Innocence and Confusion

"Oh shit!" Olivia regretted ever stepping inside and went on survival mode, trying to get out of there as soon as possible. But her plans were foiled by a stubborn Jay, who forcefully pushed her right back inside the bar. 

"No Olive! You ain't going nowhere! What happened to the 'I'm so confident' girl who came with me?" Jay got her a glass of white wine, with hopes that it would calm her down. 

"But–" 

"Shush. We ain't going out of here till we get a trail on that guy. He visits this place almost every evening at 7 like clockwork." Jay downed a glass of wine himself before continuing. "Let's just hope he chooses to show up today." 

Olivia had no other choice but to sit down on one of the bar stools, her short red dress riding up and threatening to reveal the gun she had strapped on to her upper thigh. 

"Oh fuck this dress!" 

She kept pulling her dress down and adjusting it when she noticed a pair of eyes on her in the distance. 

"Jay… Is that one of the dude's friends? At 9'oclock. I'm pretty sure that's him." 

Jay turned around slowly so as to not raise any suspicion. And true to Olivia's words, it was his aide. Their target that had given them an unyielding day earlier, stood right behind him, sipping on a glass of red wine. 

However, Olivia was taken aback when his friend started approaching them. 

"What's he doing? And why is he coming towards us?" she whispered, slightly turning away from him. 

"He took the bait." 

"Bait? What Bait?" Olivia was confused for a split second before she understood what he meant. He had brought her to the bar with that dress on purpose.

"Oh you didn't!" 

"Yes I did. It's not like any man can say no to you now, but don't flunk this!" 

"Wait till I get you back!" 

The man walked closer to the table till he was too close enough for her liking. He was about 5'11, looking dapper in business casuals, but somehow seemed to be a clutz in the way he wore mismatched socks and tripped over his own feet. He collected himself and cleared his throat, extending his hand towards her. 

"Hey!" Olivia dragged the word, finding it awkward to say anything at all, knowing that the language barrier would soon pop it head out. 

But to her surprise, the man started speaking fluent English, with a clear Los Angeles accent. 

"I'm Kim Hyun Joon. You can call me Joon." 

"I'm Olivia. It's nice to meet you Joon." 

"Do you wanna join us maybe?" 

Olivia turned to look at Jay, who was busy acting like he didn't know her at all. 

"Oh how rude of me. And this is…?"

"He's my friend, call him Jay," Olivia's eyes glistened with mischief as she finally managed to get Jay into the mess he created. 

"Cool, you could both join us there if you'd want." 

"Did we look too lost in here?" 

"Just a little. I know that people aren't that social around here, that's why I thought of helping you guys out." 

"Wow the way you say it, makes us sound pathetic," Jay said, but coughed the last word out as Olivia elbowed him in the ribs. 

"I'm sorry if it came out that way, I didn't mean it that way at all!" 

"No, it's okay. We'd love to join you guys by the way." 

Hyunjoon led the way with Olivia and Jay trailing behind him. Olivia nudged Jay to behave right before Joon made them sit down in the nearby booths.

Olivia noticed another familiar face in the corner of the booth that was dimly lit and mainly illuminated by the colorful flashing lights from the dance floor. She managed to identify him as the man who was the closest aide of the target. He had a slender build, and was wearing a dress shirt with two buttons open and tie loosened, which emphasized on how he probably came straight from work. 

They sat down near him, but not before he had a conversation with Joon.

"Hyung, why would you bring them here? You don't even know them!"

"Chill out! We're in a club, let's socialize a bit! Plus they seem like tourists. We should help them have a positive view of Korea!"

"That's true but–"

"Give them a chance Jihwanie!"

Olivia could only stare at them, not understanding a word of korean, she guessed that it was probably because he had brought them there without prior investigation. 

The guy finally gave up and turned his attention towards Olivia, who kept adjusting her dress. 

"I'm Park Jihwan. And you are?" 

"Olivia. And this is my friend Jay." 

"How come y'all are so fluent in English?" Jay questioned the man, even though he knew the answer to that himself. 

"I was born in LA, while he pursued a degree there. Fluency in English became a necessity I guess," Joon said, pouring them a drink from the table. 

Olivia, Jay, Jihwan and Joon clanked their glasses in cheer and gulped down the bitter liquid. Jay was the only person in the group who wanted to throw up the horrible liquid as soon as it touched his tongue. 

