My grandma always used to tell me to never go to bed angry. Well, when I woke up the next day with a sinking feeling within me and eyes as swollen as a bee sting, I knew you should never go to bed sad either. Perhaps they should expand that saying a little.

The whole of my body felt uncomfortable as I entered the corridor and saw Sehun’s door still firmly closed over. Brushing away the events of the previous night as quickly as I could, I headed to the kitchen where I found a note left by Baekhyun beside the one remaining sliver of cake saying how much he enjoyed it and gently reminding me that his birthday was only a month away. I don't know why he even bothered to leave such a pathetic looking slice in the first place.

The sound of a door opening somewhere in the house had my spine jolting up in fright. I silently prayed that it wasn’t Sehun, knowing how little I wanted to see him right now. For once my prayers were answered when Luhan appeared in the doorway instead.

“Morning,” he greeted me quietly, checking his phone for messages. “Are you going to go to university today?”

I nodded. “I'm technically still enrolled. But I’m going to pick up all the paperwork today.”

Luhan hummed, still keying away on his phone and only looking half-interested. “Are you sure this is what you want?”

I felt my eyes drift back to the corridor before Luhan turned to face me again. Nodding my head, I let out a little hum. “I’m pretty sure it will be beneficial to me either way.”

“Are you going to tell anyone else?” he asked, his own eyes flicking to the corridor now. It was clear that he meant Sehun.

“Maybe. But I really don’t think it affects him anymore.”

Luhan looked like he was going to argue, but instead he just turned back to his phone.

“Could you please get me some clothes from his room?” I asked, hovering around Luhan in the kitchen.

Although he probably wanted to protest, Luhan nodded. “Is anything ok?”

“Yeah, it’s just for university.”

Perhaps I was being a coward, or perhaps I was being a fool, but either way the very last thing I wanted to do was enter that room and see Sehun right now. Instead I waited in Luhan’s room until he returned with a set of clothes.

“I didn’t see him,” he said, plopping the clothes onto the bed. “But I heard him throwing up in the bathroom.”

I nodded once, not really wanting to seem too interested in the matter but at the same time not wanting to ignore the information either.

Luhan seemed to sense that I wanted a distraction of sorts. “Have you thought about how you’re going to sort out Oh Hotels? It won’t be easy.”

I thought back on my meeting with Mr Zhang the other day. “Well, actually, I spoke to a lawyer about it. He said the easiest thing to do is to remove Mr Oh as the CEO.”

“Easiest?” Luhan asked incredulously. “In what way is that even remotely easy?”

A grimaced formed on my lips. “I know it’s not exactly ideal or straightforward, but there’s also all the accounting issues that need fixed.”

Luhan was silent, possibly willing to concede that I was right.

“I need to find an interim CEO quickly.”

“Why just an interim?”

“Kyungsoo. When the time comes, he’ll want to take it over.”

Luhan sighed tiredly. “You really don’t like giving yourself a simple time, do you?”

He might have had an excellent point there. “I need to find one,” I repeated almost sadly.

“Have you checked the list of major shareholders that’s available to the public?”

I shook my head. “No. I was busy getting his birthday sorted out for him.” What a great waste of time.

Luhan pursed his lips, eyes darkening. “He’s just a horrid waste of space. Don’t bother about him again. He’s just like his father. I’m going to go and speak to our parents about getting him out of here. I’ll just say he’s upsetting you – which is true. Even your father shouldn’t object too much.”

There were words of defence on the tip of my tongue, but I swallowed them back. Luhan was right that Sehun was upsetting me, but he wasn’t right about him being a waste of space. And he most certainly wasn’t right about Sehun being like his father. That was too great an insult.

“Oh!” Luhan chirped brightly, his harsh words from a moment ago long forgotten. "What about Park Minseo? The third daughter from Jaehyuk Hotels. She doesn't have a shot at her own company, so maybe she would want to be involved in this one."

I knew the woman Luhan was talking about, but I wasn't rating her as an option. She was pretty narcissistic, which may or may not be down to the overindulging of her parents, but either way she might be someone hard to remove from that position. Trust was the issue here, even with the contract in place.

I shook my head. "If I wouldn't trust them with my own company then I wouldn't trust them with this one either."

Luhan considered this for a moment before nodding, seemingly in understanding. “What about the Kims?”

“The Kims?”

“Yeah. What about them?”

“Luhan, I’m not trying to be mean here but ‘Kim’ is one of the most common surnames in Korea. Can you be more specific?”

Luhan nodded stupidly. “The Kims from Kim Enterprises. The Korean-Americans. You remember them, right? I’m pretty sure they’ve had some shares in Oh Hotels ever since the expansion last year.”

