Chapter Text
Prologue
“Just a minute,” Minhyun fumbled with his shirt as he hurriedly walked towards his apartment door.
It’s only six-o-eight in the morning, yet someone uninvited was already ringing his doorbell as if it was a matter of life and death.
“This better be an emergency,” he grumbled as he opened the door.
Little did he know, it would truly be an emergency.
An emergency for him and his asshole ex-boyfriend.
“Mother,” Minhyun mumbled, completely taken aback as he stared at his mother that should have been in their home in Busan.
“Hi, Son,” his mother greeted him with a smile, walking inside his apartment. She took in the sight of the too-clean and quiet home and raised an eyebrow at Minhyun. “Where’s my other son?”
“Dead,” Minhyun answered unconsciously, still surprised at his mother’s arrival.
“What?” his mother asked, not catching what he had said.
“I—I mean,” Minhyun bit his lip. He’s fucked up. He had no idea where Jonghyun was and right now, he needed to find where his asshole of an ex was. “He’s already at uni, doing his . . . project.”
*****
“. . . so you need my services.”
Minhyun grimaced at the way Jonghyun said it coolly as if this was as normal as ordering a cup of coffee in this freaking coffee shop.
Staring at Jonghyun, Minhyun noted that his ex-boyfriend hadn’t changed as much in the past year and had remained (and even became more, if he’s going to be honest) dashing as ever with his attire of a black coat over a plain white shirt. If Minhyun wasn’t running on a tight time, with his mother waiting for him and Jonghyun to arrive back to his apartment in an hour, he would appreciate and maybe applaud this look of Jonghyun.
After all, it was him who changed Jonghyun’s fashion sense into the remarkable classy way it was now.
“Are you gonna answer me or are you going to stare at me the whole day?” Jonghyun asked with his eyebrows raised. He eyed his ex-boyfriend who not only looked like a mess—with his flock of disheveled brown hair as if he had threaded his fingers on it far too many times—but was also wearing a wrinkled shirt. “Your mother really took you by surprise, huh?”
“Yes,” Minhyun groaned, looking away from Jonghyun’s too knowing stare. He regretted looking away as his gaze fell onto the blaring (glu)Cos(e), why not?! sticker on the back of Jonghyun’s laptop—a bright neon pink sticker that symbolized his ex-boyfriend’s business.
Minhyun stared at the sticker in disgust. He heard a lot (from Minki) about how Jonghyun’s business was doing fine and how his ex-boyfriend had gotten a lot of clients.
Clients.
Minhyun grimaced internally before realizing that now, that was him.
Just another client seeking Jonghyun’s help.
“I should hurry up then,” Jonghyun murmured too low for his ex-boyfriend to hear. Facing away from Minhyun, he turned back to his laptop and started revising a contract for Minhyun. “I’ll just fix everything and get back to—”
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Minhyun couldn’t help but snort. Sure—he was Jonghyun’s client now, but still, they dated for eight freaking years and Jonghyun was telling him to wait? As if he was just one of those clients who had to fall in line and wait with a stub?!
“I mean it as ‘give me a couple minutes’ you impatient dumbass,” Jonghyun grumbled as he continued typing. “Move over here.”
“You want me to sit next to you?” Minhyun asked, dumbfounded and still annoyed—and growing more annoyed that Jonghyun was again ordering him around.
“Do you want to see our contract or not?” Jonghyun retorted and Minhyun didn’t miss the hint of annoyance in his ex-boyfriend’s tone.
This ass—Minhyun felt his phone vibrated and groaned when he saw his mother’s caller ID. Just Great. Grumbling, he swiped the answer button and smiled (fakely) to his mother.
“Hi Ma! I found your other son!” Minhyun stated as excited and as genuine he could get and glanced at Jonghyun who was looking at him with a sardonic smirk that obviously said: See, you can’t do anything without me.
“You found uri Jonghyunnie?” his mother asked with an excited and bright smile. And if it weren’t for that smile Minhyun would answer with: Yes, mother—I found your asshole of a son, Jonghyunnie.
“Yes, and he’s right here with me,” Minhyun beamed, standing and moving over to where Jonghyun was sitting and draping his arm over his ex-boyfriend. “Say hi to—”
“Eomma,” Jonghyun greeted with a warm and happy smile as if it wasn’t only a few minutes ago that he was so ready to bite Minhyun’s head off.
“Uri Jonghyunnie! Looking dashing as always!”
Jonghyun chuckled and leaned back to Minhyun’s arm. “Of course, I have Minhyunnie who cares for me after all.”
What an actor. Minhyun commented in his mind as he tried to fight back a scoff.
His mother sighed in relief. “That’s good to know. I was worried that Minhyun isn’t taking care of you well.” she glanced pointedly at her son.
“Nah, Eomma, Minhyun always takes great care of me,” Jonghyun glanced up at Minhyun with a bright smile and intertwined their hands. “Right, Hyun-ah?
Minhyun forced out a genuine smile and placed a chaste kiss on Jonghyun’s forehead. “Of course, Jjuya,” he said in a faux-whipped manner. Though there was no lie in that (minus his lovey-dovey actions). In the five years of their relationship, he always took great care of Jonghyun until he got sick of giving and being the punching bag of Jonghyun’s too cynical and business-minded personality.
“I’m glad then,” His mother hummed, staring lovingly at the two of them, before the beep of the oven took her attention. “I have to finish cooking, but be here in an hour, okay?”
Jonghyun nodded with a grin. “Yes, Eomma, I’ll just finish my project and we will be there soon.”
“Good!” Minhyun’s mother piped, before turning to her son. “And Minhyun, please buy a cake, we need to celebrate Jonghyun getting a new project after all!”
The new project was me, Mother. Minhyun internally groaned, before smiling at his mother. “Yes, Ma.”
