At 7 in the morning, Jongin was already knee deep in work. Whether it was antitrust cases or fraud, Jongin not only had to handle cases, but his father also gave him all types of separate past cases just for practice. Armed with Red Bull that supplied him with the adrenaline that coffee did without the bad taste, Jongin was ready to kick off yet another day.

Or so he thought. 

Luhan was had been back from his trip to Beijing two days before and despite jetlag, he still worked as hard as ever. He started off this particular morning by handing a file over to Jongin. 

"It’s a patent case. Medi.K is suing Syrtex for patent infringement over Xybax." Luhan explained as Jongin read over the papers. 

"I see... So Syrtex is selling the same generic drug under the name of Phalnox. Just what my headache needed. A couple years back, a patent infringement case with Pfizer took nearly a decade to resolve." Jongin grumbled. "So I suppose I will be representing Medi.K?"

"Correct." 

"And I will be meeting with Kim Moonsoo then." 

"Yes. You were specifically asked for this case." Luhan said. 

Jongin wasn't partner in his firm just yet; his father still sat at the top. He was simply an associate for the time being, which meant that despite being an excellent lawyer, he had less experience and thus didn't come in contact with clients as much. It also meant having all his work reviewed by the partner of the firm which lucky him, meant lots of penalization and criticism from his father.

"Oh yes, and he called to schedule a meeting. Is this coming Wednesday alright?" Luhan asked. 

Jongin sighed. 

"Book me in then." 

***

"Please?" 

"For the last time, I cannot give you a raise and certainly not a 1 million dollar one." Jiyong said with a huff. "Now, if you're done fooling around, I have work to do and so do you." 

Soojung stamped her foot and stuck her tongue out at Jiyong before tromping out of his office. Obviously, she was way out of line, but what could she do? The rent wasn't going to pay itself and getting evicted was hardly on Soojung's to do list. 

"What seems to be the trouble?" Jinri bounced into the room in a ruffle of feathers as she swirled a bright blue boa around. 

"Rent. What else?" Soojung sighed as she plopped in front of the mirror to pack up and go home. 

"Uh huh. And are you sure you don't want to tell me more about this Jongin?" Jinri asked with a playful grin. 

Soojung snatched the blue boa from Jinri and rubbed it in her face. "Piss off. I told you all I know already."  

"Okay, but honestly, good for you because God, he's so yummy." Jinri said with a dreamy expression. "I could just spread him on a cracker." 

"Keep it in your pants. Go sit in the corner." Soojung pointed to the opposite end of the room, where the broom and dustpan lay leaning between the corner of one wall and the door frame. 

"Alright, fine." Jinri threw her hands up in surrender as she got up to leave the room.

Soojung set the blue boa down to the side, staring at her face in the mirror. Dark circles had formed under her tired eyes and she looked even paler than usual, perhaps even gaunt. Figures. She had just taken a job as a waitress, working the swing shift from 4 AM to 9 AM for the extra money. Coupled along with her night shift at the club, it was perfectly normal for her to feel this crappy. 

Soojung stared into her exhausted expression in the mirror before gathering all her things and changing out of her baby blue dress of the evening. Her hands reached towards her neck, where the necklace usually was, but now it wasn't. When it first went missing, Soojung didn't notice. She'd just grown too used to knowing it would always be on her. Now that Myungsoo pointed it out and she knew that he had it, she felt utterly without it.

As Soojung trudged home, she passed by Le Boudoir and thought of Jongin and of the offer he once made of giving her a job. She wanted so badly to go down to his office and take him up on his offer, but after her whole speech of independence, there was no way she could. 

It was a little bit past 2 AM when Soojung finally arrived home. Setting down her purse, Soojung crashed onto the couch with a loud sigh. The remote was on the coffee table, just out of reach and Soojung gave up after a few seconds of futile straining. Her eyes fluttered closed, ready to fall asleep.

"Krystal!" 

The front door pounded with a deep male voice booming on the other end. Soojung, though woozy, dragged herself up and ran to the door, hearing the alarm in the voice. Slamming the door open, she snapped wide awake when she saw a frantic Minho with a trembling Sooyeon on his back. 

"Where's her bedroom?" 

Soojung closed the door behind him as he came rushing into the apartment. Leading him to the sole bedroom in the place, Minho gently lay Sooyeon's small, shivering body onto the bottom bunk. Soojung took off her flats and threw them onto the floor in panic as Minho pulled the covers over Sooyeon and rose, wiping the sweat from the sides of his face. 

"I don't know what happened, Krystal. She dropped a tray of scotch and just fell to the ground." Minho explained as they left the room. 

