Wildflowers

by ssenbonzakuraa

Summary:

What amounts to a fairytale? A princess that needs saving and a knight too stupid to know what's good for him? Perhaps. But sometimes a fairytale is two unlikely people crossing paths in the unlikeliest of places and saving eachother wihthout knowing they needed saving.

-

             Ten years ago, on a singularly humid summer, the Parks received a letter in the mail. Unaware of the content inside, Jinyoung – the Park family’s only son – who had been dribbling his beloved worn football in the yard, didn’t think twice about reading it. Maybe if he had any forethought, he would have considered placing it on the table in their kitchen to be picked up by one of his parents to look into, as he was wont to do. Instead, Jinyoung made the mistake of opening it. When he read through the pages, he wondered why it said what it said, and had been from where it had been from.

 

 Three months later, when he had just turned 14, one Park Jinyoung killed himself.

 

***

 

 Jinri wakes with a groan.

 

Her arm emerges from beneath a nest of frayed blankets, hand slapping the bedside table blindly for the happily trilling alarm clock. It falls to the floor with a loud crack, but at least it stops making that awful noise. Her bed is not the most comfortable – the mattress full of lumps and hard springs – but it’s warm and clean and that’s all Jinri cares about. She looks up at the paint chipping from the ceiling while she contemplates getting up; another day she would cringe at her pitiful behaviour, but she allows herself this moment.  But then there is a loud banging on the door and her choice is taken from her.

 

 “Rent was due last week, Jinri! Pay up tonight or you’re out,” Her landlord barks.

 

 Jinri sighs and forces her body to unfurl; she stretches, arches her back, and flops out of bed ungracefully.

 

The sun is beginning to set outside the dingy window; the fading rays of sunshine warm on her drawn face, stain her a fiery orange. For a passing second she feels like a phoenix, caught in a cursed cycle of birth and death.

 

She sighs.

 

Another day.

 

She picks up her alarm clock and scowls at the crack through the centre-face that stares back at her. Another thing broken.

 

Jinri stumbles from her room straight to the coffee maker in the kitchen. Bambam didn’t turn it on before he left. Jinri’s lips tilt into a frown. She flicks the switch and stoops over the counter, hiding her head in her hands while she waits for the coffee to percolate.

 

She feels like a mess. She rubs the sleep from her eyes, licks the sleep-stickiness from her teeth, and attempts to tame her unruly, thick hair.

 

Jinri watches as the coffee drips, as it takes its sweet time slowly filling the pot, before mustering enough energy to find a coffee mug in the cupboard. But the cupboard is empty. She looks at the sink and sighs. Jinri knows she should be the bigger person and wash the stacked up dishes in the sink; because Bambam probably won’t do that, either, but she tells herself that she’ll do it later.  She grabs one mug from the sink and rinses out the grime.

 

 After chugging two cups of ashy coffee, Jinri feels moderately alive again. She drags herself through a shower and dresses for work. She attacks her hair in front of a mirror, running her wide toothed comb through it with a vengeance. It’s longer than ever; the jet black waves framing her heart shaped face and curling just below her shoulders blades. Jinri pauses mid-stroke, staring at her reflection. Before she can help it, her throat tightens and the edges of her eyes saturate. She has to grind her jaw to push back the loneliness that pounces upon her unsuspectingly.

 

 Jinri only remembers her landlord’s warning when she opens the front door to leave. She can hear the old man yelling at another tenant somewhere downstairs. She checks her wallet. Empty. Pivoting, she re-enters the apartment. The extra money is kept in the freezer with the ice cubes, but the tray is empty of even those. Fuck.

 

 Fuck.

 

 What the fuck was Bambam thinking?

 

***

 

Jinri finds Bambam at The Paradise blowing a self-styled pimp beneath a table. She waits for them to finish, definitely not wanting to go anywhere near that, but she’s not charitable about it. Her bright brown eyes narrow into slits, mouth set in a hard line of dissatisfaction. Jinri knows there was money in the freezer last night. And since Bambam probably just gave it to Yugyeom in exchange for drugs, he should not be on his knees with Yugyeom’ dick in his mouth. Yugyeom should be paying Bambam for that.

 

When Bambam finally crawls out from beneath the table, wiping his mouth and rubbing his knees, Jinri has already spiralled from irritated to infuriated. Bambam knows it too, because he winces and smiles abashedly, waiting for the tsunami of his noona’s temper.

 

 “Noona. Hey.” Bambam says.

 

 “Did you spend it all?”

 

 “Um… You know Yugyeom, yeah?”

 

 “I don’t give a fuck about Yugyeom! Is it all gone, Bambam?” Jinri growls.

 

The pink-purple lights in the club make her look like a wild thing ready to pounce. But when Jinri glances at them; the abject fear in their eyes kill the fight in her. She takes a deep breath and reaches out and takes Bambam’s arm, pulling him away from Yugyeom and out of the club. The sudden drop in temperature is like a shock to Jinri’s system and she deflates a little bit. She reminds herself of everything that Bambam does for her, looks out for her safety, together with that tough but loser boyfriend of his.

 

 It’s sobering.

 

 “I’m sorry,” Bambam whispers, wrapping his arms around Jinri’s waist and leaning in for a hug, “but I needed it noona. Like, bad.”

 

Jinri sighs, tucking Bambam’s head beneath her chin. Bambam is skinnier than her, but right now he feels so much smaller; fragile. They’re both lucky to even still be alive.

 

 “That was our rent money, Bambam,” Jinri says. “You took it while I was sleeping.”

 

 “I’m sorry,” Bambam whispers again. “I’ll pay you back.”

 

Jinri shakes her head and pulls away, but holds Bambam’s hand loosely as they walk. The streets are buzzing with people, but no one spares them a second glance. Not in this part of town.

 

 “We don’t need a pimp.”

 

 “But I like Yugyeom.”

 

“No, you don’t, Bambam. Not really. We don’t need him running our lives and taking any more of our money.” Jinri will not resort to that. Even when she was freshly kicked out into the streets, starving and helpless, she still said who, where, when, and how much. She won’t let anyone control her life. Not anymore. She had enough of that when she was a kid. “We don’t need a pimp,” Jinri repeats.

 

“But, Yugyeom will only be a pimp for show. So the fatties in the club can stop bothering us. He can help us noona.” Bambam says, trying to convince her.

 

“I’ll think about it.”

 

They walk the rest of the way to their corner in silence.

 

 

***

 

 

Nothing good ever happens on Thursdays, at least not for Im Jaebeom. Call him superstitious, but he has a track record and he’ll show it to you. For starters he had just landed in Busan, expecting someone waiting for him at the airport to take him to the hotel. Instead he receives a mail that his ride was waiting in the parking lot, ‘enjoy’, ‘smiley-face’. Secondly,  he does not know how to drive a sports car. Which is why, when he finds himself sitting in one, he can’t even turn it on.

 

 “Bloody fucking thing...” He mutters to himself, glaring first at the ring of keys dangling off his fingers, then at the steering wheel. “Fucking bankers.”

 

Staying in Busan was not his first choice. Jaebeom staying anywhere that’s not his home is bound to be disastrous for him. So when the bankers informed him that he had to see for himself some money-born bastard’s property that he was buying off of them, Jaebeom, in a fit of rage, demanded they organize the entire trip or so help him, they would not see a single won.

 

Thus, the unnecessary car. Whatever happened to personal chauffeurs?

 

Jaebeom sticks the key into what he hopes is the ignition and turns it. The car makes a funny sound, lurches forward, and promptly dies like a cursed firefly. Heart pounding, Jaebeom carefully sits up from where he is plastered back against the seat. He is never yelling at bankers again, or threatening them, or doing anything that might make him drive another sports car. Ever. This thing was going to be the death of him.

 

 Several unsuccessful tries, and probably decades off of his life later, Jaebeom eventually discovers the right key-turning, pedal-pushing, gear-shifting combination to get the car moving. Mostly.

 

Driving the thing does nothing to reduce Jaebeom’s prejudice against pretentious rich asses. Their lifestyles are so sickening and barbaric; acting as if they are so much better than the rest. All they do is drive these unnecessarily fast cars with low head space, honk their angry horns, yell with red faces, and stick up their middle fingers like it means something. Jaebeom is rolling his window down without really thinking about it, ready to yell at the next driver to piss him off even more. But then he’s flying through a red light and swerving to miss a vespa.

 

 Where the fuck is he even supposed to be going?

 

 

***

 

 

It is late autumn already; balmy winds still nipping on the chill that has begun to set in. The skies are dark and starless. It will rain by the looks of it. Jinri closes her threadbare second-hand coat tightly around her.

 

They reach their corner after a short walk. Jinri is busy trying to mentally calculate how many punters she’ll need tonight to cover rent. She should be able to get five if she’s lucky. And fast. Bambam is busy yelling at other whores to clear out.

 

 “Do you see the sidewalk there? How about that pole? This is our spot, Lisa.”

 

 “Fucking hell, Bambam, calm down. You don’t own the fucking street.”

 

 Bambam huffs; chest puffing out and posture straightening. One hand on his hip, he points down the street with the other.

 

 “We’ve got seniority. So fuck off!”

 

 “Whatever.” Lisa says as she walks off.

 

 “Can you believe her, noona?” Bambam asks, sidling over to where Jinri is standing. “Bloody lesbians.”

 

They bump shoulders and lean against the brick building behind them. Jinri doesn’t say a word. She’s still lost in thought, staring morosely down at the ground.

 

 “Nobody wants your cunt, Lisa!” Bambam suddenly yells, loud enough so that she can hear from all the way down the block. “They all want cock!” 

 

 “Stop yelling, Bambam,” Jinri murmurs, ducking her head to hide a smile. “You’ll scare everybody off.”

 

 It’s a slow night, for a Thursday. There are several men who look at her interested, but never make an offer. They’re probably closeted; married, with two point five kids and a dog. They’ll fuck other men in secret, just not tonight, when their wives probably have dinner waiting and a football match recorded on the TV. Maybe they’ll come back tomorrow after they can’t get it up for their wives tonight.

 

 Jinri is starting to get frustrated and hungry when Bambam grabs her arm and pulls her out of the shadows.

 

 “Fucking hell, noona, look!” Bambam squeals.

 

 Jinri dutifully looks. It’s a Jaguar, an actual Jaguar, driving down their street.

 

 “You should go for it.” The ‘I owe you’ is left unsaid, but Jinri hears it anyway. Bambam doesn’t need to say anything else. Jinri is going for it. That’s rent right there.

 

 

***

 

 

Jaebeom is lost. He can admit that.

 

Jaebeom knows he is lost because the streets get darker and dingier, the houses less nice to look at, with few shady looking people loitering on the curb. Busan is bad enough. Seedy Busan is just...bad. And he still can’t drive the car. It keeps making awful buzzing metallic sounds. He wouldn’t be surprised if it falls apart and dies, or whatever sports cars do when they break.

 

Jaebeom pulls over next to a random sidewalk to take a breather. That’s when he sees her, the pixie with her coat hanging off her elbow, striding confidently towards his rolled-down passenger side window. She’s dressed in barely anything; a gauze-like dress that flatters her flat chest and gives her slim hips and rounds on her curves. She has very long legs for a girl. The click-clack of her heels is distracting, but not as much as her eyes as she leans against the car, head peaking inside the window. They are as brown as fecund earth.

 

 Jaebeom should have known right then he was a goner.

 

 “Oppa, you feeling lonely tonight?”

 

 Jaebeom doesn’t know what to say. No, he’s not lonely. He’s lost. But he wouldn’t refuse some company; especially not as beautiful as this.

 

 Jaebeom blinks slowly.

 

 Did he really consider hiring a whore?

 

 “Do you know how to get to Bujeon-dong?” Jaebeom asks.

 

 “Sure do,” she says, “for five thousand.”

 

 Jaebeom blinks again. “You can’t charge me for directions.”

 

 “Ten thousand,” she says, grinning.

 

 “That’s ridiculous!”

 

 “Mm,” she hums. “I’m not lost.”

 

She straightens and turns her back to the car, waiting. Jaebeom makes a frustrated sound in his throat before giving in. What else can he do? He is lost, after all. So he digs in his pocket for some money; he only has a few thousand won.

 

 “Here,” Jaebeom says grudgingly, flapping twenty thousand impatiently at her.

 

To Jaebeom’s surprise, she gets in the car before taking the money and stuffing it into her coat pocket. “For that much, I’ll show you personally.”

 

 Jaebeom blinks again. It was going to be an interesting night.

 

***

 

 Jinri doesn’t know why she gets in the car instead of just taking the money and offering directions. Maybe it’s the way the man looked at her, desperate and lost and interested. Maybe it’s because Jinri is hoping for more money. Or maybe it’s because she has some semblance of pride left, regardless of what she does for a living.

 

 “What’s your name?” Jinri asks before sinking comfortably back into the leather seat and pointing the man in the right direction.

 

 “Im Jaebeom,” The man answers haughtily like it’s something to be impressed about. Jinri isn’t. “And yours?”

 

 “Whoever you want me to be,” Jinri says and means it. 

 

Jaebeom looks at her sceptically and drives toward the oncoming traffic. Jinri reaches over and jerks the steering wheel, cursing under her breath as they narrowly avoid a tourist double-decker. 

 

 “Thanks. This is my first time,” Jaebeom says like they didn’t just almost die. “Driving a sports car, that is.”

 

 “If you don’t know how to drive one, why buy it?” Jinri shouts.

 

“It’s not mine, it was arranged for me.” Jaebeom says primly. “I would never buy a skinny car like this. I prefer to be a few inches above the ground.”

 

“Are you mad?” she asks incredulously, wondering again why she even got in the car in the first place.

 

Jaebeom just shrugs as they dash towards a stop sign. Either he doesn’t notice it or he’s too busy regarding her to notice the Fiat, slowly crossing the intersection. There’s no way they’re not going to crash this time.

 

 “Stop the fucking car!” Jinri screams, “Shift down!”

 

 “I don’t know how!” Jaebeom screams back, looking at Jinri with wide black eyes.

 

Then his face goes shellshocked. Without looking away from him, Jinri pushes in the clutch, shifts down, and they slam to a stop one meter past the stop sign. Jinri sighs in relief, breaking eye contact.

 

 Jaebeom blinks. He looks through the windshield and then back to Jinri.

 

 “What just happened?”

 

 “I saved us from appearing in tomorrow’s obituaries.” Jinri says, “Look, either you let me drive or I’m out.” To emphasize her point she opens the door.

 

Jaebeom thinks for a second before nodding and opening his door too. As they switch places Jinri waves sarcastically at the angry people waiting behind them. Then she sits in the driver’s seat and kicks off her heels.

 

 “I knew I should have worn flats,” she mutters, putting the car in gear and giving it some petrol. “Put on your fucking seatbelt.” 

 

 Jaebeom scoffs but does as he’s told. They drive the rest of the way without saying a word.

 

***

 

 Jaebeom does not know why he is surprised that the Son’s hotel is fancy, what with their delusions of grandeur. He should have known the bankers would put him in it instead of say, another regular hotel that won’t spite him, but the car kind of threw him in for a loop. But when they pull up along the curb near the front doors, Jaebeom can’t help but admire the building. It’s very similar to Im Enterprises; large and striking, just more gaudy and tasteless.

 

 Two doormen are stationed outside dressed in crisp black suits with bowties, white gloves, and those funny little hats. One rushes over to them once their car stops and offers to park it in the garage. His beautiful driver looks towards him for permission so Jaebeom nods. She grabs her heels, gets out of the car, and drops the keys in the doorman’s outstretched palm.

 

It has started to drizzle; the rain making the soft wind a little chilly. They stand outside the hotel in awkward silence, shivering a little. Jaebeom fidgets and straightens his tie – the fucking thing is choking him. Then he notices that he’s fidgeting and stops at once when he remembers his mother would be appalled. And apparently, the girl is too because she rolls her eyes at him before shrugging her shoulders, and walking away.

 

 “You never did tell me your name,” Jaebeom says quickly.

 

 She pauses but does not turn around. The skirt of her little black dress flutters against her thighs with the wind. They are softly tanned and smooth and Jaebeom wants to run his palm along it.

 

 “Everyone calls me Jinri.”

 

 “Is that your real name?” Jaebeom asks, stepping closer like a moth drawn to a flame.

 

 She turns around, eyes narrowed and deep and damning. “Everyone calls me Jinri,” she says again.

 

 Jaebeom lifts his hands, placating. “Fair enough.”

 

 Silence descends upon them again, broken only by the sound of passing cars and the occasional pedestrian. After a minute, Jinri gives one derisive, unladylike chuckle before crossing her arms over her small chest and walking away again.

 

 Fuck decorum.

 

 “Wait!” Jaebeom cries, reaching out to catch the hem of her dress with his fingers. “What will you do now?”

 

 Jinri turns her head and raises a delicate eyebrow at where he’s holding on to her dress. When he doesn’t let go, her chapped lips tilt in a frown.

 

 “Do you need to ask?”

 

 No. Jaebeom doesn’t.

 

She’ll probably go find some other punter, some other man. He’ll pay her and touch her and fuck her and…the idea isn’t appealing to Jaebeom in the slightest.

 

 “Come to my room with me,” Jaebeom says instead.

 

Jinri looks straight at him, as if considering. She shivers as another breeze ghosts past them. Jaebeom is still holding her dress between his fingers. He tightens his grip as though she was going to flutter away too. Eventually, she nods her head and gives him a soft smile.

 

 “Lead the way.”

 

***

 

 

As soon as they step inside Jinri jerks to a stop in the foyer. Small granite tiles form a huge mosaic of the sun in the centre of the floor. The delicately carved ceilings are high and arched and held up by grand marble pillars. There’s something magical about the place like it’s a whole different world. Everything screams money.

 

 “Fuck me,” Jinri whispers, eyes darting rapidly from the real potted plants to the huge glass walls to the other guests staring right back at her in astonishment. She feels a little self-conscious, obviously out of place in this expensive establishment. But then Jaebeom tugs on her arm to walk to the front desk and she doesn’t dwell on it anymore.

 

 “Name and identification please.” The receptionist says, peering over the top of her computer screen.

 

 It’s obvious that she takes her job far too seriously. Her hair is pulled back in a tight French knot, blouse freshly starched and pressed, cheeks lightly rouged. There is not one single embellishment on her person. Her nametag reads Irene. It’s also obvious that she does not approve of Jinri by the faint wrinkling of her nose and the pursing of her mouth – like she sucked on a lemon, when she looks at her.

 

 Jaebeom is happily oblivious.

 

 “Im Jaebeom, Im Enterprises.”

 

Jinri has never heard of Im Enterprises. Jaebeom is probably another rich asshole, if he can afford to stay here. Irene must think so too, since she sits up straighter in her chair. And Jinri realizes why, when Jaebeom hands her a pitch black card. Irene looks from Jaebeom to her and  doesn’t say anything, doesn’t ask about her, so Jinri doesn’t say anything either. There’s no way she’s going to make a fool of herself in front of this woman.

 

“Mr Choi has personally arranged the penthouse for the duration of your stay. Here’s your room key. May I be of any other assistance?”

 

 “No, thank you,” Jaebeom answers dismissively. “That will be all.”

 

 Jinri does not immediately follow Jaebeom to the lift. She lingers until the man is out of earshot, tapping her fingers on the reception desk to recapture Irene’s attention from Jaebeom’s retreating back. She doesn’t blame the receptionist; Jaebeom does have a rather broad back. And a nice ass.

 

 “Yes?” she sneers.

 

 “Your lipstick is too red,” Jinri says bluntly. “It doesn’t suit you.”

 

 She walks away before the receptionist can answer. Jaebeom is waiting with the liftman. He smiles as Jinri approaches, tucking Jinri snugly against his side as they ride the lift to the uppermost floor.

 

***

 

When they enter their room, Jinri goes straight to the French doors leading to the balcony.

 

“Wow...look at the view,” she says bending on the railing. “Come here and check it out.”

 

“Please come inside. I don’t want you fall over and turn into a splatter.” He says. Jinri just laughs at him.

 

It’s a bit chilly now as the night has fully descended, and for as expensive a room it should probably come with better heating. He shouldn’t have taken off his jacket but he was starting to feel confined. He looks at the fireplace in the corner. He would start a fire but he doesn’t know how to. Jinri solves that problem though; pushing a button on the mantel and a flame roars to life in the fireplace. It doesn’t even burn the wood.

 

Jinri scowls, turning around. “Look,” she says, “I don’t give a fuck who you are, I’m a whore. All I care about is your money, which you seem to have a lot of. So either you can pay me and we can get on with this, or I can go.”

 

Jaebeom opens his mouth and then closes it. She is right. She is a whore. She does not know who he is or which family he is from. It’s not like they’re trying to have a relationship.

 

 Certainly not.

 

 “I apologize.” Jaebeom forces himself to say with a decent amount of remorse. “Don’t leave.”

 

 “I charge six thousand an hour,” Jinri says flatly.

 

 Jaebeom nods. Six thousand isn’t that much. Jaebeom wonders how Jinri survives on that at all.

 

 “How much for the whole night?”

 

 Jinri takes a step back in surprise. Her body shudders briefly as a tremor would make it. Jaebeom would’ve blamed it on the few hours of sleep he’s had the past few days but he knows fear when he sees it. And that was definitely fear. 

 

“I don’t know. I’ve never done that before.” She answers slowly, pausing to think, unaware of Jaebeom’s revelation. “Ten thousand. No. Twenty thousand. Yeah.”

 

 “Done. The money’s in my jacket.” Jaebeom points to where it's hanging on the back of the couch.

 

 She goes over and checks. Jaebeom watches as she digs through the pockets and counts out the notes. He wonders why he feels so drawn to her; an obvious stranger he would never have met if not for chance. He looks at the curve of her jaw, her rounded nose ending into plush lips and something awful and amazing occurs to Jaebeom. He considers asking her but then she’s walking to him and looking flirtatious and Jaebeom is thoroughly distracted.

 

He decides to ask her later. He doesn’t want to spoil the evening. 

 

***

 

 “What are you comfortable with?” Jaebeom asks as he takes a seat in the plush armchair near the fireplace. He wants her to know he means it.

 

 “The usual,” Jinri says, “Anything you want. But I don’t kiss on the mouth.”

 

 “Oh,” Jaebeom says, clearly surprised, “Good. Neither do I.”

