"Hi, Mr Ra. My name is Choi Sooyoung and I'm the lawyer that is representing Ms Kim Taeyeon. From what the police had briefed me earlier, it seems that you're planning to sue my client for injuring you and your friends."

The tall lady smiled as the old man looked up at her and scoffed. 

"Yes, I'm suing her for every injury that I sustain from what she and her friends did to me. My friends will also be suing her too. Let's see how she's going to pay for everything. It's better for her to rot in that cell." That old man replied nastily as Sooyoung took a seat beside him while Assistant Inspector Jang just stared at the two of them from behind his desk.

"My client said that she's willing to pay for everything." Sooyoung smiled confidently before she took out some documents from her briefcase. "By the way, this is the medical report taken from the hospital with regards to the injury sustain by Ms Kim Taeyeon due to your actions of swinging a broken glass at her. Someone manage to record the whole incident in his phone and the video had already been submitted to the police."

The old man scoffed again before folding his arms and smirking at Sooyoung. "So what? It's just an injury like mine. It's not like I killed her or anything. She wants to sue is it? Go ahead then. You think I can't afford it? I'm rich, okay. "

"I know who you are, Mr Ra. I've done a background check on you before coming to the station. With regards to the suing, it will not be done by her but by her brother. By any chance, do you know Mr Kim Heechul, Director of Kim Corporation? He's the brother of Ms Kim Taeyeon."

Sooyoung held in her laughter when she saw the changes in the expression of the old man in front of her. His eyes widened as his jaws dropped while his arms automatically fell to his sides.

"Kim...Kim...Hee..Heechul is her brother?"

Sooyoung nodded her head repeatedly as she showed a family photo of the Kims. He suddenly stood up straight, surprising Assistant Inspector Jang who had been typing the whole conversation into his computer.

"I'm dropping all my charges against her. My friends will also do the same. It was all my fault. I was the one who initiated the fight."

It was the officer's turn to look surprised before he turned his head towards a small office door where Inspector Kwon Yuri had been observing everything quietly. Sooyoung noticed the glare that Yuri had given her and once again she tried her best to maintain a poker face.

"Mr Ra, are you sure that you're dropping your charges? You were so sure earlier about suing her when we asked you about it. Her actions in hurting you and your friends is not acceptable and should be dealt with accordingly. By withdrawing your charges, do you know that your actions can warrant you a warning from the police for wasting our time?" Yuri walked up towards the table as the old man nodded his head and kept apologising for his actions. "You don't have to feel threaten with this lawyer's words, Mr Ra. You should know that justice will always prevail."

"Inspector Kwon. I believe you're making false accusations against me. Since when did I threaten him? Everything that was said had been recorded down by your officer, so could you kindly show me the part which you claim that I was threatening him?" Sooyoung had a frown on her face as Yuri let out a sigh. "I could sue you for defamation, Inspector but because I'm a kind-hearted person, I will let it slip this time round. Since Mr Ra is already dropping all his charges towards my client, can you kindly release my client so that we can close this case as soon as possible."

Yuri stared hard at Sooyoung, who maintained a straight face. She then instructed another officer to release Taeyeon, who had been placed in one of the waiting cells in the station since they took her in at 10am this morning. The officer came back within 5 mins with Taeyeon beside her as Sooyoung stood up and waited for Taeyeon to walk up to them after her handcuff was released.

"Is everything settled?" Taeyeon asked but before Sooyoung could reply her, she was taken aback when the old man came up to her and started apologising. "You shouldn't say sorry to me. It was the girl at the pub that you had harassed last night, whom you should apologise to. She's just trying to earn a living at the pub and you had just traumatised her with your disgusting actions. You have a young daughter, right? Think of your daughter before you treat another girl the same way that you did last night. Everyone deserve to be respected, no matter what kind of job they are doing."

The old man continued nodding her head before Taeyeon looked at the officer behind the desk. "Any documents that I need to sign before I take my leave?"

"Unnie!!" 

Everyone turned towards where the voice was coming from as a girl appeared, looking rushed before she stopped beside Sooyoung. Taeyeon, who had just finished signing her release papers, shook her head before handing it over to Assistant Inspector Jang.

"Are you okay? Why didn't you call me last night? Jonghyun Oppa was the one who informed me this morning about what happened." The girl started blabbering on before she turned to face the old man who had been staring at her. "Is he the one who had slashed you?"

"Yoona! Everything is settled. Don't have to drag the matter anymore. By the way, why are you here? Didn't I give you three days of leave to check on your mum's condition? Is she okay?" Taeyeon spoke with a firm tone as she stood up, face to face with the girl.

"She's fine. I've already brought her to the clinic for a check-up. It's just the common cold. She had promised me to rest at home for the next few days."

