Jeongin leaves the building and lets go of a breath he didn’t realize he was holding. “Intense is right, holy shit…” he mutters to himself as he strolls across the street and gets into his car and drives away. 

He arrives at Chan’s place about 25 minutes later. He knocks on the door and Chan opens it immediately and lets Jeongin inside. Once the door closes, Jeongin immediately starts. 

“The company is insane…” he starts, “first of all, there’s so many people, but no noise besides machines. No one talks to ANYONE there, like they are afraid to. Secondly everything has an order, but like times 10. Nothing is ever out of place and if it is, someone immediately comes and fixes it, as if they are scared something will happen if it’s out of place. The craziest thing is the owner. He-“ 

“Wait,” interrupted Chan, “you’re saying you actually met the owner?” 

“I sure did Channie. And it was weird to say the least.”

“What do you mean?” Chan asked.

“Well I walk into his office, which is huge for no reason by the way, and I stand there for like 5 minutes before he even acknowledges me. Then the questions he asked me were normal, but the way he would comment on something I said or say something to himself…it felt like everything had a double meaning.” 

“Maybe he’s just intense as a person and we are overthinking it?” 

“Unlikely.” Jeongin frowns. “He gives off the same energy you and Hyunjin do during our meetings. Something’s not adding up here…I’ll find out more if I get hired.” 

An hour later he got the call. 

“Hi, is this Fennec?” The lady over the phone stated in her best customer service voice. 

“Yes, this is him.” 

“Hi, I’m a receptionist calling on behalf of Mr. Lee of Lee Loans, and he would like to inform you that he has chosen you as his candidate. He’s offering you the job, if you would like to accept, please let me know.”

“Yes, absolutely I would love to accept.” 

“Wonderful. Now I will be emailing you your onboarding paperwork. Can you start tomorrow?”

“Yes I can.” 

“Perfect! Come up to the receptionist desk tomorrow for your badge, the dress code is business attire, oh and most important, make sure you’re here at 8 AM sharp. Mr. Lee doesn’t do tardiness.” 

“Understood. I’ll be there at 8 AM.” 

The call disconnects and he stares at Chan with a wide mischievous grin on his face, “Soooo I guess I’m hired then. Now this is where the fun begins.” 

The next day Jeongin arrived around 7:30 to scope out the place more accurately. He drives slowly around the block, making mental notes of everything; the buildings around the area and the cameras pointed towards Lee Loans, the amount of cameras Lee Loans had, the different exits that were possible. After he feels like he’s satisfied with his search, he parks and steps inside at 7:55 AM exactly. 

The lady from the day before smiles at him politely, hands him a keycard and shows him where he is going to be working. They enter a small office; cramped with papers flung everywhere, quite the contrast from the rest of the building, a small desk with a laptop with bookkeeping software, one wall with nothing but filing cabinets filled with Manila folders for categories of the paperwork. On his desk are the basics; pens, pencils, paperclips, 3 hole punch, and stapler. Jeongin’s jaw drops when he sees the state of the room and the receptionist looks up, not surprised to see that look on his face. 

“As you can see, the last bookkeeper kinda took off in a hurry. So your first task is to reorganize everything and make a place for it. Mr. Lee does not care how you organize it, just that you know how it’s organized.” 

“Sounds like I got my hands full.” He chuckled, but the receptionist didn’t find it amusing. Her smile faded slightly. 

“I’m not sure how things were at your old place of work, Fennec, but here we don’t have room or time for side remarks like that. If you say something to the wrong person…” she takes in a big breath and exhales, “anyway, I hope you find everything here. Make sure you clock out at exactly 5 pm. No sooner or later. If you need anything, I can help you, but it’s best if you don’t ask for help.” 

“Understood. Thank you, ma’am.”

She closes the door behind her and Jeongin puts his hand through his hair, cracks his knuckles, and gets to work.

He works tirelessly for the rest of the next couple of days; sifting through random paperwork, filing things where he would understand it, and making room for what he’s sure is going to be another onslaught of invoices and tax documents. The one good thing about his office, he doesn’t have to see many people. Which means he has more time to look through things, able to see the legitimacy of anything that might seem off. So far though, things have been looking okay. He hasn’t had much time to deep dive though. So, when someone comes into his office, he internally hits his head against the wall as a secretary comes in with her arms full of papers. She smiles apologetically and says, as she pops her head out over the papers, 

“Sorry for the delivery. Mr. Lee said to have you file this straight away. He says he wants it done by the end of day tomorrow. I probably don’t have to say to you, but I wouldn’t disappoint him.” 

“Thanks! I’ll get right on it.” 

She leaves and shuts the door behind her and as soon as she does he lets out a big sigh. “How did I let them talk me into this…” he mutters as he flips open the folders to start sorting. 

When he looks up from the stacks, he glances at the clock and groans. It’s 4:00. One more hour and he’s free. As he was starting to finish stacking papers, he opened the filing cabinet and noticed something strange. There seemed to be something hidden behind the little tray in the cabinet. It looked like a small stack of unfiled papers. He went to reach into the back and didn’t hear his door opening. Suddenly a voice piped up, 

“What do you think you’re doing?”

Jeongin hit his head on the back of the filing cabinet and with a yelp, he jumped back and turned to face the front of his office. 

“I-I’m just finishing filing away one paperwork stack I guess I accidentally forgot to.” 

The worker looked at him apprehensively but then shrugged his shoulders. 

“I just came by to tell you that Mr. Lee says to make sure you clock out on time today. He knows he put a lot on you, but he doesn’t want anyone staying overtime.”

“Please tell Mr. Lee, I said thank you and that I will make sure to clock out at 5 exactly.”

The worker tilts his head slightly and he closes the door. Jeongin lets out a breath he didn’t know he was holding. “Too close for comfort.” He thinks to himself as he crosses the room and locks his door. He then goes back to the filing cabinet and grabs the small folder and pulls it out from behind it's hiding spot. He brings it back to his desk and sits down, running his hand through his hair and exhales slowly. He opens the documents and stares a bit confused at first to what he’s even looking at. He takes photos anyway, making sure to not leave anything out so he can report back to Chan and Hyunjin with his findings. He put the file back away hidden, so as to not raise suspicions, unlocked his door, and stepped outside to clock out of the day, as it was 5 o’clock. 

The second Jeongin stepped outside the building, he resisted the urge to look over his shoulder. The air felt different out here. Lighter. Like he could finally breathe again. 

The moment the door shut behind him, he finally relaxed back into the driver’s seat.

  He felt like he could relax. Barely.  

His hand slipped into his pocket and wrapped around his phone.

Something about that building bothered him. The people. The silence. The way everyone seemed to choose their words carefully, like they were afraid of saying the wrong thing.

His thumb hovered over Chan’s contact for a second before pressing call. Chan answered immediately.

“Tell me you found something.”

Jeongin snorted.

“Hello to you too.”

“Jeongin.”

“Fine. Yeah, I found something.”

The line went silent.

“Can you come over?” Chan asked.

“I’m already on my way.”