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maknaesdancersrappers · 9 months

Text

devoted 2.

part 16.

Overall warning/s: kinkier smut (eg. voyeurism, exhibitionism, etc.) character death, dark themes

Chapter warning/s: vulgar language, violence, self harm, stalking, kidnapping

Just how devoted is Jaehyun to you?

prev: part 15

wc: 4.8k

The night air was cold — winter should be around the corner now. You don’t know how you could get your winter clothing from the house now, though. But that’s something you can worry about later, for now you walked away into the night.

There was a small restaurant that had a nice selection of comfort food near the bus stop that you could stop by. You’re famished, you had forgotten about food the entire time you were up there.

Your mind is still on Jaehyun, what could he be doing right now? Your steps faltered as the possibilities in your head grew worse one after the other.

“Jaehyun, if Ms. [Y/N] had left that night, what would you have done?”

“I would have picked up a shard from that broken mirror and slit my wrists.”

Your mouth fell into a soundless gasp, he couldn’t have… but your legs were already turning on your heels and made a step forward to go back to the apartment.

“[Y/N].”

You jumped, hugging your bag to your chest and ducking your head down.

“Woah— calm down. It’s just me.”

Looking up, you feel relaxed when you see Yuta in workout clothes. “Oh, Yuta. I’m sorry. I’m just… a little jumpy.”

He laughed, “I can tell. I’m just as surprised to see you here.”

“Ah well,” You nervously said, “Just thought it would be nice to take a walk. How about you? Were you jogging?”

Yuta tilted his chin up at the building the two of you were standing by and you followed his gaze to the brightly lit gym. “I work out here. I don’t like the one at my apartment. Do you need a ride home? I heard Jaehyun’s abroad at the moment.”

At the mention of his name, your face fell and you moved your attention to your feet. “Ah, no. It’s okay. Thanks for the offer, I was going to get dinner before heading home. Would you… like to join me?”

He smiled, “I would love to, but maybe some other time.”

“Alright.” You nodded, a little relieved that he declined your offer. “Well, have a good evening.”

“You, too.” Yuta waved, “Stay safe.”

This made you feel uneasy. You had been so caught up with Jaehyun and the past that you forgot someone is out to get him. Did they know you left him? Would they still be after you? Maybe hitching a ride home with Yuta wasn’t so bad—

You turned around and found he was long gone and you cussed under your breath. You’ve decided to have dinner at home instead, that was the safer option. As you hurriedly walked off to the bus stop, you thought about how you could possibly keep yourself — and your parents, now that you’re back to living with them — safe. Would it be too much to ask Soojung for help even though you broke up with her cousin? You would have to wait to get back to the house to contact her through email on your laptop to do so.

If you were right, the bus that drops you off near your parent’s place should be the next one in a few minutes as indicated by the timer on the bus stop. You sat yourself, wary of your surroundings but felt thankful for it to be well lit and a lot of pedestrians were around. Surely, you were safe here.

Your mind kept going back to Jaehyun, hoping he hadn’t done anything drastic. Maybe you should contact his mom first when you get home.

It’s a 45-minute bus ride back to your parent’s place so you made yourself as comfortable as you can on the bus seat when it finally arrived.

Leaning against the window, you stared at the seat in front of you. Some things you overlooked and ignored in the past about Jaehyun started to make sense now. Like how he knew where your dorm was back in college before you even told him or how he seemingly knew things you liked. You felt stupid now for assuming he was just some good guesser or was really lucky at assuming things about you. You couldn’t wrap your head around how he was able to pretend that he didn’t know anything, how he was able to look you in the eye and tell you how he fell in love that day you “met” in class, how he could present himself as the perfect man in front of your parents, how he could straight up lie to your face when you asked if he had anymore skeletons in his closet when he was finally opening up to you.

Your eyes started to sting again at the rush of emotions coming over you.

Jaehyun claimed he was going to tell you eventually but when was that? After the wedding? After your first child? That image of the future with him you had constantly dreamt of was shattered now, broken and scattered, unsalvageable. And if it came to that point, you wouldn’t know how to react. It’ll hurt a lot more, you bet. Would you still be able to leave? File for divorce? If not, you’d be estranged from him.

You took a long, deep breath to keep your tears at bay. This could have all been avoided, you thought. If he had just approached you that day, why couldn’t he have just done that?

You were just staring off into space for a few minutes and when you blinked, you saw landmarks that notified you that you were near your stop. You nearly jumped in your seat. Luckily, it wasn’t as crowded and there were only a handful of passengers with you who were all preoccupied to see your reaction.

When the bus came to a stop and you alighted, you let out a heavy sigh. It’s like you were visiting home during school breaks when you were attending university. As you started walking, you stared at your feet. A part of you is hoping this was all just a dream. You’ll get home, lay your head on your pillow, and you’ll wake up from this nightmare.

A car revving from the main street made you jump, looking back with an angered expression. You never understood why people did that especially if it’s near family homes at night. As you were about to return to trekking down the pathway, you caught something in the shadow from your periphery. Something moved and you flinched, but noticing that it was small, you excused it as a stray ducking into the darkness. You resumed your little journey, footsteps a little faster after being spooked.

There was a shortcut that went through the small forest that would take you straight to the street of your parent’s house and cut your walk in half, the only downside is that it wasn’t well lit like the streets and had a lamppost every few meters. You thought about taking it, but with the current situation, you knew it wasn’t the smartest idea.

The entrance to the shortcut was coming into view and you looked over your shoulder to see if someone else was walking down the path with you.

There was someone there. It didn’t register when you saw them, but when it clicked in your head, you stopped walking. You looked back again and the silhouette of the person was still approaching you.

Maybe it’s another homeowner, you convinced yourself. But the closer they got, the faster and harder your heart thumped in your chest.

When they were just a couple feet away, you could make out that this person was a tall, slim man. He stopped all of a sudden, probably taking notice that you were watching him. The street lamp was behind him so you couldn’t see his face well, but you could make out that he had long fringes covering his eyes and a black face mask.

“Is something wrong?” His voice was deep… but strained, and it’s not brought by his mouth being covered by a mask. It was like… he was speaking in this tone on purpose.

“Oh,” You shook your head, “Sorry, no. I, uh, I thought you were someone I know.”

The stranger laughed, “Oh, I see.”

“I’m sorry again. Have a nice evening.” You bowed your head and started to walk forward again but froze when the stranger spoke up again.

“This is boring.”

“I… I beg your pardon?” You looked back at him.

He had his arms crossed now, head cocked to the side. “This will be more fun if you run.”

His voice had changed; it sounded natural now — and familiar. But you couldn’t bring yourself to figure out who it was because you were focused on what he had said.

Run?

The stranger dropped his arms to the side, both hands brandishing items that were too distinct to mistake to be anything else. One hand held some cloth while the other…

“I said, it will be more fun, if you run.” Something metallic clicked and the other item in his hands extended by a couple inches, glinting in the light. “Go on, run.”

So you did.

You smiled at the girl manning the booth, handing over exact change as you told her your order: the coldest bottle of cider they had. You felt a little bad that she made the effort to stick almost her entire arm into the cooler to get to the bottles at the very bottom. You sensed someone beside you and you figured they wanted to buy something as well so you stepped to the side to give them space.