"Let's continue this chat somewhere else, shall we? I don't think the officers here are interested to hear about unrelated matters to their jobs since they're very busy." Sooyoung suggested as Taeyeon and Yoona nodded their heads.

Taeyeon bowed her head to Yuri and Wooyoung before walking away as Sooyoung and Yoona followed her from behind. When they reached the parking lot in front of the police station, Taeyeon saw two of her bodyguards waiting for her in front of her car. She walked up to them and told them to go back home to rest as they've been waiting outside the station since five hours ago.

"Don't worry about me. Yoona is here and I'll be taking Sooyoung's car. We're just going to head home for now. I'll update you guys if I need anything later."

***************************

From the rearview mirror, Sooyoung observed Taeyeon who had closed her eyes to rest for a while. Yoona, who was seated beside her on the passenger seat, was just staring at the view outside. Sooyoung let out a small smile before she focused her attention on the road ahead.

(Flashbacks)

Eight years ago when Sooyoung was a first year student studying law at a university in London, she had seen a flyer where they were asking for volunteers at an animal shelter. Even though Sooyoung was a bit skeptical about volunteering since she was not that confident of her english speech, she was determined to help out with whatever she could as she was attracted to the photos of the abandoned dogs that were attached to the flyer.

Sooyoung stood in front of the animal shelter as she observed the surroundings where she saw some other people cleaning up the cages of the animals and helping out around. She wanted to open to ask if they needed extra help for the day but she ended up closing it back.

"Are you here to do voluntary work?"

Sooyoung was taken aback when she heard someone talking in Korean to her. Turning her head, she saw a petite girl who looked Korean, staring at her. The girl had a poker face on as they stared at each other for a few seconds.

"I'm Kim Taeyeon, by the way. Are you dumb or something?"

Sooyoung blinked her eyes rapidly at Taeyeon's question that was being asked with the same poker face.

"Anni. I was just surprised that you spoke to me in Korean."

"Wae? You prefer me to talk to you in English since we're in London right now?"

Once again, she had her expressionless face on as a frown appeared on Sooyoung's face.

"Of course not. My english is not that good and I'm really glad that you spoke to me in Korean. Gomawo. It makes me feel at ease."

Sooyoung showed Taeyeon the flyer and said that she was interested to help out. A smile appeared on Taeyeon's face and Sooyoung realised that Taeyeon looked cuter when she smiled.

"You're the first person, who was not turn off with my attitude earlier." Taeyeon grinned as Sooyoung scoffed at her.

"Not turn off? I almost wanted to punch you when you said I was dumb earlier." Sooyoung replied and she was surprised when she heard Taeyeon's laughter before she joined in. "Your laughter is addictive."

After that incident, Taeyeon and Sooyoung became close friends. Sooyoung found out that Taeyeon actually studied at the same university as her but was taking a different degree. Since Taeyeon was studying business, her classes where at a different building from Sooyoung but both of them made it a point to meet up whenever they could. Their meeting place would usually be the school library, the canteen or the school park near the dormitary where Sooyoung was staying.

Taeyeon was staying at a rented apartment since her first year and it was only in the 2nd year did Sooyoung moved in to stay with Taeyeon. Sooyoung's parents had paid in full for her accomodation in the school dormitory for the first year which was why Sooyoung had to continue staying there.

Their friendship blossomed as they spent time together, revising their school work and also doing voluntary works. Sometimes, they would help out at the animal shelter or at the nearby community hospital to spent time with the sick children there. From Taeyeon, Sooyoung learned to have confidence in her English speech until she was able to communicate fluently with others.

Surprisingly, Taeyeon rarely talked to others even though she could understand and talk in english better than Sooyoung.

"Taeyeon-ah, why do I rarely see you talk to others in English when I'm fully aware that you're actually good at that language?" Sooyoung asked Taeyeon one day when they were just hanging out at Taeyeon's rented apartment.

"I don't like to communicate with others." 

Taeyeon's reply put a stop to any further enquiries from Sooyoung. Over the past two years that she had known Taeyeon, she had found out about Taeyeon's family background and she fully understood why Taeyeon had a cold image attached to her. In fact, Sooyoung actually sympathised with the way Taeyeon's life turned out to be.

(End of flashbacks)

"We're here." Sooyoung stepped on the brake slowly as she didn't want to wake Taeyeon up who seemed to have fallen asleep at the back.

"Soo-unnie, should we wake her up?" Yoona looked at Sooyoung before turning her head to look at Taeyeon at the back seat.

"Let her rest for a while. She must have been tired after spending a few hours inside that cell, even though it's not the first time for her."

