Nadir ◈ Seungjin

2 ◈ Little Shadows

"Seungmin, there's a problem."

"Already? What did you do? It's barely nine in the morning," Seungmin muttered to the voice, noting it's rounded shoulders swerving past the lips of desks in the office space and sweeping strides in his peripheral vision.

His eyes reluctantly peeled off the laptop in front of him, taking in the light dishevel of the other's appearance. Tussled hair strands swept to the side in what looked to be a clever deployment of the finger comb to organize the threads; His bomber jacket laying uneven on his tilted collars in a tilted angle sharp enough to tip anyone off it's proud platforms; The lanyard with a few too many pins to be considered professional denoting him belonging in the office space in the back of the police department flipped over a shrugged shoulder, the badge along with it slapping miserably into him; The manila folder in his hands crinkling under his oppressive touch. Crumpled up, wrinkled in a circular way as it tried to hide away. A light limp to his steps as well, thumping against the linoleum floors.

With a hum of realization chasing after the hobbling steps, Seungmin leaned back in the uncomfortable seat and accused him, "Are you hungover, Detective Sergeant Lee?"

"Worse, Lieutenant Kim," Minho grunted the tease back. Slamming the manila folder down on the desk adjacent to Seungmin, the papers inside ruffling gently like down feathers on a bird's puffed up chest as they were swept up by the human's hand, he  leaned on the laminated wood top. Knuckles pressing him down, weight shifting down, gaze dropping down to where Seungmin sat in front of him, sagging eyes seemingly descending even further into his disgruntlement as he hissed a soft breath, "We got a lead about the new murders this morning."

Seungmim quirked an eyebrow, prompting him, "And?"

"Useless!" The vampire shouted with a huff, his hand slapping down on the desk. He then flopped down in the squeaky swivel chair at his own divided workspace, the seat spinning him in desperate circles as he continued to complain to the open air above them, "He kept telling me about where to buy cheap cookies."

With a gentle smile quirked up to his roommate and unfortunate co-worker at the police department, Seungmin watched the older continue to spin himself in lazy circles to pass the seconds by. Toeing himself around, his gaze going blank into the empty miasma above their heads gawking back at him as he drew another circuit around himself, then another, and another. Hands flopping loosely by his sides. The lanyard and police badge around his neck slinging back and forth like a pendulum counting the passing seconds. The human attempted to quirk his lip a little higher through the numb in his chest. He tried, "That can be important too."

"Oh?" Minho's head perked back up, a sly smile spreading on his features as a sense of dread smothered Seungmin. He scooted away from his desk, an awkward stomping of his feet dragging him and his swivel chair across the room, "Oh? What was that? Seungmin is trying to make jokes? I thought he was a rock."

The minor spark of a grin spreading on Seungmin's face died out at the other's quip. The other's blatant notice of the new emotions he forgot to suppress beneath a stone exterior. He suffocated the quirk of his lips down into a flat line. Pursed together, locked tightly. Before the other could think any more of his smile. Before he could compliment or return it. Hiding whatever true colors may or may not have been stirring murky water in his cavern of a chest. What those feelings were, he himself wasn't sure. He only knew the more he tried to unravel their tangled meaning, the longer he waited for the kicked dust to clear from the water's tides, the more their ripples clouded up with the mossy green fog. The more the cavern in his chest expanded.

Seungmin turned his focus back to the laptop in front of him.

He met the eyes in the reflection of that dimmed screen.