I woke up in the middle of the night and glanced over at my clock: 1:27 AM. It was late, and Jaehyun was still down in his office. When I looked at his side of the bed, it was empty.

It'd been like this for the last few days. Jaehyun was definitely working overtime after we teamed up with Hansol and Stray Kids again to figure out everything with my dad. It sucked a little, not being able to talk to Jaehyun. He and I always had some sort of deep conversation before we went to bed, or he'd crack a random joke a 3:00 AM which would make us lay there and laugh for the next hour...I missed it a little.

"Oh, what the heck", I murmured to myself and threw the sheets off my bare legs.

I stumbled through the dark and made my way for Jaehyun's office.

I knocked on his door quietly, and peeked my head inside.

"Jae? Its me..."

He looked up from the paperwork he was basically drowning in, "Oh hey, babygirl...I'll be up in a few"

"With all that paperwork?", I sat down in one of his fancy business chairs and pulled my legs up to my chest, "That looks like it'll take quite a while"

He looked at me and smiled a few seconds later.

I smiled back, but we both ended up looking away after a couple seconds. He refocused on his papers, and I fiddled with the armrest.

"Its late", he said as he wrote something on a document, "You should go back to bed"

"What if I wanna stay with you, though?"

"It won't be anything interesting", he sighed.

"That's ok...", I mumbled.

I sat there without saying anything, and just stared around the office.

"You've been up late the last few nights...", I said after a few minutes.

"Yeah...", Jaehyun replied. His pen fell and rolled over next to my chair, "Can you pick that up for me, please?"

"Mhm", I handed it to him. I couldn't help but feel bad when I looked at his exhausted face. "Jaehyun, you look really tired..."

"I'm fine", he grinned. It was nice to see expression on his face, but he just seemed empty lately; tired, quiet, stressed...just empty.

"Are you sure you're ok? You've been out of it lately", I finally asked.

Jaehyun stared at me. A few seconds later, he sighed and buried his face in his hands. "Its just been a little crazy, that's all", he said.

"Is it about my dad?", I asked quietly.

"Yeah", Jaehyun got up and skimmed through his file cabinet, "He literally has everyone but us on his side. There's no way we're gonna be able to contact him without being shot in the back or something"

"So what is it that makes you stay up so late every night?"

"Doyoung and I are just trying to figure out ways to 'remove' your dad without us dying..."

"And?"

"And", Jaehyun shut the file cabinet and dropped a folder back on his desk, "Its basically impossible. Take a look through these maps...there's nowhere in Korea where he's not protected"

I skimmed through the folder and saw all the marked locations where my dad had people to cover him. Jaehyun was right, my dad had backup everywhere.

"Do you have any ideas of what to do yet?", I asked.

"Only a few", Jaehyun ran his hands through his hair, "And they're crazy dangerous"

"Oh...", I looked at the floor.

"What?"

"I dunno", I stammered, "I just...don't want to take any risks again. It was just starting to look like we were getting out of the woods"

"I know", he said, "But we need to take care of your dad, otherwise we're gonna have to keep going through mini battles with the other mafias to protect you"

I nodded and fidgeted with the armrest.

"I'm sorry, sweetie", Jaehyun looked at me, "It just looks like we have one more battle to fight"

"I don't want to have to go through being all worried about you again, though", I said.

"Yeah, well...", Jaehyun tapped his fingers on his knee and swung his office chair around a little, "We're a mafia so we're always gonna be in some sort of trouble"

"I guess..."

"You know I love you.", he looked into my eyes, "I wouldn't forgive myself if I just gave up on everything and left you without trying"

"I love you, too", I looked at him with a couple tears in my eyes, "And I wouldn't be able to forgive myself if I let you and your team try to figure this all out because of an incident that was started because of me"

"We'll be fine...", he said, "There'll be a day where we won't be as worried anymore"

"Yeah, but look at us now. You and your team are up late trying to come up with some 'solution' to get rid of my dad"

"We have options, there's nothing to worry about"

"Options like what?", I stared at him and waited for his answer.

Jaehyun bit his lip, "I'll just tell you in the morning...go get some sleep"

"Jaehyun...", I glared, "There's no use in hiding anything from me"

"Yeah, but-"

"Just tell me, Jae", I looked at him, "Please?"

He nodded. "Fine", he stood up and shoved his hands in his pockets, "The only option that seems kinda stable so far is...a war with your dad and his allies"