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Suga
 

Wu Yifan is an enigma. I don’t know him. I know what he’s done, but I don’t know him. I don’t know why he’s helped me in the past, or attempted to. I don’t know why or what motive he had. But I do know that he deserves one thing.

Not my help.

Taehyung watches me as I take the phone back from him, hang up, and then turn the phone back over. “Anything else I need to catch up on?”

“What the hell was that?”

“Something about Wu Yifan.”

“But he—murder—”

“Is it any of our business? He’s been calling me to try to give me business advice lately,” I admit. “But none of it has made any sense.”

“What did he say?” Hoseok furrows his eyebrows, leaning forward to brace his elbows against the table. “You dismissed him before, so there shouldn’t be a reason he came back.”

“He was saying not to attack Byun Hana for anything she did.”

Jin laughs. It’s not his usual joyful laugh. No, it’s cold. Almost chilling. “So we’re supposed to sit here and take it as she makes moves on our companies?”

“No. We’re not. And that’s when I realized that even though he’s been helpful in the past, he no longer is considered important.” I answer wryly. Maybe that’s an unemotional way of looking at things, but it’s the best decision for us. Our loyalties lie with each other and actions that we can trust.

Yifan is a shot in the dark. An empty promise. We know nothing about his allegiances. We don’t even know if he has allegiances.

Well, he’s supposed to have allegiances. If the person over the phone considers him a traitor, then his allegiance definitely isn’t to me. It’s to the man who called. If Yifan decided to contact me of his own free will, then I’m not responsible for anything that happens.

I’m responsible for my company, and my side.

“Hoseok, did you figure out who is buying those shares?”

He shakes his head. “If I call a stockholders meeting, they would most likely show up because of their ownership, but that’s a bad call after what happened to you.”

If was anyone else, I would be mad at the reference. But Hoseok is reasonable, and thoughtful, and despite his area of business in hospitality, he is less about friendliness and very serious when it comes to work.

“Is there a way to force them to sign over their shares?” Taehyung sips from his mug. “But for that we would need to know who they are. And we don’t want them to sell shares to a competitor, nor would we want to wait.”

“What if they’re biding their time?” I sound cynical, but I can’t help but be. We don’t know if Hana was lying about Jungkook actually owning the stocks or not, and despite everything that happened, I want to say that she was being honest. And if it’s not the other side, then who else would want to challenge us?

There’s only two sides. There’s only two choices. What would a third choice imply?

“There’s worse things out there than you and Byun Hana.” Kim Jongin had once said that to me, and I brushed it off. Yifan was the one who threatened him, and I didn’t know why. Nor did I know what was out there. But if Yifan is dead now, then something is going on with the third side that is malicious. And most likely malicious towards us too.

If there’s a third party, then we aren’t equipped for three sides. We’re not equipped for fighting business rivals and an opponent that we can’t see.

In wars, before there were planes and submarines, there were basic maneuvers taken by land armies. One of the most famous was called the pincer movement, in which opposite sides of an enemy formation. Usually it means that the losing side would be cut-off and decimated.

Horror movies are much scarier when we can’t see what is causing the trouble. A visible ghost isn’t as scary as one that leaves hints but can’t be found. And as much as Hana is an issue, so is the third side.

“This is crazy—”

“What’s new?” Jin drawls at Taehyung’s statement, earning himself a shrewd smile in response.

“If there’s a third party, and it’s affected the other side, then what if we can somehow convince them to work with us to get rid of the people we can’t see?”

Jin shakes his head, “We’re asking for another attack on ourselves.”

Hoseok twists his mouth, “We can’t trust the other side.”

“But we can’t trust this third party either.” I sigh. “It feels like every side for themselves.”

“Hear me out. As soon as we’re done with the third party, and we eject them from Hoseok’s company, then we can turn around and give the other side a blow.” Taehyung seems a lot more like a visionary than a functionary at the moment.

“I won’t work with them. None of us can. We have no reason to trust them, and they have no reason to agree.” Jin insists.

“It wouldn’t work.” I agree. “The enemy of an enemy isn’t our friend.”

“We have no need to stoop down and ask for help.” Hoseok adds. “We are not weak.”

We are not weak. We are not weak. But if Yifan is dead, or close to dying, then what is considered weak? Are we overestimating the third side, or are we the first target on the shooting range?
 

Hana
 

There are moments in my life that I seriously question, even years later. What if I had never let Jimin throw away most of my clothing in my last year of high school? What if I rebelled and never became part of the business world? What if I had never agreed to this fake engagement?
 

What if, what if, what if?

And as water in the toilet swirls and f