Da Capo

Not ready to return so soon, you spend a few more minutes in the powder room.

You take your time to gather yourself before facing them again. By splashing water on your face, you try to rid of your troubling thoughts. By taking a moment to fix your makeup, you gather your composure. And by spraying fresh perfume on the curves of your neck and at the spot between your breasts, you find calmness to steady your breath again.

Once you feel like yourself again, you finally make your way out.

To reach the main dining hall of the restaurant, you will need to pass a long hallway filled with framed pictures and trophies lined up on the walls. The first time you walked down this way, you hadn't taken the time to pay attention to your surroundings, too focused on finding your escape.

Now, in your calmness, you take a moment to take a look at each one, trying to find anything or anyone that you might recognise from the pictures.

One specific photo catches your attention. In it, you see some familiar faces; your father sitting on the long loveseat at the center, together with some of his colleagues who are also exclusive members of the Country Club. Yoongi's father appears sitting on the other end of the seat. A smile appears on his face, and for the first time, you realise how similar his smile looks compared to Yoongi's.

"There you are," Yoongi's deep voice gently calls to you as he walks down the hallway to reach you. "You took quite a while getting back, my parents are getting worried," he explains to you before you even get the chance to ask why he is here. As he reaches you, Yoongi offers his hand, which you instinctively accept as if your body has gotten used to the connection he is offering.

"I feel bad for making your parents wait."

Yoongi's lips curl to a grin. "To be honest, they're not the only ones who got worried."

Your cheeks heat up with his confession, so you look away before he notices you getting flustered under his attentive gaze. "I'm sorry. I just needed a moment to myself."

To your relief, Yoongi doesn't question anything more other than, "Are you feeling better now?"

"I am now. Thank you."

Yoongi smiles apologetically and nods. "I know that my parents can be intense," he says with a chuckle. "I probably should've warned you."

"It's fine. I'll get used to it, I'm sure."

With a soft chuckle, Yoongi slides a hand around your waist to pull you close. "So, did you find anything interesting from these photos?"

"Just this one," you answer, pointing at the photo that you have been looking at. "When was this taken?"

Yoongi looks closer with a knowing smile. His gaze looks over at the sight of your father and his sitting on the same loveseat, not by each other, and continues to the back, which was the reason why you were so drawn to it earlier. Standing right next to your father at one end of the loveseat is Jinyoung, looking tall and built with his crisp blue-grey suit, while Yoongi appears standing on the other end of the group, right next to his father, wearing a bright-coloured suit which makes him stand out among others.

"I remember this one," he says. "It was taken a while ago. Looking at the decor hanging behind us, I would guess that this was from the Country Club's anniversary luncheon. I remember this was the event when I first met Jinyoung. This was when your father first introduced him as his new right-hand man."

"Then it was long before I got back," you muse quietly, wondering about how the interaction would have been between both of your fathers, and between Yoongi and Jinyoung. It feels like a different world, a different life, compared to what you know.

"And what about them?" you ask, pointing at the three young men standing at the back, shadowing the group of older gentlemen sitting in the front. "They seem to be on the younger generation, but I don't recall ever seeing them before."

"Those three men? They are the Kims."

"Brothers?" you ask, drawn by the curiosity tickling at the back of your mind upon hearing their family name. Looking closer, neither of these three men shows any similar traits, much less any sign of them being directly related. But they all appear tall and built, each one holding different air and aura between them, drawing you more to them the more you look.

And then there is the tone in Yoongi's voice that seems—unpleasant. It is subtle, but you have grown to know him well enough to notice that something is amiss.

"No," Yoongi answers. "They claimed to be cousins, related through marriage bonds. They have been pretty much keeping to themselves, remaining in the shadows of their company's success without stepping directly into the spotlight. But they have been showing up at different parties and galas until recently. From what I heard, they have been spending time mostly away, focusing on their business expansion going on in Japan, where one of their main offices is located."

