House of Cards

Chapter 1

"You're up."

Of all of the things that Taehyung had thought that he would regret hearing he had not thought that it would be this. Logically he should have been scared by a lot more other words, the typical ones and the more obscure. Something along the lines of "you have cancer" was one, "don't scream and I won't you hurt you" was another. A rather strong fear of his, and he supposed that it was for a great many others, was hearing the words "we tried our best to save him but sadly, your father is dead, Mr. Kim".

But "you're up"? Why, it was just two simple words and yet he felt the unmistakable sensation of dread course through him.

It had been quite some time since he had felt the sensation, likely around the time that he had taken his force entrance exam. Taehyung could recall sitting at the desk, fresh out of high school with a pen in hand and a series of sheets in front of him; sheets that would determine him being allowed into the force or not. For some older teens that had been his age, it had been college entrance exams they had been sitting; filled with dread. But for him it had been the force entrance exam, because a failure to pass would have ruined his future aspirations. That was why he had been so scared back then.

Right now his stomach felt the exact same too. It was in the way that his stomach clenched hard, as if seized hold of tightly by a fist. Working in sync with his stomach his throat and also seemed to have restricted to the width of a straw. Taehyung's skin had been rather warm from the heating inside the department office floor and yet it was now decidedly chill. Was he going to break out into a sweat? He wasn't sure but he felt just like he might. A cold clammy sweat that could only be described as terror sweat.

Yet Namjoon was looking at him like nothing of great importance had just happened. Why, he might as well have asked if he would log into the database and change an entry for him, judging from the rather calm look on his face. Taehyung studied the files in the crook of his elbow as he shifted to sit against his desk. Namjoon didn't pull up a chair and act professional. He just leaned back to sit on his desk, the edges digging into the backs of his thighs and the seat of his black trousers brushing against the wood. He placed the files down beside his laptop and then he just folded his arms over his chest and looked down at him.

Taehyung rapidly figured out why he had picked to sit on his desk rather than on the other side. The position allowed him to look powerful, in control. He had to look up at him and thus it made him look like he was below him. Right now he felt like he was, felt like he was on his knees rather than seated at his desk. It was the effect of his shadow falling over his laptop and his gaze burning down at him.

God, he felt like an ant in front of him right now. A teeny tiny insignificant ant in the shadow of a massive boot heel just waiting to be stomped on.

"I'm sorry?" Taehyung asked him, lifting his eyebrows at him in a gesture he hoped looked confused and not condescending. The last thing he wanted to do was look disrespectful towards him. Even if he wasn't technically his superior he couldn't piss him off. Not now, after everything.

"I told you," Namjoon said without even blinking. "You're up."

Taehyung studied his face for a moment and then glanced at his laptop. He had been sorting through a series of intercepted emails in the hopes that he would find an error in any of them. That someone would fuck up and use a word strong enough for them to have reason to get an arrest warrant. A word that wasn't coverage for something else. Something like "skin" or "goodies" or any other fucking word lifted from a dictionary. Why not just be honest and say "meth" or "prostitution ring" or plain old cold blooded "murder"? Why did they have to be so goddamn tricky and make his job harder? Yet here he was after five hours of constant scanning and nothing.