Super

15. date with the therapist

"I'm not obligated to be nice to her."

"No, you're not," Baekhyun said tiredly, patience wearing thin. He put his hands on his hips, looking down at Taeyong with an expression closely resembling that of a parent trying to get their child to do their homework. "But being a little friendlier isn't going to hurt you."

"It might. You never know." Taeyong didn't move from his relaxed position on the couch, and glared up at Baekhyun with a defiant look in his eyes. "What if she stabs me in the eye when I'm sleeping?"

The man standing before him sighed, and rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Honestly, living in the same space as you is like dealing with a hormonal teenager."

Taeyong snorted sarcastically. "You have no idea what dealing with teens is like," he said, shaking his head. "I already had my hands full with Jaemin, but now I have to look after Mark too."

"It can't be that bad—"

"Imagine living with two of me."

"All right," Baekhyun muttered. He paused for a moment, trying to think of a better counter-argument, but came up with nothing. "Okay, maybe. But you can consider it your duty towards the team, if not anything else."

"What team?"

"We are a team."

"Right. And the girl isn't a spy."

Baekhyun pursed his lips, close to giving up. He had been trying to reason with the man for the past half an hour, and hadn't gotten anywhere yet. If he hadn't known what Taeyong's power was already, he would have thought it was actually the ability to be as stubborn as a mule, and about half as strong.

"Even if she was, there's no important information that we're discussing in front of her," he tried again, trying to sound placating and assertive at the same time. "She has her eyes covered whenever we go somewhere, and she's under constant monitoring twenty-four seven. Really, Taeyong, I think you're being too harsh on her. She could turn out to be just a regular citizen, and then you'll be sorry."

"She has no important info," Taeyong agreed, "other than our names and faces and powers."

"She doesn't know your powers. Heck, she doesn't even know most of our names."

"She could be a Super!" Taeyong exclaimed, exasperated. "Maybe she doesn't need to know our names. Or maybe she knows them and is just pretending not to."

"I sampled her blood, Taeyong, she's a normal human."

"Not a lot of normal humans have tomcat scars," the blue-haired man pointed out. "Maybe her superpower is... I don't know, hiding her superpower. Maybe she just made you think that you checked her bloodstream, when you really didn't."

Baekhyun's eyes narrowed. "Do you know what the probability of that is?"

"Very low—but theoretically, so is the probability of the existence of Supers, and yet here we are."

Baekhyun drew in a long breath, willing himself to calm down. He had never had to deal with grown-ups acting this way, and he was close to second-guessing his decision to lead the team. He was aware that Taeyong himself had faced many problems in his past, which was why he was inclined to behaving this way, but it was hard to remember this time. He's not that bad, he told himself. He's just finding it difficult to adapt—

"And even if she is a regular citizen," Taeyong continued, "I don't understand why she hasn't been sent back to her home yet."

Never mind. "Taeyong, I'm at the end of my tether here," Baekhyun said, nostrils flaring.