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Eunbyul stirred the pot of boiling ramyeon one last time before she turned the knob of the gas stove off.
"So did everything go well?" she asked.
On the table behind her, Chayoung set down the shot glass with a nod, "Yes, it did. Even though he had some balls on him, throwing it in my face how bad of a daughter I was to our father..." Chayoung bit out as she lowly reproached the Italian lawyer's name, reaching out for another soju bottle and popping the cap open.
"I did just as you asked, so don't you worry," the brunette said. The tasteful liquor drowning out the slight resentment that had itched unpleasant in her throat. She looked up from her seat and watched as her little sister took a bowl from the cupboard and served the ramyeon noodles for both of them. "I told him everything he didn't want to hear—that is, everything you told me he wouldn't want to hear."
"Mmm," Eunbyul hummed in agreement. She turned around to sit down at the small kitchen table of their father's home—the home that was now rightfully all Chayoung's—offering the bowl to Chayoung, while she took the other half in the same pot she cooked it in.
"What are you planning to do with him, though? He's only a lawyer in Italy." Chayoung dipped her chopsticks into the bowl and blew softly on the string of noodles. After taking a bite, she added, "The best he can do here is be an advisor to the case and I don't think I have to tell you—"
"You don't need an advisor to help you win," Eunbyul smiled, looking down at her ramyeon with an understanding sigh, "Yeah, Unnie, I know."
"Then, what?" She urged the question and looked at her once Eunbyul met her gaze, "What is it that makes him so great for us?"
"We need someone for Babel to blame, okay?" Eunbyul let out and at the inquisitive tilt of the brunette's head, she sighed again and explained, "I'm blowing up their drug warehouse and you're taking them on at court, and we can't do that without having someone to take the fall."
"You're gonna use Mr. Cassano like that? Wow, Eunbyul-ah, that's kind of extreme," Chayoung smiled back at her, impressed but there was an underlying hint of concern in her tone.
"If it comes to that," Eunbyul eased, "I'm not trying to get Mr. Cassano imprisoned or killed or anything of the sort. But if something goes wrong, I have to make sure that the tenants and you are protected from it first."
If Chairman Jang was half the devil that she painted him out to be, then he was going to be out for blood after what she was planning to do to him. And while she was ready to deal with whatever consequences those were, she wouldn't let anything happen to them. If it came to this, then Eunbyul would rather have all rules thrown out the window.
She knew her Queen had to be powerful, capable enough to take the brunt of the fall if it were to happen, but that piece also had to be expendable to her as King.
This was the way she couldn't help but play the game. It was why she had always sucked so bad at chess and why Mr. Hong always used to beat her time and time again. Because she cared too much about Chayoung and the tenants—was always making the wrong move in order to keep the smaller pieces safe and not the Queen. So it was only obvious, that if she were caught and close to losing, then she would have to sacrifice the Italian lawyer just to save the rest of them.
It was only right, to not have to truly care for Vincenzo Cassano just as he didn't truly care for them. To only need him at her side for this little while, before she'd let him go ahead and leave him to do with his life whatever the hell it was that he planned to do as a mafia consigliere.
Plus, if it came to having to throw him under the fire, then she wouldn't have to feel half-as-guilty about it either. Only if it was absolutely necessary. Which she hoped it'd never be. Breaking a person's heart like that was different from hurting just their ego. A kind of betrayal that was impossible to come back from.
Eunbyul's plans were crazy as hell, but still, they were founded on some basis of human morals—and only at the cost of trying to protect the ones she loved.
Someone like Vincenzo Cassano had to understand that. Right?
· • -- ٠ ✤ ٠ -- • ·
The next morning, Eunbyul woke up thanks to Chayoung's foot kicking her off the sofa where they both had fallen asleep. She landed on the living room's floor, face-planted into an opened bag of corn chips as Chayoung simply spread her arms more comfortably with the free space and continued to snore.
Eunbyul grumbled still half-asleep and with a mild hangover. She sat up and wiped away the crumbs stuck to her cheeks, reaching for the coffee table in front of her to grab her cellphone. The digital clock showing her a late-morning start to their day; it was already 10:43.
