"Basically, Mr. Kim, whose father is a dear friend of mine, asked me to point out the most outstanding student of the entire law course, who happens to be you, Mr. Cho. He needs someone who can handle the bureaucracy section of his new office, and I thought it could be actually a good mean for you to acquire a bit of experience while you write your final thesis."

"This might be a joke of fate, even a bad one" Ryeowook thought while reviewing the events occured just the previous week. He was sitting behind the desk of the vice-president, bent over the table as he propped himself on the elbows and held his head in both hands, raking his hair as if he wanted to completely pull it out due to the stress.

"You knew it!" Ryeowook shouted at Kyuhyun. He had just pulled him by the collar into a deserted room of the empty floor that was about to become his office very soon "You ing knew it and you didn't tell me anything?! You ing knew it and proposed the deal game again?!"

"What?" Kyuhyun grabbed Ryeowook's hands from his shirt collar and forcefully pulled them away "Does my face look like the one of somebody who knew I would be working with you all along?!"

"Why the hell did you propose to sleep together then, if you didn't know we would have met on a daily basis?!" Ryeowook's eyes were huge in their shock, almost on the verge of a mental breakdown.

"Believe me when I say that I didn't know your brother planned to have you as the new office vice-president. Least of all, I didn't know he had ties with my professor and that he would have eventually proposed me for the empty place of lawyer! Hell, I didn't even know you would have lived in Korea for a while! I was ready to say my goodbye to you on the day you'd have returned back to the US!" Kyuhyun explained, his voice abnormally high as he tried to sound the least convincing.

Ryeowook's shoulders slumped all of a sudden: "Why...is this a bad joke?" he whispered.

"Is it to you?" Kyuhyun asked "Are you regretting saying yes to me?"

"I couldn't know!" Ryeowook justified himself with a light shrug, fighting the urge to shed tears out of a nervous reaction.

"If you want to back off our deal, you can do it. I'm letting you go, just tell me straight that you regret our night, that you regret everything, but be ready to take the blame. I wasn't this messed when you first entered my life. You came and ruined my inner balance, you added onto the struggles of coping with a fresh breakup, you crept under my skin and who knows exactly what kind of poisonous power you did use on me, but I swear I wasn't like this! You...were the biggest mistake I could have ever..."

Kyuhyun suddenly stopped unleashing his rage. Ryeowook's eyes were glistening with unshed tears, but they were already so filled up with pearls of water that it was just a matter of seconds before his facade could crumble like a porcelain mask, smashed onto the ground.

"Am I?" Ryeowook bit his lips, fighting to keep his resolve.

"No, no...don't...please, don't cry" Kyuhyun delicately cupped his face and held it so close, just a breath apart so Kyuhyun could read into the depths of his hurt eyes, past the tears "You know that I hate to see you cry"

"I'm not crying!" Ryeowook sniffed once or twice, wiping his eyes with the back of his hand, before unexpectedly throwing himself in the arms of Kyuhyun. He entoured the taller man's neck and hid his face under Kyuhyun's neck, not able to stop sniffling with his nose.

Automatically Kyuhyun closed his arms around Ryeowook's waist and pulled him tighter into the embrace: "I'm sorry, truly sorry for what I said. Both now and earlier during breakfast. I almost outed our night in front of Jongwoon and...I was disrespectful to you with my words. I spoke without thinking of the consequences"

He felt Ryeowook's hair tickling his jaw, meaning that he was nodding and probably accepting his apology that way. It was then that he added the rest: "I'm sorry for now as well, I didn't mean to shout at you or..."

"It's okay" Ryeowook murmured.

"No, it isn't!" Kyuhyun sighed, tightening the hold "I honestly don't want you to back off what you promised. I want..."

"I won't back off. I can keep my word, especially when... Kyuhyun, I..." Ryeowook pulled back from the little nook , still a bit ashamed to look at him in the eye "...I want to do this, with you... I want to meet you as many times I can, because..." 

His stream of thoughts was suddenly interrupted by a soft knock at the door.

"Come in!" he sternly pronounced, thinking it might be one of the secretaries, he had at least three that attended to him now that Heechul had appointed him as the vice-president of the Kim's Couture Enterprise.