 

Jinri drops to the floor between Jaebeom’s spread legs. She looks up from beneath her eyelashes, hands trailing over Jaebeom’s calves, across the ridge of his knees, along his thighs. Their eyes meet and hold as Jinri unfastens Jaebeom’s belt and pulls it from his trousers. It lands on the floor with a clink of metal, forgotten. At the sound of his zipper lowering, Jaebeom’s breathe hitches, eyes fluttering close. Jinri stills until they open again and then flashes a grin at Jaebeom’s glare and tugs open his trousers before he can speak.

 

 The tent in Jaebeom’s underwear is both noticeable and flattering. Jinri palms it gently, testing its weight and Jaebeom’s patience. Satisfied, Jinri leans forward and mouthes the length of it.

 

 “Please,” Jaebeom whispers hoarsely.

 

 Jinri laughs softly before releasing Jaebeom’s cock from his pants. She holds the base with one hand and brings it to her full lips with the other; smears the precome across them like gloss, when she kisses the head, and then sucks it into her open mouth. Her cheeks hollow as she sucks, tongue darting out to tease the slit.

 

Jaebeom groans. His hands tangle in Jinri’s hair, pulling her closer. Jinri sighs and opens her mouth wider to encompass Jaebeom’s girth. His cock travels the length of Jinri’s tongue until it hits the back of her throat. With nothing left to hold, Jinri fondles Jaebeom’s balls and runs her other hand up Jaebeom’s stomach beneath his shirt. Then she swallows, tongue pulling Jaebeom’s cock further into her mouth. As she sneaks her tongue out, he pushes his hips up into her face, pressing even more tightly into her throat.

 

 Jaebeom groans again, tilting his pelvis and thrusting. Jinri lets him, breathing through her nose so she doesn’t have to stop for air. Jaebeom smells good. He tastes even better. Jinri slides her hands to Jaebeom’s hips, fingers digging into his pelvic bone. Then she starts to really move, guiding his cock in and out, harder and harder, until Jinri is nearly gagging with each thrust. Her eyes burn with the effort, tears leaking from the corners of her eyes and dripping down her face. But Jinri doesn’t care. She moans around her mouthful, body aching to be touched. She’s never enjoyed giving head this much.

 

 Jinri knows when Jaebeom is about to come because his body jerks, cock swelling. Jinri pulls back so her mouth is open; the swollen head on cushion of her lower lip, one hand moving to grip the base and pulling roughly up like she’s dragging Jaebeom’s orgasm from him. Jaebeom shudders, come splashing across Jinri’s tongue. Jinri swallows it all, throat working quickly. She only pulls back when Jaebeom is too sensitive to continue.

 

 “Fuck,” Jaebeom says.

 

Jinri grins, tucking Jaebeom back in his pants and zipping him up.

 

 “Maybe later,” she laughs, “When you’re ready for another go.”

 

She sits back and stretches her legs as she regards him. Jaebeom is a painfully gorgeous man; from his pitch black back combed hair showing his beautifully high forehead to the perfect acute of his nose to his small heart shaped lips. His ears are lined with piercings and his thick fingers are adorned with rings. She wonders how the coldness of them will feel on her skin. When he smiles back at her watching him, the dangerous rictus of it makes her tingle. His eyes are black and depthless, so severe in its beauty, so intense in the way he regards her, that her eyes fall closed as she cranes her neck backwards.

 

Jaebeom straightens in the armchair.

 

Jinri is so, so beautiful like this. Her lips are moist and red, cheeks flushed, dress dishevelled. One strap has fallen off her shoulder, the bodice dangerously close to revealing a nipple. The skirt pools between her legs, outlining her thick thighs… and something else.

 

 “What...” Jaebeom begins, and then cuts himself off.

 

 Jinri opens her eyes, head cocking to the side in curiosity.

 

 “What, what?” she asks, lips quirking in a smile.

 

 Jaebeom looks at the bulge between her legs. She – he – looks down too, then quickly back up.

 

 “You didn’t know.” Jinri states in surprise.

 

 Jaebeom shakes his head feeling a little dumb. “I had no idea.”

 

 “Fuck.”

 

 Jinri crosses her legs and rests her hand in her lap, hiding the evidence. All the colour drains from her face.

 

 “I’m sorry,” Jinri whispers, “I shouldn’t have assumed… Everyone who comes looking in that part of town is gay.”

 

 “Oh.”

 

 “Yeah.... Fuck. I’ll just… go.” Jinri stands, awkward and ill at ease. She adjusts her dress and combs her hair back from her face, puts her coat back on, arms wrapping around her chest. “I’m really, really sorry.”

 

 “Wait,” Jaebeom demands, also getting up. “I’m not uncomfortable with it.”

 

 Jinri glances at the door and back, a doubtful expression on her face.

 

“Well… I was just surprised. You make a beautiful woman. You don’t have to go. I would like if you stayed.” Jaebeom reaches out and takes Jinri’s hand, “Please.”

 

“That’s not really the entirety of it,” She says, discomfort colouring her face. “I’m different, a lot different. I’m telling you now so you won’t be calling me names....or getting violent later.....later, when we...”

 

She looks at him defiantly and he holds her gaze. Jinri still looks uncertain. But then Jaebeom smiles; it lights up his entire face that she can’t help but smile back. Jaebeom’s breathe catches. He was not lying when he said he doesn’t care about what is between Jinri’s legs. Jaebeom likes beauty like any other human. And Jinri is beautiful.

 

 “Ok,” Jinri says as Jaebeom leads them to the bedroom.

 

***

 

It’s a wonder they even make it to the bedroom given they couldn’t even keep their hands off each other in the hallway.

 

Jinri groans loudly as she arches her back off the bed and tilts her pelvis, relishing the feel of Jaebeom’s fingers in her cunt, unceasingly rubbing on that spot. Her dress is bunched around her waist since neither she nor Jaebeom bothered to undress. 

 

 “Oppa,” Jinri demands vacantly, one hand cupping her swollen cock and the other joining Jaebeom’s.

 

She pushes a single finger in alongside Jaebeom’s two. It’s rough and awkward but so, so good. Jinri can feel how ready she is; she’s nearly panting for it. Jaebeom is too; his impatient pants are sign enough.

 

Jaebeom has never met anyone like Jinri; he was still a little apprehensive about how they were going to go about it but when confronted with her uniqueness, all the thoughts ran out of his head save the ones about pleasuring her as best as he could. And now when he looks at their fingers dragging in and out of her, the view punches a ‘fuck’ out of Jaebeom, as the last of his thoughts burn away.

 

Jaebeom removes their fingers and replaces them with his cock in one swift motion, one of her legs hooked on his palm by the back of the knee. Jinri bites back a scream as Jaebeom slides in, her entire body flushed, vibrating with lust. It’s almost like there are sparks crackling between them.

 

 “Oh...Oppa,” Jinri gasps, nails biting into the back of Jaebeom’s shoulders as Jaebeom slides in completely, his hips flush with her ass.

 

She pulls Jaebeom to her, gripping him anywhere she can reach and holds him close enough that he’s blanketing her with his huge shoulders. She angles her body for him to thrust in deeper, harder; caressing her right on that spot. Jinri can taste the sweat that slicks their skin; salty-bitter-sweet, as she kisses Jaebeom’s neck and sucks bruises into it and moves up to bite into his jaw. Then suddenly Jaebeom shifts, falling forward over Jinri’s body, unexpectedly face to face. Their noses collide but Jinri tangles her fingers in Jaebeom’s sweat slicked hair to scatter the moment.

 

  “Fuck,” Jinri says, voice catching in her throat as her body trembles.

 

 Jinri can barely breathe; Jaebeom a crushing and comfortable weight on her and his movements erratic. Her entire body is straining for release, and when Jaebeom nudges a hand between them, wraps his fingers around her cock and pulls, she jerks; her body contorting forward and then she’s coming, come splashing up over her chest and Jaebeom’s hand like liquid fire.

 

Jinri laughs because of the brain-melting ecstasy of it, because Jaebeom keeps fucking her right there, short sharp jabs and she smiles a moan at the feeling, and then Jaebeom is coming too, kissing her face, her nose, her temple and Jinri doesn’t care anymore. Her lips are on him too, kissing anywhere she can, but mindfully missing his lips.

 

When he goes to pull out, she holds him down by her legs around his waist, one heel on his ass keeping him in place.

 

“That good huh?” Jaebeom smirks, which turns into a hearty laugh at Jinri’s scowl.

 

“Shut up.” She snaps, pouting petulantly to save what little face she has left.

 

***

 

Jaebeom is staring at her lips.

 

She blinks, but Jaebeom doesn’t stop staring. Of course she didn’t want to wake up to have Jaebeom act like a creep.

 

“What?” She finally asks, growing uncomfortable.

 

“You have a mole on your lip?” Jaebeom’s voice sounds odd.

 

Jinri scrunches her brow in confusion, stifling a yawn with her hand. “What about it?”

 

Jaebeom doesn’t say anything, only eerily continues to stare. Jinri can’t understand the expression on his face, a mixture of intense suspicion and surprise. Rolling her eyes, Jinri throws the blankets back from her body and gets out of bed. Even Jaebeom’s infuriating side is still beautiful.

 

“It’s just a fucking mole,” she says, unmindful of her nakedness as she storms into the bathroom.

 

Jinri stands over the sink and stares at the mirror. Her lips are still swollen, and a few love-bites are purpling on her neck, her shoulders, and her chest. Jaebeom may have been a little rough last night, but Jinri enjoyed it, more than enjoyed it even. She can’t remember the last time she found sex voluntarily fun. Years, maybe.

 

Of course, Jaebeom had to go and be a prick and ruin the morning afterglow.

 

Jinri sighs and turns on the tap. She splashes cold water over her face before grabbing a complimentary robe off the towel rack. It’s white and fluffy and way too big. Jinri burrows in its warmth, tying the sash loosely around her waist just as Jaebeom opens the door without knocking.

 

 “Do you mind?” Jinri asks through clenched teeth.

 

 “I’ve ordered breakfast.”

 

 Jinri opens her mouth to give an angry retort, but right on cue, her stomach growls loudly.

 

 “Okay.”

 

Jinri follows Jaebeom out of the bathroom to the dining area.

 

 “I thought you didn’t like it out here,” Jinri says quietly, sitting down on his lap.

 

Jaebeom hums thoughtfully and wraps an arm around her waist. Jinri takes this as permission to lean against Jaebeom’s chest, eyes slipping closed as she listens to Jaebeom’s heartbeat; a soothing staccato of life.

 

 “I miss it,” Jaebeom says sometime later.

 

 “Miss what?” Jinri mumbles, almost asleep.

 

 “Watching the sunrise.” Jaebeom sighs as he traces a finger along Jinri’s cheekbone, down the bridge of her nose, over her lips.

 

Jinri cuddles closer. Jaebeom is very warm.

 

The table is already laden with food. She briefly wonders how it got there so fast, but the wonderful smells are too distracting.

 

 “I ordered a bit of everything since I don’t know what you like,” Jaebeom says, sitting up as Jinri gets up from his lap to sit across the table.

 

Jinri realizes she hasn’t eaten in almost twenty-four hours. She probably would have eaten anything at this point, but does not mention it to Jaebeom. Instead, she fills her plate near to overflowing and tucks in. Her stomach gurgles happily and Jinri sighs.

 

 Jaebeom pours them both a glass of juice before eating anything himself. It’s pink and bubbly. Jinri tries it and smiles in surprise.

 

 “It tastes like strawberries,” she laughs. Whoever came up with this recipe must have been mental. Yet it tastes good. Jinri drains the glass and pours herself another.

 

 “I have a proposition for you,” Jaebeom says as they both finish their breakfast. “I would like to hire you for this event I have to attend.”

 “Don’t you got a girlfriend to take to?”

 

“I wouldn’t have asked you, would I?”

 

 “Fair point. And in how long will that be?” Jinri asks, grinning,

 

 “In a week’s time.” Jaebeom wipes his mouth delicately with a napkin and sits back in his chair.

 

 “Can you afford me?”

 

 “I’m certain that I can.” And that seems to give Jinri pause. How rich was this guy?

 

“Only a week? You promise?”

 

“I promise.”

 

 “Deal.”

 

Jaebeom nods, seeming that was the end of their conversation. “You need to go back home and pack up.” He says nonchalantly.

 

“What do you mean pack up?”

 

“Oh the event is in Seoul. You’ll have to come back with me.”

 

Jinri scoffs. “Shouldn’t you have said it the first time around? One would say it was the most important bit of information you were missing out.”

 

“Will that be a problem?” He asks, his eyes wide.

 

“Will that be a problem...,” Jinri repeats, although with mirth in her voice. How easily entitlement came to the privileged, and how oblivious they were of it almost always. “No. That won’t be a problem Jaebeom-ssi.”

 

“Just like that?” Now though, after having realized his mistake, he is a little shocked at how easily Jinri agreed. “You’re not scared that...I would kidnap you and sell you off.” Jaebeom knows his joke fell flat when Jinri gives him a disparaging look.

 

“Men like you wouldn’t have to come up with convoluted lies if you really wanted to hurt me.” 

 

***

 

 

Jinri strolls through the hotel lobby, indifferent to the fact that she is wearing the same clothes as she did the night before. Irene is not – she blanches and tries to cover it with a fake cough. Jinri notices she is not wearing any lipstick. Irene watches her suspiciously as Jinri shrugs and walks outside casually.

 

She has to pack for her little vacation.

 

When Jaebeom told her they’d be taking his private jet to Seoul, it did give Jinri a whiplash. How rich was this guy? She was more than a little awed at it sitting comfortably in the hangar, and when they entered, it was the sort of luxury that Jinri only ever dreamed of seeing up close, let alone experience it.

 

The hour passed quicker than usual it seemed and soon they were landing. When they got out of the plane, they were greeted by a cute guy in glasses; face radiating with a smile like sunshine itself, standing near what Jinri recognized as an expensive model of a Range Rover.

 

“Jinri, this is my assistant, Youngjae.” Jaebeom says in way of making introductions. “Youngjae, this is Jinri.”

 

“Hello, Noona. Can I call you Noona....or...would you...”  Youngjae asks, tongue-tied because of speaking impulsively.

 

“No, Noona will do Youngjae-ssi.”

 

Youngjae gives a two-thumbs-up, “Aah OK,” he says, almost gleeful. Cute, Jinri thinks. “Jaebeom-hyung, your meetings have been cancelled for the day. You can go home and settle in. Noona, if you want anything just let me know.” He informs as they embark the car.

 

She doesn’t want to whisper-talk to Jaebeom, with Youngjae sitting on the front seat, but she just has to ask. “Did you tell Youngjae-ssi about me?”

 

“Hmm? Yeah. He has to be briefed.” Jaebeom says, not understanding what Jinri was getting at. “Is there a problem?”

 

“You told him everything?” Jinri says it like a statement.

 

“Wasn’t I supposed to?”

 

“Did he judge?”

 

“He’s my cousin; we weren’t brought up that way.” And that was that on the issue; Jinri had to appease herself with his logic to smother all her fears.

 

***

 

 

Jaebeom unlocks the door and holds it open for Jinri. She whistles at the décor, twirling around in a circle to admire it all. Jaebeom steps forward and catches her around the waist. She looks up at him with her bright doe-eyes, hands pressed against his chest between their bodies. Jaebeom can feel her breath against his lips. Just as he leans down, Jinri pushes away with a giggle.

 

 “This is nice,” she says. Her heels leave little impressions in the plush carpet as she sways forward to see the rest of the penthouse. “You have a fireplace. Oh! You have a lot of books. And your kitchen is huge.” She says, childlike delight permeating her voice. “And a balcony! I bet you can see the entire city from here.”

 

Jaebeom’s penthouse was in a really expensive looking building in an even expensive looking part of the city – Itaewon, Jaebeom told her, probably exclusive to the wealthiest of residents, so she wasn’t expecting anything less inside. Still, the extent of opulence catches her by surprise.

 

She throws open the glass doors to the balcony in a mimicry of their night in Busan. The resulting wind blows her dress up, revealing the black lace of her lingerie and a bit of her pale behind. She pulls the hem back down with a sly grin aimed at Jaebeom and then disappears outside.

 

Jaebeom nearly follows her. She’s such a tease. But he decides that’s probably not such a good idea and takes off his suit jacket instead; his business clothes getting too uncomfortable and unforgiving.

 

 “Aren’t you coming?” Jinri asks, peaking her head back inside.

 

 “No,” Jaebeom says, “I don’t like heights.” He undoes a few top buttons and rolls back his sleeves to his elbows.

 

 She frowns, glances back outside, and then drags herself away from the balcony with a resigned sigh.

 

 “Don’t strain yourself on my account.” Jaebeom laughs, sitting down in an armchair next to the fireplace.

 

“You’re really like a cat, you know.” She says.

 

“Why do you say?”

 

“Nevermind....” she says as she looks at him, mulling. “If you don’t like heights why not stay on the first floor? You even stayed at the penthouse suite in the hotel.” Jinri asks as she perches on the armchair across from Jaebeom.

 

 Jaebeom’s posture stiffens. He may not like heights, but he’s certainly not afraid of them. . And he’s not poor. He wouldn’t be caught dead in a cheaper apartment. Staying in this partially expensive establishment is embarrassing enough already.

 

“I am an Im. This is the best apartment in the best part of the city, so this is where I will stay, regardless of which floor it’s located.”

 

“Don’t your parents live with you?”

 

“No. They live in the mansion in Jamsil. They don’t like the city sounds too much.”

 

“You rich people are so weird...and annoying.” Jinri huffs.

 

Speaking of weird and annoying.

 

Jaebeom remembers suddenly that he had someone to meet. He stands up suddenly and rights his sleeves, and puts his suit jacket back on.

 

“Aren’t you staying?” Jinri asks, confused by the change in his behaviour.

 

“Uh, no. I have something I need to do.” Jaebeom says as he looks around the living room contemplating, “You can unpack and settle in. I won’t be long.”

 

With that he’s out, leaving her to her devices in his massive home. Jinri smiles to herself before shrieking like a banshee and doing a little dance. It’s a beautiful home; lovingly decorated, which she had not expected because rich people have their ways of letting their homes look like pictures from a magazine – very impersonal, from what she has seen in social media, not that Jaebeom’s home didn’t look an editorial straight out of one. But the rooms look like every single thing was placed with care and purpose, especially the bedroom. The white fluffy bed looking no less than autumnal clouds and Jinri can’t help herself from diving in it.

 

She looks at the ceiling, her thoughts churning in her head, but for once she doesn’t want to pay them any mind; just wants to relish the moment. A small sigh plays out of her mouth as she closes her eyes and before long, she is falling into the land of her dreams.

 

 

***

 

 

When Jaebeom leaves his building he decides to veto his car and just haul a taxi. He’s been to his destination so many times he could have probably driven to it drunk, but he’s too tired to drive.

 

The villa is obnoxious in a regal kind of way; lions at the entrance and the excessive marble and what not. Jackson says it matches his soul. Jaebeom says Jackson has questionable taste.

 

 As Jaebeom rings that awful gong of a bell, Jackson’s butler, Wonpil opens the door. He is wearing a black-and-white uniform with the ghastly penguin coat tails, a chequered oven mitt on one hand. It all looks unnecessary.

 

“Master Im,” Wonpil has a deep voice for someone so skinny. “I’ll fetch Master Jackson. Let me just take the cookies out of the oven. Come in and make yourself comfortable sir.”

 

It’s the colonial hangover from growing up in Hong Kong, Jaebeom understands, but he can’t let it go because it has been a decade and his best friend still speaks his english with a British accent. Unnecessary; just like the lions at the gate.

 

Jaebeom steps inside and swings the doors close behind him. He takes a seat in the front parlour, already irritated. Jackson appears shortly after; having taken his sweet time doing nothing of importance Jaebeom is sure.

 

“Certainly took you long enough.” Jaebeom drawls. Elbow on the back of the couch; head on his palm.

 

“Fuck you hyung,” Jackson says, straightening his shirt. “I had company.” He waggles his eyebrows as if Jaebeom couldn’t understand from the roughness in his voice alone.

 

Wonpil appears with a tray of tea then promptly disappears as quickly as he arrived, leaving them alone. Jaebeom takes a cup, adding a splash of milk and two cubes of sugar – a new addiction after Jackson took him to that Boba place. Jackson takes his with an excessive amount of sugar; just looking at it makes Jaebeom’s lips curl.

 

 “So to what do I owe the honour?”

 

Jaebeom sips his tea and stares at Jackson without replying. Jackson rolls his eyes and flops himself down on a chaise.

 

 “Seriously,” he says, propping his head up with a hand. “Why are you here?”

 

Jackson was his best friend but also sort of like a right hand man of Jaebeom’s; primarily getting the dirt on his rivals, making it easier for Jaebeom to take them down to expand his ever growing empire. All the questionable business conveniently hidden behind a chain of clubs; no one ever saw Jackson Wang coming for them.

 

 “I want you to promise me complete disclosure,” Jaebeom demands. “Not one word leaves this room.”

 

 “Jaebeomie hyung. I’m your favourite dongsaeng. Would I ever do that to you?”

 

  “Not one word, Jackson.”

 

  “Fine,” Jackson huffs, making a zipping action on his mouth.

 

 Jaebeom takes another sip of tea and considers how to broach the subject. Jackson will most definitely tear him apart if Jaebeom says the wrong thing.

 

 “I met someone last night.”

 

Jackson oohs dramatically and fakes a swoon, cackling condescendingly in his usual high pitch voice. Jaebeom waits for him to get quiet.

 

 “Are you done?”

 

“Yeah” Jackson says clearing the tears in his eyes.

 

“I was driving downtown and somehow made it to the red-light area and she gave me directions to Son’s hotel. The one up for bid.” Jaebeom pauses. Maybe he shouldn’t be talking about this. But if he can’t trust Jackson, who else is there? “I think she’s Park Jinyoung.”

 

 “Park Jinyoung,” Jackson repeats. “As in the boy you had a crush on? The one who...?”

 

 “Yes,” Jaebeom says simply.

 

 Jackson’s mouth twitches before he erupts in laugher. It’s truly very condescending. Jaebeom sets his teacup on its saucer, unscrews the water bottle on the tray and aims a jet of the icy cold water at Jackson’s face. Jackson shrieks and splutters and sits up from the chaise, wiping it off his face and shakes his hair like a dog. Jaebeom extracts his cellphone from his coat pocket, opens a photo of Jinri and shoves it in Jackson’s face.

 

 “You’re serious.”

