Deceit || Kang Taehyun [ON HOLD]

10 ➟ Composure

Taehyun bent down to allow himself to reach the keyboard on his desk, not comfortable enough to seat himself. Jieun kept a close eye on the movement of his fingers skipping over the keys and the rhythmic accordance of the numerous monitors in front of them.

She soon allowed her eyes to wander around the room, a little unsettled by the almost complete lack of light, her surroundings only slightly illuminated by the screens.

The room looked unlived in, devoid of the normal clutter that Jieun had assumed all guys tended to keep in their living spaces. It almost looked like a hotel room waiting for its next guest, assuming the guest was as big on computers as Taehyun was.

The chair in front of the desk looked more used than the bed.

After a while, Jieun let out a sigh, now leaning against the desk with one arm propped up on the edge of Taehyun's desk. Her neck was relaxed, letting her head fall onto her shoulder as she looked at Taehyun.

It was taking a while, and from what she could understand, he wasn't making a lot of progress.

"How long is this going to take?"

Jieun drawled out impatiently, tapping her fingernails against the cool white surface that Taehyun's setup hummed atop. Taehyun sighed and stood up straight, momentarily bringing his hands away from the keyboard. He turned his back to the desk, leaning against it slightly as he crossed his arms over his chest.

Jieun shifted her weight to her legs again, pulling her arm off of the desk as she looked at Taehyun questioningly.

"What are yo-"

"What are you hiding?"

Taehyun interjected in a curious tone, successfully catching Jieun off guard. Her cold stare cracked for a second, quickly freezing over again as she cleared her throat.

"What?"

A slight curve at the edge of Taehyun's lips formed at the first waver of her confidence, and he decided to take the opportunity to embed a new impression of himself into her memory.

He took a step towards Jieun, lowering his voice as his eyes hooded to look down to her properly. He was so close to her, Jieun could probably count his eyelashes (if she had enough time, of course).

"I asked, what are you hiding?"

At this point, Jieun could hardly comprehend the situation, the man in front of her seeming completely different to how she had seen him before. It was getting more and more difficult to keep her composure around him, the pressure and confrontation almost suffocating.

However she managed, she subtly swallowed to return the moisture to her mouth, flicking her head slightly to shift a thin lock of hair out of her face.

"I told you everything you need to know."

"Hm. You sure?"

Taehyun's head slanted slightly to the side, clearly suppressing a smirk. It was close to frustrating for Jieun to see how cocky he was getting.

"Yes. Are you going to help me find my brother or not?"

After another moment of Jieun's discomfort from the situation, Taehyun stepped back again, finally allowing a soft grin to appear on his face. As important as the safety of the team was to him, the sheer anxiety in Jieun's eyes was little more than entertaining to Taehyun.

Jieun sighed softly to herself, sliding her eyes closed for the second she mentally congratulated herself for not breaking under the pressure.

Growing up with strict parents, Jieun had got well used to lying without a problem, but there was never usually so much on the line as there was right now. A slip up and Jieun could become a mouse intruding on a lion's cave.

Taehyun glanced towards the screen for a second, then back to Jieun.

"They must have done a great job of covering their tracks. If I'm going to end up finding them, it's going to take a while."

Jieun's heart sank, feeling her ultimate goal slip further and further from her current situation with every passing second. She was beginning to realize the size of the jump from assisting her parents with missions to travelling overseas to carry one out on her own.

"How long will it take to find them?"

His eyes averted upwards, pulling air between his teeth as he seemed to think about it.

"Anywhere between a week and a few months. It's been long enough to make it difficult to find them in recent data."

sry if the computer stuff doesn't make sense i don't take computer tech or geography or any of that 😭
what you thinking :3

a vote is highly appreciated <33