Jinsu managed to fend off her mother asking why she’d been coming back home so late recently, but when she got back, she really couldn’t put off contacting Jimin any longer.  She’d tried ringing a couple of times, and had equally received a couple of missed calls from him, but the time differences and Jinsu staying out late trying to sort out legal stuff had meant they hadn’t actually spoken, and she considered it too sensitive a topic to broach via text.

Not just that, but she wasn’t totally sure how well Jimin would take it all.  The Jimin the future knew about presumably would have been keen to take it on, but that Jimin had lost his sister, alongside seeing the wrong people punished with needless harshness, and would have had guilt fuelling his anger for not acting and making sure his father had never had the chance to build the Attayear.  Jinsu knew her big brother’s relationship with her father was a bit dicey, but she didn’t know if it was dicey enough, and she also didn’t know what her father was holding over her brother.  Jongdae had mentioned enough for her to suspect part of the threat included disinheritance, but there had to be more, because she knew Jimin didn’t really care that much about what he stood to inherit.

That said, Jimin obviously trusted Jongdae much more than he did her – which hurt – if he was telling him this stuff but not her, despite how close the siblings had always considered themselves.  There was also always the possibility that Jimin agreed with the notion of trying to prosecute their father, but wouldn’t support it at this point in time for whatever reason.

Unsure exactly what country Jimin was supposed to be in at that moment, Jinsu rang several times, but he didn’t pick up.  Either he was busy or he was wary of answering a call from a number that he didn’t recognise.  She was tempted to try her usual phone to see if that made a difference, but after Saeeun having to get it back from her father, she worried he might have somehow bugged it – there was also always the possibility that he was somehow getting hold of Jimin’s phone records too.  Eventually, she just sent him a text explaining that it was her and asking him to ring her at some point, or tell her when they could talk, because it was urgent.  She still had no response by the time she went to sleep.

The English assessment with Kyungsoo went really well, and over lunch they were able to celebrate coming top of the class with it.  Baekhyun, however, was quiet for the entire meal, sitting in a corner and gazing unseeingly into the distance, barely responding to anything going on around him, and it was beginning to worry Jinsu.  First thing that morning when he’d got into school, he’d sought her out to ask whether or not she’d managed to talk to her brother.  He’d managed to convince his father that the appeal would be worth doing, but on revisiting the case and going into the details of everything new that they were hoping to add in and where some of the evidence had come from, Byun Byunghyun had apparently been less keen.

“He says he won’t do it unless your brother’s definitely going to testify on his side,” he had confided to her as they’d stood by Chanyeol’s locker while Jinsu organised her stuff.  “That’s the weakest spot in the appeal.  Even Yunseo told me that a sharp lawyer could get a good grounding for not enough evidence and therefore case dismissal if Jimin doesn’t testify for us.”

Grimacing, Jinsu had had to tell him that she still hadn’t been able to talk to Jimin about it, but that she had had a text through at about four in the morning while he was waiting in an airport saying that he’d be free the following evening and would ring then.

Baekhyun was so quiet by the time they finished their physics class that Jinsu snuck away to talk to Chanyeol in private.

“Is this normal?” she asked her cousin once she’d managed to tug him into a deserted corridor.

Chanyeol looked totally confused.  “Girls dragging me into empty corridors?  No, but it has happened before.”

“I mean—”

“Usually for a make out session,” Chanyeol finished thoughtfully before covering his mouth.  “I didn’t mean it that way with you!”

Jinsu sighed.  “No, with Baekhyun.  Does he normally go quiet and all spaced out like this?  He isn’t upset with me, is he?”

“Why would he be upset?”

Jinsu briefly explained the only conversation she’d had with Baekhyun that day (she’d attempted starting others but got nowhere).  Chanyeol frowned at her for several seconds and then burst out laughing, his deep voice booming around the corridor.  Jinsu winced: the last thing she wanted was to attract attention.

To her complete bafflement, her cousin cooed at her and ruffled her hair.

“Man, you two are sickeningly adorable,” he chuckled.  “If Baekhyun was annoyed with you, you’d know, Jinsu.”

“Then why is he ignoring me?” she asked, utterly bewildered.

Her cousin just shook his head, a massive grin on his face, and started to back away.

