A/N: I'm sorry I delayed the update when I've promised a quick update, something just came up >.<

So here's the update. Warning again: long chapter ahead. I personally don't feel satisfied with this chapter because it will be a bit confusing, so don't hesitate to ask if you don't understand what was really happening in Hyukjae's past. Well, enjoy ^^

DIIINN!!

The loud honking sound jolts Hyukjae ‘awake’. It feels like his head were being struck by a hammer or something. He holds his head with a hand and turns to the direction of the sound. A car flashes its rear lights at him.

“Yah! Do you wish to die?!” The driver hollered angrily, poking his head out the rolled down window.

Hyukjae squeezes his eyes shut as the rear lights start to burn them. He hears a trail of incoherent curses followed by the sound of the car driving away. Regaining consciousness he opens his eyes again and found himself still not far from Nayoung’s house. He is standing in the middle of the road, the lamp post he leaned on earlier was a few meters behind. His head was throbbing.

Reality hit him that maybe it was his feet that functioned themselves like an autopilot mode, leading him to unthinkingly walk to the middle of the road when he wasn't even aware of it. Good thing the car honked him or another accident would happen again.

He remembers carrying the fast asleep Nayoung to her house after they had some talks at a park, but he ended up getting a flashback right after. The great fatigue was probably the reason of the whole flashback to wreck his head again. But God, the visions of his past were really strong. His headache is literally torturing now.

Hyukjae makes his way back to his apartment, careful not to trip over anything or stumble his step with the laces on his sneakers since he can’t even walk straightly. Once he’s inside his enormous suite, he doesn’t flick the lights on. He knows the blinding lights would only add the torturing sensation coming from every inch of his head.

The door to his office stands tall just next to the master bedroom. He opens it carefully, not wanting the creaking sound of the door to make his headache outrage. He sits on the leather seat at his study and turns the lamp on. A pile of paperwork greets his sight immediately. They contain everything about the project with Kangsan Group for the upcoming meeting and they have to be finished before ten this morning.

Hyukjae sighs. It’s now two o’clock in the morning. It will be a long night, but he needs to act deaf from the muscles around his neck that have been screaming for a rest. He turns on his laptop and rolls up his sleeves.

-Flashback-

The students of Seoul International strolled their ways out of the school. It was cold outside. Autumn was approaching and the warmth of summer was gradually replaced by cold breezes of wind.

19 year old Hyukjae was standing by the gate, he was waiting for someone. He noticed his juniors; girl juniors, looking at him with adoring eyes. It had been a year since he graduated from the school, but he had left a deep impression to his juniors. The girls in uniform greeted him cheerily. He just smiled back and diverted his attention back to the gate.

Hyukjae wasn’t a kingka- or at least he didn’t want to be referred as that. He was just the school’s biggest pride for sports. And everyone knew that he was the school owner’s grandson. Headmaster Lee’s grandson.

Genreally, the Lee family was a well known, educated family that owned prestigious schools and academies, one of them was this Seoul International High School. 17 years ago the family started a corporation moving in construction industry for hotels and apartments.

Good at sports, well-educated and well off. He was on the top of must-have list for the girls. Too bad someone had owned him already.

“Oppa!” Hyukjae turned to the direction of the familiar voice. A petite girl with long, shiny brown hair was practically running to him.

Almost immediately, he beamed. “Hey.”

He gave her a lingering hug and pulled away to look at her face. Her eyes gleamed at the sight of him. Her lips and nose were red from the crisp temperature. His Nana looked like an adorable doll. Without saying anything he placed his hands on her cheeks to give her warmth.

“It’s cold. Why didn’t you go in?” she pouted.

Hyukjae shook his head. “It’s fine.” He said before taking his hands off her cheeks and intertwined her hand with his.

Nayoung blushed at the contact and grinned stupidly. Girls were eyeing her with envy. “Why didn’t you go in though? Headmaster Lee is still in his office.” she turned to him.

Hyukjae looked away to the pavement. He gripped a bit tighter onto her hand. That’s why I didn’t go in there. He tried to pull out the calmest expression he had. While in reality, he was close to grabbing his hair every time he was reminded of his grandfather and the business.

About a year ago, his grandfather demanded both Hyukjae and Donghae to make the concept for a new project, he wanted his grandsons to learn about business. Hyukjae’s concept was the one got accepted. In fact, it hit a huge goal. It was surprising that his raw ideas could get accepted by almost all of the stockholders of LJS company, and his grandfather, of course, was ecstatic to hear that his grandson had such potentiality for business.

