With everyone in the basement watching him, Jaebum assured his mom through the phone for a short while before he ended the call.

"My father's in the hospital. I have to go."

"Did his condition get worse?" Taecyeon asked as he stepped towards him from Bambam's back. 

"I'm not sure but it's too sudden." Jaebum answered his question with a blank expression.

"Are you suspecting that it might be a murder?" 

"Again, I'm not sure." Jaebum muttered as he put on his coat. "Let's go, Jeongyeon."

"Yes boss." Out of her own habit, she said even though he had told her that's it's not needed when they're not in the company. 

Taecyeon watched as the male and female went up the staircase of the basement before he shared a glance with the other two.

"Bambam, go with them." He instructed which Bambam nodded in understanding as a response before he went after them. "Mark, hack into the system of the hospital Jaebum's father is at."

When Jaebum arrived at the hospital with Jeongyeon and Bambam in tow, there was already a big group outside the private room where his father was staying at and Jaebum found the scene sickening. These old men were probably here not because of concern but to see if anything would happen to his father then they would try to pull him out from the chairman position.

Among them, Im Jongmin was there; Jaebum's face darkened even more at the sight of him, almost sure that it had something to do with this uncle of his. Before he could step forward, Bambam and Jeongyeon held onto his arm on each side.

"Calm down." Jeongyeon spoke in a hushed whisper, taking a glance at the crowd in front of them briefly. "We have no proof."

Jaebum turned to look at his assistant then to Bambam on the other side before he let out a sigh of defeat. 

"I know, I won't do anything stupid."

Jaebum didn't say much after as he strode towards the group; his mother was the first one to notice him and she had collapsed into his only son's arms.

"It was my fault." She cried in her panic state, "I shouldn't have left the room. The nurse told me someone wanted to speak to me and I just- He just..."

Jaebum shared a quick glance with his two companions; all three of them finding the whole thing more and more suspicious. 

"Father will be alright." That was the only thing he could say to assure his mother as he patted her back gently. A lie perhaps, because until the doctor confirmed that his condition is stable, Jaebum could never be sure of it.

Jaebum stayed by his mother side throughout the wait while Jeongyeon and Bambam stood by the side of the room, quietly watching every move of Im Jongmin. They had received a message from Mark just earlier - a clip from the hospital CCTV which showed a suspicious man dressed as a nurse entering the room where Jaebum's father was at. 

That confirmed their suspicions of it being a murder attempt but not knowing what Jaebum would do, they also knew that he couldn't have any knowledge of that at the current moment.

Not soon after, three people walked up towards the small crowd - an older looking man in a suit, a young long-haired female and a man in black following behind. 

"Jisoo!" The older man called out which caught the attention of not only Jaebum and his mother. Jeongyeon and Bambam had both straightened themselves too. It was the chairman of KC Telecom himself, Park Sangwon.

"I'm sorry to hear—" 

"My father's not dead yet." Jaebum interrupted him before the latter could even finish his words. That had caused an uncomfortable and awkward silence for a while but a haughty female voice broke it.

"My father's just being concerned, you don't have to be this rude."

"Jihyo." Sangwon called out in a slight warning tone but his daughter ignored it completely.

"He was being rude, daddy!" Jihyo pointed at Jaebum and exclaimed before she shot a glare at his direction which Jaebum seemed unbothered about it. 

"He was just worried." Sangwon gave his daughter a smile and patted her hand gently. "Let's be understanding. Besides, aren't you two friends?"

That question shut Jihyo up almost immediately. She glanced towards Jaebum's direction and met his gaze with her own which she looked away immediately. However, Jaebum's gaze was still fixated on her for a short while before he shifted his attention back to his mother. 

"Does Jaebum know this haughty girl?" Bambam leant in closer to Jeongyeon and whispered.

"Don't be a busybody." Jeongyeon muttered, not looking at the younger boy.

