Seoul, October 29th

The notification sound from her phone made Doyeon shifted her eyes from the report she has been reading and glanced at the small device. The time on the screen told her it’s almost dinner time. Keeping her promise to Nayoung, Doyeon stayed in her sister’s hospital room, waiting as Nayoung sleeping while finishing her job.

Doyeon reached for her phone and read the message. She smiled and quickly replied the message, saying she will meet him on the cafeteria, before putting her phone back to the table. She stood up, stretched up her body, and walked to the bed where Nayoung asleep. She sat on the side of the bed, her hand moved to caress Nayoung’s cheeks. She smiled as she watched Nayoung sleeping peacefully, no more in pain as she was earlier.

“I always wonder, why did you stop looking for her, Unnie?” Doyeon said quietly, not really want to wake Nayoung. “If she’s here, you don’t have to take the responsibility of Orion. Orion is her responsibility, not yours. She’s the oldest, not you.”

“Hey, you’re still here.”

Doyeon turned and saw Sejeong just came in the room. She smiled as she watched the surgeon immediately check the medical equipment around Nayoung. “I thought you were going to run away as soon as you had chance. Didn’t know you can be this obedient.”

“Well, Unnie would killed me,” Doyeon shrugged.

Sejeong chuckled. “She even scared of bugs do you really think she could kill a person?”

“Who knows? She’s stressed enough with her job and her condition, maybe she’d snapped,” Doyeon grinned. Imagining Nayoung snapped at her. “But really, I just don’t want to stress her more.”

“Is there anything I can do to help?” Sejeong asked, she knew Doyeon was talking about her father. “I’ve talked to my father and asked him to not interfere with my relationship, is it helped?”

Doyeon grinned. This side of Sejeong always makes her grateful that Nayoung has this woman on her side. “That’s more than enough, Unnie. Thank you.”

She hopped off the bed and took her phone and wallet. “Unnie, I’m going to the cafeteria to buy dinner. Do you want something? The usual?”

“Yeah,” Sejeong nodded, smiled at the younger girl. “Thanks, Doyeon-ah.”

Doyeon just waved her hand and left the room.

***

Doyeon ordered her food on the counter and walked to the table in the corner. She typed something on the phone and soon a man came and sat in front of her. Doyeon gestured him to not act too formal with her, knowing they are in public area right now. The man nodded and gave her an envelope without a word. Doyeon quickly checked inside the envelope.

It was piles of old photos, showing people that she’s unfamiliar with, but she quickly recognized some of the faces. The faces that she met and knows for years, people she has been friends with for years… And how they are smiling and laughing at the photos, it feels like they are mocking her. Not any curse can describe how sad and betrayed she feels right now.

The man in front of Doyeon stared at her. “You know, I could just send it to you via email instead of us meeting up like this.”

“I prefer meeting you like this so you can explain it to me in person,” explained Doyeon, trying to not let her anger take control. She took some of the photos. “When was this one taken?” she pointed at one of the photos, her finger jabbed at the girl on it.

Although didn’t meet her oldest sister for 10 years, Doyeon would always recognize her faces anywhere.

“Not sure exactly when, I guess around 2009 – 2011 when they lived in California,” the man answered.

“Who are they? I’ve never seen them before.” Doyeon narrowed her eyes at the unfamiliar faces in some photos. She wondered if she really didn’t know them or she just didn’t remember. After all, she has 10 years gap with her eldest sister.

“If you grew up with Arda Fravaš and Ellena-ssi with The Arc, this people are called as The Phantom.”

“The ghost,” Doyeon smiled slightly. “They are her friends, huh.”

“Yes, they are the son of some influential people here but some of them are no longer considered as son in their families. They are known to be troublemakers. Another info about them, all the members of The Phantom born in 80’s but on different year, unlike Arda Fravaš and The Arc who all the members are in the same age.”

“So my sister is a member of The Phantom?”

The man shook his head. “I don’t think so. As far as I know, The Phantom is a group of men,” he said, and stopped for a while before continued, “But there’s rumor about your sister has relationship with one of the member of The Phantom.”

“Relationship? As in dating?” Doyeon raised an eyebrow.

