#ceo who demands a lot from his secretary

[biffhofosho]

Who's ready to talk about the 7th brother I won't let anyone forget? Gotta start my Wonho thread simply before I get completely untethered.

[filmbyjy]

COLLIE DUTY (COMPLETED)

PAIRING > sim jaeyun x fem!reader

SYNOPSIS > being the new CEO to the ‘Sim Corp’ was hard and stressful. jake didn’t have much time to spend with layla and so he decides to get a dogsitter, you. though, you were originally already his secretary. how will dog sitting bring you two closer?

GENRE > ceo! au + secretary! au / angst, fluff. kinda suggestive bc i make a lot of sexual jokes...

FEATURING > taki from &team, ningning from aespa, gaeul from ive, san & hongjoong from ateez and felix & hyunjin from stray kids. (4th gen it let's get it🤪)

SCHEDULE > updated whenever i can bc my schedule do be messed up :'D

TAGLIST > closed

START: 2 July 2023 | END: 16 Jan 2024

PROFILES: SIM(p) Corp | SHINE STARS

ONE: giving no bitches vibe

TWO: demanding and dominant

THREE: hey man, yolo you know?

FOUR: she’s a cute one [written + pictures]

FIVE: so…who pays for child support?

—if the read more messes up then i'm raging—

SIX: tamama bread as compensation

SEVEN: he hissed at me once

EIGHT: CELEBRATION🎉🎉

NINE: so…got bitches?

TEN: should i 🤔 cry?

ELEVEN: uh oh

TWEVLE: pull down your pants

THIRTEEN: they doing the 👉👌💦

FOURTEEN: angry puppy pt 1 [written]

FIFTEEN: angry puppy pt 2

SIXTEEN: let him think

SEVENTEEN: even Layla don’t want him

EIGHTEEN: jake’s rizz [written]

NINETEEN: it’s-

TWENTY: ‘let me take you out babygirl’

TWENTY-ONE: no girl boss

TWENTY-TWO: clearing up mistakes [written]

TWENTY-THREE: may cause mayhem

TWENTY-FOUR: 🐓 plant

TWENTY-FIVE: when jungwon hyung scolds you

TWENTY-SIX: he’s alpha

TWENTY-SEVEN: bag that 🐓

TWENTY-EIGHT: no meat👎🏻👎🏻

TWENTY-NINE: poopoo head

THIRTY: layla the puptress [written]

THIRTY-ONE: sunghoon at 3am

THIRTY-TWO: the old man‼️

THIRTY-THREE: not again

THIRTY-FOUR: fight for him [written]

THIRTY-FIVE: fair reaction

THIRTY-SIX: intimate yet seductive smell

THIRTY-SEVEN: lawsuit

THIRTY-EIGHT: smack

THIRTY-NINE: [bleats pathetically]

FOURTY: sunghoon maid costume

fin

– alternative ending -

got any questions about the cast or the smau?

COLLIE DUTY: asks

[judenostopwaitkeepgoing]

Cursed CEOs 😈

18+ | Suggestive Content | MDNI! | CEO!Crown x Secretary!Reader

Imagine the members of Crown as your CEOs... 👔 🤭

CW: suggestive content / power imbalances / Alfons's and Jude's sections mention sexual harassment because of course w/ those two 🙃

(EN-released Villains only)

William Rex

Boss energy! "Sir" energy!

Will would look so suave in a suit. 😮‍💨 You would be so attracted to his commanding presence. Just sitting behind his big desk, giving orders to his subordinates, making a fuck ton of money... Yeesh.

He has such a powerful aura as a CEO, you can't help but be entranced. He’d definitely send you on all kinds of tasks that seem like they’re for him but are really for you.

"I need you to make a reservation at this restaurant for two for this evening."

"Oh? Do you have an important client dinner? I'm sorry I don't have that in the calendar..."

"Mm, yes, a very important client..." 😉

Harrison Gray

The more subtle, quiet, brooding type who seems genuinely attached to his work. His air of mystery and the distant authority he wields inexplicably excite you, making you want to learn more about him and do more for him. He carries a lot on his shoulders in private, but keeps up a relaxed demeanor in front of everyone. But you notice this about him and go out of your way to be helpful! And frankly, he is so turned on by that lol.

One night, he would be working late and you’d knock lightly on his door to say goodbye for the evening but he would find some excuse to make you stay late with him, and... well... 😉

Liam Evans

Sweetie alert! Liam is a kind boss. His employees respect and admire his understanding attitude and don't want to disappoint him.

All he wants, though... is to reward his star employee: you! He gets so distracted by you that he had to shift your desk assignment to be further away from him. But then he missed you so he changed it back! He's always lingering by your desk and asking you about your life outside of work. Over time he starts to flirt with you more and more, almost crossing an HR boundary more than once.

May or may not use his power to disguise himself and follow you around, who knows! Lol.

Elbert Gretia

Elbie isn’t exactly comfortable in positions of authority, so he’d be a very low-key CEO. He is a very good boss in most ways because of this. You can't help but worry about him, so you'd be super attentive, anticipating every task that he would like completed.

You often catch him watching you, taking in your brilliant competence. Unbeknownst to you, he's actually considering demanding that you not leave his office because he doesn’t want the other employees to see how sexy you look in your work attire...

Alfons Sylvatica

Sexual harassment incoming! Haha. Alfons would be the biggest HR nightmare lol. He would be the most corrupt boss you could imagine. Blatantly making you uncomfortable, quid-pro-quo-ing left and right for sexual favors from you, ‘disciplining’ you for shoddy work... you’d get so fed up with him, but even more fed up with the fact that you can't stop thinking about him outside of work... All you want is to please him, to hear him praise you, to show him how good at your job you can be... 🫠

Roger Barel

Distractingly hot boss! Also cocky!

And what's even worse is that he can tell that you’re totally flustered by him! And he loves every second of it!

He’d call you into his office to “check something” and end up getting you to come over to his side of the desk. As you bend over to check, you feel something running up the back of your leg... it’s the brush of his fingertips...

"Keep checking," he'd say, without taking his eyes off of your face, "we don’t want to have any errors in this report.”

Things would devolve from there lol.

Victor

... Victor in a suit and tie? 😵‍💫

He would be so effusive and complimentary. It'd start out just as praising your work but then he'd start praising your appearance, too... Calling you the sexiest secretary he's ever had and what not. It's technically inappropriate, but he's so playful about it that it disarms your cautiousness. Plus, occasionally he'll be really stern about something, and you have to admit... it's kind of hot! Your flustered reaction makes him chuckle to himself. He loves his adorable little secretary! 😙

Jude Jazza

If Alfons was harassing, Jude is downright abusive lol. You thought you knew what you were getting into when you applied to be his secretary, but even you are shocked by how fucking evil he can be.

He’d call you into his office and berate you for making the tiniest mistake, demanding that you do the same menial task over and over until you can’t see straight from looking at the files for so long. Even after the tenth or twelfth re-do, he'd still be unsatisfied. He’d have no choice but to punish you for being such a bad secretary.

He’d threaten to fire you... unless you perform some other “work-related” tasks... 😈

Ellis Twilight

Sweetest boss award goes to Ellis!

He’d want all of his employees to be ‘happy’ and would make sure to praise you and thank you for your work a lot. You might end up making a move in this situation, because he’d be too proper and kind to be overt about his attraction to you. But once he knows you are into him, you best believe he’s going to fuck you stupid over his desk!

"This is what makes you happy, right? I can't have an unsatisfied employee."

[eomayas]

strictly business • kjm [req]

request: here 🩷

pairing: ceo!junmyeon x f ceo!reader, established relationship

genre: smut 18+ MINORS DNI!

warnings: reader is mean, dom x sub dynamics, fingering, p in v, pwp, grump x sunshine dynamic, reader is gaslighting, gatekeeping, and girlbossing her way through life

all eyes are on you when you burst through the doors of the meeting room, interrupting the current session. but you can do that, because you have enough money to buy this company twice if you really wanted to.

the room in the air gets thicker and you can practically feel the tension. you invite it, enjoy it, even. you like having that type of power over people, especially this specific group of people. “good morning, gentlemen,” you say, smiling—baring your fangs—at the six men before you, who all stand to greet you, bowing politely before taking their seats.

your assistant takes your coat and hands you your briefcase. you feel them all staring at you, wondering why you crashed this meeting when you were specifically not invited, for many reasons. and you know exactly who’s idea it was, but you’d deal with him later, after you sink your teeth into his employees. “somebody catch me up,” you say, but it’s less of an ask and more of a demand. you scan the table, your eyes sliding over the CEO of the firm and focusing on his subordinates.

you laser your eyes onto a poor intern who immediately gets red and looks over to his boss for help. you narrow your eyes at him and he swallows. “uh, we, uh, were meeting to talk about the expansion,” he says, glancing at you before averting his gaze.

“the expansion with my company,” you correct, your gaze still focused on the poor kid. he stares down at the table, refusing to look you in the eye and you almost smile. almost. “i don’t see how you could have a meeting about the expansion with my company without having myself or even a member of my company’s board present.” you say, cutting your eyes across the table to the interns boss and the CEO of this company.

he presses his lips into a line and gives you a knowing look. “does that make sense to anybody?” you ask, looking around the room. nobody dares to speak up, and if you were a lot less professional you might knock everything off of the table and demand that they respond.

“mrs. kim,” the boss says, as a warning. you ignore him and stare at his employees, waiting, daring one of them to speak up. you’re not shocked when they remain silent; you’re met with it often. it’s not a secret that you’re tough and don’t see a problem with pushing people to their limits and reminding them who’s really in charge. that’s the whole reason you got to where you’re at. playing nice wasn’t an option—especially as a woman trying to obtain a position of power—and you learned that very quickly.

“if one of you doesn’t speak up, you won’t have an expansion with KYN Beauty to put on your resume, or a job in the morning!” you bark, glaring across the table at his employees. you’re definitely exaggerating the whole job thing, but you need to light a fire under them to get somebody talking, since their boss likes to keep things from you.

“mrs. kim,” it’s a warning if you’ve ever heard one, and it makes you sit back in your chair and look over at him. he stands up from his chair and motions for you to do the same. “a word in my office?” but he’s not asking you, he’s telling you. and you’re not going to stay sitting in your chair, not when he’s looking at you like he could rip you a new one in front of his entire staff.

you get up and he waits for you to exit before following after you. you already know where his office is, and you walk the familiar route in silence.

“yerim, cancel my meetings in the next hour, please,” he says to his secretary when the two of you pass by her desk.

“of course, mr. kim,” she says eagerly, and you nearly roll your eyes. another thing to get in his ear about.

he holds the door to his office open for you, and locks it once the two of you are inside. you cross your arms over your chest and stare up at your husband, a bored expression on your face. “quit threatening my staff,” junmyeon says, gently grabbing your forearms and pulling your arms apart so he can hold you by your sides.

you push him off and take a step away from him. “why did you leave me out of a meeting that i need to be apart of?” you question, throwing your arms up in the air. you two typically leave your work at the office, rarely bringing it home beyond a few emails or a few reports that need to get done, and that’s mostly during the end of each quarter. you keep your work and home life separate, and don’t meddle in each others business endeavors. but this morning, you happened to catch sight of his opened calendar on his work computer, and saw ‘expansion meeting’ set for 11am with an invite to everybody that was previously in the meeting room. everybody but you.

“honey,” he sighs, taking a step toward you. you take a step backwards, running into his desk and knocking a few papers loose. he cages you around the desk and you frown at him, but your features quickly soften as you submit to his charms and remember that, above all, he is your husband. “honey, don’t take it personal. you can just be a bit intense, and not everybody can handle that.” junmyeon says, kissing your cheek.

“that’s not my problem,” you say, and your husband chuckles, dropping his forehead against yours.

“and that’s exactly what i’m talking about,” he nudges your nose with his and you loosely wrap your arms around his neck. “but i can handle you.” junmyeon mutters, pressing his lips against yours. you hold onto the back of his neck and pull him closer to you. his suit jacket strains against his arms and he pulls back to slide it off his shoulders and drops it onto one of the chairs.

“send your receptionist on lunch,” you say, grabbing his tie and pulling him back down to your mouth. junmyeon plants his palms on his desk as he leans over you, unable to stand between your legs due to the tight skirt you’re wearing.

“take that off,” he says, nodding at your skirt. he says it as a trade off for sending yerim on her break early. you quickly pull the zipper down and slide your skirt off of your legs and down to the floor. junmyeon bites his bottom lip and picks up the phone, pressing a button that immediately connects him to yerim.

“yes, mr. kim?” this time, you do roll your eyes and he smiles at you and gently pinches your cheek.

“go ahead and take you lunch break now, yerim,” he says.

“well, i typically take it at noon,” she says. you huff and lean over to get close to the speaker so she can hear.

“just take your break, yerim,” you say flippantly before hanging up on her and pulling junmyeon back towards you. “you should fire her.” you say.

“why do you want to fire all of my employees?” he asks, unbuttoning your blouse.

“so i can have you all to myself,” you reply, pushing your top off and leaving yourself in a matching red lingerie set, the red identical to the color of the lipstick on your lips. junmyeon eyes you and runs a hand over his neatly combed hair before dropping it down to his collar to loosen his tie.

“youre unreal,” he mutters, shaking his head as he pulls his tie off and starts to undo the buttons on his shirt. he could stare at you for hours like this, all pretty and waiting for him. you pull him down to your lips and kiss him hard, uncrossing your legs to let him get as close as possible to you.

with your free hand you drag it down his chest to his pants, palming him through his slacks. you rub his bulge a few times and your husband pulls back and pushes your hand away. “you’re gonna ruin my pants,” he argues.

“then take them off.”

theyre at his ankles in seconds, though he keeps his dress shirt on. it’s unbuttoned, and you drag your nails down his torso. he watches you with lidded eyes, his gaze so intense that you can’t help but full body blush. this whole tough persona, at least with him, is all an act. he has you wrapped around his finger like it’s nobody’s business.

junmyeon is on your mouth again, his left hand dropping between the two of you to rub your clit through your underwear. if anybody knew how you acted in the bedroom, they would be hit with an extreme case of shock, and disbelief. you’re a person who likes to be in control, but you’re different with junmyeon. you’re like putty in his hands every time you get around him.

that doesn’t go to say that he’s not as tightly wound around your finger as you are him. he might even wrapped tighter, practically turning into mush when you so much as look at him. he returns to his college self when he’s around you, simply being junmyeon—myeonnie, to you—and not ‘mr. kim’, the boss.

your mouth falls open when he plunges two fingers deep inside you, your underwear pushed to the side. junmyeon works his fingers into you, curling them and making your vision go spotty. the rapid rise and fall of your chest mixed with your breathy pants of his name puts him in a mild hypnosis, nothing on his mind besides bringing you to your release and then burying himself inside of you.

“junmy,” you say, your voice sounding like pure honey to him. junmyeon alternates between rubbing your clit and pumping his fingers into you. his curled fingers and the ministrations on your clit have you seeing stars, your orgasm approaching quickly. “m-myeonnie!” you choke out, gushing all over his fingers, your legs going limp against the edge of his desk.

those same fingers are put in his mouth to be licked clean. junmyeon delights in your taste, wanting to kneel down and shove his face between your legs and eat you out for the next hour. but, time is real and neither of you have a lot of it, so with deft fingers, he pulls your underwear down your legs. junmyeon parts your legs and stands between them, wrapping them around his waist.

you only smile up at him and lock your ankles behind his back, lurching him forward. you pull him down to you by the beck, sliding your hands down to the front of his open shirt to grab onto it. “love you,” he mumbles against you mouth, littering kisses on the corner of your lips and onto your jaw.

you murmur ‘love you too’, before propping yourself up and moving to push his boxers down. “need you, myeonnie. want you,” you whine, sliding yourself to the edge of the desk. you thread your hands into the back of his hair and press insistent kisses to his exposed neck and chest.

junmyeon unclasps your bra and pulls it off your arms to toss behind you. “i’ve got you, baby,” he says, wrapping one arm around your middle and holding the base of his dick with his free hand. he guides himself into your entrance and your lips part when he pushes the head in. “i’ve got you.” he groans, kissing your neck.

your arms wrap around his shoulders and you clutch him tightly against you, anchoring yourself to something as he harshly thrusts into you. you cry out his name, burying your face in his neck to keep quiet. junmyeon gently cradles the back of your neck and lies you flat on the desk, planting one hand flat near your head while the other gropes your breast.

clenching around him, you whine and reach for him, wanting to be closer. “what, baby?” he pants, indulging in you and leaning down to be closer like you want.

“i miss you,” you whine, turning your head and kissing the inside of his wrist. junmyeons heart swells, like a balloon being filled with helium.

“yeah?” he asks, lifting himself off of you in order to stare down at you. “you miss me stuffing you full of my cock? can’t go a day without it?” your face burns, embarrassment flooding your body because, yes.

junmyeon blows his bangs out of his eyes but they fall back in place. he let’s go of your hip to brush his hair back into place, smirking down at you when he catches you gazing up at him with your mouth in the shape of an ‘o’. “gonna cum for me, baby?” he asks, pulling at your bottom lip.

you nod, your head in a daze. junmyeon keeps pounding into you, even long after you cum for the second time. he fucks your release back into you, never slowing down until he comes himself. you cross your legs at the ankles around his back and hold him there, letting him cum inside of you.

he sighs out your name and hangs his head, his hair dangling in front of your face. you push it out of the way and kiss his forehead, your nails raking up his lower back.

junmyeon kisses you once before pulling out of you and grabbing the box of tissues that sit on the side table. he wipes himself off before doing the same for you, tossing the soiled papers away and helping you off of the desk.

you prance around his office naked, in search of your clothes that are strewn around the room. you find your bra and blouse, quickly slipping them back on. “baby, have you see my underwear?” you ask, squatting down to look on the floor.

you hear a small gust of air above you and stand up, your red panties lying on the center of his desk. picking them up, you grimace when you feel their dampness and set them back down. you quickly find your skirt and slip it on, underwear be damned.

junmyeon catches you by the waist and pulls you against him, his shirt still unbuttoned. he holds your tightly against him, kissing your neck and then your lips. “you know the meeting was just business, baby,” he says reassuringly.

“i know,” you reply, placing a hand on his cheek.

“and nobody is getting fired,” he says, peering down at you. you roll your eyes and press a hard kiss to his lips before slipping out of his embrace to step into your heels. “im not firing yerim, either.”

you run your hand through your hair, shaking it out as you slip your hands through. “we’ll see,” you say, the sweet wife role being replaced back with the shark, the one everybody knows you by.

“y/n,” he says, following after you as you walk around his desk to pull out the mirror you started keeping in here. you set it up and check your appearance to make sure your makeup isn’t messed up.

“baby?” you question, flicking your eyes up to him before looking back down at your reflection, turning your head to the other side. he leans over his desk and you look up at him again, an eyebrow raised.

“nobody is getting fired, okay?”

you smile up at him, as sweet as pie, a stark difference to how you actually feel. “whatever you say, mr. kim.”

[kehkr]

i keep coming up with ideas for new fics but i really just need to update the fics i already have......

SO ANYWAY the fic idea is that kai is now an adult and ceo of hiwatari enterprises but he STILL doesn't give a shit. he goes through secretaries like they're fast food because he has unreasonable standards yet he skips meetings and important reports because idk- he's too busy jumping off the side of mountains for fun??? enterting back alley beyblade tournaments???? even tyson has moved on to taking over mr d's job but kai, nooooooo, he just rocks up to the tournament in a terrible disguise and expects tyson to not realise its him.

"kai you're too old for this!"

"fuck you!!!!!!"

anyway!

kai is a meance and his secretary, isobel, has to essentially plan his whole life, do his job for him and make sure he doesn't get into too much trouble whilst also trying to impress upon him the importance of acting like a normal responsible human being. it just so happens that isobel is just as insane as he is.

WELL I GUESS IM JUST GONNA WRITE SOME OF IT HERE? SOMEONE RESTRAIN ME

Isobel grinned, feeling an overwhelming sense of satisfaction as she opened up the calendar that she shared with her boss. Who cared what Voltaire wanted, he had stepped down from the company three years ago, this was really none of his business. After all, her job- in her opinion- was to make sure her that boss was happy, not Voltaire. He better appreciate this, thought Isobel as she typed in the schedule that she had come up with for the next week and pressed the update button. She reclined in her office chair, glad for at least a few moments of rest. Unfortunately, it did not last long. Within minutes her phone was ringing. The name on the screen flashing up, Kai Hiwatari. A feeling of dread spread through her chest. Maybe she had been wrong. "Hello?" she answered. "Why have you added a helicopter ride to my schedule next Friday?" he demanded coldly. Isobel tried her very best to be patient, taking a deep breath in before responding. "If you look at the next thing scheduled-" "Yeah, skydiving? Into…" he trailed off. "The arena…" he sounded confused. "You've scheduled me for the beyblade match?" "Of course, the only way I could fit it in was if you get the helicopter from the landing pad, the roads are so busy that time of day," she said curtly. There was a long pause. "But why did you schedule it in the first place?" "Did you not want me to? I'm very sorry Mr Hiwatari, if you'd rather I cancel the beyblade match-" "No!" he snapped, although Isobel was sure she heard an amused huff of air zoom down the phone. She smiled. "If you would also take note of the practice session the day before- we don't want you falling to your death. That would be a lot of paperwork for the firm and I don't think your Grandfather would be too pleased." "Yeah…" "Undoubtedly you will defeat your opponent in a timely manner," she continued smartly, "which will allow you time to get in the car that I have scheduled at 19:00 to take you to dinner with your fiancée, followed by an evening of drinks at the rooftop whiskey bar with your colleagues." "I- right. What's the little glasses emoji you've put at the end of the battle for?" "Mr Saien will check your beyblade over after the battle. I've also scheduled myself to meet him on Monday to give your beyblade a check-up before the match." "You contacted Kenny?" "I did." There was silence on the line which Isobel assumed could only mean that Kai Hiwatari could not find one thing to complain about. "Right. Well, uh. Good. I would have preferred not to have to go to the dinner and drinks-" "I believe it is essential to appease those who do not approve of your beyblading pursuits." "Eh- right." Her boss let out a long sigh. "Mm. Yeah. Good job Olgivy," and the phone went dead. Isobel span wildly in her chair. Kai Hiwatari had said she had done a good job! He had never said that to her, ever, in her whole entire month of working for him! Maybe she would be good at this after all!

(can't help but feel that this would suit a KaiXHil fic too lol)

[biblioflyer]

Picard s1e1 Rewatch: How and why did the Federation fail the Romulans (and itself)?

Power does not always come hand in hand with perspective.

This is part of a series of essays reevaluating Star Trek Picard and interrogating the widely held fandom criticism that Picard made the Federation into a Dystopia.

Here there are echoes of Kirk’s warning: don’t let them promote you, don’t let them do anything that takes you out of the chair. In a lot of ways it’s prophetic. Had Picard had the resources and autonomy of a starship and a crew willing to rebel against Starfleet for him, there’s every possibility that in the grand tradition of TNG, Picard could have solved the Synth mystery and in doing so found a classic Star Trek positive sum outcome that Star Trek is famous for.

Mars avenged, Zhat Vash exposed and defeated, and the Romulan rescue effort pursued with gusto leading to a more stable and cohesive Romulan successor state and perhaps even a lasting peace. Perhaps even Admiral Picard in his fondness for historical analogies viewed this not just as an echo of Dunkirk, but as a potential for history to rhyme with Khitomer.

Instead Captain Picard had become Admiral Picard. 

Theoretically this is a place where he ought to be able to do maximal good. Instead of the resources of a single ship and crew, he can direct much more than that. However, I think anyone who knows anything about large organizations whether its educational, corporate, political, or military understands intuitively that as you move up, the layers of abstraction and simplification between you and what’s really going on grow. It’s a fine and appropriate thing to hate politicians, generals, and CEOs and yet at the same time, it's important to understand the information space within which they exist and their dependence on intermediaries to enact their mandates.

A leader is extremely dependent on the information provided to them, their ability to understand at a very granular level what is “really going on” is limited by a variety of factors ranging from their grasp of the subject matter which in turn provides them with the insight to ask the right questions, to how many hours there are in the day. A leader cannot be maximally attentive to everything that matters. 

The people in your chain of command matter too. Deep States are real for a given definition of real, they’re the layers of assistant secretaries and office managers of this or that whom some of us cheer and some of us rage at when they shirk, malinger, and creatively interpret their mandates to avoid doing things they find inconvenient or distasteful.

With the benefit of 24th century technology, what Admiral Picard has access to are ever more well calibrated big pictures, the ability to call up individual reports, and see through the electronic eyes of individual sensors but this all takes knowing where to look, what questions to ask, and time. 

Given that truly sentient AI would seem to be outlawed, we must assume that Picard’s surface level information is being compiled for him by a mix of subordinates and a 24th century analog to the now infamous ChatGPT. It is important to understand that this sort of AI is only as smart as the data available to it, how it interprets that data depends on gray/black box “training” of the AI, and ultimately the capacity of the user to make the right demands of the AI.

Further, what of Picard’s chain of command? Enamored as they were with serving under a legendary hero, might well intentioned Starfleet officers be reticent to chase outlandish theories about the Synth attack or abandon the defense of civilians for an extended deployment to Romulan space on a humanitarian mission? 

As such, might good, decent and moral Starfleet Officers who followed orders that ran contrary to their intuition reluctantly and failed to ask the sorts of questions that would put them on the trail of Zhat Vash? With the advent of Season Three, Captain Shaw comes to mind as just such a risk averse individual who is not so enamored with heroes that he’s willing to set aside his own biases about how to pursue the good of the many.

We might also recall that Federation culture is usually presented as very open and reacting rather harshly to anything that feels like a witch trial, so this would have aided Commodore Oh and other deep cover agents of the Tal’Shiar and Zhat Vash in avoiding scrutiny. This openness has been weaponized against the Federation by Section 31, the Romulans, and the Founders among others but there has rarely been any sense that the Federation views these incidents as anything other calculated risks that are permitted in order to avoid the greater abuses that come with being a more suspicious and closed society.

[brazilnews]

Australia Cancels Quad Summit After Biden Calls Off Trip Amid Debt Crisis

The US president -- who flies to Japan on Wednesday for a G7 summit -- scrapped subsequent stops in Papua New Guinea and Australia, instead returning to Washington on Sunday.

Washington, United States: Joe Biden and opposition Republican leaders on Tuesday offered hope of a deal that could avoid a catastrophic US debt default, although the president was forced to shorten an upcoming Asia-Pacific tour for further crisis talks.

After the latest negotiations ended without a breakthrough, Republican House speaker Kevin McCarthy told reporters there was still “a lot of work to do” to break the high-stakes standoff with Democrat Biden over the borrowing limit.

But while stark differences remained, the White House said Biden was “optimistic that there is a path to a responsible, bipartisan budget agreement if both sides negotiate in good faith.”

And McCarthy likewise indicated he ultimately expected a deal, even if so far “nothing has been resolved.”

“America is the number one economy in the world. And when we get done with these negotiations, America’s economy is going to be stronger,” he said.

The US president ��� who flies to Japan on Wednesday for a G7 summit — scrapped subsequent stops in Papua New Guinea and Australia, instead returning to Washington on Sunday.

In Sydney, Biden was meant to meet the leaders of Japan, India and Australia as part of a “Quad” grouping widely seen as a counter to China.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Quad talks would instead take place in Japan.

The Treasury has warned of grim consequences if the country runs out of cash to pay its bills, which would leave it unable to pay federal workers and trigger a likely surge in interest rates with knock-on effects for businesses, mortgages — and global markets.

The United States could begin defaulting on its debts “potentially as early as June 1,” Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said Monday, while the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has forecast June 15.

‘Potentially devastating’

The White House said Biden had directed his staff “to continue to meet daily on outstanding issues,” and that he would confer with Republican leaders on his return from the G7 meetings.

Republicans have continued to insist Biden agree to significant spending cuts in exchange for their support to raise the debt ceiling, ignoring Democratic calls for a “clean” increase of the borrowing limit with no strings attached.

Democrats have accused Republicans of using extreme tactics to push their agenda ahead of the so-called “X-date” at which the United States starts defaulting on its debts.

In a sign of growing nervousness over what would be the first ever US debt default, more than 140 top US chief executives sent a letter to Biden and congressional leaders stressing the need for an agreement.

“We strongly urge that an accord be reached quickly so that the country can avert this potentially devastating scenario,” the letter signed by the CEOs from Pfizer and Morgan Stanley, among others, said.

Breaking the stalemate

Republicans, who regained control of the House in the 2022 midterm elections, are using their newfound clout to demand cuts of $130 billion from federal agencies and programs in exchange for support for lifting the debt ceiling.

This would limit spending in the 2024 fiscal year to 2022 levels.

They also want to expedite domestic energy production projects, simplify the process for obtaining permits for pipelines and refineries and claw back unspent Covid relief funding.

There are now only three days remaining when the House and Senate are both in session before June 1 — the day the Treasury predicts the United States could run out of money.

Some senators have acknowledged that they may have to cancel the Memorial Day recess beginning Thursday to get a deal finalized.

As the X-date draws closer, Democrats in Congress have begun considering a range of alternatives, including using an arcane congressional procedure to bypass McCarthy.

They’ve also contemplated asking Biden to invoke the 14th Amendment to raise the debt ceiling unilaterally, which some legal scholars believe would allow the Treasury to simply ignore the debt limit.

But Biden has cautioned that such a move could be challenged in court, and has continued to call publicly for Republicans to support a clean increase to the debt ceiling.

[jaylaxies]

WHO'S IN-CHARGE?

PAIRING : sub!sunghoon x fem!reader

GENRE : smut, handjob, unprotected sex (don't be silly, wrap your willy), spanking, ceo!sunghoon, a mixture of bratty and soft sunghoon, tiniest bit of fluff, brief mention of jake, sunghoon being punished.

WC : 2.6k words

SYNOPSIS : mr. park had always made you work hard, it was about time you'd snap and give him a well-deserved punishment.

WARNING : 18+ contact, minors do not fucking interact.

