All of the employees at Move Consulting gawked as the tall, lanky, pale young man dressed like a gangster stalked through their halls. They all peered from their cubicles, startled that someone like Han Seojun—with his various piercings, spike studded clothes and even spiker wrist straps—was in their office. Some of them would have called security, but Han Seojun had been accompanied by Kang Sujin and she scared the employees more than the man wearing a spike studded choker around his neck.

Han Seojun had his scariest scowl on. The employees that stood directly in his path scurried away like mice when they saw his mean looking eyes staring straight ahead. Kang Sujin led him into an office that was the same width and height as Lee Suho's but seemed more spacious because of the sparse decoration and lack of overstocked bookshelves. The furnishing was more contemporary and stylish with brown leather sofas and glass tables with chrome legs.

Sujin motioned for him to take a seat. "Wait here." She left Seojun on his own while she made her way to the legal department.

"Jaein!" She called to one of the lawyers they kept on retainer. "Give me a standard client agreement contract but make it for six months."

A mousy looking man in glasses looked up from behind a cubicle wall. Everyone else ignored Kang Sujin. "Standard contracts are for one year." Jaein said as if it should have been obvious.

"I know. I want one for six months."

"We don't do consultations for less than—"

"Just get me the damn contract!" Sujin snapped.

Jaein disappeared into his cubicle. The sound of furious typing was followed by the whirring of an old printer. He then emerged from his cubicle with a thick bundle of paper.

"Who is it—"

"Bore your CEO with these questions." She snapped again.

"I would never bother Lee Leader-nim with boring questions."

"But you're fine bothering me." Sujin said in a bored tone as she surveyed the paperwork. "This is fine. Thanks." She said to the lawyer.

"You know we have the one year period for a reason, right? If you're not able to do things in time—"

"This is me we're talking about. I'll have this project done in five months. I said six just to make it an even number." Sujin said haughtily but Jaein was unimpressed.

"That doesn't mean that the contract needs to be that short. What's the real reason? You don't want this client or something?"

"Or something. I have to go. Thanks, Jaein." Sujin left before the man could probe further. Sujin hated lawyers. They were shrewd, blunt and were never intimidated by her.

Sujin wouldn't have minded admitting that she had selfish motives for halving the duration of the contract. But then Jaein would blab to Suho and she didn't want him hearing about this. Suho was emotionally involved with this situation because of a certain someone and Sujin didn't want to earn more of his ire.

A small stab of guilt pierced through her tough heart. She was giving Han Seojun the brush off. But what could she do? She didn't have much of a choice.

This assignment was bullshit to Kang Sujin. Lee Suho simply wanted to impress Lim Jukyung. He wasn't thinking straight. Sujin couldn't spend an entire year working on some silly flower shop. Her time was far more valuable.

Six months was barely time to get through the first stage of their three step consultation process. But Kang Sujin was positive she could speed things up and get back to her actual work with her real clients.

Back in Kang Sujin's office, Han Seojun was roaming around, taking in the room and how it was arranged.

There were no pictures of Kang Sujin, or any people for that matter. As if she didn't have a personal life. There was a glass cabinet dedicated to awards won by the company and the entire wall behind Sujin's desk was covered in certificates. Her desk was long and intimidating, keeping all visitors a mile away from her. There were bookshelves here too, containing files, folders and various intellectual sounding books. Seojun caught sight of a few medical books as well which seemed odd and out of place.

Seojun whipped around when he heard the door open behind him. Sujin came in, waving the contract.

"Sign this please. Then we can begin. And the sooner we do that, the sooner we can end this whole thing." Seojun stood in place, not moving. He stared at Sujin with a face set in determined anger.

Han Seojun was offended. He had been ignored, disrespected and treated like an unwelcome guest by Kang Sujin and now she was pushing him around as if he would just do whatever she wanted him to.

And when Seojun really thought about it, this entire situation was her fault to begin with. She was the one doling out unsolicited advice. She was the one telling him that his shop needed help. And wasn't she also the one who said he should come over for a consulting?

More so, she was the one pretending to be all sage and wise and saying nonsense about recovering his pride. Now she was the one smashing it to smithereens. He didn't understand why it was so. In the few times Han Seojun had interacted with Kang Sujin, she had come off as brash, cold, rude, arrogant and even a little twisted. But never mean. Never like this. Seojun wondered if his evaluation of her character had been too kind, whether she was more twisted than he had originally thought.