“Your sister has disappeared for ten years and it was after she refused your father’s order about being in arranged marriage and she also suffered from the failure of one big project, am I right?”

Doyeon nodded.

The man continued, “The rumor said she was dating with one of the members of The Phantom, that’s why she refused to be in arranged marriage, but your father didn’t approve their relationship,” he said while pointing at some of the photos. From the photos, Doyeon can see how close her sister with one of the guys she believed are the members of The Phantom. “Two years after her departure, your sister was caught on camera at a hotel in Hawaii with this guy and it started another rumor that she was married to him, but neither Orion and MD World ever said anything about it.”

“This guy? He is the heir of MD World?” Doyeon took one photo that showed her sister with one guy. “And my father didn’t approve their relationship? That’s weird, because MD World is the largest agency company in South Korea and my father would love it if he could get close to them.”

“He was the heir of MD World, but not anymore. I don’t know why but they erased his name from the list of MD World heirs fifteen years ago. Of course their relationship didn’t make your father happy.”

“No wonder,” Doyeon hummed. She took another photo. One photo that ignited her anger back. “What about this? This girl and my sister, what are their relationship? Are they close?” she said in upset voice. Felt betrayed by someone she knows for a long time and she trusted so much.

“I don’t know if they are close or not, or just some senior and junior relationship. They went to the same college, that’s all I know,” the man said. “This photo was taken in Tokyo in December 11 years ago, when your oldest sister was picking her up at the airport. At that time, this girl was on holiday with the girl who is her fiancée now, as you perfectly know. If you need more details, I’ll try to dig more and send it to your email later.”

Doyeon nodded. Or, maybe she could ask the girl in person and makes her explain everything.

“Then what was my sister doing in Tokyo back then?”

The man shrugged. “She was the Vice President of Orion at that time, maybe she was there for works? You know Orion has branch office in Tokyo.”

Doyeon nodded again. “What else did you find?” she asked as she put the photos back inside the envelope.

“Regarding the phone number you called, we have tracked the number and we found that the number was only active in Japan and South Korea.”

“What? South Korea?” Doyeon almost couldn’t believe her ears.

“Yes, but weirdly you only called her when the number was active in Japan. My result showed that your sister also had stayed in Seoul for some times.”

“She had stayed here? In Seoul?” Doyeon can’t believe this. Her sister was in Seoul and she didn’t say anything about it? “When was it?”

The man checked another file that Doyeon didn’t see earlier. “Last September,” he said.

Doyeon stared at the man in shock. The information was too much for her. “Are you sure? My sister said she would never return to Seoul.”

How come she didn’t say anything she was in Seoul while Nayoung was hospitalized?

“Maybe I could check her passport of visa from the database, but you know how strict it is so I can’t promise you anything,” the man said.

Doyeon understand. Even with the power she has under her family’s name, it’s not like she can hack the Government’s data and get away with it easily.

“Do you know anyone who can do that? I’ll pay them as much as they want if they can help me find out about my sister.”

“I know one. The Goldfish,” the man smiled. “From what I heard they are capable with this kind of task. A group of reliable hackers.”

“Reliable hackers, huh?” Doyeon didn’t know if she could trust a group of hackers. “If that so, contact them immediately, Mr. Cho.”

“Actually, I think it’s better if you do it by yourself, Miss Kim. Maybe you can get some discount. They are a bit pricey.”

Doyeon tilted her head. “What do you mean?”

“Park Soyeon, Park Jihoon, and Park Woojin. Aren’t they your friends? They’re The Goldfish.”

For the umpteenth time in the last ten minutes, Doyeon stared at the man in front of her in shock.

***

Seoul, October 30th

“We can’t do that,” Soyeon waved her hand after listened to Doyeon’s request. They are currently at their basecamp, after Doyeon called them and asking to meet up.

“What? Why? I didn’t come here only for you to reject me,” Doyeon snorted. “You guys are IT expert and reliable hackers, as my man said. What’s so hard about looking into the data and check her passport history?”

“It’s against the law, Kim Doyeon.”

Woojin’s flat answer earned a burst of laughs from Doyeon.

“You are one to talk, Park Woojin,” Doyeon rolled her eyes. “Do you think I have no idea what you guys did? Do you think stealing some secret documents from the Government isn’t against the law? I never said anything but I still can’t believe Nayoung Unnie did the same thing like my father.”

