Chapter 132 - Park & Zhang

"You are right, unnie. Everything you told me about Yuna Zhang swapping rooms using the par.a.p.et and locking her father out of the building... This is certainly very suspicious. He may be in life's danger," said Ye Rim on the phone, impressed by the report. "But don't worry, unnie. I'll try to hear the rumors like you said, office people are very gossipy at lunch. And I'll be there trying to catch some information, paparazzi-style!" she exclaimed excitedly, hanging up the phone after saying goodbye.

The night before, Jun Hyeon had said he would teach her tap dancing. He seemed moved by her words, although Ye Rim was just being honest. She returned home in his car, feeling light for imagining that the weight he carried on his shoulders could be eased little by little. As he stopped condemning himself and definitely, listening to the echoes of the past wanting to punish him for an accident.

When she confronted her unnie because of Kang Dae and the Instant Celebrity she had made of him, Eun Ha showed her concern about this. But mainly, she focused on the life of Stylist Zhang.

Having been so involved with her own projects and feeling distanced from her best friend, Ye Rim decided to help her in any way she could.

Both were now in the vicinity of the Park & ​​Zhang building, to find out whether Stylist Zhang was really at risk of being murdered by his own daughter, or had been a misunderstanding.

Ye Rim waited for lunch, and when she saw a promising group of white-collars leaving the glamorous company on foot.  The singer followed them discreetly. As soon as they chose a table in the restaurant, she tried to sit next to them. Pretending to be completely absorbed with her cell phone, she paid attention to the group's conversations, while they lunched. 

As Ye Rim imagined, it didn't take long, and they started to gossip.

°°°

Eun Ha hung up the phone with a satisfied sigh, happy to have her regular partner-in-crime helping her in this self-imposed mission. Last night she could hardly sleep thinking about that scene between Yuna Zhang and her father. It convinced the fairy that Alexander Zhang narrowly escaped death that night.

Now, after observing a little, she used her magic wand to replicate a uniform from the outsourced cleaning team. Eun Ha was feeling n.a.k.e.d and exposed without her thick eyeliner, but she needed to face a day without makeup for the sake of her whole operation of signing a contract with Park & ​​Zhang. Stylist Zhang's life was important, but she couldn't forget that everything she had done so far had a purpose. 

After it, she popped up from behind a car, going to the service entrance of the building next. It was not so difficult to enter after convincing the concierge that the outsourced cleaning company had not yet delivered her ID card. As Eun Ha imagined, the only person obsessed with preventing someone from entering was Front Desk Assistant Cha Eun Mi. She easily joined the cleaning team and the tired head of the team accepted her lame excuses without question.

Completely ignoring the mission that the head of the cleaning team assigned her, she took a cleaning cart and climbed up to the boardroom floor. Eun Ha knew that because it was lunchtime, the posts would be empty and it would be much easier to spy.

She had seen it in a movie, once. Social engineering. It was unethical, of course, but if it saved someone's life or solve a crime, wasn't it forgivable?

Passing through the closed doors, she reached the door to the office where it was written, Zhang, Yuna - Brand Manager.

She wasn't impressed. The fashion designer had already done some research on the internet and knew that Yuna was considered an excellent professional in the field. Park & ​​Zhang had renewed its worn 'Park Bo Jeon' brand when Zhang took over from Park Bo Jeon, an exponent of Korean fashion in past decades, as the house's creative director. Park, dying a few years ago, had left half of the company to Zhang, which at the time was a big shock to his family and a great source of gossip in the news. 

But things have progressed well, as Zhang's charisma and talent have kept the brand as one of the 10 most influential in the country. Yuna actively took part in revitalizing the brand with aggressive brand positioning decisions. She was a young CEO to admire. So, having seen her acting so oddly as she was on the night of the Fashion Ball made Eun Ha very suspicious. In addition, Hunter Shin had said that the woman who ran out of the room definitely had some wraiths around her.

