➳ 28 | CALM BEFORE THE STORM
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"I traced his location, well... right now he is staying at his booked hotel room", Jihoon gave Taehyung some files with the details of that specific hotel.
"Hiding from us?", Taehyung lips curved up into a mischievous smile before he threw the files on the floor. "Interesting", getting up from his seat he patted Jihoon's shoulder as a sign of 'good job'.
Their work was going smooth, no worries at all. This all was easier than Taehyung thought.
"I don't personally want to show up at his room door. Take some guards with you and bring him here. And remember, don't kill him just yet. I want to give him a painful death myself", after couple of months, Jihoon again got to see this dark side of Taehyung.
Taehyung was merciless, just like this, before his marriage. The man who Taehyung was after, was the one he was hunting down for many months. Ofcourse he won't let him have an easy death.
Mr Han framed him, he was reason why his company and his business went downhill with a great loss.
Moreover, he was the same person who was a threat to his family, to Jieun. He wouldn't let him go that easily.
"Can we continue this tommorow, like...isn't it too late right now?", Jihoon asked, hoping that Taehyung would agree with him. He didn't liked doing such sort of mission at night time.
"We can't take risk. I know my uncle pretty well. He moved out to Japan didn't he? He came here just for a short period of time, God knows why. What if he leaves tommorow morning right away? I got so far, I won't take any risk now", Jihoon nodded his head, understanding the whole situation.
"I'll get ready then"
------
JIEUN'S POV:
"Call him back! I won't repeat my words", Haneul strictly insisted as she handed my phone to me, which had three missed calls by Taehyung.
I was amazed by her behaviour, it was the first time I ever experienced this phase of Haneul. By the look of it, it wasn't the Haneul you'll ever want to face.
"Are you ordering me missy?", I playfully asked, but Haneul's glare only made me gulp.
I was scared of her this point, not gonna lie.
"Why are you getting so--"
"He has been calling since forever and you didn't even dared to pick a single call? This isn't how things work between a married couple. You see me as your lil sis right? Would you do your sister a favour and call him back?", Haneul said nudging me from the side, gesturing me to do it.
"He did the same to me, for your kind information", I sarcastly mumbled. "It's a tit for tat situation", rolling my eyes at the thought of him, I shrugged my shoulders before turning off my phone.
Haneul face palmed herself, shaking her head in disbelief. "You are so stubborn. Things between you guys won't work like that, either of you both have to compromise"
"Who wants things to work out between us anyways?", I mumbled as I looked up at her fuming in anger.
It's not as if I didn't wanted to call him back, it was just this ego thing inside of me that held me back. It wanted me to take my revenge, make him taste his own medicine.
"When are you even gonna realise it all?", shaking her head and sighing in defeat, she made her way back to the kitchen.
My eyes darted towads my phone after she left. 'Should I call him back?'
After fighting myself for a couple minutes, having a war in my mind on whether I should let it all slide away and call him or not. I finally decided to not give a fvck about his calls and just pretend as if nothing happened.
Let him feel what I felt before.
-----
'Next Day'
"U-umm Haneul, I'm bored", she looked up at me, with a face like 'oh-not-again!'.
"How should I entertain you Mrs Kim?", she emphasized the word 'Mrs Kim' maybe trying to tease the hell out of me but I ignored her remark.
"Well, I mean... I'm tired of staying at home and since Taehyung is not here, can I go outside for a walk--"
"He's gonna kill me and the guards if he hears about you stepping outside the mansion without him by your side", Haneul shook her head, completely disagreeing to the idea.
"No he won't! I'll make sure of it. Besides he won't even know. I'll return in like an hour or something, no one else than you and me will know", making puppy eyes, I clasped my hands together infront of her.
More like pleading her to help me escape this mansion full of guards for an hour.
"No", she uttered before turning back to her work.
"Why are you acting as if you're the older one here? I'm your unnie, respect me and help me get out of this whole hell mansion"
"It's for your own safety. Besides I already said, it'll be our doomsday if Taehyung gets to know you stepped out of this mansion"
"If Taehyung gets to know you stepp-ed out of this man-sion", imitating her words, I almost gave up on convincing her.
"You know... I'll get rotten inside here if I don't get some fresh air", I tried one last time, but the look on her face had me sighing defeatedly.
I was about to turn back to my room, when I suddenly came up with the best way to convince her.
I'm a genius after all.
"What about if... I'll call Taehyung back.... if you help me sneak out?", looking at her reaction, it was pretty obvious that I finally won this time.
