chapter fifty-two | one secret message

"So before we move, I need to warn you that Minho knows every move that you have so we need to be really careful. One wrong move could be fatal. The last thing we will need is for this plan to blow up to our faces." Hyunseung started sipping from his cup of tea. "Hmm, darjeeling..." he inhaled its aroma and they rolled their eyes.

"Dude, focus. Focus." Seungri said in frustration before slapping his hand against his forehead then running it over his face.

Hyunseung chuckled. "I hate tension," he shrugged. "So as I was saying, no matter the outcome of this we all need to seem not eager to it. Nothing should change. You all should still hate us. Kwon should still looked like he wanted to murder Minho every time. You know those kind of stuffs."

"That's easy," Youngbae waved his hand and they allowed themselves for a small laugh.

"I will be taking care of Sanghyun and Mr. Yang. I have already thought of my moves. I'll be leaving you Kwon on your own against your butler. While the rest of you will be in charged of Mr. and Mrs. Park." Hyunseung seriously said. They all gave a nod. "Again, move as discreetly as possible. After all, Minho is still holding Dara." A silence over took them. Hyunseung pushed himself up grabbing one folder on the nearby shelf. He placed it down the center table. "Sign this," he slumped himself on the chair.

TOP sharply looked at him. "Sign? Wait, how can you be sure that we can trust you?" He looked at him suspiciously. Hyunseung gave him a what the look.

"For 's sake, I am throwing my life on the line here to help you and you are telling me that bull? You can't be serious." He rolled his eyes before burying his face on his palm. "Sign that Kwon, that's a marriage contract, certificate or whatever. You are eighteen right? That's the back up plan," he sighed.

"The back up plan?" they all asked in confusion as Hyunseung just gave them an overly arrogant smirk.

•••

Tonight, she will do it. There was clearly only one way to stop him and she was prepared to do it. Tonight, she will try to tell her father about Lee Minho's plan. She will tell him everything in order to stop him.

Preparing cookies and his favorite tea, Dara anxiously brought it to Hyunsuk's office. She willed herself that fake smile to hide her nervousness and she talked to herself, practicing every word that she will say. Taking a deep breathed in, she landed a knock on the wooden door of his office before pushing it open.

Minho warned her before. He told her that he knew every move she makes, every word she utters. But he couldn't know all of it, could he? She knew she was taking such huge risk. She even asked herself will it be worth it but all she wanted to do was to stop him before he successfully bring the destruction he promised.

"Dara, sweetheart," Hyunsuk smiled seeing his daughter came in with a tray that carries sweet oatmeal cookies and his favorite tea. Dara smiled sweetly. "Why still work when we are filthy rich?"Hyunsuk laughed at her statement. "Well,"Hyunsuk shrugged taking ample sip on his cup of tea.

"So tell me what brought you here," he asked making Dara cough. Was it too obvious? Come to think of it, this was the first time she did this so obviously she wanted something from him. She smiled at her father who looked at her waiting and expectant.

"Ahm... ehh..." she bit her lips, fiddled her fingers. "Minho..." she swallowed, Hyunsuk's eyebrows met at her word.

"What about your fiance, dear?" He asked after long seconds of silence.

"Well, I just... ahm, how long have you known him?" She quickly retaliated after her parade of embarrassing stuttering.

"Oh, that," he laughed. "I've known Minho since he was seven. I..." his expression softened. "Saw him almost dying the night that we thought we lost you," Dara turned to him, surprised. He saw him on that night? Almost dying?

I've planned this my whole life...

"Dad," she said breathless. She was twice confused yet she needed to tell it to him. This is the only way to stop him. With her fists clutching her pink dress. "Minho is–," she wasn't able to finish what she was saying when the door opened. Dara paled at the sight of him, smiling at her.

"Time for your medication, uncle." He smiled, holding a small silver case.

"Minho, just in time, Dara and I are talking about you," Hyunsuk smiled.

He smiled, "Hmm and may I know what about?" He chuckled placing the case on the table, Dara watched him fiddled with vials and syringe. She felt her heart thumped its way on . Hyunsuk chuckled,"Seems like Dara here is interested about our relationship," the old man ed his sleeves, pulling it up. She watched their every movement carefully, breathing strained.

"Oh, I am hoping you didn't turn her off," Minho chuckled, flicking his finger on the syringe. Dara felt her everything numbed. He bent down to rub alcohol on the spot he will be injecting the needle. His eyes met Dara's and she knew what will be coming, Sanghyun, her parents, her dad and even Jiyong. "Minho," she croaked and both jolted to look at her. "Please," she cried. What happened to her? She should be jumping to him right now, beating him to death but she was just frozen on her seat, crying. Defeated.

"Dara," Hyunsuk worriedly called. She shook her head, wiping her tears. Minho came to her, he crouched in front of her seat. He was holding both of her hands. "Are you okay?" He asked, looking straight in her eyes, in a tone like he genuinely care. She nodded hugging him tight. "Please, Minho, please," she burried her face in the crook of his neck.