“It was for the project, for the Blues, and I wouldn’t say we steal it,” Jihoon said calmly beside Woojin. “And please don’t think of your sister like that.”

“You can’t deny it, Jihoon-ah, my man said that-”

“Oh, please, not everything your man said is true, Doyeon-ah. How come you trust him more than you trust us?” Woojin cut her off, seemed disappointed. “And are you going to act like your father too now, doing dirty works? Kim Doyeon, your profession has code of Ethics and here you are, about to violating rules.”

“Shut up, I’m not a goddamn psychiatric at this moment nor do I care about some laws or code of Ethics. Right now I’m the daughter of Kim Jaehoon, the youngest sister who desperately wants to know where the is my long lost eldest sister who has been run away from home for ten years... Can you help me? For once,” she looked at them, voice thick with emotion. “Please…”

Soyeon, Woojin, and Jihoon clearly surprised. Kim Doyeon never beg.

Soyeon sighed, massaging her temple. “I don’t know, Doyeon-ah…” She doesn’t like seeing her friend like this, but the favor Doyeon asked isn’t something easy.

“I’ll do anything, Soyeon-ah,” Doyeon tried again. “How about a vacation package? Where do you want to go? Tell me I’ll arrange everything for you.” Doyeon turned to the two young men who sat not far from her. “For you too. I’ll also buy the latest video game console you want. Please, help me... Just this time. I really need to find her.”

“Nope, we don’t need that,” Woojin shook his head, followed by Jihoon’s sigh beside him.

Doyeon didn’t want to give up yet. “Then what do you want? Just tell me, I’ll give it to you if it could help you to find out about my sister.”

“If you want us to help you, I need you to prepare the exact type of our current laptop and the other equipment too,” Soyeon said while pointing the electronic devices around them, surprising Doyeon and the boys. Soyeon knows she is going to regret this, but Doyeon’s begging was too much for her to handle. “And we need it within an hour. If you can’t do that, let’s forget this deal.”

“No! I’ll get anything you need!” Doyeon quickly stood up and pulled out her phone. She immediately called someone and told them about the laptop and the other devices. She turned to the three with a grin when she finished. “See, I did what I said, right? My people will deliver the very exact type of your equipment in half an hour.”

“Must be nice to be rich,” Soyeon just laughed and opened her laptop. Seeing that, Woojin and Jihoon moved to sat closer to Soyeon while carrying their laptop.

“So… What information do you want to know about your sister?” Jihoon’s question made Doyeon come closer and sit next to Soyeon.

“I want to know about her passport history, her life, and her job for the past ten years.”

“Hey! That’s too much!” Woojin groaned. “Are you crazy?! Hacking information is dangerous enough and you want us to check her life for the past ten years?! You should go and ask Kyungwon Noona and not us!”

“What, you can’t do it?”

“Doyeon-ah…” Soyeon face-palmed at the innocent question, making Doyeon look at her confusedly. “If Chorong Unnie has the slightest idea of what I’m going to do, as in helping you, she would kicked me away from our home and company. It’s the same for Jihoon and Woojin. All of us could lost our job and getting kick from our families.”

Doyeon looked at her friend in surprise. “Is it really that dangerous?”

Soyeon let out another sigh, asking her life choice.

“You’ll see, Eve.”

***

Doyeon’s jaw dropped open as she saw the three laptops on the table exploded into fire, the loud noise hurting her ears. Soyeon’s hand were still holding hers after she hurriedly dragged the confuse Doyeon away to the corner of the room earlier. Now Doyeon understands that her friend was trying to protect her from the explosion and not because she didn’t want her to take a peek of her works.

“You okay?” Soyeon asked, and Doyeon could only nod in silence, still in shock.

Woojin and Jihoon who followed them to the corner quickly grabbed the fire extinguisher (why they have those on their base camp, Doyeon never knows) and settled the fire down. They don’t look as surprise as Doyeon, and the tall girl guessed her friends knew beforehand.

“What happened? Why did it explode?” Doyeon asked in a quavering voice, still holding on Soyeon.

