Wonwoo Series - Tumblr Posts
My sister just gave birth like 2 days ago and it was total chaos so this hit close to home for me...
[SVT Imprinted] Wonwoo: Perfect (Part 4)
Characters: Wonwoo x female reader
Genre/warnings: werewolf au, college au, fluff, angst(???), reader’s pregnant, giving birth oh boy!!, reader makes some graphic threats lmao, for the record idk shit about giving birth :)
Word count: 3,696
Summary: Nine months of mood swings, weird cravings, and crying at the smallest things has finally led to one of the biggest moments in your life. You just hope Wonwoo doesn’t miss it.
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“Heart & Seoul” Master List [M]
❥ Pairing(s): Jeon Wonwoo x Fem!Reader
❥ Tags: Completed Series, Exes to Lovers!AU, Fluff, Mild Angst, Mutual Pining, Humor, Romance, Smut.
❥ Series Warnings: Specific warnings posted to each chapter. Chapters with any sexually explicit content will be marked [M] on the master list as well!
❥ Summary: Your first love hit hard & fast but it was all swept away in the blink of an eye when your boyfriend is sent away to a Korean University after your high school graduation. Seven years later, work lands you in the heart of Seoul & never in your wildest dreams did you imagine running into the one person who’d left with your heart years ago.
❥ Creative Contributors: M.List & chapter banners were created by @beaniegyu who, along with @dinoshii helped bring this love-child to life. love you guys to the moooon!
❥ Chapter Index:
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight [M]
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve [M]
Chapter Thirteen [M]
Chapter Fourteen [M] - Final
Heart & Halloween - holiday special
SVT M.List | Main M.List (Last update: 11/21/22)
→ Do not copy, re-post, translate, or share any of my works on other platforms WITHOUT PERMISSION! All stories are copyrighted, Bubblebeom, 2021. ©️
So glad I found this!! It is well written and so cute!
“Heart & Seoul” Master List [M]
❥ Pairing(s): Jeon Wonwoo x Fem!Reader
❥ Tags: Completed Series, Exes to Lovers!AU, Fluff, Mild Angst, Mutual Pining, Humor, Romance, Smut.
❥ Series Warnings: Specific warnings posted to each chapter. Chapters with any sexually explicit content will be marked [M] on the master list as well!
❥ Summary: Your first love hit hard & fast but it was all swept away in the blink of an eye when your boyfriend is sent away to a Korean University after your high school graduation. Seven years later, work lands you in the heart of Seoul & never in your wildest dreams did you imagine running into the one person who’d left with your heart years ago.
❥ Creative Contributors: M.List & chapter banners were created by @beaniegyu who, along with @dinoshii helped bring this love-child to life. love you guys to the moooon!
❥ Chapter Index:
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight [M]
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve [M]
Chapter Thirteen [M]
Chapter Fourteen [M] - Final
Heart & Halloween - holiday special
SVT M.List | Main M.List (Last update: 11/21/22)
→ Do not copy, re-post, translate, or share any of my works on other platforms WITHOUT PERMISSION! All stories are copyrighted, Bubblebeom, 2021. ©️
Maddie!!!! What a chapter!! I'm so happy I finally had the time to read this and sad I didn't get to read it when it came out! Mama Jeon, fake dating (although is it really fake, because I feel they've kind of been dating), alcohol, too much alcohol...what a ride!! And FINALLY some communication!! I was surprised that it was Wonwoo who actually started the conversation (and subsequent confession!?). I love these two and can't wait to see what happens!!
Amour-Haine & Co. | Chapter 14 |
series masterlist
warnings - swearing, alcohol, mentions of emotional abusive parents, toxic relationships
word count - 14.3k
A/N: this one here... ui... I deleted this chapter so many times bc I wasn't happy with it. now I'm uploading it like this. It took a different route than expected, but oh well... I hope you enjoy it :)
"That I'm on my fucking knees for you, Y/N."
Mum?!
"Wonwoo!" The woman ran towards the CEO, her arms open wide and a big smile decorating her already beautiful face.
Mum???
Wonwoo took a few steps forward to welcome her with a hug, the shocking impression still on his face while your feet seemed to have rooted themselves into the floor. You eyed their interaction from your position, your mind somewhere else but in the room, but your ears caught enough of their conversation to earn your attention.
"Jesus, have you been working out even more?" Jeon Chaewon released her son from her embrace, holding onto his forearms tightly, "I told you to stop that and start taking care of yourself like a normal person," and hit his arm gently. "How dare you not contact me, by the way? You bought a new company together with Mingyu, I have to find out you're in a relationship through your father, out of all people, then you're getting sued and you don't even call me-" hold on, what did she just say?
The CEO interrupted her questioning, taking her hands off him and embracing them into his, "Mum, calm down. What are you even doing here?"
She chuckled, "Is that how you greet your mother after a year of not seeing her?" And shook her head, "Unbelievable..."
"Mum-"
She stopped him with a smile and another slap, "No, 'mum'. I know it's very unexpected, especially now with everything going on, but still..." Neither one of them knew how to continue the conversation, and you weren't about to interrupt their little reunion. The scene was just as overwhelming for you as it seemed to have been for Wonwoo.
Unsure of how to go about the situation next, you decided to slowly and quietly make your way into your own office, giving the pair the privacy they deserved.
Just as you turned around, your ears perked up at the sound of the woman speaking again, "You've got a lot of explaining to do, young man."
The deep sigh that came from Wonwoo was unlike anything you had ever heard. Deep. And heavy. Something you knew from yourself only too well.
"I know..." his voice was quieter than before - and much softer. As soft as you had only ever heard it once before. "Let's go to my office." She nodded but didn't follow her son when he turned around,
"You're not coming?" You were about to open the door, but stopped mid-action when she continued, "Y/N?" You thought you would be sly with your disappearance.
"Hm?" You turned your head, immediately meeting Wonwoo's panicked gaze before ignoring it and giving his mother all your attention.
"Oh no, mum, I'm sure Miss Yoon's got work to do," he tried to reach for the woman's arm, who sneakily avoided his touch, only to hit him across the head, making Wonwoo flinch.
"How dare you talk to her like that. You don't address your girlfriend by her last name, even with other people around," she scolded him, immediately catching you off-guard,
"Wh-"
"Right, I'm sorry," he quickly apologized, sending you a quick glance, raising his eyebrows for the shortest second possible. You got the sign but had to hold back a deep sigh. Where was he going with this?! What was he trying to do?
You wanted to interfere, but as soon as your eyes found the awaiting gaze of Jeon Chaewon, you just couldn't. Her eyes were sparkling like the brightest stars in a dark night sky. Like the fireworks you'd only get to see on New Year's Eve, right there in the form of her eyes. Only the eyes of a loving mother could hold that gaze. A sight you remembered very well and which you hadn't seen in quite some time.
"I-," you what? What were you going to say? How could you now say no to this woman in front of you...
Frantically, your eyes met Wonwoo's for a quick second before you put your best fake smile on, "I'll be with you in a minute, I- I just... have to check on something in my office," and covered your nervous lying.
It seemed to have satisfied Miss Jeon as she sent you another one of her bright grins before turning around, passing her son and entering his office before him as he was still standing in the same spot, his eyes fixed on you. He was about to say something, but you just shook your head and headed to your private room right away, not wanting to spend another second in this uncomfortable situation.
With quick steps you were in your office, immediately throwing your bag onto the couch in the corner. You ran your fingers through your hair, getting annoyed when they suddenly got stuck in the knots that had formed. Frantically, you pushed your hands down, flinching at the feeling of some strands getting caught under your rings and getting ripped out of your scalp. You sighed.
That was not how you had planned your day to start. That was not what you could have ever expected to happen. Wonwoo's mother just showing up suddenly? Her mistaking you for-... how did that come about...
Once again, you found yourself caught up in the memory of her voice. Her calm tone, her loving gaze, that spark in her eyes, only a mother could hold.
Your feet brought you deeper into your office, closer to the couches, where your bag had tumbled down onto the floor, the content spreading across the floor. You cursed under your breath, got rid of your jacket and threw it onto the cushioned seats before kneeling down to gather everything that had fallen out.
After getting everything back inside your bag, you were about to stand up when the sound of your phone ringing again made you reach for it. You fished it out of the bag and, just as expected, were faced with the caller id of your father. A deep sigh tumbled from your lips. How much longer could I ignore him, you wondered. His name has been popping up ever since that morning. He had found out about the lawsuit. Of course, he did. You knew it. There wasn't a way that he wouldn't have found out at some point, but you had hoped to be able to push it further away from you for as long as possible. There was no going back now. You pressed the green button to accept the call.
"How fucking dare you!" The alarming voice of your father rang through your ear, and the volume of it made you shove it away from your ear. "I trusted you with this company! You're getting fucking sued, and you didn't even dare to tell me?! Are you really that fucking dumb?! And how dare you ignore all of my calls?! I've been trying to reach you for hours, and don't come at me with some stupid fucking excuse, I'm so tired of that shit!"
"Dad-" you tried to stop him from continuing throwing these words at you, but you knew about his anger, and you knew there was no way you were able to stop him.
"NO! I really thought I raised you better than that!" You closed your eyes and let the phone rest on the couch, your knees still the only support on the cold floor. His voice was loud enough, you didn't have to put him on speaker. "At first you embarrass me with that sudden office romance you've got going on with Wonwoo, and now you won't even tell me about a fucking lawsuit?! What kind of daughter are you?! This is not only embarrassing but even humiliating to me! What do you think this makes me look like, huh?! Have you thought about that?! I bet you haven't!"
"Dad, please-" your voice was too quiet for him to even hear.
"I don't know what the fuck is going on in that head of yours, but you better fix it, or I'm going to fix that position you're in. How dare you even believe you deserve that spot as COO. Jesus Christ...," he took a deep breath before continuing, "You fucked up, Y/N. You fucked up bad, I hope you know that. And I hope you know how-" The call suddenly ended. With your eyes still closed, you enjoyed the sudden moment of silence. You expected that reaction from him. You expected every harsh word that fell from his lips. But hearing them from the man you had to call your father... that hurt. Denying it wasn't helping. As much as you would've loved to pretend his words didn't hit you, you couldn't.
"Don't listen to him." The familiar deep voice spoke up from behind you, making you open your eyes. You stared at the bookshelf in front of you, only seeing the silhouette of the CEO getting closer from the corner of your eye. "He's mad and probably doesn't even know what he's saying." His comment made you let out a chuckle. A chuckle filled with hurt and pain. So much pain.
You lowered your head, "He knows exactly what he's saying." It was only then that you felt the tightness of your throat. It made you gulp.
"Y/N-" his soft tone was trying to comfort you, but you pushed it away.
"What do you need?" You changed the subject, still not facing him.
Wonwoo was silent. He took a few more steps closer to you, stopping in front of you and kneeling down. "My mother was worried because you said you'd be with us in a minute, and it's been a bit longer than that. She made me come check on you."
You quickly forced the corners of your lips to lift before running your hands through your hair to push it out of your face and lifted your head. That's when you found the man's worried eyes glued on you, expecting you to say something.
"Right," you nodded, "Sorry." You were about to push yourself back to stand up, but Wonwoo's hands on your wrists stopped you, your eyes immediately looking down at his touch, before going up again.
"Y/N-"
"I'm okay." You were quick to interrupt him, answering the question he didn't even ask. "It's okay. I'm good."
For a second too long, his gaze interlocked with yours. He reached out with his hand, his palm stopping at your cheek to press against it gently as his thumb wiped away the tear that had made its way from your eye. A touch you would have never let happen weeks ago. Not even in your head, would you have let Wonwoo touch you that softly. But right then, your body almost betrayed you as you felt the need to lean into the warmth of his palm.
You lowered your head in shame, not realising you had started crying, making him take his hand back.
Wonwoo gulped, "I'm sorry."
You raised your head in confusion at his statement, "What are you sorry for?"
He cleared his throat, "For not thinking about the consequences of not telling your father even though you wanted to tell him. I didn't think he'd react like that." His words were filled with honesty. His voice sounded like pure regret. Even in his eyes, you could see the sincerity behind everything he had said.
A sad smile formed on your lips as you slowly shook your head, "He would've reacted like this either way..." your voice getting shakier and shakier with each word, "He... he's already disappointed in me...for multiple reasons... one more won't hurt, right?" The theoretical question brought even more tears to your eyes as you locked with his gaze again. You pressed your lips together tightly, hoping to suppress them from shaking as the tears were dreading to spill. The whimper sat in the back of your throat just waiting to come out. Just like you had done many times before, you let your head fall back, trying to blink the tears back into your body before standing up, making Wonwoo do the same just a second later. He kept a concerned facial expression on you while you shook your head and tried to make yourself appear normal by fixing your hair and outfit.
"You don't have to-"
"I said, I'm okay," maybe by repeating them, you could convince yourself that you might actually were. When, in fact, you weren't.
"I wasn't about to ask you that," the CEO let you know, lowering his body down to pick up your bag and placing it on the couch, next to where your phone- where was it? It had been there only a few minutes ago.
You nodded and shifted your gaze down to your shoes, eyeing his feet that were coming closer to you, stopping only a few centimetres in front of you.
"I just wanted to tell you that you don't have to pretend that his words didn't just affect you."
You shrugged, "They didn't," and crossed your arms before looking up again after you didn't get an answer back from him. But as soon as you faced him again, he only glanced at you with raised eyebrows and his hands hidden away in his pockets.
For a few seconds, there was nothing but silence. Nothing but the two of you, staring into each other's eyes, both knowing what you had just said was far from the truth, and both waiting for the other one to continue this conversation.
"So?" You started again, "For how much longer do you want to keep your mother alone?"
He breathed in some air through his teeth and made his way to your left, making you turn towards him, your back now facing the window wall behind you. "For as long as it takes you to admit that you're not okay," he eyed you, switching his gaze to something behind you for a second, "Besides, she's watching us anyways."
"What?!" Your eyes widened as you turned around to find the smiling woman's gaze longing at the two of you. "Oh, god," your head snapped back, and your hands immediately flew up to brush over your cheeks, hoping to wipe away any access trails the tears had left. "Okay, okay," you spoke mostly to yourself while looking around the room, trying to locate your phone. You patted down the side of your pants, thinking that you may have put it into your pockets without realising. But you didn't. You decided to ignore it and focused back on the man in the room,
"What do I do?" But he just looked at you confused and surprised.
"What do you mean?"
"With your mother," you nudged your head slightly towards her direction, "W-Who does she think I am? What does she think... we are?"
Wonwoo nodded at the sudden realisation of your question and leaned back against your desk, his arms crossed in front of his chest, "She thinks we're dating."
"But why?" You sent him a confused glance, "She... she mentioned something about her ex-husband..." and trailed off.
The CEO sighed, "My father told her." You continued looking at him with the same facial expression, making him continue with a smirk, "You remember the dinner? We're great actors." And then the last puzzle pieces snapped together.
"And he told his ex-wife about that...?" Your eyebrows scrunched as you let the scenario run through your head. What an interesting conversation to have with someone.
Wonwoo shrugged, "I'm surprised as well, trust me. The fact that he even dared to call her because of some bullshit like that. He knows he shouldn't, but that man doesn't care."
"He shouldn't what?" You wondered, but he brushed it off,
"Doesn't matter," and pushed himself off the desk, standing back steadily on both of his feet, "So?"
"Hm?" You hummed, wondering what he meant.
Suddenly a warm smile appeared on his face. A smile that caught all of your attention. It was kind. Welcoming. It felt comforting. Somewhat familiar.
"Are you okay?"
You caught yourself being caught off guard as your eyes lingered a little too long on his lips, making you shake your head and find his eyes quickly. A forced smile made its way to your mouth and your quiet voice filled the room, "As okay as I could be at this moment, I think."
The young CEO pressed his lips together and nodded, even if it was hesitantly, "I can accept that as an honest answer."
"You have to," you shot out before thinking well enough about what was gonna come out of your mouth. What even was that supposed to mean?
Wonwoo grinned, taking a step closer to almost tower over you, "Oh, do I?" The close proximity of your bodies let your heartbeat quicken right away. Just like it did in the elevator when you went to meet him. Just like in front of the courtroom when he tried to comfort you. The same way as when he had put his hand on your shoulder for the first time. Or his hand on your lower back before he pulled you in closer as he swept you across the ballroom floor-
"Y/N?" His voice made you snap back into the present as you found his longing gaze on you.
"What?"
He chuckled at your reaction but kept his eyes closely on yours, the grin tickling his lips.
"Are you sure you're okay?"
"Yeah," you answered quickly, shaking your head maybe a little too fast, but you pushed that thought aside and were quick to turn around, walking towards the glass door. You opened it and motioned for him to walk out first. Wonwoo approached you with a smile before raising his arm to get a hold of the door above your head, holding it open and nudging for you to walk out first. You sent him a quick look that he just knew exactly what it meant. Still, you followed his order and stepped out, but waited for him to close the door, so the two of you would walk up to his mother side by side.
The walk to his office was no longer than 15 seconds (if you walked slower than you usually would), but those few seconds felt like an eternity at that very moment. Having Wonwoo next to you was the only thing that kept you from turning around and leaving the building - your body assured you of that.
He took a few bigger steps to be ahead of you, opened the door to his office and ushered you inside, where his mother had already been waiting for you, now sitting on one of the couches in the corner. You opened your mouth to excuse yourself for being late, but a familiar ringtone caught your attention. The sound of your phone ringing made you turn around to see where it was coming from. You came to sight with Wonwoo fishing it out of the inside pocket of his suit jacket, making you glance at him in confusion, but he didn't even raise his head to look at you. Only after he took a look at your screen, he dared to look up, meeting your eyes. You were about to walk up to him, raising your hand to get a hold of the phone, but he stopped you,
"Sorry, I'll be right back," and sent a nod to his mother, "I gotta take this call," before leaving the room again. Your eyes followed him until he had rounded the corner, making sure he was no longer in sight.
And there you were. Alone in a room with the mother of your CEO, or boyfriend as she thought.
"Always so busy..." her soft voice filled your ears, "I told him to take it easy, but he won't ever listen to me." You turned around to give her a smile, followed by a chuckle. "Oh well," she returned it, "Maybe you'll have better luck with that."
"I'll try," you lied to her. Lied well. You had no other choice. That woman in front of you was ecstatic about the apparent idea that her son was in a committed relationship - and you weren't about to ruin that feeling of joy.
You had your eyes focused on the corner Wonwoo had just disappeared behind, not noticing the older woman getting closer to you. Only when her hand reached for yours was when you snapped back into the present situation you were stuck in.
"So please, Y/N," she made you follow her towards the two couches in the corner before she dragged you down to sit down right next to her, "I would love to know a bit more about you. I'm sure you must be an interesting individual if you have caught my son's eye."
You chuckled nervously, tucking a strand of hair behind your ear, "Oh, I wouldn't be too sure about that, to be honest," your gaze switching to the side in hopes of finding the man you were looking for.
"But I'm sure, love," she assured you with a pat on your knee, "I mean... you are the first girlfriend he ever introduced to me, so that must mean something, you know? I know, I did get here by myself, but I was expecting him to deny everything his father told me or maybe even tell me that he just wanted to annoy him by pretending to be in a relationship," her voice drifted into a sadder tone before she looked up again, meeting your eyes with one of the brightest smiles you have ever seen, "but I cannot explain to you how happy I am that that's not the case," she engulfed her hand in yours, giving it a tight squeeze, "So, tell me a little bit about yourself."
Oh no. Oh no no. This was bad. So bad. She was expecting this to be fake. Wonwoo could've just simply told her that she was right with her suspicion. But he didn't... that idiot didn't do it. And now you have to put on the best act you possibly could, to convince her of your and her son's happiness. You had to push all the nerves that had started to form in your stomach further down, suppressing them as well as possible and putting the fake smile on that had been carrying you through your entire career.
"Okay," you smiled at her, "Well... I... ehm...," you gulped. Fuck... this was going to be harder than you thought. Concentrate.
You wanted to meet her gaze, but as soon as that happened, you were scared that she would be able to see right through your lies, so you decided to let your eyes travel around the room, holding still on her only for a few seconds.
"I've been working here for quite a while... way before Wonwoo and Mingyu took over. And... ehm," you cleared your throat, "But I've gotten the position as COO once they became CEOs."
"Oh, what were you before that?" She seemed truly interested in what you were telling her, somehow bringing you ease and making facing her a lot easier.
"President. My father made me the President," you answered her with a tight smile on your lips.
She looked enraged once the words had reached her ears, "Only president?!" The woman didn't shout, but it was clear how she felt about what you had told her. She scuffed, "Oh well, doesn't surprise me, thinking about what I've heard about your father." Once she had finished, it seemed like she realised what she had said as her facial expression changed in an instant, "Oh god, I'm so sorry," she covered her mouth with her hand, "I didn't mean to talk badly about your father, I hope you don't-"
"Don't worry, don't worry," you chuckled, instinctively reaching for her arm to hold, "I'm not on good terms with him anyways." For some reason, it felt okay to let her know that.
A relieved sigh left her lips, "Thank god not," she laughed, "I got so worried, I'm so sorry," she grabbed your hands once again, making you look her in the eyes, "I'm truly sorry that you had to work for him. Like that. Even if just half of the things I've heard are true... I don't want to imagine what it must've been like with him. I know how difficult men like that can be..."
