“Are you ready?” Euna glanced over at the nervous bar owner. She could tell how anxious he was by the way he kept readjusting his necktie. 

“It’s going to be fine,” she whispered, reassuring him by a gentle squeeze on his shoulder. 

And just like that, the two entered the meeting room where his potential investors await. Though the room was quite large, he couldn’t help but feel suffocated by the faces staring straight at them. The nonchalant atmosphere ripped through his nerves, the longer they kept their mouths shut.

“Good morning,” he suddenly bowed, unable to take the silence any longer. 

“Nice to finally meet you. My name is Suho,” the well groomed man got up from his seat to greet Baekhyun. He recognized that man, from the birthday and the Australia pictures. The 'ex' as Mark always referred him to. They shook hands after introducing themselves before the meeting started. The last few members of the board arrived, indicating that the meeting should be taking place soon.

“Ready?” Euna mouthed to him before they went up for their presentation. As much as he wanted to answer no, he forced himself to get up anyway. 

“I previously proposed a plan,” Euna began, “This is Byun Baekhyun, he is a small business owner of a rather…mediocre bar.   

She turned her head to face him and with a smile, the heiress continued. “With our investment, I plan to revamp this bar in order to make the right public appeal. They wanted us to take in small businesses and that’s exactly where we’ll start. By showcasing that we can put our money into good use as well as making a profit out of it, we will no doubt catch their attention. The media loves a good transformation story.”

“How would you know for sure?” one member interrupted.

“Because I know how the mass audience works,” she smirked. It was a fact though, from all those years in the public eyes, good or bad, she knew exactly how they function. 

“Which now brings us over to marketing strategies. Social media…” Euna proceeded to explain their plan, step-by-step along with Baekhyun’s input as practiced.

Luckily, they concluded the presentation without a single mistake. Baekhyun could finally breathe again after the tensed conference. Though from the looks on some dissatisfied faces, the pair knew they were about to hear an earful. 

“This sounds like a waste of time and money to me,” a board member pointed out along with some nodding heads. 

“Certainly it won’t be a waste of your time since I am the one conducting this project and judging from the size of this bar, we won’t be using half of what we usually invest in our projects,” she shot back with actual facts. 

The members became quiet again, and remained so for the next few minutes. They all unanimously decided to forward her plan either way, considering that it won’t be a great loss if they were to fail. Baekhyun had a difficult time reading the room since everyone suddenly stopped talking.

“Congratulations,” whispered Suho, the first to break the silence. He finally caught on to the fact that the silence meant no rejection on their proposal. 

“We did it partner,” Euna muttered, nudging him slightly with her fist balled up under the table. The bar owner chuckled, returning her secret fist bump as a reward for their hard work. 

The meeting adjourned, leaving the two behind to celebrate their small victory. Suho also joined to offer his support. He handed Baekhyun his business card, “Call me if you need anything and keep her out of trouble, please.” 

The bar owner caught Euna rolling her eyes, already opening to protest. They kept their celebration short as the CEO had to return to his company. Meanwhile, the pair had their own duties to attend to as well. One of their first tasks required a taste test of some new imported stock to expand their basic menu, hoping to give it a more exquisite touch. 

“Is it just the two of us?” Baekhyun looked around the empty parking lot.

“Why? Are you scared of being kidnapped by me?” she sarcastically replied as she pulled out her car keys.

No. But just being alone with her these days made him somewhat uneasy, not in an uncomfortable way, more of the opposite. He was way too comfortable for his own liking. Nonetheless, the two ventured out to the countryside brewery to continue the long day ahead of them.

Just half an hour into their car ride, the heiress had already started mocking Baekhyun subtly. “Maybe I should do the taste testing, since you don’t look like you can hold your alcohol,” she smirked, obviously teasing him about that one drunken night.

“Please don’t compare my old liver to you young people,” he smiled back with a hint of sarcasm.

“I’m not a kid,” she frowned. 

“Noted, Miss Cha…” the way he softly enunciated her title with that well-modulated voice of his was enough to make her flustered.