"Okay, I'll let this slip but if this happens again, you need to say goodbye to one of them," he wrapped his arms around her, burying his face in his hair. Dara nodded. She fixed herself wiping her tears. She looked at Hyunsuk before bowing down in apology. "I'm sorry..." she burst once more. She doesn't know why she was too emotional, affected. She was shakened, too shakened.

"Sweetheart," Hyunsuk stood up but Minho stopped him. "Uncle, let me handle this." He assured as the old man looked at him before nodding. Minho removed his coat placing it on Dara's shoulder before he guided her out of the room to the room.

Why was she so weak? She asked over and over. What happened to her? Where was the old Dara?

She just felt cold with hopelessness.

The moment the door closed, Minho gripped her upper arm tightly. "What do you think you're doing?" He hissed clutching her booth cheeks with one hand. He was holding her roughly. Dara continued sobbing weakly. "I've told you already, didn't I?" He harshly pushed her away. Dara stumbled down on the floor. Embarrassing. She was ing embarrassing! How come she came down to this?

Minho grabbed her arm pulling her up he landed a back slap on her that made her fall back on the floor. "In case you don't know, Sandara, I can kill anyone without any hesitations! Not the likes of you will ruin everything for me!" He snarled.

For the first time, she felt helpless much helpless than when she was abducted with Sanghyun.

•••

Minho told everyone that Dara was not feeling well so she decided to stay in her room. Dara was lying on her bed, not crying, not moving and in some few seconds she felt as if she was not living. The door opened, she didn't bother looking on who entered, it's Minho, she knew.

"Minho left to do something, he told me to check on you because you might be doing something crazy again. I brought midnight snacks." She turned to look at Hyunseung as he placed the tray on the top of the bedside table.

"You look pathetic, Park!" He laughed sitting on the edge of her bed. Dara sat up, "Geez, thank you." Dara sarcastically remarked. Hyunseung laughed. Dara looked at him. Many things changed but Hyunseung remained steadfast, still the same crazy head.

"Wow, since when did you start being fan of books?" She asked pertaining about the book his holding.

"Oh this," he held it up, showing him the cover. Dara read the title which was 'One Secret Message for You'. "It's an interesting piece. A must read." He smiled. Dara looked at him before she got it. Though not sure, she could be just thinking of it but at least she tried. "Can I borrow? It looked good."

Hyunseung smiled. "Sure, here, just return it okay? That is interesting especially page 13, 27, 45 and 80," he laughed before glancing at his wrist watch. "I need to go," he stood up, grabbing one brownies from the snack he brought. "Good night, Dara,"and he was out of the room.

Dara looked at the book, flipped it over and over, she scanned the pages hoping for a letter between some page but there was none until she landed on page thirteen, her eyes widened. The page was blackened with pentel pen only some words remained forming new sentences.

One Secret Message For You | Seo Sangbin

      ███████act█████████████the████████sa██████me. ████mi████████████ho████████is█████████wa█████t ██████ching████ █████████████████████tomorrow. █████go███████████████████to█████████g███████ir███████ls███████████ ███████████lock██████████er█ █████████a███████████ct██████████as if████████ ████████you██████████are██████████████

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-13-

Act the same. Minho is watching. Tomorrow go to girls locker, act as if you are not feeling well. Wait for five minutes. Under bed three you will find a paper. Open locker 142. Read twenty seven tomorrow before leaving. Follow everything. One wrong move we are done.

Dara felt her breathing getting heavy. Her tears burst immediately. Hope. She has hope and she's not alone. She's not alone. She closed the book, hugging the book against her chest. "Indeed, this is one good book," she laughed wiping her tears away.

She's not alone.

•••

She has been studying in YG International School for two days and it was nothing but full of crap. She hated the facilities, she hated everyone. She looked at the view outside, she missed SFA. She missed her friends, she missed Jang. She missedJiyong. Sometimes, she's really torn between being thankful that she found her real family, knew her real identity and wishing that she never did.

"Yang," her history teacher called her and she finally saw her chance. She purposely didn't sleep and eat to look pale so that she has enough excuse. "Can you please give us a brief about Mayans," she continued. Dara stood up, everyone looked at her when she almost lost balance, placing her hand on her head. Her seatmate worriedly stood up to assist her. Somehow she was thankful that she and the rest of Minho's friends, even Hyunseung, were all in a different section.

"Yang, are you okay? Can you still stand up?" Their teacher worriedly went to her, gently asking her as she was rubbing her hand up and down her back. She gave a weak nod. "Nam, bring Yang to the infirmary," the teacher finally decided.

The moment they reached the clinic the school nurse assisted her to lie on bed three. She did a few checks on her when a student came running saying that someone in the varsity was injured and they are afraid to move him in his place, his fall was fatal. The nurse told her to stay on the bed and rest.

