Suga

          I had triple checked that the unknown sender of the e-mail didn’t send me malware, because after I had found out about Hoseok’s employee with a falsified background, I had started to become paranoid as well.
 

          If it was from Lay, he would have told me or would have left some sort of signature letting me know that it was safe.

          The two video files looked innocent enough in my inbox. But innocence isn’t a common descriptor in our world. I click on the first one and see Hana call in her father.

          “There’s a possible security breach.” Even through the video, she looks angry. “I don’t know how or why it happened, but there’s been a change in the security architecture.”

          “Hana-”

          “I need your help. If word gets out about the new development, I’ll have a bunch of wolves barking up my a**.”

         
          The video ends. I click on the next one.

          “Whales are to krill as humans are to food.”  She muses to herself, tapping away at her computer. “So dinner.”

          Dinner. Lay had mentioned that when talking about the e-mails. Someone had sent me some of the missing clues, and I didn’t know who. I watch through the videos and see the date in the corner. Both were from a few days ago in the afternoon. Did it have to do with the security breach?

          I ruffle through the papers that Lay had given me.
 

          Kookie,
          I found out about dinner. Unconfirmed on both jade and blood.
          Hana.

         
          They knew about Taehyung’s Whale project. I curse. Did they know details? What was jade? And blood? I look through more of the printed e-mails, looking for clues.
 

          Hana,
          How’s the baby?”
          Kookie.

          I threw that piece of paper in the recycling bin. And then after a few seconds, I pull it back out. Why would they talk about that over an e-mail?

          Kookie,
          It’s stage 2 cancer. I’m so scared. Survival rate is 30%.
          Hana.

          Hana,
          We’re going to get through this together. There’s a reason I proposed to you.
          Kookie

         
          Wait what?

          My fingers practically move on their own accord, and the phone rings.

          “I have a meeting in fifteen minutes. We’re going to have to keep this short,” Jin mumbles from the other side.

          “Does Hana have cancer?” I blurt.

          “What?” Jin asks, confused. His voice gets huskier, and I can’t tell what he’s thinking. “I think I would find out if she did.”

         
          “Her e-mails,” I breathe. “They know about the Whale project, and used some kind of substitution of terms. She called it dinner. And in another e-mail, she says she has stage two cancer.”

          “Are you sure it’s not just another substitution?  It would have shown up on her medical records when she went to the emergency room for a migraine.” Jin reasons with me. Was it me, or was he trying to calm down the anxiety in his tone? “It takes too long to travel outside of Seoul for treatment, and if she was getting treated in Seoul, I would know. How much does she know about the Whale project?”

          “She’s only mentioned it,” I sit back, somewhat relieved. “I don’t see it in any other e-mail. And I got an e-mail from an unknown sender that tipped me off about the dinner clue and there was a clip that said that she had a security breach and that she couldn’t get any information about new development out.”

          “We should look into that. Honestly, that looks like it’s a more promising clue than anything else so far.” Jin confirms. “Okay, I need to go.”

          “Bye.” I toss my phone back on to the table.

          A warm feeling of relief settles. I didn’t want her to lose to a disease when I could get the satisfaction of her losing to me instead.

          I pick my phone up again and dial Taehyung. “What,” His muffled voice is slightly annoyed as he picks up. “I’m eating.”

          “They know about the Whale project.”

          “What?” He repeats, incredulous. “How? Even most of my company doesn’t know.”

          Kim Taehyung’s company was hard to penetrate. A nuclear company had direct ties to defense contractors and because of that, security was extremely tight. Knowing about the Whale project should have been close to impossible.

          “I don’t know. Her e-mails to Jeon Jungkook are practically indecipherable. They use analogies and substitutions, so I have no idea what she’s talking about 95% of the time.” I had spent a good majority of my night trying to pick the conversations apart, but I didn’t have that much luck.

          "So basically,” The gears in his head turn. “We have a bunch of clues, but we can’t use any of them?”

          “Pretty much.”

          “I have something too,” Taehyung voice is muffled again. “Jeon Jungkook and Byun Hana live together.”

          “What are you talking about?” I frown. How did we not know this beforehand?

          “I’m serious,” Taehyung tries to convince me. “They live together, and they lived together since before their engagement. They co-own the property, and they’ve been that way for years.”

          “So what?” They were engaged, so it shouldn’t mean that much, right?

          “It means that all of those e-mails could be fake. Why would she use a company e-mail when she can just tell someone the truth at home?”

          Dread starts to settle into the pit of my stomach. They were playing us. And they had made us a fool, twice.

Hana

          The office smelled faintly like the roses Jungkook had sent me as I sit back in the rolling chair, thoroughly exhausted after spending two days running around the company trying to take care of the security breach. I know it was bad on Jimin’s end too, as I had come home last night to see Jimin passed out on the couch and snoring.

          Because of the breach, I had no ability to look at the reports for the drug and for the proposed economic plan for the next quarter, and I was days behind schedule. Silly me, I thought that I had left all the all-nighters behind in college.

          I blow the loose strands of hair out of my face, tugging it back into a ponytail, and scanning through the paper giving a rundown of the setbacks of the drug. The security breach already set back testing for at least a day, and the longer that it was in stage two of testing, the more likely that the drug would be found out by Jin.

          Byun Industries were hardly a pharmaceutical company, so if Jin’s company got in the way, it would spell for trouble in both production and the industry. It was a dangerous game to play.

          Jin had always been good at games, especially if his pride was on the line. Or food. But food being at stake would hardly work now, as it was over a decade later.

          Point was, I didn’t want to play against Jin, and I would push it off as much as possible while speeding up the production of the drug.

          On top of that, the two suspects for spying were insanely hard to track. The first one, known as Kai, was much too close to the head of marketing to be safe, but there was no evidence that he was a spy. Everything on his record was perfect. Too perfect. Everyone messed up eventually, but there was nothing marked against him.

          My eyebrows furrow as I flip through his employee file. His previous workplace was validated with a letter of recommendation, and his personal information seemed to all check out. His days off were consistently during major holidays.

          Lay would have to get security to look into his details. At first glance, this Kai character looked perfect on paper. And that itself was the biggest flag.

          “Tao….Tao….” I murmur to myself, looking