The Afterlife

12) "I Got a Gift for You"

Sihyeon could not say she loved her work, but she could not also say she absolutely hated it, either.

However, when Taehyung left his whole office - his entire department, at that - and lingered at hers, she could easily say she hated life as a whole. 

It was never different; he was never different, speaking at every chance he was given and using her desk to support his feet that sought comfort no where else. Had Sihyeon not known him, she would have easily believed that it was never for show - the face he wore back when they worked at the hospital.

Sihyeon made sure she tormented him back then; after all, she was his senior there, and he had no choice but to keep up the facade; it did change, however, at the station.

While Sihyeon cared not for such thing as rank hierarchy, Taehyung seized whichever part he could take from it, and he abused the authority he had - Sihyeon told him so - even when it was only Sihyeon's sanity he abused.

"You fucking-" it was at least the tenth time in thirty minutes that Sihyeon had attempted to throw something - glass or not - at him. He deprived her of her desk, and it was not the only thing Sihyeon was deprived of; while she longed to see Cho Eunju's face again, there was no running from the weariness that was her body.

"Go get yourself something to eat, Taehyung," she feigned an attempt to encourage him, but he could easily see through it, if not by his utmost knowledge of Sihyeon, then by her fist that dug its nails in the layers of his clothing, "trust me, you need it," it was not easy for Sihyeon to push him off the chair without actually hurting him, so when the first flash pain crossed his arm, he yelped and found his way to his knees, "good boy. Go."

With a pointed look, Taehyung dusted off his clothes as he got up, "you sure do care a lot about me."

While the others watched their childish bickering with wondering eyes, Sihyeon paid none of it any heed, immediately distracted by her watch after sending Taehyung the fakest of her smiles, "what is taking them so long?"

She was not eager for the investigation, nor was she eager to hear what Cho Eunju had to say; She just wanted to look the woman in the eye and remind her of the face that had long challenged her and was still ready to do so.

"They are not buying groceries, in case you are mistaken," Taehyung took a look at his watch in return, "it has only been an hour."

"An hour is enough and more," Sihyeon's frown was now a tad more serious, the playfulness with which she taunted her colleague wholly subsiding in the face of what she did not acknowledge for eagerness just for the sake of ethics ad whatnot, "I am calling Hyejin-"

Before Sihyeon could do as much as take out her phone, a noise of chatter sounded from across the hall. She looked at Taehyung first, who was already moving towards the glass door of the department, and the followed after him, her phone still in her hands shall the alarm that rung was a false one.

It was not. From Taehyung's side, she saw Hyejin and Jisoo striding into the hallway that lead to the glass door she stood behind, and in their hands, she saw the woman whose mere vexation had Sihyeon's smile widening.

She only took a single step away from the door in favor of letting her team members walk easily past it, but that was it; behind the door was as far as they could go before Sihyeon stood before them, waiting very patiently, arms crossed against her chest, for the woman to look up at her.

Upon Eunju's slow realization, Sihyeon's smile found no limits, and she sighed in acute delight, "a rat sure finds its way ultimately into a trap, am I right?"

"Rat-"

The woman's ire did less to halt Sihyeon in her most probably rehearsed speech; had Taehyung known her for anything but being born with an innately sharp tongue, he would have believed she sat down to memorize it.