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Chapter 27
'ACTION' Arc
EP: THREE ‹pt.1›
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One late evening
19th floor, HYBE Building
Irate and resounding, a slam of the manicured hands against the varnished mahogany surface rippled across the room.
"This is outrageous!"
Out of four people in the spacious office, the twentysomething man standing far away from the executive's desk with his head lowered shuddered at the thunderous voice, whilst one of two men sitting on the lounge sofa simply raised his brows in amusement. The other, and much older, man looked over to the source of the sound in concern.
"That old man rode Grandfather's coattail to get to where he is now, yet, he dared to wrong Mom?!"
Observing the livid woman, Vice President Mr Kim shook his head and let out a sigh in reflection of his regret for keeping the information away from her albeit knowing she would found out in one way or another. He thought she would change after all these years. But Alas, it was only wishful thinking. Sookyung still possessed the same glint in her eyes as the time when Mr Choi brought the illegitimate child to his house.
The glint of resentment so strong as if enough to set the world ablaze.
In contrast, the other man on the sofa, nearing his 30's with thin lips that stay upturned even when relaxed as if serving as a pretext of his wickedness, found the situation entertaining.
"And could you not have told me earlier, you brat!"
The said male didn't even flinch when she snapped at him.
"Now, come on, I had to confirm my sources first, else you'd burn me for false information," he shrugged.
Sookyung inhaled deeply, curling her finger in to form a fist. As if a flame that went out after using up all oxygen in the area, the managing director sat back down at her desk.
"Never mind. Let's return to what's important." She intertwined her hands and propped them up on her elbows. "You over there."
At the eerily fast switch up followed by the beckoning, the twentysomething male, who was still in a bowing position, gulped and frantically searched the woman with fearful eyes.
"Have you done what you are told?"
"A-absolutely, ma'am!"
"Did you attract any suspicion?"
"Not at all. Agent Mark and I made sure not to leave anything behind!"
Sookyung scoffed, sizing the younger man up. "What if your mannerisms gave away? You look too clumsy for a spy..."
"I- Um..."
The wickedly handsome man cut in, chortling, "Oh, give my man a break, will you? I'm sure he's only like this because he's in your horrifying presence."
Receiving a dirty look at his flippant wording, he continued with a proud expression. "Him and Agent Mark are the most capable of all my men. Rest assured."
The spy secretly let out a breath he was holding when the woman finally broke off her judging stare.
"We're going up against that sharp bastard. Don't expect me to have time for your incompetence."
The frown and the cold, condescending tone threw the young man into an immediate panic.
"I- I won't certainly let you down, ma'am." The tawny part of his hair was on display as he gave a 90° bow.
"You're dismissed. Stay as you were and wait for command."
Once his subordinate had scurried, the handsome man threw one arm over the backrest as he looked over to Sookyung, his face lighting up with curiosity and a hint of expectation for chaos.
"Say, why did you even pull the Vice President into our mess? I thought I alone was enough for your glorious scheme."
"If you were that reliable, that whoreson wouldn't even be transferred to here in the first place." Sookyung scowled. "Don't think I'd forget that you failed to drag him down as planned, Park Hyosong."
"Alright, my mistake." Hyosong grimaced, putting up his hands as if in defeat. "I didn't even dream that there would be supporters in the board since he was so insufferable. For half siblings, both of you share quite the alikeness."
"You son of a-"
"It was this old man who made the voting to be equal," Mr Kim spoke up, eyes locked on the woman, "because I knew it was your doing, Sookyung."
A scoff left Sookyung's matted lips, not expecting the confession to be that early despite already knowing. She scanned the older man up and down, recalling how much of an obstacle that was his indecisive nature to her path.
"First, you talked like you wanted him to surrender to me. Then, you intervened my plan of getting rid of him. I didn't realize how much you enjoy hopping over the fence, Mr Kim."
The vice president fell silent for a moment, his expression containing a mixture of emotions which Sookyung deliberately chose to ignore. The hint of pity, however, was painfully evident in the man's voice.
"You both are brilliant in your own ways. Why must you be at each other's throats all the time and make people choose sides for your rivalry?"
"Need I remind you of my aims!" Sookyung slammed her hands against the desk, a vein popping up on her neck as her jaw clenched. "I'm willing to stoop as low as I have to until the world finds out Choi Byungho is only a rotten abomination masquerading as a chaebol elite, and I get him to watch this revolting corporate business he worked so hard to build crumble before his eyes."
"Damn." Hyosong breathed out, visibly amused. "What hatred for one's own father."
"That's what Mom and Grandmother would've wanted, too..." Sookyung's eyes blinked rapidly, glancing up as she pressed down the pain in her voice with a harsh swallow. A click of tongue which helped to hold herself together, was followed by her unrushed declaration.
"If you must take pity on the whoreson, be my guest. But there's a price to pay for turning your back against me."
The vice president of HYBE could only shake his head at the hopelessness in his reconciliation attempts.
"If this old man Kim has a choice, then he chooses to stay out of this. After all, he only is indebted to Mr Choi, not to any of you."
He got to his feet to leave after uttering a remark, the last one he'll ever make in this matter, to which Sookyung simply sneered.