You shrugged, "I lived." But it was so much more than that. You could've said so many more words, but you chose not to.
"I did too," Chaewon sent you a sad smile, "But that doesn't mean that it was right, because it most certainly wasn't. I had to learn that the hard way..." as she went quiet for a second, you didn't interrupt the silence, feeling like there was more to come from her. But before she could continue, if she had wanted to, the two of you were interrupted by Wonwoo, who had come back in through the door, closing it on his way in.
The woman turned around, coming face to face with her son, her hands still around yours, "How did it go?"
"Huh?" The CEO seemed to have been caught off guard, breaking the gaze the two of you had been holding ever since he had walked in.
His mother grinned, nodding towards his hands that had a tight grip on your phone, "Your phone call. How did it go? Anything interesting?"
He made his way over to you, nodding in understanding, "Oh," he sat down on the other couch to your left, "No, not that interesting. Just... casualties." Your eyes never left his form. They continued following him all the way until he was sitting next to you, but even then you made sure to keep them on him. He noticed your wondering look and decided to interlock his gaze with yours again. "But I managed to clear everything. Nothing to worry about anymore." You knew he was answering his mother's question, but with his eyes so fixed on yours, you could feel the words not being directed towards her. Because there was nothing she had to worry about, there was nothing you had to worry about anymore.
"But I want to talk to you later, Y/N," he announced, catching you off guard at the mention of your name.
"Me?" You wondered, almost wanting to slap your face when you noticed how weird it sounded.
Wonwoo placed your phone on the coffee table right in front of you, never looking away from you, "Yeah. You." You nodded, showing him you understood what he had said. Even though you didn't. The moment felt like an out-of-body experience. Something just felt... off. Weird. You had never been in the same room as your boyfriend AND his mother. And now you were stuck with the man you had to pretend you were dating to your left and his overjoyed-by-the-news mother to your right. No wonder this didn't feel real. Even saying it in your head didn't sound right.
"Anyways," Mrs Jeon's clap echoed through the room, making Wonwoo's eyes change to her direction, "As I mentioned earlier, I want to get to know Y/N a little bit better," her hand found yours again, "And I thought that we could maybe do that over dinner. Tonight?"
Your eyebrows shot up as you looked at the CEO, who kept the calmest possible demeanour, "Mum-"
"Only if you're not busy, of course," she quickly added, falling into another one of her rants, that she seemed to have quite often, "I know, things right now might be a bit stressful, but you never know, maybe a quiet and comfortable nice dinner might just be the thing to help you out. I'm sorry if this comes off too strong, but I haven't seen you in over a year, and suddenly I'm getting thrown over with so many news, I hoped you would unders-"
"We'd love to."
You turned to the side to face her, your free hand coming up to wrap around hers. You hoped the smile on your face would ease her. "Right, Wonwoo?" with the same facial expression, you directed your question to the CEO on the other couch. In addition, you sent him a warning glance, raising your eyebrows just enough for him to see and for his mother to not notice.
He quickly followed with a deep breath and a nod, "Of course. We have time, don't worry, mum."
A heavy and happy sigh left Chaewon's lips as she freed your hands from her grasp, "Oh, I'm glad," you could see her eyes shining again, "That makes me so happy. Alright then, I have a table reserved at 7, is that okay? If it's too early, we can-"
"It's perfect," you interrupted her, looking up at her as she had stood up, her bag in her hands again, "We'll be there."
"Great!" She clutched tighter onto the handle, "Wonwoo, I'll send you the address." He nodded in agreement before she continued, "And for now, I'll get going and leave you to your important business stuff," walking closer towards the door with a chuckle. The young CEO was quick to stand up and beat his mother to the door with his big steps, opening it before she could get a hold of the door handle. You stood up as well but decided to stay in your spot, following her with your gaze as she got closer and closer to the exit.
"It was very nice to meet you Y/N, I can't wait for tonight," she sent you a kind grin. Even with the extra wrinkles that appeared when she smiled, she somehow managed to look even younger. That's what living happily must do to you.
"Likewise, thank you Mrs- Chaewon," you corrected yourself, hoping she didn't catch your slip up, but her chuckle told you otherwise, "See you later," and waved her off.
The woman gave her son a quick hug, whispered something you sadly didn't catch into his ear, making him roll his eyes, and after another round of goodbyes, she left the office. Once she was out of the room, Wonwoo and you stayed still in the same spot. Your gazes travelled along with his mother, waiting for her to round the corner until she was out of sight. As soon as that happened, you let yourself fall onto the sofa with a big sigh tumbling from your lips. Before you could let your head fall back, you crouched forward, resting your elbows on your knees and holding onto your head with your hands.
"Jesus," you breathed out, "That was even more stressful than I imagined."
"Really?" Wonwoo wondered as he approached your form, filling the seat to your right that his mother had left empty. "You seemed awfully calm. Kinda worried a bit."
"Did I?" You straightened your back immediately, "Calm? Really?" His nod assured you, "Wow... I mean... I'm glad, because I feel like my heart," your hand flew up to touch your chest, "Is about to jump out." It was then that you realised just how fast it was beating and probably had been beating the entire time already.
"No, don't worry, you were doing better than expected," he admitted, leaning back to get comfortable on the couch. As you turned your body to face him better, your knee touched his. Both of you noticed it. Neither of you moved to change it.
You scrunched your eyebrows, "What do you mean 'better than expected'? What did you think I was gonna do?" The question was tickling your tongue, and nothing was holding you back from asking him.
Wonwoo chuckled, "Why did you agree to that dinner so quickly? I thought you didn't want to play along."
"I never said that," you snapped back without hesitation. Instead of answering verbally, the young CEO raised an eyebrow, making you scoff, "What? I was just surprised. I never said that I wouldn't play along."
"Alright," he simply nodded and thought the subject was done, but you had some more to say.
"And did you really think I would just break your mother's heart like that? Did you see the way her eyes lit up when she talked about us?"
A smirk slowly but surely made its way to Wonwoo's lips. He bit down on his bottom lip before opening his mouth, "Us? What us?"
"The us she thinks we are. The us that makes her eyes sparkle and her lips turn into such a beautiful smile. The most beautiful one a mother could have." You found yourself reminiscing in the memory of sitting next to her, feeling the comfort of her presence hugging you.
For a second, the CEO was quiet before he sat up straighter, "So basically you did it because you wanted to see her happy?"
"I guess so. I mean... what other reason would I have had to keep up this lie?" You answered him honestly, your mind somewhere else as could be heard by your voice.
Wonwoo shrugged, "I don't know, was just a question," and sighed. "So," he suddenly changed the subject and got up from his seating position, "Now that you've set up a date for us tonight-"
"Don't say it like that," you warned him, "That makes it sound weird." It made it sound real.
He chuckled, "What else should I call it?"
"I don't know," you mumbled, "Meet-up with your mother?"
"Alright," he nodded, "Now that you've set up a meet-up with my mum at 7pm, which is by the way during our work time, I'd love to hear how you expect us to be there and here at the same time?"
You stood up as well, taking a few steps to pass the coffee table, taking your phone with you, "We can just leave a little earlier. The guys will be fine without you and, just in case anything happens, Mingyu is still here."
Wonwoo looked at you in wonder, "You're just gonna ditch work?" Then scoffed, "I don't think your boss is gonna like that, you know?"
You smirked, "Well, tough luck then. I'm the COO and I'm saying that he and I are gonna get off work earlier so we can make his mother happy."
"Interesting," he raised his eyebrows while an amused grin played on his lips, "What a confident COO we have here." He reached into his pocket and got out his own phone before rounding his table, taking a seat on the big leather chair behind the desk, "Then I'm gonna call Hongseok and tell him he doesn't have to pick you up this evening."
"And he doesn't have to pick me up tomorrow morning either, tell him that too," you remembered that morning when you planned to get to work by subway, but were surprised by the CEO's driver waiting for you in front of your apartment complex. He assured you that he was here on request of Jeon Wonwoo and that he was not allowed to leave until you got into the car. "He didn't have to do it today either... Do you know how weird it is to just get picked up randomly?"
"He only came because I couldn't make it today, I'm sorry. I'll be there tomorrow again," he tried to assure you, but you quickly shut him down,
"No, that's not what I meant," your comment caught his attention and made him look up from the screen, "I also told you that I don't want anyone picking me up. I'm fine with using the public transport until I get a new car. I don't need a driver AND," you added right away as you saw him already opening his mouth, ready to say something, "I also don't need you to pick me up."
Wonwoo leaned back in his chair, a heavy sigh falling from his lips, "I told you I don't mind."
"And I told you I don't want it."
"What if I don't want you to use public transport. Imagine someone catching the COO of one of Seoul's biggest businesses taking the bus to work," another one of those eyebrow raises, gosh...
You shrugged and crossed your arms as you stood right in front of his desk, "Well... then they'll think I'm doing something good for the environment. We should do more about that anyways."
But Wonwoo only shook his head, "No. My COO isn't taking any kind of public transport. Not happening."
You scoffed at the use of his words, "Your COO?!"
"Yeah, my COO. Who else do you think you're working for?" He must've known he was testing your temper. He must've. There wasn't another reason you could've thought of as to why he would throw out a comment like that.
You squinted your eyes at him, the fists your hands had formed tightening as you had to bite your tongue to hold back the statement playing on the tip of your tongue. You had two options there. Either, you don't hold back and another argument will break out because both of your personalities are too big for their own good. OR, you were going to be the bigger person, hold back all the things you would regret and get out of this situation quietly and just move on with the day. There was just one problem. And that was that the second option was never really there, thanks to your temper.
"Are you forgetting who you're talking to?" You snapped at the man, walking up to stop right in front of his desk. Wonwoo let go of his phone and set it down on the top of the table. He directed his gaze to you, looking up from his seated position, the corners of his lips curling slightly. He looked to the side with a chuckle, huffing out a little amount of air - he seemed gladly amused by your reaction as if it was right where he wanted to get you.
With a confident grin, he leaned back in his chair, his eyes gliding over your entire form. "I know exactly who I'm talking to, don't you worry."
"Then you should know when to shut your mouth," you kept an unamused facial expression, hoping he would get the message, but that fucking smirk on his lips was just a little too distracting, even for you to truly be annoyed.
"Why should I if I get to see you like this?" His question confused you. Was he getting that much of a thrill out of making you annoyed at him? Was he liking it that much? What was he trying to do...
You scrunched your eyebrows, "You're really enjoying this, aren't you?"
Instead of answering, he widened his grin, keeping his mouth shut, but his glance interlocked with yours.
Something in the way he looked at you wanted you to smile like an idiot too, but you controlled it by letting out a salty chuckle, raising your hands in defence,
"I'm not giving into that. I'm not gonna be annoyed anymore."
"Sure you won't," Wonwoo nodded amusingly, blinking at you with that stupid smirk still plastered on his face.
Just when you were about to open your mouth, another snarky remark tickling your tongue, your phone in the pocket of your pants rang, catching your attention as you fished it out. A look at the screen made you let out a big huff of air, closing your eyes to contain your emotions.
The young CEO noticed your reaction, "Is it your dad?"
You nodded, "Obviously," and let your finger hover just a few millimetres over the 'accept' button, even though you knew you'd regret answering his call.
"Don't."
The deep voice made you look up, finding the dark eyes of the man in front of you immediately. He dropped his eyes down to the hand that was holding onto the phone before coming up again, staring into yours.
"Don't answer it."
Before this... he had your phone... and accepted it when it rang...
"Why?" You wondered, suddenly feeling the smallest amount of anxiety coming up in your body, "What did you do?" You followed his silhouette as he stood up, walked passed the desk and stopped in front of you. On his way, you had turned around, your ass now right at the edge of the table while he stood tall opposite of you.
He shook his head, "I didn't do anything. Just don't answer it." When you noticed him reaching forward, attempting to take the device out of your hold, you snatched your hand back, further away from him. He sighed in annoyance, but he was in no position to be the one irrigated by this situation.
"And who are you to tell me whose calls not to answer," your sharp tongue always acted before your brain could. Great character trait.
"You're boss, so give me the fucking phone," he tried to get a grasp of your phone once again, but you leaned back, extending your arm as far as possible. Another aggravated sigh, "Y/N, I swear to God..."
"You swear to God, what?" You raised your brows. Two can play that game. Both of you knew that, you've done it before. You've had moments like these before. This already felt familiar. If he could get a kick out of infuriating you, you could do the same to him.
Wonwoo lifted his head to meet your gaze. He didn't say anything. Just looked at you. Your phone was no longer ringing. There were no sounds anymore to fill the room and yet, it didn't feel quiet. You weren't sure where to look but decided to do just like him and just kept your eyes on him. Wonwoo had gotten dangerously close when he tried to reach for the phone the second time, and he hadn't backed away yet. One small lean in and your noses would've touched.
The moment that you shared in silence didn't feel long enough when he broke it with a deep sigh. Not an annoyed one. Just deep. You wondered why, but got your answer with his next action. His hands suddenly found your hips and he lifted you to sit on the desk. A gasp fell from your lips as your hands had reached for his arms for stability. His movement caught you off-guard. He surprised you once again.
Right after he had put you down, he let his hands rest on each side of you, leaning forward to lean in, getting closer to you for just the littlest amount.
"You really like playing smart, don't you?" His breath tickled your lips.
"I like getting proper answers, mister I-always-talk-in-some-kind-of-code," you sassied back, getting a chuckle out of him.
He shook his head softly, "Give me the phone Y/N. Please."
You only then noticed that your hands were still on his arms when you let go to hand him the device, this time not questioning his actions. He stood up straight, took it from your grasp and turned it around to ask you to unlock it.
"4596," you simply answered him, not even looking down at the phone as you told him your code.
Wonwoo put it in and started tapping on the screen. You noticed he had started texting someone and could already guess who it was.
"I thought I made it clear," he mumbled, making it hard for you to understand him, but you caught it. It confused you, but you decided not to question him, mesmerized by the man standing in front of you.
When he put it back down on the table next to you, your eyes followed his hand. You noticed the ring on his pinky and wondered how you had never caught that before.
"What did you do?"
"Something that will hopefully keep him from calling you from now on," he let you know, his hands back on each side of you, but he wasn't leaning in as much as before.
You took a deep breath, "He's my father, I can't just ignore him-"
"He was disrespecting you. He talked to you in a way no father should ever talk to their daughter, and you still march to his tune. Hold yourself up higher. You're better than that."
The way he thought he knew you better than you did yourself infuriated you. "I'm not marching to his fucking tune. I just don't want to create useless arguments between us. I want to clear things up and move on. But with this way and just ignoring his calls, he's only gonna get angrier and-"
"And what?" He picked at your statement, "Who cares if he's angry? He's been angry before, he'll be angry in the future. He'll get over this because he's gonna find something or even someone else to shout at."
You shook your head, "You don't know him like I do."
"That's true," Wonwoo nodded, "I don't. And honestly... I don't want to. Because God knows what I'll do if I ever catch him talking to you like that when I'm in the same room as him." That caught you off guard.
He let that statement roll off his tongue as if it was the most casual thing to say. His eyes were fixed on yours. Still. And he didn't even blink when he said it. He also didn't look away afterwards. He continued staring right into your soul, making you gulp. You had to break the eye contact, afraid of what could happen if you didn't.
"God," you sighed, "Why do you care so much about that..." your voice laced with something similar to irritation, but then again not really... because you weren't, you could never be. You were curious. You were wondering. He seemed so invested in something that had nothing to do with him and everything to do with you.
Instead of answering, Wonwoo took a few steps back and made his way back behind his desk. You hated whenever he did that as it wasn't the first time.
"Wonwoo-"
"Just don't answer his calls, alright?" He interrupted you. You turned around to look at him again as he sat himself down in his chair, "You are under no obligation to listen to whatever that man has to say."
"And what if he suddenly shows up here? What the hell am I supposed to say then?!" It wasn't an impossible scene to happen. What your father wanted, he got - even if it was an argument with you. Even if it meant just showing up to shout at you. He would do that, you were convinced.
Wonwoo's attention was fixed on the computer when he answered, "I'm your boss, and I don't want my COO to be distracted by private calls during her work day."
You didn't correct him.
-
Shortly before the clock on your wall hit 7pm, there was a knock on the open glass door to your office. You looked away from your computer screen, and your eyes found the form of the CEO standing in the doorframe.
"You ready?" He asked you. You took a quick look at the clock in the corner of the screen and answered him with a smile and a nod,
"Yep." After closing the tabs you didn't need anymore, you shut down the PC and got up. While you scanned the desk for anything important you may leave behind, you noticed some files that were still spread out, making the space look messier than you wanted to, so you decided to collect them and put them into folders on the shelves next to you. As soon as you turned back around, Wonwoo had gotten closer to your desk, waiting patiently with your bag in one hand and your jacket in the other. You quickly made your way over to him, thanking him quietly for the gesture and took your belongings to yourself, carrying the bag over your shoulder and holding onto the jacket, knowing you wouldn't need it since you'd be in a car.
The two of you exited your office and made your way to the elevator, only making simple conversation.
"Did you tell Mingyu where you're going?" You wanted to know, remembering that you had mentioned him earlier in your conversation. Wonwoo nodded, at the same time the elevator had arrived, and he ushered you inside before entering as well.
"I told him we're meeting up with my mum," he simply answered you. Silence probably wouldn't have been awkward, or maybe it would have been... but you weren't about to test it, so you tried to keep the conversation up on your way down.
"What did he say?"
He turned to the side, raising one eyebrow at you, "About this? What was he supposed to say about it?"
You shrugged, "I don't know... kind of weird that I'm going out to eat with you and your mother... if I were him I'd be questioning it."
Wonwoo shook his head, a soft chuckle falling from his lips, that he hid by putting one finger on his lips, "No, he...," he straightened his back before continuing, "He was just mad that we didn't invite him."
"Has kind of become a casualty," you grinned, laughing to yourself in your head while your fingers tightened around the handle of your bag.
"What has?" Wonwoo questioned.
You turned your head, meeting his gaze, "You taking me to things instead of Mingyu... even though Mingyu would make more sense."
The CEO scrunched his eyebrows, "I mean... I don't know how believable Mingyu and I could fake being in a relationship." His comment made you chuckle and lower your head. Also true...
"I don't how believable we're gonna be if I'm being honest," your voice was laced with worry. Wonwoo caught that and immediately made you look at him, by moving his entire body to face you, leaning onto the wall behind him.
"We already convinced my dad. You have nothing to worry about anymore. It'll be easy," he tried to assure you, but it only helped so little.
"Easy...," you mumbled once the doors opened again, letting you into the garage where Wonwoo had parked his car.
Easy. This was going to be easy. 'It'll be easy', pff yeah, maybe for you... but it should also be for-
"Are you coming?" His familiar voice brought you back to the present as you snapped out of the mental conversation you had just had with yourself. Without answering, you followed him quickly, jogging a little to catch up with him.
Arrived at his car, Wonwoo made sure to go to the passenger side first, opening the door to let you step in. You stopped before getting in,
"I can open it myself, you know?" Turning your head ever so slightly, only then realising how close he was if you did that.
Your comment made him chuckle, "Yeah, I know. Come on," and nodded for you to get in. After making sure that you were sitting comfortably, he took his hand away from the upper doorframe where he had placed his hand as you had lowered your head to get in and closed the door to get to the driver's side of the car.
The short drive to the restaurant was spent quietly, listening to the sounds that the radio blessed you with. It was when you arrived at the restaurant, parking in front of it, when the nerves suddenly hit you. Wonwoo was about to step out, but you reached out to hold onto his forearm,
"Wait," you stopped him. His head snapped to you, glancing at you with worry filling his eyes. Before he could ask you what was going on, you continued your rant, "We should've thought about this better. W-we know nothing about each other. That's not what a couple does. Couples know each other inside and out. I don't even know what your favourite colour is, o-or... or your favourite food, or movie, or whatever. How the hell am I supposed to pretend to be a good girlfriend that your mother likes when I don't even know that stuff."
Suddenly you felt the warmth of his dry hand on top of yours as he moved it away from his arm to get a good hold of your hand, giving it a comforting squeeze. "Probably black, anything without fish, but I really like Pizza, and Me Before You," he grinned, "anything else?" You looked into his eyes, waiting for him to laugh at your reaction as you continued to stare at him with a scared facial expression being replaced by a surprised one. You didn't have time to answer as the doors of the car were opened, revealing staff members of the restaurant that were waiting to be able to park the car.
Wonwoo let go of your hand and exited the vehicle, leaving you in the car too hesitant to get out. With a soft whine, you got out as well, clutching onto your bag tightly, leaving the jacket on the seat, not thinking about bringing it along. The young CEO was already waiting for you, standing patiently on the side. He took a step closer, and as soon as he was right next to you, he opened his arm, offering you to interlock yours with his. Without wasting another second, you just as he asked without using his words. You had been in a similar position before. The way you were standing next to each other wasn't foreign to you.
Only a second later, you managed to feel just as comfortable as you did on the night of the event you had attended together. You also remembered that you had to be convincing, so interlacing your arms with each other but still standing enough far away from each other for another person to fit in between you, wasn't going to look very convincing. You took a step closer and let your other hand come up, holding onto his bicep. He didn't even budge. This felt natural. Maybe a little too natural. But you didn't mind. It felt nice with him next to you. Even walking up the stairs to the extremely fancy-looking restaurant didn't make you feel anxious. Not with him by your side.
