A week later...

The strong smell of coffee wafted into my nose and for a brief second panic invades as I think that the events of last week didn’t happen but then I slowly open my eyes and see Siwon sitting up on his side of the bed with a small cup of expresso in one hand and a newspaper in the other and my panic disappears.

I silently stare at him, making no move to let him know I’m awake, finding joy in the fact that now I can freely be with him without interference. Finally having the freedom to do what I wanted brought me happiness but I still found myself wishing that the events leading to it had been different and yet at the same time, I wouldn’t change a thing because then I wouldn’t be staring so lovingly at my knight in shining robe.

I moved a little, pretending to have just woken up, Siwon puts the newspaper down and looks at me with a bright smile on his handsome face.

“Morning my love.” He says in a quiet tone, taking a sip of his expresso.

“Morning.” I said reply as I sit up, leaning against the headboard of his bed.

“Sleep well?” He asks me, holding out his cup of expresso towards me, I know its too strong but I take it anyway and have a small sip, the bitterness of it alone was strong enough to wake me up fully.

“I slept okay and you take your coffee too strong.” I say giving the cup back to him, scraping my tongue against my teeth to remove the bitter taste from it.

“My coffee is fine, thank you very much.” Siwon’s lips form a pout as he regards me for a moment and then his expression becomes serious. “Are you sure you want to go back to work this morning? I can give you a couple of more days, there is no rush for you to get back to work.”

If I said yes to that, there was no doubt in my mind that he would stay with me when he should be in the office, running his company. I like that he puts me before his work but he needed to choose his moments more carefully.

“I’m fine, I have to get back to work. I’ve been such a lazy bone this last week and I miss seeing everyone, Sungmin and Shindong have been messaging me non-stop.” I said, leaning towards Siwon, giving him a light kiss on his lips before getting out of bed and going straight to the bathroom to get ready.

Once we were both ready, we headed to the office where I was accosted with hugs as soon as I’d gotten out of the elevator. Siwon had left me at my desk but not before returning my kiss from this morning, he had walked away with a smirk on his face and a spring in his step while I turned bright red and hid in my cubicle from everyone’s incessant teasing and jesting.

Zhoumi had come like a saviour on horseback shooing everyone away, telling them to get back to work instead of bothering me, slyly reminding them about the deadlines they had to complete.

“Why aren’t you at your desk Zhoumi? As Hangeng’s secretary, I think you would have plenty to do.” I mused as Zhoumi let out an exasperated sigh.

“You would think so but no, he is late today and I can’t go over the financial reports without him, he has to sign the papers so I can process him. Ever since he got with Li Yin, his head has been in the clouds!” Zhoumi complains, he grabs an extra chair and sits outside my cubicle, slouching and looking utterly miserable.

“He’s in love, it happens.” I simply say to him, he scoffs in reply and then his eyes go wide as if he remembered something.

“! He never signed the payroll sheets yesterday!” He exclaims and scrambles away, taking the chair with him.

I giggle to myself as I watched him run away, knowing that Zhoumi can be a scatter brain when he wants to be. I compose myself before beginning to start on the documents that are piled on my desk, begging to be finished. I move closer to my desk when my feet hit something underneath, I bend down and see a box filled with packaged water bottles, a yellow sticky note grabs my attention on the box as I read it.

“DON’T WANT YOU GETTING THIRSTY WHILE WORKING, THESE ARE FOR YOU AND YOU ALONE. XOXO ZHOUMI.”

I smiled at how thoughtful my friend is, he always looks after my needs. I take one of the water bottles and prop it next to my computer so I can reach it for when I get thirsty. By the time lunch came around a few hours later, I had already consumed three of the water bottles. It was pretty convenient having the water within arm’s reach, I’ll have to thank Zhoumi when I see him next.

“Ryeowook.”

I look up from my computer, Shindong and Sungmin are standing in front of my cubicle, both holding stacks of files.

“What’s going on?” I ask standing up, taking a look around the room for any indication of something wrong.

“You need to come with Shindong and me to the meeting room.” Sungmin says and walks away with Shindong silently following behind him.

I quickly press save on the files I’m working on and head to the meeting room, running into Donghae as I did so. I noticed he had files as well and it made me wonder what was going on.

“What’s going on, Hae?” I asked as we walked through the door.

