In front of a tall modernized building, three figures dressed in black and sunglasses waiting at the back door, standing tall and firm. Three familiar faces scurried over to the man with messy mischievous hair, who finally came through the door. Despite his complex hairstyle, he showed some wrinkles that he was aged, mainly due to stress from work.

"Good morning, Mr. Cho," one of the three men said, leading the older man to the limousine. "We got the limousine ready to depart."

"Where's Changmin?" Kyuhyun asked, fixing his tie before one of the men opened the door for him.

"Mr. Shim is already waiting for you at the destination," the second man said.

"He didn't wait for me?" Kyuhyun asked.

"He left us with these reports. Please read them while you're on your business trip," the third man said, handing him a folder full of papers.

"Wait a minute. You guys aren't coming with us?" Kyuhyun asked, looking at the three.

"Mr. Shim has ordered us to stay back and look over security," the first man told him.

"Pft. There's no reason for you guys to look through security. We got one of the top-notch security system in the business." He flicked his fingers towards him. "Come. You guys are coming with me."

"B-But Mr. Shim will get mad—"

"This is my order," Kyuhyun demanded. 

The three boys looked at each other. Then, with a grin, they excitedly crammed in the limousine, waiting for the next small adventure in their life.

~ ~ ~

One afternoon, Kiha was busying himself once again with his story. Jieun, too, found herself casually sipping tea at his kitchen. Much to her surprise, she even brought some of her grading papers to grade while she enjoyed herself at his house. Jungkook was at cram school, so the place was a lot more quiet. Chanyeol, of course, was here, too, except he was busy cleaning the house to hold a small talk with Jieun.

So, in Jieun's head, she was in her own world, doing her own thing with some type of company. She liked it, much to her surprise. It never occurred to her how comforting it was to be alone, despite having people around her.

When she was done grading the papers, she heard the door bell ring. She looked around to see if Chanyeol was going to answer the door, but realized that the man was too occupied with vacuuming the living room. She was about to go and call Kiha, but she figured that the older man wouldn't be able to get up from his seat to answer the door. She got up and started walking to the front door.

"Who is it?" she answered, looking through the peephole. She noticed that whoever was standing on the other side had covered the view with their hand. 

"Uh… Guests!" someone replied in a muffled tone.

She frowned. "Guests? We're not expecting any guests."

"Wait, I'm hearing a girl's voice."

"This is Kiha's house, right?"

"Yes sir, it is Jang Kiha's house."

"Okay, but he's not married right?"

"He's not married, sir. He has no female acquaintances."

"Then why is a girl answering the door?"

"I'm not too sure, sir."

Jieun frowned. This is really suspicious. I better call Kiha—

She turned around but let out a small yelp when she bumped into the larger figure. She looked up and noticed Kiha squinting at the door. He looked down at her, smiled, then placed an index finger over his lip to tell her to be quiet. He crept closer to the door and looked through the whole, but frowned when he saw nothing but darkness.

"Ah, whatever! Jang Kiha, open up!"

"S-Sir, you shouldn't do that—"

"Whatever, Kyuhyun! If this man doesn't open the door, I'm going to barge in myself!"

"You shouldn't do that, sir…"

"What? Are you looking down on me? I am the CEO of Max Fashion Brand!"

Jieun felt her heart stop. She knew the brand and the title. She knew the person who took that title with dignity and pride. It was the same person who encouraged Jiyong to leave her. It was the same damn person who took Jiyong away from her!

She turned and looked at Kiha. He scowled even more when he seemed to realize who the voice belonged to.

"God damn it, Shim Changmin! Leave me alone!" Kiha shouted back. He slammed the door just to make the other side quiet.

Why does Kiha know Changmin? she wondered.

It didn't take long for Changmin to get riled up. From outside, Changmin started to bang the door with his fist.

"Open up, Jang Kiha! I know you're there! Open up right now!"

"Or else what?" Kiha barked.

"Or else I'm going to buy this property and force it open!"

"Sir, you can't do that—"

"Shut up, Kyuhyun!"

"Listen to your assistant for once and leave me alone!" Kiha shouted. "Everything related to the Jang's Cooperation goes straight to the president of that company, not to me!"

It took a while for Jieun to remember that Jungkook's father was taking care of the whole business-related aspect of the family. It made her wonder why Changmin would all the way down to talk to Kiha about such a topic.

"Oh please. Everyone in the business area knows that you're the true superstar of that company. Now, I came all the way down here just to talk to you, so open the damn door!" Changmin ordered.

Kiha groaned loudly. "Why can't you just leave me alone for the month? Or better yet—for the year!"

