७८

"Mwoya?" Rumi narrowed her eyes and scrolled through the website. Seojin had left to take a bathroom break while Rumi had taken his seat scanning through the website. She was disgusted as more and more she went through it. This wasn't just some outsiders or single employee selling information but the whole company itself was doing it. There was no other way of someone getting hands on such internal information. "This is definitely deeper than we think. If we are to reveal this to media, what would be the picture?" Rumi muttered to herself.

"The government would cover it up with new hot topic." Rumi glanced to her right, Cha Dongmin continued without glancing towards her. "Probably with election campaign." Rumi stared at him, it was true. The scenario was same everywhere, here, in her home country or anywhere on earth. With Moon club incident being covered up was enough proof. How easily money and power rule humanly world was quite horrendous. After committing such vicious crimes the culprits were out there living lives and one of most ridiculous thing here was these culprit would run away from their crimes in pretext of their mandatory military service. How is such illegitimate supposed to be trusted enough to protect the borders? It's ridiculous that government was letting this happen. "Moon club was feeding off this right?" Rumi said.  "No shit." Cha Dongmin let out a bitter chuckle. How are we supposed to stop this? When all were the puppets in hands of the richer and powerful?

"There's no end to this." Cha Dongmin answered as if reading her mind. "If there was then they wouldn't have hired a bitch like you to guard their preciouses." He added giving her a taunting smile. How Rumi wanted to rip that off his face. But it was a fact, the company knew that's why she was hired in first place. Rumi sighed and leaned back in chair rubbing her forehead. Suddenly she was getting a headache. It felt like there was nothing she could do to help the situation, she cannot root off the problem and fix everything nor she could tell Wonwoo and other about her truth. Instead of untangling the knots were getting tighter and tighter, with the fear of the threads breaking apart grew stronger.

"Aish ssibal I need a smoke." She muttered feeling her pockets and realized she had thrown it out. "Fuck." She cursed and then glanced at Cha Dongmin. "What?" He asked clearly knowing what she wanted.  "Aish." He put his hands in pocket and pulled out a packet and lighter. "You owe me." He said passing it her. "Sure." Rumi replied standing up and left. Cha Dongmin scowled watching her leave. "At least she's gone for now." He said to himself continued his work.

"Eo? Did sunbaenim leave?" Seojin returned looking around. Cha Dongmin clicked his tongue, "Wish she did." He sighed typing away on his keyboard.  "De?" Seojin asked not quite getting it. Dongmin rolled his eyes, "Went out for a smoke." He replied. Seojin nodded in understanding, "She looks sick. Should she be smoking?" Seojin said. Dongmin aggressively clicked his mouse. "I don't know! Do you I look like her health consultant?" Seojin clammed his mouth apologizing and looked. "I was just saying..." He muttered under his breath while glancing Cha Dongmin through corner of his eye just to see him glaring. Seojin quickly looked away and focused on his work.

As usually he was scrolling through his site checking for anything suspicious. It was he's duty to inform the field agents if he notices any suspicious activities around idols. Trust him when he says that people nowadays were quite vocal about their happenings. Be it a good thing or bad thing there was need to share it to whole world. Just like here, if you want to find about any event happening in entertainment industry no matter how private it is, you would find it on this website along with passes to enter. The more you looked into it the more you be disgusted to know how people had become obsessive. From selling items used by idols to breaking into idol's home. There's no say in between. "What the hell?" Seojin made disgusted face scrolling away.

"Another underwear?" Cha Dongmin asked from side. Seojin scrunched his face in disgust and shook his head. "It's better to not know. Agh! Why did I read that?" He cursed him while shaking his head to get it out. "It is your job, isn't it?" Cha Dongmin chuckled.  Seojin nodded with a melancholic face. "Aigoo, uri Seojinni..." Cha Dongmin laughed hoping a witty from him since he hated being addressed like that. But Seojin seemed too engrossed in something on his screen. "What are you examining so closely? Something interesting?" Cha Dongmin teased.

"Sunbaenim..." Seojin trailed off slowly looking at him, Cha Dongmin got worried looking at his expression. "Mwo? Mwo? What is it?" He questioned.

"Ani, it's just something I read. I don't know if it can be taken seriously or not?" Cha Dongmin rolled his chair towards him checked what exactly he was reading. "Yah, what do you mean can be taken seriously or not? He's clearly declaring what he's about to do." He said reading through the post.

