Pulling an extravagant stunt

"It's tough, but not impossible." Jihyun's words echoed in Daehye's ears, every statement of his from the past five minutes replayed in her head, her mouth slightly open, her eyebrows pinched together, "No. she's not doing it." Jimin got up from his chair and started pancing through the room, thinking of an alternative. "She didn't even deny-"

"Look at her Jihyun." Her face screamed 'clueless, confused, slightly uncomfortable' . She was uncomfortable at the thought of this plan, she took a deep breath and nodded her head, "I'll do it." Rationality always won its place, always.

"You fucking won't, not on my watch." Jimin stopped walking, his eyes glued on her. "Jimin-"

"We don't know the stalker, we don't know if he's a psychopath who keeps a knife tugged at his waist, ready to strike, we don't know anything. So no you are not pulling any stunts." They didn't have an option, they didn't have a fucked up clue of who the stalker was, what was their gender, their age. Except one single thing.

They needed 1 billion won.

Of course, it's always money, the cure, the salvation, the game changer, the jack and the master of all the trades. It wasn't as if Jimin couldn't give the stalker the money. He could for sure, he was a millionaire and a member of a few billion dollar boy band. To say that Jimin couldn't throw one billion won on some fucker's face would be a triggering statement in itself. And that's why maybe Jimin got so easily convinced.

When Daehye showed him the text message of the stalker demanding a particular sum of money Jimin was already accepting whatever favours the stalker wanted. But it was Jihyun who shoved some sense into Jimin's head.

"No hyung, you accepting and giving up so easily would only motivate him to set up more cameras in the homes of celebrities." And his remark had made all the sense in the world. It was the reason why the three of them were having this round table conference of how to get the video deleted and somehow scare the stalker enough. Except the fact that the table wasn't even round.

Jihyun had come up with a plan, he had gotten a device, it almost resembled a wireless dongle and Daehye just had to be where the stalker lived, she had to take this device into a five meter range where it could just catch the network of the devices close to it and then boom, the whole access to the media, call logs, chats be it anything was exposed to the person who this device belonged to.

"Where did you even get this from?" Daehye asked him, inspecting the black rectangular device in her hand. "Pulled some strings here and there."

"Damn." Was all Daehye could really come up with before she continued, "and your plan is the only resolve we have really, so yes I'm doing it and I don't really need someone else's permission."

"You think I'm," Jimin pointed at his chest, "Just someone else?" No he wasn't, he wasn't just someone else, he was the most important person to her in this whole world. But she had to do it, this whole situation was stealing her sleep, disrupting her and as well as Jimin's mental health, she could confirm that they might just need some therapy after all of this was over. But to even get over it was not just a walk in the park.

"No you're not Jimin and you know that very well." He did, he knew and he could see the love she had for him every time she looked at him. "Okay for once we might just consider Hyun's plan, what next then? How will you ask the stalker to meet up at their home? And that is when we're actually just considering that they hopefully have all their devices with them?"

"Nice question, it's worth a billion won at least." Daehye mumbled sarcastically, "I thought about this too, you know?" She looked at Jihyun who looked back at Jimin, "It's worth a shot at least." The couple was silent, Daehye put her head down on the table. "Don't dance on the stalker's terms,"

"You're saying that I should keep my own conditions?" Daehye asked and didn't wait for an answer, "We can obviously, but only if he is actually desperate for the money or else we're doomed." Daehye had in fact already planned two steps ahead of Jihyun the moment he came up with a plan and maybe she was on the verge of planning a third, maybe even a forth plan just in case the prior ones backfired.

They didn't know whether the stalker was just messing around with them, displaying the stereotypical symptoms of a pathological psychopath on the loose or whether the stalker was a normal person who did horrendous deeds because they were, as a matter of fact, in dire need of money.

Daehye had to know what the stalker really wanted. "She's right." Jimin pulled a chair and sat down, tired from either the quick nervous prancing or just the level of stress he wasn't used to carrying in his head space. "You know what? Just ask him to meet you. Tell him that you have the money and then just wait." Jihyun said,

"What next then?"

"He texts us the location, we track it, see if it's a wreck or his house or something and then we make a further move."