Ryeowook tried to comb his hair back to dignity with a hand, when he gave up after noticing it was just Kyuhyun closing the door at his back.

"Hello, mr. vice-president!" he greeted with extraordinarily chirping voice and a smile that showcased almost the entire row of pearly white teeth.

"What's up, why are you here this late?" Ryeowook asked, hating to think that Kyuhyun had this strange power of manifesting his presence every single time his thoughts were revolving around the man, labelling this one as the only protagonist.

"I can ask you the same question" Kyuhyun walked up the desk and stopped in front of it with hands in his pockets "Everyone's heading home, since it's 7pm. You should do the same, especially because..."

"...because tomorrow we're leaving for Hong Kong. I know that Kyuhyun, you don't need to remind me. Jongwoon does it already enough times a day" Ryeowook sighed out of distress, placing his cheek on the cold surface of the table and looking inconsolable.

"Why?" Kyuhyun sat on the desk, automatically stretching a hand on Ryeowook's hair, fondling it with sweet caresses aimed at loosen up all his pent up tention.

"He whines because he cannot come along. You know that after the university found out he was dating a student, he was thrown out. Since we're living in Korea right now, he has been looking for a job and recently found a good teaching position at an elementary school. He wanted to, but Jongwoon won't be coming with us" Ryeowook explained, pouting but melting in the touch at the same time, feeling the caresses way too relaxing on himself.

"And, are you sad because he can't follow you on your first business trip?" Kyuhyun asked again, his hand stopping to move all of a sudden, troubled to know Ryeowook's true answer then. The small change made Ryeowook almost feel Kyuhyun's behavior and his worries.

That hand seemed to froze for a couple of seconds before being pulled away, as if Kyuhyun was waiting for Ryeowook to speak his mind only to weigh the true meaning behind his words.

"I...am tired, Kyuhyun. I'll simply go home" Ryeowook lifted himself up and, after retrieving his jacket from the hanger, he moved past Kyuhyun towards the door. He was pulled back when the taller man followed him, crashing right into Kyuhyun's arms. Those plump lips already glued like a er against the lean bare neck: "Do you want to stop by my place?"

Ryeowook pulled back his head, leaving more access to Kyuhyun's trailing kisses along his protruding veins, that faint scent of violets and citrus still deliciously lingering on his skin was driving Kyuhyun crazy to the point that he began nibbling the soft flesh, fighting the urge to bite him.

"N-no...Jongwoon is..."

"He's waiting for you, I know" Kyuhyun's tongue flicked almost under the collar of Ryeowook's shirt before he could sigh in defeat and let him go "We will never have a moment alone, won't we?" he leaned towards the door and held it open for Ryeowook to pass.

"You do terribly want that I start cheating on him properly, right?" Ryeowook's eyebrows furrowed in certified suspicion. He pushed the button to call the elevator, which opened almost immediately to the two men.

"I'm looking forward to it, yes. Do I look that anxious?" Kyuhyun looked at him and nervously laughed while scratching the back of his neck, when Ryeowook nodded in agreement "But, I haven't had you once ever since you said yes to our deal again, and that was weeks ago now! Try to understand me! Are you making me look like a fool?" 

"And you, try to understand that I'm not a toy for you to use when you get . I've got a life outside this office, which doesn't involve you" Ryeowook said, trying to sound as detatched as possible, but feeling the notes of his voice faltering. He was fighting to keep his together, or he'd have allowed Kyuhyun to touch him even inside the 1.5 meters walls of that narrow elevator.

"Unfortunately..." Kyuhyun pouted, blabbering under breath.

"What?" Ryeowook asked, but Kyuhyun simply smiled and brushed it off: "Never mind"

Ryeowook walked out of the elevator, reaching the underground parking lot where he had left his car. Walking to where it was, he didn't mind Kyuhyun following him like a shadow, even though he perfectly knew that Kyuhyun didn't have a car and commuted by public transport. Before grasping the handle of the door, Ryeowook turned to Kyuhyun and gravely sighed: "K-Kyuhyun" he shyly let out a warm blow of breath, catching the taller man's wholehearted attention: "If it weren't for that night we slept together the first time at my place in Los Angeles, would you have fallen for me?" he asked, hoping to get a sincere answer from a quite startled Kyuhyun.