"Whose declaring what?" A voice made them jump apart in fright. "Whoa." Rumi stared at their reaction. "What happened?" She questioned glancing at one to another.  "Sunbaenim..." Seojin again trailed off pointing towards his desktop. Rumi furrowed her eyebrows and leaned down to check it out. Seojin and Cha Dongmin silently waited as she read through it.  "Seojin-ah make the call." Rumi curtly said. Seojin was quick to her command making the calls. Cha Dongmin stared at her, that's new. He thought she would run out of the moment she reads it but was she quiet, rather too quiet.

"Not picking up the call." Seojin said looking up at her. Rumi straightened up. "I-I'll try someone else." Seojin said dialling another number. Cha Dongmin observed Rumi who turned around stared at the door and turned back again as if debating over something.

Fuck! Rumi mentally cursed running her fingers through her hair. She wanted to rush out the moment she read that post but her legs seemed heavy. Her mind and heart were debating but settled on staying when the thought of truth being reveal crossed her mind. "Did anyone pick up the damn call?!" Rumi exclaimed pulling her own phone out and dialling Hyun's number. Seojin shook his head while Hyun's range seemed to be out of service. "God damn it!" She cursed. "Any other way of communication?" She asked this time dialling Gu Hwa number. "What type of shitty network these people have?!" She cursed again her mind had gone into frenzy. She started pacing around.

"Sunbaenim." She snapped her head towards Seojin for good news but received, "Negative."

"Fuck!" She ran her fingers through hair and then suddenly looked at Cha Dongmin. "Yah gaja." Cha Dongmin taken aback looked around wondering who was she looking at. "Mwo? Me?"

"Eo. Now get up." She said. "Seojin, you keep an eye let us know if there's any update. You, are you getting up or not?"

"Eo, eo. I am." Dongmin quickly stood up and started following her. "Are you really going there? Aren't you warned against being around them?" Dongmin asked when a helmet was pushed into his arms. "What?" He looked at the bike standing in front of him. "Are we riding that?" Rumi blankly stared at him and replied. "No, flying that. Idiot, now don't waste time and climb on."  Dongmin wanted to retort something back but situation didn't allow him so he quickly put on the helmet climbed the bike.  "Hold on." Rumi said.

Dongmin surely did hold on for his dear life. "Holy fuck..." He dizzily said as Rumi killed the engine and looked at him. "Are you getting off or not?" She asked patting his hands which had tight grip on her shirt. Dongmin nodded his head trying to get off. The helmet felt like a boulder on his head. He removed it and placed on the bike to see Rumi already on move. "God this woman." He muttered while running behind and quickly entered the door which was about to close. How the fuck she still has license to drive that thing? He thought glancing at her. "Make sure to stay in contact with Seojin." She said. Dongmin nodded and both started looking around for their guys which was going to be quite a mess considering the chaos they had walked into. It was fortunate that Rumi was able drive through the crowd that was gathered outside.

"We need to separate." Dongmin said looking at the crowd of fans standing in front of them. Rumi nodded, "If you find them get them to contact others. I'm heading towards green room." Rumi said. Dongmin nodded his head affirmative, was about to move but stopped noticing Rumi stood still debating. "Yah, do you want to do this other way around?" Rumi stared at him for few seconds before shaking her head. "Ani. Let's go."

Both of them left with their task which was to notify the ground team about the suspicion as soon as possible. Rumi tried dialling Hyun's number again. None of the agent seem to be around here when should've been at the entrance. "Excuse me! Excuse me!" Suddenly out of nowhere Rumi was manhandled and pushed back. For a moment she lost it there then calmed herself down. It was just security doing their job. "Okay. I'm sorry for entering like that. But next time be polite." Rumi warned pulling out her id showing it to them. The guy quickly scanned her id and let her in. "Do me a favour?" The guy raised his eyebrow in question. "I'll be needing that." She said pointing at his walkie talkie. "Ma'am this one connects with security team-"

"Okay good. Hand it over and gather the guys. It's code Bravo."

"Mwo?" He looked at her as if she was kidding. "Would you like me to repeat that?" Rumi asked putting her hand forward and raising her eyebrow. "Make it quick." Rumi said in curt voice. He handed her the device and moved along as he was instructed while Rumi started heading towards the green room. The alley leading towards it was practically mobbed by the staffs and idols.

"Joesonghamnida." Rumi apologized as she squeezed through looking for familiar faces when she saw Jaewon rushing around.  "Jaewon-ah!" She called waving her hand. Jaewon looked around for source until he found her pushing through the crowd. "Team jangnim? What are you doing here? Weren't you on leave?" He asked little surprised to see her there. "Haha not really." Rumi replied scanning around. "Um Jaewon-ah, you have Seventeen's schedule don't you?" Jaewon nodded wondering where was she getting at. "Nevermind that. Where are they currently?" She asked.

