The Escape
Chapter Five
*
Reinforcements
*

"Yah! Im Yoona," Yuri startled her younger sister from her seat at the sofa, who had just sent their older brother off at the door of their apartment after discussing on the sale of the Kim mansion. "I have something to talk to you about. Sit down," the elder of the two sisters pointed at the empty spot on the cosy sofa. Yoona did as she was told, resting her head in Yuri's lap, sensing that things were about to get serious. "Has Lee Seung-gi come after you lately?" she asked as she examined Yoona's wrist for the nth time, when Yoona had been bruised badly by the hands of the subject. Lee Seung-gi. The guy who has mistaken Yoona for his ex-lover. Yoona's stalker. Or whatever you want to call him.

She let her wrist be examined under Yuri's eyes. Yoona was glad that she had a sister like Yuri who she could talk to without her reaction going overboard like Kim Hyun Joong's. It was at time like these, that she appreciated the presence of the elder, who understood her well. Yoona sighed as an answer for Yuri.

"So he has? When?" Satisfied with how her sister's wrist looked, Yuri started the younger's hair. It was something which she regularly did when they were younger, having no mothers to look after them, Yuri had soon become to fulfil the role of the mother towards Yoona, who was two years her junior and a frightened little girl when she first came through the doors of the Kim mansion. There was a special connection between the two girls who had gone on to become the best of friends and a loving pair of sisters.

"I went out to lunch with Taecyeon the other day," Yoona threw her hands around. "And bam. He was there."

At the sound of her boss's name, Yuri froze. "Taecyeon? As in Ok Taecyeon? As in one of my bosses Taecyeon?"

"That’s the one," Yoona sang.

"Ok…wait," she sat straighter, pulling up Yoona with her so that she could look at her properly. "Since when did you meet Ok Taecyeon? And you went out to lunch with him? Furthermore, you said Taecyeon, and not Taecyeon-ssi. Since when have you two become that close?"

"In regards to your first question, Taecyeon was the guy that saved me from Lee Seung-gi last time. I didn’t know who he was when we first met, it was only afterwards at the company ball that I found out he was Ok Taecyeon. Second, I went out to lunch with him the other day because you weren't at Park&Associates as you had already gone out for a lunch meeting. And third, we decided to drop honorifics that night of the ball because we're pretty much family soon anyway," she answered, but before Yuri could continue asking, Yoona quickly interjected. "And before you ask, Lee Seung-gi didn’t see me when I went to lunch that day. I saw him and then told Taecyeon, who took me to another restaurant in another district. So don't worry," Yoona explained to Yuri, squeezing her hand for emphasis while she told the elder not to worry,"

"Yah, it's hard not to worry,"

"Enough about me," Yoona changed the subject. "What's going on with you and Taeyang-ssi? I saw him drop you off out my window the other night. At 1AM too," That night, Yoona had seen Yuri come out of Taeyang's car from the window of her room. It wasn't hard to recognise him after all these years of his disappearance. His sudden appearance with Yuri had surprised her, but Yoona always had the feeling that he would come back for her sister, even though she didn’t know why he disappeared, where he disappeared to, or even when he would come back.

"Love is a funny thing, isn't it?" Yuri looked up at the ceiling and sighed before continuing. "You're being mistaken for someone else who was in love, and I'm meeting with an ex-lover." Yoona gave her sister a look that told her she didn’t really understand what was being said. "I saw him the night of the ball. Then a week later, he came to my office asking for lunch. He said he recently came back from the States, and explained that he disappeared because his parents were being framed and under fire for their involvement in nuclear testing. But they've been cleared now, and hence why he's returned." She heaved another sigh before continuing, "I spent the rest of the day with him after going out for lunch together, and before we know it, it's already past midnight and he drops me off home,"

Yoona hesitated before asking. "And the goodbye kiss?"

Yuri's eyes widened in shock and she grabbed a pillow to cover her face from embarrassment. "You saw that too!?"

"Unnie, I saw e~verything!" Yoona laughed. "Did you at least have fun that day? Was there any awkwardness between you guys?"

"I refused to speak to him at first. But then that awkwardness disappeared when I actually talked to him. It was like he never left," she recalled that day. "I had fun, a lot of fun actually. We talked a lot, about him in the States, his parents, you and Hyun Joong oppa, work, almost everything really,"

"Does he want you guys to get back together?"

"Yeah… he does."

"What are you going to do?"

"I don’t know Yoona, I really don’t know. The feeling is definitely still there after all these years, but I don’t know if I trust him enough to go back to the way we were,"

*

"Tiffany," Park Jaebeom looked at his little cousin from the leather seat behind his desk and pointed at the envelope which she had just placed on it. "What's this?"

