Taeyeon’s POV

“Tyler Kwon; thirty-four years old; graduated from Hanyang University with a bachelor’s in business. He opened up a bakery for his mother—”

“His dad died when he was a kid—”

“His mother was very sick and they lived off of the money from the bakery for six years.”

“But then Chairman Jung bought out the land on and around the bakery and the bakery was demolished along with fiver other businesses. They didn’t pay to have the bakery relocated. So they lost their store, meaning they lost their way of earning money, meaning he had no way of paying for his mother’s health. She died a year later.”

“That’s why he’s trying to kill the chairman. He wants all of the Jung family to pay for what the chairman did.”

When we were finished explaining, we waited in anticipation for a few long seconds.

“Very nice work, ladies.” The chief said. “I knew you’d figure it out. But this isn’t your case anymore. You shouldn’t have gone looking—”

“Sir, he called me.” I said. “He came looking for me. If it wasn’t for us, we’d all still be in the dark on everything.”

The chief look at us as though he was pondering something in his mind. “That may be so, but I never authorized you to continue this investigation. I will inform Jea and Mihye about the new information but that’s all.” He turned to leave but hesitated before looking back at us. “I don’t... approve.. of you getting back on the case… I don’t want to hear any more about it.” And he left the office.

The room was silent for a bit as I stared at the door. Hyoyeon sighed in frustration. “Well that was pointless. Chief just told us to stay out of it. What do we do now?”

“He didn’t.” Sooyoung said, a smile on her face.

“What?” Hyoyeon looked at Sooyoung’s smile in confusion. “Did you not just he—”

“He’s giving us permission get back in it.” I said, an equally big smile on my face. “He doesn’t approve but he’s not forbidding us.”

“’I don’t want to hear any more about it.’” Sooyoung quoted. “He was telling us to do it. He’s going to stay out of it.”

“So…” Hyoyeon said slowly. Sooyoung and I nodded. “..” Her lips formed a smile next.

