"Do not move," the subordinate repeated as he was holding the gun against her head.
Valerie closed her eyes for a moment as the subordinate extended his hand to check her back pockets of her blazer and pants.
In a split second, she elbowed him harshly as she swung her heel over his neck. She punched him on both sides of his face until she was shoved back and toppled on the couch. She glared at him as he attempted to shoot her, but the kitchen glasses and plates were the ones shattered instead. She ducked and hid behind the counters, covering her ears from the loud fires striking in her direction.
"Come out! Come out wherever you are!" The subordinate sneered menacingly, clicking the gun as the empty bullets had dropped out on the floor.
Her eyes gazed over the cabinet with gun holes, recalling at the time she kept the weapons there. Her hand slipped through her small pouch and grabbed the mini smoking bomb to throw right in front of him. The air was infiltrated with noise and fumes when she instantly opened the shelves and took one of the handguns.
As soon as she clicked it, she started firing back at the subordinate, hitting him on the shoulder twice.
"Argh, fuck! You stupid bitch!" He cried out in pain, clutching on his left.
Valerie quickly bolted upright and beat him up before she carried the devices and briefcase with her. She stepped on the ledge of the glass window and jumped all the way down to the ground.
Luckily, she landed safely on the dark green covers of the building and rolled herself, much to the others' startlement.
Panting breathlessly to herself, she was holding onto the evidence firmly and pulled out her phone, and dialed 911.
"Hello? I would like to report a crime scene that took place in my rented apartment, which is 528..." She stated shakily and went on further to inform them the specific address and current location.
Then, she began to scurry and thought to herself determinedly in mind. "I have to make sure they don't catch up to me. Deciphering the codes will let me know how they end up doing the wrong things. For now, I need to head somewhere else..."
At that moment, the blue bus was disembarking and she felt relieved when she headed towards the stop. She entered and paid using her coins as soon as it took off. She sat in the middle and watched the firetruck, ambulance, police cars passing by her.
Concurrently, Bryan met up with Namjoon and the others in the van after explaining the situation between him, Valerie, and their enemies.
"What? She's in danger?!" Hoseok repeated in bewilderment.
"How come?" Namjoon questioned in peculiar.
"She called me and then, her voice got disconnected," Bryan said worriedly.
"And you honestly would fall for her deception?" Yoongi scoffed monotonously.
"She's making this stuff up," Hoseok added in a repulsive tone of his voice.
"But she's not! She fucking needs our help!" Bryan raised his voice boldly in which they all remained silent in their seats.
"It doesn't seem like it," Jungkook remarked sneeringly.
"After the video, she is deplorable," Hoseok snorted.
"Right you would let her be in danger because she deserves it. How do you feel about that now?" Bryan forged a fake smile at them.
On the other hand, Jin was driving intently as he was staring at them quietly in the rearview.
Bryan went on, saying. "Look, Valerie may have dragged us into several troubles previously, but I assure you that she is not the type of person who would set up these issues to upset you all. She only wanted you guys to mend your broken friendship, even if you are not in a group."
"Why the hell would she care anyway?" Jungkook asked exasperatedly.
"Because she wanted to pursue her career. She wanted to find her own purpose," Bryan said thoughtfully and continued on. "She looks up to you."
"That is ambiguous, don't you think?" Hoseok muttered.
"Maybe, but she didn't come all the way here, just for all of you to become the best of friends again. She must have her reasons," Bryan pointed out.
"And what was it, hmm?" Yoongi interrogated.
"She did not mention it specifically. However, she will open up to explain everything to us," Bryan noted, then he heard a ding sound and read the message on his phone. "She replied."
"What did she say?" Taehyung wondered.
"She's in the empty factory building. Somewhere near Goyang, Wondang-dong," Bryan answered.
"Got it," Jin said calmly as he stirred the wheel to make a U-turn on the right and enter the other lane.
Becoming worried sick was starting to make Bryan's nerves rise up in his body, including Namjoon and Taehyung. The two of them were fidgeting their thumbs, not knowing what was happening.
Bryan never thought that the adversity would ensue his friend more than once and he became leery. Recalling back to what the old man warned him in the Floralistique shop, he realized that he should've done.
FLASHBACK:
Mr. Daechi nodded in confirmation and glanced at Bryan, advising him warningly. "Dear boy... You must take good care of her. Don't lose sight of what is important."
