A bounty hunter…
Jisung chewed at the end of his lifeline: The marred companion of his abused blue pen. He had been attempting to finish up his lesson plans for the next week during the lengthy lunch period since the student were busy roaming the halls elsewhere, but his mind found itself drifting away while he stared down at the open notebook and untouched laptop keyboard. He hadn’t touched his coffee, chocolate croissant, or sandwich yet too. He had taken so long that morning to crisply toast his sandwich and wrap it up in foil to keep it warm, but where the delicious sandwich sat unwrapped from the aluminum it had already gone cold long ago… If he microwaved it in the teacher’s lounge then the bread would just get soggy…
They’re more… “legal”, right? It’s a more accepted career. They apprehend and find criminals that have bounties on them. They can use force if they need to… they can kill if they need to…
He chewed a little harder on the end of his pen, gnawing mindlessly down onto the plastic with just enough pressure to not leave a mark behind. Sure, he knew chewing on his pens were a bad habit. Sure, he knew the last blue pen he bit down on too hard and it exploded onto him. Sure, he knew his shirt was ruined, his skin was stained for days, but he couldn’t convince himself to attempt breaking the poor habit quite yet. In times like these, when his mind was occupied by a hundred different tasks ripping him in a hundred different ways, having something to occupy him like chewing on the pen was oddly placating. Plus, he finally decided to not be stingy and bought a more expensive, durable pen that wouldn’t break as easily this time.
He was a cheap person, alright? Wealth from teaching and doing hits does not automatically translate to throwing around uselessly amounts of money. Unlike a certain someone who always bought designer brands. Just because he had money to spare didn’t mean he should be reckless with it. Even buying the pen was a chunk bitten from his pride of always purchasing on sale.
It’s pretty different from me then. Though it’s interesting someone like that is after the information Changbin stole. Someone, technically by legal means, placed a bounty on the information he has.
In the corner of his eye, he caught the bobble of silhouettes in the hallway through the window of his classroom. A trio approaching his classroom from wherever they had been moments before. He quickly removed the pen from being trapped between his lips, setting the stationary down beside his nearly filled notebook as he switched to his laptop to at least pretend to look like he was doing something important and teacher-like.
Athanasia Laboratories must have an impressive reach in the legal world too.
As the sliding door of his classroom was pressed back and the three students peered inside before invading into the peaceful silence of his once empty classroom, Jisung continued clicking uselessly on the laptop. Trying to look like he was doing something important and not repetitively dragging the new Google search tab back and forth across his screen. He didn’t need to look at the three to know who they were anyway; The blond hair, the one with dimples, the Fire Force keychain off their friend’s backpack when they walked, those three boys who sat in the back of his last class of the day. He hardly spared the gaggle of friends more than a glance as he questioned them, “Why are you here during your lunch break?”
“We wanted to come hang out in your classroom,” The one with dimples answered him as the three of them shuffled to their typical desks at the back off the room to throw their backpacks down and settle around the desk. They must be bored then. They must’ve finished their lunch a few minutes ago, and now had nothing else to do beside come to his classroom to let their break finish up.
“You could hang out anywhere on campus.”
“Yeah but we wanted to be here.”
“Alright…” Jisung sighed beneath his breath. He flipped to his YouTube tab, quietly turning the volume on his laptop up as he resumed the low-fi playlist his kids usually liked listening to in order to fill up the empty space of the room. Just something so they didn’t feel awkward with a silence in the room. Simply resuming his own tasks (which turned out to be finally taking a few bites from his untouched lunch and nearly crying at how delicious his homemade sandwich was), letting the three students cluster up and do whatever it was they wanted to do. In this case, the one with the Fire Force keychain pulled his school issued computer out of his backpack and set it down on the desk between them all. The gaggle of young boys hunching over their own laptop to do something.
“Something”. Jisung knew what it was as soon as they pulled the laptop up. They were 100% watching a movie or a TV show on the school laptop; The manner they all clumped up at the farthest desk, scrunched up together to see the details small screen; How the usually chatty and talkative trio that was always interactive especially with him, fell motionless with a silence settling comfortable over them as their eyes glued onto the laptop; The slight changes from the light of the screen flashing across their features as whatever they were watching played out. Not to mention, Mr. Han was usually the only teacher that let students get away with watching movies or shows on their phones during breaks. Why they wanted to come to his class suddenly made a wealth of sense.
“What show are you watching?” Jisung piped up, trying to restrain the smile tugging up at his face as he observed the three. Could they be more obvious with what they were doing? Especially since he didn’t care typically, it was almost humorous they were trying to be subtle about it.
They immediately protested, “We’re not!”
“Yes you are. What show is it?”
