Eyeing the woman’s expression, Kyungsoo snapped his fingers a couple of times completely stopping from walking his way out of the apartment. He had just finished his weekend with Inyoung and dropped the kid off back to her mother. “What’s up with you?” He asked with a knowing frown. Yerin just chuckled before shaking her head. “I’m just thinking—what do you think about a tutor for Inyoung? Just for the subjects she’s having troubles with?” She finally had the guts to suggest – something she was planning to keep from him but realized she couldn’t.

A sarcastic chuckle came out of the man. “She’s having troubles with or YOU having troubles with? You can do it, that’s why we’re here as parents. We don’t need an extra parent. Tutoring is also our job until they don’t need any more of it.” Kyungsoo briefly and simply ended the topic before completely stepping out of the door. Yerin leans on the door frame watching his back figure. “Yeah, but you know how horrible I am with tutoring and it’s not like you can ONLY tutor her every single weekend you’re together, that’s. . . kind of unfair for her. And on other days, you’re too busy at work and by the time you can help her, she’d be asleep.” She retorts back making him stop.

Kyungsoo turns around briefly with a scornful smirk. “You know what, do whatever you want. What’s the point of asking me about it? If you really have this strong need to divide that little portion of our responsibility to a complete stranger, then do so.” He grunted before turning around again. “If I go through it, it’s going to be her homeroom teacher anyway, it’s safe and I could trust him. He seems like a nice guy and takes care of Inyoung well every day, in fact probably more than we could because the kid spends most of her time in school, right? Nothing to worry about.” Yerin attempts to promote again earning a short-lived pause from Kyungsoo, but unfortunately to her, he proceeded to leave after that pause.

Yerin frowns. “Kyungsoo! Come on. . .” She tries to call out but he just ignored her until his figure completely disappeared when the elevator doors shut closed.  

Behind the elevator doors, as soon as they closed, Kyungsoo let out a loud and frustrated groan to release the tension that was building up in him. He seems like a nice guy and take care of Inyoung well every day, in fact probably more than we could because the kid spends most of her time in school. He hated that phrase. He felt like she continuously guilt-trip him for not always being present. He feels like she doesn’t realize all the hard-work he’s doing, they’re all for his family.

His real family. Her and Inyoung.

She doesn’t realize he let himself be imprisoned within his family’s business to be able to support them the best way he can. People around Yerin thinks he just wanted the easy way to support them by already being rich but they don’t realize that he HAD to work hard to be where he is right now. They don’t realize how much pressure and threats he got from his family just for them to give what he has now.

He could have just left and let his family disown him, choose Yerin and Inyoung to live a normal—poverty-stricken—life, throw away his bright future down the drain to work a nine-to-five job—with a lot of overtime—at a ran-down company as an encoder or a secretary with a minimum wage salary, worse as a general laborer in some factory or a salesman who could barely get an actual conversation with homeowners whose doors he knocks on every single work day. He had a lot of thoughts about the things he could do but unfortunately, they were very limited as he was already raised to a very specific career path. But he did consider it, in fact a lot. He had that heroic novel-worthy choice but he refused to pick it. It could have been fine if it was just him to experience that kind of life but Yerin and Inyoung would have to as well.

And that is why he picked the other choice and that is to stay.

Not the most conventional and daring thing to do as a man but for him, in the best way that he knows, he still did a responsible thing.

“Ugh.” He groans in exhaustion as he falls down to his car seat. On his way to drive Inyoung back home, he had to make a stop at the office to sign some papers and now he has to drive back there to have a Skype-meeting with some overseas investors. It’s approaching eleven in the evening and he know the meeting might go on until around twelve or one in the morning. He had to adjust because of the time difference.

When he arrived in his office, he was surprised to see another person inside. He was expecting to be alone, only the night guards keeping the building safe downstairs. “Good evening, Miss Gong, are you joining the meeting? I wasn’t informed by your father though.” He formally, as always, addresses his confusion. A sly chuckle came out of the woman who was seated and stretched out comfortably on one of the office chairs while having a cup of coffee placed down the long conference table in front of her. “Just dropping by, attempting to convince you like always to just PLEASE call me Soyoung and talk to me informally.” She teases earning nothing but a scoff from him.

“I’m sorry, Miss Gong. I don’t think I have the time to discuss these things tonight, I.G.T. Corporation is waiting on me for a Skype meeting. May I ask you to leave so I could move on?” He asked while pointing a whole hand, respectfully, towards the glass doors. “Why, is it too confidential that even Gong Soyoung of Halliway Condominiums cannot know about?” She mocked, speaking formally like he always does. Kyungsoo closed his eyes for a second or two before looking straight at her again. “Please, I really need to get this down. I am very tired.” He responded, almost pleading.

Today, he had to take Inyoung to a theme-park two hours away from the city because the kid apparently heard it from her classmates and she wanted to see it as well. They were there for the most part of their Sunday so all he wanted to do was to get home and rest.

“You sound like an exhausted parent who spent most of his time chasing a little kid around a playground or something. Relax, handsome.” Gong Soyoung playfully replied making Kyungsoo stiffen up on his position. A part of him wants to think that he just really looked like one and Soyoung is innocently teasing him in such way but another part of him thinks this woman who’s madly infatuated with him knows the truth. He cleared his throat, almost twice. “We can chat if you want but let me finish the meeting first, please?” He kindly asked while glancing at his watch.

“Coffee after?” The woman asked, finally adjusting herself on the chair to get up.

Kyungsoo sighed. If the meeting finished at midnight, he definitely would not want coffee. Not at all. “I don’t think I’d want coffee after, I’m sorry. Anything but coffee.” He rejected. “How about burgers? I can get them delivered here, it’s my treat.” Soyoung surprisingly offered with her growing grin. Kyungsoo blinked in bewilderment while glancin