He turns to you with a curious gaze. "If I recall correctly, they seemed to have built a pretty good connection with Jinyoung from the time he was active at the Country Club. Have you truly never heard of or met them before?"

Cocking your head, you try to recall ever hearing their names mentioned by Jinyoung in the past. But you remember nothing so far. Nothing as significant for them to be people that Jinyoung may have been closely acquainted with when he was still alive.

But then again, how much have you truly known Jinyoung before?

"They killed Jinyoung."

Keeping your expression calm, you only shake your head to answer. "No, not that I recall. At least, not during the time I've been working alongside my Dad or Jinyoung. But perhaps Jinyoung mentioned them before when I wasn't paying attention, because I seem to have heard about a certain family business built by newcomers. I just never paid real attention to those things before."

You continue to look closely at their features, trying to memorise them in change of trying to recall if you have had any chance of seeing or hearing more about them before. And you cannot help but wonder just what kind of relationship that they may have with Jinyoung for Yoongi to remember them as acquaintances when you knew nothing of them.

"Are they coming to the party?"

Yoongi quirks an eyebrow, noticing your curiosity. "I can see that you're intrigued with these men. Should I be worried?"

Scoffing, you roll your eyes at him. "As if there's anything you should worry about," you mock him with a nudge against his side. "I'm trying to be meticulous. In case you forgot the main part of our deal—"

You turn to face him, crossing your arms as you remind him of your expected role. "I've been taking over Jinyoung's place in the company with your assistance and soon, I'll be standing by your side to deal with your business. Shouldn't I begin looking around, perhaps tying up loose ends while looking over the things that Jinyoung used to be in charge of to know which sides I can trust and which people I should be wary of?"

Smiling proudly, Yoongi takes your hand and kisses the back of it, showing his respect. "Smart thinking," he praises you, drawing more warmth to your cheeks which you hide by shaking your head at him.

"Very well. We can arrange for us to meet them as soon as there's a chance to. Maybe I can have my assistant send them an invitation through their office in Seoul to see if they can make an appearance at your engagement ball," he offers with a smile. "What do you say? Will that work for you?"

Grinning widely at him, you nod to agree. "That would be perfect."

"Are you sure you don't want me to walk you up?"

Yoongi drives you back on his own, after dismissing his driver hours ago when he realised that dinner was going to finish longer than expected. You have asked him to drop you off at the main entrance of your building, yet he seems reluctant to let you go.

"It's late, and I'm sure you'll have to be up early. I'll be fine. There's only a lobby left to go," you answer him with a tilt of your chin, pointing at the security guard already waiting by the door to the lobby.

"Then I'll see you soon," he says, taking your hand to kiss the back of it. You walk up to the door and stop to watch him return to his car and then quickly drive away. You wait for a moment until his car is far gone before walking across the lobby, finding your way to the side entrance door and hurrying out through a different gate.

Looking at your watch, you nearly curse out.

9.40 PM.

You hadn't expected to return so late.

Perhaps both you and Yoongi had done too good of a job to please his parents that they were reluctant to end the night. The night is late, so you can only hope that you can still have enough time to reach downtown as you wave the first taxi that passes by for a ride.

"Da Capo, please," you instruct the driver. Leaning back in your seat, you nearly tuck yourself in your thick coat, as if it can help hide you from sight, worrying that there are eyes around you to see what you are doing.

Your worries are soon gone when at merely five minutes to ten, you look out the window to see the taxi turning around the corner of the block leading to your destination. The car soon stops, parking on the side of the road, right across a nightclub with quite a line of waiting guests appearing outside.

"Keep the change," you say to the driver before stepping out of the car. The driver, an older man with permanent worry lines on his face, takes one look around the dark street and the old, shady nightclub before offering to stay for your ride home.

