[CONTENTID1]set[/CONTENTID1]

[CONTENTID2]Chapter Thirty[/CONTENTID2]

[CONTENTID3]

Jakyung smiled at the delivery boy as he placed the large box of coffee on the floor next to her desk.

“Thank you for such fast service,” she told him cordially. “I wasn’t expecting this to come until next Monday.” The delivery boy beamed and handed her a receipt.

“Anything for our top customer,” he said. “We aim to provide the best service possible.” Jakyung hardly thought she was a top customer of the coffee company, but she supposed it was a speech he had to give as a part of the job.

“What a nice office you have, ma’am,” the delivery boy told her as she signed the receipt. “It must be nice to look out over the city.”

“Quite,” Jakyung said distractedly as she glanced over the list of purchases. “I thought I ordered French Vanilla?” The boy checked his delivery list and back at the receipt.

“You’re right. I apologize!” He bowed, and tried to take the box back, but Jakyung moved it out of his reach.

“It’s not a problem…” she glanced at his name tag. “Seunghoon. It’s not a problem, Seunghoon. If I add French Vanilla cream, the taste would be the same.” It really wouldn’t but she didn’t want to keep drinking the ty stuff her brother insisted on buying for the office. The relieved look on the young man’s face told her that she had said the magic words as he dipped into another bow.

“I will be sure to let the company have your next shipment sent on the house!” He chirped. She sent him on his way and briefly thought about having a breakfast sandwich delivered from the employee food court. It was still fairly early in the morning, and the only other person around were the twins, Yue and Luna, who were off on another floor arranging things for an upcoming business trip. Deciding against traveling through the fairly empty building, Jakyung ripped open the box and found that the shipment wasn’t even the plain coffee that she had been expecting from the receipt. She snorted in amusement. Well, coffee was coffee; at least this company made it well.

She popped the chocolate raspberry flavored K-cup into the machine on top of the mini-fridge next to her desk and watched disinterestedly as it whirred and hummed. When it was finished brewing, she sniffed it tentatively and wrinkled her nose. It didn’t smell bad, but she was used to the subtle aroma of soft vanilla, not the tartness of raspberry. The taste wasn’t so bad, but she dumped in sugar and splash of plain milk to mellow out the bitter dark chocolate undertones.

By the time her entire team had arrived in the office, Jakyung had consumed at least two more cups of coffee than she normally did. She’d found that after the first cup, she was still tired and needed the extra two as a boost. When Baekhyun waltzed in for lunch, he found her nursing yet another cup. He took a peek at the emptied K-cup canister on her desk.

“Chocolate raspberry? Isn’t that a little girly for your tastes?” He asked, sniffing the air. “It smells like the locker of a high school girl about to confess to the aloof bad boy. Have you finally come to your senses and realized your undying love for me?” Jakyung nearly dumped the hot liquid over his head.

“Yeah; I love you, alright,” she scoffed. “Love driving my fist into your face. Food should be here soon. Your turn to pay, asshat.”

They had retained their normal bickering since the kiss three days ago. It was quite easy, for the both of them; and they had agreed that they had just gotten caught up in the tense atmosphere. Neither of them wanted to think too hard about why the atmosphere was like that in the first place, and so it was just easier to return to their status quo of friendly banter.

“Aecha is going to be the bartender for the party this tomorrow,” he told her. “Suho has the hots for her, I’m pretty sure. I think it’s because she calls him the father of the group.”

“He seems like the type that would have a ,” Jakyung mused into her mug of coffee. Baekhyun shot her a look.

“What did I say about discussing the ual preferences of my friends? It’s disgusting,” he made a dramatic grab for the bottle of hand sanitizer on the desk. She looked at him, unimpressed.

“Don’t pretend you’re so innocent,” she scolded. “Chen told me about that one time with Kyungsoo and that one girl named Trini—” Baekhyun stood and slapped a hand over before she could say anything else. Jakyung snickered at his flushed face and his palm. He pulled it away and had another pass at the hand sanitizer.

“You are the worst,” he grumbled. A few seconds later, there was a knock at the door and their food had arrived. The lunch was filled with the usual barbs until Baekhyun received a text from Kai asking him to come down to the OEX building for some meeting with Suho’s father. He bid her goodbye and Jakyung finished the rest of the food alone, placing the leftovers in the mini-fridge for an afternoon snack.

At 4:45, Kyungmi stuck her head into the office to remind Jakyung that she had a meeting with her brother. Jakyung gathered her folder and notepad and took the elevator up to the 16th floor. She was surprised to find that her brother was pacing in front of his desk.

“I just received a call from Jiyeon,” he told her as she watched him prowl the room. “She is trying to find information of why Seunghyun was the one chasing you and not one of the less important people.”

“And?” Jakyung asked. Since Baekhyun had told her about YG and she had supplemented that information with that her brother gave her, she had been curious, too.

“She hasn’t found anything. All she was able to dig up was that YG is targeting you to get to me,” he said, finally slumping down into his chair. “If Jiyeon wasn’t able to get any information…” He traile doff, but Jakyung could guess his meaning. Jiyeon was his right-hand woman, and someone he touted as the best at what she did. If the crazy woman could torture it out of someone, then the information was really scarce, or she wasn’t as good as everyone thought.

“Well, doesn’t that make things simple in a way?” Jakyung offered, trying to push down her own worry. Taekyung shook his head.

“YG is unpredictable. He shot our father out of the blue. It wasn’t like there was a big conflict between the big three,” he said, using the nickname for the three largest gangs in Seoul. “I’m worried that he’s so adamant about targeting you.” This was the brother that Jakyung had missed since finding out about her family’s gang relations. Taekyung had always been very attentive to her safety and happiness, and she missed the times when he would show that tender side towards her.

“I’ll be fine, Taekyung,” she told him sincerely. “Have you seen the people I hang around?” She meant it as a joke, but apparently Taekyung didn’t find it so funny.

“I think you should stay with them,” he told her seriously. It took a moment, but when she realized what he meant, she burst out laughing.

“Are you out of your mind? I wouldn’t last two days in that testosterone filled den of sin,” she told him. “What kind of brother would send his darling little sister to that kind of environment?”

“One that’s looking out for her safety,” he told her sternly. “You spend all of your time there anyways; why not just move in. I’m sure they have room.” He didn’t tell her that he’d already asked Suho if they had any extra rooms available.

“It’s not happening,” she rejected. “I like my apartment. I only just memorized the driving routes, so it would be a shame to put all my hard work to waste.” Taekyung let out an exasperated sigh.

“Then at least let me boost the security,” he offered. Jakyung thought about it for a moment and nodded.

“Sehun has done some modifications, so you should talk to him,” she told him. “Now didn’t I come here for a meeting about the branch in New York?”

When Jakyung left for the day, she grabbed another few K-cups from the box. The flavor was growing on her. She headed to the EXO mansion, ready for the rematch Xiumin had asked for in Mario Kart. She beat him again, of course.

“I’m just too good,” she said with a yawn. She stretched out on his bed and eyed the pillow.

“How are you sleepy? Didn’t you just drink a cup of coffee?” Xiumin asked, shamelessly ogling her body. Jakyung shrugged and curled up next to him.

“I’ve had so many cups of coffee in my life, Xiumin,” she said airily. “I’m immune to it. But I got a new coffee today – chocolate raspberry—it’s unexpectedly tasty.” She yawned again and he patted her head affectionately.

“Are you planning on falling asleep? You haven’t eaten dinner,” he pointed out. Jakyung sat up and leaned against him. “Let’s go out. It shou