“We’ve gotta work somewhere else then.” I said. “My house would be good.”

~~~~~

“So…” Hayeon hesitated, surprising me and the other two detectives in the living room. It had been days since we told the chief about our information. It was quiet for a while now as we all worked hard to find our next lead that we had forgotten Hayeon was even there. “Krystal told me Jessica’s big performance is in two days.” Hearing Jessica and Krystal’s names grabbed my attention completely; my laptop almost fell from the coffee table. “There are gonna be recruiters from a bunch of music industries apparently.”

A few breaths pause and I recovered from my minor heart attack. Building the wall back up, I looked back at my computer. “So?”

Hayeon hesitated. “So Krystal was hoping we would go…”

I stopped typing but refused to take my eyes from the screen. “Tell her I said thanks, but no thanks. I’d rather not go see the girl I love who doesn’t give a about me.”

“It wouldn’t be for Jessica, unnie…” Hayeon tried. “Krystal misses you. She can’t text you because they’re checking that stuff, but she really misses you. She wants you to go.”

“Chairman Jung threatened my job if I tried to see either of them.” I took a deep breath, trying to hide the pain in my voice. How much I wanted to see the two… “I’m not going to risk it.”

Hayeon looked at Hyoyeon and Sooyoung for help but they turned away quickly, not wanting to get into it. She stayed quiet too.

Hours later, Hayeon had been picked up by some of her school friends to go to a movie and left the three of us to work some more.

“It almost seems like he wanted us to find out who he is..” Hyoyeon groaned, leaning back on the couch. “I can’t find a damn trace of the guy from six months back.”

“Well he was definitely planning the assassination way before the attempt happened, that’s for sure.” Sooyoung said, mimicking Hyoyeon’s actions.

“Too bad he didn’t succeed.” I mumbled.

“Taeyeon!” Sooyoung hit me in the head.

“Ouch! What the , Soo??” I rubbed my head and glared at Sooyoung.

“That’s not something you say!” Sooyoung scolded. “I don’t care how mad you are at Jessica, you don’t wish for her death!”

“Wha— no… No! That’s not— I didn’t mean—” I stumbled over my words. “You took that wrong! I meant it was unlucky for him that it failed! Not that I wish it didn’t fail!” Sooyoung narrowed her eyes at me. “I didn’t mean it like that, I can’t believe you’d think that!”

Hyoyeon nudged Sooyoung. “She didn’t mean it that way, Soo… Chill.”

Sooyoung nodded. “Sorry.” She mumbled.

I stood up and went to the kitchen for a drink. I pulled a few bottles of Soju from the fridge and started for the couch where my best friends had started working on their computers again.

A flash of light filled the house for a fraction of a second before a low rumble was heard from outside. I looked out the window to find rain pouring down in the dim light from the streetlamp.

Stupid rain... I turned back to see the laptops on the coffee table and stopped short. Rain…

My eyes widened and I rushed back to the girls and plopped down on the floor in front of the couch, bringing my laptop to my lap. “Rain!”

“What..?” Sooyoung asked.

“Rain!” I repeated. “The other guy that’s left! We haven’t even bothered checking up on him!”

“That’s because we don’t know anything about him…” Hyoyeon said. “We don’t even know his real name.”

I stopped again. Hyoyeon had a point. We knew nothing about him. “Wait…” I said slowly, remembering something. I got up and went to my bookshelf, where we messily created an entire shelf dedicated Tyler Kwon; from his files, to his work history, to his school yearbooks. I took a yearbook from the shelf and joined the two flustered girls on the couch.

“I read all of these yearbooks a few nights ago and I just remembered something I saw in this one. I didn’t think much of it before but now I get it!”

Flipping through pages and pages of teenage faces, I finally found the page I was looking for. “There!” I pressed a finger to the picture I was referring to. There stood a younger version of Tyler Kwon with his arm wrapped around the shoulders of a very attractive boy around the same age. The two were laughing in the picture and looked very close. On the picture was a quote:

“”You can’t have the thunder without the rain.””

“Rain!” I exclaimed again. “That’s him! That’s no coincidence!”

“What’s his real name??” Hyoyeon and Sooyoung had finally realized the importance of this.

I dragged my finger over the photo and onto a caption just below it:

“Pictured are best friends Kwon Tyler (left) and Jung Jihoon (right)”

~~~~~

Two days later, we were all once again in my house. I was pacing the living room, Sooyoung and Hyoyeon were on their laptops, and Hayeon was staring at me.

“Unnie!” Hayeon yelled. “Can you sit down or something?? You’re making me nervous.”

I sat on the piano bench.

“You know what’s still bothering me?” Hyoyeon said. “This Rain guy isn’t after the Jungs for vengeance like Tyler is. He’s just following him. What kind of a person agrees to help kill an entire family for their friend? A best friend’s job is to be there for their friend, yeah, but not to help murder. They are supposed to comfort them and talk them out of doing anything stupid.”

“They’re both just crazy people.” Sooyoung shrugged.  “No point trying to think like them.”

I sighed and turned to face the piano. I need to clear my mind…

As though my hands heard my thoughts, they started playing. My eyes closed automatically as I felt my body become one with the musical instrument. It was the song I played first after all those years of avoiding pianos. The song my father loved the most. The first song Jessica heard me play that day on the stage of her school auditorium. Instead of my imagination drifting to my father like it had before, it drifted to her. To every time we had together. Every kiss we shared, every time we laughed, every single night we snuggled up to one another. Every “I love you” we said. It all felt like a dream now. How could all of that truly mean nothing to her when it meant so much to me?

“It was almost terrifying to watch you beat up Taecyeon.” She said.

“I was a little mad..” I said. “I don’t know what got into me.”

“Remind me not to make you mad.”

“I wouldn’t hurt you, Jess. Know that. I’ll hurt someone for you. But not you.”

“My hero.” She smiled.

“You really scared me, Jess. You know that? I thought I was going to get there too late.”

“Well you go there right on time, actually.”

She finished up on my lip and looked down at my hand. “Geez, Tae..” She took my hand gently and lifted it up.

 Three of the knuckles were busted and covered in blood.

