Chapter #23:

            The Visit.

“Oh- you’re back.” Baekhyun who was yet again completely engrossed in scrolling down his mobile’s screen cocked his head up as soon as he heard that and let out a small acknowledging hum when he saw his wife standing in front of the dressing table. She has dressed in her night clothes already; probably with the intention of going to sleep soon. He won’t blame her for retiring early to bed today because they all did have a really long, tiring journey back home from the hotel. It was only normal to be more tired than usual. Neither of them spoke a word after that as Baekhyun wordlessly made his way towards the dressing table too and saw his wife stepping aside to make space for him. He gave her a small, thankful smile before popping the first two buttons of his dress shirt open. His necktie and coat were already placed on the couch near the entrance door where he had conveniently deposited them when he had entered the room. To say that he was not completely exhausted would be a lie because he was utterly drained. It was actually quite difficult for him to be standing on his feet at that moment because every part of his tired body screamed in protest against all his actions. The journey itself and the encounter with Mr. Jung after that had tired him beyond his expectations and Baekhyun was more than ready to call it a day himself.

Letting out a tired sigh, next, he reached for the piercings adorning his lips and ears before finally reaching down to pull off the rings that he has decided to wear that day. It was then when he was done placing the rings down on the table did he notice Haejin’s burning gaze on himself for the first time. She was still rooted to her earlier place beside him and was intently staring at him; his bloody knuckles to be more exact. Baekhyun observed his wife for a whole, long minute in silence; contemplating what was the best thing to do in the situation before finally letting out a dry chuckle which was devoid of any kind of humor. His chuckle seemed to have disrupted his wife’s concentration because it was not a second later that she was once again staring up at his face with worried eyes. He faced her while raising a questioning brow and slowly leaned a little bit closer to her.

“What? Scared?” The young King inquired with a smug tilt to his lips and slowly started to rub away Mr. Jung’s dried blood on his knuckles while never taking his eyes off his wife. To be honest, he hasn't even noticed it that his hands were covered in blood until Haejin inquiring stare has pointed it out; if he had known then there wouldn’t even have been a single clue that he had touched blood that day. His question seemed to have startled his wife; the frown that was decorating her features at that very moment was a clear proof of that.

“Scared of what?”

“Me.” There was a long moment of silence once again after Baekhyun uttered that. He would admit that it was a little disappointing that it was taking his wife so long to comprehend that whether she wanted to be scared of him or not, but he knew that he can’t rush the things. He was actually pretty curious now to hear her response. There were only two possibilities; either he was going to be highly disappointed or he was going to be happy. There was no in between.

“W-Why would I be scared of you?” Her voice was small; not more than a mere whisper, but it was loud enough for the eldest to hear it. The way she stuttered only pointed out the obvious discomfort she was feeling at that moment from the way things have turned out to be, but her otherwise response told him that she was not going to back out of it. She was trying to pry in while staying on the safer side; it was obvious and there was no way Baekhyun wouldn’t have noticed it.

“I don’t know…maybe because I might have killed someone just before coming home today.” This time the discomfort his wife felt from his statement was blatantly visible on her face and the eldest had a feeling that she was not even trying to hide it.

“You didn’t.” The way Haejin sounded so confident about her statement amused him, but more than that it surprised him. How was she so sure? It was not like she was around him 24/7 to keep a check on him. Where was all of this confidence coming from? Letting out an amused chuckle, he stared her down with cold, empty eyes and bent his back slightly to move his face closer to hers. He was intimidating her this way, he knew it, still, he didn’t do anything to change it; there were some questions that he didn’t have answers to and his wife was the only person who could help him with them.

“Why not? I am very much capable of doing it.” The straightforwardness of his statement shocked Haejin more than what she would have liked to admit. She tried to suppress her reaction and keep it to a minimum, but still, she couldn’t stop herself from stumbling back; creating the much needed space between them. It was a kind of claim that she was never expecting to listen from her husband; let alone anyone. Yes, she knew that he was very much capable of doing that, but to say that she had never given it a single thought before this won’t be a lie because she haven’t. Haejin clearly had no idea where this all was coming from, but it was making her uncomfortable, more than that it was now starting to scare her. It took a great effort from her side to not turn her back on her husband and go to sleep already to avoid the rest of the conversation they were going to have, but she still did it. Something told her that if she turned her back on him today then both of them would be back to the square one like they have initially been.

