The Red of the Rose | Taeyong

06 | Taeyong's Conflict

Taeyong was sprawled on the couch at their studio apartment. It was still early and he had a lot of time before his first class of the day which was not scheduled till late afternoon. He had told the guys everything that happened yesterday and that he clearly needed a plan to proceed with Miah.

His mind was a blank. In his head he had devised a simple plan, or rather he had only devised a single line which was to ask for Miah's number and had expected that things will flow from there on their own. But he was completely thrown off and had no idea what to do now.

Taeyong heard the lock of the front door beeping open. Johnny walked in, followed by Yuta and Jaehyun. Completely lost in his thoughts, Taeyong hadn't realised how miserably he was sitting on the couch with his back humped and his shoulders drooping. Yuta let out a laugh and Johnny walked over to pat Taeyong on his back which was more of a 'sit up straight' than a consoling gesture.

As if Jaehyun had read Taeyong's mind, he declared, 'I am here to solve everything.' Taeyong's eyes were now fixed on what Jaehyun was holding all along. It was a brown file with several tabs sticking out of it.

Jaehyun had an air of coolness surrounding him, acting like the superhero who was just called in to save the day. Before sitting down opposite Taeyong, he placed the file on the dark wooden coffee table in the middle of the room.

'What is this?' Taeyong picked up the file to examine it. On the first page he found something which looked like an official report, clearly created by a professional.

Jaehyun smirked and Johnny could swear that he saw Jaehyun flick his hair back before speaking, 'Turn to the next page.'

What Taeyong saw widened his eyes. On the second page was a photo of Miah and all her personal details. He flipped through the file. With each page, there was more information about her.

'How did you...?' Taeyong was shocked that Jaehyun managed to get information like this on someone on such short notice. But on the other hand, he was also slightly glad because this was exactly what he needed.

'In order to seduce her, you need to know her,' Jaehyun spoke with a sly smile on his face which was returned by Taeyong.

But this moment was cut short when Johnny snatched the file from Taeyong's hand to have a look at it. 'Isn't this going too far?' He asked after only looking at the first page of it.

Jaehyun let out a sigh.

'You have a file on your classmate just so you can sleep with some girl.' Johnny no longer spoke in his casual tone.

'Not just some girl. Serin.' Taeyong winked and Jaehyun laughed.

Seeing Johnny's expression, Jaehyun added, 'Oh c'mon, it's harmless.' He turned to Yuta, who had smoothly separated himself from this conversation. 'You agree with us, right?'

'Please leave me out of this.' Yuta hadn't shifted the slightest in his seat. 'Do whatever you want, just don't go overboard.' Yuta looked at Taeyong only once, then went back to his phone.

Johnny threw the file back on Taeyong's lap. Taeyong opened it again to the page where he saw Miah's photo. She was dressed in a simple green shirt with her hair loose falling over her shoulders. This picture was not taken by the private investigator Jaehyun had hired since she was looking directly at the camera, smiling softly.

As the sun shifted positions in the sky behind him in the window, Taeyong sat in place the entire time, reading the file in his hands. The others were gone, leaving him alone in the apartment. His afternoon classes, eating, drinking, everything was long forgotten about. The only thing he wanted to do was to read through this file. The more he read, the more he wanted. It was as though he was reading his favourite novel, unable to stop.