“I know it’s weird Mr. Lee suddenly brought his son to parties like that.”

Minho only spared a glance at Ki Bum who had just arrived at his office and took a seat in front of him, before going back to the business plan on his hands. The wedding party last Saturday was tiring physically as well as emotionally for Minho so he didn’t have any energy to humor his best friend, especially with the stack of reports and plans he needed to review. However, the lack of Minho’s response didn’t bother Kibum. Instead, he kept going with the information he had just gained about Lee Jinki.

“Lee Jinki is proposed as the replacement of Mr. Ahn! As SHINee Inc. commissioner! Minho, that’s why Mr. Lee introduced him to people! To make connections!”

“So?” Minho answered but his eyes were still on his documents. “His resume is amazing. I think he is more than capable.”

“You already know?” Kibum widened his eyes in surprise.

“Of course,” Minho shrugged. “I have reviewed the GMS documents like…three weeks ago? Well, I don’t remember it at the party, but I remember it later when I got home.”

*GMS = General Meeting of Shareholders

“Oh God, then only me who didn’t know?” Kibum exaggeratedly exclaimed.

“Not my fault you only review the documents like…what? Three days before the meetings?”

Kibum held his hands up, gesturing a defense of Minho’s attack. “Don’t blame me, I have stores to visit, a company to manage, tons of clothes to design, as well as bunch of companies to be paid attention too.”

“Oh well, our busy, almighty, Kim Kibum.”

“Is that supposed to be an insult because my family’s company called Almighty or what?”

Minho rolled his eyes. “Don’t be too sensitive, Kibum.”

Kibum pouted. He literally pouted and it made Minho want to puke because no offense, he could never tolerate Kibum acting cute.

“Blame my parents who keep pushing me to be involved in the company matters nowadays. After throwing me away years ago to Japan? No, no, no. They dream too much.”

The bitterness in Kibum’s tone was perfectly hidden, but Minho could still caught it. His friend’s mood is down, Minho realized it. That’s why he decided to keep the conversation as light as possible.

“Speaking of Japan,” Minho started, “Do you know Lee Jinki spent his 20s in Japan? Graduating there, working there, even got his Ph.D. there.”

“That guy has Ph.D.? Now…that y.”

“You’re whipped, Kim Kibum.”

“But he has a very nice voice and you know how weak I am with nice voice, Minho!”

Hearing how Kibum had turned into a giggling teenager, Minho rolled his eyes, again. At least he wasn’t down anymore, Minho thought.

“But…” Kibum whined. “If he had spent that much times in Japan, why did we never meet him before? We also lived there for 6 years before being summoned back to Seoul, but we never crossed path with him.”

Once again, Minho didn’t respond Kibum, but this time because he was distracted by his phone. Minho sighed as he read the text he just got, earning a curious look from Kibum.

“What is it?” he asked.

“My dad wants to know if you’ll support Minhyuk’s reappointment as SHINee Inc.’s CEO.”

Kibum leant his back comfortably, losing his interest instantly. “He doesn’t need my vote and will still be the CEO anyway,” Kibum crossed his arms as his eyes wandered, trying hard to remember all of the owners of the company. “The total of your family’s shares is already like…what? Almost half. That, and your grandfather’s shares as well. Son Family will surely vote yes, they didn’t really have much power anyway. And of course my lovely cousin family will support their new son in-law.”

“The one who won’t vote is only Mr. Lee, as usual,” Kibum continued.

“And Kim Jongin,” Minho added. “He never shows up.”

“I bet he forgets he has shares of this company,” Kibum’s retorts made Minho laughed. Well, if Minho was Kim Jongin—the wealthy Kim Jongin whose net worth was even bigger than Minho’s father’s net worth—he also wouldn’t want to waste his time only for a small—not so small, actually—company like SHINee Inc.

“Anyway,” Kibum said again, going back to the actual topic, “Without my vote, your borther’s reappointment is still guaranteed. So I guess, I’ll just abstain like Mr. Lee. Wait, no, no. I’ll vote against it because he’s just as CEO.”

“I’ll just tell my Dad you haven’t decided,” Minho gave up as he texted back his father.

“How about you?” Kibum suddenly asked, although he knew it was useless as he completely could guess the answer.

