Thanks to EYKFAN for the adorable review! So, this chapter is one day early ;)

Chapter 7

It had taken him almost two hours to drop Suyi off at home, visit his own home for a change of clothes, and tell Frankenstein about what happened before heading to the scheduled meeting of all the security guards. They were supposed to meet to talk about basic schedules and routines, but after this afternoon's events, Takeo was sure that other things would be prioritised.

He was a bit late, as he entered the meeting room in the agency. The head of the security was already explaining the accident Suyi had had, or as it turned out to be, the attempt to hurt her. The people, who looked at the scene, had found a screwdriver. Who had wanted to harm Suyi and why? Someone jealous of her fame? Someone with a grudge against the talent agency? There were too many people with a reason to boycott the concert to rule it out now. All the more reason to attend the meeting, still he took a deep breath at the door before opening it.

All eyes were glued on him as soon as Takeo entered the room. He grit his teeth but was pretty sure that nobody would notice the amount of restraint it took him to appear calm. He didn't like to be in the focus of attention.

"Are you sure that you're able to attend this meeting?" The head of security asked. Takeo couldn't tell if the worry in his voice was for the meeting or for him.

"I'm fine. It is just a bruise."

For a few seconds, Takeo felt the scrutinising eyes of the man on him, a short nod to one of the empty seats followed. Relief. He had to be here. If there was anything he could learn about the attacker, he would make use of it. Tao and M-21 followed a hint, but you never knew how well it would turn out.

One of the men stood up and barred his way. Takeo didn't need an introduction; he had seen a photo. He glared at the man, Kang-Dae. This was the guy that had harmed Suyi, the man that made her cry, who physically and verbally abused her. It was hard to stay put. He felt the urge to punch him, or even better, to put his hands around the other man's throat and squeeze. And this desire had nothing to do with the smug smile on the other man's face.

"So this is the new guy that almost allowed our most precious idol to die? What were you doing, rookie? Braiding your hair?"

Takeo could hear silent snickers far and few between, he already noticed that some of the bodyguards weren't too happy about their newest accession to their group, but mostly the assembly was silent.

"You not only let her get into danger, you even got hurt yourself," Kang-Dae haughtily added.

Takeo refrained from backing away as the other man took a step closer, and allowed him to wrap his hand around his wrist. Kang-Dae forced Takeo's arm up, almost to eye-level, and looked down with false sympathy on the white bandage that glimpsed out under the suit sleeve and covered part of the hand.

The grip was strong. Even for someone uninjured, such a hold would have been uncomfortable. To apply force to a wrist presumably covered in bruises was unnecessarily cruel, but something Takeo would have expected from someone who tortured young girls.

Takeo smiled sweetly at the other man. If Kang-Dae wanted to play games, he was a thousand years to early. Shark had been more vicious. Tao was more cunning. Frankenstein in bad mood, and even more so while smiling, was scarier.

"Kang-Dae, leave him alone. Takeo, finally take a seat," the head of security ordered in a no-nonsense kind of way and fixed each of them with a dark glare. His eyes lingered on Takeo's bandaged wrist for a few moments, though he refrained from inquiring about it.

The first to move was Kang-Dae. He stepped aside and flopped down on his chair, his whole behaviour a show of annoyance.

"You're an ass," one of the other bodyguards muttered, clearly directed towards Kang-Dae.

Takeo gave him a faint smile of thanks, and Kang-Dae an evil smirk, worthy of M-21 in an utterly bad temper. Only then, he moved to one of the few empty chairs in the back, receiving many measured glances and a few warm smiles in the process.

As soon as he was seated, the head of security restarted his talk. Takeo listened intently. Tao would have his head if he missed some vital information. But if he was lucky, M-21 and Tao would have found the culprit by now.

The loud bang left the window glass resonating with its sound and could be heard through the whole house. Frankenstein raised his eyebrows in annoyance at the disturbingly rude way of disrupting his master's tea time.

M-21 entered first, murder in his eyes, and aggression rolling off of him in palpable waves. The hunt for the sender of the threatening letter seemed to haven't gone the way he had imagined it. At the sight of Raziel and him, M-21 reined himself in, an almost apologetic look on his face, but Frankenstein could still tell how absolutely annoyed the younger man was. Behind M-21, Tao appeared in the doorway.

"Sorry for slamming the door," Tao chirped the apology, though Frankenstein doubted that he was the culprit. Under the hacker's façade of cheerfulness lay the same irritation and frustration M-21 showed. The grey-haired man humphed and disappeared through the door towards his own room, effectively leaving the whole explanation to Tao.

"It didn't go as you planned?" Frankenstein asked and knew that it was all that he needed to do to start a long-winded explanation; an explanation his master was waiting to hear. Tao gave a crooked smile as he sat down at the couch.

"No, not exactly," answered the hacker. He glanced at the cookies on the table, but thought better of it. Instead he leaned back with a hint of regret in his eyes. "We found out whom the credit card belonged to, but the old man didn't have it any more. His daughter stole it from him. So we had to hunt her down to ask who had access to it."

A few seconds of silence passed. Remembering the look on M-21's face, Frankenstein came to the conclusion: "You didn't find her?"

"Oooh, we did. But she lost the card, or more like she was too drunk to remember where she left it. I hacked into the bank account so I could tell the exact day it had happened because of the sudden stop in spending money. But that didn't help in finding out where she lost the card or who took it."

"So the concert card was the only charge on that credit card?"

Tao only nodded to the assumption, followed by a helpless shrug. Inwardly, Frankenstein sighed. These information told him a few things. First of all, the thief of the credit card was cautious. He used it for what he needed it for, but didn't touch it for anything else. The credit limit wouldn't be that high, but still worth of getting all the money out of it you could. That showed either high restraint or that the culprit owned enough assets to not need it.

The planning was so cautious and skilfully arranged that even Tao couldn't find a lead so far, clearly showing certain skill of the stalker. It worried Frankenstein. Somebody like that was hard to catch. Somebody like that was dangerous—how dangerous had shown this afternoon. Thinking about it, Tao and M-21 still didn't know about the assault on Suyi.

Frankenstein sighed again. This really wouldn't be a pleasure.