"Oppa, I'm resigning,"

Great. Just great. He had just come back from his overseas inspections of the hotel chain, a long and gruelling argument in New York with his on-off girlfriend Jessica Jung, and now that he was back in Korea, he was facing his younger cousin who had just handed in her resignation letter. Awesome. Tiffany, the head of the Public Relations Department for Park&Associates was resigning. Life must have some sort of hate for Jay Park. "Tiffany, why? You're good at your job,"

"I know I'm good at my job oppa," the younger laughed. "But I'm getting married soon, and you know that. I need to spend more time for wedding preparations, and I can't exactly do that if I'm running Public Relations Departments both here and at Kim Enterprises." Tiffany knew how much of a headache this would be for Jay, and went to give him a shoulder massage. "I've found a new replacement for my position here, so don't worry. I'll happily come back to help you if you need it, but right now my wedding is more important,"

The inner child of him huffed. "F~ine. But you better be back to visit."

*

"Yah! Im Yoona! What took you so long to answer the phone?" It had been a long morning at Park&Associates, Taecyeon couldn’t seem to concentrate. Heck, he had been having trouble concentrating ever since that afternoon he and Yoona had gone out for lunch. She had freaked after seeing Lee Seung-gi from afar, and the thought of Yoona seemed to have lingered, bouncing about in his mind all day and all night.

"Yah! Taecyeon oppa! You do realise I have a job, right? I can't just answer the phone when I'm in the middle of work-" Yoona retorted. He had called a few times beforehand this morning, but she had been too busy editing photos at Happy Days to answer his calls.

"I don’t care if you're working or not. You should still answer the calls! Do you realise how many times I called you?"

"Ok Taecyeon!" she yelled into her phone. She had no idea why he had started giving her a lecture. Who did he think he was? Not only did he almost break her concentration while she was editing photos this morning with her phone vibrating from his continuous calling, but he was now having a temper tantrum at her for no reason. Two can play at this game, she thought to herself. "Why are you even calling!?" But before he could even answer, Yoona had ended the call and returned back to her work.

"Jei!" she shouted to her colleague, the in-house make-up artist. "Can you come have a look at these photos and tell me which one should go on Miss Wang's wedding invitations?"

*

"Yah! Don't cut me off!" Taecyeon yelled into his cellphone. He couldn’t believe it - Yoona had cut him off. As he redialled, all he got was voicemail. He was flustered to say the least, no one had ever cut him off in the middle of a phone conversation like that before. However, he could not keep redialling as there was a knock on his door.

"Come in," he yelped from his desk.

It was Yuri who had intruded into his office. "Here are the drafts of this month's advertising strategies and the analysis of the last cycle," she gave him the documents.

Suddenly, a light bulb switched, and the motors in Taecyeon's head stirred to life. "Yuri, you're just the person I need to see,"

"I am?" the woman pointed to herself, confused.

"Where does Yoona work? I need to talk to her, but she won't pick up the phone."

Yuri smiled. There was something about Taecyeon that told her he cared about Yoona. Maybe it was love? No, that couldn’t be. The two hardly knew each other. But he has been there these past two times when Yoona has seen Lee Seung-gi, she thought again. And with that, a plan formed in her head. If she could manage to make it look like Yoona and Taecyeon were going out, maybe Lee Seung-gi would leave Yoona alone and stop bothering her if he knew she had a boyfriend. Or at least a make-believe boyfriend. "I'll tell you, but you have to promise me something in return,"

"Okay?"

"I'm flying out to Japan next week for God knows how long for advertising meetings for our Japanese operations. That means that Yoona will be living at home, alone. I know that you know that someone called Lee Seung-gi has been following her these past few months, right?" He nodded, and she took this as a sign to continue. "So I want you to look after her for me, like a boyfriend or a brother would. Make sure she gets home safely, drop her off at work. Whatever it takes Taecyeon. I'm not asking as a colleague, but as a friend and as Hyun Joong oppa's family. Please?"

"You have my word."

Yuri grinned. "Thank you. She works for your friends, Nichkhun and Victoria at Happy Days as a freelance photographer." She smiled again before leaving his office.

Taecyeon thought for a while before he picked up his phone, and dialled for an old friend. Nichkhun.

