My father scoffed disbelievingly. “You stupid girl!” he hissed, waving his hands around like weapons. “Do you have any idea what would have happened if you’d been seen by one of our clients? Or better yet, Oh Sehun himself? Are you even seeing him at all?” he bellowed, temple throbbing viciously.

Pushing myself up off the ground, I clutched onto the photographs tightly. I opened my mouth to tell my father that that was Oh Sehun that I was with, just the blonde version, but he held a hand up to me to silence my unspoken words.

“I really don’t know what the hell you have been doing all this time. But that,” his finger jabbed towards the photographs, “is not why you are here.” Again I tried to speak – tried to defend myself, but this time it was his words that cut me off. “I’m not finished!” he yelled, so loud that I actually felt myself flinch. “Do you even realise how much your image reflects onto me?”

I nodded my head, knowing he would not allow me any answer more advanced than this.

“What if someone other than Paz had seen you there? Lord knows, somebody probably did!” He began pacing then, breath becoming laboured as he considered all the things that could possibly go wrong as a result of me going to a kitchenware shop with a boy. “And if Sehun were to see you with this boy, how would that look? Huh?” He shook his head incredulously. “You just don’t think about these things, you stupid girl. How the hell am I supposed to leave my entire business empire to someone who acts like that?” Once again his finger was directed towards the photos in my hands.

I couldn’t remember the last time I had seen my father act like this, but it really couldn’t be good for his health. Instantly, I felt a little guilty. Sehun aside, I shouldn’t have been somewhere so public with an ‘unfamiliar’ boy because, like my father said, our business partner’s and clients could have seen me and that wouldn’t have looked too good. We made even have had a scandal on our hands.

“Don’t just stand there silently!” my father suddenly fired at me as if I hadn’t tried to speak several times already. “Say something!”

Lifting the pictures in my hands, I quietly stated, “It is Oh Sehun. The boy.”

My father’s face twitched involuntarily. “Blonde?” he asked almost scornfully. I suppose it was understandable that he hadn’t recognised the boy as Sehun given the colour of his hair.

“Yeah, he’s blonde now,” I explained simply, as if my earlier explanation wasn’t enough for it.

A grunt escaped my father’s lips as he took that in for a moment. “There’s no wonder he attends a school like he does . . .” he grumbled to himself. I wanted to tell him that, actually, Sehun is just as smart as me, if not more given that I’d never seen the boy studying. I don’t know where this sudden need to defend Sehun came from, but I supressed it before I could verbally say it. It was unlikely that my father would agree with me on this point, or appreciate my correcting him.

“Even if that is Sehun,” he continued, clearly still holding in a lot of pent up anger. “You should have known better than to walk with him somewhere like that.” My father was no longer shouting, but he still sounded angry.

“I understand,” I bowed my head. “I’ll be more careful in future.” A hum sounded from my father, but didn’t really sound like he believed me. “I will, Father.”

“Show me it, don’t tell me,” he said, backing away from me a little as he headed for the living room, nestling himself into one of the chairs snuggly. “Have you met his father yet?”

Before I could even think about which answer to tell him, there was a knock at my door. At first it didn’t register that it had sounded at all until my father cleared his throat and pointed around me to the door. “Who on earth is calling so late?”

I wondered that as well before a cold shiver passed down my back. It was Sehun. Of course it was Sehun! Swallowing uncomfortably, I walked over to living room, “It’s probably just someone trying to sell something. . .” Although I highly doubted that sort of thing happened in this building, I wasn’t about to let my father and Sehun meet – far less in m