There were many cars outside the head office for Oh Hotels the next morning, as was to be expected, of course. Waiting there for us already was a rather exhausted looking Mr Zhang, holding out what I could only assume was the completed contract. It looked to be considerably shorter than I had imagined it being.

“They wanted something brief and to the point to speed the process along,” Mr Zhang explained, referring to the Kim brothers. “I’ve checked it all through several times and it was just as it was explained to the three of you. After the notion is brought forwards there will be a short break, that’s when you will need to sign this.”

I glanced to Sehun who visibly swallowed by nodded his head at this. His shoulders looked tense, but he was obviously trying to remain calm all the same.

“We can check it through with you,” Luhan suggested, probably also seeing Sehun’s tensed state.

“The contract is in excellent order,” Mr Zhang assured us. “But please check through it if you want.”

“We just need to be sure,” I assured the lawyer, stretching my hand to brush Sehun’s arm gently. “It’ll be ok,” I murmured to him, just quiet enough for him to hear.

His head tilted towards me, a little smile on his lips. “I know.”

Mr Oh was in the lobby of the building when we entered, welcoming guests and buttering them up in any way he could. When he saw Sehun entering with Luhan and I, his eyes noticeably narrowed and he excused himself from the conversation he was having to make his way over to us.

There was a very obviously forced smile on his mouth with he reached us, no doubt for my benefit. His suit looked a little loose on his body today, and it made me wonder if he'd perhaps had a dry-cleaning mishap.

“What are you three doing here? We have a shareholders meeting today.” It was said in a feignedly friendly tone, and it was very obvious.

“That’s why the three of us are here,” Luhan confidently replied, stepping forwards a little. Luhan had always been very self-assured when it came to business matters, and he was always at his best in a business meeting; sharp and almost impervious. “The three of us are shareholders, after all. It’s only right that we should involve ourselves in matters like this - since we were free anyway and all.”

For a moment, Mr Oh didn’t look like he knew what to say to Luhan’s confidence, but he finally cleared his throat a little. “Sehun’s never attended one before, I’m just wondering what made him attend this one.”

“You always wanted me to show more interest,” Sehun replied with a little shrug, Luhan’s confidence rubbing off on him a little. “Well, now I am.”

Mr Oh’s tongue darted to his lip for a second as he appraised his son. There was a definite tension in the air, and one which could be easily felt. Mr Oh’s dim skin twitched a little as he considered his son’s answer to this. “I didn’t realised that you had so many shares in Oh Hotels,” Mr Oh admitted, looking to Luhan and I.

“We have enough,” was Luhan’s answer to this. The way he said it caused Mr Oh to bristle uncomfortably. Luhan’s confidence really was on fire right now.

“I didn’t even know you had any at all, Luhan,” Mr Oh said, throwing an angry glance at his son as if it was somehow his fault. “But I hope everything with your father in the past can be forgotten now.”

Plastering an innocently sweet smile onto his face, Luhan gave a knowing nod. “Completely forgotten. Plans change, and so do people.”

This seemed to appease Mr Oh, even if only a little. “Sehun,” he began, eyes turning back to his son. “Let me speak to you in private.”

The way he said had me instinctively reaching out for Sehun, my fingers clutching at the back of his sleeve. It was obvious that Sehun had felt it because his head tilted towards the contact a little, then his body leaned into it. It was like he was trying to silently reassure me that everything was going to be fine if he went. Call me paranoid, but I wasn’t convinced.

Then Sehun pulled away from my loose grip, following after his clearly agitated father. I wanted to just pull the two of them apart, but I could only stand there.

“Why are you so worried about Sehun talking with his father?” Luhan interrupted my internal battle, clearly noticing the way I was staring after the pair of them.

I glanced his way to see that his eyes were now soft again, watching me curiously. And just as I looked into Luhan’s eyes, I suddenly panicked about if what we were doing was the right thing or not. What if this ended up hurting Sehun even more?

