Byul was whistling as she walked toward the junior lawyer’s area, a jumbo size ice americano on one hand and on her other hand, a post card sized printed picture of the four of them together – captured during one of their night outings –with ‘congratulation, you survived!’ written on the white border in Byul’s own hand writing.

Time surely flies when you’re having fun, and that was exactly what happened. Without them realizing, Wheein already finished her 6 months internship and officially joined the law firm as a Junior Associate 3 months ago and Byul really wanted to mark the special milestones, thus the congratulatory picture and Wheein’s favorite beverage.

She slowed her pace and frowned when she saw Wheein giggling at whatever it was that Taehyung was whispering to her. Her frown deepened when she realized just how close they were standing next to each other. She quickened her steps and approached them with a huge smile on her face.

She tapped Wheein’s forehead softly with the picture, “Congratulation! You survived 3 months as our junior associate, so here’s your ice coffee.” She the jumbo plastic cup and the picture in front of the surprised young woman.

Taking the gift from Byul’s hands, Wheein looked at the picture and the ice coffee with a twinkle on her eyes and bestowed the gifter with a huge dimpled smile, “I could kiss you right now, you know?”

“What’s stopping you?” Byul winked and leaned forward, effectively made Taehyung – who went quiet when the partner reached them – to take a step back, lest he’ll bumped into his boss.

Byul tilted her head slightly toward the frozen young man and raised one of her eyebrow to Wheein, conveying her silent question.

Wheein glanced at the uncomfortable looking Taehyung from the corner of her eyes and then looked back at the playful face of Byul in front of her. Deciding to play along she leaned toward the older woman, “We’re in public place, baby... maybe later, at your place.” She whispered the last word on Byul’s ear, but still loud enough for Taehyung to listened in on their conversation.

She then side stepped the chuckling Byul and looked at the red-faced Taehyung, “Oh, seems like I can’t go to dinner with you tonight, Tae, something....  came up.” She slowly raked her eyes appreciatively over Byul’s form and bit her lower lips slightly.

“Uh... sure. Dinner sometimes maybe?” and Byul almost felt sorry for him when she heard the hopeful tone on his voice. Almost.

“We’ll see.” She then winked at the young man before leaving their office area toward Hyejin’s office, a little bounce on her steps.

Byul waited until Wheein was well out of hearing distance before she turned her attention toward Taehyung. Fidgeting under Byul’s intense appraisal, he almost jumped when Byul suddenly put her arm around his shoulder, “So, you asked Wheein to dinner tonight?”

He gulped and managed a small nod. Byul was famous for her no non-sense approach with all of the junior lawyers, so it was unnerving to be that close with someone that he considered as his hero.

“Well then, good for you. Anyway, I want you to do something for me.” She directed Taehyung toward the elevator.

“I need you to pull the due diligence for the AP Project. I think that we need to rearrange the way that we file the report to the client. Let’s make a couple of options for them, shall we? I think 3 types of report should do it. One, I want them in alphabetical order. The second one should be filed by types of transactions and the third one by date. Oh, and I want small summary for each one of them for easy reading. I think a week in the Archive room should be sufficient, don’t you think Tae?”

She gently pushed Taehyung toward the elevator when the door opened and pressed number 33 on the panel, the floor of their archive room, “Don’t worry, I’ll have Seulgi cover for your other work, so you don’t have to go back and forth between the office and the archive room. Hwaitting! I’m sure you would do great, thanks Tae!” Byul smiled and then gave a small wave at the dumbfounded Taehyung as the elevator door closed.

Smiling once again, Byul continued her whistling toward her own office. She had a party to plan for the night.

***

Moonbyul did not even look up from the report in front of her when her hand reached blindly for the ringing phone on her desk, let alone check the caller ID.

“I need your help.”

Her eyebrow involuntary rose and she checked the caller ID just to be sure, “Are you sure you’re calling the right person?”

“And why wouldn’t I be?” came the annoyed reply.

Byul laughed softly, “You’ve got to admit though Hyejin-ah, it’s not like you always knocking down my door for help. Sooooo.... what can I do for you?”

Hyejin scoffed from the other line, “Please, you’re the interim partner for our criminal department, if not you, who else should I brainstorm with? Can I come to your office?”

“Oh wow, this must be big. You’re actually asking for permission.” Byul laughed as Hyejin spewed out a string of curses at her and decided to stop her teasing, “You know what? I’ll be in your office in 5.” 

Byul hung up the phone, wondering which case that would prompt Hyejin to ask for her help. In her years of working with Hyejin, she could count with one hand the amount of time Hyejin asked for help. “Interesting....”

