Bubble

21. Secret Secret

Minho sat in his car under the cover of night as he held his cell phone in his hands. He had hung up from a Facetime call with Bonita a good fifteen to twenty minutes ago, but he still couldn't bring himself to put his phone away. He couldn't help but to think that he should be with Bonita right now instead of three random guys he still didn't fully trust. Huffing out a sigh, he tucked his phone away.

'It's not like she's your girlfriend or anything, idiot,' he internally chided himself as he looked at the building that loomed in the shadows in front of him.

Knowing that he was tasked with trying to dig into the history of the original Bubble show, Minho figured that it would be easier to do at night when the building was empty aside from the cleaning crew and security. Digging out his ID card and keys, Minho slipped out of his car and locked it before walking towards the building.

As expected, he was stopped by a security guard that was patrolling in the well-lit front lobby. He smiled when he saw Minho, opening the door for him before taking his ID.

"What brings you here so late?"

"Just wanted to do some late-night reviews," said Minho as the security guard finished scanning his ID and handed it back.

"Well, don't work yourself too hard," remarked the security guard. "You shouldn't burn yourself out."

Minho gave him a soft smile and nod of his head before moving to walk towards the elevators. When he finally arrived on the right floor, he was surprised how the silence echoed around him. Stepping off the elevator, he walked towards the room where all the files were kept for past projects. Being one of Mr. Ahn's trusted workers, Minho had keys that would grant him access to the storeroom. He stood in front of the door for a moment, using his keys to unlock the door before stepping inside.

'Alright. Lets see what there is to find,' he thought as he began to look for anything on the show.

His eyes wandered the file cabinets that were arranged by year, finding the year of Bubble's unplanned finale eighteen months prior. He tugged the drawer open, flipping through the alphabetized files until he found what he was looking for. Drawing it out gingerly, he moved to sit down on the floor, spreading the contents out. It was a mess of rough draft scripts and final scripts, storyboard ideas, and other miscellaneous looking notes. It wasn't until Minho was about to give up on finding anything useful that his eyes caught sight of an odd note tucked into the back. Before Minho had a chance to read it, he heard the door to the storeroom creaking open. He quickly folded the note and shoved it into his pocket before shutting the file and turning to see who was there.

"Mr. Ahn?" asked Minho as he stood up, moving to try to put the Bubble folder away as casually as possible. "What are you doing here so late?"

"I just had a few things left to do around the office," said Mr. Ahn. "I could ask the same question of you though."

"I was just looking for something," he said.

"Hmm. Did you find it?"

"I think so," said Minho. "Anyway...I should be getting home. See you tomorrow, sir."

With a bow of his head, Mr. Ahn watched as Minho slipped past him and out the door back towards the elevator, soon disappearing inside it.

- - -

Ahn Ilsung felt like life carried a series of burdens with it, feeling the weight of being CEO of Starbright Entertainment settling heavily on his shoulders as he walked towards the adjacent parking garage where his car had been sitting since earlier that morning. On his descent in the elevator, he thought about how he had just caught one of his loyal employees in the storeroom late at night. It wouldn't have been unusually except for the file that he figured out Lee Know had been looking at, the file having been left slightly askew in the file cabinet.