Almost every day at exactly 8:30 pm a black car would leave the Kim’s villa and head toward Gangnam. The car would stop at a small two-story café called The Black Pearl and Kim Haesoo would step out looking very prim and proper, usually wearing an expensive blouse and some designer jeans. Her visiting The Black Pearl was not surprising since it had been Haesoo’s first and only official business since she officially joined the Kim family. While no one had expected her to do any actual work outside of some occasional charity event or maybe something to do with the family business, Haesoo had put in time and effort into opening her café. She spent quite a long time involved in the construction and daily operations of the business. Well, everyone thought that she was deeply involved in the daily operations of the business, why else would she show up after hours almost every day and stay until two or three in the morning. Many people had asked her what she was doing during those hours at the café but she always just smiled and avoided giving a direct answer.

             The Black Pearl had a bit of a reputation for being rather private, taking only around 20 customers a day with an opening at 3:30 and closing at 6:30 pm with a waitlist a mile long. The design of the space and decorations was black and white themed with a hint of blue to represent the sea. Haesoo had handled the design aspect herself (with a little bit to help from Junmyeon) and spent months working on getting everything exactly the way she wanted. It was her perfect vision of what a café should look like so of course, she would want to spend time there but she had a very different reason for going there almost every day.

            “Hiya boss,” Haesoo entered the café and was immediately greeted by a cheerful, deceptively young-looking man dress in the café’s uniform, a black dress shirt, and dark blue pants. He handed Haesoo a cup as he leaned against the pristine white marble counter looking very relaxed.

            “I keep telling you that you don’t have to come down and wait for me every single day,” Haesoo said as she took the cup from him and took a sip. As always, he made her favorite drink, a double shot Americano with two pumps of vanilla and a little bit of honey.

            “Of course, I do,” he said in a very matter of the fact way. “I have to make sure that no stray flies are hanging around you. Besides if I don’t come down then where are you going to get your coffee?”

            Haesoo had nothing to say back, Kim Minseok was not just the best coffee maker and café manager that she knew, he was also the ex-head of security for the Kim family. While he looked young and cheerful, he had personally been at Junmyeon‘s side protecting him for many years. If it weren’t for Minseok’s injury from taking a bullet for Junmyeon, he would still have continued to be by Junmyeon’s side. Minseok had resigned voluntarily from his position and no amount of persuasion would change his mind. Haesoo had happened to be around when Minseok talked about wanting to open a little café and make coffee. Without thinking too hard about it Haesoo offered Minseok the position of manager and head barista at her then yet to be open café. He had been working for Haesoo every day since then, subtly adding the second watchdog as one of his duties.

            “Look, don’t think about it too much alright? Let’s hurry before the other side gets worried, that’s a problem that I don’t want to deal with.” Minseok had mistaken her silence as her trying to think of some way to retort back and quickly took the cup out of her hands, placed it on the counter and ushered her over to the elevator. He pressed the button and the doors opened with a soft ‘ding’ and the two entered the elevator. Minseok took his thumb and placed it on the scanner before the doors closed and the elevator started going up. The elevator had been a last-minute addition after it was finalized for Minseok to work at the café and the only people who could access the elevator were Haesoo, Minseok and some other members of the Kim family’s security team.

            The doors opened and Haesoo was met with an incredibly clean simply furnished living room. The room above the café was referred to as Haesoo’s office but it had slowly morphed into Minseok’s living space since Haesoo didn’t actually need an office. The space wasn’t too big but it had a living room, a bedroom, and a small kitchenette. There had been an argument about Haesoo wanting to buy Minseok a bigger place nearby but he had been adamant about wanting to live and watch over the upstairs area. Haesoo had no choice other than to give in especially if it meant an extra level of security for her and Tartarus.

            “I don’t understand how you keep everything so sickeningly clean,” Haesoo said as she looked around and could not find even a speck of dust.

            “Personal habit,” Minseok said as he grinned and opened the door to the bedroom. He led Haesoo over to the large double door wardrobe and opened the door. Haesoo was met with the tidiest most organized closet she had ever seen.

            “No matter how many times I see it I’m still amazed if you came out with a book you could be the next lifestyle guru.”

            “If I became the next lifestyle guru who would run The Black Pearl?” Minseok was still grinning as he pushed away the row of clothes that were hanging to reveal a small metal door and a handprint pad.

