Boss ~Taeten~

Chapter 24

*I'm back! I hope y'all aren't too angry with me... There are soooo many of you all and I truly appreciate the support from all of you whether it be voting, commenting or just reading my story. I think I can update more often starting now as I have written a little outline for myself regarding what will be happening in the next few chapters. I hope all goes well so I can get you guys the updates you deserve! Even if only for a little bitㅜㅜ*

17

4

Late into the night Ten could be found just behind the door to his rooms, in his office, vigorously alternating between typing and scrolling. The only light in the small room being the bright monitor of his computer lighting up his face ominously as he eagerly eyed the words that flashed by on the light source.

He was caught in the depths of the restricted government program that held all of the information on its citizens. Now he was no hacker but what sort of feared mafia leader would he be if he couldn't do something as simple as access his country's secure databases to find all of the possible information he could ever receive impersonally about a target, or in this case, His King.

After searching for nearly an hour the disheveled boss finally lit upon the profile he had been searching for. Lee Taeyong. Born in Seoul South Korea on July 1, 1995, a fact Ten was sure to remember for the future. Diagnosed with Mysophobia (a fear of contamination and germs), another fact Ten was sure to remember. And accepted into SM entertainment as a back up dancer in 2012.

The blue haired man's eyebrows furrowed slightly, there didn't seem to be any other important information beyond what he had seen, there was no copy of a complete birth certificate, no names of parents or siblings. The only information he could pull through the next half hour of gradual coaxing was the names of his guardians from the age of 11-20 and a possibly inactive phone number to contact them by in an emergency.

Ten yawned as he noted down the names and contact information of the couple before Titan whined and nuzzled his ankle from her place at his feet, asking him to please check the time and go to bed.

He looked at the clock and chuckled softly to find '1:23am' written at the bottom corner of his computer screen. He looks down at Titan and smiled sheepishly "I assume I'll have to attempt to contact Mrs. and Mr. Lee later today then" he hummed gently as he tugged lightly on her ear, signalling that she was to get up and wait for him beside the door that connected his office to his bedroom.

She snorts softly to inform him that her master's little joke wasn't as funny as he thought. She rolls herself off of the floor at the blue haired man's feet and tiredly sits beside the door to the bedroom as she carefully watches him close down his computer.

Ten gets to his feet and pads to Titan, he pats her head gently before opening the door to allow her inside his dark bedroom. He blindly padded to the side of his bed and reaches to cast the dark sheets and frame of his bed in the soft, warm glow of the lamp on his nightstand.

He pulled his deep, royal blue blazer from his shoulders and carefully draped it over the back of a recliner, careful not to disturb the contents of it's pocket. He then moved on to unbutton the already mostly unbuttoned white dress shirt he had worn underneath and lays it atop the blazer. He then peels off his grey skinny jeans and lets them crumple in the seat of the chair alongside his socks, leaving him in a pair of navy boxers.

He goes to his black sheeted bed and curls up beneath the sheets where he found Titan patiently waiting for him, perfectly understanding his lack of energy when it came to changing from his tight boxers to at least a pair of loose shorts.

Ten curled up with an arm draped over Titan's back and her side pressed against his bare chest, as was the customary way for the pair to fall asleep. Titan licked his cheek gently as her usual way of wishing him goodnight and huffed softly as she rested her head finally between her paws.

Ten lied there that night for another hour, letting his mind wander through all of the thoughts, emotions and experiences he had forced himself out of feeling or experiencing that day. He knew pondering what he couldn't have or do wasn't the best way to get himself to forget his need for them but he also knew that he wouldn't be able to rest until he had given each situation at least a passing thought as he slowly slipped into sleep via his nightly ritual.

His mind curiously, though not exactly surprisingly, continued to wander back to the information the mob boss had learned about a certain redhead. He wasn't sure what it was, whether it be the image of Taeyong that revealed itself every time Ten closed his eyes or the way something in his mind had clicked when he had seen the stolen elder's name written out on his computer screen, but his mind would not and could not rest from circling through his memories of Taeyong.

The restless sifting through of memories within Ten's mind blissfully came through in the form of his dreams, allowing the man to rest while he reviewed what he knew.

He started from the newest of the memories he held of the older, beginning with the most painful of them all, the vivid coffee eyes of the redhead pleading for him to go while he can as Tae looked up through dark lashes from beneath the aggressive hold of the pair of his assailants, the scrape upon his cheek already beginning to bead with his precious lifeblood, making Ten's own boil within his veins.

Then he moved on to more bittersweet memories, ones of drinking a whole bottle of wine with the cute older after a well executed family dinner and teasing each other as they baked a fruit topped cake for the missing Taeil's birthday.

His unconscious mind then began to sift through the oldest memories that Ten held for the red head, memories of the sweaty man barging in on his conversation with Jiyong, memories of watching the red haired male sinfully moving his lithe body to the music, in perfect harmony to his own as they danced back up for the very same Jiyong.

His trip down memory lane even took him so far back that he recalled when he had first laid eyes on the pale, moonlit face of His King on that fateful mission only a handful of weeks ago, though it felt like it could have been an eternity since the event.

But it didn't stop there. Ten's mind traveled back to the chest it kept with all of it's most precious memories of his young life, his brow furrowed slightly in his restful state as his mind began hunting through his favorite childhood memories in search for one in particular.

Finally it lit upon the sweet memory Ten cherished of playing with a young boy, a year older than him at the time, outside the life of the mafia, where he was free to have fun in whatever way he and his companion pleased.

Ten's young dream self stared into the familiar chocolate doe eyes of his childhood playmate and his confused brows furrowed even further as a name flashed behind his eyelids, as bright and clear as they had been in the center of his computer screen a mere hour or so ago.

Lee Taeyong