Taeyeon~

“The demon should be hitting his next target here,” Taeyeon announced, pointing to the huge map she had tossed on the kitchen counter. Jonghyun was in the middle of eating cereal that Taeyeon had prepared oh-so-professionally.

“That’s Kibum’s place again,” Jonghyun said through a mouthful of whole-grain. Over the past few days, he’d gotten less awkward. He could say about one sentence to her at a time, and he finally spoke louder than the sound of Taeyeon gulping.

“Yeah, exactly. You see all these blue dots I’ve marked? That’s where he’s been to. It’s how I tracked you down. The thing is, you did it in a constant circle, like an idiot. It was really close to that old abandoned place we met at.”

Her heart thundered at the thought of their first meeting.

It had been for a different reason back then.

“Well, what is this pattern?” Jonghyun asked, sounding defensive.

“At first, he focused on Kibum’s workplace. After we visited Kibum, it changed course.”

“That makes Kibum look more suspicious.”

“Shut up, I’m explaining here,” Taeyeon griped. Jonghyun looked taken aback, and Taeyeon suppressed a sigh. For him, he couldn’t really act as if nothing happened. But she was a master of faking it, and it was easy to pretend that nothing had happened.

Well, not easy, but it wasn’t difficult.

“After we visited Lock Enterprises, the demon moved from the alleyway here . . . to the alleyway here.” Jonghyun’s eyes widened as Taeyeon moved her finger across the map.

“That far?”

Taeyeon nodded. “He’s trying to mislead us. But he curved back around after a few times in that area, and he’s moving back gradually. Big leaps. I think he lives around here and is a bit tired of having to travel far for a meal.”

“So what now?” Jonghyun looked up at Taeyeon and faltered. “H . . . how do you know he’s . . .?”

“Going to be at Lock again?” Taeyeon finished with a sigh. “I don’t know. I’m guessing. Meet me at the alley later today, okay?” Jonghyun frowned.

“Where are you going? I’m not going anywhere.”

“I have to get the camera from Tiffany. My plan’s in my journal.” Taeyeon noticed Jonghyun reaching for the book, but she quickly slapped his hand. “You can’t read it!” He gaped at her. “It’s . . . classified. Don’t touch!”

Taeyeon quickly gathered her things.

