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The day of the hearing comes as the week passes by.

Minhee attends it, reluctantly, glaring daggers at her mom who was present as well. Minhee had prepared for it, thanks to her legal team who had helped her with ways to dodge questions that required mentioning her mom's greed.

"This hearing would go nowhere if you keep giving us vague answers, Ms Yoon. I am simply asking you if you had been hiding your profits in the name of Wings charity funds."

"And I am telling you that Wings is not a charitable organisation."

Minhee doesn't understand why her mother felt the need to earn more money like this and fuck things up. Wings had been doing good, earning money hasn't ever been a problem then why now? What did her mother want to prove?

By the time Minhee goes home, Jeongguk is wearing an apron and trailing behind Bam for some reason. "What are you doing?"

Jeongguk pauses, blinking his eyes and embarrassed. "Actually, Yoongi hyung told me this recipe for a dish for dogs—" Minhee raises her brows and Jeongguk nods, closing his eyes, "I know, I know, but it tastes good, Bam doesn't seem to like it though."

Minhee sighs, shaking her head.

"Are you hungry?" Jeongguk asks, walking back to the dining table. "Dinner?"

Minhee gives him a small smile, stretching her neck side to side. "Did Mr Jeon prepare dinner for me?"

The man seems to think for a moment before he shakes his head. "I was cooking for myself and cooked for one person extra, so you can have it instead of wasting it."

Minhee walks to the table, observing the dishes on the table. She scoffs, it has dishes that Jeongguk doesn't even like, his mother had told her that he would eat anything but he still has some dishes he wouldn't, some of which Minhee enjoys. That had given the past Minhee another reason for their incompatibility.

She doesn't know anymore.

"I didn't know you could cook," she says, dragging a chair to sit on it.

"Shouldn't you like...freshen up first?" Jeongguk says. The disgust is clear on his face. "You smell like..."

"Like?"

There is 'like a shoe worn the whole day without a sock' on the tip of his tongue, something that Secretary Kim says when Jeongguk has been outside the whole day, but he decides otherwise. "Like you had a pretty shit day."

"Yeah, shit." Minhee mumbles. She picks up the chopsticks, tapping them on the table.

"...I-I mean, don't take me wrong but...like do you want me to take care of it?"

Minhee pauses, raising an eyebrow. "No," she says, "Absolutely not. Why would you?"

Jeongguk shrugs, "Isn't that what you married me for?"

"To clean up after my shit?" Minhee says, keeping the chopsticks down, "No, it was to prevent shit from happening, but well, anyway. I will take care of it, don't get involved."

Jeongguk nods, leaving the topic be.

After the funeral, Jeongguk was worried that Minhee was drowning herself with work. Mrs Jeon would stop by sometimes, complaining about how Minhee doesn't come home until late hours of night and leaves as early as possible in the morning. She worries about Minhee, she worries about Eunhye who has gone to her aunt's hometown for a few days, even though it was her idea to send her friend to a place where she can breathe in peace.

Jeongguk realised the severity of the case that Wings got pulled into only after his secretary briefed him about it. He can understand if Minhee is preparing herself for the worst right now.

The media and tabloids aren't the sweetest, their headlines ranging from 'Was the death planned by his daughter and wife' to 'Wings future looks bleak with Daejun's daughter leading the company'. (Honourable mentions: Big plan behind the Yoon-Jeon wedding— Jeongguk knew about the death and married to take over the company.)

Minhee looks a little relaxed after today's hearing and Jeongguk assumes she was able to reduce the penalty to the least. There is enough proof from her mother that she did sell the products at more cost, hid that profit and then to safeguard herself, sent it to a charity which turned out to be illegal and problematic.

It seems like the downfall is inevitable.

"Thank you for the food," Minhee says, eating the last scoop of rice. "You could open a restaurant at this rate, you're good at this."

And Jeongguk's heart skips a beat.

It's so weird to hear such a compliment easily being thrown at him from a person who only threw punches at him before, he wonders if it is all a dream. Since, when have they started enjoying the silence in between them? Since when did they start eating together? Since when has he been indulging in this feeling he thought he would never feel again?

Minhee departs to her room and takes a warm shower.

A thought passes her mind, that she is for once not thinking about anything. It's a misbelief humans have, that they aren't thinking of anything because the next moment she realises what she didn't want to think about and it becomes a mess again.

Her mind floods with memories and regrets that a small dinner with Jeongguk and Bam had distracted her from. She plops on the bed when she fills something poking her back.

It's an album. Photo album.

But it's not Minhee's, she hasn't seen this before.

She opens it and a photo of Bam up close to the camera greets her. She chuckles, breathy laughter following it. She recognises the bow-tie he's wearing in the picture, it's from the other day they had gone to the studio.

It's one of the clicks Jeongguk had taken.

She knows what is going to come next and for a moment she considers closing the album and sleeping. For the one we love, the memories stay because it is something even death cannot touch.