"Ha, ha, ha! That's ridiculous," Changmin stated sarcastically. "Now, I'm the CEO of Max Fashion Brand, and I demand this door to be opened—"

The door swung open. Changmin and his crew blinked their eyes as they saw Kiha and Jieun standing in front of them. However, Kiha seemed quiet surprised about the fact that the door was opened. He looked down and noticed that Jieun was the one who unlocked the door and swung it open. She hitched her breath as she met Changmin's eyes.

This girl looks familiar, Changmin thought. However, he couldn't quite recognize the hurt and pain evident in her eyes.

On the other hand, Kyuhyun immediately remembered Jieun. He couldn't help to note that she had grown wonderfully, but guilt stabbed through his chest when he saw her look at him as if she was expecting something. He only looked down and away from her aching gaze.

Three heads poked out behind the two's shoulder. Then, they smiled brightly when they realized who the female was.

"Hey! It's Jieun!" one of the men exclaimed. Jieun frowned, unable to recognize the men with glasses. She finally gasped when they took off their sunglasses and revealed their face.

"Wonshik? Changshik? Kyungsoo?" she exclaimed, remembering the three boys who used to chase after Jiyong.

It had been years since she had actually seen the boys. All she knew that was Jiho kept in touch with them and that they were doing fine. From what she remembered, Jiho had told her that they were working under Changmin's company for secret service reasons. Although the two weren't sure what kind of jobs the three did, Minah seemed to have a clear idea. However, Minah never told them what the three did. She always dropped the topic and left the two to only use their imagination to think of their super important tasks.

"You've grown old," Kyungsoo blurted.

"Yeah! Did you change your hair style? It's a lot more neater than before," Wonshik chirped in.

"But you looked better five years ago. You look like you went through a hell storm," Changshik added.

"You know these three?" Kiha asked, shooting them all glare. 

"Yes, I do. They went to school with me," Jieun explained. "I was never close to them, though…"

"Yeah, we only followed King Kwon around," Wonshik said. Jieun felt her heart squeeze in pain. It had been forever since she had heard the title.

"H-Have you seen him?" she asked them in a quiet voice.

"Who? King Kwon?" Changshik asked. She nodded.

"Yeah. Plenty of times," Kyungsoo revealed.

Jieun felt her heart break. "O-Oh…plenty."

"We can't really talk to King Kwon like how we did before," Wonshik said. "When we see him, we can't address him as 'King Kwon' anymore. It's 'sir' or 'Mr. Kwon' or something more formal."

"But to us, he's still the king," Kyungsoo said cheerfully.

"He'll always be King Kwon at heart," Changshik agreed.

"What do you say, Jieun?" Kiha asked, grabbing her attention. "I'm okay with letting those three in, but the two over there…"

"Hey, hey, hey! If they're going in, then I have to go in!" Changmin protested.

"Let's just kick them all out, then."

"Kiha, why are you being such a pain?"

"Where's the formality? I'm six years older than you."

"Shut up and let me in."

"What do you say, Jieun?" Kiha asked, turning to her again. "It's your call."

Jieun pressed her lips. Why was he asking her to make the decision? Wasn't this his own house? Shouldn't he be the one to make the choices?

It took her a while, but she realized that there was some kind of glint in Kiha's eyes. They were full of anticipation and excitement, as if he was stirring up an scenario in his head…

Oh, Jieun thought. He's hoping that he can get some inspiration out of this.

"It's entirely up to you," she murmured.

Kiha looked at Changmin. "If I let you in, will you promise that you won't cause chaos?"

"Since when have I ever caused chaos?" Changmin retorted.

"You've always caused chaos," Jieun blurted, her tone heavy with grudge. She snapped out of her thoughts and gasped. She looked up and noticed the way Changmin stared at her. She faked a laugh. "W-Well, come in. Should I go and make some tea—"

"Ah," Changmin said, snapping his finger. He pointed at Jieun, who continued to make eye contact with him. "I know you. You're the girl who kept getting in the way of bringing—"

"Stop, stop, stop," Kyuhyun said, interrupting Changmin. "Excuse the two of us for a moment…"

Kyuhyun dragged Changmin to the side. As the two started talking, Jieun looked over at Kiha, who only frowned in confusion.

"You know them, too?" Kiha asked her.

Jieun wasn't sure what to say. She didn't reply. She only sealed her lips and kept quiet. Kiha nodded his head in amusement, then stepped to the side for a moment.

"Come in," Kiha told the three.

The three cheered and stepped inside the large house. Soon after, when Kyuhyun finished giving Changmin a pep-talk, the two came inside as well. The whole group went to the living room and sat down. Jieun was about to go and make some tea, but Kiha stopped her.

"I'll go make the tea," Kiha said. "Or do any of you prefer coffee?"

"I want water with lemon," Changmin stated.

