"He's been acting very strangely these past few days."

Jisung leaned back against the cistern of the toilet. He didn't like it, but since RFN had tailed him and burst in on the reception some days before, he'd had to go to isolated places to take any calls from Renjun. Today, it was the bathroom upstairs, and he had found himself a seat on the lid of the last toilet.

Renjun's voice was always a bit too clear over the phone for Jisung's liking. "He hasn't been talking to anyone except people on the phone. He's had another computer installed in his office and he repeatedly leaves it multiple times a day. He's pulled two all-nighters this week and if you've been honest, he hasn't been talking to you either."

Jisung frowned. "I have been honest, though you are someone who deserves to be told nothing but lies."

Renjun laughed from the other side. "Dry burn. Zhong leaves his office very often as well. He's just done that, hold on — Would you like some more coffee, sir?" His voice became muffled, and Jisung didn't think Chenle gave any reply.

"He's headed down the hall. I've updated you on things, so goodbye."

Jisung ended the call before Renjun could, and stayed there for a moment, coming up with possible reasons Chenle was so unsettled. After that day, Chenle hadn't really paid much attention to Jisung, and though it sounded self-centred, it was sudden, and a shock. Jisung had texted him the day after and Chenle hadn't even read it. He sat contemplating the real effectiveness of the happy faces, then shook his head and stood up.

"Well," he muttered, standing up when he couldn't come up with very probable reasons. "I'll just have to ask —"

Someone stormed into a bathroom and Jisung's hand stopped on the lock. He shook his head and slid it open, until he heard laboured breathing. Injury? No, that was a different kind of breathing. Something mental... His mind immediately went to Chenle and his tendency to sadly fume in isolation. Jisung called it a tendency because even though he'd only seen it in progress once, he was almost completely sure it happened very often. Any moment now, he might even start smoking.

Jisung sniffed. There was that burning smell. Chenle must have had smoke alarms disabled here too. It was potentially dangerous, but who was Jisung to complain? He didn't work here.

But Chenle does, chipped in that annoying voice that had installed itself in his head. He resisted the urge to smack his own head. He'd been hearing contradictions to his own thoughts in that voice increasingly often since Chenle had infiltrated his apartment and told Jisung that he'd been worried about him. It was sentimental and cheesy, and stuck out like a sore thumb among his other, way more technical thoughts. He wanted it to go away more than anything.

He was meant to kill this guy.

His chest gave a small pang and he shot up, clutching at it and trying to breathe too hard. Frustration clawed at his throat. What was going on? Being hard as stone and not having to even worry about emotions like sympathy was the literal source of his livelihood. It was the reason he wasn't dead already.

Angry with himself and the world, he left the cubicle, almost raging. Chenle jumped where he was standing in the corner. He'd locked the bathroom door. He sent a lost look towards Jisung.

"Yoonso? Sorry, I didn't know that anyone was here... Fuck!" He quickly hid the blunt behind his back, then obviously thought better of it and brought it back out and took a drag. Jisung blinked at him, then suffered the feeling in his chest again.

"It's hilarious, I was smoking when we first met too, wasn't I —"

"Shut up!" Jisung forced himself not to clutch at his own head, confusion and revulsion filling him, not towards Chenle but towards himself. "I'm — I'm trying to — You!"

He pointed at Chenle, who visibly swallowed and held out his arms placatingly. "Uh, I don't know what gotten into you, but —"

Sudden horror flooded Jisung's body. Yoonso wouldn't have done that — Yoonso had nothing to worry about, no mental dilemmas nor any difficult tasks. Shit.

At that very moment, Jisung fixed himself. He would regret that later. No normal people had an outburst like that and just kept it walking. He chuckled and ran a hand over his face, "Dear God, sorry Chenle. I was actually here trying to figure out why you were acting so strangely. Truth be told, yes, I was kind of stressed."

Chenle blinked, and Jisung couldn't figure out why he looked so put off. "Oh, okay then. Thank you..." he sent him a suspicious look, and Jisung sent him a confused one in return. Chenle brought the blunt back up to his lips and Jisung felt a sudden urge to smack it from his hands. The smell was irking him.

They stood, not really facing each other, the door locked, with their own problems in mind. Chenle threw the thing into the bin suddenly, apparently having exhausted it. "I've pretty much lost the merger."

Jisung blinked. He'd half been watching Chenle and half thinking about how on earth he was going to get himself under control. "What?"