The girl handed you your drink, but she was not looking at you anymore. She had a big, flirty grin on her face as she greeted the person you had made way for. You took the drink and thanked her, a little amused at her expression. You started to make your way back when you felt someone touch your arm.

“Hey, excuse me—”

“[Y/N]! There you are! I’ve been trying to find you everywhere!”

You waved at your best friend, who picked you up for a bear hug that made you shy and laugh.

“You were amazing! Congrats on the win, [Y/N].” Doyoung settled you back on the ground and you shook your head.

“I don’t know,” You playfully sang, “I think I owe it all to my cheerleaders in the crowd.”

He smugly crossed his arms over his chest, “That’s right, because I made sure everyone out cheered the others.”

“Whatever! Hey, wanna join the team for some snacks? Ji Ah bought too much again.” You hooked your arm around his like how you always would, reeling him along as you walked back to the table.

“Who am I to deny food, [Y/N]?”

You giggled at him, shaking your head. You looked back at the booth, remembering someone had tapped your arm. But no one was there anymore. There were a couple of students walking away, but you really couldn’t tell who it was. Did you drop something? You only brought over the exact amount of money you needed to pay.

“Hey, you okay? Are you looking for someone?”

You squinted, attention darting from one person to the other. “No…” But then you saw a familiar mop of hair — the back of someone’s head you knew well that you could pinpoint it from a mile away.

“Jaehyun?”

He was wearing basketball shorts and a similar colored jacket that had ‘JUNG’ printed on the back in a collegiate font and large ‘94’ below it.

You ran towards his retreating form, not noticing your environment blurring past you as you tried to reach out your hand to him. “Jaehyun!” You cried, it seemed like he was getting further and further away. You tripped on your own feet, falling forward and catching yourself by putting your arms in front of you to break your fall.

“Are you okay?”

A pair of clean, expensive looking sneakers appeared in front of you and you gasped, snapping your head upwards to see the owner of the shoes.

Jaehyun… looked young. He was wearing something different now; a tailored dress shirt with an emblem on the front chest pocket and black slacks that you vaguely remembered as Kyeonggi’s uniform.

Jaehyun— You opened your mouth but nothing came out.

There were items scattered around the ground that weren’t there before. He had bent down and started to gather some of them up into his hands.

Jae, you screamed in your head, but the words that left your lips were different.

“I’m sorry.”

“Geez, watch where you’re going, bitch.” An unfamiliar voice snickered and you suddenly couldn’t move your head, as if it was perpetually bowed down.

“Shut up, Choi.” That was Jaehyun’s voice.

Their voices started to muffle afterwards. You kept your head down, but your eyes are straining to look around. This… felt familiar. This place… this situation…

This was… a memory.

Did you run into Jaehyun before college?

“Ignore him. Here.” Jaehyun handed you the items that had fallen from your shopping bag. His fingers gently ran across the side of your palms as he slowly retracted his hands.

“No, it’s okay.” You said, unknowingly.

You were grocery shopping and you had tripped over something — no, someone had tripped you. And then a boisterous chorus of laughter followed afterwards as your groceries spilled from your arms. You were embarrassed, refusing to look up at the strangers who decided to pick on you for some reason. You remembered rushing to gather everything up to leave while they kept laughing at you. But one of them got on his knee and helped you. You were too scared to look up back then, but if you had… would it have been Jaehyun in front of you that day?

You gasped, regaining your ability to move your head and quickly turning around when you felt a tap on your shoulder.

Jaehyun winced as your ponytail slapped him across the face, a little shocked and amused as he stifled his reaction as to not disturb the professor speaking in front of the class.

“I am so sorry.” You apologized immediately, holding down your hair to the side as if it could move on its own. You held your breath as you stared at Jaehyun.

You remembered this day like it was the back of your hand. You didn’t mean to sit at the back and you were straining yourself to focus on the professor’s voice as he introduced the subject but then you felt something on your shoulder and you were more focused on keeping your voice down to care about your hair possibly being a form of assault.

You thought he was cute… no, you distinctly recall brandishing your seatmate as the hottest boy you’ve ever laid your eyes on, but of course he’ll never know that and it’s not like you had a chance with him (as you thought so at the time).

He sheepishly smiled back at you, a palm resting on his cheek from where your hair had hit him.

Your lips started to drop down into a frown and Jaehyun mirrored this with his expression.

The world had stopped around you by now, it was dead silent — almost deafening.

“So even us meeting back here was all part of your plan?” You whispered, eyes watering at the memories of the records you had read off the files. “If we had already crossed paths way back, why didn’t you start there?”

When you blinked to let the tears fall, the college student Jaehyun you were seated beside was now present time Jaehyun, dressed in his usual black suit and tie. The fine lines he had accumulated as grew up weren’t visible, but they were there.

You were now standing in front of each other, both of you crying. God, you thought, he owned your heart. You loved his very being and it hurts to know you need to learn how to stop from now on.

“I love you.” was all he said, voice soft like when you left him on the floor at the apartment. “And you love me, too, right?”

Your lips parted but nothing came out.

The Jaehyun in front of you made an expression of pure hurt and anguish, “You don’t love me anymore?”

You couldn’t even react properly because in a split second, you’re both back in his old college room as he spun around and punched the mirror on his bathroom door.

“Stop!” You screamed, not wanting to relive this moment. As he winded back to take another swing, you reached for his arm to stop him but your hands phased right through him like a ghost. You could feel yourself panicking as your breath quickened.

Jaehyun punched the mirror once more and you could see the blood again — the ones staining the cracked glass, the drops on the floor, the fresh spill from his knuckles. Your stomach churned, “Jaehyun, stop!”

For a moment, you thought he had listened but then he bent down to grab a shard off the floor and placed it over his wrist. In a fluid motion, he swiped the sharp glass over his skin and you let out a shriek.

You gasped for air, eyes snapping open and a hand flying to your chest to grip your shirt.

It was just a dream, you reminded yourself. A horrible dream.

It took a few seconds to recollect yourself, placing the hand that was on your chest over to your face. You rolled to your side and sat up, hoping to see that you were at your parent’s house but the room didn’t look familiar.

It was a simple bedroom; it had a bed, a TV on the wall, and a small matching table and chair. No decorations, not even curtains. But then you took notice of the floor and the walls; it was bare. It was all concrete — not even brutalist.

Where were you? What happened last night—

Anxiety crept over you as you recalled your previous situation; you were running from a man — from someone you knew. Who was it? He had eventually caught up to you when you were barely halfway down the shortcut path, grabbing a handful of your hair. You had tried screaming the entire time but you were so out of breath that it barely came out. The last thing you could remember was a cloth coming over your mouth and something sweet yet medicinal invading both your sense of taste and smell.

You felt woozy, slumping your body back against the masked man, who stepped away to let you fall back on the dirt. You groaned, vision blurring as your eyelids felt heavier with every second. The man hovered over you, seeming to enjoy you losing consciousness.

He had removed his mask and even in the darkness, you could see him smile at you.

You knew that smile…

One of the doors in the room opened and you scooted further up the bed, eyes narrowing at the newcomer.

