Taehyun soaks in his own embarrassment, he is barely on the edge on the couch in his Livingroom. He stares at the bodyguard staining his bathroom floors while he cleans himself up. He scans his moves, his face. He knows said bodyguard senses his glary eyes piercing him.

Taehyun finds it quite odd how the bodyguard is so docile with him, no matter what he does to rile him up. The bodyguard seems to swallow his pride and shut his mouth, like he should.

It's also odd that he's practically squirming under Taehyun's eyes. Like a bug under someone's shoe. Taehyun wonders why he finds so much comfort in the way the bodyguard seems to cower when he looks at him. Can he ever take him seriously when he does that?

The difference between the person he heard fighting outside to the one in his bathroom, shrinking as if Taehyun is going to scold him. Well, maybe he should scold Kai for coming into his bedroom unwarranted.

Is it all a show? The mild and submissive front the bodyguard polls to make him drop his protective walls? Clearly, he's stronger than he seems to have overpowered fewer men on his own. So why is he so bashful now?

What kind of mind games is he playing with Taehyun? Does he think he has Taehyun fooled with those clueless, wide eyes and calming voice?

"you're dripping blood on my damn tiles." Taehyun tsks. Sending Kai a nasty look.

Kai closes his eyes, tired. He gulps. "I'll clean it."

Taehyun laughs sarcastically. "As if that's not a given. Do you think I'd do it?" his face contorts just from the thoughts of having to clean the fat blood drops off the floor.

The bodyguard inhales shakily, as if wanting to say something. But he decides against it.

Kai rushes through the cleaning process, just a few bandages here and there. He feels a stinging ache on his side but judging from Kang Taehyun's face, it's not the time nor the place to take off his shirt and take a look at the cut from that guy's knife.

So, he clutches a hand on the shallow cut, affectively stopping the mild bleeding with his palm. He pulls a few tissue papers from the drawer under the sink. hot with embarrassment, he drops to his scraped knees and scrubs the blood off the floor. He knows Kang Taehyun is looking, which only makes the moment worse.

He feels ugly. He wants a shower; he wants to be anywhere but in that house and outside of it, he wants to leave and not see Kang Taehyun face again.

Everything's sticky and he hurts.

Unknowingly, he scrubs the floors a bit harsher. They're already clean yet he cleans them harder.

It's only then that Taehyun notices that the bodyguard is sniffling softly. A few tears even fall from his eyes, yet he keeps on cleaning. Absolutely fixated on the task, it's starting to freak Taehyun out.

For the first time, he stares at the bodyguard with his cuts covered in small patches and his body hunched forward. For the first time he sees Kai, and a feeling of unexpected guilt floods him.

It's too pitiful, it becomes almost painful to look at.

"Hey." Taehyun gets up from the couch. "it's clean, you can stop now." he rushes to say.

The bodyguard stops, looking up at him with wet lashes and sad eyes. Taehyun hates the sudden effect that look has on his heart.

Kai nods without a word, getting up with a wince and dragging his feet to the door. He crashes on the steps, hating how pathetic he can turn with only a few words from Kang Taehyun.

He doubles down, holding his side carefully. His eyes are hot, stinging. The wind tugs on his hair and face. Suddenly, he feels heavier than ever, and so... so fucking worthless.

..................

The next week passes quickly. Brushes through and Kai can't even pinpoint a moment he can remember.

It's driving Kang Taehyun once every other day, stand by the door, repeat. He stops reciting movies, he doesn't know when he stopped, only that one day he found himself not thinking at all, just staring into the distance until it was dark once again and another day had ended.

He stops trying to pass the time, because it passes by anyways.

He just stops trying.

"Hmm?"

"Kai? Are you listening?"

Kai finds himself struggling to tune into whatever Beomgyu was saying. He rubs his eyes, breathing deeply. "Sorry." he croaks.

"Kai-ah... " Beomgyu sits up from his bed, hit by a wave of concern for his dear friend. "You don't sound so good, is everything okay? Why haven't you called lately?"

He doesn't find the words to explain nor respond to that, so he just stays quiet. A part of him hopes Beomgyu will get the hint that he's tired and would let up, but the older bombards him with even more questions.

"Have you talked to Yeonjun about the transfer? Why haven't you? Kai-ah this is not doing you any good, you need to give this job to someone else." Beomgyu now full-on worries, Kai is never this passive. "Screw Kang Taehyun, come home Kai. You said you wanted a vacation, right? I can check for flights, go rest-"

The Kai he hears over the phone is not the same Kai he knows and loves. There's barely any energy in his voice, sluggish and distracted. It's so unlike him.