—

Fortunately enough, the stalker had given them a location and maybe they were blessed that it did actually appear it was his house, so there they were, Jimin and Daehye about to pull some world class stunt.

"Okay okay okay. It will be fine, it'll be fine." Jimin said to himself for the nth time, he clutched her hand even tighter, she was sure that he would clutch it so hard that the blood supply would seize to even come. "Jimin, there are three people with you, one is literally sitting on the roof, tracking me with a pair of binoculars, I have that gadget Jihyun gave to us. It will be fine." She tried to convince him, but to her ears it sounded like she was trying to just convince herself.

She wasn't very comfortable with public display of affection, or maybe she wasn't very comfortable when there were three bodyguards towering over her, wearing casual clothes but their bodies stiff. As if they were ready to act up on any command.

The bodyguards weren't exactly towering over her, they were behind Jimin who had fear written all over his face. "It'll be fine, don't worry." She clutched his cheeks and would've tiptoed to kiss his forehead if a mask wasn't covering her face, he slightly nodded and then let go of her hand. She took a step back from him, his eyes screaming 'Don't go' But then she fastened her steps but was stopped by fingers on her wrist turning her around and halting her movements. "What's wron-." Jimin pulled her mask down and kissed her hard on the mouth, her eyes went wide before they closed. "Be safe." his forehead against hers, she smiled a bit at his actions. "I'll see you soon," she was still comprehending how fast and hard he kissed her but without wasting a second she walked away from him, towards the building.

The location sent by the stalker seemed genuine. It only seemed. It might be a coax. But Daehye had planned ahead. She had and yet she couldn't convince herself that it all would work out for the better.

Daehye looked around her, surrounded in a haze of anxiety, in a sense of trance which she would've felt when she was at the wrong place at the wrong time, where just nothing went the way she wanted. As she stepped inside the building which she had expected to be in wrecks but wasn't, it was a white building with its paint coming off at a few spots, with grey patches all over the faded white.

It was mediocre, "God, this bitch better be desperate as fuck." She first pressed the lift button but then ditched it for the stairs, the flat was on the second floor itself, she thought that maybe climbing the stairs would calm her. It didn't. She climbed the stairs fast but paused at the last few steps when she came to eye the corridor of the second floor.

She hoped, prayed, that the stalker didn't have any guns in his possession. Saving oneself from a knife by avoiding it and dodging a bullet at a close distance were two very different stories. Exhausted, on the fucking edge, absolutely tired of whatever fuckery god had come up with she took the few steps and then walked up to the apartment gate where she was supposed to go in without any further pause.

She pressed the doorbell but she didn't hear anything so she knocked twice. She put on some false confidence, her eyes which didn't look but straight away glared when the door opened. All of a sudden that fear had turned into frustration, her heart which had been thumping because of the terror now pumped blood which was boiling. Just in a matter of seconds, because she very much wanted to punch the one who just opened the door, so that he just might break his nose. "Come in."

The jerk, the stalker, didn't look any older or younger than her, he had a few inches on her, his body lean and his physique not so well built. As soon as Daehye entered the studio apartment her eyes started scanning, a phone and a laptop, the only things in his possession. She didn't take a note of the furniture or the colour of the walls. She thanked the gods when she saw that both his devices were close to her, within five meters of range.

"I don't see no money with you." The audacity must've been on sale this year, she suppressed those words and rather added, "Ever heard of online transactions?" A pinch of sarcasm at which he raised his eyebrows, "I see."

At that Daehye took out her phone, she didn't have a billion won in her account three days ago. "You know the day I installed the camera in your boyfriend's studio.." Daehye's movements halted for a second, her posture on the brink of falling, she took a deep breath in and let him continue when she looked in his direction.

"I thought that it would've been easy to blackmail you," he was talkative, which was looking like a plus point to her, it gave more time to Jihyun do his deletion work, the more he talked the longer Jihyun had for even reconfirming, for going through the folders twice just to recheck.

So she conversed with him, talked back, talked as if he didn't prove himself to be the biggest roadblock in her life. That he almost didn't fuck up with her head. "But it didn't turn out so?"

The stalker flipped his dark hair away from his eyes. "I thought what you and Jimin had was just sex after work. But he does really have something for you. Must've been tough to take such an advantage of his trust." Sympathy, from a stalker. That was new.

