#and then he lied about being able to afford a trip to the bahamas or something to look good in front of her friends | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

rosaetae · 5 years ago

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stay warm this winter— one

☇ “And do me a favor. Stay warm this winter. xx.”

part one / part two / part three

➣ pairing: reader x hoseok

➣ genre: exes2enemies2lovers!au, angst, CEO!hoseok

➣ word count: 12.6k

➣ summary: when a young ceo arrives in the area one winter day, everyone is falling in love with him and his charm. and quite ironically for you, you’ve already fell down that hole before.

It was two days ago when Yana has you take over her position as director of hospitality design of Ardor Interiors while she decides to finally take a break and spend time in the Bahamas with her boyfriend, Tristian. It was two days ago when she hands it over to you for a couple of weeks over the phone at 2 AM and the next morning, you're given all her tasks and schedule that she abandoned in a blink of an eye.

Knowing how Tristian and Yana works, you probably knew this was a spontaneous love trip sparked in the minds of their own in the middle of the night where Tristian, a well-known surgeon with a million dollar hand, and Yana, head of hospitality design with stunning taste could afford any last minute ticket to the last second. And seeing that you are thriving design director and Yana's best apprentice under her wing, it was easy for her to throw it upon you so last minute, especially when nothing remains your weakness— including working under pressure and being thrown under the bus.

You're relaying schedules, meeting and working with new restaurants being opened in the Spring and also working with couples who just moved into their homes requesting designs to portray their perfect living area.

It's only the third day without Yana and you're running on three cups of coffee, two cups of black tea, and 2 hours of sleep, but you remain calm and composed. Calm and composed.

"There's a new hot CEO in town," Nadine, your very good friend sat the front desk says. You came down to grab some paperwork she announced she had for you, taking them out of the manila folder to examine what it could be at the desk instead of taking the elevator and going into your office.

"Really, now?" You muse along, sorting through the paperwork and grabbing a highlighter from the mug along with her pen collection. "Hot, because he's rich and powerful? Because last time I checked you said Mr. Redmann was hot, but failed to mention he is three times your age."

The brunette peers up at you, mischievously smiling. "Trust me. This man is hot in both ways. Powerful and lick-worthy."

Hearing the unsettling traits she described of the man that she and you haven't met, you roll your eyes at her thirsty words, highlighting significant parts of the paperwork you were given. "Hey, don't roll your eyes like that," she chuckles. "I'm telling you this because he requested to meet with our hospitality designer."

"So... me," you finish as she nods, an amused smile on her face.

"You know, I'd never thought I'd say this, but I'll admit, I'm jealous of you."

Laughing at her, you still focus on finishing the last bit of highlighting. "Is he really that worth swooning over for? When's this meeting?"

In the corner of your eye, you see her look back at her computer, making some clicks here and there before she looks back at you. "Today," she answers. "At four."

Your neck nearly snaps as you look at her, a questionable look on your face as if you didn't want to believe that your meeting is as close to 4 o'clock that day. "Today?"

"He's the CEO of the hotel chain, The Novahaven. They started working on one of their newest hotels that they just started building a few months ago on 10th Street. He requested Yana for a meeting a couple of weeks ago. Guessing she didn't tell you?"

You let out a light scoff, knowing that Yana is probably relaxing her toes in sand as you're freezing in this winter weather and having to work as head of two branches of Ardor Interiors. "I guess not."

"Well, your schedule as ___ and Yana is all clear for the rest of the day after the meeting. Will you be a good friend and let me know how hot he is?"

Nadine's eyes glinted with playfulness as usual and particularly, you'd give her a disgusted out look, but there was this deep curiosity in your stomach that had you concerned about this meeting— but as you give her a silent single nod, you ignore that gut feeling and tell her to send you details of the meeting as you head to your office.

Yana was always the type to have meetings anywhere but Ardor Interior's building. She states that the building is never on her sides with certain proposals, and that going to where the client requests is a strategic method of hers to get way— easier and efficient, she says.

However, you call utter bullshit when you're stuck in traffic and it's already 3:58 PM and 10th street isn't for another couple of blocks down. Your method is that if a client wants to use your way, they'd make way for you— not the other way around.

Yelling and pounding on the wheel in frustration, you're annoyed when you park in front of a tall building where The Novahaven is in broad, immense letters. You're grabbing your blueprints, your tablet, and paperwork from the back, struggling to lock your car as you're carrying too many things for one trip to the 14th floor of the building.

With winter here and the hues of the sun setting, it made you feel like you were in a hurry— which you were when you check your phone flashing in a white font, 4:06 PM and you're not even in the lobby yet. The back of your heels were clicking with each fast-paced step you took and you simply throw dispersed excuse me's and sorry's in the air without looking at the the person you've ran into on accident.