 

 “Quite,” Jaebeom says tersely, picking up his teacup again and taking another sip. It has gone disgustingly cold.

 

 “But Jinyoung’s dead. It’s been, what, ten years since it happened?”

 

 “Nine, actually, but who’s counting?”

 

“Not you.”

 

“Of course not.”

 

Jackson gives him a knowing look.

 

They are both familiar with the story. When Park Jinyoung didn’t turn up for his second year of high school in fall, it caused quite the scandal. He was the brightest, diligent, most punctual student of his year. He was Jaebeom’s hoobae. Quite the people’s person too, even though he was quiet and reserved, so it wasn’t a wonder why everyone wanted to know where he was, what had happened, why he wasn’t there. Jaebeom was no exception.

 

A few weeks later the local paper printed an article detailing Park Jinyoung’s death. Apparently, he was found dead in his room with his father’s empty sleeping pills’ bottle lying on the ground. His family had quietly done his last rites and hadn’t informed any of their relatives; they didn’t want to involve them in their misfortune. The police had looked into it and the story had never been questioned. 

 

 Until now.

 

 “I’m sure it’s him, Jackson.” Jaebeom says, “She doesn’t even remember me.”

 

“Uh...you told me you guys never spoke to each other, how will he remember you hyung?”

 

“She. Jinyoung prefers ‘she’,” Jaebeom corrects. “Shouldn’t she remember my face though?”

 

“Not everyone is a hopeless romantic like you, stupid.”

 

 

***

 

 

He spends some more time discussing business with Jackson and then he is on his way back home. He is stressed; the takeover of the Son’s business and now worrying about this case of, hopefully, mistaken identity of Jinri. The problems just kept on layering one on top of another.

 

When he gets home, Jinri is lying on the couch, an Austen paperback on one hand and another curling a strip of hair around a finger. The vision hits him on the navel unsuspectingly. His legs halt abruptly and he can’t take his eyes off, staring at her like an idiot, until Jinri notices him and gives him a blinding smile.

 

Jaebeom clears his throat and goes and sits on the couch and takes her feet on his lap, the easy domesticity falling into place unconsciously. “Were you bored the whole day?”

 

“No I entertained myself.....sleeping in your cloud bed.”

 

“True....that’s a good bed.”

 

“Honestly I thought we would be spending more time in it. I didn’t expect you to leave me alone.”

 

“I’m not an animal Jinri-ssi.” And when Jinri gives him a lecherous grin, he amends, “Well not always. But yeah, I’ll be leaving you alone quite often; I’m going to be busy. Hopefully you won’t have any complaints your highness.”

 

“Oh hell no...It was about time my cunt took a vacation.”

“Excellent,” Jaebeom says, tongue getting caught at her bluntness. “But I have a dinner meeting tomorrow night. I would like for you to attend it with me. You’ll have to wear something appropriate though, so I’ll leave you some money before I leave for work.”

 

 “Wasn’t the event supposed to be in a week?”

 

“It is. This is just an obligatory dinner I need to have to close this business deal.”

 

 “Um, okay,” Jinri shifts in the couch uncertainly. “How would you like me to, uh, attend dinner with you?”

 

 “What do you mean?”

 

 “Well,” Jinri says slowly, “Should I dress as your assistant or your...Since you said I have to dress appropriately.”

 

“Whichever,” Jaebeom answers with a wave of his hand, “It doesn’t matter.” Then he laughs a little at something his mind comes up with, “Youngjae will fight you, literally, if you try to take his job.”

 

Jinri nods mutely, surprised that the other man doesn’t mind flaunting his sexuality at business associates, knowing quite well it won’t take a trained eye to take one look at her and know what’s missing. But she really shouldn’t be surprised because it has become more than evident that Jaebeom’s arrogance would overcome any potential embarrassment. Not that Jinri minds. She hasn’t had this much excitement in her life in a long time. And Jaebeom is fucking sexy. And rich. And so, so worth it.

 

***

 

 As soon as Jaebeom leaves for work in the morning, Jinri calls Bambam. The line connects, but Jinri is met with the sound of a crash and a long string of curses by way of greeting.

 

 “Bambam? You there?”

 

“Yeah noona,” Bambam says from the other line, “I’m here.” There’s more shuffling and a toilet flushes in the background. “Where the fuck are you? I came home and you weren’t there. Your clothes were missing. I thought you up and left me noona. What the fuck. And you weren’t taking any calls.”

 

 “I’m in Seoul.”

 

“What the fuck!”

 

“Stop cursing. Do you remember the Jaguar? The trick hired me for the entire night. And then he wanted to keep me on for the week. I agreed to it before he told me I had to go to Seoul with him. Can you believe it? When I came home to pack, you weren’t there and I forgot to call because I was too excited. I’m sorry Bammie.”

 

 “It’s ok noona. But for an entire week? What’s wrong with him? Is he fat?”

 

 “No!” Jinri denies vehemently.

 

 “Oh,” Bambam says. There is a pause. “Is he ugly?”

 

“No, Bambam. Gods above!” She pinches the bridge of her nose at his absurdity. “He’s even giving me extra money to buy clothes. We’re going to some business dinner thing tonight. I’m going to wire you some of money. And you listen carefully; I want you to not waste all of it up. Please Bambam”

 

 “Yeah, sure.”

 

 “Bambam, I’m serious. We need to pay rent.”

 

 “I said okay.”

 

 “Good. And Bambam? Where do I go to get something to wear?”

 

“How much money did the fucker give you?”

 

“A lot.”

 

 “Apgujeong.”

 

***

 

  

Jinri rides the bus to Apgujeong, it’s not that far away but it still feels like forever. When she gets there, she doesn’t know which shop to try. They all look fancy enough, one designer brand after another line the streets. And Jinri still can’t decide what she should wear. So she goes into a store boasting a name-brand in huge curling black and the mannequins in the glass display have been put in bland looking clothes that looks expensive enough for rich people.

 

At first, Jinri is afraid to so much as touch the clothes. Many of them are more expensive than her life is probably worth. But then she remembers all the money she has in her wallet, courtesy of Im Jaebeom.

 

She can afford to touch these expensive things now.

 

A crisp black and pink suit catches her attention from across the store. It is on display in the corner and the mannequin wearing it looks very sharp and sophisticated for a faceless inanimate object. Jinri walks towards it. She doesn’t notice the sales associate until she steps directly in front of her. Jinri stops abruptly and nearly falls out of her heels.

 

 “May I help you?” The woman asks, not even trying to feign politeness.

 

 Jinri hums a no. “I’m just looking.” She side-steps around her and continues walking towards the suit on display.

 

 The saleswoman follows her. “Excuse me,” she says, reaching out to grab Jinri’s arm. “That suit is not for sale.”

 

Jinri looks down at her fingers wrapped around her bicep. Her nails are manicured and painted a light pink. They sparkle in the light as they dig into her skin without caution. Jinri looks up at her face. The saleswoman is shorter than she is, a whole head shorter and skinny to boot. Jinri matches her frown for frown, eyes narrowing in irritation.

 

“Let go of my arm, miss,” she says slowly like the woman is too dim to understand otherwise.

 

At first she doesn’t, not until Jinri is grabbing her by the wrist and prying her hands off. The woman snatches her arm immediately, hissing like she’s twisted something. She looks at her wrist, cradled in the palm of her other hand. Jinri looks, too. It’s pink. Jinri’s stomach lurches. She sees a flash of her father’s angry face, of his fist flying. Her own howl of agony echoes in Jinri’s ears.

 

 The sales associate clears her throat. Jinri blinks back the memories from her eyes and tells herself to focus on the present. The past cannot hurt her now.

 

 “Do you have something similar?” Jinri asks, referring to the suit.

 

 “No.” The woman says. “We don’t.”

 

The woman stares at her pointedly, eyes flickering to acknowledge Jinri’s flimsy dress and then to the door. Jinri gets it. She’s not wanted there, regardless of how much money is in her wallet. So Jinri leaves; the glass door sliding close behind her.

 

 

***

 

 

When Jinri treks back to the hotel in defeat, she is ambushed as soon as she walks through the door by the apartment manager.

 

 “What is with you people!” Jinri yells in frustration, throwing her hands up in the air.

 

 “May I have a word?” The manager asks.

 

 “Do I have a choice?” They both know that she doesn’t. When the manager motions for her to follow, Jinri does. They enter a small office decorated in warm tones. There are two leather chairs, a desk, and a few storage cabinets.

 

 “My name is Mark Tuan,” the manager says while pouring them both some tea. “Yours?”

 

 “Jinri.”

 

 “Pleasure.” When Mark hands Jinri a cup, she meekly takes it. “You must know that what happens at other apartments does not happen here?”

 

 Jinri does not like where this is going. She wants to leave. Mark can tell too, because he gives Jinri a look that says ‘drink your fucking tea’. Jinri dutifully sips. Mark is an intimidating man.

 

 “Mr Im, however, is a very powerful man. And because Mr Im is such a powerful man,” Mark continues, “we will overlook any small… indiscretions.”

 

 Jinri’s mouth goes dry, despite the tea. She tries taking another sip but it doesn’t help. She can’t taste it at all.

 

 “You must be related to Mr Im. You’re his…?” Mark asks as if they are talking about the weather.

 

 “Cousin?” Jinri whispers.

 

 “Yes, of course. I assume that once Mr. Im leaves I will not see you in our modest apartment again?”

 

 Jinri nods silently.

 

 “Good. I thought as much. I would also advocate that you dress more conservatively...”

 

 “That’s what I’ve been trying to do!” Jinri interrupts vehemently, “I’ve got all this money now but no one cares! They still treat me like.....Fuck.”

 

“Were you in Apgujeong?”

 

Jinri pouts, almost in the verge of tears.

 

“I see,” says Mark thoughtfully. And maybe he does, but Jinri certainly does not. She stares down at her lap and wishes she could just disappear. She hasn’t felt this low since she lived with her parents.

 

Mark takes out his cellphone. “Is Sunmi-noona there? Hello noona. I have a favour to ask. Yes? No noona. Thank you. Her name is Jinri. She is a cousin of Mr. Im. They’re having dinner tonight and she hasn’t anything to wear. Shall I send her along?” Mark pauses and smiles faintly. “Thank you noona, I’m in your debt.”

 

 After hanging up, Mark finally sits down and drinks his tea.

 

 “You didn’t call the cops,” Jinri states blankly.

 

 “No. Why would I?”

 

***

 

Jinri does not know what she was expecting, but the boutique that Mark directed her to was not it. First of all, it wasn’t located anywhere special. Second, everybody seemed to be ignoring it like it wasn’t even there, even with the old-world vintage charm it exuded – and some people really liked that aesthetic, didn’t they? And yet it looked like there was hardly anyone inside from the glass displays.

 

When Jinri finally musters the nerve to go inside, Sunmi is waiting for her in a decor that is beyond opulent, and clothes around her that look like it was meant to be worn by a select few. Jinri had misjudged apparently.

 

 “Hi,” Sunmi says kindly with an accent she can’t place. “You must be Jinri.”

 

  “Um, yes.” Jinri feels bashful suddenly under that gaze.

 

The proprietor of the shop is a beautiful woman; shorter than Jinri but lithe and elegantly dressed. Her long black hair is pinned stylishly back from her face in a chignon with wisps of hair framing her heart-face. She has feline flicks of dark black liner at the corners of her bright eyes and small freckles dot the bridge of her nose. Her rich glossy red-lipped smile is contagious. Jinri can’t stop staring; the jealousy that’s bound to be there is strangely absent.

 

“Lovely,” Sunmi kisses her cheeks and motions for Jinri to follow her deeper into the store, “We sell a bit of everything here; dresses, suits, gowns... I’m sure we can find something that will suit you. Although, and I’m being presumptuous here, forgive me, I thinks a nicely cut form-fitting dress will suit you best.”

 

 “Form-fitting,” Jinri repeats. “There’s no form to fit, noona,” as she moves her hand around her chest.

 

“Oh....uh never you mind.” Sunmi says flaying her hand around. “We can work around that. Mr. Im should be very impressed that you’re wearing one, given that back view of yours.” Sunmi laughs loudly at her own joke and winks at Jinri. “Did you have a certain style in mind?”

 

“Uhhh...,” Jinri hesitates. She pulls at the flimsy material of her dress and then looks at the expensive silks and chiffons and who knows what else filling the racks. “Not really. Maybe something flattering? Up top. I’m very… flat.”

 

 Sunmi laughs again and pats Jinri gently on the elbow. “I understand. I think I know just the one for you.”

 

***

 

Jaebeom told Jinri to be at the lobby at half-past seven. They are to dine with Mr. Son and his grandson at this unreasonably expensive restaurant. Apparently, it was modelled after some gaudy 1920’s dance room. Jaebeom hopes he doesn’t get food poisoning. 

 

After several minutes of waiting, tapping his foot in a much undignified manner, Jaebeom decides to go back to his apartment to hurry her up. He briefly wonders if Jinri decided to just take the money and disappear. The idea is upsetting, especially if Jaebeom’s suspicions about her hold true.

 

 “Mr. Im?”

 

 Jaebeom turns as he’s making way to the lifts. A man dressed in a starched suit and tie stands before him and offers a hand.

 

 “Mark Tuan, building manager. I’m new here,” he explains at Jaebeom’s frowning face, “I had the pleasure of speaking to your cousin today.”

 

 But Youngjae was with him the entire day. “Who?” Jaebeom asks confusedly, squeezing the man’s hand once.

 

 “Your cousin, sir. The lovely young lady staying with you.”

 

 Jaebeom wills himself some patience. Then he gives Mark a pointed look. “We both know she’s not my cousin. Will that be a problem?”

 

 “Certainly not, sir,” Mark says. “I just wanted to let you know that other owners might have a problem with it in the future.”

 

 Jaebeom nods, perfectly understanding what Mark means to say and excuses himself. “I’ll keep that in mind.”

 

At the apartment, he still can’t find Jinri. Frustrated, Jaebeom is about to go out and look for her, dinner be damned when she appears out of his walk-in. He breathes out a sigh of relief – she was just taking her sweet time dressing up.

 

“There you are,” Jinri says as if she hadn’t almost given him a heart-attack. “I needed a coat. I forgot to buy one so I thought to borrow one of yours. It’s cold outside.” She holds up his navy pea coat as proof and gives him a small smile. Her cheeks flush when she catches him staring.

 

Jaebeom doesn’t say anything. He can’t.

 

Jinri’s lips glitter in the low light of the room and her eyes look bigger, but that is hardly where his focus is on. She’s wearing what he confidently knows is a Hervé Léger – his ex had a penchant for those, but it would kill her to see the way it fits on Jinri. Criss-cross of black bandage-like fabric hugs every single curve of Jinri adoringly. The top is a reasonable low cut, displaying Jinri’s clavicles beautifully and the bandage design follows on to give an illusion of a bust. The hemline shows enough leg to walk the line of modesty. And when she gives a twirl unprompted, his eyes zero in on the perfect peach of her derrière. He’s only a man and Jinri is breathtaking.

 

 “We’re going to be late,” Jaebeom finally says, in a way of ushering her. “Quick, quick,” he says as he motions for her to make haste.

 

 Jinri pouts when she doesn’t get the compliment she was expecting – the mirror told her she was looking quite fetching. She walks to Jaebeom’s joke of a vanity and sprays on some mist quickly. The glass clinks sharply against the marble of the tray. Then Jinri puts on his coat, swimming in it as she pockets her hands and gives him a look. They take the lift down to the parking lot without another word. 

 

***

 

Son Hyunjae and his grandson Hyunwoo are already seated at a table when they reach. They both rise to greet them. Son Hyunjae is an ageing man with balding white hair. His face is wrinkled and stern. Hyunwoo on the other hand looks like a rabbit if you ask Jaebeom. He’s taller and bigger than Jaebeom, yes, but when he smiles at Jinri, his incisors look like two white Chiclets.

 

 “Good evening,” Jaebeom says cordially, “A pleasure to finally meet you both. This is my friend, Jinri.”

 

Jinri smiles nervously. She shakes Mr. Son’s hand and then Hyunwoo’s. Hyunwoo, however, smiles wide enough to make his eyes crinkle, as if he’s meeting an old friend, which would have been more than enough chivalry for the evening but he has the gall to lift Jinri’s hand to his mouth and kiss the back of her knuckles, lips lingering far longer than is socially acceptable. Jaebeom’s eye twitches in irritation. When Hyunwoo offers Jaebeom his hand, Jaebeom makes sure to squeeze extra tight while offering a challenging smile.

 

They sit down and glance through their menus – it’s in French and it’s testing Jaebeom’s patience, not that he cannot read it, he just doesn’t understand the need for this much pretentiousness.

 

As their waiter takes Mr. Son and his Hyunwoo’s orders, Jaebeom feels a hand urgently tapping his thigh. Jaebeom turns to Jinri, who stares at him with wide eyes. 

 

“Shall I order for us both?” He guesses.

 

 “Yes, please,” Jinri says at once, shutting her menu with a flourish. Jaebeom asks for the house speciality and a bottle of red. 

 

Once the waiter leaves, Son Hyunjae sits straighter in his chair. Hyunwoo copies his grandfather in a sorry excuse of making himself look intimidating. They’re both an only child, Hyunwoo and Jaebeom, so those tricks don’t work on him. Jaebeom prepares himself for the old-money nonsense bound to follow.

 

 “Jaebeom-ssi,” Mr. Son begins, “May I be blunt?”

 

Jaebeom nods. Blunt would be ideal. The sooner this business is over with, the sooner he can leave.

 

 “Are you buying my hotel?” Mr. Son tries to bait Jaebeom into a staring match.

 

 “Yes.”

 

“Are you coming after my company too?”

 

“Yes.” Jaebeom says, so sharp and self-assured that Jinri finds it shockingly sexy.

 

Hyunwoo pushes back from the table and stands up abruptly. Mr. Son doesn’t even bat an eye. He reaches over and pulls his grandson back into his seat and pats him on the shoulder. “Calm down, Hyunwoo,” Mr. Son says.

 

At that moment the waiter arrives with the appetizers and pours them all a glass of red wine. Jaebeom sips his; letting the flavour roll over his tongue. Jinri does too and tries not to make a face at the taste – it’s very dry and bitter.

 

“Jaebeom-ssi,” Mr. Son begins again, “I’m not a fool. The companies you buy are dismantled and sold piece by piece to the highest bidder.”

 

 “Not all of them. But it’s all perfectly legal.”

 

 “I don’t care about legal. I’m not about to let you rape my company.”

 

Jaebeom reminds himself to stay calm. There’s no point in throwing curses now, not when the deal is ‘this close’ to finally being over and done with.

 

“The company does not belong to you,” Jaebeom says through clenched teeth. “It belongs to the bank. And they are selling it to me. Stop trying to fight a war you cannot win.”

 

“You dirty nouveau riche,” spits Hyunwoo, “You take a lot of pleasure in ripping people’s hard earned money off of them, don’t you. If you had any respect for the Son’s name, you’d think twice before laying your eyes on what’s ours.”

 

“Hmmm....no.” Jaebeom’s tone is as disinterested as he can make it, “I think it’s you should’ve thought twice before allowing dirty men to record snuff films in your hotel and trafficking women in your clubs. Your money is evil, Hyunwoo-ssi, and I’m going to purify it. In fact, you should be grateful.”

 

This time it is Mr. Son that rises from his chair. Hyunwoo’s face has completely drained of blood.  “Then we have nothing further to discuss.” Mr. Son concludes, “Enjoy your dinner.”

 

 Jaebeom sighs in relief once they are out of sight. All that’s left now is the boring paperwork.

 

 “They seemed nice,” Jinri pipes, taking another bite of her salad.

 

Involuntarily a laugh bubbles out of Jaebeom.

 

 

***

 

 

 

Jinri watches him getting ready for work. With his forehead scrunched up in a frown and his jaw jutted out, Jaebeom looks every bit a bad news and it still somehow manages to turn her on. The dinner last night was a disaster she knows – knew the moment that old man used that word. She has known Jaebeom only for a little while, but she knows if that man has anything he holds dear, it’s his integrity.

 

In an absurd moment of bravery, she walks to him and grabs him by the sleeve of his shirt. When Jaebeom turns to her confused, taken off guard, she winds her arms sweetly around his neck.

 

“Sajangnim,” Jinri says, her voice teasing, “You look like you’ll fire your entire company the moment you step into the building.”

 

“Maybe I will,” Jaebeom says in an annoyed huff.

 

She would be a liar if she said it wasn’t cute. Im Jaebeom a cute little boy. It makes her stifle the giggle that tries to slip out. Now is not the time by the looks of it. Jinri is intimately familiar with the damage what hands of men with too much money and too fat egos can do. Although, something tells her, Jaebeom – even with his volatile temper, who can get tough and territorial when it pleases him, that people sometimes are scared to look him in the eye, wouldn’t lay a finger on her. He contains within him that kind of power, yet chooses to treat her with a gentleness that is unforced.

 

Which only spurs her on.

 

 “Aww,” she pouts, irritating him even more, “Those innocent people....will you fire Youngjae too?”

 

“Why are you worried about Youngjae?” Jaebeom is really honestly angry, if his clipped tone is any indication. He’s trying too hard not to outright grind his jaw and come off too petulant.

 

Jinri doesn’t know what comes over her, because the next moment she’s pulling him by the front of his shirt and throwing him on the couch. Jaebeom’s eyes widen in shock and awe as he looks up at her, his dumbfounded face making Jinri feel inexplicably powerful, standing there between the spread of his legs as she looks down on him.

 

“Don’t move...Oppa,” She says looking him in the eye as she slowly goes down on her knees, “And keep your hands to yourself.” It’s like looking straight into the eye of the tiger and hoping your good fortune will pull you through. It’s dangerous, it’s exciting, it’s breathtaking.

 

She places her hands on his thighs, it’s tense as expected, and the warmth of it seeps out through the wool of his pants into her palms. Jaebeom doesn’t take his eyes off her, as if trying to call her out on her bluff, but Jinri, taking it as a challenge, doesn’t look away. It is exhilarating to bind someone like Im Jaebeom to her whims.

 

She slides her hands slowly to the button of his trousers; it’s a tiny laughable little thing holding back the truth of Jaebeom’s lust from Jinri’s eyes. She pops it open, and when she goes on to pull down the zipper, his cock twitch into her hand. He’s hard. Being pushed and pulled around by Jinri, by her unusual show of dominance, has somehow gotten him hard. She looks up at him and her grin is an evil thing that makes him gulp tellingly.