“Of course I’ll support him,” Minho said in a heartbeat.

With that answer, Kibum just watched his best friend being busy with his phone.

Why are you so obedient, Minho? Kibum thought, his heart clenched painfully for his kind friend. Someone, anyone, pull him out of that family, please.

The mall was still closed when Kibum left Minho’s office. He was contemplating whether he should visit his store or just went straight back to his office that was located at the office tower connected to the mall—still SHINee Inc.’s property. He strolled the empty hallway, making up his mind to just go back to his office and visited the store when he grabbed his lunch later. It was still very early, even there wasn’t many employees of the stores had arrived.

The sudden sound from his phone startled Kibum a little, halting his steps. He took a look at the caller and sighed heavily. He was tempted to just ignore it, but he knew he couldn’t. Sighing once again, Kibum walked to the corner, out of anyone’s ears, to answer the call.

“Yes, Dad?”

“I heard you haven’t decided the decision for SHINee Inc.’s upcoming GMS?”

Mr. Choi, so fast tattling me to my father!

“I don’t think the reappointment is a good idea, Dad,” Kibum answered calmly.

“It’s not important, Kibum,” his Dad impatiently said. “We won’t lose anything, anyway. It’s just a matter of ensuring they’re on our side. Choi Family knows a lot of important people, Kibum. I know you’re completely aware it’s quite good to side with the Chois. I even let you to hang out with that illegitimate son of Choi because even he will be useful someday.”

Kibum gritted his teeth, feeling anger bubbled inside of him. “He is my friend, Dad.”

“There’s no friends in this world, Kibum,” his Dad’s flat tone only provoked him more. “And you,” his Dad continued, “Mr. Yagi’s daughter will visit soon, next month or next two months. Be prepared to meet her. They will be a good support for us if you succeeds marrying his daughter.”

“Dad!” Kibum half-shouted as he couldn’t take it anymore. “Will you stop treating people as a tool?”

“Manner, Kibum,” his Dad sternly said. “You do as I say. You’re a Kim. Building your own company won’t change a fact that you’re part of this family.”

“I thought you kicked me away eleven years ago.”

“I sent you to exile for you learning your lesson to be normal.”

“You think I will change by that?” Kibum exploded. “No matter what you do, I’ll never like a girl and I’ll never marry one!”

“No matter what you say, you’ll do as I wish,” his Dad said in finality. “And don’t forget to vote as I said.”

Kibum almost threw away his phone in frustration and anger as soon as his Dad hang up. He tried to back his tears with banging his forehead to the wall. his father, his family!

The curse in his mind stopped when his forehead met soft surface instead of the hard wall. He pulled back in surprise, and he was more taken aback finding Lee Jinki looked at him with worries. Apparently, the kind man had put his palm on the wall to prevent the Kibum’s further abuse of his forehead.

“You okay?”

His nice voice kind of calmed Kibum down. Kibum quickly brought back his calm composure and answered Jinki, “I’m fine.”

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to eavesdrop or anything,” Jinki said apologetically. “But I heard shouts when passing so…I was just worried.”

, Kibum flinched in his mind. He heard me?

“I didn’t hear anything clearly,” Jinki quickly said, as if he could read Kibum’s mind. “I just hear some shouting and decided to check only to find you banging your head against the wall.”

“I just…” Kibum stopped. He just…what? There was no smart excuse Kibum could give right now.

“You don’t have to tell me anything,” Jinki smiled softly. “Here,” he gave the cup he was holding to Kibum, making the younger guy looked at him confusedly.

“I haven’t drunken this, I swear. I think you need it more. It has chocolate in it! To boost your endorphins and make you feel better.”

Seeing Jinki’s sincere smile, Kibum didn’t have a heart to tell Jinki that he actually hated cocoa. He could only muttered ‘thank you’ shyly, earning another smile that made his heart flip a little.

“Why are you here anyway?” Kibum asked.

“Checking the stores. There’s so much preparation to be done before the grand opening.”

“Oh right,” Kibum suddenly felt stupid asking that.

“Well, I gotta go. See you around, Kibum,” Jinki bid goodbye, too soon for Kibum’s liking. “I hope you have a nice day today.”

“Thank you.”

