(This is a super short chapter, but I'm visiting family over the weekend, so if I tried to write a full chapter I wouldn't be able to post it until Tuesday at the earliest. I thought a short chapter was better than nothing, especially with the rather long break I just took. Sorry about that by the way. Anyways, enjoy!)
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-Hyunjin's POV-
For some reason Jisung had been adamant about dying my hair first thing in the morning, meaning I still smelled vaguely of hair dye by the time we all sat down for breakfast. Thankfully it was the weekend, meaning the first meal of the day was often later than on weekdays, but that also meant everyone else got to sleep in while I had to wake up at the ass crack of dawn.
But I wasn't exactly new to a lack of sleep, so despite the late night and early morning, I felt no different than how I usually did. Jisung was also surprisingly chipper, though he had become a lot more bubbly as soon as he finished dying my hair red. Apparently the excitement of dying someone's hair was his equivalent to coffee, but he still poured himself a large mug of it before joining the rest of us at the table.
Felix had cooked breakfast this morning, meaning the table was decked out in western food. Bacon, scrambled eggs, and pancakes were dished out around the table as everyone broke into separate conversations, their tones rather quiet as a few members were still groggy from sleeping in.
I plated a few pancakes before topping them off with chopped strawberries, a little impressed by how many options Felix had bothered to prepare for the pancakes alone. He seemed to enjoy cooking breakfast the same way Minho enjoyed cooking dinner, because the effort they put in wasn't a level reachable with any amount of reluctance.
"What are your plans for today?" I looked up from my food to see Changbin looking at me expectantly, and he took a bite of bacon as he waited for my response.
"Breaking and entering. You?" He stopped chewing, his expression frozen before he shook it off and apparently decided it wasn't worth it to be surprised.
"Where are you breaking into? Do you need help?"
I chuckled. "No, I'm just meeting someone. Though now that I think about it, I only know the address of their friend. Hey Seungmin?" I turned to the younger, and he looked over with his chopsticks raised to his lips. He pulled the piece of pancake away from his mouth, his expression attentive. "Any chance you found any information on the pickpocket and his friend?"
He blinked before seemingly realizing what I was talking about. "I'm gonna be honest with you, I completely forgot." He then stuffed his mouth with pancake and turned back to his plate, and I sighed at the awkward dismissal.
"That's alright. I'll just have to ask his friend about it when I break in later."
"Why not knock?"
I snorted, highly amused by Changbin's suggestion. "You think they would let me in?"
"They met him once, which means they already know he's crazy." Minho took a dramatically long sip of his coffee to punctuate his words, and I gestured towards him while my eyes remained locked with Changbin's.
"See? He gets it."
"Just be safe." Apparently Chan was also listening in, and like the daddy leader he was, he decided to be the responsible one. Though whether or not allowing me to break into an innocent's home was considered responsible was debatable.
"That's an unreasonable request."
"Worth a shot."
I deemed the conversation over, so I focused my attention back onto my still untouched food as I picked up a piece of bacon. As expected it was amazing, and I sighed and closed my eyes as a content smile spread across my lips.
"What exactly do you expect to happen when you break in?" I opened my eyes to see Changbin still looking at me, his food forgotten as he gave me a concerned and inquisitive expression.
"That they'll be so happy to see me that they throw a parade in my honor." He seemed unamused by my sarcasm as I offered him an innocent smile, and knowing his habit of not letting me eat in peace, I was quick to once again fill my mouth with bacon.
"Your goal was to eventually become friends with him, right? I'm not sure breaking into his friend's house is a good way to go about it."
I shrugged before swallowing. "Maybe he appreciates assertiveness. You don't know."
He sighed. "You're a difficult person to reason with."
"Because I'm so right all the time?"
". . . Sure."
"If he wants to go get a restraining order placed against him, you should let him." Jeongin spoke up for the first time all morning, his expression disinterested as he poked at his scrambled eggs.
I nodded before grinning. "I'm starting a collection. Though I'm a little disappointed my first one isn't from Minho. I was going to put his in a frame."
Minho directed a pointed stare at me from the corner of his eye as he stirred his coffee, his eyes narrowed though lacking fire. "Don't tempt me."
"But I'm so good at it."
He rolled his eyes before staring into his coffee, and I once again turned back to my food as the conversation finally stalled.
I wasn't exactly sure if I was going about this in the right way. I was good at socializing with people in high standing and those related to dangerous organizations, but someone like the pickpocket was out of my wheelhouse.
Showing up at his friend's place would probably freak him out, but I had already shown my true colors. Attempting to befriend him the normal way would be near impossible after our first meeting, but was illegal assertiveness an effective method?
