Really, the first warning should have been when Namjoon woke up that morning to find that Monie had accidentally knocked over the framed photo of him and his siblings on his nightstand. He should have taken that as a sign from the universe. A sign to stay in at home, and just have his executive secretaries deal with the blow out of him skipping a full business day.

But he's never been one to listen when the universe drops these little warnings. Instead, he sets the photo right, feeds his dog and starts preparing for work at a quarter to ten in the morning. Which is why when he’s greeted with an incessant calendar alert on his phone right after his shower, he’s more than a little confused.

BOARD OF DIRECTORS MEETING - 10:00AM

He blinks at it, wondering if his secretary scheduled the date wrong again. It wouldn’t be the first time. Besides, he is almost 80% sure that Board of Directors meetings only happen once a quarter on the second Wednesday of the second month and today’s date is--

“!” Namjoon doesn’t even care that his new phone clatters unceremoniously to the ground and under his bed, he makes a mad dash for the walk-in closet and starts changing. 

Really he shouldn’t be blamed for the lapse. After their father passed, the conglomerate had been split equally between him and his brothers, as per the very detailed will that everyone had to sit through the reading for after the funeral. 

Seokjin was now single handedly running the shipping and export business. Jungkook was now the major shareholder and also youngest partner ever in their family’s law firm and Namjoon. Well Namjoon likes to think ever since he became the President of their family’s bank that stocks have never been higher. Which was to say, they’ve all been pretty busy in the last year, so really, forgetting one Board of Directors meeting shouldn’t be such a big deal. Still that didn’t mean that---

He’s interrupted from his thoughts by the very loud, very intrusive ringtone he has set for his older brother, and if the way Kim Namjoon dives for his phone under his bed is undignified for a man currently decked out in an Ermenegildo Zegna suit, well at least no one is around to see.

“Yah,” he answers, not even bothering with formalities, he had once seen Seokjin slip and fall into the fountain at Disney World during a family vacation, and they weren’t even kids then, that was when they were already attending University abroad, his brother should be used to it by now.

“You forgot didn’t you?”

Namjoon huffs, affronted and already halfway out the door with briefcase and laptop in hand, “I run one of the country’s leading banks with over thousands of accounts and hundreds of millions of won passing through every day.”

“Just say you forgot.” he hates that he can hear his older brother’s -eating grin even through the static of a phone call. By some grace of the universe, his car and driver are already waiting outside his building, and sliding into the cool leather seats of his car eases some of his stress away.

“I’m already on the way.”

“Fine, fine. Just don’t let it happen again. By the way--” Whatever else his brother has to say is lost to static and unintelligible syllables as the signal cuts out for a few seconds along a busy intersection. Luckily there isn’t much traffic today, about as lucky as the fact that his apartment building is only a few minutes away from their family’s own building. What he hears next is, “--so consider yourself warned.”

He wonders whether or not he should ask what that last sentence was, but he can already see their family’s building looming up ahead and anyway, it probably has something to do with their Board of Directors Meeting. He can deal with it.

“Right, I’m almost at the building, I’ll see you there.”

“Great.”

He doesn’t even wait for the car to fully come to a stop before he hops out. Namjoon practically zooms past the building lobby. He supposes it’s a sort of benefit that being one of the most successful business heirs in South Korea means that people will practically part like the Red Sea while you pass. If anything, it certainly helps him get into an elevator a lot faster. 

Namjoon pulls out his phone again this time to a thread of text messages from his youngest brother. 

‘Where are you?’

‘Are you late? You’re never usually late before.’

‘Hyung is getting impatient and he says that if you’re not here in 30 seconds we’re starting without you.’

The last one was sent twenty seconds ago, and Namjoon is about to type out a furious reply about patience and maturity and I’m already in the damned elevator for heaven’s sake if I could make it go faster I would. Luckily, the elevator saves him from himself, pinging open to reveal his secretary with a deer in the headlights look and a series of folders clutched to her chest in a death grip. 

“Next time I’ll thank you for remembering to set my alarms earlier on days when there are Board Meetings.” He says, already walking past her. He doesn’t mean to be so curt with Ye-jun, really he doesn’t. She’s a hard worker who is entitled to slip ups every now and then, but he’s also the President of a Bank and the second major shareholder of the Kim Family Conglomerate and certain boundaries are meant to be kept.