“Oh, you’re awake.” He had that same smile last night. He had a tray with a bowl and glass of water that he set on the small table. He glanced back at you and laughed, “Don’t worry, it’s not poisoned if that’s what you’re thinking. If I wanted to kill you, I could’ve done that a long time ago.”

His words haunted you — a long time ago? Like from the moment you met him?

“Why?” You asked, low and soft but enough for him to hear.

“Surely, you’re hungry, no? It didn’t seem like you had a bite to eat from yesterday—”

“No.” You interrupted him, although he was right. The scent of the food had finally reached you and caused your stomach to quietly growl, but you shook your head at him, “Why… are you doing this, Yuta?”

He flashed that shit-eating grin at you again and you’re learning to get annoyed at it more than fear it. He pulled the chair from under the table, swiveled it around so it faced you, and sat down. “Why not?”

His answer filled you with rage and it was evident on your face, “So you’re doing this for your own entertainment? For fun?”

Yuta pouted at you, “Hey, I saved you from marrying your stalker, [Y/N]. I think I deserve a ‘Thank you’ for that.”

“You don’t deserve shit.” You spat, “Answer the question: why are you doing this?”

He sighed, “He’s such a fascinating person, your fiance — oops, I mean… your ex-fiance.”

Tears welled up in your eyes at the truth but you held your ground.

Amused at your expression, Yuta continued, “He seemed so perfect — to the public eye. He’s young, wealthy, the sole heir to a multi billion company, and of course, in a long, loving relationship with his college sweetheart, his first love, [Y/N] [L/N].”

He stood up and walked to the window, peering outside. The smile on his face was long gone, he looked cold and stoic.

“Do you wanna know why I was chosen to be a representative of my company? It wasn’t because I already learned Korean. My father caught wind of the news about the CEO of Korea’s top casino stepping down soon to let his son take over. In our world,” He said this in a way that ostracized you, “that meant that someone inheriting a billion dollar company at such a young age — he had to be some sort of genius. So when an invitation was sent out to introduce Jaehyun to partners, stakeholders, stockholders, and the likes, my father immediately reserved his seat. He had to meet him.”

You knew about that event. Jaehyun initially wanted to invite you as his date but thought it best to forego the idea, you were still a bit shell shocked to know of his family background and business, let alone he was inheriting it. He also wanted to keep you and your relationship out of the public eye for the time being.

“And to say my father was impressed by him is an understatement. That man was absolutely smitten — so much so that all I heard for the following weeks is how he wished I was like him. How Jung Jaehyun was the son he always wanted.”

“So you came here to ruin his life?”

Yuta raised a brow at you, clearly annoyed. He strode over to the foot of the bed and leaned his torso towards you, “Shut the fuck up and let me finish, okay?”

You swallowed your saliva, pressing your lips together, and warily watched him erect his back before he continued to speak.

“My father sent me here, not only to do business and act as representative, but also befriend Jaehyun and quote-unquote learn a thing or two from him.” He shrugged his shoulders, “But Jaehyun’s so uptight — we’ve had this conversation before — he practically didn’t have a social life. So I quite literally took my father’s advice and decided to learn from Jaehyun — my way.”

The grin was back on Yuta’s face and this time it sent shivers down your spine.

“It was quite hard finding a private investigator willing to work against the Jungs, but you can buy anything these days, including loyalty. 30 million USD was all I needed. Go could retire early and provide for his grandkid’s grandkids. It’s a lot funnier because I only got in contact with Go because of Jaehyun.” He snickered, “So I had him investigated, like he did with you~”

This made you scowl but your reaction only made him laugh harder.

“Oh, if only you had seen my reaction when I went through his files. I was so… fascinated. Do you know that feeling when you find out about someone’s dirty little secret? How you could just gauge how much power you have over this person because of it? When you find out someone perceived as the epitome of being perfect — isn’t perfect at all? I wanted to laugh, too, because this is the guy my own father wanted to have as a son?” Yuta hollered, clapping his hands. “Oh, I wish I could see his face when I tell him Jaehyun and I are equally sick in the head.”

“What?” You asked before you could stop yourself.

Expecting him to get mad, you braced yourself in case he snapped at you but instead he hummed.

Yuta looked down at his pocket and fished out his phone, tapping away as if you weren’t there. Unsure of what to do, you sat in silence and waited for him to finish whatever he was focused on.

After a while, he made a sound of a mix of surprise and awe. He peers up at you through his lashes, that devious grin reappearing on his face. He cocked his head towards the television that opened all of a sudden and you guessed that it was connected to his phone.

What came on screen didn’t make sense to you at first until you realized it was a camera feed and that it was in real time based off the emboldened ‘LIVE’ beside the red dot in the corner. It took another second for you to realize that it was coming from the CCTV of your old apartment’s living room.

Your stomach churned at the awareness of Yuta using his own business to spy on you and Jaehyun.

Something in the corner of the screen moved and you instantly recognized Jaehyun getting up from the dining table. He was still there? All the files were on the table as well. After a few seconds, he trudged away.

Yuta tapped his phone and the scene changed: it was the common bathroom near the entrance of the apartment. You wanted to throw up, how was he even able to have that installed there when all of the bathrooms shouldn’t have a camera when they had him over?

Jaehyun appeared at the door of the bathroom, lazily flipping the lights on and standing in front of the mirror.

You had a horrible feeling stirring in your gut and in just a second, your fears were confirmed. “Stop!” You cried as if he could hear you as he punched the mirror. Your hand covered your mouth as the nightmare you just had unfolded on the screen in front of you. When Jaehyun held the glass to his wrist, you hated how vivid and high definition the video was that you had to bury your face in your palms.

You sobbed into your hands, not caring if Yuta would get annoyed. You’re scared to look up and to see the blood all over Jaehyun.

“Oh, don’t be so dramatic,” Yuta scoffed, “You act like you don’t know Jaehyun at all — oh, right. You don’t.”

Rage overcame you and you pulled your hands away from your face to glare at him. You wanted to say a lot of things that could potentially put your life at risk than it already was, but then you noticed Jaehyun was still standing in front of the broken mirror and the shard that was in his hand is with the rest in the sink.

“He’s not going to kill himself.” Yuta spoke up, “He’s going to figure out who sent you his shit and then find out you’re missing and eventually, look for you himself.”

You stared at him, allowing his words to repeat in your head over and over again.

“You’re… you’re using me as bait…”

Yuta clapped his hands, smiling like a child, “You’re so smart, [Y/N]. I almost thought Jaehyun kept you for the sex — which, by the way, is great porn materi—”

You hurled yourself at him, screaming and reaching for him with your hands ready to claw at his face, but he simply slapped you with the back of his hand. You fell back on the bed, pressing your cheek as it stung from the impact.

“I just said you were smart, [Y/N]. And what you did wasn’t so smart.” He said in a matter-of-fact tone. “It would be a lot better if he finds you alive so please don’t force my hand and attempt to kill you before that.”

The way he suggested killing you so coolly and nonchalant terrified you.

Peeking at him through your hair, you softly muttered, “He’s going to kill you. You’ve seen the files. When he figures out you did it… when he finds you… he’s going to kill you.”

He just simply smiled at you. “And I just can’t wait.”

a/n: are we all mentally ready for the last leg of devoted 2??