So she turns to the page and her lips tremble. It's a family picture, but it's not a normal, formal one.

It seems like Mrs Jeon is speaking and everyone is laughing, except her mom who has a grumpy look on her face; but she looks closer and there's a small smile on her lips too, the one which she cannot hide from the cameras.

The next picture is a family picture again, but this time it's Jeongguk and Minhee looking at each other. Is this how they look to others?

Right from the time they had signed on the marital papers, it was a given that any displays of affection would be forced, fake.

But in that picture, when all eyes are towards the camera— there's them who aren't. She gulps, turning over the page again and smiles sweetly.

It's of the –'Who can squish more cheeks?'– a contest between Jeongguk and her, where one photo is with Mrs Jeon and the other is with Bam. She thinks she would like to frame both of them and have it hung on the plain walls.

There are more pictures of her, Jeongguk, their parents and Bam— and everytime she flips a page, it gets acquainted with a tear or two.

Photos with Jeongguk make her grow confused. Photos with Bam make her chuckle. Photos with Mrs Jeon make her shake her head in fondness and family photos...they make her cry.

Then comes the last page, the thin thread that controlled her emotions breaks and she lets out a loud sob again.

It's a photo of her and her dad.

The one which Jeongguk insisted on taking. It has her dad smiling, it has her smiling too and there's a reflection of Jeongguk on the mirror nearby, he's smiling fondly too.

How did these smiles get snatched away?

She closes the album, placing it on the bed as she heads back to the bathroom to wash her face. Her bed doesn't make comfortable at all, sleep comes in the form of exhausted eyes and loud thoughts.

And if she tiptoes inside Jeongguk's room that night, only to get onto his bed and hug him from the back to sleep, he doesn't question it.

He doesn't turn towards her either, just feels warmth bloom in his heart.

...

The morning comes bearing gifts.

A panicked call from Dahyun, house empty and the flood of reporters in front of their penthouse.

"Did you marry Jeon Jeongguk to divert public attention?"

"Did he know about your customer neglect case? Is he involved too?"

"How do you plan to compensate the users?"

"What's going on Minhee? I don't understand!" Dahyun says as soon as Minhee walks inside the Wings' Headquarters. "There are reporters and articles claiming that we have influenced our social media reviews and what not! I knew you married Jeongguk for a reason but what they are saying doesn't make sense."

Minhee pushes her hair back and gets inside the elevator. "No one should pick up a call or answer anything until my further instructions. Send the legal team to my cabin."

"But Minhee—"

And the door closes.

Fuck fuck fuck.

How did this happen? How did they get to know? Dad had it all buried!

When Dahyun comes back, Minhee is pacing around her office. "What is happening Minhee? I can't understand a thing."

Minhee exhales. It's about time she tells Dahyun why she had married Jeongguk.

"It's true." She says. "What they are saying is true."

Dahyun halts, raising an eyebrow. "What..."

"It happened when I was an event in-charge for training, you weren't working here." Minhee sighs, "You were in university at that time."

Minhee pushes her hair back. "We had organised a launch event of a new product line and dad had put me up to invite guests, give them freebies and take pre-orders...basically everything," she pauses, "We had not expected so many guests...we gave all of the freebies away, even the extra ones but the guests kept coming..."

"So you sold similar products in Wings packaging..." Dahyun continues. It was mentioned in the article she read, she thought it was all bullshit. How much has Minhee hid from her?

The latter nods, embarrassed, feeling angry at her own past self.

"That also explains why you sold the damaged products. The ones that were supposed to be thrown in bulk."

Minhee sighs, clenching the hem of her coat.

"And there were negative reviews all over the social media," Dahyun says, shrugging, "I mean obviously...but...you didn't...did you?"

Minhee closes her eyes, nodding. "I had to Dahyun, I had to do it. Took me my savings of four months to get the positive reviews up but it solved a lot of problems..."

"But it created more too..." Dahyun says, "Is that why you married Jeongguk?"

"I had no other choice. Dad had suppressed it all but as soon as the board meeting was near, the articles started coming up again...I was to be made the CEO and if this would have gotten out..." Minhee shakes her head, "So when Mrs Jeon came in with the proposal of marriage, dad insisted I marry and make my image better. Jeongguk was already a good name, you know..."

Dahyun scoffs. "There were other ways to get out of the situation Minhee...this? Where's your self respect?"

Minhee doesn't respond. Yes, there might have been other ways but the timing, if Mrs Jeon hadn't come home that day with the proposal, they would have found out other ways, more difficult ones but they might have.

"What do you plan to do?" Dahyun says. "The BU doesn't regulate these things but the selling of damaged products? The buying of reviews? And not to forget that we haven't gotten out of the initial accusations...we aren't getting out of this. We are done, surrounded by all the sides...just..." Dahyun turns around, "kneel and beg or surrender and fall."

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