Kincade led Kirin to the private floors at the top of the building where only VVIP has access to. Did he really need to bring me all the way up here? Kirin thought to himself. 

When they finally reached the 94th floor and the elevator doors opened, Kincade was immediately greeted by the one of his secretaries.  

“Good evening, Mr. Orrs,” she smiled politely. 

Kirin scanned her from head to toe and slightly nodded his head in approval. 

When they finally entered into Kincade’s grand office room, Kincade directed Kirin to have a seat. Kirin whistled in awe as his eyes wandered the room, making his way down to his seat.  

“Secretary Lee, can you bring in the paperwork?” Kincade hit the intercom that connected to his secretary's desk. 

Shortly after, the woman entered into the room, handed the paper work over and left. Kincade positioned himself on the couch across from Kirin with a glass table in between them.  

“This is the contract,” he flipped to end and handed it over to Kirin. “All you have to do is sign here.” 

Kirin raised a brow in question. He isn’t even going to tell me to read through it? 

“...I might as well read the conditions of this contract. I need to know what it is that I’m going to be doing after all,” Kirin flipped the contract back to the first page and slid it off the table into his hands. 

As Kirin read the contract, his facial expressions became distorted and confused. He looked up to the man across from him. “What’s this? Private model? I’ve never heard of anything like this. Does this kind of thing even exist?” 

“It exists.” 

“This isn’t what we agreed on.” 

“We never agreed on anything else. All we agreed on was you signing under me.” 

Shit, he was right. 

“Being a private model, I will personally be reviewing and issuing you jobs to take. You can only take the job offers I approve,” said Kincade. 

(A/N: I don’t know if there is such a thing and I’m too lazy to do research... sorry. But for the sake of this arc, being a private model and how things are handled are legit) 

“I thought that was my agent’s job?” 

“Because you are a private model that I specifically handpicked, everything will come through me. And plus, because you’re under me, you’ll be earning a lot more money than if you weren’t,” Kincade gave a smile. “Of course, you’d get your own manager, but I’ll basically be acting as your agent.” 

An amused smile appeared on Kirin’s face. “Having the CEO as my agent, that’s rather interesting.” 

“Consider yourself a special case.” 

“I wonder what is it that I’ve done to receive this honor?” 

“You’ve piqued my interest.” 

As soon as those words left Kincade’s mouth, Kirin’s movements came to a halt. But he quickly recovered himself. Kirin wasn’t sure if Kincade meant work-related interested or personal-life interested, but he was 99% sure it was the latter that he was referring to.  

“Sorry. I still hooked on someone else.” 

“Ex?” 

“More of unrequited love, sort of?” 

“Oh? How so?” 

When Kincade asked, the expression on Kirin’s face became soft and vulnerable. “Though we did have an intimate relationship, I could tell that he wasn’t opening his heart completely to me...” 

After being alive for so long and having encountered so many different kinds of people, Kirin would be able to pick that fact out. Though Jin did say that the person he wanted and loved was Kirin, Kirin knew that there was still something else that kept Jin from giving himself completely to Kirin. Other than the fact that Jin was also wedded to Seila, Kirin knew, Jin was only telling half of the truth the night they embraced. But for Kirin, it was wholeheartedly true, and that was enough for him; as long as his feelings were true, even if the other did not fully reciprocate his feelings, it was enough for him. Truly, Kirin felt foolish but unrestrained.

He thought he had locked up all of his feelings and emotions away, but that was not the case. For the longest time ever, he was a cold, aloof, emotionless killing machine, but now... things were a bit different. Perhaps it was because he was no longer part of his original world? Who knows? Even though the truth hurts, Kirin felt heavily relieved that he could still at least feel that emotion. 

“So, in the end, we broke it off. I wished him a happy life... I’m sure he’s living a good life now, married with kids...” 

Kincade saw the sadness in Kirin’s eyes and felt restless. 

Kirin recollected himself and ran his fingers through his hair, exposing the beauty mark located underneath his right brow and smirked, “Why am I even telling you this stuff? We’re not even that close.” 

Kincade no longer pressed on that matter, seeing how Kirin quickly shifted off that matter was well. 

“So, will you sign the contract or not?” 

Kirin smirked, “Of course, I will.” 

After signing his name, the contract was settled. 

“Starting from this very moment, I am your boss,” said Kincade. 

“Alright, Mr. Orrs,” Kirin smiled. 

Kincade extended his hand over and Kirin took his hand, sealing the contract.  

