She took a moment to mull over everything already said, to see if she missed anything. She took a moment to have a part of her life pass in front of her eyes. Not in an ‘I’m about to die!’ sort of way, but trying to make sure there was nothing for her father to pick up on that she doesn’t want him to learn sort of way.

  She gnced at Yeji, trying to gauge if she was going to drop any other bombs. Then she gred at her, knowing the amount of dirt that she had on her. Yeji had much more dirt on her than she was comfortable with, now that she thought about it. She was momentarily astounded by how far Yeji had managed to worm her way into her life.

  But, with quid pro quo, Seulgi had spades of dirt on Yeji, too. The difference is that while her father was in the room with them, Yeji’s was not. The bance of power is very much Yejis, and they all knew it. One day the tables will turn and it will be her turn to torpedo Yeji.

  The impudent grin that Yeji fshed just proved that she knew it, too. Under any other situation, this might be amusing. The power bance might be tittering back and forth, but right now, Yeji could topple Seulgi in front of her father and watch her image colpse. She had the power to make the fire burn.

  At least that was what was going through Seulgi’s mind. In the back of her mind, she knew that there was nothing that she could ever do to make her father stop loving her. She was more worried about her father losing respect for her.

  She ought to remember that Yeji would never really harm her. They had fun teasing each other, sometimes very pointedly. They have both drawn blood more than once. And Yeji’s wicked grin showed that she knew it.

  Alfred watched the silent conversation. He grinned while he saw Yeji trounce his daughter. Normally, he should be supporting his daughter in every way. But, sometimes – just sometimes – Seulgi needed to be taken down a peg or two. She was never arrogant, per se, but there were times when she thought she knew more than she did. This was not one of those times that he was aware of, but it was obvious they were close. The fact that Yeji was in his daughter’s apartment at all said very positive things about the girl.

  He knew that his daughter was intelligent, sometimes she was TOO intelligent. So, someone who could challenge her was rare. Challenge and win were even rarer. So, Alfred was taking a near unholy glee watching his daughter flounder.

  Granted, if Yeji was actually being malicious or trying to hurt his daughter, he might take Yeji’s throat out with his teeth. With what he has learned recently, that might not be a metaphor.

  Yeji also got that very distinct impression. And she fshed her smile over to him as well with that understanding between them. He nodded back to her He also understood that her teasing of his daughter would not change with or without his presence. He could respect that.

  So, with all of this combination of subtle and not-so-subtle exchanges, they all gained a greater understanding of each other. And, at the same time, all of them were still fairly mysterious. Seulgi was the most transparent of the three. She also had the least to hide.

  Alfred cleared his throat, regaining the other’s attention. “How much does your boss know?”

  “He knows that Jackson was kidnapped, that we are involved, but not how or why. At least, we didn’t tell him if he does know. I am going to update the rest that Jackson was found and that he’s in the hospital tomorrow. That includes emailing the boss.”

  That was when Seulgi started wondering how much her father knew about her boss. She knew that the boss tried to date her mother a long time ago when they were in college if she remembered correctly. But, she didn’t know how they all met. What were they doing, when they met?

  Were Seulgi’s parents as interesting as Wendy’s? What else did she not know about her parents? At that thought, Seulgi’s world fell out from under her.

  Nayeon had every light in her home on. She was curled up on her bed, hugging her pillow in a fetal position. She was having a moment of existential dread. Someone knocked on her bedroom window. She lives on the eighteenth floor.

  Bhuwakul checked the door as he opened it. The sign that the lock was untampered with and the door was unopened meant that he could enter his pce with less worry. He still went through his pce to verify that he was alone.

  He was not paranoid, he just considered himself very, very aware of his surroundings. Including when alone at home.

  His pce was austere. He was the definition of the word ‘minimalistic’. Everything was clean. Everything was neat. Everything was tidy, he cleaned and dusted regurly. He did not have much else to do in his downtime, after all.

  He went through every room and cleared them. It was a force of habit that he had no intention of breaking. And he was alone. Until he wasn’t. Even after clearing his whole home, he suddenly found that someone was sitting in his favorite chair in the living room.

  Taeyeon was non-plussed to find a card and letter addressed to her in the middle of her bed. She blinked at the missive that was in the middle of her bed. She was not used to finding things in the middle of her bed. She was the one who pranked others by doing things like this. These things did not happen to her.

  She was not sure if she wanted to open the thing. After all, there were some odd things – odd things even according to her – going on tely.

  She had no choice. She was Pandora and that card was her Box.