“The Last Airbender…”
“Go turn the lights off and pull the window blinds down, if you tell any of the other teachers or the principal I’m doing this for you, I’m not letting you work together on the next project, got it?” He finally let his smile peek up at them, doing his utmost to tease them rather than seriously blackmail any one of the trio. As soon as they slammed the laptop shut, the one with the dimples dashed to flip the lights off and tug the window blinds down, Jisung got to pulling up his own laptop. Plugging in the projector, turning the machine on as it sparked to life, tossing the replica of his screen on the whiteboard, and hurrying to pull up his own purchased episodes of The Last Airbender on Amazon, “What episode were you three watching?”
They hurriedly told him what episode and which scene they stopped at. There wasn’t too much time left of their lunch break, just enough to finish up the entirety of the episode they were chipping away at, but the three seemed cheerful enough to not complain much about the circumstances. They settled back down into their seats; Using the pillow of a backpack atop the desk, laying down in the aisle between the rows of desks with his uniform jacket propping his head up to watch, or simply sitting normally in the seat to comfortably watch the episode. The three of them falling silent again as they became absorbed into the cartoon, too absorbed and wrapped up with what was happening on screen to care about the world spinning around them. Jisung watched them for a few beats, ensuring they were settled well before returning back to his own notebook.
To be honest, he would likely get into trouble when his administration found out he was streaming TV shows, but what was the point of being a teacher if he couldn’t allow his students even these brief moments of calm happiness?
[A/N: I want to mention that Jisung’s character is actually based off of a teacher I had in high school. He was my English teacher and he went to extensive lengths to do these types of things for his students. Everyone loved the guy but he got into so much trouble often because he’d usually put us first]
While they were distracted with the show, Jisung plucked his blue pen back up. Spinning it clumsily in his fingers as his thoughts drifted back to the man he met. Minho. Unassuming and terribly normal looking. Like any other man that Jisung would pass by on the streets, another person. Beat-up blue jeans, sweater over top, a wallet and his phone in the back pocket of his jeans, a bright Doraemon themed lanyard clipped to his belt loop held a bundle of keys attached to his hip. As normal as a person could come. As ordinary as a background character. Albeit, an attractive background character. And those eyes that always had him weak. Darkened pupils, shaped narrow and suspicious toward what they saw like a feline’s, eyes that stared through him at something far out in the distance, like there was something else to be seen.
Bounty hunters usually have to track down their bounties don’t they? I don’t have to quite as much, information about locations and ideal scouting spots are usually provided for me. But Minho might know how to track Seo Changbin.
His gaze drifted over to his laptop, seeing the movements of the cartoon on his screen but not watching what was happening.
Maybe I could ask Seungmin to get me in contact with him. Or… maybe he’s around…? The sooner the hit is finished, the easier it’ll be for both of us.
A gentle smile peeled his lips up.
That isn’t such a bad idea.
Meanwhile, his students simply looked at one another. Subtly glancing at the strange smile their literature teacher stretched on his face as he stared off into space, “Why is he smiling like that?”
“Maybe it’s his ‘girlfriend’.”
Their friend sat up off the ground, “Mr. Han isn’t single?!”
His friends whipped to him,
“SHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!”
“No, Han, I can’t get you in contact with whoever that guy is.”
“Why not? You bought me a new rifle and got me a stun gun, why can’t you get me in contact with someone?” Jisung rushed after Seungmin, following his every step like a lost duckling clings close to their mother. But in this case, like Jisung was following after Seungmin since the damn mushroom decided he absolutely needed an iced Americano at 5pm in the afternoon, which meant Jisung was left hurrying awkwardly in Seungmin’s fastened tow, his thumbs looped around his backpack’s straps to keep the folder and laptop from slamming too hard into his spine as they hurried down the busy sidewalks of the shopping street. The government worker charging fearlessly through the people passing by even if his shoulders clipped theirs and his Louis Vuitton coat was soiled by their dirt (As Seungmin liked to say).
“Because, UH, he’s a bounty hunter?” Seungmin sassed back to him. That would be the best way to describe it. The turn of his head over his shoulder, the peering of his eyes over his sunglasses, even the scent of that man that smelled expensive was full of sarcasm, like a suffocating blend of sandalwood and frankensense that irritated his nose and swelled his eyes even at the distance between them. He ripped the door of his favorite coffee shop open, brutally letting the heavy door go as he ranted, “Han, bounty hunters are fucking crazy! C-R-A-Z-Y!! Willingly chosing to apprehend criminals as a career takes a certain size of steel balls that I’m not willing to deal with. I am not about to get in contact with someone who probably is out there looking for me!”
