N0 B0DY, N0 CRIM3 | Bang Chan

Poker-face

When Kiera's eyes reopened, she was met with a high-white ceiling. She blinked a few times and pushed herself up. A faint pink hue reached her cheeks when she realized she had been laying on Chan's lap. She pushed herself up and glanced around. The familiar sight of Chan's bedroom lay before her. 

Behind her, the back of Chan's head rested against the wall. His back pressed up against the black metal bed frame. His arms were crossed over his chest and his chest rhythmically moved up and down. Kiera's movement didn't cause him to stir. She moved over to the edge of the king-sized bed and began to slowly move off of it. 

Chan's eyes flew open at the sound of the bed creaking. "Oh, you're awake now." 

Kiera paused and glanced back towards him. "Sorry, I didn't mean to wake you up." 

"Are you alright?" 

She nodded, "I was just going to go to the bathroom." 

"You're sure you're okay? You don't have any dizziness or anything? You don't need to throw up? Is your heart beating really fast?" Worry clutched his heart, but Kiera shook her head. 

"I'm alright. When did we get back here?" 

Chan glanced up at the digital clock above the door frame. "Nearly two hours ago. We brought you back here after you were knocked out. I figured it'd be the safest place for you." 

"Marvin?" 

"He's dead." 

"Oh," Kiera frowned. 

"Does that bother you?" 

"I wish people didn't have to die. I'll be back in a few minutes and we can talk more." He watched Kiera leave the room in silence.  

Chan glanced down at the floor. Maybe he should have thought twice before shooting Marvin. He blinked and shook his head trying to force the thought away. He did what anyone would have done if they had a gun. He did the right thing. 

Kiera came back less than five minutes later. She crawled up into the bed and moved over towards Chan. Chan raised an eyebrow trying to figure out what she was going to do. Before he could ask, she lifted up his left arm and slung it around her shoulder. Her head rested on his chest. "When are we going to make another video?" 

"How does tomorrow sound?" Chan asked. 

She nodded. Silence engulfed the room for a while before she spoke again. "So what made you decide to like me?" 

Chan swallowed and glanced down at the top of her head. How did he start developing feelings for her? He stayed quiet for a few seconds. "Please don't tell me this is just another one of your tricks and you're just trying to use me." Kiera's voice interrupted his train of thought.

"No," Chan shook his head. "When it comes to my work, I don't do this. If this was a ploy, Lee Know would have gotten close to you. He's a natural charmer when it comes to lying. If I didn't know any better, I'd easily fall for his lies." 

"Don't forget you had Hyunjin pretend to be interested in me at the beginning of all of this." 

"It was because he's an artist. When I found out you were in college studying art, I thought you might know him. Drawing you out was a hell of a lot easier than trying to sneak into the white house. That stunt Lee Know and Han pulled with the secret service members, that took a lot of planning and conning people." 

"Yeah, it's almost like you're a natural when it comes to pulling strings. Maybe you should get a job where you're in charge regularly" 

Kiera's sarcasm caused Chan to chuckle, "you think so?" 

"You'd be good at it." Kiera shifted and glanced up at Chan. "So back to the point, how did it happen? I don't think you decided to wake up one day and start liking me." 

"Well, you are incredibly good looking. Even before Hyunjin kidnapped you, I thought you were attractive. When you were here, I pushed that away because it wasn't the point. I didn't bring you here, so I could develop more feelings, I brought you here to help take down your father." 

"Weren't you going to kill me first?" 

"That was the plan. You threw a wrench in it when you wouldn't break. I thought you'd be easy and give everything up when Han started to interrogate you, but you made it difficult. Lee Know had to be brought in and that's when we realized you didn't like your father, but you were still protecting him. I was certain Changbin would cause you to confess, but you didn't." 

Kiera nibbled the inside of her cheek at the memory of hanging back at the warehouse. It caused a shiver to trickle down her spine. She was sure she was going to die that day until Changbin kept lowering her back to the ground. She was smart enough to realize they weren't trying to kill her, just pull information from her. 

"You finally laid out the truth when I was nice to you. With a little kindness, you confessed and explained everything. I suppose it was then where I started to feel bad about the situation." 

"I believe you said you pitied me at one point." 

"I did and I still do. I don't think you or anyone deserves to go through anything like that. I've said it before and I'll say it again, I understand how it feels to grow up with an awful parent. I only had one, so I can't imagine having two." Chan wrapped his arm around Kiera a bit tighter. 

She pulled his arm over her chest and wrapped her arms around it. "That day, the whole situation sucked, but it felt nice to be treated like I mattered. Felix fixed me pancakes that morning and after you were done with your hissy fit and pulled my hair, I-" 

"I shouldn't have done that and I'm sorry. That was way out of line on my part. I should have never touched you like that. You didn't deserve it." 

Kiera shrugged, "you were just angry." 

"No!" Chan's voice came out stern. "Don't you dare excuse that kind of behavior. People need to learn how to control their anger. You can't continuously make excuses for people like that. It's how you get trapped in situations. If people get violent when angry and can't control their anger, they need to work on it. What I did to you was inexcusable and I can't take it back, but I can learn from it." 

"Don't make excuses for people's anger. You'll start excusing everything. I don't care how angry a person gets. Anger doesn't justify screaming or throwing things. It doesn't excuse physical or verbal abuse." 

"But..." 

"No," Chan shook his head. The image of him kicking Marvin's corpse a few hours ago replayed itself in his head. Since Marvin was dead, did it really matter if he went off? His nails dug into his palms. He needed to learn to take his own advice. 

"If this has been ingrained into you, you need to stop," he continued. "You can't excuse people's actions because of their emotions. Rationality is an important virtue to have. I mean sometimes people lose control, but it's important to realize how your actions may affect other people."  He tightened his arm around Kiera again. 

"People can be fragile and sometimes all it takes is one episode of anger to shatter them."