Baekhyun woke up with a smile on his face. It’s another school day and he has three special exams for a couple of subjects for the weeks he had missed but the thought of Jiwon easily made his day with no worries. He sat up and stretched his arms, slightly wincing when he stretched his right arm too hard. “Aish—” He glanced down to his bandaged arm. “—Ha, whatever.” He grinned before getting off the bed to wash up. He looked down to his desk to take his phone with him but then he didn’t see it there. “Oh?” He blinked while looking down to his bed. He knelt down on the edge of it and flipped his blanket to check if he left it there. “Where is it?” He got off again and went to the couch on the corner of the room. He opened his bag there and looked for the phone. “Oh god, Baekhyun-ah. Where’d you put it.” He scolded himself while tapping his head.

He glanced at the wall clock. He needs to get ready now or he’ll be late so he decided to just take a shower first before looking for his phone.

He was done after a few minutes and went out while drying his hair with a towel. He walked over to his closet and slid it open, briefly looking over to his dresser to check if he left his phone there. He felt so frustrated that he’s still having a hard time remembering where he leaves his stuff sometimes. He wore his undershirt and pants before grabbing his uniform shirt. He then walked to his bed while buttoning his shirt. “Seriously, where the is it. I texted Jiwon last night and then. . .” he replayed everything he did last night while looking around the room. He groaned and ruffled his damp hair before walking back to the closet to get his suit. Once he wore it, he got another coat to wear in case it’s really cold. He slung the coat over his left arm before walking over to the couch to grab his bag.

Baekhyun put only one strap of the backpack over his shoulder before pausing. He stood still for a matter of seconds still trying to process his mind into where he last used his phone.

“Ugh.” He gave up and just walked to the door to go out.

He grabbed the doorknob and opened it only to be welcomed by his three bodyguards. “Uh. . . Good morning?” He hesitantly greeted and tried to walk through the small space left but they wouldn’t budge. “Okay, are we going or what?” He asked while looking up to the tall men. “Sir, you’re grounded for the mean time.” One of them replied with a straight face. Baekhyun paused for a while and rubbed his eyes. “E-excuse me? I have school you know.” He laughed while shaking his head. When they didn’t react, he finally lost his smile realizing they were serious. “—did you get my phone too?!” He exclaimed and tried to get through them but they only held him back into the room.

“Yah, this is nuts! How am I supposed to go to school?!”

Just as he asked that, he saw his tutor Mr. Ha coming from the stairs. “Sir, I got called by your mom. We’ll be having your lessons from yesterday’s school and continue with it here. You’re already excused in school.” He spoke while trying to peek from the small space that the bodyguards gave him. “What?!” Baekhyun hissed still not believing this is actually happening to him. He stood there stiffly while staring in space. A disbelieving smile climbed back up to his lips. “This is crazy. Where is she? Let me talk to my mother.” He grunted and tried to push them but they were too strong for him. “Sir, this is for the mean time only according to your mother. So you don’t have to be worried about your school.” One of the bodyguards responded.

“You think I’m ing worried about school? You’re locking me up in here—are you guys insane?!”

His eyes landed on the door of his brother and sister-in-law’s bedroom and saw Soyeon peeking and he could see her crying. “N-noona. Noona! What is this?!” He exclaimed, once again, trying to push the guard away. “You guys aren’t going to let this happen, right? R-right?~” He chuckled while shaking his head. Finally, Mrs. Byun came out of the office after hearing his shouts. “E-eomma.” He scoffed while shaking his head. “I told you, right? I have reached my limit. You think I can’t bring your studies here in the house? If I have to, if that’s the only way for you to learn, then I will until you realize things.” Mrs. Byun spoke with a firm tone.

“What—you’re just going to lock me up here?! What the is wrong with you!”

“Don’t raise your voice at me and don’t ever curse at me, Byun Baekhyun! Look at you, look at what she’s done to you. You know yourself you would never be like this if things happened differently.” Mrs. Byun shrieked back. “The school understands what you’re going through, they consider it very well because of the kidnapping and they got my back so don’t make the excuse of having to go to school because we all know the only thing that keeps you going to school is to see that girl.” She added. Baekhyun couldn’t open his mouth to speak anymore, he just stared at his mother, asking himself if she really was his mother at all. “Get back in and Mr. Ha will come to you. You can go out to eat but your bodyguards would have to follow you everywhere you go. I can’t trust you anymore, that girl has messed up your head so bad I don’t even know you anymore.” Mrs. Byun informed him with a straight face.

“You never knew me at all so don’t act like you did.” Baekhyun mumbled before closing his door with a bang. Mrs. Byun maintained a straight face while looking away. She wiped a tear that has escaped from her eye before walking back to her office. She met her husband in her office, he was sitting on the couch while having tea. “Why aren’t you at work yet? I’ll be on my way soon, I just need to finish off a proposal.” She said while walking to the desk. “I won’t go to work, I don’t want to leave my child in there all alone. Soyeon can’t take care of him either because you also locked her up.” Mr. Byun answered calmly although his eyes tell otherwise. “I didn’t lock Soyeon up, I just told her the consequences of her father’s already failing company if she tries to meddle again.” Mrs. Byun explained before sitting down her chair.

“Did you really have to go this far, hun?”

Mrs. Byun looked down to the papers she was signing. “Don’t act like you don’t see how much he has changed.” She replied before glancing at him. “And we both know we’ve been sharing future plans with the Han Corporation, it won’t be anytime soon but we both know where this will all end up, right?” She added while leaning more comfortably on her chair. Mr. Byun stared in space and sighed. “Have you ever thought of just. . . letting him be with anyone he wants to be with? Isn’t Baekbeom enough?” he asked. “This tradition has been going on in both our families and you clearly know this is the reason why our company’s very stable if not growing even more. I won’t let the tradition go just because of some ordinary girl who did nothing but to influence our son in a bad way. This is how we met too so don’t act like you don’t understand, hun.” Mrs. Byun argued back.

“I agreed with the marriage because I wanted to be with you. It happened to us but there’s feelings involved before that and I think our maknae really cares for this girl. I can see it in his eyes.”

Mrs. Byun sighed as she glued her eyes on the monitor of his compute. “I initially only accepted you because I knew about our fixed marriage way before you did. Don’t act like you’ve never figured that out. So, don’t compare our children to our situation. Baekhyun doesn’t know what he’s really feeling, he’s just a kid. Later on, when he’s successfully managing our companies, he’ll realize that this is all for his sake. That’s what I realized too.” She answered making her husband quiet. Mr. Byun looked away as he stood up. “Well, this is embarrassing. I can’t believe I just figured that out after almost thirty years, hun.” He muttered while letting out a solemn chuckle. He walked towards the door to leave. “Hun. .  w-would you like to have dinner later?” Mrs. Byun called in a softer way this time but Mr. Byun didn’t respond anymore and just went out.

Soyeon stared at the closed door of Baekhyun’s room. She wiped her tears while looking away. Baekbeom isn’t aware of this yet. He went to work very early and she also only found out after he had left for work when