“Okay, I’ll see you two soon!” his mother said with a smile, before waving at them in goodbye and hanging up the call.
“Guess those acting gigs of yours do come in handy,” Jonghyun commented with a snicker as he went back to typing out their contract.
Minhyun glared at his ex-boyfriend and took a seat next to him. Fine, if Jonghyun wanted to be an ass like this, then he’d be like this too. Smirking, he rested an arm on Jonghyun’s chair and stared wickedly at his ex. “Of course it comes in handy, just like this dirty business of yours.”
Minhyun saw Jonghyun tensing before going back to normal with that stupid smirk on his face.
“Touché, Minhyun-ah,” Jonghyun commented with a chuckle before moving his laptop to face the both of them. He turned to Minhyun and propped his chin on his hand. “Now, let’s go down to business, shall we?”
∗ ∗ ∗ ∗ ∗
Getting down to business, as Jonghyun had said, consisted of an in depth explanation about Jonghyun’s (dirty) line of business. It wasn’t as bad as Minhyun had in mind when he pictured Jonghyun offering his companionship to suit his clients, though still, it wasn’t good either.
But, nevertheless, he was relieved.
When he had first heard that Jonghyun had started a fake-dating business, the first thought that went into his mind was Jonghyun kissing a bunch of random strangers, then images of Jonghyun doing whatever dating (even when it’s fake) consisted. So when Jonghyun informed him that the only thing that he offered was plain companionship and holding hands if needed, it felt like a huge thorn was lifted off from his chest.
Though Minhyun wasn’t sure whether that was good or bad.
“. . . and since you’re my ex and all, and our contract wouldn’t be like my past transactions. I’m offering you something I never do with my past clients,” Jonghyun trailed off and typed ‘extra services’ in bold, which Minhyun loudly gasped at. Jonghyun rolled his eyes and scoffed. “Chill, it’s not like what you think, but with what our current state, I think it’s highly needed.”
“I’m thankful, but I really doubt I need these extra services of yours, Jonghyun,” Minhyun muttered dryly. He didn’t know if he should smack his ex-boyfriend or thank him for offering his extra services.
Jonghyun stared at him as if he’s some microorganism on a petri dish then faced back to his laptop, deleting the ‘extra services’ word by word. “Okay then. Guess you wouldn’t need me to kiss you to make you Eomma believe that we’re doing just fine.”
“Wait—” Minhyun interjected and bit his lip. He actually may need Jonghyun’s extra services for his too perceptive mother to believe that their relationship was okay. “I—” he paused and sighed. Jonghyun raised his eyebrow at him impatiently, fingers hovering over his keyboard. “I . . . I may need your extra services . . .”
“Just like I thought,” Jonghyun sneered, typing it back and adding five kissing chances underneath it. “So, here’s the rule about kissing, you only have five chances to do that and you can use it anytime from today until Eomma leaves, but no tongue—unless deemed necessary.”
Minhyun stared at Jonghyun with an: Are you kidding me look, and snorted. “It’s not like we’ve never done that before.”
“Our past relationship and what we have done before are excluded—no tongues, okay?”
Minhyun snickered, knowing how Jonghyun had been like when he’d kissed him before. “That’s rich coming from you.”
Jonghyun rolled his eyes and ignored Minhyun’s comment as he moved to the next part of the contract. “Okay, for the other things—skinship. Knowing you and how you’re naturally clingy, we obviously need to do skinship for this. Holding hands and hugging are fine, just no groping my ass. To make things clear, basically, you can touch or hold me anywhere from the waist up.”
“You’re the one who liked groping my ass, Jonghyun,” Minhyun reminded, staring at Jonghyun with a knowing smirk. “Remember how you find my ass just so cute?”
“Whether I liked your ass or not, no fucking touching below my waist. Got it?” Jonghyun glared pointedly with a menacing smile and Minhyun understood that with another assy retort from him, Jonghyun would be out of this cafe and he had to face his mother alone.
“Got it.”
“Glad we’re back on the same page,” Jonghyun dryly muttered, staring back at his laptop again. “Sharing a bed, just like in the aforementioned rule, I don’t mind sharing a bed with you because obviously, we don’t have any choice, but no funny business, okay? And if you answer me with your snarky attitude again—”
“Yes, no funny business and I’ll keep my hands to myself,” Minhyun replied immediately, knowing that Jonghyun was so close to snapping his neck into two.
“Glad that you understood.” Jonghyun rolled his eyes before going to the next part. “Now, sexual—”
“There’s no point talking about that, we won’t be doing anything close to that,” Minhyun immediately dismissed, as he felt a blush crept on his face.
“Just making things clear.” Jonghyun nodded, before going to the last part of the contract where there’s a bold, italicized, underlined, and even highlighted sentence that said: Clause 6.8 - Client’s Feelings: If you ever fall in love with me during and after the contract, know that it’s one-sided and I’m not in charge nor responsible for your feelings.
Jonghyun turned to him and smiled. “I don’t need to explain this further, right?”
Minhyun humourly chuckled. Like he’d fall for Jonghyun again after what he’d put him through. “Of course.”
“Good, then we’re all set,” Jonghyun smiled, “And just to make things clear, after your mother leaves, we will act like none of this ever happened,” he said, saving the document before turning to face Minhyun. “Meaning, if we ever see each other, please act like you don’t know me.”
“Of course.”
“So, any more questions?”
“None,” Minhyun answered with a shrug, staring away from Jonghyun’s laptop then turning to him. “So, what now?”
“Now,” Jonghyun repeated, turning back to his ex-boyfriend with a grin. He nodded to the cakes on the counter and smirked at Minhyun. “Buy that cake, we can’t keep Eomma waiting.”