“I didn’t even notice.” I chuckled.

I watched her as she cleaned and bandaged my knuckles. She’s so gentle. Every bit of me wants to keep her safe at all times. Even when she’s not here anymore. It’s not just my job to protect her anymore. It’s my instinct.

“All done..” she said lightly.

“That’s good.” I muttered, not taking my eyes off of her.

“Thank you, Taeyeon.” She said, gazing back at me.

“For what?”

“Being you.”

That was our first kiss. I remember exactly how I felt when it happened; I remember how her lips felt on my swollen one; I remember everything.

But how much longer will I remember? I don’t remember much about Hara anymore. I don’t want to forget about Jessica..

“I didn’t know you played the piano.” A voice came from behind me. I abruptly stopped playing and wiped the tear from my face.

“There’s a lot you don’t know about me.” I said without looking back. Jessica sat beside me on the bench as I made room for her.

“I see that.” She said. “I would like to, though.”

“Like to what?” I asked.

“Know more about you.” She said. “Like this.” She gestured to the piano. “Will you play it for me?”

I hesitated. “I don’t know..”

“Why not?” She asked.

“This is the first time I’ve even touched a piano in eight years..”

“Why?”

I remember playing for her without a problem. She felt safe to me. We almost had our first kiss that day.

“Jessie, don’t forget that we have to finish our props for our performance.” Tiffany’s voice cut everything off.

“Performance...” I repeated aloud, my eyes open again. “Performance.” I stopped playing immediately and turned around to look at the other people in the room. “It’s tonight.”

The other three girls looked at me with the look they had been using a lot nowadays. “What’s tonight?”

“The performance. Jessica’s performance.” I said as though everyone would suddenly understand what it was supposed to mean. When I got no reply I continued. “In that one little phone call I had with Tyler Kwon and all the waiting and all the thinking, I feel like I finally know all I need to know about him!” Yet, the other girls still had no idea what I meant. “Tyler Kwon wants it all to go out with a bang. He has known where the Jung sisters have been moved to this whole time but hasn’t made any action to get them. Why do you think that is?”

Sooyoung was the first whose look changed from utter confusion to slow realization.

“He called me to get me rallied up and want to fight back; to get back into it. Because I was a challenge for him. This guy likes challenges, but the bigger the challenge, the more flare he has in the end. He tried to kill the sisters during a 2NE1 concert the first time where there are tons of people to witness it. This performance tonight is going to be full of people. It’s the perfect time for him to get back into action!”

Now, everyone understood. “But what about you?” Hyoyeon asked.

“What about me??” I countered, understanding what she meant. “He doesn’t care that much if I’m part of it. He was hoping I would figure it out before tonight, but he’s not going to miss his chance just to have me involved.”

“So what you’re saying—” Hayeon got up from her spot on the couch.

