Chapter 106 - Unfold

Jiwon left for Jeju Island the very next day. He did not even bother to say goodbye to Mirae on his way out. Mirae hid her tears as he walked out of the house. 

Why are we so helpless? She wondered. But there was no time to linger on this. She had a job to do.

She carefully thought out a plan. The biggest hurdle was to get rid of those guards tailing her. After thinking for a while, Mirae decided to take the risk. Putting on a black t-shirt and green jeans she packed her duffle bag, put on her sunglasses and exited the apartment.

Putting a fake smile on her face, Mirae stepped out on the walkway. Instantly, from the corner of her eye, she saw three men carefully following her. They kept a distance and mingled well with the crowd. If she had not seen Jiwon talking to one of them, she would have never guessed that they were keeping an eye on her.

Shaking them off was not an easy job, especially in her condition. But there was little choice. It was now or never.

Casually strolling into a cafe, she headed straight for the toilet. The men could not follow her in there and hece, took different seats around the cafe. They waited for over an hour but Mirae did not emerge from the washroom. One of the men checked his watch. He felt it was strange that she still did not come out. 

After waiting for one more hour, he decided to enquire. He requested a waitress to check inside the washroom stalls. To the surprise of the three men, there was no one inside the stalls but they found an abandoned duffel bag which they recognized as the one Mirae was holding. Also, the clothes she was wearing were found inside it. 

….

Mirae was standing outside the building of Hann Constructions. She was wearing a professional attire with big, round eyeglasses and a short wig. Her green eyes were covered with brown contact lenses and her face was darkened by a few shades to hide her appearance. 

She walked over to the entrance, carrying a fake ID card. She was well aware of the building's security since she accompanied her father to his office quite a few times. There was an ID card scanner which was mandatory for the employees to check-in through. The scanner simply cross checked the data with the information in its system before signalling a green light, verifying the employee's credentials. 

Mirae had installed a small chip in the fake ID she was carrying which will momentarily freeze the HR system and force the scanner to quickly verify her ID with any random employee. She confidently walked up to the scanner and put her ID against the scanner.

It froze for a split second before giving a green signal. Mirae quietly walked in and began to follow a few employees towards an elevator. As she was about to step in, she froze. 

Standing in front of her was Secretary Lee.

Thankfully, he was busy conversing with someone else and he did not notice her silently backing away. She backed off and chose to use the stairs instead. She climbed up to the third floor, where she knew her father's office was located. 

Walking through the busy corridor, Mirae pretended to look into some files she was carrying to avoid eye contact with everyone. No one paid much attention to her since everyone was busy with their own work. She quietly made her way towards Jung Taewon's office.

Upon reaching his office, Mirae felt a gush of familiarity rising within her. She tried to hold back tears as she neared the office which was once occupied by her father. From what she heard, it was now occupied by someone called Shun Oguri. 

The person called Shun was inside the room, talking on the phone. She needed to get him out of there somehow. Thinking quickly, she saw a fire alarm in front of her. It would by her at most five minutes before the security would catch her. It was enough time for her.

Casually walking over towards the alarm, she activated it. Instantly, the alarms began to ring aloud. People came running out of their rooms. The man called Shun rushed out of his office, leaving it unlocked. Mirae fought through the heavy crowd to reach her destination.

Upon getting into the room, she immediately walked over to the computer. She knew this computer would have nothing, but the company's President had access to all the secret information of the company. This included the underworld's businesses too. 

Mirae took out a specially designed pendrive. It was her own design which was practically untraceable in any computer. It can break through complex passwords within seconds and download files on its own without leaving any trails. Several companies tried to buy this program from her, but she knew it was too dangerous to sell.

Inserting it into the computer, it immediately began to break through every public and secret file the company held. Impatiently, Mirae checked her watch. She had only three minutes left before the security came barging in to arrest her. There were thousands of files in it.

Outside the building, everyone was in a panic. Secretary Lee glanced up to see if there was any fire but he saw no smoke in the sky.