“I’m heading to Tiffany’s now. Meet me at the alley by noon, and don’t tell anyone.”

~~~~~~~

Taeyeon finished tying the last knot and wiped her hands on her jeans with a sigh. Jonghyun still hadn’t come. He was probably still modeling, or maybe with IU at the clinic.

Don’t think about that, Taeyeon scolded herself as she jumped on one of the trash bins in the alleyway. She squinted at the bottom of a fire escape of the apartment building next to Key’s company. Taeyeon took a deep breath and crossed the alley to the larger trash bin.

“One, two, three, and jump,” she told herself. Then, with a huge leap, she grabbed onto the bottom of the fire escape. She huffed in effort; why didn’t these people put the ladder down?! But of course, with rumors of the demon nearby, she wouldn’t blame them.

Taeyeon held onto the ledge with one hand, struggling to search through her bag for the camera. She gasped and pressed the camera into place, clipping it on quickly.

Hold on, Kim Taeyeon, hold on for dear life because there’s a huge trash bin below me. And it’s empty and smelly and it will hurt. Taeyeon looked around and groaned. She hadn’t thought this through; she could jump off the edge of the trash bin to get up here . . .

But how could she get down?

One of her fingers slipped, and she gasped as her right hand let go of the ledge.

Maybe I can get through with a twisted ankle and smelly clothes, Taeyeon decided, squeezing her eyes shut. If Jonghyun had gotten here on time, maybe I would’ve been able to get down. Stupid dino! Great, now her left hand was losing its grip. I guess it’s where I belong: the trash bin.

She could still fall with humor.

Her left hand slipped off, and she couldn’t help but let out a short scream as it did.

“Taeyeon!”

“Oof!” Hm. The trash bin was a lot softer than she had expected. Taeyeon opened her eyes, knowing full well whose voice had just shouted her name. “Oh, hey. You actually came.” Jonghyun furrowed his brows.

“You thought I would ditch?” he accused, looking a bit offended.

“It’s one-thirty, Jonghyun. You were supposed to be here at twelve.”

Sheepishly, Jonghyun admitted, “I was caught up at work! The photo shoot lasted longer than I expected, so I had to make up the time at the vet later.” Taeyeon fumed at that; the vet meant IU, which meant more time for her to flirt with Jonghyun.

Quit thinking about that!

“Noona,” Jonghyun whined, putting his fists to his cheeks and puffing them out accordingly.

“Are - are you trying to use aegyo on me?” Taeyeon demanded, trying her best to stay calm. She looked down. Jonghyun had his arms hooked under her knees and behind her back. “Put. Me. Down. Now!”

“Hup!” Jonghyun immediately let Taeyeon step on the ground. She glared at him as she brushed off her clothes.

“I already set up the strings and camera, thank you very much.”

“Strings? Camera?”

Taeyeon bent down and hooked her finger over the nearly invisible strands she’d tied across the alleyway. She plucked at it and stared up at Jonghyun.

“What, is it supposed to trigger the camera?”

“Camera comes on when I turn it on. I can do it from my laptop at home. Technology,” Taeyeon explained with a confident smirk. “I don’t know if it will trip the demon, but if he notices it, he should stall. He might look around and notice the camera. He might destroy it. But I have all the data saved automatically sent to my laptop, so it won’t matter.”

“You can do that?”

“It’s an expensive camera. You know what, maybe it’s a good thing you flaked; you would’ve broken it,” Taeyeon decided.

“I didn’t flake, I was late!” Jonghyun protested.

“It’s the same thing!”

“No, it’s not! Watch, I’ll look it up.” Jonghyun took out his phone.

“Don’t ask Siri what flake means! That’s stupid!”

“I’m not asking Siri; I’m checking the Urban Dictionary.” Jonghyun typed into his phone and waited for the internet to work. “Aha! See. It says right here. Read it. I didn’t ditch if I still came.”

“Awesome,” Taeyeon said without looking at the screen. “You’re not a flake, then. You are an insensitive idiot.” She unlatched the satchel she’d brought with her and took out her laptop.

Jonghyun sighed loudly. “What are you doing now?”

“None of your business, you unhelpful jerk,” Taeyeon replied curtly. She didn’t know why she was so irritated today. Maybe she was just so sick of being rejected. He had rejected her feelings, and now he was arriving late as if it didn’t matter to him. She was sick of him.

“Taeyeon . . .”

“I’m programming my laptop to the camera, okay? Can you just go. I don’t really need your help anymore. All the difficulties were taken care of,” Taeyeon retorted, glancing up at the camera as she pressed the control key. She smiled triumphantly as the red camera light blinked, and it turned off once she pressed escape. “I’m going to find the demon and get you human again. Then I can leave and just never see you again.”

Wow. As soon as those words came out, she felt how harsh they were and flinched. From the corner of her eye, she saw Jonghyun’s expression flatten and his whole posture go rigid.

“Is that what you really want to do? First you tell me you like me and then go say that you never want to see me? It’s nice to see how genuine those feelings were,” he spat.

“Then what do you want me to do, Jonghyun?” Taeyeon asked calmly, trying to keep her voice from trembling. “You don’t like me back, but you want me to keep liking you? Are you that selfish?” Taeyeon tested a few more controls on her laptop, watching with unfocused eyes as the camera moved back and forth.

“I’m not saying it like - you’re not even taking in the whole picture, Taeyeon!”

“What am I supposed to see?! What picture did you paint for me?” Taeyeon burst, slamming her laptop closed. Jonghyun winced. “You said that you were sorry. You didn’t hate me, but . . . but you can’t return the feelings, can you? Tell me. Can you?”

Jonghyun was silent, and Taeyeon smiled softly.

“See? Stop trying to make me feel better, because I can’t. The only way to feel better is just get rid of . . . the feelings. Of you. So can you leave me alone?”

“So what? You’re just going to go through all this as if nothing has happened and ‘forget’ me?” Jonghyun made the air quotation marks with his fingers. Taeyeon felt rage color her cheeks red and frustration fill her eyes with tears.

“You’re so damn selfish, Kim Jonghyun.” Taeyeon stuffed her laptop into her bag. “I’m going to the apartment to check the connection from there. Tonight is when the demon feeds. Hopefully, I get a good look at his face. Then I’m just . . . done.”

And she left.

