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“I know why you’re upset,” Tae Hyun quietly shared. “But everyone’s doing their best. And KBR is a monster. We’re fighting a–” He stopped, briefly frowning. “What’s the one with all the heads?”
Jason snorted. “A hydra.”
Tae Hyun nodded. “Yes. KBR is a hydra. So they will come at us from many directions.” He squeezed Jason’s hand. “But we’re better than them. So we’ll still win.”
Jason wanted to protest more, but the love in Tae Hyun’s soft brown eyes was too much for him to overcome. Tae Hyun had let him point and shout at everyone, knowing exactly why Jason was so upset. He was the only person in the room who knew what had happened to Jason during his first Seoul visit. Not even Naomi knew that story.
A quiet knock on Naomi’s door interrupted Jason’s train of thought before Lily opened it and poked her head inside. “Seong Woo’s ready for you.”
Naomi nodded and turned to Jason. “Are you done with your tantrum?” Jason glared at her and growled. “Fine. Have you fully expressed your justified outrage? Because we should talk to him.”
Tae Hyun gently pulled Jason aside while Lily helped Naomi set up the video conference on the large flatscreen mounted on the wall opposite her desk. “Hey,” he said in Korean. “Everything’s okay. I’m okay. You’re okay. So I’d like you to calm down.”
Jason frowned. His fury still lingered. “I’m the only one taking this seriously. I’d feel better if I wasn’t the only one upset about all this.”
Tae Hyun shook his head. “You’re not. I’m frightened and upset, too. But you’re hoarding all the outrage right now.”
Jason blew out a long, slow breath. “Alright, fine. You can have some of it back.”
“Good.”
“But if anything happens to you, I’m still going on a murder spree starting in this room and ending in CEO Pak’s office.”
Tae Hyun finally chuckled. “You’d fucking better.”
Seong Woo popped up on the video display behind Tae Hyun’s head. He looked tired. It was 8:30 AM in Seoul, according to the time display on the screen. “Let’s see what Yoo Mi’s future husband has to say.”
“Yes, my team’s aware of it,” Seong Woo admitted after straightening out their audio issues. “Someone posted a photo of the graffiti on an underground fan site. Fortunately, that site is hosted here in Seoul, so my legal team has subpoenaed the host company for their server records.” He sighed. “It’s a long shot, but it’s something.”
“So, how do we get these fuckers?” Jason almost chuckled as Seong Woo’s eyebrows shot up. “I want to nail them to the wall, Seong Woo. To the fucking wall.”
Seong Woo shook his head. “I don’t know, Jason. But you should send what you have to Min Kyu’s team. I’m sure he could help.”
Jason glanced at Naomi, wondering if he’d have to overrule her in front of Seong Woo. But she nodded.
“We’d appreciate that,” Naomi replied.
Tae Hyun leaned into the camera’s view. “What if it’s KBR?”
Seong Woo nodded. “We’ve considered that, too. If it was, it’s unlikely that we’d find any evidence to support it. They’re too careful and will certainly have covered their tracks. But, if we do, we’ll definitely use it.”
Jason nodded. “And if it’s not?”
“We will find them,” Seong Hyeon announced. “And we will make certain they do not do anything like this again.”
Jason nodded again. “Good.”
“In the meantime,” Naomi interjected, “we should discuss the remaining tour arrangements and–”
Jason tuned her out. He was still too angry to think about the tour and all the potential safety issues that brought up. Until that morning, he’d been confident that the Song brothers and their security team were enough to protect Tae Hyun. Then someone–probably someone sent by KBR–had shown him how wrong he was. After being effectively shut out of any Seoul venues and an attempt at shutting Tae Hyun out from even presenting at the Music Video Awards, they’d taken things to a whole new level. And Jason had no idea how to compete on that level. He was definitely out of his depth.
Jason glanced at Tae Hyun, who’d also tuned out and started scrolling on his phone. There was no telling what was going on in his head. Tae Hyun was hard to read at the best of times, and they’d hardly had time to speak since he’d gotten back from the dance studio. But he’d said he was frightened, which Jason could relate to. He was scared shitless–partly of what might happen to Tae Hyun in the future, but mostly of what he might’ve brought about by taking on the role of Tae Hyun’s producer. There was a reason most of the popular music came from the big entertainment empires. Those companies were ruthless, and it took that same level of ruthlessness to compete against them.
Once the meeting with Seong Woo ended, Jason pulled Seong Hyeon out to the hallway to privately speak with him. “About what I said before–”
“There’s no apology necessary, sir. I–”
“Apology?” Jason scoffed. “Oh, no. I meant every fucking word I said.” He didn’t raise his voice but ensured his tone was sharp and acidic. “You’re the one who told me I need to take security more seriously. Remember?” He paused to give Seong Hyeon a chance to nod. “Well, you got your wish. So I want you to tell me right now, to my face, that you can handle this. Because, if you can’t–” He shrugged, leaving his implied threat to hang between them.
