"château margaux?" joshua asks as the younger hands him the red wine he had been craving for weeks, but has not been able to purchase due to his business on the choi case.

how he missed those velvety texture that lingers on his palate, the wine seems and tastes so elegant that he loves it with all his heart.

"yup, my congratulatory gift for you." dokyeom sat beside him, handing him a wine glass.

"you didn't have to kyeom, but thank you" joshua took the glass and immediately opening the red wine, excited to taste it again after weeks.

if you only knew who truly gave it.

there are in a club right now, in a private room. as per joshua's always request, not more than 15 people.

dokyeom did invite exactly 15 people excluding himself and jimin, some close acquaintance of the both of them, more likely only dokyeom's. joshua doesn't do friends at work. at least most of the time he doesn't.

also invited in the party is the best friend of the two, seo minghao.

a professor in hongjun law school, who teaches criminal law. joshua says it, and because it is true, seo minghao is one the most intelligent people he had every had the fortune of meeting and he is grateful to be considered as a best friend of the professor.

"joshua, dokyeom-ah it's been a while. i missed you both" he quickly went to embrace the two, visibly shown on his face how much he missed the two.

"it has only been 3 days since we last saw each other, hao." joshua laughs at his dramatic friend.

"that is a very long time for people who treasures one another." and joshua giggled at that.

"how is work treating you hyung," dokyeom asks, giving the professor a wine glass.

"stressful. midterms had just finished so i have piles of exam papers on my desk. i need to destress before going back to those stressful workloads." minghao answered and sat down beside the youngest, communicating with their eyes while joshua pours some wine in his glass.

the night continues with people having fun, bottles of alcohol on the side, food on the center. the music blaring, and everyone is dancing. joshua drank is 7th bottle of beer of the night, his red wine, gifted by dokyeom empty and broken after being thrown on the side of the room because of too much excitement by the youngest.

dokyeom was having fun as well. in the middle of the crowd he stood there being the life of the party by dancing and screaming his heart out.

joshua was just watching him in the corner, finishing his bottle of beer and eating some peanuts. minghao was having fun talking with some of the guest, two people between him and the minghao.

somehow, the lawyer had became so busy with work he forgot how to be friendly and interactive with people. even though he is nice and smiles at them, he cannot seem to be comfortable with them. enough that they could have fun like how dokyeom does. maybe it's the lawyer and boss in him that needs to be upright, intimidating and respectable to his employees. he became an anti-social person, that's it.

suddenly two servers of the club entered the room and subtly whispered something to dokyeom who was too into his dancing that the way he stopped was eye catching. joshua caught how immediately dokyeom's face changed from enjoyment to a serious one. from the corner of his eye, he noticed minghao's sudden seriousness as well.

"i'll go out for a while shua hyung. i need to breath, i suddenly feel suffocated here," dokyeom says holding his chest and started coughing.

"are you alright?" minghao ran to him in concern, making joshua worried too. following the minghao, he rubs dokyeom's chest and patted his back.

"shua-yah, i'll bring him home and help him," minghao suggested which joshua nodded immediately to, not questioning how the two of them kept looking suspiciously at each other.

"sure, yeah. alright." the loud blaring of the speaker didn't became a hindrance in their conversation.

"why don't you go home by yourself hyumg? i'll call the driver," dokyeom's hands shakes as he pulled his phone out of his pockets but joshua stopped him.

"i'm sober dokyeom-ah. i can drive myself to my apartment. minghao please bring him home and stay with him, alright? i'll take care of these drunk people here first before coming home," joshua points towards the people in the room still drinking and partying.

"will you be okay?" minghao asks, still holding onto dokyeom who is now gagging hard, stopping himself from vomiting.

"of course. go now, he looks pale" he pushed him hard to urge him to go out to which minghao immediately oblige to.

when the door closed, he turned the volume of the speaker down and turned on the lights. he saw how the people stopped dancing, staring at him offensively. however when they realized who did it they immediately fixed their facial expression.

"you can handle yourself home right?"

"yes sir," a man answers while a woman clings to her. he didn't know dokyeom's secretary is like that. she is always a prim and proper lady when she's at work. funny how alcohol make someone honest.

"either you stay here or go home. both is alright just make sure you are on time tomorrow," joshua says while picking up his bag and phone, searching in his bag his car keys and quickly grbbing it onto his hand.

"goodbye mr. hong, safe drive" he hums at that, closing the door.

walking towards the parking lot, the headlight of another car gave him the light that he needed to recognize his car almost at the end of the parking lot. there were 5 cars before his black porsche that was gifted to him by his mother before she passed away more than 2 years ago.

joshua doesn't want to think about anything right now, he badly needed to get some sleep and get back to work early tommorow. however the two servers that whispered something to his brother made him curious. placing his palm on his left cheeks, the pain on the slap isn't there anymore but the scratch is still quite visible even after putting on some make up to cover it up. tracing it and thinking about the choi's, joshua's facial expression turned dark.

since he inherited the law firm, joshua has became even more aware of the cruelty of the people his family had 'help'. and even if his father encourages him to do whatever he wants with those information, he couldn't help but be a coward. he is scared of what can happen. what if in the process of making the choi's lose everything, he would be the one who could lose everything?

joshua knows them after all. he knows what they can do to him and to the people he cares about. what if he loses his power? his family's fortune in the process of making the choi's lose theirs? he's scared that one day he will lose. scared that at the end of it all, his family's future generation will become treated more like slaves without freedom and power to themselves. he fears giving that to his future family, to his current one.

the thought made him whimper and touch his cheeks again, feeling the pain once again as he tries to scratch it himself, making his cheeks bleed. until a knock on his window made him stop, quickly turning his head.

a man wearing a leather jacket and a v neck shirt came into his view. joshua let down his window and looked at the man with his emotionless eyes, tired to even care about his handsome face.

"i'm sorry sir, but can you move your car. you see you parked it too close to mine and i can't leave," he heard the man says and look at his right, he wasn't sure if it was even that close before.

without replying he started his car, skillfully turning the wheels on the right with one hand. joshua doesn't how long since he entered his car and how long has it been since his two friends left. he started maneuvering his car around to face forward and leave later while the man get in his car. hearing a shout of 'thank you' as the man starts his car.

joshua starts his car back on. while waiting for the man in front, he can't help but look at his side. the back of the of the club. his eyes caught a familiar car, minghao's. inches away of it he spotted 5 people talking so seriously that they were so near with one another.

in that moment, joshua saw a hand waved at the 5 men. it was from the car in front of him. from the man he had just talked to.

joshua tried not to mind it while he's still near but curiosity got the best of him when he was meters away. he decided to call minghao.

"where are you?" he whispers softly, drunk and tired.

"i'm in a nearby hotel place. dokyeom kept vomiting so we stopped by and will stay here for the rest of the night," joshua cannot help but be suspicious of him. he can't hear anything on the other line besides minghao's breathing. he would have heard the vomiting sounds. does dokyeom really felt nauseous a while ago? his emotions did shifted after a whisper from someone.

who was that?

"what car did you use to get there?" he tried to shake his suspicions.

"my car. why?" there were no remorse or hesitancy that lingered in minghao's voice, causing joshua to furrow his eyebrows.

"nothing. i thought i saw your car still at the club place. i just left"

"maybe it's the same model. you're drunk shua. sleep immediately alright" joshua raised his eyebrows, he knows that car very well like the lyrics of sunday morning of maroon 5, he is not drunk to just assume things.

"alright, see you tomorrow" and joshua turned the phone off, clenching his jaw.

lee dokyeom.

seo minghao.