“Father?” Sunggyu was surprised to see his father there.

“Professor Kim.” Eunji said spitefully.

“Eunji.” The professor was surprised too to find his son with her. It was unexpected to all of them.

Sunggyu looked from his father to Eunji. The two had a lot of tension growing between them, he sensed that much by the way they looked to each other. At the end, Eunji was the one to break it by leaving. Sunggyu was still confused by whatever happened, not even realizing the bell ringing and students filling the alleys.

He decided to just catch Eunji and ignore his father, but the latter stopped him.

“Where are you going? Don’t you have a class right now?”

“None of your business, Father.”

“I’m coming tonight for dinner, we’ll talk then.” He told him, conscious by their surroundings.

“I don’t care.” Sunggyu snapped at him and took his leave, running to catch with Eunji.

‘What was that just now? I know they knew each other, but there seems to be more to this.’

When he reached the main gate, he finally found her, but as he was about to call her name, he saw a young man blocking her way. The guy was in a luxurious denim suit, his black hair styled up and a pair of sunglasses covering his eyes, he looked young and handsome anyways.

“Daebak!! Isn’t that Nam Woohyun?! OMG he’s so handsome in reality!” he heard some girl squealing.

‘Who’s the hell is this too?’ he thought to himself.

Eunji heard some girls talking about the guy standing in front of her and unconsciously turned around, she didn’t expect to see Sunggyu standing there, glaring in her direction. She ignored him and turned back to the guy she tried to avoid earlier.

“What do you want?” she asked dryly.

“She wants to see you.”

“I don’t have time for her.” She told him before trying to walk past him. He gripped her arm harshly.

“Let’s not make a scene in here.” He whispered to her.

Eunji glared at him and it made him let go of her hand.

Woohyun walked to a chic black car, that was parked at the sideway, and stood next to the driver, who opened the back door for Eunji.

She was about to get in the car when she noticed that Sunggyu was still standing there, his eyes following all of her moves. They looked into each other’s eyes for few seconds before she hopped in. When Woohyun was about to follow her and get in, she rose her hand to stop him.

“What do you think you’re doing? Front seat, and if you don’t like it you can take a taxi.” She ordered him.

Woohyun slammed the door and took the passenger seat.

“Let’s go! What are you waiting for?!” he yelled at the driver.

Eunji kept looking at Sunggyu, who were still standing at the same spot, helpessly.

“Driver Lee, next time you come to me, you better not bring any lowly creator with you!” she said, looking outside the window.

“I got it, little Miss.” The driver smirked, he loved seeing the most feared person at the company, after the chairwoman of course, being insulted.

Nam Woohyun just ignored whatever the spoiled girl had to say. He heard worse than that before, it barely affect him anymore.

Shortly after, Eunji was inside a very big company, following Nam Woohyun, as if she didn’t know the way already. Many of the staff recognized her and bowed to her, she ignored them all. When they reached the top floor, Woohyun knocked on the door before allowing her to go in, he followed her in too.

There she was sitting in the middle her overly sumptuous office, a femme fatal in her fifties, wrapped in all kind of expensive clothes and accessories.

“Oh you’re here. Long time no seen, my lovable daughter.” The woman said, giving a venomous grin. “Maybe two months, or five? I don’t count anymore. Why are you still standing there? Come sit.” She offered with one of her hands.

“Why did you bring me here?” Eunji asked coldly while sitting hesitantly.

It would be an understatement to say that the teenage girl hated that office and the woman in there.

“I wanted to check on you. How was your test?” The woman faked a smile.

“You could’ve asked the one who always spied on me to find it out for you.” She gave another dark glare to Woohyun who was sitting on the seat facing her. “Can’t you just get to the point?”

“You’re too smart, like me. Well as you know, I’m an influential public figure that’s why…”

“You decided to get in the national assembly.” She finished for her.

“So you know. You have your own spies too.”

“I don’t see what that has to do with me anyways.”

“Well, if I want to be elected, I need to have a perfect public image. You know how my rivals are always spreading false rumors about me.” This made Eunji scoff loudly. 

