MARRIED TO MY ENEMY
Seated in the conference room of the FBI, So Hee leaned back in her chair.
“It's past my bedtime,” she said, crossing her legs beneath the table. “This had better be important.”
“Perhaps if you hadn't spent all night reading that work, you wouldn't be this exhausted,” snapped the middle-aged man seated across from her. So Hee ignored him and studied the four other people assembled in the secret conference room.
All male, all far older than she was and all refusing to meet her stare.
Picking up at her perfectly manicured nails, So Hee schooled her features into neutrality.
The five detectives gathered at the long table including herself were five of the FBI’s Elite Team.
This meeting was undeniably important. She'd known that from the moment Trixie sent her a text at 1AM in the goddamn morning, insisting she get down to the station without even bothering to say hello. If not for the fact that they were besties, So Hee would've sworn at her, but when Trixie says a meeting's important, it most definitely is.
Greg Daniels, leader of the elite team walked with Trixie trailing behind him. He lounged at the head of the table and sighed. His brown eyes met hers and he frowned. It might've been a late hour but So Hee could've sworn that her boss was paler than usual. Her stomach twisted for no reason.
“Hamuel escaped,” Greg finally said. Well, that would explain the reason for the meeting. “He had help from the inside.”
So Hee sighed through her nose. This was why she'd been summoned here? She tapped a foot on the marble floor. “I knew this would happen.” She said,
Hamuel Kravinsky had been on the FBI’s blacklist for years. The 45 year old American was a well-known criminal affiliated with the New York Bratva. He's into all kinds of dealings : human trafficking, drugs, guns, you name it. The bureau had just arrested him a week ago and he'd slipped under their radar. Again.
“You knew this would happen yet you did nothing.” The middle-aged man from earlier retorted. His name was Matthew Gonzalez. So Hee had never liked Matthew. During her first day of training, he had thrown a knife at her head. Fortunately for her, she'd caught the knife, but she'd flung it back and it took his eye. He has hated her since then. Sometimes, she wondered if he wanted her eye too, for revenge.
“That's enough!” Trixie, who was seated at Greg's left, a place meant for his second-in-command, interrupted. “If we're to blame, we'd start with you, Matt, since you're the one who made the arrest but you don't see us doing that, do you?”
Matthew muttered under his breath and looked away while So Hee had never wanted to hug her best friend at that moment.
Trixie winked at her before turning to face the team. “We’ve put out a BOLO for Hamuel Kravinsky. It's only a matter of time before the mafia finds him first. Most criminals who are caught never come out again. Not alive. And not in any recognizable shape.”
“Knowing Hamuel, he wouldn't want to die so he'll come crawling back to us to ask for protection. The FBI Elite’s safe house is the most secure place in the world. What better place to hide than in it?” So Hee flips a strand of her curly, golden hair, then looks at Matthew. “Who knows… Hamuel might even tell us who set him free in the first place.”
Matthew pushed back his seat hastily. “I'm sorry, are you accusing me of something?”
“I’m not.” So Hee blinked. “Are you guilty of something?”
Matthew gritted his teeth. “You —”
So Hee's brown eyes sparkled with mischief as she gave him a little smile that she knew would irritate him and turned to Greg. “But you didn't drag us here to talk about this, did you?”
Greg nodded, his mouth a thin line as he began softly. “We have a new target.”
Silence fell, and a roaring noise filled So Hee's ears as Greg took a breath. Something was so wrong.
“Who is it?” she asked, leaning forward. The other detectives focused on the table. Whoever this target was, they knew him or her. Why hadn’t Trixie told her first?
Greg's brown eyes became steel. “His name is Daniel Kim.”
So Hee gripped the arms of her chair. “What?”
Of all people to be targeted by the FBI, it turned out to be Daniel Kim, the prodigy who always beat her grades by 0.1%. The boy who made her highschool years a battlefield. The one who once hacked her debate speech slides during the Finals. The same idiot who told everyone she got into Harvard because of her last name. The bastard who rivals her company and tries to steal her potential clients.
So Hee's lips pulled back from her teeth. “What do you mean, ‘he’s the new target’?”
Greg eyed her, and a glimmer of frustration flashed across his face. “Affiliations with The Crimson Circle mafia.”
“Affiliations with The Crimson Circle mafia?” she scoffed. Daniel Kim was not only a glorified pain in the ass but he was also a criminal. Well, that didn't surprise her at all.
“So when do you want to make the arrest?”
“Soon…” Trixie replied. “...and fast.
“And how are we going to do that?!” Soo Hee twirled her hair around her index finger.
“We get him where he leasts expects it…” Greg passed a brown folder to Soo Hee.
So Hee eyed the material suspiciously before reading the contents. As soon as she was done, she lifted her eyes and scoffed. “You cannot be serious.”
When Trixie didn't reply, So Hee scoffed again. “I am not fake-dating my childhood nemesis just so I could arrest him.”
“You can, So Hee,” Trixie’s stern voice took a softer tone. “You're literally the only one who's known him since he was a child.”
So Hee pushed her chair back so hard it flipped over. “I'm still not doing it. If we're not looking for some other way to find something incriminating about him, I'll take my leave.”
Matthew shot to his feet. “Wow, look at you. You've grown enough balls to talk back at the Elite now, haven't you?!”
“Enough!” Greg snapped, rising from his chair.
So Hee and Matthew didn't move. None of the other detectives did or even spoke. They all stayed silent as Greg approached So Hee.
“So Hee, I know your history with Daniel…”
“Greg!” So Hee called out as a warning.
“I'm not doing that!” So Hee wrapped. She ran a hand through her hair as she stalked to the door.
“You're quitting even before finding your daughter?”
So Hee paused on the threshold. She whipped around to find Greg holding another brown folder.
“We're this close to finding her location, So Hee,” he pulled it away from her reach as she walked towards him. “Give up now and you'll never find her.”
A muscle feathered in So Hee’s jaw but she kept her cool. It would be foolish of her if she reacted. That would mean she wouldn't see Any ever again.
“Fine. What do you want?” she sighed, giving in to their demands.
“Get romantically involved with Daniel Kim, get him to fall in love with you and entrust you with all his secrets. You have one year to do it.” Greg said it like it was the easiest thing to do.
Any normal human in their right kind would refuse the offer especially when it came to the person they couldn't stand but So Hee wasn't doing this for herself. She was doing this for her daughter, her baby girl and she'd do anything humanly possible to get her back including falling in love with the enemy.
“Fine. I'm in.”
With that, she turned on her heel and left the hall.
