“Well, guess Minnie is going to have a sleepover again today.” Jackson breathes out. 

“Parks or Hirais?” The older woman questions.

“Well, aunt Hyo is on leave, so I’m sure she’d be more than happy to take her.”

“Then Jihyo it is.” 

“Well, good luck calling her.” The young man laughs, fishing his phone. “I’m calling in to have my team ready for tonight.”

“Fair enough, I’ll do it.”

And so she does, to say Nayeon was comfortable calling any of the Parks would be a lie, but they needed Mina to be safe, and nowhere safer than with Jihyo and Jaebum, they made sure of it. The conversation was a little tense, but the nurse had agreed promptly to take the girl in, and declared she would be staying until sunday and there was nothing anyone could do to stop it, to which Nayeon chuckled and said she would have to fight Dahyun about it later and was replied with a ‘bring it on’ before ending the call.

“All set?” Dahyun asks, getting a nod in response. “Let’s eat, then. We need some comfort breakfast right now.”

Jackson was still on his phone, but had already begun nibbling his cheesecake, the three fall into a comfortable ease, talking about nothing really important and enjoying each other while having their favorite coffee. Turns out, the day goes by much faster than anyone expected, except for Jihyo, who greets everyone with two cakes and some savory pastries, demanding the whole family comes inside to eat before they head out to whatever they were doing that required Mina staying over. Nayeon laughs on fondly, knowing the small woman must be bored out of her mind to force them into this early dinner and have so much food waiting.

And eat they do, the three knew very well that eating during these type of meetings wasn’t much of an option, and Jihyo was a heavenly cook, not that the eldest woman was about to admit it, Dahyun was, though and spared no compliments. Sana and Mina were just excited by their impromptu meeting, and munched away happily while watching cartoons in the living room. Jackson was, like always, very enthusiastic while talking to his aunt, which never failed to amaze his mothers.

Soon enough the Ims were at a very expensive and very elegant chinese restaurant, it was cordial to meet on neutral ground, and the chinese had no qualms with either side, so the Zhangs agreed to host. That meant that the head of the Zhang family would be present in the meeting, but would be there merely as a witness and not intervene before necessary. They talked business and understood each other rather quickly.

“Are you certain about this? Isn’t the woman your mother?” Buramuk asks, family was considered sacred to him.

“That woman merely gave birth to me, the maids made sure I was kept fed and clean, but my brother was the one who raised me my entire life, and I tried to take everything from him in my selfish rage. I was young and spoiled, but quickly understood how much he had done for me my entire life.” Nayeon’s voice was firm and unwavering something those who knew her rarely saw. “She intends to ‘get rid of’ the man who gave his life so I could live mine freely and I’m not allowing her to do any more damage to him than she has already done.”

“That is something I can respect.” The thai man says respectfully, mr Zhang silently agrees from his seat. “Well, I’ll take care of everything, just make sure your brother is out of the way and there is nothing to worry about.”

“Thank you. That woman has been playing her dangerous game long enough, and I can’t have my real family in any kind of danger. We are both very aware of each other, and I don’t really care for your business, we agreed on that a few years back, bu-”

“But this is out of line, I know. Those men are not under my orders, and I haven’t allowed for any of this. I’m not the kind of man to break good relationships for the sake of it.”

“And I thank you for that. I’ll try and pull them away but can’t promise too long. I might be able to take them somewhere until sunday, but that is about it.”

“That should be long enough, just make sure you are all seen by as many people as possible and get recorded, if you can. Things are going to be a bit ugly for them and you all will need alibis for your whereabouts.”

“I can make that happen, thank you. I’ll try to leave tomorrow morning, but if you can shadow us to be up to date it would be great, if we don’t have to inform ourselves things should look innocent enough.” 

“That sounds like an Im alright. I’ll have someone keep tabs and we’ll move as soon as you are all safely tucked away, we will make our move. Just make sure to take anyone who could be framed, friends, cousins, distant relatives. If you want them to be ruled out, take them with you, buy whoever you need to buy, just take them away.”

“Will do, thank you, sir. We should be taking our leave now, there are some phone calls we need to make to be sure to take everyone.”

They trade pleasantries and bid their goodbyes. Nayeon was the only one to speak up, as it was about her mother Dahyun and Jackson were there out of respect and formalities. None of them liked these things, but would follow tradition to a tee when the occasion called for it. The three of them headed out for the Hirais first, Jackson called Youngjae in the car (Dahyun was driving them all) and told his boyfriend to pack a bag to last until sunday and they would talk in the morning, his tone was enough for any questions to be put on hold.

Talking to Momo and Chaeyoung was a little difficult, the nurse was full on protective mode and wasn’t very happy to learn the people she loved were in danger, but they agreed to talk once everyone was safe on their destination and started packing away, Dahyun promised to handle Momo’s job and Chaeyoung didn’t have any shoots this week, just editing. The next step was a dread one, though, the Parks would be a challenge and Jaebum was sure to have a lot of questions. Jackson was handling Youngjae and Jaebum’s leave after hanging up with his boyfriend, both men worked together so he really just had to deal with one person.