"Poor, Taeyeon-unnie. She must be feeling down after what happened. This kind of things always have to happen to her when all she did was to help out another person." Yoona talked in a low voice so as not to disturb Taeyeon.

"That's because someone seems so determined to bring Taeyeon down." Sooyoung replied as Yoona let out a sigh before looking away. "By the way, is your mum really okay?"

Sooyung noticed the repeated nod of the head from Yoona, who had looked away and kept her silence.

"Are we here yet?" Taeyeon's groggy voice was heard from behind as she sat up straight and look out the window. "Seems like we're home. I need to take a shower right away. I'll be fetching Irene from school later."

Both Sooyoung and Yoona nodded their heads as they observed Taeyeon exiting from the car and made her way towards the door at the side of the underground carpark. Sooyoung and Yoona followed from behind as they made their way to the living room of Taeyeon's 3-storey mansion. 

"Soo-unnie, I've been wanting to ask something but I keep forgetting. How come Taeyeon-unnie's dongsaeng has an english name but Heechul-oppa and her didn't have one?"

"The name Irene is not actually part of her real name. On her birth certificate, it still remains as Kim Joohyun. But after their parents died in that helicopter crash, Joohyun went through a terrible trauma. She became very quiet, not talking to anyone and always hiding in her room. It took her almost a year after the crash before her condition improved as she finally came out from her room and communicate with everyone else. She kept telling everyone to call her Irene instead of Joohyun and insisted on following her Unnie when Taeyeon moved out from the family house to live on her own. She had to delay her university admission for a year because of her trauma." Sooyoung explained in detail to Yoona.

"Wow. I didn't know that something like this had happened to Irene before. I knew about the crash but I didn't know that she had suffered a trauma. But why the name Irene? Did she explain her reason for using that name instead of her real name?" Yoona continued asking.

"She said that she dreamt of her mum calling her by that name. That name means peace. Furthermore, she didn't want anyone else to call her Joohyun because it reminded her of her parents. Being the youngest child, Irene was pampered a lot by her parents and her siblings with lots of love." Sooyoung let out a sigh when she remembered all those incidents.

"About Taeyeon-unnie, was she always like that since you know her? As in her cold personality." Yoona grinned nervously at Sooyoung since it was the first time she was asking about her boss.

"To me, the Taeyeon that I know has never changed because she still treats me the same way as how she always does. When I met her the first time, I almost wanted to punch her because of her attitude. She is cold, that I have to agree, but only to people outside of her comfort zone. Those people whom she opens up to, will know that she's dorky, caring and erted at times. From my observation, Taeyeon became isolated after her parents died, keeping to herself and suppressing her feelings from everything. " Sooyoung replied as they heard Taeyeon's footsteps walking down the stairs.

"Let's go and fetch Irene from school. She's going to nag at me if I was late."

***************************

Yoona watched from a distance as Taeyeon walked up to her sister to give her a hug before both of them made their way to the car where she and Sooyoung were waiting. The two sisters took their seats at the back of the passenger seats as they chatted about random topics. Irene was not aware about what had happened to Taeyeon since she had left for school early and never once did Taeyeon mentioned anything about it.

"Unnie, let's get something to eat before heading home. I feel like eating pasta today." Irene whined at her older sister who just nodded her head in agreement. "By the way, is Oppa back yet? It's been a while since the 3 of us had dinner together."

"He's busy with the business. If I'm not wrong, he's still in Bangkok at the moment." Taeyeon replied in a nonchalant tone. "Soo, do you know any place that serve great pasta?"

"Of course. You can always rely on me on good food." Sooyoung replied with a chuckle.

"Oh yeah. I keep forgetting that you're a shikshin since you're forever skinny. I don't even know where the food goes to." Taeyeon replied as Sooyoung meronged at her before Taeyeon started laughing.

The moment Taeyeon laughed, it seemed like everyone was injected with a laughing virus as all of them started laughing. But the laughter stopped when Taeyeon's phone rang.

"Annyeonghaseyo, Oppa. Yes. Irene is with me. Hhhhmmmmm...."

Yoona noticed the change in expression on Taeyeon's face as she kept humming throughout the phone conversation. It was obvious who the caller was. Yoona suspected that Taeyeon's brother had found out about the incident and could be nagging or scolding Taeyeon about it. The reason as to why Taeyeon was not saying anything was because Irene was there beside her.

When Taeyeon ended the call, instantly she was bombarded by question from her little sister.

"Oppa called? What did he say and why did you look like you were being scolded by him?"

"I did some mistake with work stuff. He called just to inform me about it. Anyway, he said that he would be back in two days time. I'll arrange a dinner for both of you once he's back."

"Anni. I don't want the dinner if you're not attending it too." Irene pouted and folded her arms as Taeyeon let out a sigh. 