“I guessed, and it looks like my guess was right, that your long lost sister’s data is under the protection of The Phantom. They are famous in our circumstances, in case you didn’t know. We have heard their names a few times. Anyone who hacked the information of people under the protection of The Phantom, they will experience – this.” Soyeon bit her lower lips, staring at the completely-burn down laptop on the table. “And that’s why we need other laptop, the same one with ours, to outwit them. I’m sorry the laptop you just bought had to explode like that, but this is the only way to get the data. We hacked their database using the new laptop and send it right away to our laptop before it explode.”

Soyeon checked on Doyeon once again before they went back to the chair (Woojin and Jihoon threw away the burned laptop to the trash) and facing her laptop. She typed something and showed her screen to Doyeon.

Doyeon stared at the screen in awe. “You really got the database for the past 10 years? Wow! Awesome!!”

“Yeah, all thanks for the new laptop, sorry it didn’t last for an hour,” Woojin chuckled as he faced his laptop.

“That’s worth it.” Doyeon waved her hand, still stared at Soyeon’s laptop as the girl checked the file.

Jihoon also did the same thing. He took a glance at the Doyeon’s sister’s passport data, saw a lot of city and country name on the list. “Wow, she travels around the world, that’s so cool.”

“She often stays in Japan, England, and France, also spent some times in Austria and New Zealand too,” Soyeon narrowed her eyes as she read the list. “She moves around in between those countries for this past ten years but never return to Seoul at all.”

“Yeah, her short visit last month was the first time in ten years,” Doyeon murmured softly, making her friends look at her. She looked back at them with meaningful smile. “Isn’t it interesting? She said she won’t ever come back, but she did last month… I wonder, why did she comes back here, after ten years? What’s her reason?”

***

Seoul, October 31th

“I have surgery until noon and a meeting afterwards, will you be okay alone here?” Sejeong said as she played with Nayoung’s round cheeks.

The older groaned. “I’m not a baby, of course I’ll be okay.”

“Debatable, you are too cute,” Sejeong grinned, and before Nayoung could protest, she pressed her lips on Nayoung’s.

Nayoung’s wide smile greeted her when they let go off each other.

“Take a break after completing your surgery. Don’t forget to have lunch before the meeting. You don’t have to come here and check me everytime. We can meet after you finish your work.”

“Hmm.. But I was thinking to have lunch with you after the surgery,” Sejeong gave the older another kiss. “I want to show you something before the meeting.”

“What is it? Are you finally going to dance for me? Or sing?” Nayoung grinned, and Sejeong pinched the round cheeks. The architect has been asking her to dance or sing lately but Sejeong was too embarrassed for that.

“I told you I won’t do it,” Sejeong said, and earned a pout from Nayoung. “Don’t pout, I want to show you the renovation design of the R building,” Sejeong pointed the building outside the window, the old building of the hospital. “Yesterday, Jaehwan Oppa has submitted his design and I want to show it to you. I want to know your opinion.”

The mention of the familiar name making Nayoung pursed he lips. “Why did you ask him to help you with the renovation when your own fiancée is an architect too, huh?”

Sejeong beamed at the cute sulking. Nayoung rarely shows her jealousy side and it looks so adorable.

“Because my fiancée was too busy with her projects. She even works in two companies at once and I don’t want to give her more works than she already has and ended up ignoring me,” Sejeong can’t resist to play with the round cheeks again.

Nayoung gave up on stopping Sejeong playing with her cheeks. “I won’t ignore you. You are my number one priority, Sejeong-ah.”

Nayoung said it with so much sincerity that Sejeong felt her heart almost bursting inside the cage. She beamed too wide.

“Thank you. I love you,” Sejeong said and they shared another light kiss. “Anyway, before you get more jealous, I asked Jaehwan Oppa to design for the renovation long before I got engaged to you, way before we met in Okinawa, Dear. Jaehwan Oppa was the one who designed the new building and he’s quite familiar with the old building. But I still want to hear your opinion about the design that’s why I want to show it to you.”

“Fine,” Nayoung nodded, but still visibly sulking. Sejeong never stop wondering how Nayoung can be looks so cute for 24/7. “Why do you want to renovate the old building?”

“Well, the building has been there for more than ten years, I think it’s time for something new,” Sejeong explained, and she remembered something from her rounds on the old building. “There’s one room in the R building that can’t be opened. None of my staff’s ID cards works on that one door.”