“I’m so sorry Sir. It won't happen again I promise.” He accepts the to-go cup of coffee she hands him and sweeps into the board meeting with his head held high. The sight of the other directors straightening at his entrance improves his mood a bit, however seeing his two brothers smirking at him from the head of the long conference table quickly undoes any confidence he feels, so like the mature, respectable, businessman he is Namjoon glares back at them. 

Once he takes his seat to Seokjin’s right, his older brother finally begins the meeting. “Now that my brother is finally here, we can start.”

Two hours in and with only half the items on the agenda covered, Namjoon is already bone tired. It’s a good thing Board of Directors meetings are only once a quarter because he doesn’t think he could handle doing this every month, or even every week for that matter. He pulls up the projected financial stock updates on his laptop in preparation for his own report later on when a commotion outside reaches his ears.

Some of the directors are already glancing hesitantly at the door and when a very muffled but very familiar, very deep feminine voice reaches his ears, Namjoon feels his blood turn to ice. His head snaps up to Seokjin beside him, who doesn’t look surprised but at least has the temerity to look nervous. Across the table, Jungkook looks about ready for the floor to swallow him whole. 

When Kim Byulyi, family menace and their youngest sister bursts through the door Namjoon regrets not listening to the higher power that hinted at him staying home that day. It's with a dull sort of resignation that he registers Byul is dressed more like a random person at a theme park than as the fourth major shareholder of the Kim Conglomerate. She's wearing a comfy white sweater, black overalls, and sneakers. Her hair is shorter too since the last time Namjoon saw her.

“Oppa!”

“Byul!” Seokjin stands up to greet their sister with a hug, board meeting all but forgotten, which is no big surprise, the two of them had always been the closer of the four of them. It’s no secret in the family that Kim Seokjin would do anything for his sister, Namjoon just wishes the ten other Directors in the room didn’t have to be privy to that knowledge as well. 

Namjoon leans forward, pitching his voice low so only Jungkook can hear, “I thought she was supposed to be vacationing in Europe?”

“She decided to come home early, said she wanted to tell us something. Her flight landed this morning. DIdn’t Hyung tell you?”

“No, he--”

“I thought you were meeting us for dinner instead?” Seokjin asks Byul, already slinging an arm around her shoulders and motioning for the building’s staff to pull up another chair for Byul. She smirks at each of her brothers in turn and Namjoon suddenly has a very clear flashback of thirteen year-old Byulyi using that same expression on the day they discovered that she had snuck a stray puppy into their home and hidden it in his bedroom. 

“I was,” she says, feigning innocence, “but I missed my three knucklehead brothers. By the way,” she turns to Namjoon and punches his arm. In front of their Board of Directors.

“Ow--What?” he glares at her.

“What are you doing making your secretary cry like that? The poor woman was in tears when I got off the elevator. I hope you have plans of apologizing!”

“I didn’t--” Namjoon looks around at the other Directors, at his two other helpless brothers, then finally at his sister, still as unapologetic and as chaotic as the day she was born before deciding this was one battle he couldn’t win. “Of course I will apologize. After this meeting.”

“Good,” Byul says, placated, before crossing over to Jungkook, who already has his shoulders hunched in preparation for whatever torment his sister has in store for him. Namjoon has another flashback, this time of ten year old Byul, pushing twelve year old Jungkook into their family pool in the summer. So much for being one of Seoul’s most cutthroat lawyers, Namjoon thinks wryly.

“Thanks for sending your car to pick us up from the airport!” Byul says, none too worried about messing up Jungkook’s hair, who bares it with as much dignity as a grown man who’s just watched his reputation swirl down the drain can. 

“Of course Byul-ah,” Jungkook says resigned, “anything for--wait. Who’s us?”

Byul straightens and starts looking around as if only just realizing that there was something missing. She immediately walks back out the conference room and Namjoon can hear the hushed but angry conversation Byul is having with someone else from just behind the door. He chances a look around the table, the members of the Board either look amused at the turn of events, or disgruntled at the sudden disruption. Honestly, Namjoon can’t blame them.

When Byul finally re-enters, it’s with another woman in tow. They’re holding hands. 

“Who’s this?” Seokjin asks, unperturbed. Namjoon sometimes wishes he has his older brother's ability to just take things in stride.

“This is Kim Yongsun,” Byul says proud, there’s a soft expression on her face as she looks back toward the other woman, “my girlfriend.”