 

Jinri can’t remember if she had ever been this enthusiastic about sucking someone’s cock, it was only ever a transaction before, not that this arrangement between she and Jaebeom isn’t, but it was never out of her own volition, not like now. And that Jaebeom hasn’t shown any signs of disliking it only fuels her desire, not that he could anymore, what with Jinri grabbing into the waistband of his briefs and pulling it down just enough to mouth at his cock.

 

From that first night when she sucked him off to having him in her twice now, she’s aware of what it feels like – it’s a magnificent thing she’ll agree. But to have him like this, at her mercy; of him watching her every move like a hawk, there’s a novelty to it that excites her.

 

She peers up at him smugly from beneath her lashes, tongue sticking out to wet her lips filthily. Jaebeom is already beading with precome and it makes her want to take a lick. He groans, eyes closed and head thrown back, when she places a soft sucking kiss on the head.

 

“Oppa, look at me,” Jinri says, the foreboding smile never fading from her lips. “If you look away, I’ll stop.”

 

Jinri licks up the length of his cock, curls her hand around him, loosely jerking him off. She traces around the base of him with her finger tip, a teasing caress, before wrapping her hand around his cock tight, enough pressure so he can get some relief, and giving it a gentle squeeze. She squeezes harder then, and gives a slow stroke from the base of his shaft to the head, letting her thumb gently stroke over the weeping head. She can see Jaebeom is almost crawling out of his skin with nerves and it saturates her body with a sadistic sort of pleasure. She wants to make him squirm just a bit more.

 

She gives it a shy kiss like the one before, her closed lips feeling the heat that is radiating from his cock and the wetness from the tip. Her fingers feel the pulsing from the vein on the shaft as she continues to give a few open-mouthed kisses all along the shaft. But as much as Jinri wants to tease him further, she can't keep torturing herself either; she wants to take him in her mouth just as much, feel the girth of him stretching her lips, wants to gag on the length of it.

 

 Jinri takes him in her mouth in earnest then. She lets her lips part, and finally feels the perfect sensation of his cockhead slipping between them. She hears Jaebeom groan and she wants to look up, watch him look at her on her knees gagging on his cock but she can't keep her tongue from gliding over the head again and again, happily tasting the precome that has beaded up and then trace the ridge with her tongue, sucking easily on the head, while still jerking his cock with her hand.

 

After a few moments of savouring the taste, that is still new yet familiar, at once comforting and exciting, though she does look up and Jaebeom is watching her, just like she told him to, eyes hazy, mouth hanging open and panting. Instantly she wants – needs – more, and can no longer content herself with sucking on only the head. On the next downward stroke she lets her lips follow her hands further down his shaft, and even further still, until her lips hit the base. When she comes up, she sucks harder with her mouth, making her lips torturously tight as she pulls away. She drags her tongue along the vein on the underside of his cock, then swivels her tongue around the head, making him let out a groan of pleasure.

When she sucks his cock back into her mouth this time, she does it quickly and takes it deep again. Jaebeom lets out silent ‘fuck’ and she makes it a point to keep going, all the way, until the head is pressing against the back of her throat. She makes herself take him in deeper, to a point just short of gagging, her lack of gag reflex making Jaebeom moan pathetically, until her lips are wrapped tightly around the base. She pushes her head forward a couple of times, grinding his cock into her throat, feeling it close around the pleasant invasion.

Jaebeom’s sounds of pleasure pools into the well of lust that’s almost close to overflowing with how turned on Jinri is from sucking his cock. It has turned her on more than almost anything else has, ever, makes her start to squirm and she can feel how hard she has gotten, can feel the slippery wetness between her folds. Unable to resist, she sneaks a hand into her lingerie, she curls her hand around her cock and jerks herself slowly a few times before slipping her hand lower, and on feeling the wetness and heat there, she can’t help but stroke her clit.

 

As she teases herself, she works her mouth even harder on him, settling into a sensuous pattern - sucking in quickly and deeply, each time deepthroating his thick cock, gagging on it to the point where her eyes begin to tear. She’s delirious with want, losing herself into pleasuring Jabeom. But this only leaves her craving for more.

 

When she pulls away slowly, there is a string of saliva connecting Jaebeom’s cock to her plump lips, red now from sucking him. There are tears running down her face and her pupils are blown from lust. She looks debauched, and even if Jinri hadn’t warned him about looking away, Jaebeom doesn’t know if he could even take his eyes off her.

 

She stands up slowly, slides her hands under her négligée and pulls down her lingerie, all the while looking at Jaebeom in the eye.

 

“Baby,” it makes him whisper.

 

“Hands to yourself, remember oppa?” Jinri says before she is sitting down on him, legs on either side bracketing his hips between her thick thighs. With her hands on either side of Jaebeom’s head, gripping the back of the couch for leverage, she rubs herself on him painfully slow, a slick slip-slide slathering his cock with her wetness.

 

“Baby please,” Jaebeom whines, to the end of his rope by the looks of it. It makes Jinri smile.

 

“Learn to be patient oppa,” Jinri says as she drenches her own fingers with her wetness before reaching behind and grasping Jaebeom's cock. Jaebeom wills himself to ignore the sensation, but Jinri's palm is soft and when she tugs on the perfect side of rough, Jaebeom squeezes his eyes shut, "Babydoll please, don't make me come yet."

 

"I didn’t think you would be this easy, Sajangnim," Jinri breathes, knowing she riling him up deliberately, but fully enjoying it. Jaebeom opens his eyes to find Jinri smirking down at him, her eyes smiling, all guileless even as she was stroking him expertly; awkward angle be damned, holding Jaebeom's cock snug between her asscheeks, letting Jaebeom’s precome drip onto her skin.

 

"I’m not, you just caught me at a bad time," Jaebeom says, voice irritable. His fingers had been digging onto the cushions in a tearing grip, unable to touch her. She removes her hand from his cock then and Jaebeom threw his head back in desperation.

 

“Is that it, oppa?” Jinri says as she places her hand on his shoulders, slowly bringing them down to his chest to pop open the first three buttons. She trails her hands inside his shirt to caress the skin there, dragging them up to his sharp clavicles then higher to hold on to the base of his neck, as her eyes rakes down his face making him shudder. And then as if time slows to a crawl, Jinri gets up on her knees, her brown eyes piercing into Jaebeom as she reaches under herself and grasps Jaebeom's cock, lining it up.

 

She sinks down slowly, making Jaebeom's breath hitch as he breaches Jinri's tight folds, his breath staying locked up in his chest until he is fully encompassed in Jinri's slick heat, her cunt clamped like a vice around him. Jinri lets out a low moan, damp lips parted, her thighs quivering as she grips on to Jaebeom’s shirt to keep a check on her self-control. After a few moments of just gripping him in her, body trembling from the roots of her hair to the tips of her toes, she’s off him.

 

“Oppa.....oppa touch me...touch me please,” Jinri says, suddenly delirious with want, and no sooner does those words leave her mouth, Jaebeom’s hands are on her, palms painfully tight on her waist, gripping her hips and down around the curve of her ass, grabbing her, unable to stop touching her.

 

"Babydoll," he breathes. He feels Jinri shudder.

 

Jaebeom had gone stupid under Jinri's sweet torture, but now that he has been allowed to touch her, his focus goes straight to Jinri's tight heat, sliding one slick finger around her opening before dipping inside. Jinri whimpers, both hands back on Jaebeom's shoulders in a bruising grip. He can’t tear his eyes away from Jinri's face, brows scrunched and mouth thrown open in a silent scream, as he slips a second finger beside the first and pushes further inside. Jinri's chest and thighs go tight, her grip on Jaebeom’s shoulders falter, but the quiet welling of pride is nothing compared to the desire radiating from Jaebeom's body. A small tremor ripples down Jinri's stomach and her cock throbs against Jaebeom's belly. When he tries to curl his other hand around her, she slaps it away. "I want to come with you fucking me, oppa," Jinri rasps.

 

She looks at Jaebeom, his mouth open on a groan, lips wet and kissable and for a split second she wants to do something irresponsible, like kiss him. Instead, she presses her forehead to Jaebeom's and he can’t help but thrust his fingers in deep one more time, just to feel the heat of Jinri's gasp over his lips.

 

“That’s enough oppa,” she gasps.

 

"What do you want baby?" Jaebeom whispers.

 

"I just....I want to feel you. I need you, oppa."  The naked want in Jinri’s voice makes Jaebeom shudder violently. He withdraws his fingers, presses his palm to the small of Jinri's back, another arm going around her waist to lift her up enough to let his cock slide between Jinri's folds and rub against her entrance, as his ears get drunk on Jinri's stifled moans.

 

“You’re driving me mad, Jinri-ah,” Jaebeom says, her name slipping past without notice.  

 

"Fuck......say it again," Jinri moans as she rises up and sinks back down again on his girth making them both groan together. "Oppa.....Please," she says and Jaebeom can’t deny her in the face of her sweet pleading.

 

"Jinri," Jaebeom whimpers.

 

Jinri's fingers dig into Jaebeom's shoulders, and she begins to ride him, slow and sure. Jaebeom matching her rhythm bucks his hips up each time Jinri slides down hard. Jaebeom's breath comes in a short staccato until Jinri’s négligée slips off one shoulder, exposing a nipple and his head dips down and captures it in a messy kiss. She moans and grinds into Jaebeom, hands moving to his head, gripping fingers curling on his hair, keeping his mouth around her nipple. Fire burns through Jaebeom's veins, his whole body wounds tight. He squeezes Jinri's cheeks open and sneaks two fingers down to the place where they are joined together.

 

Jaebeom couldn't last—won’t last much longer, he knows from the way Jinri arches her back and rides him in quick short jerks. He wraps both his arms around Jinri's delicate waist, but just holds her for a moment and feels Jinri throb around his cock. He can feel her erection on his abdomen – she painfully hard and pre-come dribbles out of the slit. Jaebeom wants to swipe his thumb through it and smeared it across the head. He wants to bring it to his mouth and taste her. Instead he busies his mouth around her nipples, on her clavicle, up on her neck, mottling them with pretty bruises.

 

"Jaebeom........oppa......" Jinri's hands drop to Jaebeom's shoulders, gripping his shirt to steady herself as Jaebeom thrusts and thrusts, Jinri pulsing impossibly tight around him and his cock. They pant together, mouths skimming against one another with each thrust. They’re too close, it’s too much. Her entire body quivers and twitches violently, until she comes, spilling herself in spurts of white, mouth dropped open in a silent scream.

 

Jaebeom can already see the absolute bliss taking over in Jinri's slackening arms and heaving chest as she sags on him. Jaebeom slows his thrusts and just stares at Jinri, something breaking open deep inside him. He releases Jinri from his arms and places his palms on her waist, needing to touch her somehow, needing his hands pressed against Jinri's heat-slicked skin, needing her to centre him. Jinri rolls her hips leisurely — she never stilled — and gazes at Jaebeom, eyes bright and shining as one of her hands come up from his shoulders to runs a thumb through the twin moles below his left eyebrow.

 

"Come on oppa," she says, honey voice draped around her ragged breaths. "Come inside me. Fill me up."

 

That’s all it takes. Jaebeom brings her hips down on him and with one final thrust his orgasm rips through him in a fury. The world drops away and there is only Jinri and her brown eyes and her damp lips and the sultry heat of their proximity. He comes hard and drops face first into Jinri’s chest, grounded by her waiting, willing arms.

 

They hold each other, trying to catch their breaths until Jaebeom groans, “I’m late.”

 

It makes Jinri cackle. “Not my problem.”

 

She keeps on giggling until Jaebeom gets up abruptly, one hand on her ass and another around her waist, scooping her up into his arms as she clings to him, lets him do what he wants.

 

“Oppa, what?” she squeals as he walks them to the bathroom.

 

 

***

 

 

 

“Yaah....Im Jaebeom,” Jinri is lying down on the bed, head swinging off one edge, “I’m going to wither away in these four walls of yours.”

 

Jaebeom looks at her, a small indulging smile playing on his lips as he buttons his cuffs. It has been only two days since that impromptu couch sex. “Didn’t you say you needed a break?” he smart-asses.

 

“From fucking, a point you definitely missed,” she glares at him when he smiles innocently, his eyes turning into two slits. “I feel like a bird in a gilded cage.” A look crosses her eyes then and before Jaebeom can make anything of it, it goes away.

 

“You look mighty comfortable though, as a homebody. If you ask me.” And she does, lying on his bed like it belongs to her, stretching like a cat and burrowing into the fluffy covers as the merciful autumnal morning sun bathes her in its low light. She truly looks like the epitome of contentment.

 

“Well no one’s asking you.” She says, twisting her lips at him.

 

Cute.

 

Jaebeom doesn’t know where the petulance is coming from, but he doesn’t mind it. Doesn’t mind it at all, in fact he finds it all the more endearing as Jinri goes into a tirade talking his ear off bemoaning the state of her affairs being not at par. But Jaebeom just enjoys the warmth of her voice as it floods into his cold home.

 

“Go get dressed then.” Jaebeom says suddenly.

 

“What?”

 

“Weren’t you saying you didn’t like being cooped up? You don’t want to go out huh.”

 

Jinri looks at him, stunned, and then a smile is erupting on her face, eyes whiskering on the edges as she runs into the walk-in.

 

***

 

Autumn is always kind to the trails along Han River. The abundant pink muhly blows softly in the sweet breeze coming in from the river – it looks like an explosion of cotton candy. The reeds have taken on the rust red of autumn and there are a few trees, yellowing, here and there, breaking the sea of pink and little wildflowers lie interspersed within.  While the river itself is a huge gurgling stream chilling the winds blowing through the banks.

 

The trail they picked doesn’t have many people along it; a few, mostly grandparents, power-walking while swinging their hips. It makes Jinri laugh at their single minded focus. There are a few couples huddled together in their own silent love story, while some others walking hand in hand in a show of modesty. Jinri steals a glance at Jaebum; he looks entirely unaffected, taking in the grounding rustic beauty of their surroundings. Her eyes slip from his face to the way his shirt is hugging his broad back. She remembers how she grips on to it with a wild sort of desperation when he’s fucking into her, but it doesn’t make her blush as it usually would. Instead her eyes slid lower to where his hands stay disappeared into his pockets. Unbidden, a thought comes to her, of how easy it would be to slip her fingers with Jaebeom’s. Or hold on to those strong, softly veined arms coquettishly, as any lover would. Her heart lurches all of a sudden. She looks away from him and makes a mental note not to glance in the direction of the lovebirds. 

 

“Won’t they missing your charming personality in the office?” She teases as a means to break the silence, even though it was comfortable.

 

Jaebeom side-eyes her with a withering look. “I’m sure they are.”

 

“You just wanted to stay away from working all day, didn’t you?”

 

“In case you didn’t notice I’m the boss.”

 

“Ok sir, Mr. Boss man.” She coddles him while her eyes fix on the ice cream cart they come across. They did have lunch at a very expensive restaurant, though less pompous and definitely painfully Korean, before deciding on walking through the riverside. Someone would call it a date if they didn’t know better.

 

Especially when Jaebeom walks to the cart unprompted and turns to ask her what she’d like. “Mint choco?”

 

“I don’t like toothpaste ice-cream, oppa.”

 

“Well you’re missing out.” He says imperiously.

 

He pays for the dessert and walks to where Jinri has taken a seat on one of the benches. She looks like a sculpture in her flowy white sundress, sitting regally on the bench, enveloped in the flora growing behind her. The dying rays of the sun hitting her soft features only magnify the brilliance of her soft loveliness. It does terribly wondrous things to his heart.

 

“Thank you.” She says politely when Jaebeom hands her a simple chocolate cone as he sits beside her. She peels off the paper daintily and takes a tiny satisfying bite of it. Unlike Jaebeom, who is wolfing down on his with a vengeance, just like he did to the jajangmyeon during lunch. She thought he had a delicate tongue or an expensive taste because he had hardly touched his food during the meeting with the Sons, until she was met with the way he had finished his portion of the jajangmyeon in two bites, mouth stuffed like a chipmunk. She laughs remembering how adorable he had looked.

 

 “What?” Jaebeom asks.

 

“Nothing.”

 

“Well it must be something.”

 

“I wonder what Youngjae’s thinking of you missing work.” She says.

 

“Why are you bringing him up?” Jaebeom says back tersely, as if a little offended.

 

Jinri giggles. “Don’t be like that, I was just wondering,” she cajoles, “so he’s your cousin?”

“Yeah, on my father’s side, they used to live in Chicago,” Jaebeom says, “When aunt and uncle shifted base to Korea, I remember being the happiest boy ever.”

 

“Why?” she asks, taking another bite of her quickly melting ice-cream.

 

“Growing up as an only child I didn’t have any playmates. I did have friends in schools, but I didn’t get to be with them twenty-four hours. And I was always jealous that some of them got to have siblings. When auntie and uncle came back, I got to have Youngjae with me. Even though we’re six years apart and he calls me ajussi, I love him a lot.”

 

Jinri smiles at him. “I didn’t know you were a softie.”

 

“I’m not a softie.” Jaebeom balks.

 

“Why are you so nice to me oppa?” She hadn’t meant to ask that.

 

Jaebeom on his part looks taken aback. “Should I not treat you nicely?” he says making a confused face. Then, “Is this about a kink you want to pursue?”

 

“You know what I’m talking about.” Jinri huffs as a blush forms high on her cheeks. “You’re too rich to be entertaining the likes of me.”

 

“Why are you hell bent on seeing the worst in me?” he says, a frown forming on his forehead that Jinri doesn’t like one bit. “I don’t know what kind of people you had the misfortune of meeting, and I’m sorry you had to meet them, but I don’t see why one cannot act like a decent human being and treat you like a human in turn, regardless of what you do.”

 

She nods at his answer. She bites her lips and wonders; Jaebeom is so good, so unfailingly kind and he chose her, maybe for a few days, to shower that tenderness on. Then a thought comes to her, “You’re lonely.”

 

He looks like he was caught off-guard. “What?”

 

“You have everything anyone could ever ask for and you don’t have anyone to share it with?” it comes off as more of a statement.

 

“Well not for the lack of trying.”

 

“Tell me.”

 

He takes their wrappers and gets up to throw them in the dustbin like the law abiding citizen he is. When he comes and takes a seat, he gives her a cryptic look. Jinri thinks maybe she crossed the line.

 

“It’s not that I don’t go around, a man has needs.” He tries for lightness. “I did fool around with men and women equally all through uni. I was in a relationship too; had just broken up before I met you...I try. I really do try, but nothing seems to last.”

 

Jinri hums at that, “Commitment phobic?” she tries to make her voice as devoid of judgement as possible.

 

Jaebeom looks at her then, like he’s looking through her. There is an unwavering quality in his voice, as if asking her to defy him when he says, “It’s not that I’m afraid of commitment. It’s just that my heart is set on someone.”

 

Jinri’s heart drops a beat at that, but then he continuing, “There’s someone I fell in love with, still am. And every time I try to be in a relationship, I feel like I’m cheating; it makes my skin crawl. If I hate anything in this world, it’s disloyalty.”

 

“Why don’t you tell them?”

 

“I can’t. I was too late.” His eyes, so deep and dark, are glittering, and Jinri feels like an idiot for prodding him, when all it did was reopen old wounds of his.

 

The silence stretches on for a long pensive span of time. Jaebeom caught in his own head as Jinri looks at him with new eyes. She beats herself up inwardly at making him look so downcast, especially when they were having such a nice day, and she went and ruined it, and for what?

 

Dusk falls around them and with it brings the evening’s chilly winds. Jaebeom seems to break out of his musings then. “Let’s go home.” He says.

 

Home.

 

He says it so easily; as if it was something they shared between them equally. Jinri looks up at him as they walk to the nearest exit. Jaebeom looks back and gives her a small smile.

 

“I don’t know if you’ll ever believe me, but you’re the most blessed thing to have happened to me in a long while.” In this deserted place, it falls as loud as a gong between the two of them. It sounds like a confession; if one were to read between the lines, but Jinri thinks it’s saner to take that for what it was, a compliment.

 

In the end he takes her hand and locks his fingers with hers. She looks on to their interlinked fingers as Jaebeom leads her on, unconscious of how significant a thing he has given her. So she folds this moment like a love poem and stows it into the deep recesses of her heart where only her softest of memories reside. Perhaps to look back upon it when the going got tough, a little trinket of happiness this man bestowed upon her unknowingly.

 

***

 

Jinri sits up in confusion and looks around. The room empty. Sighing, Jinri throws back the covers and slips out from beneath their warmth. Goosebumps erupts over her naked body. She puts on her slip and goes in search of Jaebeom. She finds him standing in the kitchen in his expensive work trousers and a t-shirt, shuffling between the two front stove tops, waiting for the flames on the pan to go down. The pot on the other is bubbling over.

 

He looks cute trying to manoeuvre the two dishes cooking away, trying to salvage them, more like, by the smell coming off of them. She wants to interrupt but Jaebeom’s broad back in his threadbare t-shirt is a thing of fantasies. And Jinri is not an idiot to disturb her own saucy daydream.

 

 Unwittingly though, she gets an uncontrollable itch to wind her arms around him from the back, to place her head on those shoulders and breathe in his characteristic woodsy musk. Immediately her eyes open and she’s clearing her throat to get Jaebeom’s attention.

 

“Is it burned yet?” she teases.

 

Jaebeom turns to her and sighs, “I’m really useless at this.”

 

“Why are you even making breakfast? Don’t you have it at work? Wait, why aren’t you in office?” she asks in rapid fire.

 

“I called in sick.” Jaebeom says, but doesn’t meet her eyes.

 

“But you’re not sick.” Jinri says as she comes near to stand in front of him.

 

Jaebeom looks down at her from beneath his eyelashes, “One would think you don’t want me around.”

 

“Mmmmm true,” she says, smirks forming on her lips as her arms wind through his neck, “I do like your cloud bed more than you.”

 

Jaebeom gives an answering smirk back and unwinds her arms, “I was trying to make breakfast for you. And I will do it properly, if it’s the last thing I do...”

 

Jinri only laughs at his stupidity. “Chill sajangnim, you don’t have to sweat on my account. Although i know of other ways to make you sweat.” She adds as she looks up at him innocently.

 

“Breakfast first.”

 

***

 

“Can I take these off babydoll?” Jaebeom says, wording it like a question even as he's hooking his fingers in the band and pulling them down. He leaves Jinri’s underwear dangling from one ankle, not bothering to even take it off completely, so she's only in her négligée, with him kneeling between her legs.

