WooHyun’s POV

Nam Woohyun, the boy who’d never garnered any sort of attention, except perhaps the kind of attention one gets for being overly normal, suddenly found his life changed ever since he had spoken the nine words, “I’m Nam WooHyun. The new leader of Nam Corporations.”

His parents had been surprised by his sudden willingness to take over the company, but truth be told, WooHyun had surprised himself. But what Sunggyu had said about change was too true to be ignored. And so WooHyun had accepted his Uncle’s challenge because, in all honesty, that was exactly what he saw his inheritance as. He didn’t see it as a form of compensation so much as he saw it as an outright challenge. His Uncle had probably smirked and thought, “Bet you can’t best me.” But WooHyun was determined to do just that.

However, being only 17 years old, WooHyun still had five and a half months of high school left. Predictably, he was forced to change his classes to classes that were business-oriented. But it was somewhat of a relief to change his classes, since it meant that WooHyun wouldn’t have to face his friends at school. Instead, as a part of his training, WooHyun would open and manage a little café on Ashbury Lane, where he was expected to work after school. He was allowed to hire other people to help run the café, but he was expected to figure out the financial inputs and outputs and the marketing designs himself. WooHyun was hoping to receive help from his parents since his mother was a designer and his father was an accountant. The café would undergo a month of construction, and open in February, just in time for Valentine’s Day.

So Eun’s POV

“Mom, can I-?”

‘”What, dear?”

I fell silent. This hadn’t been the first time this week that I’d caught my mom totally unfocused. What was going on? My mom was never dazed.

“Nothing”, I answered, turning away. My voice and attitude made it clear that I was upset with her, but my mom didn’t move. I closed my bedroom door and sighed, leaning my forehead on the door.

What were my parents keeping from me? Didn’t they know it was worse to keep silent… it just forced me to become part of their act, to keep silent and pretend that nothing was wrong when obviously something was. So frustrating…

I flopped on my bed and groaned.

Life was not going well lately… Myungsoo and I were semi-arguing as well.

Myungsoo had gotten angry at WooHyun for some inheritance something or the other, saying that WooHyun had been lying to him this whole time…

I honestly didn’t see what Myungsoo was getting so upset about… I mean, wasn’t it Myungsoo who stabbed WooHyun in the back first? Not that I minded, of course…

But I felt obligated to stand up for WooHyun, regardless of whatever he had “inherited”, when I reminded Myungsoo that both of us owed Woohyun, Myungsoo had gotten extremely defensive. I’d let it drop because I really didn’t have any idea what was going on… but our relationship had become… stressed since then .

But I couldn’t very well fix it because I didn’t know what was going on!

Why didn’t anyone tell me what was going on?

I mean, what did they expectme to do about it? I wasn’t going to blindly take their side just because they thought it was right. For all I knew, real help would be not taking their side, and instead showing them how they were just taking it the wrong way…

I rolled over and buried my head under my Badtz Maru pillow.

Sometimes not thinking about it just makes everything better…

Are any of you familiar with procrastination?

I thought so.

Myungsoo’s POV

Stocks.

Stocks…

I groaned and put my head in my hands.

My main stock, my main source of income had been invested in none other than Nam Corporations.

Who would have guessed that WooHyun was the heir?

There are a countless number of Nams in South Korea, in Seoul alone, at our school alone!
Why WooHyun!?

And why hadn’t he told me…

He’d acted like he had no money this whole time when…

My hand balled up into a fist.

He’d lied to me about everything.

Kingka? Even competition? Fairness?

I scoffed.

I’d hesitated when he’d thought that trading places was about So Eun because in all honesty, I didn’t mean for him to compete with me over So Eun at all. There was no way I going to let him take the only source of family and love in my life. But I hadn’t predicted this to happen, so I’d let him believe that was what I wanted. 

But what the hell had he been thinking about this whole time? How to completely screw me over?

My life savings suddenly depended on him, and furthermore, he had a ing good chance of getting So Eun.

Because I knew exactly what So Eun liked, what attracted her naturally.

So Eun liked status and power.                  

She wasn’t obsessed with money at all, but she unconsciously gravitated towards the only lifestyle she’d ever known: rich. Her parents were rich, and they lived high quality. She’d always lived like a princess, in the penthouse of the apartment up there… She would look for someone who could provide for her. She was only with me because she believed I could become that person, though I knew she herself wasn’t aware of that.

But I was. I know her.

And now I know that Nam WooHyun is a threat to me.

In order to avoid So Eun and WooHyun getting together, I risked losing my income.

If I lost my money, I would most likely lose So Eun. Maybe not now, but later.

So… I took a deep breath.

I was going to have to help WooHyun so that my money would be secured… and just hope So Eun liked me legitimately.

Please…, I thought, closing my eyes, please don’t let her leave me.