She turned her head and planned to wake up Chayoung with a (light) slap to her face, but the intention was stolen as her phone vibrated in her hand. An incoming call from Jang Junwoo.
Eunbyul cleared her throat and answered him, "What's up?"
He brushed off the greeting and went straight to the question, "Did you do it?"
"Do I do what?" She blinked and realized his words weren't so much of an accusation. More like genuine confusion, that she could only wonder about until he explained.
"Break into Chairman Jang's home and inject pig blood into his bed, Eunbyul-ah!"
"Oh, that," she deadpanned. Her head beginning to hurt from his outburst as her hangover didn't help, either.
"Yeah, I Black Widowed my way past his entire security team. You know, with my little pack of syringes full of blood from the pig I slaughtered just right before, all so I could mess with the Chairman and his silk bedsheets..." She couldn't help the sarcasm, although it eventually gave out.
She sighed, annoyed with the ridiculous news more so than Junwoo's belief that she had something to do with it, "No, of course I didn't do that! Are you serious?"
"Okay, I'm sorry. I just—" She heard him take a deep breath in before he let it out. His voice growing soft against her ear, "Well, with all the bullshit they're saying about your father, I thought you..."
Eunbyul didn't have to actually hear him say the end of that sentence. Junwoo knew her, admittedly better than most, and he knew how she worked. Some of the things that she was willing to do if it meant she'd get her way.
He was right to suspect her.
Still, it hadn't actually been her that broke into the Chairman's home. Although, as the drowsiness dispersed from her head and her thoughts cleared up, she was almost certain of who it could've been. Not just anyone was capable of managing the breaking and entering of a heavily secured CEO's apartment suite, less to leave behind such a creative threat.
Had Junwoo said it was pig's blood?
Eunbyul put a stop to the working gears in her brain and went back to dealing with his worrying.
"I'm a private investigator, Junwoo, not a secret agent." She helped settle his concern, avoiding telling him the truth as she added, "My hatred for Babel Group can only go so far so don't worry, I didn't snap and go crazy."
He seemed to have believed her, saying again, "I'm sorry."
"Hey," she let a smile form, hoping it was reassuring enough to convince him, and her. "I'm fine."
"I don't know if you will be," he sighed, audibly burdened before finally cutting to the chase and letting her know, "Listen, I overheard Ms. Choi and Mr. Han talk about it this morning. They're planning on blaming it on Chayoung-sunbaenim and you. They already set out an order of arrest and everything."
Eunbyul held back a wince, an ache pressing against her skull that only increased with his information.
"Why am I not surprised? The nerve of those assholes, aish— You know what, let them try to play their dirty tricks. Chayoung and I have nothing to be afraid of. There's no way their charges will stick."
"Are you sure, Eunbyul?"
There was something off with his question, but she didn't think much of it. There were bigger problems for her to deal with and she didn't have time to throw away.
"Yes, I'm sure," she asserted, giving him no chance to worry about it any further as she ended the call with a quick, "I can figure this out, okay, but thank you anyway for the heads-up."
· • -- ٠ ✤ ٠ -- • ·
While Chayoung worked out every last order of business in order to open Jipuragi Firm back up, Eunbyul stopped by Mrs. Kwak's snack bar for some kimbap. She took the food to-go, entering her P.I. office not a moment later, and waited for the slimy Wusang lawyers' order of arrest.
They could get out of it easily, with the surveillance footage of their street proving Chayoung and her hadn't left their house last night. It was a strong alibi and even if the officers decided to corrupt that, Eunbyul knew a thing or two about their department to keep them in place.
They were fine, really. The biggest trouble Wusang would get them in with this was an inconvenient trip to the police precinct building.
What frustrated her was Mr. Cassano's inopportune timing.
'I have a favor to ask you.' The audio was a bit static-y, but it was clear enough for her to know it was him talking to Mr. Cho. 'I keep asking you for favors."
"Aigo, don't say it like that. If it wasn't for you, I would've been compost in a vineyard in Milano. Go ahead, tell me what you need..."