A/N : hihi, pretty humans <3 i'm back with another fic requested by @yunskies my beloved :3 and anonnie, it's very rushed yet again cause of my exams but i hope y'all like it! all likes, comments, shares and reblogs are highly appreciated, please let me know if you like/enjoy my works, it motivates me a lot! iloveyou all and i hope you guys enjoy it :D

the sound of your heels tapping on the marble floor resonated the office, your sigh even louder than that. being called ahead of time in the morning for the sole reason that your boss is an early bird didn't sit well with you. with coffee in one hand and your bag containing folders full of papers in the other, you walked all the way to the small desk counter you had in front of ceo's office, you being the secretary of the same.

the office was empty as always, your time of reporting being one hour earlier than the rest of the employees. you sighed yet again, fixing your ponytail to make sure that not a strand of your hair was out of place.

mr. park sunghoon, your boss, is greatly known for his work—the way he works. his criteria are simple, he starts working early in the morning, skips days and asks you to schedule most of his meetings on thursdays and fridays, wanting the rest of the week to himself.

another thing you did not appreciate was the amount of workload given to you. his past secretaries had given up in a span of three months, four months being the maximum time one had devoted to him before giving up.

then came you, tolerating his demands for almost six months now, earning enough respect from the rest of the employees for sticking up this long but they didn't know that your patience had been running thin lately and you were sure to snap anytime soon.

to top it all, he always got your name wrong—a new name each time which you had to overlook because mr. park didn't like to be corrected, always thought highly of himself—which was acceptable considering his exceptionally amazing work despite having a weird style to do so.

speak of the devil, he walked towards his office and you still weren't settled in your workplace. you could smell a remark coming at you already. “why aren't you working already?” he spoke just as you bowed down saying good morning to him.

he looked fresh, not an ounce of distress on his face as if work stress didn't exist for him. his tone was authoritative which made others swoon enough to respectfully want to be railed by him. but in this case, you had a pretty fake smile plastered on your face as you apologized for being a minute late and he simply scoffed, his tongue poking inside of his cheek.

“this is the third time you've come late in six months,” he pointed out as if you had committed a crime and keeping your tight-lipped smile was getting harder by second.

he didn't bother waiting a second more for your reply, “get me my coffee in five minutes.” he ordered and entered his office just in time as your face morphed into a scowl, which he luckily missed seeing.

making your way towards the pantry cum cafe room, you put his coffee in the mug while also taking a few cookies alongside—just how he preferred it to be. you knocked on his office door twice, hearing a faint ‘come in’ before entering and placing the tray on his big desk.

he didn't bother uttering a small ‘thank you’, proceeding to take a sip of his drink already as you turned to leave but were put to a stop.

“the coffee is cold already, get me a new one.” his sour voice reached your ears as you turned back to look at him finally staring at you.

if you didn't know better, you'd think that he was smirking at you, the corner of his mouth twitched seeing your blank expression.

“and take these files along, get them signed from all heads of departments within three hours,” he ordered nonchalantly, his slender finger pointing at the stack of files kept on the sofa table.

‘deep breaths’ you reminded yourself, he seemed extra pushy with you today, as if he wanted to test your limits. he bit his lips, clearly amused with the frown on your face.

“yes, sir.” you seethed out, grabbing the files and walking out without second thoughts, not letting him give you any more orders.

another sigh left your mouth as you called the nearest coffee shop to get a new coffee for him, specifically adding this instruction—please make sure the coffee stays hot.

your phone pinged, reminding you of the meeting this very evening, you standing up to inform mr. park of the same but were stopped with the office phone ringing. “come in.” he said and slammed the phone without any decency. you took a deep breath before going to meet the devil again.

“sir, you have a meeting with sim agency at five in the evening,” you informed before he could say anything and he bit his lip, taking off his glasses.

“cancel it, i don't feel like working today.” he smirked again at your pointed eyebrow.

“excuse me?”

“you heard me, miss lee.”

“i'm not miss lee, that was your old assistant.” you scoffed, not able to maintain your polite facade.

he stood up, coming close to you with his hands in his pocket, his face victorious.

“i don't care,” he started, “cancel my meetings and get me my coffee.” it's very obvious how he wants a reaction out of you and you're going to give him exactly that.

your heels click as you turn and walk away, practically disrespecting him and he couldn't stand that. his strong hands wrapped around your wrist, pulling you back and that's when you decided that you'd had enough.

you pulled on his collar, pushing him back so he was against the wall, eyes widened as he didn't expect such a comeback from your side.

“this is exactly why no one wants to work with you, sir.” you gave him a tight-lipped smile, observing his face.

he was quiet, staring at you with his mouth agape which he closed to gulp down his excitement? fear? he wasn't sure either. the proximity and the way you looked fearless sent a shiver down his spine. the tip of his ears reddened as you spoke up again.

“no orders for me now, sir?” and suddenly ‘sir’ seemed the most degrading word he'd ever known, not to mention how it successfully helped the growing tent in his pants.

that's when you looked down to realise why his breathing got deeper, why his eyes couldn't leave yours and why he was holding your skirt like a kid who wanted his favourite candy. mr. park had a boner. your boss had been turned on just by a few snarky remarks and collar grabbing—you found it the most interesting thing in this world.

“done being a brat now?” you arched your brow again and this time, he replied stuttering.

“i—i'm not a brat!” he tried to maintain his composure, having never been talked down like this before.

“is that so?” you smirked, tracing his jawline which tensed him further yet he didn't hold you back from doing so, his body slightly leaning towards you now as if trying to scream how it wanted more of your touch.

“hmm!” he hummed a yes.

he whimpered a little as your fingers wrapped around his neck, “guess what, mr. park?” you bit your lips at his hardened cock which looked painful inside his pants, “you are a brat,” your fingers teased his boner by touching it gently, “and brats deserve punishments.”

you didn't hold back and palmed his cock as he squirmed around, no trace of his bossy behaviour left and all you could see was a desperate boy who needed you to fuck him.

“p—please,” he gasped.

“don't you deserve to be punished, hoon?” being talked down to never felt that good to him before, his cock twitched which amused you further.

he didn't care anymore, he nodded fervently in hopes to get more action from your side, anything and everything.

“who's in charge here?” you asked.

“y—you are!”

you simply grab his collar and pull him to his table, making him sit on it as you situated yourself in between his legs, still palming him.

“now, hoonie. would you like to be spanked or to be denied orgasm?” oh, you were having so much fun. his eyes were teary as it is and you could see him contemplate his choices as he voiced it out with a moan.

“spanking,” his voice was shy but he did trust you enough to show you this side of him, not fully sure if it was just because he was needy or that he actually seemed to like you.

even though you were angry and in the mood for punishment, his cute—squeaky voice made you smile just a bit at how adorable he was being.

this wasn't the mr. park you were used to seeing, he was a shithead while the sunghoon in front of you was nothing but a needy baby.

his cheeks were tapped twice for him to look your way, you unbuckled his belt as you held firm eye contact with him, he gulped down again when you unbuttoned his pants, pulling them down along with his boxers as you did.

“someone's excited.” you pointed out as his dick sprang up to his lower abdomen, leaking with precum. you loved how the roles had switched.

“touch me please,” he whimpered and you cooed at his pleas, asking him to follow you and bend over your lap on the couch which he did without complaints.

his cock was pressed against your thighs as you caressed his soft, milky skin of his ass, wanting them to covered with the prettiest shade of red.

“now, be a good boy and count for me, yeah?”

the sound of your slap echoed the room even before he could nod, his back arching with pleasure as he stifled his moan, “o—one!” he said.

“good boy.” you kneaded his ass before going for the second one.

“oh f—fuck, two!” he moaned. and just like that, he didn't stop until you were at the eighth one.

his enthusiasm made you soft, he didn't stop once while counting, being the obedient boy you wanted him to be.

“i'm about to cum!” he softly cried out, cheeks flushed with embarrassment.

“aw, you liked it that much? come on, beg for it.” you stroked his cock, switching positions to make him lie down on the couch with you on top of him.

“please please let me cum, i'll be a good boy and do everything you want, pretty please—aah.” there you granted him permission, his cum spilling on your hand as you helped him chase his high, his cock growing softer with the sound of his breathing filling the room.

“good boy.” you whispered and he blushed.

“no one's ever done that to me before,” he softly accepted, “all the people i've had sex with simply expected me to dom.” his pout was adorable.

you pulled him closer by his collar again, slowly unbuttoning his white shirt. “i'll grant you a wish since you've been such a good boy and took your punishment well.” you said, throwing his shirt somewhere in the corner of his office.

“fuck me please!” he said without second thoughts and you freely laughed at his puppy-like expression.

you could see his beauty now that he was fully naked under you, he tugged at the hem of your skirt, wanting you to be naked with him.

“undress me, pretty boy.” and he sits up with a whine, knowing well you've grown a particular liking to tease him.

and he did, his hands were focused and he sucked in a breath as soon as he saw your bra, running his tongue to wet his lips.

“can i kiss you?” he came close, only a breath away as you head the back of his head, pulling him closer so that he was pressed against your upper bare body, only restricted by your bra which he unclasped while kissing you while unconsciously bucking his hips forward.

you pushed him down, getting on top of him, not bothering to remove your skirt. he watched with anticipation as your wet panties pooled down your legs, you stepped out of them to position yourself on sunghoon's cock.

he half sat up as you lowered yourself on his cock, eliciting a moan at the delicious stretch. his moans were a lot prettier, a string of curses along with tons of pleas for you to give him more.

“y/n, fuck!” he groaned as you start to fuck yourself on him.

“so you do know my name.” you pointed out with a smirk, pleased with his reaction and he sucked on your tits to prevent his voice going out, his hands holding your waist to get some kind of balance.

“good boy.” you praised again, peppering small kisses all over his neck.

“tell me who's in-charge, sweetheart?”

“y—y/n, you are!”

his toes curled when you gained momentum and fucked yourself hard on his cock, his eyes closing and opening, confused because he wanted to see you but also felt overwhelmed, still sensitive from his first orgasm.

you were so delighted you broke the ‘tough ceo’ act of his, making him beg for more which he did without even asking. his body so reactive, his head on your chest as he drooled while gasping for breath.

you take a moment to look at him—hair tousled, lips red and swollen from how hard he bit him, tears brimming his eyes and his legs shaking under you, his orgasm was close.

being the good boy he was, he decided to rub your clitoris as best as he could muster to also please you, your fingers tugging on his soft locks while the other hand teased and twisted his hardened nipples.

a moan left your mouth as he hit a particular spot, which successfully had you crying in bliss as sunghoon bucked his hips, his orgasm close.

“fuck, want you to cream my cock please!” he begs when he hears your gasps growing louder by second, the sound of skin slapping being the loudest.

your legs shook as your orgasm covered his cock, the liquid successfully running down his shaft which only heightened his experience. but you didn't stop riding him until he hit his own euphoria.

sunghoon couldn't handle it anymore, he cried out, “y/n—” he started but you didn't let him finish.

“cum in me, baby boy.” you breathed out and he stuttered, forming sentences which seemed incomprehensible.

and suddenly, he was showered with kisses on his face, each mole of his receiving love as he finally looked up, his cock softening inside you.

a tear fell down his eyes which you gladly kissed away and then proceeded to kiss his lips for the first time. it was slow but he hummed softly while holding on to you for his dear life.

“so you won't be a brat next time, mr. park?” you asked, lightening the mood and he laughed with a mischievous glint in his eyes.

a knock interrupted your small conversation as you dressed up alongside, sunghoon was shirtless still when you slightly opened the door to his office.

“hey! we're really sorry your coffee got delayed but it's still warm—” the guy with the name tag of ‘jake’ blabbered before stopping to see a very shirtless guy and your smudged lipstick.

he apologized with comically widened eyes of his and handed you the coffee saying “i'm sorry to interrupt.” before running away, making you both laugh lightly.

he turned to look at you, fully dressed now.

“i don't think i'll stop being a brat, y/n.” he smirked.

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PERMANENT TAGLIST OPEN! SEND AN ASK OR DM TO BE ADDED :3

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[halotopicecream]

hi there~

first of all I love your works and those you recommend they’re amazing <3

second in case if you take requests, I am leaving you one just in case

how about a dom!wooyoung x fem!reader where you get promoted as his secretary as he becomes the new CEO of a company and eventually try to catch his attention more (without knowing that you already did)?

-𝐪𝐮𝐢𝐞𝐭 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤 𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐜𝐞

𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠: CEO!Jung Wooyoung x fem!reader

𝐆𝐞𝐧𝐫𝐞: non-idol, workplace…au?, smut, fluff bc I’m a soft bitch, co-workers 2 lovers

𝐓𝐚𝐠𝐬: mutual pinning (sorta), Wooyoung is a panty thief, seducing, uh, idk what else, tell me what I should add

𝐒𝐮𝐦𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐲: with the new being the new CEO’s secretary came with a lot of baggage and responsibilities. That baggage was dealing with how painfully attractive he was, and the responsibility was keeping yourself from kissing him whenever you saw him.

𝐅𝐚𝐪: Tysm I really appreciate the support and the request🥹 I hope it came out to your liking! Just know I don’t know much about office work and stuff, imma costumer service gal so it may not seem accurate but I’m going off of what I saw in the three episodes of the office I watched. I like… can’t write just pork with zero build up. I struggle. So this is a lot longer than I thought it would be but I hope you like it! This is honestly kinda shitty but hey, I tried😅 NOT PROOFREAD

𝐍𝐬𝐟𝐰 𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬 𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐜𝐮𝐭

𝐍𝐬𝐟𝐰 𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬: unprotected sex, dom!wooyoung, sub!reader, choking, dirty talk, reader gets called “slut “whore”, vaginal fingering, praise-ish, degration but not really, no safe word but consent checks (I’m barley awake spear me) vague aftercare (bc they’re at work) tell me if I used anything.

You wouldn’t say you were an attention seeker, because you weren’t. Usually having attention was something you’d avoid when you could. But when it came to the new CEO, all you wanted was for him to look at you.

Jung Wooyoung, an Adonis of a man who carried himself with so much confidence you felt your knees go weak being around him. You weren’t the type of girl to go out of her way to grab someone attention, but with Wooyoung, all of that changed.

“Sajangnim? I’ve got some papers for you to sign here before your meeting with Changbin tomorrow morning.” You said, placing the stack of papers on the desk in front of him, squeezing your arms against your chest so they would pop out in his face.

Wooyoung hummed in response, eyes trained on your breasts before he looked away, violently blinking. You stood up straight, giving him an innocent smile that definitely didn’t match your actions to him the whole day, and bowed respectfully.

“If you need anything or anymore information on the meeting you know I’m only a call away.” You turned around to walk out of the room, but Wooyoungs voice kept you from leaving. “Y/n, come here.” Your heart dropped to your stomach.

Gulping, you turned back around to face him, trying your best to hide how anxious you were. You’ve never heard Wooyoung speak like that before, especially not to you. He was always playful and sweet, and that’s why you liked him so much.

So hearing this demanding, almost angry tone made your skin prickle with anxiety.

“Y-yes sir?” His face was settled in a deep frown before he nodded to the door. “Lock it.” The anxious feeling turned into butterflies. Would you finally have your feelings returned?

You turned around to lock the door before facing him once again, and his expression morphed from a serious look, to a teasing smirk. Your whole body heated up, somehow knowing you were royally fucked.

Literally.

Resting his elbow against the desk, Wooyoung beckoned you over with a curl of his finger, eyes dark and leaving you breathless. “Come here, pretty girl.” He breathed, a soft tilt of his head more enchanting than anything you’ve ever seen any other man do.

You took a shaky breath before making your way over to the desk, standing in front of it, still a feet away from him. Wooyoung pushed his rolling leather chair away from the desk, patting his thigh while never breaking eye contact with you.

At this point you couldn’t control your body, and you’d stood completely still, unable to control your racing mind, heart and… literally anything else.

The smirk he wore fell slightly, a disappointed look replacing it, and you felt the odd need to change that. For some reason, you wanted to make him proud, to hear him praise you.

So, with an new need to please, you walked around the desk to stand Min front of Wooyoung, and his frown quickly changed into a smirk. You liked that look better than his frown. He took your hand in his, interlocking your fingers before pulling you closer to him.

“Can you tell me something?” His voice was smooth as honey, and you didn’t even realize you nodded your head. You were completely wrapped around this make finger. You knew it, and he knew it. And Wooyoung, oh he loved it.

Having a secretary who’s so helpful, easy to get along with, and so fucking hot.

“I want you to tell me how you feel about me. Tell me everything.” He smirked, voice turning into a slight growl at the end. Your breath hitched, goosebumps following the trail his fingers made up your arm.

“What… what do you mean?”

“You know exactly what I mean, doll. I see how you look at me, how you clench your thighs and how you try and get my attention by “accidentally” flashing me. But I want to hear it come out you pretty mouth. So tell me yeah?” His pupils were blown wide, eyes almost black if it weren’t for the florescent light showing the remaining brown.

You were frozen, heart hammering in your chest and you know your absolutely positively crazy for him. Wooyoungs palm met your cheek, tilting your head down to look at him. “Is this ok?” The eyes that were once filled with nothing but lust now held concern, and your heart melted.

He did care. Maybe this just wasn’t about lust. Maybe there’s something more. Or maybe it’s just wishful thinking, and all this is is a quick fuck for him.

But there was something in his eyes that said something different.

You covered his hand with yours, smiling at him before placing a kiss on his palm. Wooyoung blushed, heart hammering even quicker at your soft display. “It is. I’m ok, sir, I want this too.”

“Wooyoung, yeah? I want you to call me Wooyoung when we’re alone.” He caressed your cheek, slowly lowering your body down to sit on his thick thigh.

God, his thighs. The tight pants he wore always made them pop.

You nodded, resting your hands on his shoulders. “Now, tell me doll, would you? I wanna know what goes on in pretty head.” His hands rub up and down your sides, squeezing them gently. You were hesitant, too embarrassed to let him know what you thought about him and what he could do to you.

His grip on your sides grew tighter, eyebrow cocking up as though he was saying ‘well, I’m waiting’, and you could feel your body get warmer and warmer. “I… I think about b-being good for you.” His cock twitched in his pants.

“Oh? You think about being good for me when you walk around practically shoving your tits in my face like a slut? That doesn’t seem good to me.” He scoffed, letting his hands trail down and gripping your ass tightly. You gasped, letting out a quiet whimper that did not get past Wooyoungs ears.

“Mm, you like that? Like when I call you a little attention hungry slut? My little attention whore?” He pulled you closer, making your centers run against each other to create sweet friction. You let out a whine while Wooyoung groaned, pulling you again and again against him.

“Keep telling me what you think about, I wanna hear all about it.” His hands worked their way under your skirt, pausing for a moment to give you a chance to back away. But you did the opposite. You bucked your hips closer to his hand, behind him to finally touch you like you’ve been hoping.

“I think you’d have really pretty moans. Y-you look like a pretty moaner. I-I think about how you’d look between my t-thighs,” mm, Wooyoung would give his soul to be between your gorgeous thighs. “And I-I think about ridding you, because I think y-your thighs are really nice.” Oh he knew that already.

There’s been more than one (three, to be exact) occasion where Wooyoung may have overheard you talking to yourself about how much you love his thighs, and he may or may not have fed into that by wearing tighter pants to see you drool over him. He may have done that, but you’d have to ask yourself to see if it’s really true.

Wooyoung hummed, pleased with what he was hearing and finally loosing his patience, moving your panties off to the side and sliding one of his fingers into your wet heat. You mewled, slapping a hand over your mouth to keep yourself quiet.

That was the last thing Wooyoung wanted. He wanted to hear you, to make you beg for him so prettily like he knows you can. But there wasn’t enough time for that, he’d take his time next time.

“Mm I need you to moan for me doll, I need to hear your slutty little sounds.” He added another finger, pushing them as seek as they could go at the odd angle before curling them, grazing your g-spot.

“F-fuck! Wooyoung please!” You whined, burying your face in his neck and moaning into the skin, letting out all of your sounds muffled right next to his ear. He loved that, having you moan so sweetly right into his ear for only him to hear.

The sound your pussy was making as he messily fingered your flew completely over your head, mind completely held by the pleasure you were feeling. A third finger was added, stretching your pussy so well you almost felt like crying.

As he fingered you, Wooyoung caressed your back, the soothing gesture doing more for the pleasure than you thought it would. In a mindless haze you leant away from his neck to connect your lips, moaning into his mouth.

Wooyoung let out a groan, squeezing it your ass cheek tightly as he held you still. He licked at your bottom lip, asking for entrance which you happily gave him. Wooyoung slid his eager tongue into your mouth, leaving no crevice untouched by his tongue.

You rocked your hips against his hand, the knot in your stomach building and building until you were sure you were going to snap. So you pulled away from the dark haired males lips, panting against them as you thighs shook.

“Fuck ‘m so close Woo, pleasepleaseplease let me cum— I-I need it please, I promise I’ll be such an good girl for you!” You begged, gripping his hair harder than you could control, only for him to let a sweet moan.

Wooyoung chuckled, trailing kisses along your neck and leaving a few marks for onlookers to see before speeding up the thumb he had placed on your clit, pushing you closer and closer to that sweet euphoria.

“Go on doll, he a good slut and cum all over my fingers.” He groaned, bottom lip tightly tucked between his teeth as he hid his own excitement. You whined, grinding down onto his hand to ouch his fingers deeper than they already were.

A few more thrusts of his hand sent you over the edge, spasming on his lap and probably leaving a stain on his pants. Wooyoung thumbed at your clit a little more, helping you ride out your orgasm before removing his hands from your heart, spreading all three of his fingers to admire how slick they were.

His eyes found yours, filled with nothing but lust and want as he opened his lips, sliding his fingers into his mouth one by one, licking your juices off. His shoulders slumped and he let out a pleased groan, flossing his eyes and enjoying the taste.

You became flustered at his lack of shame, choosing to lower your gaze to the small piece of stomach you could see through his shirt. Wooyoung chuckled, holding your face in his hand before guiding you to his lips, sliding his tongue into your mouth, letting you taste yourself in his tongue.

His hands wandered away from your face to your blouse, playing with the buttons before he paused, pulling away from your lips. “Is it ok if I take this off of you?” You eagerly nod.

“I need words, doll.”

“Yes. Yes you can take it off, please.” You were hot, so so hot it was almost unbearable. But being around Wooyoung did that to you.

Once he got consent he started popping open your buttons slowly to make you grow impatient. He wanted you to he a mess by the time he stuck his cock inside of you, and the best way to do that was take it slow until you broke down.

The final button popped open, and Wooyoung had a front row seat (well, technically HE was the seat, but it’s not important rn) to see your dark blue lace bra, and he waisted no time cupping them. You reached behind yourself to unhook the bra and it fell off of your shoulders, falling onto the ground and leaving Woo the perfect view of your breasts.

He let out an appreciative hum, pinching your perked nipples between his fingers and tweaking them, chuckling at the needy sounds you let out. “Y-you’re so mean Woo.”

“Yeah, I am.” In a quick motion he stood up off of the seat, planting your feet on the ground before bending you over his desk. He flipped your skirt up, planting a firm smack accords your ass cheeks. You let out a yelp which turned into a whine. “Sorry doll, couldn’t help it.” He placed an apology kiss on your cheeks before sliding your panties down your legs, pocketing them.

He started to remove his shirt, setting it behind him to lay across the leather chair and tugged his suit pants and boxers down to his mid thigh, just enough for his leaning cocky to pop out.

You could feel yourself starting to drool at the sight, so you swallowed, pushing your hips back to urge him to hurry. “W-we don’t have all day, Woo. We’re still at work…” he hummed, prodding your entrance with his red tip with a smirk, loving down responsive you are.

“Oh I know doll,” he leant down, making his top push fully into you, making you gasp out. “Which is why you’re going to be quiet for me, hm?” Before you could manage a response he was pushing into you, grabbing your jaw and connecting your lips to drown out your shrieks of pleasure. He slowly bottomed out inside of you, letting you feel every ripple and vein on his cock.

He stretched you out so good, you felt your control over your voice slip away with every second. Wooyoung waited for you to adjust to his size, hissing every time you clenched around him.

“Please… please move.” You begged, voice high with need and impatience. Wooyoung bit his lip, holding in his own sounds of pleasure so he could hear you. “Whatever you want doll.” Slowly, his hips stared to move, giving you the stimulation you’ve been needing this whole time.

His hips snapped against yours, shaking the desk and he picked up his pace. Wooyoung wrapped his hand around your neck, pulling you up so your back connected to his chest. He picked up the pace, and the new angle hit the soft spot inside of you.

“Oh f-fuck— right there!” You nearly screamed, reaching back to tangle your fingers through his dark hair, tugging on it to ground yourself. Wooyoung chocked on his own breath, letting out one of the moans he was holding in.

“God fucking—hah. You f-feel so good. ‘M not gonna last much—ah — longer.” He whined, eyes rolling into the back of his head before he buried his face in your neck, bitting into the flesh to muffle his own needy sounds.

Your cunt spasmed around him, sucking him in deeper and drawing the both of you closer to your highs. His hand moves down to your core, middle finger landing on your pleasure button before rubbing quick circles on it, whispering sweet rods into your ear to push you closer.

“Come on doll, cum all over me. Wanna feel y-you squeeze me so hard I can barley move, so I can fill you up with my cum huh? G-god you’re so fucking tight I can barley hold b-back.” He huffed, sweat trailing down his forehead. Wooyoungs hips lost their rhythm, and you just couldn’t hold it in anymore.

“‘M cumming! Fuckfuckfuck— ah!” If Wooyoung wasn’t holding you right now you would have fallen over, but he held on, lower your body onto the desk as he chased his orgasm.

“Almost there baby, so f-fucking close— ngh— oh fuck ‘m cumming! Fuck! Can I cum inside of you? Is t-that ok?” He asked, bitting his lip to hold back.

“Yes! Yes please cum in me!” You moaned, using the remainder of your strength to clench around him as right as you could, pushing him over the edge.

“O-oh fuck!” He stilled his hips against yours, and you could feel the thick, hot ropes of cum shooting inside of you. As he came down, Wooyoung bucked his hips a few more times, making sure he was completely empty before pulling out of you.

He caught you in his arms when you went limp, moving his clothes from the leather chair to sit you in it. Wooyoung reached into his drawers and pulled out wipes, using them to clean your body, apologizing when he went over a sensitive spot. Once you were clean he cleaned himself before throwing the wipes away, coming back over to lead you to the couch he had placed in the room. You relaxed against it, catching your breath and steadying your mind.

Wooyoung helped dress you, cleaning up where your make-up was messy and redoing it. You were honestly impressed that he knew how to do make/up before you noticed he wore some himself. He grabbed you a bottle of water, twisting the cap open and hanging it to you for you to drink. You thanked him, not noticing how soft his eyes were.

The room was silence for a moment before he finally said something. “So, uhm… I know we technically missed a few steps,” he chuckled awkwardly, sitting next you. “But I really wanted to ask if you would go out on a date with me? Y-you don’t have to if it’s not what you want and maybe you did just want the sex, but I still wanted to—“ you shut him up with a gentle, chaste kiss, hoping that some of it would answer his question for him. Almost instantly he returned it, grabbing the back of your head to deepen it

You were first to pull away, pecking his nose with a smile. “I’d love to go out with you, Wooyoung.” You said, taking his hand in yours and playing with the rings on his fingers. His eyes visibly brightened, completely different from the dark look you saw earlier.

The both of you sat there for a moment longer, enjoying each other company before something broke the peace. “Uh, hello? Can I come in?” And that, sounded like it was time for you to leave. As you stood up and collected your things, Wooyoung pulled you in for another kiss, smirking when he could feel the heat radiating off of your body.

But it wasn’t only that, something else was missing.

“Hey uhm… where my underwear?” Silence, before Wooyoungs loud laugh broke it. He dug into his pocket, pulling out the dark pair before shrugging, placing them back. Your eyes went wide, mouth falling agape while trying to form words. Woo chuckled, kissing your cheek before shooing you off with a pat on your ass.

“So, how does this Saturday at four sound?”

©️HaloTopIceCream 2022

[velvetyh]

⌜charity gala⌝

꒰ PAIRING ꒱ CEO!sangyeon x secretary!fem!reader ꒰ SYNOPSIS ꒱ CEO!Sangyeon has to attend a charity gala that took place in a palace on Valentine's Day, and he needs someone to go with him. ꒰ WORD COUNT ꒱ 6501 words (oops) ꒰ TW ꒱ 18+, lots of teasing and dirty talk, pet names (sweet and degrading), protected sex, fingering, rough (?) sex, (sort of) explicit description ꒰ NOTE ꒱ I am almost a week late LMAO but happy Valentine's Day! I have a bit more free time so I'm working on my Eric fic for kinktober so it might come soon! ꒰ REQUESTED ꒱ no

୧ ‑‑‑‑ ‑ ‑ ‑ ‑ ‑ ‑ ‑ ‑ ‑ ‑ ‑ ‑ ‑ ‑ ‑

It was Valentine’s day a few days ago, and your boss demanded you in his office. Two relationships got created since the beginning of the week, and it made everyone either simp or jealous of those two couples. Ignoring the gossip, you walked the few meters that separated his office from your desk and knocked before entering the room.

“Mr. Lee? Did you want to see me?” you asked, and he turned around, suddenly remembering that he had asked for your presence.

“Ah, Y/N, there you are. Please,” You slightly raised an eyebrow because some worry was painted on his face, which was quite unusual for him. You probed your boss, and he hissed as you wouldn’t sit down when he gestures you to take a seat.

“Ah, Y/N, there you are. Please,” You slightly raised an eyebrow because some worry was painted on his face, which was quite unusual for him. You probed your boss, and he hissed as you wouldn’t sit down when he gestures you to take a seat.

“Stop staring at me like that. It’s not that bad,” he declared, and you approached him, resting against the edge of the tweed seat.

“I’m listening,” you stated, and he walked around his desk to sit, elbows on the armrests as he joined his hands together, looking at you.

“You know that it was Valentine’s day a few days ago,” you nodded at his words, still trying to sound his thoughts out, but to no avail. His concern changed into something more... interesting. As usual, his eyes betrayed him. He didn't want you to read him like an opened book, but it was too late. You knew him, and you had never seen him this shy.

That didn’t resemble him.

“It was,” you muttered, waiting for him to keep on explaining.

“Well, there’s a charity event that takes place on the other side of Seoul, and I was invited,” you nodded again, playing with your ring on your middle finger as you paid attention to his words.

“Yes, Sir, I know. I’m the one who received the call and scheduled this appointment in your planner,” you politely responded, and he cleared his throat, visibly running out of arguments.

“I forgot to mention that if I wish to go there, I have to be... accompanied,” you arched an eyebrow, fingers stopping on your ring.

“Do you need me to call someone special? Your girlfriend? Your wife? An escort? One of your friends?”

“No, not all of that, Y/N. I was actually thinking about asking you to go there with me, but you probably have something planned anyway,” he said, and your eyes opened wide, not expecting those words coming out of your boss’ mouth. You remained mute for a few seconds, Sangyeon taking your silence as rejection.

“Yeah, that’s what I thought,” he mumbled under his breath, shaking his head with a disappointed look, pressing a few buttons on the phone on his desk as it started ringing during your conversation.

“Stop looking at me like that, Y/N, please.” His words were dry, bringing you back to reality.

“With all my respect, Mr. Lee, don't count your chickens before they're hatched,” you unfolded your arms and stood straight, grabbing a folder on the side of his desk that was meant for you to take. It was Sangyeon’s turn to look at you weirdly.

“What do you mean?”

“Who told you my answer would be negative?” you said, not looking at him, fumbling with a few papers he had scattered on his desk. His hand grabbed your wrist, forcing you to look up at him.

“I swear to God if you are playing with me right now-”

“Do I look like I’m joking to you?” you said with a smirk, gently pressing your hand on his that was holding you back from leaving his office. You walked towards the entrance as you heard him tsk.

You turned around as you placed your hand on the knob, looking at him deep in his brown eyes.