“What I’m saying is that we have—” I checked the watch on my wrist. “three hours to get ready. We’re going to watch Jessica perform.”

~~~~~

There were a lot of performances tonight. I should have figured this wasn’t all about Jessica’s and Tiffany’s performance. It was already 9:25 PM and there was still no sign of Jessica, though there were some very entertaining performances: a few interpretive dancers, pianists, cellists, violinists, singers like Jessica herself, even a rock band (who were actually very good).

Hayeon had spotted Krystal in the beginning and ran to join her and Amber. I didn’t want to see the blonde so I stood my distance away, keeping out of sight from her.

“Jessica should be coming up after these next two.” Sooyoung said from behind the program.

“You really know how to clean yourself up, Soo.” Hyoyeon said, looking Sooyoung up and down. She was wearing a short black dress that showed off her gorgeously long legs and that defined her figure. Hyoyeon wore the kind of suit a detective from Criminal Minds would wear (“I wanted to get the moment right.” She explained.), and I wore a simple black button-down shirt. To keep the “formal wear” requirement for entry, I threw on a black tie but that was it. Under mine and Hyoyeon’s clothes, was a bulletproof vest just in case. Sooyoung’s job was to keep everyone calm if it went downhill.

“You look like a butch lesbian, Hyoyeon.”  Sooyoung said. “Aren’t you supposed to be the straightest one out of all of us??”

“This is professional detective , Soo. You wouldn’t understand.”

“If my theory was correct, Rain and Tyler Kwon should be here.” I said. “But I don’t see either of them..”

“And now, I would like to present two of my most talented students!” A voice came from the speakers. We looked up at the stage to see Jessica’s teacher speaking through a microphone. “Please put your hands together for Jessica Jung and Tiffany Hwang, who will be preforming an original song they made!”

The crowd applauded as the lights dimmed.

“Eyes sharp.” I said. “Spread out.”

We separated; Sooyoung walked down one isle while Hyoyeon walked down the other. I stayed in the back, scanning around the entire auditorium.

"How would you like a cup of coffee
What would you like to say…”

The whole place was dark, making it almost impossible to see anything but the one spotlight on Tiffany. How the hell are we gonna find them??

"What kind of coffee do you like?”

I couldn’t keep myself from doing it. I had to.. I looked up at the stage to see a second spotlight on her. Her angelic face was thinner than usual. Her whole body was thinner than before. Or have I already started forgetting what she looked like? Her voice affected me the same way it always did. I was mesmerized; staring at her as though she were the light at the end of the tunnel I’d been driving in for weeks.

“I want to know you better
That person in my heart is like sweet caramel"

“UP THERE!” came Hyoyeon’s voice through my ear piece. “I SEE HIM!”

I looked toward her dark figure to see her pointing above me. I moved closer to the audience to get a better look. There he was; which one, I couldn’t tell. He was moving on the balcony and there was a long object with him.

“He’s got a rifle with him!” Sooyoung cried.

I ran for it. Without a second thought, I ran for the door at the back of the auditorium and up the stairs. Opening the door at the top slowly, gun in hand, I quietly stepped closer to him. It was Tyler Kwon. He was working the scope on his rifle now, already in position for his assignation. I got as close to him as I could without pressing my gun’s barrel to his head.

“Drop the gun and put your hands where I can see them.” I ordered. He straightened up a little but didn’t put his hands up or drop the gun. “Put down the rifle, Tyler.”

“Why would I do such a stupid thing like that?” He asked. His cruel voice was calm and amused.

“It’s over, Tyler.” I said. “You’re too late. I’ve got you surrounded.”

“Alright, I’ll go quietly. After I finish this.” He readied his rifle in his hands again.

“I said to ing drop the gun, Kwon!” I ordered, much louder this time. The performance was loud enough to drown out my voice completely from the audience. “You make one more movement for that trigger and I will blow your ing brains out.”

Finally, he listened. He set the gun down on the floor, but left his hands at his sides. “You’re not going to shoot me, Taeyeon.”

“Yeah? How much are you willing to bet?” I challenged.

“You don’t want to shoot me.” He said. “Shooting me would be too quick. You want me to suffer.”

“A nice long life locked up is what you’re going to get. Knowing you'll be some other man’s will help me sleep at night.” I answered honestly. “But death at my hands is a very appetizing thought.”

“So which one will it be?” He asked calmly.

“Put your hands on your head now.” I commanded.

“Yes officer.” He obliged. I got closer, keeping my pistol pointed at him until I couldn’t anymore. I grabbed at his hand to pull it behind him. He spun fast and before I had time to block, I felt his knuckles on my face.

“!” I stumbled backward a little before I looked up. He was facing me with his fists clenched, ready for a fight.

“You’re gonna regret this.” I growled. “You should have just gone quietly.”