"I'm afraid there's no use to show light to a person who's already been blinded."
♧ꔛ♡
The next day
11th floor, HYBE building
Indiviually furiously typing away since their team had been tasked to redo their part of production from scratch, nobody paid attention to the wordless communication going on between the intern and their leader, who had temporarily moved his workstation to the heart of the communal office for expanding his surveillance scope.
Beomgyu widened his eyes at Taehyun before pointing his chin toward the table where most of the staff gathered.
'The heck do you want me to do?!' Taehyun mouthed.
Beomgyu broke off the eye contact for a moment to look at his screen, seemingly typing something.
Reading the message that just popped up on his desktop, Taehyun jolted up to send Beomgyu a questioning look, further puzzled when the superior mouthed:
'Get your ass moving, you moron. We haven't got all day.'
Taehyun's fingers danced across his keyboard to form a response too long to silently yell.
Shouldn't you at least get lost for a while?|✓
Beomgyu rolled his eyes, in denial of admitting that the other was right, before he threw a pen onto his desk loud and dramatic enough to make at least three people in his range flinch.
"Hey, Deputy Choi," he stood up and nodded his chin at Soobin, raising his voice slightly so that the entire office could hear. "I'll be out for a while. Want coffee or anything?"
"Um, no? Why?"
"Wasn't going to buy you one anyway."
With a playful smirk, the superior soon vanished from the communal office.
Taehyun closed the messaging app right after carefully clearing his chat history with the noirette. Then, he puffed out a breath as he got up from his seat, trying his best to look normal, to inch towards what he presumed to be the most effective 'medium' for their little conspiracy.
"Yo, Hyuka."
"Sup, bro. Do you need help with anything?" The lanky male hummed, not even looking away from the Excel spreadsheet he was working on.
"Actually, a listening ear would help. The Devil's Incarnation is onto something again and I'm kinda terrified."
Huening Kai's hands on the clicker almost dragged out an empty column along the endless row before he whipped his head up, mouth slightly agape in half intrigue and half shock.
For someone as unbothered as the brunette, him being terrified meant something serious was about to go down.
Taehyun, inwardly celebrating at the exact reaction he expected to get, quickly pulled out the empty chair beside his friend as if he was so eager to pour out his "frustration".
At first, the brunette initiated the conversation in one-on-one volume, not for long until:
"They suspected you?!"
Suck on that, dumbass company spies!
Taehyun slapped his friend's arm, grinning in his mind but outwardly grimacing. "Pipe it down! We're in a working environment!"
Kai hushed himself, unaware it was a bit too late for that, to ask him the details. Taehyun of course, spilled the beans in the way the other male was supposed to believe. At intervals, he would glance around as if he felt unsafe when in fact, he did so to observe any minor change he might've induced out of anyone in the room.
He mainly kept his gaze centred on the jolly Haechan and the clueless Yuna whose reactions a while ago at Kai's loudness stood out to him the most for some odd reason.
"I think we should let others know. It's obvious someone's trying to break our teamwork with this sort of bullshit," mused Kai.
"Probably, but we gotta be subtle, or that demanding dipshit would think I'm up to something."
"Noted."
Taehyun walked back to his workstation once he was done playing his part as ordered, his poker face contrasting with his heart thumping wildly in his chest at the new experience of deceiving people which he never thought he would gain. Before he knew it, he was gradually getting invested in the complexity of corporate life.
Although he may be lagging behind than Beomgyu and Jung when it comes to reading into corporate workers' minds given his little expertise, Taehyun is confident in his good intuition for spotting certain behaviours that are hard to notice for most people. After all, he lives with an emotionally constipated brother.
Could it be there are two moles?
Realizing it wasn't a problem he should deal with, Taehyun merely shook the thought off. He figured he could leave this part to that smartass.
"Alright, team, we'll take five!" The blue-haired Deputy announced, getting up to arrange the mess on his desk as other employees copied his manner.
"Hey, intern boy."
Taehyun finally jolted himself out of his trance and craned forward to see Haechan motioning at him as if he was a waiter. Minding the hierarchy, he complied albeit slightly annoyed.
"Yes, gwajang-nim?"
Haechan pushed his glasses up his nose and beamed. "Do you mind picking up some americano for all of us? An energy boost would turn this day up."
"Not a problem! I'll go get them right away," Taehyun strained a smile.
"You're a hero! Thanks."
Do HYBE folks even drink anything other than coffee? Jeez.
The mumbling brunette however, was oblivious to a concealed, malicious intent in the eyes observing him through golden-framed glasses.
❥•°❀°•༢
After putting their heads together for the finalization of the lyrics in the whole album, Jongho and Yeosang went back to proceed with the recording while San excused himself out of the studio in the middle of texting someone.
It's been three days since Jung Wooyoung practically sold him off to the two, and so far, Yeosang had no problem getting used to coming here alone every day owing to the warm welcome of his client and the model. Initially, he thought it would be awkward without any Wooyoung to balance the atmosphere, but he began to appreciate the quietness soon. Besides, Jongho did most of the work in maintaining the conversation flow.
