APRIL 6, 2018 | FRIDAY

"Taehyung, not here!"

Joohyun tried her hardest to not hiss too loud at the guy she was somewhat dating, who had tried to reach out to hold her hand while her brothers were walking right in front of them. She had told him that Myungsoo wasn't very fond of him at all, but he didn't really care.

Taehyung was currently giving Joohyun, Sunggyu, and Myungsoo a tour of  their warehouse after they had come with a van to trade inventory with Delta. Sunggyu and Myungsoo were looking around curiously while Taehyung and Joohyun were right behind them. As he went to explain when they usually received their inventory, he poked Joohyun's side, earning him a hard punch on the arm. 

"That sounded like a punch," Sunggyu spoke from experience, "did you just punch Taehyung?"

"No, there was a mosquito, I swatted it off his arm," Joohyun lied through her teeth, chuckling a bit. Sunggyu just nodded and turned back around, and as soon as he was facing forward, Joohyun shot Taehyung a dirty look, who was just giving her a cocky smirk.

"And here's where we keep all of our traded inventory. Do you think you can call the van to drive to this side of the warehouse so we can load up our part of the trade into your van?" Taehyung explained, and Myungsoo silently nodded and quickly called up their driver. 

"So, are you coming to the charity event tomorrow?" Taehyung directed the question to Sunggyu, who replied with a nod.

The charity event that Taehyung was talking about was an event set up by the bosses of both Alpha and Delta to raise money to fund hospital bills for low-income patients. It had been planned months in advance, but only recently, the bosses have left their children in charge of planning the event as the date drew closer: namely, Taehyung and Joohyun. It worked out in their favors so that they could hae an excuse to spend more time with one another, so they didn't complain once since their fathers had given them the task of planning the event together.

"All of us are required to go, which makes sense," Sunggyu responded to Taehyung, "I'm assuming that you'll be with my sister for the whole night tomorrow?"

"Yes," Taehyung smiled and nodded, "sorry to take her away from you."

"No, please, I'm the one that's sorry for you to have to deal with her."

Sunggyu smiled warmly at his younger sister, who was giving him a death glare. 

"She's not so bad ... sometimes," Taehyung looked down at Joohyun, who rolled her eyes.

"This was why I didn't wanna introduce you guys ..." Joohyun grumbled, just receiving a ruffle on the hair from her older brother. 

Their brief conversation was interrupted by Myungsoo, who had asked Taehyung to initiate the inventory trade. After the trade had been completed, Sunggyu had called up their driver, who drove a separate car from the inventory van, to pick them up from the other side of the warehouse. 

"Get home safe," Taehyung patted Joohyun on the head, "and don't stay up too late, we have brunch and then we need to go back to your office to plan the rest of the preparations for the event."

"Same to you," Joohyun chuckled, turning her head towards the exit to see their car drive in, "you better not wake up late."

"I won't," he reassured, "I'll always be on time if it comes to spending time with you, can't waste any minute."

Joohyun couldn't help but smile, but she looked down at the ground to try and hide it. 

Taehyung shook hands with Sunggyu and Myungsoo, wishing them farewell before they climbed into the backseat of the big Escalade. He took Joohyun's hand gently before he spoke.

"See you tomorrow, beautiful," he smiled at her before placing a soft kiss on top of her smooth knuckles. 

"Good night Taehyung," she smiled genuinely. 

Taehyung watched her get into the vehicle, and then continued as both the vehicle and the van departed from the warehouse.

"What'd you do to him?" Sunggyu asked, almost pitiful, "someone had to have paid him to do that, no guy would do that willingly."

"Yah, you wanna die, Oppa?!"

The vehicle that the Alpha members were in had made a stop at the Alpha estate to drop off Joohyun, and then headed to the Alpha corporation building after the female was safely inside. Jungwoo had something that he wanted to talk to Sunggyu and Myungsoo about, and it was the last errand the two had to complete before they were fully complete with their day. 

When the two were given permission to enter their father's office, they saw him sitting by their meeting desk, looking up at the screen on the wall.

"Take a seat," he instructed, "I need to show you something."

The two took both empty seats right next to him quietly and without a word. As their attention was given solely to the screen in front of them, Jungwoo pressed a button on a small remote control, and the screen was suddenly filled with six pictures. 

"What you're looking at is a series of pictures that one of our soldiers took," he explained, "after the raid, he followed the escapees back where they came from. He snuck into their hideout, which we now know the location of, and took these pictures."

