To say that Jinsu’s father was furious was an understatement of gargantuan proportions.  Jimin managed to get Jinsu away from the warehouse and into his car before Park Jiwoon found out what she’d said, but the lack of time that elapsed between them and both of their phones being bombarded with calls from the man meant the media must have rushed him once Jinsu had escaped from them to ask his opinion on her calling for the Attayear’s destruction.

Jinsu turned her phone off, but after a good fifteen minutes of incessant replays of a twenty-second clip from the theme of The Empire Strikes Back, Jimin eventually let out a long sigh and allowed his phone to connect via bluetooth to the car’s speaker system.

Park Jiwoon sounded like he was foaming at the mouth.  “Where is that b—”

“Dad, I’m driving,” Jimin said tersely.  “Be quick.  If it’s not important, I’ll ring you back when I get home.”

Jinsu knew her brother disliked being on the phone even handsfree if he was at the wheel, and it was evidently an attitude her father had come up against enough times to concede the victory to his son.

“Is Jinsu with you?” he demanded.

Jinsu shrank into her seat.  Jimin glanced across at her, looking worried.

“No,” he lied.  “Why?”

“Then who did she leave with?”

Jimin didn’t quite manage to mask a flinch.  Their father sounded prepared to murder the first person he saw, which was actually a plausible danger given how furious he was and the fact that he must have secluded himself away from other people to make the call and had a habit of taking his anger out on other people.  He didn’t even give Jimin a chance to think of a response before he practically exploded.

“The little cr*tin just told every d*mn news station in the country and a good number from across the world that the best scientific advancement of the past millenium ought to be destroyed!  What is it with you d*mn sixteen year olds?  I’m not going to let another one of you have a second pop at trying to destroy my life’s work of forty godd*mn years!”

The colour drained out of Jimin’s face.  “Dad, calm down.  The media are probably twisting her words.”

“They did not twist her ing words, Jimin: she was asked what responsible parameters ought to be set up for humans using time travel and she said the only responsible one was destroying our ability to have it.”

“She’ll have her reasons,” Jimin said lamely.

“I don’t care about her bl**dy reasons!  This is already going viral and damage control will be huge!  This could even affect our stocks – there are already articles on social media about a father-daughter family feud and it’s being sensationalised.  They’re even making it out as a bigger story than the Attayear’s maiden voyage being a special one for scholarship and young people in science who were granted the opportunity to go back in time.”

Jimin tried to interrupt him a couple of times, but Park Jiwoon’s rant was nothing like done, so he reached out and muted the phone.  Hanging up would just annoy their father more.  Making sure the microphone was muted too, Jimin glanced across at Jinsu.

“No way are you going home tonight,” he pronounced solemnly.

Jinsu wouldn’t have even contemplated disagreeing.

Girlfriend-Jimin was the one who came up with a spin to feed Park Jiwoon that successfully managed to mitigate some of the fury.  Jimin had decided, just in case, that it was a good idea for Jinsu to stay over with his girlfriend rather than with him, which meant that Jinsu wasn’t able to grab time alone with her brother to talk about what she’d seen ten years previously and inform him of hers and Baekhyun’s plans.

Girlfriend-Jimin’s strategy was simple: Jinsu had attempted to put up a smile and a good attitude for the press, but being the only girl on the Attayear for a week had been tough for her, especially with the Byun boy and other bullies, and in a couple of days’ time, she’d be heading back to school for more of the same, except this time she would have family around her to keep her positive.  When Jimin called Park Jiwoon on the pretence of finally having heard from Jinsu with this news, their father grumbled about Jinsu needing to grow a spine, but Jimin stressing that it had been an emotive vent rather than deliberate sabotage seemed to make a difference.  Their father was muttering something to himself about press conferences to explain the situation when he hung up, though it was obvious he still wasn’t happy.

Jimin dropped Jinsu home on Sunday morning, by which point their father’s anger had simmered down and he’d busied himself arranging a couple of exclusive interviews and a piece to put out for Jinsu to explain that she’d been in a bad mood the previous day, that there was no family dispute, and that Jinsu was happy to answer questions more thoughtfully now she’d had time to rest.  As a public display of nothing is wrong with our family, he even took Jinsu out to a cake shop for the first time in seven years, which the media immediately jumped on as them going to choose Jinsu’s birthday cake for the end of the following week.  He did ruin the atmosphere a bit by turning his nose up at the cakes on display, but Jinsu was too happy eating the various taster pieces to care.

When they got home, things took a momentary turn for the worse.  Somebody had managed to snap a shot when everybody was piling off the Attayear that, magnified a number of times, showed a very blurry Jinsu standing by the wall with an equally blurry Baekhyun, though there was just enough detail to make out who they both were.  Park Jiwoon’s expression turned hard when he saw the picture, which his secretary had dropped on his desk while they had been out.

“What are you doing with the Byun boy?” he demanded, brandishing the photo at Jinsu.

She flinched.  Fortunately, it was the right response (possibly because she was looking at the photo rather than her father), because he suddenly paused.

“Jimin said the Byun boy was giving you a rough time.  Ridiculous he should think of doing it in front of reporters,” he muttered.

Jinsu didn’t know if she was more shocked her father disapproved of bullying or that he seemed to think it was okay pro