Choi Youngjae POV
My head was spinning with Dad's poisoning investigation's result. Not an official investigation for sure, some of the guys in NIS were doing me a favor. They were shocked as well, that Shinhye was involved, in the worst way.
I know these NIS guys had no tendency towards anyone, supposed to be no biased at all, but I had a hard time swallowing the shreds of evidence and findings.
It was all started in the Summer Palace restaurant where the best ice mung beans in town were sold. I have no idea that the Summer Palace was owned by the Parks. Shinhye never told me that, I never asked either. I retrieved some footage, rewinding back who delivers the ice mung beans to Dad's house, who packed it, who poured it to the plastic bowl from the saucepan.
Between those people on the footage, I saw a familiar pair of eyes, even wearing a mask and a chef cap. Pair of eyes who has become my favorite for the last two months.
I thought I'd never move on from Yejin but then there she was. Little that I knew, that she was going to hurt my Dad.
I was on the top of the building across Park Heesoo's penthouse in the middle of Seoul city, in the very early morning of the day. He wasn't wake up yet but I can spot him through the window. He was sleeping on his couch. I was ready with my sniper rifle and binoculars. That day was the morning of President Hyun's last day as President of South Korea. Park Heesoo was supposed to attend the last state banquet later at night, with me too, but then it depends on how Shinhye would answer my questions.
"You're awake, baby?" I called her.
"Yes, too bad Dad is here, actually I want to sleep at your place last night."
"What are you going to do after this?"
"Reheating some dishes for Dad. I've bought some from a restaurant last night."
"Oh, what's breakfast? Ice mung beans?"
"Warm mung beans soup. Dad likes it warm. But your Dad likes it cool."
"Everyone's into mung beans, apparently. From the Summer Palace?'
"Yes, they serve the best mung beans, even President Hyun likes it."
"So a lot of people order mung beans from Summer Palace. How can you be sure that a certain bowl was going to be sent for my Dad? Did you pour the wrong dose of poison that he is still alive now?"
"Youngjae? What are you talking about?"
"You know exactly what I am talking about. Confess, or today President Hyun will have not only the last state banquet but a funeral ceremony of Park Heesoo as well."
"You're bluffing."
"Your Dad is on the couch wearing his last night's shirt, still sleeping, while I'm here wide awake, ready to take him down in 5 4 3 2-."
"Stop! Stop it! Fuck you Youngjae!"
"Come down I'll meet you."
"I'm not stupid! You must be with your sniper gang. You'll shoot my Dad when I confess."
"I always do fair play."
"I'll tell you things but I won't leave my Dad."
I spotted her shadow behind the vitrage. She stepped out to the balcony and raised one hand up while the other hand holding her phone. She was searching for my spot but I was hiding.
"Spill it, baby."
"The order was a contest from The Council and I didn't dare to reject now drop your gun!"
I sighed, then turned off the red dot sight from my gun.
"Who gave the order?"
"It's from the Blue House, Amethyst1. That's all I know."
"Impossible!"
"That's what I know, Please. Don't. Who the hell is Amethyst1?!"
"That is a strong accusation, Shinhye. Have any proof, baby?"
"That was a kill order, of course, they left it untraceable!"
"I don't know that a NIS agent also taking orders from The Council."
"I'm not even a NIS agent anymore, Youngjae. I was when President Hyun ordered me to take Yejin out of Madrid. That's the only order for me from President Hyun. Then he fired me and cut off all my NIS access once he knew that I was helping Yejin for too long in London. She was having a hard time with her pregnancy and I just wanted to help! She was concerned that I would be fired but I like her for real, she is a real friend for me."
"You and your ex in Bordeaux. I should have known that. Were you also in the contest to kidnap Yejin but your ex got her first, then you tail him with us instead?"
"No, I was honest in Bordeaux! I was still a part of NIS at that time but once I got fired, I started to take orders from the Council just like my ex."
"How can I ever believe you after this?"
"You were as clueless as me! But this mung beans thing, the order said that it's Amethyst from Seoul. The Council left me clueless on who gave the order but it's your Dad so I looked up. It was Amethyst1 from Seoul."
"Amethyst1 from Seoul, ordered the Council to poison my Dad?"
"To kill your Dad, but I can't let that happen, he is your Dad! I poured enough dose to make him sick but would recover soon."
"Did they pay you for such a failed job? the council?"
"No."
"But why you did it anyway?"
"Because if I don't then someone else would do and kill your Dad for real! I claimed to take the offer so no one else will take it! One offer can't be passed if one has claimed on it."
"Crap!"
"I like you, Youngjae, you're a good man, I may be not your favorite kind-hearted girl like Yejin but I have a heart too. I wasn't hurting your Dad, I'm saving him!"
"So you have no hint about this Amethyst thing?"
"You know how the council works, they receive the order, broadcast it, then if someone claims it and done, he or she will get the reward. Very limited information was given about who made the contest and who claim the prize. I don't have any access to the NIS anymore so I don't know who was this Amethyst1, and he or she didn't know me either, but for sure this Amethyst1 hates your Dad, and we all know who really hates your Dad and lives in the Blue House."
