Chapter 19

Noah's confession isn��t quite so toching He makes some silly excuses as to why he is up there to see her, then confesses that he likes Evely. She doesn��t say anything. He says he knows she treats him like family, but he wants more than she thinks. Jackso shows up, and Noah quickly says some stuff about how Jackson's La Mure experience will make him super helpful at Evely's new restaurant. If she ever needs help with random chores like the dishes, she can call on him. He holds it together until he gets to the stairwell, where he breaks down.
The next morning, Jackson continues to press the marriage matter. He takes Evely's flowers, chocolates, and gifts to heart but gets a little creative. He makes her some flowers out of food, which makes her smile.
Jayden goes over to Amelia's place but hesitates over whether he should ring up or not. She spots him and goes down to meet him. She tells him to go home, but first asks why he��s been following her for the past few days. She runs through a list of possible reasons and he denies them all. But she��s curious as to what he would do if she were actually pregnant. He says that he��d marry her.
She thinks he takes marriage too lightly. He was just about to marry someone else not long ago, and now he��s quick to say he��d marry her? Is he so willing to go along with his mother��s plans? He must know that his mother and her father have been trying to push them together. But jayden gives a pretty speech about how his feelings for her are real, but if he��s making life difficult for her, he promises not to bother her anymore. She watches him go and mutters, ��I never said you couldn��t chase me.��
The next day, Grandma joh finds jayden fretting over the company financials. She surprises him by asking what he plans on doing about his mother. She knows all about the embezzlement. Jayden apologizes, but Grandma says he isn��t the one who needs to apologize. She understands that he��s trying to take sole responsibility for everything and that��s why he kicked Jackson out. But the burden isn��t his to carry alone.
She asks him what solutions he��s thought of for getting bright company out of this mess. He explains that his mother bought a piece of land a few years ago, and its value has increased. He plans on using it as collateral for a loan. But Grandma thinks that a loan won��t be enough money won��t it be more valuable to sell it? He shows her some documents revealing that they can��t sell the land because of its location (we don��t know where, but it��s significant to them), and it was originally purchased using a mortgage, so if they can��t sell it, then the loan won��t even cover the cost of the land. She frowns and mutters to herself as she leaves. It seems like the situation is worse than she expected.
Sterling his ex girlfriend shows up next. Jayden doesn��t look happy to see her, especially when she asks him to take her back, saying that she��s realized she actually does love him. He tells her that��s not possible, but asks to walk her out anyway because he��s a gentleman like that.
Amelia waits around for jayden at her studio, but he doesn��t show. She goes to look for him at his office, and shows up just in time to see him walking sterling out. She assumes he��s gotten back together with sterling, and that��s why he didn��t follow her today.
Logan and Jackson meet up at a bar, where logan tries out some disgustingly cheesy pick-up lines on a woman who seems to love it, and Jackson seems unamused. The main purpose of their meeting is for logan to report what he��s learned about bright company situation. It��s not good. In fact, it��s much worse than what either of them initially thought. The company has been trying to sell stock like crazy because if it doesn��t, it��ll go bankrupt.
Logan can tell that Jackson wants to save the company, but he warns him not to. He��s finally free of bright company and logan says he should enjoy that freedom and live happily with Evely. If he really cared that much about bright company, he should��ve married Amelia when he had the chance. That gives Jackson an idea.
Amelia finds out that jayden agreed to a business marriage with her and confronts him about it. Is the situation really so bad that his mother would agree to give her father bright company stock in exchange for her hand in marriage? Is sterling's family wealth not enough? Jayden says that he already cut off all connections with sterling yesterday, which seems to appease Amelia, and admits that bright is in big trouble. But Amelia is still angry that she��s only a pawn for business purposes, and that he��s only marrying her because of her father. She says that she might as well go marry Jackson now, because it doesn��t matter who she marries as long as he��s part of the joh family.
Jackson schedules a meeting with Amelia It sounds super sketchy, with talk about hotel rooms and showering right where Evely, Noah, and logan can hear. Evely glares daggers while Noah interprets it as Jackson's cheating on Evely�� with his sister no less, and rushes out after him. Jayden follows Amelia to the meeting.
But the meeting is purely platonic. Amelia connects Jackson with Mr. Bentley, a wealthy restauranteur. Bentley is willing to invest in bright company and make it a part of his restaurant group, but his main interest is in Jackson. It��d be even better if Jackson left bright and La Mure completely and joined his restaurant group instead. He��s eager to open up a restaurant even bigger and better than La Mure with Jackson. Bentley steps out to take a call.
Amelia tells Jackson that he doesn��t have to accept Bentley's investment, but he��s willing to consider it if that means helping bright company. She says that there are other options, like her father, but they would have to get married. Jackson starts to respond, but jayden barges in, yelling that Jackson can��t marry Amelia. He punches him before dragging Amelia out, passing by Noah. Noah looks ready to punch Jackson too, and goes through his usual spiel about not hurting Evely. Jackson starts to explain why he��s there, but is interrupted by bentley coming out of the side room. Jackson and Noah leave akwardly
Jayden has to stop dragging Amelia by the hand because it hurts too much from punching Jackson. He admits that he only did it because the heroes always do that in idol dramas for the women they love, but he didn��t realize it would hurt so much. Amelia chastises him for hitting Jackson but gently takes him by the hand and leads him away, saying that she��ll put some medicine on for him. He smiles like a young boy. Oh jayden he��s so simple sometimes.
