Proofreader/Editor: Kaima, Hwarang
Soon after Noah left the banquet hall people suddenly started drinking like crazy, either because Noah was going to pay for the banquet or maybe it was usually like this. And not just champagne, extremely expensive drinks started to pour in, and in the end everybody was having drinks such as Royal Salute, Macallan and Glenfiddich.
People in the movie industry were really scary. Mason thought that when your superior says, ‘Order anything you guys want,’ it usually meant, ‘order the cheapest, and eat very little.’ However, here it had the atmosphere of pure festivity and ‘let’s all drink something that we can never buy with our own money.’
Producer Gloria and even the polite and outgoing Chase were drinking excitedly.
Vick, who was sipping one or two champagnes, couldn’t even taste the expensive alcohol and got heavily drunk and walked very unsteadily and ended up falling on a table and spilled the drinks.
“……”
Mason, who was standing on the side, thinking ‘uh, that looks pretty unsafe….’, ended up smelling strongly of alcohol, even though he didn’t drink Macallan or even a glass of champagne.
Because Vick fell down pushing the table, all the champagne glasses on the table fell on top of him.
Mason, who came to the party all dressed up, was now drenched in champagne from chest to waist and glared at Vick. But Vick was already not in his right mind. He didn’t even apologize. He was just crawling under the table like he didn’t know if he was a human or a bug.
Mason glanced at Vick, who was in a place perfect to get stepped on and playing around with people’s legs, and looked around.
He walked over to Producer Gloria, who always took good care of him, and told her, “I don’t think Vick is in his right mind….” She put her glass down and looked at Mason.
“That guy is always not in his right mind.”
“….That seems about right, but….”
Mason looked at her loose eyes, wishing she was just tired, but she said honestly, “Just chuck him away, that guy,” and held her glass again.
Mason searched the party hall to find a person who he could hand over Vick to, but he couldn’t find anyone. They were all drinking like they were out of their minds except for him.
Everybody was drinking like there was no tomorrow, worse than the mercenaries who could actually die any day. Mason stared at them with respect and called for Vick from under the table.
He wouldn’t come out and so Mason grabbed a handful of his hair and pulled. Vick groaned, “Ughhh…,” and was pulled out.
Mason made Vick, who was way heavier than him, stand up and supported him and walked to the elevator that Noah rode a while ago.
His clothes were slightly wet and the alcohol smell was strong. Dragging Vick for about ten meters drenched him in sweat.
“If I knew this would happen, I should’ve drunk too.”
It would’ve been better if he’d let go of his conscience, but it was too late for regret.
He pressed the elevator button and while waiting for the elevator, Vick murmured, “Big hit-…. Big hit…, my big hit….,’ in a moan. Mason seriously thought he wanted to abandon him and leave, but he just sighed.
Ding! At the sound of elevator arriving, Mason got hold of Vick and pushed his head up. And froze just like that.
He felt his heart drop.
Inside the elevator were Aaron and Ashley, standing right there in disguise. Wearing wigs and hats. Glasses and freckles. Because they’d used exaggerated front teeth, they looked like completely different people, but Mason knew for sure.
It was them.
***
“Aren’t you gonna ride?”
Aaron glanced at him and asked.
“Ah…. Sorry. Because of our alcohol smell.”
Unlike his panicked head, his mouth spit out a proper excuse. Mason swallowed his dry throat and fixed Vick and went inside the elevator.
He took two steps into the elevator that felt very long and narrow. Mason made Vick lean on one side and rolled his eyes while holding onto him.
Aaron and Ashley.
As soon as he saw Aaron, very much unlike him, Mason’s brain stopped working as if it had evaporated. His heart rate that had dropped now started to beat very fast.
It was a natural reaction when you meet the man that killed you.
Mason felt his body tense up, in meeting the two very unexpected people, at a very unexpected place. It was hard to tell, whether his body was shivering because of fear, or anger.
Mason held his breath and controlled his expression. He felt himself automatically school his facial features into indifference, but he couldn’t be sure. Mason lowered his head, such that his eyes were only on Vick, as much as possible. But he felt a stare and raised his head.
Ashley was glancing at him. Because of that 'I know you' stare, Mason panicked for a second, but remembered he was Haley now and a celebrity and smiled brightly.
He saw Ashley’s face slightly blush. Aaron looked at her and soon asked Mason.
“Should I press it for you?”
He was talking about the elevator button. They probably thought Mason looked uncomfortable because of Vick, so they put their hands on the buttons.
“Ah. Thank you. Seven…… teen.”
Mason noticed that the 12th floor button was already pressed. ‘12th floor? What’s on the 12th floor?’ When he checked the floor diagram chart on the wall, it said suites and VIP business room.
Mason tried to figure out what their business was. Ashley and Aaron shouldn’t be out walking around right now. Not sure about Aaron, but especially Ashley. Compared to trying to find the unidentified corpse of Mason, it was natural to conclude that Ashley, who’d just disappeared, was also a target and so, the whole area must be crawling with agents hunting her.
‘You guys might get caught even in a crappy room eating pizzas, but why are you walking around like this?’
Even if they disguised themselves, the level of disguises were very noticeable to people who knew them. They probably know it themselves, and they looked pretty tense. What was their business in this hotel? There was no way that they were trying to secure a place to stay. They can’t be in a place full of CCTV like this.
