Jinyoung walked in from lunch while checking his phone for the hundredth time. 

Mark was being suspiciously silent, so was Heiran. 

But honestly, he was glad for the break, it had given him time to absorb the bits and pieces of information that Mark had told him about. 

Trafficking. 

He had trouble sleeping ever since he found out. Maybe it was hypocritical and ironic for a career criminal to suddenly have morals in the face of other different types of crimes. 

But GOT7 had been different. They only existed in the underworld and it was uncommon that what they did down here affected people above ground. Except maybe when it came to their drug operations. 

Jinyoung had made peace with the crimes he committed behind his computer screen and the more violent ones that Mark committed behind a gun. Mark didn’t go on shooting sprees on innocent people and Jinyoung wasn’t stealing identities from poor old people. 

So, he never felt guilty. 

But trafficking? 

Those were innocent people. Kids. Teens. 

Mark was trafficked. 

The reminder of his friend’s past made him even more nauseous. It had sickened him when Mark had confided in him about his past. Now GOT7 was doing the same thing but to other people.

He couldn’t even imagine what his friend was going through. It was hard being there for Mark when he just curled into himself and shut the rest of the world out.

He nudged the door to his office and stepped in, still lost in his thoughts when Yeonhee stood up, “God! You scared me.”

She grinned, watching him move to his desk, giving her a wary stare, “You took a long lunch.”

“I’ve been working overtime lately. I think I earned it.” Jinyoung said flipping open his laptop, “What’s up?”

She rocked on her heels, “Um…do you want to get ice cream together again?”

Jinyoung froze before looking up at her. She smiled softly and he felt his throat close a little, “You—Really?”

She tucked some hair behind her ear and looked at him, almost shyly, “Yeah, I mean, I had fun last time and if—if you don’t want to, that’s totally cool too, I know you just came back from lunch and you’re probably full and have a ton of work, so maybe nevermi—“

“Give me 10 minutes.” He blurted abruptly. 

Her eyes widened, “Okay, um, are you sure?”

“Yeah.” He said with a smile, “I have to check on some stuff but I’ll come by your office and we can go.”

She bit down on her bottom lip, her face flushing, “Alright then, I’ll see you later.”

“Yeah, you will.” He tossed back with a sparkle in his eye. 

Yeonhee stepped out and closed the door to his office. She leaned her head against his door and held back her smile. She felt so giddy and nervous, it was such a new feeling that it took her by surprise. She wasn’t used to feeling good. 

This was Jinyoung. 

Park pain-in-her--since-the-day-she-walked-in Jinyoung.  

He was the guy she barely spoke to aside from sarcastic barbs and the occasional roll of the eyes. He was the guy that followed Mark around like a shadow, a shadow she barely noticed when she was too busy chasing after someone else. But the last few months around him had redirected her line of sight.

Suddenly he was Park Jinyoung, the guy with a cute smile, pretty lips, and knew her better than anyone. 

Shaking her head, she turned and gasped when she bumped into someone. Her lips curled into a snarl, ready to tell whoever it was to watch where they were going until she lifted her head and her Boss stood behind her, watching her. “Sir.”

“Yeonhee. I feel like we never really got to speak much to each other.” He said slowly. 

She blinked, he never spoke to anyone aside from the few he kept close by his side. She isn’t nearly important enough, “That’s—that’s true, sir.”

“I’d like to speak to you about an opportunity for you and based on how that conversation goes, maybe we can discuss where you see yourself in the future with GOT7 and what steps we can take to make sure we can get you there.” He said. 

Her lips parted in shock, it had been a dream of hers to move up the ladder from a lowly money cleaner to someone more essential, “That would amazing, sir.”

He nodded and started walking to his office, “Follow me. There’s a lot you need to be filled in on.”

“Yes, sir.” She said, quickening her pace so that she fell in stride with him. 

He glanced at her from the side of his eye, “But first, what I’ve been hearing is that you used to be in a relationship with Mark. Is that true?”

-----

Jinyoung frowned when he walked to Yeonhee’s office and found it empty. He called her a few times and each time it went to voicemail. 

He lapped the entire floor in case she was talking to someone else but no one had seen her. He sent her a few texts and waited in her office a couple more minutes before sighing and heading back to his. 

He was being stood up. 

It should’ve been obvious. It was too good to be true that Yeonhee had suddenly seen him in a different light and wanted to spend more time with him outside of the office. She probably wasn’t ready for it. Or hell, maybe she saw affection in his eyes when he agreed and it freaked her out. 

What was he thinking?