 

Jaebeom’s eyes look shifty, like he’s planning something Jinri will both love and hate. She's beyond trying to stop him. Deep down, she doesn't want to stop him.

 

He lies down on her, supported on his elbows, eyes doing that lazy raking it always does, coal black gaze gliding honey slow down her features. When she looks at him her eyes falter.  He’s arousingly broad shouldered, and like this, looming, breathing hot above her, it only acts as kindling on her flame.

 

“Baby,” Jaebeom asks, a guileless lilt to his voice that knows exactly what it wants and what he’ll get either way, “can oppa eat you out?”

 

The gentle steady flame erupts out into an inferno. Jinri lets it, it’s not every day that a trick goes out of his way to treat her this sweet. It makes her feel special for once, and the gods know she deserves it. Though Jinri doesn’t say anything, throat feeling stuffed, she takes Jaebeom’s hand to press his palm flat against her belly, draws it to the ridges of her hipbones.

 

Jaebeom strokes his thumb there, in the soft valley of thin smooth skin. There’s a strange moment of an electric feeling where he feels Jinri’s hard cock brush his arm, and even shifts his hand a little to grasp it. But Jinri guides him lower, and Jaebeom’s fingers encounter the lush lips of her cunt, tellingly damp.

 

“Babydoll,” he says, aroused, and reaches reflexively with his other hand, gently pressing down on her belly. “You’re so fucking beautiful,” he says, and cups her groin, presses the heel of his palm against the mound of bone softened by flesh.

 

She is wet and hot, where Jaebeom’s fingers dip just inside. Jinri makes a throaty noise, and pushes up with her hips. Her tongue darts out to lave across her lips and her mouth breaks lushly apart into a moan. Jinri puts her hand on Jaebeom’s arm, touches the inside of his elbow, lets her lips hover an inch above Jaebeom’s ear. “Will you take care of it for me oppa?” she asks, at once innocent and daring. Two can play this game.

 

“Anything you want baby,” Jaebeom replies, and suddenly his mouth is around her cock.

 

Jinri does a sinuous writhing, but Jaebeom thinks it is in a good way as her fingers run across his hair, brushes the edges of his jaw, around the lips that is sucking on her. Her touch is gentle, possessive, and it makes his chest cave in.

 

Jaebeom pushes on her thighs, spreading them. She moves her legs obligingly, allowing Jaebeom to settle between them, and her thighs tremble where Jaebeom has them on an unyielding grip. It’ll bruise she knows; the erupted capillaries blooming like blotted red flowers on her skin and she thinks of how wonderful it will feel to press down on the beautifully broken skin later on. She thinks of how Jaebom turns her into an art of a different kind, the best kind.

 

Jaebeom can hear her breath quicken as he gets faster on her cock, with gentle brushes of his fingers, tracing the shape of her warm outer folds but she’s pulling him off her. He lays his head against Jinri’s thigh. He lets his breath wash over the places his fingers brush, runs his thumb up the centre. It parts for him, slick beneath, and he just barely touches the nub at the top, circles it soft as a graze of feathers.

 

Jinri sighs, seeming to melt into the soft cotton of the sheets, the fluffy mattress feeling like she’s floating on a cloud. Her hips arch into a satisfying feline stretch, the one after a long time in bed.

 

Jaebeom looks upon her in the diffused mellow light of the bedroom. She’s plush all over; right from that cherry red pout to her smooth round thighs, to her generous derrière right down to the lush lips of her cunt. She’s like a well ripened peach and Jaebeom wants to feast upon that bountiful yield.

 

Jaebeom grins helplessly to himself and brings his teeth around his mouthful of her thick thigh. Jinri’s body gives a jerk, the foot of that leg hitting him on his side. Jaebeom lets out a laugh, catches that foot with his free hand, and bends it up to kiss the arch. Jinri is flexible enough to endure the contortion, but she pulls her feet away from him and grabs him by the jaw to where she needs his mouth most.

 

“Oppa please,” she murmurs.

 

Jaebeom lowers his face. His hair pulls sharply through Jinri’s fingers, and it feels good. He skims his mouth over Jinri’s cunt without spreading the lips, kissing the outer folds softly back and forth – an anticipatory pleasure. The folds spreads gradually beneath his touch, blossoming like a spring flower, peachy pink in all its glory, until he tastes it upon his tongue.

 

When he licks, it’s just one short flick, right from bottom to the top. And then another, just as quick. Jinri raises her hips, and the hand in Jaebeom’s hair gets tighter, pushing. Jaebeom resists, pulling his mouth away entirely, puts his hand on Jinri’s flat belly, just below the navel, and pulls the flesh tight; the plump lips stretched, the sensitive nub exposed.

 

He puts his parted lips down on it, takes a slick sweet mouthful. Jinri shudders all over, goosebumps rising on her skin. She wants to blame it on the indecisive, nippy temperate weather of autumn, but she knows no one has ever done this to her and it’s the novelty of it that’s melting her brain.

 

She hooks one knee over Jaebeom’s shoulder, digging with her foot at Jaebeom’s spine. It is a goad enough, and Jaebeom brings her hand back on his hair for her to ruin it as she pleases, until he sucks, a sodden tender pulse of pressure repeated, his tongue stroking at the middle.  Jinri groans without words, gripping the back of Jaebeom’s head tight. Fresh damp spreads across Jaebeom’s chin. He continues without mercy, slipping his tongue between the slick creases, thrusting back and forth.

 

“oppa….fuck,” Jinri says, guttural and vulgar. “Right there, there, oh, Jaebeom, that’s the place….Yes...” This time the word is drawn out, drowned in a moan as Jaebeom obeys. He rubs the twitching clitoris with the flat of his tongue, circles it deep and steady, and then nudges the tip experimentally. He’s been kicked off from giving head by past one-night-stands for being too enthusiastic, and prepares himself from being pushed away by Jinri, but she only seems to stretch indolently, eyes closed, smile curling up one corner of her lips, as her hands grip punishingly on his hair. Jaebeom gets an uncontrollable urge to kiss those lips. But then she brings her knee around the back of Jaebeom’s neck, locking him ruthlessly in place.

 

“Don’t stop…oppa….please….” Jinri whines, and breaks off when Jaebeom moves one hand up to push his thumb into her mouth. She sucks on it as he rubs circles on her clitoris at the same time, and then, once it is wet enough, he slips his thumb down to push it into the narrow entrance.

 

Jinri’s groan is wordless and exquisite, loud enough to wake their neighbours if they had any. Jaebeom makes a deliberate effort to please Jinri if this is how he gets to hear her – thoroughly  ravaged and wanting.

 

He suckles and rubs, turning his tongue side to side, stroking his tongue on the swollen bud where Jinri wants it most. He could go on for hours, tirelessly working his mouth on her, head cushioned between her thighs, but feels jittery with impatient desire when Jinri goes gradually more and more still and tense beneath his treatment, fingers drawing tighter in his hair.

 

“Oppa…” she gasps, thighs shaking. Jinri’s breath comes in sharp pants, bitten off and ragged and it feels like a victory. “Oppa…I…”

 

And then Jinri is coming, a protracted instant of utter rigidity and then a riot of motion; her legs clamp on the sides of Jaebeom’s head tight, his five-o-clock shadow rubs harsh between her inner thighs but his seeking tongue counters it. Her back bows, head pushing back on the fluffy pillows, brain feeling like cotton. Her cunt spasms in Jaebeom’s mouth, clitoris contracting over and over, the inner walls clenched like a vice on Jaebeom’s thumb. Jaebeom can do nothing but stay in place, as she grinds into Jaebeom’s face, pressing on Jaebeom’s lips and his teeth.

 

Her cunt runs over until it soaks Jaebeom’s chin and throat, while he’s still sucking the needy desperate twitching of her cunt, one arm still holding her down by her hips, letting her ride out the unending squirming. It takes a long time to subside, that final savage burst of pleasure.

 

When he’s allowed to come up for air, Jaebeom looks like a wild creature, mouth red and drenched, breathe coming in slow and steady. He smirks his roguish smirk, left side tilting up as always – the harbinger of bad things.

 

Jinri thinks he’s done but then he drops to his knees, and tugs her by the ankles until her ass is hanging off the bed, and heat rises afresh to her face.

 

“Oppa, no….I can’t….” she begs, dropping her hands between her legs as he parts her with rough hands. “Please…no more.” He's got more than twice the strength she has and he’s bullheaded enough to see this through, if she knows anything of this man. She can do nothing but place her feet on those sturdy shoulders and let him have his way.

 

Shouldering his way in between her thighs he breathes out, lustful, and slides two fingers up the soaked lips before him. “Look how wet you are,” he murmurs, rubbing in a circle where her clit is. She whines and he leans in.

 

He licks a hot, open-mouthed kiss there, tongue sweeping along the silken wetness. He licks at her with the flat of his tongue, bullying it in he parts her, licks her again, quick little flicks and flat drags that make her squirm, pleasure curling outwards from her very core. It feels so good, pleasure on top of pleasure, like nothing she could've imagined.

 

He murmurs a curse and then fastens his lips over her, sucking greedily like he can't get enough. She cries out, stomach twisting with the pleasure and shame of it but her muscles feel like molasses, languorous and warm and decadent. She feels decadent, to have this man at her feet, reverential, seeing after her needs.

 

“You taste like honey,” Jaebeom says as if hearing her thoughts, lifting his mouth away to drag two fingers through her folds. He brings them, shiny with her wetness, to her mouth to rub across her lips and forces them in. “See how sweet you are babydoll.”

 

It's not so different from getting a mouthful of her own come; viscous against her tongue and a little sweet-salty, though much less bitter. It's nothing like honey, but she sucks his fingers anyway, like he wants her to.

 

He hums a pleased sound, and lowers his mouth to her again. She tries to call out for him but her throat is too tight, her chest heaving. She lets out a sigh as she lovingly rakes her fingers through his hair. He sucks in open-mouthed kisses and licks at her, laving her clit with long licks, like he's hungry for her, greedy, earlier finesse forgotten. His moans vibrate against her and she can barely stand it.

 

She’s still tender from before and when he presses two fingers inside her without warning, sinking them deep into her, her body gives out into a lurch. It stings a little with how tense her walls are around his thick fingers but that gets lost in the pleasure of his mouth, and when he starts to fuck her with them he goes slow and steady enough to send pleasure coursing through her core.

 

“Fuck,” he groans, breathe against her clit. “You're so wet for me, babydoll. Bet you could take my cock right now.”

 

She whines a ‘yes’ and he chuckles, goes back to teasing her clit with his tongue. She squeezes down around his fingers and he seems to take that as permission to pick up his pace. She knows she’s making terribly embarrassing sounds, not only her gasping sighs but the slick, sucking rhythm of his fingers sliding in and out of her.

 

“Baby,” he says, a casual demanding tone. “Look at me.” She shakes her head ‘no’. It’s a vantage that makes her unknowingly shy all of a sudden.

“Jinri,” he says, stern. She's not sure he's ever actually said her name all this while. “Please look at me.”

 

Her head feels groggy and her neck twinges but she looks down at him, past the plain white cotton of her négligée. He truly looks wild like an animal, his eyes blown out in lust, his chin has gotten wetter, his lips pink and slick as if he’s been feasting on his prey. He licks at her with his eyes locked on hers and she shudders out a breath.

 

“You like that?” he keeps on fucking her with his fingers, shoulder shifting as he does. “Like oppa eating your cunt?”

 

Jaebeom can be a downright bully when he wants to be and she hates it that he brings this side of him, only to tease her when he knows she’s feeling particularly shy.

 

 “Tell me.”

 

She wishes he’d put his mouth on her again, she's so close, needs just that little push. But he’s not going anywhere until she says it. She sucks in a breath. “I like it.”

 

“No,” he shakes his head.

 

Jinri knows exactly what he’s looking for. She’d beg him not to make her say it if she thought it would do any good. “I like oppa eating my...my…”

 

He smirks, kisses her folds and tugs on her cock. “Your sweet, wet cunt.”

 

She feels breathless. Even if she could she wouldn't say that, but he seems content enough to have teased her. He maintains eye contact as he licks out at her clit again and pulls her cock simultaneously. She moans at the twin points of pleasure, and at that he seems to redouble his efforts to make her come, angling the fingers upwards he begins to rub at that spot, fast strokes with the pads of his fingers that make her legs twitch with jolts of pleasure.

 

She’s overwhelmed. She wants to reach down and stop him, but he keeps at it, fucking her with his fingers of one hand and pulling on her cock with the other, watching her. She's sweating, still struggling for breath, climbing higher and higher, and then he fastens his lips over her clit and bites down. It feels like she’s freefalling.

 

Her back arches and toes curl, fingers grabbing tight at Jaebeom’s hair that has to be painful as her cunt gushes out, wetting Jaebeom’s chin down to his neck and chest. She is embarrassed of  has happened and wants to apologize for messing him up, but her voice is still stuck in her throat and she shudders through her orgasm, his fingers moving in and out slowly, feeling herself clench tight around them in throbbing pulses. He gives a last few lazy tugs on her cock that throws heat all through her pelvis and abdomen.

 

She’s never come so hard.

 

Jinri looks back at him, their eyes caught in a tunnel vision for who knows how long. She lets out a sigh and Jaebeom climbs up her body in a rush. Her eyes close as she listens to him unbuckle his belt, the clink of it making her shiver like a conditioned response, an anticipatory excitement of what’s to follow.

 

Jaebeom doesn’t bother taking his trousers or briefs off, only tugging them back enough to free his cock. He lies on her fully and tugs her legs around his waist and rubs his hardening cock against her where she’s slick and sensitive.

 

He lets his cock graze through her folds, on her clit and up beside her cock but doesn’t bother pushing in. Jinri let out a confused, annoyed ‘Oppa’.

 

“Let me have this baby,” he says, but she doesn’t know what.

 

There is a blink of a moment when they’re too close, Jinri dwarfed by the span of those shoulders. They could almost kiss, but they’re caught in a stalemate and Jinri turns her head when Jaebeom lowers his head to hide his face in her neck. She realizes then that he too is affected by it all. In pleasuring her, this resilient man has managed to undo himself and his only semblance of control is in losing himself in her. She lets him, holds him, needing to be tethered to something because she too is losing her grip on herself. When he kisses her neck, lips grazing her pulse, she kisses his forehead, wraps her arms around him.

 

Jaebeom is incessant, rubbing himself on her letting his cock catch on her passage once in a while as it rubs her clit, her cock caught between their abdomens. It is maddening, too much and too less at the same time. Jaebeom bears down on her like the waves in the sea, raised by the winds, magnificent in its enormity and Jinri feels no less than the rocks on the harbour weathered down by the force of it.

 

It doesn’t last too long after that, Jaebeom’s movements loses its rhythm, and it only takes a whispered ‘Jaebeom’ from Jinri on his ear and he’s coming on her, painting her abdomen white and soon after Jinri follows.

 

Neither of them speaks a word. Jaebeom quietly nestles his head on Jinri’s chest in a moment of intimacy and she can’t help herself but run her fingers through his hair tenderly. When she feels wetness on her chest, she wants to run her thumb below his eyes and through his cheekbone in a comforting gesture but catches herself. She knows from experience that no man, and not one like Im Jaebeom, could afford to have his vulnerability exposed, especially not to someone like her.

 

 

***

 

 

Jaebeom is staring unseeingly at the screen of his laptop when Jackson barges in his office and rouses him from the trance he had gotten himself into.  Jackson gives him a look he knows from past instances as the one when he’s about to give Jaebeom a bad news.

 

Jaebeom frowns at him although his heart jolts in alarm. “What is it?”

 

Jackson doesn’t say anything at first, walks to the one of the chairs opposite to Jaebeom and sits himself down. He doesn’t look Jaebeom in the eye, face downcast, hands wringing, breathing measured breathes. For the first time in a long time Jaebeom sees nervousness lining every single feature of his friend.

 

“Jia Er?” he prompts.

 

“Hyung…uhhh…” he begins; his voice meek. “About the Jinyoung thing you asked to look into…”

 

“What did you get?” Jaebeom doesn’t mean his voice to come out harsh, but regardless it does and it startles Jackson enough from continuing. “Jackson?”

 

Jackson keeps stealing glances, not looking at him up front and with a cold sense of horror Jaebeom knows what Jackson will say next.

 

“It’s him….It’s Jinyoung.”

 

Jaebeom swipes the files near his arm off the table with a force that sends them careening across. He had been sure it was Jinyoung all along, but now faced with the truth of it, it scares him of what it could mean.

 

“What happened?”

 

“Don’t get angry hyung…promise you won’t do anything stupid.”

 

“I’ll reserve that judgment, Jackson.” Jaebeom says, voice leaving no place for compromise.

 

“Jinyoung ran away from home the night before his 14^th birthday. The Parks woke up to find his room empty and instead of lodging a missing person’s complaint with the police, they covered it up with suicide. The head of the precinct was given hush money to let the matter rest.” Jackson relates to him, his own face now in a frown. “The rest is what we know…or what we were told apparently.”

 

“I want the one who was in charge of the precinct then out of job…by tomorrow.”  Jabeom says getting up and pocketing his cellphone and wallet. “Do the Parks still live in their old house?”

 

“Yes….why…what are you going to do?” Jackson says in alarm. “Hyung?”

 

Snatching his car keys off the table, Jaebeom dashes out of the door, disregarding Jackson shouting his name after him.

 

***

 

 

The Parks house is still the same charming bungalow he remembers from his youth. He has been parked outside of it for quite some time now and he prays no one complains to the authorities about a creepy unknown car in their neighbourhood.

 

Jaebeom has been lying with his head on the steering wheel, eyes closed, trying to order his thoughts, trying even harder to assemble some patience. He had driven just about under the speed limit – almost ran a few lights too, on the way here, restless with an energy trying to claw its way out of his skin in need of answers.

 

He takes a deep breath and walks out of the car to their door, ringing the bell and waiting for the hell he’s about to break loose on them.

 

“Yes?” A woman his mother’s age opens the door; she has the same doe eyes as Jinyoung.

 

“Is Jinwoo-ssi home?” he asks, trying to force out his inherent politeness.

 

“Yeah, he is...and you are?”

 

“I’m Jaebeom; I’m a friend of Jinyoung’s.”

 

The moment she hears the name her face drains colour. She doesn’t say anything back, only fidgets, as if not wanting to let Jaebeom in.

 

“Can I come in?”

 

“Sure.” She lets him in, and disappears in through a corridor to call Jinyoung’s father.

 

Jaebeom looks around the room having nothing to do, until someone behind him asks, “You’re a friend of Jinyoung’s?”

 

It is Jinyoung’s father; a tall and huge man, looking at him with an impudence Jaebeom believes shouldn’t be there in the first place. He wants to wipe it off his face.

 

“Uh...yeah...I am.”

 

“Well...uh...” he stutters and looks at his wife, before looking back at Jaebeom, “We don’t know why you’re here now...you must have gone to school with him I’m assuming.”

 

“Yeah I did.”

 

“Well....so you know it has been more than a decade since we lost our son.” Jinyoung’s father says morosely.

 

“Nine years...but who’s counting.” Jaebeom says, looking at Jinyoung’s father straight in his eyes with a quiet hostility.

 

“If you don’t mind me asking, why are you here?”

 

“I just.....I came here to know how he passed away. We never were told the whole story.”

 

“After all this time all of a sudden?” Jinyoung’s father gives him a confused look.

 

“I miss him....and I wanted closure.”

 

Jinyoung’s father nods as if in understanding and acting like a great grief has taken over him he croaks, “It was his birthday...we went to his room to wish him...in the morning...and,” his voice breaks, “He was....he was lying on his bed...we thought he was sleeping at first....then when his mother touched him, he was cold...we found my sleeping pills below his bed, empty....” He takes a long hard breath and continues, “We don’t know what happened, why he would do it.....we lost our only son and it’s all my fault. If only i had been more careful.”

 

“Jinwoo-ssi,” Jaebeom says taking a deep breath, his patience stretched too thin, “I want to know what really happened.”

 

“What are you talking about?”

 

“You know what. Why did Jinyoung run away….no don’t look shocked. What did you do to him that he had to run away from the people who are supposed to love him and protect him?” Jaebeom says, words slipping through his clenched jaw.

 

“Get out of my house.” Jinyoung’s father says in a warning.

 

Jaebeom balls his hands into fists to control how his body begins to shake; he doesn’t want to do something he’ll regret. “Tell me right now or I swear to whatever deity is listening…” Jaebeom lets the warning go unsaid.

 

Jinyoung’s father looks at him with anger and thinly veiled terror before he’s speaks, “Jinyoung wasn’t born like other boys. He looked boyish enough to pass off as one, but he was…he was cursed with an abnormality…we hid it as long as possible, but Jinyoung was assaulted by some seniors and they found out.” He gives Jaebeom a hasty look, “His mother and I decided to put him up for adoption while he was still a minor, let him go to a family that’ll have him and know what to do with him.”

 

Jaebeom runs a hand through his hair and pulls at it in frustration. When he speaks next, he tries to make it as controlled and succinct as possible, “Your son gets assaulted and the only solution you find is giving him up?” It sounds incredulous to his own ears when he repeats it.

 

“You don’t know what it is like to have a freak for a child, my only son that too, when you have two older daughters that you have to marry off. Do you know what would have happened if it got out? Three lives would have been ruined.” Jinyoung’s father says, voice so self-assured as if his laughable explanation was enough to settle the matter; to absolve him of his crime.

 

Jaebeom can feel the heat of flushed face. “So you throw your innocent child to the wolves? Do you even know where he is now, if he’s even alive?” he says, teeth baring. He wants to scream.

 

“I did what I had to do.”

 

And there is no more need for argument. Not when Jinyoung’s father cannot, or rather refuses to understand, let alone accept, the gravity of what he has done. Jaebeom doesn’t yet want to give up the fight he had mentally geared up for, setting aside his distaste for confrontation, for Jinyoung.

 

“You’re both of you disgusting and pathetic.” Jaebeom says forgoing all sense of manners. “You make me wish Jinyoung really was dead.”

 

Jaebeom knows what he has let slip out, but he doesn’t wait for them to inquire. He gives them a sickened look and turns their back on them and makes sure to bang the front door on his way out of their house.

 

 

***

 

 

 

Jaebeom knows he’s angry, he’s angry enough that he wants to punch a hole through a wall. No one is as patient as Jaebeom, so it can only be imagined how difficult it is for him to become like this.  Jaw jutting out in the ugly way his mom always makes fun of.

