Notorious ⊷ Haechan

58 ⊷ Names

short chapter but I hope you enjoy it anyway <3

⊷ 58

"You might not wanna tell her that," Renjun commented. "But I guess she should know." 

Haechan looked at the closed door in front of him. He had left the lobby and gone up to Ji-yoon's office. He wasn't going to interrupt them but he, just like everyone else, was too on edge to leave her alone. 

"I really don't want to tell her," he muttered. 

Renjun hummed. "But you will?" 

"Yeah." Haechan sighed. "Of course. This sucks though." 

"Is she okay?" 

"Not really," he said earnestly. "She'll probably get even angrier." 

Renjun agreed. "Probably." 

Just then, the door opened. Out stepped an exhausting-looking Ji-yoon who, regardless, mustered up enough energy to smile at Haechan. 

"Please don't forget to look into it," he told Renjun quickly. 

"I'm on it," the older replied just before Haechan hung up. 

He stepped closer to Ji-yoon and glimpsed into the room behind her. On the armchair inside sat Alice, a tissue in her hand as she stared ahead emptily. He would have asked how she was doing, yet it was more than obvious. 

"I asked Sungchan to take her to her hotel," Ji-yoon informed him. "So I'll be taking over watching Shotaro for a bit. Is that okay?" 

"I'm fine with anything," Haechan said. His tone was a bit too artificially calm and his eyes jumped too restlessly from one of her eyes to the other to not notice that was wrong. 

"What?" she asked carefully. "Did something happen?" 

"Nothing happened," Haechan told her, voice quieter with every word considering that Alice was not too far from them. She might hear them but understanding them was probably hard. Still, just in case, he lowered his voice as he said, "But... Renjun looked through Andy's phone."  

Ji-yoon nodded. "And? Did he find any hints?" 

Haechan hesitated. "The messages Andy sent to you were sent after his death." 

"I figured as much." 

He agreed that it wasn't a big surprise. The part that he didn't want to mention was, 

"Andy had your contact saved as Juno." 

Quiet. 

All of a sudden, the hallway was drained of all sound. Ji-yoon found herself in disbelief. For a second she entertained the thought that, perhaps, this had nothing to do with her regardless. But she soon realized that the chances for that were slim. 

The previous traces of sadness and empathy were washed away. Her face portrayed nothing but emptiness. There was no hunch of grief in her red eyes either. 

However, Haechan didn't mind it that much. 

What made him nervous was that Ji-yoon allowed the silence to get swallowed by a low laugh. Her amused chuckle sounded disconcerting and spread goosebumps over the boy's skin. 

She tilted her head back slightly, let her eyes run up the wall behind Haechan. 

Eventually, she pushed out a sigh. With a brow raised she hummed to herself. Her mind was running circles, trying to figure out who could be behind this. She figured it was neither JYP nor the mayor as they would not benefit from this whatsoever. 

It left her with one main suspect. Although she knew who it was, she also didn't. She had no name or face. Just an old memory.  

"I should have killed them all," she mumbled to herself, the nonchalance in her voice sending shivers down Haechan's spine. "That whole family." 

Without giving it a second thought, ignoring her worry for Alice and Shotaro completely, she already turned to make her way towards the stairs. Haechan quickly grabbed her arm. 

"Wait," he urged. 

"Why?" she asked, sounding tired. "This is my fault, so I have to make it right. Better now than later." 

"You don't even know who it is so what--"

"I don't care," she told him earnestly, matching his cautiously quiet tone. "I will kill everyone who is related to that man. And by the end, when everyone's dead, it'll be okay. They'll be safe." 

"You can't just do that," Haechan warned. 

Ji-yoon looked at him blankly for a second. A second ere she had to grin. "Who's going to stop me?" 

Too surprised by her reply, he let go of her arm. She slipped past his fingertips, daring to rush ahead on her own when--

"Joon~!" Shotaro shouted happily. He seemed excited as he got out of the elevator, Sungchan walking behind him calmly. 

The boy's voice made her stop. She turned around, replacing her worryingly sinister expression with a sweet looking one in a heartbeat. 

"Taro," she called his name, walking up to him. "What's up?" 

"I found it!" He came to a halt, not wasting time before he told her what he found out. "Andy already knew it all - he had notes on his computer about everything."

Considering that Shotaro didn't seem worried whatsoever, she assumed it was nothing too serious. 

"What did he find?" 

"He realized that there wasn't much info to recover. But he found out that someone accessed the data bank containing all the information about LTM's employees," Shotaro told her, then frowned slightly himself. "It seems as though the separate files within the data bank weren't accessed - for the most part. A few were." 

Shotaro pulled a piece of paper out of his pocket. He had scribbled a few names on it. 

"These were part of Andy's notes, I just wrote it down so I could give it to you now. And also because... well, one of the files was yours." 

Ji-yoon looked at the paper in her hand in surprise. It was only a few names. A few senior managers, Taemin, Ji-yoon, and less than a handful of other employees. 

Shotaro looked at the girl curiously. He really hoped that this would be of help, so he had to ask, 

"Do you know what they were looking for?" 

Although a little caught off guard by this information, Ji-yoon couldn't claim not to know. It was evident to her. Evident that,

"They were looking for someone that no longer exists." 

Confused, Shotaro frowned. "What do you mean?"

"Ji-yoon," Alice called the girl, voice hoarse. "I will get going now, I- uhm I am a bit tired." 

Ji-yoon's mind jumped from being caught up in her past to finding herself drowning in her empathy for the exhausted girl.  

"My friend will drive you to the hotel," she said, motioning towards Sungchan who bowed his head politely. "Call me if you need anything, okay?" 

Alice nodded. "Thank you, Ji-yoon." 

She smiled. "Take care." She hugged her goodbye and waited until Sungchan and her were out of sight before turning to Shotaro.

"Taro, can you show me Andy's notes?" 

"Of course!" he said enthusiastically, finally able to push his guilt aside as he felt like he was of use, able to aid in solving this case. 

And much like Shotaro, Haechan felt relieved. He knew Ji-yoon was struggling, knew she wasn't sure what to feel or do. However, this was not the right way out. 

He sighed and followed the two quietly. 

Names ⊶