case. I’d heard rumors of some bad companies, but it was like hazing at fraternity houses—no one actually spoke of it.
“The point is,” Jun continued, “That whatever is happening at Meropis? It’s not right. It’s not the same as with us. We all know what we’re doing and not one of us feels like you’re forcing us or taking advantage of us.” Jun raised his hands and cupped my face. “I’m sorry if I made you feel like that, even just the tiniest bit. I love you. We all do.”
Hearing his words made me feel better.
“Are you planning on hiding out here all night, or do you want to come in?” I asked. It was late and I was tired, and there was zero chance of picking up where Minhyuk and I had left off. Not tonight, anyway. I knew him too well for that.
“I’ll come in,” Jun agreed.
We went back into the house. Nate was heading to the stairs when we emerged from the garage. He stopped, looking down at the petals and then at me. Very gently, I shook my head.
“Where is he?” Nate asked.
“Probably in his room. Dante’s with him.”
Nate rubbed at his chin. “He told me you needed a special evening and that he was coming back to do something romantic for you. I had no idea, otherwise I would have vetoed us all coming back. I’m sorry.”
“It is what it is,” I told him.
“What’s that singing film he likes. With the acapella?” Nate asked.
“Pitch Perfect?” The seven of us curled up in bed watching a movie together might salvage what was left of the evening.
“I’ll go get him.”
“No,” said Jun as Nate put a foot on the stairs. “I’ll go. I need to speak to him first.”
Nate stepped out of the way as Jun walked past him. Only when he had disappeared out of sight did Nate turn back to me.
I held my hand up before he could speak. “Whatever you’ve worked out in your head, you’re probably right, but if you want details, I think it’s only fair they come from Minhyuk.”
Nate glanced around at the flower petals. “I think cleaning these up might help.”
Thinking about my bedroom and how I’d left that, I nodded. “I’m going to clear my bed.” Instead of heading upstairs, I hurried into the kitchen, taking a vase from the cupboard. I also grabbed a couple of bags from the bag of bags which hung on the back of the pantry door.
On the way back upstairs, I handed a bag to Nate who had already gathered a small pile of petals together.
Inside my room, I closed the door and breathed out a long breath. I felt so bad for Minhyuk. He’d clearly been planning this for a while, and it was a huge step for him. Even though the evening hadn’t ended how he’d wanted, I found my phone and took a picture of the room.
Then, after gathering the roses up and putting them in the vase, I hurried around the room, trying to gather up as many of the petals as I could before anyone came in.
I was in the process of blowing out the candles when there was a knock at the door and Tae stuck his head around. “Nate said movie night?”
“Come on in,” I told him, as I stashed the rose petals in my closet. After straightening my bed sheets, it was almost impossible to tell anything had happened—or not happened—in here.
Tae walked in, followed by Kyun. Kyun jumped on the bed, settling down under the covers. Tae moved over to me. “Do you need any help?”
“I’m going to clear the hallway until Minhyuk appears.”
I took a step towards the door, but Tae grabbed my hand. “All done. We gave Nate a hand. He’s just throwing them out and then he’ll be up.”
Suddenly feeling exhausted and not entirely sure how I was going to stay awake during the film, I joined Kyun on the bed. He promptly snuggled up into me, wrapping his arm around my waist. Tae joined us, stretching out on the other side of Kyun.
I was trying to extract myself from Kyun’s octopus grip so that I could reach the remote on my bedside table when Nate and Dante walked in. Dante cricked his neck before stretching out along the foot of the bed, half leaning against Tae’s one raised knee. Nate grabbed the remote and then lay down beside me, leaving a gap between us.
Nate had turned on the television and was loading up Netflix when Jun walked in. Instead of his usual cheeky demeanor, he shuffled in, sliding onto the bed beside Nate.
“Is Minhyuk coming?” Nate asked in a low voice.
“He said to start the movie without him. He was going to get a shower first.”
I started to get up, but Nate reached over, laying his hand on my stomach as he shook his head. “Let’s just start watching the movie.”
It wasn’t until the lights went out and we were a while into the movie (with the Korean subtitles on), that Minhyuk eventually joined us. After a brief acknowledgement from most of the guys, Minhyuk slid into the gap Nate had preserved between us.
Only when he reached out and took my hand in his did I start to feel better.
I’d grown up an only child with just my mom, over in Chicago. If I was embarrassed, I could hide in my room and wallow by myself.
These guys didn’t do that.