She crossed path with Wheein on the way to Hyejin office, she was walking with a meek looking man in his 30s that she presumed was a client. They shared a brief nod at each other and Byul reminded herself to call the restaurant back to confirm the reservation for the night, and to remind Yongsun to be on time.

Stepping inside Hyejin unusually immaculate office, she found the short haired woman pacing the floor, deep in thought. “What’s up?” she noted the weariness on Hyejin’s face and her curiosity increased.

Hyejin looked up and gave Byul a weak smile, she walked briskly toward her table and picked up a thick folder before handing it over to Byul.

“Can you give me a second opinion?”

“New case?” Byul took the folder to the couch and plopped down, eyes quickly scanning the documents in front of her.

“Yes, I asked Wheein to confirm some facts with the Client in the meeting room just now. I just want to toss around some ideas with you. This one would be tough, because it’s not the first complaint filed against him.” Hyejin’s voice sounded tight and she rubbed her forehead to staunch off the headache at bay.

“He doesn’t have history of violent, which is good. But he went to psychiatrist before, so we probably have to ask his permission to check that record. I could poke holes on the complainant’s story but the court usually won’t favor such tactic, they will be sympathetic to the alleged victim and I don’t want to aggravate them....”

Byul suddenly threw the folder on the table and rushed toward the door, cutting Hyejin’s words mid sentence, “Byul? Where are you going?”

“Where am I going? I’m cutting this bull in the bud, I will go to that meeting room and tell that man nicely that we will not accept his case, that’s what I’m going to do!” her stormy eyes bored into Hyejin and the younger woman nearly flinched at the anger that reflected on Byul’s dark eyes.

“What? You can’t do that, we already signed the engagement contract with him.”

“As the partner of this law firm, yes I can. And I will, just watch me.” Her ponytail whished as she turned her back on the younger woman.  She moved to open the door when Hyejin’s voice stopped her.

“That’s it? You’re just going to break the contract just like that? You won’t even listen to my reason for taking this case? Are you questioning my judgment?”

Byul tightened her grip on the door knob at Hyejin’s indignant tone, she spun on her heels and pinned Hyejin with a deadly glare, her voice deep and cold when she addressed the younger woman, “I questioned your judgment the minute you actually agreed to take on this case. He is a man with a history of stalking and ual harassment and you actually dare... YOU ING DARE to take on this case when all of us agree to never take on these kind of cases again!”

Hyejin narrowed her eyes and stood her ground, “I did the background check myself. You know that I will never take on the case if I think that he’s even remotely guilty. All of the complaints against him were dropped, there was no proof that....”

“For god sakes! I saw the settlement agreements with all of the THREE complainants against him! This is his fourth complaints! That should be your first ing clue to drop the case!”

“He’s a chaebol, Byul. Those people just took advantage of him and you know how the up and up works, they hate scandal. They would rather throw money at any potential problem rather than turning nothing into something.”

Ignoring Hyejin’s reason, Byul rushed back toward the table and grab the folder. She flicked through the documents until she found the signed engagement contract. She took out the document and walked briskly to the shredder machine beside Hyejin’s desk.

“BYUL!” Hyejin shocked gasp didn’t stop Byul from pushing the papers through the machine. Its crunching noise worked as background sound as the two stared at each other.

“How could you....” Hyejin looked at Byul, disbelief written all over her face.

Byul walked past her toward the door, “No, how could YOU.” She slammed the door on her way out and walked briskly toward the meeting room.

***

Her hands were shaking when she reached the dreaded meeting room. She brushed them over her blazer, in an attempt to calm her nerves down. She took a few cleansing breath and opened the door to the meeting room, a pleasant smile plastered on her face.

“Mr. Park? Nice to meet you, I’m one of the partners with this law firm.”

The man stood up and bowed slightly, “Ah yes, I heard a lot about you, Miss Moon. Thank you for taking on my case. This is really embarrassing, I’m sure my father would scold me again for this.” He weakly sighed and rubbed the back of his neck nervously.

“Yes, about the case, I’ve just been alerted that we might have conflict of interest and would not be able to represent you in this case. I’m sorry.” She delivered the news with a quick efficiency. She noted the confused look that Wheein sent her way, but she ignored it and focused her attention toward the crestfallen man.

“Ah really? But I thought Miss Ahn said...”

Byul cut him off smoothly, “We just received the alert, that’s why as the partner, I felt obligated to tell you myself. Of course we could refer you to a different law firm if you want.”