Jayden goes to the joh family��s condo complex and stares up at the building thoughtfully. The joh's are in need, and he thinks it��s time that he step up and do something about it. But before he can do so, he makes a series of phone calls. First, he calls Mr. Bentley to reject his investment offer. His next phone call he struggles over a bit more, but eventually he calls Evely to say he has something to discuss.
Evely acts chilly toward him, suspicious about his meeting with Amelia. When he tells her he��s going to move out, she thinks it��s because of Amelia He calls out how ridiculous that idea is. if he wanted to have something to Amelia, he could��ve done so long ago, before he and Evely even got together. She tells him that she overheard his conversation with Amelia, but he laughs and says he was meeting a business client.
Evely asks if he has to go back to the joh's, and he says he does. He��s going back to help jayden, because they��re family. She nods and says that he should go back. Her mom once told her that men who put love first are unreliable, because there too many equally important things in the world. Evely thinks Jackson is very reliable, so he should go back and help his family. He looks at her, then smiles and buries his face. Perhaps he didn��t expect her to be so supportive and thought this would be a more difficult conversation than it was. He asks if they have to go back home tonight. Can��t they spend the night elsewhere? He points to some building off-camera (probably a love hotel?) ��I heard it��s pretty fun,�� he says. Too cute!!
Later Jackson goes to talk to jayden asking when he planned on telling him everything, or if even planned to at all after kicking him out. He asks when he knew that bright company was in financial trouble. Jayden admits that he found out about six months ago, after seeing one of his mother��s emails. On sterling's suggestion, she bought some land using company money. Now all of bright company money is tied up in the land.
Jackson asks jayden why he kicked him out. Jayden says that he did it because they were brothers and because it was his own mother��s fault. He wanted to be able to do something for Jackson, for bright company, for their family. He wanted to be able to take some responsibility and take responsibility for himself. Jackson says that he will always be his brother, and he never should have left jayden alone. He knows that jayden is a kind soul and that��s why he did this, and because he��s his brother, he will come back and help him. But jayden shakes his head adamantly and tells Jackson that he can��t come back.
Jayden is just so pure and it��s so validating to get confirmation that he really is that selfless.
Lily scrambles up to Evely apartment where the rest of the night market crew is hanging and reports that the night market is in trouble. Just now, some men came to tear down the night market so they could replace it with a building. The men were from bright company.
At the same time, Jackson finds out from jayden that the reason he can��t come back is that the only way of saving bright is to utilize the land his mom bought. And that land is where Evely night market is.
The night market crew is quick to vilify Jackson saying there��s no way he couldn��t have known about this. His departure earlier was also timed too well to be a coincidence. Evely is stunned and runs out to go find Jackson. Her mother worries what will happen to them if she can��t convince Jackson to save the night market.
Evely barges into jayden's office and asks about the land. Despite her initial excitement, they have a very civil conversation. Jackson explains that the only way for him to protect his family is to sell the land. Evely says that the night market is her family and she needs to protect them too. They each have to protect their own. Jackson is obviously uncomfortable with this, but Evely repeats what she said earlier about men who only need love being unreliable. She would respect him less if he were the kind of person to throw aside his family for love. They reach a tense, but mutually respectful understanding that neither is intentionally trying to hurt the other with their future actions, but that they have to put their own families first.
they were able to see each other as equals and talk to each other as equals! I��m sure that there is more conflict to be had a storm is brewing and a war is coming but they really handled that like real adults.
Evely leads a series of protests outside bright company corporate offices while Jackson tries to find alternate solutions. But even if bright company sells all the assets they can, including La Mure, it won��t even cover a third of their debt. He pauses his work for a moment to go downstairs and check on the protests. Evely seems to lose steam when she hears her friends badmouthing Jackson and when she spots him at the door of the bright company office building. But he turns and leaves and she picks her chant back up.
At night, the protesters continue to sit in front of bright company. Pinky and sebastian come bearing food from some mysterious benefactor. Evely recognizes the currywurst from her night cooking with Jackson and knows that he was the one who made the food. One quote in particular sticks out from that night. Jackson told her that when fate hands you a dilemma, it��s not the dilemma itself that��s difficult, it��s making a choice. She looks up at bright company and silently sends positive thoughts toward Jackson, trusting he will find a solution.
Jackson and jayden seem to have exhausted all their options. Jayden gets a call from the construction company interested in buying their land. They want to go under contract as soon as possible. He asks Jackson if this is really what he wants to do. Jackson repeats the same quote Evely was thinking of. He tells jayden that he��s been waiting to hear back from a friend, but at this point it seems unlikely that he��ll get a response in time. He says that jayden should go take care of the contract. There��s no point in waiting.
Outside, Evely paces and wonders if there��s something else they can do. They can protest all they want, but it��s unlikely to yield actual change. Noah agrees that there��s little they can do but protest, unless�� they can get bright company to hold an emergency shareholders�� meeting and reverse the decision. But the only way they can do that is if one of them is a shareholder. Evely realizes that she does own bright company stock.
Jackson and Evely continue to be so reasonable and supportive of each other, despite being on opposite sides of this conflict.