The Crown | myg

twenty-nine

"You can take your blindfold off," I say as I lead Chanyeol in the front door of the building and close it behind us. "There aren't any windows in here, so you won't be able to see anything outside even if you wanted to."

"Eerie," he pulls the bandana down his face and lets it sit around his neck, somehow a great addition to the outfit he's wearing. "Where are we?"

"You shall find out in due time," I say as I walk down the hall, Chanyeol reluctant to follow me down the dark corridor and into the building of mystery. "Is anyone home?"

I hear vigorous tapping from the conference room and I walk in to see Beomgyul sitting at the large table with a laptop in front of him, books and papers spread messily across the table.

"Hey, Beomgyu," I say as I sit on the table beside him, my eyes following his fingers as he types vigorously. "What goes on?"

He looks up at me, his fingers still flying across the keyboard. "Oh, hey, Hyuntae," he says. He doesn't look at me for long, he's trying to focus on what seems like schoolwork, but I could be completely wrong. "I'm working on an assignment for class. Well a couple, actually. Do you think you could help me?"

"Actually, I'm here on very important business, but Chanyeol is much smarter than I am, maybe he could help you," I gesture to the nervous boy standing behind me, his eyes wandering around the room trying to find out where he is, what this building is used for. I lean down to Beomgyul, my mouth hovering beside his ear. "He has no idea that this is the mob, I haven't had the chance to tell him yet. So don't say anything about what we do here, let me do that myself."

"You can't expect me to keep that secret from him," he whispers back. "What if he gets curious? What if he bugs me until I give in?"

"I trained you better than that," I hiss. "You keep your mouth shut or I'll shut it for you."

Beomgyul sucks in a deep breath and nods, he knows better than to try to mess with my authority. I feel really bad for threatening the kid, I have no reason to, but I refuse to let Chanyeol find out about the secrets I've been keeping from anyone but myself.

"Chan, could you help Beomgyul here with his homework?" I ask sweetly as I turn around, my hand resting on his shoulder. "If he has any English he has to do, I can help him, but he seems like he needs help with everything else. No offence."

"None taken," Beomgyul laughs. "I suck at math and science."

"Beomgyul," I turn around and place both my hands on his shoulders, my body hunching over so I can look him in the eyes. "Do you wanna know the one thing I've learned from being an adult?"

He gulps, his eyes watering with fear as his eyes scan around my face, looking anywhere but my eyes. "What?"

"No one's good at math," I laugh.

"I'm good at math," Chanyeol buts in.

I turn around and smile. "Exactly, you count as no one."

"Well that's fucking rude," he crosses his arms with a chuckle. After a few seconds, he waves his hand at me in an effort to make me leave the room. "You go do what you have to do, I'll help the kid."

"Thank you, so much," I run over to him and kiss him on the cheek before turning to face Beomgyul again. "Where did you say everyone was?"

"I didn't," he laughs. "They're in the training room."

"Thank you," I smile as I begin to walk backwards out of the conference room. "Chan, I promise I'll explain everything once this is all over."