You finally find the elevator, stuffing yourself in the corner as it piled up with people as each floor passed. When it finally reaches the 14th floor, you squeeze your way out of the crowd, protecting your blueprints from being crumpled or folded in any way. And as you eventually get out of the elevator, you feel contact with your back to a body, making you fumble forward in fear that you pushed them down.

Turning around, you look over at the person you just bumped into, almost relieved that they weren't at all pushed down.

"I'm so sorry," you immediately apologize. "I'm already late to the meeting and I get really—"

"It's alright," he laughs, a smile forming on his face as he looks down at you. His smile is pretty and contagious, because you're smiling back up at him, forgetting that you shouldn't be distracted— however, there's this look in his eyes as if he's trying to remember you from somewhere, though you have never met anyone who looked like him. "You must be the hospitality designer. Yana, correct?"

You let out a laugh, a dorky one— as if you're in high school and the cute jock remembers your name. "Yes, and no," you shove some of your blueprints under your arm, freeing a hand to offer for him to shake. "I'm actually taking over for Yana as she's tending to an emergency, but I'm ___, head of interior design at Ardor Interiors."

And he makes some sort of face of realization as if he recognized your name, but you notice he shakes it off, smiling that once again pretty smile. "Well, ___, I'm Mr. Jung Haein, CEO of The Novahaven."

Your eyes nearly bulge out of your sockets when you realized you bumped into the CEO of the hotel chain— and you're about 10 minutes late. "Pleased to meet you, Mr. Jung," you nervously laugh, biting on your tongue as he shakes your hand firmly.

"Don't be worried. You were probably stuck in traffic?" He asks considerately as he begins to walk, you following his lead smoothly.

"Yes," you breathe out. "I apologize for being so late."

"No harm done," he decrees, opening the glass door of his office for you as you walked in. "Is it overwhelming to be taking over two positions for the time being?"

You let out a light chuckle, taking a seat in front of his desk, placing your blueprints in the chair next to you. "I think I'm handling it."

He lets out a friendly laugh, sitting in the chair in front of the desk, his amiable eyes meeting yours. In this certain lighting, you can see now that he looks like someone very familiar, but you couldn't bring yourself to guess it at the moment in which he was speaking to you, discussing his reasons as to why he requested a hospitality designer.

He explains to you the major fundamentals and his expectations through a contract, in which you hand him over your tablet where Ardor Interiors's e-contract lies. As he had expectations, so did you.

"The new hotel being built on 10th street is called Luminous," he explains, nearly wrapping up the agreement as he signs the e-contract with a flick of his finger. "It's one of our finer hotels. We have a set budget and set deadline, and I know Ardor Interiors is a pretty notable interior design company for being on-budget and on-time."

You raise your eyebrows at his form of flattery, taking back the tablet from him. "You do your research."

"Well, actually," he laughs. "I didn't, but the co-CEO did."

"Co-CEO?" Your ears perk at the sound of that, trailing back to him introducing himself originally as a CEO.

"For the moment being. I'm in the middle of stepping down from my position," he responds easily, resting back in his seat as he crosses his hands in his lap.

"Why's that?"

"It'll be in better hands," he simply says. "I'll still be working with the company, but at home, so I could focus more on my wife and children." Jung Haein says it with a smile on his face, as if he was almost retiring, but he was just as happy as a clam to be able to balance his family and his work— you've respected that.

And it's with that, the meeting with one of the CEO's ends, him being a gentleman offering to escort you down, but you reassure him that it's alright and you don't need an escort to use the elevator to which he responds with, "fair enough", and allows you to leave his office alone.

You're walking towards the elevator, already making mental notes to yourself about calling in tomorrow for another meeting when you mindlessly bump into someone once again, catching the stuff that were in your hands before you lost your grip on them, simultaneously letting out spilled apologies before you actually come into eye contact with the person you just hit.

Then, in that spur of the moment, you freeze because you couldn't believe that in front of you is a stranger that once took your breath away.

He’s probably just as shocked as you are, eyes focusing on you, words not being able to leave his mouth.

"Hoseok," you breathe out, stumbling backwards a step. Gaining your composure, you take a step forward towards him. "Hi—"

"Don't come anywhere near me," he sneers, retracting every fiber of his body from you as if he put his hand on an aflame stove and you just so happened to be that stove. His reaction takes you aback, only for you to freeze once again.

"I—"

"What are you even doing here?" He hisses, like venom straight in your face.

It takes you a second before you finally swallow down that lump in your throat and straighten yourself. "I had a meeting with Jung Haein—" And just like that it hits you. "Your brother. You run this company, too, huh?"

"A meeting for what?" He dismisses your realization as you realize his eyes are nowhere near yours.

"I'm—"

He puts his hand up, not wanting another word come out of your mouth. "It doesn't matter. Get out now, before I call security," he immediately spits, his eyes not even being able to look at you.

"What?" You gape at him incredulously.

Apparently, that wasn't an answer he expected nor liked because then, he looks at you with these sharp demeaning eyes that you were completely foreign to. "I help run this hotel company and I could care less as to the reason why you are here in the first place, but I do care as to why you are still standing in front of me, so I suggest you disappear before I actually get you thrown out."