Eunbyul pressed on her computer keyboard to pause the phone recording. Taking the last of her kimbap into her mouth, she munched on it while turning to look at her tablet. Opened the spyware system Miri had helped her install and tried to locate Mr. Cho's whereabouts since last night.
Thanks to Mr. Cassano having actually listened to her and given Mr. Cho the Pawn pin badge, Eunbyul was now able to track the plaza's fake-owner with that bugged device. He was still in the hospital, so at least she didn't need to worry about him yet.
Eunbyul let out a heavy sigh and pushed herself away from the desk. She reclined against the cool leather of her office chair and glanced over at the chessboard.
Perhaps she could still turn the consequences of Mr. Cassano's hasty strike to her favor? After all, if he was frustrated enough to get his hands dirty without her even needing him to; then maybe she could make a move to draw out his remorse.
A combination of anger and guilt would make him more susceptible to blackmail. Which was something that was starting to look a lot like the only way for her to ever be able to get a steady hold on him.
"Alright," she stood up at her decision, "let's do this shit."
· • -- ٠ ✤ ٠ -- • ·
"You know, when you told me you had this all figured out and not to worry about it—I didn't think you'd get us incarcerated!"
Eunbyul stifled back a restless yawn, glaring at a passing officer who scowled at her rambling sister. Just as she thought, he bit back his insult at the sight of her daring gaze and kept on walking.
"We won't be incarcerated, Unnie, I promise," she turned to look at Chayoung seated next to her. Both of them handcuffed to the office desk in the police precinct. Since yesterday. "Just continue to sit tight," she shot her a cheeky smile.
"Don't act smart with me, you little shit," Chayoung narrowed her eyes but was too tired to continue arguing with her. "My neck is so sore and stiff and I am starving—" she settled for a roll of her shoulders that didn't help ease the tension on her back at all. "Can we at least get some coffee? Aish! Where is that damn Quasano lawyer?"
"He'll be here," Eunbyul hoped. She hadn't planned to spend the whole night here and the lack of his presence so far was beginning to worry her.
Chayoung hissed at the ache from her handcuffed wrists and swore under her breath. "He better, or else I'm gonna take that fancy lighter of his and—"
Jang Junwoo's voice cut off the colorful description of just how she was thinking of torturing the Korean-Italian man when they set eyes on him.
"Sunbaenim! Enbyul-ssi!" Her ex-intern ran over to them, his hands full with the many food-delivery bags he carried. "You should have called me sooner! Wasn't I your only hope?"
"No, we tried 56 other people" Chayoung deadpanned, motioning with her head for him to take a seat at the desk just like them. "So hurry up and give it here, Jang Junwoo," she ordered him to raise the cup of iced Americano just enough so she could take a sip.
When he was done helping her, Junwoo scooted his chair closer to Eunbyul and offered her something to drink.
She simply shook her head no and smiled kindly at him, "Thank you."
He understood and set the coffee back down on the desk, taking out a breakfast biscuit from one of the bags. Unwrapped it as he turned to Chayoung, who didn't complain as she took a bite from his offering hand.
"But how come you're still here?" His brow furrowed, directing to Eunbyul, "I thought you had it handled."
"I'm on that," she sighed, ignoring her adoptive sister's doubtful look her way.
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A/N: This was supposed to be a longer chapter but I couldn't wait any longer to post this omg so I hoped you enjoyed it! The next chapter will be posted in a week or two (I just need to write out one more scene to finish it) and I think it'll be around 3K words so it's a pretty lengthy one, too.
Also, wattpad has been glitching and so I tried figuring out a way to fix the images and gifs but had no such luck, so if they can't be seen i'm so sorry (get it together, wattpad, seriously) And I know I've fallen behind on replying to comments so I apologize for that as well, but I promise I'm constantly rereading them and will being to work my way through them soon hehe ^.^
But anyway, thank you so much everyone for all the lovely comments and votes on this fic!! Eunbyul is my baby and she's very precious to me so the fact that there's so many of you that like her as well makes my heart extremely happy!!
As always, I wish you all lovelies a good rest of your day/night, and I'll see you soon! <333