"Hyung." Kai interrupts him.

Beomgyu runs a shaky hand over his hair. "What is it?"

Kai lets out an unsure laugh. "I never noticed that before... "he says, and Beomgyu squints his eyes in confusion.

Carefully, he asks. "Notices what?"

"Hyung." Kai chokes up causing Beomgyu's heart to race in panic.

"Why are you crying? Kai, where are you? I'm calling Yeonjun." He gets up from the bed, darting towards his door.

"Hyung... it's been 1.5 months." There's a resolve in Kai's voice that makes Beomgyu's steps halt. "Let me be his dog for 1.5 more. I can do it."

................

His driving is automatic like everything he does as of lately. In the backseat Taehyun doesn't even spare him a glance, not that that's anything new.

That morning is different because Kai spots something odd in the side mirrors. He looks behind them, scanning. A black Volvo that has been following them for the past few minutes catches his attention and while it can be nothing, Kai's instincts tell him otherwise.

He keeps an eye on the car.

"What wrong now?" Kang Taehyun speaks, noticing Kai moving and acting unusually.

Kai's heart speeds up, nervous. He shakes his head "... nothing."

He looks through the mirrors, hoping to catch a glimpse of the driver behind them but he comes up empty handed. The windows are all blacked out.

Little less trusting now, he chooses to speed up on a neighborhood road, driving much faster than he's obligated to and to his demise, the car behind speeds up too. His skin crawls. He looks at Taehyun, feeling a sense of responsibility and protectiveness.

"Slow down." Taehyun demands. "You are way over the speed limit." He states a fact as if he thinks Kai is unaware of that.

Kai tenses, but he doesn't do what Taehyun asks.

Taehyun looks up at him now, his lips pressed together. "Slow down." he repeats in a firmer tone.

Kai looks at the Volvo, and then at the exit on the left. In a split-second decision, he makes the sharp turn left, almost not making it but thus they stray off the routine route.

Taehyun's eyes widen as he is thrashed aside by the extreme turn. "The hell are you doing?!" he rages.

Unfortunately, that wasn't enough to lose the Volvo that keeps on stalking them. Kai's hands clutch on the wheel, leg pressing on the gas while his eyes are laser focused on the road. He passes between cars, flying on the road like there's no tomorrow, with a terrified Kang Taehyun sitting behind him.

The Volvo doesn't let up, following them through every unexpected turn and speed, determined to catch up. Kai is not sure what will go down once that happens and he's not planning on finding out. His hand goes to his gun tucked in his belt, making sure it's still there.

Taehyun screams in utter horror when the car jumps on a bumper and lands harshly on the ground again. He slides from the seat to the floor of the car, it's pure chaos.

Finally, they find themselves on the highway. Kai takes that to drive even faster, like a madman.

Taehyun feels like he's moments from passing out. The car shakes and sways to the side, jumping down bumpily. This is it; this is when they crash and die, this is when Kai becomes the downfall of him.

The car is tumbling down, they're about to crash. Taehyun holds his breath from the inevitable impact, closing his eyes tightly and waits for the pain of death.

It feels like hours when silence and tranquil drapes over him.

Is he in heaven now?

He hears harsh panting, exhausted breaths. The door opens.

"Mr. Kang." The voice is far away and foggy. "Mr. Kang?" it becomes clearer.

Taehyun opens his eyes, jolting awake. He looks around frantically. "What happened?"

"We were followed." Kai explains calmly, his voice quiet and lulling. His fingers rubbing soothing circles on Taehyun's thigh. "You passed out for a few minutes there. I was worried." he whispers the last bit.

Taehyun sits up from the backseat, looking around. They're in the middle of what seems to be an empty gas station, with no other cars or people around.

"Stay inside the car, I'll make some phone calls to the Lab." Kai says carefully, not sure when Taehyun will come back to himself and lash at Kai like he always does. He distances himself from the ticking bomb in order to close the backseat door again, but a tug on his shirt makes his breath hitch in his throat.

He looks down at his sleeve, Taehyun holding the fabric in his fist undaring to look up at Kai. Time seems to stop for a few seconds when Taehyun lets go of him once he realizes what he did. He rubs his hands on his pants in an awkward manner and moves to the furthest seat from Kai.

Kai silently closes the door, ignoring the short yet sweet feeling grew in him upon Taehyun's gesture. He turns around, red cheeked to fish his phone from his pocket and call Yeonjun to let him know about their whereabouts and phone the Lab so they're not alarmed by Kang Taehyun late arrival.

