[C h a p t e r 5 1]

The next morning after her encounter with Donghae, was the first time Amber set her eyes on , the man arriving to request private moment with Lee Soo Man as they were about to leave for the office. He was not a very spectacular looking man, rather ordinary except for the deathly air that hung around him as he walked, and a hardness to his eyes that meant business. Amber watched as they left together, feeling anxious at the fact that she had once again been excluded from his affairs. She now had the sinking feeling that Lee Soo Man was using Zhou to investigate into Donghae after yesterday’s incident and that he definitely no longer trusted her.

As she went to wait by the car, Key stepped out of the house, originally heading over to his car but instead veered over to Amber when he saw her. A small smirk spread across his cool face, one hand in his pocket while the other hung lazily by his side. Glancing at the other guards who were standing nearby, he stopped short several steps before Amber, mindful of the fact that he should not seem too close to Amber than he should be.

“I didn’t expect to see Lee Soo Man to leave you all alone again like last night, Amber,” smiled Key, glancing over his shoulder back at the mansion entrance. “But I wonder who the man that has so quickly taken your place is?”

Amber ignored him, moving to open the car door and step inside. However, Key came to stop her, refusing to allow her to close the door once she was seated inside. “What do you want, Key Kibum?” she hissed under her breath, throwing a wary glance back at the mansion’s entrance. She was conscious of ’s warning the other day and she wanted Key to go as far away as he possibly could from her.

Key raised an amused eyebrow, leaning in closer to Amber as he raised a hand to her cheek, his body hiding his action from any prying eyes. “Are you scared that my father will find out about… our ‘closeness’?” he teased as Amber swatted his hand away.

“There is nothing ‘close’ between us, Key,” snapped Amber. She sat back into her seat, crossing her arms as she stared ahead angrily. Key continued to watch her, studying her carefully.

After some time, he finally stood up with a nonchalant look on his face. “I suppose you are right, but perhaps the fact you have stopped referring to me as ‘Master Kibum’ might indicate that you have, in fact, become closer to me,” he remarked with a sneer.

“The only reason I have stopped referring to you as ‘Master Kibum’ is because I do not feel the need to respect you anymore. A man who is willing to have even his father murdered is not someone I would hold in high regard,” whispered Amber angrily.

Key narrowed his eyes angrily, gripping Amber roughly by the chin to turn her to face him. “Clearly you do not remember our little ‘conversation’ last night.” Leaning down, he pulled Amber’s lips to his, forcefully kissing her roughly. Amber tried to pull her face away but she couldn’t, his grip on her painfully tight. After several more second, he finally pulled away, a nasty glint in his eyes. “I told you before that I could have easily requested you to trade your body in for the secret of your lover but I decided that killing my father is of more importance. You too are also keen on eliminating my father as well, correct? In that case I suggest you never say anything like that again if you wish to keep your lover safe and your modesty intact.”

He suddenly shoved her face away and Amber turned to glare up at him with hatred. “I hope you finally think of a way to achieve our common goal soon, Amber. Time is running out not only for me, but for you as well. After killing the Group leader’s lover, I’m sure you would have realised that there would be someone investigating into the matter on his side. And although you’ve managed to hide your identity well for so many years, I’m sure that their new leader would have found it out by now if his challenge to my father is any means to judge him by.”

With that, Key turned around on the spot and walked over to where his sports car was parked in the garage. Amber watched him walk off, trying her best to control her outrage at Key. His advances the night before had been a nuisance as he came to pester her about a way to get to Lee Soo Man, his constant reminders of his blackmail also a bitter experience she’d rather forget. As she turned back around to close her door, Amber spotted Lee Soo Man finally exiting the mansion with Zhou by his side. Again, the uneasy feeling she had earlier returned as she watched Zhou walk off and Lee Soo Man entering the car from the other side. Without saying anything, Lee Soo Man quietly sat beside Amber as their driver pulled out of the driveway, Amber managing to catch a glimpse of Zhou as he watched them drive away with that hardness in his eyes.

Jessica sat at her usual spot by the window in the coffee shop across the street from the Sm Finance Corporation head office, gazing quietly at its front doors. She had been doing this since the other day after her little talk with Luhan and she had indeed found that it would be difficult to get to Amber . Luhan had warned her not to come directly to the office due to the slight possibility that Lee Soo Man’s men may know that she was the sister of Krystal but nevertheless,  still decided to come on her own to see with her own eyes the assassin who killed her sister. Now that she had seen Amber, she realised that even if she had walked past her on the street, she would never have figured her to be an assassin. On that note, she had to commend Luhan for managing to figure out her identity.

She turned away from the view of the office, sipping her coffee absently as she thought over the plan Luhan had proposed to her the other day. They intended to kidnap Amber for themselves instead of killing her outright, considering the possibility that they may be able to lure Lee Soo Man out personally seeing as he seemed to care about his ‘pet’ – as Luhan so casually referred to her as – quite a bit. At first, this sounded like an easy feat someone like Luhan could come to achieve, however, after seeing the way Amber travelled everywhere with Lee Soo Man, he found it becoming as difficult as Luhan first told him it would be.