Of course I now knew the Kims that Luhan was talking about, and I had to say that as far as candidates go, they were pretty solid. I had known them for maybe ten or so years, and Luhan was quite close with them. “You think they would do it?”

Luhan shrugged. “You’d need to check if they have enough shares in their monopoly first.”

“Yeah, but-”

I was cut off by the sound of Luhan’s phone going. Without another word to me, he picked it up and stood. “Ah yes, Mr Hamamoto,” he said in Japanese. “That’s right, yes. Now?” he glanced at his watch. “I’ll be there in an hour.”

When he hung up, he was beaming proudly. “Great news! My father was able to secure a deal with that computing firm in Japan. They want to go through the initial procedures now. You’ll be fine at university alone, right?”

No. I didn’t know whether Luhan was choosing to forget the fact that Sehun was working on a group project with us, or whether he had actually forgotten, but I had a horrible feeling that it was the former. Luhan was great to be around, but he was only as great as his business mind would allow him to be. In a straight up choice, business would always be a priority for him, even if he didn’t actually say it. He was the son every businessman the world over wanted. “Yeah. I’ll be fine.”

In the weirdest sort of way, that was a lucky day for me because Sehun didn’t turn up.

On the second day, Luhan came to me and told me that Sehun had asked about the bandage on my hand. I noticeably tensed at the information.

“What did you tell him?”

Luhan snorted, unamused. “I told him it was none of his business.”

I chewed on my lip a little. “And then what did he say?”

Shrugging, Luhan looked rather displeased. “No idea. He went away mumbling about something.”

There wasn’t much I could say to that.

The only good thing to happen in those days was that I had been able to strike it lucky with the Kim brothers who happened to have a considerable number of shares in Oh Hotels. If I could get in contact with them, I might be able to convince them to do it - maybe. 

Dialling up Paz’s number, I patiently waited for her to answer.

“Is everything ok?” she asked, sounding mildly alarmed when she picked up.

“Yeah, everything’s fine. I was just wondering if you had the Kim brothers’ phone number.”

“The Kim brothers’ phone number?” Paz sounded rather baffled that I would request such a thing. “It should be in the filing cabinet…” I heard the sound of wheels as she pushed herself over to it. “Is there a reason you need it?” She sounded a little bit suspicious.

I tried to sound casual when I spoke again, “It’s just that it’s been a while since I last saw them. I wanted to see when they’re next in Korea.” This could be true; the close nature between Luhan and them was no secret.

“Do you have a pen ready?” Paz asked, clearly finding what I was looking for.

When the call ended, I couldn’t help but feel a little hopeful. Maybe, just maybe, everything would slot into place this time.

When I dialled in the new number to my phone, I was met with the soft tones of a male’s voice. “You have reached Kim Enterprises, this is Kris speaking. How may I assist you today?” I told him my message to pass along, and he was very receptive and assured me that it would be done.

A short while later I received a call from Kris again, confirming that the Kim brothers were interested in the proposition, and would be on the next flight to Korea in order to bring the plan into motion as well as to attend the board meeting which Mr Zhang had been able to set up flawlessly. It wasn’t a perfect plan, but I was at least confident that it might work. With the Kim brothers potentially on our side, the number of shares we had was just over thirty. This could work; it really could.

The final step once the date for the meeting was set, was to tell Sehun the plan. Although he had been incredibly prickly lately, he would need to know for when the time came. But perhaps I would just write a sticky note telling him about it. I still had one important call to make though, and that was to my grandparents to make sure they didn’t mind me moving in with them for an indefinite amount of time.

It was my grandpa that answered the phone with an excited, “Spud! How’s my little squidger doing?”

“I’m ok, Grandpa. How’re your eyes?”

“Not so hot, I’m afraid. Your grandma keeps trying to tell me to get surgery but I’m too old for all that now.”

“Maybe grandma’s right.”

“Ugh, don’t agree with her,” he mumbled, seemingly to himself. “How’s Steven getting on? Is he about?”

My grandparents were very oblivious to the situation I found myself in, but there wasn’t any point in lying about it now. “Sehun’s fine, I guess. The two of us aren’t really together anymore.”

“What? Why’s that, spud?”

I took in a short breath, clearing my throat a little bit. “I did something bad. And then so did he.”

“Don’t worry about it. The saying ‘forgive and forget’ has never served me wrong yet, and it won’t serve the two of you wrong either.”

“I… think we might be past the forgiving stage now. This has been going on for months now.”

I heard him muttering, “Blimey,” to himself before calling out for my grandma. There was the sound of the receiver dropping, then my grandma’s voice came.

“Dear? What’s wrong?”

