riki.nishimura → airport hug

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I stayed silent as Niki glared over at Boyoung, his lips curving into a very very small smile. He was just being polite although he knew what I suspected of her.

"Hey." He replied, and she looked him up and down.

"Straight from work? You must love Mei a lot to do something like that." Boyoung gave a chuckle as he nodded.

"I do." His answers were blunt, good job, that's exactly what I expect of him.

"Mei, I'm so sorry that your paintings went missing, we promise we'll find them." Boyoung turned to look at me, her eyes gleaming.

I gave a faint smile.

"I do hope so, I just wonder how they managed to get stolen with no sign of forced entry." I looked at Boyoung who just cleared her throat.

"Woah, don't look at me like that, I know I have access, but I wouldn't do something like that, you know me for years. Seriously." Boyoung gave an unsure chuckle at the way I was looking at her.

And I just let out a sigh.

"Sorry, it's just super stressful, it could be anyone you know." I shrugged, maybe my suspicions were just wrong.

After a while of just pointless conversation, me and Niki went back home. I was still not completely sure of Boyoung and Min-kyu for that matter.

The zip up? Come on, it all seemed too good to be true.

I know Min-kyu was denying it, but so was Boyoung, so what? Nobody stole the paintings? I'm suddenly schizophrenic?

I was so irritated, and Niki could clearly sense the tension walking around me, I was sat in my studio and he was just peering into the studio from the door frame.

I glanced over to look at him, a small smile caressing my face at how sweet he was being right now.

"Why do you refuse to come in here?" I inquired, he's just been peering from the door frame for the past hour.

"I'm scared you'll launch paintbrushes at me, I'm walking on thin ice around you today." Niki openly told me, and I gave a laugh, it's crazy how being with certain people can just boost your mood.

"You know I wouldn't do that to you." I rolled my eyes, "Come in."

He wasn't convinced, but slowly stepped inside, this time, leaning on the open door that was in my room.

He crossed his arms, and he looked so good in this moment. I don't know, something about him, everything about him.

"Hey, stop, don't look at me like that, you're gonna throw a canvas at me, aren't you?" Niki came up behind me, putting his arms around me and making me lean on him.

"I'm just so annoyed, how, all of my paintings. And no leads at all." I complained, it was something I couldn't get off my mind - literally who could?

"Wasn't there camera footage?" Niki raised the question, and I debated whether telling him about the zip up thing.

"Yeah but listen, on the footage it showed someone in a zip up exactly similar to the one I bought Min-kyu once, and I asked Min-kyu about it and he said he'd never do that to me." I sighed, just telling him, there's no point of hiding it from him.

"When did you go to his place?" Niki asked, I could hear that he was a little irritated.

"Sometime earlier, it was only briefly, literally three minutes." I replied, hoping he wouldn't make a big deal out of something so minor.

"And you thought that was enough to get something out of him? You know the guy is weird, you should've kept asking him questions til he spilled something." Niki was still behind me, his arms wrapped around me and swaying me side to side lightly.

It made me feel relieved that he wasn't super insecure like a certain someone, it also confused me how he didn't make such a big deal about me not telling him - damn, this guy is gold.

"Well, in my defense, I didn't want to really be around him." I shrugged and he gave a chuckle.

"I'm not surprised, anything he can do, I do better." Niki spoke, such a proud and narcissistic tone coming from him, but to be honest, he wasn't wrong.

And before I could reply, another text message.

unknown number: sometimes things in life don't go as planned, so you sometimes have to take control of it yourself

unknown number: *sent an attachment*

I showed Niki immediately, and he just simply laughed.

"Who is writing these cringe ass quotes, jesus, they should be jailed solely for those messages." Niki shook his head as I laughed, agreeing with him.

Upon opening the attachment, it was another picture of the paintings stolen, obviously with graffiti on them, but it is what it is.

I have no idea who this was, or how they got my number, but I know one thing - and it's that they have my paintings and I refuse to stoop down until I get them back, destroyed or not.