"You don't know if this place is safe for a young woman like yourself," he insists, to which you answer lightly with,

"Thank you for your concern, but I'll be all right," you promise, knowing that it would be better to avoid any chances of Yoongi or anyone else around you finding out about your late exploit by taking the same driver back and forth.

Once the car drives away, you remain to stand across the street from the nightclub, looking up at the neon sign above the entrance which reads 'Da Capo.' The lights shine brightly in vibrant red, illuminating the dark street, the line of guests that is slowly dwindling, and the sidewalk leading away from the club.

The club isn't the place where you need to be tonight, so after scanning the street one last time, you turn to walk half a block away, keeping your eyes open as you briskly make your way across the street. Ducking down at the corner, you enter a dark alleyway which passes around the back of the nightclub until you reach an area that is wide enough for a car to pass through.

There, right before the end of the alleyway, you find a black sedan surreptitiously parked in the shadows. After taking one last look around the area, you walk closer to the car and enter through the passenger side.

"Good evening. I wasn't sure you'd show up," the man sitting in the driver's seat greets you with a side grin as you settle down on the seat beside him. "But you're right on time, just like always."

"Good evening," you answer with a deep exhale of breath. The night has been cold, but the walk has gotten you feeling warm under the coat that you can barely catch a breath. But inside the car, you manage to find some solace. A small relief to find in such a peculiar place, under a peculiar circumstance. "So," you continue once you are calm, "where are they?"

Your companion, Merlin, starts chuckling. "Straight to the point. You never care about having a small talk before business, do you? I thought you'd miss me after not seeing for a while," he teases you, making you roll your eyes.

Despite his teases, he still follows as requested, pulling a thick brown envelope and a folder of files from his glovebox. He hands them all to you with a small grin. "Here you go, as promised."

"What is all this?"

"In the folder are the printed files, all exclusive ones that have been hidden in our archive room. It took me a while, but I managed to find them through the old archives and make copies of them. One for you, another one for me," he explains as you gingerly open the folder, shifting through the files briskly.

"This is pretty old school," you comment as you look closer at the contents. You might need some time to look through each one, and you won't get what you need by studying them in this dark place.

Merlin nods. "A lot of the files you asked me are no longer in the main database, and I had to print out the ones I did find when I made copies of the archive to avoid them tracking me down. I know that they would already have my metadata while I was searching through the database computer, so copying them directly might draw some unwanted attention." He looks at the worried crease forming between your brows and reassures you, "Don't worry, they won't be able to track down my IP address to find out who dug into and downloaded those old information. But I might have to lie low for a while after this. Just in case."

Having your mind put at ease, you close the folder and set it aside, turning to the envelope next. "And what's in this?"

Merlin looks over with a nod. "In the envelope, you can find two flash drives. One containing more details and some old files that you wouldn't find from our archive or any of our databases." He stops for a moment, grinning proudly when he adds, "The other one contains some magic."

You look up at him curiously just as he explains, "Inside that tiny thing, you'll find all the encrypted files I took off Jinyoung's phone before the police got their hands on it."

You turn to look at him with wide eyes. "He had encrypted files?"

Merlin's face turns grim when he nods. "All stock full of it," he says. "I went through hell and back to decode them. I've got most of it done, yet I still have some more to work on. So we'll probably be seeing each other again once I get through them all."

You have reached into the envelope to pull out one of the flash drives, staring at it as if you can look into what it contains. You have no idea what to think, or to expect. To be fair, you never expected to find out about all of this.

As if Merlin knows what you are thinking, he continues to speak his mind and says, "Like I previously said, your man had a ton of secrets, and he was cautious about it. You have every single fine I found from his phone inside that drive, both the encrypted ones and the ones I already broke through. I also traced his calls, both incoming and outgoing, from the past six months." He stops for a moment, gauging your reaction before adding, "I should warn you that you might not like what you see."

You silently nod, still having a hard time letting this all sink in. After everything that had happened, you had thought that nothing else could surprise you. You have never been so wrong.

