YERI'S POV

I don't usually part take in all the spying activities but these days, I have become a professional eavesdropper. That seems to be the only way I can get information. No one wants to tell anything, everyone has their own little secret. Sure, we all have them but some secrets are not meant to be so. 

There are three things that are confusing me the most. 

1. Who was the old man who ordered Irene?
2. Who was the man that the old guy was talking to?
3. And, what were they all trying to hide from the agency?

I haven't got the answers yet but the best way to find this out is by asking Wendy herself. I could ask Irene but I don't wanna die so, there's that. I decided to tell Wendy about all my suspicions and about the mysterious activities of her office computer.  Disregarding my own conscience, I did hack into Wendy's computer and found out that an ample amount of files were cleared out the last day and I wanted to know everything. I called in sick today and knew for a fact that Wendy was also staying home. I drove up to her apartment which, I should say, was very well selected. It was the kind of apartment that wouldn't catch a lot of attention and was good for hiding. Wendy was smart after all. I had to give that to her. 

I knocked on her door and waited for her to open. To my utter surprise, Seulgi opened the door. Whoa! Hold up. What is she doing here?

"SEULGI?" I almost screeched at the top of my voice.

"Shhh, Yeri. Come in.", she said with her signature smile plastered on her lips. Oh, my God, am I dreaming? I rushed inside and hugged her as tight as I can. Actually, I just buried myself on her chest since I was shorter than her. At that moment, I knew how much I actually missed her. I was pretty new to the training academy when Seulgi was a senior trainee. I had always looked up to her and when we were paired up for a project, we became good friends and that had been the best thing that had happened to me back then. 

"Hey, pretty girl. I've missed you too. How have you been? You seem to have grown up a little.", Seulgi started to inquire about me while messing with my hair as if I was her little sister. Seulgi always knew how to make people feel comforted and I don't know why I was suddenly in tears when all she did was ask me if I had grown taller.

You're such an emotional mess. 

"I'm doing great, actually. I got promoted and now I am Cheif's personal secretary and the Head of the technical support team." I ranted on and on about myself and found her fondly smiling at me and once again, I realised how ing peaceful her face was. She could end wars with her smile. 

Too bad she can't stop whatever Irene is doing.

And just like that, I snapped into reality. "I did not come here to talk about myself, though. So, where is Wendy?", I asked her. Seh guided me to Wendy's room which looked uncharacteristically messy. Wendy was not playing around this time. She had a whole bulletin board filled with pictures of the agency hallways which were taken on, I assume, February 13. I understood Wendy's shady behaviour now. She was trying to uncover what happened to Joy that day. We were all on the same team. 

"Yeri, I can explain all of this but I need you to promise me one thing.", Wendy, without as much as glancing at me, asked me. 

I nodded my head and urged her to tell me what she wanted. 

"You cannot disclose any of this information to Irene. That's the only condition," she said in a serious tone.

What? She was afraid that I would spill all the tea? I have to laugh.

"Son Seungwan, did you really think I would tell on you, especially when I have been trying to get to the bottom of this since that day? I promise you, I will NOT tell the Chief any of this. I may be her secretary but I'm not a rat. Also, we are doing this not for our personal curiosity, We are helping Seulgi and Joy in getting back together. I will never spill all the secrets when the gays are involved." I ended my 'oath' with a playful wink that made Seulgi and Wendy laugh.  That's all I wanted to do in my life. To keep my friends happy. I was willing to do anything for them. 

"Okay, buckle up kid. This is gonna be a long and interesting ride", said Wendy and started to narrate all the things she knew.

---

WENDY'S POV

Seulgi helped me with hacking into the agency's database and we got hold of all the conversations that Irene had over the phone, including her burner phone, which was taped by Yeri, surprisingly. Irene had a number of 5 calls that day from an unknown number on that phone. Seulgi told me that the taped recording was never used because the files deleted themselves the second I saved it to my computer. It was a headache to personally encrypt and decrypt files but I had to do it so it won't be stolen that easily. 

Someone knocked on the door and my heart almost leapt out of my chest. 

Who could it be? Did Irene find out about my little endeavours? Was someone coming here to take Seulgi out of the picture? Should I go grab my shotgun? While I was asking these questions to myself, Seulgi went out of the room to open the door. I held my breath and silently turned off the computer and readied myself for an intruder. But much to my delight and shock it was Yeri. I heard her shout Seulgi's name and smiled to myself as I could see it my head, how happy Yeri would be to see her favourite senior. I took no offence to her favouritism. Like, you get me or Seulgi. Who would you choose? It's obviously Seulgi. 

As soon as she entered the room I asked her to promise me that she wouldn't say anything to Irene. I knew she wouldn't, considering that she taped Irene's burner phone but I was just a er for dramatics. Honestly, I lost my breath when she called me"Son Seungwan". That was something only my mother called me and she sounded a lot like her at that moment. 