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next: part 17

#nct scenarios #nct smut #jaehyun scenarios #jaehyun smut #devoted au #jaehyun x reader #nct jaehyun smut

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maknaesdancersrappers · 10 months

Text

devoted 2.

part 12.

Overall warning/s: kinkier smut (eg. voyeurism, exhibitionism, etc.) character death, dark themes

Chapter warning/s: vulgar language, violence

Just how devoted is Jaehyun to you?

prev: part 11

wc: 7.3k

“You’re absolutely glowing, [Y/N]!” Jaehyun’s mom teased, “Are you two expecting?”

You almost spat out the Bloody Mary Yebin prepared for the housewarming party.

“N-no. We don’t have plans.” You met Jaehyun’s eyes across the kitchen and smiled, “Not yet, at least.”

Your mom reminded them about how you insist on not wanting to be pregnant during the wedding and all the women started to agree. Meanwhile, you thought about the reason behind your supposed glow. Aside from being surrounded by people you love, you’d like to blame the sex marathon. It’s been a week since you and Jaehyun had moved in and when he said he’d have you two bless each surface... He meant it.

The party had been unintentionally separated between sexes; the men were outside on the patio, helping the dads out with the barbeque and talking about businesses, while you lounged inside the kitchen with the women, sipping on daytime cocktails Yebin had whipped up, discussing wedding details.

“Kyungwon, you should definitely come to the bachelorette party.” Minkyung said after wiping her lips with a napkin. They’ve met before but never really held a proper conversation until today. “Unless you’re not single.”

“I’m pathetically single.” Kyungwon fake cried, biting on her fork. “You would think working in a male dominated company would get a girl a man. But are we surprised they’re all jerks?”

“I had the same thoughts while working with male models!” Minkyung sighed, “They’re more high maintenance than I am.”

Yebin leaned in closer, “That’s saying a lot.”

Everyone laughed as Minkyung huffed at her, scrunching her nose with a pout.

“I can set you two up with my nephews, if you’d like.” Jaehyun’s mom waved, “They used to play with Jaehyun as a child and I’d like to think they got along swimmingly. Oh, let’s ask him.”

Jaehyun had stepped into the room with a tray of freshly grilled beef, sliced into thin strips. He smiled at everyone as he set the food down on the table.

“Jaehyun, sweetie, do you remember your cousins Gunho and Minho?”

He was on his way to your seat but stopped behind your mom, “The twins? I do. They’re weird.”

“Jaehyun!” His mom scolded, “That’s not very nice. I wanted to set them up with Minkyung and Kyungwon.”

“Well, my only memories of them were from when I was a child. I heard they’re both hotel managers at Lotte.” He resumed his little journey towards you and leaned down to kiss your head, “I’m not really close to anyone from your side of the family, mother.”

This made her heave a sigh, “You always liked Yunho and Sooyeon more. Regardless, they’re wonderful young men. Tell me if either of you are interested.”

“Don’t let my comment throw you off. They were weird back then because they were homeschooled until they finally entered high school. They were inseparable, but I’ve encountered them a couple of times last year and they’ve definitely matured.”

“I’m down for a little blind date.” Minkyung perked up from her seat, glancing at Kyungwon, “A double blind date sounds fun.”

“Definitely! Sign us up, Mrs. Jung.” Kyungwon raised her glass up and Minkyung clinked hers against it.

There’s an audible phone vibration by you and Jaehyun stuck his hand in his pocket to peek at his phone.

“Ah,” He said, “Yuta’s here. I’ll go meet him.”

In the corner of your eye, you saw Kyungwon flinch as she took a swig of her cocktail, covering up with an excuse of drinking too much when asked if she was okay. You wiped your mouth and stood up, “Let me go with you.”

Jaehyun held your hand as you walked towards the foyer and you chuckled.

“Excuse me sir, I’m not going to get lost here.” You nudge your shoulder against him, “I’m quite familiar with the place now, no thanks to you.”

He laughed, pulling your hand up to his lips to kiss your knuckles. “Are you sure? I think we should go another round just to make sure you know your way around.”

“A round?” You emphasized with a scoff, “It’s never a single round with you.”

“Are you complaining, ma’am?”

“Not at all.” You hummed, giggling to yourself.

Jaehyun opened the door for you and you both stepped out on the porch. It was still empty because you haven’t found a nice lounge set that you liked that matched the outdoor lighting fixtures you had installed.

The driveway is still too big for you, but there’s nothing you can really do about it. It still astounds you that you live in a gated property that could probably hold a small village. If your parents weren’t so sentimental about their home, you would be saving up to buy them a new one.

A yellow Lamborghini pulled up to the driveway and Yuta rolled the window down to wave before proceeding to park on the side with the other guests’ cars. He exited his car with a wrapped box in hand and cheekily grinned at you.

“I said no gifts!” You scolded, but still accepted the box after he held it out towards you.

“It feels wrong to attend a housewarming party empty handed.” Yuta shook Jaehyun’s hand firmly and shrugged. “I had it brought straight from Japan yesterday.”

You curiously opened the box and gasped at the glittering gold.

“We call it ‘kintsukuroi’, the art of repairing broken pottery with gold. The dish itself was made by one of the top ceramicists of Japan but a mishap in handling had shattered it and it was mended by a famous kintsugi restorer.”

“It’s beautiful.” You unconsciously held onto the box tighter. It already had a history of breaking and you wouldn’t want to destroy such a masterpiece. “Thank you, Yuta. Please come in.”

Both men let you go in first as they talked briefly about business, something you don’t bother listening into. You stopped by the floating shelf in the foyer to unwrap the gift and gently place it by the bronze dish where Jaehyun placed the car keys. It was too wide to be a vase, but you can visualize a water lily in it.

Jaehyun had already introduced Yuta to everyone and you noticed Kyungwon avoiding eye contact with him, although the latter didn’t seem to care about the apprehension. They excused themselves to join the rest of the men out back and you sat yourself back at the table after discarding the gift box.

“Not to be a bitch,” Yebin started, “But I don’t like his vibes.”

“Yeb!” Minkyung scolded, “You literally just met him!”

“All my accumulated experiences with men tell me to hate him.” She shrugged, “But, hey, it’s just me. I’m not gonna be rude to him or anything, sheesh.”

Kyungwon seemed to open her mouth to say something but in the last second, brought up her glass to her lips.

You shook your head at Yebin, “He’s a good man.”

“And,” Jaehyun’s mother chimed in, “He’s leading his company into total domination of Seoul’s cyber security needs — to think he’s a foreigner! It’s quite commendable. Nakamoto Tech will dominate Asia by next year.”

“And after signing a contract with me, they’ll be penetrating the US market soon as well.” Johnny entered the room with the other men, signaling all the meat has been grilled and lunch is ready.

“Sounds like you’ll have the world in your very palm.” Minkyung commented with a smirk before playfully asking, “Are you, perhaps, single?”

They all laugh at this and Yuta’s eyes crinkled as he looks over at her, “Unfortunately so.”

The men settled themselves in after setting the dishes filled with an assortment of meat and veggies.

“I don’t have the time to exert myself into a relationship right now, but please, enough about me, it’s not my housewarming party.” Yuta cleared his throat, nodding his head at Jaehyun and at you, “The house’s design and architecture are phenomenal.”