At the entrance, the host for tonight greeted you with a smile. Wonwoo let him know about the reservation of his mother and their last name and you were let in, being brought to the table, where Jeon Chaewon was already waiting for you.
"Being on time was never one of your strong points, Wonwoo," she commented as she stood up, thanking the waiter.
He cleared his throat and freed your arm, making his way closer to her to hug her, "I'm sorry, mum, we couldn't leave the office earlier."
"I know, I was just kidding," she assured him with a chuckle, passing her son to walk up to you, her arms open wide, happy to greet you as well. "I'm so glad you managed to make time for this," she whispered into your ear before letting go and ushering you to take a seat at the table for four. You expected Wonwoo to sit down on the opposite side of the table but were surprised when he joined you on your side, taking the seat right next to you, while his mum sat down right in front of you.
"And," she started a conversation, "How was your work day?" You felt Wonwoo's eyes on you and could tell he had looked at you out of the corner of your eye, but you kept your head low, pretending to look at your nails, in hopes of him answering. You have nothing to be anxious about, you tried telling yourself. Even if you were to mess up, you were sure at this point that Wonwoo would manage to cover it up perfectly.
"And how was it for you, Y/N?" You looked up at the mention of your name, meeting the kind eyes of Chaewon as she smiled at you.
You nodded and managed to get a quick glance at Wonwoo, before looking back at her, "Good. All good. Nothing very interesting happened, to be honest."
You were thankful when the waiter arrived with the wine card, ready to take your order.
-
"So... have you been talking to your father?" Chaewon suddenly asked while the three of you were enjoying the third course of the night, the dessert. Wonwoo dropped the fork, making you direct your attention towards him. Your eyes immediately fell on the clenched fist on the table. He was clearly clenching it hard by the way his knuckles were slowly but surely turning white. Like a reflex, you put reached forward to place your hand on his and took it off the table. At first, you wanted to let your hands just hang in the air underneath the table, but out of comfort, you let them drop into your lap. Thanks to the smaller size of the table, you were sitting close enough without it looking awkward. Naturally, you let your thumb run across his knuckles, feeling his hand slowly getting looser.
He took a deep breath, "Why on earth would I be talking to him?"
"I don't know," his mother was quick to defend herself, "I was just surprised when he called me and randomly started telling me about you two. I was wondering how on earth he knew about that and thought that you maybe have told him."
"And why did you pick up the phone when he called, you know-" he started, but she interrupted him
"And you know how he reacts when I don't answer calls. I know you said to ignore them, but I can't do that to a man with a temper like his." Her words sounded familiar... very familiar. You scrunched your eyebrows but got distracted when you suddenly felt your hand getting engulfed in someone else's. Looking down, you found that Wonwoo had freed his hand of the tight fist he had formed, and replaced it with holding onto yours. But gently. Very gently. He wasn't squeezing it but keeping it tight enough to make sure you wouldn't let go. Now it was his turn to let his thumb travel across your fingers, brushing over them softly, almost sending a calm shover through your body as your eyes were fixed on your lap.
"But no," Wonwoo continued, "I'm not talking to him. And I won't," he looked over at you, catching you with your head still low, "He found out about us because Y/N's dad invited us to a dinner where he also brought him. Along with some other guests."
Chaewon nodded, "I see... so you've already met him, Y/N?" Directing the question at you. You lifted your head again, trying to block out the warmth of the other hand that was still holding onto yours.
"Yeah," you quickly answered her, "But... I didn't- I mean, we didn't... really talk to each other. I just saw him. From across the table."
She rolled her eyes and scoffed, "Of course. He can't even introduce himself to his son's girlfriend."
"Mum," Wonwoo suddenly mentioned her, his voice in the warning tone that you had already heard before.
By then you had realised that the topic of Jeon Jinyoung was something that you should avoid at all costs. It seemed to be a very touchy subject no one wanted to elaborate on. But that's what made it even more interesting to you... But you also knew that this wasn't the time nor space to find out more about the man Wonwoo called father.
"So," you changed the subject, catching both of the other people at the table off guard, "How long are you staying, Chaewon?"
Her eyes lit up at the question, and the corners of her mouth curled up. She put the cutlery down and her elbows on the table to place her chin into her hands, "Well, I was planning on only staying until tomorrow. I really wanted to meet you and catch up with Wonwoo, but I would love to stay a little longer. Maybe we could do something together." You didn't expect that to come out of her mouth. Before you could answer, Wonwoo bet you to it,
"Where are you staying?" His eyebrows were scrunched up as he eyes his mother.
"I rented a room in a hotel, it's only for a night, but I'm sure I can extend-"
"Why didn't you call me? You could've stayed at my place" He didn't even let her finish. You felt his hand clench around your fingers again, making you put your other hand on top of it, hoping to ease him just a little bit.
Chaewon sighed with a smile, "Because I didn't want to disturb you two. And it's only for a night anyways."
"Mum," Wonwoo shook his head, clearly annoyed at her answer, "We don't- you wouldn't disturb us, please. Cancel that room, you're staying with me."
"You have one bedroom, Wonwoo," she reminded him, using her strict mother voice.
He nodded, "Yeah, I'm gonna take the couch."
"You can't just decide that Wonwoo, what about Y/N, you didn't even ask her," this made you shake your head immediately.
"Oh, no, no," you were quick to stop whatever was going to come out of either one of their mouths next, "We- we...," you glanced over at your pretend-boyfriend, who just kept an amused facial expression. He was enjoying this. "We don't- we don't live together. You can stay with him, it's no worries. Don't worry," you finished your rant with a nervous chuckle, feeling a tight squeeze from his hand, making you want to slap it away, but at the same time, you enjoyed the warmth of it and decided to keep it that way.
"But still, Y/N," she started again, "If you wanted to stay the night together, I don't want to-"
"Mum," Wonwoo repeated again with the same strict voice, "Don't. Please, I'm asking you to cancel that room. Or I will."
Chaewon looked at her son for a few seconds, silence overcoming the table before she sighed, "Jesus...," she shook her head as she got out her phone, going after the CEO's ask, "I don't know how you can handle him, Y/N."
You laughed nervously, tucking a strand of her behind your ear, looking down once again, "It's okay," hoping she hadn't caught it since your voice came out quieter than you intended to, and you weren't sure if there was an appropriate answer to her comment. But somebody else had heard it and chuckled at your words.
-
After assuring you over and over again that he in fact wasn't too drunk to drive home, you were on your way to Wonwoo's car. Somehow, and the alcohol in your system had definitely a lot to do with it, you let yourself get talked into coming along to Wonwoo's apartment by Chaewon, who wanted to spend some more time with you and, more importantly, drink more wine with you. You knew it wasn't a good idea. You would regret something about that decision, you were sure of it. But you had to play along, as Wonwoo reminded you. It'll be easy.
Thankfully, Jeon Chaewon was, very unlike her son, a bright and bubbly person, who somehow always found a topic to talk about. She filled the car ride with questions and topics, keeping you entertained and your worries in the far back of your brain. Talking to her seemed to become easier and easier with each minute you spent together. Like the comfort of a good mother, she made you feel at ease. The anxiety from the beginning of the date was long gone when you had reached Wonwoo's apartment and went up. But something else replaced those nerves. The memories. The memories of THAT night. The night that had started so well and ended dramatically, leaving you in anger and sadness. And the bad started right here in his apartment. You tried to push the reminders of that night away and begged for them to not return for as long as you were there.
Right after you had entered the flat, Wonwoo informed his mother of the location of the wine and assured her to take whatever she wanted.
"Same goes for you too, of course," he turned his body towards you while he was looking down at his phone, sending a message to Hongseok to pick up Chaewon's bags from the hotel and bring them to his place.
You nodded hesitantly and didn't even bend down to get your shoes off, "This doesn't feel right," you commented quietly, hoping for the other woman to not overhear your conversation.
This made him lift his head and put the phone into the back pocket of his pants as he got rid of his suit jacket, "What doesn't?"
"This," you motioned around, "You don't find it weird that I'm here?" You couldn't hold it back anymore.
Wonwoo grinned, "Well, you've been here before, so..."
"Yeah, and we know how that ended," you snapped back, not realising how sharp it sounded by accident. He nodded understandingly,
"Do you want to go home? Hongseok can bring you once he's here?"
You shook your head quickly, "No, stop, I told you, I don't want him to bring me anywhere."
"You're not coming in? Don't you want another glass too?" Chaewon looked around the corner into the hallway, three glasses in one hand and a bottle of white wine in the other.
"No no, don't worry, I'm coming," you assured her, making her nod happily and disappear again. And once again, your mouth was quicker than your brain. You closed your eyes and let out an annoyed huff of breath. The sound of a deep chuckle made you open them again, coming to sight with a clearly amused Wonwoo.
"I can't say no to her. Why can't I say no to her?" It was more of a rhetorical question, but he still answered with a smile.
"It's impossible, I know." Suddenly, he kneeled down in front of you and before you could question his actions, you felt his fingers move against your ankle. "Hold onto me," he tapped his shoulders, and you did as you were told.
He opened the clasp of your shoes, letting you step out of them slowly while you steadied yourself with your hand on his shoulder. You looked down. Your eyes fell on how gentle he was freeing your feet from your shoes, how careful he was with the buckle he had to open. "If you start feeling uncomfortable, let me know, and I'll get you home, alright?"
You nodded softly and answered him with a whispered, "Yeah." After he got up again, he also reached for your bag, took it off you and brought it over to the dining table, placing it on top of it. Just like he did THAT night- no, stop. Stop thinking about that. Different times, different scenarios.
Chaewon was already waiting for you excitedly, gliding the glasses over the countertop, making it easier for you to reach them. You followed her into the kitchen and got a hold of one of the glasses, just like she did. The two of you waiter for Wonwoo to join you and clinked your glasses the second he got a hold of his.
-
Two wine bottles later, Chaewon had announced that she would be getting ready to go to bed, leaving Wonwoo and you alone on the couch in the living room. At this point, a blind person could have been able to tell how intoxicated you were. Your makeup was long gone, your hair had somehow gotten messed up, and you forgot at what point you thought it was a good idea to open the first two buttons of your blouse.
The two of you were sitting close together on the couch, his fireplace lit in the background behind the dining table while the TV was turned off. The room was as quiet as it could be, only the sounds of your breathing filled the room.
"I'm gonna go," it was then when you decided to stand up, quickly realising that that hadn't been the best idea as you stumbled slightly. Wonwoo's reflexes were quick to catch you from falling back, holding you until he was sure that you weren't going to trip over. His hands left your body as you turned around to face him, "I'm gonna head home." His hand quickly reached up again, getting a grasp of yours, catching you off guard and making you turn towards him again. Your eyes fell down to your intertwined hands as he spoke,
"You can stay." But you shook your head, regretting it right away,
"No, I have to go home." You wanted to turn and walk towards the front door, but his grip on your hand tightened. Your eyes interlocked when you gazed at him again.
"Stay," he spoke softly, "Please." His eyes were glassy from the alcohol, and even his cheeks had turned into a softer shade of pink, and you couldn't take your eyes off him. This side of him was new to you. Not only drunk but also... this. So... soft.
You shook your head, "Wonwoo, you're drunk-"
"I'm not that drunk, trust me," he told you, still not letting go of your hand, but rather tugging on it gently, making you slightly stumble closer to him.
"You don't even realise what you're saying, Wonwoo-" a deep sigh coming from him made you stop. The young CEO threw his head back, looking up at the ceiling, letting out a deep but somewhat sad chuckle,
"Jesus..."
"What?" You wanted to know, stepping just a bit closer, by your own choice - you told yourself the alcohol had taken over your body, making decisions for you. You were lying to yourself, and you knew that.
Wonwoo tilted his head slightly, just enough to meet your gaze. He looked at you with a smile. A warm smile while he let his head rest against the back of the couch.
"You really don't know, huh?" If you weren't as drunk as you were, you could've sworn he sounded desperate - like he was about to wine. As if it hurt.
"Don't know what?" His question confused you.
He kept the lazy grin on his lips.
"That I'm on my fucking knees for you, Y/N."
He didn't even care to look away. But neither did you. The two of you continued your conversation with your eyes because that's all you could get yourself to do after hearing those words from him.
I'm on my fucking knees for you.
"Everything you do," he suddenly continued, pulling you the last bit closer and sitting up straight, so he'd have you standing right between his legs. With his hands on your hips, he looked up at you, "Everything you say. I swear you have me wrapped around your fucking finger, and you don't even realise it."
You tried to look away. You tried so hard. But your body wouldn't let you. Your hands found his.
"Wonwoo, you're drunk-" No, he wasn't. You knew that. He had half as much to drink as you and had a much higher alcohol tolerance. You ignored him shaking his head. "You don't know what you're saying." Yes, he did. He wasn't intoxicated enough to forget or not realise what he had let come out of his mouth.
"On my knees, Y/N," he spoke again, his voice still as quiet as before. He pushed himself up, standing only a paper width away from you, towering over you as he cradled your face in his hands, "And I can't fucking do this."
"Do what?" You only let out a whisper, you didn't think you could've spoken any louder even if you had wanted to.
"This fake dating shit," he sighed with a shake of his head, "I thought it was a good idea. I have no idea why the fuck I thought it would be a good idea. But this is just bullshit. I can't do it."
He spoke with so much sincerity. If his hands hadn't been on your face, your legs would've given in already. Just to make sure, you wouldn't crumble at whatever words were going to come from him, you reached out to grab onto his arms.
"Wonwoo... I...," you wanted to say something so desperately. You wanted to shout something, to say something pure from your heart, but something was holding you back. You just couldn't get it out. "I don't..."
He shook his head, "I know that you might not understand or feel something like this," and looked down before meeting your gaze again, "And it's okay, Y/N. Don't feel obligated to say something now. I just needed you to know because I don't know for how much longer I could've done this." It truly felt like you weren't the only one that was about to fall apart right then and there. The way he was running his fingers over your cheek, staring into your eyes, never even wanting to break the eye contact, he must have felt a similar way. You knew there was no way any proper words would leave your mouth. Wonwoo had just... confessed to you, and you didn't know what to do. Your body suddenly shut down. Was he really saying this because he meant it? Does he need something? Does he want something? Why else would he just say that? But the words he had used...
On my fucking knees.
"You're going to regret that tomorrow," you spoke honestly. It didn't feel real. It didn't sound like something that would ever come from someone like Wonwoo. He was going to regret it. And you didn't want him to.
"I've never regretted anything in my life," he assured you with a soft facial expression, "And I could never regret this."
You let your actions, controlled by the alcohol in your system, speak for themselves and just threw yourself against his body, smashing your lips against his, making him tumble back onto the sofa. The second he was sat, you got onto his lap, wrapping your legs around each side of his hips. Your hands were on his hard chest, feeling the muscles move underneath his white button-down. His rough hands were still on your face, bringing you in closer and deeper if that was even possible anymore. Within only a few seconds and before you could tell them to stop, your hands were travelling down his body, going for the belt opening, but suddenly another hand stopped you. Your kiss got interrupted.
"No," Wonwoo look into your eyes, "Trust me, I really do want to take you in every goddamn way possible, Y/N. But you're drunk."
You quickly shook your head, "No, I'm not, I swear. Should I walk in a straight line?" You were about to get up, but his grip on your hips stopped you.
"Not tonight, Y/N. Not here, not now. I want to do this right." You weren't sure why exactly he had meant, but the only thing that mattered was that his voice was like a freaking melody to your ears. You could've come right then and there if we were being honest.
"I promise you," he continued, standing up with your legs wrapped around his torso as he carried you into the kitchen, "If you ask me to, I will take you in every way you could possibly imagine... But I can't do that now," and sat you down on the kitchen counter.
His hands were back on your face, brushing over your cheek and getting some hair out of your face to reveal your forehead. He leaned forward, and before you knew it, he had planted a kiss right above your eyebrows. You softly gasped at the soft touch. You didn't remember when the last could've been that you had a man touch you that gently. You tried to think of if anyone had ever touched you that gently. You couldn't think of a single time.
A deep breath left his lips once he was face to face with you again, "I really needed you to know..."
"But what am I supposed to do now? I don't know... what to say..." You could feel the slightest of quivers in the back of your throat, but you pushed them down with a gulp. It wasn't the time for tears.
His rough finger was laying softly against your cheek as he shook his head, "You don't have to say anything, princess. Don't say anything."
-
The two of you had fallen into a comfortable silence while you were still sitting on the counter, sipping on the tea Wonwoo had just made for you, while he was working on making himself a cup of coffee. It was three in the morning, who cares. By now, you had definitely sobered up a comfortable amount, and tea seemed to have helped you as the world wasn't spinning anymore. But one word from Wonwoo, and that could be changed very quickly once again.
"There's something I do regret," he suddenly spoke, making you look up, only to find his gaze already on your form.
You were confused, "Huh?"
Wonwoo filled up his cup and walked up to you, setting the cup down right next to you, "Earlier I told you there's nothing I regret in life," he took a deep breath, "But I lied. There is one thing."
"What is it?" You carefully wondered, wanting to know, but by his reaction, you got scared for the answer.
“I told her I hated her,” he took a sip of his coffee.
"Hate who?" You sat your own cup down, now invested in his story. He was opening up to you. For whatever reason... but you didn't question it. You were thankful.
"My mum," he simply put it, not daring to look you in the eye, "“Without even knowing what was going on. That’s the one thing I do regret. That I regret the most in my life.”
“But everyone says that at some point to their parents without really thinking about it,” you tried to ease the tension, but you quickly realised how much deeper this conversation was about to be by Wonwoo’s demeanour and dead look in his eyes.
“Not that time," he lifted his head to glance at you, "She left. I didn’t know why and I just told her, I hated her when she had every right to leave that god-forbidden family.”
“Why did she leave?” You carefully wondered, genuinely concerned.
He took a deep breath and put both hands on the counter, and let his head drop forward slightly. Your hands were begging you to touch his shoulders in comfort.
“My father is a terrible man. Always has been, always will be. He didn’t care about my mother. Not in the slightest. The way he talked about her… is just… disgusting. But I was so young I didn’t realise just how bad it was.” He gulped, “He’s everything I don’t want to be. When I found out what had happened, I promised myself to be better than him in every way possible… he belittled my mother until she couldn’t take it anymore. I saw what it did to her. She just kept accepting it. She never defended herself. Not once. And that just made him keep going. That fucking bastard…”
“Wonwoo, I’m s-“
“I don’t need your pity,” he stopped you softly, “I wasn’t the one who suffered.” He took another big gulp, downing the rest of the warm liquid in one go even though it was probably still way too hot. That gave you time to answer, but you couldn’t find the right words.
He turned his head to you, finding your gaze quickly, “That’s why I don’t want you to take shit like that. You let yourself get talked down way too much.”
“I do NOT-“
“Yes, you do. Men make comments all the time and you just accept them.”
“I-… well…”
He raised his eyebrows, “You take everything that gets thrown at you. Every misogynistic comment, every harsh statement. From those bitch ass men. You shouldn’t let stuff like that just slide. Not even from asshole men like me.”
You couldn’t help but smile, “But you never belittled me.”
He nodded, “Maybe not that, but I did make you do some of the crappiest work someone could do.”
“And I did defend myself because of that!” You exclaimed, but he just shook his head, “Not enough, Y/N.”
You squinted after being quiet for a few seconds, “Are you teaching me about feminism right now?”
He let a chuckle escape his lips, laced with a hint of sadness, “Someone has to,” before locking eyes with you again, coming closer, “This might be a wild guess, but your father doesn’t faze me as one to talk to you about stuff like that.”
You smiled, “Your wild guess might be right.”
The two of you sat in another round of silence for a few more seconds before you continued, looking down at your fingers, “My father never wanted a daughter. I could tell that ever since I was little.” You sighed and tightened your grip on Wonwoo's hand the second he grasped yours, “He would kill to have a son like you," a salty chuckle tumbled from your lips, "Hell, he would kill me with his own hands if he was guaranteed a son like you.”
“Don’t say that,” Wonwoo’s voice was stern and strict, not liking a single word of what you had just said.
“It’s the truth,” you smiled sadly, feeling tears prickling in your eyes. “And I never wanted it either. I never wanted to take that path of work, but I didn’t have a choice. It was only ever us two, so when he suddenly had the idea of building up his own company, I had to help. I was what? 16? A 16-year-old girl shouldn’t have to worry about finances or the income of her father’s company and his business partners and whatnot. I didn’t attend most school events because I had to help him. No excursions, no prom.” You couldn’t help but to sniffle as you looked out of the window on the right, “That office... is the result of my work. I built it. Not him. Out of him wanting to do this and that became him telling me to do this and that. That prick didn’t even lift a finger most of the time. Everything there…” a sigh left your lips, your eyes down, fixed on your smaller hand in his, “That’s why I was so mad when he sold the company… to you.” Once you looked up, smiling sadly at the man next to you, you found him already looking at you, but with much more agony than before. “All of a sudden everything I worked for… was gone… ripped out of my hands without even telling me about it.”
