Tiger Inside ||Stray Kids Mafia AU||

Chapter Thirty-Three

"I just don't get it." My eyes focused on every subtle dip and bump of Changbin's ceiling, my head resting back on his thigh as my hands waved frustratingly through the air. "I didn't see any sign of Ateez anywhere."

Changbin hummed as he mindlessly stared at the wall, body propped up against his headboard with his hands tucked behind his head.

"You said they mentioned the peppermint? How would they have known about that?"

"Fuck I don't know." I rubbed my hands across my face, my brain enveloped by a hazy fog, fighting off the sleep deprivation. My mind had been running eighty miles an hour the entire night, unable to catch a single moment of shut-eye in the pursuit of sleep. "They must have been close enough to see that I had the peppermint sticking out of my cup, or near us when we ordered them or something."

"And you asked both Felix and Jeongin about this?"

"Of course! I told you, they didn't see anything. It's just not making any sense." Contemplative silence fell back over the room as we thought of every possibility, the same questions replaying over and over and over in my head as I struggled to break the pattern of thought. I bolted upright, turning around to face Changbin as he stared back with startled wide eyes as I nudged him in the arm.

"What if my phone was bugged!? Maybe they weren't even near us at all! They could have just been listening in and this is nothing more than a scare tactic!"

"As much as I'd love to believe that's the case, it feels a little bit like wishful thinking." He readjusted his position, sitting up a bit more straight. "I still think you need to talk to Chan about this, I know you don't want to but he needs to know if there's a possibility that Ateez was trailing you guys. Like how did they know you were even there in the first place?"

"It'd make sense they'd know if I was bugged." I turned back mumbling, draping my legs over the edge of the bed, and focused on my feet dangling. "It's not like they're staked out in front of the house, and they definitely can't be everywhere at once."

"Please, just go talk to him. He might have a further idea that we aren't thinking of"

I knew he was right. I hadn't slept for a single moment. Of course there would be details that I could be overlooking. Focus pinned on the wrong things and running me around in circles without any conclusion. I hadn't wanted to wind up here, but I had found myself pacing my room endlessly repeating the conversation with Changbin in my mind trying to hype myself up for what was to come.

I found myself anxiously standing before Chan's office door, biting my lip as I tried to plan out our conversation in my head. We had still yet to truly speak since the incident at Blossom, and the thought of standing before him rubbed salt deep into the wound that was inflicted that night, that I was trying so hard to ignore. I finally knocked on the door, Chan's muffled come in behind the wood ushering me inside.

"What's up?" His nose was buried deep in the papers he was flipping through, not looking up as he scribbled something onto one of the corners.

"Chan." I don't know why my voice could barely speak above a whisper, mentally smacking myself because of my timid state.

His head shot up from his papers, dropping them onto his desk as the smallest of smiles tried to creep its way onto the corners of his mouth.

"Y/n..." He stood, quickly rounding his desk and approaching me. But stopping short to not get too close and seem too eager, as if I were an animal he was scared of startling.

"What-" he cleared his throat, trying to center himself and settling his shirt down as he picked up on my more solemn state. "What can I do for you?"

I pulled my phone from my pocket, clicking on the unknown sender's messages, and handed it over to him. He stared down at the screen, face slowly contorting into confusion as his gaze returned to me.