Taehyung's POV-

It's only eleven o'clock and I've already had to deal with nothing but bad news. Well, two definite pieces of bad news and one could really go either way.

I woke up to a text from Mrs Jeon letting me know that Irene had been served a military issued Cease and Dissist order yesterday.

That was the "complication" that caused her meeting with Hyuk to be postponed to this Friday, if it will even still be happening at all.

I immediately called her after I got the message and she told me she had spoken to her father after our lunch with Yeri those months ago.

She said that she let him know she had found out that the person looking into her and Koo was not the Terrorist that's been after them for years, but Irene.

With this information he took things into his own hands and ordered that a letter, signed by himself, be hand delivered to Irene to basically tell her to stop investigating immediately and that they didn't give a fuck who she was, military action would be taken against her regardless if she didn't stop what she was doing.

Mrs Jeon found out about what her father was planning to do just this past Sunday and she was furious, but there was nothing she could do about it.

If she would have tried to stop him from interfering he would want to know why she was fighting him when he is trying to protect his family but that letter fucks up her plans with meeting Hyuk.

She hasn't and wasn't planning on telling her father about meeting with him because she isn't supposed to know his new identity, let alone have the two of them be in the same place at once when they are still wanted by those bad guys.

She was hoping to be a little more discreet with Hyuk and not give him any reason to believe that the military contact he was requested to meet in Busan was her, but she's sure that because the letter Irene for specifically listed her recent investigations, and unless Irene had been trying to actively go after more people than just Koo, Hyuk is going to know she is the one requesting to meet with him.

So that fucking sucks.

And then Yoongi called not long after I hung up with her and said that Koo had bad dreams again last night.

He said it sounded like the same one where he thinks someone is trying to take him and he is fighting to get away from them.

Then during my call with Yoongi I got a text from Seulgi asking if she could come by.

What she wants to see me about I have no idea, but I assume it has to do with Irene and the soldiers that showed up at her door. That's the only thing I can think she would want to talk to me about since our "break up."

Before the rehearsal dinner the other night, the night Koo went to the hospital, we came to the consensus that we liked each other, but not romantically.

I haven't said this to Yoongi or Chanyeol, not even Mrs Jeon, but I'm not still being seen and spending time with her just for my mission anymore.

It's still a reason, but Seulgi and I are actually quite compatible intellectually as well as sexually if I'm being completely honest (we slept together one drunken night and then two more times when we just kinda felt like it) but we are definitely not planning on dating each other legitimately.

She is smart and cunning like I am and she sees the world around her in almost the same way I do. Sees things that other people miss.

She saw through my act of flirting and getting closer to her through Yeri and trust me when I say, if it were anyone else in her position that I had to feign interest in, they would be oblivious to my insincerity. My acting was flawless.

She claimed that she knew pretty early on that I had an ulterior motive with my befriending Yeri and that is why she asked her to introduce us.

When we did meet she saw me as a PR opportunity. That I would be the perfect person to have by her side for paparazzi and the media to see her with.

So she let me flirt and seemingly thirst after her and we began to "date." She said it was very amusing at first, but it had become boring to her and that's why she decided to come clean about what she'd known all along.

Since then we have actually become quite a bit more relaxed with each other. Of course we don't get into the Irene vs. Yoongi stuff fully. And especially not anything about what happened to Koo.

I've tried to get information on that from her but she will not budge just as I won't when she asks for info on Yoongi and Koo.

We seem to have the same understanding that Irene has with Chanyeol. We ask each other questions but if the other won't answer we don't push the subject.

I hear a quiet knock on my door and jump down from where I was sat on my kitchen counter to answer the door to Seulgi with a big grin holding a bottle of wine.

I look at the bottle a bit puzzled and then up at her as I step aside for her to come in.

"I was thinking last night and I realized I've been a terrible neighbor. I never got you a gift to welcome you to the building." She grins as she hands me the bottle.

"You were thinking of me last night? What were you wearing?" I tease as I examine the bottle.

She has good taste. This is one of my favorites.

"It's my favorite and I figured you'd love it too since we seem to have the same taste... In fact you might already be familiar with it." She smiles.

She moves to shrug off her jacket but I stop her.

"Wait, have you eaten yet? If you want to talk here that's fine, but I haven't and I'm starving. You up for brunch? My treat."

She purses her lips as she considers my offer before she nods and tugs the jacket back into place. "Actually yes. That would be good."

"Great. Let me go put this away and then we can go." I take the bottle to my wine cooler and come back soon after.

I grab my coat from the small closet inside the door and put it on before getting my shoes on as I ask. "Where would you like to go?"

...

We ended up at Jin's family's restaurant, which wasn't all that surprising since this happens to be one of her favorite places.

After getting our drinks and placing our orders we go into light conversation about what she's been up to and she asks me how I've been doing with everything going on, which of course I didn't get too heavily into, but she knew I wouldn't.

I would say that she and I have become friends to a comfortable enough extent. If I ask her how she is doing I am genuinely interested as is she when she asks me.

Our food comes and we eat in silence for a couple of minutes until I see in my peripheral vision her place her fork down and lean back in her chair.

I sit up a little straighter and bring my eyes to meet hers as I set my fork down as well. I smirk at the look on her face.

It's a look that I am all too familiar with by now. She has let her idol mask slip and has a cold look in her eyes. She is going to ask for information and from the look of it, these are inquiries she wants direct information about.

"I thought you would at least finish your glass before we got to the serious stuff." I sat in a teasing tone.

She smirks as she reaches for the drink and gulps down the rest of her mimosa before setting the now empty flute back on the table.

I move my plate out of the way slightly to cross my arms loosely on the table and lean in her direction, interested to hear what she has to say.

She does the same and in a hushed tone says, "She got the letter and she's not very happy."

"I would imagine not." I chuckle. "Will there be further problems?"

She looks down at the table with her lips pulled tightly into a line. She's silent before she moves her eyes back to mine.

"As I'm sure you are aware, this time is different from other times. She has never lost and this time it looks like she has."

I wipe all emotion away from my expression. This is serious if she is being so candid about Irene.

"What is she planning."

"This isn't about getting him back anymore." She says with a hint of concern in her eyes.

As I study her expression I begin to realize what she might mean.

"She doesn't accept that she's lost."

She nods her head slowly, glancing around us as she lowers her voice even more.

"She refuses to accept that. Now that she's found out that he somehow has military protection she is enraged. She's not thinking rationally, not that she was before in this situation, but she's even more unpredictable."

"I don't know if I'm quite getting what you're saying. Even with the military involved, is she still not going to back off?"

"She might change her focus, but she isn't going to let this go."

Change her focus.

"Jungkook isn't her target anymore."

I hope I'm wrong and she isn't hinting at what I think she is.

"Her past games to get Yoongi back didn't work. He isn't going to take her back and she knows that. She has lost. So now-"

"Is she going to go after him directly?" I ask, cutting her off.

"Like I said, she's unpredictable. I can't say what she'll do, but I don't think Jungkook is the only one you need to worry about going forward."