High Maintenance 👑 h.zt

11

~Min-hee~

She followed Tao's instructions to the letter, though her heart was beating loud in her ears. Tao's breath against her ears when he whispered to her filled her mind, and then when she was so close to him, how he ate, how he smelled.

Gah! She shouldn't be thinking about that! She shook her head to try and shake the thoughts away. On her way through what must have been a maze of hallway, she heard someone yelling, their voice echoing across the walls. She sounded very angry, whoever she was, and Tao hadn't wanted them to run into each other...

Her eyes widened, she stopped walking. Oh my gosh, that's probably his girlfriend! Why had it never occurred to her that he was taken? Of course he was, he was only perfect, everyone perfect was always in a relationship. She looked down at her feet. She'd practically flirted with him too!

So was he just humoring her? Was this some kind of game? Because he seemed to like her, but then, wasn't that kind of behind his girlfriend's back?

Was she some object to get back at somebody for something? Min-hee bit her lip. Tao wasn't like that, she was sure on the inside he was sweet, that he was kind and...

Meanwhile all she could hear was that other girl yelling at him. She didn't hear Tao yelling back, so she assumed it must be pretty one sided. She sniffed, she didn't know what the argument was about, but she was pretty sure that she needn't call Tao all those terrible names, he was just a cute panda.

A cute panda? Whoa, she needed to slow down her imagination, he was a man, he'd probably be offended to be called panda.

Her phone buzzed. Of All the inopportune times... She answered before it could continue to ring.

"What are you doing?" Jaemin asked on the other end.

"Dang it man, I'm trying to be quiet...!" She scream whispered at him, Still walking the halls and keeping an ear out for Tao's girlfriend. Everything seemed to be fine, she was still yelling.

"Quiet? You still stalking that guy?" Jaemin asked with a chuckle.

She almost yelled at him, but caught herself. "No...!" She whispered. "I just...his girlfriend showed up and started being b*tchy."

Jaemin was silent for a second, which Min-hee was happy about, because she'd started looking through the doors in the hallway. This place even had an exercise room!

"So...abandoning ship, right?" Jaemin asked.

"I have no idea what you're talking about, I just wanted to be friends." Min-hee said, though she knew that wasn't true and inside it broke her heart.

She opened another door, this one looked like a bedroom. This was an invasion of privacy, she was sure, but when she'd walked in, a little panda caught her eye. So she walked right in, this must be Tao's room.

It was clean, neat, Min-hee was surprised, Jaemin's room was always a mess, clothes everywhere, laundry not even close to sorted, she couldn't name how many times she'd seen his boxers lying about. Not the case with Tao at all, you could bounce a penny off his bedspread, it was that perfect. Even with the cute little panda bear stuffed animal standing watch on his pillow.

For the most part, everything was plain, the room next to bare, just a bed, a chair, and desk with a laptop. There was a closet, over the side of the door was a mirror. Min-hee was not going to look in the closet, but she found herself sitting in the chair by the desk.

"If you just wanted to be friends, you wouldn't have worn that dress all special for him." Jaemin said over the phone.

"It wasn't special for him, I would have worn that anyway." Min-hee insisted, opening his laptop. This was definitely an invasion of privacy now, but she couldn't stop herself, the thought of knowing more about him made her heart race. On the lock screen was a picture of a maze as viewed from above. Strange.

"Pfff, yeah right, you said you'd wear jeans and a tee-shirt the day before." Jaemin replied, obviously smirking on the other end.

Min-hee pressed the spacebar, the account picture being of Tao holding a big stuffed white teddy bear, obviously enjoying himself and smiling big, making the bear wave. Dang it, why was he so cute and attractive and sweet?

"Jaemin...!" She warned him as she tried a few passwords. 'Panda' nope. 'Maze' nope. 'Tao-Tao' that one was never going to work. Eventually the screen read, Incorrect password entered, please wait 60 seconds before trying again. And then it began a countdown.

She looked around for a clue, now fully snooping into his personal life. She saw a folded piece of paper off to the side and picked that up, unfolding it, maybe he was one of those people who kept forgetting their password.

"It's true and you know it!" Jaemin said.

Min-hee studied the words on the paper.

Huang Zitao,

I need you to kill Lu Han.

Don't ask questions, Make it clean, and have it done by the end of the month.

If not, we'll start erasing people. Remember, you owe us.

"Min-hee? Are you there?" she heard Jaemin ask.

She dropped the paper. Kill? Like...actually? This had to be a joke, this couldn't be real, this had to be some stupid joke. Tao couldn't kill anyone, despite how he looked, he couldn't...

But this looked real. This looked serious. This...

"I...I've got to go, Jaemin." She said before hanging up.

She felt incredibly uncomfortable. She was in the house of a killer then? Did that mean...that he wasn't just playing with her, that he actually meant her to be his next victim or something?

She grabbed the edge of her skirt. She couldn't believe it, she didn't want to believe it, some part of her wished that she'd just listened to Tao and went out the back door without taking this detour. But she knew now, and it scared her. And worse, now she remembered how silent he was when she'd mentioned death earlier, how his face had changed.

She nearly jumped out of her skin when she heard someone coming down the hall. She looked around. She couldn't go out the door, she'd probably run right into Tao, or worse, Tao and his girlfriend. She couldn't imagine what he'd do to her.

She tried to remain rational, but it came down to one thing, she had to hide. She bit her lip, her heart pounded a frantic beat against her chest. The bed was too low to the ground to hide under, so the only space that was available was...

The closet. Damn. She picked herself up out of the chair and tried to get over to it as quietly as possible, but careful and quiet was slow, and whoever was coming was going to be in the room with her in a second, so she yanked the door open and closed it behind her.

His clothes smelled clean, all hung up and straight, with a small dresser in the corner, she sat in the corner next to it hugging her knees to her chest, trying to be as small as possible just in case anyone looked inside.

She thought she'd have a heart attack when she heard Tao sigh as he entered the room.

"What the...?" She heard him say.

Then she realized, she'd left that letter on the floor, and the laptop wide open, and probably still displaying that incorrect password message. She was so screwed.

She stared at her phone, wondering if she should turn it off in case Jaemin calls back, or get ready to dial for the police. Because she was sure, if Tao found out, and that letter was any clue, he'd kill her.

She held her breath, about to cry, but fighting it because that was just going to get her caught a lot faster.

It's not true, It's not true, It's not true, it can't be true! Tao isn't... She wanted to believe that but...if she trusted him too easy, she'd end up dead.

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A/N: I was listening to Growl the entire time I wrote this, like on repeat, it sets a mood :3 And why yes, I do have three billion adorable pictures of Tao I could use :)