Bryan looked at him oddly and replied a little hesitantly. "I will, Mr. Daechi."
Mr. Daechi added in with a slight chuckle. "One thing that you should always keep in mind is to keep close to each other. Hehe, sorry if I spooked you. I couldn't help but feel something. I admit I'm reaching old age. You are both young and try to enjoy more before it's gone."
END OF FLASHBACK
Back in the time being, Bryan was indeed rueful when he left her standing in the rain after their hectic argument. Yet, he was the one who snapped out of his temper, reprimanding her of her mistakes. It wasn't her when she was trying to help. He gripped his phone tightly in his hand, thinking to himself. "This is all my fault."
Jimin was also fretting, so he notified his assistant to hire an investigator to find Valerie. There was no sign of her around the deserted area, especially in the gas station.
"Ji-hun, I have a request to make. See if Jae can trace her phone number because my friends and I are trying to locate her."
"I'll work on it, sir," he texted.
"Thanks," Jimin said and looked up to watch the view of the mountains. He furrowed his eyebrows in concern while Jungkook was staring at him quizzically in the corner of his eyes.
A couple of minutes later during Valerie's hideout, she organized the stuff on the floor where she activated the sonar device.
So far, there was no sign of her enemies appearing in her surroundings. She rubbed her hands frantically before cracking her knuckles. The code contains 5-digit numbers as she was rotating the knob from left to right to decrypt them.
Finally, the lock was loosened, and unzipped her black bag. They were all pictures and the crumpled document sheets attached together in separate metal black binder clips. She scattered them in order and went through the medium-sized briefcase, full of diamonds, and found a mini camcorder. The first initial letter was marked on the bottom, much to her peculiarity.
"Who's Royen?" She queried, raising an eyebrow and lifted the cover screen cap, and turned the power button on. As she skimmed through the random traveling photos, she stopped at a certain thumbnail. The visual image depicted the gathering circle of the two most popular groups. She pressed the play button as it started.
*Timestamp: Jan 4, 2016,*
BTS and EXO were celebrating the Golden Disk Awards after-party at Fradia, Seoul. They were all singing and dancing along with the music that was blaring out in the background.
The pleasant smiles on their faces radiated until they flinched at Chanyeol and Taehyung breaking the glass into pieces. Jin hopped onto the pillows that puffed out feathers, making Hoseok and the others laughed in amusement.
Glasses raised up as they clunk against each other noisily, hollering out with cheers and whistles. They chugged their drinks and gulped, whereas a few of them were sticking out their tongues after the bitter taste. Though, they end up guffawing in merriment.
Valerie's eyes were glistening and murmured softly. "They were all friends..." She hovered her gaze towards Jimin and Kai, who came to an agreement as well as their members to have future collaborations.
"What do you say?!" Kai gestured his hand out.
"Sure!" Jimin insisted and did their signature move.
"Well, then. I guess it wouldn't be that bad," Mr. Si-hyuk grinned.
"Nope. I think it will be awesome, right guys?" Mr. Lee Soo-man nodded with certainty and gestured his arms out.
"Yeah!" They sang gleefully in unison as the two CEOs patted each other on their backs.
Then, she clicked on the next one, showing another thumbnail of the two guys.
"Them?" She exclaimed in a whisper and pressed the play button.
*Timestamp: August 20, 2017,*
"Hey, hey, peeps! What up, y'all?! I'm now hanging out with these bros," Kai said coolly in front of the camera while he was filming Jimin and their friends in the restaurant during their night out. He turned to Sungwoon and said. "I have a question for you."
"Go on," he glanced at him lazily.
Kai patted his hand upon his shoulder, grinning. "How do you groom yourself as a guy?"
Sungwoon blinked a few times and answered. "I take a shower, brush my teeth, and comb my hair."
"Ah, so you rinse and repeat?" Kai guessed in surprise.
"Pretty much," Sungwoon shrugged off.
"Haha, alright. Next question, what two movies would you like to combine?" Kai interrogated.
"Doctor Strange and Touken Ranbu," Sungwoon stated.
"Why?" Kai questioned.
"Teleportation and Sword Fighting will make the characters grow stronger," Sungwoon chuckled and hid his face in embarrassment.
"Interesting answer. Okay, I'll be moving onto this cutie over here," Kai walked over to where Jimin was sitting and placed his arm on his shoulder.