"Today's your lucky day because guess what? You get the mystery drink! Cheap instant coffee that I got on a special sale at the store," Kiha said. He tuned a whistle while Changmin continued to throw useless words at him.

Jieun let out a small laugh and looked at the hallway. In the corner of her eyes, she noticed Chanyeol hiding behind the wall. When they made eye-contact, he motioned her to keep quiet about his presence. She only gave him a small nod and looked away.

"So, why are you here?" Jieun asked them.

"We don't know," the trio stated.

"We're here to talk privately with Kiha," Kyuhyun started. "We have important business to talk to him about."

"So should I leave?" Jieun asked, ready to get up. 

"Well, it'd be nice if you could step out for a moment," Kyuhyun said politely.

Jieun nodded. As she got up, Changmin stopped her and pointed at the three.

"Take the bodyguards with you to wherever you're going," Changmin ordered.

"Bodyguards?" Jieun repeated. She looked at the trio. "You guys are bodyguards?"

"We're the top secret agents sworn to protect the CEO of Max Fashion Brand," Kyungsoo announced proudly.

"Right, right. Now, go somewhere where you won't bother us. I'll call you when we're done," Changmin said. He took out his wallet from his pocket and handed a handful of money to Jieun. "Here, take this."

Jieun widened her eyes. "For what?"

"Compensation money," Changmin said. "For what happened years ago."

Kyuhyun shot him a glare. "Changmin, that's not what I meant when I was talking to you earlier!"

"Well, what else am I supposed to do?" Changmin cried out loud.

"What's going on?" Kiha asked, coming into the room with a tray of coffee.

"I'm sorry, Kiha, but it looks like these men want to talk to you in private," Jieun said.

"Nothing should be private here," Kiha said. "Just stay."

"It's important and it's business-related," Changmin said. "Look, I'm giving this girl money so that she can take my bodyguards to other places."

"But I don't like it when I'm alone in a room with you," Kiha said. "You annoy me and you keep ranting on and on and on."

"Wow, way to sugar-coat your words."

"I'm only a sweet-talker when I need to be." Kiha looked at Jieun. "Just stay. You're not bothering anyone. It's only him who's bothering us."

"What—"

"I'm home!" A voice from the front door echoed in the house. Everyone stopped talking and looked up. Jungkook stepped inside of the room, then stopped to widened his eyes when he noticed that there were tons of guests. "What's all this?"

"These guys are Jieun's friends," Kiha said, pointing at Changshik, Wonshik, and Kyungsoo.

"Hi," the three greeted.

Jungkook shot a glare at Jieun. "Are you just going to bring people into our house just because you're invited to stay here whenever you want?" He glared at the three. "And why are they all boys? Don't you have any female friends?"

Jieun let out an awkward laugh and rubbed the back of her neck. "A-Actually, I was planning to bring these three into my house for the time being."

Jungkook stopped glaring. "What?"

"Really?" Wonshik asked. "We can go to your house?"

"Yes. It's only a few minutes from here. It's down the hill," Jieun revealed.

"Sweet! Let's go crash Jieun's house!" Kyungsoo exclaimed, getting up.

"Mr. Changmin, we're going to Jieun's house," Changshik reported.

"Yeah, yeah. Go on," Changmin said, waving his hand. The three boys cheered and started to gather around Jieun.

Jungkook squinted his eyes. No matter what he thought, there was just something wrong with the idea that Jieun was bringing three guys to her house. Just how close was their friendship? Did any of them have any interest in her? Did she have any interest in them?

There was an uncomfortable feeling building up in his chest. Kiha, who started to notice, smirked.

"Hey, why don't you go to Jieun's house, too?" Kiha suggested to Jungkook.

"Huh?"

"I don't mind," Jieun said, smiling at her student. "I have some sweets to eat. Just help me carry my papers back to the house."

"W-Wait!" Jungkook turned slightly red. "I-I can't just go barge into someone's house like that—"

"Woop, woop! Come on, boy! Let's go carry the papers!" Kyungsoo exclaimed, locking his arm around Jungkook's shoulder. The three started to drag to confused boy into the kitchen the gather the paper.

Jieun let out a small laugh, then bowed at Kyuhyun and Changmin.

"I'll be taking these boys to my house. Feel free to call them when you're done talking," Jieun said. She walked out of the living room and joined the four to head to her house.

Once the room was cleared out, Kiha sighed and leaned back on the sofa. He grabbed his mug and started to sip some coffee.

"Alright," Kiha said. "What do you need to talk about?"

"We've got important intel that requires your assistance," Kyuhyun started.

"Like I said, anything about the company goes to my brother. I'm just a writer—"

Changmin folded his hands together and stared straight into Kiha's eyes. "Do you remember a man named Kwon Jiyong…?"