~Tao~

He'd stared at the page for a long time. He couldn't understand it, no matter how long he thought about it, it didn't make sense. What could Lu Han have possibly done to get a hit ordered on him? Tao didn't make a habit of trying to get inside his employer's brain, but he couldn't help it, this was different.

Tao pinched the bridge of his nose and leaned back in the chair, staring at the ceiling, his eyes darting from one blank empty space to another, just like how his mind hopped from one stupid conclusion to another. He was hungry, maybe that was what was halting his thinking process.

He heard the doorbell chime, and that gave him enough of an excuse to get up, so he closed his laptop and headed to the front door. After a second, the bell was rung frantically, and a series of hard knocks came to the door. Tao frowned. He figured it was Haneul, or maybe Min-hee, but neither of them would knock that hard, neither would be that aggressive about it.

Tao walked up to the door, Suri yapping behind him, trotting up to the door, just as excited as always. Tao shut one eye and peeked out the little lens in the door, after what had happened today, he didn't want to just open the door. Through the lens he saw Baekhyun, pouting and looking right back at him. Tao tried to think of why he might be there for a second, then he decided it was best to just open the door to find out.

As soon as the door was open, Baekhyun squeezed in, pulling Min-hee behind him. Tao was surprised, she hadn't even seen her outside. Baekhyun pulled Min-hee to the couch, making her sit down and patting her shoulder.

"Baekhyun..." Tao started, not in it enough to come up with a snarky answer, or even a relevant question. His mind was still on the job, still on the target, still on what Chanyeol had said. Thoughts weren't coming in clearly for anything else.

"A blanket, Tao-Tao, she needs a blanket." Baekhyun replied, already knowing where to find a blanket. It was Tao's favorite, a big white, fluffy, soft one. He took the blanket and hastily unfolded it, laying it over Min-hee's legs and a little around her shoulders.

Tao walked around so he was in front of the couch so he could see what was going on better. His eyes widened. Min-hee was shaking, crying, her sobs were only just barely audible, but each sob racked her body.

"You want hot chocolate?" Baekhyun asked her. Min-hee just nodded, the tears coming too hard to speak.

Baekhyun gave her shoulder a little shake, smiling lightly before grabbing Tao's wrist and pulling him with him into the kitchen. Tao was too deep in thought, he wished he'd at least said something to Min-hee, maybe wiped away her tears, he couldn't imagine what she was crying about, but it had hurt her, and to watch her like that made it feel like his heart constricted.

Baekhyun pulled Tao into the kitchen, pushing him over to the counter kind of roughly. Which was strange for Baekhyun, he was hardly ever mad, but the look in Baekhyun's black outlined eyes was enough to make Tao think twice about just outright yelling at him for the push. There was a flame in Baekhyun's eyes, he was beyond angry, which surprised Tao even more.

"You wanna know what happened a minute ago?" Baekhyun asked, rhetorically, because he didn't wait for an answer. "Min-hee was jumped by two guys outside a f*cking grocery store! Two guys that looked like they knocked people's teeth out for a living, and they gagged her, and tied her up, and were going to kidnap her." Baekhyun squinted at him, "Stop me when this starts to stop sounding like you're at fault for this happening to Min-hee, but aren't you the one who goes out fighting because you're bored? Aren't these the kind of guys you deal with? Please, tell me how this isn't you fault, Tao, because I didn't say anything about the fighting because you seemed to have it covered, but Min-hee could have gotten killed!"

Tao opened his mouth like he was going to say something, but the words wouldn't come out, everything hit too hard, everything all at once struck him dumb, Min-hee had gotten jumped? Was she hurt? He hadn't looked close enough...Damn, damn, damn. She'd already gotten involved, they were watching closer then he'd thought, way closer then he'd thought.

Baekhyun slapped Tao across the face. "Huang Zi Tao, You've probably just ruined her life, could you actually say something, please?" Baekhyun looked more stressed then angry, and Tao could understand why, so he just took it, he wasn't going to be mad at Baekhyun about this, as mad as he was right now, he couldn't place this anger anywhere near Baekhyun.

"What about the two that hurt her?" Tao growled. A touch was too much, that they had so much as touched her made his blood boil.

"I broke a few noses." Baekhyun said, sighing, obviously not able to stay angry for long. "Tao-Tao, I think you know what I'm asking, I think you know what you need to do...But maybe you forgot, Min-hee's out there crying on your couch, falling apart at the seams, don't forget that."

Tao frowned, not sure what he meant. he knew what he wanted to do now that he heard what had happened, but he couldn't imagine what Baekhyun meant, the thought of that only made him more upset.

Baekhyun gave Tao an exasperated look, then he went to get a mug for the Hot Chocolate. "Tao, you're so clueless."

"What do you mean?" Tao asked slowly.

Baekhyun rolled his eyes, getting the hot chocolate mix out of the cabinet. "She wants you to tell her it's alright. You seriously need to get your sh*t together, Tao, because you're probably the only one she wants to hear it from, she won't believe me."

"What?"

Baekhyun sighed dramatically, "Dude, just go hold her, I've got the Hot Chocolate, just make sure she doesn't cry herself dehydrated, alright? She's scared to death, you just need to...I don't know, be that sweet guy that you are inside and make her feel like her life isn't ruined."

Tao blinked. H-hold her? He swallowed. But the longer he stood there, the longer Baekhyun looked at him, waiting for him to go. So he sucked in a deep breath and went back to the main room.

She was still crying, her sobs seeming a lot louder in the quiet room. For whatever reason this made him so nervous, he didn't know why, all he had to do was put an arm around her shoulders, he'd done that all the time with Haneul, but then it never felt like he was about to puke or something.

Tao walked up to the couch. Min-hee had taken her glasses off, rapidly wiping away at tears. She wouldn't be able to answer if he greeted her, so he sat next to her. He felt like he might explode. "Min-hee?" He said, just to fill the silence with something other then her crying. "Min-hee, it's alright..." This felt like about the right time to put an arm around her shoulders, but he couldn't work up the nerve.

"B-But i-it w-was...!" Min-hee started, her voice shaky and filled with sobs and hiccups. "T-Tao..."

What she was saying didn't make a whole lot of sense, but it made his heart ache to hear her say his name like that. Before he could talk himself out of it, he reached over and hugged her, letting her head lean on his chest. That seemed to relief a large amount of stress on his part, and he didn't feel nearly as queasy. Actually...

"I f-feel so V-violated...! I..." Min-hee tried to continue.

"I'm sorry, shh, it's alright, I won't let it happen again..." Tao said, one hand absently running through her hair, her black long hair feeling silky and soft.

Min-hee shook her head. "N-no, I c-can't..."

Tao didn't know what she was talking about, but he put a hand under her chin, making her look at him. Her eyes were red and puffy from crying, and it looked like she'd bit her lip raw. "What did they look like?"

"Wh-what?" Min-hee sniffled. "I...D-didn't s-see..."

Damn. He'd have to get that information out of Baekhyun then. He was going to finish this, they wouldn't get away with hurting her like that this, wouldn't get away with scaring her like that. They were going to pay for what they did.

"T-Tao?" Min-hee asked, looking scared.

"Shh, it's okay." Tao pulled her closer. His mind was somewhere else entirely.

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A/N: The feels while writing this...I can't discuss them >.>

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