“Ah yes... okay....” he looked back and forth between Wheein and Moonbyul, at a loss of what to do. “I’ll be taking my leave then, thank you.” He bowed slightly again and moved toward the door before looking back at Wheein, “Miss Jung, is it okay if I have your number? If I have questions for...”

“I don’t think that would be wise Mr. Park.” Byul smiled tensely, “It would be unethical for a lawyer to give advice to anyone that is not their client.”

“Ah I see... okay, thank you very much for your help.” He smiled sadly and then turned to leave.

“What just happened?” Wheein look confused.

Byul was about to answer when Hyejin barged in into the meeting room.

“You actually did send him off!!?? You have no rights. No rights to overruled my judgment, he was my client!” she glared vehemently at the calm face of Byul who simply looked at her with a cold indifference.

“Take that up to the managing partner then. If my memory served me right, it was within my power as partner to decline legal service to those that we, as partner, believe could create conflict of interest with the law firm or would cause harm.”

Hyejin crossed her arms and scoffed, “Harm? Really? You didn’t even listen to my arguments! I’m telling you, Byul. That man was innocent!” the grit on her husky voice obvious as she yelled at Byul who simply pinned her with a cold glare.

“Three ing complaints and you could still think that he’s innocent? Look at all of the previous complainants! He has a ing type! All petite women in their 20s and you ing let Wheein within the same vicinity with that man alone, you already out of your freaking mind!”

Shock ran through Hyejin’s body before the rage took over. *How dare she....* She crossed the gap between them with a purposeful stride, her voice strongly even, “Do you really think that I won’t take this up to the managing partner?” she asked Byul pointedly, eye contact never wavering.

“This is not a matter of discussion. I already made my decision. We will not take his case.”  

“Do you honestly think that Old Jung will side with you after he listened to the full story? You let your past mistake cloud your judgment! Or are you ing ashamed to admit that the mighty Byul made mistake? I’m not YOU!”

The silence was deafening then, as oxymoron as it sound, the ringing silence seemed to engulf the three women, blocking any other noises besides their own beating heart.

“You... It was a mistake. I’ve made mistake and I’ve learned from it. You were there, you knew what happened. This case? It was as if history repeat itself all over again and you want to take that chance? You really dare?” the words were delivered in a clipped distant voice as Byul stared at Hyejin.

“But this is different! I told you that I did the background check myself! Byul, you have to trust me... I would never take the case if I didn’t think that the man was innocent.” The conviction on Hyejin’s voice rang clear. She looked deep into the clouded eyes of her best friend before continuing softly.

“I remembered what happened just like it was yesterday... what happened to you and Yongsun...”

“Stop. Don’t you dare finished that sentence or I swear to god.... “

“What? So you can hide in your apartment and your wound alone? So you could keep up the whole facade of being strong and tough while I knew... I knew that it was killing you? You have nightmare every single ing day and you think that I didn’t know that!?”

Byul took a step back as Hyejin’s words pierced through and ripped her conscience apart. She closed her eyes tightly, her hands clenching painfully and her laugh was hollow as she looked at Hyejin with such sorrow filled eyes, “ you...” she walked painfully slowly toward the guilt stricken Hyejin and brushed past her toward the door.

“Byul... I....”

“ you all to hell.” Were her last parting words before she opened the door and left.

“What the hell was that?”

Hyejin was too occupied with the repeated ‘stupid’ reverberating through her mind to hear that Wheein asked her a question, until the younger woman stood in front of her and shook her out of her reverie.

The short haired woman gulped when she saw the plethora of emotions on Wheein’s face, but the confusion and anger was the most prominent. Hyejin pinched the bridge of her nose, her head was pounding wildly, still can’t believe that she just turned the situation from bad to worse.

Minutes lapsed and Wheein could see the remorse etched deeply on Hyejin’s face, but she really doesn’t have it in her to be sympathetic.

“Wheein, I....” she rubbed her face with both of her palm and in a deep breath, “Look, no offense, but I overstepped my bound just then and... I can’t do this right now.” She shook her head and turned, leaving the bewildered Wheein alone. 

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Author's Note

And the plot thickens with a good amount of angst XD What do you think happened to Byul and Yongsun? the answer coming up on the next chapter, stay tune! Comments and Critics are welcome, tell me your thoughts so far. 

Side note: Who is excited for Mamamoo's comeback stage???? *raise hand to the high heaven* with all of the craziness happening in the world, I really need some slice of heaven served by the girls. 

See ya guys!!