Chapter 49: A Shrill Ring

‘…it does, it scares me sometimes, just how much I depend on you. When I think about you and when I’m with you I really feel like we can do this, run this country and do it successfully, and I think that if it were anyone else, I’d be filled with doubt. But I’m not, because it’s you. You give me strength in every possible way, and I wake up everyday feeling so lucky that you got pulled into my life. I know it’s cheesy, but it’s true.

I don’t think you know how amazing you are. I love your mellow voice, and your deep eyes, and that dimple that shows when you smile too wide, and the way you try to take care of everyone, and the way you look when you sleep, and how your hugs and kisses are somehow so impossibly warm, and, to be honest, this list could go on and on until the end of time and I’d still have so much left to say.

I’m sorry for all this rambling, for my inability to put my feelings into words, for this rather disappointing present, and for the fact that I’m sorry for being sorry.

I hope your birthday wasn’t a disappointment, and that this letter at least made you smile a little.

Make sure you have a nice trip, work hard, and I’ll be right here waiting for you when you come back – and make sure you’re in one piece please (I’ll kill you otherwise).

I love you to the moon and back, Kim Taeyeon.

Stay safe.

Sincerely,

Your Tiffany.’

The lights shine, my teeth show, and I think of Tiffany – of her smile, her warm hands, her skin beneath my palms, of her eyes, her voice and her beautiful insides.

A heavy hand anchors down on my shoulder, and a chorus of laughs ripple into the middle of the circle we’re standing in.

“I must say, Taeyeon, despite having only been in the business for less than a few months, your plans and briefings are exceptional.”

I force a smile. “Thank you, Mr. Park.”
“No thanks needed. Jay could learn a thing or two from you.” He says with a jovial laugh, nodding toward his son.

Jay flexes his jaw and clicks his tongue. He steps forward, glass in hand, other hand in his pocket. “Father, I think you’re forgetting that this trip and partnership was my idea.”

“Oh, come on, Jay. Don’t get all sensitive on me. I’m just joking.”

“Of course, just joking.” Jay mutters under his breath.

I can only give a tight, polite smile at that, taking a sip from my drink.

As Mr. Park, Donghae and I exchange friendly banter and business talk with each other and entertain the other officials that come up to us with greetings, I watch Jay from across the circle, watch his jaw flex and the subtle annoyance on his face.

This past month, Jay and I haven’t spoken more than ten words to one another - we only talk when in the company of other people whom we want to set a good image for. But other than that I don’t talk to him and he doesn’t talk to me, and in a lot of ways it’s great, but in others it makes me vigilant at all times.

He checks the time on his watch before excusing himself. My eyes follow him as he slides through fancily clad people toward the exit of the room. I don’t want to be suspicious but I just am.

“Where’s Jay gone?” I ask, to which Mr. Park shrugs and continues on about his ideas for attacking the current market.

I click my tongue against the roof of my mouth, and tell myself to just forget about it, that there’s no reason to be suspicious of Jay because he’s been perfectly tolerable this whole month. But there’s just something, a feeling that pecks at my conscious, a voice telling me to go out and see what he’s up to – that he’s up to something.

After ten fidgeting minutes, I finally excuse myself to the restroom, and without command one of our bodyguards follows me, lingering behind by a small-ish distance.

I inch my way through the rich and expensive, having to stop at a few points along the way to greet overly zealous people.

The bouncers recognize me at the exit and allow me out into the lobby of the venue. It doesn’t take much searching before I spot Jay conversing with a man. I watch for a moment as they exchange words with a subtle undertone of haste, almost huddled close to the wall.

I begin to make my way toward them. Who is that guy? Why is he speaking to Jay? Jay’s eyes meet mine over the shoulder of the man. Why do they look so secretive? What are you hiding, Jay? You must be hiding someth-

“Taeyeon!”

My train of thought halts as I stop in my tracks and turn around to see a familiar face approaching.

“Siwon?”

He smiles and shakes my hand in greeting. “Hey, nice to see you.”

“Yeah, you too.” I return, glancing back to Jay to see him bidding farewell to the unknown man. Well, there goes my chance…My attention turns back to Siwon as I withdraw my hand. “So, what’re you doing here?”

His smile falters as he hesitates slightly, readjusting his tie, clearing his throat. “Oh…uhm…you know, my father thought it’d be a good chance to…to make connections and uh…build relationships with potential investors and possible business partners...”