The said project started seven months ago. Everything went smooth, the whole process was going really well. It wasn’t until Hyukjae's father, the former CEO of LJS, was charged into a hospital. He was sleep deprived because the project itself apparently had overworked him.

Lee Jinseok began demanding more from Hyukjae since his father wasn’t able to handle the work at the time. He was starting to overestimate Hyukjae despite of his insufficient knowledge about business. He was expecting from him too highly. But the old man knew Hyukjae would be capable to manage the company.

But eventually, something serious went wrong with the project. It happened in the wrong timing too, when the project was in need for a huge financial support. Hyukjae’s father’s health was immediately affected, he got a heart attack when he heard the amount of deficit they had to suffer.

It made it two that both LJS and his father had to undergo their critical point.

That day, Hyukjae just wanted to escape from the pressures. The project was stuck and it had been his headache for weeks. Picking Nayoung up from her school was the sweet escape for him. His burdens were immediately lifted off his shoulders the moment he saw her smile.

“Oppa. Hyukjae oppa.” he felt Nayoung poking his cheek. When he finally snapped out of his thoughts, he turned to her only to find her huff sulkily.

“What is it, Nana-yah?” he pulled her closer obviously cherishing her company. He smiled warmly at her.

Nayoung tried hard not to be distracted with the adorable smile. “Why are you always zoning out lately?”

“I am?” Hyukjae asked.

“Yes.”

“Really?”

Nayoung soon realized he was only teasing her. She huffed again turning to the other side. Hyukjae laughed.

“Baby girl, don’t sulk. Come here. What was it that you said? Were you talking about Minji again?”

He knew he got her when suddenly she was innocently engrossed to answer the question. The thought of keep being grumpy at him had left her head in a flash. She clapped her hands, not minding the fact that she had to repeat her words over again.

“Yep! I got the highest score for the Math test today.” she beamed widely.

Hyukjae recalled how she was voicing out her insecurity about that particular subject every 5 minutes a week ago, sometimes it even caused his head to pound.

But he never minded that. He loved every waking moment when she openly showed her moods to him. When she was chirpy, when she cried, when she laughed, when she was angry... even her whines sounded lovely to him. The way she told everything to him made him feel essential to her life.

“That’s my girl.” Hyukjae ruffled her hair lovingly. “But that was because I contributed to it as well, don’t you think?”

“What? How?”

“I kept you company last night. You were almost asleep when I called you.”

Nayoung giggled. “You called me in the midnight, of course I was sleepy.”

“But you said you had to finish the whole problems from the book. I called you so you wouldn’t fall asleep. I believe you haven’t finished it when I called, am I right?” he leaned closer to her face, playfully narrowing his eyes. She blushed both from the closeness and getting caught. She cleared .

“Your call was kind of distracting me.” She pointed out.

Hyukjae laughed and ruffled her hair again. “You’re so hard working. Seoul University would have to go through a fit of remorse if they didn’t give the scholarship to you.”

“Wish me luck on it, Oppa.” She heaved a contented sigh.

“Of course I do. My girlfriend is so smart.” Hyukjae grinned. “Now now, let’s go grab some snack. Where do you want to go?”

“You’re free today?” her eyes widened in glee. Hyukjae was usually very busy.

“Hmm.” He nodded.

“I want to go to the nearest ice cream parlor!” she exclaimed, cheerfully bouncing forward, only to get Hyukjae pulling the back of her collared shirt.

“What, ice cream? Yah Kang Nayoung, it’s already freezing here!” Hyukjae said.

“You said it was fine.” She stuck out her tongue at him.

Hyukjae stared at her. “I did?”

“Yes! So come on, I'm craving for ice cream!” she started tugging on his sleeve like a kid. Before he could even move, however, a deep voice called.

“Young master,” Hyukjae froze on his feet. He turned around slowly. Secretary Park.

“Y-yes?” he stammered. He felt Nayoung scooted closer behind him, she had this fear of the man in front of them. She reasoned out that it was because Secretary Park’s voice was too deep and his face was plain scary. Just like Hyukjae’s grandfather.

“Chairman Lee wants to meet you.” he informed with a polite bow.

Hyukjae groaned. “But I-”

“Now. It’s important.” He said making Hyukjae gulp.

Hyukjae knew he couldn’t argue with that. He seriously hated this kind of interruptions. He turned to Nayoung slowly. “I’m sorry, can we go there tomorrow or something?” he sighed to her.

Nayoung nodded. “It’s okay. Go. Your grandfather needs you.”

