Chapter 8

 

 

 

 

 

 "Tell me you're joking..

 

Jisoo's safe? Are you crazy?"

 

Jennie sighs, goes and sits on the bed, looking up at Lisa, who is still standing.

 

 "And do you have any other solution? Since I saw him and I'm trying to squeeze my brain out to find another, but ..nothing." Jennie says , running her hand through her hair helplessly.

 

Lisa stares at her for a moment, lowers her head a little, thinking, then looks back at Jennie.

 

 "Did you ever thought about telling Jisoo?"

 

 Surprised by her question, Jennie stays silent for moments looking at Lisa with a lost expression, they stare at each other in complete silence. 

 

 "Of course not!" Jennie exclaims suddenly. "I..I can't." 

 

"Why not? I mean, it's Jisoo-"

 

 "Do you want me to tell her to give me ten million dollars so that I could give it to men who deal with drugs and kill people because my father stole it from them and they are now asking for my head? Ah..and we were lying at her since the beginning? And do you expect that she will simply give it to us just like that?" Jennie rambles in one go, ironically.

 

 

 - "Ok..forget it." Lisa says as she sighs. "So what's your plan?"

 

 "As far as we know, the safe is in her room, but we still don't know exactly where. And even if we know it, we have to find the secret code for it, but most of all..we have to find a plan to escape."

 

 Lisa furrows her eyebrows in confusion.

 

 "We'll escape?" Lisa says in a stretched low voice.

 

 - "No, after stealing the money we will sit and count it with her.." Jennie deadpans."Of course we'll need to escape!"

 

" I like it here, why would I escape?" Lisa snaps, denouncing.

 

"Fine! Then try not to get caught while you're helping me escape." 

 

Lisa stills looking at Jennie with a straight expression to then she smiles enthusiastically.

 

 "Aah, I'm starting to feel like we are in a thriller! If one of them tried to attack us, I will show them my fighting skills!" She adds proudly.

 

"You know how to fight?"

 

 "Of course! In the cinema, they used to show a lot of karate movies and I learned some movements!" Lisa says excitedly. "Actually it's one my secret talents.." she pauses a little and then she follows in a matter of fact: "beside being so attractive."

 

Jennie stays silent, squinting her eyes.

 

"Being attractive isn't a talent-"

 

 "Would you like me to show you?" Lisa cuts in carelessly.

 

 "No thanks-"

 

She ignores Jennie's response, and starts whooshing her arms left and right while lifting and swinging her legs.

 

 "Hoo! Ha! Hey Ha! Ho!"

 

"Please stop," says Jennie wearing a desperate expression.

 

Lisa continues until her arm hit the wall, and she quickly pulls her towards her stomach out of pain, squatting.

 

"God I owe you this one." Jennie says jokingly while she looks at the ceiling and then gets up and goes towards Lisa, wanting to check on her.

 

Although she is able to move it, it still hurts whenever it's touched.

 

 "Are you okay? I told you to stop." Jennie says as she extends her hand to Lisa.

 

 - "Oh, it's nothing..I won't allow such a small thing to come in the way of my thriller."  Lisa says in a dramatically, taking Jennie's hand and getting up. Leaving Jennie wondering whether it was a good idea to ask for her help. 

 

It's probably not but..the need.

 

 "Lisa, if someone tries to attack us, just pretend that you're dead." Jennie says with a dead expression.

 

 - "What? What about you?" Lisa asks genuinely curious.

 

 "I will lie beside you and pretend that I'm dead too."

 

 - "That's sounds great!" Lisa chuckles carelessly.

 

 "Lisa! Are you really serious about helping me?" Jennie snaps impatiently.

 

Lisa stops her dramatic mode quickly and puts up a serious expression on her face.

 

 "of course not.." she exclaims making Jennie glare at her.

 

 "Kidding.."

 

Keeps staring.

 

 "Believe me, I'm dead serious.." Lisa states to assure Jennie, then she pauses for a moment and departs. "Well..not really to death, but like ..serious."