“I don’t know but Hyuk and Siwon don’t look too pleased about it.” Donghae whispers to me as we part to take our seats on opposite sides of the table.

My gaze went straight to Siwon and indeed, he did not look happy at all. What the hell happened for him to look like he wanted to murder someone? Hyuk and Heechul looked just as bad and there was a tense atmosphere in the room, everyone around the table seemed nervous and anxious, no one was making eye contact with Siwon or Hyuk.

“We have a problem.” Siwon announces with a strained expression on his face, he picks up a file from the stack before him and slams it on the table.

The room is waiting with bated breath for him to continue speaking, my eyes went to the file he threw on the table. It said Financial Statement on the side, was that the paper Zhoumi was talking about earlier?

“Money is missing from the company accounts.” Hyuk says with an equally strained expression as everyone lets the statement sink in.

“How much is missing?” Kyuhyun asks.

“The money missing from the company accounts totals to just over 1 Billion dollars.” Heechul answers with a sour look as the room erupts in outrage.

“WHAT?!”

“HOW DID THIS HAPPEN?!”

“WHEN DID THIS HAPPEN?!”

Siwon gestures for everyone to be quiet, nobody could quite fathom how such a thing was possible. As I looked around the room, the reason for Zhoumi and Hangeng not being present suddenly made sense.

“The money was siphoned from our accounts two hours ago, Hangeng and Zhoumi caught it and came to us. The I.T department is trying to trace the hack that was used to bypass our security firewalls and steal the money.” Siwon explains with pursed lips.

“How do you know it wasn’t an inside job, like someone from the financial or marketing team?” Shindong says only to be met with protests and furious faced Kyuhyun.

“Choose your next words wisely, Shindong.” He seethed to the chubby male opposite him.

“Settle down Kyuhyun, no one is blaming anybody as this was clearly an outside job, the I.D of the hacking code tells us that much.” Heechul clarifies giving Shindong a glare that pretty said to be silent.

“So what is the next move?” I asked, Siwon only glanced at me for a brief second, the coldness in his expression unnerved me, the doors of the meeting room opened and in walked Namjoon with Yoongi and Jungkook.

“Bangtan Corp have offered their help and we need all hands-on deck, give them your full cooperation as they will be with us until this is solved. Meeting is dismissed.”

Everyone took their files and left the meeting room, walking amongst themselves about the hacking. I was about to leave when Siwon gestured for me to stay put which I found to be weird. Why was he singling me out? Only myself, Siwon, Hyuk, Hae and Heechul were left in the meeting room along with Namjoon, Yoongi and Jungkook.

“Why am I here?” I asked once Namjoon and the others were seated, Siwon still looked at me with those cold eyes that made my stomach clench.

“Ryeowook, there is something we chose not to mention in front of everyone else. The I.T department did manage to find the origin of where the hack came from, we didn’t believe it at first but the evidence is too much to ignore.” Said Siwon.

I feel a chill settle in my bones and the sinking, unsettling feeling in my stomach. I just now notice the expression on Namjoon’s face, a mixture of anger and disbelief while Hyuk and Heechul’s are regarding me with sympathetic looks. Why were they looking at me like that? What couldn’t Siwon say in front of everyone?

And why wasn’t my brother and Kangin here? Surely, they would want to help Siwon and Hyuk out so why were they absent? My stomach drops as the sudden realisation kicks in, I look at Siwon and his face tells me everything.

“Its not them, Siwon!” I cry out in disbelief.

“The evidence is clear, Ryeowook. The hack came from your brothers’ company.” Siwon replies completely stone faced.

“He is being set up! Leeteuk and Kangin would never do such a thing!” I say defensively blinking back tears, there was no way my brother would do or even condone such a thing.

“The evidence doesn’t lie, Ryeowook. As hard as it is to accept.”

“No, I know my brother didn’t do this. Let me go talk to him and Kangin. Please.” I stood up and walked around the table to Siwon, his cold eyes following my every move until I was before him, feeling so much smaller under his hard gaze.

“Please give me a few hours to talk to him.” I begged, it took all the willpower I had to not drop on my knees. He gave me a hard, firm nod, I was sighing with relief on the inside as I went towards the door, only to be stopped by Siwon’s low voice.

“Namjoon will go with you.”

“Don’t you trust me?” I foolishly asked, knowing full well what his response would be.