Hyukjae grabbed both her hands and rubbed it gently. “I promise I’ll buy you an XL sized ice cream tomorrow okay? Now call Daeyoung or Donghae to pick you up.”

She smiled and fished out her phone. “You’ve promised, then. Now go. Secretary Park really creeps me out.” She whispered, secretively setting her eyes on the man in the black suit and cringed.

“Scaredy cat.” Hyukjae laughed mockingly.

“I’m not!” she exclaimed.

He patted her head. “I’ll go in, then. Bye. Be careful on your way, Nana.”

“I will. Bye oppa!” she waved to him as she walked to the bus stop to wait for her brother or her best friend to pick her up. She sat there placing her phone on her ear. She had tried calling Donghae, but for some reason she couldn’t reach his number.

Hyukjae was confused with the frown on her face, but he was nudged by Secretary Park to quickly make his way to the principal’s room. Hyukjae was once again entering his high school. It’s been a long time since he didn’t get in there.

They walked up to a tall door at one side of the hallway. Secretary Park knocked on the hardwood door three times before opening it slowly. He moved to the side to let Hyukjae enter the room first.

Hyukjae was taking his first step in calmly when his grandfather roared angrily. “WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?!”

Hyukjae caught a glance of the livid old man for a second before retreating his gaze to his feet. He knew his grandfather was mightily angry at him.

Hyukjae’s phone hadn't stopped vibrating in his pocket since this afternoon, but he refused to pick up the calls. He knew who’d been calling him. His grandfather. But he wanted to escape from everything just once.

“Sit down.” He commanded authoritatively. As Hyukjae took a seat across from the big, wooden desk, Secretary Park stood beside the principal. Lee Jinseok glared at his intimidated grandson. “A big mess happened.” He said.

Hyukjae heaved a silent sigh, he already knew that and wasn’t the least bit interested in that.

Lee Jinseok wasn’t impressed by the impassive boy. “Listen to me carefully. I’m not repeating my words.” He said. “On today’s monthly meeting, half of the stockholders demanded your father to declare incapability and drop his position as the President.”

“What?” Hyukjae quickly lifted his head up. He didn’t know this before. His hands began trembling on the arm rest. “Declare... incapability? W-what happened with Abeoji?”

“The question is what happened to your phone.” He shot back. “I’ve been calling you but you didn’t bother picking it up. You were fooling around. I thought you were better than this, Lee Hyukjae.”

Hyukjae shot up from his seat. “What happened to my father?!”

“Conduct yourself.” The man replied seriously. Hyukjae glared at his grandfather but obediently sat back on the seat. “He got a heart attack again.” he informed him, rubbing his temple. “God, why does that have to happen when the company’s at this state.”

Hyukjae’s mouth fell open. Because of his father’s constantly dropping health and his grandfather’s comment about it. For God’s sake it was his son that laid on the hospital bed. How could he still think about the company? Business had blinded him more than he knew it.

“Take your father’s place,” He spoke again. “I have turned the stocks that your father possessed to be under your name. You should take over the company sooner.”

Hyukjae looked over at his grandfather. That’s crazy. LJS was such a big company to handle and he was only on his first year at his business major! Does that idea even make sense?

“We’re jammed. We have to make a quick move. The deficit is getting bigger and bigger while our stock prices keep going down on the market. But I have plans about it.” He pulled out a brown folder and practically slammed it on the table. “Learn about these companies.”

Hyukjae just eyed it. “What’s that?”

“Learn about them.” Lee Jinseok repeated. “There are about 4 companies in total. You can read the details in that folder.”

“I-I don’t understand.” Hyukjae said honestly. He was literally lost.

“You’ll understand slowly. I’ll tell you how business should be going. You just need to attend the meetings with me from now on and watch me taking the steps.”

“Only me?” Hyukjae lifted his eyes off the folder. “Where’s Donghae?”

His grandfather snorted. “I sent him to US.”

“What?” Hyukjae was once again taken aback.

“I sent him to US. To a boarding school there. All he was doing here was just spending money and fooling around. He needs to be disciplined.” He explained indifferently. “But that’s not important. Just concentrate on studying those companies.”

Hyukjae still hadn’t fully recovered from the shocks he got. “What about these companies?”

“They are the companies leading the stock prices in the market. They hold the stocks with the highest prices.” He said. His eyes darkening. “And we need to topple them over.”

Hyukjae stared at him with widened eyes. “Y-you mean, monopolize them?” he stuttered, surprised yet again. It was illegal. But his grandfather nodded. “Is it... to cover up the financial deficiency in LJS?”