“So to be extra careful and prevent the media from finding any flaws around me, I prepared my whole legal team to secure me, Dongwoo is a perfect son, so I have nothing to fear about him. But you, you’re too suspicious to let you go around that freely.”

“The media do not even know my identity.” She reminded her.

“Yeah, but they know which school you’re attending. If one of those nosy reporters go there and ask about you, I will lose the elections before it even start.”

“So what am I supposed to do? Move to another school?!”

“Maybe you should stop missing school. That way I’ll make sure you won’t be doing anything stupid.”

“What if I refuse? You know I chose Woolim high ‘cause it’s the only high school I can graduate from with perfect grades and without attending.”

“You don’t have another choice.”

“You can’t force me.” She challenged her mother.

“Wanna bet dear.” She slyly smirked.

No other words were needed. As usual, the final choice was already made for her. She didn’t have a say in it.

Eunji got in the empty elevator cursing every single person in the building, praying that no body would join her in the lift, afraid of cursing them too. But it seems that everything was working against her, when the elevator’s door opened, a level down. Instead of a simple employee, a sophisticated man with two assistants went in.

He kept studying her for few seconds before he finally spoke.

“We meet again, Miss Eunji.”

“It seems like it, Lee Hoya.” She replied, totally uninterested in him.

“You still remember me, I feel flattered.”

“And how can I forget.” She answered sharply.

In fact, she recognized the man the second he stepped a foot in the elevator. He was the representative of SM Entertainment and the son of that company’s chairman. He once visited the school and saw her performing, spend a month after that pestering her to sign a contract with his company, but stopped once he realized her family background.

“You know, I’m still hoping for a chance to work with you, I searched for someone as talented as you for a long time but I failed.”

“I told you, I’m not interested in becoming an artist or an idol or whatever.” She turned to face him.

“I think you misunderstood me. I wasn’t talking about that kind of work or talent.” He smirked, leaning closer, until his lips were almost on the same level as her ear. “I mean your other talents. Those you use in your secret activities.” He whispered.

Her eyes widened slightly when she heard that. But she quickly recovered from the shock and regained her cold expression, retreating away from him.

“I don’t know what you are talking about.” She looked right in his eyes, and she only saw pure amusement.

“Oh no you know.” He slipped his business card in her pocket. “Call me when you change your mind.” He smirked one final time and then exited the elevator when they reached the lobby.

Only when she saw him walking away she took the card out and kept looking at it for a moment, before fetching her phone from her pocket and dialing a number.

When the person on the other line picked up, she didn't wait and just said: “I want you to look into someone for me.”

Sunggyu had been laying on the couch for almost two hours listening to Bora’s complains. After he ditched school, he went to eat and then came to her house. She caught a cold and was unable to attend that day, so he thought it would be a good idea to stay by her side until the others joined them. Well, it was a bad one.

Apparently, someone uploaded a video of his performance on their facebook page and Bora saw it. She was burning with anger, and fever of course, because of his mark.

She kept complaining on and on it gave him a headache, he almost kissed Myungsoo when he found him in the door steps.

“Oh, another person skipped school for me.” Bora started giggling uncontrollably.

“Is she drunk?” he asked confused.

“Fever.” Sunggyu answered.

Myungsoo came earlier than expected because his club’s activities were cancelled for that day, so he was left with nothing to do. By the time they forced her in taking her medicine and sleep, the other two joined them.

Sunggyu went back to lazing on the couch, this time with Myungsoo invading the other half and Sungyeol on the floor. They kept playing with their phones, having little conversations and joking around until Myungsoo mentioned that morning’s test.

“She was fair.”

“I know.” Sunggyu had long accepted his mark, he understood her words when he watched the performance on his phone. She was right, it felt fake. He suddenly, remembered something.

“When Miss Amy said ‘usual problem’ to Eunji, what did she mean?”

“Ahh that, it’s a problem you’ll only notice if you see her singing many times and different songs. Let’s just say she’s not the best at conveying a song’s emotions.” Answered Myungsoo.