“I’m sorry Ryeowook but until this is over, I can’t trust you.” Siwon says with an air of finality and dismissiveness that made me want to slap him and cry at the same time.

I left the meeting room not bothering to look at any of them with Namjoon following behind me, my footsteps felt like lead with every inch I took, I stopped by my cubicle briefly to get my phone, messaging Leeteuk that I was coming over, ignoring Sungmin and Shindong’s questions when I walked past them and entered the elevator. Once the doors were closed, I turned to face Namjoon.

“Do you believe my brother is guilty?’ I pointedly asked him.

“I don’t but I do believe that someone has gone through a great deal of trouble to frame your brother.” His reply relieved me and quietened the nervous feeling in my stomach. I grabbed both his hands in mine, he was startled by my sudden gesture.

“Namjoon, you have to help me. You know my brother would never do such a thing, he is not capable of it. I’m asking you to ignore whatever is said at my brother’s company, if it is as you say and someone has indeed framed Leeteuk then the next logical step in this person’s equation would be to come after me somehow so please help me.”

I held my breath as I waited for his response, the elevator seemed so small for some reason, my brain was running ragged trying to figure out who could have done this, no name stands out to me. I couldn’t even think of a single person who would want to hurt my brother, that was the frustrating part.

“I’ll help you, Ryeowook. I, too don’t believe that your brother is capable of it and I will do everything in my power to get the truth but I will still have to tell Siwon what I see and hear at your brother’s company. I don’t think that Siwon really thinks your brother is responsible but the trail of evidence is too hard to ignore, that is why we need to find the culprit as soon as possible.” Namjoon says with an expression of wisdom beyond his years and I am thankful that for now, he is on my side.

“Thank you, Joon.”

~

“Framing the brother was an excellent idea, Jaejoong.” Xiah commented gleefully while Jaejoong typing away on his laptop. He was insanely pleased knowing that behind those office doors, in their ivory tower, that Siwon and Hyukjae would be mad beyond all reason and that is the very distraction Xiah needed to start his actual plan.

“Where is Yoochun? He should be here with you.” Xiah wondered since Yoochun was actually the hacker, he found it odd that the male would be absent.

“He’s at home sleeping, he was up all night figuring out how to cover his tracks.” Jaejoong answers without looking up from the screen.

“If he hadn’t done a good job, he would have been caught and we would have been too. The fact that we are still here only proves he did more that just a good job.” Xiah praised with a smirk, he would have to give Yoochun a big reward the next time he saw him.

He could only imagine the outrage on Siwon’s face, the betrayal as he spoke to his lover. Xiah wished he could have been a fly on the wall just to see the chaos that had been caused by him. The end game of his revenge was coming, it left a sweet taste on his tongue that he loved and craved, being responsible for Siwon’s downfall had him feeling like he was on cloud nine.

“What about Yunho and Changmin?” He asked casually, noticing the sudden pause and sharp intake of breath from Jaejoong. Xiah walked over to him, closing the short distance, leaning over the desk.

“What’s with the silence, Jae? Where are they?” He asked in a low tone, his expression thunderous as he looked into the now terrified face of Jaejoong.

“Changmin detested the idea of seducing someone so he took his sister overseas, Yunho went with him.” Jaejoong tells him in one breathe, taking a big gasp of air and feeling like a traitor. He didn’t used to find Xiah scary or intimidating but when they lost their company, something inside of him snapped and he became an entirely different person. Deceitful, spiteful, no sense of morals and no regard for anyone else’s well being except his own, he only cared about himself. He waited for the outburst to happen but Xiah only smirked and leaned back, straightening himself.

“I had my doubts about Changmin but I confess that Yunho following him is a surprise, their loyalty for each other sickens me. Alas, this makes things much easier for me and now we don’t have to share the prize.” Xiah said with a predatory gleam in his eyes.

Jaejoong only frowned, his words were vague and cryptic, he felt uneasy with how secretive Xiah was being. That was never a good sign and the fact that he seemed all too pleased with Changmin’s defiance scared him to his very core, he should have gotten out while he had the chance. He only stayed in the hopes that Xiah would see sense and come back to them but his mind is too warped and now Jaejoong was stuck with no one to help him. Now he had no choice but to do Xiah’s bidding and hopes that when the time came to choose right from wrong, his own mind wouldn’t be warped.

“What are you planning, Xiah?”