CHAPTER 186: CHAPTER 185. WAITING FOR THE OPPONENT’S MOVE

To make sure he didn’t get jealous and throw a tantrum because he was left behind, they called Austin to Helios. Despite whining about having too much work because of Sarah, he would sulk more if he wasn’t invited to their gathering.

Even if all he did was sit there with his laptop and talk to his subordinates while the others played games.

It wasn’t only Austin who was there for the sake of being there only, however. While she was still engaged in the games from time to time, she kept looking at her phone. Not to text or anything--just looking at something intensely for a few seconds.

"Why do you keep looking at your phone, Eonni?" Sua pursed her lips after yet another easy win because Sarah kept getting distracted.

"Hmm?" Sarah put her phone down, smiling awkwardly. "Just checking something."

The twins--and even Little Bird--looked at Sarah with narrowed eyes. She knew that, but...she couldn’t tell them she kept checking Hajin’s position through the tracker, could she? Felt kind of stalkerish and, well...embarrassing.

"Humm..." Sua poked Sarah’s cheek, who was turning her face away sheepishly. "It’s not fun anymore if not everyone’s mind is here to play. What are you doing anyway, Min Soo?"

"Don’t call me that!" Austin barked from his table. "And I’m doing the final leg of moving the snake’s assets to us. Do you know how many accounts I have to use to clean this money?"

Ah, no wonder he was so busy. That didn’t stop Sua from rolling her eyes, however. "Then you should just stay in your office."

"How dare you leave me out because of work?" Austin gasped before shifting her gaze to Sarah. "The work you gave me?"

"Alright, alright..." Sarah chuckled and reached out to pat Austin’s back. "Thank you for your sacrifice, Austin. Director Seo must have been confused these days."

As planned, they had been detaining people who were working for Joseph--at least, those who weren’t working in HS or Daesung. To make his move untraceable, Joseph worked with shady individuals used to dirty work, who were, in turn, very easy to be abducted without anyone kicking up a fuss.

Well...except for their client, of course.

Under the care of Sol’s guys, as well as Austin’s pressure, they managed to steal what they could steal. Little Bird even managed to crack the passkey needed to access the secret accounts in the financier’s hands.

When the crook partners went missing, could a respectable executive director look for them himself? Maybe, if he could utilize the gang that had been helping him embezzle money, but...

That ’gang’ was in the middle of a legal battle at this point.

Sarah had no spy inside the main office, so she had no idea how Joseph fared these days, but...she was free to imagine his anxious face, and it got her sleeping better at night.

"Still, there are not many shares, Sarah--not the one you’re looking for anyway," Austin clicked his tongue. "Seems like he did what you also had been doing: amassing a fortune to buy the shares later."

And just like Sarah, he couldn’t show it, or people might be suspicious. He could only show the normal level of wealth an executive director usually had, just like how Sarah could only show what she inherited from his grandfather.

But Sarah already expected that. "It’s not something that got distributed easily, anyway."

"You have no choice but to get what he’s holding himself," Austin shrugged.

"That’s always been the plan."

"But, you know..."

Sua popped up behind Austin and hijacked his laptop to check on the total amount they managed to steal from the old man’s secret account.

"If the grudge had been there for decades, it means he had all those decades to try and make money, right? But this..." Sua pursed her lips skeptically. "Doesn’t look like much, honestly..."

"You’re talking as if making money without getting detected is easy," Austin rolled his eyes and shoved Sua away from his laptop. "Even within the trading business, what Sarah did was akin to someone who knows the future, you know? I have to use a different account to do each one so it would be less suspicious."

Sarah almost choked on her saliva, cursing inwardly at how sharp this silly guy was. She muttered quietly while grabbing a bottle of water. "I’m just lucky."

"What bullshit," Austin grumbled.

It was truly envious--and kind of annoying--when someone who wasn’t even intensely educated on the matter produced a better result. The success of Sarah’s gamble-like decision on various shortlisting and seemingly hopeless ventures for the past five years couldn’t be replicated by anyone working in finance. It was too adventurous, too absurd, unless she already knew what would happen.

Luck? Maybe if it only happened for once or twice. When it always happened?

Austin couldn’t help but remember his mentor’s story about Song Yonghwa, a genius who kept producing avant-garde technology that people hadn’t seen before. His mentor said he thought Yonghwa was an alien or something.

"You..." Austin narrowed his eyes at Sarah. "You’re not an alien, aren’t you?"

"How rude!" Sua gasped, and Little Bird hugged Sarah in defense.

"Yeah, I’m going to suck your brain someday," Sarah smirked.

Being thought of as an alien was somehow better than being asked if she came from the future.