Han Seojun had half a mind to just walk out of her office right now and put this whole thing behind him. He already had a feeling this wouldn't go well. But then... he really did need help. He had lost one love, he didn't want to lose another. He didn't want to lose his flowers. He did indeed need his pride.

"What? Changed your mind?" Sujin tilted her head, eyeing him.

The hardened lines of Seojun's face clenched further, letting Sujin know he wouldn't stand for any of her usual nonsense. And while his terrifying glare meant nothing to her, Sujin got the message.

"I'll be straight with you. I do want to have you onboard as a client. But I never meant to be doing this myself. I have much more important things to look after." She said all this sedately as she took a seat at her desk, putting distance between them. Seojun's face eased up a fraction.

He looked at her meaningfully. The meaning being, I don't want this either. But you're the reason I am here in the first place. To his surprise, Sujin matched his gaze and gave a curious expression of her own. She was telling him something, no, asking. But he couldn't decipher what. She then rolled her eyes in disappointment.

"If you really want to do this then you have to sign." She pushed the papers towards him again. Seojun sat down.

Giving her a distrustful look, Seojun took the papers from her and signed till his wrists ached. He was surprised at the amount of paperwork involved.

All this for just consultation?

"Consultation is not just giving advice." Sujin explained. Sitting behind her desk looking all imposing and boss-like. "Our company promises a full turnaround of your business. That means that I'll first be looking into how you're running your shop, how everything works. Next, I'll be compiling a report on what are the key items we need to work on and then finally we'll be implementing our solutions. It's a three step process. The first step is always the hardest because no one wants an outsider to probe into the skeletons in their closet. But I can't work if you're not a hundred percent open with me. You'll make this entire process more easier on me and on yourself if you just trust me."

Trust the woman who just treated me like trash?

Sujin groaned, "I know, I know. I was an asshole just now." She rubbed her eyes. "I'm sorry. It's just... my anger gets the better of me sometimes." She cringed, embarrassed by her own behavior.

The gesture was sincere, Seojun could tell. But it wasn't a proper apology. Just an excuse and he wasn't buying it. Sujin eyed him.

"I'm sorry. I was very rude to you."

That was more like it. Seojun slid back the contract towards her. She handed half to him.

"That's your copy. In case you have any questions, our lawyers are always available." She got up, buttoning her suit jacket. The skirt really was flattering on her, Seojun noted. But the suit was dark as always. She grabbed a houndstooth coat from a rack and looked at him expectantly.

"Well aren't you getting up?"

We're starting right now? Seojun's brows shot up.

"Of course. Like I said, the sooner we begin the sooner this will be over."

Seojun had expected some more ceremony to the entire process. A formal gesture to start off like Kang Sujin coming over to his shop to explain the entire process in detail and maybe him having time to prepare for her arrival, allowing him to put everything in order for her initial audit.

Instead, what he got was a surprisingly thorough inspection of each and every corner of his modest little shop. It was oddly off putting. Kang Sujin surveyed each shelf of his store, taking pictures as she went along. She even took pictures of the peeling paint of the ceiling and the cracks in the corners of the walls.

With each new section of the shop covered, she snapped a photo and then typed something into her phone. Seojun got curiouser and curiouser as Sujin catalogued everything. When she got to his counter, he panicked. There, right beside the cash register, hiding in a dark space, was a very ugly looking flower in a small pot.

Seojun saw Sujin tilt her head as she looked at the plant. His hands ached to reach over and stow the flower away from her gaze but that would seem suspicious. So instead Seojun acted nonchalant as Sujin walked over to the counter.

The plant was a special type of flower, incredibly ugly looking that grew in damp, fungus ridden soil. It looked like an open mouthed worm, the print on its petals resembling the patterns on some insect or a worm. It looked like something another flower had thrown up. It was incredibly unpleasant to look at.

Most people stared at Han Seojun's special flower in disgust or disdain. This was the reason why Seojun had bought it in the first place. Some florist had gotten the wrong seeds for an exotic plant and had unwittingly ended up with this ugly flower. That florist had hated it, along with every one of their customers. But the flower had been expensive and the florist hadn't wanted to just throw it away.

Seojun had felt an immediate connection with the ugly, unwanted thing. The flower seemed to be just like him; lonely and misunderstood.

I'll love you. Seojun had thought when he had bought it off the very grateful florist. Even if no one else does. I will love you.

He kept it at the counter because that was where he spent most of his time— behind the counter, waiting for customers that never arrived. Apart from his silence, that flower was Seojun's only companion.