“I’m sorry-“ Wonwoo began but you shook your head,
“I also don’t need your pity," and repeated his words.
“That’s not my pity. This is me being genuinely sorry about not knowing about this and taking everything away from you.” Suddenly, he brought your hand up to his lips, brushing his over your knuckles, placing the softest possible peck onto them. You didn't pull back. You couldn't.
“You didn’t take everything away from me… at least I’m still here…”
“You’re doing great.” He assured you all of a sudden, feeling like you needed to hear this and oh, how right he was, “You’re amazing at your job. And everyone would be more than lucky to have you work for them or with them.”
“Thanks.” And the tears fell. That was the first time someone has ever said that to you. Telling you, you did well.
You're doing great.
Wonwoo’s hand carefully reached out to touch the tears on your cheek, wiping them away softly as he smiled, “I guess fathers are just a little fucked up.”
You giggled, looking to the side to catch a glimpse of him, “A little?”
“Just a little bit,” he smiled back.
A few moments were spent in silence. Another comfortable silence. Neither of you had to say anything. You were just happy to be there. Together. There for each other.
“I’m sorry for how I treated you," Wonwoo broke the quietness.
You smiled and shrugged, "Well… now that I know about your intentions, I guess it’s fine. You just wanted to help me.”
“And did it?”
“Did it help the feminist in me?” You wondered, chuckling at his question. He nodded, making you smile. “You know… you tell me. I don’t know how feminist girl boss it is to fuck their boss in a janitor’s closet at the first event they attend together.”
He grinned, “And in his office, and almost in his apartment. Twice-“
“Alright!” You slapped his chest, giving him the perfect opportunity to get a new hold of your hand.
“I think that’s pretty feminist girl boss of you.” He stopped for a second before adding, “I never thought those words would ever come out of my mouth.”
His comment made you laugh. Genuinely laugh. Maybe it was the last bit of alcohol in your system, but he actually made you laugh.
He looked at you wide-eyed, pleasantly surprised by the sudden exclamation of you. He did that. He made you laugh.
Taglist: @nctxtrash @leicy0756 @hoe4wonwoo @jeonwonhi @nothingbutadeadesceane @smileywoo @angelarin @onewoowonderboy @goodforgyu @kavvs @sugarmilkchan @sweetheart-gs @wonforgyu @lilactangerine @meltinghershey @wonw00t @soonchanshua @jayswifeuwu @allorysayshi @shaurenlaw @drama-1998-girl @yoonren07 @malakasae @sseuyeon @venusprada @jeminiepabo @billboard-singer @safsaf1980 @monmarguerite @ji-jii-visha @renjunphile @haogyuslut @destinyg237 @taestrwbrry @renkkuri @travelleratheart101 @love-svt @sunshinein17 @morklee02 @wonuziex @pwwarkjisung
Here are my exact thoughts while reading this chapter (that I finally got around to reading!).
Tattoo(s)!?!?!
Thank you, Binna, for telling her to jump on that man 😂
Mama Jeon taking a picture of the two of them when she was sleeping 🥺
Why is Sehun there 🤨
Wow, that is big of Sehun
Wait, why is there some random woman answering the door!?
WHO IS THIS WOMAN!?!?!?
You did it yet again, Maddie!! Although you have a lot of explaining to do for that cliffhanger!! Good thing I'm behind because I better get some answers in that next chapter!!
Amour-Haine & Co. | Chapter 15 |
series masterlist
word count - 10k
warnings - brief mention of assault and toxic relationships (I won't ever go into great detail with this subject, but I have decided to make it part of this series), pls let me know if I forgot something
"It might be a little less complicated now..."
As soon as you could feel yourself waking up, the numb feeling of your limbs hit you. Your eyes felt heavy, and you knew once you would open them, there was no way of going back to sleep.
You got a tighter hold of the fuzzy blanket that was thrown over your body and cuddled yourself deeper into the cushions underneath your head. If you had really wanted to, you could've gone back to sleep, but that's when it hit you. Your eyes opened instantly, and you turned your head to the side, staring blankly at the coffee table in front of you. With a groan, you pushed yourself up and rubbed your eyes, only then realising that there was still your mascara from the day before, and another groan left your lips.
"Well, aren't you delightful in the morning," the familiar deep voice made you look up - even deeper and scratchier than usual. Wonwoo grinned at you while you glared at him with squinted eyes since the light was still just a little too bright for an early morning.
"Why didn't you wake me up?" You complained, throwing the blankets off you when you were suddenly hit with the cold air hitting your bare legs, making you hastily cover them again, "Jesus! Why am I not wearing pants?!" Forgetting that you had changed out of your day clothes and into a shirt Wonwoo gave you.
Talking about the CEO, he looked at you slightly confused and slightly worried as he walked up to you, two mugs in his hands.
"Are you okay? How much did you drink?"
You looked up at him as he lowered one of the cups to place it on the coffee table right in front of you, "Not much," and got a hold of the cup right away, "thank you. Not that much... wine drunk is just different. I changed out of my clothes myself, right?"
As Wonwoo sat down next to you, you noticed what he was wearing and could feel your breath suddenly get stuck in your throat. Even with simple grey sweatpants and a black shirt, that man looked much more put together than you ever would at home. His hair was still slightly disheveled from just waking up. This was also the first time you had ever seen him in such casual clothing. You're used to finding him in suits and button-ups in the office - this simple fit on him was new to you. And if there had been someone to pinch you, you would've asked them too, but you could've sworn you saw gentle tattoos decorating his upper arm. A line wrapped around his bicep, travelling down, but you couldn't exactly tell what it was supposed to be, the sleeves covering up most of it. The bottom of what looked like a four-digit number peeked out from the rim of his sleeve as well, catching your attention as you tried to read it. Jesus... God really knew how to play with you. Due to the formal outfits, you were so used to, you had never gotten a clear sight of his skin in these places.
You decided to turn your head, hoping to get the ungodly thoughts that were running through your brain, out of your mind as quickly as possible.
"Yeah," he chuckled softly, "I gave you a shirt and some shorts, I don't know why you didn't put them on though. I didn't undress you in your sleep, don't worry."
You leaned back against the back of the couch, the blanket now just lazily spread across your legs, covering them only barely. You sent him an amused glance, "You've seen me in much less. I wasn't worried about that," making him chuckle while you continued with a nod, "So it wasn't a dream, good." You assured yourself since the memory of changing did cross your mind for a split second, but you weren't sure if it actually did happen. The heat of the mug warmed your hands, and you lifted it to take a sip. He remembered what you had told him last night - that you prefered tea over coffee.
The two of you fell into a comfortable silence, both just sipping on the hot liquids. That was until Wonwoo stood up again to bring his mug back into the kitchen. On his way, he cleared his throat and dared to open his mouth, "So...," he began, sounding slightly on edge for some reason, "You remember last night?"
Oh. Oh.
You immediately knew where he was going with his question. There was no possible way you could talk yourself out of this moment, and, to be completely honest, you didn't want to. The words of the night before still lingered in your brain, and if he hadn't put that question into the room, you could've sworn it must've been a dream. There was no way Jeon Wonwoo, THE Jeon Wonwoo, the bachelor, dougebag CEO, had declared his admiration for you.
"That I'm on my fucking knees for you, Y/N."
It should've made you chuckle. It sounded insane - unbelievable if anyone were to ask you for your opinion on a bold statement like this. But you would be lying if it didn't occupy your brain for the entirety of the rest of the night - which wasn't long, by the way. The two of you had stayed up for a little bit longer, and the last thing you remembered was chilling on the couch, where you must've fallen asleep and taken off your clothes, but that part was still a bit blurry.
"You have me wrapped around your fucking finger, and you don’t even realise it."
"Yeah...," you answered him. Of course, you remembered. You looked up into the kitchen, only to be met with his clearly tensed back. Wonwoo had put the mug on the kitchen island, but stood still on the side, not even moving a millimetre.
You stood up. You didn't know why, but you did. Your feet brought you over to the kitchen, but you held still in place right behind him. His heavy breathing was the only sound in the way too big for one person's apartment, and it made you want to breathe heavier too.
"Wonwoo-"
"I'm sorry for overwhelming you like that," he was quick to interrupt you, continuing his task of putting the mug into the dishwasher.
You glanced at him in confusion, not brave enough to get closer to him again, "What do you mean overwhelm me?" Was it surprising? Yes. Overwhelming? Kinda... not...
A deep sigh fell from his lips as he turned around and placed his elbows on the countertop, putting his head into his hands and brushing them over his face.
"I don't know what came over me, and I want to apologise for that."
That stung. Why apologise? The sound of regret his voice was laced with stroke your heart like a sharp knife. He wasn't supposed to feel like that about giving in to his feelings. But then again, you already had told him the night before that he would regret it, and now you feared that it had become true.
You gulped, "So... s-so you didn't mean it?" Your nails scraped over the countertop when all you wanted to do was pick at your nails again, but there was already no nail polish left, thanks to the evening before.
The slow shaking of his head made you suck in a gasp of breath. You could feel your teeth sinking into your bottom lip, biting down harder than you wanted but you suddenly had no control of it. That little movement of his was hitting you harder than it should. You didn't even know how you should react, what you were thinking, or what you were feeling, and yet, seeing the sign of regret on him just hurt.
"No," he whispered, making you immediately turn your head towards him. You opened your mouth, ready to react, but he was quick to continue, "I meant every single word that you heard from me last night." You didn't even blink when he looked up to meet your eyes. "But I know that it wasn't okay of me. It's not right, and it wasn't okay to just put this burden onto your shoulders. I'm s-"
"Stop." You interrupted him, making him raise his eyebrows in surprise. You had caught him off guard. "Stop apologising for that. You've said that word way too much within the past few hours." He raked himself up to stand tall again as you made your way around the corner, stopping in the middle to stand right in front of him. His eyes travelled down your body, reminding you that you weren't wearing anything but underwear and one of his shirts, making your cross your arms in front of your chest.
You gazed to your right, eyes trained on your pile of clothing on the other end of the couch. "I know, I didn't say anything yesterday...," and took a deep breath, "but that's just because... I..." his gentle touch on your chin as he turned your head to look back at him, made you stop. His touches were always so soft if it wasn't in the heat of a moment. Wonwoo put his fingers on you as if he was scared to cut into your beautiful skin. Even with the roughness of his hands, they felt silky against you, and you could feel your body wanting to lean into every single one of his touches.
"I told you, I don't expect an answer from you," he quietly spoke to you even though you were the only two people in the room.
You sneaked your hand up to wrap around his wrist as his fingers were still placed underneath your chin. Your thumb brushed against skin, petting it gently - you could've sworn you felt the hair on his arm spiking up.
"I know," you copied his tone, taking a small step forward to be just the littlest bit closer to him, "But you're making this really hard." Was all you could come up with on the spot. Wonwoo opened his palm and cupped your cheek. His eyes fell down to your lips before meeting your eyes again. You could feel him slowly pulling you in while also leaning in slightly. You noticed just how close you were when you felt his breath against your mouth, "Don't think too much about it. Just go with it."
You were about to close your eyes, letting the moment just happen, when the ringing of your phone echoed through the apartment, making you jump away from his touch. Your phone was still in your bag that hadn't been moved ever since Wonwoo had placed it on there.
Suddenly out of breath, you rushed over, dropping the CEO's hand, snatching the phone into your hands, and taking a quick look at the screen, scrunching your eyebrows in confusion before accepting the incoming call.
"Bina?"
"Can you open the fucking door?! Where the hell are you?" She shouted through the speaker, making you have to distance your phone from your ear, "I've been knocking like a maniac for five minutes. What the fuck are you doing? You know that I'd rather catch you in the middle of fucking with someone than waiting in the hallway."
Once you were sure she wouldn't say anything anymore, you brought the device closer to your ear again and spoke, "Good morning to you too, and thank you for destroying my ear-drum first thing in the morning. What's going on?"
"I just told you what's going on, open the door, I'm waiting and I have some neeews," singing the last word happily. Her ask made you look down at your feet and stutter,
"Ehm... I...," your eyes fell on Wonwoo, who was eyeing you, clearly interested in what you had to say to the person on the other end of the line. "I can't... I-"
"What do you mean, you can't? Is there someone with you right now? Is it Won-"
"NO!" You quickly stopped her, scared that her voice might be too loud coming from the phone, "No, no. I just... I'm not home right now?" You made it sound more like a question than a statement by accident.
A gasp came from the speaker, "What?! But you don't start work until like an hour, where are you? I got out of bed extra early to catch you!" She whined, making you sigh and cup the bridge of your nose.
"Alright, alright, I'll be there in a bit, okay? Just wait."
"But where are you right now? Do you want me to come get you?" She kept on asking, to which you shook your head, walking over to the couch, to get dressed as quickly as possible once you would end the call.
"No, don't worry, give me just a few minutes, and I'll be there. I'll explain everything then, okay?" Hastily putting your phone between your ear and shoulder.
Bina huffed out a big chunk of air, "Alright, alright. You better have an explanation for this, young lady." You shook your head in disbelief before ending the call, throwing your phone onto the sofa and digging through your clothes to find your pants first.
Wonwoo took a few steps closer to the living room, "Everything alright?" You turned around, finding him on the other side of the couch.
"Yeah yeah, just a... friend emergency," you didn't know what else to call it and waved it off with your hand, "I should get going."
"Oh, you're already awake! That's good!" The cheery voice of Chaewon rang through your ears, making your eyes go wide when you realised how little you were wearing as she strutted into the open space of the apartment, looking as ready as she could be - hair and make-up done and dressed perfectly like the classy lady that she was.
Wonwoo noticed your panicked reaction and did the first best thing he could come up with, which was to hurry to stand in front of you, covering your entire body with his.
"Hey mum," he greeted her, whereas you were only able to shyly wave at her with one hand while your other was trying to pull down the shirt to cover up as much as possible.
"Good morning," you quietly greeted her, a kind but nervous smile on your lips.
"Okay, so I was thinking," she immediately started ranting, not noticing the awkward situation she had just interrupted with her eyes fixed on her phone, "We could go for breakfast now. I found a wonderful little café around the corner. I totally forgot how beautiful some of the restaurants in the era are. Then after-"
"Mum, didn't you want to curl your hair?" Wonwoo suddenly asked her, making her stop in her tracks and lift her head to look at her sun. Her hands flew up to her head and touched her hair,
"What? I already did," she looked panicked, "Did I forget a strand? Doesn't it look curled? Oh no- wait, I'll be right back," before rushing out of the room, back into the bedroom where she had just come out of.
You chuckled at her reaction and hit the man's stiff back that was still in front of you, "You didn't have to say something like. You almost gave her a heart attack."
He shook his head and turned around, "She'll be fine once she sees that her hair looks perfect. And it made her leave, didn't it?" He looked down at you, a smirk playing on his lips, making you slightly more nervous than you would've wanted.
It seemed as if he was about to say something, but decided to close his mouth again, opening it once he thought about the next words more clearly, "Get dressed before she comes back," and stepped aside, leaving you more room to breathe again. He got a hold of his phone on the coffee table and continued speaking to you while looking down, "I'm gonna call Hongseok so he can bring you-"
"No, stop." You snatched the device out of his hands, only to put it back on the table to your right, "I told you I don't want to be driven around by him." Wonwoo remained calm and kept his gaze on you, nodding gently, "Right, sorry. I'll try to remember that." And turned around to walk towards the entrance.
You took the time to put your clothes back on, starting the pants before taking your shirt, sorry, Wonwoo's shirt off, and putting your blouse from the day before on again. Right before you finished buttoning it back up, the deep familiar voice rang through your ears again, "Are you done? Can I turn around?" His question made you turn around, finding him standing at the dining table, his back turned to you. He held his head low, looking down at his hands.
His stand made you chuckle as you walked up to him, stopping next to him, "You didn't have to do that. As I said, you've seen me in much less."
He positioned himself so you were chest to chest again, "Privacy is still privacy."
You squinted your eyes at him, slightly amused by the line that was playing in your head that you couldn't hold back, "Think about that the next time you rip my blouse open, leaving it with no buttons to close it again."
Your sudden comeback made him smile to himself and clear his throat as he played with whatever he was holding in his hands, "So you're saying they'll be another opportunity for me to do that?" Looking up with a proud smirk decorating his goddamn near-perfect face, watching a beautiful rush of pink come to your cheeks as you pressed your lips into a thin line.
Wonwoo chuckled at your reaction, "Just playing, kitten," he tapped your chin, "Thinking back to last night, I know I'll get another chance for that."
Kitten? Kitten?! Did he just-
"I'm gonna go now," you announced, your voice just as stiff as your body as he reminded you of what had almost happened just a mere few hours ago.
He nodded, "Okay," and whispered, waiting for you to walk away from him, but you kept up your interlocked stares for another good ten seconds before the voice of his mother came back.
"Wonwoo, I don't even know why I believed you, I forgot you-," she came to a halt once she spotted the two of you, "Oh, sorry for interrupting." You jumped back and immediately turned to face her,
"Oh, no no no, don't worry, I was just leaving," and approached the entrance door with quick steps. You found your shoes by the wall and crouched down to put them on, not seeing the disappointed facial expression of Jeon Chaewon.
"Ah, I see... I thought that... we could maybe spend the day together...," you raised your head, quickly meeting her eyes and once you did, the feeling of guilt spread in your stomach. This woman had so much power with just her words and expressions... for some reason, disappointing her was the last thing you'd ever want to do, and you had only just met her the day before. What a powerful woman...
"Sorry..." you pushed yourself back up after closing the clasp of your shoes, "I-I ehm... I have to go to the office today- I mean, first home and then to the office. So..."
"Well then maybe tomorrow?" She wondered, "I can change my train ticket and go back home tomorrow evening, so we can spend some time together tomorrow."
"Sure!" Your mouth reacted before your brain could, not even thinking about the fact that the next day would be a normal day at work as well. After your brain registered the words you had left to linger in the air, your eyes travelled to the side, stopping on the CEO who was standing only a few steps behind his mother, gazing at him with raised eyebrows. "Right, Wonwoo?" The man smirked before walking up to you after getting a hold of your jacket and bag, putting it on his shoulder to help you put the outerwear on first.
He put his hands on your shoulder, brushing along the fabric, "I'm sure if you asked nicely, you could get a day off."
If you asked nicely... he really had to do that in front of his mother?!
"If I asked nicely?" You wondered, meeting his gaze as he handed you your bag with a nod. "I'd love to spend some time with you tomorrow, Chaewon," you didn't go further into Wonwoo's demand and smiled at the older woman who clapped her hands excitedly,
"Great! I'll get your number from Wonwoo and will text you later, alright?" To which you nodded, watching her disappear into the kitchen.
Once she was out of sight, the CEO put his hands into the pockets of his sweatpants, looking at you a little confused, "I... I don't remember you asking nicely."
You secured the bag on your shoulder and grinned, "And you can wait for that to happen because I'm telling you now, I'm taking the day off tomorrow to spend time with your mother."
He copied your facial expression, "Alright." As you were able to turn towards the door, you felt his hand on yours again as he got a hold of it, lifting it up and opening your palm. Before you could wonder what he was doing, your felt something being placed inside of it, making you look down. As soon as his hand left yours, you found a car key in your grasp, "What's that?"
Wonwoo chuckled, "I think you know what a car key looks like."
"Yeah, but I'm wondering, what the hell I'm supposed to do with it," you kept your hand open.
"You know what a car key does? Open a car. You know what a car does? Drive," he simply answered, but you continued staring at him perplexed, reaching to grab his hand, and putting the key back into his hold.
"I'm not driving your car, are you insane? I told you-"
He put it back into your hand, "You said, you don't want Hongseok to drive you, and you really think I'm gonna let you get into a taxi? Girlfriend?" He teased you with the last word, smirking down at you.
You sighed in annoyance, "And you're just gonna let Hongseok drive you and your mum around town today?"
Wonwoo smiled at you, leaning down slightly to push a strand of hair behind your ear, "She doesn't like being driven around by him too much either, she's just as annoying as you about that. And besides, I have two other cars and a motorcycle waiting for me in the garage as well, I'll be fine. Don't worry about me, princess."
You gulped, feeling a rush of heat coming to your cheeks again, making you push his hand away from you,
"Stop that," you spoke hushly, only making his grin widen at your reaction.
You felt his thumb stroke your cheek for a second, "But I really enjoy seeing you like this."
"I'm gonna go," you announced again, to which Wonwoo smugly replied,
"You've said that before."
"Yeah, and now I'm actually fucking going to," you looked down at your hands for a quick second before looking up again, catching him with raised eyebrows, awaiting another one of your complaints, "How do you know I'm not gonna crash it?" You knew you were provoking him. That was exactly your plan.
"Please be careful. We don't want you to get hurt, do we?"
"I was talking about the car."
He shrugged, "I have insurance."
"What if I spill something inside of it?"
A nod and a smile from him, "There are people that can clean that."
"What if it gets dirty?" That question got a deep chuckle out of him as he took a step closer to you, leaving you, once again, little room to breathe normally.
"The dirtiest thing that car could come across can only be you and your foul mouth." You gasped, immediately hitting him in the chest, only making him laugh out loud as he got a hold of your wrists, holding you closely against his body, letting you feel his muscles underneath his shirt. "Tell me I'm wrong."
