Kiss Me If You Can [NOVEL] - Chapter 8

There was silence in the conference room. Nobody opened their mouths. Chase, who was guided there after all the work was done, did not say a word as they told him what the current situation was like. He was sitting there, his face blank.

“So …” Chase said, only after all the manager’s words had ended, and heavy silence settled in. …”I can’t go out?”

“Yes …” The manager continued cautiously. … “The head of the security team is looking for a way. It seems to be difficult to drive back like when you came … The building is completely surrounded …”

The manager’s words gradually trailed off.

Chase didn’t say anything. His expressionless face was still the same. Everyone was nervous and looking at him, but suddenly Chase moved. All he had to do was give the manager a hand, but at the same time, the people observing the situation were very nervous, and the manager quickly pulled a black metal box out of his pocket. It was a cigarette . There was a unanimous sigh of relief. Chase raised the cigarette to his mouth and lit it without saying a word.

“Hoo”, his long puff of smoke made the people present nervous.

“Mr. Miller, if you drink something …”

The secretary who noticed Chase’s face stopped talking.

“What garbage are you going to give me to drink?”

“… I’m sorry.”

The secretary gave up quickly.

Silence fell on all sides again. Josh was literally suffocated. With Chase Miller in such a small enclosed space, the scent of pheromones flowed everywhere. Time seemed to be increasing and the added stress was killing him.

I should go to the bathroom or something. He thought

As he looked at him, his eyes met Chase without warning. At that moment Josh was startled and tensed.

It was then that he thought he might have been intentionally staring at him. Of course it would be an illusion. However, to his shame, he kept his eyes fixed on him. Josh was lost due to Chase’s persistent gaze, it was as if he had expected eye contact. He swallowed hard and the sound passing through his throat was unusually loud. Chase kept watching as Josh swallowed. At that moment, the nerves in his entire body became alert and Chase’s gaze seemed to pierce his skin. Just in time, there was a bang and then Mark entered. Josh apparently relaxed his tense nerves and breathed a sigh of relief, but Mark’s expression wasn’t very good.

“The barricade collapsed,” Henry yelled.

Chase finally looked away, but there was still no response. Mark continued:

“I don’t think it’s possible to move immediately. The police are in the process of breaking up the crowd, so if you wait a bit …”

“How much?”

Chase’s indifferent voice interrupted Mark’s words.

When Mark hesitated, Chase waited a moment and asked again:

“How long should I be waiting?”

Mark blinked in puzzlement and said:

“Well, I don’t know. A short three or four hours …”

“Ah.”

Chase sighed briefly.

At the same time, everyone fell silent. He didn’t say anything afterwards, just frowned. The faint smell of pheromones gradually intensified. It is getting irritated.

“Good.”

“You thought of something?”

Seth quickly intercepted Josh, who did not notice the meaning of his words, so Isaac helped him.

“There is no problem with the path where we pass, right? Shouldn’t we just get there somehow?”

“The problem is getting there, damn it,” Henry said as if he’d been waiting.

Isaac looked at him with unusual annoyance, but soon fell silent. It’s always like this, so Josh opened his mouth after slapping Isaac on the back without thinking too much.

“So Mark?”

Mark opened his mouth again when the atmosphere settled.

“The police are trying to disperse them, but it’s not easy either. They say we should go out first.”

“Is there a way out?”

When Seth asked, Mark looked at him and left the room.

The other members followed him outside. Only then did Josh breathe freely. It wasn’t until they had gathered around the corridor that Mark was serious.

“Why doesn’t someone act as bait for now?”

“Oh, no…”

Henry, who was about to refuse immediately, closed his mouth as everyone looked at him at the same time. Mark continued speaking:

“It’s classic, there’s nothing like classic … This is the plan. We send the bait first and then we send the second bait.”

“But the real …”

“Third.” Mark continued, “The first and second cars will drive in different directions. Then the fans who follow him will split in two. They probably think that one of them is bait, but they won’t believe that both are. Once we’ve cleared the perimeter, we’ll take “C” and get out of here.”

