I hope you had a good reason to see me this early in the morning. Do you even know what time it is?

On the inside, Sunghoon was seething with anger. 

On the outside, he smiled kindly at Mrs.Lee. 

"It's been a while," he said politely. 

"Never mind with all that," she said, not even looking at him as she took some papers out of an envelope and handed them over to him. "Look at these." 

He tried to mask his confusion as he looked at the pictures she'd taken of him and Aera. 

"You like her, don't you? It's obvious from these pictures." 

Yes, but she doesn't like me. 

It had become increasingly obvious to him that her heart was with Heeseung. And likewise, Heeseung's heart was with her. 

He'd given up. 

Because he cared about her, because he cared about Heeseung... he just wanted to be a good friend. To the both of them. 

He didn't know how to begin to repair the friendship that he'd once had with Heeseung, not when they hadn't spoken about the incident. Not ever. But he wanted to try, someday. Someday soon. 

"She's leaving for Australia in a couple of hours," Mrs.Lee said, handing him plane tickets. "And you can too, if you want. I settled everything with Belift already."

"Does Heeseung know about this?" Sunghoon asked quietly, in his heart already knowing the answer. 

"No. And you better not tell him either." 

Ha. Who does she think she's threatening?  

Sunghoon smiled at her. "I won't. And yes, I'll take the plane tickets please. I'll go to Australia," he said, walking out of her office without another word. 

Heeseung couldn't be there for Aera right now. Hopefully, once he figured out what happened, he could do something. Plan something. He needed to protect her from the Chairwoman. 

But in the meanwhile, Sunghoon decided he would be there for her. 

As a good friend would be.  

***

A/N 

I felt like posting an extra chapter this week☺️