"Wow. I presume that you guys have complex stories on how you became friends." 

"Nah, he was my senior in college. And what about you guys?" Jihwan asked, gulping down a refill of the drink. 

"We've been friends from when we were quite young. We met in school," Olivia lied without batting an eyelid, and took another shot of the drink. 

Olivia reached out to grab another glass, but Jay pushed it away from her. "You know how you're with alcohol Olive. I don't wanna deal with a drunk you today," Jay said, clenching his teeth. He wasn't gonna let her go all out on alcohol and risk exposing them in her drunken state, even though he knew that she handled her drinks very well.

"Let her have her fun!" Joon said, and turned around to call the rest of the guys to the booth. 

Jihwan seemed to notice how her eyes were studying the main man there, and tried to get her attention. 

"So what are you guys doing here?"

"We're here on vacation," Olivia said, and her gaze followed the target as he walked inside the booth, settling opposite to her. 

He was as they had described him in the case file, a well-built man who seemed to hit the gyms pretty often, a sleeve tattoo on one of his arms, and hair tied back in a bun with some strands over his face. He stood out in his all black casual attire that was way oversized for him and chunky black boots which put emphasis on the age difference between him and his group of friends. 

'Isn't he supposed to be their boss? Why's he the only one in casual attire?' The thought kept ringing inside Olivia's head over and over again, making her sense that something was off. 

"This is Olivia and Jay, they're tourists," Jihwan introduced them to the target, who seemed to have no trouble trusting them at once. 

"Hey! I'm Choi Jungwook!" 

Olivia was confused as to why, just why someone would want to kill any of these men. They seemed like pretty normal men, and even nice enough to care about two clueless tourists.

"Wow that's a lot of names with J," Jay stated, forgetting that his name itself was one with a J, and fumbled with the glass of champagne he just got.

It overwhelmed her, the way they were so open to befriending new people, even though they seemed to know that they're being targeted. Were they really stupid? Or unaware? Or dismissive? Or ignorant? Or was this a reverse plot against her? 

She stood up suddenly, placing her glass on the with a heavy clink. "I'm going to the restroom, I'll be back," she said before taking a minute to consider if leaving Jay alone with them would be a safe option. 

Jay pulled her dress down that she had absent-mindedly let to ride up, and gave her a look of confirmation. As she walked out of the booth, she heard a normal conversation continuing behind her. 

'What is happening? And why do these guys seem so innocent?' Olivia's question riddled mind tortured her as she stood in front of the restroom mirror, staring at her own reflection. 

She noticed the silhouette of a slender man in the corner of the mirror, walking towards her. He was definitely drunk in the way he walked, holding onto walls for support. His evil smirk seemed to widen as he checked out Olivia standing near the mirror. 

The look on his face made Olivia instinctively pull her dress down. She kept her hand on the knife that she had strapped onto one of her thighs as he closed in. He growled as he threw himself onto Olivia, pushing her back against the counter and touching her all over before she could process it. 

"You piece of shit! Get off of me!" 

Olivia pushed him off and punched him right in the face, making his nose bleed, but he wiped the blood right off and tried to force himself onto Olivia again. She was about to plunge her knife deep into his abdomen when she heard the sound of the door opening and someone walking in. 

It was the cat-eyed guy that they had met earlier that day. Olivia put her knife away so as not to giver her identity out, and acted as if she was struggling helplessly, as the drunk man tried to pry her clothes off of her. 

The cat-eyed guy rushed towards her and tackled the drunk man to the ground, throwing punches directly to his jaw, loosening a tooth or two. Olivia regretted as she would have done the same to the drunk dude, but had to opt out of it because of him interfering. But she was glad that he had come in before she could commit a murder in the restroom. 

He then proceeded to put the man in a chokehold and to yell right to his face.

"DO YOU WANT ME TO CALL THE POLICE?"

"N..no"

"I'LL CHOP YOUR HANDS OFF IF YOU EVER TOUCH ANOTHER PERSON! YOU UNDERSTAND?"

"Ye..yes," the drunk man stuttered and gulped as he got off him.

Eventhough Olivia couldn't understand a word, it was enough for her to put the cat-eyed man in a good category. True, any person with basic decency would have done that, but it was a matter of checking first when someone seems to be despair.

He then left the intoxicated man groaning on the floor, and signaled Olivia out of there. His eyes that held so much of the mysterious aura earlier were filled with pure concern at the moment. 

"Are you okay?"