Austin waved his hand in dismissal. "Anyway, all that Snake could do was embezzle money through projects. Of course, with his position, he managed to take a lot."

"Hmm..."

"Unlike our ladyboss here, however, even if he wanted to play with stock trading, he could only do the low-risk, low-play games."

Sua nodded. "’M-kay..."

"And another thing," Austin clicked away on his laptop before turning it around so the others could see the screen. "Not all that money is used for his cause."

They huddled around the table and looked at the screen, which was a personal expenditure report of Seo Joseph’s household. They squinted their eyes with each item and shook their heads at the total.

"Whoa...and I thought my shopping spree era was bad," Sua covered her mouth. "Father shouldn’t scold me that much."

"I don’t think even Amber spends this much..." Sarah arched her brow.

"May this kind of greed never find me," Suoh prayed quietly, and Austin followed with a whisper ’Amen’.

To put it simply...it was massive. At least, it was massive for an executive director. It was almost as big as a conglomerate family’s expense. The list was filled with branded bags and clothes every month, which were bought directly abroad--which meant plane tickets, hotels, and fancy restaurants. That was among other things purchased within the country, including jewelry.

Sarah didn’t even know brands had new stuff out every month, so what were all these shoppings for? Were they trying to open a store or something?

A follow-up report said that no, it wasn’t for selling or anything. Joseph’s wife and daughter simply wanted to live as if they were conglomerates. After all, wasn’t Joseph part of the extended family?

Sarah read the report with a smile on her lips. "I’m glad."

"What do you mean, Eonni?"

"Once again, I don’t have to feel guilty about involving others," Sarah exhaled softly before returning to the couch.

"So...is it time now?" Suoh raised his brows. "Or, are you still waiting for something?"

Sarah hummed while glancing at her phone. "Indeed, I’m still waiting."

* * *

"Did you have fun?" Sarah poked Hajin’s cheek the next day.

She was rather sleepy from looking at the game screen all day, so she went to bed right away after Hajin picked her up from Helios, before asking the bodyguard how his excursion was.

Unlike the time when he had to meet Denise as a ruse, Hajin seemed to be fine when he returned. Didn’t look sad or anything from visiting his mother’s grave. Perhaps he was relieved that his mother was finally visited by the love of her life.

Hajin stared at Sarah, who looked at him rather...mysteriously. There was a hidden emotion behind those deep black eyes, as if she were annoyed by something. As if she were annoyed that Hajin was away for that long.

At least, Hajin wanted to believe that was the case.

"...thank you, Princess," he rolled to his stomach and hugged her waist, laughing against her side.

Sarah arched her brow, looking at Hajin as if the bodyguard was losing his mind or something. "In that case, I want super spicy braised ribs."

Hajin let out a hopeless laugh while getting up. "At least, have it for lunch."

"Sure," Sarah shrugged. "Ramyeon for breakfast, then."

"Princess..." Hajin sighed exasperatedly.

"What?"

Again, Hajin sighed. But his lips couldn’t help but smile at that innocent, greedy look that was rarely produced by that face. He stroked her cheek and kissed the other one briefly. "I love you."

Sarah felt the heat on both of her cheeks, grumbling while running away to the bathroom with Hajin’s laughter in the background.

Running away from having to say it back.

Still, she almost blurted it out when lunch came, and Hajin did not only cook her spicy braised ribs, but also spicy chicken stew and spicy steamed fish.

"Mmh...this is worth the wait," Sarah nodded while having her feast after only eating snacks in Helios the day before.

"Talking about the waiting, how long are we going to wait for that snake?" Hajin asked curiously.

"Hmm? Well...it’s not like we can just stroll into his office by ourselves, right? If he disappears after that, we’ll be suspected, don’t you think?" Sarah raised her spoon.

"Well, that’s true," Hajin nodded. "But will he really call you?"

Sarah curled her eyes. "Haven’t we created a situation where he would call us no matter what?"

"Hmm?"

"He hadn’t heard from his people these days, so he must have been busy calling them to find out where they are," Sarah tapped her rice bowl.

Hajin snapped his fingers. "Ah, the CEO."

It had been a while since Sarah bought the company’s shares from the CEO. He was still around for a few days after that, according to Sunny, but then stopped coming.

Where was he? Sarah had no idea. Perhaps in a casino’s backyard somewhere? Or maybe the loan shark finally got to him because he didn’t use the money to pay them back--who knows?

"Since it would be weird for HS’s executive director to talk to regular employees, he has no choice but to reach out to me," Sarah continued. "But even if he talked to the other employees, they would say he talked to me before disappearing, so..."

"In the end, he has no choice but to call you," Hajin nodded.

Sarah replied with a wink, and two days later, the call finally came.