Jess stood in the corner while she was waiting for June—talking to airline personnel because her suitcase was damaged. Her suitcase has cracked, probably due to poor handling. She was filing some complaints and Jess took the opportunity to send a message to Noah.

She sent him a photo of the luggage conveyor she snapped to let him know that she had landed.

Noah must be waiting for her message because he called the moment she sent him the photo.

"Hey, baby. How's your flight?" Noah crooned when she answered his call.

"It was uneventful. I slept and caught up with some reading."

"Are you still inside the airport?"

Jess knitted her eyebrows when she heard the question. Noah sounded pissed.

"Uhm, June - I mean, Jung Soo-Jung's suitcase got damaged through transit and she's currently filling up the complaint form. We'll get out here once she's done."

"Oh, that's good. Markus was saying that he lost you. The fucker just won't stop annoying me."

Jess chuckled when she found out the reason for Noah's annoyance. He must be really good friends with Markus, for him to prank Noah when he was his boss.

"Miss Jung is done, we'll get out now and head to the pick-up place."

"Markus is there waiting with Llano and Schull. Message me if Markus bullies you."

She giggled, "Yes, daddy. I'll let you know if the boys in the playground dare to bully me."

She heard Noah click his tongue with her being a wise-ass, but she didn't wait for him to respond and drop the call.

"Your dad?" a harassed June asked, which elicited another fit of giggles from Jess.

"Yeah, it's my dad," she shook her head in amusement.

"He must be such a strict father for him to ask you to report to him as soon as you landed."

She said her observation without a thought, pulling her cracked suitcase to the pick-up point where Markus and the other members of the team were waiting for them.

Jess closely followed behind snickering with the thought of Noah as her strict daddy. She wondered if Noah would spank her if she got naughty and not send him a message for a day.

When they reached the agreed pick-up point—just outside the arrival gate, Jess saw as Noah said, the rest of the team were already there with Markus.

The three men were busy chit-chatting that they didn't notice them until she greeted them first, because June as usual, had her cold demeanor the moment she saw Gareth.

She wondered what happened to them for her to always be on guard around Gareth.

"Miss Zimmerman, thank goodness! I thought you changed your mind and went back to LA," he was grinning, not caring that the two men, especially Gareth, were giving him a strange look with his friendly greetings to her.

"Sorry to keep you guys waiting, we just had some problem with our luggage," she smiled.

"All is good, I suppose?" He arched his brow, looking over her shoulder, watching June who was standing behind Jess—as stiff as a statue. Her face was devoid of any emotion.

Markus didn't comment on June, nor did he introduce himself. He just shifted his gaze to Jess, as he snapped his fingers in the air that got their driver to pay attention, and quickly got their suitcases to stash at the trunk of the van.

"I hope you are all hungry, I had prepared the best spread of local cuisine, waiting for all of you at one of the best restaurants in town," he said, taking Jess's elbow, leading her into the van.

June quickly followed suit and sat next to Markus. The three of them occupied the row of seats behind the driver, which left Llano and Hale with no choice but to sit at the backseat of the van.

Jess glanced at June as she was feeling uncomfortable for she could feel the sharp gaze of someone at the back of her head.

Markus started rambling about the city to her and June. She was glad that when he started acting like a tour guide, introducing the city and telling them the history of the city, commenting on everything they see outside the van's window, he didn't single her out but included June who finally relaxes a little.

The drive to the airport was fun and interesting because of Markus. He entertained them with his wit and boyish charm that even the stoic June couldn't help but laugh, once or twice during the drive with Markus funny anecdotes of his mishaps and adventures in the city.

He promised them a tour once they settled in their accommodations and they got their schedule fixed at the lab.

Jess despite meeting Markus in the past in an awkward situation, felt at ease and was looking forward to the promised tour of the city.

In the middle of his never-ending anecdotes, Markus leaned to her side and whispered, "You can tell Noah about our date, leaving the part where it's going to be a group date because I want to rattle his sorry ass."

"What makes you think I would agree to that?" she whispered back.

"Because you will see how fun it is to play with Noah," he winked at her, convincing her to join his pranks.

"I'll think about it," she chuckled. At the back of her mind, she was thinking, how would Noah react if she does what Markus was telling her to do. Would Noah get on his private plane and appear at her doorstep, she wondered to herself.

"I promise you, it would be so much fun," Markus wiggled his eyebrows, giving her a look that tells her, he knew she was considering the fact of making fun of Noah.

And, she does consider pranking Noah not because of Markus or to see him annoyed, but because she was thinking, if she missed Noah and wanted to see him, pranking him would be a good opportunity to make him come to her without telling him.