FEBRUARY 1, 2018 | THURSDAY

The past two weeks had been nothing but normal in the lives of the Families, but for some reason, Joohyun had been feeling that she was being watched a lot more often -- and not by who was supposed to watch her.

In the weeks leading up to today, Joohyun had received one call everyday on her personal cell phone at the same time by an unknown number, however she never once answered them. At first, she didn't think much of it, but she grew worried that it might be a sign for something bigger. Besides the mysterious phone calls, she had noticed that when she would leave meetings with clients to head back to the company building, there would be a white van that would follow the vehicle she was in. It would never be for too long, and just like with the calls, she didn't really notice the first time it happened, but started observing the same van at each meeting she left from -- and each meeting was at a different location. 

She had grown extremely paranoid, and reported everything to her father as soon as she felt uneasy. Jungwoo didn't take these accusations lightly at all, and immediately increased security not only at the floor of her company office, but at their estate as well. He assured her that there was surveillance on her at all times, but nothing could ease her anxiousness one bit. In the meantime, he had ordered his more trusted soldiers to gather CCTV footage of a van fitting Joohyun's description at each meeting site she had attended. If someone was really stalking his daughter, he wanted to know who it was -- they weren't going to do anything to his daughter on his watch.

Although Joohyun spent most of the past two weeks constantly watching her back and monitoring her surroundings, the only times she felt relaxed were when Taehyung would text her. He texted pretty often and quickly for someone who was supposed to be busy with underboss duties. Joohyun ingeniously acquired his phone number by feigning skepticism to the check he had written for her to compensate for the bounced check she had received from his employee. He had offered his number to her and welcomed her to call or text him, should any problems arise with his check. Of course, everything processed smoothly and she didn't need to do any of that, but at the end of the day, she got what she wanted. In fact, he was the one that texted her first, asking if everything was okay since he last saw her. From then on, they began texting frequently, and she had soon discovered that Taehyung's posh and courterous behavior masked the playful soul of a child. She knew that mysterious aura about him was a front for his real personality, and she felt accomplished that she had somewhat figured him out. To be frank, Joohyun's heart fluttered a little too much everytime she would see his name pop up on her notification screen. 

Joohyun had woken up early this morning to attend a bi-monthly meeting that consisted of the boss and two Capos from each Family. It was agreed amongst her and her siblings that they would rotate turns to attend the meeting, only because the meeting was absolutely dull to the core -- so it would only be fair if they all took turns attending the meeting. However, this time it would be different, since Jungwoo requested that two more of her brothers attend the meeting with him, much to their dismay, and were to be present inside the conference room the entire meeting just in case -- although, he was already bringing soldiers to guard as well. At this meeting, it was Sunggyu and Joohyun's turn to attend, which happened to be at Jeonju: a two and a half hour drive from Seoul. 

Joohyun made herself comfortable and even brought a pillow and blanket for the small road trip. Woohyun sat a seat away from her while Sunggyu and Howon sat behind them. While her brothers were half-asleep, she was trying to get a nap in before she would have to stay awake at the Jeonju Conference Room for at least two hours. She closed her eyes, but her face turned into a frown when she felt her phone vibrate. Looking down at it expecting it to be from an unknown caller again, she breathed out a sigh of relief when she just realized it was a message from Taehyung. Opening it, she rolled her eyes at the man's message.

"Hey sleepy head, are you excited to see me in about two hours?"

Typing a reply almost immediately, she pressed send when she finished typing.

"No, I'd rather be sleeping. Coffee sounds so good right now."

"What!! Don't lie, your heart races everytime you see me, I can tell ;)"

"Don't flatter yourself."

"Speaking of coffee, how do you like yours? I can make it for you when you get here."

"Don't bother, Taehyung, I'm really picky. I'll show you just how picky I am when I get there."

"No, leave it to me, Joohyun! Trust me, you'd be surprised of just how great of a coffee I can make."

"Okay, suit yourself."

As Joohyun began typing up how she liked her coffee, Woohyun quietly peered over at her phone. 

"Who are you texting?" He asked with a quirked brow, looking up at her and then back down at her phone.

Joohyun groaned in annoyance and turned away from her older brother, shielding her phone away from view. 

"It's just Taehyung from Delta Family. Stop being nosey." Joohyun rolled her eyes and kept typing while Woohyun turned around to see if Sunggyu and Howon fully witnessed their little bickering, but they were fast asleep.

Joohyun sat silently next to Taehyung while the meeting was being conducted. It had only been about a half hour into the meeting, and she was already wanting to go to sleep. Today's meeting only really concerned the bosses and specific Capos, so she didn't have to pay attention to that many things, or anything, for that matter. Taehyung surprisingly made her coffee pretty well, like he said he would, and he was a lot more happy about it than she was. Throughout her meeting, she sipped on her coffee cup at least a couple times per minute up until the point she drank everything. Once she placed the empty cup back onto the table while tuning out a conversation between the Iota Family's boss and the Omicron Family's Capo, she noticed Taehyung eyeing her from the corner of her eye. She looked over at him with slight furrowed brows, and rolled her eyes inwardly as he flashed her a cheesy smile. She knew it was because she had finished the coffee that he made her, and she just shot him a look that said "now's not the time to be fooling around". Taehyung left her alone after that, quietly chuckling to himself.