Daehye kind of understood why people who were vulnerable and kidnapped, got all that Stockholm syndrome from. But sadly enough Eklavya was not that female lead who would've quivered in fear, hiding and keeping secrets till they buried her alive. "Now hurry with the transaction, here's my account number." he slipped a slip in her direction

At his words Daehye typed her password and rather than even going to her online bank account she simply tried to check a text, a text which Jihyun would've sent her but there were no signs, Daehye tried to initiate another conversation, "How old are you even?" She questioned him, and it was a valid question she was curious about.

Because yes his hacking game, his stalking game and the way he had hid the camera where it wasn't even visible to Jimin who was quite observant, all of those things were well done. But the way he acted so loose, so much entrusted to Daehye, what he held with him was obviously something of very heavy value. It was a full fledged video of Daehye and Jimin having sex on the couch but did the stalker really think that she would so easily surrender to his terms? That she wouldn't at least try to destroy his whole plans? That she wouldn't maybe call a man trained in martial arts and weaponry so that something didn't happen to herself?

"That's none of your business really, the transaction."

"First show me deleting the video." She persisted, "That video I hold, if released it would be life changing for you and that man whose dick is received by you every night."

"And one billion won is equally life changing, I first want you to show me delete the video and only then will I agree to send you the money." She was trying her level best to not shout at the person who stood across her, "Fine." He brushed past her and she heard a loud slam,

And then cold metal against her temple, "You motherfucker." Daehye muttered lowly, "what did you just say?"

"You motherfucker." The stalker had underestimated her a bit, and her Korean too maybe. Just because she nowhere looked Korean didn't mean that she couldn't swear in this language.

"Right." He chuckled a bit and then he pulled the trigger, and he wanted to see that trepidation in her eyes, that distress he liked to see, that dread which was so visible in her texts. But when he looked in her eyes all he saw was fearlessness, as if someone had her back.

"Go ahead." Daehye said, and though a mask covered her face, the stalker could imagine that smirk on her lips.

--

Meanwhile Jimin ran for his life, he started running when he received a green light from Jihyun, "Hyung, it's all done."

"Deleted from every single device?" Jimin huffed as he stopped on the ground floor, "Yes, don't worry. Get your woman back." Jimin signaled the body guards to stay low and maintain some distance until and unless there wasn't some noise which signified that someone might have been beaten up. Jimin didn't pause, his steps didn't slow when he climbed the stairs, so fast that he came close to missing a step but he regained his stance and walked with long strides as soon as he reached the second floor. He approached the door with utmost silence, his shoes moving slow and lightweight against the floor, he touched the wooden door and pushed it just a little, just to see if he even had the strength to bring it down all by himself.

The stalker jittered when the fragile wooden door's lock broke, and then the gun was being pointed at Jimin who had just burst through the door. "Don't." He raised his hands, but his steps didn't falter, he kept walking towards that stalker, "Jimin stay back." first some three meters and then just two, Jimin took a step further.

Jimin wasn't really scared of that bullet, so that stalker applied his brain a bit, he repointed the gun at Daehye and just then. Jimin paused as if he turned to stone, the stalker smiled, he smiled and then he took her hair in his fist.

"This shit just got interesting." The stalker laughed as Jimin continued to stare at Daehye, her glistened eyes, "Seriously? All of this? You're willing to go to such lengths for some woman? Does she take a dick in that mouth that good?"

"You wanna try you fucker? I might castrate you." The stalker made two mistakes at that very second. First, his ego got swept by Daehye's remark, sure his grip tightened on her hair but his gaze turned to her rather than Jimin, his grip got a bit loose at holding the gun. And second, that Jimin was a black belt in Taekwondo.

Jimin acted as fast as he could, a roundhouse kick straight up at the stalker's neck. As soon as his grip on Daehye loosened she turned around and mustered all her courage, she brought all her body weight down on her left knee before she kicked him hard, in the crotch.

