The holographic memory stick was gone the next day, and Jimin looked pasty from exhaustion.  He hadn’t been there when Jinsu woke up, and she only saw him briefly around the house as she settled into the couch in the living room to read her new book on quantum gravity.  Their parents had seemed a bit surprised that he was back so early, but when they all sat down for lunch, all Jimin did was mention something about it being a surprise birthday present for Jinsu and it was accepted.

Jinsu spent most of the afternoon immersed in her book while her brother stood on the patio outside talking to a string of people on his phone.  The double glazing muffled any chance Jinsu had of discovering who these might be and what Jimin was talking about, but when he finally came back in as the sun began to set, he had an odd expression on his face.  He gave Jinsu a thoughtful look as he passed and then disappeared upstairs.

By tacit agreement (Jinsu hadn’t even known it was a thing in her family), Jimin took the fourth ticket at the theatre that evening.  As a family, they had never attended a fun event together before, just important functions, and while she enjoyed the play, the atmosphere was definitely awkward.  Her brother was lost in thought; her mother was quiet anyway; and for once it looked like her father could actually feel the tension.  Jinsu was only too glad to escape them when it came to the interval with a garbled something about needing ten minutes of fresh air.

Any hopes of that were quashed when somebody grabbed her arm as she bolted across the entrance hall and pulled her behind a pillar.  She whirled around with one arm raised to hit her abductor only for it to be caught by a firm hand, and she found herself looking at a nervous, very familiar face.

“H-hi,” said Jongdae, smiling weakly.  “Can I let go of your arm?”

Surprised, but now feeling distinctly unaggressive, Jinsu nodded.  “Is this your normal way of greeting friends?”

“No, but. . .”  Jongdae let go of her and peered around the pillar.  “The media’s here.  And your dad.”

Jinsu peeped briefly around the other side of the pillar and saw that he was right.  “Oh.”

Jongdae straightened up to face her again and swallowed.  “I think I owe you an explanation.”

“Of what?” she asked blankly.

“Saeeun.”

Jinsu frowned.  “What is there to explain?  She’s a great girl and you’re a lovely guy and you two really suit each other.  We both agreed we were never going to work out.”

“I-I know, it’s just. . .”  Jongdae exhaled wearily and looked down at his feet.  “Saeeun actually used to work at the hotel before your dad employed her.  You know her background, right?  Scholarship student for academics and music, only parent is a single mother?  I was kind of interested in her anyway and then we ended up making out at the staff New Years party and my dad saw.  I really liked her, so when we got back from our family’s New Year holiday at the start of term, I tried to get to know her a bit better and my dad kept catching us in what could have been really awkward or compromising situations like he had some kind of radar every time we were within three feet of each other that said Jongdae and Saeeun are going to chat, quick, separate them.  Then she got attacked by a drunk guest one evening, so I sat with her to calm her down and that ended with a lot of kissing too, and the duty manager and my father saw and some journalist heard about it, so he fired Saeeun, and when your dad’s proposal for an arranged marriage came up a week and a half later, he told me I had to accept to cover our family’s reputation because she’s not from the same social circles and also so he could keep this journalist quiet by saying it blatantly wasn’t true since I was going to be marrying you.”

Jinsu’s eyebrows rose.  “Well, that’s, er, not what I’d expected.”

“I know.”  A glimmer of Jongdae’s usual smile poked through.  “I think my dad’s still in shock, to be honest.  Your dad seemed to handle it much better.  Is that because he knows about Baekhyun?”

“No.  I don’t think I’d be standing here talking to you if he did.”

“Fair point.  Well, at least the journalists still think they’ll get some kind of scoop by following you and Jongin around despite your father denying it.  The scandal if they caught a snap of you and Baekhyun would be enormous.”

Jinsu didn’t know whether to grimace or laugh and ended up doing both.  “Don’t tell me.”

He grinned brightly at her.  “Oh well.  Did you have a good birthday?  I wasn’t expecting to see you here, so Saeeun actually has your present from us to give you on Monday.  Assuming she’s not fired or something.”

“Dad said he wouldn’t.”

“Good.”  Jongdae looked relieved.  “She needs that extra income.  Her family barely has a roof over their heads and Dad’s frozen my savings accounts because he’s still angry with me, so I can’t help her.”

Jinsu felt a warm glow of happiness that they were doing something to help.  Jongdae clapped her on the shoulder.

“Anyway, I gotta go find my dad again before he completely freaks out with me and suspects I’m meeting up with my girlfriend when I’m not.  Don’t particularly want him to blow through the roof again.”

“Wait.”  Jinsu trapped him in a quick hug, taking him by surprise.  “Okay, you are now released from service, noble scion.”

