Gravity - a SeulKai novel ;

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That Seulgi died a long time ago. I don't know the girl who's standing in front of me and I owe her nothing. She just couldn't figure out how some words could haunt her that much. She hadn't felt guilt o regret in years, so she couldn't understand how those words, from someone she had sworn to hate, were able to torture her. It wasn't actual guilt, intrusive thoughts at best. They creeped into her head in every moment and became deafening, until she lost her breath. Then they disappeared. When she finally felt peace she didn't think about them that much but she had to admit they were starting to stress her out more than needed.

She loudly slammed the door of her office. It was early afternoon, late November. Jongin had kept himself out of her way, from what she had heard he was the first one to arrive in the morning and the last one to leave when evening came. He spent his time in the practice room waiting for his hiatus to end, keeping on rehearsing to always be ready. She hadn't come across any member of Nebulae for many days and she was in a great mood. She had just booked a trip to Maldives, where she would have spent Christmas, New Year's Eve and from which she would have returned only in the second half of January, when she had received a call from her secretary. Her father wanted to talk to her. If it was something important he would have personally contacted her and he surely wouldn't have reached her secretary. She hated the idea of being summoned like that and she had tried to call him but he hadn't answered. She had nothing better to do anyway, that's why she had gathered the little patience she had to leave her office and go to see her father.

I was working, surely a foreign concept to you, what do you want? — she stated while entering the room, making her father's secretary jump while pouring him a cup of tea. The woman looked at him to ask him if she had to leave them alone and, after being invited to do so, she put down the mint tea in front of the man and got out. He stared at his daughter for some seconds before taking a sip.

I want to know why, the day of Jongin and Doyeon's sentences, you tried so hard to get Jongin fired as well... — why was he asking now, after days, that question? She tried to read his face but he was too busy sipping his mint tea to reveal anything else if not, maybe, that the drink was too hot. She crossed her arms right under her chest.

Because it is an unfair treatment — she marked her words again. She had to give him an explanation, she didn't want the ghost of her misdeeds, which she was sure would remain unpunished, to come and haunt her again.

At this point it would be better to get back Doyeon rather than firing our best artist, don't you think? — what was implying with that rhetorical questions and with that sudden, unexplainable curiosity was a mystery to her. Maybe he wanted to tell her that he had changed his mind and that Doyeon would come back under the Dinasty label... all of her work would be vain.

No, I don't think so. She broke the rules and you above all, who always talk about how everyone should follow them, should have made your favorite pupil follow them. Or maybe he's above them? — thinking was extremely hard, the air seemed crystallized and full of mint scent. She was feeling strange, as if her head was spinning, but she was perfectly aware it was just a side effect of the anxiety which was rising inside her and which she was trying to ignore. Her father sipped his tea. He looked thoughtful. What could be haunting him like that? She wanted to ask it, she wanted to know if she had something to do with it, but she didn't want to sound suspicious. She watched him falling back on his chair.

I need to take into consideration also the company's own interests and he's the best artist we have. — Whatever was haunting him like that would torment her too if she couldn't get any answers.

Rules are rules, father. Everyone must follow them. You have always told me so, here's the proof that I listen when you speak: first what's rational, then what we feel — she stated. Actually she had learnt that when she was way young, because in the last few years she had stopped listening to anything he said, she found everything an unnecessary waste of time. Recalling that old lesson could only do her good. He straightened his back.