The door nearly smashed Jisung as he slipped through after. Hardly managing to catch the glass weight before it squished him into a pulp. Not that Seungmin was typically rude to people. Just Jisung. But it certainly turned heads of the other customers sitting nearby the front door, beady eyes that stared them down as Seungmin charged up to the counter and Jisung stumbled to follow after his every step. When they were alone he was going to punch this asshole in the jaw. He loved Seungmin. He did. But in the way that a pilot loves an air traffic controller; With frustration and annoyance overwhelming, but needs and necessity dictating they had to be somewhat cordial with one another so both of their asses would be covered if anything went wrong.
Seungmin turned back to Jisung as he barked his order at the barista, “That’s not to mention, bounty hunters are completely out of my knowledge, I’d have to go through government files to get information on the guyー Get me a medium Americano, and him a hot chocolateー I’d probably lose my job or my life trying to get you in contact.”
“How will you pay?” The barista taking down Seungmin’s order was twitching with irritation. Though he kept his customer service smile up. Jisung could only look at him from over his boss’s shoulder and silently communicate his apologies to the poor worker with his own weak purse of his lips. Probably working minimum wage. Has to deal with awful customers on the basis. Now he has to deal with Seungmin’s shit too. It’s a shame, he’s sort of attractive too. A comfort height, wavy unkempt black hair that sat gently against his sharper features, he had those distinct feline eyes too, though he seemed to be falsely widening his to look more friendly. He had a bit of glitter on the underside of his eye too. Probably got him more tips when he looked “innocent”. Gross. People were gross. Poor dude.
His boss sent the poor barista a side eye, ripping his wallet out of his coat as he fumbled to grab one of his many credit cards, “Just card, uhー”
Seungmin paused as he finally looked at the barista, his fingers hesitating the card in his wallet.
Jisung watched from over his shoulder. How he flipped to another one, and set his black card down on the counter. A subtle simper coming to his lips as he took off his sunglasses, “I’d like to pay with my card.”
The barista didn’t look twice, just picked up the card and quickly inserted it into reader machine for him. He grabbed up two empty cups plus his sharpie, “And your name?”
“Seungmin. You can call me,” He leaned on the counter, winking at the barista as he purred, “Seungmin.”
Jisung glanced down to the worker’s name tag. Hyunjin. Poor guy. Hyunjin didn’t even write their names down. His strained smile tightening as he gestured to a table on the other side of the café, as far away as possible, “Please have a seat.”
Not wanting to be associated with the man he was with anymore, Jisung immediately mouthed a pathetic Sorry’ toward this barista before he turned over his heel and scurried off. Leaving Seungmin to collect up his stupid fucking black card he always felt the need to flash whenever he was flirting with someone, despite the fact he hardly used the thing in his day to day life, and more often than not forgot it laying around because he couldn’t care less. Still. Not Jisung’s business. He quietly shut himself up and abandoned Seungmin behind to find a pleasant spot by the windows spying over the bustling shopping streets beyond. Their usual spot as far away from everyone as possible. Not to mention far away from the front counter. Hopefully the poor kid would get a bit of peace from them being as far from him as they could possibly be.
Jisung had set himself down, tugging his backpack off to sling onto his lap as his arms wrapped snugly around the intrusion of the bag, the item fitting flush to the crux of his chest and typical school appropriate button-up teacher uniform. As Seungmin approached the table he claimed for them, he taunted the younger man, “Were you having a stroke?”
“No, I was flirting,” Seungmin corrected as he tugged his jacket off and folded it neatly over the back of his chair before slumping down into the limelight of the adjacent seat.
“That seemed like the definition example of workplace harassment, actually.”
“Han. Shut your mouth. I’m irresistible.”
“I must be missing something.”
“Out. You are missing out,” His boss filled him in, “Because you’re only sexually attracted to nutcases.”