He pressed another button, zooming into two particular pictures, which seemed to Delta's boss talking to a group of what looked to be the same people that raided Alpha's warehouse -- and Delta's boss didn't look so happy.

"While the soldier was spying, he saw that Delta's very own boss was present at their hideout. He couldn't hear what they were exactly talking about, but he concluded from his observations that Sungmin was angry about something. He watched him aruge and yell at the other party, and then after a couple minutes, he left."

"Do you think ..." Sunggyu's sentence trailed off, but his father shook his head.

"I still don't think Delta's behind all of these attacks. It just isn't possible," he described, "when I granted them permission to run their business in Seoul along with us, they became a strong and reliable ally that I don't doubt even for a second. They run their business enough to make their own profit, but not too much to the point where it would hurt our business and eventually overthrow us entirely. If their motive was to overthrow our company or take it over, like Myungsoo had suggested previously, then it would have shown -- and it hasn't."

"What if he was angry that they did a job at trying to attack us?" Myungsoo brought up, "you did say that the soldier couldn't make out what they were talking about, so we can't rule out entirely that they weren't involved in Joohyun's incident."

"They're being set up," their father rebuttled, "unorganized rogues using a Family vehicle for their illegal activities? That would be the first rule on what not to do in a Family business. The only reason for that would be the purpose of setting up the Family, which this is."

"I'm just saying that we can't be a hundred percent sure on anything until we find out who tried to kidnap Joohyun," Myungsoo shook his head, "so until we have solid evidence that someone other than Delta did it, I still stand by my opinion."

Jungwoo sighed, but didn't say anything for a bit. He understood why Myungsoo acted the way he did, and it was because he didn't trust very many people other than his direct family members. But, even then, he wasn't even following behind his own father's judgment.

"I understand," he exhaled deeply, "I still haven't stopped investigation on this since the beginning of it all, so don't think I've settled on what I think. The culprits are still out there and I want the enitirety of them wiped out. No one sticks their noses in places they don't belong and act like they can do whatever they want."

Myungsoo felt reassuring that his father was definitely not going to stop the private investigation, but his mind was on something different.

"Despite my expressions on Delta, you're still okay with Joohyun being around thier underboss?" Myungsoo looked blankly at his father, who chuckled in amusement.

"They're cute kids," he shrugged, "I knew she was interested in him since the two first met, I gave her the responsibility of collaborating with him on the charity event for that reason. I could have given that task to any of you." 

"So you're letting her pursue him?" Myungsoo asked sternly.

"If that's what she wants, then yes," Jungwoo replied.

"That's not what you told me when we this topic was first brought up."

Sunggyu remained silent as he watched on curiously at his father and Myungsoo, who exchanged a brief, intense stare with one another. He had no idea what they were talking about, and was hoping that he would find out.

"Myungsoo," Jungwoo breathed out, "you knew this could be a possibility, and I did state that. Let her do what she wants."

"Yeah Myungsoo, Taehyung seems like a nice guy. Within time, you'll get used to him, if they do end up pursuing a relationship," Sunggyu hoppe onto the conversation that didn't really concern him to begin with. 

Myungsoo was quiet for a bit, flexing his jaw before he stood up.

"I'll wait for you in the car, Sunggyu," Myungsoo muttered before he up and left the office without even looking at their father. 

Sunggyu blinked, questioning in his thoughts why Myungsoo was getting so heated for.

"What's he so worked up about?" Sunggyu asked, just receiving a sigh from his father.

"He's really overprotective of your sister," he said, "just watch over him and make sure he doesn't give her a hard time. We both know he can hold grudges over the smallest things."

"Well yeah, I mean we're all overprotecive of her," Sunggyu furrowed his eyebrows, "but Myungsoo ... he seems to be on a different level than us -- like it's obsessive, almost."

Jungwoo didn't say anything for a little while before he ended up saying something that still didn't settle Sunggyu's curiosity.

"He has his reasons, even if it does seem obsessive. Don't worry about him." 

APRIL 7, 2018 | SATURDAY

"Hey, stop dozing off," Joohyun sighed, rolling her eyes, "I told you that you can take a nap on my couch if you're really that tired ... why'd you stay up for, anyway?"

"Because I was so excited to see you today," Taehyung yawned and shut up almost instantly when he saw Joohyu'n unamused face.

"No, really, Taehyung."

The two were currently in Joohyun's office, preparing the itinerary for the charity event tonight, as well as their speeches. Taehyung had been dozing off the past ten minutes, and Joohyun was concerned of his lack of sleep. 

