Bring It On! - Chapter 24

Chapter 24.

“Uhugh, hm….”

His hot fingertips grazed up my bare skin gently. Wait a minute, isn’t this going too far? My mind was screaming at me to smack Jay upside the head, but my body… my body was just panting, intoxicated by the unfamiliar pleasure he was giving me. 

His hand traced my back, rubbed along my side, and was just starting to move toward my chest when….

“Noona, I can’t sleep.”

The quiet of the shelter was broken as the door flapped open. The heat vanished like cold water had been poured over me, and my body moved on instinct before my brain caught up. I kicked the lump in front of me without hesitation. 

Jay tumbled down with a loud thud. Gasping in a mix of shock and panic, I rubbed my probably beet-red face with my palms.

Did he see? No way… He didn’t, right?

My heart pounded like it was going to explode. Cold sweat trickled slowly down from my temple. As my dazed focus returned, regret came crashing in like a wave. 

What the hell was I thinking?! The moments I’d sloppily tangled tongues with him like I was possessed flashed before my eyes. I must’ve been really possessed.

Even as I reeled from the uncontrollable desire, I was dying to know Suho’s expression behind me. But I couldn’t bring myself to look, too guilty to face him. At some point, Suho had come up beside me, and he clicked his tongue.

“Are you two fighting again?”

“……”

“Bet it was Hyung’s fault, as usual.”

He didn’t see! I silently gave thanks to every god I could name in relief.

“Hhiik!”

Suho gasped in surprise. What now?! My eyes darted to him. He was looking down in dismay at food spilled on the floor.

“Hyung did this?”

“Y-yeah! This jerk doesn’t even care about wasting food!”

“He deserved to get hit then.”

“Totally! Suho, don’t you ever pick up this kind of behavior. There’s nothing worse than playing with food, okay?”

“Uh-huh. I’m a good listener.”

Suho grinned up at me, and I roughly ruffled the back of his hair.

Even though I’d just pinned all the blame on him, Jay didn’t argue and stayed collapsed on the floor. Maybe I’d kicked him in a really bad spot, because he was trembling in pain. Meanwhile, Suho unleashed a brutal scolding.

He said he thought Jay had finally come to his senses, but apparently not. He said that even a nine-year-old like himself had better manners when it came to food. 

He even threw in a bold little coup, saying Jay should be the younger sibling at this rate. Normally, Jay would’ve snapped back at the kid for mouthing off, but maybe because of the pain radiating through his lower half, he couldn’t get up for a while.

Sorry.

I gave him a brief mental apology, then quickly ushered Suho back into the shelter with me like we were fleeing the scene.

***

The city’s smog was buried under a heavy downpour, washing away in streams. It was 7 p.m., normally the noisiest time on the roads. Despite the blinding sheets of rain, the streets were still packed bumper-to-bumper.

A single unkempt index finger, long-nailed and ragged, pulled down one slat of the blinds. Eyes sunken with fatigue stared out at the rain-flooded street.

“God, traffic’s awful. Good thing we’re working late.”

A lifeless voice drifted through the air.

“Good my ass. Hey, Kim Woo-jung! Go brush your damn teeth already. It stinks over here.”

Thud. Assistant director Kim Woo-jung let go of the blind and sat down. The mood in the meeting room was grim. Maybe it was the exhaustion radiating off everyone’s bodies, but the air itself felt heavy, like it was pressing down on their shoulders.

“I’ll brush after dinner.”

Director Kim Cha-young, who’d been shielding his face with a script from another show, pulled it off with a sigh.

“What about the black bean noodles?”

“The food’s here, but the delivery guy can’t get here because of the rain.”

“Ugh, I’m so hungry I could die. Should’ve just made some ramen. Is it too late to cancel?”

“The food’s already on the way, so it’s too late to cancel.”

“Why is there always something we can’t do?”

Kim Cha-young stared disapprovingly at the black phone placed in the middle of the table. One call, like fate, had come in one day. It was the only lead in the middle of the ongoing investigation into Cha Yoon’s disappearance. 

It was the informant’s call, and they’d been waiting 24/7 for another.

They’d tried calling the number back several times, left messages, but got no response. As time passed, hope turned into disappointment, and their initial passion began to cool. 

Eventually, they concluded it had been just a prank call from someone with too much time on their hands. But Kim Cha-young still couldn’t believe the urgency and fear in that voice had been faked. If it had been an act, the informant should have received a Baeksang award.

“PD-nim, maybe it’s time to completely let go of the Cha Yoon case. There’s really nothing left to dig up. I’m telling you, he probably just got drunk and fell somewhere. Why else wouldn’t J Group push for an investigation? It’s embarrassing, that’s why.”

“I agree.”

Head writer Seo Narae backed up Kim Woojung’s opinion.

“It’s a shame. It had potential but there’s nothing to show on air. Even if we dig into rumors, there’s no conflict between the chaebol brothers, no scandals… There are more interesting cases out there. Like the one where the head of a family murdered them all claiming he was possessed.”

“Shamanism, murder, and twisted love from a parent. It’s the perfect clickbait.”

“Our clip’s already trending, you saw that, right?”

Kim Cha-young was torn. His instincts, honed from over 20 years in the industry, told him the Cha Yoon case wasn’t done. But he didn’t have enough facts to push forward on gut feeling alone. 

And now, even the team was leaning toward letting it go. He sighed, looking at the explosive views and comment count on their previous Cha Yoon segment on YouTube.

Then….

“PD-nim!”

The phone, which had been quiet until now, suddenly rang. The caller ID read ‘Cha Yoon Informant.’ The three quickly exchanged glances. Kim Cha-young switched on the camera, and Seo Narae answered the call.

“This is the Tracking Until the End team.”

“……”

“Hello?”

There was no reply. Seo Narae looked nervously at Kim Cha-young, who gestured with his chin for her to keep going.

“You called before about Mr. Cha Yoon’s case, right?”

—“Yes… I called before about CEO Cha Yoon.”

“Yes, we remember you.”

—“Yes…”

And then, silence again. When Kim Cha-young tapped the table, Seo Narae swiftly continued.

“Back then, you mentioned someone else went missing on the same day as Mr. Cha Yoon, correct?”

“Yes. She joined the company the same time I did.”

Kim Cha-young scribbled something on the script she’d been using earlier as a sunshade. Seo Narae glanced at the notes and asked.

“You mean you both joined J Group together?”

“Yes. She was CEO Cha Seonghwan’s secretary.”

Cha Seonghwan. Cha Yoon’s older brother.

“Did the missing person ever meet Cha Yoon separately? Did they seem unusually close?”

“CEO Cha Yoon only occasionally showed up at his art hall. He rarely came to HQ, only if the chairman called for him.”

“Please go on.”

“Around a month before the chairman’s birthday cruise party… Gayoung, that’s the missing coworker, she came to me completely drunk.”

“What did she say?”

The informant hesitated, falling silent. Seo Narae waited patiently, not pressing her.

When she finally spoke again, the words were shocking.

“She said she was pregnant.”

Kim Cha-young’s eyes widened as he scribbled furiously onto the script.

“…Did she say who the father was?”

“No, she just… kept saying she was scared.”

“Did she ever mention anything else?”

“After that day, her expression was constantly dark. She made lots of mistakes. She looked… like she wasn’t really there. She was usually really ambitious, so it was the first time I’d seen her like that. Then on the day of the cruise party…”

“Yes?”

“She said she was going to confront CEO Cha Yoon.”

“…Did she say what for?”

“To make him take responsibility.”