Nayoung frowned at it. “You can’t open it too? Don’t you have access to go anywhere you want in this hospital?”

“Yeah, I tried, but my card can’t open it too. And no one knows what’s inside the room, or whose room is that. Weird, isn’t it?” Sejeong wondered. “Jaehwan Oppa proposed about blowing out the wall but I think it’s too much… I’ll talk to Appa first. Maybe he knows something.”

Sejeong walked to the table beside Nayoung’s bed and took the medicine and a glass of water for Nayoung. She saw Nayoung’s laptop on the table and she sighed.

“Unnie, I don’t want you to work too much when I’m not around,” Sejeong said as she helps Nayoung drink her medicine. She knows Nayoung has been working when she wasn’t around. “I’ll have the nurse check on you every hour and I have no problem forbid this thing in your room if I heard you keep working.”

Nayoung chuckled. She understand Sejeong only looking after her. She held out her pinky.

“I promise, I will work only if Ong is here. If I can’t work, can I take a walk? I’ll feel bored here.”

“Where do you want to go?”

“Maybe I‘ll visit Hana Unnie, or Haebinnie, or Yoojung and Dodo… Or, if they are busy, I’ll just go to the park of the cafeteria.”

Sejeong glared at her. “Unnie, you are allowed to go and meet them but not with the cafeteria. Why do you want to go there?”

“I want ice cream,” said Nayoung, as cute as she can, along with her puppy eyes and pout, “and jelly too. Can I?”

It takes a lot of effort for Sejeong not to strangle Nayoung. She hates that she can’t allowed Nayoung to enjoy her favorite snacks but Sejeong didn’t want to see her condition getting worse and collapse again.

“I’ll buy ice cream and jelly for you, but not now, Unnie,” she said softly, knowing how Nayoung loves the snacks. “I know it’s been a while but please, just a little more until you recovered and you are free to eat everything you want… But not now.”

“It’s okay,” Nayoung smiled and closed her eyes when Sejeong kissed her forehead. “I’ll do as you said so I can recover soon.”

Sejeong scoffed, knowing the reason behind that smile. “And I know you want to get out of this hospital as soon as possible only for you to get back to work.”

“Hey, that’s my responsibility,” Nayoung chuckled. “And I can’t continue to burden Dodo with my work. Evangeline Kim has many patients who needs her as well,” she told Sejeong.

Sejeong nodded understandingly. It’s true that Doyeon has been working non-stop between her patients and Nayoung’s works for Orion. She knows Doyeon spent much of her time replacing Nayoung attending important meetings in Orion. Of course Nayoung felt guilty about it.

“You can call the nurse if you want to take a walk. I’ll ask them to prepare a wheelchair and accompany you but please, come back before lunch. I don’t want you to get too tired and get another trouble breathing, okay?”

Nayoung nodded and let Sejeong kiss her again before she walked to the door.

After Sejeong closed the door, Nayoung reached for her phone and pressed a number on the speed dial.

“Ong, did Kyungwon get any information about Im Yoona and her team?” She asked, and sighed at the answer over the phone. “It’s okay. Actually, I have another request. Can you get them to check the R building of Dominique Hospital? I think your guess is right, someone is hiding something there, and I want to know about it.”

***

“Miss Jung, Miss Evangeline Kim is here, currently waiting at the lobby. She said she wants to meet you.”

Mimi frowned at the news from her secretary over the phone.

“Do I have any appointment with her?” Mimi tapped the end of the pen on her desk.

“No, you don’t, Miss, but Miss Kim said she has something important to talk with you in person. Do you want to meet her?”

Mimi tried to guess if there is anything important she should talk with Doyeon that the younger girl even came to her office building without notice, but she doesn’t has any clue.

“Fine, let her in,” Mimi said and put back the phone, still frowning. Through Nayoung, Mimi knows Doyeon for years, but unlike her relationship with Nayoung, Mimi isn’t close with the youngest Kim. To hear the girl came to her office was a surprise. Doyeon must be have something really important to talk to.

Soon she heard a knock from the door and her secretary entered with Doyeon. Mimi thanked the secretary before gestur