“Her singing is too perfect it becomes boring after a while. The way she never makes a mistake and sing all the high notes perfectly make people amazed by her. But other than that, there’s no emotion or passion that draws you in. Her singing doesn’t make you feel things.” Clarified Sungyeol.

“You probably noticed it after practicing with her, right?” Krystal, who just came from checking on Bora, asked him. He just nodded hesitantly.

‘No I didn’t… In the contrary, her singing made me very…’ Sunggyu didn’t know how to explain that certain feeling, even for himself.

“But if she’s that bad in ‘conveying feelings’ how does she pass acting tests?” He was curious about that, especially after knowing Mr Kwon Haehyo, their grumpy acting teacher.

Surprisingly, his question caused a fist of giggle to spread between Sungyeol and Krystal.

“As long as she avoids emotional or cute lovely acts, she would easily get an A. She nails fighting or shouting scenes, she does it very natural.” Said Myungsoo.

“Plus the old man fear her to death.” Krystal added. “Remember what she did to him last year?!” she resumed giggling.

Sunggyu kept looking at them helplessly, not understanding what was so funny, until Sungyeol decided to tell him the whole story.

“Well it was one of the very rare occasions when she would come to school. That day we were having an acting class and we had a crying scene to act. But she refused to do so, of course he didn’t allow it and tried to force her, you know he get really worked out and start screaming. Still, she refused to do it and took her bag to leave. He tried to follow her to stop her but she slammed the glass door in his face. His nose broke and he lost conscious right away. Even the door cracked in two. We had to endure three weeks of him with a bandage covering half of his face and talking in a nasal voice.” Sungyeol then started mimicking how he would scream at them, making Sunggyu grin too.

After all the events that happened that day, he was grateful  for them to make him feel better. They made him forget about all the stress he’s been facing lately, even without realising it.

He went back to the penthouse late that night, to find his father waiting for him on the dining table.

“I think I told you I was coming for dinner.” The elder said, still focused on the glass of wine in his hand.

“And I think I told you that I don’t care.” He didn’t spare him a second look before heading to the stairs.

“Where are you going? We still have things to discuss!” Kim Kapsu rose from his chair, shouting at his son.

Sunggyu stopped on his track. “We never had anything to discuss.”

“No, we do. What’s your relationship with Jung Eunji?”  Sunggyu smirked hearing his father’s question.

“I knew you would ask. But shouldn’t I be the one asking?” he looked into his father’s eyes challengingly.

“There’s nothing worth telling.” His father answered after a long pause, sipping on his wine.

“Same goes for me. If you’re done ‘discussing’ then I’m going to my room.” He took two steps before his father resumed speaking.

“Don’t be too curious and stay away from trouble.” Those words confused him, he sensed that his father was implying to his relationship with Eunji.

‘I’m already curious, father. There’s no going back now. Even if it means trouble. I like trouble.’

He was particularly curious about a certain person that night.

“Nam Woohyun, who are you?” he said to himself, once settled on his bed, with his laptop. He wanted to ask the guys earlier, but he didn’t want to seem suspiciously curious about Eunji. So he decided to search on the internet, after all, the guy seemed to be rich and famous.

Well it turned out rich and famous were understatements. An article led to another, and in the span of two hours or more, Sunggyu had most of his questions about Eunji and her family answered. It made him wonder why he didn’t do it earlier and save himself all that stress.

The Jang family was the basic of everything he needed to know. A humble family that started from the bottom and rose to the top. Starting with a little cotton farm to a whole series of clothing companies at the time of Dongwoo’s grandfather. Then, his son and daughter inherited everything and started expanding and varying the business. Unfortunately, the daughter died with her husband in a car accident, leaving behind a baby boy, Nam Woohyun.

Dongwoo’s father took him in, and rose him as his own son. But he too, fell a victim to a chronical disease two years later. Dongwoo’s mother, Kim Misook, was left alone with a two year old Woohyun and three year old Dongwoo. Being a strong woman, she rose the two boys and took care of the huge business all alone. And magically, she was the one who contributed the most in expanding the business.