"Come on, you know something." Bambam pestered on. From how Jeongyeon reacted, he's sure that she definitely knew something. "You've been with Jaebum for three years, I'm sure you know what's going on between them."

"I don't know." Jeongyeon denied. "Now just shut up."

Sighing in defeat, Bambam stopped his pestering. Later, he told himself; he would definitely make Jeongyeon talk.

Not soon after the arrival of Park Sangwon, the medical staffs came out from the room and confirmed that Im Jongsoo's condition was stable. However, despite that good news, he had also mentioned that the Chairman showed no sign of waking up any time soon. 

"Don't worry, father will wake up soon." Jaebum assured his mother in a gentle tone that he rarely used on anyone. "He's always been strong; he won't go down that easily."

Jaebum looked up and glanced at everyone else in the room after his last sentence and most of the people looked away in an uncomfortable way. It was clear in his tone that the last sentence was directed not only to his mother but to everyone else in the room as a warning. 

The only few people who did not have any reactions were Jihyo who had no idea what's going on and the two men who smiled instead - Im Jongmin and Park Sangwon.

"That's right, Jisoo." Jongmin was the first to add on. "Your son is right, my brother is not one to give up easily. You should probably go home and take a rest."

"He's right." Sangwon continued. "Jisoo, now that you know he's doing alright, you should rest. It's been a long night."

As much as Jaebum hated the two men in front of them, he had no choice but to agree with them.

"I will be here." Jaebum patted his mother gently with a small smile. "Jeongyeon will be with me. With her around, you don't have to worry about your son being too tired."

Jisoo's gaze followed Jaebum's to where Jeongyeon was standing which the latter gave them a slight polite bow. However, they weren't the only one. Jihyo's gaze was also fixated on Jeongyeon which Jeongyeon could only give her an awkward smile in return to her questioning gaze.

"She's glaring at you." Bambam once again was the one who brought the topic up without looking at the situation. "You know something."

"Bambam," Jeongyeon rolled her eyes then sighed. "Shut up."

After that incident, Jaebum hadn't been to the hideout for a while but he had also made sure that Jeongyeon would be there to help things out and to get some updates for any movements from his uncle.

However, the rest had all agreed that he shouldn't know about the CCTV recording for now until things get less hectic on his side.

Jaebum's lack of presence in the hideout had also ended up being a good chance for Bambam to continue his 'interrogation' with Jeongyeon. It's been the same since that night; whenever he got the chance, he would pester the girl for more information of Jaebum and Jihyo.

It had always been a fail but this time, Bambam's kind of sure that he might be able to make Jeongyeon talk.

"Jeongyeonie." Bambam attempted to make her notice him. However, despite the younger boy following her around, Jeongyeon did a good job pretending that he didn't exist.

"Just give me a little info on what's going on between Jaebum and that haughty princess." He continued his pestering then put on his most polite voice. "Please?"

Again, he got ignored.

"Fine," Bambam stopped in his track and let Jeongyeon walked past him. "I will just tell Jinyoung about your collection of his albums and posters so he will tell me what he knows."Seeing Jeongyeon froze and dropped down whatever she's doing, a victory smile formed on Bambam's lips.

"They might always be fighting but they do work well together." Bambam continued, this time he raised his voice louder and walked past Jeongyeon on purpose.

"Get your back here." Jeongyeon demanded and grabbed onto the back of Bambam's t-shirt, choking him a little. Despite the slight choke, the smile on Bambam's face grew wider. 

"So..." Bambam prompted, a mischievous look in his eyes as he turned around to look at Jeongyeon.

"I will tell you."

-

Chairman Im Jongsoo's condition got a lot stable and the doctor had also confirmed that he's out of danger. However, it's been over a month and he still hadn't woken up. That had caused some distress to his wife but Jaebum had also assured his mother that things would be alright. Jaebum had kept things in the company organised as usual. He knew that most of the shareholders were on his uncle's side and they were all waiting for him and his father to crumble down. But he showed no sign of that and instead, the company's doing well and its stock , which had dropped a little after news of his father's condition had gotten out, were rising back up again. 