Double-checking to make sure she wouldn't be caught or interrupted, Eun Ha pushed on the office door.

°°°

The amount of meanness and pet peeves the employees of the Park & ​​Zhang office poured over lunch horrified ye Rim. All the bullying and useless gossip against employees of the same or higher ranks keep their mouths moving while they're not chewing. Then someone started talking about Yuna Zhang's secretary,

"She is desperately trying to find a new protector, since she knows she will hardly be the secretary for the new brand director," said a woman. "She's as ridiculous as before. Se Ra passed by with her nose up because she was the secretary of the mighty Miss. Zhang, but now she runs like a docile little dog asking for a seat for the executives."

"But at least she told my boss it was Director Zhang himself who fired Brand Manager Yuna. She was on the phone when the Director arrived, on the same day as the Fashion Ball, and locked himself up with Yuna for almost two hours in the office," the owner of this valuable information shared it as if it were a piece of bread delivered to the hungry people. The listeners leaned towards her, and Ye Rim thought she should 'fix' her heel, to lean in too.

"Yes. And what else?"

"And then the Headmaster left and told Se Ra to help Yuna get things ready to leave office in a week. Bluntly. Se Ra got startled!"

"No wonder he was sick during the Fashion Ball. He must have been on edge."

"Yes. But ... What was the reason for the dismissal? And ... can he fire her? Does he have that power?"

It divided opinions at the table. 

"Vivian Park loves Yuna. I often saw them together," someone commented. 

"Look who's coming," someone else whispered. Ye Rim also looked discreetly. Today was not her lucky day. Cha Eun Mi and another girl arrived in the restaurant.

What now, should she try to go unnoticed or greet the ex-trainee?

°°°

Eun Ha saw cardboard boxes meticulously organized, with personal items and even decorative objects from the office. 'Why, this is not what I expected.' Unfortunately, the magic monocle was back in the hands of its true owner, so she could not investigate the supernatural aspects of that room. Still, Eun Ha could say that despite being a refined environment, she didn't really want to stay there. Looking at the environment, she didn't know where to start investigating, so the fairy did exactly the same thing she had done the first time: she went to the bathroom, the place she least wanted to enter.

The first thing Eun Ha saw was the broken, blood-stained mirror in front of the sink.

'Well, this girl is really troubled.'

There was nothing else of note in the elegant bathroom, except that Eun Ha had the strange feeling that the floor was full of salt crystals. Her shoes seemed to crush the dust on the porcelain tile. The uncomfortable feeling was most evident when she came close to the toilet. Lifting the lid of the toilet, Eun Ha looked inside, but saw nothing but a slight trace of 'salt' on the edge of the lid.

Then she heard footsteps in the room, and a person's voice asking,

"Hey, who gave you permission to enter this room?"

Eun Ha quickly grabbed the trash can, and went out trying to make the most innocent expression in the world,

"Sir, I was just told to clean this bathroom."

"I highly doubt it," said the man, in his safety uniform and unpleasant expression. He pulled out the walkie talkie, and turned it on, asking her,

"What's your name? Where's your ID card?"

'Damn it! The ID card! I forgot to make the ID card! ' Eun Ha panicked.

"Erm…" All she thought about doing was discreetly grabbing her wand and breaking the security's communication device. "Mr. Floor Security, I had to leave it with my supervisor downstairs, Mr. Gong. My name is Eun Mi... Ja Eun Mi." She went out with the trash can from the bathroom, while Mr. Floor Security tried to use the walkie talkie without success.

When she reached the hall, she saw Stylist Zhang leaving the elevator with other people. 'My God, I don't believe it! Now it's so easy to find him! But he can't see me! 'She leaned against a wall, trying not to be seen by him.

Floor Security, however, left the Brand Manager's office, and immediately spotted Eun Ha hiding,

"Hey! YOU! HALT!"

Eun Ha gasped.