            “Never mind then, I’d be hopeless if you were to become famous,” Haesoo said rather quickly as she pressed her hand against the pad. There were a few seconds where nothing happened before the pad lit up and the metal door slid open revealing a faintly lit staircase that went down further than the eye could see. The doorway was quite small and Haesoo had to hunch down to enter it.

            “That’s what I thought, alright, stay safe and let me know if anything happens.”

            “Will do, now stop worrying and get some rest,” Haesoo said just as the doors slid back to place. Alone, Haesoo descended down the staircase, the stairs continued for quite a while and Haesoo once again considered installing an escalator. The stairs went from the second floor of the café straight down until it reached the underground passageway.

             The passageway had originally been part of Seoul’s subway construction plan but as time passed, the route changed and that particular underground path had been abandoned. There was still a part of the pathway that was connected to Gangnam station but Haesoo had her people seal off the entrance when she received the rights to the passageway. The rights weren’t easy to get but Junmyeon pulled some strings with the mayor of Seoul and Haesoo received her underground passageway. The passageway was mostly empty except for the doors and password locks on either side. Once Haesoo made her way down and across, she had to go up another set of stairs.

            On top of these set of stairs was a similar metal door and handprint pad. Haesoo pressed her hand onto the pad and the doors slid open to reveal a row of dresses, she pushed aside the clothes and pushed against the door to the wardrobe. Outside the wardrobe was another bedroom, it was more lavishly decorated but also slightly messier with clothes and makeup lying around. Haesoo jumped out of the wardrobe and stretched just as someone knocked on the door that lead to Alastor’s office.

            “Honestly Cerberus, sometimes I wonder if you’re a real dog,” Haesoo said as she turned back toward the wardrobe to close the metal door and pick out a dress for the night.

            The door that lead to Alastor’s office opened and Cerberus walked in with his usual crooked grin. “How can I call myself a guard dog if I don’t know when my owner arrives?” He asked as he closed the door behind him and leaned against it with his arms crossed.

             Haesoo just sighed as she took out a red dress and threw it onto the bed before she started to her blouse. Cerberus was someone that she had saved from the streets after he was beaten and kicked out of his group. He had been left for the dead but Haesoo happened to see him lying among the garbage and decided to lend him a hand. She only later found out about his nature but she had decided that he was perfect for the security position at Tartarus. Since then he has stood by her side in his signature light blue suit, protecting Tartarus from certain dangerous people and events.

“Anything happen tonight?” Haesoo asked as she continued to undress, kicking her pumps off to the side

            “Nothing too serious yet, Yang Sejun was making a fuss at the entrance when we didn’t let him in because of his debts. He kept on shouting about how he didn’t have the money on hand but he knew that he could win it back.”

            “I trust that you took care of everything?”

            “I gave him a very firm warning and when that didn’t work… I sent him home with a nice reminder not to get up in my face.”

            “A broken nose?” Haesoo asked casually as she slipped out of her bra and grabbed the pushup one that she wore at Tartarus.

            “Just a black eye,” Cerberus said his grin growing wider by just a little bit.

            “Never thought I’d see the day when you would show restraint.”

            “Well it was at the entrance, wouldn’t want the other club members to be too scared to come in. Hopefully, when he comes back, he’ll have our money.”

            “He has a couple of bits of land in Jeju that he could give to us to cover everything,” Haesoo said pulled the red dress right up to her chest, the dress was one of her favorites to wear at Tartarus and it displayed the effects of the push up bra in a very satisfying way. The top was tight while the bottom flowed down to the floor with a slit at the side that ran almost up to her hip, it was revealing enough to catch someone’s eye but kept enough hidden to keep that person interested. “Help me zip up please,” Haesoo said as she turned her back towards Cerberus again.

            He walked over and zipped up the back before walking back to his position by the door. “How do you even know about the land?”

            “It’s my job to know everything there is to know,” Haesoo stated as she sat down to do her makeup. At Tartarus, Haesoo applied a heavy layer of makeup to hide her features as best as she could, with a fuller lip, bigger eyes, a sharper nose, different eyebrow shape, and enough contour to change the shape of her face. Paired with smoky eyeshadow, large eyelashes and blood-red lipstick Haesoo became Selene the most sought after yet unattainable call girl at Tartarus. Selene was another character that Haesoo made up to hide her own identity while protecting Alastor’s mysteriousness. As Selene, she could walk amongst the club members and get even more information or perhaps be at their side to edge them into betting a little more than they were going to. She was also the one that passed along Alastor’s messages and orders.

            “I don’t understand how you can just change so much about yourself with just makeup,” Cerberus said after silently watching Haesoo put on her makeup.

