4.

She quickly scanned the men sitting at the table, not a single familiar face, not a clue on their true identity.

Besides from the weapons carelessly scattered around the table they barely looked any more intimidating than a bunch of handsome businessmen...

"Welcome to the Min residence. You really should have called, I'm afraid I'll fail in my hostess duties and won't be able to offer you any hors d'oeuvres on such a short notice..." Lady Min said trying to keep her tone from turning sarcastic. When the men noticed her, they stood up and bowed.

At least they had some semblance of manners in regard to her status...

"Thank you for having us. We tried to leave a message before visiting, but the man we sent to set the meeting unfortunately came back to us decapitated." The tallest man of the gang, who also appeared to be the leader, spoke, with a smile that could have passed as kind in other circumstances.

"Do you perhaps mean the meeting were that gentlemen tried to convince me to sell you my family's entire territory, the others we own and to marry one of you kind strangers on top of it all, despite fifteen of my good men being burned alive by your thugs just a few weeks prior?" The girl asked innocently while sitting down at the end of the table.

She had to furiously grip the armrests to hide the fear washing over her as she finally realized who she was up against.

"Yes, that meeting precisely. Fortunately, now we can discuss the terms in person instead and avoid any further misunderstanding." The leader said as Hyun-Woo came in with the sake set and started silently serving everyone.

"I don't know if you are fans of sake, but I was afraid that if we were to drink soju our minds wouldn't stay sharp very long and that would be bad for negotiating." The girl joked.

"Tsk-tsk, trying to kill us before even hearing my offer?" the man said with an amused grin.

The man next to the leader seemed satisfied enough with her demonstration to grab his cup, but with one look from the leader he put it back down.

"The sake is safe, but our cups aren't. The black snake motif is covered with ricin, and it wouldn't be very polite of us to die in the middle of our meeting." The man said, with a chuckle.

The girl's eyes narrowed in shock.

He might have guessed the cups were poisoned, but how could he have known the nature of the drug... The cups were a well-kept family secret, too well kept for a stranger to have access to that information.

The man's dragon-like eyes, his smug smile... They seemed familiar somehow, like he wasn't a stranger after all...

"You still don't recognize me? Here, I'll give you a hint..." the man said, before pulling a handkerchief out of his pocket. It was a dusty black with little discolored foxes.

"Kim Namjoon!?" the girl exclaimed, a cold chill running up her back.

"Long time no see, Hye-Jin..." he replied with a dimpled smile.

Hye-Jin's mind went blank, how was she supposed to process that her sweet childhood friend had become RM, the boss of Bulletproof, the most fearsome Mafia in all of Korea.

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