Word gets around fast. Like wildfire.

At least you assumed it did spread that fast because Nadine is sitting at your desk, booty on the table, with awaited answers, her eyelashes batting with much flattery in hopes to make you spill out some words that she can string together as some sort of answer.

Stepping into your office with a bag over your shoulder, your tablet in one hand, and a cup of coffee in the other, you arch an eyebrow at her, pausing at her usual position on your desk that she pulls when she wants something. "What now?"

A smirk is on her face, taking a sip of her coffee from her tumbler and her eyes following your form as you trail over to your desk chair. "You dated Mr. Dick-Me-Down?" She wastes no time in asking after gulping down her coffee.

"And who the hell is Mr. Dick-Me-Down?"

She smiles down at her tumbler. "One of the CEOs of The Novahaven. Unless you did both, which is also a theory—"

"What?" You ask, appalled. "Told by who?"

"Told by a little bird," she muses, crossing her legs as you remove your jacket and hang it on your chair.

Offering her a little smile, you shake your head. "Well, tell that little bird that I didn't date anyone, especially the CEOs of the company I'm working with for that matter."

"You're doing that," Nadine narrows her eyes and points her finger at you. "You're giving me that smile where you are not telling the whole truth." You let out a light-hearted scoff at her before she lets out a gasp. "You have dated one of them! Come on, I won't say anything!"

"Nadine," you give her a look. "You're the root of every office gossip in this building. I'm not telling you anything."

"Cross my heart, I won't say anything if you tell me what happened between you and Mr. Dick-Me-Down," she promises, but you cock your head to the side. "Please! At least, tell me who they are."

You give out a sigh. "The Novahaven is run by two brothers, Jung Haein and Jung Hoseok. However, I was told that Jung Haein is stepping down and giving the company to Hoseok."

She leans in closer, a devious smile painting her lips. "Which one of them did you date?"

Your eyes narrow at her, but seeing how curious she is, you give out one more sigh as you finally give in. "Hoseok."

Nadine opens her mouth to squeal, but you shake your head at her, giving her a look that represented you say one word of any of this, you're dead. She bites her lip back, interchanging her crossed legs to the other, giving you this excited look. "You dated him? What happened?"

You give her a shrug, taking the papers you stacked at the corner of your desk. "I left him."

"You left him?" She repeats.

"We were together once and we're not together anymore," you flatly state. "What happened is none of your business."

Nadine hums, nodding as she finally hops off your desk. "You didn't cheat though, did you?"

You give her glance at her curious and hopeful eyes, but you manage to stay silent.

"___," Nadine begin. "Please don't tell me you cheated."

"I didn't cheat," you sharply state. "Hoseok and I— we were together for awhile and then we weren't. I left and he let me. And when we weren't together, yeah, I slept with someone else and he just so happened to find out that next morning, but did I cheat? No, I would never. Did I leave him without any word? Yes. And if you asked me if I regretted it, I don't."

Stressed isn't a word you'd begin with. Maybe overwhelmed— and maybe karma is kicking your ass, but either one, it gave you a reason to go to Kona Roasters, the café at the edge of the city, just overlooking the ocean. Your mother used to take you there as a child before the accident happened, and there was no other like that café.

A coffee with coconut milk and toffee syrup is always your order, and you're nearly falling asleep on the edge of the bar, letting the sound of relaxing blues music relax your present self.

"Has it gotten tiring yet holding two positions?" Beau asks, wiping some freshly washed dishes with a rag. He knew you since you were a tot and he knew every challenge you've faced as Kona Roasters had always been your outlook.

You sit up on the bar, eyes opening to look at the busy Beau. "You have no idea."

"How's ya mom?" He ponders, organizing his freshly dried dishes on the side.

"Alright," you breathe out. Beau was always concerned about your mother, as she was his favorite customer. "I haven't racked up the nerves to call her— or visit her."

"Maybe a refill to cheer ya up?" Beau offers instead of questioning you— which you preferred— and you give him a small grateful smile, his little offer he always make to refill your cup is the greatest and most needed thing in the world. He gives a nod, taking your mug gladly as you plop your head back down, trying to construct the absolute idea as to how you're going to deal with anything knowing that you're working with Jung Hoseok's company.

The same Jung Hoseok you fell in love with.

And it's almost weird because it is nearly yesterday that you remember his warm dark eyes just staring into yours, his comforting words that were always the right ones to say, and even his awkward demeanor that he throws on when he's in odd situations and now, he is anything but those memories.

He is livid with a grudge that is understandable, but the first time he sees you in three whole years and not even a welcoming greeting, but daggers through eyes and a spit to the face. He is anything but the warm dark eyes and the comforting words, and he sure as hell does not hold any sort of an awkwardness, even in that considerably odd situation of seeing your ex.

