|eight;weakening|

The elevator door stayed opened and Hongbin stared down at the numbered buttons, pressing the button that was labeled "DOOR OPEN" the whole time.

"You coming in or not?" he asked, still not looking up.

. . He knew I was here this whole time? What is he, like, a trained specialist killer agent or something?

You clenched your fists and awkwardly stepped forward, making your way into the elevator and standing beside Hongbin with a comfortable gap between you and him. The space may have been comfortable, but the thick silent atmosphere filling the elevator as the two of you were heading up to the fifth floor certainly was not.

"I came to interrogate you," you said, being the first of the two to speak up. Hongbin remained silent and watched the elevator doors as it slid open after finally stopping at the designated floor. Still not saying a word, he walked out the elevator and made his way down the hallway.

"H-Hey!" you stuttered, running after him. When you reached him, however, your head bumped into his back because he had suddenly stopped walking. "Oww," you muttered, rubbing your injured forehead. Hongbin finally turned around and you glared at him angrily.

"Why won't you talk?! Are you scared because you think I found out? You're with him-- the murderer, right?!" you yelled. Hongbin leaned in closer to you and you did the opposite, leaning away from him until you couldn't bend your back any more.

This kid, always getting so close, like--

"Move, you're in the way," he said, interrupting your thoughts as he slid the cover of the passcode lock, swiftly entering his 4-digit code with his lean fingers before quickly sliding the cover back down again and opening the door. 

So that's what he was doing.

You shook off your thoughts and looked up at him, grabbing his coat's sleeve to stop him from going inside his room.

"The rumors about you aren't true, right? Tell me they're not," you spoke up as you stared at the ground. Hongbin stopped where he was and stood there, staring at the ground as well; he was shocked to finally hear you talk normally-- no yelling, no screaming, no arguing. "I don't believe that you're a bad person, Hongbin. And I don't think you're with that murderer either." The second half of your statement came out as a hardly audible whisper. The male tightened his hand on his doorknob until his knuckles became white.

Suddenly, he turned to you, grabbing your wrist and dragging you inside his apartment room quickly before he closed the door and the sound of the lock was heard. You looked up at him in surprise as he pushed you against the wall, staring at you... angrily? Was it anger? You could have sworn that somewhere in his orbs, you saw some sort of weakness-- as if something you had said reached his heart somehow.

As Hongbin had you pinned against the wall, he had too many things in his mind going on at once. At first, when you were accusing him of being sided with the killer, he was alright with it-- he got that kind of treatment from other people all the time. However as you kept talking, he realized that you were the only person out of everyone that he met who didn't think of him as a bad guy, and when you said those things to him, he started to get weak. To put it simply, he was slightly moved by your words. But more than that, he was angry because this feeling was so new to him. 

He was angry because he almost became weak in front of you.

"Let me say this once," he growled lowly as his grip on your shoulders were tightening, making you wince in pain. "You're completely and utterly wrong. I'm a bad guy-- everything is true. I'm in a gang, I don't have a family, I'm a killer-- everything. So just... just leave."

There was a pause as you were interpreting his words.

"You're lying," you said stubbornly, narrowing your eyes as you stared back at him. You would be telling a lie yourself if you said that you weren't terrified to death by him at that moment, because you certainly were.

Hongbin looked up at the ceiling and laughed eerily until it suddenly got cut off and he looked back at you, his face becoming dark once again. "Aren't you scared? I could kill you-- right here, right now."

You shook your head despite all of the fear in your body begging you to run away. "You won't do anything to me."

The hands that were placed on your shoulders tightened causing a surprised, high-pitched whimper to come out from the back of your throat, before he released you harshly, making you fall onto the floor.

"I'm taking a shower. By the time I'm done, I expect you to be gone," he said plainly before taking his shoes off, grabbing some clothes from his drawer and trudging into the bathroom.

You shut your eyes and took a deep breath as you helped yourself up into a sitting position, leaning against the wall.

Hongbin? He was hard. It was difficult to see through him and you found that sometimes, you would think he's feeling one way when he's really thinking another. However, something in your heart still wanted to believe in him-- not the lies that he was telling, but that small second of hurt that you saw in his eyes before.

You didn't believe that he was a bad person at all. Why? Because you were stubborn, even against your own self. Even if your body and brain are both terrified by him, you can't help it if your heart thinks something else and your feet automatically follow where he's heading.

what a nice first meeting, you scoffed sarcastically in your head as the sound of the shower water hitting the floor in the bathroom drained out all of your thoughts, driving you into a deep sleep.

Hongbin's back was still wet but he didn't care as he swiftly threw on a pair of gray sweatpants and a black wife-beater. The towel that he used stayed around his