SCHOOL 2020 ▷ bts

1.12

Taehyung tied a mean knot. No amount of struggling could let me break free from the rope, and in the end all I got as a reward was badly lacerated wrists.

"Well?" he asked, leaning against the table. "What have you got to say for yourself?"

"Uh. Surprise?"

He twirled his phone in his hand. "Trying to look through this, were you?"

"No. I was just going to knock on the door and return it to you."

"After following me around for four whole days?"

Shit. I was caught, and I knew it. 

Maybe Lord Taikan had been right. Maybe I just wasn't cut out for this mission. How many times have I been caught already? It turned out there was more to a successful mission than just brute strength and agility - discretion, was a rather crucial skill I had not yet learned to master.

I stopped struggling. "Ok. Fine. So what are you planning to do to me?"

Taehyung didn't reply for a whole minute. He just stared at me, gaze piercing. As if he was trying to find an answer to that question himself. 

I squirmed uncomfortably. All this suspense was horrid; I'd rather die quick if I'm going to die. Would Taehyung actually kill me? As corrupted as School 2020 was, surely the death of a student would not go uninvestigated? But then again, I was a problematic student by definition, that even the principal himself wanted to have removed from premises. The only people I could think of who might want my death looked into would be Seokjin and his hair-dye addict friends - and even that was a long shot.

Taehyung finally broke the silence. "Who are you spying on me for?"

"You know, an innocent person would be asking why instead of who."

"And a trapped little mouse should know better than to have a smart mouth."

I shrugged at that last remark. Taehyung waited for another minute.

"So you're not going to tell me?"

"Nope," I replied cheerfully. It wasn't about protecting Seokjin's identity; it was about protecting myself. Once I told the truth, I would be useless. As long as I didn't speak, he wouldn't want to kill me - yet.

Of course, the downside of holding your tongue is torture.

Looking down at my feet, I tapped my toes as I hummed, pretending not to feel the slightest bit of trepidation as to the consequences of my answer. When I looked back up, Taehyung was right in my face.

My breath hitched.

He has a scar. 

It was barely visible from far away, but up close, I could see it, a line that ran from his left eye all the way down to his jaw. Like someone had taken the world's finest razor to his skin. It traced the outline of his face so perfectly, that dead-on you wouldn't be able to see it. Even if you looked at it from the side, you wouldn't be able to see it either - not unless you were close.

And I was very close. So close, that it seemed as if we were breathing each other in.

Taehyung parted his lips, and his breath sent shivers across my skin.

"Killing you would be easy."

My heart jumped to my throat. If the headmaster was more afraid of Taehyung than Seokjin, then perhaps the yakuza had been looking at the wrong person all this while. 

"You're not afraid?" Taehyung asked my silence.

"I've seen worse than you," I replied quietly.

Anis! Run! Don't look back, please!

Save yourself!

Leave - me.

A slender finger reached out and I flinched. It stopped. I held Taehyung's gaze, defiant, refusing to let him know that inside, I was more than a little scared of what was to come. I didn't want to die. I still had to pay back all the kindness Chao had shown me, and there was still one - other - mission in my life I had not complete.

Run, Anis, run!

You have to leave me!

We both can't make it.

Slowly, almost gently, Taehyung pushed up my black bangs off my forehead. His eyes fixated on a spot dead center above my eyebrows. I knew what he was looking at, knew what he was reading as his eyes traveled from right to left. In the stillness of the room, all that I could hear was the twirling of the ceiling fan and Taehyung's smooth, unshakeable breathing. 

"What did they use?" 

I didn't answer for a second. "A flat head screwdriver."

"They didn't file it sharp, did they?"

"No. They made sure it was blunt."

Taehyung's fingers caressed my skin, the lightest of butterfly touches. "Very unprofessional work."

"They were very unprofessional people."

"Smart of you to hide it with your hair."

"Smart of you to hide yours with make-up," was my equal reply.

Taehyung smiled, the corner of his lip sneaking underneath a canine tooth. He tapped the scar on his face, once. "This old thing? I have others better-looking." His eyes gleamed. "Want to see?"

I swallowed. "No thank you."

I thought he would move away then, but to my alarm he sidled even closer. Now we were so close a slight adjustment of our heads' positions would have resulted in a kiss. I froze instantly. Taehyung's eyes, with their smoky blue contact lenses, filled my entire vision, and his breathing filled the entire inner space of my ears.

"Why," he murmured, "did you have to show up and make things so much more complicated?"

Because I just can't do what I'm told. Of course, I didn't say that out loud.

Taehyung sighed, and to my immense relief, he moved away. I could breathe again. When he turned back to me, he was holding a tiny bottle that fit easily in the palm of his hand.

"Regrettably, I don't have my tools with me right now, so I'm just going to have to - "

There came a loud bang and then a crisp thuck! 

And Taehyung's entire room blacked out.