You could laugh about it, and call Yana, begging her to come back from her 6th honeymoon vacay with her husband, who is not her husband. Maybe if you tell her you're in the hospital, that would convince her— you might as well be in the hospital just by the hateful and death-threatening look that Hosoek gave you.

There is someone who sits next to you, and at first you ignore it, letting yourself drown in your thoughts, but you hear the sound of your mug being placed down in front of you, having you finally sit up to grab your mug handle.

Just as you're looking down at the familiar brown color, it doesn't take you long before you realize that Hoseok is sitting next to you. He's not looking at you either, but he didn't need to and neither did you.

"We don't have to like each other," you simply say into your mug. "But I am the one helping design Luminous, so whatever grudge you have against me, just drop it. It'll make work a lot more easier for us."

He doesn't react, but from the corner of your eye, you notice his jaw clench, causing you to sip at your coffee. "I came here to apologize for threatening to call security on our hospitality designer."

Turning your head to look at him, you tilt your head. "How'd you think of finding me here, Hoseok?"

He hesitates. Not because he didn't know how. He knew exactly how, but it wasn't necessarily something he wants to uncover. "You're always here. They make your coffee like no other."

Hearing that, you nod, refraining a smile on your face because you tell yourself that it isn't a shred of hope you're looking for. "How long have you been here?"

"Not long," he answers, before he sucks in a sharp breath, hopping off the stool and straightening his tie. "I just came to apologize for throwing out my hospitality designer, I never said I was sorry for throwing you out."

When going back to The Novahaven you forget that you're not working with Mr. Jung Haein, you're working with Mr. Jung Hoseok, who just so happens to not be in his office that morning when you arrived with your laptop and pre-set design in mind and created. Instead, you're greeted by a lanky man, who goes by Allen, Jung Hoseok's personal assistant.

At first, you don't mind the P.A. giving out Hoseok's side of his interpreted design and his expectations the first time, but after a few meetings of meeting with Allen instead of the actual person who you're assigned to work with after asking Ardor Interiors's hospitality designer, you realize that he hasn't changed the slightest—

Avoidance was how he was responding to the fact that he has to work with you until Luminance gets finalized in order for you to be out of his hair. With that, you even ask Allen directly if his boss was trying to avoid you every time you schedule with him, but like a good personal assistant, he shook his head, acting as if clueless to such context. Albeit you knew that he was not going to finish this project easily by simply avoiding you and using Allen as a supposed outlet for him to get work done, so you had to do something.

To test this theory, you spent an hour one night making a counterfeit design for one of the hotel rooms he— more like Allen— asked for, to which you sent to him, hoping that he would distaste it so much that he would actually make time to directly talk to you.

"He says he particularly doesn't like the design," his personal assistant says, slapping a folder in front of you as you sat in Hoseok's office. Allen is perceivably blunt and he cares little about the fact that you'd rather talk to his boss than him, and you notice that he cares more about his job. So if he's being used as an avoiding tactic, he will let himself be used.

"He put sticky-notes onto what he wants changed," he flips open the folder for you, pointing at a blue sticky-note. "The blue means he wants the lighting and the furniture changed—"

Rolling your eyes at the absurdity of hearing Hoseok's voice be spoken through someone else, you hastily grab your printed 2D fraudulent model in a folder and walked out of the office with determination masked with annoyance.

"Where're you going?" Allen protrudes, stumbling after you marching outside to make a turn towards the board room where a meeting is being held and Hoseok is demonstrating something through a slideshow. "Wait, you can't go in there! Ms. ___, he's having a meeting—!"

Ignoring Allen's warnings, you push against the door, not minding the pairs of eyes that all turn away from Hoseok towards you once you step in. You're walking over to a baffled Hoseok, eyes deadly before you step in front of him, slapping the folder on the folder and crossing your arms over your chest.

"Are you going to keep using your assistant as the middle man or are you actually going to discuss with me about the changes you want?"

Your question must have went from one of his ear to another because he simply blinks at you, as if you're a fish in water trying to talk to him. However, you wait. Not budging a single muscle until he responds with a genuine answer.

He doesn't but you don't miss the way his jaw clenches as you silently challenge him.

One of the people sat at the table coughs, but you don't leave your eyes from his with stubbornness. "Who may you be?"

You raise an eyebrow at Hoseok before you turn your head to the group who were staring in confusion as to the current situation in motion. "I'm ___, the hospitality designer for Luminous. I'm sure Mr. Jung was discussing his plans about it with you."

"You work with Ardor Interiors, don't you?" One of them in a navy suit asks as you nod in reply. As you respond, he gives a knowing nod to the person who sat in front of them, only for that person to look at you with an expectant look.

"Well, what do you have?"

Your eyebrows raise at the sound of that, the opposite of how Hoseok reacted to such question. "I don't think—"

"Let her speak," a man with bulky glasses hushes Hoseok, his hand held up to silence him. It surprises you, but you give Hoseok an amused smile as he take note of his jaw clenching before he had no choice but to step aside.