*

Yoona was quietly working away at her desk at Happy Days, re-editing some recent wedding photos after she had gotten Jei's opinions on the wedding invitations for one of their many clients. Photography was her passion ever since she could remember. She may not have remembered much from her childhood in the States with her parents, but the one thing she did remember, was the many photo albums which dominated the bookshelf in her home as a kid. She remembered spending numerous afternoons at home on the weekends going through these photo albums with her mother and father. But that stopped the day they died in that fatal car crash and she moved back to Korea and into the countryside to live with her grandmother.

She wasn’t paying attention, but a shadow hovered above her work station, and a man's voice thundered, bringing her back to earth from her work."Im Yoona. Stop what you're doing. You're going to lunch with me."

Yoona could tell who it was without even having to look up at the figure. Seriously, who did the guy think he was? He wasn’t her boyfriend, he wasn’t her brother, and he definitely wasn’t her father. He had thrown a temper tantrum at her earlier on the phone, and now he was here at her workplace demanding her to stop what she was doing and go out to lunch with him? Does he realise that the world doesn’t revolve around him? Furthermore, how did he even know where she worked? She didn’t recall telling him. Yoona huffed and decided to that she would ignore the man, whose presence only frustrated her.

"Yah! Im Yoona!"

'Aish! This guy..' she thought to herself, before bursting at the seams herself. "WHAT?"

"Don't ignore me!"

"Don’t annoy me then!" and she huffed again before she went back to work.

Women these days, Taecyeon muttered under his breath. "Don’t make me pick you up from that seat Yoona. I will if I have to!"

Yoona swivelled around on her seat, and sent a death glare at the man. "I'll say this just once Ok Taecyeon. I don’t want to go to lunch with you. So leave me alone. I have work to do!"

"I don’t care if you have work to do! We are going to lunch whether you like it. End of story. Full stop. Period. Whatever." Before she could reply, Taecyeon easily lifted her up out of her seat and flung her over his shoulders.

Arms and legs flailing, she wailed, punched and tried to kick. None of it worked. "OK TAECYEON. PUT ME DOWN."

Taecyeon ignored her, and went into his buddy's office with Yoona on his shoulders. "Hey Nichkhun, I'm going to steal one of your employees for a while. She'll be back after lunch."

Nichkhun chuckled at the sight of his good friend Taecyeon, and Yoona flung over his shoulders. As they, well Taecyeon, made his way out of the business, Nichkhun faintly heard Yoona shouting "OPPA! PUT ME DOWN!" from the bustling city streets of Seoul.

*

"File a restraining order on Lee Seung-gi, Yoona."

"No."

"Why not?"

"Because I don’t want to, oppa."

"Just file a restraining order!"

"No!"

Yoona and Taecyeon had been having the same conversation over and over again ever since he put her in his car. Him demanding the same thing and asking the same questions, and her giving him the same, short answers every time. Frustration and annoyance soon took over as Yoona put down her knife and fork which she was using to eat her chicken salad. She didn’t understand why Taecyeon was being so pushy. "Can't you just drop this, oppa?"

Taecyeon did the same and stopped eating his grilled salmon. "I'm just worried about you and your safety, Yoona,"

"Well I don’t need you to worry about me or my safety!"

'Aish,' Taecyeon thought. '"Why are you being so stubborn Im Yoona! "

"Oppa! I have my reasons for being stubborn! So don’t be so annoying and just drop the subject already! Or… or.. or else I'll leave!" Yoona snapped at Taecyeon. She knew that she risked her safety for not filing for a restraining against Lee Seung-gi, but she didn’t want to bring trouble to her family. If she filed for a restraining order, it would no doubt leak out into the media, and that was not what Hyun Joong needed both for the sake of his upcoming wedding, and the stocks in Kim Enterprises. A restraining order would only bring trouble and concern to her family, which was something she did not believe was worth. Furthermore, Yoona believed that Lee Seung-gi meant no harm, it was just a case of mistaken identity, she was sure that it'll pass. Besides, what could he possibly do to her?

"Okay okay. So how has your day been so far?" he gave in for now. He would bring it up later, but for now, all he wanted was to enjoy the lunch and then make sure that Yoona got back safe and sound to work. He would keep his promise to Yuri.

*

Before they knew it, the day had come for Yuri, Yoona and Hyun Joong to pack all their belongings and move out of the Kim mansion which the three siblings had grown up in. That afternoon, Hyun Joong had already dismissed the housekeepers, and thanked them for their many years of service. The one person who was left for the three of them to thank, was Nanny Shin. Nanny Shin had been with the three kids since the very beginning, ever since Hyun Joong was born. She had filled the role of a mother for all three children when they each moved in, and taught them all life lessons and philosophy, for which the three of them were grateful for. In a way, Nanny Shin was responsible for each of their successes. If it hadn't been her, the three kids wouldn’t be who they were today.

