Winter Hearts

Clean Up

Panos walked out of the hotel and headed towards his uncle's place. He wanted to see Siana and make sure she was alright, and to tell her everything he knew. He also needed to speak to Hongbin and the management.

After he had discovered Eleni had disappeared last night at the club, he figured she must have been the one who recorded Siana and Leo by the water in Galaxidi. He had gone back inside the club to find Stavros quaking in his boots.

"Are you going to fire me?" he whined, which irritated Panos so much he thumped the table, making Stavros jump.

George had held out a placating hand.

"Tell us whether anyone else has the clips," he said quietly.

"N-not that I know of," stammered Stavros. "She only sent me the clip today. I guess she must have a copy still."

"How did you know who they were?" Panos demanded.

"I didn't. I just wanted a picture of the cute one, you know," he looked forlornly at Panos, who rolled his eyes.

"When I pointed him out to her, she recognised him. She's a real big fan, and she asked me to take some pictures. But they were leaving so I followed them and-"

"So once you knew he was famous, you decided to record him secretly. On the job, even when you knew he was with our cousin!" Panos wanted badly to knock the guy down.

"Did you send her your videos too?" George asked. Stavros looked at him, his eyes wide. George and Panos looked at each other for a second, before George handed Stavros his phone.

"Text her. Tell her we're not mad, but we need proof she has deleted it, all of it. There's no point in running, we all know where she lives and her family besides."

As Stavros started texting, George came over and pulled Panos aside and spoke to him quietly.

"Why would she run off? Do you think she has already sent them out?"

"Possibly. Her behaviour is disappointing. Did she not think she should bear any responsibility at all? She left Stavros behind to deal with it himself."

George smiled at Panos rather condescendingly.

"And you have never sneaked a video of your favourite pop star as they passed in the street? Come on, you know what it's like," George smirked at him. Panos rolled his eyes.

"It was in public and Despina Vandi was my idol - but I didn't follow her to the toilet or stick my camera in her private business!" Panos hissed. George nodded.

"Yes, that is true. But Eleni and Stavros, we understand why they are like that. We just don't get how they kept on doing it when it became wrong."

"So what happens now? What do we do with him?" Panos was ready to make suggestions.

"Maybe it's time to give him leave, with some conditions," George said. "Why don't you go home?"

Panos had left, still fuming, looking all around for signs of Eleni, but she was nowhere.

He had eventually slept but woke up after only a few hours, and now wanted to make meet up with the others to get them all up to date.

As he approached the apartment building, he saw Hongbin and Siana reaching the front door. He called out to them, and noticed that, whilst they both looked a little down, Hongbin looked guilty. For having been caught alone with Siana? Panos almost rolled his eyes. He had been teasing Hongbin that night out, but he didn't expect that his new friend really did harbour feelings for his cousin.

He took another look at Siana and almost rolled his eyes again. For all her smarts, she had no idea what kind of sway she held over the men she had living in her house. It wasn't just Hongbin. Panos realised N had a deep interest in Siana, though perhaps not romantically. Panos could see N was fascinated by Siana, and adored her as a sort of newly found soul mate or something. The other boys hovered around her, some gambolling like puppies at her feet, others more standoffish - but somehow focusing their attention on her... even if just as the only girl in proximity. Perhaps out of all of them, Siana seemed to get on best with N and Hongbin. Her attraction to Leo trumped all that, though, as he had seen with his own eyes.

"Morning. Siana how are you?" Panos asked her, concerned. She smiled, and walked into his arms for a hug. Although it was brief, he felt her hold him for a second longer before releasing him. It was a gesture seeking comfort, and giving thanks. HE looked down at her softly, a small smile on his face.

"I've come to check on you all and let you know what else happened after I spoke to you," he said to Hongbin, who looked surprised.

"What happened?" he asked.

"Maybe we should go upstairs," Panos said. "All of us."

Hongbin looked at Siana, a concern in his eyes that Panos caught. As he stared at Siana, who seemed to avoid looking at anyone, he mumbled something about them leaving for Athens.

"What? Straight away?" Panos asked, his curiosity aroused. Hongbin nodded.

"Yes, but I can tell you all about it upstairs. Meanwhile, Siana might be busy," he said. Siana looked up, surprised.

"You mentioned to your father last night that you will have lunch with him today," Hongbin reminded her. Siana blushed, obviously having forgotten.

"So you may want to see Leo before lunch to say goodbye, because we have to reach Athens before six, so we will only be here another couple of hours before we go," Hongbin intoned. Siana realised he was suggesting that she see Leo immediately, even before this meeting with Panos an the others.

"Then I don't have much time to talk to you all together, so maybe I will speak to you separately later, Siana, okay?" Panos realised Hongbin was steering the conversation, but he went with it. Siana didn't have to do this now.

"You and me, basket. After they go. Okay?" Panos said. As Siana nodded, Hongbin gestured for him to go in together, and as Panos passed, Hongbin took one last look at Siana before following him in to call for the lift.

Siana watched them go, knowing that Hongbin didn't want her to come up for this meeting with Panos, and that he wanted her to meet Leo as soon as she could. Nice, sweet Hongbin, always thinking of her when she was feeling vulnerable. She wondered if she could ever repay his friendship with her own gesture of kindness one day, as she walked in after them to knock on her father's door.

The boys had already gone up by the time Mikhalis opened the door.

"Siana, koukla mou!" he said brightly, gesturing for her to come in. She shook her head, looking down at herself.

"I'm not staying, just stopping by to see if we can eat a bit later. need to shower. Then I have to speak to Leo before they all leave."

Mikhalis nodded. "Your good friend N is here to tell me that."

Siana was surprised, again. N was informing her dad instead of Kkomae? Her dad had hit it off with Kkomae, so N taking it upon himself to do this meant that he felt personally that he should.

It was another gesture that surprised her. It seemed to her that N and Hongbin were going out of their way to take care of things, to take care of her - and she felt touched by their concern.

"Just say hi to N for me, I'll see him before he goes. Anyway, you know I will be meeting Min in Athens in a couple of days, right?"

Mikhalis smile widened. "She's coming here to visit isn't she? Ah, it would be nice for you to have a girlfriend for a few days."

Siana smiled, happy that her dad was happy. She left, running up the stairs to her place.

She reached the landing only to see Taekwoon sitting at the base of the steps leading up to the penthouse.