Six years after her husband’s death, she got married again with a very successful business man as well, Jung Jinyoung. Their marriage didn’t last long, as they got divorced a year later, just after she gave birth to their kid, Jung Eunji.

The media visualized Kim Misook as a perfect human being and mother, speaking of the way she raised three children almost on her own, giving them the freedom to live their dreams.

‘As if I can’t smell a lie in here.’ He scoffed.

Woohyun studied business managing and spent a year or some doing little work in the Jang’s group Headquarter, afterwards, he became the vice president, the right hand of Misook.

‘ing rich. I don’t like this guy. Eunji didn't seem to like him either.’ Sunggyu thought when he saw the media’s talk about how perfect Nam Woohyun is.

Dongwoo, on the other hand, chose to study dancing abroad and when he came back he refused to use his parents’ money and opened his dancing school by the money he earned from his part time jobs and by the help of some investors. After that he got the custody of his half-sister as a settlement between his mother and her ex. Jung Eunji spent ten years living with her mother, three with her grandfather and since then she’s living with Dongwoo in his own apartment.

‘This guy is so cool, he must be really trustworthy. I’m starting to like him and respect him more.’

Currently, the Jang group is the largest business group in the country, with different factories, department stores… making Kim Misook the richest in the whole country, her ex-husband coming up as second, and the Kim’s as third.

Bora’s father was mentioned at some point, being the head of the legal team of the company, and Sunjong appeared in some of Dongwoo’s picture, nothing mentioned about him though.

The whole family’s history and life were known to the public, except for one single thing, Eunji’s name. Heck, the media didn’t even mention if ‘the kid’ was a girl or a boy.

‘Maybe because she’s still underage.’ He guessed, not really satisfied by his conclusion.

 At the end, he was able to satisfy his curiosity, but many mysteries were still bugging him.

‘Little by little, I’ll unlock everything…’ he promised himself as he drifted to sleep.

“So, what did she want from you this time?”

Eunji lifted her eyes from her phone as she heard Dongwoo’s question.

“She wants me to go to school more regularly, to make sure I’m not doing anything stupid.” She repeated her mother’s words, snidely.

“Wouldn’t agree more with her.” He remarked, she gave him the are-you-kidding-me look.

“Do you think I don’t know what you’ve been up to lately or what you did last Friday?!” He added.

Eunji sent a death glare to Sungjong, who just shrugged his shoulders.

“Listen, Eunji-ah. Maybe she’s asking for this for her own good, but I want you to do it for yourself. I want to see you live like any other ordinary teenager.” His last words made her scoff.

“I’ve never been an ordinary kid, and I don’t think I can do it now.”

“Yes you can! Leave the hard work for adults and go live your life, make friends and do whatever you want without hurting yourself. I want to see you happy and safe.” He rested both his hands on her shoulders, she sighed. Dongwoo was her sole weakness.

“I will go, but I can’t promise you anything.” She finally said. 

“It’s okay, but stay out of trouble.” He warned her, knowing his sister’s nature.

“Hyung, that’s the same as asking a fish to stay out of water!” Sungjong spoke from the other end of the apartment.

“You better stay shut, and I surely didn’t forgive you for telling him.” Eunji shouted back.

“Euuh, I think you forgot something… I work for him not you.” He flipped his hair and crossed his legs.

“What a Diva.” She said under her breath.

"What did you say?" he acted all hurt.

"You heard me!" 

Dongwoo just smiled while watching them bicker, it was one of the few moments that his sister will let go and be herself.

The next day, a havoc broke around the school when Eunji came. Even Sunggyu found it unexpected, especially when she took the seat next to him at the back. He was kind of disappointed when she just ignored him, resting her head on her arm and closing her eyes the moment Miss Amy went in.

He kept looking at her from time to time, checking if she opened her eyes or not. During one of the times he stared more than he was supposed to, studying her face and expression, sensing that it was impossible for her to be asleep at the moment. He felt bad for her, being the center of attention whenever she came to school. As someone who had a taste of that kind of treatment, he knew how unbearable it could get.

His eyes traveled to her forearm and he remembered the injury.