You take hold of the laptop he was presenting with while taking out the USB of your model creations from the back of your pocket and plugging it into the port where they appear onto the big screen in front of them.

And the model that you were presenting was your original plan for Luminous, so taking a glimpse of Hoseok's hard reaction, you knew that he was slightly surprised to see a foreign model on the screen.

You're explaining the model and your intentions, incorporating Mr. Jung Hoseok's desire for contemporary look with a hint of European style. You opt for a warm-toned color with proper silhouettes and as opulence is also a factor, as Luminous is the name, you attempt to distinguish it by the luxurious, yet minimal decors placed in certain areas. You're demonstrating what it could look like on the screen as you wrap up the basis of what you design.

Several spread claps are in the air as you finish, surprising you as you give them a small smile, taking your USB from the computer and shoving it back into your back pocket.

"We can work with that," one of them vocally says and you nod pleasingly, looking over at Hoseok who's nearly staring you down.

"Meeting adjourned," the man with bulky glasses decrees, gathering his paperwork and standing up from his seat before all the others. He gives a nod to Hoseok, who nods back at him as everyone packs to leave the board room.

"___," Hoseok calls for your name was you grab the folder you previously slammed on the hard black wood table. "A word in my office, please."

He doesn't spare another glance at you as he takes elongated steps out of the room into his office, passing by a quivering Allen who was shooting you cold glares for not doing his job to busy you enough to keep you away from Hoseok. Allen scurries on after both of you after ordering at a certain intern to grab a cappuccino.

As you step into Hoseok's office, you watch as he makes a few paced steps before he leans against his own desk, his hands shoved in his pockets as he looks up at you with slight irritation. And it somehow grows when Allen steps in.

"Leave us be," Hoseok says, Allen rapidly nodding before he flees out of the room, closing the door behind him.

"You don't have to scare him like that," you point out, looking at the man who was watching you intently with sharp eyes. "You make him sweat by just staring at him. He cares about his job, he's not going to jeopardize it."

"How do you maintain order if you're not feared upon?"

He was implying Machiavelli— it is better to be feared than loved. You remember him reading The Prince one day, portraying a deep analysis on the interpretation to be a better leader while you were cramming for a test.

You raise an eyebrow at him. "You don't need to scare your way into getting things done."

He lets out a half-hearted scoff, elicited by the fact that you're still talking back to him. Maybe it was because you didn't quake under his gaze, nor did you fear breathing the same air as him as much as the next person in the building— besides Haein. "That little stunt you pulled earlier was unprofessional."

"More unprofessional than your avoiding tactics?" You arch an eyebrow at him, challengingly. It gets under his skin, but he doesn't show it. He's watching you, silent and expressionless. "You hired me, then you work with me. Simple as that, Hoseok. If you're going to assign meetings with me where I'm only working with your assistant— all because you can't work with me professionally, then go find a different designer that will deal with your bullshit."

Maybe you went a little too far, but either way, you leave it at that, turning around and walking away, knowing that there's no point in sitting around and listening to Allen demand for changes that Hoseok wants, all because he's still remains cold as ice from the last time you saw him.

"You're back!" Nadine hops off your desk, peering over at the long-time-no-see person standing at your office door. Nadine, the seemingly affectionate one, crashes into Yana, who lowly laughs at her excitement in seeing her again after a weeks time off.

You stand up from your seat, walking over to Yana as if she was your breathing guardian angel in sight, bringing her into an embrace where you dwell in the smell of her peonies scent. "Thank gods you're back," you sigh into her hair. "I've missed you."

Missed is an understatement of the century. Maybe working two positions wasn't a good idea— especially when one of the projects include working with lousy-ass Jung Hoseok. But with complaints aside, you were just relieved that she was back and ready to jump back in.

"That's a first," she chuckles as she pulls away, giving you a questioning look. "Alright. What happened when I was gone?"

Nadine, standing in her element right next to you, smirks. "A certain blast from the past showed up."

The sound of that made Yana raise her eyebrows in slight bafflement, you rolling your eyes at the news that you wish weren't true. "No," she breathes out. She knew exactly who this person was since you haven't had much blasts-from-the-pasts before or after Hoseok (except for one, but he's irrelevant to you) and she didn't need to voice out his forbidden name.

Nodding your head, you purse your lips together. "Yes, which is why I am glad you're back because he is The Novahaven's co-CEO and—"

"Oh, oh— you're working with him?" Yana inquires, her eyes widening as you nod. "For the Luminous hotel project?"

"Which is, technically, your project," you smile. "Yana, he hates my guts. He won't even communicate with me directly— he uses his personal assistant as the monkey in the middle and I refuse to work with someone who can't even stand to act professionally all because of a grudge." Yana listens intently, her thick eyebrows furrowed in a way where she's genuinely listening. "Which is why I sent you the models I created and left some blueprints in your office— so just take everything and just take my place—"

That look of being a genuine listener disappears as she's shaking her head. "Hey! Woah, slow down."