“Chanyeol!”  Sensing he intended to leave her in misery, Jinsu lunged forward, trying to grab the front of his shirt and shake some sense into him, but he dodged back at the same time and she ended up with a fistful of his tie instead.  He gave a yelping kind of gurgle and threw up his hands in surrender.

“Okay, okay, you barbarian!  I’ll tell you!”

Jinsu let go of his tie, but far from massaging his neck or anything in relief, all six-foot-however-tall-her-cousin-was dissolved into hysterical little giggles.  Nonplussed, Jinsu just watched him.

“It’s your birthday on Friday,” Chanyeol wheezed after a couple of moments.

“Yes, I’m aware of that.”

“Let me finish!  It’s your birthday on Friday, and Baekhyun’s getting all tongue-tied and moody because he wants to take you on the perfect date but he has no idea what that would actually be and he doesn’t want to ask you because he says it won’t be romantic if you know in advance.”

Stunned, Jinsu just stared at him.  “But I really don’t care what we do on a date so long as we can spend time together and have fun.”

That just fuelled the ridiculous-looking giggling fit even more.

“Seriously,” said Jinsu, wondering now if she ought to be worrying about Chanyeol, “if he just cooks some food or something and we can sit together in the kitchen and chat, that would be great.  It doesn’t need to be anything fancy.  It’s just my birthday.”

Chanyeol managed to hold back the giggles for long enough to look confused.  “Just your birthday?”

Jinsu shrugged.  “Jimin’s not going to be home, so it’s not like Baekhyun’s going to have competition for making my day, whatever he does.  It’ll be a miracle if my dad even remembers it.”

That stopped Chanyeol’s giggling fit altogether.  “Oh.”

Jinsu shrugged again.  “It happens.”

“Uncle Jiwoon .”

“I know.”

“Like, really, really .”

“I know.”

Jinsu didn’t know whether Chanyeol had managed to speak to Baekhyun before they left school, but her boyfriend still looked pretty out of it.  He did, however, respond when Kyungsoo asked if he was coming with them to Jongin’s party, since they’d planned to take public transport.

“I. . .”  Baekhyun grimaced as he checked the electronic display for the bus timings.  “Well, I— no, basically.  Since it’s short notice and I was supposed to be working on Friday, they said I could have the evening then off provided I cover another shift this week, and today’s the only day I wasn’t supposed to be working, so yeah.  If it’s a quiet night I’ll be free by ten and I’ll drop by, but I can’t guarantee it will be.  We’ve been very busy recently.”

“Slacker,” said Sehun in a monotone, earning himself a whack on the arm from Minju, who obviously knew Jongin well enough to be invited anyway. Baekhyun pulled a face at him, but missed giving a proper retort because his bus pulled in at that moment and he had to get on it.

The others waited seven more minutes for their bus to arrive.  Jinsu was still dubious about the idea of turning up in school uniform, but the boys and Minju had evidently been enough times to consider it perfectly normal, even if they did lose the ties and blazers as soon as they arrived at the mansion that was Jongin’s house.

The bus had stopped a street or two away, but as they neared the front gates for the garden, Jinsu began to see what Kyungsoo had meant about it being a sort of civilised lawn party.  The music wasn’t obnoxiously loud, and therefore unlikely to attract complaints from the neighbours (if they were even in; it was a very rich neighbourhood and plenty would probably be out for the evening, or had the capacity to move out if this party was an annual event).  Most people appeared to have taken public transport there or (looking around at some of the guests as they entered the garden) been dropped off by family chauffeurs.    Whether or not alcohol was involved, there was an animated atmosphere and many people looked a bit hyper.

Kyungsoo paused to pick up a drink from a waiter who was going around with them.  He sniffed it experimentally and then took a sip.

“Wow, okay,” he said, passing it to Sehun.  “That’s powerful.”

Sehun took a dubious look at him and then at the drink before taking a tentative sip himself.  His immediate reaction was to clap a hand over his mouth and give it to Chanyeol, mumbling something like my teeth are going to rot.

Chanyeol also took a sip, though given the reactions of the other two, Jinsu thought it might not have been the best of ideas.  He blinked at it before handing it to Minju.  “I think that’s my sugar intake for the year.  At least I know why Yoongi looks like he’s bouncing off the walls now.”

Minju tasted the drink and then knocked it back, smacking her lips.  “It’s