 

Jennie sighs deeply, puts her hand on her forehead, massages her a little, then turns to Lisa.

 

 "Ok, now focus."

 

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 Matthew at the marina monitoring the goods and shipments arrival and departure.

 

While he was looking at the sea, one of the men comes to him and tells him that his father is asking for him and then he leaves.

 

Matthew sighs with resentment and turns around and starts walking.

 

 What a nuisance.

 

 He will definitely eat his brain about the stolen money.

 

He stops and and slides his hand to his pocket and pulls a small card out, with the numbers and logo of the KS company printed on it. He looks at it a little and then continues walking.

 

There's no need to call to check if this is her personal phone number or not, of course she'll'll give him the business phone.

 

Sighing, he lets a long breath.

 

 'Jennie..Jennie..Jennie..How did you manage to get to Jisoo?'

 

From Jisoo's behavior towards her, he can tell that their relationship is not bad. Where does she know her? What did she do for Jisoo to allow her to be there?

 

He can't tell Jisoo about her identity, or else she'll expose him too. He have to find another way to get her.

 

 Damn, He shouldn't have killed him in front of her! 

 

'Jennie, because of you, I find myself falling in regret a lot lately. You just wait.'

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 After they had breakfast, Jisoo went to her office to work, while Chaeyoung and Lisa went to the living room to watch TV. 

 

Jennie was not with them at breakfast, which made Jisoo ask Lisa about the reason why, and she answered by signing that she was still sleeping.

 

While Chaeyoung was busy watching the movie, Lisa was looking around constantly, at the walls and corners with a focused gaze.

 

 

 **

 

 "First, we need to be sure whether the mansion has surveillance cameras or not, so I want you to check the first floor. And leave the third floor on me." Jennie says carefully in a low tone while they are both sitting in the bed, facing each other.

 

 - "Okay, what about Jisoo's room?" Lisa asks copying Jennie's tone.

 

 "I have noticed that she often spends her time at the office working after breakfast, and this gives us enough time to search, however, one of us has to stay alert in case she finished her work early."

 

-"got it." Lisa nods in agreement.

 

 **

 

. . . . . . . .

 

 

Jennie comes out of her room looking around at the walls, when she makes sure that there are no cameras around or someone,  she heads towards Jisoo's room and tries to open it, but finds that it's closed.

 

As expected.

 

At the end, she doesn't trust them as she shows.

 

Jennie reaches out to her pocket and pulls out a hairpin she had borrowed from Lisa the night before. She puts it in the door lock and starts to unlock it..

 

 **

 "Lisa! How did you open the door? I'm sure I locked it before I went to bed!"

 

 Lisa pulls something from the middle of her hair and raises it until Jennie can see it.

 

 "With this!" she proudly says.

 

 - "Ooh.. Where did you learn that from?"

 

 "let's just say that it's one of my other skills that I learned with intuition-"

 

 - "Just..just teach me." Jennie cuts in helplessly.

 **

 

After few attempts, Jennie succeeds and unlocks the room.  Once she opens the door, a sweet and cold smell hits her skin.  Jennie stills in her place for moments while breathing in the smell, to then she enters.

 

 For a moment there, she thought she had entered heaven.

 

She looks around the room with amazement, no words could describe it but royal. It smells the same as Jisoo's sleepwear, but stronger.

 

Jennie gets stuck on the smell that she forgets the reason she entered for, driven by the curiosity of what perfume Jisoo uses. She goes to the makeup table and looks at the cosmetics on the table, all of which are natural substances in addition to moisturizers for the skin but no trace of any perfume bottle.  

 

She checks the drawers, there's nothing also.

 

Where does this smell come from then? Unless her body contains a central perfuming system!

 

Wait..what is she doing? How did she went from searching for the safe to searching for perfume? 

 

'Damn!' 

 

There isn't much time for her, she needs to keep her focus on the plan.

 

She walks away from the makeup table and starts looking, looking behind the paintings, under the bed, and inside the wardrobe, but there is no trace of what she's looking for. Standing in the middle of the room with a wondering expression on her face, her eyes lay on the bookshelf in front of her. It has a rectangular, flat mirror in the middle that is a little bit to the inside of the shelf, surrounded by books to the right and left which are separated from the mirror by a wooden partition.