"They are done with half of the shoot and are in waiting room..." Jaewon trailed off as Rumi was already heading towards the waiting room. Rumi hastily opened the door and quickly scanned the members. One, two, three...nine. Some were missing.  "Eo? Noona da!" Chan exclaimed looking at Rumi delighted. Rumi put on a smile and walked towards them. "Hello boys." She greeted.

"Did you come to see us today?" Seokmin asked smiling at her. Rumi patted his back nodded her head. "Eo. I heard you guys missed me." She said looking at Chan. Who looked away scoffing. "As if! It was rather nice." Rumi teased imitating him. "As if! It wasn't you running towards me like a puppy." "I wasn't!" He cried as his hyungs started teasing him.

"Okay. Okay geuman or else he'll start crying." Chan glare at her at that. "Where are others? I see some of you missing." Rumi asked pretending to look around.

"Ah they are in other room." Seungkwan answered sipping on his coffee. Rumi nodded smiling at him. "Then I won't disturb you guys anymore. All the best for rest of shoot! I'll go wish them too." She said giving them thumps up. "Gomawo..." Rumi smiled and slipped out looking for missing members. They were suppose to be in next room. Rumi opened the door and peeked inside. "Can I come in?" She asked smiling at them. Wonwoo shoot up from his chair and rushed towards her. "Noona." Seeing his smile was calming enough. "Annyeong." She softly greeted while glancing at others letting him know that they weren't alone.

"Yah! Where have you been?" Seungcheol scolded.

"Mian I've been busy with work lately." She apologized looking around. One was still missing. "I heard that I was being missed so decided to drop by." Rumi said patting Wonwoo arm. He was shifting his weight from leg to leg, wide grin on his face was undeniable. "Eo, we missed you." Wonwoo said making her shyly smile at him.

"We are included in that 'we'." Hoshi said pointing towards them. Wonwoo rolled his eyes sneakily intertwining his fingers with hers. Rumi looked up at him.  'What are you doing?' Wonwoo smiled and simply shrugged his shoulder. "Are you a double agent or what?" Rumi snapped her at Seungcheol while Hoshi choked on air.

"De?"

"You said you've been busy with work. We work in same company yet I haven't seen you around? Working for some other company?" Seungcheol elaborated, both Hoshi and Rumi found their lost breathe

"Ah that, I was working on other site." Rumi said explaining. "Were you now?" Seungcheol asked narrowing his eyes at her. Rumi nervously gulped, why is he suddenly inquiring about it? Did he find out? "What do you mean? And seriously first thing you do after meeting so long is interrogate me?" Rumi asked crossing her arms. "Where is Jeonghan-ssi somebody needs to be put in line?" Rumi said pretending to look for him. Hoshi and Wonwoo snickered at the taken aback look of Seungcheol.  "Yah! Mwo? Do you think I fear him?"

"Ani." Rumi shook her head with confident smile. "I know you fear him." His brothers burst out laughing at that. "YAH!" Seungcheol cried while Rumi casually shrugged her shoulders riling him more. His brother weren't helping at all. Rumi was about add more to that when her phone rang. She quickly pulled out it put it to ear. "Eo?"

"Sunbaenim check the file I've sent you. It has the information required to identify him."

Rumi pulled the phone away and checked the file he had sent right away. Photo, name, profession everything was here. "Sunbaenim?" She quickly put it back to ear. "Did you read the file?" Rumi hummed she had already caught their attention with her tensed behaviour. "You need to filter out the reporters quick." Rumi hummed again this time putting on a smile. "Eo, I am on it. I am still not to able to contact the team so pass the note to Dongmin, okay?" Seojin seemed to understand her situation, responded affirmative and ended the call.

"Who was it?" Wonwoo asked worriedly looking at her. Her fake smile won't trick him anymore. "Ah, a colleague. I need to get back to work." Rumi said pointing her thump towards the door. "You're leaving?" Rumi nodded. "Eo. I need to." She replied heading towards the door.  "Ah? Where did you say Jeonghan-ssi was?"

"Hannie hyung? He left earlier for some interview thing." Hoshi answered. Rumi froze and looked up at him before she cursed, "Fuck!" and sprinted right off the room. "Noona?!" "Rumi?!"

She heard their calls but her heart racing overpowered any sound surrounding her. She needed to find him quick, before it's too late. If the guy plans to execute what he had written in the post then Jeonghan was in danger, extreme danger. Rumi sprinted through alley from alley looking him. She couldn't see him anywhere. She pulled out the HT she had borrowed from the site team. "Mayday! Mayday!" She said.

"Roger Charlie. What's the status?"