~~~~~~~

Jonghyun came home close to midnight.

Not that Taeyeon had been constantly checking the clock while she was waiting.

He was silent as he sat next to her on the couch and glanced at her open laptop. The camera showed the alley, only dark and illuminated by green light.

“Night vision?” Jonghyun inquired.

Taeyeon nodded, leaning forward from the couch to the laptop on the table. She pressed the arrows so that the camera focused on the area with the strings, facing the street.

“Listen. I’m sorry for being a huge dipwad before,” Jonghyun apologized when Taeyeon sat back again. Taeyeon slid her eyes over to him.

“When? There were a lot of times,” she said. Jonghyun frowned. “Okay, fine.”

“I didn’t mean to say what I said. I mean, I meant to say it, but the way you thought I meant it - I didn’t mean it the way it sounded like it meant. You know?”

“No, not really. That’s really confusing, Jonghyun.”

“The thing is, I was trying to tell you - I wanted to say - but I couldn’t say it and-”

“The demon’s here,” Taeyeon announced, giving up on making sense of Jonghyun’s babble. She felt him tense and lean forward to squint at the laptop screen.

There were two figures, one obviously stronger than the other. The bigger one had the back of his head facing the camera, so they must’ve come from the back door. Taeyeon wanted to turn the camera around, but she was scared it would make noise.

“If only I had bought a mic or something,” she hissed, tapping a few buttons to focus better. The demon wore a jacket and jeans, unlike Jonghyun, who usually went shirtless. Taeyeon glanced at Jonghyun judgingly. Maybe he just liked taking off his shirt.

The demon had shoved the victim to the ground; the victim seemed to be a girl, maybe . . . the secretary? She scrambled back, screaming for mercy or something of the sort.  The demon raised a hand, claws much longer and pointed than the ones Jonghyun had.

Then he tripped.

“Oh, my gosh.” Taeyeon covered . The demon had actually tripped on her trap.

Obviously dazed, the demon stood up, only to topple over the string again.

“It worked?” Jonghyun whispered. “What . . . the . . .”

“Look at the camera. Just look - at - the camera,” Taeyeon begged, weaving her fingers together. However, the demon kept its head down. The secretary had fled, but it seemed like the creature decided to retreat. Its muscles flexed slightly as it turned back into the alley, letting its bangs cover most of its face.

It reached down and used its claws to cut the strings cleanly. Then it stomped into the darkness where the camera couldn’t catch it.

Hurriedly, Taeyeon spun the camera around, trying to adjust the settings so it could look deeper into the alley. She screamed when a clawed hand came at the screen, breaking the camera.

“Oh, no. Tiffany is going to kill me,” Taeyeon moaned. She decided to rewind the footage and did her best to zoom in on the beast, boosting up the quality.

“It’s useless,” Jonghyun muttered. “It’s as if he knew that the camera was there before he even saw it. He knew someone was watching.”

“I’m pretty sure the fact that the multiple strings tied across was set by someone,” Taeyeon deadpanned. She shut her laptop and covered her face. “Damn it! His whole track will change again. He might not even keep a pattern this time.”

“Hey, it’s okay,” Jonghyun tried to comfort her. He put a hand on Taeyeon’s shoulder, but she shook it off.

“No, it’s not. That will just make this whole task harder. It’s only been over a month, but it just feels like forever.” Taeyeon started to head back to Jonghyun’s room, where he still refused to sleep, but was stopped by his snort.

“What? Are you saying it just means longer time with me? Is that a problem?” His tone seemed threatening, but his eyes were laced with pain. Taeyeon kept his gaze for a long time. It felt like hours, but it was probably not even a minute.