"Yana, please." You were begging— no, you were entreating.

She gives you an encouraging smile, patting your arm. "I'll see what I can do, alright?"

Hoseok hasn't been inside Ardor Interiors's building before, but he is not disappointed. For a company to be on-budget and on-time with a unique sense of taste, the inside of their building truly embodies it.

It's been brought to Hoseok's attention that he had a last minute meeting scheduled with Yana Mal, the same Yana Mal who worked for Bellamy's Interiors and helped designed Sierra Suites before she became director of hospitality design at Ardor Interiors. He met her through Haein's work, briefly, but he knew she had a kind soul. Admittedly, he was pleasant to be meeting with an old acquaintance of his, only to find out that that there was a reason as to why she called in to schedule an 'urgent' meeting.

"Yana Mal, it is great to see you," he says, sitting down professionally in the seat in front of her desk. "I notice that Ardor Interiors is treating you well."

"If you're referring to the amount of time I took off for vacation, then, yes," she nods, a smile playing her lips.

Hoseok chuckles. "I assume you called me here to talk about working out a transition?"

Then he notices her eyebrows scrunch together. "Transition?"

"From ___ to you? We did hire you for the job to design Luminous," he explains, his eyebrows knitting together as well. "Is that not what you called me in here for?"

There's this small smile that Yana wears before it fades away. It's usually meant to ease onto a disappointment that she would shoot out— her secret weapon into breaking bad news. "It is good to see you again, Mr. Jung," she nods. "But just because I asked you to be here doesn't mean I'm going to be making any transitions to work with you. I had one of this company's best design director take over my job as I was gone and it is brought to my attention that you won't even spare her the time of day."

He's opening his mouth to interject, but Yana avoids it, quickly shaking her head.

"If you want one of your many prestige hotels to thrive, I suggest you work with our designer in a mutual understanding on this project as we do share similar taste in design— wouldn't you think?" There's a serious, yet sarcastic smile playing her lips, making Hoseok sit sternly in his seat, but he doesn't budge. "I asked you here not to make a transition but rather to meet a consensus in which you work with who I say you work. And I expect you to abide by ___ standards properly, as I expect her to do the same to you. Do I make myself clear, Mr. Jung?"

There is no hesitation with Hoseok when it comes to Yana. "Crystal."

Stupid, stupid, stupid.

You ask one, simple favor to someone you trust and all of sudden she's backfiring it, making you do the dirty work that, in theory, was originally her's; alas, here you are at The Novahaven's head quarters with a taller chin and rolled back shoulders in an act of professionalism, yet disappointed you had to go back again.

"You started it, you finish it" was what your dear friend in which you took over her position and projects for nearly a month tells you when you ask her for one measly favor to just take over your place— that should've been her's in the first place! The mistreatment of such situation appalls you and it is the only thing you’re thinking about as you’re entering the building.

When you're in foot of Jung Hoseok's office, you don't expect a lot of work or productivity to be attained from this very meeting, but that wasn't going to stop you from setting up necessary rules for both of you to meet.

Setting up two-hour long meetings at the beginning of the week with Jung Hoseok, meeting with the architects that he also hired for the project at least twice a week, not involving Allen into this project other than to bring coffee because it is purely business between you and him, and finally, having to talk to each other directly, regardless of any situation at hand.

"Hand me your phone," you order him, palm up as a gesture.

Hoseok raises an eyebrow at you, his eyes flickering from your hand to your eyes multiple times. "Why?"

"Because you're stubborn," you respond. "And you won't even answer your office phone so I might as well give you my number to have on your cell-phone."

He lets out a scoff, shaking his head. Your hand drops to your side, your eyebrows furrowing. "No need," he states, tending to his paperwork Allen gave him mid-meeting.

"Hoseok, we agreed on proper communication. If you think this is a way for me to—"

"Just because—" he interrupts you, his eyes shooting at yours once again, you realizing that you've punctured a nerve. "—you deleted my number doesn't mean I deleted yours."

Admittedly, that catches you off guard, presented by your lack of words that didn't string out of your tongue easily. It wasn't that you deleted his number in an act of pettiness, but an act of trying to remind yourself to not go back to him— to fight every muscle in you to not text him or leave a message and to talk yourself out of thinking that maybe he'd call one night or one day or one someday. You deleted it for yourself.

He glances at you and your taken aback expression, gathering the paperwork in his hands as stays unfazed from his statement. Letting out a sharp breath, he tilts his chin at you. "Is this meeting over or did you want to stick around for Allen to get you another cup of coffee?"

Immature as you are at that moment, you give him a mocking face, sticking your tongue out before you grab your things, walking out of the building and having this glad feeling knowing that you didn't have to see him— least not for the next three days.

And oddly enough, later that night, you get a text message out of nowhere as you just arrive home from finishing another project.