At what happened at the Parks household, has managed to test the limits of his tolerance. He’s not easily riled, he’s slow to anger, sometimes he can wait it out, usually waits it out but not now. The prudent thing would be to take some time to cool off and clear his head before he goes home but he’s hurting for Jinri – Jinyoung. He wants to see her moon-like face and be quelled of the turbulence in him.

 

And like a dying man finding a gurgling spring he’s here in his living room looking at Jinyoung, Jinri, blissfully oblivious of the battle her knight has come home from fighting, for her honour, for her worth.

 

Jaebeom likes her like this, looking out his window-walls, delicately sipping on a glass of red, the blush silk of her slip of a dress caressing her curves adoringly. Wants to capture the moment it in his mind so it will last as long as he is, to close his eyes and see her like this, like she belongs there in his home among all the luxury he can provide. Like she knows she deserves it all, confidently laying a claim to his couch, his bed, to the pots and pans in his kitchen, to the shelves after shelves of books, to him.

 

He stands there smiling, to bathe in her nonchalance. He’s content to have given her time to allow herself to be carefree, little as it may be. But he’s still simmering with residual temper and thinks it is best to remove himself, but then she turns around and graces him with her beaming smile and the radiance of it wipes out the last vestiges of his anger.

 

Perhaps not all of it because before he can speak, Jinri asks, “You are angry oppa.”

 

She says it like a statement and unawares his heart starts beating up, it is a happy thrumming; his heart recognized how well Jinri must know him to have seen beyond the facade of composure.

 

Jaebeom walks up to her and hugs her from behind. He places his head on her shoulder. “I was but not anymore.”

 

“Assholes giving you problem again?” she giggles.

 

“You could say that.” He sighs at their strange domesticity. “Were you bored? What did you do the whole day?”

 

“Read some. I have always wanted to read Jane Eyre, never got the chance though.” She laments. “Honestly I’m jealous of how many books you own, Sajangnim.”

 

He knows she’s pouting, maybe she said it in jest, but he wants to buy her a fucking library. He imagines her curled up in the settee by the window, book in her hand, languidly reading her fill. But those are dangerous waters and Jaebeom wills himself from ruining something already hanging by a thread. He takes her glass and keeps it away on the table for safety. It’d never survive what would transpire next.

 

Jaebeom presses his body closer to push Jinri on the window; she feels his chest against her back and his crotch against her ass. The feeling was far from unpleasant. Even after Jaebeom's fingers curls into her hair and pulls on it pleasurably, Jinri cannot deny her growing arousal. Her cock strains against its confines and her hips twitch backward minutely. Her breath seems hot as it ricochets against the glass back at her face.

 

Jinri feels bold and wicked as her adrenaline spikes. She looks out the window and it is a few metres to a straight bloody drop, and because Jaebeom is a rich motherfucker his building doesn’t have many neighbouring buildings close by to peep in on them, but it’s closer to evening and dying light of the day along with the oncoming street lights are enough to illuminate them should anyone want to take a look. And Jinri wants them to look, to see this rich and powerful man be lost into the layers of pleasure of her body.

 

Jaebeom's grip in her hair becomes tighter and she rolls her hips helplessly, rubbing her ass against Jaebeom's crotch. His lips brush against her ear before his teeth closes around her earlobe. Jinri’s whole body shudders.

"Please," Jinri begs mindlessly, not really sure for what. Her cry had sounds like a moan, and Jinri is fully aware of it, but it was too late to stop herself from making such an embarrassing sound.

 

Jaebeom kisses down into the base of her neck, slowly pulling down thin strap of her slip as he kisses across one shoulder. He runs his hand down her arms and he brings them up to wind around his neck. Jinri immediately goes for his hair. Jaebeom gives out an annoying self satisfied chuckle.

 

With an irritated groan, Jinri grinds her ass backward, trying to feel that heat and hardness on her. For several excruciating moments there is no response, but then Jaebeom presses his body against her again, all but crushing her against the window. Jinri moans in relief.

Jaebeom is toying with her, she knows. He wants her to tell him what she wants and exactly how she wants him but she’s feeling uncannily shy under his ministrations. A shiver passes down Jinri’s spine as she moans, "Oppa."

A sharp intake of breath tells Jinri that Jaebeom wasn’t expecting her voice to get that gravelly that quick. It makes Jinri feel some part foolish and some part powerful.

 

“What do you need babydoll?” expectedly Jaebeom groans. “Tell oppa...oppa will give it to you.”

 

Arousal shoots through Jinri, the feeling so intense it leaves her breathless. If only she could think straight. “I want you to touch me,” she blurts out.

 

“I am touching you,” he is being mean if Jinri can picture the smirk that has gone along with it.

 

“Oppa...” she pouts. “Touch me there...”

 

“Where babydoll?” Jaebeom is unrelenting and Jinri, probably another day in another circumstance would have enough bravado to hit Jaebeom back with his own shamelessness but she has lost her earlier boldness and instead takes one of his hands clutching her hips, to slither between her thighs where she’s warm and hard, and beginning to get wet.

 

That must have been enough for Jaebeom because he’s instantly tearing her lingerie off her, pulling up her slip to her waist and circling his fingers around her hardness. It’s his dominance, the casual savagery with which he rid her of her panties, hands unceremoniously grabbing her in her most intimate of places as if her body is his to do what he pleases, as if she was made to satisfy this man’s every whim, it’s a feeling of belonging and it is too much for Jinri. It only takes a few tugs of Jaebeom’s warm sure grip and him groaning into her ear, which tips her across, coming into Jaebeom’s fist.

 

It’s still not enough. Jinri is still high strung, a tension beneath her skin like an incessant itch. She wants to ask for more but her mouth is still sighing into Jaebeom’s ear, head lying on his shoulder. She feels like it’s not her place to ask for more but decides to throw caution to the wind when she takes him by his wrist and slides his hand lower to her plush folds. It’s dripping she knows, she also knows by experience that it tends to drive Jaebeom a little wild, if the way he groans is anything to go by.

 

“Babydoll you’re so wet,” He moans into her ear as he circles his finger around her clit lazily. “Are you wet for oppa?”

 

“Yes...” she sighs breathily when he slides two fingers in her cunt.

 

“What do you want baby? Tell oppa what you want,” Jinri can tell he’s losing his self-control. She wants this as much as he and it wouldn’t do to torture him when even, maybe in his own way, he’s still asking for permission when he doesn’t have to. He has paid to have this. That thought pushes her a little bit into the deep end.

 

“Put it in me oppa.....oppa please ...... I want it,” she pleads, deciding to end their impasse.

 

There is the tell-tale clink of Jaebeoms belt and the serrulate sound of his zipper but she’s not ready, never ready when he enters her. Even slow and gentle as he is, as attentive as he is to her reactions, it never prepares her for that pleasurable twinge of his girth hitting every spot in her. It is a satisfying pain, a sure slick bullying slide that makes her smile, especially when Jaebeom doesn’t stop his fingers on her clit, and with his other arm gripping her around her torso, Jinri feels like a marionette at Jaebeom’s mercy.

 

Jaebeom takes his time sliding in and out of her; she knows he’s still holding himself back. So she pushes her ass back on him, forcing him in her to the base, a sure aim to her sweet spot. She shudders and her knees go a little weak but she doesn’t get any time to collect herself because Jaebeom is fucking her, ramming into her from behind, his hips set in a fast, hard rhythm.

 

Jinri is made to put her hand on the window with the force of his fucking. Jaebeom can only watch in a daze as Jinri keeps bouncing on his cock in front of him, arching in a way that was almost unnatural. Every knot of her spine was nearly visible, concealed by a soft expanse of silk.  Her ass perfect, unblemished, only interspersed by an irregular trail of little dark moles, glistening from the sweat and blushing from the heat between their bodies, and there’s the angry fingerprints on her hips.

He can only blink, mouth open around his groans, eyes unfocused as muscles tensed, watching his cock move in and out of that perfect ass, almost being swallowed, sucked into her tightness as screams and sighs fills his ears. Jaebeom furrows his brows and bites his lip, stilling his movements for a second to breathe, only to slam his hips again, harder and sharper, earning the loudest moan so far from this beautiful creature in front of him.

 

Jaebeom can feel every tremble in her supple body as he pulls her back to him, keeps brushing that spot, aiming to it with deep, precise thrusts that never fails to elicit the most wanton moans from her. And Jinri is taking it all, screaming, writhing, ripping his hair from the tight grip she has on them and always pushing back onto Jaebeom's cock, always meeting his thrusts back frantically for more.

 

That's when Jaebeom's hand suddenly makes a hard contact with the round flesh of her ass, the sound of the slap echoing around the room. Everything seems to freeze for a second, and Jinri can’t breathe as the burning, throbbing feeling on her ass fills her senses. Jaebeom is almost worried that he has taken a misstep, until Jinri all but moans and spews a litany of ‘Oppa’ as she moves herself back on his cock, fucking herself on his length and subtly arching her back to hit that spot, pushing her ass up and silently asking for more, begging without words.


Jaebeom’s one-armed grip around her dainty waist tightens and he moves slowly into her a couple of time, not giving Jinri what she wants immediately because he knows how much the anticipation gets her off. Just as Jinri starts whining he pulls his hand up and smacks it down on her ass, right in the same spot, and she screams so loud, and her body jerks so hard that Jaebeom briefly thinks of iron brought on delicate china.

 

He caresses the spot lightly, soothing the red skin, then leans down and softly trails kisses down her shoulder. Jinri, with her hand grabbing into Jaebeom’s arms, turns her head to look at him, Jaebeom’s face focused and sweaty as he keeps moving in and out of her, his right hand travelling down Jinri’s body, down her stomach, feeling the muscles tense and finally wrapping around her cock to pump her slowly, in rhythm with his thrusts. Jinri closes her eyes as she feels Jaebeom nuzzle her neck, kissing his way up her jaw, and opens them again when she feels the other's breath ghosting right on her lips.

 

Jinri looks at this man who has made her feel like the rarest treasure in the world, look at her with such tenderness even under the gossamer shroud of arousal, that she can’t help but feel full of a bubbling feeling in her chest, feeling complete, as she closes her eyes again, allows this ephemeral happiness to engulf her. She hears his gravelly voice whisper her name, a soft tormenting ‘Jinri’ and her arousal spikes.

 

Jinri tries to spread her legs but Jaebeom is quicker and he lifts her by one thigh and places her leg on the settee, opening her up for him. She lowers herself down on Jaebeom’s cock again and again, two of his finger clamped around her clit. Jinri is vibrating with pent up need, fucking herself on his cock no nuance or rhythm until Jaebeom is bringing his hand down on her folds. She shrieks but her pace only gets faster, she needs a little more, just a little more and as if Jaebeom has heard her thoughts, he slaps her cunt once, twice, thrice and she’s coming. Her body taut, head thrown back on Jaebeom’s shoulder, as one hand grips on his hair, another tight around the wrist of his hand that is still caressing her clit. Her cunt is still a tight clamp around Jaebeom. He snaps his hips fast and hard in short sharp thrusts, up for the last time as he comes too, burying himself inside Jinri with a long groan. And the satisfying groan he makes is enough to tip Jinri over the edge again, squirting around the cock still lodged in her.

 

Jaebeom shuts his eyes and scrunches up his face, sharp features and tense muscles sighing into Jinri’s neck as he rides out his orgasm, his hands on Jinri in a bruising grip. And that's how they stay for a while, pale skin on tanned skin, sweaty back on sweaty chest, hands over hands, sighing into each other’s skins, erratic heartbeats falling into rhythm again.

 

Belatedly Jinri realizes not feeling the coldness of his rings when Jaebeom’s palm struck her ass.

 

***

 

 

It’s the day of the event.

 

A week has somehow passed. Jinri sits on the bed and stares out of the window-walls at the clear blue sky, dotted with white cotton candy clouds. She’s been awake for some time but she’s been staring at the speck of an eagle at the distance, soaring high above, uncaring of the responsibilities and heartbreaks of the laboring world below.

 

Jaebeom, predictably, isn’t there beside her, probably already left for work. She slogs her body out of the bed to the shower. She wipes the fog on the mirror to look upon herself. When she combs her hair back, it is the same brown eyes staring back at her. The same black hair, the same pink lips; it is the same person but somehow fundamentally changed. Her eyes drift to the purpling bruise on the base of her neck where the shoulder meets it; it looks as if she was gnawed by an animal. She gives it a rueful smile.

 

She is spreading peanut butter on a toast – the butter knife thwacking on the bread with a wrath as if it had personally offended her – when her cellphone rings.

 

It’s Jaebeom.

 

“Hello?” she says. A scowl is already forming on her face; for some reason she doesn’t want to talk to him, doesn’t even want to hear his voice.

 

“Hey…sorry I had to come here early. There are some files pending signature, so I had to clear them off my desk,” his voice comes off as rambling. Jinri doesn’t know why he’s telling her all that. Then in a voice she’s never heard from him – soft and apologetic and sincere, he says, “I didn’t want to wake you up.”

 

“No it’s fine.”

 

“So…you have to get ready for tonight…Mark told me you went to Sunmi’s last time…well I already called her and made a reservation for you…hello…are you there?”

 

“Yeah…I’m listening.” She doesn’t know when she had tuned him out.

 

“So you’ll be fine by yourself right? You can go Sunmi’s by yourself? You remember the way; you went there a few days ago.” She doesn’t know why Jaebeom is being so smothering suddenly. It only manages to deepen the frown on her face.

 

“Yeah.” She says tersely.

 

“Ok…I left some money on the coffee table.”

 

“Ok. See you when you get back.”

 

“Oh! I forget to tell you, I’ll leave for the party straight from office. I’ll send the car to pick you up.” He says, and when he doesn’t get any reply, he prompts, “Will it be ok?”

 

“Yeah, it’ll be fine.”

 

“Ok then. Don’t be late.”

 

“Hmm…”

 

“Uh…bye then.”

 

“Oppa…I’ll be fine. You can disconnect now.”

 

“Yeah.” She hears a little laugh from his end and then with another hasty ‘bye’ the line goes dead.

 

***

 

Jinri is not surprised by the venue when she arrives. It’s a monolith of glass and steel, built accordingly to keep away people of insignificance. She begins to shiver, the fur coat on her shoulder doing little to prevent the chill that spreads below her skin.

 

The receptionist in the lobby, who greets Jinri warmly with a too bright smile, directs her to the stairs to the banquet hall where the party is being held. As she climbs the marble steps, the echo from the clacking of her heels does little to dissipate the thoughts swirling in her head, of how she feels like a Cinderella come alive. Decked out in this finery, she’s no longer the Jinri who had nothing but threadbare clothing to get by. But nobody knows about that, nobody knows about her, other than that she looks like someone who comes from money and hence commands the respect that comes naturally with it. But that feeling only lasts as long as the doors to the hall open and Jinri’s gets knocked face first by the sheer opulence inside. At once she knows she doesn’t belong here, will never belong among these people. She’s no peacock; she’s that crow that stuck peacock feathers on its tail, convinced that it could pass off as one, until it took flight. She scoffs at herself for entertaining that she could ever walk amongst these people without them smelling out her poverty.

 

The lightness in her heart is gone only to be displaced with the ball of iron sitting heavily, making her breath come slow. Jinri hands her coat to the maître d' and goes around looking for Jaebeom – her anchor in this ocean of affluence and privilege. She finds him, painfully handsome as always in a midnight blue suit, a wide smile gracing his lips – the one that brings out all his shiny teeth and makes his eyes turn into slits – she had the fortune of seeing it only once, but here he spares it so casually for the woman he’s talking to. It almost makes her wish she hadn’t covered the constellation of bruises speckling her skin with layers upon layers of concealer, hiding Jaebeom’s passion for her as something too dirty for this respectable crowd, hiding them conveniently out of sight as if they don’t exist at all. She tastes bile in her mouth.

 

She walks up to him and places her hand on his shoulder, uncaring if she comes off too possessive or if she has rudely interrupted their conversation. Jaebum gives a start, about to give an offending look at the person who draped themselves over him without permission, but it gets replaced with a relieved sort of smile on seeing her.

 

“You’re late.” He says in way of greeting.

 

“I think I’m fashionably on time, oppa,” she says, bringing out a snort from Jaebeom. “Who’s this?” She asks, plastering on her most guileless smile.

 

“Uhh…This is Seulgi, an old friend from college.”

 

“Hi, I’m Jinri,” she says, bowing respectfully before adding, “A new friend of Jaebeomie’s.”

 

She shakes Seulgi’s hand as she takes a good look at the woman, almost as if sizing her up. Shorter than her obviously, her long black hair falling straight to her waist, the emerald green of her dress bringing out the milky radiance of her fair skin. The woman is beautiful, she’ll give her that.

 

Jaebeommie.

 

It strikes her like a gong resonating in her head. Jinri knows she’s definitely crossed some invisible line, but she tells herself she was only trying to save Jaebeom the awkwardness from explaining who she was. Certainly he wouldn’t introduce her as his escort to another woman. Even he’s not that bold; brash nature notwithstanding.  But when she turns to look at him, she finds him giving her an indecipherable smile.

 

Before she can make anything of it, he excuses himself from Seulgi and guides her to the buffet.

 

“Are you already hungry? Don’t tell me you’re already hungry,” she says, putting on an exasperated tone.

 

“No, but those appetizers were put there for a reason.” He answers in his own logic making her role her eyes at him, although she does end up stealing a canapé here and there from his plate. Their tranquility only lasts as long until a loud raspy obnoxious voice shouts Jaebeom’s name.

 

“Yooooo…how’s my favourite hyungie?” says the man. He has cute puppy dog eyes and his black hair falls on his forehead only increasing his adorableness. He’s shorter than Jaebeom, hell, he’s shorter than her, but that larger than life personality more than makes up for it.  

 

“Seunnie-ah, don’t start.” It’s supposed to sound like a warning but his tone is so tiredly indulgent that it makes Jinri wonder about their easy camaraderie.

 

Almost as if feeling her eyes on him, the guy – Seunnie – turns towards her.

 

“And you must be Jiny…Jinri.” The slip-of-tongue doesn’t register with her because the man envelopes her in a bear hug leaving her a little affronted. But then he adds with a bright knowing grin, “Jaebeom hyung can’t stop talking about you.”

 

“Jackson stop,” Jaebum says in faux warning. “Jinri don’t mind him, this is Jackson, my cousin.”

 

“How many cousins do you have?”

 

“I’m not actually his cousin,” Jackson corrects. “We just call each other cousin because it’s simpler that way."

 

“Well?” Jinri prods

 

“Jaebeommie hyung and I were in the same uni. Different departments, but we were in the same football team. Jaebeom hyung is a really bad goalkeeper though,” he cackles at his own joke. “We have since been as thick as thieves. Helps that I get to work for hyung.”

 

“Wait, if you both were in the same year, why does Jackson call you hyung?” Jinri asks.

 

“Right!” comes Jackson’s exasperated reply.

 

“If it helps…well...” Jaebeom says a little arrogantly like Jinri knew he would.

 

“I like her.” Jackson pipes up suddenly to stop their little banter. “You two deserve each other.” He adds with a voice like he has made up his mind about her, and follows it with another obnoxious laugh when he looks at Jaebeom, whose face in turn darkens as he glares at Jackson with stormy eyes. He grabs Jackson by his collar and hauls him off to another corner to mingle with the other guests leaving Jinri near the buffet all alone.

 

***

 

“That was unnecessary Jackson.” Jaebeum says giving out a long suffering sigh.

 

“If I leave it to you, you’ll never tell her.” Jackson says, miffed. When he doesn’t get an answer from Jaebeom, he implores, “You’re going to tell her right?”

 

“I don’t know Seunnie, I don’t know how she’ll react,” he frowns, “What if she gets angry?”

 

“Well…you will never find out unless you tell her.”

 

Jaebeom looks at Jinri across the room. She’s a vision in red, the off-shoulder floor length dress making her look statuesque and regal as any imposing royalty. The white opera gloves a prim addition to the perfect picture of her.  She’s still standing where he left her, pout on her lips and looking so small, her doe eyes trying so hard to belie her anxiousness that he feels an incredible surge of protectiveness for her. For his lost love.

 

Park Jinyoung was a common name growing up in his household. Jaebeom’s mother compared him with Jinyoung quite a bit more than necessary, the new transfer boy who had everyone eating out of their hands while Jaebeom was still the reserved boy without any close friends. Inadvertently Jinyoung caught Jaebeom’s eye and what was supposed to be a silent competition on his part, grew into adoration unbeknownst to him.

 

When he looks back at her, she’s not there. He pushes through the throngs of guest, most of whom want to get a word with him, to look around until his eyes land on her sitting on one of the beautifully decorated dinner tables. All the blood in his body rushes to his head at once, and he’s rushing to where Jinri is smirking lasciviously at that asshole Hyunwoo, who is a little too close to Jinri for comfort. He only catches the tail end of their conversation when he gets there. Whatever Hyunwoo had said apparently was funny enough for Jinri to grace him with one of her loud tinkling laughs. He glowers at Hyunwoo when he gets there.

 

“I see you’ve familiarized yourselves.” Jaebeom says, his words biting.

 

“I was just keeping your date company, seeing how you left her alone.” Hyunwoo says looking smug.

 

“Well I’m here now.” Jaebeom says, smiling at Jinri and saying without saying to Hyunwoo to fuck off. Hyunwoo only smirks back at him and slips away, but not before putting his dirty hand on Jinri’s thigh and pressing a little while telling her they’ll talk later.

 

Jaebeom doesn’t like the awkward silence that follows. He has been feeling this sinking feeling in gut ever since he spoke to Jinri on the phone that something was not right, something was laying in wake to pounce upon the two of them in the most inopportune moment. And now that he sits here with her, in their bubble of uncomfortable calm – like the stillness of the earth before the ravage of a storm, he’s sure that something unfortunate will follow unless he tread carefully.

 

“I’m not selling his company.” He tells her.

 

“Huh?”

 

“I’m not breaking their company into pieces and selling them off.” He doesn’t know why he’s telling her all that, in a defensive tone that too. “Too many people will be out of their jobs. The Son empire is vast, and I can’t let innocent people take the brunt of those dirty men.”

 

“Aren’t you scared I’ll go and snitch on you to him?” she asks, smiling, but it doesn’t reach her eyes.