You fought against him, amusing the CEO, "I'm not telling you shit, let me go." With another chuckle, he let go of you, and you were finally able to walk towards the door,
"I'm leaving!"
"Bye, babe! Have a good day at work!" He shouted through the apartment, making you turn around after you had opened the door. You glared at him, holding up your middle finger, earning you a whole-hearted laugh from him.
"Bye Y/N!" Wonwoo's mother's voice came from the kitchen.
"Goodbye, Chaewon!" You smiled as you left.
In the elevator, you let your back hit the wall hard. A deep breath left your lungs as you let your head fall back and you closed your eyes. Too much had happened in the last 12 hours or so.
Suddenly, you had a fake-dating scheme going on with the one person you swore off and told yourself to not get too close to, that exact same man admitted his feelings for you while slightly intoxicated, and then you crashed on his couch, woke up with him in the same room, wearing his clothes, and now you were on your way to go and drive HIS car. The world seemed to be moving a little too fast for your liking.
Yes, you had kissed. And yes, you even had fucked. But... whatever this tension was that was going on between the two of you was something different. It started off with being purely sexual, out of hate, mixed with desire and just impulsive actions. But now...
Even though you may have had a glass too much the night before, you were sure that if you had been stone-cold sober, your body would've reacted the exact same way to his words - they were still lingering in your mind.
On my fucking knees for you Y/N.
You have me wrapped around your fucking finger, and you don't even realise it.
Didn't you realise it? Did you really not realise it? Or didn't you want to realise it?
The gifts, the invites to events, the pick-ups, that fucking fake-dating shit that you suddenly had going on because Jeon Jinyoung couldn't keep his fucking mouth shut. It all was right there in front of you.
The fake-dating Wonwoo didn't seem to want...
I thought it was a good idea. I have no idea why the fuck I thought it would be a good idea. But this is just bullshit. I can’t do it.
If he really meant it, he was a good ass actor in front of his mother.
But not only could you remember his words. You also remembered his actions. His touch. His kiss. Kisses. As much as you'd want to deny it, and at that point... you were pretty sure you were above that, they felt good. It felt too good to deny it. Your body reacted to him whether you wanted it to or not. The last time someone had engulfed you into his arms like that, kissed you like that was... never. Chanyeol used the same amount of force, probably even more, but there was no passion. At least not compared to whatever the fuck Wonwoo was doing. Because THAT was... passion. It must have been.
Everything felt so good with him. From the first kiss in the meeting room, which was way too long ago, to the quick fuck in the janitor's closet, him bending you over his table, to the night before. Him hugging you. Tightly. God... fuck, so tightly. And kissing you. Deeper than you could've ever imagined.
You had wanted more. You remembered that. As drunk as you were on him and the alcohol, you vividly remembered where your little session had ended because you were ready to go all the way for a third time with him. But he wasn't... he didn't want to.
Not tonight, Y/N. Not here, not now. I want to do this right.
Jesus... even with him not even in the room, he was able to make you feel flustered as you noticed the damp feeling of your underwear and heat, not only between your legs but also in your face. The power the words of this man had on you...
You snapped out of your daydream and noticed the elevator had long ago come to a stop, and the doors were open, leading you into the garage. You had been here before but didn't remember it as well as you would've liked to. Looking down into the palm of your hand, you did the next best thing you could come up with, which was to press the unlock button, hoping to hear the sound coming from the car or see the headlights flashing up. Thankfully, you were surprised by both and quickly found the slick black, from what you could see, Bugatti.
You sighed deeply at the sight of the monster, "What the actual fuck." Fear washed over your body at the mere thought of driving that thing across the town and even having to park with it. You whined out loud, not even caring if anyone saw or heard you - people should know what this man was doing to you. The amount of trust he must have. Or he truly just didn't care since he had other vehicles as backup. You chuckled at the thought.
Other vehicles as backup, you could only dream of that. But then again, who would even need multiple vehicles? You have one, that's great, and if something is wrong with that one, you bring it to a workshop, you get a different one in the meantime while they're fixing it, and within a few days, you have your car back. Owning more than one was just purely to boost your confidence and show off, you rolled your eyes. There was no other reasoning behind that, or so you told yourself. And there you had it, a red flag right in front of you. Right?
-
It is safe to say, the drive with Wonwoo's Bugatti was the most nerve-wracking thing you had ever experienced. The journey to your apartment was accompanied by multiple men rolling down their windows to tell you how cool the car was, wolf whistles from the sidewalk and hundreds of eyes that followed the vehicle. You couldn't imagine having to go through that every time you drove a car like that and wondered how Wonwoo was able to do this without it getting on his nerves, but again you remembered the Wonwoo you first met and the Wonwoo you knew from the past - cocky and full of confidence. It was attractive in some way, you hated to admit.
You parked in the garage and took the elevator up to your floor, where you were greeted by an over-dramatic Bina, who had taken a seat on the floor, and her back against the wall with her head hanging in an awkward position.
"Oh, thank God, the queen has finally made it!" She jumped up in ecstasy, throwing herself into your arms, "I thought I was gonna have to call the cops to come and get you."
"Jesus," you chuckled, "Alright, alright, calm down," and patted her back before pushing her away from you, earning yourself a growl from the girl.
She stood back with her arms crossed while you fished your keys out of your bag, "You know, I would've expected you to be a bit happier to see me. We haven't seen each other in like weeks, and you just push me away like that?" You rolled your eyes and opened the door, motioning for her to go in first, but after she gave you the cold shoulder, you got a hold of her coat and dragged her inside with a yelp coming from her.
"Shut up, you idiot. You know I'm always happy to see you," the two of you took off your outerwear before walking further into the apartment, "But where are the keys I gave you? I thought you had the spare one."
With a shy grin, Binna opened one of the doors of the cupboard in the hallway and took out what you had just mentioned. She held it up, grinning at you, "Sorry."
With a sigh, you brushed past her, walking through the living room and into the kitchen to get yourself a glass of water and make her the cup of coffee she always needed early in the morning.
"Soooo," she trailed after you, singing, "What did I interrupt? At," she took a quick look at the clock on her phone, "six in the morning."
"You didn't interrupt anything," you answered her before gulping down the entire glass.
She smirked, "Well... something or should I maybe say someONE did make you quite thirsty, huh?" Wiggling her eyebrows only made you roll your eyes once again. "Where the fuck were you last night, young lady?"
While Binna stood proudly next to the counter with her arms crossed, you leaned onto the sink, debating how to start this conversation as you eyed her outfit. A thin black turtle neck crop top with no sleeves, slick black leather skirt and thin see-through tights that were underneath knee-high socks. Interesting choice of outfit for the cold temperatures outside, but nothing too surprising from someone like her.
"Maybe I should ask you that," you smirked, knowing that she wore that exact outfit for most of her first dates - of which she had quite a lot, little miss no to commitment.
With quick steps, she stopped right in front of you, taking the glass out of your hands before pointing at you sharply, "Don't you dare change the subject. Where were you?"
You couldn't help but smile for some reason, maybe because even just the memory of it was ridiculous, maybe because it kinda made you want to smile. "You're not gonna believe me anyways."
"Says who?"
Another sigh left your lips before you locked eyes with her, holding it for a second when you finally gave her the answer she had been waiting for, "I was with Wonwoo."
It didn't even take her a millisecond to react. The reaction came right away. She gasped, taking a step back, holding onto the counter, "Shut the fuck up, no you weren't."
You chuckled, "Yes, I was. But before you-"
"SHUT. UP." She smiled brightly at you, twirling into the living room, her giggles filling the apartment, "OH MY GOD. You spent the night with him?! You said it's complicated between you two! Is this your definition of complicated?!"
You inhaled sharply, sucking the air into your lungs between your teeth, "It might be a little less complicated now..."
-
"Hm..." was the only sound that came from Binna after you had finished the story of the night before, not leaving out the slightest detail. From the unlucky encounter with Jeon Chaewon to the evening you spent together, and the night you shared with none other than Jeon Wonwoo. But most importantly, the words he spoke to you, and the feelings that were currently messing with your stomach, your head, and your heart.
"Yeah...," you breathed out, taking a quick look at your clock to know when you should be getting ready to get to work on time.
Your friends took the last sip of coffee that was in the mug before sighing, "Not gonna lie... I don't know if that makes the whole situationship you've got going on even more or less complicated."
"I don't know either!" You whined out loud, holding your head in your hands, letting your elbows rest on the countertop. "Binna... what the hell is going on?"
"You have to know that, babes."
Even though she was right, and you very well you that she was, you wanted to hit her so bad as soon as those words left her lips.
"But one thing's for sure," she started again, coming to put her mug into the dishwasher, "That man is SUCH A FUCKING simp, oh my god."
"Binna!"
"What?! He is! He even said it himself, Y/N!" She got a hold of your hands, "He said that he was on his fucking knees for you," she made sure you were looking directly at her as she spoke to you, "That man is down bad." She stared at you for a moment before continuing, "And I'm afraid... it's not much different for you."
"Huh?!" You snatched your hands back from her grasp, "What the fuck's that supposed to mean?"
"Don't you even dare try to deny it! You had a smile on your lips the entire time while you were talking about him," your hand flew up to touch your lips, "AND you were blushing when you got to the kissing and simping and disgusting loving shit."
With a groan, you hid your face behind both of your hands, hoping it would somehow disguise what you were feeling right now, but as every best friend would, she knew exactly what was going on.
"It's okay to give in, Y/N?"
"What do you mean?" You lowered your hands again, looking at her in confusion.
"I understand that you might be a bit hesitant now. First, because it's fucking Jeon Wonwoo we're talking about here, and second... because of... him... you know?" She didn't have to say his name, you knew what she meant and who she was talking about. "But Wonwoo doesn't sound all too bad now..."
"You said he was disgusting!" You chuckled with a desperate undertone. Why was this all so difficult?
"Yeah," she smiled, "At the beginning, because what the fuck was up with him. But now... from what you've just said... he's a lot different from how I imagined him to be, to be honest. And..." she took a deep breath before continuing, "I know it's hard to give in, but... he seems so much different from... Chanyeol."
You shuddered at the mention of his name and shook your head, "At the end of the day every man's the same."
"Just because Chan-"
"Not only him!" You argued back, "I have proof of that all around me, all the fucking time! And for all my life! Chanyeol, Jeonghan, my own fucking father! Wonwoo's father!"
"Yeah?" She threw the argument back at you, "And what about Mingyu? Or Jisoo? Huh?!" Binna knew you wouldn't argue about these men. "They're different. So why not Wonwoo too? He sounds like... not gonna lie, he kinda sounds perfect."
"A bit too perfect," you mumbled.
She shrugged, "Yeah, so what? Why not give it a try? Why does it have to be too perfect? Why can't it just be perfect."
"Because it never is for me."
"You never know unless you try." You looked at her in disgust, making her nod, "I know, that was a disgusting quote. I know, I know, I'm sorry. But I mean it."
You crossed your arms in front of your chest and let your eyes rest on your best friend. The woman that swore off true love. "That's coming from you? The person that said she doesn't believe in true love?"
"Not for me," she stated, "I don't think it fits for me. But for you?" Suddenly your face was cradled into her hands as she was squishing your cheeks, "You are such a perfect little person. The perfect woman that I want to see get married to someone that deserves her." You smiled as best as you could in that position. "And you know who that perfect someone would be?"
"Who?" You wondered with raised eyebrows as she dropped her hands again, sending you her signature smirk, "A man that admits that he's down on his fucking knees for you."
-
After dropping Binna off at the school she works at since she got a ride from a taxi to you, you made your way to the office. Getting out of the car, knowing that you'd never drive it again was one of the most relieving feelings you have ever felt. As much as your best friend loved getting a ride in that thing, you just couldn't befriend it. It was everything you didn't want in a car.
You made sure to lock it properly and walked up the few steps to enter the lobby, greeting everyone that had already arrived there just like you would every other morning. It was a little later than you had planned to get to work, but Binna's one-night stand story from the night before took a little longer than expected, and she had to remind you once again of the chance you were letting pass if you didn't 'jump onto the Jeon train, or rather Jeon body' as she put it. Thinking back to her comment in the car made you chuckle.
The silence you were surrounded with in the elevator was quickly interrupted by the messenger sound of your phone. You looked down into your bag to get it into your grasp. The screen lit up with an unknown number right at the top of your notifications. After opening it and tapping on the messenger app, you were able to read the message, but what caught your eye at first was the picture attached to it.
You, on the couch, laying comfortably wrapped up in a blanket, while Wonwoo was sitting in the corner of the sofa next to your head, his legs stretched out on the other side of the L-shaped couch. His hand was gently placed on top of your head as if he had been brushing through your hair only moments before the picture got taken.
A rush of heat went through your body, making the blood shoot into your cheeks. You took a deep breath to calm your beating heart and hoped for the weird feeling in your stomach to pass. Yes, I know, you told yourself. Fucking heart… always ratting you out. A quick glance at the message made you chuckle:
Don’t tell him I took this photo, but the two of you were too sweet, I could help it. P.S.: very excited for tomorrow! <3 - Jeon Chaewon
After you typed a quick reply, hoping to convey the same ecstatic emotion through it, you arrived at the right floor and exited the elevator, putting your phone back into the bag and trying to calm the multiple thoughts haunting your head. You hoped not many other employees had already arrived to see you come in later than usual and were greeted with exactly just that. Most offices were still empty, making you sigh in relief. Once you reached the open area that held more tables of employees, you were greeted by silence. You frowned. Is this usually how late the others arrive to work? Or were you just abnormally early on any other day?
You brushed the thought away and turned towards your private office room, noticing the lights had already been turned on. Someone was sitting in one of the chairs in front of your desk, their back facing you, making you jump when you realised it was probably just Mingyu waiting for you. But when you dared to take a closer look, you noticed the silhouette had absolutely no resemblance with the co-CEO. They seemed to be on the taller side as well, but the haircut was quite different, as well as the build of his shoulder.
With slow and careful steps, you got closer to the door, opening it just as slowly, and just peeking your head in before you spoke,
"Can I help you?" You managed to keep your voice strong and steady, not showing just how nervous you were at that moment. The strong gulp that followed ratted you out though.
The figure jumped at the sudden appearance of you, turning around and standing up quickly, making you gasp as soon as you came to sight with who it was. As soon as your eyes met, his fell down to the floor, just like they usually would whenever you had met ever since the fallout.
"Sehun?" You wondered in shock, your eyebrows scrunched in confusion.
The man cleared his throat, scratching the back of his left hand, finding the situation clearly uncomfortable. "Hey, Y/N."
"What the hell are you doing here?" You raised your voice slightly, stepping into your office but keeping the door open, "Get out."
"No, wait," he raised his hand to stop, "Let me ex-"
"No! What the fuck, Sehun! You can't just walk in here. Do you want to get sued?! How on earth did you even get in here?"
"Hong Jisoo let me in," he simply answered, stunning you.
"What? Jisoo? Where is he?"
Sehun shrugged, "I don't know, he told me to wait here and threatened me that he would tell Mister Kim and Mister Jeon if I did anything stupid." You had to hold back a chuckle at the thought of Jisoo threatening someone.
You sighed, "Sehun, I really don't want to see, so please get the hell out of here."
"Let me explain why I'm here," he almost begged, taking a step closer to you.
"I don't care why you're here!" You raised your voice once again, "You're not supposed to be here. Do you know how vital this can be for this fucking lawsuit?! You can't just wa-"
"I have evidence that will help you win this case." His interruption made you shut your mouth. You stared at him with an unreadable facial expression. Just straight. No emotion.
"What?" You let the door fall closed.
He turned around to grab something off your table. Holding up an envelope, he explained, "Here is everything you need." With two big steps, he stopped in front of you, handing the envelope over to you. You reached out for it hesitantly, trying to read his eyes, but it just confused you more because you couldn't tell whether he was lying or not or what the hell he was trying to do.
"What do you mean?" You tried digging deeper, walking over to your table to get your bag and coat off and opening the package. Your fingertips were tickling with anxiety as you fished out the pieces of paper. Documents filled with texts and pictures. You spread them out on the table.
"Everything that's inside here will help you guys. I promise you."
"Sehun, I don't understand, can you-"
"We stole your app." You looked up at him, waiting for him to continue. He raked his fingers through his hair, "That Parasound app that we're suing you for. We stole it from here- well, one of our employees did. For Chanyeol. It was never ours in the first place. It was yours." Before you knew it, he was standing right beside you, putting the documents into an understanding order, showing you each picture as he continued his explanation, "Here. These pictures were taken with your security cameras, but we took that footage with us and deleted it. Kinda deleted it... I found it again. First, one of your employees, Chen, came to your office. I don't know how they just let him through, but they did. He managed to get past everyone else and held some kind of presentation. Here." The picture of the security camera made you gasp. You remembered him. He was the guy you hadn't been familiar with. The guy you wondered what he was presenting when you met him in the meeting room. So he actually wasn't an employee you hadn't seen before. He never worked there in the first place.
"While he was doing that, Baekhyun managed to sway one of your employees to let him borrow her ID to get into the building and asked her about some security stuff. I don't know much about that, that's his speciality." You recognised that face anywhere. Nahee. That bitch. One compliment from a guy, and she's on her knees already choking on his dick. You rolled your eye in frustration, but Sehun continued.
"Then," he brought out a new set of pictures, "The night of the raid. Those were Minseok and Baekhyun. They managed to get in, turn off the alarm and then had around five minutes to get everything they needed, took the security footage with them and ran off. That's... how we got your stuff."
...
...
...
This. What the hell was this. What was happening?
Everything that happened in the past weeks, even months... suddenly everything came together. How on earth was all of that somehow connected to each other... How long had they been planning this?
You stumbled back, holding your hand in front of your mouth. Sehun stood on the side, watching you carefully, a look of guilt written all over his face. You didn't dare to even take a quick glance at him, not knowing what your reaction would be. There was nothing you felt at that very moment. What were you supposed to feel? Surprised? Shocked? Hurt? Stupid? Dumb? Because all of it was suddenly making sense. Because somehow no one thought of putting two and two together. But who would've thought of such a master plan? One man. There was one man that would do exactly that - and that was Park Chanyeol. What a menace that man was...
You expected a lot of bad things to come from him. You shouldn't be surprised. And yet you were. How were you supposed to imagine him doing such a thing? No normal person could ever come up with that type of plan, but then again, Chanyeol was anything but a normal person.
And now you had his best friend or past best friend, you guessed, in your office, showing you every single piece of evidence he had in his hands against the one person that had taken him under his wing and given him a job when he needed one. Chanyeol and Sehun had known each other ever since you could remember. It had always been Chanyeol and Sehun. They were known by the entire campus. Teachers knew them, students knew them, hell, even some parents were familiar with their names. They had built up their little empire of Exodus Entertainment and now Sehun was ready to throw that all away. For what was right.
"I'm sorry, Y/N-"
You were quick to stop him with a raise of your hand.
"Why are you showing me this?" Your voice was suddenly not much but a quiver, quiet and breathy.
Sehun sighed, trying to find something his eyes could be fixed on, "I don't know... I... I'm so fucking tired of this. I don't want to do it anymore. I don't know what Chanyeol was thinking when he came up with this plan... but I don't want to be any part of it anymore. I never wanted to," he quickly added, "But you know... you know how he can be sometimes."
You could feel tears coming dangerously close to dropping from your eyes, "Oh my god." Another shivering whisper.
"I know this is probably a bit much. All at once-" he lowered his tone, speaking carefully now.
"Oh, you think?!" A salty chuckle fell from your lips as you turned your head to glance at him.
He dropped his gaze to the floor, "I just really thought you should know about this. I'm sorry this happened, Y/N."
A moment of quietness washed over the two of you. You took a few deep breaths to gather yourself and pinched the bridge of your nose, hoping to get a clear mind again. There was too much going on right now.
"You shouldn't be the one to say sorry," you broke the silence.
Sehun nodded and lifted his head again to meet your eyes. He looked at you in agony. You could tell. You saw the boy you had met in the first year of college again. The quiet one who was too shy to talk to anyone, but suddenly was the life of the party around the people he was comfortable with. The quiet boy who loved helping you understand your homework better. The quiet one who never missed a study date, and would stay up late to explain everything in detail to you. The one Chanyeol always got overly jealous of whenever you spent 'too much' time together.
He wasn't the asshole that betrayed you. That used you. No. He was the good friend you had lost thanks to an asshole you now had to call an ex-boyfriend.
"Maybe not only me," he started, "But I have so much to apologise for... to you," and gulped, "I hope this might be a start to that." Your eyes fell down to his hands, where one was scratching the back of the other again - a bad habit he had never gotten rid of. With quick steps you approached him, wrapping your arms around him tightly, surprising him as he stood still, and just let the moment rest. After realising what was happening, he freed his arms from your embrace and wrapped them around you, holding your shoulders in comfort. You let your head rest on his shoulder, closing your eyes as you whispered,
"Thank you."
He squeezed you just a little tighter, "Thank you too."
With a deep breath in, you let go of each other, gazing into each other's eyes with a smile, remembering what the two of you used to be. Friends. Good friends. Alys. All before it was pulled away from you.
