"Lee Hwang. Lee Hwang. Lee Hwang. What else you have been doing these past months? From co-CEO to visual director? How did he get away from our hands? He must have known about it then why didn't he say anything? I want to protect my artist at all cost yet he goes and lies." Gauravi kept murmuring as her fingers moved on the keyboard trying to get any information she could gather on Lee Hwang.
Her eyes fell on the article from three years ago, Lee Hwang planning to leave SYP for good. It had bunch of reasons regarding why he is leaving the company. Bullshit, why would someone leave a job which does everything for you? What? Bad relationship with the other CEO? What a load of bullshit of a reason! If he really did have that of bad relationship then they wouldn't be meeting every week.
Scrolling down she read few articles of scandals of the SYP's. Assault, numerous suicide cases, and what not. "Why was a company like this is still living in this country?!" Gauravi exclaimed. "What is law doing in this country? They have been constant, a suicide case every year, artist accused of sexual assault, rape?! What are they breeding criminals?!" She was about the burst the nerve when her cellphone rang. Looking at the caller id she sighed. He's been calling her nonstop since he left. Sighing again she picked up the call or else there was no other way to get him to stop.
"Yes?"
"Yes?! This is how you answer the call after avoid it for so long? Who do you think I am Gauravi? I have been calling you like crazy! Don't you have any sense? I was so worried; you didn't even let me talk to you while leaving and Joon is not telling me anything! I tried calling Jin but the call wouldn't get through! What is going on?!"
"First of all, take a deep breath nothing is going on. Everything is fine, you don't have to worry about anything and anyone." Gauravi explained. "There are some issues regarding work so-"
"You are lying." Gauravi was cut of abruptly. "I know you more than I know myself Gauravi. Do you think I am dumb enough to not know what has been going on?"
"That's great then. You know about it, what else do you want to talk about because I'm in hurry right now." Gauravi said clenching her fist. She had enough of this. All she wanted was peace so could she could at least do one thing right. "I have many things to take care of and right now listening to your nagging is not one of them."
"Gauravi-"
"Please Ben, I had enough okay. I don't need you to poke me every time, in every single matter of mine. Just leave me alone okay. I have my own life and you don't have to do anything with it." She was speaking without any thought; she was just frustrated with everything going around her. She wanted peace and her own pace to come out of it. But with every call from others to help was driving her to the edge of the cliff.
Gauravi was always been like this since she was very young, when her father left her and her mother to fend for themselves. They say, son is the one who will look after you in your old age, not the daughter, she is the going to leave to look after others. But, Gauravi was that daughter who look after her mother and her grandparents who were left by their son to fend for themselves. There was no other to help, she never wanted one because she knew, no one can be trusted but herself. The more others tried to help her the more she detached herself from them.
"O-okay. Sorry I tried to budge into your life. I won't anymore. Take care." With that Ben hung up the call. The beep sounded in her ear as she squeezed her eyes close in regret.
"God dammit!" She cursed kicking the desk in front of her. Getting up she walked outside the room into the balcony. Pulling out a cigarette from the box she pressed it between her lips before lighting it. Letting out a puff of smoke she sighed. "I-I'll talk to him later. I'm sure he'll understand why I said those words." She muttered to herself. "Right now, what's important is to keep the boys safe. Right, I should call Joon. There was no report since morning." She nodded to herself. Pulling out her phone she was about to call him when her phone buzzed. It was Ha Joon.
"Ma'am." He greeted.
"Yes."
"Everything's good. There's no movement from his side." Ha Joon said. They had put in the spy cam in Lee Hwang's office, tracking devices on his car. His every movement was being watched by Gauravi and her team. It was not sure if Lee Hwang was working alone or he had other with him. So, she had instructed them to keep an eye on every close employ of his.
"Did you inform Mr. Bang about Lee Hwang?" Gauravi questioned.
"Negative ma'am. Do Hyun-ssi intercepts every matter from our team."
"That bastard. What about his phone? Did we get a hold of it?"
"Negative."
"Hmm...Keep updating me."
"Yes, ma'am."
Another day rose, nothing changed apart from her managing to get some dirt on Lee Hwang. But the problem of contacting Mr. Bang still stood as a big barrier. She had no right left from her agency to handle this case. A letter from the headquarters was received by her to return back in next three day and she was trying her best to stall her time here. Whatever she has to do, she must do it in these three days.
"Will it work?" Gauravi asked Yoon Chin-Hae who had turned out to be quite helpful.
"There's 100% of chance of this working if he opens this email." He said. "Chances are more, since I have used the company's email id. But we just need him to open it sooner." He explained looking at the screen as his fingers kept moving on the keyboard.
Her phone buzzed making both of them snap their head towards it. It was Ha Joon.
"Yes Joon."
"Umm ma'am..." He hesitated making her straighten up and furrow her eyebrows.
"What is it?" She asked.
"I- We will be leaving for shoot by eight." He said quickly.
"I know Joon, I have the schedule. Now tell me, why did you call for?" She said sternly because this wasn't the time to play games. She had less time in her hands and too much work to do.
"Umm, Ben...he got in an accident."
"WHAT?!" She exclaimed, Yoon Chin-Hae looked at her worried. She shook her head indicating it was fine. "What the hell? How? Is he okay? Did he get hurt?"
"He says it's a scratch and is fine. The car lost control and crash the pavement luckily, he jumped away. His arms and knees are scrapped." Ha Joon explained. Gauravi sighed in relief and rubbed her temples. Everything is not going her way. It a mess. Everything is mess in her life right now. "Ma'am did you get to talk to him?" Ha Joon hesitantly asked.
"Um. Yeah, we argued and I might have said some things that I shouldn't have." She replied sighing. "I-I don't have any excuses; I know I was wrong. I just lost my temper and blurted out some nonsense."
