After soaking in her bath for half an hour, Taeyeon decides that she'll take the next day off and is about to text her assistant when she sees an unread message from Tiffany, written in English.
"Babe, are you home?"
Unconsciously, the corner of her lips twitches when she reads the word Tiffany's been using to call her since the painful ordeal she went through. "Yeah," she replies.
"Where are you? I knocked on your door but you didn't answer."
"Bathroom. Just come in."
"Err... are you sure?"
"I have bubbles up to my chin. You won't see a thing."
Taeyeon then switches chat window to tell her assistant about her day off tomorrow. "Reschedule the meetings please, and don't disturb me unless it's an emergency," she ends the message.
A knock comes from the bathroom door and she turns her head to see Tiffany carefully peeking inside.
The cautious movements remind her of her dilemma earlier, about trust, about loyalty and sincerity... about Tiffany's change and whether it's real or not.
"Is it okay if I come in?" asks Tiffany from the door.
"Yeah."
Tiffany steps inside the large bathroom and takes a seat on the edge of the Jacuzzi, facing the woman. "You okay?" she asks, noticing the empty glass and the wine bottle.
Taeyeon sighs. "Not really." She looks at her girlfriend and says, "I have something to tell you. Remember when the police called your parents to the station to question them?"
Tiffany nods.
"Something did happen to my family on the night before. They were going to entertain some VIP guests, business partners, at the hotel but the whole thing nearly went south because cops found out about the meeting," explains Taeyeon. "Before they could do anything though, someone spotted them and my parents moved the guests and the family to a safer place."
"Someone tipped the cops?"
"Yeah."
"It's not Hyejin? She told the cops about me and my parents... maybe she also told them about your family's business deals."
"She didn't have the necessary information. Their informant wasn't her. But it was the same person who told them about another deal with Lee Hobong's family. I don't know whether you've heard of him-..."
"The Lee Hobong?" Tiffany asks in surprise. "The one who was all over the news last year for being the most wanted man in this country? After that huge embezzlement scandal?"
"Yes. So you've heard of him?"
"Yeah. Read an article on him at a major news site over at the States. He's still on the run, isn't he?"
"Yes but his family is still here and they're still running at least half of their illegal businesses. The police only shut some of their operations down." Taeyeon then tells Tiffany about the deal that her family made with Lee Hobong's family, which turned into a fiasco and caused the blind revenge shooting that took her staff members' lives.
Tiffany looks at Taeyeon with wide, shocked eyes. "That is so stupid! So senseless!" she exclaims in anger. "Those lives... those families... hurt and ruined because they suspected your cousin to leak info about them to the police?!"
Taeyeon nods. "There is often no logic or reason with people like them. Violence is what they use to solve things and that is why I don't want to be involved with my family business," she says. "Now here comes the worst news of them all."
