Four

Kim Taeyeon was reading Jessica Jung’s appointment calendar for the past six months till the recent for third time already. Her mind keeps on thinking about the last entry on that calendar.

‘Tiffany Hwang…’

Was the name written on the entry date four days from now, the agenda written was ‘Personal’ and Taeyeon just can’t help but to run different scenarios in her head as to why that name was under that personal agenda.

“Do you know who this Tiffany Hwang is?”

Taeyeon asked Jessica’s personal assistant and was immediately answered with a no.

“Ms. Hwang asked for an appointment with Ms. Jung about three weeks ago and asked for that specific date which will be this coming Monday, March 27th. I told her to call up first to confirm her appointment. She already called me this afternoon and told me she will call again, Monday morning.”

Taeyeon left instructions to Jessica Jung’s PA about this Tiffany Hwang.

‘This Tiffany Hwang definitely looks eager…’

Taeyeon irritatedly rubs up her two hands to her face. It’s been ten days now since Jessica Jung suddenly disappeared without a trace and until now they still don’t have any lead about her where about.

Kidnapping was definitely out of the question because until now they still haven’t received any ransom note.

There’s only one plausible reason though, that Taeyeon’s gut feeling was screaming loudly at her.

Jessica Jung voluntarily left and hide herself.

An internal audit has been recently conducted at the branch Jessica was assigned to manage and there was a huge discrepancies in the bank’s accounting books— a huge amount is missing. The cover up was perfect as that is why it wasn’t easily seen by the auditors.

Taeyeon took a deep breath and stared at Jessica Jung’s laptop and re-read all her appointments and the woman’s other files just to make sure that she didn’t missed any clue.

Everything was all set, Tiffany is ready to meet her older sister. She called her office once more this morning to confirm her appointment only to get her hopes crushed once again.

“I’m sorry Ms. Hwang but Ms. Jung is on leave,”

“What? Why? I called last Friday and you told me that I can meet Ms. Jung today!”

Tiffany felt her knees weakened and she almost lose her balance.

“I’m sorry Ms. Hwang, it was a last minute decision.”

She finally took a seat on her swivel chair as she felt afraid to really fall on the ground.

“Please, it’s really important that personally I talk to Ms. Jung. Is there any way I could at least contact her?”

Tiffany sensed the slight hesitation of the PA over the line.

“Please, Miss. I can assure you that Ms. Jung won’t mind once I talked to her,”

Tiffany isn’t sure if she sounded so desperate that Jessica’s PA pitied her but she no longer cared as she starts to dialed the home number of Jessica on her phone.

“Hello?”

Tiffany’s breath hitch when she heard a very feminine and soft voice on the other line. That was her sister’s voice. Oh how Tiffany yearned to hear her voice.

“Je—Jessica?”

Her own voice shook with so much emotion her eyes starts to tears up and she dealing so hard with herself not to break down and sob on the phone.

Taeyeon’s eyebrows knit together in confusion as she heard the whimpering voice of the caller.

‘Why does she sounds like she’s about to cry? And why does she seem to be familiar with Jung? And they’re on first name basis?’

So, Taeyeon decided to go on with her intuition first and replied at the woman on the other side.

“Yes?”

“Oh! I’m sorry, Ms. Jung. Hi! I— I’m Tiffany Hwang,”

The woman with the soft and husky voice introduced herself.

‘So, this is that Tiffany Hwang whom Jung is scheduled to meet today…’

Taeyeon’s thought was cut off when she heard a sniff on the other side and it only confirmed her first assumption that the woman was indeed crying.

“Excuse me Miss,”

“I— I’m sorry! I’m just overwhelmed upon hearing your voice,”

The woman replied, her tone is slight sounding lighter. But Taeyeon’s curiosity was immediately perked up due to that response.

“Do I know you?”

She asked.

“Yes— Uhm I mean… No. It’s been so long since we last seen each other. I don’t even know if you still even remember me… but I—