SMOKE OF SECRET LIFE

Previously,

Noah said, "It's not your fault that you're searching for your brother. You are not putting anyone in danger. And if they are willing to help us then they would be separately doing that so that we will be in front."

Continue,

[Next Day]

[At Young house]

The small drops of water on the grass on the lawn are shining like a pearl as the sun's rays lend on them. Probably it rained yesterday. Steffy is running around the lawn continuously waving his tail and wriggling on the wet grass. He loves the after-rain weather when the sun shines luminously. His soft barking in the early morning stated a happy good morning to everyone.

Perfect weather for some people to sleep more than the other days and for some people to remove their monotone. But unexpectedly the dining table is silent. It seems so unreal but Mr.Young's lazy son is sitting in the breakfast before his father even wakes up. Mr.Young likes to spend this weather, especially sleep. So does his son but today June won't let Ryan sleep as they brought a maze with them on that rainy night and she is poking him to bring that out in the light.

Mrs.Young noticed the two of them being followed by thoughts with every bite of food.

"Is there something that happened? What are you thinking?"

They looked at each other and June said, "Mother, where is Elena?"

"She went to play with Steffy outside after having breakfast. Why? Is there something wrong?" She creased her eyebrows as she was worried.

"Don't get so worked up, mother. It's not so serious," Ryan soothed her. "Umm... Did she say anything to you..I...I mean we brought her out of the blue but we don't really know anything about her and you are close to her more than anyone here."

"Yes, but she doesn't speak very much. She doesn't even speak about her needs. That's why I always have to check on her."

"Try to be close to her and ask her about her parents and other family members," Ryan sighs. "It's been a while if she is still not ready to speak her own we have to know it in our way. Sighs, After all, she is a pilgrim."

"Why are you sighing so much? Is there something wrong with her?" She asked. Her concerns were as if spurring out from her eyes.

"It's normal to be curious, mother. Nothing is wrong," June ignored eye contact with her mother while taking her bag she stood up. "Let's go."

[At the campus]

Yesterday's rain washed out the field so clean. Today's weather is also in a decent complexion. So the players are very enthusiastic. The coach is commenting on them and they are moving with that.

Eva is sitting on a bench in a corner. Her eyes are on the players but it's lost in other reflections. Suddenly a hand moved toward her so she jolted out a little. She looked behind and let her breathe out, "It's you."

"Where is Owen?" Noah said while sitting beside her.

"He said he is not feeling well so he would be staying home today and also he said we should not meet often to keep it down."

"He didn't put anything to his head from yesterday it seems," Noah looked up at her as he was staring at the ground, "....did he come?"

"He who?" she looked at him with confusion.

"Ryan I mean...with that parrot?"

"Why would they come this earlier before their classes!! I am here because I am in sports," she flabbergasted.

"O-ok lemme know."

He stood up and turned to walk away when Eva held his hand, "Noah, don't get so worked up ok? I know it's tough but Owen needs us. So-"

"I know, don't worry," he cut her in the middle without turning.

[At NUK company office]

Ryan dropped June at the university and went to his father's office. Today he is not gonna come early in the morning so it's a good chance to use his connections to investigate the background of Elena's family. His father won't say anything but Ryan doesn't want him to get involved just yet. Those employees know him well. They won't report him as long as they don't get caught and the time covers it.

It was not an ignorant topic for Ryan. He already kept some employees behind it. But after she arrive, there were a lot of things that came up that he didn't get the chance to come here. It's easy to know more about a company by the name of another company than personally investigating.

Ryan is sitting in his father's relaxing chair when the assistant manager knocked at the cabin and popped in.

"Sir, the information you told us to collect, here it is," he handed him a file and stood aside him.

He flipped those pages one by one. This information was some basic information and other was collected from the internet and articles. Seems like most of it they already know.

"What is this?" he wrinkled his face and said to the Ass. Manager. "Just this?"

"Sorry, sir," he bowed. "We tried our best to get as much information as we could. But it seems this company is very secretive and mysterious."

He threw the file on the table with annoyance. "Why do you think I asked you if you were to just give me these sh*ts that I already know?"

"Sir, w-we collected every little thing that we could. A-Although we could not get lots of information but if you see those public details that they have shared or the media collected, i-it's very strange," seeing Ryan angry he stammered.

"Now you are making stories, huh?" he raised his eyebrows.

"N-No sir, I request please listen. It's really strange that other than their business updates, the information about their personal life is really messy. We can say almost no information. Even there was no information about the birth of the president's daughter. Not long ago a journalist saw the president picking up his daughter for school and soon after that got viral the president announced about having an eight-year-old daughter."

"Hmm..."

"There is also have other things, sir. Such as his marriage and divorce. There is no information about that. We only know because Elena said that but no media or their close business partners have any ideas about when did it happen. His wife was just caught in one party with the president. Several newspapers used to write regular articles about their doing behind this secret life. But those papers were got banded. We searched for those articles but there was no fleck of that information."

"Elena isn't speaking, no media or business partners have any basic info, just what's going on?" he rubbed his forehead.

He sat straight, "Ok, you may go now. I'll be leaving after some moment and remember not to tell father about it."

He bowed and went out of the office. Ryan sat there for a while. As if remembering something, he opened the laptop in front of him. He tried to search for some random information about those companies related to the Ring group when a certain name caught his eyes.

"The Blue Boll Company"

From the previous years, this company has gained a lot of popularity which lead them to become the top marketing company this year. For the last five years, they are in Ring group's one of the close partner. Other than that there is nothing in their profile.

But there are photos related to this company. Ryan zoomed one of the family photos. He has one son and a daughter. His eyes were enlarged to see that person besides the president's wife's side. Although it's not so clear it's sure is Noah.

The way Noah is keeping a low profile no one could tell he is a big fish. It makes sense as June and Ryan also despise media. Then there is also the SS group which is not related to the Ring group but belongs to the same group. The president has only one daughter and she is Eva.

But that's not the main concern here. They both can use their ways to help Owen. They have a lot of ways to help him. Either way that doesn't make any sense except for Elena. There must be something very big going on.

After a while of confirming everything about Eva and Noah he lefts the office and went to the university to meet June. Luckily his friends are there to make up for his absence from the class. But all the way there he could only think about why they approached them.

When he reached the university June was still in her class. So he waited for her before the class and told her everything when she finished.

"What?!!" she shouted as she didn't expect that coming. "Now we should definitely not-"

"No, I think we should play with them," he cut her in the middle.

"You got a plan?"

"Not really. And that's why we should so that we could first know what's behind the wall...," he noticed she was skeptical. "What are you thinking?"

"There are two things that I am uneasy about. One is Owen's brother is not missing it's all plotted. And second I don't know why but it feels like Elena is not the daughter of the present of the Ring group."

"So it's a yes to keep playing with them," he grabs her wrist. "It's time to meet her. Let's go."

On their way to the sports department, they crossed paths with Noah. Seeing him Ryan gave him a big smile.

"Hey buddy~" he tuned his voice.

At first, he was confused but then looking at June's infuriated face he smiled back at Ryan. There is nothing but one thing right now that can make June that annoyed and that thing is a piece of good news for Noah.

_______To be continued_______