Winnie, Katherine and Martin were sitting in the main living room as they silently waited for Michael to return. Cup of coffees were on the table for each.

Katherine and Winnie were both staying at Martin's house. Winnie; it was because she had nowhere to go, Martin told her she can stay there as much as she want. Katherine it was because she was afraid to go back home, afraid Calvin would come to visit her like he normally did, she knew she wouldn't be able to act as if nothing happened, she wanted to stay in the hotel instead but Martin insisted she stays there. The house was more than enough for four people anyway, too big actually. There were so many empty rooms.

Earlier they all insisted at least one of them should go with him but Michael refused, he wanted to do it alone. He told them he placed extra security in the restaurant and they will be monitoring him through the cctv cameras. They will immediately run to him if anything goes wrong. Although they were still reluctantly they had to let him do it his way.

After what felt like a year, the glass door to the living room opened and revealed a tired Michael. They all stood and ran to him.

"How did it go?" Katherine immediately asked him.

"Okay," He answered quietly.

After seing their expressions he added, "I'll tell you everything later. I'm tired, I just need a nap," Michael gave them a tired smile before slowly walking away to the direction of the stairs that was heading to his bedroom.

They all looked at his back heartbrokenly. Something must have happened. That was not the Michael they knew. He looked broke.

"It seems like the meeting didn't go well," Martin pointed out.

"What do you think happened!" Winnie asked in a small sad voice. Martin shrugged.

"I knew I shouldn't have let him go by himself, I knew it," Katherine cried "Those...those bastards!!"

Martin hugged her to calm her down.

"I'll try to go and check on him," Winnie told them. They all nodded to give her a go.

Winnie quickly walked up the stairs to Michael's room. She debated whether to knock or not, but decided not to. What if Michael refused to welcome her in. She didn't want to take that chance. She didn't want to leave him alone, not at a time like that. Not when he looked that broke. She turned the door knob to open the door and got in before closing the door behind her. Michael was sitting on his bed, he was looking down with his eyes closed. His head on his hand, he looked...he looked so tired.

"M-Michael!" she called out to him, her voice cracking. Her heart was hurting so much to see him like that. To her Michael was a person who deserved only happiness. He is the person who always makes others happy, who always cared for people around him, whether friends or not. Those kind of people deserved the most happiness, don't they God? A tear fell from her eye.

Michael looked up after hearing Winnie's voice. Seeing Winnie made a tear to fall from his eye. He woke up and ran to her and hugged her tightly. Winnie hugged him back as tight as he did. They stayed like that for five minute before Michael spoke.

"Winnie...I...I.....I had this little bit of hope that they would have been regretting everything, that they would tell me how wrong they were, that they have been missing me a-and their lives were not the same after I was gone. B-but I...I...they..I was so wrong."

"It's ok Michael. It's ok now. You have us. You have Martin and your mother and me who loves you so much," Winnie told him as she tried so much to not cry. She wanted to be stronger for him.

"They don't deserve you, if they don't know your value they don't deserve you. You deserve better than them," she added.

"I'm so glad you're here Winnie. Thank you."

"Well...it's not like I've anywhere else to go. I ran away from home, remember?" she joked.

They all laughed.

Michael could feel himself relax already, the sadness that he had minutes ago was all gone. That was the power Winnie had on him. She could immediately cheer him up.

"By the way, shouldn't you be calling your parents? At least to let them know you're safe, they must be worried sick about you."

"I doubt!! If they do, it will be because they're worried Calvin will cut them off if I'm not there."

Michael removed his hands around Winnie's waist and tilt his head to look her in the eyes "No, don't say that. I know they love you so much."

"Michael you don't know anything. When you left everything changed, nothing was the same anymore," she released himself from his hold and look away from him, sadness enveloping her as she thinks of the years Michael was gone.

"Winnie-"

She looked back at him, "Katherine was so heartbroken, she was barely alive. Haroon detached himself from everyone, he dropped out of uni and has been moving from job to job since then, barely meeting his ends. Calvin became obsessed with power and me, my mom and Dad were like his puppet, they would grant him anything he asks. And I...I....I..." a tear fell from her eye.

"Winnie-" he reached out and wiped it away "It's okay, I'm back now"

"Yeah, everything is okay now. You're here," she smiled at him.

He hugged her tight for a minute before they parted away.

"So what are you going to do with Calvin and Haroon???" she asked him.

"Oh Calvin is my main concern right now, and I've something good planned for him," He smirked.

*******************************************

~8 years ago~

"So now that we are in our senior year did you guys give a thought where you wanna go for college?" Haroon asked.

"Haroon!!!" Calvin groaned, " We were having a good time and you had to ruin it with school stuff!"

Haroon shook his head at Cal. "Stop acting like you are still twelve. You're an adult now, think like one!"

"Okay what's this? Did I sleep and wake up on a parallel universe and I'm now talking to Haroon from there? Because if we were in our normal universe I would be the one telling Haroon this line!" Calvin said dramatically.

Haroon rolled his eyes at him.

"I'm thinking of going to the Engineering university," Michael suddenly said. They all turned to stare at him.

"Engineering!! Haven't we always talked about going in business together?" Haroon pouted.

"Yeah Haroon. As a joke. Since we were in kindergarten. We were joking about how business is easy and quick money than science and we should take that instead," Michael chuckled.

"Yeah.  Which is a good point. Now why Engineering?" Calvin asked.

"You guys know I love science!"

"Since when? You're good at everything how are we supposed to know you're passionate about science? You love basketball too and you're good in it, should we have assumed you wanted to be a basketball player?" Calvin said.

"Relax! I would've told you before, but I only made up my mind recently after giving college a serious thought. I want to be an engineer like my Dad. And I love science too, I like challenging my brain."

They all nodded in understanding. Michael rarely talked about his father, him mentioning that he wanted to be like his father softened them up and made them understood.

"You'll be a very good Engineer. The best in the country, I just know it!" Haroon said. Michael smiled at him.

"Yap. You can be anything you wanna be Mike. We trust in you." Calvin said.

"Thanks guys!" Michael smiled at them.

"So what about you two? Still wanna take business?"

"Yap! It's an easy and quick money," they answered in unison before they looked at each other and laugh loudly.

Michael shook his head at their silliness, "That should not be a reason a person want to study something, you've to have a passion in it!"

"Easy for you to say! You've never had money problems your whole life," Calvin said.

"Yeah Mike trust me, for people like us we always think first what would land us a lot of money, and second think do I have a passion for this." Haroon said.

"Yeah, and the second one is not at all necessary, as long as it fit the first criteria and you're good at it, passion or no passion we go for it!" Calvin added before they fist bump again and fell on another fit of laughter.

Michael shook his head at them, a smile on his face. They were idiots but he loved them more than anything. He was happy he had those two in his life.