Passion and Power

Chapter 39

Minji boarded a flight to Beijing three hours later. It took time to fit into the runway schedules on both ends, and she was about to crawl out of her skin by the time she landed. While packing, she directed staff to begin investigating Park Industries' relationships with any KCorp partners. She also called her lead lawyer to begin an investigation of Jay's "apology" post to see whether there was any legal recourse against it. Hanni's video had been carefully vetted to avoid anything that could be libel. She wondered whether Jay was as careful. Her brain was working overtime plotting any way she might be able to reduce the fallout for Hanni and increase the damage to Park.

Hyein had hired a town car to pick her up at Beijing International and she was transferred to the hotel in short order. On arrival she picked up a door card for the room Hyein had arranged and left her luggage with the front desk, not wanting to deal with it until she saw Hanni.

She texted Hanni to let her know she was there and tried to call again but she still didn't pick up. Minji assumed she had turned off her ringer due to friends offering support along with too many media jerks asking for her comments. Kazuha had texted Hanni's room number to her and Minji decided she couldn't wait any longer. Minutes later she was knocking on her door.

Danielle opened the door and peeked through the latched chain, looking suspiciously out into the hall. Her eyes went wide at the sight of Minji and she quickly closed the door to unlatch it and let Minji through.

Minji walked in, anxious to wrap her arms around Hanni, but she was nowhere to be seen. She saw Yunjin sprawled out on the bed. Yunjin rolled over to sit up against the headboard to observe Minji, giving her a nod of acknowledgement. Danielle leaned against the wall looking anxious.

"She's in my room." Danielle explained. "Somehow her room number has been leaked. Assholes from the media are showing up to try to talk to her. We're going to move but haven't had time to deal with it. She had a 2-hour call with her therapist, and then she was trying to sleep."

Minji was at a bit of a loss in the small room. She couldn't remember being in a hotel so small. She awkwardly made her way to the tiny desk across the room and pulled out an uncomfortable chair to sit in.

"How is she?"

"She's OK. She really is. She fell apart a bit at first, pretty upset and angry. Her therapist helped a lot. She has a better perspective now."

Minji let out a deep sigh and realized she'd been practically holding her breath.

"It's so unfair she has to deal with this right now." Yunjin piped up from the bed.

Minji stayed quiet, but eventually couldn't help speaking up.

"Danielle, I just want you to know that Jay, and Park Industries, will pay for this. I know that doesn't really help right now, but thought you should know. He will be sorry."

"Actually, it does help to know that." Danielle said quietly.

"Tell me more!" Yunjin sat up, looking suddenly animated.

Minji told her in brief what she had in store for Park. Danielle nodded thoughtfully. Yunjin was less reserved.

"Oh my god, I can't wait to see that! I wanna see him suffer."

Just then there was a knock. Danielle moved to crack the door again.

"I can't believe this hotel doesn't even have a peephole." Danielle muttered. "Cheap bastards."

She peeked out the door then said firmly "I'm calling security" before slamming the door in someone's face.

"Media again. But that's really too nice a term for what they are. Vultures. I want to throttle whoever leaked Hanni's room number."