Bleed For Me - Taegyu/Beomhyun

Chapter 1: White Noise

 Taehyun walked briskly towards the station, one foot in front of the other as he hurried. He was going to be late, no doubt about that, but he could still try to make it to his meeting as soon as he could. The streets were busy today. He hugged his jacket closer to his chest, the crisp fall air seemed to rattle his bones. He sighed; Of all days, of course today had to be the most crowded. His eyes turned down to his wristwatch, a finely made, gold plated design- a gift from his team leader when he joined the group a year ago. He had approximately five minutes to reach his destination before he was considered unfashionably late. This meeting was important, he knew that, but it wasn't Taehyun's fault he was late. He had double and triple checked his alarm last night, but it still failed to go off this morning. He woke up in a panic, hurriedly throwing on clothes and stumbling into the bathroom to wash up. Now, as he neared his workplace, he wondered how he managed to look as presentable as he did considering the circumstances of his morning. He made a mental note to check his hair in the mirror one more time before entering his meeting as he rounded the final corner and spotted his building as it came into view.

Taehyun had no idea what the meeting he was about to walk into was about. All he knew is that his team leader had told him it was extremely important and he was to be punctual. Taehyun sighed again; he was given one instruction, and he couldn't even follow it. What kind of officer did that make him? He shook his head to get rid of the negative thoughts, causing a couple strands of his honey blond hair to fall in his eyes. Right- he was going to check his hair in the mirror before he made his appearance. He finally entered the building with one minute to spare, using the time to make a quick stop at the bathroom and look at himself in the semi-dirty mirror above the sink.

To Taehyun's surprise, he really looked no different than usual. His hair was a little more ruffled up, but the dark circles under his eyes and sharp cheekbones were the same as they always have been. He mindlessly turned on the tap, taking some cold water to splash on his face to wake him up and some to smooth his hair down. After some adjustment of his hair, he decided he looked orderly enough. He quickly shuffled out of the bathroom, breaking into a light jog as he entered the meeting room.

The rest of his team was already sitting around the round conference table. However, they did not seem to judge him for being late. They barely looked up, as if they didn't want to make eye contact with him. Taehyun thought this was strange- he was never exactly friends with his coworkers, but they were close enough to greet each other and joke around during meetings. He brushed off the strange feeling he was left with as he went to take his seat at the table. The first person to motion that they actually noticed Taehyun's entrance was his team leader, who was standing at the front.

"Taehyun! There you are. We've been waiting for you," He greeted softly, gesturing to the open chair at the table. "Take a seat."

"Sorry, Soobin-hyung." Taehyun muttered, head down. He knew it would be useless to explain why he was running late, the excuse not worth wasting both their time on.

"Ay, it's fine. Let's get started, shall we?" Soobin replied softly, suddenly becoming more grave. Taehyun stiffened a bit in his chair. It was unusual to see Soobin this serious. It's ironic really, being in a special police force team specializing in gang activity, they see some serious shit. However, Soobin always tried to keep a lighthearted atmosphere in the office, probably to save everyone's sanity. This time however, it was clear that whatever they were to discuss in this meeting was nothing to joke about.

Taehyun's mind wandered, trying to guess what could possibly be this important. They had been working on pretty mundane stuff lately, the gang that they have been studying hasn't been causing trouble as of late. Maybe they pulled a huge stunt? Taehyun's eyes widened at that before he pushed the thought aside. If anything urgent had happened, Soobin would have called him or he would have heard about it on the news. However, he hadn't heard anything. As a matter of fact, he has been pretty relaxed since he left work yesterday. He had ordered takeout for dinner and spent the night on the couch watching his favorite drama. He even slept like a baby last night, relaxed and serene (except for his not so graceful way of waking up this morning). Taehyun studied Soobin's face. Maybe if he stared at him long enough, he would be able to read his mind.