“It’s your grandmother’s birthday, right?” Chanyeol asked as he walked Sejin to the front door, the girl was in a rush to go to work.

“Yes, and don’t fret. She doesn’t like presents, so, don’t get her anything.” She warned him, Chanyeol nodded and held onto her hand as they went down the steps.

“So, what should I wear? Nothing too casual or,”

Sejin paused, she turned to face him and she broke into a small smile, well her family didn’t really have a good fist impression of him and she knew Chanyeol sensed that. Chanyeol had accidentally walked in on a family dinner at the Lee residence and he was unprepared. He had just left a race back then, his Mustang had crashed against a railing and he was dressed too casually as well. Sejin could still remember it clearly, a pair of black ripped jeans, an oversized shirt and a denim jacket, her family also noticed his tattoos.

“Just come as yourself, you know they like you.” She said to him, which was true. It only took two dinners and her uncle’s private birthday party for the whole clan to fall in love with Park Chanyeol.

Chanyeol and his pleasing personality, that also came with a good sense of humor. Heck, her parents already love him.

“Still, I~” Chanyeol paused when Sejin leaned in to kiss his lower jaw.

“I just want to see you there, and I’m kind of running late.” She said with a small chuckle, Chanyeol scrunched his nose at her, but he opened the Suburban’s door.

He noticed how Sejin paused, realizing again that she had to be chauffeured. Chanyeol bit his lip, the guards politely looked away.

“I’m sorry if it’s making uncomfortable.” He said softly, Sejin faced him.

“It’s not that, I was just going to ask if I could swing by your office around lunch? There’s this thing about Jena…and..well, other stuff, and I’m about to lose it if I don’t tell anyone.” She sighed, Chanyeol nodded, he gestured for her to get inside the car.

“I’ll make reservations for lunch, enjoy your day.” He smiled as he kissed the back of her hand, Sejin rolled her eyes and the door was close.

The guards bowed at the young executive before getting in the car as well, Chanyeol exhaled as he watched the car roll out of the property.

He turned back towards the house and two men followed him.

“What do we have?” He spoke in a flat tone as they got in the house.

“We found two large safehouses, sir. But it was used for storage, and, about the man from last week,”

“Suwon.” Chanyeol nodded, they got inside his study and he sat down. He opened the drawer and took out the pistol and slowly set it down again.

“We stuck a tracker on him, and we got a hit.”

“And, Kai spoke about the plates, and do we have someone on Jena?” Chanyeol asked, his forehead creased.

“The license plates were proven fake, sir. And, yes, we have two of our people shadowing miss Hong.”

Chanyeol exhaled and leaned back on his seat.

“This isn’t going to be easy, sir. They’re doing this on purpose.” The male said politely.

“I know, so, let’s finish this at once.”

Jena had her arms wrapped around herself as she stepped out of the glass doors, she was at the rooftop garden of her workplace. Daniel had sent her a text, wanting to meet up.

She found him, sitting on a bench alone. She smiled to herself as she walked towards him.

“What’s up? I thought you had rehearsals today.”

Daniel glanced at her and Jena paused, she chucked her phone in her pant pocket before speaking.

“Hey, is everything alright?” She asked, Daniel looked so tensed and troubled. She had never seen him this way.

“Y—Yes, it is. I just…I wanted to see you before going to practice.” Daniel said to her, but Jena could sense it. Something was wrong.

“Are you sure?” She reached for his hand, Daniel gently pulled back.

“Yes, I just..Jena,” He exhaled and his lips, Jena grew worried.

“Why didn’t you tell me that your cousin doesn’t like me?”

Jena’s eyes widened, she pulled back and stared at him.

“W—What are you saying?”

“It doesn’t matter, I should go. Sorry for taking up your time.” Daniel said as he stood up, but Jena blocked his path.

“What are you saying? What did Sejin unnie do?” She asked him, Daniel remained quiet.

“Daniel, please, just tell me. You must have been mistaken.”

“No. You see last night, I was at a Park Holdings event, I just signed with them to be an ambassador of their new properties.” Daniel murmured, Jena exhaled and crossed his arms.

“I was surprised to see her there, she was talking with president Park, his wife and Chanyeol hyung.”

“Unnie was invited, I mean, she always is.” Jena said softly.

“So, I wanted to say hi, you know, to be polite, but your cousin….I couldn’t even recognize her.”

“W—What did she do?”

