city lights ༆

XXVIII

A Week Later

Jinhwan was sitting across the way from Chaeyoung in a moderately quite cafe. However, instead of talking or drinking his latte, he was just silently staring ahead.

"Okay, what's wrong?" Chaeyoung asked, propping her body upright on the chair.

"Huh?" Jinhwan broke free from his trance and looked at Chaeyoung.

"What's wrong?" she repeated.

"Nothing." he lied.

"Sure." she spoke sarcastically. "Jinhwan, you have to talk to someone."

A sigh escaped Jinhwan's lips.

"I know, It's just- It's Junhoe." he told her. "Lately he just seems... different."

"Well, he did just lose his father. At his best friend's hands of all people." she said in a sad tone. "And with everything that's going on with the company after the explosion on top of that. It's tough on him."

"Yeah, you're right. I'm just..."

"Worried about him." she finished his sentence for him. "I get it. You love him. It's only natural that you'd worry."

That was another thing that happened over the past week. Both Jinhwan and Junhoe decided to be honest with the public about their relationship. Thankfully, people took the news well. In fact, they were actually happy for them.

"Yeah..." Jinhwan said, a slight smile appearing on his lips. "Thanks, Chaeyoung."

"Don't mention it." she smiled sweetly. "I'm always here for you."

Jinhwan and Chaeyoung had become a lot closer over the past month or so and Jinhwan was really grateful to have a friend like her that he could rely on and talk to.

••••••••••

The police were doing everything they could to track down Jaesun now that they knew he was the one who was behind everything, but they couldn't find him anywhere. It was like he just disappeared.

As expected, this frustrated Junhoe, but he would be lying if he said it didn't upset him too. He'd known Jaesun for years and he trusted him like a brother in a way, but to know that he was the one trying to kill him the whole time and that he was the one that killed his father... It made him feel so betrayed. Not just that, but now that his father was gone it was on him to decide the future of the company and he didn't know if he could deal with that.

His life was chaos.

Junhoe had just returned home from a meeting about the company and his mind felt like a mess for what seemed like the millionth time.

He threw his house keys on to a nearby counter, not bothering to close the door behind him as he made his way into the kitchen.

He exhaled deeply before leaning his elbows on the counter and covering his face with his hands. He just stood there like that for a few minutes before suddenly lashing out at everything and throwing things off the counter. Glasses, knives, cutlery, magazines, whatever was in reach.