There was no other way. When Isaac, who was standing by the door, silently backed away, Mark coughed and knocked on the door. After a while, they opened the door to the waiting room and at the same time, a sweet smell spread around.

“Sr. Miller.”

Mark forced himself to make a smiling face. The last to enter was Josh. Of course, before entering, he placed some sweets in his mouth.

“You will have diabetes.”

Josh thought darkly, feeling a lump in his throat. He closed the door behind him and turned around, Chase was seen sitting alone among the sturdy men who stood around him. Holding a cigarette in one hand and a paper cup of black coffee in the other, he was still as expressionless as a cold doll. Mark opened his mouth:

“… So that’s how we think about it. If you have any other ideas, please tell me.”

As he explained, Chase said nothing, just stood with his chin resting on one hand. Josh wondered if he was paying attention. Chase, who looked at the bodyguards one by one with narrowed eyes, opened his mouth:

“Who are you going to let go of instead of me?”

Mark looked at Isaac when he said:

“First, Isaac is the member that has the physique most similar to Mr. Miller. And in the second round, Seth …”

Chase, who followed Mark’s gaze and fixed his on Isaac, spoke:

“No,” Chase said blankly as everyone looked at him. “He’s ugly.”

A cold silence fell in the conference room at that moment. In fact, Isaac had a normal face for Alpha, but not ugly. Only three out of ten faces that could be seen on the street were at a similar level.

Chase pointed at Josh and Isaac alternately with the tips of his fingers.

“The face is you, the body is you. Do it that way.”

Mark responded on behalf of Isaac, who was stunned.

“I’m sorry, I can’t separate his face or his body. Just pick one.”

Chase pointed at Josh, suggesting a simple solution.

“Then you increase your height right now.”

“I’m sorry but I can not.”

“What can you incompetent bastards do?”

Chase tossed the coffee he was holding against the wall, to a determined refusal. The paper cup with black coffee hit the wall miserably and soaked into a dark brown stain. Then Chase looked at Josh, his anger not leaving and he gritted his teeth.

“Why are you the only one so small?”

The gazes of his colleagues suddenly turned to him.

“He said the same thing when we met. Of course you don’t remember”

Before Josh could say anything, Chase snapped violently:

“How pathetic. What the hell is he doing here? Tell me what you can do. You must have some use if someone shoots me in the head. How do you stop it?”

Even if it was inevitably a visual error, Josh, who was barely 6 inches tall, was the smallest of the crowd including Chase himself. Josh didn’t understand why he should protect Chase’s head and said:

“Wear a helmet, right?”

“Josh!”

Mark, who hastily blocked Josh, who was about to die from the fearless will, hastily opened his mouth and said:

“There is no other way at the moment. Tell me if you have another alternative.”

Chase said coldly:

“If you are that good, tell me how to do it.” He received no reply for a moment. When Mark looked at his watch, only 3 minutes had passed, Chase’s lips slowly parted. “Helicopter.”

Mark hesitated and Josh blinked. Most of the people briefly hardened, Chase continued:

“There’s a helicopter at work, right?”

Chase just changed the direction of his gaze and directed it towards the secretary.

She belatedly acknowledged the intention and nodded.

“I’ll find out right away.”

“Oh, I’m going too.”

When Josh saw her leave, he tried to get up from his seat, so as not to miss the opportunity.

“Stay there.”

Chase’s chilling voice reached Josh’s ears.

Josh stopped. Hesitating, he looked back, Chase was sitting up and his companions were standing side by side. Chase’s gaze seemed to pierce inside him.

You cannot run away.

Inevitably, Josh gave up.

“… Yes,” he answered without hesitation, closing the door again and staying as far away from Chase as possible.

Seth looked at him like he was sorry.

“Between these …”

Chase opened his mouth.

The eyes focused on him again. For Josh, with every word he spoke his liver tightened, the situation was incredible. However, everyone was sadly in the same position.

“… Who can fly the helicopter? It is impossible?”

“No.”

Oh please, Mark, everything but that.

Josh pleaded inside, but Mark responded without noticing his sincere request.