This brought the topic of the conversation on your inspiration behind the interior designing and you’re launched into a mini spiel that you did your best to make sure they would understand. You get a little flustered when they ask for a tour, curious about the master bedroom, and you internally panic about whether or not you remembered to close the curtains into the shower.

For once, you’re thankful that your mom switched the topic to kids when she asked about the possible nursery and you were able to redirect their interest in seeing the room for that instead.

Most of your guests have left already, except Minkyung, Yebin, and Kyungwon, who enjoyed each other’s company and took their conversation up to the second floor living area, where you set up the indoor fire pit for them.

You quickly changed into something a little more comfortable before joining them and Minkyung handed you your glass.

“You really did a great job with the house, [Y/N].” She sighed, dreamily looking around the open area. “I wonder when I’ll be ready to settle down to have my own. I’ll need to be an S+ tier model to afford anything remotely similar.”

“The offer to meet my cousins is still open.” Jaehyun joked from the top of the stairs, holding a charcuterie board in one hand and a party pack of chips in the other. “Here you go, ladies, something to eat with your drinks.”

“Damn, a car-coochie board?” Yebin sarcastically exclaimed, grabbing a slice of cheese once he set the board down by the fire pit.

“That’s not how you pronounce it, Kang.”

“I know it’s charcuterie, Jung. Learn to take a joke— damn, and here I thought you’re ready to settle down but you’re still so uptight.”

“I am ready to settle down!”

“Please don’t argue!” You interrupted their banter by raising both hands, as if to separate them, “I’m starting to get a headache.”

Jaehyun glared at Yebin before leaning down to kiss your head, “You ladies enjoy the rest of the night, I’m going to finish up some work in the meantime.”

“Good night, Jae!” Minkyung and Kyungwon wave at him while Yebin snarkily nods at him.

After Jaehyun left, Kyungwon turned to Yebin and hummed, “Do you not get along with Jaehyun?”

“Oh, Jung and I go way back.” She snorted, “Long story short, I hated him back then, and I’m just tolerating him now because of [Y/N].”

“Did you guys date or—”

Yebin visibly gagged at the suggestion, “Not in any lifetime, girl. I just didn’t like him or his friends... Actually, maybe I just hated his friends. They were trouble; it’s good he’s cut them off.”

This reminded you of the therapy session you had with him; how his friends were nothing but bad fuel for his mental health. You can’t help but wonder who they were though. How bad was bad?

“Let me guess, they were a bunch of fuckboys?”

Snorting, Yebin took a swig of her wine as if it was a shot, “Their parents wished they were just fuckboys. They were dealing drugs before even hitting sophomore year and a sex ring before they graduated. They only kept getting off the hook because of the power of their parents in society, but there’s only so much daddy and mommy could do while they’re underaged. I’m pretty sure one of them got a taste of real jail time the moment he turned 21… I think his name was Hajun or something. He was like the leader of the group.”

“Oh my god… does that mean Jaehyun did drugs before?” Minkyung placed a hand on her clavicle in shock, “I would have never guessed in a million years.”

“Yeah, he told me about it.” You quietly confessed, “He wasn’t proud of who he was when he was in high school.”

“Damn.” Yebin drawled, “He told you? Shit, [Y/N], you really do have him wrapped around your finger if he told you about his dirty past. Good for you… and him.”

The corner of your lip lifted upwards in an appreciative half smile.

“So how about you, Kyungwon?” She redirected her attention to your former co-worker.

“Me?”

“What’s your deal with Nakamoto?”

Kyungwon’s face instantaneously turned red, but she shook her head in denial, “Nothing. What do you mean?”

“Oh, please,” Minkyung tossed her hair with a flick of a wrist over her shoulder, “The negative vibes you were directing towards him was intense. Same vibes when a model comes in for a shoot and had a nasty fight with the photographer who she’s having an affair with the night before.”

To Kyungwon, the scenario sounded awfully specific; but you and Yebin knew from Minkyung’s stories that it’s quite a common occurrence in her industry.

“Ooh,” Yebin shimmied her shoulders, “You’re sleeping with Nakamoto?”

She released a heavy sigh, glancing at you for a brief second before shrugging her shoulders, “Yeah? I mean, it was only meant to be like a one night stand, but then it just kept happening. So we made it clear that this was strictly only a physical relationship, but…”

“You caught feelings?” Minkyung already looked apathetic as she offered her guess.

“No,” Kyungwon adamantly shook her head, “He could be passionate one night and then completely uninterested the next time around — like he was just doing it for the sake of doing it. Do you get what I mean? Like I want to pleasure and be pleasured, but instead it felt like I was used and wasn’t even doing shit right.”

She grabbed the wine off the table to refill her glass before gulping half of it down. “I tried to tell him, too! And you know what he did? He dismissed it and said it was all in my head! [Y/N], remember our last day working for him? When I stayed back at his loft, we really did have a call with his sister regarding the kotatsu, and I thought he wanted to break in his new bed but guess what? He had another woman coming over already and tried kicking me out after I confronted him!”

“Oh my gosh, Kyung.” You gasped, feeling hurt for her.

“I understand we’re not exclusive, but that was so rude.”

“And gaslighting!” Yebin exploded, “My guts were right. He just oozes toxicity and bad news.”

“At least you guys ended things — both contract and FWB relationship.” Minkyung reached out to hold her hand, “Let’s set that blind date with Jaehyun’s cousins, yeah?”

Kyungwon chuckled at this, “If they’re anything like Jaehyun, count me in. Imagine having a man who would do anything for you and treat you like a queen. Ugh, I hope it runs in the blood.”

You let out an awkward laugh, grabbing the chips Jaehyun brought up. If they were from his mom’s side, then they should be clear from the possibility of having BPD, right? You ripped the top off the sour cream and onion flavored chips and almost immediately wretched at the smell hitting your senses. You threw the bag aside and lurched forward, cupping your mouth to stop yourself from actually vomiting.

“[Y/N], what the fuck? Are you okay?” Yebin, seated beside you, was already running a hand on your back.

“I-I think. That just smelled… disgusting.” The scent lingered in the air so you clamped it closed with your other hand.

She gave you a weird, incredulous look, “You literally love sour cream and onion.”

“Maybe these are bad.”

Minkyung walked over to inspect the bag herself and shook her head, “They don’t expire until next year.”

She even took a chip out and the clear, crisp sound was a telltale that it was fresh. “It tastes just fine, too.”

You held out your hand to take another whiff, maybe caught off guard about thinking of BPD, but still when the salty, sour fumes hit your nostrils, you reeled back and vigorously shook your head. “Nope. It smells off.”

Your best friends share a look, even glancing back at Kyungwon, who shared the same expression as them.

“Are you pregnant?” Minkyung asked under her breath, leaning forward a bit.

“What?” You scoffed, “No, I have an IUD. I’m having it removed just before the wedding.”

Yebin moved her hand from your back to your shoulder, “Babe, there’s still that sliver of chance to get pregnant even with implants. As my OB says, the only foolproof contraception is ligation.”

“Just take a test tomorrow or something.” Minkyung shrugged her shoulders, “There’s no harm in it.”

“I suppose.” You bit your lip as you considered their suggestion. You couldn’t possibly be pregnant, right? “I’ll pick up a PT while running errands tomorrow.”

