*Ding*
Stepping out of the elevator with a limp, Gyun made his way, led by the intern, through the ninth-floor halls, the ninth floor which was explicitly reserved for the practice of debuted idol groups.
The pair's footsteps clacked and echoed throughout the empty halls of the ninth floor; occasionally, they passed by another person, but they walked to the end of the hallway. It truly gave scale to the massive building; it took more than two minutes to walk from one end to the other.
Reaching a door, a laminated paper taped to the door read, 'Embrace is currently practicing; please do not disturb.'
Stopping at the door, Gyun stared at the paper; music could be heard from within the room, highly muted as all the rooms were soundproofed. The intern nervously approached him.
"Maybe we should come back later."
"No, it's pretty important that I meet with them today since I want to relax before I do my job." He tried to open the door, it didn't turn as it was locked; sighing in exasperation as he knocked.
But in heavily accented Korean, a voice stopped him before he could, "Who are you? Step away from the door, please."
"you've got to be joking," Gyun mumbled under his breath in annoyance before turning to see a large-suited, middle-aged man.
The man was holding a pack of coffee cups from a cafe. Gyun counted seven clear coffee cups, and he noticed a latte. Licking his lips, he answered the man pointing to the pin on his sweatshirt.
"I'm a VIP of Sunni Entertainment, here to observe the security of some of the top idol groups you guys have under contract. You don't need to worry about me. I'm here from orders from high command."
"Hmmm, and who authorized you to be here?" The suited man didn't budge as he was slightly taller than Gyun by maybe 2-4 centimeters and had streaks of grey in his hair. Though Gyun could see a bit of belly and that the man wasn't in great physical shape, he could tell he could protect himself and others from most people.
"Ah, you must be Yoel Romero, the bodyguard, right? Give me a moment." Gyun searched his pockets and found the crumpled paper; he used his finger to slide it down the paper searching for Yoel's name until he saw it.
Gyun continued as he read off the paper, "Born 1996 in Havana, Cuba; 42 years old served in Cuban Revolutionary Armed Forces, never saw combat but was part of the national boxing team, qualified for the Olympics but never managed to place past the top 50 after fleeing...I think that says Cuba?... In the United States, you became a professional boxer with a record and 12-3...hm, that's not bad, I guess."
Yoel's eyes reflected his confusion, but he quickly became defensive as he swiped for the paper in Gyun's hand. "Where did you learn that?!"
Fleeing behind the intern Gyun read the remainder of what was written, "Retired after a knee injury, would find work as a bouncer before being recruited into private security, before being brought on to work at Sunni Entertainment as bodyguard for two prior idol groups for the past two years before being assigned to the immensely popular Embrace...all with no reported incidents or complaints against him. Wow, mister, you seem to be quite well-liked and have a wife and a child who lives in the United States and visit them every month for a week."
Yoel glared at Gyun, "Who are you really?"
Gyun glanced at the intern who was awkwardly standing between them, "What are you doing, intern?"
"You guys seemed like you were about to fight." The intern held his hands out on their chests as he stood between them, keeping them from approaching each other.
Gyun chuckled as he burst into laughter, "Fight him? Look at me! I've got one arm that's completely useless for the next month or so, and 19 stitches on my head alone!"
He laughed so hard that his broken ribs hurt, and pain shot throughout his chest making him feel like he couldn't breathe, breaking out into a fit of coughing as he doubled over. The intern's face turned red as he put his hands down before walking to the wall and not speaking.
Recovering from his coughing fit, he stood back up straight, clearing his throat, "Well, I am supposed to test him, but I think we can skip that part; where's Embrace's manager?" scanning the list again he found the name. "Kim Joontae?"
"Tch, that guy?" Yoel's accented Korean may have been rough but his demeanor was universal; he obviously had a dislike of the manager.
"Who's asking for me?"
All three men turned to look down the hall as a portly man walked towards them, chewing a chocolate bar. He stopped as he noticed the number of eyes now staring at him. "What?"
Gyun read off what was on the paper, "Kim Joontae: Born 2003 in Incheon, South Korea, 34 years old, no accomplishments to speak of, average throughout, but upon entering Joongil Entertainment he would work there eight years ago and receive multiple complaints of harassment and strange behavior. He came to Sunni Entertainment a year ago after being fired from Joongil Entertainment, would be assigned to the rising stars that were Embrace, and has had two complaints filed from a female employee and one from an intern of lewd behavior and groping...Damn, how the hell did you get hired?"
Yoel and the Intern were now staring at Kim Joontae with judging eyes; Gyun added the last portion of Kim Joontae's information. "Joontae, though married and expecting a child, has been having an on-and-off affair with one of the HR department managers since coming to the company, who has been covering up for him and dismissing the cases brought against him...wow, you are trash aren't you?"
"Hey, what the fuck are you ta-urg!" Kim Joontae's protest was cut short as Yoel crumpled him with a gut punch.
