After Dark 》Minsung

1 》No, Fuck You

A notification bubbled at the bottom of his laptop screen.

Careful not to knock the half-full can of some horrendous energy drink submerged in nuclear chemicals known to end life a few years before it deserved to be taken, he stopped annoying the cat. Setting himself to sit "properly" at the new alert. Scrunched up on the chair, heels tucked onto the edge of the chair, knees tucked up against his chest splaying out against the armrests as butterfly wings floating gently in the illuminious glow of the impossible hour, his chest hunching over to reach the laptop's keyboard. Leaning into it's abrasive light assaulting him. The insensitive pixels glowing in their brilliance as they tugging him mercilessly from his reclined relaxation and into the wonderland those lines of code offered to him.

The other mumbled, "I am going to shiver your timbers you piece of... Lice poop."

Minho chuckled to himself at the insult, his mind already preoccupied with the USB mouse, moving the cursor from the screen off the hovering desktop monitors to pop into the laptop. Pulling up the new additional contact to the secure burner phone number he kept for this work and the message that unknown name sent him. Quickly reading it over as the glimmer from the screens reflected on his skin. Casting it's ambivalent ambiguity onto his hand moving the mouse over the text, onto the backdrop of his white hoodie, onto the black cat who stepped off the desk to climb on Minho's hunched shoulders, it's paws settling stretched along him as if it's fur was a shawl to drape over the nape of his neck.

He lifted a hand free, moving to scratch the cat's chin as it purred into his shoulder blades, turning into a loaf on the ledge of his hunched back. Though he knew that black fur would be a hassle to get off from the otherwise clean, perfectly bleached fabric. Meaning he would have to finally wash the poor hoodie from it's few days of wear.

His fingers kept scratching the purring cat as he scanned the new text again.

"Minho? Hello?"

"Hey, can I call you back Lix?" He sparked up, coming to grab the animal as it's claws dug into his back. Rooting down into the white threads as she meowed in protest to him. Regretfully tugging her off to set her down in his lap, though she quickly bounced off of him and ran away to the mattress behind him, her bell collar jingling all the way. With a scoff at the behavior, Minho peeled the phone off the desk and hummed to it's microphone, "I got an interesting message I want to take care of before I do anything else."

"Oh, sure, sure! Something important?"

"I don't know yet. I think it's someone, a client. They're asking for me."

"Nice! Earn that money, Minho. Just let me know when you can do that for me and I'll wire you what I owe. As for-"

"Don't worry. You're asking something super simple, really. And even if there was an issue, you know I can work around it," He reassured him, his own confidence swelling up with it's typical hot air. It's typical pride, akin to the blatant shine of a King's crown, similar to the encrusted jewels which inlaid the revered gold which made up the symbol of ultimate power. The tyrant sitting atop a throne, in the top of a castle, built overlooking a kingdom, in the center of the world. Each shine of the faceted gems another piece of his own inflated ego, and yes he knew his ego was too inflated to be anything but a rivaling to a god complex in the dictionary. Minho was certain his face would be plastered as the raw example of one.

Not that he was always arrogant.

Not that he was always overconfident.

But this?

The requests?

These screens?

The customized keyboard beneath his fingertips that took way too long to be satisfied with the black matte and white rabbit design?