SET UP ㅡ chapter 21

6 days before the showdown.....

"YOOGEOK HAS TAKEN HER somewhere else!" jared busted inside the planning room, panting.

it was clear that he was in a hurry due to the fact that the prosthetic mask of kim kyungho, the butler, was still in tact on his face.

"what?! where did they take her?!" mason exclaimed, abruptly standing from his chair. "we must get her right now!"

"hyung calm down."

"i'm not going to calm down! she's going missing again! i can't afford to search for her for the second time!"

it's rare to see mason burst out, but for this reason, it's very understandable that he did.

"mason, calm down." victoria's leveled voice, yet disciplinary and strict, made the short chaos cease. she turned to jared. "do you have any clue where they're taking her, jae?"

"their ancestral home, the one near the apartment where we first met her." jared responded.

"let's go get her." chancler was the first to spring up the sofa, but his enthusiasm was stopped when victoria halted him.

"no, let's think this through first." victoria started. "they've taken chaeyoung away so they can play pretend and act like they've finally found her to keep the contract in tact. so that means that they're reopening her case."

"so chaeyoung will be kept there until the genuine detectives find her." hwiyoung added, understanding victoria's sentence. "but will chaeyoung stay where she's put?"

victoria turned to jared, "progress?"

jared sighed, hands fiddling with each other before speaking. "chaeyoung has changed. she's become obedient to yoogeok. tamed. conquered."

hwiyoung's eyes averted to his brother's hands that strongly gripped the armrest of the leather sofa.

"that son of a bitch...." mason hissed.

"but it's only a facade ㅡ fortunately!" jared was so close to get a flying chair smacked at his face. "she's been surviving on her instincts."

"so..." chancler turned to the redheaded leader. "what's the plan, noona?"

6 days after the showdown...

"move move move!"

footsteps of police officers are heard nearing the ancestral home of the head commissioner, kim.

the vicinity was covered in vegetation. it decked the residence with tall grass and overgrown trees. it does makes sense, an ancestral home that hasn't been visited after the death of the kim's 4th generation heirs.

no one's supposed to have access to this place anymore. but the slightly parted plants tell people otherwise.

however, that observation was ignored.

yoogeok bit his bottom lip in anxiety.

can he make this work?

will he be able to slide through this?

after painfully announcing that inseong is meant to be forgotten, declared dead and a disgrace for siding with the bad side, he reopened the missing case of chaeyoung.

but not before filling it with structured clues to lure the genuine searchers.

he could've bribed them and tell them the plan, but these searchers were sent from the main division themselves.

and these people aren't someone he can manipulate like a vodoo doll by flashing his cash before their eyes.

they're the pure and powerful police.

people yoogeok's not found of.

"entering area." one of them said through the walkie-talkie log before swinging the door open.

there was candlelight left on one of the runs of the staircase. a faint scent of food was present and also the scent of someone actually being in here and living here was evident.

a part of yoogeok's setup.

they just need to see the missing person.

"hello? kim chaeyoung?" the general said.

'show up now chaeyoung!'

'just like what we planned.'

there was only silence that replied to them.

"search the house!" yoogeok commanded, pulse slightly increasing at the silence of this ancestral house.

the house that knows his sins.

the house he was shameless to return to.

the house he once belonged, but not anymore.

not after what he had done.

he knows he's not welcome here.

"no one, sir." one of them reported. "there are clear signs of presence, but she must've left."

"search outside the rest of the property!" the general commanded once again.

no.

no..

no!

chaeyoung's not here.

and that's not what they planned.

"fuck!!"

yoogeok's sweaty fingers touched the 20 digit code of the confidential vault.

the vault of the country's secrets.

and the vault that withholds his evil doings.

every.

single.

one.

after his failed setup of chaeyoung, the general concluded that chaeyoung may not want to be found. she might've ran away.

but yoogeok thought he had her under his control, wrapped around his fingers that hold her strings. he thought that he could just pull them like she was a marionette.

but she ran away when she got the chance.

"she was sane this whole fucking time!" he said, irritated and angry at the same time.

now that chaeyoung is gone missing again and inseong has sided with the assassin group, he's left with no one to transfer the inheritance to.

and he's health condition isn't getting better.

"where are they where are they..." he muttered to himself, search the vault's shelves of documents, going through each of them.

"id number 06122012...34..." he found the shelf and he opened it, but the box is empty.

hollow and bare.

the piled documents of everything that he had done is gone.

his heart beat fast like a boxer punching his fists against his opponent with a goal to knock him down witin a minute. the commissioner ran to the other boxes.

id number 08142009334. empty.

id number 02182012334. empty.

id number 10142017334. empty.

they're all gone. all his crime files. and when they're gone, it means that someone has taken them.

normally, you report when you notice that some files are missing. but in this case, yoogeok is the one infiltrating to clean his record. there would be a search.

but either way, the world will find out what he had done.

inseong looked at the beach that stretch to the sea in front of him. it was late at night and the moon and stars that deck the ominous sky is reflected beautifully on the waters.

no wonder black iris chose to reside here.

who would suspect that a dangerous assassin group is within these beautiful private mansion residence.

"what are you thinking?"

inseong jumped at the voice of victoria, who he didn't hear enter his room. he turned to see her walking to stand at his side, outside in the balcony.

as she approached, looking out the horizon, the moon's natural light cascaded on her face beautifully. the shadows danced magnificently and played with the distinct feautures of her face.

for a moment, inseong was breathless at the sight of victoria's beauty.

victoria didn't get an answer from inseong so he turned to him and he immediately cleared his throat and nervously looked away.

'shit, i stared..' inseong thought, mentally smacking himself.

"what are you thinking?" she asked again.

"n-nothing much.. just.." inseong relaxed, sighing and leaning his forearms on the railing of the balcony. "just.. asking myself why i didn't go back.."

"yeah. that was a bold move." victoria said, folding her arms, turning her body to face inseong and leaning on the railing now behind her. "why did you not go back?"

"it just.. didn't feel right.." inseong turned to victora to meet her golden eyes, that are somehow glistening under the dark. "going back to my uncle, knowing he has prices pay. but with me back, we wouldn't be paying them."

victoria hummed.

silence wrap the atmosphere between the two.

"wait ㅡ but that doesn't mean that i have completely put my trust into you guysㅡ" inseong broke the short silence with a blunt statement, hoping victoria won't get the wrong idea of his actions.

victoria raised an eyebrow, a mocking smile on her lips as she looked at him with a playful look. "yeah right. that's what every good guy siding with the bad side would say." she sarcastically said.

inseong laughed while victoria snickered.

when his laughter died down, he was put in a trance while holding eye contact with victoria.

someone who looks so ethereal and enigmatic.

but underneath her mysteriousness, inseong finds a vicious, devious assassin who's out for blood and justice.

an unstable human being.

someone who inseong thinks he can't fully trust.

a vehicle rumble from outside the gate making the both of them look down. passing through the gate is hwiyoung on his motorbike.... with company.

"let's go greet the guest." victoria said, turning her heel and walking out of inseong's room.

inseong squinted his eyes at who hwiyoung took with him.

a woman.

"is that..."

UNEDITED.