Approaching him, Gyun bonked his head with his arm's cast, "Shut up, you and your petite little mademoiselle have already been released from your positions; well, the police have been contacted in your case. Yoel, can you notify security to escort Mr.Joontae down to the lobby to wait for the police to arrive?"
"Hmm, I think I can do that," Yoel tugged on the radio, pulling it from his belt as he spoke into it, "This is Romero; I need someone to escort one of... eh
Joontae was coughing from the gut punch but panicked upon hearing about the police. Scrambling to his knees and trying to run away, Gyun grabbed him by the shoulder squeezing the small fat man's shoulder and causing a yelp of pain to come from Kim Joontae.
Kim Joontae turned and with sweat beading down his face, with his chubby fist punched Gyun straight in the face, with his only hand on the man's shoulder and the other in a cast there was no way for him to dodge from this range.
At least that was what Kim Joontae had thought. The man at the last moment bent his head to the side, the fist narrowly missing him.
"Are you going to handle him compadre?" Gyun asked nonchalantly
"How did y-"
Kim Joontae was sent to the floor again with another punch to the gut from Yoel Romero, dropping him to his knees, coughing and wheezing.
Taking a deep breath, he pulled his hood lower; he bent down whispering into Kim Joontae's ear. "don't worry, they aren't the police; you're just going to have a conversation with my boss, well that's what she calls herself at least...well if I'm being honest she's more of a crazy bitch, oh and when you do meet her you must point out her nose job if you want to die quickly."
Chuckling to himself as he stood back up,
-Please, Kim Joontae...do me a favor, and before you die, please say it I can imagine Kumiho's face when you say it-
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"So, who are you again?" A pretty purple-haired woman said, leaning against the wall of the dance room,
Looking at the mirror that covered the entirety of the opposite side of the dance room, he was wearing a pair of mirrored glasses paired with the mask and sweatshirt hood. Looking at the mirror's reflections, Gyun studied the four members of Embrace's faces looking for a reaction from one of them as he answered the question, Gyun responded to her question.
"I'm not sure if you know this, but Sunni Entertainment is one of the top five subsidiary companies under Riptide International?"
"Yeah everybody knows," A member with short cut black hair said
"Tell us something we don't know"
Gyun spun around, "You did?!"
The members of Embrace all had slightly annoyed expressions on their face, especially the purple-haired woman who had a blatant look of disgust, of course, she commented.
"Yoel how much longer is this idiot going to interrupt our practice?"
Taking a deep breath, Gyun removed his glasses and massaged his eyes, "Well let's put it this way I was sent here by Riptide high command to rectify the problems and infestation of scandals waiting to happen in Sunni Entertainment. As well help solve the problem of Sunni Entertainment's star female idol group tanking Sunni Entertainment's reputation with one of your members breaking down in a live interview about a stalker."
The purple-haired idol glanced at the blonde-haired idol sitting on the ground with her head down staring at the ground; a black-haired idol was massaging her head to soothe her; the purple-haired idol spoke up again, "So what exactly are you going to do?"
Gyun put back on his glasses, "Well, good question, purple hair, never speak again...but to summarize it, consider me a one-man Human Resources department; I'll also accompany Yoel with you guys on your day-to-day activities. I'll be conducting private investigations into the stalker; if he makes contact with you, I will need to be notified immediately. Do not try to solve this on your own. Riptide's high command doesn't want another scandal tanking their most popular group's popularity anymore than it already has, understand?"
The purple-haired woman looked like she was about to say something, but Yoel shook his head, and she decided against saying anything.
Gyun continued after he confirmed the rest of the seven members of Embrace had no questions. Pulling up his crumpled paper,
"When I call your name, raise your hand. I'll be giving you all the new phones that Riptide International provided. It has location tracking on it that I can see from my phone. It's the newest model, but if you want to run it by a lawyer, go ahead and give me an answer by the end of the week; it's up to you. This is all done for your benefit, understand?"
"...." the idols didn't answer; a bit annoyed, Gyun sighed in exasperation before he spoke.
"I want to hear a yes or no"
"....yes." it was a quiet yes, and it was scattered, but Gyun accepted it pulling out a pencil to mark notes on his paper.
"Good, we'll have a more in-depth talk about this tomorrow; let's start with the first name on my list, Kim Sua?"
The purple-haired idol raised her hand, Gyun shook his head slightly in annoyance as he scoffed before scribbling something down on his paper.
The purple-haired idol, Sua's mouth opened in annoyance "hey what was that just now?"
Gyun looked at her with the blankets of expressions, "what was what?" acting confused.
"What did you just write down?!" Sua pointed at the crumpled white paper that he'd written on.
He muttered under his breath, "Bitch"
"What?" Sua said not hearing exactly what he had said, but she knew it wasn't good.
"What?" Gyun asked as in an innocent and confused tone.
They both stared at each other for a moment before Gyun broke the tension by looking back towards his paper, "Moving on."