“Baekhyu-” Haejin started hesitantly, but was rudely cut off by her husband; who once again took a step closer to her. He seemed calm; eerily calm despite the conversation they were having. If she didn’t know him any better she would have thought that he was messing around with her, but she knew him better than that; she knew that there was no joke going around.

“What if I tell you that I killed someone today?”

“S-Stop it! Why are you being like this?” The young Queen protested in a desperate manner to her husband seeming completely done with his attitude and this time willingly took a step closer to him herself. She seriously had no idea about what was going inside his head, but whatever it was; she was not happy with it.

“If you would tell me that you killed someone today then I will only tell you that it’s okay because I know you won’t kill anyone without a big, solid reason. You’re not a killer, Baekhyun!” She continued her rant even before Baekhyun could think of opening his mouth to answer her. Something shifted inside her husband’s gaze as soon as she uttered those words. He looked pleasantly surprised by her claim which made her wonder that exactly what kind of thoughts he had conjured up inside his mind about her opinion on his own.

“Why would you trust me so much?”

Why would I trust him?

Why would I not trust him?

What the hell is wrong with this jerk?

The young queen thought to herself incredulously and once again took a step closer to him.

“I would trust you because I want to trust you! Why are you always trying to push me away?” Haejin exploded and gave a light, agitated push at her husband’s shoulder. It was frustrating; everything that happened in the course of a single day. All those secrets, revelations and silent questions have riled her up against a wall. She was not ready to take her husband up with another argument at the night time just before she goes to a peaceful slumber.

This time Baekhyun (who was not expecting the push at all) was the one who stumbled back in shock slightly from the unexpected shove and looked up at her wife with wide questioning eyes. He clearly did not see it coming.

“I want this to work, you know? I want this marriage to work and I am trying really hard to make it happen, but whenever I think that we took a step further in our relationship you always go three steps back without giving me a proper explanation that why you’re doing it. I don’t read minds, Baekhyun. You need to tell me about the things that bother you. I won’t know about them ever otherwise.” Baekhyun was at a loss for words. Emotions and feelings were something that he was not good at dealing with and luckily he never had to do it; at least, not till now. No one has ever confronted him this way. It was his very first time and he had no idea how he was supposed to handle it. The rotten way that he has been handling things all this time told him that he was a totally hopeless case in this department. He didn’t know a single thing that he was supposed to do to make this marriage successful. One thing that he did know was that the heavy feeling that has been settled on his shoulders ever since the encounter with Mr. Jung was finally being lifted off. He was glad to hear that she wanted to make this marriage work and was even trying for it because he certainly was not an expert at doing it. He had tried being nicer to her and at least be a little bit more romantic, but it seemed like those two things were not enough to make a long-lasting relationship. He was trying to change himself little by little and he hoped that Haejin knew that he was making an effort in his own way. There was once again a long stretch of silence around them, as the second hand on the clock proceeded to move continuously without any intervals before the eldest finally decided to break the silence between them.

“I didn’t kill him,”

“I know.”

“…but I might have to- in the future.”

“I am sure you won’t do it as long as you don’t have a solid reason for it.” Haejin was not stupid. She knew that the ruler of the Kingdoms have to make all the difficult decisions and sometimes when the need arises they have to dirty their own hands; her husband was not going to be any different.

“I don’t really match the ideal picture of husbands that girls have in their minds.” A chuckle involuntarily escaped her lips as soon as she heard that and watched with a small smile as the corners of Baekhyun’s lips twitched up to bloom in a smile too; sadly her husband has the urge under his control already. Nevertheless, she was happy that the things were starting to get less tense around them.

“You think I don’t know that already.”

“There is no harm in being cautious. Plus, I am the least romantic person that you will ever come across.” Her husband replied with the shrug of his shoulders and then continued without any pause.

“I think I am already well acquainted with that property too.”

“It won’t take me a small amount of time to open up to you completely.”

