She freely turned to face him, “Do you trust me even a little bit? Just a teeny bit at all?”

“I’ll have to think about that.”

A baffled snort left her. “Why? What is it about me that you dislike so much? Even if you don’t like me, just an ounce of respect toward me will do. Has it always been so hard for you to accept the help of others? Or have you always been like this?”

“Why is it so important that I trust you? We have our own duties with our own goals. You have your people to help you and I have mine, why is it so important I trust you?”

Victoria was frustrated. They would never ever see eye to eye. She lifted her head up and suppressed her anger, “I can’t talk to you like this. If you want to hear about who I went after last night, I will only talk about it in front of the others.”

“Is it such a big deal that you can’t even say it here?”

“Yes!” she slightly raised her voice. “Because you would never listen to me or hear me out.”

“Alright, fine,” Donghae sounded upset for whatever reason he had, “we’ll have it your way.”

~_____~

Namjoo’s food was good. Tao fought to keep that expression of satisfaction from climbing onto his face and continued eating hungrily.

“What’s with that face?” Namjoo asked him.

“N…nothing,” he stuttered.

She frowned before clearing the rest of her plate and got up to wash the dishes. “Are you almost done? We should be heading in for work soon.”

“Ah…yea,” Tao stood up and handed Namjoo his empty plate.

She eyed the clean plate before glancing up at him and took it.

“Do you…I mean…are you going to be ok going in to work?” Tao asked.

“I’ll be fine,” Namjoo nodded wondering why he was acting awkward. “Oh, do you need money for a cab?”

“No, I’m fine,” he refused. Tao slightly glanced away before looking back at her.

To ward off the awkward atmosphere she reached a hand up to the back of her ear, “Thanks, Tao, for you know…staying with me.”

Tao slightly nodded and began to turn to go. This was an awkward farewell even though there was practically no reason for all this awkwardness. Namjoo frowned and slightly tilted her head to the side confused when she began to turn back to the sink. Upon Tao’s loud step she turned to see him facing her.

“The food was good,” he complimented and released a shy smile.

Namjoo was caught off guard a little stunned to see it. She half laughed and pointed at him, “Oho! Did you really smile? You smiled!”

Embarrassed he turned away and waddled toward the door quickly. Namjoo followed to chase him.

“You look nice, Tao! I’ll see you at work!” she shouted at him before he closed the door behind him.

She snorted with a smile and shook her head before returning to finish up the dishes. After drying her hands she slowly walked into the bathroom. Facing the mirror she pushed her hair behind her ear to stare at the stitches on the side of her head. They were so visible…

Turning her eyes elsewhere she opened a drawer and pulled out a pair of scissors before setting them on the counter of the sink and glanced at the band-aid on her neck. She thought back to the conversation she had with the girl at the brothel before pulling the band-aid off. The love mark was starting to fade in color, but it was still as visible as ever. Namjoo ran her fingers over it before covering it with her whole hand.

~_____~

Chorong stared at the lone muffin on the table and took another sip of the coffee in her hand. Lay and Suho were currently engaged in some conversation, but Chorong couldn’t focus on what they were saying. All that ran through her mind was if she didn’t eat the muffin she would make Lay feel guilty. Why did he even bother to buy her food to begin with?

“Oh yea, Donghae said you were in the military operations before you transferred here,” Lay said. “What did you do there?”

“We’re coordinated with the navy base. We work together to secure the borders and keep the citizens safe. We’re kind of under the SWAT unit,” Suho explained then slightly bit his lip. “I guess Donghae told you about ‘it’.”

Lay firmly smiled and nodded his head, “Sorry to hear about it.”

Suho waved his hand, “Nah, it’s fine. It wasn’t a bad transfer. It was me who asked the Chief in General to be moved off the team. He suggested the military intelligence unit since it has a broader field of opportunities. I was just lucky everything worked well.”

“Was Donghae leading the military intelligence unit then too?”

Suho nodded, “He was better back then. Well…I mean, he’s kind of changed after Eunhyuk was brought up. Donghae wasn’t always this hasty, honestly.”

“I know,” Lay smiled encouragingly.

Suho glanced at his watch, “They’re taking forever to come in.”

~_____~

Kris had just stepped into the elevator and pressed the button for the fourth floor before the front doors opened and someone started running. Upon their shout for him to wait he quickly pressed the button to open the doors and stared when Namjoo appeared before the separating doors. She looked up at him hesitantly before quickly averting her eyes.

“Get in,” he told.

