ateez - in his mind

seven

The bus ride to Hyunjin's workplace was longer than Jongho expected, and he was barely able to make it on time before the office closed for the day. Everywhere seemed to be extremely busy and there were times Jongho struggled to keep his own personal space. Thankfully, he was able to reach the front desk without too much trouble.

"Hello, how may I help you?" the lady at the desk asked. Jongho hadn't contacted Hyunjin about him stopping by, but he figured that with the amount of headlining stories he was putting out, there was a good chance he'd be here. He smiled politely at the lady.

"Hi, I'm here to see a friend of mine. His name is Hyunjin, if you could tell him that Jongho is here, that would be lovely," he said, smiling painfully while doing so. The lady behind the desk gave an uncomfortable laugh, and Jongho knew what she was going to say before she even got the words out.

"I'm sorry dear, I can't do that as stated in our visitor policy." Nonetheless, Jongho held his ground, his smile slowly disappearing.

"Ma'am, I don't quite think you're understanding. I'm a detective, you see. I was the one who investigated on your guys' biggest story: the one about the two missing teenagers from back in April. I need to speak to Hyunjin about a story that is incredibly important, so can you please let him know that I am here?"

Despite his growing frustration, Jongho never raised his voice. The lady was stunned into silence, not knowing what to do for a few moments as she realized who she was talking who. Soon enough, she gave Jongho an apologetic look and grabbed her phone to dial the one in Hyunjin's office.

"Hello? Hyunjin, there's someone named Jongho waiting for you up front here... Yes... Yes, that is the right name... Okay, thank you," she said before hanging up. "Okay, Jongho, you can wait right here, he should be down in a couple minutes." Jongho nodded and politely thanked her before taking a seat in an empty chair. He was only able to look at his phone for a minute before his old friend came walking out.

"Hey! How have you been?" Hyunjin said with a wide smile.

"I've been doing good. Is it okay if we talk somewhere else?" Jongho asked, looking around at the crowded front room. It was full of people coming in and out, waiting for interviews, wanting their stories to be told. Hyunjin agreed and the two quickly walked back to Hyunjin's office.

It was a nice room, Jongho figured it was because his story gained a lot of attention for the small newsroom. There was enough space to hold multiple people and thankfully for Jongho, no one could hear their conversation. He hadn't been sure how to bring up the topic of his latest story, but Hyunjin beat him to it.

"This is about the article from yesterday, isn't it?" Hyunjin said, his expression beginning to grow serious. Jongho nodded while pushing his glasses up. From the moment Hyunjin heard Jongho's name on the phone, he knew what he going to be getting into.

"Where did you get the information from?" Jongho asked sternly. Hyunjin flinched at the loudness of his voice, not expecting him to become so angry so fast. He sighed in defeat and leaned back in the chair he sat on.

"The government."

"That's not good enough," Jongho said quickly.

"You do realize that we have insiders that get the information for us, right? Do you really think that I wanted to get this information out?" Hyunjin asked defensively. It was quickly becoming a full-blown argument and Hyunjin started to get worried that someone would see them. However, Jongho clearly didn't care as he held up his phone for him to see.

"You call that information? Then tell me why less than two hours ago, the government put out a statement denying everything that was said in your article, Hyunjin."

Hearing this left Hyunjin stunned for a moment. He quickly shook his head with a confused smile on his face.

"No, no, that's not possible," he said, now standing and beginning to pace around the room. He looked out his singular glass wall to make sure no one was watching them before turning back to Jongho, who was now just as confused as him.

"What do you mean 'not possible,' who specifically got that information?" Jongho asked.

"We have trustworthy people who give us insights into every branch of this country's government, all of them have been doing so for at least twenty years. It's not possible for these people to mess up, Jongho. I don't know what else to tell you. What I wrote in that article was nothing but the truth."

Jongho let out a loud sarcastic laugh at Hyunjin's response for many reasons. The fact that Hyunjin would trust these people so easily was beyond him. He had been working in this newsroom for less than two months and he already believed the "trustworthy" spies in the government. It was terribly laughable to Jongho.

"I don't know what has happened with you, Hyunjin, but you of all fucking people should know that truth is mendable by agenda. And you've just caused the entire country to become scared to leave their homes," Jongho yelled. The thought of other people seeing them argue left his mind and he walked up to Jongho.

"Well, then who the hell am I supposed to trust?"

"Trust me," Jongho said sternly before pushing his glasses up and leaving the office without another word.

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A/N: New characters from a certain group will be introduced soon!! Any guesses as to which group it will be~~?