-----

Heiran was sitting on Mark’s couch, replaying the press announcement of Jackson taking over as VP of Finance. 

A job that took her years to get, he had just walked into with zero experience, zero. background, hell, he was a gangster that specialized in weaponry. 

So why was he shaking hands with her CEO while dressed in a fancy three-piece suit?

“How is this possible?” Jaebum asked, standing next to the couch, watching the report.

“Jackson’s not answering his phone. No one is. They’re probably being briefed.” Mark muttered while tucking his phone away. 

She turned to look at him, “Shouldn’t you go and find out what’s happening?”

He glanced at Jaebum before looking at her, “I can always get Jinyoung to fill me in. I can go if that’ll make you feel be—”

“No!” She blurted before her shoulders sagged, “No, stay.”

Jaebum looked back at the screen, away from the way Heiran stared up at Mark, “They filled your position with Jackson, why would they do that?”

“They now have someone on the inside. They don’t need a fake company like SmartLogic to trick anyone like they needed when GOT7 was using Heiran. Any money laundering or other illegal activities they want to do they’ll just get Jackson to do it as the VP of Finance. They’ll have free rein to use your company however they want.” Mark explain. “It has to be that.”

Heiran ran her fingers through her hair, “So he did all of this, all of SmartLogic and the merger was just to get me fired.”

“That doesn’t make sense.” Jaebum said in confusion.

“Yes it does.” Mark said, “This must’ve been his backup plan. If you retaliated, he would’ve gotten you fired.”

Heiran scowled, “But I wasn’t retaliating.” 

“No, but he probably wanted direct control if he’s expanding his trafficking ring. He’s probably getting a lot of dirty money fast and not enough power to clean.” Jaebum reasoned. 

“How can we be sure?” She asked. 

Mark crossed his arms and leaned against the wall, “I texted Jinyoung to fill me in as soon as possible, so we’ll know for sure, soon.”

“How did he even get hired?” Jaebum asked, “Isn’t there a whole complicated process for that?” 

She nodded, “Yeah, it’s a thorough one too. There are 4 rounds of interviews, background and credits checks. All of it.”

“But it probably isn’t hard to fake that stuff.” Jaebum said, running his fingers through his long hair.

Mark shook his head, “You’re right but it still doesn’t make sense.”

“What doesn’t?” Jaebum looked unimpressed. 

Heiran chewed on her nail, “It’s not like he was hired as a researcher or manager. He’s an executive. That’s a tight knit circle. They don’t just let any random person join, even if they’re highly qualified. Usually, they hire internally, you know, training people for executive roles. And if they ever went external, they would rely on some sort of connection.”

“You’re saying for them to hire Jackson, an external candidate, it’s likely he knew someone who could vouch for him?” Jaebum asked.

Heiran’s eyes widened with realization, “Exactly.”

Jaebum made a face, “But who would vouch for him? Anyone who knows him well enough would know he’s shady and no one would vouch for someone they don’t know well. ”

“Maybe someone owed him or GOT7 a favour.” Mark suggested. 

Heiran nodded, “That makes the most sense because he would’ve easily failed the background checks. If anyone on the hiring committee asked a friend if they knew a Jackson Wang, it would all fall apart.”

“Who is it then?”

Mark’s eyes widened when the camera panned out and right behind Jackson stood the VP of Legal, “, what about him?”

“That prick.” She seethed, “I wouldn’t be surprised. I’m sure he’s into sketchy .”

“Okay, hang on Mr. & Mrs. Smith. You can’t just accuse someone just because you recognize him. We need to prove that he’s the reason Jackson moved into your seat and then we can put some pressure on him and get him to talk.” Jaebum held his hands out as if the two of them were about to go at the man through the television swinging. 

“But then what?” Heiran asked softly, “What is our goal, here?”

“To get proof that GOT7 is trafficking and go to the police with it.” Jaebum explained.

Heiran rubbed her eyes, “How will figuring out Jackson’s connection help us do that?”

“We can get more information out of him because he must know something about what Jackson’s going to be doing. He’ll probably be easier to crack than someone from GOT7 who knows how to stay off the radar.” Mark reasoned.  

“Are you going to try going into his office again?” She asked. 

Mark nodded, “I’m going to sneak in tonight.”

“Won’t that be enough?” She asked hopefully. 

Mark looked unsure, “Probably not. If we give the files over to the police they can’t prove that they originally came from GOT7.”

“You could have a hard copy, give it to the police and then tell them to go raid GOT7’s headquarters.” She offered. 