"Nanny Shin," the two girls cried in their Nanny's embrace. "We're going to miss you so much,"

"You silly girls!" the elder laughed. "You'll see me around! And you can always come visit me in the rest home! Hyun Joong's wedding isn't too soon either, so we'll see each other then. Now now, stop crying, you're both going to make my shirt wet if you keep crying." The two girls let go and smiled at their Nanny.

"Come on you two," Hyun Joong butted in. "Nanny Shin needs to go now. You'll see her round, I promise,"

As they heard the beeping of a taxi arriving for Nanny Shin, the three of them walked her out the doors of the Kim mansion for the final time. After waving her off, they all returned back inside and got to work, packing the things they still wanted to keep into boxes, and labelling the boxes using different coloured stickers to show who's box was who's, so that one could easily identify where the box was going - with either Yoona and Yuri back to their apartment or with Hyun Joong to his new penthouse which he had recently bought with Tiffany. As they all went their own ways in the house to pack their belongings, in came Tiffany with a box of cupcakes and recruits!

"Oppa! Yuri! Yoona! I brought cupcakes! And reinforcements!" She yelled into the house as she put her things down onto the kitchen counter.

"Unnie!!!" Both Yoona and Yuri shouted and ran from where they had been in the house to give their unnie a bear hug. The two girls loved Tiffany. Ever since Tiffany and Hyun Joong had started dating three years ago, the two girls had treated Tiffany as their own sister - she was always spending time with Yoona and Yuri, and would often sleep over at their place when they had a girls night in. Needless to say, they were tight. When Yoona and Yuri found out that they were engaged, they couldn’t be any happier that Tiffany was going to be their sister in law.

"Hey hey," Hyun Joong's voice came through, and the two girls let go of Tiffany, moving onto the cupcakes to see what sort of delicious treat Tiffany had brought with her this time. "I missed you," the man said to his fiancé, who was now wrapped up in his arms.

 "Ewwww," Yuri teased the two lovers. "Go get a roo~m,"

"Ah yes!" Tiffany came out of Hyun Joong's embrace. "I brought reinforcements with me. They should be coming soon… Ahhh, here they are!"

Several men walked into the kitchen, and after a moments realisation, Yoona, Yuri and Hyun Joong recognised the boys - Park Jaebeom, Kim Minjun, Ok Taecyeon, Jang Wooyoung, and Lee Junho.

"Hyuuuuuuuuung!" Wooyoung squealed in his baby voice. "We've come to help!"

*

The group had finally finished packing and boxing long after the sun had set, and now, the moon and stars were up shining brightly in the dark night sky. Boxes to be kept had been loaded into a van which would then deliver them to the respective new houses, and the other boxes of things that they no longer wished to keep, were left in a corner, for various charity organisations to come pick them up the next day.

"Hyun Joong hyung!" Jay spoke up from his spot on the floor. "Since it's only 9pm and still kind of early, why don’t you guys come over to our house for a late dinner? Mother Won hasn’t seen you in so long,"

"Yeah hyung! Come!" The other brothers chimed in.

Hyun Joong looked at his sisters. It had been a long day and he wasn’t sure if they were energised enough to attend an impromptu dinner party. However, he was surprised when he saw the two as they were jumping up and down with excitement. "Yeah sure, it's been a while since I last saw Aunty Wonhee anyway,"

"Woooo!" Wooyoung jumped up from the floor, excited for the spontaneous dinner party. "I'll go give Mother Won a call and tell her we're all coming over then!" Wooyoung fished out his cellphone and headed outside to call their mother.

"Well Taecyeon, Hyun Joong hyung, and I all have our cars. How should we split the seats?" Minjun got up and asked.

"Tiffany and I both need to go with the movers so they can get in to put my boxes of stuff in our penthouse," Hyun Joong said. "We'll come after we're done,"

Jay eyed Hyun Joong suspiciously,  sensing that there was more to it. "Eeeeh! Hyung! If you two want to go have some happy time together, just say so!"

"Yah!" Hyun Joong flicked Jay's forehead. "It’s the truth!"

"What about you girls?" Taecyeon ignored the commotion beside him and turned his attention to Yuri and Yoona. "Do you need to go unlock your doors too?" Yoona didn’t say anything, but only nodded her head in response.

"Okay, Taecyeon will take Yuri and Yoona back to their apartment to unlock then." Minjun pointed to those whom he had just named, then turned to his brothers. "You boys are with me!"

