“I’ll drive you”, Mir uttered as he saw Yoseob jumping around anxiously, waiting for a cab. Without any hesitation, the police officer followed Mir into his car and ordered him to drive towards the office’s nearby soccer field as quickly as he could. The suited man nodded and started driving speedily, not completely sure of what was going on but seeing Yoseob that anxious, and hearing him yelling Junhyung’s name seconds ago, he guessed that it probably had something to do with that man. 


“What’s going on?” He asked after moments of silence, unable to bear with staying in the unknown. At the corner of his eyes, he saw Yoseob cracking his knuckles nervously, eyes directed to the front of the road but obviously unfocused as it was glazed. “Mr Yong could be in trouble”, Yoseob whispered, his lips losing its colour really quickly. “What sort of trouble?” “Hara was seen carrying a knife, saying that she was going to claim what’s hers while possibly heading to where Junhyung is at.” “You think she has the intention to injure him?”


“I don’t know. I just need to go there now to make sure that he’s fine.” “Yoseob, you are not his bodyguard and you are not anybody to him right? So why do you worry so much for him?” The police officer turned and glared at Mir, snapping, “He’s my boss. Why can’t I worry for him?” “Well, whoever you were talking to on the phone would probably have gotten to him before you do. So just relax and take it easy. No point getting this agitated when we still have some time and distance to the soccer field.”


Yoseob slumped against the seat and scowled, as much as he was mad and anxious, Mir was right. Trust that man to remain so calm and gentle even at such a time. After some quiet moments, Yoseob turned to Mir, murmuring softly but loud enough for the man to hear, “I’m sorry for snapping at you. I just—“. “It’s alright, I know you well enough. You were just anxious about the whole situation and you didn’t mean to snap in that manner.” Yoseob clamped his lips together, maintaining his silence and grateful that Mir was this understanding. This was why he even fell for him before. His gentleness, his thoughtfulness and his patience.


When they finally reached the soccer field, Yoseob was about to hop out of the car when he felt a hand around his wrist. Turning around questioningly, he met Mir’s pleading eyes, “Can we ever get back to what we used to be?” “I’m sorry, Mir.” Yoseob gently pulled his hand away only to have that hand tightly held on to. He stared at Mir’s hand, sighing when he saw how the man’s knuckles have turned white from gripping Yoseob so tightly and how his ring had left a harmless indentation on Yoseob’s wrist. “Mir, we can no longer be. What we had was beautiful so let’s keep it at that.”


This time, he exerted more force and pulled his hand away successfully, running towards the field as Mir watched him go sadly.


Seeing the empty field, Yoseob ran to the changing room and true enough, everybody was there. The police were surrounding Hara, who was sitting on a bench looking terrified. The petite man scanned the room quickly and when he spotted Junhyung sitting on another bench at the opposite side of the room, he gave a loud sigh of relief and ran towards him. The CEO who had only just noticed Yoseob, rose from his seat and allowed the smaller male to lunge into his embrace. He smiled affectionately at the smaller male who had wrapped his arms around his waist tightly, murmuring into his chest, “Thank heavens you are okay.” Junhyung did a celebratory dance internally as he relished in the concern the smaller male has for him.  


“And you said you weren’t together”, Hara spat vehemently, glaring at the two who were too close for a boss and secretary relationship. Hyunseung cleared his throat and stood in the middle, gathering everybody’s attention. "As mentioned, this is just a really bad misunderstanding and Miss Goo here, please do not carry a knife around next time. It just makes you highly suspicious and that’s why we even had this misunderstanding." “You guys just pinned me down without even asking me anything. Do you even know how frightened I was? Get ready to receive a letter from my lawyer for causing me to be traumatised emotionally.” “Yes, sure”, Hyunseung replied nonchalantly, walking towards Junhyung now. 

“Mr Yong, we will be bringing your Human Resource head back for investigation as we mentioned previously that she had thrown the vase with the intention to harm your secretary.” “I did not want to harm him! I just wanted to scare him so that he wouldn’t go near my man!” Junhyung walked towards her and stared at her sternly, “I saw that the vase falling directly towards his head with my very own eyes. From now on, I don’t care what your father has to say about our dealings but you no longer have to report back to work. And just so you know, I am not your man, I am his man.”


A series of collective gasps went around the room as all the colleagues had the rumours confirmed by the CEO himself. Yoseob inched slowly to Junhyung and whispered softly only for him to hear from the corner of his lips, “You haven’t asked me yet, so you are not my man.” The CEO almost burst out laughing at the police officer’s adamant behaviour and wanted to just scoop him into his arms, back to the mansion for some cuddling but he held himself back to maintain his CEO image. The police officer gave a small cough and tried to control the situation, not wanting his boss to take him out of the case because of his feelings for the CEO, “Mr Yong sure knows how to joke! It’s good that so many of you are here we can take this chance to squash the rumours of us. He’s a very good boss and yes we are very close, but we are like brothers, not what you all are thinking.” 


