Mingyu stared blankly out the window as he sat inside his apartment. He hadn't left the confines of his home in five days, he wasn't shaven and the lack sleep was turning his undereyes an unhealthy shade of purple. He wasn't under house arrest but he definitely felt like he was. The investigation regarding the stolen money had only gotten more complicated. There was information being thrown left and right from all kinds of people claiming they knew the truth -- the discourse was causing major delays in the case and there was nothing the investigators could do. They had to take every tip seriously even if it wasn't true, Hyunjin was doing his best to hide hide the trail leading back to him and falsifying information.

Mingyu flicked through his phone and sighed when he saw that there was still nothing, Jeonghan hadn't contacted him in five days. On the other hand he'd called Jeonghan forty-five times and each one never got an answer, that was a lot of missed calls. He knew he didn't know the full narrative but was it unreasonable of him to be suspicious when the brunette was behaving so strange? How was he supposed to think rationally when he found out Jeonghan was so...distant?

A knock on Mingyu's front door made him jump.

Mingyu walked over to the door and looked into the intercom, the small screen showed a blank faced Xu Minghao standing with his arms folded, the artist tapped his foot waiting for his friend to open the door. Mingyu obliged. The artist walked right by him and sat down on the sofa inside the living room.

"The gossip surrounding you and 'RQ&S' is all everyone can talk about," Minghao informed. "Everyone is throwing in their two cents. Some think you're guilty and others think it's all an elaborate plan from Hyunjin and the board. All the evidence still leads back to you, though."

"They've planned this in advance, of course all the arrows are pointed at me," Mingyu scoffed.

"At least you still have Jeonghan right?" Minghao patted his friend's shoulder as he sat down beside him.

Mingyu was silent.

"What happened now?" Minghao furrowed his brow seeing the obvious disdain on Mingyu's face.

"Jeonghan was with Hyunjin," Mingyu said. "I saw them leaving a restaurant together, they looked a little too chummy when they were together."

"Did you ask him for an explanation?" Minghao cocked a brow.

"Well...no," Mingyu answered.

"Look, I know what you saw was pretty incriminating but right now you don't exactly want to push him away without hearing him out first," Minghao adjusted his yellow tinted glasses. "What if he's planning something? You know what he's capable of, don't you?"

"I just..." Mingyu started biting his nail. "He's all I have left at the company, my dad can barely lift his own head right now. The doctors keep finding more and more things wrong with him because the old brute refused to visit a doctor all these years because he thinks he's invincible. Jeonghan is literally the only person who thought I was innocent -- what if he changed his mind? Maybe he doesn't want to go down with me on this sinking ship?"

"Stop using past tense!" Minghao smacked his friend on the head. "Stop assuming things about Jeonghan just because of something you saw! I thought you two had a connection, what the happened?!"

"I'm just stressed alright?! How would you feel if you were at risk of spending time behind bars?!"

"I'd be scared less! Anyone would!" Minghao stood up. "But I'd also do my best to stay calm and maintain a sound state of mind, that way I won't do anything stupid."

"You really think Jeonghan's still on my side?" Mingyu swallowed.

"That's a conversation you need to have with Jeonghan," Minghao sighed. "Look, I honestly don't have any answers for you but I think Jeonghan might have something up his sleeve."

"What if you end up being wrong?" Mingyu asked. "What if I'm right?"

"Then I'm sorry," was all Minghao could say. "I don't have anything else to give you. I'm an artist, Mingyu. I can't solve all your problems, especially on this kind of scale. All I can say is that I know you're innocent, I just hope everyone else can see it."

Mingyu allowed Minghao to pat his back before the artist headed for the door. He felt so empty.

"So we've already started the changes, do you like it?" Hyunjin turned to give Yoon Jeonghan a cocked brow.

Jeonghan eyed the interior of the office and internally groaned. The fat bastard had decided to start renovations inside the office and out of all colours decided to go with beige -- as in a grandmother's old kitchen kind of beige, it was borderline insulting. Aside from the interior, the man had started negotiating with the board regarding reducing wages for their employees and streamlining the cost of the creative department -- that meant they were firing people to further reduce expenses on labour. Jeonghan was close to pulling out his hair seeing the people he'd worked so closely with be kicked out like trash, those were the most crucial people on the payroll.

"Lovely," Jeonghan lied through his teeth as he walked just two steps behind Hyunjin.

"I always envied Sanghoon in the past, I wondered how it felt being the one leading the pack," Hyunjin suddenly went off on a tangent. "Being in control feels...liberating."

Jeonghan bit back his need to cringe, Hyunjin was just as embarrassing as he remembered.

"And also, thank you for taking me home after our dinner," Hyunjin looked over his shoulder. "I got a little carried away."

"Not a problem, sir," Jeonghan replied.

"Though I would have preferred it if you stayed the night," the older man turned to face the brunette.

"I'm not an , sir," Jeonghan reminded.

"I'm not calling you one, Yoon Jeonghan," Hyunjin countered. "I think you and I are quite compatible."

Jeonghan resisted the urge to shudder, they were about as compatible as water and electricity. The man was delusional but...delusional meant he was easily manipulated -- Jeonghan could work with that. He'd successfully had Wonwoo duplicate the old bastard's phone so that was a win for him, he just needed to find something that could rule out Mingyu as the suspect. Jeonghan was aware that what he was doing was extremely risky but he was willing to do it for his lover's sake.

"I have a meeting with the board in five minutes, let's continue this conversation another time, shall we?" Hyunjin lo