Eh. Fuck it.
As soon as I finished eating I stood up and grabbed my plate, and I headed towards the kitchen to clean my dishes off before turning to the sink filled with dirty dishes. Felix wasn't exactly the "clean up as you go along" kind of cook, which meant there were numerous dishes that were now piling up from his cooking frenzy.
I rolled up my sleeves before opening the empty dishwasher, and I began to rinse off dishes and place them on their designated rack as the sound of light clanking and running water filled the otherwise silent space.
That silence continued even as Seungmin came up to stand beside me, and I moved over so he could start filling the dishwasher with the dishes I handed him. I assumed we would continue to work in silence, the white noise and the sunlight spilling in through the drapes creating a peaceful atmosphere. But surprisingly, that peacefulness didn't dissipate even as his voice broke the silence.
"I'm sorry I didn't look into them like you asked me to." I looked over to see him staring intently at the dishes he was handling, and I smiled softly before turning back to my task.
"Don't worry about it. I know you've had a lot on your mind lately, as well as a lot of pressure. If anything I should be apologizing for adding onto it."
I handed him another dish as he hummed, and I started scraping off pancake remnants from the pan Felix had used. "I like what I do, and tracking people down is fun so I don't mind doing it for you, but I just . . ." He trailed off, and I made no move to interrupt as he seemed to debate over his next words. "For a little while I struggled to do anything productive, and I was worried I was losing my touch. A part of me feared I would have to leave the group if I continued to fail so miserably, and so working on the computer began to stress me out. Most of my time was spent trying to find information for the missions, because it was taking me way longer than usual. So I'm sorry that I couldn't be of help, but to be honest, if I had attempted to track them down earlier I would have failed." His expression was hidden as he twisted in order to place a plate on the bottom rack, but I didn't need to see his face to know what expression he was making.
Seungmin was a difficult one to figure out. It seemed that every time I managed to grasp his personality, another aspect of it would make itself known, and he always managed to surprise me with the new sides of himself.
When I first met him I had assumed he was a very serious and put together person, but it only took me a few days to realize that was his work persona. All of the members seemed to have a facade they wore when they were working, a side of themselves that seemed to be a complete one eighty.
Jisung would suddenly become incredibly confident and fast on his feet, Chan would turn into an immovable boulder that acted as a pillar to the others, Felix would become intimidating and assertive, Changbin would become imposing and stone cold, Jeongin would become psychotic and reckless, and Minho would become menacing.
And Seungmin? He was cold, calculative, and assertive. He had a composure that allowed him to lead the others when needed, and a mind sharp enough to create plans and solutions that were incredibly impressive. I had yet to see it in person unfortunately, because my arrival was the start of his downward spiral. But the mission records I had come across during one of my . . . investigations, had shown just how deserving he was of the title of genius.
And for a bit, I thought that was all there was to him. But then I got to see his laid back side. The side that made old jokes, the side that went along with my humor, the side that showed compassion and care not at all fitting the stoney image I had first had of him. He had a kind of childish wisdom that granted him immature maturity, because while he was threatening Chan's spot as leader one moment, he would then remind everyone that he was still the second youngest.
He was complex, unpredictable, and incredibly entertaining to try and dissect. And out of all the sides he had shown me, vulnerability was the rarest one. He clearly didn't like opening up to people, and though he had become flustered in the past and even broke down in my presence earlier that week, this was one of the first times where he willingly opened up to me. And about something that had obviously caused him a lot of grief, too.
I smiled softly before rinsing off the soap from the pancake pan, perfectly content with his sudden refusal to lock eyes. "Are you doing better now?"
"Yeah." His voice was quiet, but even over the clanking of dishes I could hear the relief in his tone. "I'm not at a hundred percent, but I'm no longer struggling like I was before. I think I was just getting in my own head too much, you know? Hacking into that private discord server seemed to finally snap me out of it." He put the last plate into the dishwasher before reaching for the soap, and once the soap compartment was full he closed the dishwasher and started it. He set the soap down before turning to face me, and I turned my attention away from drying the pan in order to look him in the eyes. "Thank you, by the way. For comforting me. And for pointing out my mistake. I owe you, but I don't think I've thanked you properly yet."
I placed the pan down before ruffling his hair, and though he pouted childishly at the show of affection, he still allowed me to mess up his previously neat hair as my smile widened. "Don't mention it. What are friends for?"
I was taken aback when his expression soured slightly, and he seemed just as surprised as he quickly reigned in his expression. I pulled my hand away from his hair before tilting my head, trying my best to figure out what I could have said to make him react like that. "Is everything okay, Minnie?"