“I’m worried this isn’t going to work,” I admitted quietly, taking in a shaky breath. “Their relationship isn’t great right now, I’m worried what will happen if this goes through, and if it doesn’t, too.”

Luhan’s brow scrunched a little. “They used to get on fine. His father was always a little hard on him, but nothing out of the ordinary, really.”

“He started drinking heavily after his wife passed away,” I quietly told Luhan, although I suspected that he already knew this. My teeth ground together a little as I thought about the time I had seen Sehun after his father had hit him. “And he became a little too handy with his fists,” I spat out as I watched Sehun and his father disappear from view completely.

“Do you mean he- he hits him?”

I nodded, leaning against a nearby pillar. “One night he came home and he was covered in marks. It was so awful.” It was only after the words left my mouth that it occurred to me that maybe Sehun wouldn’t want Luhan to know this.

“He should report it,” was Luhan’s reply to that, his voice hard.

“I told him that, but he didn’t listen to me. He doesn’t think it’s that bad.”

Before our conversation could continue from that point, the familiar figures of the Kim brothers came sauntering into our line of vision. Both were suited up and were looking around expectantly.

“How are you this morning, then?” Jongdae asked perkily when he reached us.

“Did you have a chance to check the contract over yet?” Minseok asked before we could answer his brother.

“Not yet. We’re going to do it in the break.”

The brothers bobbed their heads simultaneously at this. “Good. There isn’t much in it to be read through, anyway. We wanted it to be as simple as possible.”

“We really appreciate you doing this for us,” I sincerely told the two of them.

Jongdae nodded to this, but Minseok pursed his lips a little. “There aren’t favours in the business world. This exchange benefits us just as much as it benefits you. Please don’t mistake our actions for anything else. It wouldn’t be a correct assumption.”

Turning to his older brother, Jongdae let out a little tut. “You’re making it seem like we hate them. It is a little bit because we like them, isn’t it?”

Minseok said nothing, instead his heel and made his way towards the board room. Jongdae turned back to the pair of us then.

“He’s just trying to make it seem like it’s all just business. He actually has a big soft spot for the two of you. He has since we were teenagers and the two of you were kids that used to potter around outside our mum’s office whilst your parents were in meetings.”

I only had very vague memories of the time he spoke about, but I distinctly remembered it being fun.

“Don’t worry about anything,” Jongdae said, grinning a little. “We’ve got a little extra ammo up our sleeves.”

Although Luhan and I didn’t know what he was talking about, we didn’t get the chance to ask before he disappeared into the board room after his brother.

“We should go in,” Luhan murmured, stepping off.

“I’m going to wait for Sehun.”

It didn’t take long for Sehun to return, and his father was with him when he did. The two of them were walking at almost opposite sides of the corridor and it looked a little unnatural. Mr Oh’s face was a little reddened now, giving it some of the colour it had been lacking earlier. He straightened his tie before heading towards the board room. Sehun’s face looked miffed, and it might just have been my imagination, but one of his cheeks looked to be redder than the other. I couldn’t tell whether that was just because I was looking for something, or because there was actually something there. The mind is a tremendous player of tricks.

“Are you ok?” I asked him when he reached me, my eyes flitting over his face.

He nodded, glancing to where his father had disappeared to. “Yeah, fine. He knows something’s up, though. He said he’s known something was up ever since this meeting was called. He told me to stay away from you, I think he thinks you’re going to try to pull something.”

“He’s not wrong there,” I muttered. “Did he yell at you? His face looked awfully red.”

To this, and much to my surprise, Sehun shook his head. “Not really. I didn’t even notice that he looked red.”

I nodded. “His complexion looked sort of off earlier, then right now he looked red.”

Sehun considered this for a moment, not seeming to have noticed at all. Maybe my mind really was just playing tricks on my now.

“Are you two coming in?” a woman with a tremendously thick pair of glasses asked from the doorway. "It’s about to start.”

I glanced to Sehun to see that he was doing the same to me, a slight nervousness in his expression.