Finally! Orea thought in relief as her phone was handed to her by the security team. It was past midnight and she was finally ready to leave the toxic mansion. Myung stood beside her as she took the phone and turned it on. They were at the outer gate, waiting for a car to pick them up.
"Hyeri's driver will drop us off," he said. "I'll be going with you as well. He'll drop me off to the hotel."
But Orea was not paying attention to him as she was checking if the phone had been tampered with. Myung frowned at her indifference.
"Aren't you going to ask why I live in a hotel?" he asked.
"Why should I?" she muttered, not looking away from the phone.
"Most people ask me," he was saying. "They're curious about why I live outside the mansion even though I'm so young. Dad insisted that everyone would stay here tonight but he won't care if I stay or not. You see, I-"
"Are you a member of BTS?" Orea asked. Myung was startled by her question.
"No," he slowly said.
"Are you a member of EXO? Or a celebrity?" she asked with a sarcastic smile.
"No!" he scowled.
"Then I have no interest in your life, little prince," she mocked. She turned her attention back to her phone. Myung watched her for a while.
"You're weird," he said.
"I know," she replied absentmindedly. They stood in silence until a limo pulled up in front of them. A chauffeur came out and held the door for them. Orea got into the back with Myung beside her. She settled quite comfortably, not gawking at the fancy car she was in which struck Myung as odd. Most people he knew would be thrilled to sit in a sleek car like that and yet, Orea sat there as if it was no different than the subway.
"What does your elder brother do?" he suddenly asked.
Orea looked up from her phone, giving him an ominous look. "He's a spy for the country," she said in a serious tone. "He sells information for money and creates wars which have destroyed many countries."
Myung raised an eyebrow at her words. Why was she saying it all in such a serious way? Almost seemed as if it was true…
"HAHAHAHA!"
Orea let out a loud laughter, holding her stomach. "Y-you fell for that!" she hiccupped. "He's a stock market broker."
"You said that you grew up in poverty," he accused.
"Yeah, but my brother managed to complete college on a scholarship," she said in a matter-of-fact way. "After that, he joined the stock market and somehow, luck worked in his favor. So from the streets, we ended up living pretty well off. Otherwise how do you expect me to pay that exorbitant amount of fees our school sucks out from us?"
"You're really weird," Myung admitted.
"Am I?" she asked. "How? I thought it's perfectly fine not to care about other people's affairs."
"Most people are too intrusive in my affairs," he muttered.
"They are," she agreed. "You can just not care and move on. Or tell them off. Try it. They might back off."
Myung snorted. If only it was that easy. Sometimes, he wished he was not born in PM Lee's family. It would have been easier to live a normal life in anonymity. He tried his best to hide this information from people but his aura of elegance gave him away.
"If only I could tell them off," he sighed.
"Or," she began. "You can stop sulking like the little prince you are and accept the fact that life isn't colors and rainbows. Be on your own and stop caring about what other people say."
"How does one do that?" he asked sarcastically.
"Like this."
She shrugged at him and returned to her phone. The guy had no idea that the reason she did not need to ask him about his life was because she already had an entire file on him. She had to sleuth a lot on the PM's family members so that they could infiltrate the mansion. Out of all the children of PM Lee, Myung was the easiest target to sway. So easy, that it was almost laughable to her.
But Sam Cheng had really pissed her off that night.
Behind her indifferent demeanor, she was thinking of the many ways to bring down that damn security system. She had hacked some of the most advanced systems in the world but Sam Cheng was several steps ahead of her. In order to take him down, she would have to level up her game.
But how?
Should we just go the old fashioned way by kidnapping and torturing him? She wondered. But as per the profile she created on him, Sam Cheng was an ex-military commando. He had been trained to endure extreme levels of torture. Even SD's methods would not work on him and Sam knew that if he died, then all the information would die with him. It was a risk they could not afford to take.
"Oi!" Myung exclaimed impatiently, pinching her ear. Orea yelped and slapped his hand away.
"What?" she scowled.
"Where do you live?" he asked. "The driver needs to drop you off home."
"Just drop me off at E-Hive," she told him. "In front of the grocery store. I'll walk from there."
"It's midnight," Myung stated. "We can't just drop you off like that! You gotta give me a location."
"I-I have to buy groceries before going home," she said.
"I'll wait in the car then," he replied. Orea cursed him in her mind. Why was the school prince so adamant on dropping her home? Where did this sudden spurt of chivalry come from?
"Fine," she said coolly. "Take a right turn from the E-Hive Convenience Store and drop me off at the third building on the left."
ραпdα nᴏνɐ| сom Myung repeated the instruction to the driver who stepped on the accelerator. He glanced at Orea, who was now looking outside the window. Unbeknownst to him, she was memorizing the location by heart so that she could create a digital map and fish out all the cameras. Her sharp mind was already concocting of the several ways she could use to spy on Sam.
Her oddity slightly amused Myung. He had never noticed the other people in his class much. A lot of them called themselves his friend and hung out with him at school but he never bothered to know most of their names.
They invited him to after school gatherings, but he declined them everytime. Most people would give up after repeated rejections but his classmates knew that Myung came from a very influential family even if they did not know which family it was. The high level of security and numerous bodyguards around the school were proof of that fact so his classmates tried to chum up with him.
Only Orea remained aloof. She lived in her own world, shy and meek to everyone else but surprisingly snappy towards him. It took him a while to realize that her 'shyness' was simply an uncaring attitude. As long as something did not concern her, she would not care about it.
Yet, she was observant of her surroundings. For some reason he felt that she was hiding a lot of secrets but knew everyone else's. What's going on in this chick's head? He wondered.
He opened his mouth to ask her if she wanted to grab an ice cream but Orea spoke up.
"Drop me off there," she said, pointing at a random building. The car pulled over.
"Bye!" Orea said and hurried out of the car before Myung could bid her goodbye. He watched her walk towards the apartment gate. His gaze was on her back as the car drove away.
Orea waited until the car was out of sight and let out a sigh of relief. The subway was only a few blocks away so she could walk there. She half walked, half ran towards it to catch the last train.
Inside the car, Myung tried to shake his thoughts off about the eccentric girl. She's a mad woman, he decided.
He picked up his bag and was about to look for his phone when his eyes fell on the rough blueprint Orea had made for the software they were working on.
"That dumb girl forgot to take them!" he groaned. He tapped the speaker next to him and said, "Go back to that apartment building where we dropped off the girl."
"Understood," the driver's voice came from it and the car turned around. Myung was looking outside the window and had passed by the subway when he froze.
Orea was happily walking towards the station, her headphones plugged into her ears. She did not notice the black limo which was hiding in the dark. Why was she taking the subway so late at night?
"Stop the car at that corner," Myung instructed. The car came to a stop but Myung did not get out of the car. He watched her head for the subway and disappear beneath it. Did she lie about where she lived? But why?
He debated with himself for a while. Maybe she was going elsewhere? Her brother might have told her to run an errand or she probably did not have the keys so she's going to his office. There were endless possibilities.
Stop thinking about her! He scolded himself.
"Drive," he ordered the driver who complied. There were many questions in his mind about that girl and he had no idea why he cared so much.
"I'm being paranoid," he muttered.
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