"Okay, buckle up kid. This is gonna be a long and interesting ride", I told her and started to brief her on everything I knew. 

"So, we don't have all the information, as you may know, but we have plenty of evidence that makes Irene look suspicious. For instance, Irene has been acting weird ever since I came back to work. She was clear-headed and always held her power before but she was willing to negotiate with me and even stopped monitoring Seulgi's moves." I felt Seulgi's palm on my hand and held it. She was letting me know that she was thankful. I continued my theories by reassuring her that it was nothing. 

"She has been trying to cover up certain things of her past too. We all know she never talks about her family or stuff like that but she has never actually taken an effort to conceal her past before." 

"Wait, how do you know this?", Yeri asked me, Seulgi also looked at me with a questioning gaze. 

. I'm such a mess.

"Um, I kinda know about her family history. She shared it with me one time when we were both, um, a little drunk." I said, hoping that the answer satisfied them. Irene had a bad past with her father, of whom no one has ever heard of. And for a good reason.

"Are you telling me that You and the Chief had a heart-to-heart after getting drunk? Nah, I don't believe you.", Yeri replied sceptically. 

I sighed deeply and forced myself to ignore her glance. 

"Anyway, also the missing footages gives us an idea about when it took place. Although we don't know what exactly took place." I sighed again and looked at them. 

"I know what happened. Not the details but someone was taken to the science and experiments department during that time and an OR was booked. I know this because I was working in the tech department and was monitoring all the activities on that floor during that time. The OR was booked by Dr Taemin an-" 

"TAEMIN?", Seulgi suddenly stood up with so much force I almost dropped my laptop. I was shocked at hearing that name too. 

"Not Joy's boyfriend. But his father. It was Taemin's father." Seulgi and I looked at each other with widened eyes. 

Does that mean...

"Does that mean Joy is in danger?", Seulgi voiced out my thoughts. 

"Maybe. Maybe not. It totally depends on you.", Yeri said in a calm voice but I could see the faint hint of empathy in her eyes.

Seulgi took a deep breath and stared with a thoughtful expression and gravely started to speak. 

"So, Taemin is not actually her boyfriend. He is just acting as Irene's minion. Irene is making him stay close to her so that when I mess up, he will take care of Joy and possibly me too. Taemin is nothing but one of Irene's minions, wow.", Seulgi sat down again and started brooding over her love life. I wish I could give everything to this girl. I would give her all of my happiness and love just to see that beautiful smile of hers. 

Sigh. There's only so much you can do Wendy. 

"Huh, no. You have got it absolutely wrong." I heard Yeri saying it frantically. 

"Irene does not call the orders. Someone else does. She has been following an old man's orders lately. I bet he also has Taemin under his control." She took a pause and with a gloomy smile concluded that "Maybe, Taemin Sr is the one who is calling the shots. He is known to be crazy about his science and maybe he forced Joy into some kind of experiment without her consent." 

"No, that doesn't make sense. Why would Irene cover for that maniac. She is the Chief after all and she has all the power to fire him. She actually did the next week of the 'experiment'." Seulgi clued in. 

"Yeri, do you have the audio of Irene speaking with this old man that you talked about?", I asked. She nodded and took out her phone which looked way too advanced than my iPhone. She was the tech-savvy of the group after all. She played the audio clip. 

"I was informed that the subject is starting to remember. I thought I was rather clear when I told you to take Seulgi out of the damn picture."

"I-I'm sorry about that. I'm on it. I was just-"

"Stop giving me lame excuses, woman. Why can't you do your damn job, Irene? I gave you one job and you screw that up. I'm so disappointed in you. I don't wanna hear any excuses this time. Take out the target or remove yourself from your position." 

The call ended and I knew who the person behind the call was. 

"Th- that's Irene's father. That's THE Chief Bae. He is the one behind all of this." I couldn't believe this. THE untold villain, the most feared person, who was assumed dead was actually alive and was controlling Irene. This is by far the most disastrous thing that has ever happened in her life. 

". I have heard stories about that guy. They were not good. So what do we do now?" Seulgi asked in an unusually grave voice. 

"It's clear, isn't it? We have to side with Irene if we want to know what actually happened. We need to confront her, Wendy. That's the only way." said Yeri. 

"Confront me about what?" asked Irene, who was standing right in front of my bedroom door. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Notes(?): HELLO! RED VELVET WON THEIR 1st PAK AND IM SO PROUD OF THEM!! Anywayyy, so I don't really know where this story is going tbh. But, what do you think is the actual reason for what happened to Joy? Do you think Wenseulri are close to the answers they are searching for or were they doomed from the beginning? I'll let you guys think over it. Enjoy!