"Im Jongmin's getting impatient." Jaebum sat on the chair by the side of the room. "Despite that fake smile on his face, he's getting impatient. Now that I've seen the footage of the CCTV, I'm almost hundred percent sure that he sent someone to murder my father."

"Impatient of what?" Nayeon questioned; she was still trying to get used to this whole situation and was still unable to grasp hold on what's going on. "Look, don't glare at me. I didn't want to be here but since I already am, I should know more right?"

"Director Im had always been waiting for a chance to drag Boss down from him position." Jeongyeon explained instead. "He had not once accepted the fact that Boss was the acting Chairman instead of him."

"This is getting more and more like a drama series." Nayeon muttered to herself and let out a long sigh. "Also, how much longer do I have to be followed around by that guy?"

Everyone present turned to the person Nayeon pointed at.

"Until you can protect yourself." Jaebum folded his arms across his chest. "Taecyeon had insisted on me being watched over too and I definitely could fight better than you. So don't complain."

"Jeongyeon worked as your assistant, it's different!"

"Well, you can make Mark your assistant too." That statement earned Bambam a pen thrown at his direction but he was fast enough to catch it before the pen hit his face. 

Jaebum rolled his eyes, clearly annoyed at how the topic had shifted elsewhere. However, before he could continue speaking, Taecyeon walked into the hideout in a hasty manner.

"Mark, Bambam, get to work." He commanded at the same time as he walked towards a computer.

"What happened?" Nayeon was the first one to ask as usual.

However, she and everyone else got ignored by the man.

"Hack into the system of KC Telecom." That was the second command Taecyeon gave.

Jaebum, Jeongyeon and Nayeon shared a look, confused at what's going on. However, Mark and Bambam didn't seem to be surprised at the instructions Taecyeon had given them. 

"What's going on?" Jaebum asked again while the other three was focused on their computer screen. Thankfully, Taecyeon finally gave them the answer.

"Remember KC's new wifi plan and how we were unsure what they're doing with it?" Taecyeon paused in his typing and looked up at the confused three. "Almost every other telecom's systems are down now and it's affecting many companies. However, only the system in your company is still working."

"KC Telecom's wifi plan..." Jeongyeon muttered as she shared a look with her boss. "The company recently just changed to using their system."

"The IP addresses," Nayeon started slowly, "and the frequencies of the router. If they are the ones with the system, they could hack into the router and they would—"

"English, Nayeon." Jaebum cut her off impatiently.

"They would be able to access to each user's household or company, giving them easier access to information." Taecyeon continued the explanation. "Someone is behind this, hacking into the others' telecommunications' frequencies and slowing them down."

"Stelecom's under attack." Mark's low voice interrupted the conversation.

"Zeplink too." Bambam looked up from his screen. "It's a DDoS attack."

"Jaebum, wake Udon up." Taecyeon instructed in a firm voice. "Jeongyeon and Nayeon, get your asses to a computer. We have a pro behind this."

"You remember what I've taught you, right?" Jeongyeon stopped in front of Nayeon before. 

"Zombie computers." Nayeon nodded and held out an 'ok' sign. "I know, I'm an I.T student so I learn these fast."

After that short conversation, the two girls each sat in front of the computer. At the same time, Udon was active again and after a brief explanation from Jaebum, another screen was light up again as Udon get down to work.

"I will head back to the office to check on the situation."

Jeongyeon looked up from her screen upon Jaebum's words but the male turned around before Jeongyeon could even stand up.

"Stay here." Jaebum instructed. "It's okay, you're off work for the rest of today."

— 

After that incident, KC Telecom's stocks had been rising rapidly and there were more users who had switched to their wifi system as what the team had initially guessed. They had also concluded that there were a lot more androids behind the scenes.

