Kibum marched through the bullpen, a cowed Jinki in tow. His legs come down onto the carpeted floor sharply, eating up the distance to Minho’s office. Other employees of the firm who saw the duo coming were quick to duck out of their way, for while Minho was able to remain nonchalant before a furious Kibum, the rest did not have his courage of steel. It did not help that Kibum was a distant relative to a man who sat on the board of directors of this reinsurance firm, and could have been off leading his own department (he was far too overqualified for his current position anyway) should he wanted to.

But no, Kibum came back for the man he abandoned, pulling quite a lot of strings along the way as he strong-armed his way back into the central office. And now that it appeared that Kibum was unable to recapture Minho’s heart, the office had been seeing quite a lot of fireworks—no that would be an incorrect term, firepower rather. And poor Onew, the rest of the employees couldn’t help but think, as they look at the man who was taking small, quick steps to match up with Kibum. Poor Onew, who was dragged down into this whole mess and heckled all day long simply because he fell in love with the wrong person.

The employees sighed quietly behind their partitions, watching on with pitiful eyes but not lifting a single finger to help. Best to not incur Kibum’s wrath on oneself, that was rule number 2 on the survival guidebook. Every department had one.

-

Kibum slammed open the door to Minho’s office without preamble. Minho, who seemed to be the least bit startled by the sudden noise, continued typing at his keyboard, the only apparent reaction to this sudden ruckus a tightening of brows.

Kibum did not notice any of this and simply shoved the photos he was grabbing into Minho’s face. Minho blinked, took over the photos and threw them into his bin without a second glance.

Outraged, Kibum immediately started shouting as he picked up the discarded paper, “What’s wrong with you, Minho? I took the time to gather all these for you and you are throwing them away just like that? That is out to get you and this time round, I have proof!”

Jinki, who had entered relatively silently compared to Kibum’s grand entrance, scrambled to defend himself, “N-no, that’s not true, Minho!”

Minho directed a reassuring look at Jinki and turned to stare at Kibum’s flushed face with unforgiving eyes. “What?” he said, voice void of inflection.

“These!” Kibum laid out the photos on Minho’s desk, “These! Look at these! That is cheating on you! He tried to lie to me about the guy being his brother but I saw through it.”

Minho looked down at the photos and remained silent. Kibum, upon sensing the change in tides, turned to shoot Jinki a smug smile. He was going to win this round, he was. After all, he had evidence to back his accusations this time round. Jinki wrung his hands helplessly.

When the silence finally began to border on the uncomfortable side, Minho said mildly, “I never knew you had a brother, Onew.”

Kibum’s face fell and Jinki heaved a huge sigh of relief. He rushed forward to clasp Minho’s hands in his and breathed out, “Thank you for believing me, Minho. Thank you.”

A gentle smile donned Minho’s lips and he was about to reply when Jinki was shoved roughly to the side by Kibum.

“You are kidding me!” Kibum said in disbelief, “You are kidding me, Minho! Don’t tell me you actually buy his story! How does that look anything close to brotherly?”

-

“I swear I wasn’t having any inappropriate thoughts towards Jinki-hyung then,” Taemin said thoughtfully as he chewed on the gum, “Do we really look all that intimate?”

Jonghyun rolled his eyes, froze a frame and enlarged it on the screen.

“Ok.” Taemin acceded after a pause, “Maybe, we do.”

-

Minho rose from his seats and glared at Kibum. He moved to stand beside Jinki, “Can’t you behave in a civilized manner? Others may be more fragile than you are and can’t manage your manhandling.”

Kibum spluttered, “Why the hell are you defending him? When I clearly have proof otherwise.”

“Trust,” Minho said simply.

A stunned silence hung in the air and Jinki squeezed Minho’s hand gratefully.

“Holy crap,” Kibum said incredulously, “You’ve fallen way deeper into that ’s spell that I thought you had.”

Minho shrugged, “You would never be able to understand what we have, Kibum. To you, relationships are all about having a show trophy to hang on your arm. Nothing more, nothing less.”

“I came back for you, didn’t I?” Kibum’s voice was bitter, “I came back for you and I love you, but you are too dumb to reciprocate because you are hopelessly entrapped by that bastard.”

“Do you have any other business here?” Minho said, dispassionately, “If not, please leave.”

“I don’t suppose if I say he faked his credentials you would throw him out on his .”

“Kibum.”

“His certificates are fake. He never attended St Nick High School, neither did he graduate from Berkeley. He’s a fake through and through, from his papers to his brother. You are blind not to see it,” Kibum spat before he his heels sharply and left the room.

Jinki started urgently once Kibum had left, “I can explain, Minho, I can.”

Minho sat down and pointed to the photos on the desk, “Who is this guy for starter.”

“He is my brother. He is the bastard son my father squirreled away in China. I only know of his existence early this year, Minho.”

Minho tapped a steady rhythm on the wooden desk.

Jinki continued when it appeared that Minho was not about to speak anytime soon, “As for St Nick, I really was a student enrolled there. It was just that I had severe anorexia nervosa then and couldn’t regularly attend the classes and had to be home-schooled—“

Jinki was cut off by a sudden, sharp thud on the desk as Minho brought his finger down with an air of finality. “Your brother, Onew. He’s in town now, isn’t he?” Minho said, “Can I meet him?”

“He misbehaves badly,” Jinki replied, “You wouldn’t like him.”

“But I like you, and I wish to know everything about you,” Minho smiled and stood up to wrap Jinki in a hug, “Let’s have lunch together with him one day. I am free this Saturday.”

“Are you sure you want to waste one of your precious free days on him, Minho?” Onew questioned dubiously, “He’s not worth your time.”

-

Taemin pouted at the screens, “Jinki-hyung’s so mean. How can he say that when he obviously knows I can hear him?”

Jonghyun chortled delightedly and choked on his own spit.

-

“It’s settled, alright?” Minho said over Jinki’s protests and then lifted his wrist to look at the face of his watch, “Looks like it’s lunch time now. Let’s go and grab a sandwich together, Onew.”

He interlaced his hands with Jinki and led the way out of his room. Just as Jinki was listing the terrible qualities of his half-brother, standing to the side as Minho locked the door, Minho cast one last look at the photos, brows furrowed. His eyes lingered on them, the images surfacing in his mind. But soon Jinki was tugging on his hands, telling him to be faster and Minho turned around and reached for Jinki’s waist, pecking him on his cheeks.

He would get to the bottom of this later.

-

“Ok, Taemin, no joking about now,” Jonghyun said seriously, “You really have to practise your Chinese accent.”

Taemin was too busy pumping his hands up into the air to reply. Time for a celebratory dance.

I was trying to upload this chapter using my phone this afternoon, but the formatting turned out ot be all sorts of weird. But now that I have access to a com, here you go, guys! No more false update notices! :) This is the real deal.