Blaze

Make Your Move

~_____~

That explosion from Lay had been uncalled for. Victoria was perpetuated. Once the door shut she and Donghae were crammed into mild tension and awkwardness. The utmost truth were all encoded in Lay's lecture. It was uncanny that she had been told off by someone she'd once gone to school with. Under her mature code she couldn't disregard all that had been said as much as she wanted to pay no heed to it. If Donghae couldn't be the bigger person, it was she who had to be it and she would always be the bigger person.

"You heard him," Victoria shattered the noiselessness atmosphere. "The fault lies in both of us."

"So what do you want?"

"I think I've repeated myself enough," Victoria stated, "but if you still can't remember it, we can talk things over again. My team and I need your respect. You stop your immature act of threatening to remove us from the job. In order to put an end to all of this, you stop hiding information from me. We got along just fine in Daegu, so why can't we do it again?"

Narrowing his eyes he tilted his head back to observe her.

"If you can do just that I'll return the favor and we can make a truce," Victoria continued. She waited for Donghae to comply, yet he didn't speak anything. "You can't do it, can you?"

Was he so stubborn? Victoria couldn't understand why his lips were always shut tight. She wanted them to work, she was willing to make teamwork happen, and she really hoped to get along with him. Donghae wasn't a horrible person, she was sure of that, and was always ready to forgive him if only he could admit he was doing otherwise.

"We're adding harm to the team," Victoria convinced, "Lay said we're causing the team to war against each other. The bigger the rift, the small the chance to close in on the ring. You will never find Eunhyuk this way. At least take that consideration into thought. As someone who leads the team, think it over Donghae. I want to make this work. No more injuries, no more putting lives in danger, no more me versus you. Let change things, huh? We've raked in more loss than we have victory so far. Lets do it different this time."

Another moment of deflating air popped among the calm ambience populating the room. Donghae's eyes, alternating between thought and consideration to selfishness, flopped against the cleanly scrubbed floor.

"Let me have some time to think it over."

Victoria, who'd been holding her breath, felt disappointment hammer her chest. She'd expected too much...

His face, still creased with debate remained until he spun on his heels to walk out. A breath with heavy weight dropped out of her lips. Leaning back into the pillow Lay had propped up for her, she stared about the empty room. There was nothing to do, but pray Donghae would come around. The information withheld from her might be crucial to figuring out who exactly Hyukjae was before taking steps to track him down. Donghae's team held majority of the information needed to make sense of everything. If he talked, she'd share her part about the mysterious loans Eunhyuk had been paying for Lee Hyun; Hyukjae's possible alias Jae; and how Lee Hyun's profile was strangely similar to Eunhyuk's.

The longer she remained cooped up inside the room, the more congested her thoughts became. Everything nowadays seemed to revolve around tight-lipped Donghae and their fight with each other. The case stood there like a wall in-between them as they continuously punched at it to see who would first go through. Other than that, Victoria couldn't remember focusing on anything else.

Why did this sound so ridiculously stupid?

She'd been so immersed in it that she'd completely dismissed all else. Being upset about Donghae's behavior had turned her into a childish rogue, degrading her from SWAT team leader. From a different light, Victoria was finally realizing how stupendously childish she'd been thus far. Sure she'd discovered some information along the way, but none of it had helped the team progress with the case. They were clearly standing five steps from where they started. Majority of the girls saved were done by their underlings without her or Donghae's help.