"I did it to save her..." 

"What is the next move? When? How bad?" 

Things were about to go down, but little did they know what was in store for them...

Areum left her things in her locker and walked outside of the staff room. She felt a knot in her stomach at the thought of why Baekhyun had called her. He sounded strange over the phone. Worried, if she may say so herself. She could sense it.

***

“Hello?” 

“Hey, where are you?” He asked.

“In the staff room, why?” She asked. "I need to go down to the traffic control center."

“You can do that later. Areum, we need to talk.”

“Sure,” She replied. “Is everything okay, Baek?” 

“Don't worry. Can you come to my office?”

"I'll be over in 5," 

"See you."

***

A million questions crossed her mind, and with everything that was going on, nothing could surprise her anymore. It was one of those days that needed to end and end fast. It was a day that didn’t start out good, starting from the nightmares. She sighed as she made her way down the hallway towards his office.

“Are!”

She stopped as she heard a familiar voice. Chanyeol.

“Hey,” She smiled. “What’s up?”

“I was actually looking for you,” He said. “It’s about that report from four days ago, have you by any chance finished it? And signed it?”

“I left it on your desk early this morning when I arrived,” Areum explained.

Chanyeol facepalmed himself. “Alright, thanks Are. I’ll see you later!”

“Take it easy,” Areum replied and the two went their own way.

She turned the corner as her heart accelerated like crazy. Areum reached his office and before knocking she closed her eyes for a moment and took a deep breath.

“Come in!”

She heard Baekhyun say and she opened the door, walking inside.

“Morning,” She said.

He looked at him and smiled slightly. “Morning. Close the door, Are, and please, take a seat. I’ll get you a cup of coffee.”

Areum nodded her head, closing the door behind her before taking a seat. Baekyun walked over to the coffee machine and poured her a cup of coffee. “Milk? Sugar? Black?”

“Black,” She responded. “Thank you.”

Baekhyun smiled as he turned around and brought her a cup of coffee and a chocolate bar that she liked.

“Enjoy,” He said. “Sleep well?”

He tried his best to make her feel relaxed because he could tell that she was tensed and worried. It was interesting how he was able to sense it.

“It could have been better, and you?” She asked, taking a sip.

“Can’t complain,” He replied, picking up the file from his desk.

“What’s this about, Baek?” Areum finally asked. “You sounded strange over the phone? Is everything alright? Did I mess something up?”

Baekhyun shook his head. “It has nothing to do with your work, regrading that I couldn’t be more satisfied. I called you because of a file I got today…” He explained, placing the file in front of her on the coffee table.

Areum blinked, as she picked up the file. Her heart dropped into her stomach as she saw what this was about. Was she surprised? No. Was she angry? One could say that. The female sighed and paced the papers down. She was pushed into a corner, and she knew that she had to explain the situation at least, the basics of it all. Baekhyun didn’t push it, instead, he waited for her to be ready.

“My ex-husband has returned,” Areum spoke.  “The divorce wasn’t pretty, and neither was the custody battle. In order to save my daughter from him, my brother came up with the idea to adopt her as his own daughter…” She paused for a moment, before continuing. “He’s trying to get back at me for it, so he is pulling tricks like this… I didn’t kidnap my own child… I just did what I had to do to save her.” She sighed.

There was no need for Areum to say anything else as Baekhyun was able to read in between the lines and it was all clear as a day to him. The guards, Ari’s last name, Areum’s distance, and coldness at times… he wasn’t a stupid man. All the pieces fell into place at once.

“I’m sorry…” Areum said. “I had no idea-”

“Are, please,” Baekhyun spoke. “You don’t need to apologize for something you have no control over. But if you are worried about your job… let me be clear.” He looked at her. “It won’t affect your job. You are one hell of a pilot, and I appreciate the effort you put into the things you do. This file won’t cloud my judgment about you. I just needed to be sure and I wanted you to know. You can take the file or I can put it through the shred machine. The choice is yours, Are.”

“Thank you… speaking of which, this morning I met Eunji,” Areum started explaining. “He had requested that she be his lawyer, but the moment she realized who was in question, she declined… but sending this to you… wow…” She sighed. “I have no words for that guy…”

“You don’t need to worry about that,” He said softly. “Have you eaten anything?”

It was time to change the subject as he didn’t want her to go down the memory lane of ugly events.

“No,” She admitted. “You?”

“I didn’t have time,” He shrugged his shoulders. “Let’s go eat. Afterward, we’ll get ready for the flight.”

“Alright,” Areum said, standing up and picking the file up from the coffee table.

In the end, she had decided to bring the file with her, thinking that maybe Eunji might need it, or maybe make use of it. Baekhyun took his phone and the two of them left the office. Her words kept ringing in his head, but he tried his best to keep calm, but suddenly he had this very strange feeling in his stomach. He wasn’t sure how to describe it… but he didn’t like it. Not one bit.

Areum and he walked down the hallway in silence toward the cafeteria as she thought about everything. This move Dal made was too obvious and it’s not like him, it was strange, unusual, and knowing him he was up to a bigger scheme, but what? When? How serious and bad will it be? The knot in her stomach only became worse, giving her the chills.

The two arrived at the cafeteria and sat down as Baekhyun handed her the menu. Areum went through it but her mind was clearly somewhere else as it seemed like she was looking through the menu and not at it. Baekhyun observed her silently. He could sense her pain and feel her fear when she mentioned her ex. Her eyes reflected it as well. They were the mirror of her soul and if there was one thing Baekhyun was good at, it was reading someone.

There was no need for her to go into detail for him to understand, but the fact that someone was running away from such a person and having one’s brother adopt the child could only mean that the ex was abusive. To what lengths did it go? Baekhyun wasn’t sure, but he could only guess. One thing was for sure, the thought of that made him sick and disgusted that such people existed in the world.

“A chicken salad is enough,” She spoke, breaking him out of his thoughts.

“Are you sure?” He asked.

“Positive,”

“And to drink?” He asked while looking at the menu himself.

“Lemonade is enough,” She replied, leaning back into the chair.

He nodded his head and ordered for the two of them. They had just enough time for everything, besides it was a round trip so there wasn’t much to do. The procedure was the same. Once the food arrived and they dug in and talked about today’s schedule. Baekhyun made it a mission t