"Can I trust you?"
"I know you're a smart guy. You know how to find me and record this call. I'll be here around my Dad. I hope you'll find whoever this Amethyst1 who wants your Dad gone. If this makes you feel better, I will stay by your Dad in the hospital today while you find this Amethyst1. Good luck, don't get killed. There are so many things I want to share with you."
Her words got me on my knees. Not the want to share things with me, I knew she liked me, even probably loved me. But the fact that the order or so this evil council call the contest came from Amethyst1 was disturbing me.
It can't be Yejin. Why would she wants Dad to be dead? The fact that Shinhye poured the poison almost made me crazy then sum it up with Yejin behind the plan.
I hated this ruthless Council thing very much. They received orders and made contests for the hitmen and mercenaries. They gave me so many troubles in my days as PSS agents for President Hyun, troubled me with kidnapping Yejin, and the latest got me on my nerve by trying to kill my Dad.
I composed my self the best I can, as Yejin and Bin have said that they were going to visit my Dad in the hospital. To avoid suspiciousness, I didn't tell Shinhye that Yejin's code name for the PSS agents was Amethyst1. Code names like Tiger1, Sharon1, or Amethyst1, were kind limited information restricted only for the Hyun family and the PSS agents to be used to communicate in order to provide security service.
I tried my best to stay calm when Yejin was around so I went out and smoke. Bin looked clueless about everything, but Yejin was still acted so nice to my Dad just likee the usual Yejin.
Bin told me that she was not in a good health condition and his Mom said that Yejin was probably pregnant, so I chose to collect more information before making a serious accusation.
During the last Hyun state banquet in the Blue House, I talked to Bin about these ridiculous but might be a true conspiracy on who really made the order and why. For sure he was shocked as hell and was about to punch me for accusing my Yejin. No, his Yejin.
"Like this isn't sounds so ridiculous for me too! Do you want to clear her from this or not?" I seethed while I laid on the tree after he pushed me hard once Yejin's name came out of my mouth.
"Don't you dare accuse her like that. Ever!" he was so mad and fisted his palm, going to land it on my face in the next few seconds.
"If you don't stop this the PSS agents will come and overheard this."
He let me go and patted my arm, pretended that we were just joking, then waved to the agents who were approaching us.
"Speak," Bin mumbled.
"Assuming that it was really her who made the call to the council, what would you do?"
"I'd be disappointed then, that she wasn't that innocent, that someone must be pressing her to do that. What would you do if Yejin really did that? Are you going to kill her? You almost blow off Mr. Park's head this morning."
"I need to know first about why she did it. Who knows about this council thing, this codename thing and have access to order a kill? Because I am sure Yejin doesn't know-how. That's a horrible group that offers service to kill!"
"Yes, not anyone can just make an order and they don't serve just anyone. As far as I know, from this Blue House, only me and my Dad know-how."
"Your Dad?"
"Yep. Maybe he was using Yejin's name to mess up with you. Let's say that your Dad was really dead and you want to revenge then it would be her to be hunted down. I know my Dad has a lot of motives to order such things to your Dad."
"I'm still processing this thing. Shinhye has confessed she took this fucking contest from that Council thing, but they retrieved the order from someone called Amethyst1 from Seoul. You have access to them, don't you?"
"Access to the Council is so limited but I should be able to find out."
"Who the hell is this Council service?"
"Basically the Council is a broker for dirty jobs. They are a group of mercenaries, non existed in the system, and consists of people who were presumed to have dead or MIA for years. Just like in the movies, their customers use them to do dirty jobs like making someone disappear, killing, or kidnapping. Council will broadcast the job, or so they call contest, to the hitmen and mercenaries, and everything was almost untraceable. They would collect the prize, hold it, and wired it to who gets it done and charged some brokerage fee."
"Who are their customers?"
"Kings, queens, princes, presidents, prime ministers, such as powerful people. You don't know before this do you? That's why they're good. They approached and offered us, me and my Dad, such services right after Dad's inaugural ceremony, on his first day as president. He has been their regular customer. I haven't used one since I have no enemy, but once I have called them to find out who claimed the contest to kidnap Yejin back in Bordeaux, you were there too."
"Now can you ask them, who is this Amethyst1? Maybe there are other regular customers."
"But who hates your Dad more than my Dad? I have to make sure that Yejin is innocent and what is Dad's codename when he communicates with them. Amethyst1 is just a code that the PSS gave to Yejin, it can't be literally presumed as her."
"Wait. So how the code was determined?"
"We chose how they want to recognize us. Mine is Tiger1 because I can't think of any other stupid names so I chose on how the PSS called me."
"Bin, a week before your wedding, the President asked me, I was still a part of PSS back at that time, to give her security service. At first, I thought I was guarding her collecting her clothes in her old flat was because she was carrying something so important, I didn't know that she was going to be a part of the Hyun family."