As soon as their skin came into contact, Kirin felt an unusual electric shock. It wasn't one of pain, but rather one that made his heart stir in confusion. It was a touch that made the hair on the back of his arm and neck stand, similar to when someone has an ominous feeling about something, however, this feeling was slightly different. This was the second time he has had this electrifying encounter. The first time was with Jin. 

=== 

When they returned back down to the main lobby, they saw Bryce, who was shriveled to one side of the lobby couch, rubbing his temples. Noticing something was not right, Kirin quickened his pace over to Bryce. 

“Are you alright?” Kirin asked. 

Bryce stiffly nodded his head as if he was having a severe headache.  

Picking up on the atmosphere, Kirin asked, “You saw your father?” 

Bryce stiffly nodded, but with Kirin by his side, the tension around him loosened. “Yeah, he was really staring me down. I’ve seen many faces of his but this was the first time I’ve seen him made such a face.” 

“Don’t worry. I’m here now,” Kirin sat beside Bryce and carefully stroked his back with his left hand, soothing Bryce.  

Kirin stood up with Bryce. “Since our business here is done, we’ll be excusing ourselves.” 

Just as they were about to leave, Kincade handed something over to Kirin. Looking at the item, Kirin saw that it was a smartphone. 

“I’ll need your number to be able to contact you.” 

Taking the phone, Kirin inserted his number, handed the phone back and exited the building with Bryce. 

Ring, ring, ring~! Kirin saw that it was an unknown caller. Kirin already had an idea of who the caller was. “Did you really need to call me? Now?” 

Kirin heard a slight chuckle from the other end of the call, “Just had to make sure you weren't giving me a fake one.” 

“Why would I do that? I have more integrity than that, and besides, I need to know when to come into work,” Kirin answered lazily. 

“Then you can start after Chris has settle the whole ordeal with his father and brother. I know Bryce depends on you quite a lot.” 

He was quite the sensible guy, Kirin thought. “Alright, Sounds good.” 

[Side mission: ‘get a job’ accomplished. Thank you for your hard work.] the notification went off in his head. 

=== 

When they arrived back at Bryce’s home, Joe was sitting in the living room, watching the flat screen TV without even acknowledging their presence, which was fine with Kirin. Bryce had also relaxed. Though he was still traumatized, he was slowly gaining his courage to face his father head-on. 

“You guys are back quite late,” Joe finally said after Bryce had already made his way up the stairs. 

Bryce froze at the top of the stairs and glanced back toward Kirin. Kirin slightly shook his head and motioned for Bryce to go to his room. 

“Yeah! Funny thing. I was looking for a part-time job and decided to drag Bryce along with me to find one,” Kirin entered into the living, seating himself comfortably on a couch that was adjacent to the one Joe was seated in. “I went to Lux Entertainment today to see if I could find a job.” 

“I saw.” 

“You saw me?” 

“No, I saw Bryce,” Joe answered smoothly. 

“Oh, really? He didn’t tell me,” Kirin laughed innocently as he looked over to the TV to see the weather forecast. 

“You looking to be a manager or something?” 

“Something like that,” Kirin answered casually. 

“Well, if you get accepted, we’ll probably be seeing each other more than usual,” Joe smiled ambiguously. 

Kirin slightly titled his head to the side, raising a brow. “Well, if you’ll excuse me. Bryce and I have some business to discuss about our upcoming exam.” And with that, Kirin left the living room. 

=== 

Today was the day. Christopher messaged Bryce that him, his mother and Mr. Smith were landing. At this time, it was already midday. Bryce went to go pick his mother and brother while Kirin stayed behind to stall Joe. Even Kincade took part in saying that Joe could have the day off. 

“Where did you say Bryce went?” Joe asked. 

“He went to his classes today,” Kirin answered, sitting at the dining table on his smartphone. 

“How come you didn’t go to classes today?” 

“They were cancelled,” Kirin lied. 

As they exchanged words, Joe stood up from his seat in the living room and made his way behind Kirin. Kirin knew he was going to make his move. For these past weeks, Joe has been itching to vent, and with Kirin there, there would be two of them against one. But now that it was just Kirin there alone, Joe was quite confident he’d be able to take Kirin alone. 

Scrolling through his social media apps, Kirin then saw two arms enter into his peripheral view, planted on the edge of the table with him in between them. Joe leaned in close behind Kirin’s ear. 

“I know what you’ve been doing,” he whispered. 

“Oh~, care to explain?” Kirin languidly replied. 

“You... have been seducing me. I’m usually not into men, but I can see that you are,” Joe breathed down Kirin’s neck. 

Kirin felt disgusted.  