Despite them being able to slow down the other party's attack and managed to bring the other's telecom system up for a short while, they knew that if not for the fact that they had stopped their attack, they wouldn't be able to hold for long. Even Udon had acknowledged the fact and told them that he wouldn't have been able to hold them down for long.

Beside that, they also had another issue that came up because of the incident.

"We won't be able to hide our IP address for long." Bambam stated with his arms crossed when all of them were gathered together. Even Jinyoung was present. "This place had been watched for a while, once they managed to find our real IP address, we might be in danger."

"It's rare but Bambam's right." Jeongyeon continued, ignoring the 'what the hell' glance Bambam just threw at her direction. Obviously, she was still holding a grudge of his blackmailing the other time.

"We need a new place." Mark concluded. 

"But," Jinyoung looked around the basement. "All these equipment, how are we going to move them without anyone suspecting. Are we going to just pretend that they're actually books?"

"And yes, that was sarcasm." He added on after a brief silence.

"Well, if we do it by batch, it won't be that suspicious." Nayeon interrupted the silence and cleared when all attention was on her. "This secret fire escape route had always been how we go in and out here; it would be too tedious to move everything at once."

She paused for a moment and looked at everyone in front of her. When no one spoke up, she took it as a indication for her to continue.

"It's going to sound very stupid but there was this one drama where a whole hacker team was moving about in a big truck and tapping on others' wifi so their IP addresses couldn't be traced. But they got caught anyway since they're the bad guys—"

"Focus, Nayeon." Jaebum stopped Nayeon before she could shift the topic away which made the girl gulped a little.

"So you want us to use a moving vehicle as our base?" Jinyoung asked to confirm. "That really sounded stupid but for some reason, I like the idea."

"That makes you stupid too then." Jaebum scoffed.

"Does that mean we are not going to do it?" Nayeon asked before Jinyoung could throw back an insult at Jaebum. "Since it's stupid?"

"No, we are going to do it your way." Jaebum surprised everyone with his statement.— 

Taecyeon had recently received some information from his friend in Hong Kong that he might have seen Sunmi. Even though his friend did mention that he wasn't sure, Taecyeon had insisted on going. And because of his absence, Jaebum had always been in charge of holding the team together.

Including this time. 

They had informed Taecyeon about what's happening in Korea and the latter had agreed with their decision. Using his connection, Jaebum had managed to find a truck big enough for their plan in a short time. Knowing that any big movements would arouse suspicion, they had all agreed on moving things slowly.

Udon who had been active ever since the DDoS attack was the first to be assigned onto the truck since he would be the one driving. At the same time, he would also be shutting down any security cameras they would be passing through. 

A few weeks was enough for them to move the important pieces of equipment and computer onto the truck. It had made things a lot easier for everyone since Udon could just drive the truck to somewhere near so they could get onboard. Especially in Jinyoung's case, the risk of getting caught by the media went down by a lot.

Mark, Bambam and Nayeon were the ones who spend the most time in the truck. In Nayeon's case, she was forced to join the two of them since they had to keep an eye on her much to Nayeon's dismay. However, all these time, she had learnt a lot, mostly from Bambam. 

They had taught her how to make a duplicate phone which was how they managed to track her down. She was showed how to use their spy bug, designed by Taecyeon himself. Bambam had also taught her how to make a malignant code that could take control of others' gadgets.

Of course, Jaebum almost killed them both when he realised what they've done to his own notebook. 

In summary, it's been a peaceful few weeks with nothing big happening. However, that's probably what everyone would call, the peace before a storm.

-

i almost forgot to update because yesterday was Good Friday and i was busy too. this chapter is the beginning of the second part of the story, the build up. things are getting exciting, i swear it is or at least i hope you guys feel that way! and so, in this new chapter, a new character's being introduced too!

happy easter, everyone!