“Yes, Jonghyun,” Taeyeon whispered. “It is.”

~~~~~~~

When Taeyeon woke up, it was to the piercing sound of her cell phone ringing against her cheek. She winced, rubbing her face to get rid of the dry-stained tears. She hated crying more than she hated nuts, and she was allergic to nuts.

“Hello?” she answered drowsily. Taeyeon stumbled out of bed and to the bathroom, stuffing a toothbrush into before heading to the kitchen.

“Noona?” Jinki’s voice sounded a bit shaky. Taeyeon frowned as she took out a pan to start breakfast.

“Are you okay?” Taeyeon questioned. She stopped in front of the fridge, peeling off the sticky note from the surface.

Hey, Taeyeon. No need to make me anything. I have to leave early b/c of emergency at vet. I brought Rudolph w/ me to give her a walk. Um. See you tonight, I guess. -Jonghyun

Taeyeon sighed and crumpled the note, tossing it away.

“Jinki?” she continued as she put away the pan.

“D-Did you happen to catch news of the demon yesterday? Or anything?” Jinki muttered into the phone. Taeyeon paused.

“Why?” she asked, shutting the drawer and leaning against the counter.

“Y-you should come over. I’ll text you my address, but I was out last night, and I had my camera with me.” Jinki took a deep breath. “I was looking through my pictures, and I zoomed in on one. I think I caught the demon in one of my photos!”

“What?” Taeyeon whispered, standing up straight. She ran to the door, slipping on her shoes. “Wait. Jonghyun.”

“I’ll tell him; just come here quick! The figure in the photo is really scaring me; what if he knows I got this photo?” Jinki panicked.

“Okay, Jinki. Just give me your address.” As Jinki told her his street name, Taeyeon scribbled a quick note for Jonghyun, just in case he went psycho over her leaving again. She stuck it on the mirror in the front hallway and opened her door. “Okay, I got it. I think I know the way; it’s not far.”

“I’m not sure if it’s a very good picture, but I think I might be able to get his face if I use an application or something, right? It really looks like the demon from the news.”

Many feelings punched at Taeyeon; relief, hope, excitement . . . and disappointment. Fear. Of leaving Jonghyun after all this.

“Oh, wait, noona. I’m hanging up.”

“Okay. On my way!” Taeyeon promised. She made a few turns, heart racing as she looked for Jinki’s house. She stopped when someone honked her.

“Taeyeon! Over here!”

Confused, Taeyeon jogged over to the car, waiting patiently as the window rolled down. The driver grinned at her, scratching the back of his head.

“What are you doing here?” Taeyeon asked. “I was heading over to . . .”

“Well, don’t you need a ride?” he interrupted. The driver tilted his head, and his grin widened. Taeyeon blinked.

“Yeah, I guess. It’s not too much trouble . . .” Taeyeon opened the car door and slipped in. The person pressed the gas as she buckled in, staring straight ahead. “So why did you come this way?”

“I was already out on the road and saw you, so I thought, I might as well, right?” the driver answered. “It’s convenient for you anyways.”

That’s . . . weird, Taeyeon thought. Her hand grabbed the bar on the car door. The driver must have noticed, because he stared at her with a lazy smile.

“So . . . are you getting suspicious now?” he inquired. The car doors locked with a loud click.

Taeyeon was silent. He continued to leer at her. “Maybe.”

“Hm.” He pressed on the gas harder, accelerating pass the street that Taeyeon recognized to be Jinki’s. She pointed back to the sign.

“We . . . need to go there,” she whispered.

“Oh.” He still didn’t let the pedal go. In fact, the speed meter climbed higher. His smile stayed in place, and it seemed a lot creepier than the other times Taeyeon had seen it. “Did you expect it from me? You were surprised, weren’t you, Taeyeon?”

Taeyeon gulped, and even though she knew what he meant, she whispered, “Expect what?” The driver smirked, clenching the steering wheel tighter.

“That I was the demon, Taeyeon,” he replied with an empty laugh. “All this time, I was the one who turned Jonghyun. And killed his family.”

A/N:

DID YOU EXPECT THAT?!

DID YOU?!

Whoo. I thought it was time to stop with the little "filler" chapters

Well

They weren't filler, but too much romance is a little boring, am I right?

But SERIOUSLY who do you guys think is the demon?!

I'm imagining the concerned readers being like

And worrying about Taeyeon like

Who is the demon?!

What will he do to her?!

How will Jonghyun react?!

I DUNNO. HEHEHEUHEUHEUEHEUE

Next time then! If you guys didn't see the feed, I didn't update earlier due to lack of access to laptop so~

I'll try to update quicker for the next chap!