CHAPTER TEN

Jina rereads the document on her hands. Almost a month’s worth of gathering pieces of information concerning the recent scandal that Kim Foods is facing yielded a report and a video further strengthening Jaebum’s claim.

Based on the CCTV footage, an unidentified woman met with Choi Youngjae and handed over a folder to the latter – the same one that Youngjae had given Jina when he said that he had a product proposal.

‘But what if he just used the same folder when he submitted his proposal’ she tries to convince herself though deep down, she knows that something is wrong.

‘I need to see him about this…’

She grabs her bag and takes out her car keys. As she leaves her office, she tells her secretary, “I’m leaving early, Youngji. I have to meet someone.”

“But Mr. Tuan said he’ll fetch you after—“

“I’ll talk to him and let him know. Thank you.”

-------------------------------------------------------

“Ahgase Street… Ahgase… Ahgase…”

Jina scans all street signs she passes. Im Jaebum apparently lives somewhere called Ahgase Street.

Almost half an hour of searching after, she finally locates the said street.

“Oh, there!” she exclaims. “So that’s Number 7, Ahgase Street…”

She passes a few houses before she finds the one she’s looking for.

She exits her car and straightens her dress, composing herself. After the humiliation that she had caused him, she doesn’t even know how she will face Jaebum. ‘Should I say sorry? Should I tell him that I’m investigating this?’

A few minutes have already passed and she hasn’t rung the doorbell yet.

“What’s wrong with me? I am never nervous like this…”

“Excuse me, how may I help you?” a voice asks from behind.

Jina slowly turns around and as expected, the man she came looking for is standing before her.

The man instantly recognizes her. “Miss Kim… What… brings you here?”

For the first time in her life, Jina felt like she’s lost her voice and she could not answer such a simple question. ‘I was wrong… This man…’

“I… I…” she starts. She could not look Jaebum in the eyes.

“You know, I don’t understand… How can you have the guts to come here after what you did to my son?”

Jina looks up. “What do you mean? What did I do?”

“Stop playing innocent, Miss Kim.” Jaebum turns his back at her.

“Mr. Im, please tell me. I don’t know what you’re referring to!”

Feeling his anger rise up again, Jaebum hurries inside and slams the door, leaving Jina outside. “Just go away!”

“I won’t unless you tell me what’s going on!”

For the next ten minutes, Jina pounds on the door, trying to get Jaebum to open it.

Finally, the door opens and the man faces her. With what looked like a disgusted face, Jaebum tells her, “I can’t believe there are people like you, Kim Jina…”

Jina opens to speak but the man slams the door once again but not before he throws a piece of paper right at her face.

She reads it, “If you don’t want him to disappear, stop bothering us.”

Jina could feel goosebumps all over her body. ‘Who would do such thing?’

Realizing that the man is thinking it was her doing, she could only shake her head in disbelief. ‘I just uncovered the truth about the stolen recipe and here’s another problem…’

From inside the house, Jaebum observes Jina’s reaction to the letter. Seeing how she’s surprised herself, he is confused. ‘How could she not know?’

Somehow, he’s considering that maybe the woman wasn’t the mastermind of the kidnapping of Bambam. ‘But who was?’

-------------------------------------------------------

Jina hurries home and scrutinizes the letter. For some reason, she feels nervous seeing it. She feels that she knows the sender of the letter.

“There must be something in here that could give me a hint…”

She inspects the side where the message is written but finds nothing.

‘It won’t hurt to try, right?’ she tells herself as she flips the paper and scans the blank side. ‘This is silly—‘

The hairs at the back of her neck stand seeing a very familiar signature at the bottom right. The writing is small but looking closely, one could tell that it wasn’t dirt or a random scribble.

‘Oh my god.’

-------------------------------------------------------

The next day at Kim Foods…

“Youngjae, tell me who gave you the recipe, this proposal.” She places down the folder containing the stolen recipe in front of her subordinate.

“Miss Kim, I don’t know her. I absolutely don’t know her name. She just came to me and said that she had an idea she thought our company might use. According to her, the proposal was hers so I reviewed it. Indeed, it was a good one. She said I could take all the credit for everything which I did. She said she’d be happy sharing her idea to our consumers.”

“But why did you accept a proposal from a complete stranger? Don’t you think that was very careless of you? She could’ve been a decoy or something!”

Youngjae looks down, embarrassed. “I’m so sorry, Ma’am. Please don’t fire me…”

‘If only this is as simple as that…’ Jina wanted to tell him but doesn’t. “You may leave.”

The man bows to her and leaves her office right away.

Stressed about Youngjae’s confession and the fact that she can’t do anything about it, Jina decides to go out and get some fresh air. She rides the elevator and thinks to herself as she waits for it to reach the ground floor.

‘If I fire him, people will suspect that something’s wrong. They’d wonder why he got sanctioned or fired when he supposedly coined the company’s latest hit.’ she thinks to herself. ‘Oh, and not to mention that there are rumors of him being a puppet of one of the executives here…’

As much as she wanted to have Youngjae face the consequences of what he has done, she also doesn’t want to put the company’s reputation at risk.

‘What will happen to him if people find out he also planned to kidnap Jaebum’s son?’

Her question is answered right away as she reached the ground floor of the building. People gathered outside as police officers arrested Youngjae.

“I’m innocent! Please let me go!” The man protested.

The police officer shows the young man a piece of paper and Youngjae could only deny and yell that he’s innocent.

Jina lets out a sigh seeing the promising product manager get taken away by the police. However, as soon as she realizes what the paper may have contained, she rushes to the building’s basement where her car is parked.

She finds her car’s door open but everything looked intact. She rummages through her things but finds nothing missing except the piece of paper. She is relieved that she lost nothing important but she is also afraid of how everything is turning out. ‘Who is doing all this?’

-------------------------------------------------------

A helpless Youngjae sat on the cold floor of the prison. “This isn’t happening… This isn’t happening…”

“Choi Youngjae …”

Hearing the voice call him, he stands and runs towards the bars. “Please help me!” he begs.

“I can’t.”

“I thought you wouldn’t let this happen!”

“I didn’t say anything like that. I just said I will help you with your career. That is all.”

“How could you do this to me?”

“Didn’t you say you will pay me for giving you your job that easily?”

“I did but—“

“Well, this is how you pay. Thank you.”

“Please don’t go! Help me, please!”

Any guesses on who Youngjae was talking to at the end? :> That person's kinda mean, don't you think? haha

I'll try to post the next chapter as soon as I can but I'm rethinking the plot and I'll plan again the scenes. Hopefully, I'd sort everything out asap ^^

Please do leave comments, upvote and subscribe!