+99 ********: This is Hoseok. I didn't answer your calls because I'm unavailable between 11am-2pm. I have meetings during that time.

You roll your eyes at him, realizing how simple it would be if he had just told you that in person before you freaked and he baffle you with a statement that implied that he kept your number all along.

You: you still could've gotten back to me

idiot: Consider this me getting back to you.

Maybe setting the rules between you two was a good idea than most.

He doesn't fight with you often anymore— he avoids eye contact, but he still manages to talk to you. And sometimes, you'll crack some sly remarks here and there— nothing too distracting from the job, but to make light of his grouchy demeanor that seems to not only scare his peers, but the cloudy sky of winter outside is evidently brighter than his personality.

"Green walls?" You repeat his choice of color for the lobby's walls at one meeting. For a contemporary feel, green walls was not a general color for most—especially at a hotel.

He gives you a settling look before he shakes his head. "You're right, that'll be terrible."

"No, no, no," you intrude, not wanting to steer him away from his decisions because that's never your intention for other clients. "Green is great... if your intention is to have a lobby meant for ogres like Shrek."

Now, you were holding in a laugh, making him narrow his eyes down at you for making light of the conversation, but as you bite down on your lip to refrain from bursting, you could tell there was at least a ghost of his smile— it was there, but it was gone.

"Here," you say, pursing your lips at him. "These are contemporary examples. I suggest porcelain tiles like these— particularly ivory or light grey, but it is completely up to you."

He nods, looking down at the pictures of examples you brought in for visual guiding. His eyebrows are knitted and he was in complete focus, flipping through the pages, not one seemingly making his eyes light up.

"And if you want," you begin to suggest. "If you really want green walls, we can do porcelain tile walls and a live botanical wall, so these couches and these lights will match along with it."

You pull out your tablet, pulling up a picture of a botanical wall that Yana once implemented in one of the hotels in New York, but you hoped to bring in a sense of inspiration to Hoseok's mind by presenting it to him. And it must have done the exact thing when you meet his eyes and they're lit— exactly the way you hoped to be by hearing one of your suggestions shot out in the open.

"Okay," he agrees. "Good idea."

"Good idea?" You say smugly, writing down the ideas in your notebook in front of you.

And in your peripherals, you notice he gives you a single nod. "Good idea."

That next week, instead of you driving there again, he decided to schedule a meeting with you. At first, it obviously takes you by surprise— every little thing he says or do always does, but you agree to it on the phone, a ghost of a smile on your lips when you think that maybe this could be a sign of a truce you both needed.

When he comes into the building, Nadine calls you. At first, you didn't recognize her voice because it sounded lighter and serious. She tells you that a certain someone is here to meet you and you knew that certain someone is the one and only breathing Mr. Dick-Me-Down in her eyes.

"Do you want me to show him your office?" She asks and before you could even answer, she hastily answers for you. "Right away, ___." And an elongated beep is followed.

You roll your eyes as you hang up, detaching your phone from your ear as you know that this is Nadine's way of interacting with rather attractive patients. You fix your rather messy desk for a more professional presentation to a particular young CEO who just so happens to have a messy past with you. It was then you hear your door being opened, your eyes peering up to meet a scurrying Nadine who closes the door, not a person after her.

"You're going to tell me that that man outside your office— he is Mr. Dick-Me-Down?" She whisper-yells, pointing out the door. Your eyebrows knit together as your own co-worker is seemingly growing weak in the knees for someone who isn't all that. "And you're going to tell me that you left him? That piece of hunk? He really is hotter in person."

"Nadine," you interrupt her current fan-girling. "Mr. Jung probably doesn't want to be called that nickname and I, for one, know that I do not want to hear it. Can you treat him like every other client and just send him in?"

She clicks her tongue at you, turning around to open the door where she let Hoseok wait outside just to have a moment to release her swoon over a CEO that you couldn't even manage to look at without thinking that he actually would like to murder you.

He walks in, a dark gray suit fitted on him nicely and a black tie to top it off. You don't look up at him as your eyes focus on your tablet to pull out his finalized model for his hotel rooms, suites, and lobby.

"Good afternoon, Mr. Jung," you greet him, sparing a glance at him momentarily. He didn't notice it as his eyes are focused somewhere else, wandering around your office that was probably messy in his eyes compared to his neat and orderly office. "Did you want something to drink?"

"I'm alright," he answers, finally taking a seat in front of you where you give him a friendly smile.

"I won't waste time," you nod, taking your tablet and pushing it towards him on the table. "These are my finished models. I don't know if Sungi told you, but the measurements for the lobby is going to run a bit shorter than expected, but it was a minor change and that is what I settled with."

His eyebrows furrow in concentration, scrolling through your models, zooming in and zooming out of certain areas. Truthfully, it makes you anxious as to what he had to say or critique. You've never really finished a project in the lenses of a hospitality designer, but this one you could almost say you were confident in. Almost because Hoseok has the power to completely shatter it.