“Please move back, Mr. Knowles,” Kirin said as he stood up, breaking free from Joe’s grasp as he walked toward living room. “And I have no idea what you’re talking about. And if I was to seduce someone, it would definitely not be you. You’re not my type,” Kirin gave a sly smile. 

Joe’s eyes darkened as he marched up to Kirin, grasping him by his jaw. That was a blow to his pride. Joe was without a doubt good-looking, but that didn’t automatically meant Kirin would be into him. Because they were roughly the same height, Kirin had no need to look up to him. Kirin figured that because today would be his last day of inhabiting this house, he might as well teach Joe a lesson. 

Kirin gripped Joe’s hand and twisted it, making Joe’s face distort in pain as he let out a yelp. Joe knew that the current Liam was physically built, but he did not expect him to have such power that brought him to his knees. 

Kirin let out an amused chuckle, seeing Joe writhe in pain. Just as Joe was about to counterattack, Kirin had already moved, twisting their positions around so that Joe laid flat on the ground with Kirin’s knee digging into his back with his arms secured. His movements were effortless and swift. 

“You fucking brat!” Joe growled. 

“And it’s this fucking brat that has you on the ground,” Kirin let out a devious smile. Looking up to the clock on the wall, Kirin noted, “They should be here any moment now.” 

“Hah?! Who?!” 

Kirin’s ears perked when he heard the front door unlock. As the footsteps entered into the living room, Kirin beamed, “I’ve been waiting for you~.” 

Joe looked over and his irises shrank in shock. “J-Julianne? Chris? What’s the meaning of this?!” 

“You’ll know shortly.” 

=== 

Joe sat with a deadpan expression, both hands gripped tight on his kneecaps. Christopher had just finished playing the recordings for Joe to hear. They discussed the custody papers as well as what would happen if he did not sign them over. 

Joe gritted his teeth so hard it sounded like they were grinding. He then glared over to Kirin, who was sitting leisurely with one long slender leg crossed over the other with his chin resting up against his knuckles, who was giving him an innocent smile.  

“It was you, wasn’t it?!” Joe snarled. 

Kirin slightly shrugged his shoulders, giving him the I-don't-know-what-you-are-talking-about expression.  

“You were all in together!” Joe bellowed in anger. 

“Just sign the papers!” Julianne raised her voice. “If you do, you can at least still keep your job!” 

“You dare to come back here and tell me what to do?! You fucking bitch!”  

“Please refrain yourself from such foul language, Mr. Knowles. Have some class,” Mr. Smith finally spoke. 

“And who the fuck are you to tell me to watch my mouth?” said Joe. 

Oh~, his true colors are finally showing, Kirin smirked. 

“Isn’t that quite obvious?” Mr. Smith asked as he took Julianne’s fingers into his own. 

“That’s your new husband?!” 

Julianne resolutely looked over to the man that had abused her day and night, “Yes.” 

Joe looked like he was ready to pounce. 

“If you even move a muscle, I will take this to court and sue you for attempted assault, domestic violence and child abuse,” Christopher said coldly, emitting an immense cold and chilling pressure in the room, but Kirin seemed rather unfazed. 

Joe’s eyes were bloodshot. He grabbed the pen and signed the papers in a frenzy and tossed them over to the other party. 

“Get out of here!” Joe raged. 

“We’ll excuse ourselves after we’ve finished loading all of Bryce’s belongings,” said Julianne. 

And with that, many people came pouring into the house and Bryce lead them into his room to begin gathering his belongings, but it didn’t take long since Bryce didn’t have much to begin with. Joe was beyond pissed, but he couldn’t do anything. So, all he could do was sit in one place with everything going on until it was only him left alone. They left as swiftly as they came. 

=== 

When all of that was settle, they were gathered outside of Joe’s home. 

“So, what about school?” Kirin asked Bryce. 

“I’ve got it settled. I’m taking a 2-week leave. When I come back, Chris will be coming back with me, and I’ll be living with him, so, I’ll still be attending Soul University,” Bryce smiled. 

“Oh? Your brother is moving over here?” Kirin asked even though he knew that in the original timeline Christopher would be moving back to J country to establish a main branch for his business here, though it was two years early. 

Bryce nodded his head. 

“Well, that’s good to hear,” Kirin smiled. 

Bryce then pulled Kirin into a hug, which caught him by surprise. 

“Thanks for everything.” 

Kirin gave Bryce gentle pats. “I’m here for you if you need anything.” 

After all of Bryce’s belongings were loaded, they left for the airport. Kirin had already gathered all of his items. Just as he turned to head towards the direction of his residence, a voice called out to him.