‘I’m sure it’s that hand.’ He confirmed it through the almost invisible pinkish line that replaced the wide cut.

‘How can it heal this fast, it’s only been two days.’

Eunji suddenly opened her eyes to find him staring. He sensed her eyes on him so he looked at her, their eyes locked for few seconds.

‘Oh ! I forgot to wear the bandage!’ she realized the reason behind his staring and quickly retreated her hand. He kept eying her suspiciously, making her look away.

‘You’re a mystery…’ he sighed, shaking his head.

Eunji kept ignoring him the rest of the morning and during lunch. She just sat on the table next to the fountain by herself, with her ear pods on, not caring for whatever other students were saying about her.

“She must be really lonely.” Krystal sighed, pitifully looking in Eunji’s direction.

“She chose to be alone.” Bora replied spitefully.

“Raised in a war zone, loneliness is much more butter than many other things.” Sunggyu stated, making all of them looking at himm in surprise.

After the last night's researches, Sunggyu realized that he and Eunji had a few things in common. Both of them were from very wealthy backgrounds and their parents were divorced. They both had their shares of hardships so something like trust was a very delicate matter. Sunggyu has always been cautious when meeting new people. The circle of people he trusted was very limited, and hers was more limited than his, he guessed.

Eunji’s appearance at school became an ordinary matter after a week of regular attendance, and when students became busier with tests. 

She still ignored Sunggyu and avoided him as much, although they were always in the same area, she never spared him a single glance, making him disappointed. He knew they weren’t that close to be called friends but not total strangers too. He was sure he was closer to her than anyone else at the whole school, expect for Miss Amy, maybe. And adding to that, he still had many questions to ask her.  

One day, his clique went to get their things from their lockers, to get ready for their next class. They were being as carefree as always, joking around and bickering. As they walked passed Eunji, Sunggyu kept glancing at her. She was completely aware of his stares, but ignored him anyways.

Suddenly, he was knocked to the ground, by none other than Doojoon, and his minions.

 “Look who’s it? Our lovely Kim Sunggyu.” He said smirking, while Sungyeol helped Sunggyu up.

The group of friends kept glaring at Doojoon but decided to ignore him and continue walking.

“Oh so now you’re ignoring us! Don’t think that getting good marks will make us forgot you get in by connections! Kim Kapsu’s son!” he smiled in triumph, especially when the whole hall started to fill with students’ whispers.

That day when his father came to school, a rumor broke between students but Sunggyu didn't confirm anything, instead, he chose to ignore it.

“You know, if I didn’t see you with your father that day, I would never guess, especially from your choice of friends.” his eyes moved to Sungyeol,” The charity case,” then skipped Krystal and looked to Bora,” the devil’s servant, “and lastly the abandoned orphan.” His eyes locked with Myungsoo.

The latter fisted his hands, a hair width away from attacking Doojoon. The only thing holding him in place was the concerned looks his friends sent to him.

Then, the unexpected happened.

“Oh, Doojoon, long time no seen!” Eunji appeared in the scene, making things more interesting. “You’re bullying others as usual, I expected this much. You must be under a lot of pressure lately. I heard your mother’s law firm has been on a losing strike again, she needs to be careful this time. She may go bankrupt if she loses another case, especially the money embezzlement’s case of your father’s company. Which is more likely to happen.” She finished him off in one blow, with the fakest concerned look there’s to be.

Then she walked away, stopping after a few steps, turning around and smiling in satisfaction to Sunggyu, who smiled back amused. ‘Serves him right!’ they both thought.

After she left, Doojoon stormed away in embarrassment and the crowd dispersed. Sunggyu turned his attention to Myungsoo but the latter just avoided everyone’s eyes and left.

“We better leave him alone for now, until he cools down.” Krystal said, everyone nodded in approval.

Sunggyu heard a few things about Myungsoo’s case so he always tried to consider him and understand him.

Myungsoo was from a well off family, but when his father’s company went bankrupt and were drown in debts they arrested him. He died few months later in prison. His mother went nuts after her husband’s death and decided to end her life by burning the family house with her in it. Myungsoo was only five when all this happened, and if it wasn’t for his bigger brother, he could’ve died with his mother in the fire. His brother went missing after that day, and Myungsoo was kept in an orphanage until his father’s childhood friend adopted him.

