The Mafia's Dove (Hyunjin centric)

Egg Roll

-Chan's Pov-

It was clear from the beginning that Hyunjin was a closed off person. Despite the level of empathy he showed others he never wished to receive comfort in return, and while he often failed at hiding when he was in a more negative state of mind, he still attempted to swallow down all of his emotions. He was scared of burdening people, and would much rather show a carefree front than lean on us.

But his face often gave him away. Despite his wishes he was a very expressive person, and would often get so lost in thought that he forgot to school his expression. After being around him for a couple of months I had gotten better at reading his facial cues, and there had been multiple times where I could tell what he was feeling despite his efforts to hide it.

It was odd. I had yet to see him in action, but the others who had gotten the chance to work with him all said it was like a switch suddenly flipped. His mask became so flawless it was near impossible to tell he was acting, and nearly every detail about his expression and posture morphed seamlessly to match whatever emotion he needed to convey.

It seemed that the only time he struggled to properly mask his emotions was when he was with us. I would like to think that meant he was comfortable around us, and that he didn't feel the need to hide how he was feeling, but it was clear by his attempts that that wasn't the case. The only times where he didn't attempt to hide his more negative emotions was when he was emotionally numb and when I told him I watched the tape. It took the inability to care about anything to finally let go of the mask, and to be in such a terrible mental state that it physically made him ill for him to accept comfort.

So when Felix told him about our boss, I assumed he would once again try and fail to mask his response. He was incredibly skilled at reading emotions, possibly more so than I, so there was no way he didn't take note of our sudden tension. Minho cursing as soon as he saw the black car was also a dead give away.

But instead of becoming anxious and overthinking like he often liked to do, it almost seemed as if the little tension in his posture melted away. Changbin, whose hands were still gripping Hyunjin's waist, seemed to feel the shift, and he looked up at Hyunjin with a confused look. He seemed just as confused as I felt, most likely having expected to have to comfort the guy still straddling him.

But Hyunjin seemed perfectly fine. It was almost scary how quickly he changed, because in the blink of an eye almost every detail about his demeanor shifted. His back straightened and his shoulders relaxed, his expression displaying an impenetrable and menacing confidence as he turned his upper body slightly to address us.

"Your boss. Are you scared of them?" His eyes narrowed with calculation as he attempted and most likely succeeded at overanalyzing everyone's body language, and it took a second for his words to fully process before I finally figured out why he was suddenly so guarded.

Hyunjin was usually a carefree and reckless person, and the only times he seemed to take things seriously was when one of us was in danger of some sort, either emotionally or physically. It was quite plausible that he assumed our sudden tension was caused by the thought of interacting with our boss, and his habit of overthinking likely had him jumping to conclusions.

There were most definitely other factors feeding into his need to put up such a seamless front, but because I couldn't see behind his mask there was no way for me to figure out what exactly was going on in his mind. I could only assume that was what he intended.

While I could only make educated guesses it would be safe to assume his sudden shift was his way of preparing for a possible threat, and knowing how he liked to deal with what he viewed as threats it would probably be in everyone's best interest if we cleared the air as soon as possible. I quite liked our house and didn't exactly want to see it burned to a crisp.