Taemin strode towards the elevator. He paid no attention to Bekka; he made no attempt to follow Taeyeon’s orders to guide her through the operations and ignored her as if she did not exist. He was within the elevator and had pressed the button down when she caught up and stopped the doors from closing without her. Taemin sighed with annoyance and they rode the elevator in silence.

Bekka made furtive glances at the tall boy next to her. He was only a little older than her, but she felt that he was much more experienced with the world. There was a sense of secrets in the dark depths of the eyes that reflected from the elevator mirrors (although she suspected the constant faint frown on his face had something to do with her). Bekka could feel his disinterest with her talent as a telepath and she began to probe his mind for his surface thoughts. And she was suddenly pinned against the wall. Bekka did not need to be a Talent to know that Taemin was furious. He told her with crisp words that she should quickly learn manners and not invade people’s privacies. He released her when she gave a weak nod in apology.

The elevator doors opened to one of the operation centres within The Firm. The walls of the room were covered with TVs set on the different news channels around the country: the local council elections were being held; a school fete was raising money for the nursing home; the body of a high school girl was found within the school grounds.

Desks were organised in small clusters about the large room. There were people staring intently at computers, others were in quiet discussions, and a few appeared to be sleeping or meditating. Taemin walked up to one of these sleeping persons and quietly waited. Bekka peered from behind him and saw the man nod his head once, open his eyes and give the thumbs up to another worker on the other side of the room. He then spun towards his computer and began typing search queries. It looked like he was oblivious to their presence until Taemin kicked at his chair, causing him to jump a little in fright.

“Ah! Taemin! Give me a heart attack, why not?” he accused, a hand at his chest.

“I have a fresh crime scene that is getting colder by the minute, Jonghyun,” Taemin accused back at him. Jonghyun grumbled about how there were other and more polite methods of getting one’s attention as he searched through the pile of folders and clipboards next to him. He found what he was looking for and handed it over to the other boy. Bekka stood on the tips of her toes to read over Taemin’s shoulder.

“Oh? Who is this?” Jonghyun noticed Bekka’s lurking and gave her a wide smile.

“Another telepath, like you,” Taemin dismissed the question and studied the data sheet of the suspected murder of the high school girl. “The student teacher found the body?” Taemin continued and Jonghyun nodded.

He then winked at Bekka and she felt a polite knocking on the periphery of her mind. She knocked back at the mental probe and heard Jonghyun’s voice in her mind, ‘It is nice to meet you.’ Bekka gasped in surprise. She was about to respond when Taemin dropped the file back onto Jonghyun’s desk and brushed past her. She made a hasty farewell to the amused telepath and chased after her mentor. Like before, she managed to stop the elevator doors from closing without her and stepped inside. She then turned to Taemin with a bright smile, already recovered from the drama of their last elevator ride.

“I think I know what you mean about manners when using my telepathy,” she told him.

“Good,” he answered, suspicious of her quick recovery from the talkdown he had given her only minutes before. Taemin eyed her warily but she only beamed up at him and smiled happily at her reflection with thoughts about how great it was to have a talent.