Prior to living in this house, they had been sharing rooms, and before that, all six of them had shared a ro
om back in the dorms. While I was fighting with my own awkwardness at the situation, I hid it.
Black Or White
As I predicted, I didn’t make it through the end of the film. The last thing I remembered was Minhyuk singing along beside me before falling asleep.
But that didn’t mean that I slept well. I awoke to Tae muttering “you’re snoring” to Dante and then lay awake, unable to get back to sleep.
With great care so as not to disturb Minhyuk who was snuggled into my side, I somehow managed to get out of the bed. My gap was instantly taken by Kyun who rolled over and reached for Minhyuk in his sleep.
I didn’t mind. It was unlikely I was going to be able to get to sleep after this anyway. Moving around my room like a ninja, I gathered up some workout clothes. Making sure to take my phone with me, I snuck down to the gym, quickly changing.
Jumping on the treadmill, I set the speed to a brisk run. My phone lay on the display for the first ten minutes, untouched. I wasn’t ready to read through my emails yet.
Finally slowing the speed to a steady jog, I picked my phone up. A lot of the usual greeted me. And then there was a new email from security.
Someone called Ha Jeonggu claiming to be Kyun’s father had turned up at the company last night. With no record of Kyun’s father they had turned him away.
I slowed the machine down to a walk to cool off, my desire to exercise evaporating quickly.
The door to the gym opened and Tae walked in. He was still in the sweats he had slept in and his black hair was wild and curling slightly at the ends. He yawned, squinting in the light. “Why do you think five in the morning is a good time to exercise? Can’t you do it at a normal time?”
“What is normal?” I asked him.
Tae considered the question before shrugging. “Fair.” He yawned again before scratching at his side. Moving over to a weight bench, he sat down on it, but instead of working out, he stared at me. “I know you’re an early riser, but this is early, even by your standards.”
“Same goes for you,” I responded. I switched off the machine and got off, heading over to the water dispenser. Pouring myself a drink, I walked back over to Tae and sat down beside him.
“Are you going to tell me what it is that you haven’t been telling us?” Tae asked, looking at me via the mirror opposite.
I stared at my sweaty reflection before looking at his. Instead of replying, I pulled up the first email from Kyun’s father and handed my phone over.
Tae’s face darkened in an instant. “Delete it.”
Slowly, I shook my head. “That’s not your decision to make.”
Turning to look at me, Tae scowled. “Holly, I know you think you’re doing right by letting Kyun know, but I promise you, you’re not. There’s a reason he has shared a bed with me since high school.”
“Seeing as though neither you nor Kyun have shared much about his life before H3RO, I’m not going to doubt that. But that was over ten years ago.”
“There is nothing that man can say to Kyun to make all the years of abuse OK.”
From the little I’d heard about Kyun’s father, I’d guess he’d been a nasty piece of work, but this was the most I’d been told that came close to confirming that. “I’m not saying it does.”
“That man—that vile excuse for a man—shouldn’t go near Kyun. Ever. Nothing good will come of it. This isn’t one of those long-lost father moments with a happy ending Holly!” Tae stood.
Remaining seated, I looked up at him. “It’s still not your decision, Tae. The man turned up at Atlantis last night. What if he does it again but times it for when Kyun is there? Don’t you think Kyun should know to prepare himself? And if Kyun doesn’t want to see him, and trust me, I’m actually not pushing for that, but that’s his choice. More importantly, he should be able to have the power to tell his father that.”
“It’s not a discussion, Holly. It’s a no.”
I stood, my hands on my hips. Annoyingly, Tae had nearly a foot on me, but it didn’t stop me glowering up at him. “You’re right. It’s not a discussion. It’s a business decision too. It’s my job to protect Kyun, and if he doesn’t want to see that man, then I need to be able to put appropriate protection in place, like a restraining order.”
“Protect him and do it anyway,” Tae snapped.
Tae was everything a leader needed to be: strong, determined, someone who people listened to, and fiercely protective.
They were some of the many qualities I loved him for.
But sometimes I wanted to smack him upside the head.
“Has it even occurred to you that hiding this from him could do more harm than good?” I asked him.
I had learned the hard way that hiding things from the people you loved rarely worked out well.
“It’s not just a dumb idea, Holly.” Tae shook his head. “It’s a catastrophically bad idea.”
I shrugged. “We’re going to have disagree on this.”
