**Sunshine's POV**
KDX felt like itself again.
That was the only way I could describe it. Like a person who had been sick for a long time and had finally, quietly, returned to themselves. Not loudly. Not all at once. Just gradually. The tension that had lived in the walls for weeks had loosened. Staff walked the corridors at their normal pace instead of that careful hurried shuffle people did when they were afraid of what was around the corner. Phones rang and got answered instead of being stared at. Meetings happened and ended and people left them without that particular look of people bracing for impact.
Even the light felt different.
Or maybe I was just finally seeing it properly.
Director Han was back to her full self which meant the entire floor was operating at exactly the standard she required and not one degree below it. She was a small woman which always surprised people who hadn't met her before. Neat. Precise. Silver threaded through her dark hair that she had never once considered hiding because Director Han did not hide things. Sharp eyes behind slim glasses that missed absolutely nothing. She dressed the way she ran meetings, cleanly, with no unnecessary elements, everything serving a purpose.
She had been with KDX for twenty two years.
She had outlasted four company crises, two leadership changes, one full restructure, and apparently Zenith Entertainment's best attempt at a takeover.
She was also, I had discovered over the past few weeks, quietly and completely terrifying in the way that only truly competent people could be. Not loud. Not cruel. Just so completely certain of what she was doing at all times that the rest of us simply fell into line around her without being asked.
I had immense respect for her.
I was also slightly afraid of her.
Both of those things were true simultaneously.
"Sunshine." She appeared at my desk at exactly 9AM the way she appeared everywhere — without warning, already in the middle of the thought. "The Tokyo pre-tour documents need to be consolidated and sent to the venue coordinator by noon. Kael has reviewed the setlist changes. Get them filed."
"Already done," I said. "Sent at 8:47."
She looked at me.
"The Busan fan meet rescheduling..."
"Confirmed for the week after the Seoul closing night. The fan club representatives have been notified."
A pause.
"The media accreditation list"
"Updated. Twenty two names added. Three removed per Kael's request. Copy is on your desk."
Director Han looked at me for a long moment.
Then the corner of her mouth moved. Just slightly.
"Good," she said.
And walked away.
I exhaled.
Min-ah appeared immediately from behind her monitor. "Did she almost smile at you?"
"I think so."
"Jinjja?" Really? "She never almost smiles."
"I know," I said.
Min-ah stared at the direction Director Han had gone with undisguised awe.
I turned back to my screen.
And tried not to feel the thing I had been trying not to feel all morning.
Five days.
Kael was leaving in five days.
**Kael's POV**
I had gotten the form the same day she mentioned it.
We had just left my place after lunch and something she said stayed with me. That she had always wanted to study law. She moved on from it quickly the way she did with things she had stopped letting herself want.
I said nothing.
But when I got back to KDX I called the admissions office at Seoul National University School of Law. Spoke to the person in charge. Had the application form sent over by end of day.
I put it in my drawer.
And then everything fell apart.
The charges. The hospital. The boardroom. Weeks of barely breathing.
The form stayed in the drawer through all of it.
I kept thinking, not yet. Not the right moment.
But the tour was in five days.
And if not now, when?
I found her at her desk at 11AM. She was on the phone coordinating something with the Tokyo venue and she held up one finger without looking at me which meant she knew I was there and she would be done in a moment.
She finished the call.
Looked up.
"Hi," she said.
"Come to my office," I said.
She tilted her head slightly. "Is something wrong?"
"No."
"You have that look."
"I don't have a look."
"You have several looks and that is one of them." She picked up her notebook out of habit. "Give me two minutes."
I went back to my office and took the form out of the drawer.
*Sunshine's POV**
His office felt the same as it always did.
Familiar in a way that had crept up on me without asking permission. The particular slant of late morning light through the floor to ceiling windows. The city spread out below like something that belonged to him. The organised surface of his desk that I had learned to read the way you learned to read a person.
There was something in the centre today.
A single sheet of paper.
I sat down across from him.
"What is that?" I asked.
He slid it across the desk toward me.
I looked at it.
Read the header.
Read it again.
Seoul National University School of Law Undergraduate Application Form.
I looked up at him.
He looked back at me steadily.
"You remembered," I said quietly.
"You said it like it wasn't important," he said. "But I could tell it was."
My throat tightened.
"Kael.."
"The tour runs a full year," he said. "You'll have time. More than enough time. Director Han is already aware."
I stared at him.
"You talked to Director Han."
"Last week."
"Without telling me?"
"I wanted to make sure it was possible before I said anything." He leaned forward slightly. "It's possible Sunshine. The programme has an evening intake. You can start this semester. By the time I'm back you'll have finished your first year."
I looked at the form in my hands.
something about it.
My eyes were stinging.
I was absolutely not going to cry in this office.
"A full year," I said.
"A full year," he confirmed.
"That is a long time."
"It is." Not softening it. Not pretending. "But you won't be sitting still."
I pressed my lips together. Looked down at the form.
"I don't know if I'll get in," I said.
"Fill it out first."
"I haven't studied in..."
"Sunshine."
I looked at him. That certainty. Quiet and complete.
I folded the form carefully and put it in my bag.
"Thank you," I said. Smaller than I intended.
He nodded once. Then quietly, "Come here."
I walked around the desk.
He turned his chair and I sat on the armrest and he pulled me close and I leaned against him and we stayed like that for a long moment. Seoul stretched out in front of us. The form in my bag. One year sitting between us like something neither of us wanted to name out loud.
"I don't want you to go," I said quietly. First time I had said it.
"I know."
"I know you have to."
"I know you know."
I exhaled slowly against his shoulder.
"Video calls," I said.
"Every day," he said immediately.
"Even when you're exhausted from the shows?"
"Every day."
I pulled back just enough to look at him.
He looked back at me.
And then he leaned in slowly like he had all the time in the world, like the tour and the year and everything waiting outside that door didn't exist yet and pressed his lips against mine.
Soft. Unhurried.
His hand came up to cup my face and I felt the warmth of it against my cheek and his lips were gentle in a way that undid me completely. Not a goodbye kiss. Not dramatic.
Just him.
Just this.
The kind of kiss that said everything neither of us had found the right words for.
I held onto his jacket with both hands and kissed him back and for a moment the whole city outside stopped mattering.
When we pulled apart his forehead rested against mine.
His thumb traced my cheekbone once.
One year," he said quietly.
"One year," I said back.
Then I stepped back. Smoothed my jacket. Picked up my notebook.
"You have a 2PM rehearsal call," I said.
"I know."
"And the Tokyo coordinator needs a decision on the stage configuration by four."
"I know."
"I'm just saying."
"You're deflecting," he said.
"I'm multitasking," I said.
And I walked out.
Because if I stayed one more minute, I was absolutely going to cry.
I walked out.
Down the corridor. Still feeling his lips against mine.
My phone buzzed.
Kael: Don't forget to fill out the form.
Then immediately
Kael: Also. I love you.
I stopped walking.
Stood in the middle of the corridor like someone had pressed pause on me.
I caught myself smiling.
**END OF CHAPTER 28**