"I worked on my speech last night so that I wouldn't have to do much today," Taehyung mumbled, "but now I'm really tired so ... lose-lose situation, I guess."

"Why'd you work on it when you knew we were going to work on ours together today?" Joohyun asked with a raised brow.

"So that I could spend more time fooling around with you than working," he replied with a childish smile.

"Well joke's on you, now you'll be bored while I do some work," Joohyun chuckled, looking away from him to divert her attention to her laptop, "like I said, my couch is right over there if you want to take a nap. We're gonna have a long night, so better get some sleep in before you get drained at the event."

Taehyung huffed like a small child that wasn't getting attention from their mother. He just accepted the fact that he had messed up on his part, and just quietly browsed on his phone with his arms and head rested on the desk while Joohyun finished up her work. 

After about an hour, Joohyun had finished everything she needed to work on, and when she looked over at Taehyung, she couldn't help but smile. The Delta underboss was fast asleep, his head resting atop his crossed arms. 

"He really did take a nap ... just not where I suggested," she chuckled to herself, shaking her head. 

She rested her head in her hand, elbow propped on top of her desk. Joohyun just stared at a sleeping Taehyung, who was breathing fairly softly. It was then did she realize just how good looking he was and how lucky she was to have someone like him have a huge, undying crush on her. Just as she was getting lost in her thoughts, Taehyung exhaled loudly before stirring in his sleep, ultimately waking himself up.

"Was I asleep for long?" Taehyung mumbled as he stretched his arms.

"Not really," Joohyun shook her head.

"Were you staring at me?" Taehyung changed the subject suddenly when he realized that Joohyun was already looking at him while he was waking up.

"No, I looked over at you when you were making a whole scene of making sure I knew you were awake," she chuckled, trying to cover up her tracks.

"I'm pretty sure you were staring at me. You don't have to lie, I know you like looking at me whenever you get the chance," Taehyung raised a brow and gave her a cocky smile. 

Joohyun rolled her eyes. Cocky Taehyung made it hard for her to show affection, but she had to admit that Cocky Taehyung was right. 

"I'd rather stare at your better looking friend, Yoongi. Don't flatter yourself, Taehyung," Joohyun joked, giving him an innocent smile.

"Ouch," Taehyung winced, although he knew Joohyun was just joking, as he realized a long time ago that that was how she showed affection most of the time, "you better watch your mouth, babe."

Joohyun scoffed at Taehyung's advice, leaning forward to reply. "Excuse me?" She laughed, "I do what I want when I want, thank you very much. I don't need you to tell me what to do."

Taehyung leaned forward as well, reaching over to gently cup her chin in his hand. 

"Are you really trying me right now, Joohyun?" Taehyung mumbled lowly, "I know that you have eyes for me only so it hurts me when you pretend otherwise."

Joohyun was immediately silenced. She gulped, but still didn't say anything.

"What's the matter? You're usually more talkative when we play like this," Taehyung said softly, tilting his head to the side to observe her. 

Joohyun bit the inside of her cheek when Taehyung said the word 'play' and making their situation sound more suggestive than it really was. Her eyes glanced down at his lips, the texture of which she could never forget after she had kissed them for the first time about a month ago. She was in denial, but in truth, she longed to feel those same lips again, but she had always held herself back. 

"Did you want something from me, Joohyun?" Taehyung asked, the slight playfulness in his voice making Joohyun even more nervous.

Taehyung leaned in closer to Joohyun to the point where their lips touched, but only barely. He spoke, and his words sent shivers straight down Joohyun's spine along with the electricity that surged through her veins.

"If you wanted something from me babe, all you had to do was ask ... just like a good girl would."

Joohyun was going to throw her self-control out of the window and just give in to her temptations, but fate was on her self-control's side today, it seemed, as a loud knock came from the other side of her office door before it was suddenly swung open. Taehyung immediately pulled away, and Joohyun sat back against her chair so that she was as far away from Taehyung as she could possibly get. 

"Joohyun, which blazer should I wear tonight? Oh, and I need help on a tie," Dongwoo ran his mouth off as soon as he walked into the room with clothes in hand, unknowingly interrupting Taehyung and Joohyun's intimate moment only mere seconds ago.

Taehyung couldn't help but try to hide his smirk as he saw Joohyun still trying to recover from his advances.

"Dongwoo, didn't you know I had Taehyung over at my office today to do work?" Joohyun scowled at her older brother, slightly butthurt that he had interrupted her moment with Taehyung.