“Josh and Isaac are available, but Josh would be better off. Right, Josh? You piloted a helicopter when you were in the military.”

Seth recoiled from Mark’s words. At the same time, Josh was unsuccessfully exposed to Chase’s vision. He was trying to avoid it, but Josh was forced to raise his hand, realizing that a bad feeling was coming true before his eyes.

“… I will do it.”

“Good.”

Chase simply finished speaking.

The secretary returned in no time.

“Mr. Miller, there is only one helicopter available at the moment,” she continued quickly, her face pale. “Other helicopters have to be checked, so it will take time. But the pilot is somewhere else right now, so it will take him at least two hours to get here … And I don’t think it’s easy for him to get into the building because of the crowds.”

“It’s okay.” Chase stood up immediately and looked directly at Josh. “Prepare to leave immediately.”

“Wait a minute, I’ll have to take a look before I go.”

Josh hastily stopped him. Even if the helicopter had already been checked, it was routine procedure for the pilot to see it again before the flight.

Mark nodded in sympathy with his words.

“It won’t take long. Isn’t that right, Josh?”

Josh took the opportunity and said:

“Yes … I’ll be as fast as I can. If you just wait a minute …”

“What did you say now?”

The discreet secretary hastily intercepted Josh and said:

“Let’s go together.” She turned to him and whispered, “Did you forget the precautions in the contract? Never reply to Mr. Miller.”

“Are you saying I shouldn’t do anything except breathing?” Josh asked, who couldn’t bear to be sarcastic in this situation.

The secretary nodded.

“Yes.”

Josh didn’t speak anymore and quickly followed her.

✤✤✤✤✤✤

” …!”

As soon as the door to the roof where the helicopter was waiting opened, a great sound was heard. Josh thought he would go deaf in that place and ran to the helicopter. He felt that he could live in the open air. He immediately sat in the cockpit and began looking at the device. Meanwhile the other members hurriedly fanned out, Seth and Isaac went to cover up the situation. Chase was smoking, leaning against the wall. He didn’t look at Josh as stubbornly as before, but his presence remained. Just being there, there was an unspoken threat that she wouldn’t let him go unless it was done quickly. Thanks to him, Josh was busier than usual. However, it was impossible to take a long time anyway. The screams were gradually increased.

“They’re coming in!”

Mark appeared screaming urgently.

As the door opened, the screams grew closer and closer. Josh had goose bumps on his back. Until then, Chase, who had been leaning against the wall without moving, began to advance. At the same time, the screaming seemed to increase the damage to Josh’s eardrums.

“CHASE… CHASE…!!”

Josh saw his four remaining teammates, including Mark, closing the door quickly and blocking with their bodies, he hurried to prepare to take off the helicopter. If Chase were caught, it wouldn’t turn out well for him. Chase, who was walking toward the helicopter, turned around. Josh could see his colleagues clinging to the door with difficulty.

“Enter fast!”

Josh exclaimed urgently.

Chase and his staff were the first to get on the helicopter, including his secretary, they all rushed. Josh floated the helicopter a little off the ground. It was to allow his colleagues to get on board. Mark, who was watching the situation, withdrew his hand from the door and shouted:

“Everyone jump!”

At the same time, everyone turned around and started running. Following Mark, Isaac climbed up and Seth jumped.

The door to the roof, barely holding on, swung open. People exploded in shouts, it seemed they had been waiting for the moment when the door fell. Josh had never seen anything so scary in his life.

“Damn man!”

Henry, who had managed to get there, jumped up quickly.

All that was left was to get out of there. Henry reached the bottom of the helicopter, which had just taken off with a tremendous jump, but thanks to that, the helicopter was unbalanced and tilted. Josh quickly grabbed the controller and Mark and Isaac rushed over to Henry to help him up. By the time he managed to balance and fly the helicopter, it was leaning again.

“Ugh!”

“Ohh!”

Screams were heard everywhere in the helicopter. Josh tried to lift it, but the weight had increased significantly in no time. Some clung on meanwhile.

