The Tiger King (Chaelisa)

45| The Case of the Two Jinyoungs

((after i watched the video, i swerved from jensoo XD see author's note))

Dahyun had spent the better part of the morning after managing to get rid of Jackson holed up in her room frantically pulling up all the resources she could think of to help her decode the information in the pictures on her phone. 

While she was at it, Dahyun also upgraded her firewall and anti-virus as well as malware detector. Although she was trying hard not to let paranoia grip her, she even pulled down the blinds.

She had spent a whole day after he left churning over the meagre theories and threads she had about her research, all of which soon drew a frustrating blank. No amount of Google search and cross-referencing with chemical textbooks seem to bring up the complex organic molecules that Jackson had drawn, and certainly there was no mention of TK that remotely resembled what she was looking for. 

By the time evening rolled around, she was ravenous, thirsty, cranky and exhausted. Her eyes felt like lead balls in her head but her brain refused to stop, still running on an anxiety high as the implications of what could happen should Jackson suspect her ulterior motives to checking his notebooks kept pushing her to work out what he was up to.

She ended up sleeping on the couch, being lucid enough to refuse sleeping on the sheets that Jackon had slept in.

There wasn't much of his scent lingering to be honest, but Dahyun's skin crawled at the thought of sleeping on something he touched, which was why she had again spent a night on the couch before pulling out the sheets and heading to the nearby laundromat early in the morning.

The blazing sunlight pushed everything into sharp focus—memories trickling in had her mortification skyrocket as she remembered practically seducing Jackson into sleeping with her, all to get her hands on his notebooks. Her recklessness had her almost doing something she'd most probably regret, even when it seemed like the only good idea at the time out of sheer desperation and lust.

Dahyun tucked her legs up on the chair she was sitting and rested her forehead on her knees, sighing out loud. She was alone except for the background whirring of the washing machine she was using.

After scrambling for some excuse as to why she had been rummaging though his bag, Dahyun had finally admitted that she got bored waiting for Jackson to wake up and got curious since she always saw him writing in his notebooks.

"Guess it's my journalistic sense," she had chuckled, praying he wouldn't probe further, "always sticking my nose here and there, you know."

Still thankfully groggy, Jackson seemed to accept that explanation, although he snapped the notebook shut rather forcefully when Dahyun handed it back.

He too seemed to have gotten over the night's declarations of desire and devotion, avoiding her gaze as though he was a child caught sneaking candy. Probably, he recognised that it was better to have a clean break than get entangled just before he departed. Jackson left with a curt 'thank you' after a quick trip to the bathroom, leaving Dahyun staring after his departing back until she snapped into action and pulled the sheets off the bed. 

Her heart gave a weak pang watching him leave so swiftly, without even a proper goodbye but with Jackson out of sight, it was easier to dampen the feeble spark that had momentarily threatened to blaze between them. 

Only now Dahyun understood that she barely knew Jackson and therefore couldn't even trust his apparent good intentions. He had just been using her to mask his true goals and blend in as a regular college student.