Jisung opened his mouth to protest the claim. Not true. He was not sexually attracted to nutcases, he never has been and he never will be, for Seungmin to make that sort of claim against him was just a lie andー
Seungmin leaned back in his chair,
And started,
“Arguing? Really? Let’s tango then. Where do I begin, your last ex? How he kept trying to cut you when you had sex because he had a thing for your blood? Or wait, sorry, no, you’re right, he had a thing for the color of your blood, that fucker was psychotic, and you have zero survival instinct so you were completely okay with him doing that. Or Felix? Who kept putting chlorine in your coffee, and was slowly amping the amounts up to the point you couldn’t do jobs anymore, remember who was the one to bail you from that situation and offered you a place to sleep, because, let’s be honest, that’s probably the more mild thing Felix did while you two were together, but we can mention the fact he stalked me for three weeks because he thought you were cheating on him with me, or the fact that he had weirdly violent tendencies that would flip on and off like a light switch at random, or that he was weirdly smart about chemicals and poisons and accidentally created mustard gas in the apartment while you were sleeping despite telling you not to do exactly that when you were cleaning the bathroom, the list goes on and on, those are just the most recent examples, but we could factor a few of your hookups too, like the one who stole your socks or the one who crashed a car into your house, every relationship and intimate interaction you’ve had has been like entering the front gate of a mental asylum, each more fucked up than the last one, and the worst part is you purposefully seek out things that are actively trying to murder you, like you have some kind of death wish but you want your death to be slow, drawn out, torturous, and bloody, I always tell you, ‘don’t stick your dick in crazy‘, and do you listen? No! It amazes me you’re still a teacher because the only things that interest you in life are the things actively trying to kill you, maybe it’s the stress, does stress turn you on? That’s weird, maybe you’re psycho too, it’s obvious you have a type, Han, want me to narrow it down for you? First, men who are older or the same age as you, second, usually men with cat-like, narrow eyes or dark pupils, that as you say ‘look through you’, third, not sane OR mentally stable.”
Jisung closed his mouth.
So… Maybe he had a slight pattern. Still that didn’t mean it was his type was crazy.
“Exactly. Thats what I thought, Han, I know you. Don’t try to prove me wrong because I have the texts too,” Regardless, Seungmin claimed himself to be victorious in proving his point when he fell silent for a lack of wanting to argue about his nebulous relationship history (He did have stable relationships with not mentally imbalanced people, he swears). He simply kept his lips zipped up as he observed the other, where he folded his arms firmly over his own battered office worker uniform while he lowered his voice beneath the chatter of the café to continue talking business with him, “Anyway, no. I can do a lot for you, but I can’t get information about someone unless there’s an open order on them. Your best bet is to find him yourself. That shouldn’t be hard for you.”
Jisung’s eyes wandered while the other spoke. Whether for a lack of anything interesting to keep his focus grounded into the cafe or to keep himself honed into what they were supposed to be talking about, his gaze naturally wandered across the atmosphere of the café. The other customers living obliviously to who the two of them truly were behind the masks they wore and the uniforms they put on, the bustling conversations in the minimal margins of the passerbys in the streets outside cruising in their own bubbles so happily, he glanced to the baristas too. Watching over each of them rushing during the busy shift. Lingering over a certain worker with black hair who seemed to be hustling double time from what his co-workers demanded he did. Jisung kept a steady eye trained on him as he murmured, “I’m not good at tracking.”
“Han, he’s a bounty hunter. If he’s thinking the same as you, you don’t have to track him. He’ll come to you,” Seungmin almost, explained to him. As if Jisung was a kindergartner being given the revelation of how rainbows were created in the sky, and that it was not leprechauns. But to be fair, the man had an excellent point about it. If Minho needed Jisung as much as Jisung was thinking he needed the bounty hunter, he doesn’t need to wait long before they ‘accidentally’ run into one another again. His boss continuing on while he considered the near whispered words, “Give it three days. Bounty hunters are fucking blood hounds when it comes to finding people. He’ll show up if he needs you.”
He’s right. If I’m thinking I might need Minho’s help, there’s a chance he’s thinking he will be needing my help to find Changbin too.
Jisung nodded slowly, soaking up the other’s argument as his arms tightened harder around the backpack he wore.
If that’s the case, I won’t need to find him myself.
His thoughts were interrupted by a set of drinks being set down on their table in front of them. The medium Americano in a porcelain cup for Seungmin, the piping hot mug of hot chocolate swirled with toppings of whipped cream and plad chocolate syrup stripes across the top (In proper hot chocolate fashion, though he’s not sure why Seungmin bought him hot chocolate when he mentioned before he wanted a latte or something). It did look delicious though. He was totally going to devour himself some hot chocolate and whipped cream. There seemed to be a few marshmallows sprinkled on top too. So Jisung murmured a thank you beneath his breath to the barista, to, funny enough, up to Hyunjin as the poor minimum wage slave situated them with their drinks.
When he pushed the cup of steaming Americano toward Seungmin, the barista sent the man a fast smile before he tucked the serving tray underneath his arm, turned over his shoulder, and rushed back to the counter to take the next customer’s order.
And Seungmin, being the incredible asshole he was, decided to let the brief interaction inflate his already massive balloon head as he took a celebration sip of his drink, “See? Irresistible.”
“That was just customer service,” Jisung frowned.
His boss smiled, “Han. Shut your mouth.”
▄︻デ â•â•â”一á°.áŸËŽËŠË—
Seungmin’s rant is 380 words long
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