“What are you doing, take him off?”

The closest to the entrance was Henry, who entered last. He immediately got up as best he could and began to help a man from his team who was trying to get into the helicopter. It was when he tried to hold onto the open door when he felt a shove out. It was Chase, who wanted to bend his knees so that he would lose his balance. Suddenly, Henry was kicked mercilessly behind the knee, his legs buckled and he fell forward. His body fell onto the person who had clung to the helicopter, and the force of his grip immediately disappeared. The people who were waiting to go upstairs burst into a shout. Josh had never seen anything so scary in his life. Then all of a sudden the helicopter became lighter.

“Henry!”

“Oh my God!”

“Mr. Miller, what have you done?”

They all yelled in surprise as they looked at Chase. Josh, with an incredible expression on his face, was embarrassed, his eyes widened and he hurriedly looked down; however, Henry was already buried in the crowd and not even his trace could be seen.

“What are you doing? Come on,” Chase said.

Josh was dumbfounded and looked at him. But Chase was still shameless.

“Close the door.”

There was no choice. But he didn’t even give a moment to hesitate.

“Okay,” Chase said, his cigarette in his mouth. “I’ll get off.”

“Ah?”

The secretary, like everyone else, looked at him in amazement. But Chase wasn’t joking at all.

“Wait. I’m going.”

“How absurd …!”

When Josh unconsciously yelled, Chase briefly spat out cigarette smoke and flung it out the open door of the helicopter. People roared to catch the flying butts. Chase opened his mouth:

“Goodbye.”

“Mr. Miller. Chase!”

Everyone was shocked. Fans were everywhere.

“Let’s go Josh, right now!”

Finally, Mark yelled and Josh rushed to pilot the helicopter. The door was hastily closed behind him, as they calmed Chase. The agitation lessened somewhat.

“Ah …”

Josh heard Seth sigh.

The rest felt the same. But no one could express it.

“Is there anyone in the world who breaks that personality?”

Sitting in the cockpit and staring at the setting sun in the distance, Josh plunged into deep questions.

✤✤✤✤✤✤

“I’m going to quit.”

That was the first thing Henry said when he returned in his own car, after hours, in the dark night. Nobody was surprised because they expected it to some degree. The secretary, who had been waiting until the end of the day, immediately offered him a new status, as if she knew what to do.

“I’m really sorry about today, Henry. It will not happen again … I cannot say that it will be like that, but we will pay you more than what is agreed in the contract …”

“No.” Henry bit his teeth. “Am I a beggar? Is money all I need? If you think about the shit I’ve been through today, not even giving me America would be enough. I’m sorry? Pay for it? How much are you going to pay me? Fuck…!”

“Henry, calm down.”

Isaac, who watched as Henry gradually increased his emotions to end up spewing curses, stepped forward and stopped him.

Regardless, the secretary was taking Chase’s place without question. Still, his anger couldn’t help but empathize with everyone. His face was scratched here and there, with large and small bruises all over his body, and his hair was scattered and seemed to have been pulled everywhere. Furthermore, the tie and jacket were missing, the shirt was torn and barely hung over the body. Even the shoes, which were fortunate not to have been lost, were trampled on, wrinkled, and would soon be miserably discarded. He was literally a mess. Even the homeless survivors of a hurricane would look less miserable than that. Everyone who looked at him couldn’t hide their empathy for Henry.

The secretary looked at Mark in puzzlement, but he didn’t say anything. Henry used to live with curse words in his mouth, they all worked together for years and knew what happened as soon as they tempted his temper, for that reason they tried, as much as possible, not to offend him. However, Chase stepped on a landmine.

“Please calculate the allowance for today, I’ll be back in Boston tomorrow. I’ll sue you if you don’t give me the plane back.”

Henry gritted his teeth to the point of making a sharp sound, then immediately turned and left the living room.

The secretary looked around the group, embarrassed.

“…This is hard.” The first person to speak was Isaac. “I know you think we’re insignificant, but we’re doing our best. However, he dropped him because he couldn’t wait a few seconds, so you probably knew what was going to happen … And the helicopter, it could stabilize at the last minute … but he did it on purpose, right? No wonder Henry is so angry.”