"Ma'am I am sure he understands you. He is just worried." Ha Joon said.
"I know. Please tell him I am sorry and I'll be coming back soon, so I'll make it up to him."
"Coming back? Ma'am are you-"
"We are in!" Yoon Chin-Hae exclaimed suddenly gaining Gauravi's attention. She quickly walked towards him. "Ah, let's see what is he hiding now." Yoon Chin-Hae mumbled rubbing his palm before his fingers moving on the key board. "Messages?"
"Messages." Gauravi answered.
"Messages it is." He said as the screen showed the inbox of Lee Hwang's phone. "Wahh this guy." He laughed scrolling through the list which had series of female names. "I never had a girl texting me." He murmured scrolling down.
"What about call records? Anything?" He nodded and moved to call records.
"Oh look. Lee Soo-sii. Hmm..." He scrolled down and suddenly a name caught Gauravi's attention.
"Stop. Scroll up. Santos? Santos. Why is he-Oh, oh, oh." Gauravi grinned slamming her fist on the desk. "Joon seems like we caught the mole right in his hole. Guess who I found in Lee Hwang's call records? Santos Padre. Lee Hwang has quite a connection with American local gang." She said putting phone back to her ear. "Mr. Bang, where is he right now?"
"He is in company today. Shall I arrange a meeting?" Ha Joon asked.
"Do that. Yoon, can we trace his location?" Yoon Chin-Hae nodded his head. "I'll head to company, send someone to escort Mr. Lee Hwang."
"Roger." Ha Joon nodded and hung up the call.
"It was noona right?" Jungkook whispered from behind. Ha Joon turned around and nodded his head. Jungkook, Jimin and Taehyung had once tricked him and called his boss. After that he didn't know what happened but Jimin had stopped persisting him about his boss. "What did she say?" It was Jungkook who still asked about her.
"Work stuff."
"So, she still is looking after us. I knew it, noona would not leave us." Jungkook smiled. Ha Joon nodded before gesturing towards the car. "Ne. Hyung-nim." He bowed and started walking towards the car. Ha Joon looked and called Soo Young and instructed him about the orders from Gauravi before heading towards his current job that was to protect the boys. He made his way towards the cars which had a crowd formed around it.
"What's wrong?" Ha Joon questioned looking at the driver who had open up the bonnet of car.
"Battery's dead." He answered. "You should use another car." He suggested. Ha Joon sighed and looked at flustered manager. Checking the watch, he sighed again. If they don't leave now, it would be problem. One car could fit six including the drive if adjusted. His car could fit three.
"Here, drive mine. I'll head first with other one." He instructed handing his car key to driver. Namjoon, Jin, Hoseok and Taehyung headed out first with Ha Joon in bigger car. Remaining three, Yoongi, Jimin and Jungkook were to follow them in Ha Joon's car. Younger ones were waiting for the older to get in. Yoongi had become extra grumpy so no one dare to go after him.
"Umm, Mr. Min is not coming?" The driver asked the other two present in the car. Jimin looked outside the window so Jungkook who was in passenger's seat by him answered his question.
"He is coming." The driver nodded his head just when the door opened and Yoongi got in. After he had settled down the driver asked one last time if everyone were ready to go before starting the engine.
Jimin stared at his older brother debating whether he should talk to him or not. Nobody had talked to him for five days. He only talked when it was needed, most of the time he never left his room or studio. He wanted to curse his noona for doing this to his hyung. Why wouldn't she talk to him? It was just one call, one call from her would fix everything.
"Yoongi hyung?" Jungkook called pulling Jimin out of his thoughts. Shaking his head, he looked at Jungkook with wide eyes. Boy, does he have death wish? What is he doing?
Yoongi looked up at him groggily. "Wae?"
"Um. Nothing." He quickly said before turning back to face front. Yoongi looked at him for few seconds before turning back to his phone. Jimin let out the breath he was holding in. Before shaking his head at the younger one. It eerily quiet in the car after that. The tension in the car was too thick to even breathe in properly. So, the two younger ones decided to catch up on the sleep. Yoongi soon followed them and dozed off.
When he woke up from it was half an hour since they had left. Yawning he turned to side and furrowed his eyebrows.
"Hyung-nim?" Yoongi called the driver.
"H-huh?" The driver shakily answered looking at him through the rearview mirror.
"This route?" Yoongi asked furrowing his eyebrow. "Wouldn't it take longer from this route?" He asked looking outside the window.
"Huh? Ah ye, there seems to be traffic on the other route." The drive answered.
"Ah." Yoongi nodded and leaned back in his seat. He went back to his phone. Huh? Why is there no network here? He tried turning on and off the flight mode, but there was no network. He tried searching for network but no avail. He looked at the younger ones, Jungkook was still asleep. He turned towards Jimin who also seemed to be still sleeping. Should I check his phone directly to see if he has network? He asked himself before leaning forward when the car suddenly took a sharp turn and entered a bumpy road, waking up everyone.
"Wae? Wae? What happened?" Jimin looked around in alert. Yoongi who had almost fallen face first, straighten up and groaned in pain. If he hadn't used his hand from face palming the floor of the car. "Yoongi hyung? Are you okay?" Jimin asked looking worried as Yoongi held his right hand in pain.
"Ne, I am fine." He answered hissing in pain.
"Umm, hyung-nim where are we?" The question from Jungkook made the other two look up. The car had come to stop. The driver got off the car without replying Jungkook's question. He walked towards the men who made their way towards the car. A bag was thrown in driver's direction.
"Wae? What is happening? Where are we? Hyu-" Before they could even comprehend what was happening, they found themselves being dragged towards, what looked like a warehouse. An abandoned warehouse.