And as you expectantly sit there, hands growing clammy from clenching your own hands together too tightly, you see an approving nod. You had to blink twice to make sure you were seeing that correctly, but he was nodding.

"I like them," he tells you, handing the tablet back over onto the table.

Your ears couldn't fathom his words. "You do?"

Hoseok folds his hands in his lap, both of his elbows resting on the arm of the chairs before he gives you a single and affirming nod. "I trusted you with my hotel and you didn't disappoint."

You let out a light-hearted scoff, a playful curl of your lips being displayed. "Technically, your brother entrusted me with the hotel."

And oddly, you heard Hoseok let out a chuckle. "Right. And you managed to follow through," he says as it makes you stare at him. "And you didn't disappoint."

"I'm sorry, but are you sure this is Jung Hoseok?" You joke. "Because he usually isn't satisfied with my final products, and he usually will want to change everything to the point where I have to start from scratch."

He scoffs. "It's my hotel, isn't it? You don't go and get a tattoo of what the tattoo artist wants, right?"

"Touché," you acknowledge, laughing at his defense. "But I will say, you're welcome. It is my job to make my clients satisfied, even if that means re-creating everything from the start and staying up at 3 AM to finish it in time."

"You've always been a hard-worker."

"And you've always been so nit-picky with details," you shoot back. "But, I guess, that's apart of what makes you successful."

When he doesn't throw a shady or even light-hearted riposte at you, you take it upon yourself to glance at him, only for him to stare at you questioningly.

"Why do you act like that?" He inquires, sitting straight in his seat.

"Act like what?" You muse. "Nice? Considerate? Maybe, even friendly—?"

"Like nothing happened."

Blinking at him with astonishment from his sudden question, you clear your throat, leaning back into your own chair. It's obvious that the light-heartedness grown from the past days has vanished into thin air. "I don't."

"You act like you didn't leave me," he states. He could have said it in a more colder and harsher tone, but you can tell he is holding it back. The expression on your face prior falls, a frown taking place. "As if you didn't choose to leave."

"I didn't leave you." Words came out quiet, but they were loud in every form. "I left because I had to. And if we're going to bring this up, then let me include the fact that you let me—"

"As if I had asked you to stay, you would?"

"It wouldn't have hurt to try now, wouldn't it?" You snap. "But, you're right! Even if you had begged, I wouldn't have stayed because I wasn't about to hold you back from what you wanted to do the most— and look where it led us."

He stares at you, hard gaze and all.

"You're successful. You're running the company that was given to your brother, that is now given to you, and you, out of everyone, earned it! If I had stayed or if you had left with me, where would that have led you, Hoseok? You're where you are now because I wasn't in your life to hold you back."

And you mean that, with every bone in your body, you mean that. He's where he wants to be— how much different would it have been if you stayed or if he even came with you. But he doesn't see it— and he probably won't.

Hoseok stands up, letting out a scoff as he walks to towards the door.

"Hoseok—"

"Don't act like you left for the sake of me," he fumes. "You left for the sake of yourself. You were tired— tired of your life and tired of being with me, which is why you left. We all know that, so don't you dare turn this around and say it's some heroic tactic or a lover's intention for me to get where I am now because you know damn well that I could've gotten where I am now with or without you."

"Hoseok—!"

"I went out to find you and to apologize and I was about to move to the other side of the country just to be with you," he breathes out exasperatingly. "But you were so quick to give up."

And there was that familiar sound of the door being opened and slammed. You wonder how a different door, at a different place in time, in a slightly different scenario could slam exactly as the same door that was slammed at your new place, after he had found you in bed with someone else. It shook your office exactly the same way it shook your old place. Same force, same pull, same anger.

You close your eyes, letting your fingers massage your temples as you try to tell yourself to breathe. It was rather difficult, because as your eyes are closed you are transcended back to the time where you're in a t-shirt that is not yours nor Hoseok's and you're grabbing onto him, trying to find some sort of grip to keep him steady, to make him stay— but like sand, it was impossible. He left and you cried, and you didn't go after him.

"___?" Yana's voice is heard after a few knocks on your door. You don't say anything, but she opens it anyways.

"Was that Hoseok who just stormed off?"

You inhale sharply before you open your eyes again, allowing yourself to peer up at Yana's empathetic eyes, her form approaching you slowly. "Yeah," you swallow, taking a quick breath. "Three years, and we never got closure."

"Why don't you just tell him why you left? The real reason?" She asks, raising her eyebrow at you, hands on her hips as if she was giving you some sort of lecture.

You shook your head, your eyes focusing on your orchid plant on your desk. "It's too late for that."

Yana lets out a string of tsks. "___," she begins. "If you tell him the real reason why you left, he can't get mad at you."

"He'll get mad that I didn't tell him in the first place. He'll be angry with me, regardless."

"Maybe. But then at least, he'll understand."

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