Playing with Fire: A BLACKPINK Story

Chapter 12: Seen Too Much

2019.

I should have known right away that something was wrong. In my defense, I picked up on it very quickly, but not as fast as I should have. To further defend myself, it had nothing to do with my main objective, which was simply to guard the girls. Anything else would have to come from a direct order from Hyun-suk, as we had discussed.

Instead, I continued my circuit around the stage area, keeping my eyes on the problematic area.

It was hard for me to say what was wrong exactly. There was nothing overtly dangerous happening and the performance was, as expected, going off without a hitch. The girls were magnificent, with Lisa giving an especially inspired show to the audience. I wasn't surprised. It was her home country, after all.

But even though I was having trouble placing it, I had no doubt that... something was happening. It could have been something as simple as the amount of people milling about, but it just seemed unusual.

I had asked some of the security detail if anything seemed out of the ordinary, but they had all responded in the negative. None of them had seemed to be lying—either that, or they were just remarkably good at hiding falsehoods.

Except I was remarkably good at uncovering falsehoods, so I didn't think that was the case.

Either way, it meant I was going to investigate it myself.

I knew the arguments against it—it wasn't what Hyun-suk wanted, it was leaving the girls unguarded, it wasn't my business, and so on. But it had become my business when I had started to find out more of what was going on behind the scenes at YG.

I didn't know the details. It was possible that I never would, but I had some ideas, and I didn't like them. Those two people I had executed (there was no other word for it) in the nightclub had put the ideas into my head. And the man I had accosted in the alleyway with Jisoo had solidified them.

If YG was dealing in women—it meant I couldn't in good conscious continue to work for them. The girls would be without me... Jisoo would be without me. But that was a line I couldn't cross. As far as I could tell, there was no obvious sign of wrongdoing, either. I had looked, only a little, since my hours had been almost completely occupied since the encounter, but there had been nothing. If I was going to find definitive proof, my hands were going to have to get dirty. Dirtier than they already were.

In the meantime, I had the tour to worry about.

My circling of the below and backstage area took me to the location that had raised my mental alarm. It was a private area, something of a VIP area that was off to the side a little. I had seen that type of thing at venues before, where the crowd was mostly seated and enjoying the show from a more relaxed position. It came with a hefty price tag, but it also meant avoiding the insane crowding that came with shows like this, while still maintaining a close proximity to the stage.

It was strange. There wasn't much happening at all. People enjoying the show, watching, some moving around, some with drinks in their hands... Not every seat was filled, but that wasn't unusual for areas like this. Tickets here were probably astronomical so...

Wait. This show was sold out.

It was possible, of course, that people just hadn't shown up. Or that scalpers had bought the tickets and not managed to sell them. But that many? And for seats that expensive?

I took another look over the gate, continuing to move, so as to not block views or draw attention to myself.

It was then that I realized the other thing that seemed strange to me. The majority of people in that area were adult men, older than me by a decade at the very least, possibly more. It wasn't unusual for Blackpink to have fans of every age range but this many, in one spot? It could have been nothing. I was still going to check it out anyway.