Jimin smiled from ear to ear and stared at the camera.
"So, Park... What's something that everyone knows is true, but we don't like to admit it?" Kai beamed.
"I'm known as Baby Mochi," Jimin began to chortle and shook his head.
"Yup. You are well-known for your chubby cheeks. Too bad, we won't be seeing them anymore," Kai joked teasingly.
Jimin rolled his eyes dismissively but laughed anyway.
"My second question is what's the dumbest thing someone has argued with you about?" Kai queried.
Jimin's elated expression slowly became vacant, saying. "Assuming that I was coquetting with somebody else when I was being friendly."
"Ah. Had a quarrel with your girlfriend?" Kai reckoned and stared at Jimin, who looked away. He chuckled nonchalantly. "That's okay. All women can be like that. You know how easily they get jealous and possessive all the time."
"My ass," Jimin snorted and laughed along with him.
"You guys will work things out. It's what couples do, anyway," Kai shrugged.
"Let's stay as a Padding Squad for as long as we want," Taemin said, smirking.
"Agree!" Kai chirped.
"Fine by me," Jimin chuckled, then he held his phone out to take a group selfie with them.
Valerie's lips curled into a half-hearted smile, then faltered as soon as she was skimming through the rest of the files. The next one caught her attention on Mr. Sandeep, who was sitting quietly in his office and she decided to play the video.
*Timestamp: March 10, 2018,*
"I'm always hidden in the back whenever we take group photos or do some activities outside of work. Nobody recognizes me. When one of their assistants gets sick, they point their fingers at me and say, 'Hey, you...' as if they don't care if I have a name or not," he explained.
"Royen, is it?" Mr. Lee Soo-man guessed.
"Yes..." he answered and grumbled in the complaint. "I honestly don't know what to do with them. They gave me the list of each members' needs."
Mr. Lee Soo-man rested his elbow on the table, nodding and listening attentively. "That's why you came all the way here to vent your problem out to me? Why didn't you tell this to Bang Si-hyuk?"
Royen sighed in dismal, gesturing his hands out. "He's not going to understand. He will only give me simple advice to do my job properly. These seven guys are ticking me off and are so lousy, it's like they're on crack. They're always flirting with those thirsty girls and showing off their talents."
"Hehe. I'm not surprised by how they are. Let's make a deal, then. How would you like to have $1 million to sell BTS's ongoing music for EXO?" Mr. Lee Soo-man folded his hands firmly with a strange glint in his eye.
"Um... I thought you're already collaborating with them. What's going on?" Royen wondered as he raised his eyebrow confusedly.
"Because you and I both know how much we hate them..." Mr. Lee Soo-man stated.
"But I-I thought you said you were friends-" Royen stammered, but got interrupted.
"Oh, please. Do you think I would be friends with that cynical, buffoon Si-hyuk? Not to mention those second-rate juveniles?" Mr. Lee Soo-man derided and snickered on. "The last people I would ever want to deal with are BigHit and their toys..."
Royen leaned back in his chair in thought.
"What is it going to be?" Mr. Lee Soo-man asked firmly.
"By all means..." Royen replied back casually in approval.
"Good, but let me warn you, boy. If you don't sell their projects to us, your family will receive a gift from us," Mr. Lee Soo-man said briefly.
"What gift?" Royen furrowed his eyebrows dubiously.
Mr. Lee Soo-man snapped his fingers twice to signal the person, who stepped out of the dark and gave an evil smirk.
"Kai?" Royen exclaimed.
"Royen, meet the leader of EXO. From now on, you will give him updates on what is going on with BTS while they are working and rehearsing. In other words, you will be spying on every move they make. That's an order," Mr. Lee Soo-man noted.
"If you disobey me, you'll receive a beating," Kai added as he was crossing his arms smugly.
Royen wiggled his eyebrows and said. "Fine... I'll do it."
"Good," Mr. Lee Soo-man nod curtly and held his hand out as they shook in agreement.
As soon as the video ended, Valerie paused to think after discovering EXO wanted to be on the number one top global chart since they couldn't find or create better music. Instead, they made a decision to plagiarize BTS.
"He's a staff member, who felt neglected. That's why he took the offer from Mr. Lee Soo-man and Kai..." she mumbled in bewilderment and clicked on the right button, gawking in shock. "There's more..."
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