Joohyun came to the conclusion that the meeting was almost over after looking through the documents in front of her, which listed what they were to discuss about. Taehyung excused himself to the restroom when there was a brief pause, although the meeting continued despite his absence. Joohyun sighed softly, tapping her finger onto the table repeatedly while looking out the window. Joohyun's eyes traced the building from the opposite side of the building she was in, and then stopped at the view of a mountain on the far left side of the window. Slowly spacing out, she kept staring at the mountain for a while until she spotted something from the corner of the right side of the window. She had made out the object to be a small helicoptor, and grew uncomfortable at the fact that it was hovering a little bit too close to the window. Joohyun wasn't the only one that had noticed the helicoptor, as the people sitting on her side of the table looked up and noticed it as well. She turned her head when someone had yelled, although she couldn't distinguish just what they had said -- because at that very moment, the long window shattered, and the sound of continuous gunshots reverberated in everyone's ears.

The sound broke the still air in contrast to the previous monotonous voices of the Family members, and soon surrounded everyone as the piercing strike of the first shot hit the window of the conference room. Everything almost seemed to have been moving in slow motion to Joohyun, mostly because she couldn't process what was happening. Woohyun and Howon grabbed Joohyun, who was cowering on the floor of the room just like everyone else, and bolted out the door of the room and into the hallway. They were instantly met with crossfire between Family bodyguards and a group of what seemed to be masked men. "This way!" Howon pulled his sister's wrist and ran with Woohyun down the staircase, narrowly missing fired shots.  Joohyun panted, her heart almost leaping out of . The three managed to make their way to the bottom level of the building, but they were stopped right by the exit of the staircase when Howon was jabbed in the gut with a weapon. "Howon!" Joohyun shrieked, seeing her brother then being kicked backwards by the attacker. Woohyun pulled out his gun, swiftly blasting the men that lurched for them. Howon hastily stood up, drawing out his weapon simultaneously. The three resumed, leaving the staircase, but was soon confronted by more masked men -- this time, they were armed. Joohyun's grip on Howon's hand tightened, and her breathing faltered as she watched the masked men surround them, clearly outnumbering the trio. 

"Hand over the damsel and I won't blast your head open," one of them called out.

Howon scowled while Woohyun's eyes scanned the room to try and come up with a strategy. 

"There's no running. You're outnumbered. One movement from any of you, and you're done." 

More gunshots cracked into the air as loud as thunder, coming from the staircase. The group of masked men dispersed, some firing back at the bodyguards by the staircase while the others chased after Woohyun, Howon, and Joohyun. Woohyun cried out, falling on his own feet as he was shot in the leg. "Go!" He yelled, waving Howon by to take off with Joohyun, but the men had caught up to them in the time that Woohyun had tripped. Howon fired his gun, hitting the man in front of him, but there were too many of them coming for the duo to stop them by himself. Howon pushed Joohyun away from him, screaming at her to run to the car. The frightened woman hesitated for a brief second before she bounded for the front door, leaving her brothers to defend themselves.

Joohyun raced out the front entrance and sprinted towards her father's company car. She opened the door to the front passenger seat while rambling frantically.

"Yonghwa! Yonghwa we have to --" As Joohyun closed the car door and looked over at the driver's seat, the sight of her father's murdered chauffeur was all it took for her to scream in horror.

"There you are, you little ing rat," a grunt voice was heard from the other side of the passenger door, and as soon as it opened, Joohyun kicked the intruder with full force in the chest as she jumped out of the car and tried to escape his grasp. 

Unfortunately, there was another man right behind the one that opened the door. 

"You're not going anywhere, little girl," the man cackled, grabbing her by the hair to stop her in her tracks. 

Joohyun yelled out in pain as the man grabbed a hold of her, hooking her arms together. The man that Joohyun kicked stood up from the ground, glaring at her from under his mask while he accompanied his partner in bringing Joohyun to the same white van that she had been seeing constantly, which was left running and sitting in the front of the entrance to the building.

"I hope the boss has good plans with you ... you're a feisty one."

Joohyun spat at him, and before he could even process what she did, she tripped the man that held her arms together, making him fall and hit his head against the bottom of the van. She dodged a punch from the other, countering with a straight kick to the gut, followed by a strong uppercut. She finished him off by kicking him on the side of the head, fully knocking him unconscious. Joohyun didn't have time to even think about what she was going to do next, as she suddenly felt a forceful blow to the back of her head.

She fell to the ground, and although she wasn't exactly unconscious, she was very dazed and disoriented. The man she had tripped had hit the back of her head with the bottom of his gun, and he tucked the weapon back into the waistband of his pants while he tried to lug Joohyun's almost deadweight body into the van in front of them. Joohyun wailed, thrashing her arms in an attempt to escape his grip, but she could see that she was getting closer and closer to the van. Just as the man was about to throw Joohyun into the van, a gunfire shot from behind him had pierced right through his chest, plummeting him to the ground along with Joohyun. 

Joohyun cried out in misery as her head hit the ground first, and she kept her eyes shut as she felt the pain on the back of her head deepen. 

"Joohyun!" Taehyung ran to Joohyun's side, who was writhing in pain on the concrete floor. He tucked his gun back into its holster so that he could use both hands to help Joohyun.

The van door above them suddenly closed, and the vehicle proceeded to speed off. Sunggyu and Howon rushed out of the conference building with weapon in hand, raising their arms to fire shots at the van in an attempt to stop it from escaping -- but, to no avail. The vehicle had sped off, away from sight, before any of the men could stop it.

Taehyung held Joohyun in his arms, eyes growing wide when he felt the blood from Joohyun's wound drip onto his arm that was supporting her shoulders. Taehyung tried to ask if she was okay, but all he heard were incoherent mumbles spurting out from Joohyun's mouth, half-lidded and all.

All Joohyun could hear was a muffled sound of what seemed to be Taehyung's voice, and she could barely keep her eyes open to see what was going on -- her head felt like it was whirling.

The last thing she saw was fear in Taehyung's eyes before darkness blanketed her sight.