Blaze

Hope Bound

~_____~

Lay looked agitated, but Chorong couldn't guess from what. Like Suho, Lay treated the whole group genuinely and with patience. She couldn't guess what he and Lay had talked about, but they were the last two persons she'd ever think would fight with each other.

"You see them as your friends, don't you?" Lay questioned.

Chorong had fallen a few steps behind, her eyes on his back. She couldn't read him from behind. His back was like a wall, a sudden barrier.

"Of course," she replied optimistically. "Why not? We're a team, we have to get along to work together."

"Maybe you should reconsider your words," Lay suggested. "It's not always a good thing to get too friendly with people outside your line of work. You trust them too much, they're going to use it to their advantage."

There was something about his voice that made her stop in her steps. Something dark, gloomy. Not just agitation alone. Lay sounded upset. His voice was a voice of steel, laced with warning. But what was he warning her about?

"What are you talking about?" She refused to walk any further. She could sense it almost at once for some reason. That he was withdrawing himself, distancing himself.

"You trust them," Lay turned around with the statement. His eyes landed on her and she felt him critiquing her underneath his breath.

"What are you on about?"

"Please, Chorong, don't let your emotions sway you. I know you're a logical person. You see more than what's on the outside, that's how you do your work." Lay told. "That's what you were taught to do."

"You're confusing me, Lay. What did you and Suho talk about?" Her curiosity was perked. She'd never seen Lay so disturbed before. It could only mean something was totally wrong.

"I know you like him," the words just continued bleeding from his lips. "I know how you feel, but I don't want you to get hurt. I just want you to be careful, Chorong."

She stared at him, her eyes blank.

"Maybe Victoria's right. We believe Donghae's team too much." Lay suggested. "When you get discharged, let me know. I'll take you home."

Lay spun around, took a step forward, but stopped at the sound of her voice. "And so?" There was a pause in Lay's footsteps, but he started forward again. "I know." She watched come to a full halt this time. "I've seen them...together...on duty even when we're not supposed to be at work. You're angry at them, aren't you? That they may have important information we don't know about."

This time he spun around, his eyes sparking with clarity. She was right. He was angry.

"I don't want to argue with you." He inhaled deeply. "You can go back on your own, right?"

Chorong took a step forward, her lips falling apart to utter words that never quite perched on her lips. If the team wasn't already falling apart, they were being destroyed. She worried that in no time they could be warring against each other. Then they'd end up as sitting ducks waiting for Hyukjae to come after them.

As the thoughts closed in on her, she lifted her head up after taking a step forward. Suho was just coming her way after leaving the elevator. His steps slowed, their gazes met once before concentrating his gaze straight down the hallway. He was stand-offish, she couldn't tell why. It felt awkward and she didn't want to be awkward with him again. It was miserable and gloomy and had been hard work to be comfortably friendly with him again after the ordeals they'd gone through together. And she didn't want to place her life on the line as an excuse for him to care about her.