“You’re a quick learner, as expected.” He nodded in satisfaction. “We’ll take over their stocks. But we’ll have to plan some collaborated project with them first.”

Hyukjae was tensed. He reached out for the leathery folder and flipped the cover. A list of the said four companies was on the front page, under the name of the company was written the name of the CEOs. Hyukjae gaped. The companies were indeed the well-known ones. He was about to turn the page when a company in the list got his attention.

Company: Kangsan Corp.

Business sector : Kangsan Department Store

Korean marketing rank: 4th

Current CEO: Kang Myungshik

Hyukjae’s eyes widened. Kang Myungshik. It was Nayoung’s father.

“What is it?” his grandfather asked when he saw the color leaving Hyukjae’s face.

Hyukjae closed the folder slowly. He looked up at the man before him and shook his head. “There must be another way. We shouldn’t do this.”

“And what’s that other way you’re talking about?” the older man snapped at him.

He was silenced. He didn’t know what the other way would be, but he surely wasn’t going to agree with this. He stared at his grandfather, almost pleading. “It’s illegal, Harabeoji. It’s-”

“In the business world,” he cut him off short. His tone was firm. “any ways are considered legal. As far as it could make us survive, any ways are considered legal.”

Hyukjae frowned. That still sounded inhuman to him. How could they just put the other’s hard works into a downfall just to save theirs? That's too selfish.

He stood up from his seat yet again. “I’m not in.”

“Yes you’re in.” The old man pressed.

“Harabeoji,” he breathed heavily. “I know I’m still raw in business, but I know those companies. They were, like, the biggest companies in Seoul or even in the whole South Korea. Can you imagine how many workers would get unemployed if those companies go bankrupt?” And how Nana and Daeyoung would feel if they knew the reason behind Kangsan’s bankruptcy was me?

“So you'd prefer LJS to go bankrupt instead? Don’t try to be a hero, Lee Hyukjae.” The old man’s patience was getting really thin. “Set your priority. This is business. We’re competing with them to stand out on the market and the word mercy shouldn't be in our dictionary.”

“Harabeoji,”

“That’s final.” He growled. He turned his head to Secretary Park who had his eyes on the bicker the whole time. “Drive him home. Make sure he doesn’t go anywhere tonight. Help him to prepare for the monthly meeting the day after tomorrow.”

Hyukjae gave him a disbelieved look and wasted no time to storm his way out of the principal’s room. Secretary Park bowed to the chairman before quietly following the grandson.

The steps Hyukjae took were heavy. He felt the burdens start to weigh down his chest again. But this time it was much heavier than before. He really wanted to let out a cry. This was frustrating.

What the hell happened with his life? His father had gotten another heart attack, Donghae had left without him knowing and now he had to invade the other companies. One of them was even owned by his best friend’s and girlfriend’s family.

Hyukjae glared at Secretary Park who had already opened the car’s back door for him. The latter just sighed and went to the driver’s seat when Hyukjae got in and slammed the door himself.

Secretary Park glanced over him through the rear view mirror as he started the car. Never in his life he saw the calm boy to be this furious. “Business is indeed like this, young master. Full of tricks and facades.”

“Or it’s just that Lee Jinseok that’s heartless.” Hyukjae snapped. He was too tired to be told about something that didn’t cheer him up at all. “Tell him I’m still not going to be involved in any of those stupid plans.”

As the car sped up through the abnormally deserted road of Seoul, Secretary Park spoke quietly. “Just... be careful, Mr. Lee.”

The statement caught Hyukjae’s attention. “What do you mean?” he asked. He knew something serious was, or would be going on. But the man remained silent as he took a left turn. “Secretary Park!” he cried.

“Chairman Lee will murder me if he knows this coming from me.” He muttered under his breath. “I honestly don’t know what’s going to happen if you don’t do it the way he wants you to. But Chairman Lee always has his ways.”

Hyukjae formed his fists. “What are you talking about? Spill it out.” He demanded.

Hyukjae caught the agitated feeling in Secretary Park’s cold eyes. He knew why. Secretary Park had been working for his grandfather for over 10 years and he was practically his right hand. It was a wonder that he was willing to talk about Lee Jinseok behind his back.

“Starting from two months ago, Chairman Lee had me tracking down your close friends.”

 Hyukjae felt his heart skip to his throat. “Go on.”

“He told me to narrow down the tracking to one specified person.” He informed, reluctantly taking another glance at the uneasy Hyukjae. “He told me to narrow it down on a senior year student in Seoul International... her name is Kang Nayoung.”