“What...what did you just say?”

fell open at the guy on the bed.

And he shrugged nonchalantly. “I gotta stay over at your place for the time being. I mean until I get healed.”

“What kind of joke is that?”

“Do I look like I’m joking? I’m dead serious right now Kim Mirae-ssi.”

hung open again. “How do you know my name?”

Shrugging again, he jerked his head towards her handbag. “People carry around identification material with them these days you know.”

“And back to your lame joke. Give me your details or someone to contact. Family, friends, your workplace or whatever. I gotta inform them to come and get you.”

“Can you please...” he held his phone in front of her face, a groan of pain escaping his lips with the move of his arm affecting his damaged ribs, and making the girl automatically take it in a hurry. “Take off the back cover.”

As she separated the midnight blue back cover from the phone, a microchip fell onto the mattress between them. “What this?” she looked up at him confusedly.

“I don’t think you’re old enough to not recognize a microchip.” He smirked, gesturing her to pick it up.

Strange enough, she was obeying this total stranger in every command he gave.

“I just got it into my hands before jumping off the window. Barely managed to push it inside the back cover...didn’t have time to put it into the phone.” He explained. “Now put it in and open the folders in it.”

There she was, curiously inserting to memory card into his phone and switching it back on. “Iris lock.” She held it in front of his face, getting it unlocked and scrolling through for the SD card files.

He watched as she searched through them, occasionally opening PDF files and going through their content. One corner of his lips curved up in a smirk when her eyes finally started to widen, threatening to pop out from their sockets.

“This...” she gasped, frantically scrolling through the charts and descriptions. “Isn’t this the research Professor Oh Sejoon gave up halfway through-” tearing her eyes off the display, she looked up at him in shock. “Who are you?”

With a more-to-the-professional-side smile, he held up his hand. “Nice to meet you. I’m Lee Sehun. A Korean agent from Nakamoto Holdings Japan.”

“Nakamoto Holdings?” she gasped, forgetting to accept his formal greeting. “Isn’t that the company who were sponsoring Professor Oh’s dementia drug research? Well these files look similar to the ones I proof read for Professor last year... But you looked like a street thug this morning!”

“Business is not always peace and harmony, Miss Kim.”

“Wait...let me get this straight.” Mirae held up her hands, trying to calm her surprised self and settle down to listen to his explanation. “Clearly explain me about what’s going on, um... Lee Sehun-ssi.”

“Nakamoto Holdings is not the only one who’s currently on the run to become the first to launch a successful remedy for dementia.”

“So they’re trying to steal the research details? Ah... I get it.”

“And I have to complete my part in the research as adding the finishing touches to abh- I mean Professor Oh’s work. But as you can see, I’ve started to malfunction since this morning. And we can’t delay the drug launch just because I got a limb or two broken.”

“So what does it has to do with me? I can just contact you to professor within seconds.” Mirae said, holding up her phone.

“Don’t.”

His voice was rather commanding, silencing the girl again.

“If he gets to know, he’ll just panic and give up on everything. I know the old man.” He chuckled. “That’s why you need to help me finish all this work for the drug launch in two months. There’s a lot to do and you’ll help me, plus no one would suspect of your place as my hideout.”

“Whoa...nice choice of accommodation.” The girl scoffed, knowing very well that