Just when you went back to look at the document again, Sehun spoke up again, "There's another thing," making you look up at him. He thought for a second before opening his mouth, "There's a USB stick in the envelope," you immediately reached for it, turning it around to let the stick fall onto the table, getting you curious, "There...," he lowered his head, "There are women... who..." He spoke slowly and seemed to be unsure of how to continue this conversation, careful with every word he was about to say. "There are women who... have similar stories to you... with Chanyeol," his statement made your bloodstream stop. "Very similar encounters. And they're ready to speak up on it and make sure he will never be able to run a company ever again. Their statements are on the USB stick. You can take a look if you want to," he took a closer look at you, trying to make sure you were okay with what he was saying, "You don't have to. But most of them would be ready to speak in court. I talked to them."
You met his eyes again. While his were full of pity and hope, yours were red. Red and filled with water, just waiting to run down your cheeks.
"Are you serious?"
He nodded with a slight smile lighting up his face, "Dead serious."
"Why are you doing this?" You couldn't help but to let the question tickling your tongue fall from it finally.
Sehun sighed and shook his head, "I'm tired of this. I don't want to continue supporting a man like him."
You nodded in understanding, scared of what your voice would sound like if you opened your mouth. By closing your eyes, you hoped to suck the tears back into your body, just wanting the haunting memories of what used to be a relationship to rest in the past and be forever forgotten. Now was your chance to come clean with it. To let everyone know. To finally free yourself from the daunting reminders of 'love'.
Your gazes met for a last time, eyes sparkling with the reflection of the lights above.
"Thank you," you mouthed, making Sehun nod. You didn't need to speak. He knew.
-
Even though you were thankful that morning when you had stepped out of the Bugatti, thanking whoever was up there in the sky that you would never have to drive that thing ever again, you were even more thankful that you still had it as you had rushed to Wonwoo's apartment. You prayed that there was no speeding ticket awaiting you in the future, but that wasn't for certain because never had you ever driven around the city with a speed such as then.
The rain didn't help much and only scared you more. You didn't know you were scared of the rain until you had to drive at full speed in a sports car through a packed city during rush hour. Now you knew that you were scared of said thing.
Hastily, you gathered the envelope from the passenger seat and left your bag in the car as you exited it. You had parked on the side of the street, needing to get inside the building as quickly as possible. Plus, you weren't sure if they would let you into the garage or if you'd need a special card or key - who knew in a fancy complex like that.
With quick steps and your free hand shielding your eyes, not caring how wet you and your hair were getting, you made it to the entrance, looking for the right button to press, but there were no names next to them. Why the fuck were there no names written next to the buttons?! You whined in frustration and decided to just hit one button after the other, thinking that one of the people behind those doors must expect something or someone and might open up. To your luck, it only took five seconds before you heard a buzz, letting you know, you were able to open the front door. You pulled it towards you harshly before stepping in, rushing over to the elevators, only to assault the buttons there as well - sometimes logic helps and is good and sometimes your mind will convince you that the quicker and more often you would press a button, it would help the elevator to arrive faster.
After another moment that passed way too slowly, it finally arrived and you pushed yourself in, remembering the right floor and waiting for the doors to close.
One the entire way up, you couldn't help the anxious trembling of your leg. You looked down into your hands that were clutching onto that paper as if your life depended on it. Because in one way or another, it did. What you were holding was so precious. More precious than anything you had ever owned. You were certain that your brain still hadn't fully fathomed just what was going to happen once the information that you were holding would leak to the public, and most importantly, the court.
The familiar 'ding' of the elevator let you know you had arrived, making you look up and exit it the second the doors opened for even just a centimetre. You cursed as you walked towards the wrong direction and had to turn around but breathed out deeply as soon as you arrived at Wonwoo's apartment door. There was no time to be wasted. You knocked. Hard. If it hadn't been the most expensive-looking apartment complex you had ever seen, you probably also would've shouted out his name, but that was not the time to make enemies with the neighbours - there'll be another time for that.
On the other side, someone must have approached the door as you heard a faint, "No, wait!" Before the door opened. You raised your head, mouth already open to start rambling to the CEO you were expected to be met with. But that was not the case. In front of you was a brunette woman. Probably around your age.
You shut your mouth quickly and just continued staring at her.
"Can I help you?" Her voice was kind. Too kind, which immediately made you think negatively of her.
Were you at the wrong door? No. There was no way. The apartment behind her looked exactly like Wonwoo's. But then... who the hell was she? And why was she wearing a sweater just a little too big and cut too differently to be an oversized one for women...
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Omg, what an update!! Gosh I love CEO Wonwoo and this series!!
Amour Haine & Co. | Chapter 16 |
series masterlist
word count - 13.3k
warnings - cursing, alcohol consumption, mentions of non-consensual sex, prostitution; this might be a kinda heavy chapter for some, so please do read with caution! I will never ever write a scene where any of the mentioned trigger warnings are actively happening to the reader, but there are mentions of it in this chapter
a/n: none of the things happening in this story are things that I put into relation to the real people that exist in this story! I also want to send every single one of you an immensely huge thank you!! For your patience, for your love, and for your support! I'm getting back into writing more frequently and hope to give you weekly updates from now on ˙ᵕ˙ I also hope that you of course enjoy this chapter and do not worry, there is so much more to come for this story! We're not getting towards the end of the story in the next few chapters.
I HOPE YOU ENJOY IT GUYS🫶🏼🫶🏼🫶🏼
"You're not gonna be able to walk away from this conversation forever, just so you know."
"Is this even legal?"
Your leg hadn't stopped shaking ever since you had stepped foot into the modern law firm. In the elevator, the air started feeling restricted again, just like it did back in the car that you had to share with Wonwoo. Only Wonwoo. Wonwoo and you.
His head snapped towards you, looking slightly down at your frame, hidden underneath the oversized clothing you were wearing, "What?" His eyebrows were scrunched, and you could tell his head was somewhere else, his thoughts were not in the room with you.
"This," you pointed towards the envelope, holding the possibly most important papers of your career in his hand. "What we're doing here. Is this legal?"
With pure confusion written all across his face, he kept his gaze interlocked with yours. "Are you seriously asking me if talking to our lawyer is illegal?"
"No," you rolled your eyes, a soft sigh escaping from your lips, "You know exactly what I mean. These are confidential, and I'm just not sure if... you know... we're allowed to use them to get an advantage in court."
Your eyes fell to Wonwoo's chest rising and dropping again heavily as he took a deep breath, adjusting his jacket.
"We got this information legally. We didn't steal it," he explained sternly, making sure that you were listening to him, "Sehun came to you, gave you this and that's it. It's an important part that we can't leave out when explaining it to the judge, but I'm gonna leave that to Jihoon. We'll see what he says." You nodded in understanding. Fidgeting with your fingers didn't help ease the nerves, but the CEO's words seemed to do a good enough job - at least a little bit.
It didn't feel right. The whole situation felt off. First, Sehun just showing up in your office and then just dropping such heavy info onto you, giving you everything you could possibly need to take down the worst enemy you had ever had to face in your entire life: Park Chanyeol. You trusted Sehun, there was no doubt of that. Whether that was a good thing or not, you didn't know just yet. Maybe you had been too forgiving too quickly and you were sure that Wonwoo would remind you of exactly that again, once you were back at the office. As if his rant back at his apartment wasn't already enough. Oh god,... that apartment. Too much had already happened there, and more shit just keeps piling up.
-
“Can I help you?”
The squeaky clean voice of the beautiful woman in front of you kept echoing in your brain. Beautiful doesn't even cover it. Gorgeous. Breathtaking. That's it. Breathtaking. Because that's exactly what she did to you.
The rain that had drenched your hair suddenly added so much more weight onto your head, making even the clothes on your body feel too tight. When did taking a breath become so difficult?
The raise of her eyebrows along with a tilt of her head brought you back as you just stared into her light-brown eyes, beautiful like soft caramel. Even her skin seemed too perfect to be true. Out of which fucking magazine did that woman just jump out? With that oversized sweatshirt hanging loosely on her body, it would most likely have been more of a YA novel rather than a magazine, but such a face could decorate the covers of each Vogue magazine across the world, and no one would question it.
You shook your head hesitantly, "S...Sorry," gulping hurt, "I- ehm-" Thank God, another voice interrupted you because who knows what would've come out of your mouth if you had continued.
"Jesus, Yeri, I told you not-" Wonwoo came to a sudden halt once his gaze stopped at your figure, standing in the hallway like a lost puppy. "Y/N? Why aren't you at the office?" Taking in your heavy breathing, and the wet clothes sticking onto your body, his eyes quickly found yours, "What happened?", immediately realising what was about to happen when you started shaking your head.
"Nothing," you quietly spoke, not trusting your voice to be any louder, "I... I'll get going... See ya," turning around, ready to make your way back to the elevator, back to the office building, back to your normal work day, or as normal as you could be after what had just happened. Not even two hours ago, this man was standing in front of you, his fingers tracing over your chin, desperately wanting to pull you closer and intertwine your souls. Even his ghost of a touch was still imprinted on your skin, making you want to scream. Not even eight hours ago, he was sitting down, looking up at you with those big brown eyes, almost begging at you. Admitting to his feelings, revealing the deepest of his feelings towards you. And now, not even ten seconds ago, he let it all fall. Every word he said, every sentence he spoke just evaporated into thin air.
Before you could let the tears in your eyes dwell up, a harsh yet soft tug at your wrist made you stop and turn back around, immediately faced with the body of the man you had become so familiar with, whether you liked it or not - this position didn't feel all too foreign to you.
"What's going on?"
His low voice mixed with his touch sent an electric wave through your body, yet you avoided his eyes, knowing exactly it would hurt too much. You rather kept your head down, looking at his hand wrapped around your wrist, shaking free from his grip.
"Nothing, forget it, I'll tell you later-"
"No," he stopped you, "Come on," and nodded towards his apartment since you were still not looking at him, he repeated the action you dreaded so much as his fingers found their place on your chin again to tap it, making you look up and move away from his touch. "Let's go inside."
You gulped, hugging the envelope closer to your chest, "No, it's fine, you seem-"
"Busy?" There was something teasing, yet slightly concerned, in the raise of his eyebrows. "She's my cousin."
"Hm?" You met his eyes quickly after the last word left his lips, which have slowly but surely curled up.
"Mh," he nodded, "Yeri's my cousin." He didn't let you intervene as you opened your mouth but just kept on talking, "My mum called her over to spend some time with her. On the way here, it started raining, so I gave her something warm to wear. They were just about leave, that's why she was close to the door and opened it even though I told her not to open it to anyone that doesn't use the bell downstairs, but oh well." He turned towards the open door, raising his voice slightly, "It's not like it's her first time here."
The female voice shouted a soft, "Sorry!" back, making him shake his head with a sigh, before catching your gaze again. You held your mouth tightly shut. Oh.
Locking eyes with him seemed too intense, explaining your drifting glances around the hallway that slowly fell to the floor, looking down at your shoes.
"You didn't have to explain that to me," you raised her head again, "I-... It's none of my business... you know..."
An almost chuckle escaped Wonwoo's mouth, just almost, with that stupid smirk still plastered proudly on his face. "Sure." Sharing a quick one-second glance at each other before he took the word again. "Would you like to come in now and explain what's going on?" So soft, so gentle. As if the person in front of you had just found out about the vulnerable side of you and was trying to speak as softly as possible to you.
You nodded, rushing past him without sending him another look, just praying to forget this scene had ever happened.
Chaewon was surprised to see you back at the apartment, but she got the message after a quick explanation that you and Wonwoo had to have an important discussion - 'business stuff' as he put it without even knowing the exact reason for your sudden appearance.
After the two women had left, you took a seat at the dining table, putting the envelope down, expecting the CEO to sit down across from you when he suddenly disappeared.
"Wonwoo?" Your voice echoed through the apartment.
"Yeah? What?" He exited his bedroom and came back into the living space.
"What are you doing?" You wondered, nervously tapping your nails on the glass of the table.
He put the sweat-set he had carried from the room over to you onto the surface, nodding towards it, "Getting you something warm to wear."
You were quick to shake your head, "No, don't worry, it's fine," and pushed the envelope towards it, the sound of it scraping over the table scratching your ear, "You should see this."
"And you should put something on that's not drenched in water. Go change." You opened your mouth to protest, but he beat you to it, "I'll take a look, but you go. Now." With a sigh, you gathered the clothing into your grip as he mumbled, "I don't need you calling in sick to work tomorrow."
You rolled your eyes and were about to make your way to the bathroom when a comment tickled your tongue that you just couldn't let go. "You really enjoy giving away your clothes, huh?"
A deep sound that could be counted as a chuckle came from Wonwoo as he reached for the letters you had brought along. Once you were a few more feet away from him, he sighed, eyeing your figure disappearing in the bathroom, "To people I care about." Before you closed the door, a small smile appearing on your face.
-
You decided to leave your pants on as they were spared by the rain, unlike your top, but happily accepted the soft sweater Wonwoo had offered you, the name of his past university on wide display across your chest. Once you were back in the open living space, your eyes drifted to the dining table, expecting the CEO, but coming to sight with empty chairs. The pieces of paper were spread all over the glass, clearly only hastily looked at.
You were about to call out for Wonwoo, when his voice caught your attention, "Jesus Christ, Jihoon, pick up." Low and angered, just like you used to hear it all the time. Before. Before... all of this. It almost seemed unfamiliar to you, that's how long it must have been.
Turning to walk to the kitchen after hanging your wet clothing over one of the empty chairs and the sweatpants on the seat, you found said CEO leaning against the countertop. What caught your eyes though was the glass he had put up to his lips, throwing the brown liquid down his throat.
"Wonwoo, it's 9 am!" You called out, catching his attention. He threw his phone to the side with a clearly annoyed sigh and put the glass down, right next to the Whiskey Decanter.
Ignoring your exclaim, he raised his hand, gripping the pieces of paper tightly, wrinkling them harshly, "Are those real?"
The stern tone of his voice made you take a deep breath and reach forward in a hopefully somewhat calming manner, "Can I explain?" But that didn't calm him at all. Not in the slightest. He rushed past you.
"Yes, in the car. Put your shoes on."
"What?" You turned around, watching him hastily compiling all the evidence and stuffing everything into the brown envelope. He brushed past you once again, back into the kitchen to grab his phone before getting to the front door and slipping into his shoes.
"Jihoo's not picking up his fucking phone, so we're gonna go visit him. Come on," he nodded for you to come closer. You knew it wasn't the right time to ask any questions and just followed his order, right until he reached for his car keys. A slap on his hand made him flinch back.
"Are you insane? I just saw you jugging down Whiskey! You really think I'm gonna jump into a car with you now?" He was quick to shake his head, trying to get some sense back.
"Right, right... sorry," he opened the door, "You got your keys?"
You nodded, "Yeah, let's go," with a calm voice you pushed him out, praying this was gonna go at least somehow the way you expected it to go.
-
The elevator doors opened, bringing you back to the present as you thought back to the car ride where you had tried to explain everything that had happened in your office. Wonwoo had 'only' interrupted you about twenty times with 'what the fuck was he doing there?', 'Are you being for real right now?', 'you're fucking with me, right?', 'I'm gonna fire Jisoo, for fuck's sake'. A separate argument had started on behalf of that last statement of his as you tried to talk him out of that thought, but at that point, you had already reached Jihoon's law firm building, and everything was forgotten again as you stepped into the elevator and let silence overcome the two of you.
Just as you were about to step onto the designated floor, Wonwoo's call made you stop, "Y/N."
You turn around with a hum.
"Who did you think Yeri was?" Was that why he had been so quiet the entire elevator ride? Was he really gonna ask that now?
"What?" You scrunched your eyebrows, slightly shaking your head, "N-No one."
As the door wanted to close again, the CEO stepped forward, putting himself in between.
His eyes never left yours and you couldn't get yourself to break the intense stare you two shared.
"You still don't believe me?"
You shrugged softly, "Believe what?" There were more important things to discuss, was he really not gonna let this go?
"You thought Yeri was some girl I slept with. Be honest."
...
Yes. Yes, you did. Alright? And you hated it. Every fucking second of it.
"So what, Wonwoo," you barely whispered, "Can we go now?" Motioning towards the hallway. You didn't wait for an answer but just stepped forward, stopping at the extended arm suddenly in front of you.
"I meant what I said. Last night." Again, his eyes were still trained on you. Even with your gaze straight, you could feel his burning the side of your face, making you turn your head.
You nodded, your eyes drifting down to the floor, "I know. I did too." Your comment seemed to have calmed him as you could see his eyebrows relaxing and his eyes softening.
"But still, you..." You could tell, he himself wasn't sure where this was supposed to go, so you stopped him with your palm up.
"Can we talk about this later?"
Wonwoo nodded with a heavy breath leaving his nose. You were ready to walk forward, but his finger pointing at you made you stop once again.
"You're not gonna be able to walk away from this conversation forever, just so you know." With a roll of your eyes, you pushed his hand aside and walked past him, waiting for him in the hallway to show you the way.
Similar to your office building, you stepped through glass doors but came to a halt at what seemed to be like a reception.
"Oh, Mister Jeon," the voice of the woman behind the desk rushed through your ear, "Do you have an appointment with-"
"I'm sorry, but I need to see him now," he interrupted her quickly.
"He has a client in there, and I don't think he's free until-"
"No," he stopped her again, "I didn't ask. I want to see him. Now."
She nodded, "I understand, but I can't interrupt-"
"If you can't, I will," his tone grew more and more serious with every word falling from his lips, making you step closer to him, your soft hand finding its way to his shoulder.
"It's fine," you said out loud, everyone knowing it was more directed towards Wonwoo than to anyone else, "We can wait."
He shrugged off your touch, "No, we can't," and turned around without another sound, crossing the floor with quick steps, and running down the hallway as he definitely already knew the way to Jihoon's office.
"Wonwoo!"
"Mister Jeon!" The two of you that had stayed behind called out, before you looked at the woman with a gentle smile, "I'm sorry," but still went to rush after him.
You caught up just as he opened the door to an office.
"Jihoon!" With a quick look inside, you were met with the surprised eyes of the man you were looking for and a second pair sitting right across from him, gazing at you in shock and confusion.
"Get out," Wonwoo motioned to the stranger to get up, "Come on."
"Wonwoo, I-" the lawyer tried to stop him, but the man in front of him was already standing up, clearly intimidated by the stature of the CEO. He almost bumped shoulders with you with the rush he was in, excusing himself quickly, not even daring to cross gazes with you.
"We have to talk," he sternly told Jihoon, throwing the envelope onto his desk.
The smaller man sighed, "And that can't wait?"
"No."
-
Wonwoo and you had taken a seat across from Jihoon, each in their own seat as your eyes were fixed on the man in front of you. You had wanted to start picking at your nail polish, but once you realised that it truly was all gone, your fingers found new entertainment by playing with the leather of the chairs. While you could practically hear and feel your heartbeat slowly coming up to your throat, your foot twitching out of nervosity, Wonwoo next to you seemed to be doing just fine. A deep breath would leave his lips every now and then as his gaze drifted around the room, taking in the decor on Jihoon's shelves and the big windows showing you the skyline of the city. After that became too boring for him, he stood up and started pacing around the room, clearly getting impatient by how long the lawyer was taking, which you could definitely relate to. One quick look at the digital clock on his desk though let you know that it had only been four minutes. Four long fucking minutes.
"So?" Wonwoo was the first to break the silence, making his friend sigh, look up and lean back in his chair. His eyes first fell on Wonwoo, but then travelled to you, suddenly a confused look written across his face.
"You went to Seoultech?"
"Hm?" You wondered, copying his facial expression before you lowered your head to where his gaze was fixed on. The sweatshirt. You forgot. "Oh, no," you stuttered, "I-It-"
"It's mine, not important," the CEO finished the explanation quickly, not wanting to dive further into the reason why you were wearing it, making Jihoon's eyebrows jump up in surprise. His change in expression went uncommented. "So, what do you say?" Wonwoo steadied his figure by placing his hands on the backrest of the chair he had sat in only a minute ago, not looking anywhere else but at the man whose opinion mattered the most at that very second.
"I think you know what I'm gonna say," he answered calmly.
"Well, I wanna hear it," Wonwoo argued back.
The lawyer sighed, "It's great evidence. Amazing even."
"Exactly," the younger man nodded with somewhat of a proud grin on his lips.
"But," Jihoon started again, catching both of your attention suddenly.
"But?" The CEO and you questioned in chorus. That was never a good start.
He gathered the papers together in his hands, waving them gently, "It's too good. And too much."
"What the fuck do you mean, too much?" Wonwoo didn't seem as confident anymore as before, annoyed by what he had to be confronted with. "That asshole did all of this, how could it be too much?!" You didn't miss the slight raise in his voice, neither did Jihoon, but he seemed unfazed by it.
"I mean it's too much." He stated once again. "You bring this amount of evidence to a judge out of nowhere, they're gonna start questioning it. All of it."
"So? Let them question it."
The shake of his head, made Wonwoo stop in his tracks. "That would give Chanyeol just more time to come up with something to fight this. Because he WILL find out that everything's getting delayed because of a sudden appearance of evidence the court needs to look through."
"Fuck that," the CEO shook his head with a deep mumble, followed by a sigh.
"How did you even get this?" Jihoon wondered, his eyes flicking between you two, waiting for an answer.
You lifted your head to find Wonwoo's gaze already on you. The soft nod towards the lawyer along with a gentle, "That's your story to tell," made you take a deep breath.