His protest was calm, but reasonable enough. The secretary blushed and avoided eye contact.

“Of course I knew, but at the time I had no choice but … you know, otherwise Mr. Miller would have actually gotten off the helicopter.”

It was their job to protect him, so they had to stop him, after all, Chase made a threat. The most bitter fact for them was that it worked and consequently they had to abandon Henry.

“I even feel like he must have been caught by his fans and ended up wrecked.”

Seth, who had been quiet until then, suddenly helped.

In fact, Henry was unlucky, it could have been the same for any of them and everything would be fine, as always. It’s just the difference between who is lucky at any given moment.

Laura was perplexed. The security team, who she barely found, wanted to resign. She had to stop the situation, although she felt sorry for Henry’s situation.

“I don’t think this is a problem Laura can solve.” Josh, who had been watching silently until then, opened his mouth. The secretary looked at him embarrassed.” We need to speak to Chase Miller in person and come to a conclusion.”

“But…”

Laura responded visibly embarrassed.

Isaac intervened:

“Josh is right. We can’t ignore this with Laura’s promise or financial reward, but Mr. Miller should be willing to help.”

“Then, what are you going to do? Are you going to negotiate with Mr. Miller right now?” She asked nervously.

Laura seemed to have been under a lot of stress from the various events that occurred during the day and now she had to deal with this situation.

Josh asked without expression:

“Why not?”

Laura blinked in bewilderment, and Mark looked at Josh too. After a moment’s hesitation, Laura finally gave up and left. Only then did Mark ask Josh:

“Are you going to try to negotiate with” C “? Seriously?”

“I can not do it?”

“Of course you can.”

But Mark seemed reluctant, Josh replied with an expressionless face:

“Don’t worry, I’ll just talk.”

“You?”

“Seriously?”

Isaac and Seth also asked in surprise.

Naturally Mark, who thought that was his job, blinked in embarrassment at the unexpected comment.

“Because you?”

Josh casually answered Mark’s question.

“I’m the one who flew in the helicopter and left Henry behind. I couldn’t help it, even so, I feel uncomfortable. Also, I hate having to feel this dirty because of the choice I had to make regardless of my will.”

Everyone fell silent at Josh’s harsh and weird words. Laura, who came back after a while, reluctantly asked that only one person go. Mark sent Josh out with a face full of emotions, a mix of relief, compassion, and annoyance.

“I’ll see it on CCTV, just in case.”

With that said, Josh chuckled briefly as he left the living room and headed for Chase’s room.

✤✤✤✤✤✤

His hair was still damp, as if he had just come out of the shower. The sweet aroma, floating in the room, mixed slightly with the smell of shampoo, causing a strange dizziness to Josh who deliberately bit the candy in his mouth and cut it into pieces so that the aroma would not influence him.

“What do you mean?”

Chase asked annoyed. There was a slight flush on his cheek, perhaps from the shower just finished.

Josh thought , Shit, if I hadn’t seen that face, I would have increased my combat power by 100,000.

Josh who wanted to curse tried not to, and just looked down, avoiding his cold face as much as possible. Then instead his gaze shifted elsewhere, the long neck and graceful clavicle, showing through a pair of open shirt buttons, caught his eye. He carelessly looked down at solid muscles and burning nipples. It’s hard for Josh to look away. Finally, he was forced to look up at Chase’s face.

At that moment he lamented. ” I ‘d rather be blind.”

“I’d like you to apologize for what happened today. And I want you to come up with a future plan…” Josh continued speaking as his eyebrows rose slightly. … “Well, for leaving our partner behind. He got hurt a lot because of that. There is no guarantee that something like this will not happen again, so we need to guarantee our own safety in case this happens …”

“Why is it a problem?”

Chase looked at him in a genuinely unconvincing way.

Sacrificing others for their own good was the natural response of a person who had lived such a comfortable life.

Josh replied, trying to be patient.

“If you continue to consume us like this, we can’t go through with this.”