 

“What were you both talking about anyway?” He didn’t mean to ask her but his curiosity gets the better of him. He doesn’t meet her eyes when he feels them boring into his temple.

 

“He asked about how we met.”

 

Only then does Jaebeom turn to her, “What did you tell him?” He asks, feeling jittery.

 

“The truth.” Jinri tells him, eyes a challenge, as if waiting for him to berate her. “He asked when our arrangement is ending. He wants to buy my time.” She adds.

 

It’s like salt on a wound that she clawed open herself, and in the face of it he can do nothing but seethe, even though in the back of his head he knows it won’t end well for both of them if he lets his mouth run.

 

“He doesn’t have money.”

 

“I think I’ll give him a discount.” She laughs at her own joke, laughs at him, throwing the truth back like a slap to his face.

 

“Do you always have to belittle yourself? What purpose does it serve, Jinri?”

 

“I’m a commodity, oppa.” The endearment comes like a bite. “In case you have forgotten, that is how I earn. That’s exactly why I’m sitting here with you.”

 

“Well you don’t need his money.” He says, urgency lacing his voice, “And you don’t know what he might do to you. You know why’s he lost his company right?”

 

She just looks at him and then, “Where were you all these years when I was thrown around like a rag by men like you?”

 

He has no answer to that, and at his quietness she scoffs a derisive ‘exactly’, and pushes out of her chair and walks away from him.

 

***

 

Jinri doesn’t know what came over her, lashing out at Jaebeom as if he was responsible for all her misfortune. It’s no use that she feels the lowest she has felt in a long while; it only makes her anger simmer. She looks out of the balcony. It’s a starless night and the wind has a warmth to it, the humidity is cloying, the bustier of her expensive dress closing in on her. When she looks down to the city below, from this high up it looks like stars twinkling beneath her. In a moment of dissonance her world feels like it has turned over itself. A vertigo is coming, she can sense it. She clutches onto the balcony’s railing before her legs fail her.

 

Jinri feels the presence of someone behind her. A smile blossoms on her lips thinking it is Jaebeom come to placate her, but when she turns around it is Hyunwoo. She plasters on a forced smile – hateful, if one were to dissect. It was never her intention to take him up on his offer; that one time she had to be carried to the hospital by Bambam and Yugyeom has taught her well. It was only because she wanted to see Jaebeom’s reaction to the news that she lied about it. Jinri knows Hyunwoo has come to ask again, with that fake, friendly badgering. She wants to run back to the safety of Jaebeom’s threatening presence, but she feels cornered, alone in the balcony, as Hyunwoo stalks to her; the people inside too busy with their idle chatter to put any mind to what might be happening outside.

 

“He left you alone again huh?” Hyunwoo says smirking.

 

“No. I came out to take a breather.” She says and means to excuse herself and walk inside when Hyunwoo grabs her wrist, tight, in a silent warning. She curses herself, she curses her childishness that made her tell him about her. What was she even trying to prove.

 

 “Wait a minute Jinri-ssi, not so easily.” He smiles at her as his arms come around and trap her between his body and the railing. “I think we have an arrangement to finalize.”

 

“Uh…I think I’ll pass.” She says, pushing at his chest. She can do better she knows, but she doesn’t want to make a scene for Jaebeom’s sake. “Now let me go.”

 

“You think you’re in a position to refuse, whore?” He says mockingly in her ear, his hands grabbing on to her waist and pressing tightly with his fingers. It’s painful and it will bruise, an unwanted one making home on her skin along with the ones that Jaebeom lovingly made. It’s that thought that makes her rage come alive and push him with all her strength, and just as quick her fist flies to his nose. Unfortunately it doesn’t break, but only makes Hyunwoo incensed enough to hit her back. But his fist never touches her jaw.

 

It’s Jaebeom, holding on to his arm like a scene from a movie. He twists Hyunwoo’s arm hard enough to tear a ligament, probably does with how loudly Hyunwoo wails, but it isn’t enough for Jaebeom because instantly his fist connects with Hyunwoo’s nose and he falls to the ground. This time it breaks.

 

Still it’s not enough. Jaebeom is a wild animal upon Hyunwoo, pounding his face with a wrath Jinri has never seen on him. She scared, not for herself, not for Hyunwoo, but for Jaebeom and that’s why she braves to go near him and pulls him off Hyunwoo.

 

“Oppa…that’s enough…that’s enough.” She keeps saying in his ear.

 

But he’s in a mood to hurt so he turns around and screams on her face, “You want to go with him, then go…”

 

She looks at the French doors leading to the room inside, there are people huddled there watching in awe at the drama unfold. They have given these people material for gossip to last until their next useless show of pomp.

 

She wills her voice to not tremble and says, “Can someone take Hyunwoo-ssi away and throw him out.” She doesn’t know where all that authority comes from, but it seems the message gets sent across without her explaining because one of the guests, a big hulking guy, walks to them and spits on Hyunwoo before carrying him away. That must have been enough for the guests, their nosiness sated for the time being because they slowly flock inside tittering.

 

“Jinri-ah…” Jaebeom says but she cuts him off.

 

“Shut up.” She scolds before peeling one of her gloves off and wrapping it around Jaebeom’s knuckles. The blood isn’t his thankfully, but it will bruise nevertheless. She scowls at him, a roller coaster of warmth and tenderness and anger swirling in her head as she ties the glove tightly around making Jaebeom wince. It feels odd for her, to suddenly be so soft for him, so considerate, but she tells herself it was only to keep the swelling at bay. She pulls Jaebeom off the ground, and with one final look at him, she takes his hand and leads him to the doors.

 

“Let’s go home.”

 

***

 

 

 

 

Jinri wakes up to an empty bed – cold as she runs her hands where Jaebeom had been. It’s the wee hours of the morning. It should be approaching dawn, the first rays of light permeating the clouds a pink-orange, were it not for the overcast looming over the city with grey gravid clouds.

 

She walks into the living room to find Jaebeom looking out of the floor-to-ceiling windows.  He’s sitting on his haunches, elbows on his knees. It should be funny, adorable even, to see this mountain of a man looking so small and lost among all this extravagance. But the faraway look in his eyes is what gives her pause.  He hasn’t heard her come in, deep in his thoughts if the way he hasn’t addressed her is anything to go by. 

 

Somewhere between the span of time, it has begun to rain. Just a soft slow pattering, hitting the glass and refracting the view. But it’s not loud enough to drown out the stifling silence that’s putting her teeth on edge.

 

“Sajangnim,” she calls out softly but it doesn’t break him out of his reverie. “Oppa…….Jaebeom oppa,” she tries again.

 

He gives a tiny little jolt at her voice. “Did I wake you?” his voice is scratchy from the sleep still lodged in his throat.

 

“No, how long have you been sitting out here?”

 

“Not long. I couldn’t sleep.” He smiles but it doesn’t reach his eyes. “Why, were you worried?”

 

She doesn’t answer, though the thought ruminates in the back of her mind. Jaebeom smiles a self deprecating smile at her silence and means to turn away but the way she clutches the hem of her négligée like a lifeline, with her pupils all blown out, locks him in place.

 

The rain has gotten stronger now, lashing on the window. A constant stream of shower swaying with the roaring wind. Jinri feels weak in the face of her own unintended sentiments. It feels like drowning, pulled by the undertow, pushed down by the pressure and still not wanting to beat your legs to breach the surface. She wants to be swallowed by the ocean of her yearning.

 

“I was.”

 

“Why were you worried? Why were you worried babydoll?” There’s an accusation there. A desperate sort of trampled down ferocity lacing his voice. He’s worse for wear too – shoulders slumped, eyes brimming with long suffering misery, capable hands clenched to still his emotions. It’s the only thing stopping him from breaking down to his knees.

 

Unthinkable. This unyielding earth to be reduced to just a man of flesh and blood and bones.

 

A spark of lightning and the crack of thunder follows, entwined as inevitability. Soulmates. Jinri takes one step in front of another, and it’s a death march. She feels untethered, blowing like a kite in the wind, snapped off its string.

 

“I just was. Can’t I be worried?” She frowns.

 

“Who will worry about me when you’re…,” Jaebeom’s breath catches.

 

Jinri steps close, they’re too close, like that one afternoon, but this time, she brushes her fingers through Jaebeom's hair, and this time, he feels her hot breath over his lips. She angles her head, her nose grazing against Jaebeom's softly, delicately, as her fingers slide to cup his jaw.

 

And she whispers, “But I’m here now.”

 

“Don’t.” He can feel his heart banging on his ribcage. Though his breath is coming slow and steady – precarious, as if it knows they’re both of them walking on the edge of a knife. Feet bleeding but holding on, should they fall into the maw of regret.

 

“A parting gift, Sajangnim.”

 

He lowers his eyes to Jinri’s plush lips and Jaebeom knows then she is going to kiss him. He barely has time for the realisation to set in before Jinri brushes their lips together lightly, almost hesitantly, giving Jaebeom a chance to stop things, a chance to run away. Jaebeom grabs her by her waist, hands too tight for comfort, feeling the heat of her, feeling her so warm and alive and thrumming with energy.

 

It feels like an ending. He wants to take a knife to his chest and carve his bleeding beating heart out and hand it to Jinri if it’d make her happy, because the feeling he feels, of his heart clenching, of the hollowness in his gut, of the resolve seeping out of his arms, is a feeling far beyond grief that he has ever conditioned himself to.

 

Jaebeom closes his eyes. He parts his lips. He might have whimpered a little. And as if helplessly drawn to Jinri's heat, he shifts closer and kisses her back. Jinri's lips taste of the peaches of her stupid lip balm, but they are soft and pliant and giving and gone far too soon as she pulls back after mere moments, breathing softly against Jaebeom's mouth.

 

"We should go back to bed," she murmurs, lips skimming over Jaebeom's with her words. Jaebeom nearly whines in protest before he understands what she’s saying without saying. It is a parting. No, it is a severance. Jinri has managed to make a clean sharp cut and bisected them into what they have always been. Two people caught in constructs of strata of this cruel society, as not two beings of thoughts and wants but as two automatons with their statuses pre-decided.

 

But if it’s the last goodbye, Jaebeom will not let it slip through his hand.

 

He lifts her up by her thighs and walks to their bedroom. The only place, little though it is, where their differences seem to blur enough to allow them to just be.

 

“Oppa…,” Jinri moans as she’s laid out on the bed under Jaebeom. She’s a pathetic creature, sighing into Jaebeom’s mouth, at how he’s still kissing her, patience forgotten, reason beaten into submission.

 

She feels silly, insignificant in comparison to his bulk, his wide shoulders blanketing her but when she chances a look at him he's staring back, his expression entirely unfamiliar. Her instinct is to look away, to busy herself pleasuring him back, but she's frozen beneath that stare. She’s terrified of the storm brewing in those dark eyes.

 

Jaebeom slips one of his hands free from her thigh and wraps his fingers around her wrist. He could snap her bone like a twig if he wanted but he's gentle. She jumps as he bring her wrist to his lips and gives it a slight kiss, and for a moment there's a wry smile visible on his face. He moves slowly, like he's handling a skittish animal, pulling her hand to his face to cup his jaw. His eyes slip close as he leans into the touch and lets out a breath.

 

He looks at her for a moment then kisses his way up her arm and noses at her clavicle, kisses her throat, up to her jaw. He pulls her slip up to the waist, lifting her legs by the backs of her knees to wind them around his waist. He’s pleasantly hard above her own burgeoning erection and she shivers as she cups his face.

 

Jaebeom’s lips are cold but his tongue is warm as he licks into her mouth, forceful and sure. Jinri knows he won’t ruin this moment, knows he’ll surrender and let her wrap herself around him as long as she wants. She does, and the minute her fingers run through the nape of his neck and move up to grip his hair he lets out a groan. He grinds onto her, lowers himself fully on her, hands grabbing her thighs tight enough to beautifully bruise.

 

Jaebeom doesn't say anything. She stares up at him breathing hard while he unwinds her legs enough to pull her lingerie down one leg then another. It's not fair that Jaebeom’s still fully dressed when she's not, that he always seems to have the upper hand, so she reaches for the buttons of his flannel. He lets her, huffs out a little laugh when her fingers fumble on them.

 

Jinri hasn’t seen his chest before, maybe only once or twice when she walked in on him dressing up for work. Jaebeom is broad and muscled, as she knew he’d be, as she felt the corded muscles through his shirt under her fingertips, as many times as they’d done this. He’s fairer than she had expected; her hand looks tan as she touches him, smoothing her palm down his pectoral, over his heart, and further down to the ridges of his abs.

 

Jaebeom shoves down his own sweats while she explores him with her fingers, almost shy about it beneath his heated gaze. He drops them haphazardly on the bed and Jinri has just enough awareness of their surroundings to nudge them away into the floor with her foot. Jinri grips the hem of her négligée, afraid he’ll pull that off too but he shakes his head, a quick, definite ‘no’.

 

“Take it off.” It's the first thing he's said to her since they came in and the uncanny authority in his voice makes her shiver.

 

She lets go, pulls away the last bit of hesitance off her and watches him. They’re bare to each other for the first time but there’s no poetic zing of electricity. This is soft and quiet.

 

He slips a hand down between her legs, tenderly curling his fingers around her hardness. He gives it a few tugs and she moans into her wrist until he’s skimming lower into where she has gotten so wet for him. He circles her clit slowly with his thumb.  She presses up into it and he smiles.

 

“That's it, babydoll,” Jaebeom says, brushing her bottom lip with the thumb of his other hand.

 

 “Do you want oppa’s fingers,” Jinri gives a slight nod.

 

He uses one finger at first, for which she's grateful. She can tell Jaebeom is in too much of a rush; it’s in the restraint under his skin, too hasty to be mindful of her nerves, unmindful of his own hands, how it all conspires to spur her arousal. She thinks of how it would be to be ravaged by this man, let herself be the focal point of a single minded hunger.

 

“Jaebeom,” she says, but when he looks at her she can't ask for what she wants.

 

He nods, but he's misread the message and lays himself down between her legs, hard cock heavy against her hip. He rocks, shifts until he catches between her legs. She shivers in anticipation before he's even anywhere near her and his mouth twitches.

 

“Are you scared babydoll,” he says.

 

When he reaches down to take himself in hand he does nudge the head of his cock against her clit, rocks there a few times, pleased when she lets out a little moan. He takes their cocks together, let’s her feel their hardness rubbing next to each other. But it’s gone sooner than she can enjoy it. He aims himself lower and begins to press inside.

 

The stretch is, as always, a pleasurable discomfort, a burning pull as she tries to accommodate his girth. Jinri’s still not sure how she can take him, not sure how he manages to fit perfectly, how he’s making her even wetter for him, even with how she quivers with disquiet in her being.

 

 “Relax,” Jaebeom tells her, taking hold of her hand and guiding it down between them. “Pleasure yourself for me.”

 

Jinri is hard with precome beading on the tip, but she denies herself the instant gratification and instead snakes her fingers even lower. She wants this to last, she wants this to wring every drop of ecstasy her body can offer Jaebeom. When her fingers reach her cunt, she's wet there, her own wetness and his pre-cum. Her clit is an engorged little button, and when she places her fingers over, it leaves her shuddering. She moves her fingers to where they’re joined, where the lips of her cunt are too plump and tight around him, where he’s slipping into her the perfect side of rough.

 

And then, unexpectedly, she seems to open up for Jaebeom and he sinks in a few more inches with ease, almost like she's sucking him in. Her inner walls cling to him, holding on, and she whines when he tries to pull back. He manages to pull out, and the friction isn't entirely unpleasant. He sinks his teeth into her clavicle as she cries out, but she's soothed by his next press inside despite the pain that remains.

 

“Just stay,” Jinri says, gripping his shoulders desperately. She's wants him to stay still inside her, to give her a moment, because this time it feel too much, too much of what Jinri cannot place but it is only tensing her up too tight for comfort. All she can do is repeat the words, “oppa just stay ….. oppa.”

 

This time Jaebeom doesn't misunderstand her, and once he's seated fully inside – so deep, so full – he stills. He watches her face, observing her carefully as she gets used to him, staying still even as she hesitantly clenches down on the intrusion inside her.

 

“Let me move, babydoll,” he murmurs, moving his face to nose at her cheek. “Let me fuck you nice and slow.”

 

Jinri is still strung out, but she nods, and like he promised, he's slow. The force and drag of his cock moving in and out of her is uncomfortable but it doesn't remain unpleasant for long, and the friction that had hurt at first becomes delightful, grazing her walls into that satisfying tickle.

 

One of his hands slides beneath her thigh, lifting her leg until he can hook his hand beneath her knee and pull her leg up high around his waist again. It opens her up further for him, and when he thrusts again the soft nest of hair above his cock rubs against her clit.

 

A tight, pleased noise escapes her throat.

 

“You like that, babydoll?” he says, leaning down to kiss her before she can answer.

 

Jaebeom keeps fucking her like that, swallowing her moans with deep kisses. It's worse, somehow, to be kissed so intimately, but Jinri kisses him back, threads her fingers into his damp hair. She kisses back because she wants to and she wants Jaebeom and she wants to pretend that this is real instead of a business deal. She kisses back because they will probably never kiss again.

 

With how uncharacteristically assertive Jaebeom is being, with how she’s somehow managed to strangle her usual vocal self, Jinri thought it was one of those fucks, of a powerful man trying to prove to himself he still has the upper hand over a whore. But then Jaebeom starts to murmur as if confessing and her whole world tilts on its axis.

 

“I'm going to steal you,” he whispers into her ear as he pulls away from her mouth, his thrusts harder now. “I’ll hide you with me so that no one will take you. I'm going to take you away somewhere no one would find us. We’ll have only each other. I’m going to fuck you like this every day babydoll. Stuff you full with my come until you’re heavy with our… ”

 

He breaks off, fucks her deep and stays there, like he's overwhelmed by what he's saying. He hides his face in her neck. Jinri’s trembling, wide-eyed, eclipsed by him. She knows what he was about to say, even if she knows he’s only rambling.

 

“Will you babydoll?” Jaebeom says as he starts to move again, slow and steady in her. “Will you have our baby?”

 

She turns her face away, eyes closed. There’s wetness running from the edge of her eyes down across the bridge of her nose. She dares herself a little daydream, of another version of herself in another reality, full with child, fussing after a stubborn Jaebeom loudly like his tired long-suffering wife, tinkling laughter of a toddler echoing in the walls, giving herself to him whenever he wants her, having him in turn whenever she wants to, envelop his stupidly broad shoulders in public unafraid of laying her claim on this man, looking into his eyes and smiling their own private little smile.

 

“Do you want that?” Jaebeom asks, staring down at her, his dark eyes watery and solemn. She meets his eyes hesitantly. He pulls out slow, drives back in gently with a roll of his hips. With their eyes locked, he does it again. “You want that, Jinri-ah?” he repeats, his voice earnest.

 

She truly is terrified of Jaebeom sometimes, of his strength, of his fortitude, of the power he yields but it feels so good, to be beneath him and filled by him, owned by him, breathing him in.

 

Jaebeom is trembling too. From fear – waiting for Jinri to be disgusted and push him away, to reject him outright or perhaps just from holding back his need to thrust in her like he wants to because he promised to be slow.

 

She whispers, “Yes.”

 

Jaebeom shoves down into her in a rush then, makes her let out a gasp, and breathes into her neck. “Please, Jinri-ah,” he sobs into her neck.

 

And then he's fucking her, really fucking her, with all the force of his hips and with his hands tight on her body. Jinri’s hip, angled oddly against him, aches with the strain but she’s barely able to focus on it with how his cock fills her entirely. Sharp jabs of his cock inside of her with how he’s fucking her deep. The tempest brewing outside their windows pales to the ferocity of their coupling.

 

“Touch yourself,” he orders, and she manages to slip her hand from his hair and shove between them to rub her clit in tight circles with two fingers. She’s taut like a bowstring, a little force and she’ll snap.

 

 “I love you so much babydoll,” Jaebeom says suddenly.

 

And she's coming. The tightening of her channel around him is so intense it's almost painful, and the friction begins to burn again as he fucks her through it, quick shallow thrusts now, like he can't bear to be anywhere but inside her. She shakes and writhes and grips him, and whispers over and over a constant stream of ‘oppa’ into his ear.

 

Jaebeom comes with a sound akin to a cry of pain, fingers bruising her and body tightening as he empties himself deep inside her in pulses, and she holds him through it, raking her fingers through his hair, wanting so much to tell him that she loves him too. A sob escapes Jinri.

 

They're so fucked up, both of them.  

 

In the aftermath of it, he slumps heavily onto her, still buried in her to the root, and mouths tenderly at her jaw, not wanting the delicate moment to end.

 

“Jaebeom…” Jinri wriggles as much as she can, trapped and breathless beneath Jaebeom’s immensity.

 

He groans and drags himself up onto his knees, pulling himself free, and then he's staring down at her. They watch each other, quiet, dazed, and then he smiles his sad defeated smile.

 

 Jaebeom is heartbroken.

 

Jinri should feel sick, full of his come and sore from his cock, but a contentment has settled over her soul and no matter the melancholia, she refuses to let the bitterness engulf her now. It's done, and even if they could go back Jinri knows she wouldn't. She allows herself to have this little piece of happiness untainted.

 

As she turns herself to face the windows and hears him walk away from the bed, she thinks of all those fairytales she read as a kid, of a princess rescued by a gallant knight, of an eternity of devotion promised. She thinks they were bullshit, because in truth not everyone had their happy endings.

 

***

 

When Jinri wakes up next, it’s bright outside. Instantly her mood sours, it’s too jovial, the weather behaving as if it wasn’t tumultuous just a few hours ago. To add to it she can’t find Jaebeom anywhere, it’s too early for him to leave for work and that could only mean he’s avoiding her.

 

She decides not to worry about it, spending the day as usual, lazing around the penthouse, dozing off and on, eyes somehow always ending up at the clock. So what if he’s ignoring her, what good will that do, she’s supposed to leave that day anyway. She’ll just have to wait until he returns, take her money and be on her way. Everything was just peachy.

 

Only then it hits her. She has to leave Jaebeom.

 

She has to go back to the crippling monotony of the life she had forgotten she left back in Busan. It doesn’t feel like home anymore, though she misses Bambam and Yugyeom incredibly. There’s the feeling bubbling up again in her, to run away again. To take her little curated family and go settle somewhere else.