 

She heads towards it with her eyes examining its sides and starts to pull the books a little her side randomly, but nothing happens.

 

Standing and staring at the mirror, contemplating its borders, she notices that one side of the mirror is a distance away from the partition, a distance that differs from the other partition. She puts her hands on both sides of the mirror and tries to move it to one side, and again.. nothing happens.

 

She tries and press it with her hands on the sides of the mirror and as soon as she does she hears a slight click sound, and then the mirror slowly starts sliding to the right, revealing another hidden place inside the wall.  Jennie stands surprised by what happened and smiles on her intelligence and success in finding it.

 

 In the wall there are some shelves that contain files of multiple colors and to the left of them is what she's looking, the safe.

 

The safe is square in shape and has a keyboard for typing the secret code.  Since she has completed the first part of the plan, there is no need to stay more.  Again, she presses the mirror, and it slides back. She tidies the room, exits, and closes the door behind her and locks it.

 

 

 "Well..that was easy." She says with a proud smile.

 

. . . . . . . . .

 

 

 After many minutes passed watching TV, Lisa decides it's time to go check the rest of the first floor of the mansion and when she sees Chaeyoung is busy watching, she tries to get up but stops when a soft solid thing lands on her thigh.

 

She turns towards it and sees Chaeyoung has put her head on her thigh, on her way to sleep.

 

She sighs, canceling her intent to leave.

 

 **

 "Can you tell me how we gonna hide it from Chaeyoung? You both are literally like my relationship with my bad luck, never leaving me." Jennie says in an absurd tone.

 

 - "Oh..," Lisa lets out touched by Jennie's sarcastic words. "Then I must be representing you!" She adds cheerfully, and winks at her.

 

 "You represent my bad luck here." Jennie deadpans.

 

 - "Really? Then It must be not bad at all." Lisa says confidently ignoring her remark, and winks again.

 

"Just kill me already."  

 

 -"No seriously though, I can easily distract Chaeyoung and do the plan." Lisa exclaims wearing serious expression. "She is either eating, watching TV, eating, sleeping or eating."

 

 **

 

 Lisa looks at Chaeyoung who is now sleeping peacefully. 

 

 "Well..it might be a little difficult." She mumbles to herself looking at Chaeyoung affectionately.

 

Min Yoo enters the living room and sees them like that, surprising Lisa. Bashfully, she turns to him and gives him a dead closed smile with her eyes nearly closed, then quickly turns her attention to the TV before her.

 

Min Yoo sighs and keeps walking, on his way to check the mail when he sees one of the maids walking in front of him. He goes in the same direction and stops her and asks whether she took the mail or not and she tells him that she was on her way to do so.

 

 "I’ll go check it. You can get back to work." He tells her in an authoritative tone.

 

The maid bows to him and leaves, to then he heads to the mailbox and takes out the mails from inside the box.  He starts changing the envelopes until he reaches the one he's looking for and pauses, staring at it and reading its cover. 

 

 

 

 **

 

  /"Oh yes sir, I'm with you." Min Yoo says as he enters the office back, closing the door behind him.

 

 "Min Yoo, Is there anyone next to you?" Sehun asks.

 

 "No one. I'm alone in the office." He replies walking and standing next to the desk.

 

"Okay, Listen to what I'm going to tell you well."

 

 "All ears, sir."

 

"You know about the Inkigao party, it's next month."

 

 "Yes, I know." He takes a seat, getting more curious.

 

"Kim Eun Ji is trying to get Jisoo to participate in it, she will corner her by saying that this's important to the family's reputation and you know Jisoo.. she won't refuse her request if she comes to her like this. What I want from you is the next; Prevent any invitation to participate in the ceremony from falling into the hand of Jisoo.  The invitation may arrive tomorrow or after tomorrow.  Make sure this doesn't happen!"