“Send me the address if you don’t change your mind in the meantime,” you smiled as you left the office, closing the door behind you.

The day finally came to an end, but it was far from being done. Sangyeon was in the middle of a conference call when you left the office. You rushed to get home to have plenty of time to get ready and eat. Fortunately, you had a dress at the far back of your closet that you only wore for important events, which explained why it was almost dusty. Your outfit had to be in your company's image: elegant and serious. No fantasy, whatsoever.

The long-sleeved, black dress you had chosen was quite short, landing in the middle of your thighs, accentuating your legs and silhouette. Underneath, you wore some black, laced lingerie with sheer stockings, as well as some heels.

It wasn't every day that you attended this type of event, you might as well dress up and look chic and sexy. Once you were done getting ready, you quickly did your hair and makeup before eating some snacks, because you didn’t know what type of meals were served at this charity event.

When you arrived at the place, you quickly paid the taxi driver you got from the train station and went off the vehicle, flattening your dress. You walked up to the entrance and showed your invitation to the doorman, who stepped aside and gestured you to come in with a nod. The hubbub of the hall attacked your ears, making you almost not hear your own feet on the carpeted floor. You scanned the faces populating the crowd, smirking when you noticed your boss, in the middle of a discussion with a man you recognised to be one of his business partners.

Sangyeon was about to dip his lips in his champagne glass when he saw you, eyes going wide at your beautiful silhouette. You saw him excuse himself to the man in front of him, who smiled understandingly and started talking to someone else.

“Good evening, Mr. L-“

“Sangyeon. Tonight, it’s Sangyeon,” he interrupted you, his forwardness slightly catching you off guard.

“Oh. In what honour?” you asked, and he just shook his head.

“Just follow my lead,” he said as he grabbed your hand towards a table.

Sangyeon didn't act like himself that night. It looked like he wanted to appear confident, but you knew him so well that you realised he was not in his usual state. Why did the boss, who was usually strict and straightforward, acting suddenly this oddly and nervous? Since your arrival, the CEO’s mind was occupied by you and you only. He couldn’t take off his mind the way you looked at him, and the way you were dressed tonight.

Every day, you were always dressed to the nines, but seeing you in a short black dress with that makeup and this hairstyle, it was hard for him to not fall for you. The other CEO sitting in front of him was talking, but he couldn’t retain a single thing, vaguely answering the few questions his business partner was asking him. He was too busy thinking about your red, smiling lips, and that tongue who discreetly removed some champagne off your lips before smiling.

“Actually, that’s not quite it, if I may interfere. Mr. Lee, Mr. Kang is curious about your solar projects in Busan, you should maybe give him details since you elaborated them,” you discreetly rested a hand on the far end of his thigh, squeezing the fabric of his office pants to make him come back to earth.

Sangyeon slightly flinched and cleared his throat, the tip of his ears turning a darker shade of pink as he could still feel the imprint of your palm on his leg. You eyed your boss as he started explaining his project, adding a few details that Sangyeon omitted for some unknown reasons.

“Mr. Lee, you are really lucky to have a hard-working, patient secretary like Ms Y/N. She must be a pearl,” you smiled and raised your glass to the man in front of you as a thank you before taking a sip. Sangyeon nodded and rested his hand on your leg, just like you did to him, trying to make you lose your composure. Despite your heart hammering in your chest, you tried your hardest to remain impassive as you smiled at the couple in front of you.

“I am indeed lucky to call her my secretary,” you rested your hand on his at his words and was about to put it back on his lap, but his fingers quickly grabbed your wrist. Looking at him out of the corner of your eye, the look you were giving him warned him not to go any further. At this moment, you felt like you weren’t just his secretary, but you thought it was best if you kept this thought for yourself.

When the clock struck midnight, you decided to call it a night and leave. As you were bidding farewell to the few people you got to meet and exchange some business cards, Sangyeon came behind you, a hand on your waist.

“Can you grant me two minutes? Just two,” he whispered in your ear, and you turned your head at his whisper, lips only a few centimetres from Sangyeon’s. One misstep, and you would be kissing.

“Hum, sure,” you cleared your throat and kept on talking with the woman in front of you, who was looking at you with mischievous eyes. You smiled, slightly confused, because you had never planned on driving home with your boss, but it looked like you didn't have a single choice.

You waited on the stairs near the entrance, admiring the gorgeous lit city in front of you. Your thoughts slowly wandered to random things, one of them being excited to get rid of those shoes. You had expected them to hurt since they were brand new, but not this badly. You heard shoes walking down the few stairs that separated you from the door, and a familiar musky, manly perfume invading your nostrils.

Sangyeon smirked and offered you his elbow, helping you walk down the stairs. He slightly frowned as he saw the pained expression on your face, wondering about the cause of your discomfort.

“Is everything alright, Y/N?” Sangyeon’s voice was reserved, and you nodded, but your gritted teeth betrayed you.

“It’s okay, don’t worry about it,” his gaze fell down your feet and saw the skin slightly red, so he offered to carry you to his car.

“I promise it’s okay. Plus I think it’s right here,” you said, taking a few more steps before leaning against the car, trying to relieve your feet from the tightness of your shoes.

Sangyeon invited you to sit inside his car as it was getting quite cold. You pressed your hands between your thighs as they started warming up, the lukewarm air conditioning brushing the baby air away from your face.

You begin to examine the interior of the luxurious car as Sangyeon takes his spot behind the wheel. Leather seats, top-of-the-range materials, high-tech fittings... there is no doubt this is a car just like its owner. You feel Sangyeon's gaze on you as you pretend to continue to detail the interior of the car. His beautiful pupils are aimed at you, trying to probe the thoughts that were going through your head. Sangyeon’s smile brightened when you briefly nodded your head in approval before looking at him, your boss simply smiling and sitting next to you was such an ethereal and sexy sight to witness.

The engine purred, drawing the attention of the bystanders on the car as you exited the palace parking lot, then roared as Sangyeon pulled into the highway. Along the way, you even catch yourself stealing a few glances at your driver, who offered you his best profile, clenched jaws as he focused on the road. You had to admit he was a handsome, professional man who exuded confidence and wealth. Something that never failed to make your stomach churn, especially if it was Sangyeon.

"I'll end up believing you're interested in me if you keep looking at me like that," he raised an eyebrow without taking his eyes off the road, his remark had the effect of a cold shower. He moved his head in your direction, and you stared straight ahead, so quickly that you nearly sprained your neck.

"I was just admiring the view," you tried to look casual, but he smirked, understanding what you were up to.

"Hope you had time to take in the scenery," he looked at you sideways with a smirk, chuckling, and you gave him a quick nod.

"Not long enough for my liking, but I will settle for what I got," he shook his head with a smirk, his foot pressing the accelerator.

You frowned as he looked composed and calm, one hand on the steering wheel, the other casually rested on the shifting gear as he exited the highway.

“I don’t want to sound rude and judge your sense of direction, Sangyeon, but our respective apartments are actually in the opposite direction,” you said, and he arched an eyebrow before briefly looking at you.

“I know,” he stated, and you huffed, failing to repress a smirk on your lips. Despite the years you’ve been working for him, the expression he had on his face tonight was indecipherable to you. You decided to push it away and start another conversation.

“So? Did I act the way you wanted tonight? I still had to pull you back into line a few times because you appeared… quite distracted, in my opinion,” your voice trailed with a teasing smile as you looked at him, only for Sangyeon to shift gears, slowing down at a red light.

He glanced at you out of the corner of his eye, looking in the rear-view mirror above him, when he noticed your eyes lingering on him, still waiting for an answer.

“How can I not be distracted when I have a goddess next to me,” he mumbled under his breath while looking away from you, and you pretended not to hear him.

“Come again? I couldn’t quite catch-” your confidence was reduced to zero when he grabbed your chin with the hand that rested on the shifting stick and got extremely close, almost too close for your heart to beat normally. The seatbelt was at the far end of his collarbone, his intense gaze sending warmth and goosebumps down your spine.

“I said,” your eyes going wide as his breath fanned your chin and neck, making you inhale sharply, “how can I not get distracted when I have a gorgeous creature like you next to me, who has been teasing me and leering at me the entire night,” the light turned green and he pulled away, clearing his throat as he gripped on the wheel tightly, trying to act nonchalant.

He couldn’t believe he had just confessed his feelings to his secretary. Just the mere thought of you rejecting him made him regret his words, but at the same time, you reciprocating his feelings was something that sounded super unrealistic yet so exciting.

You proudly squirmed in your seat, happy of having made him crack and confess. This little game began a few months prior to this event, your platonic relationship with him took a sudden turn and started getting provocative and teasing. You had your boss under your skin, and you could no longer deny it, no matter how hard you tried.

Sangyeon didn’t address you a single word until he reached another road, taking a sharp turn on the right. Once he dared to look at you, you were looking straight ahead, bottom lip stuck between your teeth in a smirk, hooded eyes looking straight ahead. This sight relieved him, smirking as he sunk deeper into the city.

୧ ‑‑

Your boss pulled up in front of a garage and got a white card out of his inner blazer pocket to press it against the scanner. Looking up from your spot through the car window, you discovered a luxury hotel, quickly noticing four stars shining on the side of the wall before you entered the garage.

“A luxury hotel, huh?” You suddenly said while side glancing at him, only to see his neutral face.

“How insightful of you, Y/N,” you moved your hair behind your shoulders and rolled your eyes, ignoring his remark.

“Do you pay a night in a luxury hotel to all the women you want to put in your bed?” you questioned as Sangyeon drove down the floors to find the parking lot related to the bedroom.

“Only to the prettiest,” he answered as he parked, cutting the engine off before looking at you.

“Oh. Should I feel special, then? How many times have you already played at this little game?” you suppressed a smile as he deeply sighed.

“It’s the first time, Y/N.”

“So I am a guinea pig for your future conquests, right? So you can improve for the future ones. You will call me each time you want to test a hotel?” You had taken a liking to push his buttons, wanting to see what kind of reaction you could actually bring out of him.

“Do you really believe that I'm the ladies' man you think I am?” he quirked an eyebrow, wrist resting on top of the steering wheel, fingers dangling off.

“You never know, you could play your cards close to your chest,” you replied while biting your lower lip, sensing that he was close to snapping, resting your head on the window as your body twisted to face him.

“Don't you think I would have been a little pushier and more eager tonight if I really were the man you think I am? I’m going in the hotel room, you’re free to stay in the car or get a taxi to go back to your place,” he said as he got out, slamming the car door shut before walking away without looking back.

“Aw,” you whispered to yourself in the car, watching him get away from the car with a smile, “someone’s little mad,” you giggled before opening the door, taking your purse as you strutted in the same direction as your boss.

The latter expected you to come since he held the elevator door open for you to join him. You smiled at him as if nothing happened, secretly happy and excited about not going home tonight.

“42nd floor? I hope the view from up there won’t be too bad,” you smirked, and Sangyeon rolled his eyes, the lift opening on an elder couple.

Even though the elevator was vast enough to welcome two football teams, your boss felt the need to lay a hand on your waist and give the couple way more space than needed. It was just a plain excuse to press you against the wall. Your back was resting against the velvety wall of the machine, Sangyeon’s figure blocking you from seeing the two people that had just joined you. You stared at your boss but didn’t say anything, his eyes wandering around the exposed skin of your upper chest. Gently grabbing and pulling on his tie, you forced him to look at you in the eyes, smirking as he got caught in the act.

“My eyes are up there, Sir,” you whispered to him, emphasising the nickname, and he scoffed, hands landing on your curves as he got even closer as if it were possible.

The elevator dinged, and the doors opened, a mechanic voice announcing the forty-second floor. You smiled at the couple before leaving the machine, following Sangyeon to the suite, watching him use the same white card to unlock the door and let you in.

The bedroom door opens onto a large bay window, offering breath-taking views of the upscale neighbourhoods and the rest of the city. Your attention immediately shifts to the king-size bed in the middle of the room, and you can't help but let out a sigh at the comfort of the mattress.

As you continued to observe your surroundings, Sangyeon's hand grazed against your lower back, pushing you slightly further into the room. The touch warmed all your senses, feeling adrenaline point the tip of its nose into the pit of your stomach. His hands continued to brush against you, and you leaned back against him, getting rid of the space between you. Sangyeon's muscular body was pressed against your back, hugging your body perfectly, one of his hands sliding sensually across your waist.

Sangyeon suddenly spun you around, pinning you against his chest, trapped in his muscular arms. The temptation to taste his lips was immense, but you restrained yourself, focusing on his eyes instead. Your breaths were hasty, excited like you were impatient and dying to make yourself his. The adrenaline began to work on your body, pushing you to give up, your mouths dancing dangerously close to the other. You wrapped your arms around his neck, as his hands returned to their places on your hips, making a risky descent towards your butt.

“Are you done playing games, now?” he susurrated against your mouth, shivers taking over your entire being at his husky voice. His hands trailed up your back, teasingly playing with the zip holding your dress in place.

“Didn’t you think it was fun?” you asked as you lustfully tugged at the top of his tie to loosen it, “you’re sexy when you get all annoyed,” you muttered, and he chuckled, hands trailing up to your shoulders.

“Is that so?” He gently massaged them with his large hands, and you closed your eyes, getting intoxicated by his touch.

You didn't have time to do anything as Sangyeon captured your lips in a powerful kiss, grabbing the back of your thigh to lift your leg off the ground. You let your shoe fall on the carpeted floor and tucked your heel in his lower back while stroking the short hair at the back of his head. His tongue demanded access, and you allowed it almost immediately, voluptuously curling with yours in a passionate kiss. Sangyeon pushed your hair away from your neck and pressed his lips against your warm skin, eyes fluttering in lust as your mouth opened wide to let out a silent moan.

You gripped his shoulders when he pushed himself against you, making you squirm as you fell on the bed. Hair sprawled on the pillows that softened your tumble, Sangyeon kept leaving a trail of sloppy love bites on your skin, getting dangerously closer to your chest. With a skilled gesture, he slowly unzipped your dress, pulling on it to reveal your laced bra. Sharply inhaling at the view, he licked his lips as his fingers hovered above one of the bra straps. His cold fingers seized the soft fabric and pushed it down, your head sinking back into the pillows as your chest was exposed to your boss.

“You are drop-dead gorgeous Y/N,” he muttered under his breath, and you whined at his compliment, a rush of heat going south.

Sangyeon hungrily smirked as he pushed down the other strap, unclasping the bra in the snap of a finger. He yanked the fabric off your arms and attacked your chest, taking a nipple into his mouth as you threw your head back. You moaned at the sudden warmth around your sensitive bud, one hand going to his hair and started tugging on it. He groaned at your pulling, tongue lying flat against your sensitive bud before sucking on it. He looked at you from his spot, and you cupped his cheeks, forcing him to let go of your chest to come back at you and kiss him vividly.

With a hurry and laborious movement, you unbuttoned his shirt one button after the other, caressing the skin of his chest in the process. Your hand descended lower, caressing his steel-carved abs on the way, your mouths devouring each other mercilessly. Sangyeon grunted when you tugged on his hair, again, begging for oxygen as you were beginning to see stars. He didn’t stop kissing you once you pulled away from each other, exploring your neck and breasts without respite as your moans were getting progressively louder, indicating to him that he was on the right path.

“S-Sangyeon,” you let out a breathy whimper, whining as he started trailing kisses down your stomach.

“Hm?” he mumbled, looking up at you as he pulled your dress down to your ankles, throwing it at the foot of the bed.

“I need you. Now,” you implored, which made him smirk, happy that you were on the same wavelength. He crawled back up, face hovering above yours as he started his kissing journey all over again.

You were getting slowly impatient and needy, rubbing your thighs together to get some friction as he took his sweet time to tease you to where you needed him the most. You didn’t understand why he kept torturing you when you could clearly define the prominent bulge in his suit pants, feeling almost embarrassed at how wet you were for him. Why wasn’t he accelerating the process be when he wanted you just as much as you wanted him?

You grabbed him by the shoulders to force him to topple over, licking and kissing his abs up to his neck, earning a smirk from him.

“Come on, Sangyeon, please stop teasing me,” you complained, and he giggled as you fumbled with his belt to remove his pants, Sangyeon pushing you closer to him to capture your lips again.

He smirked against your lips when he felt your fingers on the buttons of his suit pants. He let out a groan of desire, taking your mouth and sucking on your tongue even more fiercely as you slipped your hand in his pants, your palm caressing with his clothed member. Eager to feel his body against yours, you grabbed him by the neck and pulled him towards you, rippling your pelvis to taunt him. Sangyeon didn't need to be prayed for and swooped in after sending his pants to the floor, hands coming back to your body and clutching your curves in a sensual touch.

“You don't realise how long I’ve been waiting for this,” he whispered as his mouth left yours and slipped into your neck, forcing you to turn your head to the side to enjoy his kisses, his mouth continuing its descent into the valley between your two breasts. His tongue tickled over the sensitive skin, a satisfied smile appearing on his face when he felt the chills appearing under his lips.

You tugged on the waistband of his underwear before yanking it down, Sangyeon doing the same with yours. You both shuddered in pleasure as the air of the bedroom hit your exposed private parts, tongues dancing together as you were now fully naked in front of him. Very quickly, your boss’s hand was between your thighs, while yours was already around his member swollen with desire at the ardour of the scene.

You moaned as your hand slowly and sensually pumped his girthy length, his fingers slid around your pussy, smothering your wetness in all the needed spots. He inserted one, then two fingers inside you, and you let out a long moan of pleasure as he began fingering you at a controlled speed. His thumb applied pressure on your clit and made it undergo circular movements, which had the gift of making you more and more vocal.

"You are driving me crazy, Y/N, I can't hold it back anymore," he whispered into your ear, his deep voice increasing your wetness in your panties. You responded with a moan and tightened your hold around his member, running your thumb over the tip of his cock, teasing the slit. His fingers moved back and forth, sending waves of pleasure through your entire body. The kisses and caresses became more ardent, more passionate, too overwhelming for you to think straight.

You let out a long, frustrated whine as Sangyeon pulled his fingers away from your pussy for a short moment, just to lick them clean while staring at you straight in the eyes, humming around them as you tasted sweet on his tongue.

“Come on, what is it? Tell me what you need, love,” he sat up to completely take off his black Calvin Klein boxers after removing his fingers from his mouth, throwing the item of clothing on the floor along with the jewellery holding your hair in place.

“Please stop playing and take me,” you bluntly said, and he tilted his head with a smirk at your eagerness.

“How could I refuse such a polite request? Your wish is my command, ma’am,” you jumped on your knees to kiss him again, pressing your hand against his erection. You started rubbing it again, harder this time, feeling the vibrations of moans against your mouth as it twitched around your fingers, Sangyeon making you fall back into the pillows before pulling away.

You rested on your elbows and let out a loud, frustrated whine, “why,” he chuckled, leaning down to get to his wallet that was in his discarded pants. You shyly giggled when you realised he was just being safe.

“You’re going to have it raw another time, love,” he stated as he pulled out a golden pack of a condom, ripping it apart in a matter of seconds while holding it between his teeth, his hungry eyes scanning your body down.

“I can’t believe all of this is going to be mine tonight,” he said, his cock slightly twitching as his gaze fell on the stockings that he 'omitted' to remove while undressing you.

“You better be good and satisfy me if you really want me,” you teased, and he winked at you.

“Say less, beautiful. I’m going to have you scream my name so loud tonight that the neighbouring suites won’t be able to sleep,” he confidently smirked, kissing you again. Sangyeon rolled the condom on his shaft before pushing you back down, fingers going straight to your core.

“Look at you, being all wet and ready for me. I didn’t know you would be this excited and needy to do this with me,” he smeared your wetness around your pussy again with a smirk, thumb lingering and pressing against your clit. Arching your back at the pleasant sensation, you whispered his name and breathed heavily.

Sangyeon gently pressed your pelvis down and aligned his cock with your entrance, eyeing you to have the green light. You instinctively spread your thighs, giving him a better view of your glistening entrance. He pumped his length for a short moment, eyes fixated on your core as he hissed. You nodded, and he grabbed your hip bone with a hand, the other slowly sliding his cock inside you.

Your lower part felt so warm and fulfilled as he slowly pushed it in, pleasantly stretching you out as you moaned loudly, fisting the sheets underneath you. You hadn’t felt this good in a while, it felt so satisfying and relieving, your eyes threatening to roll at the back of your head. His face contorted in pleasure as your walls closed around him, which added fuel to the fire that was growing in your lower abdomen.

“Gosh, you are so fucking tight, it feels so good,” he exhaled as he bottomed out before gently thrusting in and out of you to get you used to his thick cock.

“It’s because I was never fucked properly,” you slurred out, panting, feeling like pushing his buttons for the nth time tonight.

“Let me show you how it’s done, then,” Sangyeon grinned before roughly kissing your lips, tongue sliding in as your words acted like a stimulant to him, excited to pleasure you.

"I'm gonna fuck you so good that you won't ever be able to be pleasured by someone else," he picked up the pace, barely letting you time to adjust to his length and grith, the whimpers of his name increasing in volume and lust. You held onto his shoulders like a lifeline as you messily pressed your lips against his, his thrusts making you feel an insane amount of emotions that you forgot existed.

The man was having a hard time keeping his cool, your face twisted in pleasure, and your nails labouring the skin of his upper back almost already sent him over the edge. His hands wandered around your body, feeling your skin, pinching and teasing your breasts, focusing on the nipples as he remembered your reactions.

Sangyeon was pounding into you like there was no tomorrow, and he wrapped a hand around your throat to prevent you from squirming too much, making sure you stared into his eyes. Loud, raspy moans of his name escaped from your lips, brows furrowing up in pleasure as his dick brushed nonstop against all the spots that made you see stars, the reduction of oxygen increasing your blissful state.

Your previous partners had never managed to make you feel this good, so this unique experience felt relieving and refreshing. As considered many times, you weren’t the problem, you weren’t too complicated to orgasm at all, their actions weren’t good enough to meet your needs and pleasure you.

“S-Sangyeon!” you yelped, his member reaching a sensitive point as he bent forward and sunk deeper into your core, his hand pressing down right above your pussy as he railed his hips harder onto yours.

“You dirty slut. ‘Like it when I fuck you like that? Look at you, you’re taking me so well, it looks like your pretty little cunt was made for my cock,” he praised, and you whimpered, earning a deep, lustful groan from him as your nails grazed against the flesh of his shoulders again.

“Did I already fuck you dumb? Answer me, sweetheart,” he whispered in your ear, and you struggled to answer and keep your eyes open.

“Y-yes S-Sangyeon, you make m-me feel good. S-so good,” you managed to stutter as his hips kept colliding with your thighs at a quick, steady pace, preventing you from forming a complete sentence without stammering.

“Now cum for me, I want to see how stunning you look when you come around my cock. Go for it, Y/N, let go.”

He gave a few more intense, quick thrusts, grinding against you before feeling you clench around him, the surprising tightness making him grunt. He watched his member going in and out of you, the condom shining thanks to your juices. Your screams started getting louder and higher-pitched as he kept going, a sign that you were close to tumbling over the edge. You wrapped your legs around his waist to keep him close to your body, hands going to cup his face before hungrily kissing his lips.

“Yes, baby, stare at me when you cum. Say my name when you cum, say it,” he muttered as he pressed his forehead against yours and grabbed your chin to prevent your head from moving, licking his other hand before going down to roughly rub circles on your clit.

“Sangyeon, Sangyeon, fuck! Yes, fuck, fuck!” his name repeatedly came out of your mouth as you felt butterflies erupting from your stomach, your high finally hitting you like an intense wave of pleasure as his pace never faltered. Your orgasm was so intense that your eyes rolled at the back of your head, making your entire body shake in pleasure, moaning loudly like you never did before.

The view, the sounds, as well as your core harshly convulsing around his cock sent Sangyeon over the edge in the following moment. He steadied himself inside you and emptied his load in the condom as a few groans escaped his mouth, his elbows on each side of your head holding his body up as not to crush you.

You were both heavily breathing, staring into each other’s eyes with a lazy smile as you were coming down from your orgasm. You wrapped an arm around him and heavily sighed, feeling even better with his softening cock lingering in your intimacy. Kissing him on the side of his strong neck, Sangyeon slowly shifted, making you both shudder and groan in overstimulation.

He gently pulled his softened dick out of you, making you moan at the sensation. He groaned while carefully rolling the used condom off his shaft, tying and throwing it in the bin. In the meantime, you slid under the cover and rested against the bedframe, the sheets covering your exhausted body. Sangyeon came back with a warm towel and took great care of you, littering your body with sweet kisses as he damped your skin with the piece of cloth.

“Tomorrow’s going to be tough for us,” you giggled as you read the hour on your phone, indicating three in the morning. Sangyeon smiled and sat down next to you, handing you your undergarments.

“Let’s take the morning off,” he said, and you slightly frowned.

“Isn’t it going to be a bit suspicious? People know that we went together to this event. If they see us arriving together, rumours will burst out,” you said as he joined you under the covers, opening his arms for you to cuddle in, discovering a soft side in your boss that you were glad existed.

“Unless you wanna go to work looking like this,” he mumbled as his fingers delicately caressed the purple marks on your neck with a smile, “let’s take the morning off. We can take the morning off and just relax before going back to work, don’t you think?”

You shyly giggled as Sangyeon pressed his lips on the same spots where he had left hickeys, yet his lips were more soothing than teasing. If he kept this behaviour going, you knew for a fact that tomorrow you wouldn't be resting but redoing what you've just finished.

“Let’s go to sleep, we only have a few hours of peace before going back,” he said, and you nodded, kissing his collarbone before falling asleep, feeling complete.

After a few seconds of silence, he cleared his throat and added, “plus I don’t care about the rumours, I want them to think that you’re mine.”

“Because I am not already yours?” you questioned with a smile, not caring about how exhausted you were. Sangyeon let out a wholehearted chuckle and tenderly caressed the side of your neck, slowly making his way along your jaw, kissing the spot right under your ear.

“You’ll be mine only if you allow me to take you on a brunch date tomorrow.” He smirked, and you melted at his smile, seizing his face between your hands before pressing your lips on his.

“Deal.”

୧ ‑‑‑‑

©️ velvetyh disclaimer: my fics are only for entertainment purposes, in no way they are meant to represent real-life situations.

[thankskenpenders]

Updates on the Boingkid shit (go read the previous post if you have no idea what I’m talking about) because yes he is still at it:

1. People (myself included) have wondered why the creator of Boingkid would only be taking issue with Belle’s design now, in the form of Twitter DMCAs, when she’s been in the comics for almost two years at this point. Why not go to IDW directly, and why not do so sooner? Well, here are some responses:

“We did from time to time because we were busy with other projects. We sent an email and got a response from IDW's secretary and she insist to know the details of what we want to share with the CEO. Despite the gut feeling we shared the potential of illegal action & get blocked.”

“We did not write even a single line about this publicly, until one of the IDW artists cry out that Twitter has accepted the claim. Then after that upon fans reach out we shared what happened. We tolerated this for 2 years as Belle was just a spinoff but they continue to bring her“

So, yeah. He’s supposedly believed this the whole time, but IDW ignored him because of course they did. (Lord knows how, exactly, he tried to contact them in the first place, or if he even sent his pitch to the right email.) It was Jen Hernandez publicly calling him out over the DMCA on Twitter that was the last straw, and now he’s making this extremely public in retaliation

2. He now seems to be demanding that IDW simply alter Belle’s face “to avoid any resemblance to other copyrighted work in US.” This would be reasonable if he had a case, but, again, he did not invent the concept of a character having a clown nose and freckles

3. I previously said the guy was from Italy (both his ArtStation account and the unsuccessful Kickstarter for the Boingkid game have their locations set as Rome, and the demo was shown at an expo in Rome), but people dug up the copyright registration for Boingkid and found out that he’s originally from Iran. Either way, t’s likely that a language barrier is part of the confusion here, as his English isn’t the best (although it’s certainly readable)

4. Much of his case, as he presents it on Twitter, is predicated on Twitter support believing him when he filed his DMCA claims. This obviously doesn’t hold any water as social media companies accept false DMCA claims all the goddamn time due to the inherently flawed nature of the law, but his fundamental misunderstanding of how this system works may be partially due to that language barrier

5. People keep comparing this guy to Penders. I just want everyone to understand that, even with his outlandish claims about Julie-Su and Shade being legally the same character and things like that, even Penders has waaaaaaay more to back up his  argument there than Boingkid guy has against Belle. Penders worked on Sonic for 13 years and the BioWare team literally said they were inspired by the comics. Boingkid guy is just some fucking guy no one’s heard of who allegedly got ghosted on a pitch to IDW. There’s no reason to believe that Evan even knew who he was before Friday

6. There’s a lot of question about the guy’s motives. Whether he actually believes this, or if it’s just a publicity stunt. I don’t think there’s any reason it can’t be both. He absolutely seems to believe his claim, at least to some extent, but he also seems to be relishing the attention

I feel cynical for saying this, but like. The guy’s been trying to make Boingkid a thing for years. The Kickstarter in 2017 only got nine backers for a total of $667 against a $53,000 goal. The team moved to a Patreon page which is now all but dead. If we believe his claim that he pitched the comics to IDW, that went nowhere. The demo for the game got a few positive previews, but as a dev myself believe me when I say that in this day and age a few blog posts are not enough to move the needle on their own. Again, I sympathize with the guy on that level, because he’s a good artist and GOD is it hard to make it out there even when you’re giving it your all. But this controversy is by far the most attention Boingkid as a brand has ever gotten. Thousands upon thousands of quote tweets for an account that had 150 followers at the start of this, and that follower count has only been going up. As they say, any press is good press. It’s hard not to look at that and assume the worst. If he had actually designed a character that was much more similar to Belle, or if I believed even for a second that Evan was the type of person who would plagiarize someone else’s work like that, then this would be different. But when the argument is so flimsy...?

I don’t believe he’s purely a troll, as some artists really are just like this. (Lord knows I’ve seen some people get in extremely heated feuds over superficial similarities between furry OCs and the like.) But at the same time, I do believe that at this point he’s acting in an intentionally incendiary way to get attention. Whether it’s a desperate attempt to drive attention to the Boingkid IP after years of floundering, or it’s purely to try and get IDW to respond to a genuine plagiarism claim and right a perceived wrong and nothing else, I can’t say. It’s quite likely a mixture of both, though

But either way, this whole situation continues to suck. I hope this is resolved soon. Belle’s a great character, and Evan, Jen, and anyone else who just wants to draw Belle in peace doesn’t need this hanging over their head

[boowanie]

Pairing: Ceo!Wonwoo x Secretary!reader

Genre: Angst/Fluff-ish

Warning: Suggestive

W/C: 2k+

Summary: Falling in love with your boss was never on your agenda, or so you thought.

Eri’s note: I’ve been dying to write a ceo!wonwoo scenario and here she is!! aaah, i hope you beans enjoy this! I think this is my favourite of mine so far 💘

The cold rain seeped into your clothes as you padded your way back to your empty apartment. You were absolutely exhausted. Words were not enough to explain how tired you were of your boss but being broke left you with no choice but to stick around as Wonwoo’s secretary.

