Sehun left like that, not uttering a single word of explanation on the matter. All I knew was that I was growing very tired of all this, and it was endlessly complicated and confusing.

Luhan’s mood was rather foul – for Luhan – for the rest of the evening and into the next morning. I hadn’t told him that I was working with Sehun to try to end the contract, and I didn’t really think I was going to either, so I spent the early hours of the morning working on it secretly. Luhan’s mood was made even worse when he received a phone call telling him that they weren’t able to stop the pictures going to the press and that a rather slanderous article had accompanied it.

“He’s going to call you,” Luhan told me rather unsympathetically.

I sighed, knowing full well my father would shortly be in touch to give me hell about this. “I know.”

Luhan nodded. “Just as long as you’re prepared.”

Getting up from the kitchen table, I left the room and went to my own one, not really sure how to handle the inevitable conversation. It would be unpleasant at best. My eyes drifted to the desk in the room where the contract sat. I hadn’t been able to find anything to help Sehun’s side at all, but I had found something meant to help my father’s side, and it was something that I felt Sehun definitely had to know about. The only problem was, once I was summoned to my father – as I undoubtedly would be – I would be stuck there for most of the day and so therefore wouldn’t get to give the information to Sehun at all.

Grunting to myself, I rummaged for a pen and made a quick note on the side of the page where the clause sat. I grabbed an envelope and tightly sealed it up, even adding Sellotape for good measure. The next thing I did was snatch out my phone and quickly sent Baekhyun a text, telling him where I would have Luhan leave the envelope. I knew that if I told Luhan it was for Sehun then he wouldn’t cooperate but if it was for Baekhyun then he might just help me out.

“Luhan,” I called out, re-entering the kitchen which was tucked neatly into the side of the place. “Could you drop this into the university office for Baekhyun to collect? It’s some of his old music sheets that I found in my bag.”

Although hesitant, Luhan finally nodded. It seemed his mood had lifted a little. “Of course I will. It’s nice of you to go to the effort of returning them.” His eyes bulged a little when he felt the weight of the envelope. “An awful lot of music in here, isn’t there?”

I nodded shamefacedly, “I suppose so.”

“Your father called a minute ago,” Luhan told me, setting the envelope into his bag. “He wants you to go home to speak with him right now.” This time he looked a little more sympathetic. Shooting Luhan a desperate glance, I saw him bite his lip a little. “Want me to come with you? I agree with him that you shouldn’t have been with Sehun, but I don’t think he should really reprimand you too harshly for it. I don’t think this whole thing would have happened if he had played his cards a little better. You’re the victim here.”

It was almost comforting to know that Luhan wasn’t too angry about last night and that he might actually be a little sympathetic with the situation Sehun and I were in. “Thanks for the offer,” I smiled almost sadly. “But it will be over faster if I just go alone.”

Luhan nodded hesitantly. “Ok. I’ll give you a lift in my car on the way to university then.”

I didn’t know what had happened in my father’s house this morning, but from the looks on the staffs’ faces, it had been something very unpleasant indeed. I could only imagine the anger my father must have lashed out at them all with. There was a small urge within me to apologise to them all but the situation I was in was far worse than theirs so I just silently made my way to my father’s office.

Paz was sitting outside, several phones in her hands as she tried to speak into them all at once. The scene might have been comical if it weren’t for the nature of my visit.

“You!” Paz hissed rudely when she saw me, abandoning the phones in her hands. “I really don’t know what you thought you were doing, but do you even realise the cost to the company’s stocks because of this?”

“Is he in there?” I asked with a little sigh, pointing towards my father’s office.

She nodded once curtly, “Good luck.” The way she spat it made it clear that she didn’t want to wish me anything of the sort.

Not seeing the point in wasting any more time, I knocked on the door. There was a silence for a moment, then I heard him telling me to enter.

My father was sitting in his chair, hands clasped in front of himself and eyes on the desk. I suddenly became more nervous, his stillness being very unsettling.