“Nothing’s wrong but… I was wondering if I could come and stay with you two for a while.” I don’t know why, but I suddenly became incredibly nervous. It hadn’t occurred to me until that moment that my grandparents might not actually want me around.

“Of course you can. You’re welcome here any time. But don’t you have school?”

My lips tugged up into a little but relieved smile. “No, I dropped out of university.”

“Dropped out?” my grandma sounded utterly stunned. “What did your father say about that?”

“He doesn’t know yet. I’m going to tell him soon.”

There was a pause. “Did something happen, spud?”

I let out a shaky breath. “A lot happened.”

“Are you ok, spud? You sound a little off.” Her voice was soft; so soft. I knew right then that spending time with my grandparents was the right thing to do. I only regretted not doing it sooner.

“I’ll tell you about it when I get there. It’s a little complicated.”

I then booked my flights for the day after Luhan’s birthday and was left playing the waiting game until I heard back from the Kim’s, which didn’t take too long. It was their secretary that called me back.

“Hello, this is Kris from Kim Enterprises. I am calling on behalf of Kim Jongdae who wished for me to pass a message along to you. He and his older brother will be arriving in Korea at sixteen-forty Korean standard time tomorrow. They wish to meet with you and your fiancé at dinner to discuss the matter at hand. I have already taken the liberty of making a reservation at their favourite restaurant. We look forward to seeing you then.”

Oh god. A restaurant. And I would stake my entire inheritance on the fact that it wouldn’t be a KFC either. “Does it have to be a restaurant?” My voice sounded incredibly uneven. “Can’t we meet somewhere else?”

There was a pause. “That’s what they have asked me to do, Miss Lee.”

I internally groaned, knowing I needed them to be on our side about this. But surely if Luhan was there with me everything would be fine. At least, that’s what I told myself. In reality, I had been to restaurants with Luhan before and he was about as useful as a chocolate teapot in that situation. “Could you make the table for five people?” I asked, knowing Sehun would need to be there too. “There’s someone I would like to introduce.”

If the Kims played along, then everything would be sorted. And in all honestly, I was glad. I was glad that I would be able to leave all these malicious feelings and bitter glances behind me. My eyes flicked to my burnt hand. Leaving here would be nice. It would be a relief.

I pulled out a pile of paper, setting to work on what I was going to say to the Kims tomorrow. There was the sound of someone moving in the corridor outside the room. I paused my writing, knowing full well that Luhan wasn’t in the apartment at the moment. Eyes still fixed firmly onto the paper, I was aware of a head popping around the corner.

“I’m going out,” Sehun announced quietly, making to pull away but then stopped when he heard no response from me. I just continued with my writing, acting like he wasn’t even there at all. This was the first time he had spoken to me since he’d asked me to pass him a spoon yesterday morning, which had been the first time he'd spoken to me since his birthday. “Mira,” he persisted. “I said I’m going out.”

I didn’t know why he was telling me this so suddenly, especially since before this he hadn’t bothered to share his whereabouts with me at all since moving in here. His mood swings could put a pubescent teenager to shame.

“Forget the passcode or something?” I asked icily, still not looking up from my page. I suddenly reminded myself of my father, and that thought in itself was disconcerting.

“No, I was just… ” Sehun’s voice sounded almost weak; unsure. He slowly drew back and out of the kitchen, only to return again a moment later. He stood there silently for a moment, making my writing feel a little uncomfortable. “What’s wrong?” he asked finally, voice quiet. “Why are you being like this?”

I at my lip, the urge to just throw all my paperwork at his head very strong right now. “I don’t think I’m being like anything.”

“You are.”

I didn’t reply, just kept filling in the form I was working on. If he was really this oblivious then I didn’t have time for him. Not anymore.

“Well?” he asked almost impatiently.

My eyes snapped up to his then. He looked a little startled by my hostility, but I ignored this and demanded, “Well what?”

He visibly swallowed. “Why are you being like this?”

I let out a frustrated sigh as I went back to writing. “Just forget it, Sehun.”

“No. I want to know why you’re treating me this way.”

“I’m just treating you like you want me to,” I snapped.

He scoffed as if he was right in this situation. “What makes you think I want you to treat me like this?”

I almost scoffed in return but fought the urge and instead lifted my eyes to glance at him again. “If you don’t want me to treat you like this, then why do you treat me like this?”

Sehun stared at me for a moment, seeming almost unsure about what I was saying. “I don’t treat you like this,” he finally replied, looking almost shocked by the prospect.

“So you don’t constantly play the push-and-pull game with me?”

A small scowl formed between his brows. “I don’t do that,” he denied.

I didn’t know whether he was being serious or not, but from the way he was looking at me in a rather scanda