Bora burst out in a nervous fit of laughter. She didn’t want to. But that’s how her mind decided to process this situation. Laughing.

Well, it could’ve been worse. She could’ve gone off the deep end, and started throwing random objects all over the place, or better still, she could’ve slapped Jackson Wang’s too perfect face for feeding her bull. As she’d tried to make sense of the jumble of thoughts in her head, a smile had curled her lips and she’d started laughing out loud, much to Jackson’s dismay.

She raised her eyebrows and held her hands out. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry! Geez, you couldn’t crack a smile to save your life, could you?”

“You think this is a joke?” He growled.

She scrunched her face at him in mock apology. “I’m sorry, I’m having a hard time processing all the overthrowing the establishment and world domination stuff, is all. But, please, go on.”

She was about to put her drink back to her lips when Jackson curled a fist over the counter and wrapped his other hand around a foot of her stool, pulling her to him brusquely.

The stool made a screeching noise against the tile floor until their faces were mere inches away from one another. Bora gasped as her drink spilt a bit over the rim of the glass.

“You know what I think?” He said, voice deep and slow, like honey poured from a jar and Bora’s breath hitched in . “I think you’re not taking this nearly as seriously as you should.”

He smiled coldly. “But deep down, you know something’s up. That’s why you’re here. So, drop the act with me. Won’t get you anywhere.”

Never breaking eye contact, Jackson slid the box to her and she ripped the Kraft paper off under his scrutinizing gaze, revealing a black hard drive smooth with a USB port.

“Your father, mine and Mark’s gathered all the dirt they found on this. Made copies. Hid them. And blackmailed the president with it. Threatened to leak the contents to the world if the president’s secret services didn’t… cooperate.”

“Cooperate?” Her heartbeat picked up. “What did they find? And what did they want in exchange?”

“You know, I’ve heard a lot about you.” He said, an arm draped over her the back of her stool and the other fiddling with his milkshake

Her gaze was fixed on the hard drive in her hands and he tilted his head to be eye-level with her. “Lee Hyun Suk’s golden girl.”

She held her head high and locked gazes with him. His dark eyes glinted with something undecipherable and it took all of her will not to squirm in her chair and keep a straight front.

“Do you know how hard your father tried to keep you away from all this? I couldn’t just throw all of his efforts to waste now, could I?”

“I’d say you threw his efforts down the drain when you decided to pay him a visit.” She retorted, holding his stare defiantly.

From what she’d picked up from her father and Jackson’s conversation, the latter had never come in person to their house. And her father didn’t want him to. For this exact reason. To avoid her ever being put in that position, asking uncomfortable questions.

He paused long enough to register what she’d said.

Realization hit him and he frowned. “Don’t you know eavesdropping is a sin?”

“It’s not.”

“It is, in my book.”

“And stealing cars is perfectly normal, so I’d suggest reflecting on the legitimacy of your book. Who’s Mark?” She changed subjects.

“One of us.”

Bora scoffed. “Who’s ‘us’?”

There was her and there were the others. Period.

“The Children of The Blessed.”

A silence.

“Are you ting me, right now?”

“Our fathers were -- are the most powerful men of this country. I guess you could call them blessed.” He paused and put a fry in his mouth. “Unlike Mark and I, you didn’t experience growing up into your father’s business. And yet here you are, trying to ruin your life by unburying dirty secrets.” He sighed. “Like mother like daughter, I guess.”

“What does that mean?” Bora narrowed her eyes.

Before Jackson could dodge her question as she suspected he was about to, they were cut off by a looming presence before someone cleared their throat to catch their attention.

They looked up to see the barman-waiter in front of them.

In his early-forties, he had salt and pepper hair. The corners of his eyes were creased by time and moved in time as he spoke.

“From the lady over there.” The man slid a glass in front of Jackson, giving him an insistent look that could roughly be translated to a vulgar ‘well done, stud’.

They both turned to look at the other end of the bar to see a woman, legs crossed and sitting on stool. In her mid-twenties with short auburn hair and heavy makeup, she smiled at them.

Scratch that.

Smiled at Jackson.

Bora snorted. Bold.

She fixed her gaze back on Jackson. “So, you were saying…?”

He stood up, not sparing Bora a second glance. “If you’ll excuse me.”

Her eyes grew wide. “Are you serious? You come back right this instant!” She hissed through clenched teeth, but he was already gone.

He didn’t forget to take the hard drive with him, though.

“Unbelievable.” She muttered under her breath and huffed.

He still didn’t trust her. Not like she trusted him anyways.

She took the glass the woman had sent over and took a sip to ease her nerves. She gagged as the strong liquid burned .

Alcohol.

She may not have been used to drinking alcohol but this drink had the foulest after taste ever.

She stuck out her tongue and tried to get rid of the lingering taste, scraping at her tongue. She shivered uncontrollably and went back to watching Jackson and the woman from a distance.

They were talking, and Jackson had his back to Bora. He suddenly reached up and rested a hand on the woman’s cheek, her cheek with his thumb. The woman smiled seductively before lowering her gaze. Bora rolled her eyes.

A Don Juan.

She filed that for future reference.

She couldn’t believe him. They were on the run and he somehow made time to flirt.

She began feeling weird. She stood up from her stool and made her way to the washroom, not looking back.

***

Jackson Wang was no idiot.

He sniffed the drink and instantly recognized the strong smell of the most basic poison in existence.

He could recognize the poison from miles away. He’d b