To Kiss An Idol

154 The Bribe

Seong Dae stared at Nivritti who was walking away from him. His team left him outside the restaurant thinking he wanted to search for his lost phone. Little did they know that he had some other plans.

With a devilish smile on his face, he went inside the eatery. The server was removing all the plates and cups from their table, tidying it up for the next customers. The place was almost packed with patrons. Even though two girls were attacked inside, the restaurant was doing well, all thanks to Nivritti who hid what happened that day. She didn’t allow anyone to record what happened.

Dae moved towards the server and smiled at him. “Hi! May I speak with your manager?”

“Was something wrong?” asked the server.

“No, no, I just wanted to compliment him and thank him for our free meal,” Dae said politely.

“Oh, I will get him for you. Please wait here,” smiled the server, collected all the utensils and went inside the kitchen.

Dae waited for about a minute. He kept looking here and there to pass the time. “What is taking so long? Where is he?” he mumbled. Suddenly, he saw that the manager was standing at the threshold of the kitchen and talking with the server.

The manager was practically shivering and he kept wiping his forehead. He once glanced at Dae and immediately turned his head back.

“What is wrong with him? Why is he so scared?” pondered Dae. He smiled at the manager and waved at him.

.....

The manager slowly moved towards Dae and after ages, came near him. He bowed down with respect and smiled at Dae. It was clear that his smile was fake. His eyes were screaming fear which he was trying to hide with his fake smile.

“You wanted to speak to me, Sir,” said the manager.

“Can we talk in private?” asked Dae.

“About what, sir?” inquired the manager.

“About what happened last Friday,” said Dae.

The manager gulped and said, “I have no idea what you are talking about.” He immediately started to move away from Dae.

“Please wait!” shouted Dae.

“Sir! You said you have to talk about today’s food. That’s why I came here. Please understand that I am very busy. If you have nothing to talk about today, then I am sorry, I have to leave,” snapped the manager.

“Fine, leave! I will shout at the top of my lungs about what happened here last Friday,” threatened Dae.

The manager moved in Dae’s face and whispered through gritted teeth, “you were just asking about what happened last Friday and suddenly you are an expert on it. Stop bluffing and get out.”

Dae looked at the manager not ready to back down. He tilted his head and raised his voice, “weren’t two girls assaulted in this very restaurant last Friday and you did nothing?”

Every patron eating inside the place at that time stopped eating and stared at Dae and the manager. The manager chuckled awkwardly and said, “that is just a rumour, Sir. Nothing happened. I am sure you heard it wrong.”

But he could see everyone gossiping around as some people had put the news on the communicator app. He knew he had to take Dae away. He looked at Dae and whispered, “follow me.”

Dae happily followed the manager and entered his cabin. It was a small room next to the kitchen. His table was scattered with papers all over. Even though the big shelf in the room was filled with files, there was no musty smell of paper. The whole room was well-cleaned and was smelling like varieties of spices. There were only three chairs, one for the manager and two for the guests.

“What are you trying to do? Why did you say all those things in front of my customers?” shouted the manager.

“Because you were not telling me anything. I want to know everything that happened on Friday,” said Dae.

“You already know what happened, you just said,” replied the manager.

“I know half the truth. I want the rundown of the full event,” inquired Dae.

“I don’t understand what you want to know. The girls you were with were assaulted by four large men and she escaped. What more is there to know?” asked the manager.

“Four men, you say. How a girl so small escape from four large men?” asked Dae.

“Because of that man and his bodyguards,” replied the manager, confused. “You know about the assault but don’t know about the escape?”

“That man and his bodyguards?” asked Dae, perplexed. “What man?”

The manager realised that Dae had no idea about that man. He remembered that the scary girl removed all the footage from the moment she arrived. And as per the man standing before him, she hid that there was a man with her. So, did she remove the footage to remove her trace or that man’s trace? Should he tell everything to Dae? But that girl signalled him not to tell anything before anyone that’s why he denied recognising her.

Dae saw that the manager was silent, too deep in his thoughts. He asked again, “what man?”

“I am sorry sir, I am not at liberty to say,” replied the manager.

“Tell me everything or else I will go out and shout at the top of my lungs about what happened to my team here,” warned Dae.

“Do whatever you want, Sir. I am not afraid of you. I am more afraid of the girl you came here with. You can only shout and tell everyone everything without proof, but that scary girl has hard evidence against me, and you have no idea what she can do,” replied the manager.

“What do you mean she has hard evidence?” questioned Dae.

“Please, leave,” said the manager politely.

Dae took a deep breath and took out his wallet. He took out four notes of 50000 won and waved them in front of the manager. “Answer my questions and these will be yours.”

“Haah…” chuckled the manager. “You think you can bribe me?”

“No, this is a gift. I will gift you this money in exchange for information,” replied Dae.

The manager just kept staring at Dae with squinted eyes. He looked at the money and then at Dae. Dae sighed and took another four notes and waved at the manager. “I don’t have any more cash on me. Do you want this or not?” asked Dae.

Dae waited for another few seconds and started putting the money back in his wallet when the manager grabbed his hands and stopped him. Dae smirked at him and handed him the money.

“What do you want to know?” asked the manager and pocketed the money immediately.

“Everything!” replied Dae.

“The girls who came with you came here on Friday. They had their meal and were paying money to the cashier when a few men came inside. They were foreigners and were speaking fluent English. They were large and tall men, the girls were tiny compared to them. First, they harassed the girl with red hair. And then the scary girl approached them and made them leave the girl in red just by her words. She was fearless. I had never seen anything like it. She didn’t know how to fight. They were four, she was single, yet she was unafraid,” narrated the manager.

Dae was listening to his story with full concentration. He didn’t want to miss any detail. The manager continued, “I too was frozen with fear. No one came to help those girls. The men kept behaving rudely and shamefully towards those girls. One of the men grabbed her and pulled the scary girl in his arms. And then she twisted his finger and due to pain, he let her go. She almost won the first round. But his friends were not ready to back down. One of them attacked her but before he could punch her, the man arrived and punched him. Other men too moved towards the scary girl, but that man arrived with bodyguards. Due to bodyguards, all the bullies ran away.”

“Wait! And she let them run away?” asked Dae.

“Yes, that was strange for me too. She had them in her clutches. Those large men in masks were on her side then why did she let those bullies get away,” contemplated the manager.

“What happened next?” asked Dae.

“Everything happened so fast after that. She scared those hooligans to run away. She sent all the bodyguards with the girl with red hair and made the masked man who threw the punch stay with her. She then blackmailed me and took our footage. From the time she arrived, all the drama happened, and till the moment she left, she made me delete all the footage and took a copy with her,” replied the manager.

“So, that’s the hard evidence you were talking about,” questioned Dae.

“Yes.”

“Tell me everything about the masked man and those bodyguards?” inquired Dae.

“I… I… have no idea about them. As I said everything happened so fast and everyone was in black and wearing masks. I could not tell you anything more than that,” answered the manager.

“Was that masked man, tall?” questioned Dae, trying to jog his memory.

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