"Jeonghan-hyung, slouching is bad for your back," Siwoo commented as he sat next to the older man at the dining table.

"Sorry, bud," Jeonghan straightened his back.

"You look like death rolled over," Wonwoo said as he brought over a cup of tea for Jeonghan and bowl of sliced fruit for his son.

"I'm aware," Jeonghan sighed.

"They said all the money was wired into an offshore account, right?"

"Yeah."

"That's literally the worst way of stealing money, they probably teach you that in 'Embezzlement 101,'" Wonwoo sat down at the table and opened his laptop. "Any sums that big being deducted so frequently would automatically look suspicious when wired out of a company account," Wonwoo furrowed his brow.

"That's exactly my point, no one with half a brain would execute a plan this stupid," Jeonghan let out a long breath, he was trying very hard to calm himself. "Whoever was in charge of this scheme is making it look like amateur work, they're making it seem like it was done by someone with zero experience."

"So they're purposely diverting the attention from themselves and making Mingyu the scapegoat," Wonwoo concluded.

"Exactly," Jeonghan nodded.

"I managed to get you some dirt," Wonwoo changed the subject seeing his friend's more than gloomy disposition, the brunette needed some sort of good news. "Let's just say you're right about your impression of our dear board."

"We can skip past the minor white collar bull, I need something incriminating," Jeonghan waved his hand impatiently.

"Does Ryu Hyunjin sound familiar?" Wonwoo looked over at Jeonghan.

"The previous COO," Jeonghan nodded.

"Well, the executive whose been pushing for the western market venture, Lee Sungho, has been consistently having his assistant send private emails to the previous COO."

Jeonghan continued listening.

"Most of the emails from first glance just look like an exchange of pleasantries but the subject line for every email always contains a bunch of numbers," Wonwoo turned the screen over toward the brunette. "Does this mean anything to you?"

"It's the date just before Mingyu started at 'RQ&S,' aside from that it doesn't mean anything else," Jeonghan replied. "All the other emails are pretty much just dates as well."

"Could it be a countdown?" Wonwoo pondered. "The first six digits represent the date but what are those extra two numbers?"

Jeonghan started biting at the skin of his lower lip. Wonwoo was definitely onto something.

"Show me the most recent one," Jeonghan demanded.

Wonwoo did as asked.

"I think you're right," Jeonghan felt his stomach flop. "The most recent one was sent the night Mingyu flew out to visit me in Tokyo. They've been waiting for the right time."

"You think the CEO's heart attack was the trigger for them to start all this?"

"It couldn't be anything else, I mean, the head of the company's out of the picture. It was the perfect time, the countdown dropped several numbers," Jeonghan nodded. "Without the actual CEO at the reigns they don't have anything to fear, Mingyu holds no authority in their eyes, he's still young and he sure as Hell isn't aware of how much power he has -- who knows what kind of things they've approved without Mingyu's permission."

"Plus you've been in Japan most of this, you probably haven't seen firsthand the stuff that's been swept under the rug," Wonwoo added.

"Oh !" Jeonghan slammed his hand on the table, Siwoo jumped dropping his slice of mango.

Jeonghan immediately the four year old's head. "Sorry bud, I'll buy you a whole box of mangos."

"It's okay," Siwoo continued to eat quietly, his eyes were intently looking at the adults despite not understanding a single thing.

"The mess ups in Japan," Jeonghan said. "It all makes ing sense now! They wanted me out of the country long enough so I didn't see any of the shady they were pulling behind the scenes! Our shipments have never had issues passing customs in the past. We've sent stock over to Japan via freight in the past when we set up pop-up stores in Tokyo, everything ran smoothly. Problems only started when Mingyu came along."

"Those backstabbing bastards," Wonwoo shook his head.

"Even the launch party, they practically hired clowns to run the Japanese branch," Jeonghan started pacing back and forth.

"Where's Mingyu at? Shouldn't he be here with us?" Wonwoo asked.

"He's been taken in for questioning," Jeonghan replied. "They'll let him go after interrogation but even then he'll probably have the investigators watching him like a hawk. If we do anything out of the ordinary they're going to think we're up to something."

"The cards aren't exactly in your favour right now, are they?" Wonwoo guessed.

"Not at all," Jeonghan shook his head.

"You've gotten yourself out of deep multiple times in the past, Yoon Jeonghan," Wonwoo came to pat his friend's shoulder. "Everything is going to be okay."

Jeonghan gave a single nod, the fact that both Mingyu and Wonwoo had so much faith in him was reassuring but it also put him in a hard place. He thought of himself as a rather good problem solver but this time he wasn't so confident, it was him against the people who taught him everything he knew.

Mingyu sat back on his sofa and let out a long breath. His back was killing him, he'd sat in a garish florescent lighted room for hours while answering questions back to back. It didn't feel all too good being treated like a criminal but he had to remind himself that it was just protocol. He'd stayed calm and he'd answered every enquiry with as much detail as possible. The two investigators who