“She told me that she didn’t know me right after I said hi to her, it…was so embarrassing, Jena-ya.” Daniel swallowed, Jena took a step back, stunned.

“I just..wanted to say hi to her. That’s..all I wanted to do, and she did that with people listening.”

“Daniel, I…I don’t know what to say, unnie~”

“Well, you could have at least told me that she doesn’t like me. Now, I don’t even know how to face the Parks again.”

Kai was drumming his fingers as he looked at the computer screen, Chanyeol had gone silent beside him.

“We can’t just go in there and attack, hyung.”

The male nodded in agreement, Kai loosened his tie and leaned back on his seat.

“We have addresses; I already have people checking if they have marked cars as well.”

“Trackers?” Chanyeol asked, Kai nodded back.

“What did you tell Sejin?”

“I…I made her believe that some people were out to kidnap me, it was the only way she’d agree having guards with her.” Chanyeol sighed, Kai could feel it, his friend wasn’t comfortable with lying to her. Scratch that, Chanyeol was always honest and open with everything, but it was different now. Sejin’s safety is on the line and he can’t risk it, but that irked Kai.

“How long are you going to lie to her, hyung? The Sejin I know would never hate you for… being you.” Kai murmured, Chanyeol picked up his coffee and took a small sip.

“You don’t understand,”

“What?” Kai grimaced, he yanked the pistol from the waistband of his jeans and placed it on the table.

“Sejin thinks that she always has to maintain a pristine reputation, she’s the one running the family business and she knows that being a woman, that’s already difficult enough with people just waiting for her to make a mistake and use that against her.”

“She knows that she’s doing a great job, right?” Kai was confused, Chanyeol nodded back at him.

“If she finds out this…this side of our work, it wont take long for her to realize that I can be her downfall. We’re part of the mafia, Kim Jongin. I mean, come on, look at me.”

Kai was silent for a while, Chanyeol leaned back on his seat and closed his eyes.

“Sejin has always looked at you, I doubt that will matter to her.”

“Trust me, it does. Her image has always mattered to her.” Chanyeol said as he stood up, Kai’s forehead creased.

“Can I trust you with Jena? You said you two are friends now.” The older male asked him, wanting to change the topic.

“Yes, you can. Friends? Not so much, she has a special friend though.”

Chanyeol paused, his lips curled up.

“Right, do not ever bring him up when Sejin’s around.”

“He seems weird, huh?” Kai voiced out as Chanyeol picked up his jacket.

“Sejin hates the guy, so don’t add to flames to the fire, okay?” He said jokingly before leaving Kai’s office.

Kim Jongin pursed his lips and picked up the file on his folder, he was staring at the photo of Jena and Daniel.

“This better not get to the media.” He murmured before tossing all the files into the shredder.

Sejin looked at the file before her and squared her shoulders, she winced again, her bruise was bothering her slightly. Sejin’s palm went over it and she exhaled.

She heard her secretary walked into the room.

“The representatives from Clover Group will be here in twenty minutes, ma’am.”

She nodded and stood up from her seat, she followed him out of the room. She noticed the two guards assigned to her stand up as soon as they saw her. She felt her secretary glance at her pensively.

“I will be at conference room four upstairs.” She walked towards them, the males nodded back.

“Will it be okay for you to wait outside?” Sejin asked carefully, the guards could not help but smile.

“Of course, young miss.”

She smiled and turned towards the elevator, the men followed her at with a respectful distance.

Sejin was chewing on her lower lip as she stepped out of the machine, she couldn’t wait for lunch. After what happened last night, she almost forgot what she saw.

Kang Daniel. Another woman. And a lot of saliva.

She shuddered mentally.

Did that count as cheating?

I mean, technically they aren’t together, but when I went out on dates with Chanyeol I wasn’t exchanging sources of my DNA with another person.

Just, why the hell did I have to witness that?

Sejin felt someone tug on the sleeve of her coat, she was pulled backward before she could hit the post.

“Are you okay, young miss?” The guard asked as he let go of her.

“I—I am, thanks.”

“Vice president, ” Her secretary gestured for her to walk first.

The doors slid open for her and she was suddenly reminded of whom she was meeting.

Clover Group. 

How could I forget?

She walked in and went to her assigned seat, Sejin was about to sit down when the doors opened again, revealing a familiar face amongst the newcomers.

“Honey.” She blurted out softly, the male’s eyes went to her, as if hearing her words. And then he gave her one of his familiar warm smiles.

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