High Maintenance 👑 h.zt

14

~Tao~

Min-hee tackled Chanyeol, Pushing him to the ground, Tao had no idea why, but he couldn't say he especially minded if it got Chanyeol to stop yapping. Min-hee held Chanyeol's arms down while he struggled like a fish out of water to get out of her grip.

"What did I ever do to you?" Chanyeol asked.

"I know what the 'work' is, I won't let you do this!" Min-hee screamed, getting attention from passers-by. Tao raised an eyebrow at them and they looked away.

"What?" Chanyeol asked, obviously in shock. "Panda, you told someone? That's the first rule he said you had to follow!"

Tao pulled at Min-hee's arms trying to get her off of him. He remembered that rule, he remembered it well. His deals were shady, illegal, if Tao told anyone, he promised, he'd said he'd involve them. Tao had seen what happened to those who got 'involved', they didn't live long, they didn't even live pleasantly. His blood ran cold at the mention of that rule. How could he have just forgotten about it?

"Min-hee, get off of him!" Tao said, yanking her hard, making her fall back. Min-hee glared at him, confused and rubbing her arm. He might have yanked her hard enough to hurt, he wasn't sure.

Min-hee frowned. "I thought you wanted this to st--."

"No!" Tao barked. "Min-hee, just stop. Stop." He couldn't outright tell her here, not with Chanyeol sitting right there, Chanyeol was one step away from telling the boss everything, it would be far too easy for him.

"But you said--!"

"Just Shut up! Stop talking!" Tao watched Chanyeol smirk in the corner of his eye, dying to comment on this.

"But, Tao!" She said, her voice shaking.

He wished there was a way to say it without tipping Chanyeol off to what they were talking about, but as silly as Chanyeol was, he wasn't stupid, he'd pick up on it if this kept up. Tao couldn't let him know how much he'd told her.

Tao gave Min-hee the hardest look he could, silently begging her to stop talking, for her own sake.

Chanyeol picked himself up, dusting off his shirt. "So you guys are already fighting? Wow~! Maybe I spoke too soon? Also, Panda, she has nice panties, she's a keeper for sure."

Min-hee blushed, then covered her cheeks with her hands, fixing her sitting position, even though at the current moment, it wasn't like her panties were visible. But Tao supposed when she was tackling Chanyeol, with a skirt on, they were plainly visible. He wouldn't know, he wasn't looking.

"It's okay, Panda, they're cute, you'll like them." Chanyeol said, getting way too close to Tao's face.

Tao swatted him away, this annoying virus. He was doing this on purpose. Probably to embarrass someone, and Tao liked to think he wasn't embarrassed when the thought of what he was saying crossed his mind for longer then it should.

Chanyeol's face turned serious--as serious as it ever got anyway, "Tao, we need to talk, without her around, you know what I mean."

Tao stared evenly at Chanyeol for a second, taking in what he was saying. There were only two things he could possibly want to talk about, and Tao didn't want to talk about either. But he wanted to keep Min-hee out of trouble, maybe convince Chanyeol to keep this quiet.

He turned to Min-hee and pulled her up to her feet. "Could you go?" When it came out of his mouth, it sounded cold and unfeeling, but he hoped maybe she'd see it in his eyes that he didn't mean it quite like that, that this was just so she wouldn't get trapped like he was.

Min-hee pouted, looking like she wanted to hit him, and her hand came up like she was about to, but then it dropped. "You better not, you're better then that." She said.

He knew what she meant. Don't kill him, don't kill him to get out of this, you're better then this. He wished this fear of what might happen didn't drive him to think that it was still an option.

Min-hee fixed her glasses, pressed her lips into a straight line, then walked away as dignified as possible. And Tao felt bad for making her walk, wherever she was going, he would have liked it better if there was a way to drive her.

He felt a tap to his shoulder. Of course it was Chanyeol, impatient as ever. "Panda, you haven't even researched who the target is yet, haven't even typed his name into a search bar, boss is getting suspicious."

"It said I have until the end of the month." Tao said slowly, realizing that Chanyeol had implied that they were watching him closer then he liked.

"Pfff, well, yeah, but you usually do a job as soon as he gives it to you, he doesn't like this hesitation all of a sudden, it looks...like you're--."

"I know what it looks like!" Tao burst. "Don't you think I know how it looks?"

Chanyeol put his hands up. "Hey, I know that, you've got time, I'm just asking you to at least start, case the guy out a little, start thinking about how you're going to do it." Chanyeol smiled. "I like you, Panda, I don't want you to get in trouble, that's why I was looking for you in the first place."

For the very little Chanyeol was asking, it still weighed on Tao's mind. He didn't want to see who they wanted dead, didn't want to associate the name with a face, because he hadn't meant to, but when he'd found the paper on the floor, he'd looked. Whoever Lu Han was, he couldn't do this, he couldn't even think of it without feeling cold inside.

"And I won't tell him about her." Chanyeol said, surprising Tao out of his thoughts. "I'll try to keep her out of the system, okay? Just don't tell her anything else, and start on this job."

Tao stared at Chanyeol, surprised. He didn't think it'd be that easy, Chanyeol was the boss' faithful puppy. But Chanyeol seemed sincere, understanding, actually serious for once. "Thank you..." Tao mumbled.

Chanyeol grinned. "Don't look at me like that! Makes me want to hug you to pieces!" Chanyeol came uncomfortably close again, holding out his arms for a hug he wasn't going to get.

Tao made a disgusted face, and that made him back away.

Chanyeol cleared his throat, arms dropping to his sides, "Look him up, though, see what you think."

Then Chanyeol turned and walked away, hands in his pockets, heading out to his VW bug. Tao stood there in thought for a second, unable to even think of moving. Maybe Chanyeol wasn't so bad. Still an annoying Happy Virus, but not bad.

After a minute to himself, Tao went out to the Bugatti and started it, the engine purring like it always did. He'd have to look him up, whether he liked it or not, they were watching him too closely, there was no telling what might happen if he didn't start making it look like he was actually going to do this.

~~~

Tao drove back home, as soon as he was inside, by himself except for Suri who was yapping and yipping at his heels, he sat in front of his laptop. Just opening it and staring at the lock screen. This was harder to do then he thought.

This is so stupid, you've sent  people to the hospital that you didn't know, you can look up a name!

Tao ran a hand though his hair and typed in his password, opening the search and typing the name before he could think himself out of it.

There was only one result for a social media page for that name. A angelic looking boy with dyed pink hair, his page filled with updates about a friend he'd bumped into at the mall, pictures of him with other people, smiling. There was one that said he'd be going out of the country by the end of the month--Tao supposed that's where the boss had gotten the deadline from.

He looked so innocent, why would anyone want him gone? What could he have possibly done to anyone?

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A/N: Tao's password is a secret ;P