On his first day returning here after those incidents, Yeosang was thankful he didn't need to explain himself as Jongho promised he would pretend nothing happened if it would make Yeosang less uncomfortable.
Unbeknownst to the blond, Jongho was at war inside in order not to appear as if he knew everything - which actually was the case - and to wait until Yeosang was willing to open up without being prompted to. For some reason, Jongho was confident that day would come just as natural as how he toned down the formalities with the blond.
"That's a wrap! We'll continue tomorrow for the remaining parts. Good work, Yeosang hyung."
He smiled seeing Yeosang's little thumbs-up through the glass partition separating the soundproof room from the rest of his small studio.
The older male fluttered his gaze between him and the lyrics sheet as he exited the booth. "I've been meaning to ask you something if you don't mind."
"Go ahead, hyung."
Jongho followed suit when the blond plopped down on the leather lounge, his eyes sparkling in anticipation. His sense of smell has grown a liking to the light, dewy fragrance of bluebells and lilies from the other man whenever they were in close proximity.
"How do you acquire this much material to write these? You seem quite like a person who views life in a positive light. Or was it just my assumption?"
Yeosang stated gingerly, applying the fact he noticed from their time together that Jongho was not only accepting but also hard to disappoint. Otherwise, the likes of Yeosang wouldn't even had a chance for that permanent contract.
"Ah, you think I'm optimistic?" Jongho laughed after a while, rubbing the back of his neck. "I guess. I never thought of myself that way, though."
"I'm only describing what I see." Yeosang laughed along nervously. "Of course, I don't mean to say it's not possible for a positive person to write these."
Before regret started to kick in, Jongho stopped him in his tracks with a wistful look on his face.
"I guess it's hard to see since I mask them well." Jongho's eyes found the other man's expressive ones before looking away to stare into nothingness. "Frankly, the people in my life have hardly ever acknowledged, let alone supported my choices. Even my own father is against making music."
"I'm sorry to hear that..." Yeosang said, fading into a somewhat awkward whisper.
Yeosang had a guess that it could be similar to what he felt in his college life, when he was an idiot blinded and deafened by a clutter of emotions -- he didn't know better back then.
"Don't be, hyung. It's only natural to feel lonely after discovering no one's really on your side."
Just as Yeosang couldn't understand why he decided to ask Jongho that, Jongho also didn't think it through when he casually brought up his scars.
Following Yeosang's understanding sigh, both men fell silent for a moment.
"Well," the older male began. "It's good that you can express your feelings in a harmless way like this. At least you'll find people with similar stories relating to you through the music you create. It's a comfort to know we aren't alone."
Jongho nodded wholeheartedly as he could feel the other man's words seep into his heart, a feeling akin to looking up at a fraction of the Milky Way on a starry night with a steaming cup of hot chocolate in his hands. A part of him wanted Yeosang to never find out he was the next generation chaebol. He wanted moments like this, where they treated each other as equals, to stay longer.
Similar age, similar scars through different stories. Never mind other people, he first wished to learn more about the hypnotizing enigma that was Kang Yeosang.
"Ah, I got a little carried away." Yeosang showed a sheepish smile. "I was supposed to ask another thing. I guess I talk too much when I get comfortable."
"Not at all!" Jongho quickly denied. "I can do with this type of topic with you for a change other than small talk or work. It's heavy, but refreshing to me."
"Weirdly though, I feel the same." The blond chuckled in astonishment. "I actually meant to suggest you to promote your new album at the cafe I work at, you know, after the online release."
"That sounds great. But I'm afraid I can't show my face for my anonymity," Jongho pondered.
He'd for sure be in trouble if the same crowd that swooned over Yeosang videotaped him and the posts reached the media presenting chaebol gossip. Although him performing a gig was hardly scandalous in itself compared to the dating rumors of other heirs, he feared for the butterfly effect since Beomgyu had warned him that HYBE's atmosphere was becoming tenser than ever.
"Can you do me the favour instead?"
Yeosang blinked. "Pardon?"
"I think I can trust you with my songs. You could just give a little shout-out to me and then perform them with your band. That would be more than enough."
Yeosang hummed. "If it's something I can do, I'd be happy to help, but are you sure? Should I ask San for approval?"
"I can do that. He'll nod to it for sure. We all know you sing like a god, hyung. So feel free to work your magic anytime after it's released."
Flattered, Yeosang almost stuttered in thanking the other man for the opportunity. The smiling blond male however didn't realize the shade of pink lightly dusting his cheeks from within.
Unlike Yeosang, Jongho noticed and was sure of this rare and delightful view to feature in his dreams tonight. Not only that, he'd have a hard time getting over the shock to the fact that he was an "optimist" according to Yeosang.
If that was the case, perhaps he had finally started to relax and shift his focus onto the good things in his static life, which would become useful in his path towards a diverse discography.
Perhaps he could now attempt at making a cheerful song or two.
-to be continued-
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Apologies for returning after almost a year (though I know no one was waiting) This year was an academic struggle for me, but finally I made it till the end ᕙ( • ‿ • )ᕗ
Pardon me for using a kdrama villain for the character Park Hyosong ಥ‿ಥ from here, he'll be making an appearance every now and then