When you first met him, you couldn’t deny that he made your heart skip a beat with how beautiful he was. However, as soon as he opened his mouth, the image you momentarily created in your mind was shattered. He was always working you harder than your other co-workers even when the tasks weren’t even your responsibility.

You finally caught sight of your apartment building and a small sigh of relief left your lips. You were definitely drenched when you reached your apartment door, shivering as you opened your door. On a normal day, you would have slipped your shoes off at the front door but tonight was different. You went straight to the bathroom, leaving wet footsteps and drops of water along the way. The warmth of the water coming out of your shower fogged up your small bathroom as you finally discarded the wet clothes you were in.

Once you stepped into the shower, your thoughts led you back to the events that happened before you walked home.

—

Wonwoo was yelling at one of his employees yet again. You could hear him demanding for the work that he tasked her to do. You flinched as your co-worker finally snapped, yelling at him with the same tone.

“You know what, I fucking quit Jeon Wonwoo. Fuck you and fuck your stupid company! I’d rather be jobless than stay here for another day. I don’t know how y/n has managed to stay by your side for the past 5 years.”

You and the other employees turned towards the door as soon as she stepped out, visible tears tumbling down her cheeks. Some of your co-workers stood up to comfort her while some avoided her incase Wonwoo saw. You, on the other hand, were called into his office. You sighed, picking up the files he wanted you to sort out during lunch.

“Close the door,” he murmured as soon as you stepped into his office. You did as you were told and walked slowly to his table where he was leaning back against his chair with his eyes tightly shut. You carefully placed the files on his desk, not wanting to disturb your boss’ silence.

“Can you stay for awhile?” he whispered, eyes opening to stare at you. You blinked back, your eyes softening at the sight of him and the dark circles that were visible under his eyes. You nodded as you took the spare seat and pulling it over to Wonwoo’s side.

“What do you need help with, Mr. Jeon?”

“Just need you here to calm me down.” He stated, catching his lower lip between his teeth.

—

When you turned the shower off, you came to a conclusion that Jeon Wonwoo liked to confuse you. He confused you with his actions. Despite the fact that he gave you more work than anybody else in the company, he also cared about you. Wonwoo didn’t mind when you handed files to him late nor did he care whenever he saw you nodding off at your desk. Your co-workers noticed how more lenient he was on you but they never made a comment because they saw how much work Wonwoo gave you on a daily basis.

You finally sat down on your sofa, ordering some food to eat to reward yourself after Wonwoo made you stay behind again to help him with some documents he was reviewing. You remember trying to stiffle numerous yawns as you worked through some documents and you could feel the frustration building up within him.

“You know what, just go home y/n. It’s clear to me that you’d rather be sleeping,” he said, plopping the loose papers on his desk before turning towards you. Your eyes widened at the sharp gaze he threw at you and you felt your heart momentarily clench.

“Won-, Mr. Jeon, it’s past midnight. I think we both need to rest,” you stared back, watching as he ran his fingers through his hair. He leaned back against his chair, watching you with blank eyes.

“Just go.” He turned his body away from you, leaving you staring at his back that was now hunched over his wooden desk.

“Fine.”

—

Once your food delivery arrived, you took your spot on your sofa again, watching reruns of your favourite show. You sighed as your mind began wandering back to Wonwoo.

“Fuck this,” you grabbed your phone, dialing the man that was occupying your mind.

On the third ring, he finally picked up. You could hear some shuffling in the background as you asked if he had gone home. You waited for his answer as silence consumed you both.

“Can I come over?” he whispered, hearing sniffles coming from his end. Your heart clenched at the sadness evident in his voice.

“I-i’ll leave the door unlocked,” you whispered back.

—

Again, Jeon Wonwoo confused you as he began to nip at the soft skin of your neck. Your hands ran through his hair, tugging his locks softly as he continued to pepper your neck with wet kisses, sighing as he left a subtle bruise on your collarbone.

“Talk to me sweetheart,” he groaned against your neck. You moaned when he slid the straps of your bra down your shoulders, loving his gentle touches that burned agaisnt your skin. However, as he continued to leave kisses on your skin, your mind wandered back to everything that happened that day. You pulled away just before he could undo the clasp of your bra.

“W-what are we doing Wonwoo,” you breathed out, pushing his body away from you. He sighed, leaning back on your headboard. You avoided his gaze and stared at your legs that were situated on either side of his thighs.

“Don’t you like what we have y/n?” he asked, pulling your chin up with his hand.

“What exactly do you call this Wonwoo? I’m your secretary for crying out loud,” you replied with frustration.

“We can’t keep doing this. I-i can’t keep pretending like i’m not inlove with you while we’re at work,” you cried, tears sliding down your cheeks as you lightly thumped your hands against his bare chest.

“Baby,” he mumbled, taking your shivering figure into his embrace. You cried against the skin of his shoulder while he rubbed his hand on your back.

“I-i think I should quit Wonwoo,” you sniffled.

“If I stay in your company any longer, I’ll just end up breaking my own heart,” you decided, removing your self from his embrace. You wiped your tears with the back of your hands while getting off his lap.

“I think you should leave now Wonwoo, I’ll hand in my resignation letter later on.”

—

You arrived at the company early in the morning, your hands carrying folded boxes to put your things in. You heard soft mutters when you began to clear your belongings that were neatly organised on your desk.

Once you finished, you made your way towards Wonwoo’s office, gently knocking on his door to bid him your final goodbye.

“Come in.”

He looked up, pushing his metal glasses up when he saw you standing by the door. You took a deep breath before walking towards his desk, your resignation letter in hand. You placed it beside his arm before looking up at Wonwoo again.

“Thank you for the past 5 years, Mr. Jeon,” you bowed. He didn’t say anything and began working on the files that he was holding not too long ago.

“Bye Wonwoo,” you whispered, holding back the tears that were threatening to fall.

—

Four months passed by before you finally got a job at a photography studio. Before becoming Wonwoo’s secretary, you were an aspiring photographer that only studied business to please your parents. You were beyond happy when Mingyu, your boss, called you to offer you the job you applied for.

The first month and a half was hectic, shooting for different companies and artists was something you never imagined to be doing in your life time.

“Y/n, I need you to come with me to a really important photoshoot,” Mingyu chucked a popcorn at your direction. You swatted another incoming popcorn as you tried to place your camera down.

“Sure, who are we shooting for tomorrow?”

“My bestfriend and his family,” he smiled.

“Time?”

“10 in the morning,” he replied, munching on another popcorn.

“I’ll see you then,” you waved goodbye at your boss turned close friend.

—

You couldn’t believe your eyes when you entered the venue. Mingyu texted you that he would be arriving in less than 10 minutes. Your eyes landed on Wonwoo who was staring at you, shock evident on his face. You were shooting for The Jeons. Well shit, you thought. Wonwoo’s mother greeted you, leading you to a small section of the room where she told you you could place your belongings.

You thanked her, grabbing your phone to dial Kim Mingyu.

“Where the heck are you?” you panicked, looking around the room.

“Right behind you, you dumbass,” Mingyu chuckled, bumping your head with his camera bag. You glared at him as he continued to chuckle at you.

—

Throughout the whole photoshoot, your eyes tried to avoid meeting Wonwoo’s. Mingyu noticed the subtle glances that two of his friends were giving. He couldn’t help but shake his head when he finally took the last shot.

“We can call it a day, Mr and Mrs Jeon,” he politely said to Wonwoo’s parents. They both thanked you and Mingyu for your hard work while Wonwoo’s brother waved at you both with a smile before leaving with his parents. Wonwoo, on the other hand, decided to stay. You couldn’t deny how fast your heart was beating throughout the entire photoshoot.

“Thank you Mingyu and y/n,” he patted Mingyu’s back and gave you a small smile. You sligtly bowed at his direction before busying yourself with packing up. Mingyu and Wonwoo began to talk about something you didn’t understand while you tried to place your camera back into your bag.

“Hey y/n, do you need a ride back to your apartment?” Mingyu asked as you finally gathered all your belongings. You shook your head “no”, leaving both of them in the room.

“See you tomorrow, boss.”

—

It was around midnight when you heard a knock on your door. You were clad in nothing but a loose t-shirt that you were certain was Wonwoo’s and cotton shorts. You padded your way towards your door, looking through the peephole to find Wonwoo standing behind the door wearing grey sweatpants and a loose hoodie.

You opened the door, confused as to why Wonwoo showed up at your door after months of him not being here. He spoke gently, asking if he could come in to talk to you.

“What are you doing here?” you asked, sitting back down on your sofa. He followed suite, keeping a small distance between you two. He shrugged, looking at his hands. Silence consumed you both while you stared at your midnight snack that was abandoned on the coffee table.

“Again Wonwoo, what are you doing here?” you asked firmly.

“I miss you.”

“I miss you so much, sweetheart,” he sobbed into his palms. Your heart clenched at his words, reaching out to pull him into your chest.

“I’m so sorry baby. When you said that you were going to leave, I thought it was for the best. I didn’t want to break your heart any further but I realised how stupid I was. How much of a coward I was being when I continued to lead you on for years,” he breathed against your neck.

“I’m so inlove you y/n y/l/n, and I was wonderinrg if you could still forgive me and ask for another chance?” he peered up at you through his tears. You wiped them gently while he wiped your own tears that were falling down your cheeks.

“Why’d you only come back for me now?” you whispered.

“I wanted to give you the space you deserved. I-i knew you were working for Mingyu two months ago when he mentioned your name during a conversation,” he stated. He pulled away from your hug, grabbing your waist to pull you on top of his lap. You straddled him, leaning the side of your head against his chest.

“Are you willing to take me back y/n?”

“Just make sure to ask me to be yours this time around, Jeon Wonwoo.”

He grinned at your words, “I love you so much.”

[deadbiwrites]

a video of supergirl grabbing lena luthor's ass starts circulating and it's very embarrassing for sc but extremely funny to their friends

(I am SO sorry. Where do these hide? Why do I never see them? How long has this been here?!

Anyways, have some cute nonsense!)

The day starts like any other, honestly.

Like, sure, Kara’s never thrilled when she wakes up 20 minutes late and has to use superspeed to get through her morning routine and into the office on time, but it happens regularly enough that she’s just sort of used to it by now. Like, the sky is blue, the grass is green, she manages time poorly. Whatever.

But she does get to work on time, with just enough to spare that she can make a brief detour to Nia’s desk for the coffee her protege has already bought for her, thank her profusely (with perhaps minor promising of firstborn children), and slip into the morning meeting just as Snapper, James, and Lena start handing out assignments for the day.

“Well, well, good of you to join us, Ponytail. Let me guess, a family emergency kept you out all night again?”

‘I mean, that Abraxian wasn’t my family, technically, but someone’s family, so…’ “Something like that. Sorry.”

Lena catches her eye and quirks a brow in question, but Kara just shrugs easily and sips her coffee, pulling a silly face at her friend when Snapper’s attention moves away from her. When her eyes uncross, she can tell Lena is fighting not to laugh, eyes sparking with mirth as she bites her lip. Kara takes another sip of coffee, feeling a bit smug that she can get Lena to smile without even having to say anything to her. That’s real talent, right there.

Especially since Lena has to stand up at the front with James, who has been by turns cold, dejected, and surly toward her since their breakup (a big, real, final one) a few weeks prior. Lena had said that the whole thing was a mistake, that she should’ve never gone for it in the first place because she’d been right the first time- they’d had some chemistry, after all, but it certainly wasn’t compatible long-term. 

Which… Kara can certainly relate. Like, a lot.

Especially about the whole… James being kind of wounded about it part. That part had really sucked- when he’d done it with Kara, who he’d gone on like, a date with, it’d resulted in him deciding to become a vigilante. Rao only knows what he’ll do when it’s someone he dated on and off for over a year...

“Ponytail!”

Kara jumps, realizing too late that her wandering attention hasn’t gone unnoticed. “Yes, sir?”

Snapper rolls his eyes. “Great, now that you’ve stopped orbiting Saturn, you wanna go get that article started?”

Kara’s eyes widen slightly in a panic as she realizes that she has no idea what he’s talking about. “Uh…” Behind his back, Lena catches her eye and nods subtly. Thank Rao. “Yes. I super do.”

Lena snorts, James sighs deeply, and the meeting is adjourned.

**

“So what exactly am I supposed to be doing today?” Kara asks Lena as they stroll out of the conference room together.

“Well unfortunately for you, you have to interview a big-time CEO. You have a meeting scheduled with her in three hours.”

“You?” Kara asks hopefully.

“You’re very sweet,” Lena chuckles. “No, Elena Watts. She’s a real estate developer, and she runs a nonprofit organization for homeless youth. It’s one of the articles we’re doing for next month’s spread. Contrary to popular belief, Cat and I weren’t the only women with high-profile jobs in this city. ”

“Oh, that’s pretty cool! Have you met her?”

“Not personally, no, but I have donated to her charity- it’s a very good cause, especially the outreach they do with queer youth.”

Kara elbows Lena gently. “You’re such a softie.”

“Mmm, maybe. But if you tell anyone, you’re fired.”

Kara clutches a hand to her chest, feigning horror. “Why Miss Luthor, what a blatant abuse of power!”

Lena shrugs. “I’m a Luthor, darling, I have to keep up appearances somehow.”

“Ouch,” Kara laughs. “See you at lunch?”

“Only if lunch includes a milkshake- I have a teleconference with both boards today. Unless you feel like joining me?”

“Wow, well as fun as that sounds, I’m gonna go do literally anything else.” Her comms crackle to life, alerting her of a hostage situation downtown, and Kara sighs. So much for a work day. “Alright, well, I’m, um, gonna go… see what I can find on Elena Watts. Maybe over another cup of coffee at Noonan’s.” She widens her eyes a bit, trying her best to convey that she’s going to be on Super-duty for a little while.

Thankfully, Lena picks up on it and grins. “You just want sticky buns.”

“Lena, I always want sticky buns. They’re like, my second favorite thing to eat.”

“Oh? What’s the first?” Lena asks, voice just a bit lower than usual. 

Kara opens her mouth and closes it, flushing slightly as she averts her gaze and adjusts the laptop bag on her shoulder. Stuff like that has been happening more and more, and she’s not 100% sure what to do about it. Because on the one hand, it makes her stomach do flips and tie up in knots and makes her brain do this… staticky thing where nothing filters in or out, just a pleasant buzz of how funny and smart Lena is and how much Kara likes hanging out with her and being flirted with (because that’s definitely what’s been happening, even if neither of them is really ready to address it) and just generally looking at Lena.... who is currently biting her lip and grinning up at Kara, and that buzz makes her kinda dumb, which is just really unhelpful. But on the other hand, it’s also kinda awesome and Kara really enjoys it, and-

“Kara?”

She spaced out again. Crap.

“Um. What time are you free for lunch?”

Lena sighs, seeming slightly disappointed that Kara isn’t flirting back at the moment (and thank Rao Lena can’t read minds), but she smiles back easily enough as they step off of the elevator. “I should be done by two.”

Feeling emboldened, Kara turns so she’s walking backwards in front of Lena and grins. “It’s a date,” she says with a grin, ducking forward to press a quick “friendly” kiss high on Lena’s cheek. She whirls and jogs out the double doors, leaving Lena smiling exasperatedly after her.

**

It is genuinely baffling to Kara that people still commit crimes in National City. It’s not even an ego thing, really, since Kara tries to keep herself humble (even when she manages to wrap up a hostage situation within twenty seconds of arriving on-scene without injuring any of the criminals or damaging the building too badly). Like, yeah, she gets that there’s a certain element of crazies who just sorta gravitate to places with a local hero, the big-bads who have their own suits and geek-toys and abilities. Them, Kara gets. Kinda sorta. But the regular ones, who are armed with like, pistols? Or knives? Just regular man made stuff without even the benefit of magic or kryptonite or something?

Why? 

She’s sure that if she asked, Lena would have some sort of statistical thing about large cities and poverty and all sorts of other factors that would end up making Kara feel like a jerk for being uncharitable to the criminal element of her city, but at the moment she’s mostly too annoyed by the fact that she has to spend her weekdays chasing them around instead of chasing stories.

Once all the hostages are freed and the cops secure the scene, Kara departs, flying into the alley behind Noonan’s and changing into her regular clothes before she heads inside to do a bit of research before her meeting with Elena Watts in a few hours (just because she’d used it as a cover doesn’t mean it was a bad idea…). She finds her favorite little two-person booth tucked into a quiet corner, plugs in her laptop, and gets to work, asking the waitress to please keep both the coffee and the sticky buns coming.

She gets a surprising amount done by the time she needs to leave for the interview, having a good foundation for what she wants to write and who Elena Watts is.

Ms. Watts turns out to be a pretty nice lady around Eliza’s age, if a bit busy and distracted by the steady flow of people in and out of her office. She answers all Kara’s questions with aplomb, happy to elaborate on most every point and eager to draw attention to the rising issue of homelessness among children and teens in the US.

“When I was young, my dad lost his job at the auto plant. It was supposed to be a temporary layoff, but the factory never reopened. We ended up losing the house, and we lived so far from our extended family that staying with them wasn’t much of an option. We lived in our SUV for six months, sleeping at shelters every now and again, if we could find one that allowed families to stay together. We showered at the local YMCA. Five people and a dog, living and sleeping in an old station wagon- even now, it sounds ridiculous. Eventually, we got back on our feet, but I never forgot that. It was just six months, but it was- and remains- the scariest, most uncertain time in my entire life, and it shaped me in a lot of ways I didn’t expect. And there are kids and families who do that for years. I just want to help them the way I wish that someone had been able to help us.”

At the end of the interview, Kara thanks her profusely for her time and for sharing her story before hurrying off to CatCo to type up a draft for Snapper (“What’s wrong with you, Ponytail, why is everything you bring me sappy and sentimental?”), which she finishes an outline of just in time to send it off before running to Big Belly and L-Corp for lunch with Lena.

She greets the newest in a series of secretaries (Anna? Amy? Ava? Lena’s really missing Jess, these days, but from what she’s told Kara, Jess is kicking butt in her new role as VP of Operations and will probably take over for the COO when he retires in a few years), and the girl waves her in distractedly.

And that’s when Kara’s day goes from normal to not, because inside the office are two masked men holding a stone-faced Lena at gunpoint on her balcony and demanding… something, probably. Kara’s a bit distracted by the loaded gun aimed at Lena’s head.

“Hey!” she yells, attracting both their attention. They whirl on her and Lena’s eyes widen in alarm, and Kara suddenly realizes three things- 1) she’s in her Kara Danvers clothes, not the supersuit, 2) she can’t speed into the suit now that they’re both looking at her, and 3) she has no plan.

Crap.

“Who the hell are you?!” one of them demands.

Kara… doesn’t have a good or snappy answer for that, and instead does the only thing she can think of- she throws the large milkshakes she’s carrying at them as hard as she can.

Which, in retrospect, is too hard, apparently because while yes, it is both funny and gratifying to see two grown men get absolutely leveled by a tasty dairy treat to the face, the one closest to Lena manages to elbow her in such a way that she falls backwards over the rail with an instinctual scream that makes Kara’s heart fly into her throat. She whips off her glasses, and by the time she’s out the window and speeding toward Lena’s flailing form, the suit is materialized. She gets under Lena, catching her carefully and dropping a bit further before slowing down (because she’s been made aware that when she doesn’t, the people she’s saving may as well be hitting the pavement), finally coasting to a stop about 20 feet from the ground.

Lena’s face is screwed up in a forced sort of focus, her hands clutching tightly at Kara’s shoulders and cape as she holds her breath.

“Are you okay?” Kara asks quietly.

Lena swallows thickly and nods, eyes still firmly closed. “I’m alright. Thank you- I’ll admit, I wasn’t quite sure how to get out of that one.”

“What was that? What did they want?”

Lena cracks an eye open. “Oh. you know, just my quarterly assassination attempt. I think my mother was starting to miss me, so she wanted to reach out.”

Kara snorts. “That really shouldn’t be funny.”

“Maybe not, but here we are.” Lena shifts a bit in Kara’s arms, cheeks a bit flushed from the adrenaline rush, and clears her throat. “Not to be rude, Supergirl, but do you think that perhaps we could continue this conversation… on the ground?”

“Oh. Oh! Yeah, sorry. I forgot we were, uh, flying.”

Lena chuckles as they ascend slowly back up to her office. “You forgot you were flying?”

Kara shrugs with an easy smile. “I guess you have that effect on me.”

Lena huffs a laugh against Kara’s neck, eyes squeezed shut again. They alight on the balcony, finding the two men still unconscious, covered in Kara and Lena’s lunch. Lena sighs as Kara sets her down, pinching the bridge of her nose. “What a mess.”

“Yeah, sorry, I sorta… panicked.”  

“I was so looking forward to a milkshake too…” Lena laments playfully.

“Well, then I have good news and bad news,” Kara says. She reaches out and gently wipes a bit of her own chocolate shake from Lena’s cheek with the pad of her thumb, tucking it into her mouth on instinct to get a taste of it. “The good news is, you do, in fact, have some shake on you!”

“Whats the bad news?” 

“Also that you have some shake on you.” Kara laughs, gathering the two men in her arms and hefting them a bit so they’re easier to carry. “I’ll get you another one. Be right back.”

She drops the men at the police station with a brief explanation before flying back into the office. Lena hands over her discarded glasses with a wry grin.

“I figured you’d need these before the police arrive.” She’s putting on a brave front, but she’s clearly still more than a bit rattled, if her too-bright eyes and thundering heartbeat are anything to go by. Kara steps closer and opens her arms in invitation, and Lena doesn’t hesitate to step into them. “Thank you,” Lena says fervently, tucking her face into Kara’s shoulder and wrapping her arms tight around Kara’s waist. 

“Always,” Kara promises, daring to press a reassuring kiss to Lena’s temple (and getting a bit of Lena’s strawberry shake for her troubles) before wrapping her up even tighter in her arms. “Are you actually okay?”

“I mean, my fear of heights has been reaffirmed,” Lena jokes, “but aside from that, I’m not hurt.”

“Good. I don’t like, love people pointing guns at you. Just so you know.”

“I’m not a fan either, for the record,” Lena drawls, burrowing even closer. “Even though I know you’ll save me, it still puts a damper on my day.”

Kara huffs a laugh. “Same.”

They stay like that for a few minutes, until Lena’s calmed down enough to stop shaking and calls her assistant (Audra, apparently) in, telling her what’d happened and that the police would be arriving shortly to take her and Kara’s statements, and please advise the security team to let them up discreetly. After the cops arrive, it’s a blur of questions, and Kara has to concentrate on telling the story of how she’d panicked and thrown the milkshakes at the men, and one of them had knocked Lena over the balcony (all true), and Kara had yelled for Supergirl, who had knocked the men out on her way to Lena (also technically mostly true. Technically. Mostly.). The police are sure to tell Kara that next time, she shouldn’t throw things at people with guns, and also to tell them both how lucky they are that Supergirl had shown up when she did.

“She’s always there when I need her,” Lena agrees, throwing a sly wink over the officer’s shoulder at Kara.

Kara just shakes her head and smiles. Even almost dying isn’t enough to make Lena not flirt with her. The woman is truly a marvel.

Kara’s comms crackle again, accompanied by Alex’s custom ringtone on her cell, and after assuring the police that she has no issue with giving another statement if they need her to later, hurries over to the DEO (making a quick stop in the back alley to change into her suit).

**

When Kara arrives, she’s told that J’onn and Alex are waiting for her in the Directors’ offices. She makes her way there, waving to the agents and scientists she knows. But it’s very weird, because every time one of them sees her, they start giggling before quickly hurrying off in the opposite direction. Like, literally everyone is whispering and pointing and giggling, and it’s giving Kara such visceral flashbacks to high school that it’s all she can do to not check her cape for a taped on sign that says ‘Kick me’ or ‘Freak’.

(Kids are mean.)

By the time Kara gets to her destination, she’s fully paranoid, sure that someone’s playing a prank on her, somehow, and that everyone but her is in on the joke. She opens the door with more force than intended and catches it just before the handle puts a hole in the wall, throwing Alex and J’onn a sheepish smile. She closes the door extra gently and leans against it heavily. J’onn and Alex just stare at her, looking thoroughly unimpressed.

“Busy day, Supergirl?” Alex asks, and after half a lifetime of spending time with her, Kara recognizes that she, too, is trying not to laugh. 

Kara’s had enough. “Okay, do I have something on my face? Or on the suit? Is someone messing with me?”

J’onn’s brow furrows. “No.”

“Then what’s the deal? Why is the entire DEO like… laughing at me? Did someone accidentally vent the lab fumes out into the main hub again?”

“No.”

“Did someone see me crash into that billboard last week?”

J’onn’s frown deepens. “What?”

“No,” Alex answers.

“Then why is everyone laughing at me?!”

“I mean, if I had to guess, I’d say it’s because of that,” Alex muses, nodding toward the big TV on the wall beside Kara.

She steps back to watch the news coverage of her dealing with the hostage situation this morning and frowns. “What, those guys? That was routine, what’s so funny about tha-”

“No, no, not that. That,” Alex clarifies, cranking up the volume.

“...reports are saying that the CEO of L-Corp, Lena Luthor, experienced an attempt on her life early this afternoon. Sources claim that she fell from a considerable height-”

“Hey, she was pushed,” Kara corrects.

“Shh!”

“...caught by Supergirl, who may have gotten a little… familiar with her.”

And there’s a video (clearly recorded on a cell phone but not the worst quality Kara’s ever seen) of Kara catching Lena and slowing to a stop above the sidewalk, of them talking quietly, of Kara’s hand definitely on Lena’s-

“Oh. Oh no.”

“Oh yes,” Alex drawls, clicking the TV off with relish, a large, evil-big-sister grin spreading across her face. “Congratulations, Supergirl- the world just watched you grope Lena Luthor’s ass.”

“But I’m not- I wasn’t groping, I was catching! My hands weren’t… If it was groping, I’d be all up on her, and I wasn’t!”

“Camera begs to differ. It’s already trending on Twitter in National CIty.”

Kara puts her head in her hands and groans. “Why?! I was trying to save her!”

“You were definitely trying to save part of her,” Alex agrees. “Granted, it’s a very nice part...”

Kara’s head pops up, and she shoots Alex a look that’s between a pout and a glare. “You’re not helping.”

Alex feigns confusion. “Am I supposed to be helping?”

“Alright, enough,” J’onn cuts in before Kara can retort. “We just wanted you to be aware. I don’t think that this is going to be taken for anything more than it is- a humorous moment in the middle of a successful rescue. You shouldn’t worry about the press.”

And truth be told, Kara isn't worried about the press- she’s worried about the fact that she’s going to have to face Lena after this. Lena, who she knows for a fact has google alerts set for herself, Kara Danvers, and Supergirl, a gesture which is normally actually sweet and kind but is right now definitely gonna bite her in the-

“Okay! So, is that all?”

Alex blinks, looks over at J’onn, and shrugs. “I mean, yeah. Try not to make a habit of groping your crush when you’re in the suit.”

“I wasn’t groping her-”

Alex grins. “So you admit you have a crush? Interesting…”

“Alex!”

**

J’onn’s prediction is mostly right- no one seems to be taking the shots of her grabbi- saving Lena as anything other than a funny blip of a moment in their coverage of it.

He was wrong about the sheer scale. The clip had gone totally viral in a matter of hours, and seemingly every major network in the country has run the clip at least once as a bit of filler-fluff, and almost every major network anchor (including the ones at CatCo, the traitors) has made at least a passing joke about Supergirl being ‘Super-Handsy'.

Which means that Kara is very late getting back to Lena’s office with replacement food. But like, she’s been busy, okay? It’s not like she’s avoiding Lena, or something, because she’s embarrassed- which she isn’t, because she didn’t do anything bad or wrong and-

Anyways, it’s well past sunset by the time Kara gets to Lena’s office door again. She hesitates outside it for just a moment before shouldering the door open and knocking tentatively.

Lena’s attention jerks from whatever she’d been absorbed in to Kara, and a relieved smile blooms across her face. “Hey there.”

Kara finds herself equally relieved to not experience a repeat performance of earlier scary situations. “Hi,” Kara says, unable to resist smiling back. She raises the bags and cup carrier. “I bring grease and milkshakes. Again.”

“Oh thank god, I’m starving,” Lena says, rolling her chair away from her desk and rising into a deep and probably much-needed stretch. Kara very determinedly does not stare at the slight sliver of soft tummy that appears between her blouse and skirt at the motion. “I’ve been staring at this screen for several hours. And Sam called to yell at me- she says hello, by the way- she and Ruby are in town next weekend.”

“Good!” Kara crosses the room to the couch as Lena does, easily spreading out the veritable buffet of fast food she’d brought over the coffee table. “I mean, not good that she yelled at you, or that you’re still at work, Miss Luthor,” she says pointedly, receiving only an unapologetic shrug in response. “But good that, um-”

“I get it,” Lena chuckles, resting a hand lightly on Kara’s knee and boy, if that doesn’t make Kara’s brain go fuzzy and dumb again… “Thank you, for checking in.”

“Of course I was gonna check on you, Lena,” Kara huffs. “Plus, I know you probably didn’t get lunch, so…”

Lena hums around a mouthful of burger, chewing until she can politely speak again. “Well it’s delicious. Did you make it yourself?” she teases with a sly grin.

“Oh, yeah, totally. Slaved away over a hot stove for this- I just wrapped it in Big Belly wrappers so you wouldn’t feel bad about it.”

“Very clever.” Lena pops the lid off of her milkshake and drags a fry through it (an advanced culinary delicacy Kara had horrified her with initially but had eventually become a bit of a guilty pleasure). “Although I have to say, traditionally you’d have to buy me dinner before you grabbed my ass.”

Kara chokes on a pickle. “Oh no,” she groans, dropping the burger onto the wrapper on the table and dropping her very red face into her hands as Lena laughs beside her. She peers out from between her fingers. “I am so sorry, I was just worried about you hitting the pavement and like, catching you in the least jarring way and I wasn’t paying attention to where my hands were and I didn’t even notice until I got back to the DEO and-”

“Well I have so say, I feel a bit offended that you didn’t even realize you were copping a feel...” When the only response is another groan and a deep flush spreading from Kara’s neck to the tips of her ears, Lena relents. “Kara, Kara, it’s fine!” she laughs, pulling Kara’s hands away from her face and giving them a grounding squeeze. “Nia’s been sending me memes about it all day, which has improved my mood significantly. On the grand scale of fallout from assassination attempts, this one was at least funny.”

“I know that’s supposed to be comforting, but all it makes me wanna do is wrap you in bubble wrap forever,” Kara informs her.

“Pass on that. But seriously, don’t worry about it- I know it wasn’t on purpose- unfortunately for me, you’re too noble to do something like that,” Lena laments playfully.

And whether it’s the knowledge that Lena is not, in fact, upset, the overall weirdness that has been this day, or this delicious burger fueling it, Kara feels a bit emboldened. “Hey Lena…”

“Yes?”