First, I want you to trust me. You need to do all of this in maximum of ten minutes don't get as much of attention as possible. The moment you saw the paper, look at it, memorize it then ripped it to small pieces. Throw it on the thrash bin in the clinic. Go to forty five. (page 27)

The moment you open the locker there will be a brown envelop there. Inside it will be papers that were covered. You can't read it. There will be a ballpen there, I want you to sign the parts that were uncovered and is asking for your signature. There will be a small paper there write anything that you want to tell Kwon. Again. Trust me.

When five minutes were already up, she climbed off the bed. She bent down to find the paper. She saw a small paper, opening it there was a set of four numbers.

7 4 8 3

She immediately ripped the paper and threw it on the bin. She carefully opened the door of the infirmary looking left and right. The coast was clear and she moved quickly as possible, the locker was in the end of the corridor. She broke into a light sprint entering the locker room when she heard someone yelled that some students in SFA trespassed. Her heart raced.

It's them. She knew. Her heart knew.

She snapped of her reverie and moved quickly. She found the locker and it has a yellow padlock. She placed the combination, opening it. The moment it was opened, she scampered for the folder. Like what the book said it was covered aside from some parts that were uncovered the parts were she was asked to place her signature. I trust you, Jang Hyunseung. She grabbed the ballpen and began signing the paper.

Lastly she saw the piece of paper. She bit her lips, there were too many things that she wanted to tell Jiyong but she was running out of time. She wanted to explain, she wanted to assure him, asked for help, tell him how much she missed him, tell him that it had been dufficult but all of those were narrowed down to three words.

I love you.

That's what she wrote before placing everything back. She locked the locker mixed the number combination. She quickly flitted her way back to the infirmary, panting and heart still hammering in so much nervousness. As she allowed herself to calm her breathing, exhaustion hit her hard and she felt the weight of the world fell on her. Sleep gently cradled her in its peaceful lap until the nightmares came chasing her down.

Thank you. Thank you so much, Hyunseung.

•••

They were denied with enough time so they need to move as quick as possible. They have discovered through the implanted spies they got that bunch of men started to live with the couple not only that the whole house was implanted with cameras, bugs and hearing devices. Lee Minho made sure that there will be no escape. Only he made one flaw of hiring people he never saw personally. There were only two people among those whom he had always dealt with. Those two where his most trusted.

One was Song Jonghwa, who stayed with the men inside the house. Next was Ahn Hongsi who was the main analyst for all the camera and the bugs.

"Good afternoon,"Daesung held the end of his cap as he bowed down to him. Hongsi looked at him from head to toe, he removed that toothpick dangling from his lips. "You must be the plummer?" He scratch his messy curly hair. "Neh," Daesung bowed down again. "Come in, you're just in time." He moved away and Daesung came in. Hongsi was staying in one of the house next to Dara's old one in which that house became their base where every computer was placed and all those important things. This was where he was staying together with Jonghwa.

The moment Hongsi closed the door, Daesung hit him hard in the head that cause concussion as the guy's face slammed hard on the door. He fell unconscious on the floor. Daesung dragged his body, leaned it against the wall before tying him. He stood up the moment he successfully wrapped the guy on the cables he brought with him. He then turned his cap on his head. "I have tied him, just give me five minutes," he said the moment he placed his bluetooth earpiece.

He took his place in the computer, plugging a flashdrive on it. He started typing the codes that jammed every signal of the devicesimplanted in the house before it completely shut down everything.

"Phase one, complete," he grinned grabbing one hot pizza from the freshly ordered box that Hongsi has for himself.

•••

Hyunsuk stepped out of his car before he looked at the restuarant ahead of him. He fixed his suit before he walked inside, welcomed by the staffs. A waiter wearing black tail coat came to him, leaning and whispering something. He gave a nod before he followed him.

They ended up in a private room where two people were waiting for him. They were sitting on the table for four. The moment they saw him coming, they stood up and bowed down to him. "Hyunsuk." The guy said. "Jinwoo. Dasuri." Hyunsuk smiled.

"It has been a long time," he chuckled as they sat down.

"A long time, indeed." Jinwoo nodded.

"After all the years that people thought of those rivalry and huge fight that broke the three of us apart..." Hyunsuk said with the hint of sadness.

The door opened and they looked at the one who entered. Their eyes registered surprise to the one who set this lunch meeting. They watched him fixed his tie and pulled his dark violet long coat as if tightening it.

"I am glad that you heed to my request I am honored to see you together, Mr. Yang Hyunsuk and Mr and Mrs Kwon Jinwoo." He smiled. "I am not going to make this longer, shall we begin?"

"Why did you call us?" Hyunsuk voice has the right amount of edge on it.

"Because we need to talk about the engagement that will shake the business world and the socialites." Hyunseung smiled. 

I just want you to know that i am still alive. hahaha