Boom era was so- 😩
⊷ 3
Quick steps on dry asphalt. Ji-yoon hurried behind the two boys.
"You guys have such long legs," she mumbled, causing Jisung to turn around in confusion. He didn't quite get what she was trying to say.
"Thanks?"
"Slow down," she then pleaded, sounding exhausted. "That's what I meant. Please slow down."
Lips pursed, an understanding oh floating past them, he started to walk a little slower. Haechan did the same, following the youngest's lead.
Jisung laughed awkwardly. "Sorry."
"No big deal," she said, a little exhausted. "I needed to exercise anyway."
"Don't follow us around if you can't keep up," Haechan grumbled despite already having adjusted his pace to the younger two's. He didn't bother looking at the girl that looked at him with an amused smirk.
Jisung looked back and forth between the two, hesitant to get himself involved. He didn't distrust Ji-yoon quite as much as Haechan did but he could understand his reluctance.
Her eyes sparkled eagerly, neatly reflecting the bright sunlight. The white of her blouse made up for the lack of white in the cloudless sky above them.
She took a deep breath. She felt good today.
Her eyes on the back of Haechan's head, she hummed disapprovingly.
"And miss the chance to spend more time with you?"
She bopped her head to the side to inspect his face. Haechan?
"Your name means full sun," she pointed out. "Then why are you so gloomy?"
"I'm not gloomy," he retorted.
"Well," she agreed half-heartedly. "Grumpy, at the very least."
He rolled his eyes. "I'm also not grumpy."
Which made her push out a soft ah~. She smiled, leaned forward a little more to get an even better glimpse of him.
"So that's your happy face then, hm?" she asked jokingly, making Jisung chuckle.
"Focus on the task," Haechan ordered both of them.
It sounded reasonable, so Ji-yoon was okay with that. However, there was a tiny problem because,
"You didn't want anyone to give me any information that you didn't approve of first. But you didn't approve of anything yet so I have no idea what we are doing or where we are going," she pointed out. "So I don't know what to focus on, exactly."
She beamed as she linked her fingers behind her back.
"So I focused on you instead," she added happily.
Just wanting her to stop talking, Haechan rolled his eyes and sighed.
"We are going to LTM Electronics," he said as he gave in. "Yesterday's victim was an ex-employee of them. He is also their third ex-employee to die like this."
Ji-yoon nodded understandingly. "So we are suspecting them?"
"It's just a possibility."
"Do you have a motive in mind?" she questioned.
Too lazy to explain everything, he glimpsed at Jisung who was quick to understand his cue. Jisung stopped walking just for a moment so he could neatly fall in step with the girl next to him.
"LTM was one of the companies that Kang Jae-suk kept an eye on for the Automobile Public Transport project," he explained. "However, in terms of developing the necessary system for the AI, JYP Electronics was faster and so the city decided to offer them support for a pilot project."
"Is it such a big project?" she wondered.
"LTM would have profited a lot from it. After JYP was put in charge of it, some of LTM's programmers that worked on that project quit and started working for JYP instead."
Ji-yoon hummed before noting that, "I'm sure LTM will have let those employee's sign a non-compete contract."
Jisung hummed, pushed the corners of his mouth down. "You might be right," he agreed. "I guess we will find out soon."
As if on cue, the three reached the building then and there.
It was tall, wide, took up a lot of space. Modern architecture flowed into a more baroque one. Like moving through time, unable to stand still, LTM's headquarters were a magnificent speck of architecture in a rather homogenous neighbourhood.
Haechan pushed the big glass door open and stepped inside, closely followed by the other two.
The atmosphere inside was inviting. The people seemed happy as they walked through the halls, chatting cheerfully.
They walked right up to the administration counter behind which a polite young woman smiled at them.
"How can I help you?"
"We have a meeting with CEO Lee Taemin at noon," Haechan told her swiftly, then went ahead to tell her his name.
The woman nodded, smiled. "One moment please." And then she looked through her computer to find out if that was correct. While she was busy doing that, a familiar face entered the lobby.
"Ji-yoon!" Jeno greeted the girl loudly. He grinned happily as he ran up to her who, alongside Haechan and Jisung, had turned towards him.
"Jeno! Why are you down here? Didn't you have a meeting?" she inquired.