He walks around, checking to see if the gas station is active and just slow, or if it's abounded like it seems. He finds out that to their bad luck, he's right in his guess.

In need of fuel for the car, he approaches one of the machines and inspects the nuzzle connected to it to see if there's any gas left inside.

Taehyun watches Kai with wary eyes, stuck on Kai's gun in his belt. If only Kai wanted, he could end Taehyun here and there. There's no one around, no witnesses to see the crime. No one to hear him scream.

It would be a piece of cake.

The bodyguard fills an old water bottle with some gas from the hose. Shaking the nuzzle to extort any extra drop.

If he wanted, he could throw the gas on the car and light it on fire with Taehyun inside and watch as he's burnt to death.

Taehyun knows that despite his comments on his built and abilities there is no plausible way in which he can defend himself against the bodyguard in a physical attack. All he has are sharp words, but a knife is much sharper.

Does the bodyguard carry a knife? He wonders to himself.

Without him noticing, shivers coarse through his body causing his body hairs to stand rigid against his skin.

Kai comes back and on pure reflex, Taehyun locks the car doors, keeping Kai outside. The bodyguard sighed like he expected Taehyun to do so.

"there's not enough gas." He raises his voice, not even bothering with convincing Taehyun to unlock the doors. "I'll need to call someone from the Lab to fetch us." he informs.

Taehyun finds himself staring on Kai's back as he leans on the car and calls the lab. His black uniform hugs his frame in such a particular way Taehyun can't seem to understand why he finds it so alluring. He can't think that. He can't look at him like that.

Just as he's about to sneak another peak at Kai's broad back, a loud, shattering thunder rumbles through the gloomy skies.

He jumps in his place, heart hammering in his chest.

It's not long until small droplets hit the car windows. Taehyun clenches his jaw and grabs his yellow note pad, trying to distract himself from the bodyguard outside.

The droplets turn fatter and softer, from a trickle to a full-blown rain. Taehyun looks outside although he promised himself, he won't care.

Kai throws his head back, getting soaked from head to toe. Not one indication on his face that he is bothered at all. Soon enough his hair sticks to his forehead and small yet defined water trails fall across his face to his neck and into his tightly fitted uniform. He closes his eyes,

Taehyun feels a sudden unexplainable wave of heat in his body.

He unlocks the doors, avoiding Kai's surprised eyes. He hesitates to open the door, Taehyun can practically hear the bodyguard's thought process as he finally gets inside the car, wetting the driver's seat.

"I still hate you." Taehyun feels the need to remind.

Kai replies with a simple "that's okay."

They fall into silence after that, with Kai dozing off in his seat and Taehyun sending weirded out yet curious gazes at him.

He smacks his lips.

"Would you like some water Mr. Kang? We have some in the trunk." Kai offers after Taehyun smacks and licks his lips for the fifth time.

Taehyun shifts in his place, indifferent. "it's pouring rain." he says as if Kai doesn't see the rain slamming on the car.

"I'm already soaked." Kai shrugs. "we'll have to get out when back up's here anyways."

"Suit yourself."

The bodyguard comes back after a few seconds with two bottles of water. Dripping even more water on the seats. Taehyun cringes, that must be uncomfortable.

He passes Taehyun all two bottles.

"You didn't have to do that."

"My job-"

"No, your job is keeping me from dying not give me water." Taehyun's voice is sharp making Kai wonder what he did now that was so terrible other than be nice.

".... Sorry?" Kai crosses his hands on his chest. "I can return it back if you want."

Taehyun huffs in exasperation. And honest to God, Kai does not know what's wrong with what he said. "You really are a lap dog." He unscrews the cap, then stares at the bottle for a solid few seconds, he looks up at Kai with a challenging look in his eyes. He hands him the bottles. "Take it back to the trunk then." he requests with an amused smirk.

Kai's lips purse, he takes the bottles and nods. To Taehyun's full surprise, he does what he's told. Even when he knows Taehyun's just messing with him, his smirk fades into a softer looking expression.

He comes back.

"What is the matter with you?" Taehyun not but whispers, genuine curiosity in his tone.

Kai bites his lip, contemplating. "Mr. Kang." he calls.

Taehyun perks up.

The bodyguard leans back in his seat, making himself comfortable before he looks Taehyun's eyes through the rear-view mirror. "Why are you surprised?" His voice is low and grounding. More than Taehyun wished it would be.

"Huh?" Taehyun replies dumbly.

"Dogs are loyal to their owners."