Sensing this was the perfect opportunity for Taecyeon and Yoona to look like they were going out in case Lee Seung-gi was hanging around their apartment at this hour, Yuri suddenly said, "No! Yoona can go with Taecyeon to unlock. I'll go with you boys instead. I'm kind of hungry," Yuri laughed.

"Okay then! Yuri and the boys come with me!" an excited Minjun yelped to no one in particular.

After getting off the phone with his mother, Wooyoung returned to the group. "Taecyeon hyung, I call shotgun in your car!" Wooyoung announced without realising that seats had already been allocated when he had gone to inform Wonhee about the sudden dinner get-together.

Taecyeon chuckled at how Wooyoung always requested to be in his car. "Okay, but we're making a stop at Yoona's apartment first to unlock the door for the movers to get in,"

"Eh, forget it! I'll go with Minjun instead," Wooyoung waved off, annoyed that he would now have to stick with Minjun's driving to get home faster. "I want bread!"

-

"You really don’t need to drive me back to my apartment you know. I can take a taxi," Yoona told Taecyeon as they waved off Minjun's car load of people. Yoona was the last to leave as she volunteered to stay behind and lock up the windows and doors of the Kim mansion.

"You're not going anywhere by yourself Im Yoona," Taecyeon said, half joke half serious before steering her towards his silver sports car by her shoulders. "Not when you haven't filed a restraining order against him."

"Oppa," Yoona objected as he opened the passenger side door. She knew he was worried about her and the possibility of Lee Seung-gi standing around the entrance to her apartment, and she was thankful that she had met such a great friend. But sometimes he took the whole Lee Seung-gi situation a little too far, like the other afternoon where they had lunch together. "I'm just saying." she said after Taecyeon had gotten into the car as well.

"I know, now shut up and get some rest. You've been packing the whole afternoon until now. I'll wake you when we get to your place," he commanded as he helped her to click her seatbelt in place and drove towards the heart of Seoul where Yoona and Yuri lived.

*

"Mr Park," a man in a suit addressed his employer, Park Jin Young. "We have reason to believe that she knows about the history of your business. However, we cannot confirm that she's knows about your arrangement with her parents yet."

"How many times has she come in and asked for me?"

"Three."

Three times. Park Jin Young closed his eyes and rested his chin in his hands, blocking out the interior of his office at the JYP Building. So she had been here three times and asked for him. She had definitely found out that there was some sort of link  between himself, her parents, and this company; however, he could not be sure what.

'Im Yoona,' he muttered to himself. 'What is it that you’ve found out?'

*

Taecyeon was thankful for two things. One, that his car had tinted windows, and two, that he had not let Yoona come back to her apartment alone as Lee Seung-gi was standing at the entrance of the parking lot to her apartment. Taecyeon had driven in without him noticing that Yoona, who was sound asleep, was in the car with him. As soon as he found a parking spot that was out of Lee Seung-gi's view, Taecyeon gently woke Yoona up, tapping her shoulder while he clicked her seatbelt undone. "Yoona," he whispered into her ear. "We're here, wake up sleepyhead,"

"Oh?" She stirred awake, rubbed her eyes and started to get out of the car. "Okay, I'll be back in like 5 minutes."

"I'll come up with you,"

They both made their way from Taecyeon's car to the elevator in the lobby of Yoona's apartment, greeting the security guard who stood at the door that let them both in. "Ajusshi," there will be movers here soon with some of mine and Yuri's belonging. I'm just here to unlock the door for them to get in. Can you let them in and supervise them while they are here? I need to go back out once I've unlocked the door. They won't be bringing much, just a few boxes,"

"No problem Yoona," the uncle replied. "I'll send another security guard up with them so they don’t take any of your stuff,"

She thanked the security guard who had been working here for a good 20 years, she had heard from some of her neighbours. He was a sweet middle aged man who often told those of the younger generation his life stories as an ex-military man who fought against Afghanistan militant Islamists when he was in the British Army. After he left the army, he decided to come back to South Korea to be closer to his family. Yoona and Yuri often stopped to chat with him whenever they saw him, and regarded him as one of their own uncles.

The pair left the man and took the elevator to Yoona's floor. "The bathroom is on the left, first door if you need to use it oppa," Yoona said as she unlocked the door to her apartment, thinking that Taecyeon had come with her to use the bathroom.

"I'm not here to use that." Taecyeon said in a serious tone as he gently pushed Yoona inside. "Grab some clothes to last you the weekend. You're not coming back tonight. Not on my watch anyway,"

*

Hey guys, sorry for the late update - things like student loan and university forms just got in the way, but chapter five is up and thats all that really matters!