When she stepped inside he closed the door and slightly glanced out the corner of his eyes. Namjoo had cut her own hair giving herself a set of bangs. He realized she’d done so in order to cover up the stitches on the side of her head and understood that she was self-conscious of her appearance. Kris spotted Namjoo’s wavering eyes as she tried not to look up at him and felt a smile crawl onto his lips noticing that she was just being nervous. This was, after all, the first time they were really together after the night at her place.

“It suits you,” he commented instead of directly telling her she looked pretty.

The smile on his lips became even broader when Namjoo quickly looked up at him before staring away. Namjoo’s eyes landed on his hand and saw the bandage on his hand. She then recalled Suho telling her about Kris beating that guy.

Kris stepped out when the elevator opened and turned when he realized Namjoo hadn’t come with him. “What are you doing?”

“Wait here a second,” she told before closing the elevator.

He lifted his eyes up to see that she was heading back downstairs and wondered what she was up to. A few minutes later Namjoo appeared with a first aid kit and gestured for him to follow. They first paused by the lounge where Lay, Chorong, and Suho were sitting. He was about to walk in assuming they were going to head in there but Namjoo quickly walked straight down the hallway.

“Where are you going?” he asked following her.

“Not there,” was her simple reply.

~_____~

Tao waited a little anxiously for the elevator to bring him up to the fourth floor. He reached a hand up to feel the straight line on his lips and cleared his throat.

“You look nice, Tao! I’ll see you at work!”

Tao felt another smile start to creep up on him before he cleared his throat again. He wondered if Namjoo was already at work and what she was planning to do for the day. Hadn’t Donghae assigned him to the same field of work Namjoo was in? Caught in his thoughts he wasn’t aware the elevator had opened for him until a second later. First, he stopped by the lounge and peered inside but Namjoo wasn’t there.

“Ah…Tao! You’re finally here,” Suho first called out, “where’s Donghae?”

He shook his head and shrugged before his eyes darted around again. Suho seemed to follow his gaze and looked around too.

“What is it?” he asked.

“Oh…is…Namjoo here?”

Suho looked stunned before shaking his head. Tao honestly felt a little disappointed. He just felt as if he and Namjoo could get along as well as they had that morning.

~_____~

Pulling the door to an empty meeting room Namjoo took a seat and ped the bag. Kris stared at her curious about what she was doing before walking over. When he glanced into the bag he saw that she had various medicinal supplies in it.

“You’re well prepared,” he commented taking the seat to her right.

“Things always happen, of course I need to be prepared,” Namjoo said without looking at him while concentrated on pulling an ointment and band-aid out.

“Is that what those marks on your body are from?” he asked only to have Namjoo shoot him a tedious glare.

“Do you have no shame talking so openly about something like that?” she spat. “Give me your hand.”

He slightly snorted at her satisfied with just the fact that he was able to embarrass her and set his hand out. Namjoo pulled the bandage off his hand and stared at the large cut on his hand.

“Oh don’t worry, the nurse cleaned it out to make sure it’s not infected,” Kris assured before Namjoo turned away as if she didn’t care at all.

Did she have to try so hard to hold back her emotions? Kris was positive that she was worried about the cut even if she didn’t say anything.

“I use this balm a lot when I get hurt. It heals cuts really quickly,” Namjoo explained. “If you want to continue working here, you better make sure your hand doesn’t limit you.”

“Tsh…that’s like me saying I didn’t make that punch for you, but myself.”

Namjoo bit onto her bottom lip and pressed down onto his cut with the cotton ball she was using to spread the balm. Kris yelped and pulled his hand back. The stinging pain was starting to spread like wildfire through his whole hand.

“Why don’t you stop talking and staring for a second!” Namjoo began to raise her voice.

Kris let out a baffled laugh, “What did I say!? And you have a problem with me looking at you? As if you didn’t do it the other night.”

Namjoo let out a loud deep breath before she stood up, “Ugh…I can’t do this. You do it yourself.”

He quickly shot up from his seat wrapping an arm around Namjoo’s torso before slightly lifting her up to turn her away from the door.

“I don’t think we’re done here,” he stated.

She let out a loud shriek and kicked her legs about, “You’re not letting go? You’re really not letting go!?”

He snorted, “You think I’m scared of you?”

“Yah, this is harassment!”

“Really? I think this is more like flirting,” he told before swinging her around again.

Namjoo shouted again before her feet reached the ground again and suddenly turned to her left. Kris followed her and felt the teasing smile on his lips fade when he spotted Tao staring at them. He watched Tao’s eyes focus on Namjoo for a few seconds before he eventually glanced over at him. Then without a word he turned to walk away. It was then that Namjoo pushed his arm off her and took a few steps away. For the remaining time they stood in complete awkward silence before a loud commotion from down the hall took their attention.