“Are you going to tell Jae?”

You shook your head, “He’s so busy. It could just be a false alarm and it would just get his hopes up.”

Kyungwon chimed in, “And if it’s positive?”

There is no sliver of certainty in you that you were pregnant at the moment. It was just impossible. Yebin was right, however; your OB did tell you that IUD’s are 99% effective and that leaves that one percent chance, that incredibly small window of opportunity for you to get pregnant. It would be a risky pregnancy if it were true. You halfheartedly shrugged your shoulders, “Surprise him, I guess.”

“I have a gift for you.”

You paused from putting away your work materials into the cabinets of your home office and looked up at the doorway where Jaehyun sheepishly grinned at you.

“Is there an occasion?”

“No.”

“Jaehyun,” You started, closing your eyes as you took a deep breath, “I know gift giving is your love language, but if this is something other than flowers, you need to stop. We just moved in; we haven’t completely settled in.” You gestured to the filled boxes that contained portfolios of your previous works.

He pouted his lips, lower lip jutting out adorably at your words. “But you’ve complained about this before. Besides, I technically told you about getting this before.”

“I have?” Your interest is piqued.

Jaehyun walked forward and held out his hand to you, helping you up from your seat. He kisses your forehead, “Once, verbally. All the other times, your face gave it away.”

He walked you out of the office area of the house and towards the hallway that led to the garage. Considering his little hint, you were a little dismayed that it wasn’t a puppy. What could he have hidden in the garage while you were busy in your office?

Opening the door, you were both greeted by his most prized possession, his Lamborghini.

“We both know it’s not a family friendly car, so I thought I might as well buy one now—”

“You’re replacing your lambo?”

“No.” Jaehyun said a little too adamantly, his free hand jolting forward to hover over his car. “Never. This is my baby.”

You cocked a brow at him, “I thought I was your baby.”

His cheeks flared red as he whips his face towards you, looking like a deer caught in headlights. “You are,” He licked his lips, “I-I would easily choose you over it.”

The shakiness of his voice makes you want to laugh and you’re not mad at his hesitancy because you found it cute. “I’m just joking, Jae. I would never make you choose between me and your car. I know how much you love it.”

“But I love you more, you know that right.”

You chuckled, grabbing his face to pull him down for a quick kiss, “Always.”

He leaned down for one more kiss before leading you to the other side of his car. You never really questioned why the garage had enough space for 5 cars and always assumed it was for guests, but today you see why.

Your jaw dropped at the sight of the sleek, metallic silver car sitting prettily on the far end of the garage. As Jaehyun led you closer, you spy the logo in front of the car and you skid to a stop.

“Is that a Tesla?”

“It’s more family friendly, yeah?”

Ah, of course. Family friendly does not mean budget friendly for a Jung.

He dug into his pocket and fished out two sets of keys, handing one to you. “We each have keys.”

“It’s been awhile since I drove a car.” You confessed, running your thumb over the key. It wasn’t just because you didn’t have a car on your own; you could have bought a car for yourself if you wanted to, but Jaehyun always insisted on driving for you or having the family driver pick you up.

Jaehyun grinned at you, “Wanna take it out for a test drive?”

“I would love that.”

He gestured for you to go ahead and you giddily made your way to the driver’s side, opening the door so carefully in fear as if it were made with the most fragile material on earth. You sat yourself inside while Jaehyun sidled himself into the passenger’s seat and buckled his seatbelt, admiring the high quality interior.

Jaehyun pressed a button that dangled with his keys and the garage door opened behind you. He patiently waited for you to check out all the new specs a Tesla had in comparison to other cars and when you finally turned the ignition on, you mumbled a prayer to yourself while backing out of the garage.

Even though it was spacious and an actual child can easily reverse a car out, you were quite relieved at the feat. Once you successfully got the car out, you glanced at Jaehyun, “Uh, where do we go?”

“Anywhere. Just get a feel of the car.” His eyes flit downward, “Please put your seatbelt on, babe.”

“Oh!” You bashfully exclaimed, doing as he says immediately. After hearing the click, you breathed in deeply and lightly pressed on the gas.

Slowly, you started to remember everything about driving and your entire body just went on auto-pilot. As you neared the gate, you see Jooheon pop his upper body out of the guard house and waved at you while the gates parted for you to pass through.

You gave a little wave back while Jaehyun tipped his head in acknowledgement as you drove past them.

The area you lived in was an elitist subdivision sitting on a luscious, but gated three acre land. From what you’ve observed going in and out, you only passed by a handful of other mansions and each property was greatly distanced from one another. There was this cliff that you spotted from the community’s gate and you remembered seeing a few cars passing by so you were sure there was a road nearby it.

“You’re doing great.” Jaehyun offered, glancing at his wristwatch.

“Thanks.” You sighed, “Are you supposed to be somewhere? I can try and take you there.”

“I’m not needed anywhere until 5 PM. So you’re free to take me anywhere you want until then.”

“I’d like to see the view from up that cliff.” You nodded your head towards the direction of the cliff. “I bet the view is amazing.”

Jaehyun peered out of his window to where you pointed and hummed, “Alright. Maybe the next right turn after this would lead up there; this leads to the governor’s property.”

You opened your mouth, about to exclaim about your neighbor’s identity, but withheld it. You would rather keep your attention on the road and you have a sneaking suspicion that the governor isn’t just the only big time neighbor you have.

“You’re driving just fine, babe. I don’t know what you were worried about.”

“Muscle memory, I guess?”

“You still have the bodyguards to drive you around if you don’t feel like it, alright? I just want to give you this freedom.”

The corner of your lip quirked upwards. “Freedom?”

He gave you a tense smile, “That’s how Dr. Jeon phrased it. Giving you freedom to do certain things that usually makes me uneasy can earn your trust.”

“Well, I appreciate it very much, Jaehyun.” You cooed, momentarily driving slower to give him a sincere grin. “I already trust you, you know that.”

“And I trust you…” He paused, “That’s why I should tell you that I have to attend a 2 week-long conference in England in a few weeks.”

“Oh.”

“Normally, I would have invited you to come with me but it falls on the same dates you have scheduled to meet with contractors for your new company.” The sound of disappointment is heavy in the tone of his voice. “I would send a proxy in my place—”

“No, Jaehyun. It’s fine. I can handle it. You hired a hundred bodyguards to watch over me—”

“I hired you two.” He huffed, and you chuckled at him.

“Yes, but with how closely they watch over me, it feels like a hundred.” You shrugged your shoulders. “The girls can also sleepover if they aren’t too busy if that would put your mind at ease. I’m sure my mom would love to stay over as well. I’ll be fine, baby.”

He heaved a heavy sigh, “I know you will be. I’m just… being cautious… your stalker…”

“They haven’t sent anything recently.”

“Only because,” Jaehyun’s lips pursed, “Only because I don’t let you know. There are flowers every other day arriving at the gate. There were a few bugged items like toys and keychains.”

Your fingers trembled as you gripped the steering wheel. “Bugged?”

“Installed cameras, microphones, and even tracking devices.” His voice dropped to sneer. “The manufacturer of the tech is unknown and it can’t be traced back to any company. Even the transmitters installed all just lead to a burner PC.”