"We have intruder and possible hostage situation. Look for Yoon Jeongh-" Rumi stopped noticing the Jeonghan and a guy conversing and walking towards the end of alley.

"Charlie? Charlie come in."

"Found the subject." Rumi quietly replied keeping an eye at the pair. The guy was carrying a note pad and pen. It was hard to see his face so Rumi slowly made her way towards them. Jeonghan said something making the guy laugh as he look up from his notepad giving Rumi the glimpse of his face. It's him! "I need back up. Alley 6A. ASAP."

"Roger. Stand by." Rumi furrowed her eyebrows at his reply before she heard another voice. "Charlie, state you code." A familiar commanding voice echoed. "7864." She heard him take in sharp breathe. "What are you doing here?" Rumi cared less of his question right now. The guy had ditched his note pad and pen slipping them into his bag. His hand remained in his bag. "Tanto. Over." Rumi said cutting the conversation and heading towards them. "He wouldn't attempt it here, would he?" Rumi said to herself taking in the surrounding. There were people around them. "No, he would." She said noticing the guy's hand moving inside his messenger bag. She can't take direct action with people around but she also can't stand and wait for him to take action. So...

"Jeonghan-ssi!" Both Jeonghan and the guy snapped their heads towards her. "Rumi?" Rumi smiled. "What are you doing here?" Jeonghan asked smiling at her. "I was here to see you guys perform." Rumi replied glancing at the guy. He look conflicted, uh huh that's bad. It was as if she could see his thought process but still was steps away from them to stop him.

The guy finally pulled out his hand from the bag. "Jeonghan-ssi! MOVE!" Rumi screamed leaping towards him. Jeonghan stumbled in confusion he couldn't register what was happening around, more like it was too quick. One movement Rumi was walking towards them and in another she was in front of him.

It was already late to play the cautious cat. He had already pulled out his weapon. Rumi had no choice but to take charge. She spun around using her right kick to knock off weapon from his hand but it was already in air. "Rumi!" She heard her name being called but the burning sensation over her back took over her senses. Vision blur, and ears filled with wails of pain. "R-rumi..." She felt Jeonghan touch her cheek, blinking she clearing her vision. Jeonghan was looking up at her in pain. "Jeonghan-ssi are you okay?" Rumi asked worriedly looking at him. He nodded cradling his left arm. Rumi had managed to throw off his angle still the bottle flew up in air. She had surged forward pushing Jeonghan into the wall and shielding him from the liquid that found its way on her back.

"AHHrghh!!" Screams of pain echoed in her ears. Rumi turned around, the guy was kicking his legs in pain holding his arm right out. His arm seared. Rumi stumbled forward. "Noona!" She heard her named being called before an arm went around her waist and held up right. "W-wonwoo-ssi..." She blinked looking up at him. They had followed her. "Wonwoo-ssi, you all need to stay back into safety. Get back to your room, take your brothers with you." She said pushing him away. Wonwoo shook his head, "Hoshi." Rumi glanced toward Hoshi who nodded his head getting her message. Seungcheol was already helping Jeonghan.

"Code Blue." Rumi said holding up her HT.

"RUMI!" Rumi looked up to see the backup had finally arrived. Rumi sighed and pointed towards the guy. "He need to be escorted to hospital." The team was quick to move as the guy was escorted. "Rumi." Gu Hwa walked towards her. She looked little out of it. Rumi shook her head, "We don't know whether he had any accomplices. They need to be protected." Rumi said reporting. Gu Hwa nodded, "Seal exits and alley too." He said in his HT and then looked at idols staring at them in confusion, curiosity, fear and worry. "We need to get you guys back to safety." Gu Hwa instructed when the medics rushed in. Rumi pointed towards the Jeonghan.

"What happened?" Gu Hwa asked taking chance while they seemed busy. "Pick up your god damn phone will you?" Rumi hissed through her teeth.

"Captain we have cleared the room." One of agents said holding open the door of nearest room. Gu Hwa instructed the medics and idols to shift inside the room while the alley was sealed. "Make sure this is concealed here. Instruct the staff and idols to return to their vanity asap." Gu Hwa instructed pointing towards the scene. "Reporters. You need to stop and cease their devices." Rumi added holding on Gu Hwa arm.

"Rumi? Are you okay?" He asked worried. Rumi nodded waving off his worry. "I am fine. Jeonghan-ssi, he looked in pain earlier I need to see if he is fine." Rumi mumbled and walked away while Gu Hwa tried to stop her. "Wait!"

A/N :

Rumi playing the hero again. What her actions are gonna lead to?

Love,

Alba💜