Kill for Me

Chapter Seven: Been to the Grape Farm

As if things weren't bad enough already, the week progressed agonizingly slow and had gotten worse. Jumin had talked to his father on countless occasions, only to butt heads with him. It seemed that no matter what Jumin said, his father wouldn't budge from his view on the arranged marriage. To make matters worse, there were now gossip articles flying around that Jumin and Sarah were already engaged and getting married soon. It was hard to believe that things had escalated so quickly in such a short amount of time.

The only positive that came out of the week was when Seven announced to everyone that he had finally implemented the coveted video chat. With the growing tension about the hacker, Jaehee only had to stay two nights at Ella's place, which wasn't a bad thing. It allowed the two women to get to know each other and secretly admire Zen's work.

The first night that Jaehee had stayed with Ella, she had shown her the videos on MeTube. Ella had grown to really admire Zen's skills at singing and acting, so the two women shared a secret passion for watching him perform. The next night, Jaehee had brought over a couple of her DVDs of Zen's performances and they sat on the couch together, enthralled by the screen that they hardly noticed any of the chats or phone calls with the other members.

Thanks to Seven's new video feature, the other members no longer had to worry as much about Ella as before. Seven even connected a live feed of the hallway CCTV of Ella's apartment to ease everyone's mounting tension. Ella felt like she was being watched 24/7, which was partly true. Though, she was certain that no one was actually watching the entire feed, except for maybe Seven and his maid, Vanderwood.

On Wednesday morning, Jumin called Ella into his office. She went in, wondering what he wanted to see her about and found her report lying open on his desk.

"You've done lots of great work here," Jumin said, gesturing towards the report as he lounged back comfortably in his chair. "I'd like to send you out for some fieldwork."

"Fieldwork?" Ella repeated the question dumbly as if she didn't know what he was talking about. He nodded his head and opened a drawer in his desk to hand her a ticket. She took it and looked at it, blinking a few times before she finally registered that the ticket was an airplane ticket. On top of that, her name was on it.

"I've arranged for a car to take you to the airport and for one to pick you up after you arrive. It will take you straight to the grape farm." Ella was speechless. She stared at Jumin for a long time.

"Are you all right?" he asked her. Ella finally snapped out of her reverie.

"Yes. Thank you."

"No thanks needed. I expect another report on my desk when you come back tomorrow morning."

"How many pages?" she asked him.

"Five," was his answer. Ella nodded her head, though she knew that she would probably do six or seven pages at the most.

"The car is waiting for you downstairs right now. It will take you home so you can pack some things." With that, Jumin closed the folder and tucked it away inside a drawer. He pulled another file out from the pile and started reading it. That was her cue to leave.

Grasping the tickets in her hands, she left his office with a stunned look on her face. Jaehee was just coming out of her office when she saw Ella.

"Are you okay?" Jaehee asked.

"I think so," Ella replied. She handed Jaehee the ticket and a smile spread on Jaehee's face.