He thought he heard a few disappointed sighs but he brushed it aside and continued, “Police officer sir, do you all need my or Mr Yong’s help for the investigation? If not, can he continue his soccer game with my other colleagues?” Hyunseung eyed him pointedly, conveying that Yoseob had to be on higher alert and that he would not hesitate to pull him out of the case if things got too personal which the smaller male understood immediately even with the lack of words, “Yes, Mr Yong may return to bonding with his colleagues. We would just bring this woman along and most probably charge her for the relevant offence.” Yoseob bowed politely and sent the group of officers to the door before turning back to Junhyung questioningly. 


“The knife was apparently for a cake that she baked for me”, the CEO explained, “Everyone just read too much into it because she is found to be guilty of throwing the vase in your direction.” Yoseob nodded and frowned, wondering if Hara could be the murderer then. Leaving fingerprints on the vase was not what the murderer would have done as the murderer left no trace behind. No footprints, no fingerprints, no murder weapon, nothing at all. Was Hara careless this time round or was she not the murderer at all? He watched as everyone cleared out of the room to resume their soccer game and just as he was about to follow them to sit on the stands and wait for Junhyung, he felt a hand holding him back. His eyes bulged a little at the sight of who it was, wondering why he would even be caught playing soccer with Junhyung.


“Mr Yong didn’t seem to be joking when he talked about him being your man”, Woohyun stated, eyes looking at Yoseob intensely, as if trying to read through the smaller male. The police officer was all too well trained to act the part and merely blinked innocently, “Well, we are definitely close but what we have, we don’t have to answer to anybody.” “So are you guys together or not?” “I’ve said it once and I’m not going to say it again after this time. What we have, we are not answerable to anyone. It’s up to you to think what you want but for me, Mr Yong is a close friend whom I treasure.” With that, he walked away, leaving Woohyun to ponder over his words. He knew he couldn’t deny the rumours outright as it would be too obvious that it was a lie and so, he decided that the best thing he could do was to leave the man hanging, not confirming the fact but not denying it. Then, at least, there would be a sense of doubt. 


As he headed for the stands, Woohyun brushed past him and whispered, “It would do you no good to be near that man.” Yoseob continued walking naturally and sat at the stands upon reaching it, his head whirling as he thought if there were more meaning to what he said. Leaning back comfortably, he watched the male colleagues all playing soccer and scoffed as he realised Woohyun was in a different team from Junhyung and they were marking each other. No wonder. And to think he was taken aback as to why Woohyun would even be caught playing soccer with Junhyung. 


When the match had ended, the CEO went to wash up and walked to where Yoseob was sitting.


“Woohyun hates you”, Yoseob spoke softly, not wanting anybody else to overhear their conversation. Junhyung nodded uncaringly, “Yeah, he’s always like this to me. For any soccer matches, he would always try to beat me. That competitive streak in him never dies.” “I doubt he really fancies me anyway, I feel it was a slight attraction fuelled on by his unwillingness to lose to you.” “What has he been saying to you again?” “Nothing of importance”, the police officer shrugged casually, indicating the end of the topic. 


“So anyway… Hara. Do you think she’s the one?” Yoseob asked, currently still a little lost in figuring out who the murderer is. “Doesn’t seem like it, she’s vicious, no doubt, but she’s too rash to pull off killing my parents and getting away with it for so long.” The smaller male nodded in agreement and sighed, knowing that they are pretty stuck once again although there was a little light in this as it meant that they were down to two suspects only. Yoseob highly doubted Mir was the one and was deciding if he should focus his efforts on Woohyun then. 


The CEO was pulling Yoseob’s arm softly, indicating that they should be going home when they heard people shouting at them cheerily. Doojoon, Dongwoon and Hongki were waving at them at the front of the stands, asking if they would like to go for dinner. The smaller male felt exhausted from the day and the last thing on his mind was to have dinner with the three of them, especially the ever touchy Doojoon. Sensing his unwillingness, Junhyung gave a yawn, stretching dramatically saying that he was tired and he would rather not. Amused but grateful, Yoseob gave him a subtle slap on the back, only to earn a toothy grin from the CEO and an arm across his shoulders.


The trio walked away when Hongki turned around, seemingly remembering something, “Oh Yoseob! Mr Bang said that he would bring your bag to work tomorrow as you left it at his place!” The police officer felt the sudden stiffening of Junhyung’s arm on his shoulder and felt it slide away almost instantly, and he sighed, cursing internally as he realised that he had placed his bag beside the couch when he was talking to Mir’s mother. Turning to look at the CEO and explain, he saw that the said man was already walking away, towards their bicycles which was parked near where they were.  


He quickened his pace to catch up with the CEO but the older man was already cycling away. Yoseob muttered angrily to himself, “getting so jealous so easily”, he hopped up his own bicycle and cycled after him, not bothering to catch up as he knew the man needed to be coax in the privacy of his home but keeping a distance close enough to make sure he’s safe. When they entered the mansion, the butler greeted them, informing that dinner would be ready in half an hour which made Yoseob glad for the time he has to cajole the big baby. 


Junhyung, however, just continued on to his bedroom, Yoseob trailing behind him. Before he could close the door, the police officer had already slipped in, causing the CEO to huff and sit on the bed, sulking. Yoseob c