“No, the minute we speak to a cop, we have to assume that GOT7 will be on the move covering up their tracks. Same goes for his computer, the minute I’m out of there, we have to act like I’ve declared war on them. He’ll know I made copies of his files.” Mark grumbled.

“Unless your nerd friend helps.”

“His name is Jinyoung.” Heiran snapped. 

Mark’s lip twitched, “I don’t know, this is a lot to ask of him. He might not like what GOT7 is doing but I don’t know if he’s ready to turn on them.”

“Can you…can you at least ask?” She asked timidly. 

“He doesn’t have to be in there with you, he can just help disconnect any security measures on his computer. Cause I don’t think we have enough to declare war just yet.” Jaebum addedl.

Mark gave in, “Fine. I’ll talk to him and see what he says.”

She scratched the back of her neck, “So what are we going to do after we get the files since we can’t take it to the police yet?”

“We confront Jackson.”

Heiran’s jaw dropped, “Are you crazy? He’s not going to talk, you just said he’s going to be hard to crack. If we confront him then GOT7’s going to know exactly what we’re up to.”

“He’s the face of his operation right now. Once Jinyoung confirms everything, we have to corner Jackson. If we can get him to admit that he’s with GOT7 and that he’s using your company as a front, that might be enough to take to the police.” Mark explained calmly. His own nerves were jumping.

Heiran looked skeptical, “Like record a confession? Isn’t that risky?”

“No, Mark’s right. Jackson is a public figure now. His face is everywhere, it’ll be hard for him to run. And the more detailed the proof we give the police, the better. That way they won’t waste time going after them.” Jaebum said. It was strange to see them on the same side, agreeing. 

Mark looked over at her, “It will tie GOT7 to the trafficking files we have.”

“Yeah, okay, I guess that makes sense.” She hugged herself tightly.

“We could get Yugyeom involved.” Jaebum suggested.

She shook her head violently, “Absolutely not. We only get him involved when it comes to turning in the evidence but not at all before, it’s too dangerous.”

“He’s a cop, Seo.”

“Still!” She yelled.

Jaebum held his hands up and stepped back, “Fine.”

“Oh, it’s Jinyoung. I gotta take this.” Mark held up his ringing cellphone before stepping into his bedroom.

Jaebum sat down next to Heiran and laced his fingers behind his head. She sighed and shut off the tv, “I hope this works. It’s starting to feel really ambitious and Lucy’s still involved.”

“You should probably take her out of school for a while.” He suggested. 

Her body sagged and everything drained out of her, “Yeah, you’re right.”

“It’ll be okay, Seo. Don’t worry. We’re not going to let anything happen to you or her.” He said, putting a hand on her shoulder, squeezing her gently.

She gave him a blank look, “You don’t know that for sure.”

“As long as Mark’s around, actually, I do know for sure.” Jaebum said with a snort.

She sat up a little and tilted her head, “Huh?”

“I never thought I’d see him love a woman so strongly.” Jaebum muttered near her ear.

She blinked and looked over at Mark who she could see pacing back and forth past the gap in his bedroom door. 

“He doesn’t love me.” It was a knee-jerk reaction to deny anything deeper could exist even if she wasn’t entirely sure if that was true.

Jaebum had a knowing smile that looked a little sad if you paid close enough attention, “He must, because he hates me, he can’t stand me but he hasn’t left the room because he doesn’t want to leave you alone in case something bad happens. Mark is someone who ejects himself from situations he doesn’t like, forcing himself to be in the same room as me? He’s doing that all for you, Seo.”

She pressed her lips tightly together and just stared at Jaebum. It sort of made sense why he chose to stay instead of going to the meeting. But Mark didn’t love her. He liked her…a lot. But that’s a long stretch between like and love. 

“!” Jaebum boomed with a laugh. 

She jolted and peered up at him wearily, “What is it?”

He shook his head in disbelief and almost amusement, “I’m a cocky prick, Seo. You know that better than anyone. I was going to parade in here with the total knowledge that I could win you back, but then you went and chose the one guy that I would never have a chance against. Anyone else? I’d beat them. But you found Mark. How the was I supposed to compete with him?”

“What does that mean?” She asked.

“I could have everything in the world but I’d never have the fraction of genuine-ness that Mark has.” He said wistfully.

She watched his face, one that she used to know like the back of her hand that now felt so foreign,“Is this you throwing in the towel?”

“I don’t think I’d ever give up on you, Seo. But I’ve been hurting you, I guess I never stopped hurting you. I don’t want to do that to you anymore.” He admitted.

Mark walked back into the room, “That was Jinyoung.