The frustration was clear in his voice and you don’t know how to console him when you couldn’t even console yourself. All this time you thought it was a prank and the coast was clear but Jaehyun had been protecting you from it.

The entire ride was silent until you managed to drive up the hill and see a curb in the road that’s large enough for you to park in.

As you slowed to a stop and turned the car off, Jaehyun took your hand and kissed it.

“I didn’t mean to scare you, [Y/N]. But I also didn’t want to hide that fact for too long. You were just so happy the past week about moving in and the housewarming that I couldn’t bring myself to report those to you.”

“I’m really glad you waited to tell me after the celebration… But moving forward, I think I would like to be updated with these kinds of things, okay?”

“Of course, baby.” He kissed your knuckles again, “Would you like Jooheon or Hyunwoo to report it to you while I’m away?”

It makes you anxious to think you would have to deal with this stalker by yourself while Jaehyun was away. What were the chances this person already knew Jaehyun would be gone? Surely there’s a contingency plan for when the worst happens.

“Yes, please.”

“Alright. Now, reverse park this baby. We can open up the back and lounge for a while.”

It took you less than three minutes to follow his directions and once you parked for good, you both made your way out to open the back. The air felt fresher with all the greenery and tall trees covering the hillside. You appreciate the view for a few seconds before turning to see Jaehyun opening the back of the car and pulling up the passenger seats to make room for both of you to sit on the floor.

He ushered you inside and followed suit once you did.

“There’s a special mattress we can get that fits exactly for this space. It hasn’t come in yet, but once we get it, we can get some pillows and a blanket, and it’ll be as cozy as home.” Jaehyun stretched his arm outwards and you scooted closer to lay your head on his shoulder.

“I like this.” You hummed, sinking into his side as his arm curled around you. “We’ve both been busy and our schedules are hectic; it’s nice to have quiet time like this.”

He pressed his face into your hair, breathing deeply. “I do, too. Hopefully we’ll have more time to ourselves soon. Let’s savor this moment, yeah?”

You wrapped yourself around his torso, letting out almost something akin to a purr as you cuddled his side.

You wished life was this simple; no stalkers, no old money, no reporters watching over you, no big company to inherit. Jaehyun could have just been a simple businessman instead of being Korea’s biggest chaebol. You two could have been living in a small apartment, complaining about taxes and rent. Of course, having the lifestyle you have right now that Jaehyun had provided is something you’ll always be grateful for, it would just be nice to have it simpler.

“This is dangerous.” Jaehyun sighed, “I want to fall asleep right now.”

Your eyes flitted through the spaciousness of the car and smiled to yourself. “I can wake you up.”

You moved your hand from his waist and down towards his zipper. With the way he adjusted his hips while you unzipped his pants, you pulled your head back to knowingly grin at him.

“What?” He feigned, “I’m not gonna turn down getting head from you.”

“Hmm.” You hummed, leaning to kiss his lips while your hand made work of releasing his half-hard cock from its confines. You let his tongue in your mouth, savoring the bitter aftertaste of the coffee you personally brewed for him this morning. Your fist slowly pumped his entire length, encouraging it to grow harder and harder with every slow flick of your wrist.

Jaehyun groaned and you took it as a sign to move your head down, capturing his erection with your lips and fully taking him into your mouth without hesitation. He lightly bucked his hips upwards but you held one of his legs down.

As you bobbed your head up and down at a slow pace, he gathered your hair for you to hold it back behind your neck. A breeze blew by and it reminded you that you were outside, although inside the car. It makes you think about the chances of being seen; if you were able to see the cliffside on the main road, then surely anybody passing by who happened to be looking out will see it too. No one could possibly identify you two, but there are chances of being caught — and it excites you to the point you feel damp down there.

Your mouth left him with a string of saliva sticking down your chin as you raised your eyes up at him, silently begging for something.

“Baby?” He breathed out, letting go of your hair to wipe the saliva off your chin.

You scrambled on top of him, “I need you inside me.” You softly cried like a spoiled child.

You’ve learned to wear dresses more often since moving into your new home. Easier access. Best for quickies. His hands are on your waist, holding you up while you push your panties to the side and lined the tip of his cock against your entrance.

“Easy, baby.” Jaehyun whispered, fighting back your urge to drop yourself on his dick. “You’re gonna hurt yourself.”

With how wet you are, you thought to yourself, he’s going to slide right in.

And you were right; he lowered you onto himself and his cock just slipped in, filling you inch by inch until you were completely sat on his lap. You let out a little moan and shiver of delight; a small jolt of pleasure coursed through you at how full you felt.

Jaehyun pulled the front of your day dress down, exposing one of your breasts to him, and he gave it a little squeeze. You whimpered, arching your back to give him more access. He kissed your neck, licking down your clavicle until he reached your nipple, latching his mouth onto it like a suckling infant. His hands guided your hips up and down his shaft while also kneading your ass with his fingers.

You let out a loud moan, knowing no one could hear you from the cliffs.

“You feel so good, baby.” He groaned against your chest, “Do you feel good?”

“So good.” You gasped, “Faster.”

“Anything for you, baby.” Jaehyun scooted himself farther so he’s practically pushing the front seats with his back and planted both his feet firmly on the car floor. He bucked his hips upward, sending you to bounce on his dick and inevitably bumping your head on the roof but the pleasure that shot through you overpowered the miniscule pain.

You moaned again, lurching forward and grabbing his shoulders for support. He relentlessly repeated the actions of his hips, edging you closer and closer to the edge. Your back started to hurt but you literally couldn’t bring yourself to tell Jaehyun about it.

“Wait.” You managed to croak out and he stopped. You were about to complain, wanting to correct your statement but in one fell swoop, you’re on your back with your hair dangling out the car.

He’s managed to switch positions without leaving inside of you — damn, you thought. You two couldn’t do that in his lambo.

Jaehyun kissed you and you embraced his shoulders as he started to pound into you again. The entire car was vigorously shaking now; surely someone will know what you two were up to now. And the idea of it just fueled your pleasure. He swallowed your moans, replying with low grunts with every thrust he made. Your legs locked behind his hips and it sent him into overdrive, picking up his pace and going faster to push both of you over the edge.

His phone suddenly rang at the front of the car and it brought you back to your senses. You thought he would stop to answer it, but he didn’t.

“J-Jae—”

“Shhh, I’m so close.” He buried his head into the crook of your neck, “I’m so close.”

“I am, too.” You admitted, cradling his head. “I’m about to come.”

Jaehyun groaned loudly, emptying himself inside of you. You could feel the warmth filling you up.

But he doesn’t stop. He’s still hard, picking up the pace of his thrusts to help you over the edge. He sat up, rubbing his thumb over your clit until you’re crying, coming undone beneath him.

He fell forward, landing on his forearms to hold himself above you. His breathing was just as harsh as yours as both of you tried to catch them, unsynchronized and heavy. You looked up at him, his face flushed and dripping with sweat. It was then you realized how hot it was inside the car despite the back being open. He gave you a lazy smile, the familiar look of love evident in his eyes.

“I’m very awake now, thank you.”

You laughed, cupping his cheeks. You could feel his semen gush out of you as he slowly pulled out. “We should get going, no?”