"What is going on?" he frowned. Suddenly he wondered if someone put out a false alarm to lure all of them out of the building? 

He immediately summoned some security guards. "Go and check the building's CCTV footage now!" he ordered. "Look for intruders!"

"Sir, there is someone on the third floor," one of the security guards informed him, checking a mini monitor in his hands. "Inside the President's office!"

"Let's go!" Secretary Lee said in an urgent tone.

Meanwhile, Mirae tapped her foot impatiently. She had only two minutes left. There were thousands of files downloading.

"Come on…" she muttered under her breath. She heard footsteps approaching.

"Follow me!" Secretary Lee exclaimed. What if it's someone from the Cartel? He thought ominously. It would be a disaster if they get their hands on any data. They were almost at the President's door…

They burst through the door. To their horror, the office was empty. 

"Look around," he ordered the guards. They immediately dispatched, searching for the trespasser. 

Secretary Lee strode over to the computer. It was turned off. Turning it on, he waited for the system to start. Upon starting, he immediately checked the whole computer for any suspicious activities. To his surprise, there was no trail of any hacking or data copying.

"Sir, we didn't find anyone outside," one of the guards informed him as he entered.

Secretary Lee fell back, frowning. What was going on?

….

Mirae was well aware of a secret passage behind a bookshelf in the office. It was built by her father which he planned to use in cases of emergencies. He had shown it to her during one of her visits. It seemed only she and her dad knew about it. The passage led straight outside, towards the parking of the building. 

Quickening her pace, Mirae walked through the empty car park and exited it. Mingling with the confused crowd, she quietly slipped away through the front gate. Returning home was dangerous in case if her guards informed Jiwon. Instead, she walked straight into a park which was a few blocks away from the building of Hann Constructions. Taking a seat at the secluded area of the park, she took out her laptop from the large bag she was carrying and inserted the pendrive into it.

Immediately, thousands of files appeared on the screen. But she only needed to narrow down the files related to her father and mother. Opening a command box, she began to type in a simple code to narrow down her search. She typed in the date of her parents' death and the search bar showed ten files from that day. One was a video clip.

She opened the clip. To her shock, it was the blackbox footage of her father's car.

Her father and mother had entered the car along with, to her surprise, Jiwon. 

"Does my grandfather know?" Jiwon was asking them.

"We didn't tell him yet," Sohee had replied grimly. "But we will tell him once we reach the school."

"Mom…" Mirae said, caressing the screen. "Mommy…"

"I'm sorry I ruined your night," Jiwon murmured to them.

"Don't worry about," Taewon laughed. The laugh Mirae had been missing for so many years. "You're safe, that's what matters."

Sohee took out her phone to read a text.

"Mirae is here?" she asked in surprise. Yes, Mirae was there that night. She wanted to surprise them.

"What?" Taewon asked. "She is here?"

"She rode the bus to get here," Sohee said as she read the message. "Checked herself into a lodge and is waiting for us there. She wanted to surprise us."

"Who's Mirae?" Jiwon asked. "Your daughter?"

"Yes," Taewon replied. "You met her once."

"I did?" Jiwon was surprised. 

"Yes," Taewon said. "When you were-"

Suddenly a truck came out of nowhere and hit the car. 

"No…" Mirae murmured. "No…"

The car swirled around the road before falling off into a ditch. She saw a grey haired man coming out of the truck, carrying a metal rod. He approached the wreckage. He first pulled out Taewon, checking the injured man's pulse. Taewon was still alive. The grey haired man raised the rod and swiftly hit Taewon's head a few times, finally killing him. He then proceeded to check the woman but she was already dead.

Next he moved on towards Jiwon who was still conscious. But the sirens of a police car stopped him from hitting the latter.

"Fuck!" he cursed. He looked down at the crawling boy.

"This won't be the last time you'll see me," the grey haired man threatened. He then escapes into the night, leaving Jiwon alone.

….