Blaze

The Second Assignment

~_____~

A half laugh half snort fell out of Tao's mouth when he laid out the clothes Namjoo had purchased for him onto the bed. One said "Shhhhhhhhhhh...this is my hangover t-shirt." Another one said "Keep watching I might do a trick." The other shirts had ridiculous pictures on them and very few of them were decent plain ones. He deemed the pants ok, but the shirts were unacceptable.

An urge to make a complaint to Donghae thrashed his mind. Swinging the door open he made his way through the thin hallway and toward the bright white kitchen of Donghae's. A white table edged its way into the hallway with four chairs tucked in neatly. A silver fridge had been scooted in between the gap of the counter and the wall which blocked the view of the door. Donghae was currently busy at his special granite designed stove when Tao came to a stop. A living room suited with matching furniture took up the space to his left along with a large screen TV.

Donghae lived well for a single man, Tao supposed. A family picture of Donghae standing between his seated parents had been hung on the wall proudly in his dining room. It told Tao that Donghae was an only child. Not spoiled, but raised with pride.

Forgetting about the clothes he was going to make a complaint about, he asked, "You cook?"

Donghae twisted his head around as if he'd forgotten all about Tao. "Yes."

"Cooking's too feminine. Why do you do it?"

"Feminine?" Donghae repeated. "No. It's not feminine. Don't gender base everything. A person should at least know the basics to keeping themselves alive."

Tao felt like snorting again. "You're so righteous, aren't you?"

Donghae shot him a smile before lifting the pan up and poured its content onto a plate. "Then should I be immoral?"

"Are you making fun of me?"

"Didn't quite mean that," Donghae fixated, "take a seat."

Tao stared at the plate of meat he had placed in the center of the table before walking toward the rice cooker to dish out some rice.

"Did you have fun in Incheon today?" Donghae scooped up some rice into two small bowls.

"Fun?" Tao repeated a little sarcastically. "Yea, fun watching my life go before my eyes. You have two crazy assistants. Namjoo who's annoying and Suho who's crazy."

Donghae chuckled as if amused before setting his bowl of rice down in front of him. "You'll probably switch those descriptions to different ones later. They're probably the best people you've met by far."

"And you're a blind one for saying that." Tao remarked.

Donghae took the seat in front of him and picked up his chopsticks. "I think you're the blind one. Don't make judgment if you haven't yet known a person inside out."

"Why should I care anyway?" Tao stuffed his mouth with a spoonful of rice.

"You should, because they're you're teammates and you're going to be with them for a long time."

Tao's mouth dropped open in half bewilderment, "You wouldn't know that."

"I can guess that." Donghae finished.

~_____~

"Wonju, their home base, is a definite destination, but before we head there lets stake out Cho Chin Ho," Donghae spoke in their meeting room, "of the two arrested yesterday, Cho Chin Ho was their chain leader. This guy should be more informed about what goes on in their circle. Remember his face well."

Donghae passed out papers he'd printed early that morning with Cho Chin Ho's face.

"Black hair, male, well around six feet tall, 180 pounds," Donghae explained, "three destinations were given to us of where he might be hiding. Anyang, Suwon, and Uijeongbu. Lets bring him in for further questioning before we start the official search for the human trafficking circle."