“What if I wanted to grab your butt? Just, y’know, as a hypothetical. For future reference.”

Lena quirks a brow at her, fighting a smile as she contemplates this. “Hmm. Strictly hypothetically?”

Kara scoots a bit closer on the couch. “Sure.”

 “Well, you’ve already bought me dinner…”

“And lunch, technically. Even if I gave it to the bad guys.”

“True. Plus you saved my life, so that gets you some points, probably.”

Kara pauses in her sly scooching. “Oh, hey, wait, no, that’s not-” 

“Kidding, Kara. I know you’d never use that to your advantage. I, however, have determined that strong moral fibre and nobility do, in fact, earn you more points, which is my choice on the matter and you get absolutely no say in it.”

“Oh. Um, alright, I think.”

Lena stares off into the middle distance, tapping her forefinger thoughtfully against her chin. Finally she shrugs. “Yes, I think you’re fulfilled the prerequisites for a bit of grab-ass today.”

Kara snorts, Lena laughs, and soon enough Kara takes her up on the offer.

**

“Hey Kara, remember that time you grabbed Lena’s ass and it made international news?” Nia asks around a mouthful of mushu pork.

“You mean last week? Yes, I remember,” Kara drawls. Beside her/halfway sitting on her lap, Lena snorts.

“That was the best.”

Alex glares. “Um, excuse you, no. No it was not. I had to sift through so much thirsting over my sister on like, every social media platform. It was the worst day of my life.”

Brainy’s brow furrows. “Surely that cannot be correct, Alex. Statistically speaking-”

Alex holds up a hand, cutting him off. “Trauma can’t be measured, Brainy.”

Kelly chuckles and presses a consoling kiss to Alex’s cheek, and it makes the tough agent melt into a doe-eyed puddle of mush that Kara snorts. And she says they’re gross... Kara sneaks a glance at Lena from the corner of her eye, and she catches Lena looking at her. She leans close and jostles her gently as she drops her head onto Lena’ shoulder. “We’re never gonna live that down, are we?”

“Probably not.”

“We have the worst friends.” When this elicits nothing but a chuckle, Kara tips her head back to see Lena still looking at her, a soft smile playing at her mouth and shining in her eyes. And like, this whole thing they’re doing is new, with the kissing and the actual dates and the... everything else. But the thing where Kara catches Lena looking at her and she doesn’t look away? That freakin’ knocks her out, every single time. “Hey,” she manages.

Lena grins down at her. “Hi.”

So yeah. Maybe the initial circumstances weren’t ideal, and she doesn’t love the mockery that’s been heaped upon her by all of her friends and loved ones (including Winn, who’d sent a missive from the future that literally just said ‘LOL’). But the fact is, Kara muses as she surges up just enough to kiss the corner of Lena’s mouth, that she doesn’t regret a thing.

[taeyohonic]

stolen dances | chap. 10

summary: sometimes supporting the person you love is the hardest challenge you’ll ever face.

pairing: jeon jungkook x fem!reader

rating: m

warning: alcohol consumption (drunk people / hungover people), swear words

additional tags: f2l, ceo!jungkook, bestfriend!jungkook, shrink!yoongi, my best friend’s wedding meets 27 dresses (if the boss/secretary couple had happened), angst-y

words: 2100

links: prev. |  next  [masterlist]

note: lower case letters intended

chapter summary: jimin is team jungkook... whatever that means

“fuck”, jungkook hisses in your ears as the sizzling pan burns his hand. even years after their final performance, seokjin still inhabits the second nature of being the leader. he moves swiftly around the table to check on jungkook, who stays in his position. his breath is hot on your neck as you try to kill yoongi with your stare. with caution you touch jungkook’s burned hand, but the singer won’t let your fingers rest on his before he withdraws himself from you. jimin looks at the scene in front of him with distaste while the oldest coos at jungkook.

“let me be, hyung.”

“you’re hurt, kookie. we have to ice it”, seokjin insists and you pry your eyes away from your therapist to turn around, only to find jungkook watching you intensely.

“_____ knows where the ice is.” yeah, every single one of his friends knows where the freezer is. it’s essential for margarita wednesday. but you don’t dare to voice that – not when even the loudmouthed taehyung is keeping quiet.

“come on, kook”, you say softly and stand up, the delicious chicken completely forgotten.

there is the faint sound of yoongi’s apology in your ears as you move closer to the kitchen, jungkook like a cloak following behind you.

“how bad is the pain?”, you ask and collect an icepack, looking more at the granite worktop in jungkook’s spotless kitchen than your best friend.

“____, look at me”, he orders roughly. instead of taking the ice from you, he waits.

after a second too long, you face him. his eyes are hot on your skin and you feel yourself shrink inch by inch.

“you sang for him?”

“i… no – i just helped him out”, you explain. “yoongi needed the track for his audition and … he really tried other options – you, you know how terrible my voice is. but the label demanded the tape – we didn’t have time.”

you don’t know why an apology is nestled on your lips; there is nothing to be sorry for. jungkook disagrees.

“you sang for him”, he repeats, not in question, but as an accusation.

“what’s the big deal?”, you whisper and press the icepack onto his hand. for a split-second you think he’ll push you back and throw the cooling aid across the room. but your best friend does the complete opposite, taking a step closer to you. you feel his chest heaving as the space between the two of you grows smaller and smaller.

there are a lot of reasons why you love jungkook. one of them is that you are oh so attracted to him.

your heart kindly reminds you of that fact by beating heavily against your ribcage. you can smell his skin and see the tiniest scar his brother gave him when he was a toddler. this is not good.

“you won’t even sing karaoke with me, but you’ll sing for him?”, he asks and grips your hand to push it onto his burn. he hisses in pain but does not stop the pressure.

“you’re all famous singers, jungkook… i.. i don’t wanne embarrass myself in front of you”, you answer. he only huffs.

“____, you puked on me.”

“the rollercoaster was too fast – even jimin said that.”

“you had diarrhea during our last road trip.”

“nobody noticed that.” his eyes widen in disbelieve at your claim.

“i massaged your stomach the whole night to get the cramps to stop. everybody noticed, ____.”

“i don’t know what you want to achieve with this, jungkook”, you whine and try not to notice how delicious his collarbone looks under the kitchen lights.

“___”, he starts, “you can’t embarrass yourself in front of me.”

your eyes are still set on his collarbone and he breathes, clearly annoyed.

“there is no shame in this friendship, ___”, jungkook states with finality in his voice. you do not dare to meet his eyes, after the word ‘friendship’ burns itself onto your mind.

“music is half of who i am”, he continues, “i’d love to share it with my best friend.”

“okay”

your answer is met with a soft smile you do not see.

“okay”, he repeats and gives your hand a reassuring squeeze.

he steps away from you a moment later and now, his skin out of reach, you look at his face. his eyes are kind on you.

“let’s see if they left some chicken”, you say and before jungkook can respond, you’ve left the kitchen and your beating heart behind.

**

“where is all the chicken?”, you exclaim as you join the boys again. jimin’s faint blush is overshadowed by taehyung’s snicker.

“we were only gone for a second, hyungs!”, jungkook adds and helps you by adjusting your chair after you take your seat across from a full-mouthed yoongi.

“there is enough pasta for you to not go hungry”, seokjin answers and passes on the sauce to your best friend, who coats his spaghetti with the citrusy sauce, muttering to himself.

“so, you’ll help with the remix?”, taehyung asks yoongi, clearly done with your complaints.

yoongi looks at jungkook instead of taehyung as he replies.

“yeah, joon and i have been drabbling for a few days.” they have?

“maybe you can bring your demo next week to movie night?”, taehyung questions next.

“next movie night?”, yonngi repeats with furrowed eyebrows matching jungkook’s expression.

“or you can bring it by the office to my meeting with namjoon?”, seokjin offers. sorry, what?

“joon called you already?”, you ask. you distinctly remember the business card you’ve given your favorite barista at the restaurant. but you never imagined him to act this fast. even yoongi seems surprised.

“i like his voice”, seokjin nods at you and continues to eat his last chicken piece.

“but not as much as mine, right?”, jimin whines only to get slapped by the youngest.

your friends are really, really spoiled, you think with a smile and nudge yoongi’s foot under the table.

**

you hate how heavy your eyes feel while you blink at jungkook.

“you sure you don’t want to have a sleepover?”, he whispers as he helps you into your jacket. scratch that, your arms are heavier than your eyelids. your whine reminds him more of a kitten than a human and he smiles at you.

“nooo, i just… i-i wanne have my special pillow. and my socks.”

“okay, okay, okay – honey – don’t need any tears in this hallway”, seokjin hushes before hugging you. “drink lots of water, understood?”, he asks and lets you go. you nod silently and smile at him. even that is a task.

jungkook looks at the both of you and can’t help his chuckles at your big eyes in front of seokjin’s wide shoulders. it’s just… too cute.

“thanks for the invite.” yoongi pulls the host back to reality and jungkook nods at him with a fake smile.

“sure”, he says. now that you are half-away in dreamland, he doesn’t have to pretend to like your friend. he just wants him out of his house and your life. it physically pains jungkook to let you go together. how special can your at-home-pillow really be?

even in your state you notice how jimin sidesteps yoongi’s hand and how fast taehyung opens the door to lead your therapist out in the hallway. jimin pushes seokjin aside to say goodbye to you, huffing into your hairline as you squeeze him half-heartedly back. his behavior towards yoongi makes you dislike him more than you care to admit.

your friend bows to the boys before moving to the hallway. there is just taehyung between you and the exit now. jimin passes you off to the troublemaker, but not without some clouded thunder in his eyes. embraced by taehyung, you whisper: “what’s up with jimin?”

the former singer knows that eyes and ears are on you – they always are when you’re with them – so he presses his lips close to your ear before answering.

“he’s always been team jungkook.”

it takes you six hours of sleep, two coffees and one aspirin before his words reach your brain the next morning.

**

you to troublemaker: what’s team jungkook?

your message to taehyung goes unanswered. it makes you mad and you do not like being ignored. after crafting the whole day with your kids in pottery class, you make your way out of the school. you try to repress memories of the awkward lunch with jisoo, not ready to face the reality that she made jungkook uncomfortable, and the alcohol still makes your steps more sluggish than graceful.

jungkook’s mercedes in front of the building comes as a surprise.

“surprise!”, he exclaims and opens the car door for you.

“what are you doing here?”, you ask, too drained to be more forthcoming. the former idol smiles behind his sunglasses.

“surprising my very chipper, sunshine-y best friend.” jungkook sounds so excited that you can feel your lips – and mood – lifting by the second.

“and what’s the surprise?” other than your very busy ceo taking the afternoon off to give you a ride instead of letting you take the crowded train home.

“i wanted to take you to the park!” he points to the basket hidden in his car and your cheeks flush while looking at his long, long finger.

“come ooon”, jungkook tries to shush you into the seat, not ready for some of the pedestrians to notice the famous man. maybe he shouldn’t flash his gucci sunglasses.

“okay, okay, kookie, okay”, you relent and squeeze his shoulder before getting into the mercedes.

it only takes him seconds and then he’s in the driver’s seat, smiling happily at you.

“how was pottery?”, he asks and speeds out into the traffic. you’ve sent him some of your students’ creations from today during lunch, trying to escape jisoo’s eyes – they’d been so proud. you haven’t shown him yours.

“my mug looks so ugly”, you mutter, only to hear a huff from jungkook.

“no way – your designs are unique… never ugly.”

at the next red light, you flash him a picture of your grotesque creation. he is silent until the lights change to green. eyes on the road, jungkook tries to soothe you.

“practice makes perfect, ___.” you only snort.

“yeah well… i think we’ll focus more on learning tomorrow. minimal creativity. maximal brains.”

there is a comfortable silence in the car – but not for long.

“how was your day?”, you ask and turn your upper body to the driver so you’re more focused on his hands gripping the steering wheel.

jungkook sighs before responding. “the board doesn’t like our promotion strategy for europe. so, we’ll have to revise the concept. sales are good – the finance department had a boner for their whole thirty minutes presentation, calculating how much money we’ll make this quarter.”

he takes a turn and you can already see the green from the park.

“had lunch with jin and went for a mini workout after that.”

jungkook parks the car in one swift motion and you have to suppress the moan at his controlled handling of the wheel. he doesn’t even look bothered by the vehicles waiting for him to maneuver into the tight space. after he turns off the engine, your best friend faces you fully.

“and i googled a bit”, he admits. it’s a random fact, making you conscious of its deeper meaning.

“during your lunch with jin?”, you ask. “or while doing squats?”

“during the finance presentation – it was so boring, ____”, he groans and falls forward onto your shoulder.

“and what did you google?”, you ask and press his earlobe between your fingertips. you can still feel the numerous holes from his idol days. it’s a shame he doesn’t wear earrings anymore.

“you know…”, jungkook starts softly, “i wondered – at the restaurant, with namjoon.” his forehead is still resting on you, so he easily notices your stiffened body.

“i would have kind of believed it if you met him first. you drink way too much coffee. he’s a barista.” jungkook’s explanation is hushed against your skin.

“but you met yoongi first, _____.”

“yeah”, you admit quietly.

“min yoongi’s practice has a website, ____.”

“yeah”

“min yoongi is a licensed therapist, ____.”

there is a beat of silence as he waits for you to decide how open you want to be with your best friend… and yourself.

“he is my licensed therapist, jungkook.”

_____

sorry for the late update. hope you are all healthy! love, dana

p.s. this had a whole lot of “uhhh she went to therapy” vibe. therapy is cool, i only survived because i went to see a therapist. jungkook thinks so too; don’t let the last scene fool you. so… we’ll have the park “outing” next and after that… all goes down the drain. I promise.

taglist:   @livewittykid  @thequeen-kat @kagami-s-void @goldenclosethobi @youwannabelostandnotbefound @jinsalpaca @bishuthot @laabellaavitaa21 @baekstans @jalexad​​ @jinsearthh​ @kseokwu​

[sainz-zayn]

Anagapesis

Anagapesis (n.) no longer feeling any affection for someone you once loved

Warnings: cheating please if you're sensitive towards this kind of topic please don't read it, alcohol usage, suggestive and sexual themes, toxic relationship, swearing, cheating is not good please don`t take this seriously in real life.

Word count: 5k+

Disclaimer: All Characters and events in this story even those based on real people are entirely fictional.

"Tell me have you ever love me!?" I whispered timidly.

"I've never loved you not even once!" He answered.

Those words came out from his beautiful lips like nothing ever happened between the two of us.

"Leave! I hate you!" my tears starts to fall from my eyes. I`ve never felt this broken before but the one and only Jung Jaehyun made me feel like my heart is shattered into pieces.

Well, how did it all started?

Sitting on my chair signing a contract all day long is hella hectic and surely stressful. I surely need an award tonight for this, maybe going out with the girls tonight is one of the greatest ideas.

Arriving at the club, a tall handsome man with great features already attracts my attention. The both of us checking out each other shamelessly is a wholesome scenery for my best friend.

"Looks like my best friend took a liking at someone huh?" Yoona said, then she  smirk at me before handing me a glass of wine. I rolled my eyes at her playfully.

"Why, do you know him?" I asked her as my attention goes back to where the man is sitting while talking to a girl, who I assumed is his girlfriend.

"No, I don't know him but my boyfriend Johnny surely does. his name is Jaehyun, Jung Jaehyun to be exact." Yoona exclaimed as I drink my fourth glass of wine.

"Johnny do you know the girl beside him?" I asked. 

"Yeah, that's his girlfriend Yerim. I kinda don't like her though. Want me to introduce you to him?" Duh, Yes, I`d like to. 

"Sure" but before I can stand up, Jaehyun is already walking towards our table  then he greets Johnny and do their handshake.

"You look like you've gotten into a fight" I said eyeing him, Jaehyun. 

"I'm Mayjun, Han Mayjun. Nice to meet you Mr. Handsome" I wink at him before grabbing another drink. He noticed that I`m flirting so he decided to go with it.

"I'm Jaehyun, Johnny's best friend and yeah... me and my girlfriend fought earlier" Jaehyun sighed then I gave him a glass of wine.

"Here drink this" 

 Yoona and Johnny told us that they are gonna dance for a bit. Tsk, a bit my ass huh. I know that they will be gone for a whole night.

"I guess we're alone now" He said then smirked.  Because of that decided to tease him.

"That guy kinda looks hot don't you think so?" 

"Tsk" Jaehyun replied.

"Awe is someone`s jealous now Mr.handsome?" I playfully chuckle.

"Wanna go for a dance?" I asked him making my way to the dance floor.

"Sure wait for m-" before he could finish talking I already started dancing. swinging my hips to the beat seductively while looking at him deep in the eyes makes him feel some kind of things that he shouldn't be feeling at this point.

 "You have a girlfriend for fuck sake Jaehyun" he  murmured under his breath but I heard it. 

He lost it when I and bite my lips. He approach me and holds my hips like I`m his. Everything happened so fast his soft plump lips are kissing mine roughly while I`m slowly grinding against his hard erected manhood.

That's how I ended waking up on Jaehyun's bed early in the morning in his masculine pair of arms. Wrapped around your waist just how I want it to be.

I faced him and greeted by a half-naked Jaehyun making me blush so hard.

"Like what you see?" He said mockingly while slowly showing his beautiful dimple that makes me love him more. This is wrong but it feels so right. Well, bad feels good, good feels bad.

He stands up making me see a more clearer view of his muscular body.

"I-i know this is wrong. I'm sorry for seducing you I am sorry we're both drunk last night and you know it too." I look down shyly and guilt is washing over my  body.

"Hey, what are you saying!? You don't need to be sorry. We both chose to do this and we're gonna continue it." He hugs my waist. I look at his eyes and pissed is clearly written all over his face.

"But you have a girlfriend I can't share a man with that girl!" I rolled my eyes at him. I push him through his chest and that made him more pissed off.

"We already did it so what's the point of turning back!?" He pinned me to the wall harshly making me hiss in pain before crashing his lips to mine. Without knowing you kissed him back. After a minute of our hot make-out session he pulled you into his embrace.

"So?" He whispered.

"Fine let's continue it, it's not like I don`t have a choice" I sigh before putting on my clothes.

"Stay I'll cook breakfast" He demand.

"No!"

"Yes!"

"No, I will not!" I exclaimed.

"Yes, you will" he said while approaching you.

"Jaehyun I'm already late. I'm the company`s CEO, I don't have a choice it's been a hectic week for our company."

"How about a dinner tonight?" He asked while fixing the watch on his wrist. Dinner sounds good.

"Okay, I'll eat dinner with you" I gave him a peck on his lips before leaving his house.

Sighing at myself, I rub my temples softly if yesterday was hella hectic then today is hella hell. A meeting here and there a contract to sign. I don't even get to eat lunch. I only have coffee and a subway burger that my secretary gave. 

I watch as the sun set a lot happened in a day. When the realization hits me, I don't even give Jaehyun my number nor my address. I consciously think of a way to contact him but it all stops when a soft knock interrupts my thoughts.

"Come in" I said clearing my throat, as my office door opens I see a glimpse of Jaehyun`s side profile.

"H-how?" I tried to remember if I gave him my address but no. 

I can`t recall anything. I stand up and he opens his arms for me to hug him but I walk pass him.

"Hey, I'm right here as you can see" he furrowed his eyebrows at me.

"duh! I know that I'm not blind" but deep inside I`m thinking how the heck he found out where I am.

"if you`re thinking how I get here, it`s because I tell my secretary to find you and here I am" Jaehyun admires my office for a bit. His taste is kinda similar to mine I think.

"by the way since last night I still didn't introduce my self properly I`m Jung Jaehyun the owner and CEO of Neo tech enterprises" Jaehyun smirk at my reaction.

 I can`t believe it the one whom I hook up with last night is one of the richest men I`ve ever know. His the owner of the number one technology company in South Korea with a New York branch. My company is ranked top 2 before his.

"and? that doesn`t change the fact that you`re cheating on your girlfriend with me." I huff in annoyance as the word "your girlfriend" slides to my tongue bitterly.

"I'm not here to argue with you okay? I`m here to have dinner with you. Now if you don`t want me here then bye" I`m shocked at his sudden change but you won`t easily chase him and lose. He wants to play? then let's play. But after thinking you decide not to play hard to get.

"Jaehyun I'm sorry okay? I-I`m just stress." then he smiles knowing that he already win. 

"Okay now don`t just stand there and let`s go." he emotionlessly said.

It`s been almost 4 months my relationship with Jaehyun is still going on. Everyone notices the tension every time we have a friend gathering. of course, we hook up here and there or whenever he wants to but today is different this past few weeks it`s like he been avoiding me. Not like the old days he always takes me to date and cuddles with me. He always makes me feel love, my friends already warn me that I might regret what we`re doing now in the future but I could care less.

Admiring my expensive dress in the mirror I sure do look mesmerizing, I always do. Many men are ready to give their love to me, many of them have already court me but none of them is in my standard. Yes I admit it I`m a picky and choosy person when it comes to my love life or personal affair but what can I do? when there is only one Jung Jaehyun in the world. The thought of him with another woman is making me jealous but that's not the point you already have him wrapped around your fingers. You're Han Mayjun and what Mayjun want, Mayjun get. You have it all powers, wealth, beauty, and most importantly Jung Jaehyun one of the richest and handsome men you've ever known. 

While sipping my favorite wine, I heard a light knock from my door assuming that it`s jaehyun but I remind myself that it`s not him because he already told me that he`s going to the gala with his girlfriend. Yeah, the girlfriend who he always takes to the gala with him. Because of this we argue with each other and I didn`t hear anything from him in 2 days but what can you do about it your relationship with him is all hidden from the public.

"Come in" the door open and my date for the night who is my Ex Jungwoo. I gotta admit, it took me so long to move on from him because of what happened between the two of us. He just suddenly leave me like nothing ever happened between the two of us. He leaves me without saying goodbye. almost 3 years ago he goes to the US to take over his dad company and comeback after a year and us two got into good chemistry and became a best friend that`s why he`s the one who I choose to be my date tonight at the gala. 

"Pleasure to meet you my love" Jungwoo holds my hand and kisses the top of it gently. It makes my heart flutter, I gotta hide it.

"No need to be so polite you know, I miss you Kim Jungwoo" I give him a big teddy bear hug who he accepts gladly. I take my time hugging Jungwoo it`s like his my comfort. The moment stops when his assistant interrupts us.

" Sir we have to go or we`ll be late for tonight's event" Jungwoo`s assistant clearly said for the both of us to hear.

"Shall we princess?" He smiles teasingly and I hate it. But I also find comfort in it.

"Oh, come on Woo stop with the pet names and let`s go" Slapping his arms playfully we go straight to Jungwoo`s car going to the Gala. It only takes a minute to arrive. Jungwoo immediately go outside of the car to open it for me and a thousand of lights flicking and clicking towards our direction. and Jung-woo shield me from it before walking in the red carpet we post while his arms are wrapped around my waist. Tomorrow the both of us will be surely the hit topic on social media and magazines almost in all newspaper headlines. Because they all know about our public relationship how it works out and how it ended.

I go inside the building with Jungwoo beside me and I see our group of friends waving at us and we approached them. I heard a whistle from Lucas and Yuqi my best friend. They started dating weeks ago, Lucas is Jaehyun`s best friend and Yuqi is my long-time friend just like Yoona.

"You look sexy tonight babe" Yuqi honestly said and all of them agreed. I`m  kinda shock that Lucas and Jungwoo know each other, almost all of them know each other.

Y`all are having fun talking to each other or whoever approach our table. Every minute, different Ceo. My friends notice that almost all of them is flirting with me but I shrugged it off and go on with having fun when the atmosphere suddenly changes. I turn around only to see Jaehyun approaching our table. He looks good tonight his hair is neatly done, the tuxedo that his wearing fits him well. Jungwoo notices the way that I look at Jaehyun. I used to look at him like that too. Sometimes he wonders what if he didn`t leave and break your heart? maybe I will still gonna be his.

-*-

Jaehyun is looking at you without thinking about others. He just wants to hug you, kiss you, and feel you on his body. But this day guilt is been washing all over his body that`s why he's trying to distance himself from you and he feels sorry for that but knowing that you go here with Jungwoo, makes him feels some kind of things that might not help in this kind of situation.

"Yow, what`s up dude?" mark happily greets him and invited him to sit he also knows what`s going on between the two of you. 

"Where`s Yerim?" Seulgi asks while the others shift their attention to Seulgi and Jaehyun, yeah you`re curious to where is Yerim? doesn`t she come here with jaehyun?

"She`s in the restroom" Jaehyun replies to them they ask him more things but he can only think about you, do you think about him too? the answer is probably yes but you can`t bring yourself to look at him you`re scared that you might cry in front of them and your pride will not let you.

"Hi babe sorry I need to go to the restroom and leave you alone" and that`s when Jaehyun finally talks normally and not dryly he`s usually not like this towards his friend but tonight is really different.

-*-

"It's okay baby come and sit here with me" my group of friends cheers for them playfully and that`s when I finally look at him with jealousy burning in my eyes. Everyone suddenly stops cheering realizing what`s going on between the two of us. Jaehyun smirked at me and this time I hate it. he wants to play a game? then let`s play.

I didn`t hesitate to roll my eyes at him and I turn to my side to face Jungwoo who is now in his 5th drink.

"Baby slow down you`re getting tipsy" I know that Jung-woo has a high alcohol tolerance but the show must go on. 

"I`m fine baby don't worry" Jungwoo only grins at me making you soft. When he suddenly gave you a peck on the lips, and you gave him one too. Oh, I know how much Jaehyun hates hearing somebody else calls me baby. Because he`s the only one who called me that. 

"Hey, you two if you`re going to get back together then don`t make it long! just do it." Yoona said making Yuqi, and Seulgi coo with their boyfriend. Jaehyun hates how you blush with their sudden statement but little did you know everyone is doing it on purpose so that Jaehyun can get jealous.

Jungwoo whispers in my ears, asking me if I wanna go home too but I hesitate.

"If you`re uncomfortable right now, I can take you home" I hesitantly look around and you see everyone talking about business, and you look at Jaehyun to only see him avoiding Yerim`s touch. My plan work I thought so I decided it`s better if I let Jungwoo take me home.

"Guys we`re going home now” Jungwoo and me bid our Goodbye to them and other businessmen in the party.

"okay, make sure you drive well Jungwoo if anything happens to my best friend I`ll kill you" Yuqi said before the both of us go outside to Jungwoo`s car.

We arrive at my house and I thank Jungwoo for helping me out tonight, and for driving me home. I don`t know why, but I`m excited to know if anything will happen tonight.

I go to my room to change into my night sleepwear. Silk shorts and an over size shirt to make me comfortable.

 Someone suddenly loudly knocks in the door making you startled.

"who`s there!?" 

"Just fucking open the door Mayjun!"

I hear his voice and that`s enough to know who he is. Opening the door a soft pair of lips land to mine kissing me roughly as if there's no tomorrow for it.

“Jaehyun stop! I`m tired!” I tried to push him but he`s stronger than me. He pinned me to the wall harshly, leaving wet kisses on my neck.

"Do you think ignoring me is fun!?" Silence.

"Do you think making me jealous with your  jerk ex is fun huh!?" Silence.

"Talk to me for Fuck sake! Don`t give me cold shoulders, look at me just once. Fuck just fuck this!" and that is my breaking point I can`t stand this argument anymore.

"I already told you Jaehyun that I`m tired so what`s the point of arguing here!?" am i scared? yes, I`m scared of him when he`s mad but I can`t let him win this time. He look so hot when he's mad but I can set that aside.

"Why does he already fuck you that`s why you`re tired?" He`s really mad now. No, he`s furious right now. He has said a hurtful and harsh word to me in the past but he never degrade me like this. I can`t let him belittle and look down on me. With the power I had, I slap him.

"You`re always like this when you`re jealous but today!? I don`t even know you, you only call for me whenever you need me. And when you need someone to comfort you or to fulfill your needs. I`m not you`re fucking toy Jaehyun!" I finally cried out and I said the unspoken words to him but at this point, he doesn`t know what to feel anymore he let his anger took over him.

"So what do you want me to do? always go to you!? for fuck sake we don`t even have a label Mayjun wake up! I have a girlfriend and you know that. You`re just someone I know who can fulfill my needs" He yells at me making me break into tears more.

"So that`s what I am to you? someone who can just fulfill your needs?"  you yell back and now I don`t even know what to do. I need to confirm something and his answer is what I need.

"T-tell me have you ever love me!?" I whispered timidly.

"I`ve never loved you not even once!" Those words coming out of his beautiful lips like nothing ever happened between the two of us.

"Leave! I hate you!" My tears starts falling from my eyes. I`ve never felt this broken before but the one and only Jung Jaehyun made you feel like your heart is shattered into pieces.

"If I didn`t make a move on you that night you`ll probably not gonna figure out that the girlfriend you love cheated on you first." his eyes widen in shock.

"Say that again!" 

"I said what I said Jaehyun, now leave!" He turned around and slam the door shut.

 -*-

He`s really sorry and guilty for what he said to you during the argument. All of that? he didn`t mean it and knowing that his girlfriend cheated on him first makes him sadder. That night the both of you spend the cold night without each other embrace crying all night silently. 

-*-

I should have listened to what my friend already warned me. But I`m thankful for them for supporting me after finding out that Yerim is not as good as we think.

Meanwhile, Jaehyun is crying his eyes and heart out in the middle of the night he`s blaming his self for hurting you.

 "I'm such an asshole!" He groaned and run his finger through his hair. 

he regrets all the things he said to you he cry and cry just like you. He throws all the things that he grabs on the floor making his hands bleed. But he could care less. There`s only one thing that he knows, he will get you back no matter what it takes. that night he called Yerim and break up with her.

-*-

It's been three days and I let my secretary do the works while I`m gone. A one-week break won`t hurt anyone when I`m the the one hurting right?

"Yoona can you please come to my place right now? I really need you right now" I try hard to hide my sob making Yoona concern but what can she do? she`s in the Maldives right now arranging her wedding with Johnny.

"Babe I`m sorry, I know you can overcome it. You`re a strong person Mayjun and you know it too. I`m sorry that I`m not on your side right to comfort you, I have to go Mayjun please eat well and take care of yourself the wedding is in a few days I love you!" and the line got disconnected even though Yoona is away from me she always makes sure that I`m okay. 

Suddenly the door of your room opens widely.

"Please didn`t I tell you that I want to be alone!" Not bothering to turn around because you thought that it was your brother Seojun.

 But no, the person who enters my room suddenly pulls me into a tight hug whispering comforting words to my ears. I know it`s Jungwoo he always does this when I need comfort. Without hesitating I let my emotions come out because I know that Jungwoo will not judge me.

"H-how?" I ask him between my sobs.

"Shh... Yoona called me and told me everything. It`ll be fine Mayjun I`m here" Jungwoo pats my back back softly to make me comfortable.

"J-Jung-woo why? am I not worthy enough to be loved? why do they always leave me?" 

"Hey, princess listen you`re beautiful, you`re worthy. I`m sorry for hurting you, I`m sorry that we hurt you" He kissed the top of my head and he let me fall asleep on his arms. 