 

Min Yoo stays silent for a moment, taking all the information in to then he replies:

 "As you wish. but..mmm... isn't it better if she took part in it? I mean, she loves to dance-"

 

"It's not about dancing, Min Yoo! I'm sure Eun Ji is planning something else behind that party!" 

 

 "I see. You can rest assure, sir. Nothing will reach Jisoo's hand." \

 

 **

 

He takes the invitation, hides it inside the pocket of his Formal jacket, and returns the rest of the envelopes.

 

 

 

 . . . . . . . . . 

 

 

 

After midday and afternoon, Jennie comes out of the wing on the way to the first floor, wanting to see what Lisa did so far since she didn't come down during lunch either.

 

Being the anxious type, she gets afraid and worried over the simplest things. And when something really bad happens, she can't rest comfortably and all her thinking and concern becomes revolving about that thing, which causes her stomach to flip constantly and loses appetite.

 

 

When she gets to the second floor she hears a faint sound coming from the corridor facing the office side, it looks like some music is playing. Curious to know where it comes from, she starts walking in the direction of the sound. She couldn't see the entire mansion yet, so she also finds it an opportunity to explore.  

 

She keeps walking until she finds a door to her right and opens it.  It is the inner pool of the mansion. Regardless of its beauty and wide space, there is no music source inside it.

 

She walks away from it and completes her path in the corridor. There is now a double door in front of her, but it's not the type that has a cylindrical lever lock on it, but rather the moving freely, lightweight type that you can open, whether you push it or pull it towards you.  The door contains two narrow vertical rectangular mirrors, the foggy type mirrored glass, which makes the view unclear through it except for some areas that are in the form of a small horizontal rectangle distributed along the mirrors.

 

Jennie walks closer to the door, and the closer she gets, the more clear and audible the music becomes.  Until she reaches the door and looks from the see-through areas, It’s just a wide empty room with a large plane mirror and a soft wooden floor. It looks like a dance studio, but no one is inside.

 

 Jennie decides to move away, until someone enters her field of vision.  

 

It's Jisoo.

 

 She's wearing a tight black crop top, leaving her her taut stomach and tense muscles showing, and a tight black shorts that reaches her knees.  Her hair is tied in a messy bun with small baby hairs falling on both sides of her face and on her neck.

 

What caught Jennie's attention even more and made her forget the idea of moving away from here, is that Jisoo, whom she has always seen somewhat assertive, one of the women who devoted their lives only to work and work only.

 

In front of her..

 

 Dancing.

 

Jisoo was doing a modern dance on classic epic music; her movements are harmonious and smooth, the way her body sways with rhythm, the way her facial expressions trying to convey a story to others through her dance were just..breathtaking.

 

 All of this made Jennie unable to lift her gaze off her. Had it not been something involuntary, she would have kept her eyes open so she wouldn't blink and miss a single moment of what she is seeing. 

 

Her body is now attached to the door and all her focus is on Jisoo.

 

Jisoo pauses and runs her left hand to her neck, rotating it a little and massages it. She stops massaging and turns around and goes to the opposite side. 

 

she is about to get out of her view again.

 

Her eyes, which follow Jisoo with so much interest, don't want to be lifted from her just yet, trying to know where Jisoo is going.  Without being aware of herself, she finds her body leaning forward with the movement of her head that follows Jisoo, causing her to lose her balance and pushs the door open, falling right into the hall.  Catching the floor with her hands and her lower left side becomes at contact with the floor.

 

 It’s clear that the sound of the sudden opening of the door and the fall has reached Jisoo’s ears, of course she is now in a state of shock from the emergence of Jennie like this, and of course Jennie is now cursing herself from the amount of embarrassment that she's feeling, hoping that the earth will split and swallow her.

 

Indeed, Jisoo, who was on her way to turn off the music player, was shocked by the sudden entry of this parasite.

 

It’s Jennie, sitting on her left side with her hands clinging to the floor, her hair covering her face. 

 

Jisoo took a moment to realize what had happened, to then a playful smile forms at the corner of . 

 

She must have been watching her..dancing.  