Not many people knew about this story and assumed that his parents died in an accident and that he lives with his uncle, so even if Doojoon didn’t know about this story his words were still harsh and affected Myungsoo.

After knowing him for that little while, Sunggyu saw many different sides of Myungsoo. The boy was originally bright and kind, like a little kid. But the sad aura he had from time to time was a result from his childhood's scars, he assumed. And it was still hurting him, obviously, to make him miss the whole afternoon classes. 

Sungyeol, Krystal and Bora were worried about him so they decided to go to his house when classes finished. Sunggyu was about to tag along but then he saw Eunji by her locker, and the hallway was almost deserted. It was the best opportunity to talk to her so he just told the others to go first and that he’ll join them later.

Sunggyu stood next to her locker, waiting for her to finish, thinking that she didn’t see him.

“You’re not going home?” she asked, never glancing in his direction.

“I think we should talk.” He said firmly.

“Well, I don’t think so.” She closed her locker, this time looking straightly at him.

“Why are you ignoring me?” he asked so blatantly. Eunji scoffed.

“I don’t remember us being in a relationship, we’re nearly strangers.” She started walking, and he joined her.

“You said it, nearly. Plus, you obviously know my father, doesn't that make us any closer?”

“Oh believe me, being your father’s son makes it a plus for me to ignore you.”

“And why is that? What kind of connection do you have with him?” he questioned, cheering for himself for making their conversation take the turn he wanted.

“Why don’t you ask him?”

“Because I trust you more than him.” he admitted, she stopped on her track not believing what she just heard.

“You must hate him too much then.” She concluded.

“I don’t think I’m the only one.” He gave her a knowing look. He could sense it, she too hated his father.

“Listen, I seriously think you should ask him, you’re not getting anything out of me, okay?” he rolled his eyes.

She resumed walking with him by her side.

“How much you’re going to follow me?” she finally asked when they passed the main gates.

“We live in the same area, I’m just walking you home.”

“Who said I’m going home?”

“Then I’ll walk to wherever you’re going.” He insisted.

“That’s called stalking, you know.”

“Well I call it two friends walking together.”

“And since when we’re friends?”

“Starting this moment.”

“Says who?”

“Me.”

She scoffed. “I told you, I’m not telling you anything.”

“I think you mistaken my intentions. I’m not doing this to get anything from you, I just wanna be your friend, sincerely.” She looked at him and his eyes confirmed his words.

‘Maybe he still doesn’t know about my family, or maybe because he knows about my family… ! this guy confuses me and I hate it.’ she started thinking.

He waited for her to say something but she just remained silent. They kept walking until they reached the bus station. Sunggyu took the chance to recheck her arms, but as expected, there was no bandage, no scar, nothing.

'Weird, I've never seen such an injury healing that fast. And I thought she couldn't get any mysterious.'

“You should go your own way now. Stop playing around.” she said, stopping his train of thinking.

“I will go, but I wasn’t playing and I hope we won’t ignore each other from now on, even if we’re not friends yet.” He said determinedly before hopping in the bus.

‘Yet?... You don’t know what you’re getting yourself in, Kim Sunggyu.’ She sighed, looking at the bus, or more specifically at him.

It was already dark when Sunggyu entered Bora’s house panting. He was in his way to Myungsoo’s house when he got a message from Sungyeol telling him to come there urgently. It wasn't that easy to do so, after all, the two houses were far away from each other.

Krystal was sitting on the couch holding her phone closely while Sungyeol and Bora were pacing around the room. All of them looked restless.

“What’s wrong?” he asked, feeling uneasy as well.

“Myungsoo is missing.”

A fast update yaaay !!! this was the shortest chapter I've written so far (4980 words) and the easiest to write too. I hope you like it, tell me what you think about it. A big thank to all my subcribers and loyal readers <3 <3 <3

PS: I won't be able to write in the next week so maybe  the next chapter will take longer to be updated :/