“I’ve been quiet for too long, Taeyeon.” He smiled hard.

“Taeyeon, what’s going on???” Sooyoung shouted through the earpiece.

“Stay where you are.” I ordered. “I’ve got it under control.”

He lunged forward and I dodged, moving to the left and connecting my leg with his gut. He straightened up and threw an arm at me and I blocked with both of mine. His other arm came next, but I blocked again. He tried a few more times, but I was skilled with my blocking.

Deciding it was best to switch to the offense, I grabbed his arm when it came round again, pinning it between my arm and my ribcage and slammed my open hand into his throat. He gagged and backed away, giving me a chance to take action. I ran at him and power kicked his hunched over body. He flew a few feet before hitting the floor.

“Augh..” He groaned.

I came up beside and threw my fist at his face. He moved just in time and my hand slammed into the carpeted floor of the balcony. I cried out as he rolled away and back onto his feet. He came at me, fist flying at me again and I blocked, sending my own fist to his face. I felt the contact and charged my right hand toward his ribs. He blocked in time and threw his head forward, hitting me in the mouth. I stepped back and ran my hand over my mouth to find that my mouth was bloodied. I spit blood on the floor and focused my attention on the man in front of me. He had a big cut on his cheek from my punch but that was all.

I lunged at him, throwing my fist at him hard, but he blocked. He was next with punch, but I blocked. The fight was equal in skill, I had to admit. It went on for a bit more with us only getting in a few good punches, but most of it was all blocked.

“Now I would like to present another song by Jessica.” The teacher from earlier said through the speakers.

Distracted by the name, I stopped for merely a second and felt his hand hit my face with the force of a car accident. My vision was sprinkled with white spots as I my feet lifted off the floor and I slammed into the wall behind me.

“ARGH!!” a sharp pain erupted from my shoulder. I looked down to see Tyler’s hand clutching a handle against my shoulder. I retracted his hand and pull with it, a knife. He brought the weapon back down, but I moved away and it sunk into the wall instead. He tried again and I swatted his attempt away sloppily, my whole arm burning now. The knife cut my cheek but that was all. I took his arm when he tried again and twisted it powerfully before ripping the knife from his hand and sinking it into his leg.

“!” He cried. He pulled it out and gripped it in his hand again. “I’m going to ing kill you.”

He lunged at me but I moved away, grabbing the clothes on his back and throwing him in the wall. I hurled my elbow at his back and kneed him in the stomach before he moved away. I got in a few hit to his face before he pushed me against the wall again. I saw him push his knifed hand to my face and I grabbed hold of it. We worked our strength against each other, me fighting the knife away and him fighting to stick it in my head. I drove my leg between his legs, kicking him in the baby maker and he dropped to the ground, clutching his junk in pain.

Now was my chance. I got behind him and took hold of the tie around his neck. I wrapped it around his throat and pulled it toward me, cutting off his airway. He immediately abandoned his manhood and reached for the tie, trying to pull it free.

“You messed with the wrong girl.” I said in his ear as he gagged.

He reached behind him in search of my hands or face. He found my face first and I gritted my teeth as he clawed at me. I pulled at the tie even harder and he dropped his arms, wheezing away from air. Suddenly, I was lifted from the floor as he pushed himself to his feet. I wrapped my legs around him, refusing to let go. His hands were back on the tie and his legs were moving. He backed into the wall and I slammed against it, feeling the air leave my own lungs from the impact; but I didn’t loosen my grip. I tried again, slamming me in the wall a few more times to no difference.

He was getting weak, I could feel it. He was shaking now. His bod turned to the left, and then the right and forward again. And then he ran. And I felt my heart sink but I didn’t have time to react before he flipped off of the balcony.

And I was falling. Falling to the ground bellow me. Falling to the table covered in computers and cords and speakers.

The impact was like death. How am I still awake? I opened my eyes slowly to see the high ceiling but that was it. And then the room grew dark. Darker than it already was. I closed my eyes and that was it.

Long update for my lovely readers! I hope you liked th fight scene. I know this chapter probably seems kinds of rushed but so sorry! There's Jessica go though! Told you it wasn't in the way you'd excpect! XD Anyway, you'll be seeing more Jessica now so stop being so angry with me!! Hahaha. I have to go to work in like 3o minutes so I don't have time to check for mistakes on the fight scene yet.

Anyway I have an announcement that I hope you all read! I put it up a week ago so you might have seen the blog it already or not who knows XD Be sre to read it guys, it would mean a lot to me if you did! Link to it is right here :)