 

Out of embarrassment, Jennie didn't try to stand, not even move one inch. Literally frozen.

 

Jisoo turnes off the music and goes towards Jennie and extends her hand to her drawing her attention.

 

She holds Jisoo's hand without raising her head and Jisoo helps her get up and stand in front of her.  Jennie doesn’t lift her eyes from the floor while Jisoo is trying to hide her smile. She can tell from Jennie's tightly closed lips and her lifeless expression that she's so embarrassed.

 

 "Are you ok?"  Jisoo asks her faking ignorance, still holding her hand.

 

 Jennie nods.

 

 "Something wrong?" 

 

 Jennie shakes her head, no.

 

 Jisoo turns away from her while smiling and heads towards the music player. As soon as she reaches it she wears a playful expression when an idea comes to her mind. 

 

She turns around and sees Jennie busy tidying her clothes; black pants with white vertical side stripes and a white zipper jacket with black vertical stripes on the arms and under the jacket, a black armless T-shirt.

 

 

 "Actually.." Jisoo exclaims suddenly making Jennie look up to her. "It's good that you are here. I might need your help with something."

 

 

 Jennie looks at her with a questioning eyes while she is still standing in her place.

 

 "What? You won't help me?"  She says, tilting her head slightly to the left, wearing innocent expression.

 

 Jennie - who is in an unenviable position - is not in any position to reject and knows that Jisoo knows this, and she knows that Jisoo is trying to use this harmless unintentional accident to her advantage. She doesn't know what her intentions really are but she’s definitely planning for something.

 

Jennie gives her a cold smile, expressing her approval.

 

 "Good."

 

Jisoo turns the music player back on and changes it to more vibrant lively music. To then she approaches Jennie as she looks directly at into eyes, with a sharp mischievous gaze and hidden smile, getting close to Jennie and acrossing her personal space.

 

 She raises her hand and holds the top of the zipper on a Jennie's jacket.

 

 "This will hinder your movement." She says with a low voice, and starts to at a steady speed.

 

While Jisoo's attention was on the zipper, Jennie was looking at her.

 

 This distance of closeness is new to Jennie, which makes her feel a little strange and a slight increase in body temperature, and perhaps..her heartbeat may have started to accelerate as well. Jennie also noticed that Jisoo is a little bit taller than her.

 

 After she finishes, she trys to take off the jacket when Jennie stops her and takes it off herself and throws it aside.  Jisoo throw her a look with one eyebrow raised and walks away from her, to get her phone.

 

 

 "Ok..we can start now." She takes her phone and raises it, directing his screen in front of Jennie. 

 

"We will do some yoga!" She says cheerfully while Jennie just keeps staring at the phone blankly.

 

Jisoo displays several yoga poses to Jennie and then applies them on top of the sport mat, with the help of Jennie.  The positions ranged from simple, easy to medium difficulty and requires a partner. When they finish, Jisoo gets up, stretches her body a little and turns to Jennie.

 

"Now..Sit down." She says nonchalantly as she looks at Jennie and gestures with her head toward the sport mat.

 

 - "Hmm?" Jennie lets out a humming sound spontaneously, dumbfounded.

 

 "Come on, sit down."

 

 Jennie hesitates a little, but she has no choice but to do as she says.

 

'I have a bad feeling about this.'

 

 Jennie sits on the rug with her legs forming an inverted V.

 

 "No..not like this! Sit this way." Jisoo objects quickly and brings her phone to face Jennie.

 

Jisoo can tell from Jennie's pale features that this will be very entertaining to her. She holds herself not to laugh as she watches Jennie's reaction looking at the photo.

 

She looks terrorized.

 

'She's kidding me, right?  Are these positions for humans in the first place?'

 

 "What are you waiting for? Come on, I'll help you."

 

Jennie tries to apply the pose and once she wraps her leg around the other with difficulty, she hears a crackling sound out from her hip bone.

 

As she struggles to do the pose, Jisoo stands watching her, trying to keep a straight face.