‘What are they up to, seriously?’ Mason quickly worked his head.
“…..-“
There was one person who came up in Mason’s mind, but that didn’t make any sense.
‘9th floor, 10th floor, 11th floor….’, the elevator went up to their floor and Mason, biting his lips, suddenly turned towards Vick, who he was supporting and asked, “What did you say?”
“All of a sudden, a restroom? No, wait. Don’t act like this, Director.”
‘You can’t do it here!’ Mason desperately shook Vick and shouted, and Vick, who was dozing off, groaned “Ughhh….,” and got painfully shaken.
As soon as the elevator reached the 12th floor and its doors opened, even before someone could say something, Mason dragged Vick and stepped outside, ahead of Ashley and Aaron, saying, “Ah, not the big one! Don’t you have any social decency and pride as an adult?” He pretended that he’d dropped Vick in front of the elevator and put him on the floor. During that time, Aaron and Ashley came out too and went somewhere. ‘Director, Director!’ Mason quietly called the director and paid attention to their movements.
“Are you sure Raynoah is really here?”
He heard Ashley ask Aaron in a slightly annoyed voice. Mason, who was pretending to slap Vick’s cheek, was startled.
‘Looking for Noah? –Why?’
Mason looked back at them and at the same time he saw an old man and Noah, walking out from the direction of the lounge.
“……”
Mason looked at Aaron and Ashley again. They didn’t hesitate when they found Noah. Mason saw them walking towards him with slight nervousness and swallowed his dried throat.
When in the elevator, he was thinking about why those two came to the hotel and only one person came to his mind.
‘Noah’.
But he’d thought, ‘This is a hastily drawn conclusion and it could be any of the several people staying in the hotel and so, it can’t be Noah,’ and stopped pondering about it.
But those two were indeed approaching Noah.
It seemed like Noah was finishing his talk with the old man. He said goodbye and walked to the elevator by himself. Mason’s eyes roamed quickly and noticed that there were no hidden bodyguards today. Even Phil, who was always with Noah, was not there.
Mason bit his lips.
Ashley and Aaron’s faces and eyes were worse than he thought. You can easily tell that living on the run had completely exhausted them. They did it because they were tempted by big money, 50 million
dollars, at that moment, but now they couldn’t do anything with it. They probably couldn’t even open the safe.
Mason remembered how he’d pulled the trigger when the last number of the password was coming out of Alta’s mouth and bit his lips.
They, who were getting chased by Zii while not able to do anything and chased to a corner, were now trying to meet Noah.
‘What should I do? Should I just let it be?’ Mason was caught in a conflict.
“-….”
Mason bit his lips. ‘Let’s just ignore it. Didn’t I just hear that I was nosy, during our last meeting? I don’t have to interfere. I’m not even certain that they are actually trying to abduct Noah and take him as hostage, in order to solve their situation or not’.
They might actually have some personal business with Noah.
Mason ignored his drying lips and tried think hard, and he saw them getting closer to Noah and frowned. His heart was beating heavier than when he’d met Aaron a moment ago.
‘You don’t even know what’s going on, but you’re trying to interfere, Mason Taylor? Are you out of your mind?’ Mason asked himself, and in that moment Ashley touched the back of her waist, like she was trying to find something. That’s where she always put her gun, and when he realized that, Mason stood up.
Mason pulled Vick up, pushed him inside the elevator and pressed any random floor and dispatched him away. He ran as fast as he could.
‘Fuck, after all the effort I've put into protect him…..’
He’d already tasted cold death bearing down from the gun, Aaron’s gun, when he let his guard down in Alta’s bunker. He couldn’t let that happen to Noah. He couldn’t let that child whom he’d released from a dark and painful luggage bag suffer like that.
“Excuse me….,”
When Ashley tried to talk to Noah, Mason snatched Noah and dragged him in a rush.
“Haley?”
Noah asked, surprised, but instead of answering him, Mason looked back. A startled Ashley was standing there as if in a shock, and he made eye contact with Aaron.
“Get him.”
He saw Aaron murmuring and his steps got faster. Ashley shouted something at Aaron, but he ignored her and started to run after Mason.
Mason heard Noah getting mad, “Hey, you,” but he didn’t listen. He urgently dragged Noah and searched inside his pocket. The room number that Tony gave him was definitely…
-Number 1218”
“-!”
Mason held his breath at the room number that showed up right in front of his eyes and quickly inserted the card. He opened the door and pushed Noah into the room as if he was kidnapping him and forcefully shut the door.
The troubled faces of Ashely and Aaron disappeared right away in front of the door.
Mason quickly bolted the door and inhaled deeply. He thought his heart was going to get out. Mason felt cold sweat behind his back and panted. It was very close, and they were largely lucky. If the room number that Tony gave weren’t 1218, they would’ve definitely been caught.
Ashley and Aaron, who were properly trained mercenaries, were not the same as the gangsters they met last time. He probably couldn’t have saved Noah from them.
Mason breathed fast and listened to the outside noise. Outside it was quiet, but he noticed strange tension was there.
‘What should I do now…’ Mason was wiping the sweat off from his face and felt a stinging stare behind his back and raised his head and turned around.
“…..Ah….”
Noah, who got dragged in without knowing anything, was staring at him very coldly.
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Hahahaha Mason said don't poop in the elevator to Vick lolololol
Continue to Chapter 14
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