But then again, you have been finding yourself dealing with all the unexpected things more often lately. "And the files that you haven't gotten yet? What's wrong with them?"

Sighing, Merlin shakes his head. "Strangely enough, the file you asked on the oldest son of Min family is sealed. I have no authorisation to open the ones currently locked in our database." He stops briefly, waiting as you slip the flash drives back into the envelope before continuing to say, "The same goes with the case files from the accident."

You turn to look at him, furrowing your brows. "From Jinyoung's accident? But why would they—"

"It can mean that I was right all along," he cuts you off. "Something is off about the accident, and it's starting to look like someone is doing all the length that is needed to hide something crucial about the accident."

You look away as the dull ache of your anger and grief twists the insides of your chest. Closing your eyes for a brief moment, you try your best to push it away, to ignore it, and to silence the echo of your mother's words that always emerge from the back of your mind when you think about Jinyoung's death.

Once you manage to find some calmness, you look at your companion with a grim smile. "I have to hand it to you. This is still quite a feat for such a short span of time searching,"

A proud grin appears on his face. "They don't call me the Wizard for nothing."

You raise your brows. "Then perhaps you can use your magic to dig up some more information. I need to know more about the older brother's case and the accident. See if you can find all the information that was never released to the public."

Merlin laughs, amused at how brazen you are in challenging him to do more work for you. But judging from the look in his eyes, you can tell that he is up for it. Just like how he promised to work alongside you the first time he came to you with this arrangement. "I'll do my best," he says, with a twinkle in his eyes as if he is enjoying this challenge.

There is a weight in your chest that is slightly lifted after hearing his promise. You never had any reason to doubt him, and he is the only one you know who can help you with what you need to find, all you need to do, without risking anyone else's safety.

Yet it still doesn't stop the unsettling feeling rising in your chest with what you are about to do next, once you have all the information you need to move forward with your plans.

"Thank you," you whisper to him after a moment of silence falls. "Now that our business here is done, I think it's time for me to go," you say as you slip the flash drives into your purse and hide the folder of files under your coat.

Merlin looks out the window and nods. "That sounds like a good idea. It's dangerous for you to run around so late, with the current circumstances and all," he murmurs while glancing around the area. You have noticed this habit of his for a while; how he has always been cautious, worrying about someone who might be following his movement. And you are beginning to realise that his habit is already rubbing on you, seeing that you have been doing the same thing lately.

Secrets are too heavy a weight to carry, after all, you wonder bitterly as you are reminded of all the secrets that have been kept from you by the people you trusted.

"I should congratulate you again for the engagement," he turns to you with a sly grin. "Am I invited to the ball?"

His question draws a smile to your face and you lightly laugh. "You may come if you want. But no guns are allowed. I'll make sure to write it down on the invitation so you won't miss it."

Merlin laughs. "I'll keep that in mind," he says with a low voice. "I'll let you know if I ever find anything else from my search. Until then, please be safe." His eyes grow dark and intense when he adds, "I mean it."

Sensing the urgency in his warning, you look at him straight in the eyes as you promise him, "I'll be careful. Don't you worry." His gaze softens, showing that he doesn't doubt your words at all. Which helps alleviate the tension rolling in your body as well. "I'll be waiting for your call."

Without waiting for his response, you reach the door handle, twisting it open while bidding your goodbye on your way out. "Thank you again for everything. Good evening, Detective Jeon."

He gives you no response as you step out of the car—nothing more than a small grin in response to your taunting—and shutting the door behind you with a gentle click. Tightening your coat, you wrap your arms around yourself, keeping the thick files tucked safely against your chest, your purse secured to your side, and your secrets hidden deep inside yourself, as you make your way back to the main street so you can find your ride home.

You make no move to look over your shoulder when you hear him—Merlin, the mysterious young detective, and your partner in your mission—driving away towards the opposite direction.