 

Somehow Jennie succeeds and does her legs as shown in the picture, it took from her all her energy and even her face became red.  Thinking that she has finished it, Jennie overlooks that the pose has not ended yet and it's now the arms turn.

 

She remembers this when Jisoo gets closer to her from behind and holds her arms with her head hovering over the top of Jennie's left shoulder. Surprised at the touch, Jennie turns her head to meet Jisoo's eyes and finds her wearing an amused expression.

 

Jennie stares at her with facial expressions that say 'please..no.'

 

And Jisoo just gives her an evil smile and takes Jennie's right arm and raises it up and bends it at the elbow to the back as well as for the left arm but from below.  Once Jisoo pulls Jennie's arms towards each other, they both hear the shoulder bones cracking, accompanied by a fleeing cry from Jennie's mouth.

 

 Well..Now she has begun to understand, she swears that Jisoo is trying to get back at her for what she did that day in the garden.

 

 After they finish this position, Jisoo deliberately chooses more difficult positions that requires high flexibility, each position was accompanied by the sounds of cracking from Jennie's bones and sometimes some faint screams.  Jennie herself is trying her best not to explode and shout 'Enough!'.

 

'She's crazy! Totally crazy!'

 

The yoga poses weren't impossible to apply, but some of them need flexibility and strength, and Jennie is not the type that loves sports. Just walking for some meters makes her get tired and to stop to rest, so she always used to get acceptable grades in sport in high school. Aside from flexibility, she doesn't even have the strength. That’s why Today's yoga is no less than a torture for her.

 

The yoga session ends with Jennie lying on the floor trying to catch her breath. Her hair became wet due to excessive sweating and her muscles hurt.  Jisoo, who was standing looking at her, bends forward, lowering her upper half, resting one of her arms on her knee and the other arm extended to Jennie.

 

"We're even now!" She says with a broad smile.

 

Before she takes her hand, Jennie stares at her a little, in disbelief.

 

'This ! I knew it!'

 

After helping her get up, she tells her that they have finished here and she can go and thanks her for the help although Jennie could sense her sinister smile behind that ‘thank you.’

 

Jisoo picks up Jennie's jacket from the ground, walks back towards her and puts it gently around her shoulders.

 

 "You're weak because you’re not eating well." She says as she looks directly into Jennie's eyes, unpleased.

 

 Jennie pauses when she hears that while she is in the middle of wearing her jacket.

 

 'She has noticed.'

 

Jisoo is starting to get used to this silence between them, or rather the one-sided communication.  Although she can't talk to Jennie and most of the time she seems to be talking to herself, but somehow she can hear and understand Jennie's eyes talk, there is something special about them.  

 

They're very... expressive.

 

 Jennie bows and turns towards the door, on her way out, walking in a funny way. As soon as she goes out, Jisoo chuckles at her walking like that.

 

 

. . . . . . . ..

 

 

Jennie enters the wing, closes the door and lays her back against it with her hands crossed behind her back.

 

Even? Is that how even means to her? 

 

'Damn, I want to lie down as soon as possible!'

 

 She looks around, understanding the situation she’s in, which she has completely forgotten. And this makes her realize that throughout the whole time she was with Jisoo previously, she had never thought of anything that worried her before; she didn't think about Matthew, nor how to steal the safe, nor how to escape, absolutely nothing. In fact, she can feel herself being hungry. At the same time, that made her return to reality, which made her appetite disappear again.

 

She goes to her room and enters and finds Lisa sitting on the bed waiting for her.

 

 "Where were you?" Lisa asks as soon as she enters.

 

 - "Aah.. mm..I was checking something." Jennie answers sheepishly, trying to sound subtle. "Anyway, did you check around the first floor?"

 

 "Aah..yes.." She says stretching the last word and looking somewhere else.

 

 She was sleeping.

 

"So, did you know where the safe is?" She digresses.

 

 - "Yes, now we have to find the password." Jennie says, sighing, and goes to sit beside Lisa.

 

 "And what about the escape plan?"

 

 - "I am still thinking about it. In any case, we won't do a thing until we find a way."

 

 

 

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 To be continued.

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