May 1, 2020
Book Two of the UNDONE series, following unrivaled
Jeon Jungkook is one of the youngest security experts in the country and he is working to keep his boss's company out of crisis. He is not alone. His friends are all professionals and d...
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Jungkook stepped out the elevator and reported to the head of the accounting department.
She had already been briefed as to his real purpose and led him to the work station he had chosen. It was in the middle of the other stations enabling him to pick up on conversations and overhear phone calls.
He appeared to be wearing ear buds, but actually they were for enhanced surveillance. All the computers had privacy screens so that he was able to watch and review the feeds from his office.
It was also conveniently located for his coworkers to stop and chat.
By noon he had a good sampling of company gossip and an invitation to lunch and one for drinks after work.
He smiled his boyish grin at both offers and promised "sure, let's do that sometime."
He didn't take much time to think about it. JK was not the kind of man who put much planning into finding someone to "date". It happened naturally for him.
He had a couple of girls he had seen more than once. There was nothing serious with any of them.
Sometimes he worried that things were too easy, and honestly cheap, for him, but then he would admit to himself he loved it that way.
He had loaned his heart once; his first love was fierce and all too brief. The end left him broken, hanging on the edge of darkness for months.
Finally, he sobered up and gathered the shattered pieces and tucked them away. The fragments were safely shuttered behind a security wall as impenetrable as any he had ever designed for KimCom, the password so encrypted not even he had a clue what it was.
So, he went forward, his heart safely his own. His only goals in life were excellence in his career and seizing all the fun he could.
Love was a prerequisite for neither of those.
He shook those thoughts away and returned to assessing security details for this potential government contract.
After several days JK felt like he had a good overview of the changes that needed to be made.
He arrived at his office very early one morning to finish the recommendations for Jin. He gathered his finished work from the printer and sauntered down to Jin's office.
He checked his watch and smiled. He was hungry. He would make Jin take him out of the office for breakfast. They needed time to review the report anyway.
That was one of the things for which he could always count on Jin. There were actually too many to list, but sharing food or drinks was a given with these two.
JK thought back to the time he met SeokJin.
He was a young man, in the middle of his first semester of college. He was away from his family for the first time and failing miserably in school.
It was not like he did not try. He went to class- most of the time- and he tried to listen to the lectures. But little of it clicked with him.
He learned by observing, then doing. He hated to be inside a classroom, but could sit in one spot for hours and watch people.
He was ashamed to face his parents and admit his miserable results for the school year. He decided he would get a job before he went home for break and reasoned that would soften the blow of him quitting school.
It was a great plan in theory; however, he went on interview after interview and was never offered a job.
Finally, in desperation, he applied at KimCom. It was one of the largest corporations in the country. Surely, they had one job for someone with his skills, or lack thereof.
He had gone into the company cafeteria to kill time before his interview when he saw a man eating all alone. He watched him for several minutes.
His clothes were well made, but he was not wearing a jacket. No one went to sit with him, rather they actively avoided his table. He sat with his back to the room. That told JK he was secure and confident in his surroundings.
He reviewed the details and came to the conclusion that the man held at least an upper management position. His thought was to chat him up about the company before his interview later.
He grabbed a bowl of noodles and a drink and hurried to the man's table. He invited himself to a seat and struck up conversation.
For the next thirty minutes he alternated between subtle questions about the company and its culture and lively discussions punctuated by multiple refills of noodles.
His lunch companion laughed at him and soon the two were in a friendly competition over who could eat the most noodles.
At the alert of his watch, he bowed to the man across the table and excused himself.
"Thank you for allowing me to share your table. And thank you for the information. I will leave now. I have an interview in a few minutes," he said.
"For which position are you interviewing?" the man asked.
"Any one available," he answered honestly. He looked into the kind face of the man sitting across from him and months of worry and anxiety came spilling out.
He spent the next several minutes explaining his situation, his hope to salvage it with a job, his growing desperation. He did not realize until just that minute how much he had needed a friend.
"Come with me," he directed.
In the following hour JK discovered he had been having lunch with Kim SeokJin, newly appointed CEO of KimCom.
Jin had been impressed with his honestly and his attention to detail. Jin later told him the questions he asked about the company were some of the same ones he asked as he was taking over.
He hired JK that day and sent him to the security office with his only instruction being "learn every aspect of it. I am going to need you in this job."
It had been that way ever since.
JK had grown into one of the industry's best security officers, and he still continually hit Jin up for food. It worked for them.
This day He set off for Jin's suite of offices planning what he wanted for breakfast.