A soft smile is written all over his face, he hopes that no one will hurt you anymore. He knows that you love Jaehyun dearly even though it hurts him he will help you get back together.

-*-

 6 days already passed and Jaehyun can`t focus on his work. You`re all he could think about he knows that he can see you on the wedding day but were you ready to face him? he`s scared that you might not even let him get close to you. so he keeps himself from working and working until he's exhausted.

Me on the other side is getting ready for my flight I will go there with Yuqi, Lucas and all of Nct members. It`s what they called the group, group of young tech CEO and one of the finest and richest men in South Korea.

"You don`t need to be nervous Mayjun. We`re here don`t worry" Yuta smile at me reassuringly. I sighed and after a long flight we headed to our designated car taking you to a beautiful beach. 

“You should enjoy this day Mayjun, you need to relax” I said and to myself. I hear my brother Seojun calling me from afar. And yeah, he`s still single is he?

I look around and I make eye contact with whom I want to see from the start but can`t admit it. I quickly look away, I try to find Yoona only to see her at her hotel room. Y`all girls are in the same room and it makes me feel at ease. 

"I think we should get wasted tonight!" Seulgi said happily and we agree with the idea. 

"We should celebrate before the wedding because this is the last day that we will call you Ms. Im. Because tomorrow you`re gonna be Mrs. Suh" I wink at her and y`all agree with the idea. So I change my clothes, I wear a sundress before going out with the girls and I avoid any interaction with Jaehyun.

-*-

"Johnny, do you think she will forgive me?" Jaehyun asks his friend while looking up in the sky feeling the cold breeze.

"Jaehyun I know what you did is wrong but let`s hope that she will forgive you just give her sometimes" Johnny then pats Jaehyun`s shoulder before giving him a small smile. 

"I have a plan and I`m determined to do this but I need your help" said Jaehyun.

Jaehyun then tells all the boys his plan for tomorrow and they`re more glad to help him out because they can see and feel how you love each other dearly.

-*-

It`s past midnight and  and the other girls are still having fun dancing and drinking until we get wasted. I drink a lot compared to them and they try to stop me but I just keep on dancing until all the girls got drunk. 

 Johnny suddenly realize that y`all are in the club and the boys got worried so they try to find y`all. Only to find all of us dancing like a sexy goddess, they hate how other men stare at my hips.

"Jaehyun you get Mayjun. Me, Lucas, and Mark will get them" Johnny goes to Yoona to cover her with his jacket and the others do the same.

"Oh, guys look it`s Jaehyun! doesn`t he look so handsome?" I grin at them making them laugh because I`m really not myself right now.

"Yeah, it` me now let`s go you need to take some rest" He clung me into his arms and I hug him tightly as I could. "Baby I can` breathe"

"Let`s stay like this for a minute please." I softly said.

"I miss you, you know every day I`m always thinking about you" I said while my  eyes are floating in tears. Making them all silent they just let me because they know how badly I was hurt. Yuqi, Yoona, and Seulgi is sobber now but here I am are crying in front of them.

"I miss you so much, my day is not complete without thinking of you. Everything reminds me of you even though you hurt me even though you didn`t love me I`m so thankful that I met you" I said weakly while softly caressing his face, tears is visible on his eyes too.

"No, all I said to you was a lie since the day that I met you I`m ready to risk everything for you that`s when I realize that cheating is my choice thank you for completing half of me thank you for letting me know that she cheated on me first I Love You so much Mayjun" I slowly nod at everything he explained to me and I gave him a peck on his lips.

 He wish, no, everyone wishes that you will remember all of this tomorrow. Your friends can`t help it that they start to tear up too.

It`s 6:00 am now and here I am comforting and thanking Yoona for staying by my side and I tell her not to get nervous.

"Yoona it`s okay you`ve been waiting for this, this is one of your biggest dreams and it came true now I`m so happy for you" I hug her as I admire her in her dress she looks beautiful and she always does.

_*_

On the other side of the room, there are the boys who are super chaotic they`re laughing and teasing Jaehyun and Johnny because of what happened last night but deep inside they`re so proud of each other.

"You`re getting married now Johnny I can`t believe it. And you`re marrying Yoona the woman of your life" Ten said while proudly smiling at him 

"Jung Jaehyun you better take care of Mayjun or else you know what will gonna happen" Jungwoo and Seojun said in unison they`re laughing at how they`re thinking the same thing.

"Hyung I`m the one who is supposed to say it!" Jungwoo said and Seojun only rolled his eyes at him.

"I heard you and Chaewon are dating" Jungwoo said making Seojun widen his eyes. He`s supposed to say it after the wedding but Jungwoo already said it.

"Kim Jungwoo you bastard!" Seojun glare at Jungwoo making everyone laugh in the room.

_*_

You may now kiss the bride. 

Y`all cheered for Johnny and Yoona when Yuta said. 

"G-guys J-jaehyun he got into an accident" Yuta is breathing heavily while saying it and I feel like my whole world stop.

" What!? How!?" I said.

 Concern is creeping up on my body. Yuta ask us to follow him and I run as fast as I can, I don`t really know where we`re going but I just keep following him. I want to see Jaehyun safe.

I run and run until I a see flower petals scattered in the sand with candles lighting the place up and I can`t help but to tear up. I turn around and I see my group of friends standing happily while holding a balloon that`s forming a word saying " Will you marry me"

And that`s when Jaehyun finally showed up while holding a bouquet of flower giving it to me while I cry, smiling at him he kneels in front of me and I cover my lips with my hands. I can`t help it but tears of joy are coming out from my eyes right now.

"Mayjun I know I hurt you, I know I said that I don`t love you but the truth is I`m scared. I`m scared that time that if I tell you my real feelings you will not love me back but I'm so fool to even think about your feelings. Now that I`m here and ready to give you more than my everything and stay with you" Jaehyun takes a deep breath to take more courage.

"Han Mayjun I Jung Jaehyun is asking you Will you marry me?" Jaehyun asks me wholeheartedly. And who am I to say no? when all of our friends are rooting for the both of us?

"Yes, Yes Jaehyun I`ll marry you" He put the diamond ring on my finger and he finally stands up and he spoon me around.

" I LOVE YOU JUNG JAEHYUN" I shout happily while showing my finger to my friends and they clap. 

They stand there proudly looking at us, This will not happen if they`re not here by our side. Strangers who watch the scene clap along with them and that`s how my story with Jung Jaaehyun starts again.

Always remember this "Everyone has a friend during each stage of life. But only lucky ones have the same friends in all stages of life.”

and that`s how Mayjun and Jaehyun with their friend life goes on.

[luvknow]

in another lifetime | lee minho

genre: ceo/iron man!lee minho x secretary!reader | ceo au ; superhero au ; alcohol mention ; blood mention summary: you and your boss were inseparable. no one could understand how you could work ungodly hours for such an inexperienced ceo. but your job was to stick by Mr. Lee for as long as you were getting paid, and that meant being his date to charity balls and helping him turn into the country’s best superhero. wc: 18.9k a/n: rewrite of that one w**jin fic cuz fuck that guy ~! the public has spoken.... lee minho has been chosen as the winner

Secretary was your title, but you liked to think you were more than just that. Perhaps secretary was just an umbrella term for amateur sommelier slash novice multitasker slash the only employee who knew how to drive stick. Whatever your job entailed, you were sure to list all of those tasks in your updated resume when it was time to pass the torch onto some other poor sucker because you would much rather die than be a secretary for life.

It wasn’t like your boss was a total ass, or anything. That was actually the scary part - the fact that your boss was one of the kindest and most attentive people you’ve ever worked for, yet you still hated this job! What made this so horrid was the amount of walking and running your poor feet had to do. And guess what? No sneakers were allowed in the office, so you were left with walking over forty-thousand steps in a day in toe-pinching sole-aching glossy shoes that were half a size too big for your feet because shoes like these always ran out in your size in the store.

“Good morning, Mr. Lee,” you greeted, walking into his private office at 8:00 am on the dot as normal. With tired eyes, he looked up from his stack of blueprints and gave you a warm smile. You don’t know how he does it, but he always managed to welcome your morning visits with a smile that almost made you consider your resignation. “Iced americano, extra shot.”

“You are a blessing,” he praised graciously. One sip of the liquid gold was enough to wake him up right away.

“Long night?”

“Yeah. You know how it took us hours to decide the wall colors for each floor in our building? Imagine doing that all over again, but for a superhero suit prototype.”

“But it’s just a suit this time, not fifty floors.”

“This isn’t just a suit, _____. It’s the suit of a man who’s going to save the world one day! A suit that everyone will lay their eyes on and judge me for my color choices.”

“You sound like a child.”

“An ambitious child, mind you.”

“Did you ultimately decide on a color?”

“Yes, two colors actually. Red and gold.”

“Wow, such a loud and loyal color choice.”

“Is it?” Your handsome boss pouted slightly while scanning his designs. “Seungmin said the same thing. Maybe I should change it -”

“No!” you interrupted for the sake of not wanting to look up Pantone’s thousands of shades of ruby and champagne. “Red and gold are perfect for you.”

Minho’s pouty lips melted into a proud smile. “If you believe so, then I trust you. Come take a look - what do you think of it overall?”

You walked around his ginormous custom-made walnut desk to peer over his shoulder. Minho could smell the familiar gardenia scent you wore for years and it immediately brought comfort to his panicking soul. Somehow your presence always calmed him down, no matter what stressful situation he was in. Maybe that’s why he wanted to have you around 24/7. How selfish of him.

Your couple minutes of silence were so agonizing that his nervous foot-tapping habit he told you about that he thought he got rid of in college broke through, which was your cue to answer.

“I like it. I like it a lot, actually,” you admitted honestly. “I would definitely feel safe if I saw you come to my rescue, although the helmet is a little concerning.”

“Concerning how?”

“Well, it has such a… A, uh… How do I put this politely? A dead expression?”

“‘Dead’ is a polite adjective to you?”

“I mean come on, Mr. Lee, there are two eyes and a flat line for the mouth where the corners curve downwards just slightly and it looks like you gave him little fangs. There’s not much life in the eyes, either.” 

“They light up when the suit is on!”

“Maybe I’ll like it more when I see it in person?”

“The helmet is the only thing I’m confident about, so nothing and no one can change my mind,” he said stubbornly.

“I’m sure everyone will love it,” you reassured while smoothing out the stress wrinkles on his indigo shoulder pads. “When do you plan on starting the build?”

“In half an hour.”

“What!?” Minho nearly spit out his espresso at your yelping and the frantic way you sifted through your massive planner and scrolling through your emails on your phone at the same time. Oh, so that’s what he forgot to tell you! He knew something felt off. “B-B-But I didn’t get an email that the shipment arrived!”

“I called the company at five in the morning just as they opened and demanded an expedited shipping of all the materials and they’ll be arriving in half an hour.”

“But did the quality department approve of the materials? Or your design at least?”

“You do know I’m the CEO, right?” Minho smirked teasingly. “That’s business talk for ‘fuck Quality’.”

Minho stood up from his black velvet Chesterfield chair to escape your nagging and briskly walked away towards God-knows-where. Like an obedient, push-over puppy, you trailed closely behind with a light jog and all you could think about was how it was too early for your feet to be aching this badly.

“I don’t like the idea of this,” you said firmly.

“You never do. Loosen up a little, will ya?”

“I will not! I looked the other way when you decided on signing a contract to collaborate with that ugly luxury car brand, I agreed with the proposal of a new smartphone that totally flopped in the end, and I barely allowed the approval for the development of the new branch in Taiwan! All of those ideas are whatever, arbitrary even, but this? This puts you at the front line of danger, Mr. Lee! What if something goes wrong, or the material is compromised? What if these companies take you for a fool for not checking in with the quality department first? What if you’re setting yourself up to be sabotaged, huh?”

Minho pressed the down button on the elevator, ignoring your pleas. Even though all you do is nag and play by the rules, he knew you were only doing so because he didn’t bother to. In the end, you were just looking out for him, and he couldn’t appreciate you more.

His gives you what he thought was a reassuring smile. To you, it looked rather mischievous “Lucky for me that you’ll be there the whole time, right?”’

“What do you mean…?”

“I mean you’ll watch the entire suit being built while you work. Then you’ll see how safe it is. I need someone to double check me, anyways.”

“Mr. Lee, I don’t think I’m qualified for that.”

“Don’t be silly, of course you are!”

Your engineering experience went as far as Physics I and II classes with a teaspoon’s worth in basic circuitry, so if Minho thought that qualified you to double check his work, then you might have to question his PhD degree.

The elevator welcomed you both into its vacant container. The lowest level this elevator could reach with a single button was the basement, but if the right person (or the wrong person) were to dial the buttons in the order of 4-4-1-9, they would be taken nine floors below the basement to the rumored ‘Super Office’ (ten was too much because Minho didn’t like the feel of the heavy pressure and eight was such a silly number).

The steel doors opened right into his Super Office which he designed to be five times larger than his executive office so he had plenty of room for building up new car designs and bringing his super suits to life for both him and his partners. His successful designs that were once worn but are now retired were placed on mannequins and stored inside a tall glass box on display for him to admire.

You walked up to your favorite one, eyes sparkled adoringly at Seungmin’s first Spider-Man suit.

“You always loved the red and blue,” Minho noted behind you. “Still not a fan of the black one?”

“The black one is scary! No one wants a hero dressed in all black, like that color does not exude the feeling of safe.”

“Duly noted for his next suit.”

Beside Seungmin’s old spidey suit was an empty display case you assumed was meant for this final draft of Minho’s Iron Man suit. Surrounding the two glass cases were dozens and dozens of wood and plastic demos that didn’t work out in the end, but Minho didn’t have the heart to take them to the dumpster.

“Looks like the shipment arrived early!” Your mature but easy-going boss jogged up to the piles of wooden crates and packages that were laid out neatly in the center of his work space. Without much patience, he took off his indigo suit jacket, tossed it to the side like it wasn’t worth two thousand dollars (to which you caught before it hit the ground), and took the crowbar on top of the pile to open the cases with ease. Sheets of metals, different tools, and a cool welding and soldering set scattered along the concrete floor. Minho gave you an excited grin that mimicked a child upon opening gifts on Christmas. “Let the building commence!”

There wasn’t room for any argument, so you took a seat at his desk where he normally would sketch the designs and worked off of his desktop with a heavy feeling of defeat. At least watching the process would be cool, right?

Maybe cool wasn’t the right word. Or watching.

For the next three months, from sunrise to sunset, you spent your day nine floors below the surface for almost twelve hours a day being his little helper. From holding pieces of metal in place while he flame torched them together to feeding him take out because his hands were covered in oil, you did it all and God, if Minho didn’t give you a raise or at least some meal tickets to the executive cafeteria, you might just quit on the spot.

“Done.” With a heavy and exhausted sigh, Minho clapped his hands together and marveled at his nearly-finished product. “We’re done!!”

“What about the red and gold paint?”

“I can’t work on this anymore or I’ll implode. I’ll just take this to my car guy and he’ll paint it exactly how I want it.”

“Not really a self-made suit then, is it?” you dared to challenge your boss.

He pointed an accusing finger at you. “Shut your mouth and give me my food.”

You handed a slouching Minho his box of take-out and wooden chopsticks. While you had a perfectly comfortable ottoman he could have sat on right next to you, he remained on the cold concrete, probably too sore and worn out to even stand up, let alone walk to a cushioned seat. Minho was a man with personality and many faces, but his face of satisfactory upon completing projects was when he was the most handsome. For a while, you two just sat in silence, taking in every detail of the flawless iron suit while slurping noodles. 

“So,” Minho began nervously. “What do you think?”

“It’s beautiful, Mr. Lee,” you say immediately.

“You mean it?”

For someone so intelligent and talented, it was a wonder how a man like him could be insecure about any of his creations.

“Absolutely,” you reassured. “Flawless. Is it fully programmed and everything?”

“Yup. I installed the software and artificial intelligence last week.”

“Sounds like the only thing you need to do is take it out for a spin.”

Minho hummed with approval. “... Can you do it for me?”

“What!? No!”

“I really don’t want to do it…”

“With all due respect, suck it up.”

“Isn’t it reasons like this why I hired you?”

“I was hired to be your secretary, not your lab rat.”

“To be fair, the job description was pretty vague.”

“Yeah, I definitely did not expect to be helping you construct a modern Knight in Shining Armor cosplay.” After wiping your mouth clean of all MSG and soy sauce, you tossed your dirty napkin in the trash bin that was a considerable distance away.

Minho followed suit, who was also able to get his napkin in the can. Then you tossed another napkin, and then him, and this went on until you were left to toss your boxes and chopsticks. The real challenge was tossing the plastic wraps of the fortune cookies.

“Whoever loses has to do whatever the other says,” Minho proposed.

Without hesitation, you nodded in agreement. “Fine, but I will not test that thing out if I lose.”

“Deal. Secretaries first.”

You did your best to crumple up and squish out any air that was left in the wrapped before whipping it like you were throwing the first pitch. The wrapper hit the rim of the can and fell to the side. But that’s ok, because there was no way your boss could even come close to -

“WOO!” Minho cheered, getting up from the floor while you were left slumped in the chair filled with defeat. Of course, whatever he wanted, he would get his way. “Man, I am super lucky today.”

“What the hell! Did you wrap it around a stone or something!?”

“Darling, I would never cheat ~”

“There’s no use in arguing. Just lay the consequences on me, boss.”

Minho scooted the ottoman closer - almost a little too close. Then, like a handsome little goldendoodle with his swooshy chocolate hair and sparkling eyes, he gazed up at you pleadingly before offering you your punishment.

Fear and flattery tickled your spine. “Spit it out.”

A grin followed. “You will accompany me to the ball next week.”

“The Children’s Charity Ball? The biggest charity ball of the century? The one where all the white-haired big shots attend with their dates who just barely turned eighteen?”

“The very same.”

“And you want me to be your date.”

“Yes.”

“Seems a bit lazy, doesn’t it?”

“Lazy how!?”

Not wanting him to see you blush, you began cleaning up the mess from the takeout. “Lazy as in why not find a real date? You know, someone you’ll have a good time with.”

“Hey, I always have a good time with you! And I’m doing you a favor if you think about it. If I wanted to bring anyone else, that would mean you’d have to flip through all of my contacts and have you choose the perfect date for me. So unless you want the extra overtime, I’ll expect to see you dressed to the nines?”

“Don’t you want to bring someone more suited for this role? Someone with much more finesse and elegance?” you said as you twirled dirty napkins in the air.

“If I’m being honest, I do not have the time nor do I want to put in the effort into bringing someone so bland.”

“Who says they’re bland? What if I pick out one of your supermodel friends or like a professor, or something?”

“All my supermodel friends like to toke up in bathrooms and what’s a professor going to do? Lecture me to death? _____, please, I am begging you - be my date? You know you and I are going to have a blast, I promise you. We always do when we’re together.”

A moment of silence passed while you shuddered in disgust. You couldn’t believe you were going to say this, but…  “So what should I wear?”

“Yes! That’s the spirit! Wear anything besides velvet because that’s my fabric of choice.”

“Can you at least do the picking for me? We should at least match in the slightest.”

Minho let out an exaggerated sigh. “Oh, fine, I’ll do all the work.”

“You’re a pain in the ass, Mr. Lee.”

“It’s what I do best.”

After cleaning up the mess and a last quick polish on the Iron suit, the two of you took the elevator to the level below the basement where Minho parked his favorite fancy shmancy foreign sports car you couldn’t pronounce. In its shiny and spotless all-white glory sat his coup in his executive parking spot where no other car or person was in sight.

“Quite showy for you, isn’t it?” you accused your normally toned-down boss.

“I had a hunch that today was going to be the day we finished, and low and behold, we did. Soojung the Spyder always brings me good luck,” he patted and praised his prized roadster.

The distance from the office to your apartment was a solid forty-five minutes away by public transportation, right on the edge of being not too far, but not close enough, but by car it was only twenty-five minutes. During your first couple of years with the company, you enjoyed the lonely rides and getting lost with your thoughts, but there were moments you got so lost that you missed your stop a couple too many times and sometimes the winter made waiting outside so unbearable. It wasn’t until you started to clock in tons of overtime that Minho was nice enough to drive you home from then on.

--

“C’mon, _____, just get in the car,” Minho begged for the twelfth time, holding the passenger door open with one hand and an umbrella with the other. He parked his car illegally right in front of the bus stop that so many other employees used. Why did it matter that you were using it while it was thunderstorming and past 10:00 PM? “The heat is escaping the longer we argue.”

“It’s fine! I don’t live too far away,” you lied. “Please go home, Mr. Lee, your puppy must be worried sick.”

“Hazelnut can wait, but I can’t. As your boss, I order you to get in my car!” Though the statement was serious with his booming voice, his pouty lips made it much less intimidating.

“With all due respect, I have clocked out for the day and I don’t have to listen to you until 7:00 am tomorrow.”

“I can’t believe you’re making me break the law.”

“What do you mean?”

The blinding lights of the bus flashed irregularly, a polite way of telling Minho to get the fuck out of the way. But he didn’t move in the slightest. He patiently waited for you by the passenger door, not moving a muscle and looking like a car model dressed in his long, warm and tan pea coat. The patient and smug look on his face let you know he wasn’t playing around and that he’d dare tell the bus to wait until you got in.

“Mr. Lee, get out of the way!”

“Not until you’re in my car,” he shook his head stubbornly. “The bus is getting closer ~”

Your anxiousness hiked up exponentially when the driver held the horn long and loudly, not looking like they had much patience in them and indicating that they were very, very annoyed. For the sake of not inconveniencing the butt-load of passengers and the driver and securing your job, you hurried into his car, cursing up a storm that rivaled the one outside. A triumphant and smirking Minho followed suit and sped away at a dangerous speed, perhaps breaking a second law that night. For those twenty-five minutes (or maybe it was fifteen with Minho’s driving), the car was silent because your reckless boss focused on cutting every civilian off on the highway and you were too busy covering your eyes in fear.

--

“You were so dramatic back then,” Minho snickered at the seemingly-harmless memory.

“Me!? You were the one who parked in front of a bus stop and begged me to get in!”

“You were the one who wouldn’t get in the damn car!”

“How does it look to on-lookers that a secretary is getting into her boss’s car!?”

“It’s not like anyone knows our relationship.”

“Oh please, someone like you driving a beautiful shiny car picking up sad ol’ me at the bus stop - of course on-lookers may not know me and my relationship to you, but they definitely know who you are at the very least.”

“I could not give more than zero fucks of what people think.”

“Yes, that much is clear.”

“_____, you can’t always worry about what everyone thinks ~”

You sighed loudly, as if you’d explained this to him a thousand times already. “Worrying is the basis of my entire title, Mr. Lee.”

“And will you drop the ‘Mr. Lee’ once and for all? We’re the same age!”

“Same age, but different titles and a massive pay gap. You and I are not equals.”

Minho reached over to mess up your hair. “You’re so formal, it’s so cute!”

“Ah, stop it! You’re swerving!!”

Minho had dropped you off and walked you up to your apartment more times than you can count, but you don’t think you’ll ever get over the embarrassment of your humble abode. Of course you’ve visited his mansion just as many times, since you participated in the designing of it, and him having to see such a sad home in comparison is, well, terrifying each and every time.

“Ok, bye,” you dismissed quickly.

A handsome laugh escaped your handsome boss’s lips. “Still hate having me so close to your home? You know, it’s quite rude you’ve never invited me in and yet you’ve been in mine hundreds of times!”

“My home doesn’t have marble statues or glass refrigerators and I can’t hire you to redesign the interior.”

“You know I don’t care about that stuff.”

“But I do!”

His tongue tisked disappointedly. “What a shame. I thought we were friends.”

“We are, but friends don’t break sensitive boundaries.”

He passively waved you off. “Fine, fine. I’ll see you tomorrow?”

“Bright and early.”

“Excellent. I have one request.”

It was your turn to pout. What could he possibly want this time? “Already? At least let me sleep peacefully.”

“It’s nothing complicated, I promise! In fact, it’ll save you thirty minutes. Don’t bring me my coffee tomorrow.”

“Don’t? Are you on a caffeine cleanse again? You know how badly that went last time - you barely lasted two days and you fired someone, to which I had to convince you for forty minutes to hire them back.”

“No, not a cleanse. Just come in a bit earlier. Let’s get coffee together.”

“Do you have time for that?” Knowing how packed Minho’s schedule was in the mornings, you wondered his sanity for making time just so the two of you could grab a cup.

“I’ll make time. Actually, you’ll make time. Can you pencil us in for some coffee?”

“U-Uh, yeah!” With nervous and shaky hands, you pulled out your work phone and squeezed in half an hour of coffee time. “Done.”

“Perfect. I’ll see you in the morning.”

“Don’t be reckless driving home.”

“No promises.”

Before going into your apartment complex, you watched Minho wave goodbye before blasting music with a deep bass and speeding off, leaving a smokey trail from burning rubber.

“I hate him,” you smiled to yourself.

--

“I hate him,” you said to yourself upon walking into Minho’s office.

Like an artificially intelligent robot that didn’t know of its purpose, Minho dressed in his Iron suit walked around his office doing regular office things, like dusting the blinds and tidying up loose papers on his desk. It was a little difficult to do smaller tasks with his stiff and massive iron hands, so you’re not entirely sure what your boss was doing.

“G’morning!” he greeted cheerfully. “Just taking this baby out on a test drive.”

You had just noticed the paint job was completed on the suit which meant that it was good to go. However, you didn’t think this was the ideal way to ‘test drive’ a superhero suit. 

“Good morning, Mr. Lee. Is this really the right way to test drive?”

“I got too excited when my car guy told me it was done. He did it so quickly and precisely, too. Look, he even engraved it with my signature! She’s a beauty, isn’t she?”

“Yes, very shiny. The gold and red are much prettier than I imagined.”

“Right!? Not too Gryffindor-y, is it?”

“Not at all,” you said sincerely. “Do you want to get coffee now? We should hurry, you have a conference call at 8:00.”

“Yeah, let’s go.”

Minho followed you to the door with a trail of heavy iron steps. You turned around quickly and gave him an incredulous look, one he’s seen much too often. “I don’t want coffee anymore.”

“Why not!?”

“I’m not going out in public with you wearing that thing! You look ridiculous!”

“That’s so rude of you to say about my pride and joy! This also took me thirty minutes to put on!”

“Mr. Lee, we’re just getting coffee!”

“You are not fun at all.”

It took only five minutes to get your boss stumbling out of the suit because the button for the release was hidden under a metal panel on his wrist, but at least it was painless.

“I thought you didn’t want to reveal Iron Man until you tested it and got your seal of approval?” you asked the child-like man.

“That’s still the plan, but I’m just so excited! I think we should test it tonight.”

“Tonight? Already?”

“Yup, and I need you here with me in case I die, or something.”

“And to think I was gonna relax and take a bubble bath tonight.”

“It won’t take long, I promise.”

“I’ll believe it when I drop my bath bomb in my tub.”

In your whole time working here, you’ve spent more time together with Minho at both the office and at his home than working alone. The ratio was about seventy-five percent at the office, fifteen percent at his home, and ten percent miscellaneous, like going to business lunches or simple walks to the coffee shop like today. The long work hours were brutal on your feet and your social life, but the money was way too good to pass. You swore you broke the world record for ‘quickest payment of student debt’ with your hard work.

To anyone else, your job sounded so unappealing that no amount of money could ever convince them to do what you’re doing. ‘So brave’, they tell you, but it’s not that you’re brave, it’s that you’re loyal and as much as you hate to say it, you had the best boss. Yes, he’s a little goofy and yes, maybe a bit naive because he’s so young, but he treated you like you’re his equal and not someone so beneath him who takes all of his notes and takes his laundry to be dry cleaned. Plus when he compensated for your time so handsomely, how could you hate your job? Every day was new and exciting when you were with Minho.

The day went along as normal, from conference calls to lunch and finishing the day with an interview with the press. The very second everyone clocked out at 5:00 pm, you followed a speedy boss to wherever he led you.

“Are we going to test it out now?”

“No, silly, it’s still too bright out! We have to test it once the sun sets.”

You knew that sounded too good to be true. You held a light jog in order to keep up with him. “Where are we going then?”

He turned and gave you a suspicious grin. “Shopping!”

“For what!?”

“You and I need matching outfits for the charity ball, remember?”

“You know, I was just kidding when I said that… We don’t have to match…” The last thing you want is for someone to mistake you as your boss’s date instead of his secretary, but to be fair you don’t know many guests going that bring anyone that isn’t a date, so you kind of shot yourself in the foot when you didn’t make that shot into the trash bin.

“We are matching and I am not arguing with you.”

A defeated sigh escaped your lips before entering the backseat of Minho’s car where his driver would take us anywhere he pleased. He told him a cross section that sounded familiar, but not enough for you to guess where you’re going, so from here on out until you were home taking a hot bath, the rest of today would be a surprise. 

The car stopped in front of a glossy black DIOR building. You expected nothing less from Minho.

“You would pick Dior,” you scoffed, completely amazed at how someone so rich could have so much brand loyalty to one company.

“Hey, they are consistent and beautifully crafted, don’t judge me.”

“Mr. Lee and Lovely _____!” An older, graceful lady came running to greet both of you with a warm smile dressed in a hot red shade of lipstick. You recognized her voice to be the owner from all the times you called to ask about any pieces Minho could reserve before they hit the runway and were snatched up by the ‘I Have Daddy’s Credit Card and Inheritance’ private-school boys. This was your first time seeing her in person and her calming voice matched her mature appearance perfectly. “This piece has been waiting for you ~”

“I can’t wait, Auntie,” he smiled back graciously like an obedient nephew rewarded with cookies.

She led the two of you to the very back where the private dressing and tailoring area was, where the mirrors went from the floor to the ceiling. The store owner walked in with Minho’s fabric of choice, a velvet jacket with crisp black pants and a white button-up that had the slightest sheen of silver from metallic strands woven into the shirt fabric. In the shadows, one would think the velvet was black, but in the light or at certain angles, there was the slightest sheen to it that showed the darkest shades of indigo and green, like an oil slick. You couldn’t believe the amount of detail in the velvet that your eyes looked like they were popping out of your sockets.

Your boss was so eager to try it on that he was taking off his pants before you were warned. Quickly you turned around and shut your eyes, pretending that you didn’t see his KakaoTalk-patterned boxer briefs.

“M-M-Mr. Lee! At least warn me if you’re going to strip!!”

“Sorry ~” he apologized unapologetically.

A couple of zips and rustling of fabrics later, Minho tapped your shoulder to turn around. Your eyes bulged out of their sockets again while looking at your boss dressed in a suit that was clearly made for him and him only. It didn’t look like any tailoring was needed at all! He looked like he walked right off the runway. There had to be some enchantment spell in the fabric because you swear you’ve never seen any man more handsome before this moment.

“I take it you like it?” Minho teased.

Your cheeks tickled with red when he caught you staring. “You look amazing as usual, Mr. Lee.”

