Money Loving CEO's Detective Lover

"Stop it!" he said irritably, slapping Jaewan's hand away.      

"It's gone," Jaewan said. "Good! That thing was annoying me."     

"My face is perfectly fine!" Minho gritted, feeling affronted. "As I was saying, this deal is very lucrative and with you as the brand, we're hoping that this venture will go to new heights."     

"Don't worry," Jaewan assured him. "Unlike yours, my face remains clean all the time. Not even a spot ever falls on it! In fact, I have a variety of skincare collection which I can recommend to you."     

The vein on Minho's head was at a dangerous level, ready to pop anytime but he had to control his temper. No one ever had the audacity to talk to him like that. The man was completely unabashed with his words with no consideration to other people's thoughts.      

"That's alright," Minho said with great restraint. "I use the best brands. Would you like to know their names?"     

The last question was sarcasm but Jaewan replied, "Unfortunately, my skin is sensitive to the drug store brands."     

Drug store brands?     

Before Minho could retort, Jaewan went on, "I think it's nearly time for the inauguration to start. Shall we go?"     

Minho gaped at him as he left the room. What the hell?     

The crowd cheered wildly as Jaewan took the stage. The host welcomed him while the fans, particularly the women, were screaming at the top of their lungs. Gayoon held on to Jina's hand as the little girl could not hold her excitement.     

"Oppa!" Jina squealed. "He's so handsome in real life!"     

Suddenly, Yumi apparated beside her. Gayoon felt the familiar cold sensation as the teenage ghost danced in excitement.     

"Yumi, what are you doing here?" Jina asked in surprise.     

"My oppa is here!" Yumi said gleefully. "How can I miss out on him?"     

Kids, Gayoon thought, shaking her head. EXO is clearly better than him!     

But she did not dare to voice out her preference and simply kept her eyes on the stage. Amidst the hundreds of fans, he would not notice her but she remembered him well.     

"He really did achieve everything he ever wanted," she said out loud.     

"You speak as if you know him," Yumi frowned.     

"Uh...sort of," Gayoon admitted. Both Jina and Yumi stared at her in shock.      

"He was a high school classmate," Gayoon confessed. "But that was years ago! I doubt he'll recognize me anymore."     

Or might even refuse to meet me, she added as an afterthought. She had abruptly disappeared after her eighteenth birthday and was aware that Jaewan tried to find her many times. But she was shifted to Minho's out of town farmhouse where she spent most of the duration of her pregnancy. Since the surrogacy was kept a secret, she broke off all contact with her former friends. Only her grandmother and later ahjusshi knew where she was.     

By the time she returned, Jaewan had become a national sensation and she, too, did not stay in town for long because she got into the police academy.     

"Lucky!" Jina moaned. "I wanna get his autograph so badly!"     

"Me too!" Yumi insisted. "Can't you try to get closer, detective? Who knows? He might even recognize you! And imagine this. What if he had a secret crush on you and has been looking for you all along?"     

"That's nonsense!" Gayoon scoffed. "The guy had legions of girls following him but the only things he loved were cleaning equipment and sanitizing products. He might not look like it but he's a neat freak. Look at what he's doing on the stage!"     

They turned their attention to Jaewan who was spraying the chair with a pocket disinfectant.     

"He's so considerate of these things…" Jina said dreamily.     

"His house is also clean and crisp!" Yumi added. "His instagram feed is full of the posh condo he lives in and it is so lit. The walls are as white as snow and every surface cleaned to perfection. Not even a tiny speck of dust on anything!"     

"I'm gonna learn how to clean properly so that when I grow up, I can marry him and we can clean the whole house together!" Jina piped up.     

"You're way too young for him!" Yumi snapped. "He needs a mature and sensible woman. Like me."     

"At least I'm alive!" Jina retorted.     

"At least I can apparate right into his apartment and watch him shirtless!"     

"Stalker!"     

"Puny!"     

"Stop it!" Gayoon scolded both of them. "Stop fighting otherwise I won't bring you two to these events again!"     

Jina and Yumi scowled at each other. Gayoon sighed and kept her attention on the stage where Jaewan was cutting the ribbon. He posed for the cameras, flashing them a wide smile. The fans around him screamed and screeched for his attention while the reporters clicked more pictures of his from all the possible angles.     

"Mom, let's go closer!" Jina begged.     

"Fine," Gayoon said. She led them ahead, keeping a firm grasp on Jina's tiny palm. The place was just too crowded and Gayoon had to push through a lot of people.     

"It's really crowded," Jina complained. The people were so excited to see Jaewan that they did not care for anything else. IT was getting difficult to maneuver there and Gayoon tried to move past the people in front of them.      

"Excuse me!" She exclaimed to a group of teenagers. "Please let us through!"     

No matter how much she tried to move forward, the large crowd would shove her backwards and she was beginning to worry that she would lose Jina in the crowd.     

"Jina don't let go!" she told the little girl but suddenly, a group of people pushed her back and for a moment, Gayoon almost lost her balance. In that split second, her hand slipped from Jina's.     

"Jina?" Gayoon yelled in panic. She turned to see that her daughter was gone.     

"Jina!" she kept on calling and roughly pushed past the crowd to search for her daughter but the little girl was nowhere to be seen.     

"What happened?" Yumi's voice floated in her ears.      

"Jina is gone!" Gayoon said tearfully.