"That's why I've been acting strange, if that was really what you were angry about. I don't hate you at all —" Jisung's heart did that thing again, "— I'm just extremely stressed. I should be used to this by now, I know," his hand twitched at his side, "but I'm not. I don't know how someone could get used to this. Of course, I can hardly blame Bang Chan and SKS for fearing whoever was behind what happened at the hotel. They think I've got... enemies. But," he hardly looked like he could continue. His first was clenched. "I worked so fucking hard, man." He took a few deep breaths, blinking quickly. Jisung watched him, actually terrified that the other might cry. The fact that he was constantly stressed did explain a lot. Why he smoked, why he left suddenly sometimes. It must have been a lot for a relatively normal nineteen-year-old. Yeah, Chenle was smart. His IQ was probably up above the 130s or 140s. But he was only nineteen.

You're nineteen, countered his brain. You've killed nearly ninety people. Jisung frowned.

Chenle sighed and leaned back against the wall, obviously spent. There was a certain relief to his expression, however. "What happened that night, anyway?"

Jisung pretended to think and come up with nothing. "Honestly, I was knocked out soon as the bomb hit." When Chenle looked at him worriedly, he backtracked with a laugh. "Nothing hit me, I think it was just the shock. I heard some conversation, maybe? Seemed a little cliché to me. Were... were you conscious? Did you hear what was going on?"

Chenle shrugged, "I was held hostage. So was Bang Chan." He paused. "Who's Park Jisung? Have you heard of him?"

Jisung internally startled. He'd been hoping to avoid this. But he had answer prepared, something he'd thought through thoroughly. There wouldn't be a single kink if he replied —

"No idea. Why?"

"I think he was there. There was a conversation going on between the head infiltrator and this guy called 'Park Jisung'. It's just a hunch, but I feel like he saved my life. He was confronting them, I know that much. You know, it's strange..." He trailed off, looking at Jisung like he was a memory he was dredging up. So Park Jisung reminded him of Han Yoonso, huh? Jisung felt like throwing something. He wanted to completely flip Han Yoonso's personality, and make the idea that the person he was affecting was anything like Park Jisung completely foreign. But it was done, his mistakes had been made. And he'd put too much of himself into Han Yoonso.

He had to take Chenle's mind off it. What a primitive method. How embarrassing.

"Can you save the merger? Or have you completely lost it?" Jisung went to unlock the door, Chenle blinking some and following after him.

"I've managed to arrange a last meeting, but Bang Chan is probably going to just use it to tell me officially and in person that it's off." Jisung was sorry to say Chenle looked like he was going to take out another blunt. This man needed therapy.

"Allowed to bring anyone to the meeting?" Jisung looked down at his nails, but he was straining his peripheral vision to its limit. Chenle frowned,

"You think you can convince them not to break it off? You really think so?"

Jisung stopped, "Damn, wait, I don't —" Suddenly, an idea popped into his mind, and his knife seemed to become heavier in his pocket. His mouth opened slightly in shock at himself. Was he really gonna do that? Was he going to go as far as threatening Bang Chan with a knife to get Chenle to trust him?

He paused, considering the idea. He had made a big mistake by letting Chenle hear Mark Lee call him Park Jisung. Chenle was suspecting him. Everything would come undone if Chenle was to pursue this train of thought.

"I might be able to," said Jisung, a finger on his chin. He wasn't imagining it when Chenle's eyes lit up like candles: flickering, hopeful, relentless until put out.

"Yoonso, if you can do this, I might just —" he cut himself off and turned red, while Jisung just raised his eyebrows in confusion.

"Nothing!" Chenle shook his head, acting calm save for the blush that still wouldn't leave his cheeks.

Jisung suddenly had the strangest urge — to whip out his phone and take a picture of the other man. Or to commission someone to paint Chenle as he was right then. He remembered, a thought like a dagger through his mind: his mother had been an artist. He'd never forgotten, per se, but he hadn't given her any thought since he'd last seen her.

It had been a while.

"I'm gonna go back to my office, now," muttered Chenle. The redness had finally released its death-grip on his ears. His voice was quieter as he said the last word: "I'll tell Bang Chan that I'm bringing someone and that he should too, then." They'd been talking in a hallway, lowering their voices every time someone passed by. It was a habit of both of theirs, Jisung supposed.

Chenle skittered off to his office and Jisung went back to his desk, mind caught between putting a knife to yet another CEO's throat, and the many painted portraits of him around his house that would have been torn down when he'd been kicked out, no doubt. 

***

YES I KNOW ITS BEEN FIVE MONTHS LEAVE ME ALONE IM SORRY