~_____~

Donghae seriously sped all the way back to Seoul. Victoria could feel the dangerous speed he was going at and felt like rolling her eyes every second of the way back. Without even asking, she knew what was probably coming her way. Donghae was going to pin her in a corner and demand to know every single detail of last night.

The second the government hall came into sight Victoria felt a sense of relief flush over her. At least she knew Suho would speak up to defend her if ever Donghae crossed the line. Donghae was already fast out of his seat when Victoria just pulled her seatbelt over her. Taking her time she slowly got out, but just after she closed the passenger’s door Donghae had already grabbed her, and was yet lugging her down the pavement.

“Don’t you think you’re being too much?” Victoria shouted flinging her wrist out of his hand. “I can walk on my own, thank you!”

Donghae stared at her with an impatient scornful face and without a word made a grab for her wrist again. Victoria shouted at his strength and pulled her hand back again.

“You don’t need to act like I’m some kind of thing!” Victoria raised her voice and stared at him. Huffing a heave of angry sigh she glared and started to walk by only to have Donghae grab her wrist and pull her again.

“No, I’m not going to wait for you. I want an explanation now!” he told before pulling her inside.

And for once, Victoria actually let out an angry scream while trying to pull out of his hold. From the second floor, she could see the others looking down over the railing before scattering toward the stairs. As much as this was, Victoria had to admit this was embarrassing. Donghae was embarrassing her big time. The more she thought about it, the angrier it made her.

The heavy gray door to the stairs flung open and Suho appeared along with the others at his back. Suho’s lips slightly parted before he quickly ran forward to separate Donghae’s hand from her wrist.

“Donghae!” Suho raised his voice.

Just as the door shut behind them it flew open and Namjoo along with Kris appeared. They all stared at each other quietly before Donghae turned to look at Victoria.

“Looks like everyone’s here now,” Donghae said raising an eyebrow waiting for her to go on, but Victoria was already too upset. She wasn’t thinking about sharing any damn information with him.

“No, not until you apologize to me first,” Victoria growled.

“Apologize?” Donghae repeated in disgust and Victoria bit her lip in fury.

“What’s going on?” Lay asked.

Suho immediately turned to eye Donghae. “Donghae.”

“What?” Donghae asked appalled by his own teammate. “I stalked the streets all night in Yeongwol, and you’re interrogating me first?”

“You know well what you did,” Victoria turned to him angrily. “And now you’re just acting all high and mighty?”

“I want an explanation from you first,” Donghae hissed.

“Not until you apologize for using force on me,” Victoria refused. “And I want an apology now or I’m not going to share a single thing with you.”

Donghae bit on his tongue, but remained heavily quiet. Suho nudged Namjoo and whispered, “Say something!”

Namjoo shot him a frown with a stare, “Would he even listen to me?!” Suho just nudged her again and she groaned before turning to look over at Victoria’s agonized face then to Donghae’s stubborn stance. “Do you want that information or not?”

“Now you’re talking back to me?” Donghae started.

Victoria watched Namjoo grit her teeth and knit her brows together irritated before she calmed herself, “Don’t put your goddamn pride before everything else. Apologizing in the least wouldn’t even scratch your ego. So why don’t you listen to Victoria and apologize.”

It had to be the first time that it seemed as if Namjoo was siding with her instead of against her. Victoria was impressed.

“Fine,” Donghae muttered.

Suho grinned broadly and nudged Namjoo again. Victoria had to admit that Donghae’s two assistants seemed more likeable than ever now. They were, after all, the only two that worked well together out of the four. Yet, Victoria had to remind herself that she didn’t know a thing about Tao yet. There was nothing, but laziness about him.

Donghae turned to her silently annoyed. He slightly looked away, pressed his lips together unwilling to do this. There was this deep, quiet sigh before he finally said it, “Sorry.”

A smile of victory curved her lips up. “Just one word like that…it wasn’t so hard, was it?”

Displeasure covered his face and he wanted to go at her, but held it all back. Seeing that he was vexed pleased Victoria.

“Yes,” she began, “I caught Hyukjae last night.” 

***ha! Tao finally smiled! ^^

***Finally Lay and Suho interact :D and Chorong is stuck with them!!

***kekekeke~ for the KrisJoo moment, but they were interrupted by Tao 

***Donghae made the wrong move again T^T but Ha! Vic got him to apologize to her! 

***A/N: this will be the last update of the week. I don't even have the next chapter written up yet. Do wait for it ^^