I nod, “Ah, okay, I see…” although his behavior is rather strange.

He clears his throat again and shifts on his feet. “Yeah…so…uh…how’s the trip been so far?”

“It’s been alright - a lot of traveling, a lot of business and talking. Just the usual.” I shrug.

He nods. “You must be missing home.”
“I definitely am.” I admit with a sigh.

“I bet Tiffany will be missing you.” He says, with an awkward sip of his drink.

And the smile I give in return is equally as awkward. “Yeah, I suppose so.”

“How has she been?” He asks, hopeful, looking as though he’s on the edge of his feet.

Of course, he just wants to know about Tiffany…”I spoke to her last night. She said that everything’s fine, business is going well and that nothing exciting has really happened.”

“Oh…well that’s good…Tell her I said hi next time you speak to her.” He swallows down the rest of his drink. And before the stiffness of the conversation devours us completely Jay appears with perfect timing.

“Siwon?”

“Jay,” Siwon responds delight. “Long time no see.” He says as they exchange a handshake. 

“I know. Things have been crazy lately, man.” Jay comes to stand beside him.

“I can only imagine. Business has been booming lately.”

Jay nods.

“Who were you talking to back there?” I ask Jay.

He looks back to where he’d been standing not too long ago. “Oh, him? He’s just my father’s assistant, asking if my father needs anything.” He says, waving a careless hand in the air.

I don’t believe him, but I also have no reason not to.

* * *

TIFFANY’S POV

The room stills as we enter. They all stand and bow in respect toward us before sitting. The lump in my throat grows and grows until it feels as though I can no longer breathe. Michelle takes my hand as we take our seats at the large oval-shaped table that takes up majority of the even larger room. I sit in the middle, with my father and Leo to my left and Michelle, my grandmother and Taeyeon’s mother to my right.

Tensions become palpable as the lights dim and a screen descends from the ceiling, soon lit up by a projector showing Korea’s Secret Services badge.

A man wearing a military jacket, donned with badges and gold medals on his arms and chest – showing his status as head and chief of the military and security unit – and a matching cap, appears in front of the screen, throwing himself into a ninety-degree bow, before taking his place behind the podium.

He clears his throat. “Your Majesties, I’m extremely sorry that we have to meet on such unfortunate terms. My team and I will work as hard as we possibly can to try and resolve this pressing problem.”

My father gives a nod of acknowledgment.

The chief continues. “As the disappearance of our King, Prince Donghae and Mr. Park was only discovered hours ago, our investigation has not gone far. However, we have made contact with the team that were accompanying our majesties and Mr. Park and we now have a rough timeline of what happened.”

The screen then transitions to CCTV footage.

“Here we see the three of them exiting the Chancellor’s Office where the gathering was being held around 9:30 pm. They then made their way to the private house at which they were staying at – approximately a half hour drive from the Chancellors Office.”

I take a deep breath in an attempt to try and calm my unstable nerves. Michelle tightens her grip on my hand.

“The house did have CCTV cameras and a guard that kept watch in a small surveillance building on the outskirts of the property, but it seems that the cameras were rigged to loop old footage and the guard was drugged. So we have no CCTV visual of what happened that night. However, we currently have the head of the security team that were protecting our majesties waiting on video call.”

The chief steps aside and the visual of the screen harshly transitions to show a man, sitting on what looks like a hospital bed, the screen cuts off the rest of his body so we can only see from his shoulders upwards. The bandages, swelling and bruising on his face are all visible despite the pixilation of the long distance call.

He bows his head. “Your Majesties,” He greets.

Everyone returns the bow from their seats.

“Tell what us happened.”  My father says from beside me, his voice controlled and calm.

My body stiffens, inhaling deeply, not knowing how to feel.

“The evening was going smoothly. We arrived back at the house, and like every other night, our team of ten men split up. Five of us normally did a sweep of the property and around it, and the other five did a check of the house while escorting the King, Prince and Mr. Park to their respective rooms. This was a routine check that we’d do every night. But, when escorting the three of them back to their rooms, my team was ambushed by men wearing balaclavas. There were around ten or fifteen of them.” The guard’s face darkens slightly and he looks away, and I swallow down. “We tried our best to defend them, but we were outnumbered. They beat us and injected us with some of kind of drug that rendered us unconscious. They did the same to King Taeyeon, Prince Donghae and Mr. Park. I saw the men carrying them away just before I lost consciousness.”

A great surge o