Tae folded his arms, glowering down at me. “Then wait until after promotions. When Kyun gets upset or flustered, he makes mistakes. His anti-fans are the worst, waiting for that to happen, and the last thing he needs is them getting noisy. It’s only a few weeks.”
What he was saying was true and made sense. I’d seen it before. Kyun had terrible self-confidence issues that had probably been brought about because of his father and then made a billion times worse by this industry and Sejin.
But at the same time, Kyun was the one who had been hurt the most by me hiding things.
Would two weeks really matter?
Before I could answer, the door opened and Kyun walked in. Wearing a pair of shorts, a T-shirt, and a towel around his neck, he was here for a workout. He stopped when he saw the both of us. “Am I interrupting?”
“No,” Tae said, walking over and clamping a hand on his shoulder. “You enjoy your run.”
Kyun waited for Tae to walk out of the room, not missing the pointed look he shot at me, before looking at me. “What’s going on?”
This was it. My chance to tell him everything…
I chewed at my lip before shaking my head. “Nothing.”
Kyun walked over and cocked his head. He was one of those people who normally looked ticked-off—resting bitch face, Kate called it—but his dark eyes narrowed as they roamed my face. “It doesn’t seem like nothing.”
“It’s nothing that can’t wait for another day,” I said, dismissively. “I need to shower before I head into work.” I leaned in and kissed his cheek. “Enjoy your workout.”
My first stop at work was to the building’s security so that I could view the footage of Ha Jeonggu arriving at the building. The almost crystal-clear image of the man was not what I expected him to be.
Ha Jeonggu had the same face shape as Kyun, but that was where the similarities ended. He was a short man with a thick frame, unlike Kyun’s tall, lithe one. But he wasn’t a man who looked like he was evil.
Then again, what did evil really look like?
He’d left an envelope with the front desk which had been addressed to Kyun. Security had intercepted it and were ready to take it to the mail room for sorting. I took it from them. “If this man turns up again, I want to know,” I told them. “I’ll have my secretary know that this is something to interrupt a meeting for.”
Slipping the letter into my purse, I made my way to my office, making sure to let Inhye know that this was indeed the thing to interrupt me with. Once safely behind my desk, I opened the envelope.
It was a very similar letter to the other ones, pleading for Kyun to reconnect because Jeonggu wanted to apologize in person.
I stared at the letter, rubbing at my side as my stomach churned away.
I couldn’t not tell Kyun. He deserved to know.
My gut instinct was telling me that I had to let him know. Tae and I clearly disagreed on this, but he knew Kyun better than anyone.
This morning might have been the perfect opportunity to tell Kyun, but I’d
missed it.
Pushing the letter to the side, I turned to my work; I had a party to plan, along with everything else I needed to do. It could wait. Another opportunity would come.
Three days later, when I was in a meeting with 1SO: Fire, there was a knock at the door and Inhye entered.
“Sorry to disturb you, but Security have just called. You have a visitor.”
“Thank you, Inhye.” I sighed and turned back to the Zodiac unit. “I am really sorry, but I need to go.”
“Of course you do,” my younger, half-brother Seungjin muttered, shooting me a dark look. “Everything is more important.”
Every time I felt like I had started to make a little progress with Seungjin, something would happen and we’d be back to square one.
Unfortunately, I didn’t have time to argue with him on this. And, this was more important. “I’m sorry,” I said again, before hurrying from the room.
The security team had their offices just off the main reception area. Ha Jeonggu wasn’t exactly a prisoner, but I hadn’t wanted him lingering in the reception just in case anyone saw him. I pushed opened the door to the security office but was greeted by the head of security giving me a deep bow.
“I’m so sorry, Vice Chairwoman. Ha Jeonggu didn’t want to stay and cause trouble. He said he had to get to Sangam-dong.”
Sangam-dong was where a lot of music chart shows were filmed.
And where H3RO was.
I sucked in a breath and retreated from the office.
Ten minutes later, I was in a car being driven to the other side of the city. According to Manager Kim, H3RO were already backstage, waiting to go in. unless Ha Jeonggu had a ticket, he couldn’t get into the studio, and if he did, he would be in the audience, unable to get backstage.
Inhye had called ahead for me and a rep from the studio was waiting for me. While I wasn’t exactly JYP, as Vice Chairwoman, I was able to get some VIP privileges. Instead of going backstage, I was led to the studio floor.
The television always made the studios look a lot busier than they were, but in reality, the soundstage was small. At the front of the room was the stage, big enough for the groups with a dozen members to be able to perform their routines with space.
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