"So are you going to answer me or not?"

"Umm..." Taehyun trailed off, frantically searching for a plausible answer.

"Why'd you take pictures of me?" Seungyoon impatiently added. He shook the cracked camera in his hand for extra emphasis and continued to glare.

Taehyun bit his lips out of worry, and continued to debate with himself on what to say. With Seungyoon holding all of his photos in the palm of his hand, Taehyun didn't really want to enrage him any further. He would have to say everything carefully and gently in order to prevent any more hostility. That being said, he decided to try an honest response first.

"I-It's my job," Taehyun nervously stammered out. 

"Of course," Seungyoon said out of annoyance, swinging the camera strap onto his left shoulder. He gave another incredulous look to Taehyun before leaning forward and grabbing his wrist.

"What are you doing?" the other cluelessly asked, sensing danger in the action.

"I'm not letting you get away with the photos," Seungyoon huffed, starting towards the direction of hotel. Taehyun felt the grip around his wrist harden, and he ended up being tugged along with the angry singer.

If this was how the direction of the situation was going to head towards, Taehyun feared that his job today would end in failure. But on the other hand, he still had Jinwoo, who also had photos of his own so that they wouldn't lose everything in case of emergency. Fumbling with the various options in his head, Taehyun quickly narrowed them down and sorted through the best ones to choose. He knew he didn't have a lot of time left, so he had to make a decision before Seungyoon took him into the hotel.

In any normal scenario, Taehyun would shout out for help and turn the whole event into headline news. But under the current circumstances, he weighed out the possible outcomes and decided to stumble along silently. In order to at least get something out of this crisis, he needed Jinwoo to retain the photos of the "dating" scandal while also being careful with Seungyoon. At least on the bright side of being caught, Taehyun had an opportunity to dig up even more dirt by interacting with the star in person.

The paparazzi's last minute plan was now assembled - roughly. But in order to keep Jinwoo as his backup, Taehyun needed to send a signal to notify him of what was going on. So before the two entered the other hotel lobby, Taehyun turned his back towards Jinwoo's side of the street and closed his fist behind his back, finger by finger. Hopefully, if Jinwoo was paying attention, he would get the distress signal and know what to do. It was his first time being right in the middle of the action, and he was not sure if he was either worried or thrilled.

~~~

 "Alright. What else do you have on me besides these photos?" Seungyoon bitterly asked, shutting the door behind them. He went over to the curtains and shut them as a precaution, and especially made sure that no one could see into his room anymore.

"Nothing," Taehyun half-heartedly responded, noticing that one aspect of his plan had already failed. Unfortunately, Seungyoon knew to cover up his previous mistakes by blocking the outside view of his room, possibly preventing Jinwoo from taking more pictures. Taehyun let out an unnoticeable sigh and began changing tactics. 

"I don't believe you," the singer stated. The man had glared again at Taehyun with cold eyes, before angrily dropping the camera onto a chair in the corner of the room. His whole day had been filled with irritations, and now he had to deal with the worst of them all.

Taehyun just looked at Seungyoon with an odd gaze and dropped his sight towards the ground. When in a rough spot, Taehyun's first defense was always responding with silence rather than talking more. The downside was that it made him seem colder, nevertheless it bought him more time to think and usually persuaded people to leave him alone. Of course he doubted that Seungyoon would do that now that he knew who Taehyun was, yet it was his natural instinct to do so.

"Ah, I guess you just don't like to answer," Seungyoon remarked, a bit frustrated.

Again, he got a glance accompanied with silence as a reply.

Taehyun didn't show it, but he was persistent in keeping up his game so that he could find out the real Seungyoon and record it in his memory. Even when caught, he needed to get his job done and over with.

~~~

Seungyoon underestimated how long his temporary captive could keep quiet. Minutes grew into half-hours and by then it was already reaching dinner time. What was even more pathetic was that Seungyoon tried everything: from threats and