“We should.” He looked down at his clothes, the light blue shirt now a deeper shade after soaking in the sweat. “I have to change clothes.”

“Orrrr,” You purred, “We can take a quick shower together to wash this sweat off.”

A wicked smile came over Jaehyun’s face, “Oh, you little vixen.”

Your muscles throbbed a bit as you stretched your body upwards after washing the dishes. Jaehyun got held back at work so you had to eat dinner by yourself. Your day wasn’t as eventful but you managed to set up meetings for possible contractors and suppliers for your new design agency.

Your phone chimed, seeing an incoming message from Jooheon.

‘Ma’am, there’s another set of flowers for you. Sir Jaehyun had told us to inform you about anything new regarding this matter.’

You took a deep breath, ringing his number and waiting for him to pick it up.

“Good evening, Ma’am.”

“Good evening, Jooheon.” You swallowed, “New flowers came in just now?”

“Yes, Ma’am.”

“No card? No name of sender?”

“None at all, Ma’am. The courier is different every time and we could never trace back the order.”

You instinctively hugged yourself and breathed in deeply.

“Ma’am?”

“Yes, uhm… Dispose of it.” You cleared your throat, throwing a glance out the window. The garden lights are on but anything beyond it is pitched black. “Jooheon, would you mind… patrolling the area? Is that the right term? Just go around the property — especially near the house.”

“Yes, of course, ma’am. Anything to put you at ease. I’ll go right away.”

“Thank you, Jooheon.”

“Enjoy the rest of your evening, ma’am.”

Once you put your phone away, the house suddenly felt too big. You didn’t have a safe room, you realized. Nowhere to run when you feel unsafe or a place you hide during emergencies. Maybe you should have included a panic room when building the house.

Your stomach churned and you felt like throwing up. Your paranoia had morphed into physical sickness, a lump of acid rising up your throat. Swallowing hard, you forced it down and breathed in deeply. You put a hand on your forehead - you weren’t possibly coming down with something, are you? You have meetings with suppliers and potential partners one after the other in the coming weeks. This isn’t the time to get sick, even with just a plain cough.

Your phone rang, giving you just the slightest scare. But as soon as you saw the caller ID, you smiled.

“Jaehyun.” You sighed, rubbing a hand over your chest to soothe your heart. “Are you on your way home?”

“I’m half an hour away, baby. Are you okay? Has Jooheon reported to you?”

“He has and I’m fine. Just… just a little uneasy, but getting better. I had them go around the area of the house to check.” You started to walk up the stairs, “I’m gonna run a bath. Drive safely, okay?”

“You’re not going to wait for me?” Jaehyun whined, the softest chuckle following afterwards.

“Well maybe if you had gone home earlier, I could’ve waited for you. But not tonight, I can’t wait to soak in a nice, hot, soapy bath - especially after that little escapade with the new car.”

“Fine.” He grumbled, “Enjoy yourself, baby. But not too much. I’ll be there soon.”

You ended the call laughing, shaking your head in disbelief as if he could see you. You were already perched by the bathtub, waiting to get off the phone before running the bath. After putting your phone away, you closed off the drain and opened the cold tap. With a little hum of a random song, you reached for a scented candle Minkyung had gotten you as a housewarming gift. Peony and Blush Suede; this should go well with the new bubble bar you’ve been meaning to use. You lit the candle with the electronic lighter that came with Minkyung’s gift and set it aside.

As you went over to where you kept your Lush stash, you couldn’t help but release a deep sigh. The thought of having a stalker was still nagging at the back of your mind no matter what you did to distract yourself. You couldn’t fathom why you would even have one. It’s more likely it’s someone who has a grudge on Jaehyun, but even he doesn’t know who would stoop so low to bring in an innocent bystander to a petty business issue.

You grabbed the purple bubble bar from the container, read the wrapping, and snorted to yourself. Worry Monster, it said. “I probably am.” You quietly admitted.

Going back over to the tub, you changed the temperature to something a little more warm and unwrapped the bar. You held it under the running water, slowly massaging the bar to lather it until you gripped it a little harder to fully crumble.

The lavender scent is lovely, just enough to alleviate the stress of tonight’s happenings. This house was built for you by Jaehyun. No one knows the ins and outs of this structure aside from you (and of course the amazing architects and engineers you worked with) but regardless, you know it’s safe. You have security personnel just a minute away if you need them with intercom systems in every room. You glanced over to the one installed in the bathroom; it’s just there, you reminded yourself.

The tub is almost half filled with water and the surface is practically covered with bubbles already. The water isn’t at the temperature you wanted so you turned the temperature knob higher. You stripped your clothes off and hopped into the shower to scrub down real quick. By the time you were done, the water was just perfect.

You eased yourself in, audibly moaning at the warmth enveloping your body as you sat down.

“Did you just get in?”

You gasped, twisting your torso towards the source of the voice. “Jesus! Did you speed home?”

Jaehyun grinned, guilt evident on your face. “To be fair, there wasn’t much traffic.”

“Well, if you want to get in, you go and scrub yourself down in the shower first.” You huffed, leaning back and closing your eyes. You can hear the soft patter of his feet going across the tiles of the bathroom but the sound of the shower - or even the shuffling of clothes - came afterwards.

You opened your eyes to see Jaehyun is seated on the edge of the tub, softly gazing down at you.

“I actually have some more work to do that I’d rather do here so you wouldn’t be alone.” He spoke so quietly in a tone that sounded more apologetic and regretful.

“I…” You blinked at him, “I really appreciate that, baby. Thank you.”

An overwhelming urge to cry came over you and you cleared your throat to choke it down. You were touched. When you both discovered about the stalker, Jaehyun’s initial response was to leave you and find the stalker himself. Now, just the news of having flowers delivered to you has him packing up work and bringing it home to make sure you’re not alone.

“I love you.”

He cocked his head to the side and moved to sit on the floor to be eye level with you. “I love you, too.”

You leaned over to kiss him, getting his cheek wet when you brought your hand to cup his face.

“Have you eaten? I can make you something after this bath.” You whispered after pulling away.

“I can do it myself. You just soak up and enjoy your time, baby. By the way,” Jaehyun’s voice got lower to change the tone of the conversation. “I have business in China with Sicheng’s company. I tried to have them fly here, but they refused.”

“I’ll be fine, Jaehyun.” You already knew where this was going. “Sicheng’s company is one of your oldest and most important partners. Aren’t they the ones that preside over the Chinese branches of the casino? If you need to go over there, then go.”

He sighed, “The thing is, it might take awhile. There’s… political tension between the branches. It’s a whole mess. Sicheng’s going out of his mind in trying to soothe it out.” He chuckled, “We’re hoping the business proposals we’ll hand them can be some sort of truce between the parties.”

“How long… is a while?”

“A week? Two weeks at most.” He mumbled, visibly saddened by the thought of leaving you for so long.

“I’ll be fine. I can have my mom keep me company, maybe yours’ too. I know Minkyung is planning to take a short break from work soon, as well.” You assured him, kissing his cheek. “I’ll be fine.”

Jaehyun nodded, “Alright. But just to be clear, I’m booking the next flight out if anything happens.”

You scoffed, playfully flicking water at his face. “I wouldn’t be surprised.”