“You think so?” You knew so. “It’s not too flashy, is it?”

“Not at all. I think you have the perfect amount of flash. How does it feel?”

“Like a glove. It’s already perfectly tailored!”

“I know your measurements by heart, my dear,” Auntie bragged. “Of course I had it ready to go already.”

“You’re the best.” He gave her a kiss on the cheek and a tight hug. “What would I be without you?”

“Not GQ’s best dressed man under thirty, that’s for sure.”

“Could you do me another favor? Do you perhaps have something for _____ to match? We have a charity ball next weekend.”

“Mr. Lee, this is really unnecessary -”

“I know exactly what to pull.”

Before you could object, Auntie ran to the back of the store where all the hidden inventory was held. You glared at your cheeky boss, still dressed in his sexy outfit and it was hard to keep your glare when he looked so damn good, that handsome bastard.

“I’m not wearing whatever she brings out.”

“You will and you’ll look great and we will buy it, so don’t embarrass me.”

“Embarrass you!? I am not your doll!”

“I’ve got it!”

Both you and Minho whipped your heads to see Auntie running in with a blacker than black satin and silky outfit that was simple but elegant. Nervous goosebumps spread through your arms and straight to your wallet. You already knew this was going to be the most expensive outfit you’ve ever worn.

“It’s beautiful,” you gasped so slightly.

“Try it on!”

Minho followed Auntie out of the dressing room but not before shooting you a triumphant wink. I mean, who were you to deny your boss and the store owner, right? So with ease, you put on the cooling fabric that clung to your body in all the right spots. The mirror did all justice and perhaps it was a magical mirror that Dior spent millions on to convince their customers to buy everything because damn, you look hot! With your face as red as Minho’s Corvette, you presented the outfit to the two judges.

“Oh, it fits perfectly!” Auntie gushed with wide eyes.

Minho stayed silent with his mouth ajar and eyes scanning you up and down like you were a precious gem discovered in a deep cave beyond a waterfall. It was hard to differentiate between feeling flattered and feeling like object, but at least you were a desired object, right?

“You look amazing,” Minho admitted sincerely, no longer looking at you with awe and rather content.

“Really? I look ok?”

His handsome smile shined brightly at you. Whether you were dressed in your formal work clothes that screamed ‘absolute virgin’ or you were head-to-toe in Dior, you were never just ‘ok’. You always had the attention of everyone in the room once you walked in, especially his. You were always stunning, no matter what. Validation from your boss always came easy and calmed you quickly because he only had eyes for you.

“You look just fine,” he lied, because ‘fine’ didn’t come close to how you looked to him.

“We’ll be the best dressed at the ball, huh?”

“Absolutely.”

The car ride home was quiet other than the trot music playing on the radio from the driver’s playlist. Minho seemed as cool as a cucumber, but you were at the edge of your seat feeling a bit awkward and ugh, unintentionally sweaty. Compliments from any man was one thing, but coming from your boss? A whole different level of weird, especially if they weren’t work related! What did ‘you look just fine’ even mean!? Was that a good thing? Were you too average-looking? Whatever it was, from now until you fall asleep at ungodly hours, those words were going to circulate your thoughts, perhaps haunt you for days.

At exactly 7:03 pm, just as the sun set below the horizon revealing the indigo night sky, the driver pulled up to the back entrance of the building that led to a secret elevator that would take you straight to the underground office after punching in the code. A giggling and grinning Minho was the first to hop out of the car and ran towards the door.

“Mr. Lee, hold on!” you whined as you struggled to get out of the tall car.

“Hurry up, _____! Now’s the perfect time to earn that OT!”

“This time-and-a-half pay better be worth it…”

Upon entering the elevator, you were ready to punch in the 4419 code, but Minho had already pressed the button to the top level, which led to the roof slash helipad.

“Why are we going up?”

“We can’t test the suit inside, silly. Seungmin came by earlier to pick up his suit after I recalibrated it last night and I asked him to take the suit to the roof.”

“How, that thing weighs like a ton!”

“Not when you’re wearing it.”

“You let him wear it before you test drove it!? Mr. Lee, that’s extremely reckless!”

“Relax, I trusted he wouldn’t mess anything up, and look! It’s right there!”

The glass elevator made a slow stop to reveal the red and gold suit standing proudly in the center of the helipad. As soon as the doors panned open, Minho handed you his suitcase before running out and tossing his blazer onto the floor before hastily stepping into the suit.

“Oh, I almost forgot,” he said, running back to your frazzled state. He took the leather suitcase from your hands and popped it open so he could give you a glass tablet. “This is for you.”

You looked at the shiny slab of glass with wonder. “What is it?”

“It’s like a control center. You’ll see what I see in terms of my stats and where I am in the city. If anything goes wrong, like say the jets give out, I need you to send a command to manually turn on the back-ups.”

“And what code is that?”

“Not important, we’ll study those later.”

“Later!? What if something happens tonight!?”

“Nothing will happen I promise, I’ll see you in a bit ~!” his cheering faded away the further he ran from you and to his beloved suit.

There was no use in fighting your boss, so you did as you were told and touched the tablet to reveal the control panel. It was black for a few moments before the screen showed your tiny self off in the distance looking down at the tablet which meant that Minho was able to put on and turn on the suit super quickly without any problems.

“What do you see?” he asked you through the speakers of the tablet from his built-in microphone in the helmet.

“I see me in the distance, the battery level of the suit, and all other weird liquids and commodities at one hundred percent.”

“Perfect!”

You turned to look at your boss who was stretching and feeling out the suit as if this wasn’t his 50th time wearing it. Still, he looked so excited and proud of his hard work, it was hard to tease him about how childish he was, even if he was trying out his yoga poses he just learned. 

“How does it feel?”

“It feels incredible! Totally indescribable now that I’m out in the open. And it’s surprisingly lightweight.”

“How were you able to make it feel light with all that metal?”

“I don’t know, if I’m being honest…”

You rolled your eyes. “The work of a genius, huh?”

“You’ve got that right. Are we ready to take off?”

“I believe so. Are you ready to take off?”

“More than I’ll ever be, baby!!”

Before you knew it, you saw the camera’s view on the screen wobble and turn towards the edge of the building. Terrified, you saw your child-like boss get a running start before he dove off the edge and into the sea of the city.

In a panic, you ran and took a peak over the edge, hoping the jets or whatever kept the suit flying would operate properly and leave you without any worries. At first, Minho was but a dark red speck falling beneath the shadows, but a second later, he came flying up at lighting speed doing tricks and flips with ease and whooping loudly, as any normal CEO of a software company slash wannabe superhero would do. You could hear him giggling through your tablet, and like a spectator watching the most spectacular aerial performance, you watched him with a smile on your lips.

After his solo, he glided back down to you and hovered beyond the edge just at your eye level. You couldn’t see any features behind the glass of his eyes so you were left awkwardly staring at his expressionless helmet with those signature weird fangs. After all you and Minho have been through together, even with an idea like this being so ridiculously obscure, he could always rely on you to support him no matter what. He saw how your eyes sparkled with wonderment and how your cheeks dusted a soft pink and it was then that he knew you would stay by his side for even more ridiculous shenanigans to come.

He would never let you leave, anyways. Even in another lifetime, he’d have you by his side forever.

“How cool do I look right now?” he asked. His voice sounded deeper and electronic through the helmet, like he was a robot or had his voice programmed through a phone like Siri. You imagined an idea like that was how Minho planned on becoming immortal one day.

You raised a brow. “You look kind of… scary?”

“Scary!? Why?”

“I don’t know, if I saw a flying robot come at me at rocket speed, I think I’d be terrified!”

“Well, if I come to your rescue, at least you’ll know it’s me.”

“I suppose. So what are you going to do now? Throw a reveal event? Press conference, perhaps?”

“That, or wait for a Demon-Level threat to pass through our city. I don’t know, whichever comes first.” Minho shrugged nonchalantly. “Wanna see something cool?”

Before you could agree, Minho held his palm to the sky before a neon blue blast shot out of it, disappearing into God-knows-where. You could feel the heat from the beam of light radiated around you and fear sparked inside your chest.

“What the hell was that!?” you exclaimed.

“Isn’t that so cool!? Gonna hit some suckers and fry them up like bacon!” Your boss blindly shot another beam of light into the sky and you prayed to someone out there that no planes would disintegrate in the process.

“Hey, careful! What if you hit a satellite or something!” In the process of grabbing Minho’s iron hand so he’d stop being so reckless, you burned yourself upon touching the hot metal opening like a total dumb ass and yanked your hand back. “Ah!!”

“Oh, shit.”

Quickly and haphazardly, Minho landed back on the helipad and climbed out of the iron suit. In the process of running back to your aid, he untied his black silk necktie to use as a temporary band aid on your scalding palm. Gingerly, his cold hands took yours and ran a thumb over the scarring semicircle.

“Ah ah ah stop!!” you cried with tears of pain and embarrassment streaming down your cheeks.

“Sorry! Here,” Minho wrapped his tie around your palm and tied it tightly. The pure silk felt cooling against the burn and soon your tears stopped and you couldn’t do anything else besides sniffle. “Let’s go back inside. My office has a first aid kit.”

Your mumbling and cursing boss led you back to his office with urgency, blaming himself for being so stupid and recklessly playing with what could be considered a weapon of mass destruction. And now his favorite person, the one person who believed in his iron suit, was hurt in the process, pouting cutely and holding your burned hand like you were an injured puppy. This was one of his greatest fears upon completing this project.

You sat on his sapphire blue velvet couch with the bronze-gilded frame that looked like it belonged in the Ravenclaw common room trying to alleviate the pain of the burn in Minho’s ice bucket (for his white wine, of course) while he shifted through his drawers to find the first aid kit you gave him a couple years ago.

“Do you remember when you got this for me?” he asked as soon as he pulled it out from the bottom drawer. You shook your head, too lightheaded and in too much pain to remember. He sat next to you and began to tell the old story while patching you up. “It was your third year working here, but my first day as CEO when I took over for my Dad. I got so many paper cuts from all the paperwork I had to read and sign and I got a massive headache afterwards and I just wanted to eat something because all I had that day was an iced americano. It was so late and by the time I was finished, it was maybe 7:00pm -”

“8:00 pm,” you corrected in between sniffles.

“Ah, so you do remember! At 8:00pm, you waltzed into my office wearing your comfiest clothes with a bag of take-out in one hand and the first aid kit with a million bandaids and Tylenol in the other. That night, you sat in my office and helped patch up my fingers, fed me lo mein, and helped me with the rest of the paperwork for two hours. I thought of you as my guardian angel since that day and vowed to myself that no matter what, you and I would stick by each other’s side and be the dynamic duo that we are forever. Oh, how the tables have turned tonight. Now I’m the one patching you up.”

Minho had finished wrapping your palm at the end of his story. Something about his proclamation didn’t sit right with you. Something about staying here forever, clocking in massive amounts of overtime and being subservient to the same men sounded like your own personal hell.

“I can’t be your secretary forever, Mr. Lee.”

“I know,” he admitted. “But I don’t have to think about that for quite some time, right?”

“Maybe.”

“I hate change, you know.”

“I, more than anyone else, know that.”

Your handsome boss chuckled lightly at the heavy subject. His curly coffe hair covered his eyes as he looked down at your hand and traced small shapes on the bandaid. You knew that he knew you didn’t want to stay here forever, and he couldn’t blame you, but it didn’t make the thought of you leaving any less heartbreaking.

“Does it feel any better?”

“Much better,” you said truthfully as the cooling gel felt like a magical potion.

“This first aid kit is the only practical gift I’ve ever received. All others are for the aesthetic.”

“Do you prefer practical gifts, Mr. Lee?”

“Of course! The fuck am I going to do with a VVS diamond-encrusted chain?”

“Flex on all the other young CEOs?”

“And partake in their pissing contest? No, thank you.”

“You’re telling me you won’t be doing that this weekend at the Charity Ball?”

“When I have you next to me, I don’t need VVS diamonds,” Minho grinned flirtatiously.

You hit his arm with your good hand and he flinched upon his correct prediction. “I am not an accessory!”

“Of course not! You are my beloved intelligent sidekick that all other big wigs tell me they wished they had! But when you look like that, it’s bonus points ~”

“Ugh, your kind are all the same!” you scoffed, trying to collect your things and storm out the door.

“It’s a compliment!” he teased. Minho managed to chase after you and grab your things to carry to his car so he could drive you home for the 1106th time.

--

After a long and tiring rest of the week helping your boss do target practicing with the iron suit on, Saturday had arrived and now you had the honor of accompanying said-boss to a Big Dick contest disguised as a Charity Ball. The main event was for the sake of the children of course, but the real show was to see who was wearing what designer with what accessories and who pulled up in the fanciest sports car with the youngest and sexiest date in their arms. You were so, so lucky to be working for someone who liked to stay low key, despite always being the center of attention.

“Why are you so nervous?” Minho teased, nudging your arm as you both walked up to the front doors of the venue. “This isn’t the first time you’ve played as my date.”

“I know, but it doesn’t get any easier,” you admitted, shyly covering yourself from the much-more revealing outfit now that it was tailored to fit.

“You and I look fine! Muted colors, minimal diamonds, low key attitudes - we’re perfect! No one will even notice we’re here.”

That was a complete lie, because the second you walked in, a swarm of gossip columnists and magazine writers circled around the two of you, bombarding you both with the same questions you were so used to.

“Mr. Lee, who are you wearing?”

“Mr. Lee, who’s your lovely date?”

“Mr. Lee, what’s the best way to lock in that your date will go home with you?”

Minho raised his hand slightly and all that could be heard were the cameras clicking. God, the power he has… 

“Dior, a close friend, and be so irresistible that they can’t say no.”

Without another word, he gently took your bandaged hand and led you out of the circle of gossipers who were silent in awe. With your free hand, you covered up your ugly laughing.

“You’re such a cornball!” you said in between a fit of giggles.

“An irresistible cornball, at least. Now, walk me through all these people again?”

Minho was young and when it came to networking, he still had the mentality of being the CEO’s son rather than the CEO. That meant that Minho didn’t care much in remembering other CEO’s names and relied on you to remind him of all the people he should have remembered three years ago. It was a consistent hour of introductions and small talk about future goals, collaborations, and golfing, all of which you were able to expertly tune out while sipping prosecco and snacking on caviar tarts. Years of experience thankfully made these events easier.

“Did you practice your speech for your donation?” you reminded Minho after taking a seat at the prestigious Table 2. Since the company was one of the Charity Ball’s biggest sponsors, the CEOs were always invited to say some manufactured speech.

“Yeah. I even practiced it in the shower. Hopefully I get the charity organization correct this time.”

“It’s amazing how you even got this far.”

The Charity Ball should have been named See Who Can Donate the Most Money Ball because every speech given by a CEO of some company tried to out-do each other. Luckily, your company’s speeches were always last and your touch of humanity written on paper always had the audience in awe with the Minho’s compassion. To pass the time, you and Minho played rock-paper-scissors and whomever lost had to drink champagne. Let’s just say Minho ended up having the infamous Asian Glow.

His face was still blushy by the time it was his turn and you almost felt bad because the pictures with the flash turned on probably wouldn’t be so flattering in the magazines, but that wouldn’t matter because he still looks like the most stunning man in the room. All eyes were on him as he made his speech, but he had his eyes on you. Probably because he would piss his pants if he saw how many people were looking at him. You gave him two thumbs up for encouragement.

“It is the greatest honor to be here and giving a speech for the third year in a row. Children are the source and future for a better world, and it is our duty to -”

You blanked out for most of it since you wrote it. It was hard to focus anyways when his eyes were so piercing, so you averted his gaze and counted the number of peppercorns on his unfinished steak. At an alarming fifty-three, you glanced around the gallery to see if anyone was actually paying attention. Many, if not all, of the guests around your age were paying attention with dreamy eyes and pouty lips, all wishing they were in your position tonight. Some even dared to make eye contact with you as if to say, ‘how DARE you NOT pay attention to the sexiest man alive!?’ The older, more powerful guests seemed genuinely interested in the amount Minho was donating and the older dates seemed to care more about their reflection on the back of a spoon.

The fattest check with a bunch of zeros was walked onto the stage. A standing ovation was in order of course, and you conformed with the crowd, even though applause always made Minho visibly uncomfortable.

“He throws a big, fat check to charity and yet he still doesn’t like the attention, huh?”

As the clapping died down and the noise faded into the smooth hum of the live piano and jazz music, you turned to face the owner of a familiar sly voice. The man that stood before you was the famous doctor slash art collector slash playboy who you’ve come to know after attending all of these flashy events.

You smiled slyly at the man. “If it isn’t GQ’s Bachelor of the Month, Dr. Park Seonghwa.”

The raven-haired man gave you his signature smirk. Then he took your hand and kissed it tenderly like the prince he is. “Lovely _____, pleasure to see you as always.”

“Have you been doing that to all the other guests you frequent at these events?”

“Of course not! Just the beautiful ones.”

You let out a loud scoff. “You and your way with words.”

“Are they enough to convince you to finally go out to dinner with me?”

“Not quite.”

Seonghwa sighed tiredly and dropped his head as if this was the first time you’ve rejected him. Guess every time felt like the first time. The handsome raven held his hand out to you. “If not dinner, how about a dance?”

Hesitantly, you searched for your boss like you were trying to sneak away from a parent. He was busy shaking hands and catching up with The Important People’s Club, so you didn’t think one dance would hurt, though once you feed a dog a treat, he’ll be begging for more forever.

You took his hand. “One dance.”

“Five.”

“One.”

“Three?”

“Dr. Park!”

“What!? Ok, fine, one dance, unless you’re really feeling it and then we’ll dance some more.”

“Maybe in another lifetime, Dr. Park.”

The young doctor led you to the dance floor before you could object further. For someone not-so-smooth with pick-up lines, he was definitely smooth with his moves. With one gentle hand on your waist and the other holding your hand, you two glide around the white tiles like the Royalty of the ball, and truly, for a few moments, it really felt like you were the star of this fairy tale.

Seonghwa let out a tired sigh. “Intelligent, beautiful, loyal, and good at dancing? How are you so good at everything?”

“Stop that.”

“I mean it! Yet no man swept you off your feet.”

“Just because I won’t say yes to you, doesn’t mean I’m not waiting for that special someone.”

Seonghwa held your hand up high and made you do a little twirl. “You might be waiting for a while, beautiful.”

“Why do you say that?”

“With Mr. Minho by your side twenty-five hours eight days a week, there is no man that has the courage to come in between such a strong relationship.”

“Even you?” you challenged.

“Even I. Unless you want me to -”

“Nope.”

“Ice cold heart as always…”

Song number one melted into song number two and it passed you both as you continued to discuss the hot topic of why you’re still single. It’s a conversation topic that you thought was reserved for nosy family members for you to brush off, but coming from another man who has begged for your number since you both met really put your love life into perspective. Perhaps you were too loyal to your boss…

While engulfed in the heated debate, Minho was desperately searching for his right hand where he thought you’d be - either at your seat or by the bar, but you were at neither. After receiving his order from the bar, he let the expensive gold liquid over ice flooded through his bloodstream, which led him to a group of gawking gossipers whining and gazing at the dance floor. What was all the hype about?

The sight of you in the arms of the world’s most arrogant doctor didn’t sit too well with him. The scene made him see green.

“You’re such a liar!” Minho heard you laugh aloud. “I did NOT give you so-called bedroom eyes at Yuta’s house warming!”

“You’re telling me you weren’t eyeing me up and down like a barbecued piece of pork belly dipped in sesame oil?”

“That’s because you had sesame oil on your white shirt!”

“Excuses, excuses.”

Minho took another sip of his golden drink before putting it down haphazardly and waltzing towards the dancing couple. To onlookers, this scene looked like it was straight out of those cheesy love triangle dramas. The gossipy gals wondered - would Minho punch Seonghwa? Would he grab your hand harshly and drag you away to scold you and tell you how much he cared about you? Would he kiss you!?

You saw your uncharacteristically stern-looking boss approaching, and even though you’re unsure of his intentions, you still smiled brightly, as you always did whenever you saw him. Minho lightened his heavy, angry steps. Even with another man by your side, you still looked at him. How could he be mad at you?

“Hello, Mr. Minho,” Seonghwa greeted, holding out a hand for him to shake. You knew your boss wasn’t the biggest fan of Seonghwa, but he politely returned the gesture anyways. Somehow you felt your heart beating in your throat - the tension on the dance floor was too high, too powerful, and you were but an awkward and nervous secretary standing on the side while two powerful men duked it out.

“Dr. Seonghwa, nice to see you again.” Minho was good at lying, but his lies never passed you. The amount of discomfort knitted in his eyebrows almost made you snicker. “Long nights at the hospital still?”

“As always, but at least it’s rewarding and enjoyable. How are your long nights at the office?”

“Can’t get enough of them, right, _____?”

“What? You’re still doing that much overtime?” Seonghwa asked worriedly. Now, was he worried because you were overworking yourself or was he worried because you were spending so much time with a man that wasn’t him?

You shrugged unapologetically. “I love that overtime pay.”

“_____, that’s not good for your health -”

“I tell them that all the time,” Minho interrupted defensively. He was always like this whenever anyone questioned the amount of work you had. To you, it was not much of a burden at all, but to anyone else, they couldn’t fathom your work hours but if they saw your paycheck, maybe they’d understand. Even your boss felt bad whenever your friends blamed him, but  no matter how much he tried to convince you of a normal 40-hour work week, the duties of being his secretary never added up to just that. Therefore, your boss always felt the need to defend you and him for the sake of making sure you weren’t portrayed as his slave. “But you’re just so stubborn, aren’t you?”

“Only because it’s you, Mr. Lee,” you said like you’re reading a script. Somehow that doesn’t translate through the ears of the two powerful men in front of you, as your boss smiled triumphantly and Seonghwa couldn’t help but shake his head.

“If you ever want to take me up on that date, Lovely _____, you know who to call.” The most handsome man who’s ever flirted with you took your hand gently and planted a sweet, soft kiss that sent little tingles all up your arm. You don’t think you’ll ever reciprocate his feelings, but the feeling of being desired and wanted by a man really kicked up your ego and really made you think - when was the last time you ever liked someone, or someone ever liked you?

Park Seonghwa disappeared into the crowd and perhaps left the Charity Ball all together. Until next time.

Your boss turned to face you, whose stern face quickly melted into innocence as he knew what was coming by the look on your annoyed expression. “What?”

“What was that all about?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

You shook your head and mumbled under your breath, “Ugh, you are unbelievable, Mr. Lee.”

As you tried to escape, the desperate man caught your hand. “Wait, where are you going?”

“Away from you for just five minutes, can you let me do that?” you snapped in a hushed volume. “Or do you need to watch over me and speak on my behalf, since you’re my Father apparently!”

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to act like that.”

“You say that every time, especially when I’m talking to another man and even more-so when I’m talking to Dr. Park. When will your sorries mean something?”

“You know I get protective over you.”

“Again, you are not my Father!”

“I know, but -”

All of the attention that was once focused on the handsome CEO and his secretary shifted to the glass ceiling that was now shattered to pieces upon the force of some dozens of masked strangers dressed in all black. Minho instinctively, though harshly, forced you down so he could hover over you so none of the glass hit you. What followed seemed to be too numbing, as all of the stimuli in the banquet hall was too much to handle.

“Get down,” Minho instructed while pushing you under one of the tables. “Don’t move until I come back.”

“Wait, but where are you -”

“I’ll be back in ten minutes!”

“Mr. Lee!”

Of course, he didn’t listen, as Mr. Lee always did what he wanted, right? Which would normally annoy the fuck out of you, but who has the time to panic about what your boss was up to when you’re stranded under the table and shrouded by cheap table cloth linen?

Since those people had invaded and fallen from the sky, you noticed that no gunshots or any sort of violence outside of melee were heard. No purpose of the attack is even known yet, but the signs were promising, until the famous alarm was heard throughout the whole town.

“Threat level: Dragon. Please stay inside until all threats have been cleared. Threat level: Dragon. Please stay inside until -”

“Ah, yes, the richest of the rich gather here today to donate the smallest percentage of their some billions of dollars to charity,” a booming voice tisked through a microphone. “Do you feel good about your good deed of the year? Are you proud of yourselves?”

For some unknown reason, the voice paused, as if waiting for an answer or a reaction from the people. Nothing was heard besides shrill screaming and crying, which was probably what the wannabe-vigilante wanted. For the first time, you peaked through the slits of the table cloth. At the stage where Minho gave his speech was a now-broken stage with the foot of a giant robot through it. It was a very top-heavy robot that looked like it had a large cavity in its belly, whose odd shape probably served some weird purpose unknown to everyone.

“Perhaps you’ll be proud of your donations for once when we capture you all and milk you of your every last penny!” The man laughed evilly at the head of the robot. “Down with the rich!”

“Down with the rich!” his people cheered in unison.

The oddly political turn of events made the scene less jarring - it seemed like an over-exaggeration of townspeople coming together to fight for higher taxing of the rich. Then you were reminded of the Dragon-level threat by how the minions loaded up the richies with a gun pointed to their heads and the complex mechanism that loaded them up to the belly of the robot. Somewhere among the mass of people you saw Seonghwa in between another surgeon and a senior engineer at Tesla before he disappeared behind the walls of metal.

“Hey, I found another one!” someone yelled close by. “Under Table 2!”

Shit. “Fuck.”

Perhaps all those years of advance self defense classes that Minho’s father enrolled you in would come to good use this time.

By your glamorously-strapped heel, one of the masked men dragged you out from under the table. There was no use in struggling, and the man seemed quite satisfied with how you complied.

“Let’s go, darling.”

With your free foot, you dug the pointy end of the studded heel into his groin. Luckily, you can only ever imagine how painful something like that could feel. He was in so much pain that he doubled over and let go of your foot, leaving you to flee to God-knows-where after you stole his police baton.

“Don’t fucking call me darling,” you spat as a farewell.

There were too many men in between you and the emergency exit, so you had to fight your way through like in those cheesy American action movies. A bunch of kicks in the groin here and a couple baton to the knee caps there were enough to get you by half way, but then they started double-teaming on you. Of course, this was much harder, but Senior Mr. Lee didn’t give you the best sensei in the damn nation for no reason. You felt invincible even after defeating multiple double teams, but it was the triple teaming that got you stuck. You can only kick and baton so many groins at one time until two men held each of your arms and the other stole the baton.

While struggling to break free, you managed to knee the one in front of you in the chin, causing him to cut his lip with blood dripping on his cheap leather shoes. After realizing what had happened, he punched you in the cheek as punishment. Was that a bone you heard cracking?

“Try me again, bitch,” he seethed.

Out of nowhere, your knight in Iron armor landed before the one who punched you and returned the favor, sending his body through so many walls of this building that you worried about the foundation and how long you had before it collapsed.

Minho’s red and gold helmet swung sharply and the empty eyes were staring into the souls of your captors while at the same time not.

“Who’s next?” Minho threatened with his super cool and inaccurately deep robotic voice.

Both men fled the scene as quickly as possible, losing their grip and throwing you to the floor. The penny taste finally registered in your brain that yes, you were definitely coughing and spitting out blood.

The cold metal of Iron Man’s hand helped you to your feet while the other cupped your quickly-bruising cheek gently. The underlying tenderness of your boss’s touch somehow healed all pain, or perhaps it was the cooling iron. Gestures like these were so foreign that you almost forgot it was your boss behind the mask and not some handsome stranger who was ready to sweep you off your feet. It was instances like these where you wished the latter was real.

“Are you ok?” he asked gingerly.

“I’m fine,” you promised. “Go save your investors.”

A light chuckle came from Iron Man. “My driver’s already waiting outside. Are you able to run?”

“I’m not leaving without you.”

“C’mon, _____, now’s not the time -”

“Do not argue with me until you save everyone, Mr. Lee.”

Minho shook his head tiredly. He knew there was no use arguing with his headstrong secretary. “You’re so stubborn. Just promise you won’t get into any trouble this time.”

“No.”

“I’m cuttin’ down on your work hours!” he yelled, blasting off to fight the giant robot thing so he wouldn’t have to hear you argue back again.

You were left with a couple of masked minions who still had the balls to attack and capture you as if you were worth more than your surprisingly above-average five-figure salary. Your copper saliva mixed with your boss trusting you enough to not die in the middle of a Dragon-level threat really pumped the adrenaline through your veins, so as one man sprinted to attack, you managed to dodge it and kick him in the throat before he could try something else. The other guy tried to sneak up behind you, but you were quicker, swinging the baton hard enough to the head to knock him out cold. The power you felt coursing through your body left you on a major high. Where were all the other minions? No way was that all…

In the middle of the banquet hall was the face-off of the century, rivaling any and all story lines from DC and Marvel combined. A tiny seven-foot-something intricately crafted and painted sheet of metal was about to fight a giant several-stories tall and several-dozen-tons heavy hunk of junk with dozens of guests they managed to scoop inside. Now how was Mr. Lee going to save the day this time?

“Lee Minho, the man of the night,” the man controlling the ship scoffed. “You will look like my childhood favorite action figure once I stuff you in a glass box in my office! A prized treasure is what you’ll be. How does that sound?”

“Sounds kinky.” You could just sense the smirk behind his mask. “Then what will you do to me?”

“Milk you of all your assets, of course! Liquidation of its truest definition! The redistribution of wealth will come easy to the people, especially with your earnings in the mix!”

“Fine, take my money. But let these people go.”

“Absolutely not! I need all the money I can get! How do you expect me to change the distribution of wealth of the entire world with just one CEO’s salary!? Mr. Lee, I thought you knew that, silly.”

“Ok, fine. You take all of our money and then what?”

“Well, kill you, of course.”

A chorus of gasps and crying were heard from the belly of the machine.

The philosophical man continued. “People like you are the very reason there is a large pay gap. You sit on your ass drinking cocktails and eating caviar and you donate to some profiting charity only a tiny percentage of what you make while all the good hard-working people are the ones bringing the big bucks into your bank account! And what do they get? Small paychecks and four hours of sleep!”

Yeah, this guy was bad, but he had his points, so you’ll cheers to that, am I right?

“Well, then where will you get your money after that? Hm?” The captain stayed silent. “Where will you get more money to sustain this utopia? Certainly not from the hard-working people who have no experience leading or handling such a huge sum of money. And certainly not from you, right? Ha! With your five-figure salary paychecks that barely get the bills paid on time.”

A heavy arm swung to try and snatch up your boss. Though the arm was so large and heavy, Minho barely managed to escape his grasp. By the silence of the once-chatty leader of the pack, you could tell that he was bothered by the words spat by the youngest CEO in the room. How dare Minho mock his hard-earned pay when his earnings were given to him on a VVS diamond-encrusted platter!? There were a couple of times where he landed a couple of hits on your boss and you should feel worried, but you couldn’t help but think he deserved it. You hated to be on the enemy’s side, but you, too, were one of those five-figure salary paycheck owners that are barely scraping by with their bills. And of course you were all for the redistribution of wealth, but this guy definitely went a little too far…

You would think that the sheer size of this oddly-shaped hunk of metal wouldn’t be able to move so fast, but it managed to capture Minho by digging its claw to the wall and sandwiching Minho in between. He couldn’t even wiggle his way out between gaps because the thing was pressing too hard against the wall. Minho could feel the metal bending from inside.

