:: baekhyun x oc ;; espionage au ;; angstangstangst ::
( masterlist :: 01 :: 02 :: 03 )
For a while, things went about their usual way. Monday to Friday would be workdays, with the pair alternating between being chauffeur or chef for the day. Friday and Saturday nights would be spent at social events, as the pair continued to delve further into the circles of those linked to the Round Table. Between that, the pair continued to decipher the extra pieces of information they had on hand, transmitting intelligence back to DK when a particularly important piece of the puzzle had been put together. Any spare moment between that was spent lounging on the sofa, with Baekhyun’s favourite spot still being Soohyun’s lap, and Soohyun’s favourite resting spot for her ice cream still being Baekhyun’s head while it lay in her lap. They never mentioned that day; Soohyun never asked further about Hera, and Baekhyun never mentions the kiss they shared. They carry on with their routine and their assignment as if none of that had happened; yet when Soohyun finds herself entwined in his warm arms in the mornings, she wonders. She wonders how long they can continue to live in this little bubble before something else happens and it all falls apart; she wonders if she’s doing the right thing by letting their relationship continue to be in this grey zone. But she continues nonetheless, because the thought of jeopardising what they have petrifies her, and so she chooses to not think at all.
The first domino fell when Baekhyun brought Hera to their apartment. Not because he had brought her to their home, as it had come to feel for Soohyun. But because he had revealed his true identity to Hera, and with that, Soohyun’s also.
“She can help us Soohyun, trust me,” he pleaded, his whispers rushed as he tried to reason with Soohyun as Hera sat patiently on the sofa mere metres away, the pair’s voices only muffled by the thin door barricading their bedroom from the hallway.
“You just blew our aliases Byun Baekhyun, do you understand what you’ve just done,” she whispered back, her eyes stern before she had to look away, running her hands through her hair in exasperation.
“We can trust Hera, Soohyun, just listen to me, she can help us get intel so much quicker –“
“But you don’t know that Baekhyun, you don’t know what she’s going to do or say once she leaves this apartment –“
“I trust her Soohyun. Please, please just trust me. This once, please?”
And for his sake, Soohyun had reluctantly nodded her agreement, her eyes wary as she traced Hera’s leaving figure that night.
Hera proved to be a great help. With the trust that she built over the years, Baekhyun had quickly gathered information that would have taken Soohyun and him months to find. Hera joined them after work and on Sundays, where they sifted through new intelligence that they had found and worked to decipher the hidden networks beneath the glamorous surface of honest multi-corporations. And Soohyun could see, beyond their romantic history, Baekhyun and Hera clicked. They worked well together, their brains seemingly wired in similar ways such that they complemented each other’s thought processes, finishing each other’s thoughts and sentences. It was commendable, their teamwork. Soohyun found herself retiring to bed earlier as she left the pair to continue their work without interruption; using excuses of being exhausted from work and requiring more sleep with the colder months.
“Are they your favourite flowers – daisies?”
“Hmm?” She had missed the question, having been too absorbed in perfecting the shadow petal behind the centre gerbera.
“Daisies – do you like them that much? You’re always painting them.”
“They’re fascinating – to most people, they’re just ordinary flowers that you can get at any florist, flowers that don’t mean much. But if you look closely, no daisy is ever alone – you see how they all have two layers of petals? That’s because very daisy is actually two, the under petals being from a second daisy that surrounds the first.”
Baekhyun stared blankly at Soohyun at first, then back at her painting, processing what she had just said.
“And before you start thinking I’m some crazy teenage girl,” she continued to explain. “I studied botany when I was in France, as part of my first assignment…”
“Happiness,” He interrupted. “That’s what they mean, right? Daisies?”
“Cheerfulness…” she starts.
Soohyun hated it. She hated the pangs of jealousy that would find itself to the surface with every passing month of Hera’s intrusion. She hated the progress that the pair had made and how she was becoming less and less useful in their assignment. She worked twice as hard as she had before, pulling longer hours at work and working until early hours of the morning back at their shared apartment, hacking into back systems of various corporations linked with the Round Table. She hated how instead of welcoming the help, she was beginning to feel threatened by Hera. And she hated how she could not differentiate whether that threat felt personal or professional. And the thing she hated most was that Baekhyun had noticed this shift.
“Soohyun-ah, go to bed it’s 3 in the morning,” he mumbled, hair a mess as he rubbed his tired eyes, standing at the door to Soohyun’s studio room. Not that it could even be called that anymore, with the canvases long forgotten and replaced by sheets of written and typed documents.
“I’ve almost gotten through, just go to bed first,” she replied, not looking up from her laptop as she continued typing away.
“I said, it’s time to rest,” he repeated, moving into the room to pull at her arm.
“Leave me alone, Baekhyun!” She pulled back, her voice harsher than she had expected.
“What’s gotten into you these days,” he retaliated, hurt expression painting his face.
“Nothing, I just –“ she mumbled, turning her head away. “Look, I just, I really need this assignment to finish already, it’s been almost two years and I…I want it all to stop,” the words almost jumbling themselves up as she rambled.
“…You need what to stop?” His eyes continued to bore into her side profile as he spoke, incredulous at her outburst.
“What? This?” he motions to their surroundings, and then to the distance between the pair of them. “What do you need to stop?”
“I can’t do this anymore Baekhyun,” she continued, her voice dropping as she buried her head into her hands before looking up at him. “I… I can’t…”
“Look, forget it,” he cut her off, running his hands through his hair as he stormed out of the room. He had been so fed up with how Soohyun had been since Hera had joined their forces. He had thought she’d be better than that, but she had been acting with such defensiveness towards Hera from the get-go without good reason.
As the door closed behind Baekhyun’s retreating figure, Soohyun finds herself struggling to hold back the tears that had already been threatening to spill.
“I can’t keeping pretending, Baekhyun. I’m so sorry,” she whispers to herself.
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