"Oh yeah ... sorry," Dongwoo felt bad after he realized that he was probably interrupting their work, but soon felt better when he realized that his outfit was pretty important, "but could you help me? I'm having a dilemma."

"You're having a dilemma?" Joohyun scorned, giving Taehyung a look as he almost let out a laugh.

Dongwoo was interrupted by Sungjong and Sungyeol, who had walked into Joohyun's office, also without permission as per usual, and had a conversation with Dongwoo as if  Taehyung and Joohyun weren't there. Joohyun let out a huge sigh, covering her head with her hands. Taehyung laughed, assuming her brothers would burst into her office unannounced all the time just like his friends did to him.

"Sorry babe," Taehyung made sure to keep his voice low as Joohyun looked up to see him wink, "next time."

"Should I tell him to not put his arm around Joohyun's shoulder?" Woohyun questioned, receiving a mixed response from the rest of his brothers.

"You guys are so annoying, just leave her alone. She's busy enough as it is," Sungjong rolled his eyes, however, Howon and Sungyeol disagreed.

Alpha and Delta Family were currently present at their charity event, mingling about before the time came to begin dinner. Taehyung and Joohyun were occupied since the beginning of the event, Joohyun mostly making sure everything was running smoothly and Taehyung making sure that every guest was spoken to. Only the most elite and upper class citizens of South Korea were invited to the event, so it was vital that they made a good impression on these people. There were at least a hundred people in the venue, and it was all overwhelming for Taehyung and Joohyun.

"Why do they look like a married couple talking to their guests," Dongwoo snickered, instantly stopping, though, when a good number of his brothers sent glares in his direction. 

"You guys haven't even sat down and talked to him, he's a good guy," Sungjong defended Taehyung, "stop being annoying and leave them alone, yeah? You can bother her when we get home, but for now we should leave them to do their job. Appa did leave half the event in her hands."

The brothers who didn't approve of Taehyung were silenced, realizing that Sungjong was right. After all, they all lived together so they could just pester her about it when the night was over.

"Dinner's supposed to start soon, Taehyung, did we talk to everyone?" Joohyun slightly tugged on the sleeve of Taehyung's blazer to get his attention. He looked down at her and nodded.

"At least, I think so, everywhere I look are people that I know we've talked to so --" Taehyung stopped his sentence suddenly when someone had patted his shoulder to get his attention.

"Taeyong?" Taehyung gasped in disbelief, instantly embracing the man in a tight hug.

Joohyun looked onwards in curiosity until Taehyung explained to her who he was.

"Joohyun, this is Taeyong. He was my chidhood friend when I moved to the states. He's part of the mafia business in the states, and that's how we met."

"Very nice to meet you, Taeyong," Joohyun smiled warmly, offering her hand out immediately.

"Same to you as well, Joohyun," Taeyong smiled a small smile as he held out his hand also, shaking Joohyun's hand. As they both pulled away their arms, Taeyong looked over at Taehyung. "I knew you always got the best looking girls on your side but ... wow."

Joohyun laughed bashfully, rubbing the back of her neck as Taehyung nodded and laughed along with Joohyun.

"Yeah, she's really great," Taehyung flashed Joohyun a smile before he looked back at his friend, "listen, why are you here? Don't you have business back home?"

"I came here because I got into a little bit of trouble with helping out a client, somewhat similar to your situation," Taeyong replied lowly, "so I'm on "vacation" for a couple months until everything dies down."

"Completely understandable," Taehyung nodded, continuing to talk to his friend as Joohyun just stood by his side quietly. She noticed that Taeyong would sometimes glance over at Joohyun, and like Taehyung when she first met him, she found Taeyong to be mysterious. He didn't seem to show very much emotion when he talked, and sounded very vague and closed off whenever Taehyung would ask about how he was doing.

"Taehyung," Joohyun cleared , "we need to start dinner now." 

"Oh, right," Taehyung nodded at Joohyun, then looked back at Taeyong, "we're going to be starting dinner now, but we can catch up still! Just sit next to me."

Taeyong didn't say anything, but he did give a nod to Taehyung's invitation. In the meantime, Joohyun had gone over to instruct a couple of the workers at the venue to open the doors to the dining area, which were locked beforehand, and with that, everyone in the spacious lobby area soon filed into the dining room.

Joohyun felt relaxed for the first time in two hours. The first two hours of the event were spent alongside Taehyung, talking to the guests that had shown up to support the charity event. Needless to say, she was already exhausted and just wanted to go home, away from any social interaction with anyone. 