The coffee shop was mildly busy, workers from the office buildings in the area every now and then popping in for either a quick cup or a long chat with friends. Amongst this crowd and those that wandered the streets, Jessica knew from Luhan that there were some members of the group hidden in their midst on surveillance duty. Several of them she had recognised, having seen them at Luhan’s mansion on her now frequent visits. A few others she suspected but wasn’t sure, only having seen them pay a little more attention to Amber and Lee Soo Man’s comings and goings more than was usual for an ordinary civilian. But even though she knew that Luhan’s men had managed to infiltrate the Syndicate’s territory this much, Jessica still decided to come, for doing absolutely nothing over the matter was going to drive her insane.

Several office workers entered the coffee shop, chatting good-naturedly with one another over the dealings within the Sm Finance Corporation. Usually, Jessica would always lend an ear in their direction, half-listening to their conversation in the hope that she would be able to find out any extra information on her enemy. But most times this proved futile, as the conversations were usually restricted to topics concerning the workers themselves and never their big boss. It was as if it was taboo for the employees of Sm Finance to speak about Lee Soo Man.

The group came to sit at a table behind Jessica after they had placed their orders at the counter, laughing loudly when one of them finished a tale about the photocopy machine and some new intern. Jessica was about ready to give up listening to their conversation when, suddenly, something one of them said caught her interest.

“Did any of you guys see how distant Lee Soo Man was acting towards that personal secretary of his this morning?” asked one of the men in a hushed voice. As Jessica’s back was facing them, she could not see their faces.

There was a slight uncomfortable pause before one of them answered, “You mean how he kind of ignored her presence more than usual?”

“Yeah, I kind of noticed that too when he walked past our division. Before he would remain quite close to her but it feels as if he is annoyed with her following him all over the place. I wonder what happened?” said a third.

The first man’s voice dropped to barely louder than a whisper and Jessica had to strain her ears to hear what he said. “Do you think it could be a lover’s quarrel? I’m sure you guys have heard the rumours about their relationship. They’ve always been so close together in the past.”

The other two immediately replied, “No way…” Then the second man continued, “She’s too young and scary for him. I think maybe she messed up on some important piece of work for him and he’s upset over that. They should be back to their normal ways sometime soon.”

As the conversation turned to another topic, Jessica returned to focus on her coffee cup as she thought over what those three workers had said. So Amber has somehow fallen out of favour with Lee Soo Man. Then that would mean their plan of using Amber initially as the bait would be useless. But from what Luhan had told him about Lee Soo Man and Amber’s relationship, it sounded as if nothing could ever break it yet here were three employees discussing that very impossibility. Standing up, Jessica walked out of the coffee shop and headed over to the nearest bus stop. This new piece of info was perhaps something Luhan would like to hear about.

Amber sat quietly behind her desk in Lee Soo Man’s office as she busily typed away on her computer. Every now and then she snuck a glance at the man, only to see him engrossed in the paperwork that lay in a big stack on his desk. From her PDA, she knew that Lee Soo Man had a meeting with a small company to attend down in the gangnam area. Yet the man made no indication of getting ready to leave whatsoever, even after Amber had reminded him merely minutes ago.

Clearing , she stood up and walked over to stand before the older man. “Master , it is almost 3:30pm. You have a meeting with Kim Industrials at 4. I suggest that we should begin heading over there, Sir.”

Lee Soo Man continued to read his document, ignoring Amber. She continued to wait patiently however, and as each second ticked by, she grew more and more anxious. Finally, Lee Soo Man snapped his file shut and slowly placed it down on his desk.

“Do you have all the documents ready to take over there?” he asked, slowly turning to look up at Amber with a blank look in his eyes. The shine he had once had in them as he peered at her was no longer there, and she found that even more unnerving than when he had stared at her brightly before.

“Yes, Master. The documents have all been prepared and are waiting on my desk.” Amber bowed her head slightly before walking over to her desk where she picked up several black folders.

Lee Soo Man only nodded his head. “Very well, then we shall get going. However, I will need to make one short phone call, so you can go wait downstairs for me first.”

Amber hesitated slightly before bowing her head and stepping around her desk to grab her pen. As she went to retrieve the pen from her draw however, she discreetly placed a mobile phone on her chair, pressing the call button before she promptly left the room with one last bow at Lee Soo Man. As she made her way over to the elevator, Amber removed her mobile from her jacket, pressing the answer button.

The volume was very faint but nevertheless, Amber could make out what Lee Soo Man was saying. His conversation was quite brief and he did not say much, but the last sentence he said as the elevator doors slid open chilled Amber to the bone.

“In that case, then go ahead and kill that boy tonight. As for the detective, make him your next target after him and I shall deal personally with my little treacherous secretary later.”

tbc.

I'm sorry for disappearing for months, but I was suffering from a case of writer's block .

Next Chapter: Lee Soo Man has now ordered Zhou to murder Donghae and Henry . What will Amber do??