And maybe he had been too quick and rushed in his decision, but as soon as he read uncertainty manifesting on Kyuhyun's facial features, Ryeowook showed his best smile and shrugged: "Never mind" it was now his turn to calm Kyuhyun with those words "Do you need a lift home?" he tipped his head in his car direction, but Kyuhyun shook his head, still a bit shocked of the outcome. He had never thought Ryeowook could go back to that kind of talk between them, and ask for a sincere reply. 

He was taken so aback that he had preferred staying silent instead of bursting into a series of unspoken yes, yes, yes, I would have fallen head over heels for you all the same, just give me a chance already!

"I'm walking to the subway, don't worry" Kyuhyun smiled back and leaned in to softly peck Ryeowook's cheek once "I'll see you tomorrow then?"

Ryeowook nodded: "Gimpo Airport, 10am. Don't make me wait too much!" and with a last wink and a faltering smile, he disappeared inside the car before taking the road back home.

"You didn't give me a chance to explain either, Kim Ryeowook... Why damn did I have to fall in love with such a complex being like you?" Kyuhyun sighed as he eyed the back of the car completely disappearing behind the corner.

"We are really out to Hong Kong together alone, aren't we?" Ryeowook couldn't help but keep on thinking that over and over again, as he was still bravely leading his inner fight between keeping his resolve, or crumbling down in front of Kyuhyun's noticeable presence on that flight.

The taller man sat on the sumptuously large seat right next to Ryeowook. Even though the flight would have taken only a few couple of hours, he had dozed off and was calmly sleeping with his earplugs in, listening to some ballads that could have helped him to sleep.

Ryeowook had noticed that the younger man wasn't near to look any decent. Kyuhyun probably musn't have had the most comforting of sleeps during the past night either, he guessed it by the slight presence of black circles under his puffy eyes, or the way he soundly slept and breathed through the slightly parted, pouting lips. Even his head wasn't rested against the headrest, instead it dangerously fell onto the side as Kyuhyun looked like in some sort of trouble while finding the best position to rest.

With a deep sigh that betrayed a mixture of guilty excitement and pointless fear as well, Ryeowook moved his right hand to softly cup Kyuhyun's jaw, gently directing the man's head onto his left shoulder, where he hoped Kyuhyun could finally rest in a better way.

Right after leaning into the improvised pillow, Kyuhyun let out a last sigh before a little smile was evoked on his lips, visibly satisfied even in his dreams.

Ryeowook couldn't help but smile as well, infected by Kyuhyun's baby-like, innocent-looking sleep.

They were already half way into the trip and most of the passengers had stopped walking back and forth, asking assistance for their needs. Ryeowook threw a discreet look at the corridor in order to check whether the area was free and safe enough to be doing what he terribly wanted to do.

"Luckily for me, you're sleeping like a baby" Ryeowook amusedly smiled, whispering to Kyuhyun's cheek after leaning a bit into the tangle of messy, auburn hair that was covering his shoulder "or I wouldn't tell you this if you were to be awake"

His lips delicately brushed against Kyuhyun's forehead, and Ryeowook took his time to plant soft, little pecks: "The way you make me feel is undescribable, I'd have wanted to meet you sooner and claimed you mine way before meeting Jongwoon. Would it be possible to go back in time, I'd bring myself to rewind it all to our first meeting. Because honestly, I wouldn't change anything in the way we met. You were an , I was the same. We crashed and crashed until we accepted each other"

Kyuhyun slightly stirred as he moved to conquest more place on Ryeowook's tiny shoulder, hiding his face in the petite man's crook of the neck. For a second that lasted an eternity, Ryeowook was forced to hold his breath in fear that Kyuhyun might have woken up and actually listened to everthing he was saying.

When danger was past over, Ryeowook relaxed in his seat and kept caressing Kyuhyun's visible cheek, wanting nothing more than make him feel all the appreciation he felt through those little, loving gestures: "I'm scared though. I'm scared to lose it all this time. We're alone in another country, I'm scared that I could slip into your bed for three nights straight and even enjoy the selfish wish of being momentarily yours, which I