Over and Out

Chapter Twelve

"Another one?" Bobby asked incredulously, feet planted firmly on the table in front of him. "What's this guys deal with the constant parties?"

Jisoo nodded, hiking up the volume on the laptop in front of her, as they all leaned in to listen. Annoyingly, Lisa conceded, everything was playing out just as Mr J had predicted. Only two days had passed since he had clamped down on her life as she knew it, and they'd already been called into another strategy meeting, Jisoo and another agent Junhoe, who was crazy at anything related to the technical aspects of the job, were reporting back to a handful of them about what they had overheard. The first notes of his voice filled Lisa with indescribable, nearly uncontrollable emotions, rage predominantly, fear and a teeny tiny bit of lust also thrown into the mix. The man in question seemed to be on a phone call, making arrangements for some sort of gathering. The snatches of speech were casual and conversational; he had somehow managed to find two bugs in close proximity, and pace between them, furthermore selling the idea that he had no idea of their existence.

"Saturday should be fine..." eyes darting to her phone, she noted that it was currently Wednesday: not as much time as she would have liked but just enough to figure something out. She'd spent her time alternatively between lying on her bed in a puddle of self-pity, and throwing herself into vicious training, going on long runs or sparring with whoever was around. In terms of a plan, she had drawn blank card after blank card, every idea gaping with problems and circumstantial issues. She'd gone as far as to consider trying to just getting someone to make a copy of the necklace for her to take instead, but had a feeling that being caught was the both the worst possible thing that could happen, and inevitable. The tentative beginnings of a way forward had started to form, but she would have to move quick now she knew exactly how much time she had to arrange things.

Back on the laptop, more bits of information were being picked up on. "Yeah, invite whoever's on the list from last time, they'll all crawl back anyway.... Security needs to be raised... special guest...." As the audio came to a close, suddenly the words became crystal clear. "I think he'll invest, of course. You don't know him? His name's Loren," a couple of gasps echoed around the room as they registered this, "he has more money you could dream of. I'm pretty close to finishing this deal off, I think Saturday will cement things further." There was a couple more minutes of other strategic, party-related stuff, but no-one was paying it any heed, as they all absorbed the blow that had been dealt to them. Jiyong and Taeyang remained stoic and grim-faced from where they were sat, having already heard the conversation.

Chaeyoung was the first to break the silence. "Surely not? I thought our alliance was airtight?"

"We haven't been able to come into contact with him recently." Taeyang admitted, tight-lipped. "The guys pretty eccentric so we didn't think much of it. This, though..."

"This changes things a lot, huh? How much longer until we actually start retaliating properly? Are we just gonna let the guy leech away our things one by one until there's nothing left?" Hanbin's anger only exacerbated the already-tense atmosphere within the room, as he shot a look of disgust at the two higher agents. "We took some of the guy's jewellery and now he's taking one of our highest values investors? Why the FUCK," he slammed a fist down on the table, "have we not done anything more?"

"In a way," Jiyong's voice remained cold and distant, unaffected by the outburst, "it's actually quite advantageous to us." He shook his head at the visible confusion on the groups faces. "If nothing else at least we know just how desperate he is to get his little gems back. That we have the one thing he cherished, and that he's very slowly spiralling and grasping at every loose end he can find to try and get it back. I know you see the hazardous side of things, but if you look closer you'll find a man who's had the wind knocked out of him, and is now scrambling to regain control." The guilt that had set up a permanent home within Lisa's stomach now began to expand in size, threatening to suffocate her from the inside out. The one thing that the organisation had over that man, and here she was trying to figure out how to hand it right back over to him. There was a layer of disgust at herself that began to also settle on her skin, as she came to the realisation that she was ultimately doing this to save her own back; all it would take was for her to pull Jiyong to the side and tell him everything for them to salvage the situation, and yet she knew that she would never dare to risk herself for the greater cause. Therein lay her biggest flaw—when push came to shove, she would always choose herself over all else.