“Lu Han, please pick up your phone. We need to talk.”      “Are you avoiding me on purpose? What’s wrong? Have I done something? I—If it’s me, you have to let me know what it is, Lu Han. I’ll fix it. Just...call me, okay?”      “...It’s been days since we’ve even seen each other. I miss you.”      A deep sigh escaped past Lu Han’s lips as his fingers delicately pressed against the screen of his phone. He’d erased an estimate of thirteen voicemails in the past day—aside from the one left by the hospital, the rest were from Jieun.      Like she said, he had been avoiding her. He didn’t answer the countless calls or text messages he received and made sure he was out during lunch hours. By the time his fiancée was off work, he would be already long gone, disappearing into the confines of a local bar (or simply inside his car on days he didn’t feel like drinking). He made himself completely unreachable, for he knew that if he was to come in contact with Jieun, he’d either break down or erupt from his long suppressed emotions.      However, the real reason as to why he refused to see her was probably because he wanted to overlook what he knew; he wanted to pretend as if he’d heard nothing and seen nothing. He was looking for an excuse to forgive her, something that can justify his actions of doing so.      Lu Han just didn’t want to lose Lee Jieun.      Time would solve everything, they said. He certainly hoped that would be the case. He’d pull himself together sooner or later, and that would make it possible for him to at least pretend like things were perfect and just like they were before. But, what really angered Lu Han was that Jieun was not giving him that time.      Around four o’clock in the afternoon, the doors to Lu Han’s office jerked open. Jieun charged inside, her “professional” and “at-work” expression completely ruined by the threatening tears in her eyes. Standing before his desk, she said in a rather quivering voice, “We need to talk.”      Despite his efforts to keep it down, he couldn’t help but feel irritation surge through him. He burst up from his seat, slamming his desk with his hands. “What do you think you’re doing, Ms. Lee?” he growled, glaring menacingly at her. “This is your workplace, and I am your superior. Who gave you the permission to enter my room in such an uncivil manner?”      All she could manage to do was to stare at him with a dumbfounded expression. “I thought you were smart. There is a fine line between personal matters and business,” she heard him say as he rubbed his temples in frustration and fatigue. “You’re supposed to know better. Now, if you’d please leave the room—I’ve important matters to get to. And don’t forget to close the doors behind you. Quietly.”      Jieun moved her stare from her fiancé’s face down to her feet. Clenching her fists and biting back the urge to actually burst into tears, she nodded her head. “I—I apologize for my rash behavior, sir. It won’t happen again.”      As his fiancée turned her back against him, Lu Han felt for the nth time in this particular encounter that by hurting Jieun, he was hurting himself. The sharp daggers disguised into forms of words rolled off of Lu Han’s tongue and bore deep into Jieun’s heart, only to make a roundabout and pierce his very own. He figured denial and avoiding her was his way of coping, his defense mechanism.  No matter how much he tried to pretend like nothing happened, the facts did not change. Though there were several missing pieces to the puzzle he hadn’t quite figured out yet, the big picture was inevitable. Lee Jieun and Oh Sehun had used him, manipulated him, and taken advantage of him. Perhaps it was now his turn to show the two that he would not stand by and watch as he is made a fool. Slowly carding his fingers through his hair, Lu Han let out a sigh and called out for Jieun before she could leave the room. “Wait for me after work,” he said. “I’ll drop you off.”   <:>      “Bankruptcy? Those are all rumors, Reporter Nam. Yes, yes. EK’s running fine and smooth, and stock prices will rise back to normal again in a couple of days. Yes. I trust that your article won’t—Wonderful, thank you—”      “Xiao Lu filing a lawsuit against us? That’s ridiculous. Reporter Sung, you should be well aware of Chairman Kim and Chairman Lu’s friendship—”      “We’re currently tracking down who let out such a blatantly incorrect article. EK under a financial crisis? Simply absurd, considering how strong the company has been for the past decade and a half—”      Ever since his entry into his father’s EK Corporation as the executive officer, Kim Jongin had never gone through such a long work day. His usual consisted of a couple of documents needing to be signed off, or even a round trip to the best country clubs around the nation to appeal to family members of business partners. But for the last couple of days, he had been glued to his desk with everyone in the company expecting him to come up with a plan to deal with the biggest crisis in the history of EK.      Out of the blue, Xiao Lu’s law firm had contacted his team of lawyers that Xiao Lu was filing for a nullification and termination of their contracts as partners with the reason being that they suspecte