“I really don’t know,” my father began, voice incredibly level. Unfortunately, it didn’t last. His next words were shouted so loudly that my guess would be that the whole house could hear them, “When the hell you became such a damn embarrassment!”

I found that I couldn’t move or say anything; I couldn’t remember the last time I had seen him so angry and it honestly scared me a little.

“Look at this!” he yelled, getting to his feet and throwing the thing on his desk onto the floor by my feet. I stooped hesitantly to pick it up. It was the picture of Sehun and I that was taken last night with the headline ‘Newly Engaged Heir of United Entertainment keeping her options open’. A quick scan through the article had me cringing. It told a story of how I was only using Luhan, and that I never had any intention to marry him at all. There was also an extensive section on the theory that my engagement to Luhan wasn’t ever real at all, and that it had been done only for the benefit of our stock prices – which was half true.

I set it down on the edge of my father’s desk when I finished reading it, earning a glare from him as if that was the wrong thing to do.

“What the hell are you playing at, you stupid girl?” he snarled, vein on his forehead throbbing angrily.

“Sorry.”

“Don’t spurt that nonsense! Give me a real damn reason!”

I said nothing, figuring he wouldn’t like the truth any more than my lame apology at this point.

“Everything!” he exclaimed, throwing his hands in the air. “I’ve given you everything! And this is how you repay me?” He angrily at his lip. “Do you even realise how this makes you look? The company look?” He barely paused. “Dirty.”

My eyes remained plastered onto the article on the desk, not daring to look up at him.

“Because of your stupidity, we’ll have to do extensive damage control now. I hope you’re ready for that.”

There was a knock at the door. “Come in,” my father called, seemingly knowing who it was already.

The door opened to reveal the familiar figure of Luhan’s father. Unlike usually, he didn’t smile at me. And that’s when I knew I had really messed up badly this time.

When my father saw him, he let out a little sigh, “I don’t even know how to begin to tell you how-”

“It’s alright,” Luhan’s father replied, although he didn’t really look like it was alright at all. This didn’t make his son look good either, not at all. I suddenly felt a little bad that Luhan and his family had been dragged into this mess. “Just as long as we can clean it up quickly.”

My father nodded, motioning for Luhan’s father to sit and now ignored my presence completely. “My initial idea is to just release a statement saying how it isn’t true.”

Luhan’s father considered this for a moment. “Of course it’s the obvious thing to do. But I mean really, how many statements are actually true, or more to the point believed? Just think of how many deals we’ve pulled out of because of things like this.”

“That’s true. Do you have any suggestions?”

Pursing his lips for a moment, the other man slowly nodded. “It’s a bit extreme, but with the way our stocks are crashing right now we don’t really have a choice.”

My father nodded encouragingly for him to continue.

“We need to try to normalise the relationship between the two; make it seem like nothing is going on at all and that they are simply friends.”

“Of course that would work, but how do we get that across to the media?”

“We need to have the three of them in an enclosed space together to show that there is no ill feelings or the sort. The interview Luhan and Mira are supposed to have at the apartment should serve as the perfect setting.”

My father now frowned. “But how will that work?”

“We need to get Mr Oh to agree to Sehun moving in with the two, on the grounds that the three of them are studying the same course at the same university until the interview is out of the way. There is a chance that other reporters will be about now that this has leaked out. We'll make it look like they are simply roommates and that’s why he was out alone with her so late. It’s the perfect cover and allows us to control what the media publishes in future.”

My brow furrowed as I realised what they were saying. “Wait, are you saying that Sehun will be moving in with Luhan and I?”

Luhan’s father turned to me. “If we get permission from Mr Oh, then yes.”

I shook my head, disgusted, “But that’s-”

“The only way to properly clean up this mess you’ve made,” my father snapped at me brutishly. I bit down hard on my tongue, knowing my opinion meant even less than usual right now.

The two men discussed the matter further before my father sent a message to Paz telling her to propose the situation to Mr Oh. About ten minutes later a resoundi