He laughed.  “What has Jimin hyung been putting into your brain?”  With a wave, he was gone, and Jinsu found herself looking after him with a big grin on her face.  Her dad and her brother both commented on how happy she looked when she got back, but she only mentioned her conversation with Jongdae to her brother once they were back home.

Jimin barged into Jinsu’s bedroom at an unearthly hour on Sunday morning.

“Come with me,” he ordered.  “We need to talk to Dad.”

Groaning, Jinsu hid under her duvet.  “About what, Jimin?  I’m trying to sleep.”

He strode over and whipped the covers off her bed.  “About the court case.  Come on, up.”

Jinsu shot upright, forgetting a retort claiming to sleep that was on her lips.  “Are you mad?  Is that even legal?”

“It’s going to hit the press at nine tomorrow morning whatever I decide to do.  I’ve thought about it, and the only way Dad will make it through the day without committing murder is if he hands himself in, and that will only happen if we talk to him about it.  So come on, get up.”

Reluctantly, Jinsu dragged herself out of bed.  “Are you sure this is a good idea?” she asked as Jimin walked over to her closet and start pulling clothes out for her.  She hastily joined him before he started on the underwear drawer and he withdrew, leaving a dress draped over her shoulder.

“Five minutes,” he told her.  “I think Dad’s in his office.  I’ll see you downstairs.”  He hesitated in her doorway.  “In all seriousness, Jinsu, I spoke to Jino yesterday.  Given the size and scope of the cases if they all get combined, if the appeal hits the press tomorrow morning, whether or not the others get added to it, there is so much stuff to do with the Attayear that’s been pinned on our family that I don’t think you’ll be able to finish school if it goes through in its current form because the public backlash is going to be very, very ugly.  We’ll probably have to move abroad if we want any hopes of a career.  This is the best way to get the fair result without you being hurt too badly.”

Jinsu was not at all sure she wanted to follow through with whatever Jimin was planning by the time she got downstairs, or even if she wanted to let him do all the talking, but he put an arm around her shoulders to get her to relax and knocked on her father’s office door before she could escape.  She instinctively hid behind her brother when he pushed the door open.

“You’re up early,” Park Jiwoon noted as Jimin slid into the seat opposite him.  “Morning, Jinsu.”  He set aside the papers he’d been reading through and steepled his fingers.  “What’s the problem?”

Jimin got straight to it.  “The Byuns are filing an appeal.”

Their father let out a bark of laughter.  “Well, that’s not going to get very far.  The deadline for the statute of limitations was two days ago and there was nothing there when I checked at the end of the day.”

Jinsu felt her stomach squirm.  He’d been watching carefully, counting down the days.  That meant he’d been worried about such a thing happening.  Considering the Attayear trip had been so close to the deadline, it sort of made sense why he’d been keen to scrutinise what was going on and who Jinsu was contacting.  She was extremely glad Saeeun had got her a new phone.

“It’s filed but not processed.  It’s going to hit the press tomorrow morning, and it’s going to hit it big.  They’re also applying to combine the case with the sabotage one and every single other one vaguely connected to the Attayear.  The scoop’s too good for any journalist to pass up on it.”

A muscle in Jiwoon’s jaw twitched and he glanced at his daughter.

“Jinsu, would you mind stepping out for a few moments?  This is something Jimin and I need to discuss in private.”

Jinsu was so jittery that she would happily have fled, but her brother knew her too well and clamped a hand around her arm before she was even halfway out of her seat.

“Jinsu was the one who organised it all.”

Stunned silence reigned for several seconds.  Jinsu barely dared breathe from fright, her brain almost too numb to question why Jimin was ratting her out.

Apparently it didn’t compute for her father, either, because he blinked at Jimin several times.

“Jinsu did what?” he asked blankly.

“Jinsu got together the Byuns and a lawyer and the evidence and they’ve launched an appeal.”

It took a moment or two, but Park Jiwoon recovered himself with a snort and crossed his arms, sitting back in a chair.

“What evidence?  Whatever rubbish the Byuns have been spouting will be against the court gagging order and against military law, and that’s just he-said-she-said, not substantiated, won’t stand.  There’s nothing to prove or disprove anything to do with stolen blueprints, so that’ll be dismissed.”

“Jinsu was in the closet and overheard the argument we had about it.”

Park Jiwoon scoffed.  “The faulty memories of a six-year-old are not going to hold up in court.  I checked on her after I left the room anyway; she was asleep.”  He turned to Jinsu.  “What nonsense has that Byun boy been feeding you?”

Jinsu would have shrunk behind her brother if she was sitting close enough.

“Baekhyun was with me in the closet,” she said in a small voice.

That set her father back a pace or two, but she could see the cogs in his mind quickly turning.

“Someone who leaves their natural time-space removes their entire being from their lifetime there,” he