"Anemia. We both have it." Soojung explained quickly as she rushed to the kitchen to prepare something for Sooyeon. She put a kettle of water on the stove and dug through the fridge until she found what she was looking for. 

"Beets?" Minho inquired as Soojung set two of them on the cutting board. 

"High iron content. We eat lots of them." Soojung explained as she started cutting them into pieces. The water soon came to a boil, the high pitched hissing noise filling the kitchen. 

"Could you please pour some water into one of the glasses in the cupboard and bring it to her?" Soojung asked Minho, who stood watching her. 

"Of course."

When Minho disappeared out of the kitchen, Soojung got working on the soup for Sooyeon. As she prepared it, her mind wandered. With this, Sooyeon would be out of work for at least a week and Soojung would in no way be able to balance two jobs plus double shifts at the two bars Sooyeon was working her off at. 

"!" Soojung shrieked as she accidently rested her hand on the burning hot kettle next to the pot where she was cooking. This whole week was a bloody mess and Soojung was on the brink of losing her mind.

"What!?" Minho rushed back into the kitchen, panicked. 

"Nothing, I'm sorry." Soojung exhaled, running her hand under cold tap water. 

"Listen, I gotta run, but if you ever need anything..." Minho rested a hand on her shoulder and squeezed it. 

"I know. Thank you." Soojung smiled up at him.

Sooyeon was still a shaking bundle when Soojung went in with a warm bowl of beet soup. Minho had long left, but not without again instructing her to contact him or anyone down at the bar.

"I'm sorry, Soojung." Sooyeon croaked after Soojung force fed her a few spoonfuls of beets. 

"Why?" Soojung set the bowl of half-eaten soup on the nightstand. "Being sick isn't your fault."

Sooyeon looked at her grimly, her face pale and gaunt. "It's going to be tough on you until I get better." 

Soojung shook her head. "I've had worse." she chuckled as she wiped the sweat from her sister's forehead. "Get some sleep." 

"Okay."

Soojung exhaled tiredly as she shut the bedroom door quietly behind her. She would've given anything for a cigarette or a nice big bottle of Jack Daniels right about then.

Wandering aimlessly around the apartment, she ended up on the couch with her phone, playing some little puzzle game she downloaded at little while back. Her hand itched to look up Jongin's number, to ask him for a job because God knows how bad she needed it. Money or her pride? 

Too tired to even think, she reached to set her cell down on the coffee table and when she drew her hand back, her finger caught the cord of the landline. She was surprised that the apartment actually had a push button telephone. She would've thought rotary dial, given where they were living, but she wasn't complaining. Looking over at the black telephone, she noticed a blinking red light. 

They had a message. 

Soojung pushed the play button. The message was left, well, technically, yesterday at 10:03 PM, when she, nor her sister, was at home. It was probably the landlady. 

It wasn't.

"Soojung." 

Instead, she was greeted by Myungsoo's silvery voice. 

"I'm calling with a job prospect for you. Our front desk receptionist quit and I'm calling to see if you want to take this position. It's nothing complicated and we could discuss your wages should you want to take this job. You can reach me at 2-XXX-2156 extension 2." 

Soojung was suddenly in a dilemma. Jongin offered to help her with a job and Soojung nearly called him less than five minutes ago, but she didn't know if the offer was still up for grabs. She's known Jongin less than a month and had actually been in the same room as him for less than a week. Now Myungsoo calls handing a job on a silver platter, but it was Myungsoo of all people.

Reaching for her cell, Soojung tapped into her keypad and dialed a number. Putting the phone to her ear, she waited for an answer. Nervous, she stood up and peeked into the bedroom, where Sooyeon was sleeping softly. 

"Hello?" a voice answered on the other end.

"Yes, hi. I want to talk to you about the job offer you made."

***

The Medi.K building was wildly different from what Jongin imagined. Everything in Jongin's life was coordinated to a more fluorescent black and white theme with a lot of glass windows. 

In Medi.K? It was a bit... warmer than what Jongin was used to. Fake fire place stretching along one wall, leather chairs grouped in fours with small dainty coffee tables for each set, patchwork of stones and polished wooden walls; it looked like the inside of a fairytale cabin. 

Kim Moonsoo was more or less what Jongin expected, given what he'd heard about him and upon meeting his carbon copy of a younger brother. Moonsoo was more or less what everything Jongin's father expected him to be: cool, calm, collected, polite and very professional. After what seemed like an endless talk about trials, settlement, patent expiration, validity, effects on stock and whatnot, Jongin was finally able to leave. 

"Sorry tha