"Yeah...I remember those days, anything weird?"
"Before that day, in the PSS, I was always assigned to guard President Hyun. I was never being rotated to other VVIP, but then there comes Yejin going to be his daughter in law, he asked me to be with her as if she was more important than himself, and he chose the specific code name for Yejin."
"That Amethyst1? Dad was the one who chose that name, Amethyst1?"
"Yes, President Hyun asked me to put code name Amethyst on Yejin."
"And you did not think that was weird?"
"I was, because he repeatedly told me, that it had to be Amethyst1. Amethyst is South Korean's national stone, I thought nothing was wrong with the name since the PSS gave your Mom name Sharon, the national's flower for this country. Nothing was wrong with the name but your Dad insists than she had to be called Amethyst1 was one thing I found to be strange."
"Maybe that's his way to use Yejin as a shield in the case who order to hurt your Dad was leaked out. There is one way to make sure. Let me make the one last call to this Council," Bin took out his phone lookout for a contact.
He put the call on a loudspeaker so I can hear the conversation.
"Tiger1, the Council at your service."
"One month ago there was a contest to kill assemblyman Choi Youngjae, the head speaker of the National Assembly in Seoul. Who took the contest and who gave the order?"
"Taking the order was someone we called PSH and the order was given from the Blue House."
"Who are your customers from the Blue House? Is there a customer named Sharon too?"
"Nope. We only serve Tiger1 and Amethyst1 from the Blue House."
"I am Tiger1, who is the Amethyst1?"
"Hyun Woosung the President."
Shit.
"But the order was never finished and the prize was not being wired to anyone, because the target is still alive, but then Amethyst1 dropped the order. We have returned the money back."
"Did he tell you why?"
"Said that the target is no longer a threat so he dropped it, basically the threat can't harm the Amethyst1 anymore."
"I just need to confirm it. My Dad has been using that name Amethyst1 since when?"
"Since his first order, until today, we recognized him as Amethyst1. Do you need others from us? Maybe one last job before our service ends?"
"Nope. Thank you for your service."
Bin did not say anything more but ended the call.
"It wasn't Yejin but my Dad, and he has planned to throw her under the bus since the day 1 Yejin was assigned to marry me."
"Marrying you is an assignment? What the hell?"
"Yes, to protect his reputation, he asked her to handle me from worse scandals and when things were started to leak, my old sins, she would release such statements that we all have seen on TV. Basically, everything was to smoothen his way to reelection."
"Then my Dad pushed the reenaction of the Act and made it so that he can't run for election. President Hyun took his revenge through the Council, and Park Shinhye took the gig, without knowing that it was from President Hyun."
"Why did she has failed anyway? Did she mess up with the poison or what?"
"She lessened the dose. She didn't want others to take the order and killed my Dad for real, so she took it and made it like my Dad would be dead soon by the poison. Enough to get him hospitalized for over a month and stated not fit to run for election, but Shinhye made sure that the dose was not that harmful, you saw my Dad is recovering well."
I studded my cigar and emptied my wine glass, then continuing my side of the story.
"She knew the order was from the Blue House so she assumed that it must be from President Hyun's side. Knowing that President Hyun's interest was to stop my Dad running for the election, she thought by getting my Dad hospitalized for over a month, he would be stated as not fit for election, and the one who hates my Dad would think that he's harmless. She was trying to keep my Dad alive but he has to be stated not fit to run the election while hoping that the Blue House would drop the order that was given to Council."
"But still, my Dad was using Yejin as his last layer of the shield in case Choi Jaewook was really dead and the Council leaked the order."
"Yep. What a plan."
"That girl, Park Shinhye, she really loves you, dude. Just, propose her, she is one of a kind, I bet not many girls out there can handle such a stern guy like you, Youngjae. Besides, she has no stable job like mercenary now, pull her out from that horrible world."
"I'm thinking about that, too. I'm impressed that she is trying to save my Dad by making him sick. So what's next after this? Yejin should be safe if, in front of President Hyun, we pretend that we know nothing about his order to the Council."
"Aren't you going to kill my Dad?"
"Killing him would only fire up another bigger problem between us and I can't risk the girls and hurt your Mom, Lee Mina has been very nice to me. Losing my mother was very hard. I almost lost my Dad, I won't start a war against my brother too. Let's just keep it that way, pretend that we know nothing."
"You're...I'm about to say that I will understand if you make a plan to kill my Dad after this, but what you just said about my Mom...I don't know Youngjae, you're a truly kind man."
"No matter how bad, how evil, Hyun Woosung is, he is your father, Bin. He made you what you are today. You'd be forever thankful."
"Thank you, Youngjae. I really mean it."
"I'm going to just let this go, for the sake of our girls and your Mom. I won't drag them into another mess, Bin."
Hyun Woosung was watching us from afar. He was there drinking with his friends but I bet his attention wasn't with them. Peace would never find him, let him be.
I patted Bin's shoulders and we walked back inside to the ballroom, to our girls, and become the good men they deserved.