The tone of the speech became sharp on its own. Chase inadvertently brushed his hair through his hair and looked at Josh.

“That’s your job, right?”

“It’s our job to protect you, not to be influenced or beaten at will. I don’t think Mr. Miller was in a dangerous situation today.”

“What is the difference? I was very scared.”

Don’t play, fuck you.

The way they spoke naturally turned aggressive. Chase looked at Josh, while casually sweeping his hair.

Josh couldn’t contain his emotions and hit the wall hard enough. “Boom” , a loud sound mysteriously resounded.

Josh looked at Chase as he felt a vague echo spread. Josh knew that was the only way to vent his anger. Josh tried again to contain his anger and continue the conversation as calmly as he could and unexpectedly Chase laughed and spoke:

“Why are you hitting the wall? Am I not the one you want to hit?”

“I can’t hit the client.”

Chase gave Josh a ridiculous, innocent look after gritting his teeth.

“Does it matters? Do whatever you want.”

Josh’s eyes gleamed at that moment.

“Oh, can I hit you? Seriously?”

Chase stopped.

Josh asked sincerely as he looked at his smiling face.

“If you had said I could do it from the start, I wouldn’t have bothered you with this. How much can I hit you? Can’t I hit you below the waist?”

Chase looked down like he was embarrassed and said nothing. It wasn’t long before he opened his mouth.

“… Will you hit me seriously?”

Josh frowned.

“I can not? I would, but it would hurt.”

When Josh casually gave a disappointed look, Chase’s face was distorted.

“Why don’t you hit me?”

Josh gave a predictable response:

“Because you are the employer. Wouldn’t it be a problem if I was sued? Not everyone has money like Mr. Miller.”

Chase was silent for a moment, it was a clear answer.

“So what would you do if I gave you the chance?” he inquired in a calm voice.

Josh smiled sincerely. When he imagined that he could get his feelings out through blows and spoke without thinking:

“Of course I’d hit you as much as I can. This opportunity will never happen again.”

“Ah!” Chase, who gave a short exclamation that seemed out of place, soon replied sarcastically. “So why don’t you try it now?”

“If I could,” Josh said. Damn , he swallowed hard, but soon asked, “Are you serious? So you won’t charge me for damages later, right?”

Chase answered Josh’s suspicious question irritably.

“I told you to do what you wanted. You told me, didn’t you? I’m money rotten, do you think I’m interested in your money or something?”

“Are you sure?”

Josh, he checked again, Chase brought his face close to Josh.

“After all, you’re just another puppy who can’t even touch me. Look, you can’t even move, right? I knew it, it’s always like this. Idiots like …”

At that moment, Josh brought his fist to Chase’s stomach.

“…!”

Chase staggered back in sudden surprise. Josh immediately launched his next blow, but this time he narrowly missed it. Chase grabbed Josh’s arm out of the air and pulled him immediately.

“I didn’t say they would be welcome.”

After that, Chase hit his rib.

Josh staggered back and gulped. Chase tried to hit him again and Josh quickly pulled away and dodged, as he extended his leg and kicked his belly. This time Chase stumbled. Josh didn’t miss the opportunity and attacked again. ” Pom”. A different sound hit his ear. For a moment, Josh’s eyes widened. He realized he had hit Chase in the face, but it was too late. Josh wasn’t the only one surprised.

Josh saw Chase, whose eyes were wide open for the first time, opened his mouth as if he couldn’t believe it, closed his eyes, blinked again, and then repeated. Josh somehow and opened his mouth hastily to rectify himself:

“… You said I could hit anywhere.”

“Good choice…!”

Chase’s eyes filled with madness.

It was followed by hand-to-hand combat. When Josh hit Chase on the side, he hit him in the stomach and Josh kicked him in the shin and Chase hit him on the chin.

The Ming Dynasty dishes in the room were shattered, the legacy of humanity disappeared, Warhol’s work hanging on the wall was torn apart, and Chase’s first trophy was smashed.

When Josh’s colleagues entered the room, they rushed to separate them.