He screamed in pain, "Yes scream harder asshole." Jimin wasn't really satisfied with just a kick, so he pulled the stalker up, made him sit despite his inability to do so and then Jimin punched him in the face. "Break his nose," Daehye backed away, huffing not because she was tired, because she had never been held on a gun point before, she never had so much of adrenaline thrill in less than two minutes, she rubbed her eyes and then took a look at Jimin,

"A billion won? You don't deserve shit." Jimin felt satisfied when he punched that stalker, he wasn't a sadist, but he felt a relief rush in his bloodstream when his knuckles got coloured red. "You don't wanna kill him." Daehye took a hold of his sleeve and tried to snap him back in reality. "He might just, he is just adding weight on this", Punch. "God." Punch. "Forsaken." Another punch on his cheekbone. "World." And then Jimin stopped, took his steps back even though he didn't want to, he still felt the bones and skin against his knuckles. He wanted to keep up with this rampage, he wanted his anger to grab a hold of him.

But he couldn't. Not if he wanted to go to the prison under the charge of murder or maybe of giving face injuries beyond repair. "Should I call the police?" Two of the bodyguards had come inside now, as for Jihyun too, he had taken the laptop and the phone in his possession.
"Do you think the police would deflect half of the trauma he inflicted on us?" Daehye let her intrusive thoughts win, she regretted them speaking out loud. She was vengeful, but not to an extent where that vengeance would come back to bite herself. "But I think that the charges pressed against him would be enough to get a heavy punishment, right?" She answered her own previously asked question but then hidden in her answer was another doubt, she needed some reassurance.

Jimin huffed, "Hyung, I came across something when I was wiping the history." Jihyun added, "His grandfather I believe has cancer and I think that was the reason why he was seeking such an amount."

"Punishing him would've hit better in the feels if he actually did all of this fuckery without any motive, now I do have some pity on you." Daehye said while crouching down to examine the stalker's face, his nose was bleeding badly, his lower lip busted, his cheekbone and under eye red signifying that they later would be purplish-black bruises. The stalker had collapsed on the ground a few seconds prior, his body lifeless and unmoving except his chest.

Jimin was silent till now, he was analysing everything, he was analysing the stalker, he had been analysing the walls of this house, he had seen a single photo frame on the study table. He had taken a note of all the coding books lying haphazardly on the couch. "Possession of illegal arms, stalking and invasion of privacy, blackmailing and threatening for money and ulterior motives. How many years of prison would that get him?" Jimin finally broke the silence.

"But Jimin," Daehye pulled him out of the house before she continued, she hated how she came to the conclusion of something which hadn't even been done. He followed her and saw her look around before she pulled him closer and whispered,

"We deleted the evidence we had, of him having that video. If we take it to the court then how are we going to say that we broke into his house, dragged him to the court just because he supposedly had a video of ours. And we don't even have proof that he did really have that video now that it's deleted?" Jimin was about to say something but then she spoke again, he could see the visible panic.

"We can say that we have the texts he sent me but what if he claims that he wasn't the one who sent those texts to me?"

"He will, if he needs that money."

"And what if he says that he doesn't?" Daehye was still, she still was someone who was unaware of the power money possessed, that certain innocence she had and that certain unwavering trust that everything would be decided by the proofs and the laws. But it wasn't so. Jimin had grown up in this toxic industry, he had known the power, he had feared it in his days when he debuted but then gradually he rose to the power he had only seen. He had risen to such power, he had such connections that even if everything turned against him he could still use the money he had and walk out of the situation with not a crease of tension on his forehead.

Jimin had been mindful of the situation though, he had known that no amount would remove the video from the internet if it had ever been put. Nothing could be deleted from the web truly if it had been shared on it, and that was the only reason why Jimin and Daehye were putting up with all the terms the stalker had thrown but with that video gone there were no restraints bounding Jimin, there was nothing stopping him from playing dirty if it was needed.

"He will need that money Lavya,"

"I hope so." Daehye on her own accord put her arms around his neck, he hugged her back and closed his eyes for a second. Above all of it, above the power of money Jimin had known the power of feelings, the power of love. He had known the power of desperation of saving a loved one.

He had seen the flash in that man's eyes who lay on the floor unconscious. And Park Jimin was ready to take advantage of that.

AU 

Look at me saying that I would try to finish the book by new years and here I am, still there are like two or three chapters left minus the epilogue and all.

Happy new year dear readers, 

if you're reading this book then please do let me know of your presence by voting or commenting, it really does motivate me alot.