"You-- are such a--", she sighed before hesitantly nodding her head. "Fine, I'll help you. But listen to me... you're gonna call him back right after you arrive. You're not gonna stay more than an hour outside. Take a guard beside you for extra security--"
"I won't get kidnapped or something, chill. There is something called 'privacy' and it would be ruined with a guard is beside me", she couldn't help but agreeing to my words.
"Okay so guards will have lunch around 1 o'clock. I'll call them all inside to the dining this time, meanwhile you'll have to escape. You can take the backdoor, there are no CCTVs there"
"You are the best do you know that?", I hugged her excitedly before jogging upstairs to get ready for the 'freedom'.
Even if it's for an hour.
------
Swinging my umbrella from side to side, I hummed to a song while walking the path to the park.
It was drizzling and Haneul forced me to take an umbrella along, but who cares? I'll enjoy the rain, maybe get drowned. It's called having the real 'freedom'.
Using my umbrella as a sort of walking stick rather than using it, I happily walked towards my favourite park.
It wasn't really at much distance from the mansion. It was the place I always used to visit whenever I felt down and upset.
The same place where I met Taehyung that day. I remember how he saw me sobbing 'because of him', and I just went home not even sparing him a glance cause I didn't wanted to act weak infront of him.
This is what always holds me back. I never want to act weak infront of him, I want to show him how strong I am even though I'm living in a hell with him. Well... was.
I inhaled the familiar distinctive scent of the park as I stared at the view in awe. It had been couple of months since I last visited here, and things did changed around here.
The rainy weather made me even excited as I yeeted my umbrella away and spinned under the downpour which was getting heavy little by little.
I felt alive... it felt different.
Just me, this place, and the good old memories. Maybe also some people walking by... sparing me weird looks, probably after seeing me, a twenty-two years old girl dancing in the rain.
I still remember how me and Tzuyu used to bunk classes just to come here at the park, sit under a tree and gossip about weird stuff.
Giggling at those times, I danced under the rain not really giving a damn about the passing time. Seconds into minutes into hours.
I didn't really cared about my surroundings. I was so lost in myself that I didn't even noticed that I was being watched.
----
An hour passed, it was raining hard and I finally decided to head back before any of the guards notices me being away from the mansion.
I picked up my umbrella from the ground, that I didn't even used until now.
As I turned, my head bumped into a hard chest making me whimper a little in pain.
I looked at the person, probably expecting a stranger but no... it was the person I least expected.
"Jung...", before I could even say something, I felt his hand on my mouth, stopping my words before harshly dragging me to his car no matter how much I resisted.
That moment I realized why that specific man never wanted me to step out of his mansion in the first place.
-------
3rd POV:
"U-uhhh... umm... ehem---"
"Haneul, I can't believe you did this!", Yeonjun paced back and forth in the room with frustration.
Well, their plan was going well before, no one even knew that Jieun stepped out of the mansion.
But as the time passed, more than three hours passed and Haneul started worrying about the clumsy girl who is still outside and didn't returned.
She somehow got the feeling that she'll never return in an hour, the moment Jieun sneaked past the gates.
Haneul eventually had no choice rather than just telling Yeonjun about the whole situation.
"Calm down, she'll return"
"You don't understand. It's raining, it'll be dark soon, she has no whatsoever guard with her, she's not safe outside", Yeonjun kicked the rock on the ground as his temper slowly started rising.
"And Taehyung... he won't hesitate to kill me once he--"
"He won't get to know. We have time, just have patience... she'll return before it's dark, I'm pretty sure about it"
"And if she doesn't?!", Yeonjun snapped at her. He was mad at not just Jieun but at Haneul also, afterall it was both of them.
"What happened? What are you guys arguing about?", Beomgyu walked towards the two, completely calm as he didn't knew the situation yet.
"The two queens princesses geniuses in the world made a plan about Jieun sneaking out of the mansion", Yeonjun sarcastly said as Beomgyu eyes widened.
He stared at Haneul who shrugged her shoulders before letting out a scoff. She was worried, and she accepted that she shouldn't have helped her in the first place, but what can she do now?
Not as if she can return time.
"And she still didn't made it back? Wow, first of all applause for our security management, I wonder if Jieun is an assassin or something... the way she made it outside without--"
"It's not the time to joke", Yeonjun mumbled still pacing back and forth.
"No but... Mr Kim... We're done for. Taehyung will slit our throats, throw us to hell and maybe even teleport here if gets to know about this whole---"
"We have always been through this talk! Stop scaring me!", Yeonjun messed his hair in frustration.
"Oh my god.... help, Soobin Hyung is coming our way... we're done for. We'll be dead meat now", they both tried to hide behind eachother as they saw Soobin coming their way.