If Namjoon had been holding something, he’s sure he would have dropped it in shock. Across from him, Jungkook’s eyes look like they're about to pop out of his head. Even Seokjin seems surprised by the news. It’s abundantly clear that whatever news they had expected Byul to share with them, it certainly wasn’t this. 

The girlfriend in question is very pretty. Her hair is short too, like Byul's. There's a roundness to her face that hints at youth if not for the wisdom and maturity in her eyes. She also looks as if she just came from the airport, in an all black jumpsuit that, Namjoon realizes, matches with his sister's outfit. A voice in the back of his mind notes that, at the very least, the two of them look good as a couple.

And at least Kim Yongsun has the good sense to look embarrassed about this whole situation. Unlike his sister.

Around the table, their board members' expressions now range from shocked to scandalized. A part of Namjoon is oddly excited for how the minutes of this meeting will turn out. Surely it’ll go down in history as the strangest Board of Directors meeting to date.

There’s also the matter of ensuring that none of the men and women in this room who aren’t part of their family will take this sudden news to the press, but that’s something for future Namjoon and future Jungkook to worry about. Good thing their family owns the most powerful law firm in the country.

Seokjin seems to have gotten over his shock enough to walk over and warmly shake Byul’s girlfriend’s hand. “Yongsun, right? It’s so nice to meet you.”

Kim Yongsun flushes, clearly embarrassed. Still she bows low and says the pleasure’s all hers, and that innocent little gesture, a woman nervous not because she was pulled into a meeting for one of South Korea’s most lucrative conglomerates but because she’s meeting her girlfriend’s only family, is enough to make him smile. Of course the moment just has to be ruined by--

“This is unacceptable!”

The outburst had come from the other end of the table. Park Hyunsook, one of the older members of their board. Namjoon vaguely remembers even seeing him at their father’s funeral last year.

“First you let this woman disrupt our meeting!” He almost yells, gesturing to Byul with a dismissive wave of his hand, “without even bothering to tell her off for---now you just let her spit on your father’s good name by bringing--”

“Hyunsook-nim.”

The room turns very quiet, and it takes Namjoon a beat to realize that he’s standing up and that he’s the one who has spoken. Because even though his sister is a total menace, who manages to get everything she wants by sheer force of will alone. And even though Byulyi and her single-handed disregard for societal norms has managed to ruin this board meeting, Namjoon still has a very clear memory of sixteen year old Byul, coming home from school in tears before telling her three brothers that it was because she had been rejected for the first time. By a girl. The photo on his nightstand that Monie had knocked over is from that day, when the four of them had collectively gotten their hair dyed purple as a way to cheer Byul up.

“You’ll remember that all your company’s clients course their products through our family’s shipping company, and that those same clients have multi-billion won corporate accounts with our family’s bank,” from his peripheral he can see both Jungkook and Seokjin also glaring at Park Hyunsook. Good. “So I hope you think twice before you disrespect our sister again.”

Park Hyunsook looks stunned, clearly not expecting that . He sputters for a few seconds more, but Namjoon can see the fight leaving his eyes. Finally he sits back down.

“Wah, look at you,” Byul crows, rushing over to him and catching Namjoon in a one-armed hug, which surely rumples his suit to an unforgivable degree, “getting all intimidating. Would they still be scared of you if they knew about that time you--”

“Byul-ah! Please!” Namjoon says, exasperated and not above clamping a hand over his sister’s mouth. Still, when he looks over at her, he sees something in her expression turn soft and really, it’s no secret in the family that all three Kim brothers would go to the ends of the earth for their little sister. 

Without warning, he feels Byul’s tongue at his palm and he pulls his hand away, disgusted. “Aish, what are you, ten?”

Byul just laughs, the full-bodied, rich sound of it forcing a smile from Namjoon against his own will. He watches his sister walk back over to her girlfriend, taking the other girl’s hand before winking at her brothers and turning to leave. “We’ll see you for dinner!”

Namjoon shakes his head and silently offers a prayer for Kim Yongsun’s patience. Any woman who willingly agrees to be in a relationship with his little sister must either be out of her mind, or in possession of endless amounts of patience.

When the door closes behind his sister and her girlfriend, Namjoon shares a look with his brothers. The three of them share a look because family, right? Before Seokjin claps his hands and resumes his seat at the head of the conference table.

“Right, so moving along--” 

Namjoon chuckles under his breath, pulling up the stock projections again. It’s going to be a long day.