“I can live with that as long as you promise that even though it’s slow you would do it.” Baekhyun nodded his head at that with a small hum before finally straightening up completely and stepping away from her. He completely opened the buttons of his dress shirt and shuck off the fiber from his body before gazing at his wife through his peripheral vision with a smirk. Haejin can’t really believe it, but she was glad to see his lips tilting up in a smug manner rather than that angry scowl or his empty expression.

“Well, if that’s settled then there is only one more thing for you to know.” He stated casually and flung the shirt he just took off towards the couch where he had discarded his tie and coat.

“What?” Haejin had a bad feeling about it; especially that smirk that was adorning his face was way too mischievous for her liking. He was going to say something that would either make her extremely pissed or extremely embarrassed and that smug jerk was totally elated by that fact alone. Her husband was the type of guy who didn’t know the meaning of the word ‘between’.

“Nothing just wanted to tell you that Tao wasn’t lying when he said that I’m a beast in bed.” Haejin felt herself flushing rapidly due to embarrassment as soon as her mind registered his words. How come he went from an extremely serious guy to a total ert was a mystery to her; another mystery that she could not find an answer to. She hid her blushing face behind the fringe of her hair to avoid mortification and glared at her husband who was now innocently busy placing his discarded vest on the couch too as if he hadn't just suggested something totally…

She can’t call it immoral since they are married; for three months now. The thing that he just talked about was something that she was supposed to find out a long time ago; which she certainly did- thanks to her brothers-in-law. It was just the fact that it was the very first time that any one of them has touched the subject of intimacy verbally

He did not just say that!

“I didn’t break you, did I?”

That smug little !

“We are not having this conversation.” Haejin snapped at her husband in a heated manner, but it really did not have any venomous bite inside it. It was just her natural defense system trying to protect her from the further embarrassment; that she knew was to come.

“Don’t you want to kn-”

“We are not talking about it, Byun Baekhyun!”

“But-”

“Oh, God! I am so sleepy.” Haejin cut her husband off at the start of his sentence; not ready to listen to the next words that would come out of his mouth. Baekhyun was clearly enjoying it, she knew it; the fact that he was not even trying to hold back on his smug smile even a little bit was the proof that she was indeed right in her thinking. Throwing her husband, one last glare she made her way towards the bed and plopped her body down on her side of the bed quickly.

“I still think you should know about that.” Came her husband’s mischievous, but husky voice which sent a pleasant shiver down her spine that only caused her to groan in protest.

“The one time we talk about our married life and the first thing you bring up is this.” She complained and buried her scarlet face in the pillows; anything to avoid looking at her husband.

“You are such a ert.”

“Seriously! Are you calling me a ert when I haven’t even laid a single finger on you?” Baekhyun pointed out with an amused laugh and made his way towards his closet to grab some fresh clothes.

You technically did!

“Just shut up and go shower!”

“Want to join me?”

“Oh my God! Shut up!” She grumbled and closed her eyes to let the sleep come and consume her so she could escape the torture that her husband was putting her through.

He is not good for my health.

…………………………………

Next time that Haejin woke up was in the middle of the night. The digital clock on her bedside table told her that it was almost 3 in the morning and probably every other normal person was asleep. For a second she wondered that why the hell she was suddenly awake at such an ungodly hour before she finally registered the loud phone ring that was resonating around their room. She let out a small whine while willing her eyes to remain close and was finally about to get up to shut the device that was blaring so loud when her husband finally did that for her. The heavy arm that was wrapped around her waist was removed and the warmth that was pressed against her back was taken away which almost made her protest, but she was too sleepy to even do that. Letting out a small sigh, she snuggled against her pillows and tried to resume her peaceful sleep when the phone finally stopped ringing. She was drifting between the dreamland and the conscious world and would have probably let the sleep spell take over her if it was not for her husband who suddenly called out Minjoon’s name.

Minjoon; as in the bodyguard, right?

Why is he calling Baekhyun in the middle of the night?

She snapped her eyes open but didn’t dare move a single finger in fear that she would alert her husband who was intently listening to whatever his bodyguard was informing him of.

What are they talking about?

“What do you mean? Minjoon all those files were supposed to be together. How can you guys be mi