            “Darling, it’s called skill,” Haesoo said in a slightly higher pitch than her normal speaking voice.

            “Please don’t start acting like Selene until you’ve finished your transformation.”

            “You’re no fun,” Haesoo said as she grabbed the hairnet and pulled all of her hair up. She reached for the blonde wig on the table and set it snugly on top of the hairnet, hiding all evidence of her dark brown hair. The wig had cost a couple thousand but when Haesoo wore it most people could not tell that it was a wig. Haesoo fiddle with a couple of the straps under the wig until it fit very tightly on her head. “Is that better?” Selene asked as she turned around to look at Cerberus with a slight pout.

            Cerberus just nodded as he opened the door to the office. Selene slipped on a pair of black high heels and left the bedroom. The office was decorated quite sparingly with just a giant black desk, a computer and an armchair. Other than that, there were just three doors that lead to different parts of Tartarus.  Cerberus opened the door on the far right and the two walked through the winding corridor and past multiple sets of doors. Tartarus was designed in a way that made it quite hard to navigate if one wanted to go beyond the area opened to regular club members. There were hidden doors and special corridors that made sneaking around both easy and especially difficult, especially if you were to run into one of the many guards that roamed Tartarus.

            The two reached a large metal door and Cerberus knocked three times. An eye slot opened and quickly shut before the metal door opened to reveal one of Tartarus’s security personnel, a large muscular man in a dark red button-up and black pants.

            “Thank you Youngmin,” Selene said as she blew him a kiss. He nodded and sat back down on the chair beside the metal door.

Selene and Cerberus had finally arrived at the main floor of Tartarus. The main floor was separated into different areas for the different gambling stations. At the center was a round bar staffed with bartenders and pretty girls to drink with. There were also plenty of scandalously clad women that walked around trying to improve a member’s night. Tartarus was very similar to any other gambler’s den expect for the fact that most of its clientele were at the top of either Seoul’s upper class or the top of Seoul’s underworld all bound to Tartarus by the secret that they had given to Alastor.

             As Selene walked around men would stare at her with a hungry expression in their eyes. Everyone wanted her but few were willing to pay the price of spending a night with the person that was rumored to be Alastor’s woman. Selene would walk around giving out a few words of encouragement to those that were down on their luck. They would immediately be able to win a few rounds but as soon as they placed a bigger bet, they would end up with a much bigger loss. Selene would give them a few encouraging touches on the arm and they were on their way home, a couple of thousand short but with a vow to come back and win back their losses.

             During Selene’s rounds, Cerberus would either keep watch from a distance or he would be seeing to the disturbances that popped up around Tartarus. Those that he could solve himself he would, and those that he couldn’t he would report to Selene who would give a little kiss to the gentleman that she was with and then leave with Cerberus. Occasionally Cerberus would also call for Selene to inform her of anyone that was looking for Alastor which was what happened this night.

             “There’s someone that’s looking for Alastor, they want to be a member,” Cerberus whispered into Selene’s ear, ignoring the venom-filled stares from the surrounding gentlemen.

             “I’m sorry darling, I have some business to take care of,” Selene said as she kissed the gentleman next to her on the cheek, making sure to press hard enough to leave a lipstick mark. Without another word, she and Cerberus walked away toward a more secluded area of the club. “I thought that we decided to review applicants once a month?” Haesoo asked as soon as they were far enough from the club members.

             “Well, this one refused to leave unless he received an audience with Alastor,” Cerberus stated as he started to unlock one of the doors at the side.

             “And why did you not manage to convince him to leave?” Haesoo asked as an odd feeling started to fill her stomach.

             “He smelled like me,  I thought that it would be easier for Selene to talk to him rather than the two of us starting a bloodbath at the entrance. I kept him in the purple lounge with Jaein watching over him.” Cerberus said as he led Haesoo through the door and into another complicated corridor.

             “, I thought we already had the most powerful mob bosses as members? Who is this person?” Haesoo asked as she increased her speed.

             “That’s the thing, I don’t recognize him and he won’t talk to me. He calls himself Shadow and that was all that he was willing to say. He didn’t know who I was which means that he’s probably new to the scene. There’s been a couple of small gangs growing in power in recent years so it’s not wise for me to be too forceful.”

             “Whenever you start acting rationally something really bad happens.”

             “Well, hopefully, Selene knows how to handle this so-called Shadow,” Cerberus said as he stopped in front of a purple door. He looked at Haesoo, she nodded at him and he opened the door.