She was currently sitting next to Taehyung, who was busy talking up a storm with Taeyong, which she didn't really mind. After all, they had pretty much spent the entire day together. The rest of the seats were taken up by half of Taehyung's friends and half of Joohyun's brothers. They surprisingly befriended one another and were indulging in a full on conversation, much to Joohyun's pleasure. That meant she could eat in peace before she would have to start talking again.

Half an hour into dinner, Taehyung and Joohyun made their way to the front of the stage area and began their speech, which consisted of informing their guests of their efforts to pay for the hospital bills of low-income patients as well as a few stories of patients that could have gotten their illness treated, had they obtained the money they needed for their treatments. 

"Each and every one of your donations is highly appreciated, and we thank you all from the bottom of our hearts," Joohyun announced, "we have received a generous amount of donations, which we thank you all greatly for. We would like to present a small gift of our thanks to our guest with the highest donation."

Joohyun paused, waiting for Taehyung to open the envelope that one of thier soldiers had given to them. 

"May Lee Taeyong please come up to the stage?" Taehyung spoke into his microphone, and applause roared throughout the room. While everyone was applauding and Taeyong was making his way up to the stage, Joohyun held the heavy award plaque in her hands while she leaned over to whisper to Taehyung.

"Do you know how much he donated?" 

"One million dollars," Taehyung replied back. Joohyun tried to conceal her surprise as she just bit on her lip and nodded slowly while they watched Taeyong walk up the steps to get onto the stage. 

"Thank you so much for your support in our charity and your efforts in aiding us," Joohyun smiled, handing out the plaque for Taeyong to take. All the male did was smile back at her as he took the plaque in his arms and turned around to face everyone so that the photographer could take a picture of the three. After, dinner resumed and everyone was back at their tables.

Soon enough, everyone had begun leaving the event, as it had come to a close. Joohyun and Taehyung made sure to have their last words with everyone before their departure, and they finally got down to their last guest, Taeyong. Joohyun's brothers were busy instructing their soldiers with putting away their belongings in the van while Taehyung's friends were over the whole event and had told Taehyung that they would wait for him in the car. Joohyun stood by Taehyung's side quietly, unintentionally listening in on his conversation with Taeyong. 

"Yes, well, I should be turning in for the night, and I'm sure you two want to head home as well; I'm assuming you've been preparing for this event for a while," Taeyong said.

"We have, yeah," Taehyung chuckled, "well, let's catch some lunch sometime! I didn't even know you were in Seoul, you didn't bother reaching out to me?"

"I didn't bring anything but a burner phone to Seoul just so I could lay low," Taeyong sighed, "I apologize on my part. But, yes, I'd like that." Taeyong then looked over at Joohyun. "You could bring your lady friend as well, I'd like to get to know any female that could deal with you."

Joohyun chuckled as Taehyung laughed in response.

"It's a date," Taehyung grinned, "here's my number."

"Joohyun, it's time to leave," Myungsoo walked over to Joohyun's side and tapped her shoulder to get her attention. 

"Oh, okay, I'll head to the car now," Joohyun nodded as Myungsoo left, "Taehyung, let's go."

"Alright," Taehyung finished giving Taeyong his phone number, "it was really nice seeing you again, Taeyong. Hope you're not busy laying low to come get some lunch with me."

"I hope you're not busy with being an Underboss so that we can catch up," Taeyong replied, the two sharing a brief laugh, "it was really nice meeting you as well, Joohyun. I'll see you soon."

Taeyong said his last words with such confidence that it made Joohyun a little uncomfortable. Who was to say that she would even want to accompany Taehyung, and even then, how was Taeyong so sure that he was going to see her again? Just because she was dating Taehyung? She felt that there was some hidden meaning behind what he said, but she just brushed it off for the time being.

Joohyun hooked her arm with Taehyung's as they walked out of the building, and she turned her head a little bit to look back at Taeyong, who was staring at the two.

When he saw Joohyun look back at him, he gave her a slight smile while waving. She turned back around, furrowing her brows a bit as she began getting lost in her thoughts. 

"I'd rather not see you soon, Taeyong ..." she thought, "there's something about you that just isn't right ... I just don't know what it is yet."

yay nct cameo :3 I've been listening to a lot of nct lately so I got inspired to just put him in my story hehehoho

but what is he up to ... or is he just taehyung's friend and joohyun is overreacting LOL

p.s. sorry for the small grammatical errors, i'm lazy lmao