Why was it a surprise to her that his thumb was so warm?
It had been so long since Jiah had let anyone near enough to touch her, and she didn't like the feeling of his thumb on her skin.
Or was it that she didn't like the fact that she loved it.
Despite his stiff manner, Taehyung's radiated the warmest feeling, and when he traced the cut running down the side of Jiah's face, it was as if she felt it close right up, it felt like if she looked in a mirror there would be no trace of blood or scarring left.
"What happened to your face?" his voice was stern, yet again and Jiah lifted her eyes to meet his.
God, his eyes were silver.
His hand dropped from her cheek and brushed her hair behind her shoulder, revealing her bare neck. Revealing the bruise clear enough for him to conclude that it was definitely not a hickey and that it wasn't something benign either.
"And what happened here?"
For some reason, one that Jiah would never know, or ever wanted to know, she found herself mentally begging for his touch again. As if it were magic, the gentle contact; his skin against hers.
Why did she crave it so much?
Now that she's had a small glimpse of what it feels like, why did it feel like it could make her invincible?
It was as if he could hear her thoughts, his thumb was now tracing the almost perfect circle on the side of her neck, his touch was soft, it was warm, it was welcoming.
Jiah didn't do welcoming.
Her eyes never left him, however, even as he was examining her wounds, she watched him.
Was that genuine concern in his expression? Couldn't be.
"Was this that man?" he asked, suddenly, looking up at her and catching her stare. Which was when it became known to both of them that they were only inches apart from each other. But neither one of them moved.
"No," she admitted, shaking her head yet her gaze never shifted.
"Then what happened? How did you get hurt?"
"Who said I was hurt?" she was slowly gaining her normal composure, which she thanked the Gods (she didn't believe in) for.
"Jiah, you have a huge bruise, an even bigger cut-"
"But I'm not hurt," she cut him off, breaking eye contact and looking at her watch, "We need to get to work, you have a meeting in half an hour."
His eyebrows were furrowed as he watched her continue to load the groceries into the car, confused. If she was hurt why wouldn't she just say it? Why did she have to lie to him?
"Alright, I'll see you there."
--
"Thank you for the intel on the Italian mafia, Shadow, especially now knowing that Kim Taehyung had found out about their involvement with his company," their leader was telling the three of them back at headquarters that night. "Now we need to make a few changes with our own system, moving forward."
"Uhm, boss," Jiah's voice was a little quiet, considering she couldn't hear herself, "Can I ask you now, what exactly am I doing at their company? Because honestly, I don't think they pose any threat, and they don't seem-"
"Shadow, do you remember what we do?"
She bit her lip and thought back to all the missions she's done, and all she could think of as an answer was; evil. We do evil.
"Kill," he answered for her, and she scrunched her eyebrows, looking up at him.
"Kill, yes, okay, that's what you guys do," she voice was dry, eyes bored because she hated it when people beat around the bush and wouldn't just get to the point.
"So what are you trying to say?"
"Jiah, you're there to kill."