Kibum’s eyes never left Jinki’s broad back. Only when he couldn’t see Jinki anymore, Kibum looked down at the warm cup in his hand. He couldn’t help but amazed at the artistic design of the cup. The words ‘Bluish Pastry & Café’ were craved nicely at the cup holding. Although Kibum hated cocoa, he decided to take a sip of it.

As soon as the warm liquid touched his tongue, his eyes widened. He hated cocoa, but this one was strangely pleasant. He sipped more and he chuckled, though confused, seeing the color of the warm drink.

It’s blue.

Ignoring the receptionist’s greeting, Minho bolted out of the office, taking his long limbs to the elevator. He pressed the elevator button impatiently and got in as soon as it arrived. He needed minutes to calm himself down, and he was sure staying at the office wouldn’t do.

His mind wandered to the arguments earlier. He had just had a meeting with Minhyuk and his father. The visitor of the mall kept going down and they needed to do something about it. The tenants kept complaining that they couldn’t cover the rent if they couldn’t sell enough due to the lack of visitors.

Minhyuk had proposed a ridiculous plan, in Minho’s opinion. Minhyuk planned to destroy the large space at the right wings of the building that was occupied by a large garden, The SHINing Garden, the trademarks of the mall. The garden was used to be in the center of the building, but the constant development and expansion had shifted the position of the center of the mall. Minhyuk wanted to build a penthouse—a penthouse, for God’s sake—on top of the said space. He said the occupants of the penthouse would help to boost the number of the visitors.

The idea was argued by Minho, calmly and logically at first. There were some loopholes of the idea. First, they didn’t have enough fund for it. Second, even if they managed to get the fund needed, it wasn’t easy to sell a penthouse unit. Let’s say it was indeed fast occupied, how many people did actually fit in that penthouse tower? Hundreds? They needed thousands visitors to save the mall! Their mall had lost to other malls that gave updated creative and innovative attractions every year.

Minho had proposed to revive the forgotten SHINing Garden. It attracted people so much in the past. Especially with the current trend of social media right now, where young people, even some adult, were searching for what they called “instagram-worthy spot”, and the beautiful garden could lure those people. It was designed cleverly that people could enjoy every season there as it really captured the beauty of the seasons.

And as usual, his idea was dismissed. Without any clear reason.

Some days, he just accepted it with big heart. But some other days, just like today, he had had enough.

The elevator dinged and opened at the ground floor. Minho went out and made his way towards the core of his idea, the abandoned SHINing Garden.

But to his surprise, someone was there, despite the mall hadn’t been opened yet. Maybe he is an employee of our tenant, Minho thought. The slender man with silver hair was standing right in front of the garden entrance. The glass door was closed, preventing anyone from entering.

“Excuse me,” Minho’s voice startled the man. The stranger turned around, and Minho was a little mesmerized by the beauty of this man’s held. Only a little.

“This place is off limit,” Minho informed him.

“Sorry. I’m lost and somehow end up here,” the silver-haired said.

“Where are you going?”

“The loading docks.”

“You need to take different elevator. Just take that elevator,” Minho pointed the elevator he took before, “…to the 1^st floor, and then take the freight elevator at the end of the corridor. Go to the ground floor, and you will find the loading docks as soon as you go out of the elevator.”

“Ah, thank you,” the man bowed to show his gratitude before taking his leave.

Not sparing another glance to the stranger, Minho approached the garden entrance. He stopped where the stranger had stood before. It was the place where the inside of the garden could be seen clearly.

Memories flashed before his eyes as he watched the neglected garden. How he used to sneak there with Kibum in the middle of their harsh lessons and courses. How they used to have fun there. How they ice-skated there at winter, how they enjoyed the sunlight at summer. Minho remembered how the garden turned into beautiful brown and red at autumn, and became colorful at spring.

“This used to be so shiny,” Minho said to himself.

He wasn’t aware, two pair of eyes closely watched him.

“Right, this used to be,” the owner of the eyes agreed.

It was, a SHINing Garden, after all.

I hope I don't make you think too much by this story.

I'm like...majoring in accounting so I can't help but being detail with the basic rules, although there might be some inaccuracy due to lack of my knowledge.

I hope you enjoy :)

XOXO