"We're here."

Sooyoung's voice broke the awkward tension between the two sisters as Yoona quickly exited the car and opened the door for Irene.  She was surprised when Irene linked their arms together.

"Let's walk together, Yoongie. I don't want to walk with a stubborn person." She said in a loud voice so that Taeyeon could hear her.

"It's Yoona-unnie. How many times do I have to remind you to show respect to her? She's older than you." Taeyeon nagged at her sister who just stuck her tongue out.

"Yoongie is your personal bodyguard but she's my friend. And she had allowed me to call her with that nickname." Irene pulled Yoona's arm as both of them made their way to the restaurant.

"Aish, that little squirrel. Always talking back at me." Taeyeon grumbled while Sooyoung could only chuckle.

"Reminded me of someone who likes to talk back to her older brother." Sooyoung commented as Taeyeon made faces at her.

"I don't do that. Didn't you see how polite I was towards Oppa when he called earlier?"

"That's because Irene was around. Furthermore, was that even a conversation? I kept thinking a phone was vibrating behind me. Hhhhhmmm... hhhmmmm... hhhhmmmm..." Sooyoung tried to imitate Taeyeon's actions earlier before she started laughing at her own joke.

"Teasing me huh? Pay for your own meal later." Taeyeon walked away as Sooyoung's eyes widened.

"Taeyeon... Tae.. Yah!! I was just joking around." Sooyoung quickly ran after Taeyeon.

The four of them were brought to a table as they looked through the menu book. Sooyoung suggested a few dishes for them to try out as Taeyeon just agreed to everything. After the phone call from her brother earlier, she had actually lost her appetite. Irene continued to ignore her and decided to chat with Yoona instead. A vibration was felt from her phone as Taeyeon read her message.

Did Oppa found out about the incident? - Soo

Yes. Someone must have reported it to him. - Tae

How about your injury? Did he ask you about it too? - Soo

He didn't mention it though. It's either he's not aware or he can't be bothered. Whatever it is, he ask me to see him at the office once he's back. - Tae

Sooyoung was about to type another reply when the waitress arrived with their food. Since Sooyoung had known Irene for as long as she knew Taeyeon, she was able to get the little sister to finally talk to her sister again through the topics that she had randomly chatted about over dinner.

Everything seems to be fine until a figure appeared beside their table, causing Yoona and Taeyeon to frown.

"That's a lot of food for only the four of you. You must have been really hungry after being held in the cell for almost 5hrs."

"Inspector Kwon Yuri, may I remind you that you're not suppose to talk about things like that in the public?" Sooyoung quickly stood up along with Yoona as Taeyeon noticed her little sister glaring at her.

"Ooppss..I'm sorry. Slip of the tongue. Enjoy your dinner then and don't forget to change the dressing of your wound. It might get infected." 

The four of them just observed as Yuri walked away, exiting from the restaurant. No one said anything as Sooyoung and Yoona sat down but they were taken aback when Irene slammed her hands on the table.

"I want to go home. NOW."

Taeyeon took a deep breathe as she turned to look at Yoona. Without saying anything and with a little tilt from her head, Yoona was able to understand what her boss wanted of her as she stood up along with Irene. After taking the car keys from Sooyoung, both of them left the table while Taeyeon grabbed her phone.

"Jonghyun. I need you to fetch me. Bring Minho along." Taeyeon said through the phone as she gave her bodyguard the address of the restaurant that they were in. "Sorry for taking your car to send Irene home. I need Yoona to protect her."

Sooyoung could only nod her head at Taeyeon, showing her friend that she understood the situation. While waiting for her transport to arrive, Taeyeon took her phone and typed a quick message.

If Irene ask you anything about what happened, just tell her everything that you know. I don't think she will be in the mood to see my face for at least the next 3 days. Drive safely. By the way, sorry that I had to disrupt your dinner. Owe you one. - Boss

No worries, Unnie. I'll make sure to send Irene home safely. - Yoona

After typing a reply to Taeyeon, Yoona took a glance at Irene who was seated beside her but was staring out of the car's window in silence.

'Why is Unnie like that? Why does she hate Taeyeon-unnie so much? It's not as if Taeyeon-unnie was the reason for what happened to our family.'

Those thoughts crossed Yoona's mind as she let out a heavy sigh.

"Did Taeyeon-unnie get into a fight again?" Irene's sudden question broke the silence in the car as Yoona replied that she's not actually aware of what had happened yesterday since she was on leave. "That inspector said something about her wound. That means she must have gotten injured somewhere. I can't believe she didn't even mention anything to me about it."

"Maybe she doesn't want you to worry about her." Yoona tried to defend Taeyeon's action while Irene just shook her head.