By the look on Soobin's face, he wasn't pleased. Him being the head of security was the most responsible for this all.
"You both... I'm gonna deal with you later. First get your asses here fast! It's not the time to wait for her to arrive herself, take your own cars and search for her! Go!", nodding at his worrs, Yeonjun and Beomgyu hurriedly went to the garage.
Soobin eyed Haneul with disappointed before she shrugged her shoulders. "How did you even got to know about her--"
"I have my own ways. Now tell me, did she told about where she'll be 'sneaking' off to?", Soobin asked and Haneul shook her head followed by a 'sorry'.
"Then get ready, if the guards don't find her, we'll eventally have to tell Taehyung about the situation here caused by 'you'"
"The hell? Are you gonna blame it on me?", she pointed at herself.
After hearing no response from him, she stomped away from the lawn.
They all knew that they messed up.
-----
"What happened, don't give me such faces", Soobin eyed each four of them, looking at them fiercely.
They failed their job. "We searched everywhere, I even visited Jimin's place in case she went to his house, but he wasn't even home", looking down at his feet, Kai said.
"I'm so disappointed", he shook his head, closing his eyes to control his temper. "And what about her friend's house? Tzuyu? Jisoo? Anyone? Do they know?"
Yeonjun shook his head hesitantly. He did checked their place first, but there was no sign of her. At that time, Jisoo even asked him about the whole scene but he just made an excuse.
"Great job guys. Now we have no other way than calling Taehyung now. Brace yourselves", Soobin walked away, taking out his cell phone.
The others gulped as they looked at eachother.
The thunderstorm, it was arriving pretty soon.
------
"What?! Are you serious?!", Taehyung yelled as he got up from his chair, fiercely.
"How did he even got away? Follow him! He must not leave Jeju at all cost! Trace him again, you can't lose him", He hung up on the call, not even letting Jihoon reply to him.
He felt his anger slowly rising over the fact that Mr Han was yet again getting away from him. He just wanted to finish him off quickly, so he can go back home, more importantly to her.
He paced back and forth in the room, waiting for Jihoon to call him again with a good news.
Not even a minute passed when his phone rang again.
"Did you traced him down again?!", He asked as soon as he recieved it.
Little did he knew, there was another big problem at the moment. More important than the one he was facing now.
"U-uh, T-Taehyung, it's me, Soobin", Taehyung sighed after hearing his name.
"Oh Soobin, well... you can call me later I'm in a difficult situation right now", he was almost to hang up on him.
"I-it's something important", he stuttered on the phone, finding it very difficult to explain.
"If it's something about security management, tell Hoseok...bye---"
"It's about her", Taehyung stopped immediately after hearing his words.
His heart almost stopped for a while as negative thoughts came rushing in his mind, making him gulp. "What about her?", he asked calmly, trying his hard to think positive.
"W-well... you see.. s-she.."
"What about her Soobin?!", Taehyung yelled at him as he felt something was definately feeling odd.
"She sneaked out of the m-mansion, it's been five hours already, we couldn't find her"
Silence.
Taehyung breathed heavily, not believing his words.
"Are you joking? How can she--", he tried to control himself, it was getting hard for him to breathe.
First Mr Han, then Jieun.
"Search the whole mansion again, s-she must be there, how can she step out...", Taehyung grabbed his hair in frustration.
He didn't wanted to believe Soobin's words. It was his biggest fear.
"S-she isn't--"
"How can you all be so careless?! My wife, a single girl against you all people! How can she even get out of from there?!", Taehyung yelled at him as he punched the wall near him taking out his frustration.
Soobin didn't uttered a single word. He stayed quiet, still on the phone.
Taehyung had to accept it. He already knew she wasn't just lost, he knew exactly what happened with her.
"Where the fvck is Hoseok?!", Taehyung gritted with eyes closed as he faced the ceiling with clenched jaw.
"He went to Ilsan", Soobin uttered as Taehyung shook his head in disbelief.
He trusted Hoseok with his life. He asked him to be there with her, in the mansion, till he comes back. Instead he flew off to Ilsan? For what exactly?
Anger took over him completely as he harshly ending the call not wanting to listen to the truth he couldn't bear.
He felt weak, he felt as if all his strength suddenly vanished. She was making him weak.
His eyes started welling with tears on the thought of her and he tried hard not to shed them.
He shouted in frustration, his eyes bloodshot as he knelt of the ground in defeat. He lost.
With no emotions at all, he stared at the buzzing phone from Jihoon before recieving it. He had no hopes at all now.
"Taehyung, we got him--"
"Book my flight for Seoul right now this instant, I'm heading back"
A/N : Sorry For Any Grammatical Mistake or Typo