With your fingers holding on tightly to the sleeves of the sweater, you started, "Sehun came into the office today."
"Oh Sehun? Park's guy?" To which you nodded, but Jihoon had more questions, "Why? You know him too?"
"Yeah... he..." you tried finding the right words, "He used to be one of my best friends before... Chanyeol and I became a thing. So- I don't know, he just was there, sitting in my office with that envelope and told me to use it for the lawsuit."
"Just like that?"
"He feels really guilty for what they did," as much as you didn't want to defend him, since you knew the other party was still in the wrong, you couldn't help but let your feelings play into it, "He wants to be better than that them-"
"That sounds pretty sketchy to me, not gonna lie," Jihoon sighed, crossing his arms over his chest as he stood up. Wonwoo was back to sitting down next to you, his eyes never leaving your side profile.
"It's not," you argued, "I trust him. Kinda..."
"Kinda?"
"I know that it's hard to believe, but if you knew him like I do, you'd trust him too. Of course, I don't want to put all of my trust into him and into this," you pointed at the papers on his desk, "But I do believe he meant what he said. He wants to take down Chanyeol just as much as we do. He's done with his bullshit."
"Alright," Jihoon nodded, "I'll take your word for that," and took a few steps closer to his desk again, suddenly separating the papers into two piles, "This," he pointed to the left one, "We can use. I'll get that to the judge as quickly as possible." Then turned to the right one, "But this. We can't use it like that."
You sat up straighter, trying to get a glimpse at what pieces of evidence he was talking about when you found the statements of the women Sehun had told you about.
"What?" You called out, "What do you mean, we can't use that? Are you kidding me? You just wanna throw that away?!" Your voice got louder with each sentence, desperation and shock lacing every word. Frustration started building up in your body like a slow fire spreading.
"Listen, we-"
"These women deserve to be heard! They had the courage to talk about what happened to them, and now you don't even want to use it?! You can't be serious right now..." The rough hand gently covering yours on the armrest of your chair made you take a deep breath. You didn't need to look down to feel the intensity.
"Jihoon," Wonwoo spoke up, much calmer than you, "Their statements are just as much evidence as that other shit-"
"No, it's not."
"Yes, it is-"
"Not, it's not, Wonwoo!" Jihoon was the last person to raise their voice in the room, but it had to happen at some point. Before either of you could interfere, he continued, his tone much lower but not any less strict, "We know what law enforcement is like these days. You out of all us should know it the best," he pointed at the CEO, who shifted in his seat and his grip on your hand tightened. He hit a nerve with that. "What they're gonna do once they read through these is give that Park idiot a warning and those women some money because they think it's gonna make them feel better and forget everything that happened. This is their way of handling these types of situations these days, and it's not gonna benefit us in any way or bring Park down."
The three of you sat in silence. You understood now. Wonwoo did too. And Jihoon was right. When it comes to sexual assault cases, law enforcement was the worst to deal with it and whatever the outcome would be, it never benefited the women on the lower end.
"There's a big difference between the raid videos and the statements," the lawyer started again, sitting down opposite of you, "Here with have video evidence, which is VITAL in a case like this. Yes, videos can always be edited, but these idiots forgot that you have a watermark on all of your security camera footage, like smart people would." His comment almost made you chuckle, but it certainly made Wonwoo smile. "Statements won't get us far, that's the problem. They can be faked easily. They can even say we bribed these women to say bad shit about Park." You nodded in understanding. "But."
"Can you stop with these 'buts' and get to the fucking point?" Wonwoo started becoming impatient again, never breaking the cold demeanour you had become so used to.
Jihoon took the right pile of paper into his grasp, "Did you read through them?"
"Not all of them, why?" The CEO shook his head.
The smaller man sighed, "I figured," earning himself an unamused facial expression from his friend, "Some of these women stated that the sexual harassment happened at the workplace. There's no way we're getting camera footage from their office unless Sehun helps us with that, but that again could get us into some deep trouble as well," he explained, knowing he had both of your full attention. "But not all of them talk about their workplace. Some of them mention a club."
Wonwoo stared at him in confusion as he noticed the slightly smug look on the lawyer's face, "What club?"
Not giving him a verbal answer, Jihoon pushed the papers towards the two of you, making Wonwoo's hand lift from yours, leaving a cold empty space. It was only then that you noticed for how long his warm palm was covering your entire hand. The man next to you got a hold of the papers, reading through them quickly until his eyes stopped and what he was looking for.
"The Monbebe..."
"The Monbebe," Jihoon nodded with a smirk, a pen of his now in between his fingers as he played with it.
Wonwoo shook his head in slight annoyance or disappointment, you weren't sure, "Fuck..."
Your eyes switched between the two men, hoping someone would explain what had just happened, but since neither of them continued, you decided to speak up, "What's the Monbebe?"
Wonwoo was quick to answer, "A club downtown."
"And part of our past," the lawyer continued, a subtle smirk daring to escape on his face.
"Jihoon. Don't." The CEO looked up, glaring at his friend. But he just rolled his eyes.
You didn't miss the sudden change in the atmosphere that ran across the room, the tension that had started to build up again, and you couldn't help but let your curiosity win over, "W-What do you mean?" Eyes on Jihoon first, but when he pointed towards Wonwoo, you switched to look at him, "What does he mean?"
The man next to you shook his head as he threw the papers back onto the table with a huff, "Nothing, it's not important."
"Oh, it is VERY important," Jihoon contended.
"No, it's not, you fucking know I don't want to have anything to do-"
"You can't run from your past, Wonwoo!" The two men started to argue. You stayed seated, watching the heat in both of their eyes as they took a trip down memory lane, to a memory that Wonwoo seemed to want to forget.
The CEO stood up with an angry breath leaving his lips, "That was never supposed to be my past! Or any of our pasts! You forgot about that?! Oh sorry, my bad, just because it got deleted from your record, you're just gonna pretend like it was fine what happened back then?!"
"Don't start with that," Jihoon, now also standing as a defence mechanism, pointed a finger at his friend, "I'm not the one trying to erase everything that happened. Yes, it wasn't okay, but like I said, it's in the past, Wonwoo." He shook his head with a sigh, "Jesus Christ... I'm not saying you should go back there and become their best fucking friend."
"Then what exactly are you trying to say, Sir lawyer?!" Wonwoo spat those words at his face, almost sounding like he was holding them against said lawyer.
"Will you let me finish for once?"
The CEO raised his arms in defence and motioned for the other to continue talking. You just hoped to soon get out of this misery of the unknown.
Jihoon took a deep breath, taking a look out of the window before turning his attention back to you, "I told you. The security camera footage that Sehun brought you won't be a problem. That's good evidence. But the statements are not enough-"
"You already said that," Wonwoo interrupted him, earning him a glare from both you and Jihoon, receiving an annoyed sigh in return.
"BUT, we know that the Monbebe has security cameras all over that freaking place, and those also have a watermark, meaning that the judge and everyone else would look through, but they wouldn't question the sincerity of the footage. Because those are harder, if not, impossible to fake in the period ever since it happened to now."
"And... how do we get to this security footage?" You had started picking on the fabric of the chair again, still not feeling an ounce of casualty or calmness yet.
Jihoon dared to look at his friend from across the room for a split second before answering, "That's why I mentioned our past," looking at his shoes and meeting your eyes again, "We-"
"She doesn't have to know everything," Wonwoo stopped him sternly, taking the last piece of patience you had with those final words. You shot up from your seat and turned your entire body towards him,
"I'm in this shit as much as you are! So yes, I do in fact have to know everything, are you kidding me?! While you two have been fighting over God knows what shitty past you have, I've been sitting here and just listening to this, not knowing what the fuck is going on. So you better start telling me about this right now! I've had to tell you everything about Chanyeol as well-"
"That's not the same!" With a few quick steps, Wonwoo got dangerously closer to you, "Your fuckhead of ex-boyfriend is suing our company, so I think I'm damn well entitled to know who the fuck he is and why he's doing that!"
"Yes, and now this is also part of that whole fucking trial, that I'm in as well, so stop arguing and start fucking talking," you had lowered your voice, remembering that there was still another person in the room with you and you were in fact in an official law firm, holding multiple other lawyers that worked next to yours.
Wonwoo couldn't tear his eyes off you, but the same went for you. He captivated you once again. So easily. And he didn't even try.
"The owners of the club are old friends of ours," Jihoon spoke up, making you turned towards him, but you still caught the sigh escaping the other man's lips as he shook his head,
"Friends..."
"They were." The lawyer repeated, much sterner this time and definitely directed at Wonwoo.
"Exactly, there WERE."
"But they'd still help you," Jihoon argued, "If they saw you at the Monbebe, you don't think they'd want to talk?"
The CEO nodded with a smirk, "OH, I know they'd want to talk, but I wouldn't let them finish whatever the fuck they're gonna say."
"Well then, you're gonna have to learn to in order to get those security camera videos."
You switched your weight from one leg to the other as you crossed your arms, "You think they're just gonna give us that footage?"
Jihoon motioned you a clear 'no' with his head, "No, not just like that. But if that idiot over there could get the stick out of his ass, I'm sure they'd be more willing to do it... Maybe bring Mingyu along too. They always got along with him the best."
Your gazes switched between the annoyed CEO and the calm but smug-looking lawyer, while you stood in the middle, unsure of what was to come next. Wonwoo was for sure not going to take the next word as his friend's last sentence was still running through his mind. You decided to take the initiative to get out of this situation as quickly as possible.
"So...?" Eyeing the two men, "What are we gonna do?"
Jihoon took a seat behind the desk again, leaning back in the chair, looking straight at you, "You might want to go shopping."
"What?" You scrunched your eyebrows in confusion, "Why?"
A quick glance at Wonwoo made the smile on his face only go wider, "The Monbebe is... how would you put it, Wonwoo?"
"Don't." The other man growled, catching you off guard, but Jihoon chuckled.
"It's... a very special kind of club. With... a very special audience."
But that only fed into your confusion.
-
"You’re kidding.” You stated matter-of-factly, rather than as a question, gazing at Wonwoo with raised eyebrows. Your eyes travelled to the dress he held by the hanger. Scratch that. Piece of cloth, that’s what it was. You could not call that a dress or any type of clothing, just something that should represent a form of shorts? Undergarment? A small little cover of some sort with a top not wider than a headband.
“Underwear has more fabric than that.” Your comment made him chuckle, followed by a roll of his eyes.
“You wanted to find out what the Monbebe was all about. And I hate to break it to you, but this is exactly what women that go to that club would wear. Although this here is already very modest for that kind of club.” He put it back on the clothing line and continued walking behind you as you passed multiple other racks filled with not much different attire than he had just held in his hands.
“I don’t want to find out what that club is like, especially after what you told me, but if Jihoon thinks we could get the security footage by talking to them, or with you talking to them, then I’d say let’s give it a try,” you explained while continuing your search of something appropriate to wear.
He swallowed the ball that had formed his throat, "You know if you'd just stay at home like I proposed-"
"No," you turned around too quickly for him to react, catching him off-guard as you pressed your fingers into his chest, "Don't even start with that shit again. We're in this mess because of me." Before you could continue, Wonwoo wrapped his much bigger hand over yours, releasing your finger from touching him, but keeping you just as close as he leaned down.
"And you don't even start with THAT. We're in this because your ex is a fucking moron. This could've happened to anyone he wanted to fucked over."
You shared two more seconds of silence, just gazing into each other's eyes before a voice tear you apart again.
"Hi," she screeched into your ear, "Can I help you find something?"
"N-"
"Yeah, we're looking for something for her to wear to the Monbebe," Wonwoo answered for you, earning himself a quick glare from you that just made him nudge you towards the direction the over-motivated lady was heading.
"Oooh! Special night, I see, I see," she rushed over to a corner you didn't even dare to look at, already sensing the 'not my style' vibes from miles away. "Well," she picked out the first outfit, as skimpy as it could get, "You can never go wrong with a classic black bodysuit."
"That- That's not really what I was going for, you know?"
She shoved it back on the rack, nodding quickly, "Alright, alright, well then, what exactly were you looking for?" Her big caramel eyes were digging holes into your soul, almost making you want to give in and just go with whatever fabric would cover the most important parts of your body. What a great selling strategy...
"Something...." you started motioning around your body, trying to think of the right way to say out loud what was going on in your head, "that maybe looks a little bit more like... clothing?"
The questioning tilt of her head made you sigh in frustration, but Wonwoo was quick to come to the rescue.
"Maybe more coverage. More fabric."
You nodded, holding in a deep breath, "Yeah... that would be great," looking back at the woman, who just stared blankly at you, blinking with her big eyelashes.
"More coverage? For the Monbebe?"
"I already explained that to her, but... yeah," the CEO nodded in defeat.
The sales assistant seemed to think for a few seconds before clapping her hands, "Okay okay, I think I may have a few pieces, but I'm gonna have to check the back. How about you go take a seat in the changing rooms, and I'll get back to you once I've got something."
The two of you went off on your own, trying to find the changing rooms that were on their individual floor, where you were welcomed by two other women, who just couldn't keep their eyes off the man by your side. You'd like to say it didn't bother you, that you didn't even notice the way their eyes basically undressed him before they turned to each other only to start whispering and giggling like little school girls. Oh, what you'd do to be able to think like that. But that was not the case. You didn't like their gazes on him. You couldn't help but try to stay as close to him as possible. He must've noticed at that point. And that thought made you want to crawl into a hole and never come out again. You prayed he couldn't tell how your heart had started speeding up anytime he had more or less accidentally touched you. You begged he didn't notice the chill running down your spine, making the hair on your body spike up when he would bend down to whisper something in your ear.
But he did. He observed you like homework. He wanted to be able to read you better than anyone else. And he wasn't going to be subtle about it - why should he? He had already confessed almost on his knees to you, what else was there to lose? You already held his heart and his dignity in your soft hands, whether you knew about that yet, he wasn't sure, but he was going to find out. There was no doubt about that.
You had taken a seat in one of the dressing rooms, the curtain still open, giving you a perfect view of Wonwoo, who was sitting right in front of you, making himself comfortable on the soft cushions in the middle of the room, probably specifically made for the boyfriends to wait for their girlfriends. Or rather sugar daddies that would wait for their sugar babies to put on a show for them in the dress they would be getting just for them.
"Sooo...," you wanted to break the stillness and tension that had started building up, "What exactly is the dress code for the Monbebe?"
He leaned back slightly, the upwards shift of his hips didn't go unnoticed by you, making you take a deep breath in. "You want mine or the official one?" Wonwoo had his head turned to the side, leaving you to stare at the sharp line of his jaw.
"What?"
He looked at you. Gazed at you.
"Come as you are. Be and feel free. Don't hide. That's how they word it."
"And yours...?"
A sigh tumbled from his lips, "Skimpy. As less as possible to give us easy access."
You scrunched your eyebrows at his comment, "Us?"
He met your eyes with a guilty look, "Men." You nodded. Right... you remembered the explanation of him in the car. What the Monbebe club was. A whorehouse basically. The more known and official designation was 'Gentlemen Club' but everyone knew what it really was. You felt the sick feeling in your stomach come back when your mind brought you back to that part of your conversation.
"So, prostitution?"
"Pretty much," Wonwoo had looked out of the window the entire ride, not even sending you a quick glance.
"But," you swallowed at the hard fact that was reality, "I mean, it's definitely not legal, but the police doesn't care about it, right? They just seem to turn blind when it comes to that. Those women know what they're doing, so... why do Jihoon and you talk so bad about it?"
"Because they don't." You stopped at a red light and turned to face him, answering him with a questioning hum, hoping to get his attention. He did change his line of sight but kept his head straight ahead, still not meeting your eyes. "It's not consensual prostitution."
Oh.
"I mean," he cleared his throat uncomfortably, "In a way, it is because they're the ones who come to Monsta X to start working there, but... their... clients... and visitors... they can do whatever the fuck they want with those women. And they can cry as loud as they want... it doesn't bother those pigs. If anything, it only turns them on even more."
You had heard enough.
Disguised as a club with a bar, but in the back was where the 'fun' for the visitors truly was at. Wonwoo had also mentioned something about a fighting/boxing business even further down into the basement, but he didn't want to go into further detail about that area of the entire building, hoping that he'd be able to keep the two of you as far from it as possible.
"But I'm not working there," you told the CEO as he crossed his arms, watching your legs that you crossed, "Why should I dress the same as the women that do?"
"Do you think they care? The people that go there do not give a fuck about who officially works there and who doesn't. They just try to get their hands on anyone that's available and the Monstas need to uphold their honour in the industry." He explained. You could tell he didn't enjoy talking about this which seemed to have been a part of his past at some point. It scared you. He hadn't told you how he had gotten involved with them just yet, but you were terrified to find out. Scared of what side of him would be revealed to you. It seemed like such an unlikely place for a man like him to be, for any of his friends that you had met so far, so you were curious to find out more.
"But...," the start to your question made him look up, "If they're so infamous for such things, how did you guys-"
"Alright!" The familiar voice of the saleswoman rang through your ear, making you stand up. With four steps, you were out of the dressing room, only to stop right next to Wonwoo, but with your eyes on the lady, or rather the stuff hanging on her arm. The questionable things hanging on her arm. Your eyes caught some glitter, some pearls, and... chains?! "I know, I know, some of it might not look THAT good at first, but just try it on and trust me, okay?" She beamed the brightest possible smile at you, her bleached teeth blinding you as you unsurely nodded, opening your arms to get the pieces of clothing handed over. She brushed past you and hung everything on the hangers on the wall before stepping out again,
"I'm gonna leave you two to it, but if you need anything else you can just ring that bell over there," and pointed towards what looked like a light switch. With one last, what you presumed to be, fake smile, she left you two to have the entire floor to yourself.
"Wonwoo...," you gasp-whispered as your gaze travelled across the fabric hanging on the wall.
The CEO shot up from his seat, with one big step closer to the dressing room, pretty much standing inside of it with you, "What? What's wrong?" You didn't notice the slight worry in his voice as you were still trying to calm yourself from the embarrassment you were about to experience as soon as you would put on any of these things.
"What?" He repeated.
You shook your head, "I-I don't know..."
"What do you mean?" He kept on digging for a proper answer from you, but you just stared at him with a blank expression.
"This. This dress. All of them. No." The words fell quickly from your lips before you could even think of properly forming sentences.
"Y/N...," he spoke softly, "You haven't even tried any of them on-"
"Look at them!"
"I am," he calmly answered you.
You motioned at them wildly with your hands, "Well then, you should see the problem."
"Look," the man sighed once again, "I told you, it's their fucking dress code, if I could change it, I would. Trust me."
"I knowww," you whined, a defeated breath of air leaving your lips. Wonwoo was patient with you. Too patient. But at some point, it had to be over.
"You know, I can still do this on my own-"
"On it," you were quick to interfere, pushing him out of the dressing room, making him fake gasp,
"I don't even get the full show?" You revealed your face from behind the curtain with a scolding expression.
"Watch your mouth, mister." Leaving him with a smirk on his lips to fall back onto the cushioned seats.
Two minutes later, the curtain was pulled back again as your head out, finding his eyes immediately. Before he could even open his mouth, you started,
"I look ridiculous."
He couldn't help but grin at you, "I highly doubt that." Wonwoo couldn't lie, his position was making him excited. The thought of what the clothing this particular store was selling would look like on your body made his own react in ways he wished it wouldn't.
You shook your head, the blush evidently on your cheeks, "You can't see me like this." But that only made him chuckle as he leaned forward, letting his forearms rest on his upper thighs.
"I think we've crossed that boundary a few times already, don't you?" He teased. You knew the answer. But you kept your mouth shut and just motioned him 'no' once again.
"Still."
"Come on," you tilted his head, but you stood your ground, sending him a blank facial expression, "What? You're getting shy now? It's too late for that."
With a sigh, you disappeared again, mumbling a loud enough, "I hate you," for him to hear, making him grin.
That smirk got wiped off his face as you surprised him by stepping out of the dressing room fully, standing in a skimpy little black lingerie dress in front of him. A dress that pushed your boobs up so much, they almost quelled out of the cups, and your boobs had never been THAT big.
Wonwoo whistled, "Well, hello," his eyes were clearly not on your face.
"Stoooop," you whined, hands coming up to clasp your breasts in defence, hoping to hide a little bit.
He chuckled, "What? I said hello," raising his arms in defence.
You squinted your eyes at him, "I know who you said hello to," hands still on your boobs. The chuckling continued. He couldn't help it. He couldn't hide it.
"And what were you so worried about?" Wongoo genuinely wondered as he kept eyeing you up and down, he really tried to stop but it was almost as if his eyes moved on their own.
You sighed and turned back to take a look in the mirror, your backside now facing him, not making it any better for the poor man in the chair. He decided to stand up to not have your ass on perfect eye level and was only graced with the beauty of your reflection.
Your hands caressed the dress, trying to get every single crease out of it. "I mean-," you breathed out in frustration, "just look at it! The fabric is way too thin, my boobs are on the verge of falling out and one wrong move and I'm flashing my ass to everyone."
"I'm not complaining," he grinned, hoping to get a similar reaction from you, which you gave him, but it quickly changed to a shake of your head.