Kang Sujin stared at it now. And the longer she did the more exposed Seojun felt. Would she curl her lip and look down her nose like everyone else? Would she ignore it and move on? Or—oh no. Would she tell him to get rid of it as part of her consultation?

"That's an interesting choice." Sujin's voice interrupted Seojun's mini panic attack. She looked at him carefully, reading his face. Seojun dare not think anything lest the witch read his mind and learn something he didn't want her to.

Wordlessly, Sujin moved on. For now she had ignored Seojun's ugly flower. He let out a breath he had been holding in as she moved through the door at the back of the store that led to the back office and the stairs to his home.

Seojun heard her heels on the stairs and made a beeline for her. He grabbed her arm when she was half way up the stairs.

"What?"

Seojun shook his head. Not there.

"Why not? You hiding something?" She asked straightforwardly.

Seojun silently made a groaning face, letting her see his frustration. Why did everything have to be a tug of war with this woman? Why couldn't she just do what he said for once?

She pushed his hand away, "I need to know each and everything about what I will be working with before I move to the next stage." She went up the stairs with Seojun following closely behind.

His quarters were modest like his shop. The entrance opened into a small dining space with a table and a cabinet in one corner. To the left was the kitchen. Beyond the dining room was a closed door that led to Seojun's bedroom.

Seojun expected her to turn around once she learned this was his home. But she just stood on the stair landing, surveying the place.

"Why don't you have any flowers here?" She turned to him.

Is that really relevant?

"Meh, just curious. No need to glare at me." She walked around him, going down the stairs.

Seojun looked back into his home. He hadn't actually realized that his home lacked flowers. It was just a place he slept in and ate sometimes. Most of his time was spent downstairs. It was now that Seojun noticed that his home wasn't even decorated with any pictures of his sister or mother. No works of art, no posters, not even some colorful vase to hint at his tastes. There was nothing there that revealed what sort of personality Han Seojun had. His furnishings were simple and functional. Sparse and reserved.

Han Seojun was reminded of Kang Sujin's office. It had looked like something out of a magazine. But nothing about the office had revealed to him who Kang Sujin was, what she liked, disliked. He wondered why that was, both in her case and his.

"Yah! Don't you have a computer or something?" Kang Sujin called from below.

Shit. She found the office. Seojun ran downstairs. His office was a very small room with a wooden floor like the rest of the shop, painted light brown and furnished with a dark wooden desk, a battered old chair and a sofa in one corner. Some rusting filing cabinets stood on the side. Seojun found Kang Sujin in his office. Sitting on his chair. Going through the papers on his desk.

The sight of this made Seojun fume. It was one thing to demand knowledge on his business. He had invited that problem on his own. But it was quite another thing for Kang Sujin to walk around like she owned the place.

Seojun crossed his arms angrily as Sujin ruffled through the papers on his desk.

"Where's your computer? I need a look at your financials." Sujin said, looking at his papers disapprovingly.

Seojun walked up to Sujin, yanked open a drawer and slammed down a thick ledger on the desk. Sujin looked at the ledger in equal part shock and disdain.

"That's where you note down your financials? On paper? By hand?"

Seojun didn't understand what the problem was. She had wanted his financials, hadn't she? Well there it was.

Sujin's disapproving frown only grew deeper as she turned page after page of the ledger.

"You haven't even followed a proper format. Or any format, for that matter." She observed in a small voice. It felt like she was rambling more to herself than to him, "I can't follow any of this. Though I have to say, your writing is impeccable." She looked at him as he leaned against his desk. "I don't suppose you have any written down workings of how you planned to make profit from this shop? Something like a business plan?"

I get flowers and I sell them. Why would I need a complicated plan for that?

Sujin sighed, closing her eyes. She rubbed her temples with both hands.

"Is there any other paperwork besides this?" She asked, her eyes still closed.

Seojun thought about it. There were a few permits and licenses. His lease agreement and the agreements he had with his suppliers. He got them all from the filing cabinet and put them on the desk in front of Sujin. She looked at the disorganized stack of paper, some of them tearing at the sides and looked more appalled than ever.

"Maybe having a six month contract was a mistake." She said under her breath.

Seojun looked confused at that statement. But Kang Sujin didn't clarify.

"You got coffee?" She asked Seojun. He shook his head.

"Get some." She stood up, rolling up the sleeves of her blouse. "It's going to be a long day."