"Soo-yeon had an argument with Ki-woong from Marketing so it got delayed."
The girl scrunched her nose. "She keeps on making problems."
"Yeah." He agreed tiredly, then let his gaze wander over to his two friends who he pretended not to know, before he looked right back at Ji-yoon. "What's going on?"
"We're having a meeting with Taemin," she told him which made Jeno laugh.
"Then why are you waiting here? Just go upstairs. It's not like you ever wait for an okay before barging into his room anyway," he said which made Haechan and Jisung, who were already confused as it was, completely lose their grasp on the situation.
Jisung leaned forward a little. "Do you know Taemin?"
However, he was interrupted by the kind lady behind the counter.
"You can go upstairs now. Do you want me to show you the way?" she asked. Her question was directed towards the boys but her eyes were on Ji-yoon who quickly shook her head.
"I'll bring them there myself. Thanks Jugyeong," she declined her offer quickly before going ahead.
As she passed Jeno she gave his shoulder a soft squeeze and pretended not to notice the glances he and Haechan were busy exchanging.
Not much later, after a quiet elevator ride, the three were in front of Taemin's office.
She paused, contemplated whether she should knock or not - she decided against it.
"We are here," she said as she let herself in, Haechan and Jisung right behind her.
It was a big office room at the complete other end of which sat Taemin. He got up and walked towards them.
"Are these the agents you talked about?" he asked.
Ji-yoon nodded quickly. "Park Jisung and Lee Haechan," she said and pointed at the boys respectively. "May we sit down?"
Taemin quickly nodded, motioned towards the sofa. "Yes, of course."
Ji-yoon made sure to sit down next to Haechan and Jisung who gave her a weird look.
"Uhm," Jisung spoke up, cleared his throat. "How do you know each other?" The question reminded Haechan of something.
"Do you know her?" Haechan asked.
Chenle shrugged. "Maybe?" he wondered. "But one thing I know for sure is who she is working for. Don't worry though, I won't take the surprise away from you."
He sighed, leaned back in his seat. "He's her boss," he pointed out. "Why did Chenle allow this?"
Ji-yoon smiled, leaned forward so that Haechan could see her face.
"I swayed him with my exceptional charisma."
He rolled his eyes. "Sure."
Meanwhile, Taemin watched in amusement before he got the others' attention by loudly clearing his throat.
"I know you didn't plan a long visit today, so I'll be quick," Taemin began, sounding polite. "I know you are suspecting me - or at the very least the company. I understand that and you are obviously free to investigate into that direction."
That's when he smiled, motioned towards Ji-yoon who paid close attention to the oldest.
"The reason why I asked Ji-yoon to assist in this is because I want to make sure you won't let your bias influence the outcome of your investigation," he explained further. "She will assist you to the best of her abilities."
Ji-yoon nodded proudly. She looked at Haechan, tilted her head to the side a little to move it further into the older one's field of vision.
"Don't worry. I'll make sure to stay close to you in case you need me," she reassured. Though she made it sound like a joke, she was dead serious about this.
Jisung smiled but Haechan could barely keep himself from rolling his eyes.
"If you have any questions, you can always ask her - she is well-informed about company matters. You can also call me, I'll let Ji-yoon give you my number later."
She nodded quickly. "Will do."
And with that, Taemin motioned towards the boys, telling them to go ahead and ask whatever they want to ask.
Whereas Jisung stayed silent at first, Haechan quickly leaned forward, a particular question in his mind.
"You know that another one of your former employee's got killed last night." It wasn't phrased like one but it was meant as a question.
So Taemin quickly nodded.
"So where were you yesterday between--"
But the oldest cut Haechan off right away. "I spent the entire afternoon and evening with Chenle," he said, glimpsed at the girl quickly. "We discussed Ji-yoon's and your cooperation. I'm sure he's willing to confirm this."
As convenient as this was, Haechan would have to trust him if Chenle ended up confirming it.
"After that, I came straight back to the office to take care of some matters. I will send the security footage to you so you can check it. I haven't left the building since," he added.
"And how do you and Chenle know each other?" Haechan asked.
"We met through a mutual friend," he then said, staying as vague as possible. "Anything else you want to ask?"
Haechan seemed annoyed. "No. We will contact you if we need anything else."