"Clearly." Wonwoo didn't like the tone of your voice. He knew it all too well. It reminded him of his mother. All the times she would check her reflection in any passing mirror, trying to fix every hair that was possibly laying wrongly on her head. Any tiny smudge of her makeup had to get corrected, and every inch of her body had to either be hidden or look fit and young.
The comments of his father rang through his memory. The words he had thrown at his mother as she, slowly but surely, aged like beautiful fine wine, much to the dismay of his father, who had looked like the molerat he had always been. He hated the way his mum saw herself. Just because that asshole couldn't keep his mouth shut. Wonwoo promised himself to never make that same mistake.
"Well," he wanted to touch you, oh so badly, but he kept his hands to himself. For now. "If my opinion is of any importance to you, I think you look beautiful. But so did you in my old ass university sweater, so I don't know how much of help I really am."
You raised your head, meeting his gaze in the mirror, sending him a shy and tight smile as you grasped the seem of the dress tightly. God... why was he doing this to you. Well, you knew it. He had told you. He told you exactly what he was thinking, so, you knew. But what were you going to do with that information?
"Thank you," you softly told him, to which he just nodded. "But I still don't feel comfortable in this."
"Then let's try to find something you at least find somewhat comfortable to wear," he suggested kindly, sitting back down as you went back into the dressing room, pulling the curtain close before you released a heavy breath.
-
"They can't be serious about this," you commented as you stepped out in your now fifth dress. ...Dress? If you could call it that. It was much rather just a bunch of chains that were intertwined with each other, creating something you could throw over your upper body.
Wonwoo looked up from his phone, putting it back into his pocket immediately.
"Why are you wearing underwear with that?" He exclaimed, getting a wide-eyed stare from you in return.
You stuttered, "Wh- Am I- Am I supposed to just go bare?!"
"Well, with this, clearly," he stated like it was the most obvious answer possible.
You crossed your arms, "You'd like that, wouldn't you?" He didn't answer you verbally but just shrugged, making you roll your eyes with a chuckle.
"But this is actually something that a woman would wear to the Monbebe," he quickly added before you could disappear again.
"This?" You pointed to yourself, "Without underwear? Seriously?"
Wonwoo kept quiet for a few seconds, eyes interlocked with yours, before sighing, "I know, you don't actually want me to answer that." You nodded.
With the curtain closed, you started to get undressed again.
"You know," the CEO stated, "The more time we spent here and the more dresses you try on, the less I enjoy the idea of you coming along," he decided to just throw out the facts as they were. He didn't like it at all. He was almost terrified. Almost.
"Well, too bad," you got the dress off and put it back on the wall, "Because you're not getting rid of me now." You could hear the quiet mumble from outside but couldn't make out what he said. But you knew better than to ask him and just decided to let it pass.
Standing half naked in front of the dresses, you realised that the fifth one had been the last, and now you were left in your underwear, gazing at the clothing in desperation.
"You okay?" Wonwoo had gotten up and walked towards the curtain, his voice now closer than before.
You sighed, "That was the last one. Last dress."
"So then? Which one is it gonna be?" He wondered, only adding to your frustration.
"I don't know," you soughed, running a hand through your hair, "No fucking idea..."
"What about that third one," the CEO suddenly suggested, "You said that wasn't too bad, right? I think it was the best out of all of them."
You reached out to look for the mentioned piece of clothing, getting it out and hanging it at the front once you had found it, studying it with your arms crossed.
"But you said it had too much fabric on it," you argued.
"Mh, guess why it was my favourite," he commented back, almost getting a chuckle out of you. "Do you need help?" His question made you grin.
"No!" You shouted back, "Don't you dare come in here." Looking at the curtain as it started moving, you found fingers creeping in and grasping the seem of the hanging fabric, making you jump forward and slap it before poking your head out.
"Won-" you hisses but stopped as soon as you realised just how close you were all of a sudden. This position felt familiar with him. Too familiar. You could feel his breath on your lips, and you did not mind at all. It was too close and yet not close enough.
"Are you sure, you don't need any help?" He whispered.
The breath that left your lips was clearly shaky, yet you hoped he didn't notice. Although... maybe it wouldn't be too bad if he did notice it... right?
You smiled shyly, "Yes... thank you."
Wonwoo copied your facial expression, "Look how considered I am."
"Mh," you hummed with a nod, "May I go back and change now?"
"I'm not stopping you," he stated, smirking, knowing damn well what he was doing. Without another noise, you were about to close the curtain fully again. "Y/N," but his soft voice stopped you and made you look back at him. Why did he still have to be so close?
"This morning," he started, "What did you want to do?"
"What do you mean?"
"In the kitchen. Before we got interrupted." He didn't take his eyes off of yours, but you couldn't help but to lower your gaze, feeling intimated by his question. The gentle touch of his finger made you lift your head again, "I think there's something we need to catch up on." The almost kiss. Before Binna ruined your pretty much perfect morning. Was he so caught up on that? The memory made you grin. Oh how bad you wanted to kiss him. You still wanted to. Damn you Wonwoo...
"You really want to do this here?"
"A beautiful woman is half-naked in front of me. What more could I ask for?" His comment received a soft chuckle from you, "But I want you to do it. Because you want to, not because you feel like you have to."
"Wonwoo...," another whisper escaped your lips as you could feel yourself leaning more into him, now only millimetres away from his lips. He noticed it too.
"I just need to know that you want to," he copied your tone, his hand coming up to brush your hair on the side of your face.
You would've trusted your heart to stop right then and there. It was beating so hard, it had to be close to exploding. Your breathing had quickened, the adrenaline rushing through your body just like you had missed it.
You nodded so very gently, someone could've missed it, "I want to." Earning an even wider grin from Wonwoo.
"Well then," he just answered, not moving from his position, waiting for you to continue. You knew what you had to do. And yes God, it didn't matter how much of a mistake this maybe was, you were about to do it. Just one last time, you dared to look down at the man's lips, before meeting his gaze again. That was the last thing you saw as you closed your eyes and finally closed the small gap between the two of you. Finally. It had been way too long. Well, at least it felt like it. The soft moans coming from both of you just emphasized that. Finally, you felt his lips move against yours again. His hand held your cheek, his thumb brushing smoothly over your skin, trying to pull you in closer while you had a tight grasp on the curtain, hiding your body from the chest down. It didn't matter that you were in the middle of a clothing store. You could not give less of a fuck. What mattered was the man in front of you with his lips on yours, keeping you as close as he possibly could. The lips you had found so much comfort in.
Whatever this was... it was complicated, yes. But you were so ready to find out what exactly it was and how you could make it work. Finally ready.
You pulled back before it could get any more heated, out of breath, your eyes met again. You bit down on your lip as he opened his mouth.
"I meant what I said last night."
You looked down with a soft grin, "How often are you gonna say that?"
"Until you believe me," he stated, finding your hand that was still choking the fabric of the curtain.
Your gazes met. His once cold and dark eyes had turned so soft. The face you had once wanted to avoid at all cost had become so warm and comforting to you. You felt seen. You felt safe.
The subtle nod of his head brought you out of your trance, "Go change, we gotta get ready for later."
You turned around, careful to not let go of the curtain, taking the clothing hanger with the 'dress' into your hands, "Okay, take that for a second, we still gotta pay for that. I'll-"
"Alright done." He grasped the dress and took a few steps back to give you some space again.
"What?" Your question made him look up, "When?"
"I gave them my card and told them which dress you're gonna take," Wonwoo got a hold of his phone, just shrugging his shoulders, looking as comfortable as ever while you were still desperately hiding your body behind a curtain.
You squinted, "How did you know which dress I was gonna pick?"
He stared at you with his soft gaze, "You really think I would've let you pick any of the others?"
-
Already out of breath, you kept running through your apartment, trying to find the pieces of accessories you were looking for, groaning when they weren't in the bathroom, or your bedroom. You rushed into the living room, hoping you had maybe left them on the coffee table, but no luck. You had been looking for your earrings for at least ten minutes. Ten long minutes. After showering and literally shaving every single inch of your body, you had taken the time to do your makeup better than ever before, but now the problem was something else. Fucking earrings.
The shoes you should wear were already waiting for you in the hallway, along with the little black bag you had decided on. With one last groan, you chose to forget about the accessory and went back into the bedroom to finally put on the dress as you were sure Wonwoo would be here in no less than five minutes.
You took it out of its cover, revealing the beautiful stitch it had, along with the chains and pendant attached to it. It was gorgeous. Hot. Nothing you'd ever wear anywhere outside, not even a nightclub - and you had been to clubs before.
Putting in on seemed easier back at the store, you realized as you tried to close the last hook in the back. God dammit... why did expensive clothing also have to be so extra.
The ringing of your phone caught you off guard, making you have to walk into the living room again, where it had sat on the sofa. Wonwoo's name lit up the phone screen as you accepted the call, still trying to somehow get that freaking dress to close.
"Hello?"
"Hey, you can come down, we're here."
"Ehm...," you thought about it for a good second before continuing, "Could you maybe come up?"
"Why?" His voice was laced with confusion, and a little bit of worry, "Are you okay?"
You quickly assured him, "Yeah yeah yeah, I just... I need help with this dress, I ca-"
"On my way."
"Thank you," a gentle smile crept its way onto your face, "Fourth floor, ap-"
"I know." Were you ever going to be able to finish sentences with that man around? Who knew.
Not even two minutes later, there was a knock on your door, letting you know he had arrived. With your hands still behind your back, you entered the hallway, opening the door just a little to make sure that it, in fact, was who you were waiting for.
"Hi," you beamed brightly at him.
"Hey," your facial expression made him chuckle. He was about to ask you something else, but the sight of your entire figure in front of him made him stop, "Wow..."
You rolled your eyes as you felt the heat in your cheeks come up, "Don't."
"What? Am I not allowed to compliment a beautiful-looking woman." You didn't know what to say. What do you answer to a comment like that just being thrown at you? Multiple of those comments as a matter of fact.
Wonwoo's eyes fell on your hands that were holding onto the piece of clothing in the back. He took a step forward to get closer to you, making you almost breathe out at the sudden close distance when he put his hands on your shoulders to turn you around. His hands replaced yours. "You're gonna have to get used to me complimenting you."
You shrugged, "I just don't know how to react."
"Then you're gonna learn," he placed his palm on your lower back, "Done." You turned back around to meet his gaze.
"What if I don't want to?" The teasing question even surprised you, but for some reason, it felt fitting. And God did it feel good.
He grinned, his eyes running down your hair, his fingers followed, "You'll have to." Making you roll your eyes with a shy smile,
"You don't look too bad yourself, Mister Jeon." You brushed an invisible piece of lint off his suit jacket. Seeing him in suits every day at work didn't change the excitement that crept up your stomach at the sight of him in this clearly much more expensive anorak. All black.
"Shoes on." You nodded at the demand and brushed past him to bend down, forgetting how short your dress actually was. Only when you felt the sudden wash of cold over your clothed core, you shot up again, taking the shoes to the little stool you had placed in the hallway. Wonwoo waited patiently for you, watching you put on one shoe when he bent down onto one knee, taking the other shoe into his hand before moving to put it on your foot.
"Thank you," you told him, watching his fingers move so gently and skillfully over your skin, trying to make sure he tied the strings of the heels just the same way you did with the other one.
With a pat on your leg, he let you know he was finished, looking up to smile at you. If you hadn't been sitting down, you for sure would've melted to the floor at the look on his face. When had the cold-hearted bachelor turned so soft?
"Ready?"
You shifted in your seat, sitting up straighter, moving closer to him unknowingly as you put your hands underneath your thighs, trapping them between skin and cushion.
"I don't know," you let him know in full honesty, shaking your head in the process.
"As long as you stay next to me, you'll be fine. Alright?" He tried to find your eyes as you looked away, not being able to shake the unweary feeling you had about this whole situation you were about to run into. "I won't let anyone there touch you. I promise." His hand on your knee assured you even more of his statement. He promised. You knew he meant it.
With a nod, you agreed, "I know."
For a few more seconds the two of you stayed in your positions, sharing gazes as you watched his eyes go from concerned to reassuring to... something you couldn't quite put your finger on. So much had happened over the past few months for you to sit right there with the man in front on his knees. Just like he told you...
"What?" His question brought you back, making you shake your head,
"Nothing, let's go." You stood up to walk past him, but his hand on your naked leg stopped you when he stood back up, only to let it travel up slowly, knowing damn well what it did to you when he caught your eyes again, and your lips slightly parted.
"What was that look on your face?" Again, he tried to dig deeper. You shook your head. But you knew there was no escape from him. If he wanted something, he'd get it.
His fingers grasped your chin to make you look at him. You were quick to wrap your hands around his wrist, ready to pull back whenever you wanted to. If you ever wanted to.
The raise of his eyebrows let you know that he wouldn't move until you answered his question in proper words, so you took a slightly deeper breath.
"I was just trying to read you."
You saw his eyes falling to your lips before meeting your gaze again. "You don't have to try to read me. Just ask me."
A quick look down at your shoes got you the small amount of confidence that would hopefully be enough for what you were about to do.
"Can I ask you something?" You whispered.
He nodded, "Everything," lowering his voice to match yours.
You swallowed, tightening your grip on his wrist, as your heartbeat quickened, "Can you kiss me?"
He grinned right away and didn't waste a second to pull you in, only stopping when your lips brushed against each other before he whispered, "You don't have to ask for that."
You could've cried if you wanted to. The emotions had been building up for too long, and there were oh so close to spilling out of you.
The passion his lips wrote all over yours let the tingle in your stomach errupt. The butterflies were finally freed from their cage, letting an exciting chill run across your entire body. God... it felt so good. Too good. His warmth made you feel finally safe again. You felt... loved. Truly loved. Cared for. Anything you could ask for. Right there in front of you.
But all good must come to an end, and so did this kiss.
Wonwoo smiled all so gently at you again, his thumb caressing the faded touch of his lips left on yours, almost making you moan.
"Ready?"
But even in your dizzy state, you were able to hear him. You saw him. You felt him.
You answered him with a nod, followed by a soft, "Yeah."
-
In the car, driven by Hongseok, on the way to the club, the two of you had fallen into a comfortable small-talk-like conversation. Wonwoo let you know about the day in the office run by Mingyu as the two of you had been busy. He also informed you that the co-CEO would not be joining you that evening since he "never wants to ever put another foot into the cursed, run by the devils themselves, building", as he had worded it apparently.
The man's rough hand was on your naked thigh throughout the entire drive. It wasn't uncomfortable. Not at all. It didn't even make you nervous. It just made you feel safe. But you couldn't hide the shaky breath tumbling from your lips whenever he'd start moving that freaking thumb over your skin. Fucking tease.
Before you knew it, Hongseok notified you of your arrival, making the breath get stuck in your throat. You were about to enter a lion's den. A literal hell, just like Mingyu had put it. If it wasn't for the CEO next to you, you would've already had the worst nervous breakdown of your life, but his presence assured you. He wouldn't let anything happen to you. He promised.
The driver opened the door for you and you were greeted with a mix of blue, red, and purple light blinding your eyes once you stepped out, Wonwoo's hand right there to help and steady you before his moved to the small of your back, leading you forward. You two thanked Hongseok and wished him a good evening before he disappeared again, but not without sending you a warm smile.
You walked ahead, stopping a few feet away from the bouncer in front of the big, fancy-decorated doors. There was no line, which surprised you, but they probably wouldn't want to catch too much attention, you explained to yourself.
"Jeon," the big man suddenly exclaimed, making you jump at the tone of his voice. Not welcoming, that was for sure. "The fuck are you doing here?"
"Good to see you too Sidae," Wonwoo nodded at him, changing the placement of his hand as it was suddenly in front of you, making you pause in your tracks.
"Why are you here?" The man was not about to let you two off easily, you could tell. His eyes came to you, running up and down your body, sending an uncomfortable chill down your spine.
The CEO closed the button on his jacket, "I need to talk to them."
The doorman was quick to shake his head, crossing his arms in front of his massive chest. "They're gonna talk to you."
"And how would you know that?" Wonwoo argued back, earning himself a growl from the man in front of you to which your arms snaked over his, trying to keep close to him. His hand immediately found yours, hoping to give you some form of comfort.
"Do I have to remind you of what happened the last time you and your friends were here? The mess you idiots left." His comment made you scrunch your eyebrows in question. Wonwoo hadn't told you everything. He didn't want you to know the entire story of this part of his past. But slowly more and more was coming to the surface, whether he wanted to or not.
The CEO looked around, "Am I here with my friends? I don't see them anywhere," annoying the bouncer just a tad bit more, "Just me. And I just want to talk."
The big man in front of you nodded towards you, "And her?"
"You really think she's gonna start something?"
"I don't trust any bitches you bring along," he commented, earning a warning glare from Wonwoo.
"Careful with your words, man. I'd better shut my mouth if I were you." Even though the man was double Wonwoo's size, he didn't seem intimidated in the slightest. The past they shared together must add to that.
The bouncer sighed, before turning to the barricade, opening it and motioning for you two to go through. The man on your arm took a step first, making you follow. You didn't get far though as the doorman stopped you by grabbing Wonwoo harshly by the arm.
"If I hear anything about you starting God knows what shit, it's over for you, Jeon." If you hadn't gotten the message before, you sure as hell got it now. You gulped. Wonwoo just nodded relaxed, opening the door to let you go in first, but he was still hot on your step.
Immediately, loud music and darkness, only lit up by the same colour as outside surrounded you. While the entrance was empty, only men lined up next to each other, one bigger than the one next to them - must've been bouncers too - the open space, functioning as a dance floor was FILLED. You didn't think another person could fit into the mass. The bar to the side was fairly empty too, with only a few men sitting there, waiting for one of the women that walked through the room to stop by their side.
Your eyes widened when you saw the outfits. That's what Wonwoo meant... Those were rarely clothes... not even underwear... you guess they were supposed to be covers, but they hardly covered anything. There were a few women in another corner that were wearing slightly more, but still not enough for a normal nightclub in your opinion. You felt out of place. Wildly out of place.
Wonwoo was next to you again within a second, taking your hand and taking it to loop your arm with his.
"Just follow me, okay?" He shouted over the loud music, to which you nodded.
He took you to the right and right before you passed the bar, he brought you in front of him, his hands securely on your hips as he lead you straight forward, past all of the men on the side and women on the other. It was bigger than you expected. From the outside, it looked like a smaller nightclub but just could tell that that was just an illusion.
One more turn around the corner and through deep black curtains, you found yourself in front stairs but waited for Wonwoo to continue. He noticed you hesitating and stepped forward, taking the first step down. He turned around again, extending his hand for you to take and leading you down.
Black stone surrounded you, and the temperature dropped a significant amount as you were now in a basement - still lit up by blue, red, and purple lights.
Arrived on the lower floor, two signs let you know where everything was. With one look to the right and left, you also found multiple doors, leading to more rooms. You could guess what was going on behind those doors. Wonwoo had told you, and you didn't want to imagine what those men were possibly doing with the women that worked there.
You were dragged towards the 'lounge', passing all those doors. You didn't question anything, you knew this was the moment to shut your mouth. If you had any questions, you could ask those later.
The two of you came to a stop at the end of the hallway, one bright red door right in front of you. Your eyes fell to Wonwoo to your left, watching his chest rise before falling again. Maybe he wasn't as relaxed as he pretended to be. You squeezed his hand a little tighter, just to let him know that you were also still there. He wasn't about to do this alone. He copied your action, followed by a gentle shake of your hands.
He brought his other hand up to the door, knocking hard against it three times. Not even trying to open it, he knew only seconds later it would open up just like it was supposed to. His hand dropped yours the moment a beam of light came from the other room. You looked to your side, hoping to catch his attention as you didn't expect the sudden action. He sent you an assuring smile, tapping your palm with his finger before looking straight ahead again, walking in first to keep you secure behind him.
You were about to follow him when the sight in front of you made you stop in your tracks. A lounge with a big U-sofa, massive even. But more importantly, were the people on the couches. You found three men, sitting with their legs wide apart, surrounded by multiple women, one dressed skimpier than the other, all over those men. Their lips and hands running all over their bodies and all you could do was stare blankly.
The one in the middle caught your attention first as he saw you walk in. A bright smile, that you could only describe as creepy, brightened up his face.
"Jeon Wonwoo!" He shouted, pushing the women off him while gaining the attention of the other men left and right who had turned to look at the two of you. "A face I never thought I'd ever see again." With a slight tilt of his head, he also met you. A wink was sent your way making you quickly walk up right behind the CEO. The door behind you closed. Turning around you found two security men on either side of it. Those people here really care for their safety apparently. "To what do we owe the pleasure? And tell me why I shouldn't tell my men to pop your eyes out of your skull immediately."
You wrapped your arms around your torso in comfort as you started to feel the chill coming down your spine once again. He maybe didn't look as scary. But he sure as hell sounded terrifying.
Wonwoo sighed, putting his hands in his pockets, "Good to see you too, Shownu. And that would just make a terrible mess, don't you think?"
The man on the sofa looked to his left and right, sharing glances with his colleagues before gifting you his attention again.
"Well," he smirked, "Can't be worst than last time, right?"
Can’t even explain how nervous I was finally releasing this bc I haven’t written in so long, I hope I haven’t lost my spark… thank you for taking your time to continue reading this series🤍
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