"It wasn't love at first sight exactly, but it was familiarity."
— Mhairi McFarlane

Since the spark of nonromantic interest faded with his impenetrable arrogance ten minutes earlier, the words being uttered by Zhang Yixing had been filtering through one ear and out the other—but at the mention of Oh Sehun's name, Seo Ara's hearing tuned out all noise emerging from the man beside her.

"Sehun…?" she repeated quietly to herself before allowing her eyes to scour their surroundings.

Sure enough, her dark lenses landed on where Chaeyoung's were pinned. What she heard her best friend exclaim was true. Standing by the pool's side entrance was Secretary Oh, dressed in a navy blue linen tunic with dark aviator glasses hanging at his chest, and white pants rolled at the bottom.

Yixing paused his monologue and turned to his prospect. "What was that?" he asked, believing she had made a comment about his spiel.

"Huh? Oh. Uh—I'm sorry. I…have to go. I'll talk to you later," Ara stated with an apologetic smile then immediately switched her attention to the young secretary once more.

|| …………… ||

At the sight of Ara's reaction to hearing Sehun's name, Baekhyun subconsciously sprang to his feet and bolted towards his grandfather's assistant ahead of her, taking not only Chaeyoung by surprise, but also his two best friends and his wife.

"Why the hell are you here?" he asked as he reached Secretary Oh's location.

Sehun bowed slightly as if to return his not-so-friendly greeting. "Chairman Byun insisted I take a vacation," he explained in his usual reserved tone.

"And of all the places in the world, you chose to come here?" Baekhyun retorted, his eyes challenging the impassive assistant's reason. But before he could interrogate him any further, Ara interrupted from the side.

"Sehun," she called out, glancing briefly at her husband before settling her eyes on her co-detective.

Similar to his earlier greeting, Secretary Oh once again bowed. "Ms. Seo," he responded as he met her questioning gaze, and mentally relayed his reason for showing up unannounced. The slight change in his expression and the seriousness in his eyes only meant one thing: the person they were hunting down was no longer in Macau.

"You made it," Ara stated with a cheerful smile to hide her anxiety. "Let me just get changed. I'll meet you at the lobby in five," she continued casually as she took her leave.

With brows wrinkled in a downward arch, Baekhyun watched his wife happily disappear into the hotel before turning his piercing glare back on the unfazed secretary. "Now why are you really here?" he asked once more, ill-equipped for the answer he was about to receive.  

Sehun broke from the Lothario's chilling gaze and set his eyes on Chaeyoung, who chose to stay at a distance. Hiding his disappointment, he looked back at the unfaithful husband and flashed a charming smirked. "To be with my girlfriend, what else?" he replied teasingly without any hint of playfulness in his current expression. He then gave Baekhyun a final nod, wore his shades, and excused himself.

"So another player just entered the arena," Jongdae commented as he and Yixing approached the silenced husband, their eyes pinned on the young secretary making his way back inside.

"And by the looks of it, he's no underdog," Yixing added, turning to the Lothario for confirmation.

|| …………… ||

After discussing the changes in their plans, determining his whereabouts, hiring someone to arrange a meeting with Lee Byung Chul's former secretary, and thoroughly preparing for tomorrow's negotiations, Ara and Sehun arrived back at Amankila just as the sun began to set in the horizon.