Taemin clapped his hands together, smiled brightly. "Great." He got up and so did Ji-yoon, followed by the two boys. "Give your best to help them, okay?"
"Yep," she said before she walked over to him, gave him a quick hug. "See you."
And right after that and after a few more polite goodbyes, they left. They got on the elevator, yet instead of going back down all the way, Ji-yoon made them stop a couple of floors above the ground floor.
"Sorry," she said. "I need to check on Soo-yeon. You can wait downstairs if you want."
But they didn't. They followed her through the first door into the large office room that lay in almost complete silence.
Almost. Only Soo-yeon's voice broke it up.
"I told you to do this properly, you idiot," Soo-yeon said as she smacked Jeno's head with a file that she was holding in her hand. "Do you even know how many issues your poor work has caused me?"
And Jeno, being just an innocent intern, was timid and reluctant to say anything. He didn't want to risk causing problems. He just wanted Soo-yeon to stop talking.
A couple of other employees watched the scene, too scared to say anything. A few others didn't even dare to look up.
It was just Jeno and Soo-yeon. Jeno, who didn't say a word, crumbling under a feeling of intimidation that he had a hard time faking - especially towards someone like Soo-yeon.
It was only when he noticed the soft pats on his upper back that he got pulled out of his act as he shifted his attention onto Ji-yoon who was now standing next to him.
Standing opposite one another, the two girls locked eyes. Soo-yeon's anger met Ji-yoon's irritation.
"Do you want to get fired?" she asked.
Soo-yeon huffed. "What kind of question is that?"
"A simple one," Ji-yoon said in return. "Do you want to get fired? Because this is already my second warning and you will lose your job if you let it come to the third."
Which resulted in a sassy, "You don't even have the authority to do that. Besides, what did I do that deserves a warning?" she pressed.
An easy enough question to answer. Ji-yoon took the file out of the other girl's hand. She let her eyes run over it briefly.
"I remember Ki-woong assigning this task specifically to you because of its importance. It's too complex for just anyone to handle and you knew that, yet you gave it to an intern," she explained.
Rolling her eyes, scoffing at the younger girl's words she just dismissed it.
"I had too much to do," Soo-yeon argued.
"Oh? Is this position too much for you?" Ji-yoon wondered sympathetically.
The older pushed an angry exhale past her parted lips, turned to look around in a room that was watching curiously, unanimously rooting for Ji-yoon.
"Look, you have no idea--"
"I know all the projects you are working on and all the reports you have yet to submit. I know all that you should be doing but aren't because you are too busy being a bitch to your co-workers," Ji-yoon interrupted her. "You are smart but you are lazy. We don't need that here."
Her eyes fell onto the file in her hand. It was true that it wasn't well done. But for an agent with no special training? Jeno did a pretty good job actually.
"You should be embarrassed," Ji-yoon sighed, then softly smacked the file against Soo-yeon's head. "Submit this by 2 p.m. tomorrow. If you think I have no authority to demand this, feel free to take your chances. But let me warn you that if you submit this just one minute late, you're fired."
Soo-yeon bit down on her bottom lip, nostrils flared. Ji-yoon handed the file over to Soo-yeon who hesitated but ended up taking it.
"I hope I made myself clear," Ji-yoon urged.
Soo-yeon raised a brow provocatively. "I'll talk to Mr Lee about this."
Ji-yoon nodded gladly. "Please do."
Staying for a moment longer, Soo-yeon stomped away and started working on her new task right away since she didn't have too much time left to work on it.
Meanwhile, the atmosphere in the room had gotten better. Jeno's co-workers looked up at him and Ji-yoon. While he looked a little unsure, she was smiling brightly.
"Are you okay?" she asked Jeno at which he nodded. She let her eyes run over the room, then gave the employees a brief, apologetic bow. "I'm sorry for the disturbance."
Her apology was met with nothing but relieved faces.
Taking a deep breath. "How about I buy you guys coffee as an apology? Just tell the barista that it's on me."
Which was the last string she had to pull to get the others to smile happily as they nodded and agreed to her offer.
All the while, Haechan and Jisung watched in confusion and Jeno could do nothing to help.
Satisfied, Ji-yoon said goodbye to everyone, then turned to the two agents.
"Where are we going next?"
Office ⊶