 

The thing with childish dreams is, once it gets realized, your brain thinks it can realize any stupid fantasy it can come up with. Jinri looks around her and she has to pinch herself, the last week feels nothing short of a fever dream. Now everywhere she looks, she sees things she has habituated herself with; she doesn’t want to let this go either. She remembers being told when she was a kid, how not to be greedy, it never fares well and she’s had her fill of being tossed around.

 

The sound at the front door indicates Jaebeom’s arrival. Jinri sighs, it’s time.

 

“Were you avoiding me?” She wants to slap herself. That’s not what she was going to say.

 

“No. Of course not, babydoll. Something important came up.” Jaebeom makes a shocked face and it makes Jinri feel even more of a fool.

 

They’re both shifting in their place, looking at each other, trying to regard the elephant in the room. It sort of feels like a quickdraw, deciding who’ll be the first one to injure. Jinri thinks of making this fast and easy.

 

“Uh…Oppa, I have to be off.”

 

“Where to?” Jinri doesn’t know if Jaebeom is trying to play dumb or if he has forgotten, a small part of her suddenly feels he has no intention of paying her. Surely Jaebeom is not that sort of a man.

 

“The week has ended. I have to go.”

 

But Jaebeom doesn’t say anything, he only looks at her, clenching and unclenching his palms. He looks uncertain, he looks tensed, he looks scared. Jinri knows she will not like what he’ll say next.

 

“This doesn’t have to end Jinri-ah.” Jaebeom says, almost pleading.

 

“What are you talking about?” And Jinri feels the first flickers of her anger come to life.

 

“You don’t have to leave.”

 

“And stay with you. As what, your living breathing blow-up doll?” She’s fuming now. Angry at Jaebeom’s assumption, at him for saying it so easily.

 

“What the hell you’re talking about?”

 

“You want me to stay here? As what? I can’t even call myself your mistress; I’m not allowed even a title. What am I? Am I just a trophy you can show off? Am I just a display in your home? Am I another living thing you keep around to make yourself feel less lonely? Or am I just a body to fuck Im Jaebeom? Why should I stay with you?” She’s properly angry now, and try as she might, she knows her mouth is going to run and she doesn’t want to control it.

 

“I am a person Jaebeom, in case you have failed to notice. I maybe sell myself to put the next meal on my plate, but it doesn’t make me any less of a human. I’m not an object you toss around, a pet to be at you beck and call when you want, to play home with you and your dirty fantasies. And then when you find someone worthy enough for your love and decide to settle down with them, who can actually give you the life you dream of, of the family you want, you throw me back to the curb you picked me up from. You don’t have to show me my place, Jaebeom-ssi, I know exactly where it is.”

 

Jinri has never been a particularly spiteful person, she knows how chronically cruel words can harm, can do permanent damage. But she can’t help it now; the pain and hurt she had sealed inside her heart for so long keeps clawing its way out. It’s unfair because not all of it is Jaebeom’s doing, he was just the last straw.

 

And Jaebeom just stands there, let’s her spit her venom, each word is a gangrenous wound on him. But he bears it, uncomplaining, like a labour of love.

 

“I’m not going to find someone else to love Jinri; I’m already in love with someone remember?”

 

“Just give me my money. I’ll have to catch the last train.” She deflates. She has had it with this nuisance, has spoken too much, has needlessly become too emotional.

 

“When I told you I was too late to confess to the person I was in love with, it’s because I was made to believe I lost them. I was told they had died.” Jaebeom continues as if he hasn’t heard her.

 

“When I was in high school back in Ilsan, we had a new student join us. A hoobae. He was the most beautiful person I had ever seen and I was instantly smitten. He never talked much, mostly kept to himself, but helped anyone who asked. He was the gentlest person I ever seen. Everyone loved him so, so much. And truly he deserved it. My love for him only grew.” Jinri frowns at him, but Jaebeom keeps on speaking. Because if he doesn’t say it now, he will never be able to.

 

“Now imagine, when I come to school one day and find out he had killed himself. And I never understood why, why would someone like him do it, something so extreme. But I grew up and I found out one doesn’t need a reason to, and so I made peace with it. That that love wasn’t meant for me. But oppa must be one lucky bastard, because I found him. My love wasn’t ever taken away from me. He never really died, did he Jinyoung-ah?” 

 

Jinri doesn’t say a word, stands very still, chest moving steadily up and down. She wishes Jaebeom would stop talking. She feels suspended; her feet not grounded enough to stop the truth from blowing her away. A truth she has hidden for more than a decade, splayed out in the open without a care.

 

“Your real name. Have you forgotten?”

 

Jinri shakes her head. That person doesn’t exist anymore; hasn’t for a long time. She feels naked under his gaze now; it was one thing to know the truth of her body and another of who she is. When she dares to meet Jaebeom’s eyes, there are tears brimming in them and it only makes Jinri more terrified of him and of his power over her. “I don’t know and don’t care how you found out but you stay the fuck away from me.”

 

Jaebeom knows he’s fighting a losing battle, knew it the moment he decided to come clean, has been even prepared for her rebuke. But he is the man he is and he won’t go down without a final draw. “How far do you want me to be Jinyoung-ah? How far until we both start hurting? Look me in the eye and tell me if I ever treated you as anything less. You scoff at my love for you but can you swear you don’t feel an scrap of some fucking thing for me.”

 

She’s terrified of him, yes, but she more terrified of her capacity to lie and of its repercussion. She’s terrified of his abundance of empathy, of how lonely he is, and how much she loves him. “I don’t. What we had was just business, you know it. You were the one who said you’d let me go. So don’t make this any more complicated than it already is.”

 

He stays rooted there, doesn't bother examining the truth in her eyes, as she turns away from him, as she walks to the bedroom to pack her stuff, and it’s only when she’s walking out the door that Jaebeom comes to himself and runs after her. He is a hurt and angry animal, almost growling when he takes out his wallet and snatches Jinyoung’s hand to place the promised money. When she tries to pull her hand away, Jaebeom grabs onto it firmly.

 

“Why? If this was what, just business, for you, then take the money.”

 

She doesn't want to; it makes her want to hurl just thinking about taking his money now. The notes on her palm make her body itch, makes her want to claw her skin off. She hasn't felt this dirty in a long time. Her hand trembles when Jaebeom lets go of her, her legs refuse to move but she still has a little of her pride left.

 

He stands there watching her get on the lift, a different man would have excused himself, and run away to lick his wounds but this is Jaebeom, ever the prideful creature. So the last thing she sees is Jaebeom, looking straight at her, silently crying, before the doors close down on his face.

 

***

 

Just like that six months pass by. Winter melts into spring and with the thaw the earth brings in new life. Jaebeom cannot say the same about himself. When you miss something – someone – actively, time seems to stand still for you, but the world outside keeps moving at its own pace. Before you know it, moments get rendered into months. When Jaebeom lost Jinyoung the first time, it was a soft kind of sorrow festering at the back of his head, of being unfortunate to not have his love realized. This time around, it’s an open wound, of constant bleeding from a cut that just won’t close.

 

He hates his home the most. Everywhere he looks; there is the specter of Jinyoung laughing at him. He got angry enough a few times to make it as if a hurricane had rushed through the rooms, but then the wine glasses reminded him of Jinyoung’s lips on them, the quilt on the couch she buried herself under, the books in his library she grudgingly adored, the bed he made her altar. It was enough to stay his hand.

 

Now, he thinks it is better this way, overworking himself to the bone in his office. At least it has lesser memories attached to her. He isn’t left to his musings for long though when Jackson barges into his office like the ram he is.

 

“Ok enough is enough. Get your ass off that chair Boomie hyung. We’re going out.”

 

Jaebeom only glowers at him. “Not now, Seunnie-ah. Leave me alone.”

 

“I’ve been leaving you alone for months, but it ends today. You’re coming with me and that’s final.”

 

“I really don’t have the patience required to deal with your childishness Jackson, I’m not in the mood.”

 

Jaebeom curses himself inwardly when he sees Jackson’s face fall, he’s not the reason for Jaebeom’s constant sour mood and he shouldn’t take his anger out on Jackson, who is always nothing but sweet to him. How long until even Jackson leaves him. Scared by that thought, he goes to Jackson and hugs him an apology.

 

“I know you’re sad Jaebongie hyung, but is playing grinch in your office doing you any good?”

 

“Yah…” Jaebeom balks

 

“Seriously, you’re scaring everyone. Not to mention making everyone miserable. We’re worried for you hyung.”

 

“I don’t think I’ll ever be happy again Seunnie-ah.”

 

“Hyung, life is not a soap opera unless you let it, stupid.”

 

“She left. She left Seun-ah. She didn’t even stop to consider. Here I was thinking it would be enough to make her stay. But she snapped the string with her own hands.”

 

“She left because you let her go.”

 

“Wha….” Jaebeom balks again.

 

“I didn’t want to blame you all this long because you were already depressed, but I think you need to know you didn’t exactly give her a reason to stay.”

 

“I told her I was in love with her. What more is there to say?”

 

“But did you say it to her? Those exact words?”

 

On that Jaebeom thinks back to their fight, and draws a blank. He looks at Jackson then who only gives him a self-satisfied ‘exactly’.

 

“I have to go to Busan right fucking now.” He says, as he leaps out of his chair only to be stopped by Jackson holding onto his wrist.

 

“She’s not there.”

 

“What do you mean she’s not there?”

 

“I tried to go talk to her. Because I was tired of seeing you like this, I thought of trying to talk some sense into the both of you. But when I looked for her in Busan, she wasn’t there. So I ran some background check, apparently she took her friends with her and settled in Jeju. I wanted to tell you, but it seemed like she had a simple stable life now and I didn’t want to ruin it. I’m sorry hyung.”

 

“I have to try one last time Seunnie.” Jaebeom says, determined.

 

“That’s my Jaebongie hyung.” Jackson says as he envelops Jaebeom into a hug.

 

 

***

 

 

Jeju is as beautiful as ever, the chilly maritime winds blowing in doesn’t make one feel that summer is around the corner. Truth be told, Jaebeom wasted a lot of time staying cooped up in his office even after promising Jackson he would come talk to Jinyoung, has been second guessing himself. That and he actually had work to do, settling his takeover of Son Enterprises, but mostly it was him being scared of facing Jinyoung again.

 

Finally when he gathered enough courage and slapped himself a few times, he took the last flight to the island, and here he was now, walking through the strip to the small convenience store. It makes him feel like he’s walking to the gallows. It’s a Thursday, and nothing good ever happened to Jaebeom on Thursdays.

 

It’s evening, almost closing time, so when the little bell on the door tinkles, the last person Jinyoung imagines to see is Jaebeom walking into the little store. It has been a while, a long painful stretch of time since she’s seen him and just as easily all the memories Jinyoung has tried her best to repress, bursts forth. She knows she doesn’t deserve this, not now when she has, for the first time in forever, got a semblance of a life worth living. A guilty part of her – a whimsical part – will agree she had waited for Jaebeom to run after her, to come find her then, to grovel and take her away as he had promised. But he never came, and so she took what little belongings she had and ran away with Bambam and Yugyeom to the farthest end of the country to start afresh. And she had been content, if not happy, with the little family she had. Until Jaebeom walked through the door.

 

As is the way with them, they keep staring, drinking each other in. Jaebeom looks tired; there are shadows under his beautiful downturned eyes. He’s shifting in place and Jinyoung can’t help be endeared, although she know knows she should be furious.

 

“How have you been Jinyoung-ah?”Jaebeom asks softly.

 

“I’ve been well.” Jinyoung says, equally awkward.

 

“Good. That’s good.”

 

He looks down at his shoes then, unable to come up with anything else. Jinyoung saves him the trouble.

 

“How are you Oppa?” she asks as Jaebeom looks up at her.

 

She’s still the same, albeit a little healthier, her skin glowing, eyes shining as bright as that day they spent on the river front, and call him delusional, he thinks she looks happy to see him. Jaebeom wants to be jealous, a little spiteful, because here he was worse for wear, a man fragmented by love and there she is, not a sign left on her by the storm of their tragically short romance. But he’s not here to weigh their misery; he’s here on a mission, to speak his last piece.

 

One last offering to the goddess.

 

“Jinyoung-ah, can we talk?” he asks, “I won’t take much of your time.”

 

“Can you wait a little? I’ll have to close the shop.”

 

***

 

It’s only a few minutes’ walk to the house; a quaint little thing near the sea. Jinyoung shares it with Bambam and Yugyeom. She tells him they work at a restaurant in the evenings and a fishing trawler in the mornings. She tells him they make little money but it is clean honest money for which they’re grateful. Jaebeom tries hard not to grit his jaw at how easily self-deprecating Jinyoung still is.

 

I’ll make some tea.” Jinyoung says as she makes a beeline for the kitchen, Jaebeom following her.

 

Jaebeom can feel his heart lodged in his throat, the wild thumping of it right on his carotid. He clenches his hands to stop them from shaking. He watches Jinyoung as she prepares their tea, the soft little clunking of her moving about her little kitchen. Now is as good time as any.

 

“I love you.” He says. His voice is strong, eyes resolute as he stares into Jinyoung’s.

 

He waits expectantly, almost desperately as Jinyoung stands there, not rejecting the words, but not accepting them either. He sends a silent prayer to the universe, wishing she would utter the words back, like she believed them, like she felt them just as strongly as Jaebeom did. He scoffs inwardly at how easily he jumps into the rabbit-hole of his delusions.

 

Jinyoung’s face is a stoic marble rendering while she’s dying inside. She hates him, hates that he’s said it. There's no pretence now. Jinyoung tries to find the will, the way to get words out of her mouth, anything to reassure Jaebeom, but it is as if her voice is stolen from her in the face of his confession.

 

Jaebeom can see there are tears gathering in the corners of Jinyoung’s eyes. But she doesn’t say anything to heal the sting he feels from Jinyoung’s unspoken rejection. He looks down at Jinyoung’s hands clutched tightly together. He pulls one to himself and she lets him take it.

 

“I love you.” He sighs as he presses her hand with his own. He thinks stupidly he could squeeze a confession out of Jinyoung who cruelly stays silent.

 

The only words Jinyoung has to say to knock Jaebeom out of his self-destructive head were the words that cannot make it past her lips, she tries but there is a pull in her that holds her back, try as she might her lips remain sealed. Jinyoung simply watches as Jaebeom breaks down in front of her. The only sound in the little room for a while is his heavy breathing.

 

“Jae-,”

 

“Can’t you just say it?”

 

Jinyoung could see his heart breaking, those obsidian eyes glittering like crystals. Nothing she did would make it better this time, neither for her nor for Jaebeom. He has traversed miles to get to her and has, as he’s wont to do, forced her into a corner. She couldn’t pussyfoot around it, couldn’t play it off, couldn’t hold Jaebeom to her chest like she wanted to till he felt even the slightest bit better. The one thing he needed right now Jinyoung couldn’t give him. All of her, without question, without condition. Just as Jaebeom had given himself to her.

 

“I wish I could,” Jinyoung looks down at her hands still held tightly between Jaebeom’s and a sob starts to make its way up her throat, “I wish I could Jaebeom… I want to love you.”

 

“Why don’t you then?”

 

“Because it’s not that easy,” Jinyoung insist, pulling her hand out and moving away from him to living room, the kitchen had started to make her fell claustrophobic, “It’s not that easy to simply surrender yourself away to that feeling. It’s not easy to be so vulnerable and fragile. I can’t let myself feel that way. I don’t want to love you and then lose you. Don’t you understand Jaebeom, you were the best thing that ever happened to me and it still feels like a dream. People like us are only allowed to have them, not live them.” She looks down at Jaebeom, and tears start to fall down her cheeks. She knows she’s becoming soft and the only way to salvage this is to hurt him back, hurt him enough that Jaebeom will leave for good and never turn back around, ever.

 

“You cannot be entitled Jaebeom. You cannot waltz into someone’s life and turn things around because you felt like it. You think this,” Jinyoung motion between she and Jaebeom, “would magically turn into a fairy tale. That you’d appear out of nowhere after all this time and I would fling myself at you. It was going fine Jaebeom, why’d you have to go and… turn it into something it isn’t?”

 

“I tried to stop it,” Jaebeom pleads as he walks up to where Jinyoung is standing. “I tried so hard not let my heart get in the way, even when I found out it way you. I was ready to let you go. But they are the ways of our heart, right? You just cannot fight what it wants. You love who you love, Jinyoung.”

 

Jaebeom has always been a hardened man, has gone through his father’s unending reprimands without so much as a twitch of his eye, and yet in front of Jinyoung he weeps easily. He wraps his hand around Jinyoung nape and tries to get her to look at him, but Jinyoung pulls away. He tries again, this time holding her face with two hands, and forces her to hold his gaze, “I know life has dealt you a bad hand. I know what it is like to be afraid of love. You have no idea how scared I was when I found out it was really you, Jinyoung. I didn’t embrace the truth, didn’t want to realize the gravity of that truth. I fought it just like what you’re doing right now, but you’re going to get tired of fighting. It took me a while but, I convinced myself that you were worth the pain that might come along in the future. And it only might come along. Who is to say that we won’t be the ones who do have our fairytale ending? You can’t live life constantly hiding from the best and waiting for the worst.”

 

“But the way things are between us,” he wipes at Jinyoung tears before tucking a stray piece of hair behind her ear and dropping his hands, “I can’t go through with it anymore. I’d be lying to myself if I said I was okay with only having your memories to live on with, for the rest of my life.”

 

He moves away from Jinyoung, “I’m not going to stop loving you. I’m never going to stop loving you. Even after all this time, you have been the only constant in my life. And you always will be, whether you are with me or not. But I don’t want you to love from afar, I’m selfish and yes, I’m entitled. So I’m asking you to have some faith in me, have some faith in my love for you.”

 

Then with one last glance at Jinyoung he turns away and walks towards the front door. Before he walks out he says, “When you decide that I’m worth taking the risk, you know where to find me.”

 

Jinyoung’s body refuses to move. She’s trembling in place, pushed and pulled between her heart and her head. There is a crushing feeling in her chest but the pain doesn’t matter, not when Jaebeom has already walked out of her door with leaving what could only be an ultimatum. Of course he’s hurt, she made sure he would be, but he still stood with his head high, spoke with conviction and yet faced her dismissal with courage. Because he had trust in his feelings for her, in his soft heart made of tempered metal. Jaebeom had asked her to take a leap of faith with him and now it was Jinyoung’s turn to show some courage of her own.

 

The epiphany makes a little laugh titter out of her mouth even as her tears keep flowing. She knows now what she needs to do and before even a flicker of doubt can slither into her mind, she’s running out the door after him.

 

The skies are dark and threatening of an oncoming storm. The wind cold and harsh even in the late spring. Jaebeom huddles himself in his jacket although he knows nothing can touch him now, especially when the weather mimics the riotous feelings inside of him. Maybe he’s being a little pretentious, Jackson would agree, but he allows himself to be a little childish, if not for it he knows he’ll break down. He hadn’t really come all the way confident that Jinyoung will return his sentiments, it wasn’t even in his plan to let it go that far, he was supposed to talk to her and fuck himself off before he made her angry again. But the moment he laid his eyes on her, he hadn’t been able to keep a grip on himself, hadn’t been able to keep his tongue in check.

 

He goes to slap himself when he hears the quick thumping of approaching footsteps, only to turn around and have an armful of Jinyoung.

 

 “Yes….yes. Okay.” Jinyoung breathes into his neck, her arms closing around him in a desperate hug. Jaebeom has to take a few moments to collect himself, he’s still shaken, literally at the force with which Jinyoung had collided with him.

 

“I can’t hear you Jinyoung. Look at me. Look at me babydoll.” But Jaebeom feels her head turn from side to side. “No? Why no?”

 

Jaebeom waits for her, holding her close as he hears the soft puffs of her crying on him. The clouds are gathering fast above them, and there is a distant sound of thunder but he’ll stand here as long as it takes for Jinyoung to look him in the eye and tell him she wanted to have him for herself. He’s waited far too long.

 

Jinyoung peers up at him then, innocent and adorable. She rights herself, hands going to grab onto the lapels of his coat, and looks at him. Jaebeom’s heart will fail him he knows, he can feel it in the way it’s beating out of chest.

 

“Oppa…I’ve been waiting for you. Like an idiot. I’ve been waiting for you all my life. I didn’t want to leave. That day, I didn’t want to leave you…I want to be with you, more than anything…” Jinyoung knows she’s speaking aimlessly, but there is no correct way to do this, to get her words across. She hopes it will be enough.

 

And as if Jaebeom was listening to her thoughts he says, “Enough babydoll.” He looks happy, too happy as if Jinyoung has handed him the moon, his beaming content smile so contagious that even Jinyoung’s face melts into a grin. “I have my answer.”

 

It’s drizzling now so there’s no way to know if it’s the rain or tears on their face, on second thought it doesn’t really matter.

 

“But you have to take care of Bambam and Yugyeom, they’re my responsibility. I can’t leave them alone here.” She tells him as a means to ground herself, to ground them both with the reality of the situation.

 

 “Don’t worry baby, oppa will take care of everything.” She really wants to smack the lecherous grin off his face and to makes things worse Jaebeom ends it with a stupid wink.

 

“Eww shut up, I don’t even like you.” She says, hiding her face back on his neck to prevent him from seeing the blush that tints her face. Jinyoung feels him throw his head back and laugh, his soft baritone making her breathe out her own sigh of relief.

 

Jaebeom holds on to her tighter, the constant feeling loss not yet cured off him. He thinks of the future that had almost slipped past his hands, lost to time. But he feels anchored now, with Jinyoung securely in his arms he feels ready to weather any storm that might come his way.

 

***

 

Jaebeom had asked Jinyoung if she was planning to turn their home into a rainforest, what with the number of plants she had filled it with. Now as she waters the plants, she remembers and it brings out a little laugh at his stupidity. She remembers he had also teased her that day, asking if she was Rapunzel – because she had let her hair grow longer and they lived in the penthouse. Jaebeom was ridiculous.

 

A thought comes to her mind then.

 

Jinyoung had read once, she can’t remember where or when, that endings are important. To know when, where, how something ends, and a naïve part of her believed that. The sum total of something measured in what it yielded, how laughable. Through the crests and troughs of an entire pilgrimage of life has brought her here, in this cocoon of warmth. You don’t discount one for the other. Endings are important, the pilgrimage is too.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Notes:

Reposted because it was rusting in my drafts and the fic is dear to me. Bad writing? yes. Still, let me know what you thought of it (politely).

❤️️ Vic

if you want to talk to me, you can find me here :) Retrospring