“People like you will never understand the worth of the dollar,” the captain seethed. “Not when stacks come to you in baskets sewn with gold and jewels commissioned by your Daddy. People like you, and everyone captured, need to be humbled a little. Maybe you all can learn a little something from the working class.”

“Then we die, is that right?”

“Of course! But at least you’ll die a hard-working man, Mr. Lee.”

“I will. But I’ll die a hard-working man with billions in my grave before I let you take a penny!”

The blue beam of light that you once cursed for burning a half circle on your palm you were now thankful for, as that beam of light shot your boss up in the air and freed him, taking a few fingers off of the hunk of metal with him. A couple more shots of incinerator beams later, and both arms of the robot had been severed and half disintegrated. Minho kicked the glass where the leader sat and pulled out the defenseless lump of flesh that spoke the harsh truth about the wealthy. The leader was a young man who was not much older than either you or your boss, who didn’t look afraid in the slightest. Perhaps he expected, or even wanted, to go out this way - fighting for what he believed in.

The police, who had been waiting outside for all the ruckus to die down, came in and cuffed the leader and a few of his minions who cowardly hid under the tables. Minho helped all of his investors safely come out and among the crowd you saw Seonghwa, safe and sound.

You thought after a traumatic attack that now was not the time and place to reveal who Iron Man was or even associate yourself with him, so you tried to mix in with the crowd and book it to the driver like he asked you to do before. But of course your flaunty boss wanted to do the exact opposite.

“_____, wait!”

No, no, no, no, no, what the hell! Really!? Right now!? was how Minho read your expression as he walked to you with the suit on. When the seven-foot something Iron Man stopped before you, the face of his helmet slid open to reveal an out-of-breath Minho. The entire banquet hall echoed with gasps.

“Are you ok? You’re not hurt, are you? Your bruise is getting worse!”

You could not feel anything on the left half of your face besides intense pain and somehow numbness at the same time and your limbs felt like jello and over-kneaded dough. But you couldn’t let your boss worry about you - he needs to take care of more important people right now. You’ll be fine come tomorrow once you sleep on a frozen bag of peas.

“I’m fine, I promise,” you said convincingly. “Looks like you have an impromptu press conference to deal with.”

To Minho’s dismay, all of the cameras and press and the phones of his business friends captured his face inside the Iron suit next to his famous secretary that all his business friends wished they had. He knew you hated press conferences because even though you never said anything, you were always by his side and that meant the cameras were pointed at you also.

“I can deal with them. Go to the car and go home.”

“I can stay with you.”

“I won’t allow it. You need to go home and ice your face.”

“I said I -”

“I said go.”

Minho never raised his voice at you ever because he never had a reason to. You were always hard-working and loyal and you always did everything correctly and did it with his best interest in mind. He’ll allow small things that might be detrimental to your health, like all the over time you loved to have and the unhealthy amounts of coffee you drown yourself in. But when the arm that’s supporting your body weight was shaking, your left cheek was the color of aubergine, and you had blood splatters on different parts of your body, that’s when he had to draw the line. Worry was knitted into his brows and his lips were a flat line and you only ever saw his face like this whenever he talked with his father. It was terrifying to see him almost mad at you and it made your heart sink a little that you did something wrong.

He softened his expression upon seeing your glossy eyes. “Take Monday off to rest. I’ll see you on Tuesday, ok?”

“But -”

“I’ll pay you for your time off, so don’t worry about the money. I just want you to rest. Can you do that for me?” You could only nod. “Thank you. Go home - I’ll text you when I’m done cleaning up tonight.”

Minho plastered on his happy television face and returned to the fawning crowd and overly-thankful investors. You were blinded by the flashing camera lights and that was your cue that you didn’t belong there anymore.

The trot music-loving driver hummed the whole way home while driving on auto-pilot, as he had memorized the path to your apartment long ago. Sitting in the back seat covered head-to-toe in the finest satin wasn’t as luxurious when you were alone as opposed to having your equally-luxurious boss next to you. You imagined what it’d be like if a giant robot didn’t crash the party this evening: you’d probably yell at him more about how you needed space and that he was overreacting with the whole Seonghwa deal; then he might try to bribe you with food or dessert so that you’d stop pouting like a child (and you’d totally cave in); and finally, he’d walk you up to your doorstep begging to come inside once more and you’d deny his entry, only for him to leave you with a comment about how you were the most stunning person at the ball tonight.

In short, as much as you hated to admit it, the ride home was lonely. Can you believe that? Your short time alone away from your boss was fucking lonely. Not peaceful, not relaxing, not mind-clearing, but totally and completely lonely. So much so that your heart ached a little, and to put these feelings in the simplest terms, it was because you were so used to being by his side that the emptiness to the seat next to you mimicked an unfamiliar cavity in your heart. It’s a painful feeling, really, because that meant leaving this job would be much harder than you hoped.

As if he planted a tracking device in your phone, Minho texted you upon locking the front door to your place.

The Money Man [01:03 am]: did you make it home ok?

An involuntary smile spread across your lips.

You [01:04 am]: just got home. are you stalking me?

The Money Man [01:04 am]: you didn’t think the phone i gave you was completely harmless and bugless, did you? ;)

You [01:05 am]: i should have known better. how’s the impromptu press conference? are people surprised that it’s you?

The Money Man [01:07am]: they are, but at the same time it’s not. ppl keep asking me questions and won’t let me take the suit off, can you believe that!? it’s hot as balls in this thing!!

The Money Man [01:07am]: shit, gotta go - gotta somehow convince these idiots this is definitely NOT something to invest in.

You [01:08am]: text when you’re home.

The Money Man [01:08am]: yes, darling.

‘Darling’ has a nice ring to it.

--

Having Sunday all to yourself was normal and you did what you always did every weekend: cleaned your place, took your time making a nice meal, organizing all of your work papers, and ended the night with a hot shower and an ice pack to your cheek. Monday, on the other hand was a disaster. You were so bored! Your fingers were itching to scribble down your boss’s agenda and you were so tempted to log into your work laptop, but you knew Minho would chew your ear off for not listening to him and resting as you should. It wasn’t your fault that you were a work-a-holic!

After looking in the mirror and hating the way your face looked for the fiftieth time, it was time to accept that the bruise wouldn’t disappear for at least a couple more weeks. Sunday was at its ugliest, where the center of your cheek was a deep purple and there was this off-colored halo around the perimeter. Now, the swelling went down and it wasn’t as purple or painful, but still equally ugly no matter how you looked at it or tried to cover it up.

After a lonely and boring Monday afternoon, your doorbell rang around 5:00pm. You weren’t expecting any visitors or deliverymen, so upon peaking through your viewfinder, you were surprised to see your boss on the other side.

“What are you doing here?” you asked surprised.

Minho was glad you didn’t seem disgusted by his presence since he was the one who told you to take the day off and you must be tired of seeing his face by now. He whipped out an oily bag from behind his back with a child-like grin on his face. It was an unusual sight to see a man dressed in a several thousand dollar business suit carrying a twenty dollar bag of dinner.

“You and I have some business to discuss.”

“Hold on, let me get this straight - you tell me to take the day off, rest up, ice my bloodshot cheek only for you to come into my home and say I need to work?”

“Yup,” he claimed unapologetically, squeezing past you to get through.

“Yes, please come in, Your Highness,” you rolled your eyes, though he was already setting up at your dinner table.

“Your home is nice. Why are you always so embarrassed whenever I try to come in?”

“I mean, look at it. It’s nowhere near as nice as your home.”

“It’s as more of a home than my place will ever be, no matter how many velvet cushions and arcade games I ask you to buy for the place.” Minho whipped out two bottles of beer, his favorite chaser to wash down the oiliness of the fried chicken, and poured them into glasses. “How’s your cheek?”

“By the look on your face, I guess not so good?”

He adjusted his twisted expression upon your teasing. Blood and bruises were never his thing, so any variation of the sort just looked bad in general. “It just looks so painful… Have you been icing it like I asked?”

“I have, and it’s not as painful as it looks!”

“Oh, yeah?”

Minho challenged your claim by standing in front of you and lowering his head to see you at eye-level. His face was way too close to be considered appropriate for CEO and Secretary relationship behavior, though you knew he never cared for those formalities. His eyes were always so sparkly per usual and that gave him that dreamy stare all the ladies in the office loved. You never saw the appeal to it until now, with only a few centimetres in between.

He poked your bruised-like-an-apple cheek.

“Ow, what the hell!” you screamed, swatting his hand away.

“Not as painful as it looks, my ass.”

“Well, people don’t go around poking my cheek all day!”

“Do you need pain killers? My doctor can write you a prescription for the best one on and off market.”

“That’s ok, I only trust Dr. Seonghwa.”

Minho gave you the same look he gave a former intern who got his breakfast and coffee order incorrect. Let’s just say the intern started crying on the spot. You, on the other hand, could barely hold in your snicker from his death glare. You were never on the receiving end of the infamous death glare and now that you were, it was hard to take it seriously.

“Ha ha,” Minho fake laughed. “Not funny.”

“What exactly do you have against him, anyways? It’s surprising that you’re threatened by the likes of a doctor and not some other hot shot software company CEO.”

“I don’t have anything against him.”

“You’re such a liar!” you scoffed, taking a swig of the ice-cold beer. “If you didn’t have a problem with him, you wouldn’t have acted so defensive at the charity ball.”

“I don’t like the way he looks at you,” he said shamelessly. A vigorous bite of a chicken leg came afterwards. “He looks at you like how I look at chicken legs.”

“Well, maybe I like the way he looks at me.”

“You can’t be serious.”

“No, I’m not.”

“Stop doing that.”

“You deserve it for acting like my Dad that night.”

“I said I was sorry! I even bought you dinner and cold beer to make up for it!”

“Oh, so this is not because you said that me and you have some business to discuss?”

“Well, that, too.” Minho wiped his greasy fingers on his silk handkerchief that he kept on the inside of his breast pocket before whipping out his phone to show you multiple news articles on the night of the charity ball. “Watch these videos.”

Almost all of them were exposing your boss who was behind the genius that is Iron Man, but what preceded the reveals were clips of you kicking major ass. The sources came from both paparazzi and the security tapes at multiple angles and it was hard to hide the fact that it was you as all angles captured your facial features quite clearly. Headlines and whole articles talked about how the mighty CEO and his secretary were the perfect unstoppable duo and they weren’t wrong - you kicking ass in a sexy outfit with a man of iron handling the big guy? Definitely a story worth selling.

Your brows furrowed worriedly because you had no idea how Minho felt. “Are you mad…?

“Mad?” Minho paused the current video and placed his phone face-down on the table so he could focus on his good chicken and better company. “Why would I be mad?”

“I don’t know! What’s the point in showing me these videos?”

“To show you how bad ass you look! Where did you even learn these moves!?”

“For some reason, your father thought being a secretary was dangerous enough that he decided to enroll me in some classes. I actually really liked it a lot, so I kept at it and I guess I got to a pretty advanced level.”

“Pretty advanced is definitely a misnomer, love. Well, it’s good to hear that Father has made one good decision in his reign.”

“Is this the business you wanted to speak about?” you asked shyly, hoping that the beer was a good enough excuse for your blushing cheeks. You’ll never get used to Minho praising you.

“Sort of. I have a proposition for you.”

“What, that you want me to be your sidekick?” you scoffed. When Minho remained silent with only the same sly smirk on his lips, you could see your worst fears coming true. “Oh, God, you’re not serious.”

“I am one hundred percent serious.”

“Are you out of your damn mind!? I am not sidekick material!”

“You totally are! You and I are already the perfect duo! Why not take it up a notch!?”

“No, Mr. Lee, I cannot be your secretary again, but in a different form and outfit!”

“Why not!? It’s not like I’m not going to pay you for it.”

“The pay is not the problem. The pay is never the problem. It’s…”

How do you put that the pressure of keeping the entire country safe and being by his side twenty-four/seven sounded like your own personal purgatory that you could never escape for as long as you lived, or until you died by the hands of some Demon-level threat monster?

“It’s a huge commitment, I know,” Minho admitted. “Too huge to even put a price on it. But can you at least consider it? I can’t imagine anyone else by my side except you.”

Now only if a man who wasn’t your boss said that to you without any underlying superhero context, you might have considered the proposal.

“Mr. Lee, I can’t…”

You hesitated getting the right words out, but Minho knew why. You’ve been bringing up how you couldn’t stay his secretary forever, and although he knew this was true, he couldn’t help but try to keep you anyways. You’ve been loyal to him for so long that he often forgot how to treat you like a friend and not his subordinate. But the thought of you leaving? Soon, at that? It was something he didn’t want to think about just yet. He wanted to keep you by his side for as long as he could.

Minho downed the last of his beer before whipping out his phone again. This time a slow song played over the speakers. He stood up and offered you a hand.

You raised a brow. “What are you…?”

“You and I never got to dance on Saturday. So dance with me.”

“Here? Right now? In my small ass apartment?”

“The next charity ball isn’t for another month and I don’t think I can wait that long.”

His impatience was just shy of flattering - if only you weren’t so afraid of being within close proximity to him. It was one thing when he helped ease the burn on your hand, it was another when he touched your cheek while inside his iron suit, but the two of you alone dancing in the middle of your living room was a whole other level of intimacy that needed to be hidden from human resources,

You took his hand and he led you to the living room. One hand on your waist and another holding the one with the scabbing half-circle. The two of you swayed in silent contentment for several songs. It was a comfortable silence, but there’s some hidden sadness to it that you couldn’t explain - something along the lines of him missing you dearly, despite you being right in front of him, and you missed him dearly, too. So much that your nerves made you squeeze his hand harder, asking him to not let go of you for a long time.

Then your boss pulled you in close enough that it felt like he was hugging you.

“S-Sir?” you stuttered nervously.

“Thank you,” he began. “For always being there.”

“Well, that’s my job,” you snickered.

“Not just as my secretary, but as my friend.”

“You think of me as your friend?”

“I do. Don’t tell Vice President Chan this, but I consider you one of my closest friends.”

“You’re quite soft, aren’t you?” It took a moment to register that he was definitely not joking. The tension in your shoulders diminished and you were able to relax in front of the equally-vulnerable man. “I consider you one of my closest friends, too.”

“Really?”

“By association though. After all these years being by your side, it’s only natural that I came to like you.”

“I like you, too,” he chuckled, tucking some hairs behind your ear. “A little too much, at that.”

“Oh, yeah?”

“In another lifetime, I feel like you and I would be soulmates.”

“You don’t think we would be in this lifetime?”

Were you hoping to be? “Perhaps. By association though, right?”

You didn’t want to press more about any underlying meaning to his statements, so instead you looked down embarrassed. In another lifetime, in this lifetime, in multiple lifetimes, Minho thought you and him would be each other’s soulmate no matter what, because a lifetime with you sounded perfect.

A thumb gently ran over the perimeter of your cheek bruise and it tickled rather than burned, so that was a good sign that it was healing. A loud tisk came from your boss.

“God, do I really put you through this much pain!?” he cried aloud.

“Huh? You didn’t cause this - those dumbass followers did!”

“I guess, but I was the one who brought you to that event! And what about the scar on your hand, huh? I definitely caused that one.”

“Well, yeah, but -”

“That’s it, I can’t be hurting you like this anymore. I can’t be putting you through all of this danger like you’re my bodyguard. I have to let you go.”

You knew he was joking when he couldn’t hold in his cheeky smile. “That is not probable cause to fire me, Mr. Lee.”

“Really? Dammit.”

“No matter how many times I get hurt, you can’t get rid of me that easily, ok? I go out on my own terms!”

“So strong willed… I almost hate it.” Minho sighed exaggeratedly before pulling you in for a real hug this time. His arms squeezed your waist tightly, letting you know that he didn’t want to let you go even if he tried. “Just make sure to give me a two weeks notice, all right?”

“Anything for you, boss.”

“I’m going to miss hearing that from you the most when you leave.”

You hit his chest lightly, but he caught your hand and held it for a few moments before leading you back to your kitchen to finish up dinner. The rest of the night wasn’t you and your boss - it was you and your closest friend enjoying dinner and some ice cream you had in your freezer.

In another lifetime, huh? Too bad you were stuck in this one.

--

Work has mellowed out in terms of paperwork and actually work and has instead transitioned into more press conferences and meetings with government officials regarding Iron Man. In theory, the meetings sounded cool, but you wouldn’t know for sure, as your boss decided to take one of the newer girls as his assistant for these meetings.

The first time he denied your company, you were only a little confused, but it soon passed when he said there was a lot of paperwork he only trusted you to complete on his behalf. But when he would bring her to every event - whether it was out of habit or on purpose - for an entire month, and her only, it really made your blood boil.

No, you weren’t jealous…! You weren’t jealous he was hanging out with someone younger and prettier and more his type! Definitely not! You were upset that your boss, whom you called one of your closest friends in a time of vulnerability, was already replacing you before you could put your two weeks in! And you knew this to be true when he denied your invitation to get lunch and instead you found him in the cafeteria laughing and flirting with the new girl at the table you and him would always sit at.

For a whole month, without even knowing it, you were slowly getting left behind and replaced for someone better - someone who would actually heed his every word and never argue. Someone who would keep their mouth shut for once. Someone who wouldn’t mind taking order from him forever.

It had been a month since you were living in this limbo, and tonight, the night of the Animal Cruelty Charity Ball to which Iron Man would be making a guest appearance, was when you knew he no longer needed you.

“You’re taking Ryujin…?” you repeated, as you couldn’t believe your ears.

“Yes, so you can go home early if you want,” Minho said as he fixed his bow tie in the giant mirror in his office. He then turned to present to you with an ignorant grin. “How do I look?”

“Why are you taking her?”

“She’s been working hard this past month, so I thought I’d reward her with tonight and have her practice some networking skills.”

“How generous of you,” you mumbled bitterly to yourself.

“Hm?”

“Nothing.”

“Can you help me put on this chain necklace thing? The clasp is so damn tiny…”

Reluctantly, you helped clasp the silver jewelry. While you thought your boss was heavily admiring himself in the mirror, he instead was focused on you and how your face was uncharacteristically stern.

“Are you ok?” he asked sincerely. He pressed a firm hand to your forehead. “Are you sick?”

You harshly swatted his hand away. “I’m fine.”

He shrugged it off, thinking that you probably had a bad week with all of the boring work he’s been having you deal with. A lot of weird and unsettling energy was pent up inside of you for the past month, so before you exited Minho’s office for the weekend, for some reason you thought this was the appropriate time to speak on it.

“Actually, I’m not fine,” you blurted out. Minho gave you his full attention for the first time that month. “I… I’m putting in my two weeks.”

His eyes went wide. “What?”

“I’m giving you my two weeks notice.”

“Do you have a job lined up?”

“No, but I will figure that out later.”

“You don’t have another job lined up but you want to quit? Where is this coming from?”

He didn’t sound angry. He wasn’t - he was more hurt than anything else that you wanted to leave without a proper explanation. He thought you and him were doing well… What changed so suddenly?

“I can’t do this anymore,” Minho noted how your voice was shaking. “I was fine when you had me staying ungodly hours, I was fine when you had me get you coffee every morning and your dry cleaning every Monday, and I was fine when you involved with the Iron Man project, but now all you’ve given me lately is paperwork and shit that the new hires should be doing and not myself!”

“_____, language -”

“And why is that? Why do I feel like I’m starting to get left behind already, or-or why do I feel like you don’t appreciate anything I do!? It’s clear to me that you’ve already begun to replace me, so what’s the use of me staying here when you don’t want me anymore?”

Minho was silent. You couldn’t tell if he was angry or sad or surprised at your sudden outburst. The tension in the room was suffocating and his silence even more so, like this was his ideal form of psychological torture. Minho didn’t seem to care for your feelings anymore as he turned back to face the mirror.

“Your two weeks has been noted,” was all he said.

You left the room in tears, with your blood still boiling and your heart crushed. But this was a good thing. In the end, this would be a good thing, is what you were trying to tell yourself, because this lifetime wouldn’t let you be with Minho.

--

Another month passed by and you were left in a worse limbo than you began with a month and a half ago. No one was contacting you about any job offers so you were left to ‘self-reflect’ or some bullshit this self-help book told you to do for the past two weeks. Luckily, all the overtime you put into your savings account had vastly accumulated into an unthinkable sum that would support you far beyond whatever the government noted as a proper unemployment time. Like, you didn’t even know what to do with the money sometimes - thank Minho for time-and-a-half, huh?

On days where you couldn’t help yourself - when you felt like torturing yourself - you would look up Minho on all the tabloid sites. Surprisingly enough, this happened way more than you’d like. Of course, as you speculated, Ryujin had quickly taken your spot as his secretary and God, did you like to shit on how terrible she was! You didn’t have to be at the office to know that Minho must be frustrated with her by the crookedness of his ties and jackets and how she must have forgotten to schedule a salon appointment by the look of his roots and unruly brows.

Ha! That’s what he fucking gets for not being grateful! That dick!

What a shame your relationship with him had come to. To spend what felt like an entire lifetime with him to being complete strangers, it was like you were reborn into this new and fresh carefree person. So carefree that you hummed on the way home with a bag full of fresh produce from the local market.

Perhaps you should have been less carefree, as a stranger snuck up behind you and knocked you out cold.

--

“Ryujin, where’s my document-signing pen?”

“Um, in your drawer?”

“Which drawer?”

“The one with all the other pens…?”

Minho sighed loudly, running a hand through his curly locks and staring intently at the mess of papers that scattered on his desk. His desk hadn’t been this messy since the first day he started when he had to sign all of those official documents that transitioned him to CEO. The same day when he fell for you.

Ryujin, who was nothing close to a secretary compared to you, was only getting on his nerves these days. Perhaps yes, he’s been a little too harsh on someone who’s still fairly new, but in truth he just didn’t have a way to express his frustration about you leaving all of a sudden. Where had he gone wrong?

“Take the rest of the night off,” he told his subordinate.

The poor girl bowed obediently and scurried out the room.

Another sign left the young man’s lips. This time it was because he was tired. He couldn’t deal with anymore bullshit tonight.

An anonymous FaceTime call rang his phone. Who could be wanting to FaceTime him at such an odd hour of the weeknight?

When he swiped to answer, all he saw was you tied up roughly to a splintered chair with tape covering your mouth. Minho nearly dropped his phone.

“Good evening, Mr. Lee,” a familiar voice sang. From the shadows behind you emerged the fake vigilante that led the invasion of the Charity Ball. “I see that you’re doing well.”

“What do you want?” he demanded quietly.

“I think you know what I want.” A shiny knife drew a line across the other cheek, small drops of blood seeping through and mixing with the dried tears and dirt. Minho’s heart felt like it was collapsing. “A blank check addressed to little ol’ me.”

“If I see another scar on them, I’ll kill you,” he threatened.

The man held his hands up high in defensive mode and took a step away from you. “Fine, I won’t touch them! Just give me what we want near the docks.”

“I’m on my way.”

“Oh, and one more thing - come dressed in Iron Man and I’ll slice their throat. Bye!”

The line cut dead and Minho had no choice but to leave empty-handed with only a blank check in his pocket.

The air inside the enclosed cargo bed was hot and suffocating and your rising panic did not ease your pain or heavy breathing one bit. It didn’t help that the guy and his minions were playing with your hair and playing with their knives, dragging the dull edges on your arms and neck. Normally, you wouldn’t be so weak and crying to the point that the tape around your mouth was loosening up, but life these days was tough and perhaps an event like this, causing Minho major inconvenience once again, was what you deserved.

Scurrying and uneven footsteps were heard from outside and you really, really hoped it was Minho not dressed in Iron Man.

“Here already? He must like you,” the leader teased.

The back of the cargo bed opened up to reveal that the sun had fallen a long time ago and the light of the moon outlined your plain and simple hero. He didn’t give the leader a second passing glance before blindly shoving the blank check to his chest and rushing by your side to untie you. First, he ripped off the tape and you let out loud gasps of air and cries.

Minho’s shaking hands take hold of your face to try to calm you down. “Hey hey, shh, I’m here. Are you ok? Are you hurt?” You shook your head vigorously, whining and trying to break free from the ropes tying you down. “Hold on, I got you.”

Before Minho could untie your hands, one of the minions hit him on the back of his head the same way they knocked you out. But your boss was stronger than that - his head was harder than his iron helmet. At the failed attempt, Minho hurled the guy over his shoulder and out the cargo bed. Your bad ass boss got up like it was nothing, but he was breathing heavily.

Not because he was tired or weak, but because he was furious.

Three more guys tried to kick his ass and it was then you realized that your boss wasn’t just some fake hiding behind an iron suit who could program it to fight. He truly was kicking their ass! Like, raw strength and all! If you weren’t scared to death, you might have thought this was kind of hot. But then Minho punched one of the guys too hard and it sent him flying over to you, to which you fell over and broke the chair. The rope was no longer tied to anything and you were free.

Yet another one of the lame-o sidekicks tried to capture you again, but now you were equally as furious, if not more, than your partner in crime. How dare they sneak up on you and not even give you a chance to fight back!? That was the definition of a weak-ass group of villains! So of course you had to show them a lesson and kick a few balls and some asses. But the number of asses was infinite and you were getting really tired. They had enough people to fight you and Minho until you couldn’t keep up and then they’d kill you easily.

“Mr. Lee, now would be a good time for one of your brilliant plans!” you begged between kicks and breaths.

“Ten seconds tops. But when I say so, I need you to hold my hand, ok?”

“What!? What are you planning!?”

“Just trust me!” You and Minho saw the leader direct the last ten of his minions to finish the job. “Ready? Three… two… one!”

A heavy force on the outside pushed the cargo bed off the edge of the pier and into the ocean with the purpose of drowning everyone in it. The only sensation you felt was ice cold water freezing your blood flow and Minho grasping your hand for dear life while trying to swim up to the surface. Before blacking out from lack of oxygen, you felt the ripples of something entering the ocean and saw a faded red and golden glow of light. Not a second later, a hollowed Iron Man on autopilot rushed you and Minho to the surface and placed you gently on the sand just under the pier. The silent night was filled with a chorus of ugly coughing fits from you and your boss. What a wonderful CEO slash ex-secretary couples activity this turned out to be.

As soon as your breathing returned to a rhythmic beat, a wet, crying, sand-covered Minho held your face in his still-trembling hands. He didn’t say a word - he simply held you and pressed his forehead to yours, making sure that yes, this was real, and not some unconscious dream where he was still in the middle of the ocean drowning. Yes, you were there with him and you were alive.

“Why are you crying? I was the one kidnapped,” you joked, hoping it’d lighten up the mood if but a little bit.

Minho laughed between sniffles and shivers, but couldn’t stop crying. He was smiling, but still crying, and if that didn’t perfectly depict this situation, you’re not sure there’s anything out there that did. Haphazardly, he planted a cold kiss on your forehead before pulling you into a hug.

“I’m so happy you’re ok,” he whispered. “I’m so, so sorry.”

“Why? You had nothing to do with this.”

“I’m just sorry in general. I’m sorry I took you for granted. I’m sorry for making you feel like I was replacing you. I’m sorry for not buying you that cappuccino three years ago. I’m sorry for -”

What’s the only way to silence your sexy boss in a heartfelt moment like this that would complete this superhero plot line? Kissing him mid-sentence, of course. You kissed your loving boss fully, wrapping your arms around his neck and pressing your whole body into it. It took him a while to register that yes, his secretary was definitely kissing him, but once it did, he kissed you even harder, enough to make you fall back onto the grass with him on top of you.

You’re left breathless the moment your lips parted. “I-I, uh, I forgive you…”

“How could you ever think that I could replace you?” he muttered. “I could never. Not in this lifetime.”

“You also said that me and you wouldn’t happen in this lifetime,” you challenged.

“Lifetimes can merge into one, I guess.”

Iron Man returned to Minho’s basement as soon as his job was done, so your favorite driver picked you two up in ten minutes with plush hot towels and dry clothes to change into. The pajamas you wore already had your initials monogrammed over your heart.

“Yeah, uh, about that,” Minho began awkwardly on the car ride home. “I was going to gift them to you a couple Christmases ago, but you said that monogrammed clothing was cheesy and stupid, so I abstained…”

“... They’re not so bad,” you admitted truthfully. “Very soft.”

Coming home to Minho’s felt so wrong, yet so right. You’ve only ever been inside for business reasons, such as redesigning his closets and kitchen pantry, but now that you were here on leisure - well, after almost fucking dying - it was kind of weird. But Minho holding your hand reassured you that you were wanted here - that he needed you here, damp with salt water and all.

“Take a shower upstairs. I’ll go make some tea.”

You gladly obeyed, using your favorite shower that you helped design. The door and the walls of the shower were made of glass and the shower head hung from the ceiling, making your long, hot shower feel like it was raining. Your body was covered in cuts and bruises and it was really ugly, but you’ve never felt more badass and in control in your entire life.

You left the shower smelling like orchids and eucalyptus and entered the kitchen that smelled like ginger and honey. Minho, who had also showered, followed shortly after, stealing a kiss on your cheek that was cut up earlier that evening.

You followed Minho to his giant marble island while he poured tea into white mugs on the other side. This felt so… domestic. This felt so right. This felt like home.

“I have a business proposition for you,” he smirked slyly.

Well, that ruined the moment. “What, no ‘how have you been the past month since I replaced you with some other chick’?”

“I promise I’ll ask that after, but I need to ask you this.” Your hard-headed boss was all giddy just at the idea of it and it was the first time in a whole month since you’ve seen him smile like this. He was so, so cute.

“Fine, what is it?”

“I want to hire you back.”

“Mr. Lee, I already told you, I can’t -”

“As the Head Director of the Iron Man project.”

Your eyes widened at the prestigious title. “Head Director?”

“You stayed by my side through all the criticism and the praise and I can’t imagine a better person for the position.”

“So it’s not just a fancy title for like, super mega ultra secretary, right…?”

Your handsome man chuckled. “No, I promise.”

“Head Director, huh?” your lips slowly spread into a grin. “I like the sound of that.”

“Is that a yes?”

“On a few conditions.”

“Hit me.”

“Higher pay with time-and-a-half.”

“Obviously.”

“I get my own secretary.”

“Only if you don’t fall in love with them like I did.”

You rolled your eyes and continued. “An extra week of vacation.”

“You’re pushing it.”

“Last one. I’m your date to every event from now on.”

Minho raised his eyebrow teasingly. “Oh? And if I say no?”

“Then I say no.”

“Jeez, I’m kidding! So strict. Of course you can, on two conditions.”

“Fine.”

“You call me Minho from now on. Or boyfriend, or soulmate, or sexiest man alive, or whatever suits your fancy.”

“Deal.”

“Second,” Minho leaned in and puckered his pink lips. “Seal this with a kiss.”

You start your new job next week - after Minho cashed in one week of vacation to spend with his soulmate.