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Tae Hyun scowled. “I don’t understand what you’re up to, I Jun. But I don’t like it. And I don’t think we’ll be working together.” He walked over to the elevator and pressed the down button.
I Jun moved toward Tae Hyun, but Seong Min stepped in between them and held his hand out. “Please stay back, sir.”
I Jun scoffed. “Is this who you are now, Tae Hyun? Having your bodyguard rough me up in my own studio?”
Tae Hyun ignored I Jun as he and Seong Min stepped into the open elevator. He looked away, refusing to make eye contact, as the doors closed before him. Then he shook his head. “What the hell was that?”
“I don’t know, sir. But I agree that something was off about him. It was a good idea to leave.”
Tae Hyun nodded, running through the whole meeting in his head as the elevator slowly descended to the ground floor. He hadn’t remembered I Jun ever being that sour and defensive. But a lot had happened since they’d last spoken. Tae Hyun had changed since then. It was certainly possible that I Jun had as well. Still, he’d had more than a day to prepare anything at all to show Tae Hyun. Yet, he hadn’t. It almost felt like he’d simply wanted to see Tae Hyun again and used the costume meeting as an excuse. But, if that were the case, why hadn’t he been more friendly or forthright? No, it didn’t make any sense.
After taking a remarkably long time to travel the three floors, the elevator finally stopped. Tae Hyun’s phone rang as the doors creaked and slid open, so he pulled it out to see Yun Seo calling. Seong Min reached out to hold the door for Tae Hyun as he answered and put the phone to his ear.
“Yun Seo?”
“Hi, oppa! I was calling because–”
Tae Hyun’s attention quickly shifted to the pair of masked, black-clad figures walking into the narrow corridor from the alley outside. They looked like the sort of thugs you’d see in TV dramas, sent as henchmen by the show’s villain to carry out his evil plans. But surely those things didn’t happen in real life, did they? Concerned, Tae Hyun ignored his call and turned to Seong Min. But his bodyguard was already moving.
“Stay back, sir!”
Seong Min shoved Tae Hyun to the side and plowed headlong into the two strangers. A cold fear gripped Tae Hyun as he realized what was happening. Those men were there for him.
Tae Hyun had sometimes imagined what it would be like to see his mountain of a bodyguard in action. But things happened so quickly that he could barely keep up. Like Jason, Seong Min was fast. He ducked under one attacker’s clumsy punch before knocking the second attacker to the floor. Then, the first attacker managed to get his arm around Seong Min’s neck. But Seong Min slammed him into the wall behind him, forcing the man to let go.
Tae Hyun would’ve run, but the corridor was too narrow.
“Oppa! What’s happening?”
Tae Hyun remembered his forgotten call. “Yun Seo! Some men have come for me. Get help!”
One of the attackers slipped past Seong Min and threw himself toward Tae Hyun, who yelped and jumped back. Then, his army training kicked in. That man definitely wanted to hurt him, so he needed to defend himself in any way he knew how. The stranger lunged for him, but Tae Hyun ducked to the side. He tried to kick the man, but he was off balance, and his foot barely made any impact. But it put him within arm’s reach, so the stranger grabbed him and yanked him toward the door.
Fighting his panic, Tae Hyun switched tactics and surged forward, knocking his attacker to the floor before falling on him. His attacker struggled underneath him as Tae Hyun fought to pin his arms down. He wasn’t sure what to do beyond that, but it was the only thing–
Bam!
A sharp noise temporarily deafened Tae Hyun as Seong Min slammed into the wall. The smell of gunpowder drew his gaze to the gun in the other attacker’s hand. Seong Min had been shot!
Tae Hyun scrambled off the man he’d knocked down, desperately trying to get to his bodyguard before he got shot again. Then, the man with the gun swung it toward him. Tae Hyun barely had time to process the notion that he was about to get shot, too, before Seong Min lunged, knocking the gunman against the wall and opening a path to the door. He turned to face Tae Hyun as the gunman struggled under his weight.
“Run, sir. Run!”
Tae Hyun’s feet moved before he’d even consciously decided to go. Some part of his animal brain knew it was his only chance to escape and wasn’t waiting for his higher mind to agree. He ducked under the flailing arms of his bodyguard’s shooter as he slipped around Seong Min, pushed the door open, and rushed outside. He turned toward the main road, hoping to possibly flag someone down, and nearly ran into a third masked man dressed in all black. The two silently stood before one another in a brief moment of surprised confusion before the stranger shouted and grabbed for him. Tae Hyun jumped back, out of his reach, and slammed into the side of a van parked behind him. He hadn’t even noticed it until then. There was too much happening for his brain to process. But he used the momentum to propel himself away from the third attacker, dashing around the van and further into the alley. He had to get away. Seong Min had been shot. He was alive, but he’d been shot, and Tae Hyun needed to get away so he could–
Tae Hyun barely registered the presence of a fourth man in all black as he rushed around to the back of the van before exploding pain blossomed through his head, and everything went dark.
20
Jason never would’ve survived his meeting if it hadn’t been for Seong Woo. Partly because having him there gave Jason a chance to test the waters on their reconciled friendship. But mostly because it forced Jason to pay attention as the people they met with droned on and on about travel and setup logistics. He knew the universe was punishing him for all the times he’d been shitty to producers and production assistants on his projects, so he needed all the help he could get to power through it. Even then, he still spent half the meeting daydreaming about suntanning on a secluded Thai beach with Tae Hyun lounging by his side.
It turned out he wasn’t the only one who needed the help.
“We deserve a drink after that snoozefest,” Seong Woo announced in English as they rode the elevator back to the lobby.
Jason chuckled, as much for hearing Seong Woo saysnoozefestas anything else. “You didn’t seem all that bored.”
“It’s a professional skill. Then again, neither did you.”