"Yeah, I'm sorry. I don't know why I suddenly . . . Everything's fine." He quickly retreated, leaving me standing alone in the now clean kitchen, confusion and worry clawing at my gut.
Was it something I said?
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As I got dressed and ready to leave for the pickpocket's friend's place- I really needed to learn their names- I was quick to realize a rather important detail.
They lived pretty far away. . . and I did not have a car.
. . . Well darn.
I grabbed my jacket before leaving my bedroom, and I scanned the other member's rooms to try and figure out who would be most willing to help me make bad decisions.
Chan and Seungmin were way too responsible so they were out. As the group's doctor Felix had a weird obsession with everyone's physical health, so he definitely wouldn't be a good choice to bring along to a possibly dangerous situation. Jeongin still had anxiety about being around others, so he was also a no go. Changbin would probably be willing to tag along, but he had some pretty strict morals, so breaking into someone's house was probably not his favorite pastime.
Minho was . . . Just . . . No.
So I guess that left Jisung. He seemed the most likely out of the group to be willing to fuel my poor choices and reckless behavior, and he didn't seem to have a problem with this certain type of . . . activity.
Satisfied with my choice I began to head towards his door, a little hopeful he would conveniently be in his room. The house was rather large, and after my most recent exploration of it, I had come across a door I hadn't come across previously. It was tucked away behind the main display of the armory, and I only discovered it because I finally took note of the nondescript handle placed blatantly in the center of the display.
Unfortunately, despite the lock on the door being something I could easily break, it was also electronic. Apparently they had expected me to find the door eventually, so Seungmin set up a voice message that began to play the instant I began to tamper with the electronic lock. It said something along the lines of, "Hyunjin, please don't betray our trust. There are some things that we must keep from you for the sake of privacy, so please respect our boundaries." And fuck if that wasn't effective.
Turns out there is a type of lock that I couldn't break, and that lock was powered by guilt tripping. I knew what they were doing when they set that up, but despite my curiosity and my usually destructive habits, I couldn't bring myself to continue tampering with the lock.
So yes, there was now a place in the house that I hadn't been in yet. Thankfully they didn't ever seem to be there when I needed them for something, and based on the fact that Seungmin and Chan had conveniently come running down to check on something only a few moments after I triggered the voice message, if I needed them, I could simply tamper with the lock again and they would come running.
"What are you doing?" I was a few feet away from Jisung's door when Minho's voice interrupted me, and I smiled innocently at him from over my shoulder. Surprisingly his tone wasn't accusatory, but it still carried the same monotony and look of disapproval that he often directed at me. But it wasn't hateful or disgusted so, you know, baby steps.
"Trying to find someone to drive me so I can go make bad decisions. You?"
He blinked but was otherwise unfazed, most likely because he and the others had gotten used to my . . . everything. "All the others are busy today. Chan and Seungmin are planning a mission for when we get back from vacation, Jisung, Changbin and Felix are practicing together for the majority of the day, and Jeongin is meeting with our group's psychiatrist." He didn't seem at all guilty for mercilessly crushing my plans, but as I realized he didn't mention what he was doing, a mischievous smile spread across my lips.
"No." Like a mind reader he shot down my suggestion before I could even voice it, and my smile quickly turned into a pout as I slumped.
"Please?"
"No."
My bottom lip protruded out further, and when he simply raised a brow in challenge, I sighed and straightened. What could I do to convince him that wouldn't worsen our relationship? My first instinct was to threaten to take his motorcycle instead, but Minho was currently trying to work through his trust issues. The progress was incredibly slow, but still noticeable. Trying to blackmail him would completely decimate the small amount of trust he might be placing in me.
He wasn't exactly fond of me, so guilt tripping wouldn't work. I had nothing I could bribe him with, so that wasn't an option either. The only tool at my disposal was the fact that I could easily annoy him, but how do I use that to my advantage? Try to annoy him in order to convince him to spend the day with me? That would be counterproductive. Was there really nothing I could do to convince him?
All the viable options would only worsen his opinion of me, and that was the last thing I wanted to do.
I didn't realize I had been dozing until Minho's defeated sigh snapped me out of it, and I attempted to meet his eyes but failed miserably as he turned on his heel and began walking away.
I slumped slightly, but my disappointment didn't last long as his voice once again broke the silence. "Meet me in the garage in five."
He then rounded the corner, and even when he was out of sight I still found myself staring at the spot he was last in.
Why would he suddenly-
My eyes widened slightly when it finally clicked.
I had been making the face.
. . . . . . . . . . .
Nah, it was probably something else.
—-------To Be Continued —--------