“Do I look alright?” It was Jessica’s tenth time asking Nichkhun this question.

As usual, Nichkhun gave her a reassuring smile, “You look great sica.”

The family gathering was a pretty grand event, having more than a hundred guests attending it. The couple walked past several groups of people, before Nichkhun managed to find his father chatting with a few business associates. After the introduction and a few minutes of mingling, Nichkhun dragged Jessica off to the buffet table as he was starving already.

“Let’s see, what should I eat?” Nichkhun mumbled to himself, as he scanned through the row of yummy food, before he caught Jessica grabbing some pepper crabs onto her plate. “Hey, you aren’t supposed to have that.” He said, and took away the crabs from her plate and put onto his plate. “I’ll eat them for you.” He grinned.

She sulked unhappily, “Just one please.”

He shook his head, “You’ve not recovered yet. Have some light food instead. How about some soup?”

Angry at not getting what she wanted, Jessica walked away and found a seat nearby before Nichkhun joined her. He placed the bowl of soup in front of her, and continued with his meal. Unable to fight her hunger any longer, jessica reluctantly settled for that bowl of pathetic soup.

“Oh no, here they come.” Nichkhun mumbled, as he stared at the three women walking towards him.

Jessica looked up and wondered what Nichkhun was talking about.

“Don’t speak a word when they’re here.” Nichkhun said, before one of the three women took a seat beside Nichkhun.

“Oh khunie, it’s so long since we last met. You’ve gotten chubbier though.” The woman in her mid-fifties gently pinched onto Nichkhun’s cheek.

Nichkhun gave a weak smile, and greeted, “Hi Aunt Mary. You’ve gotten prettier as well.”

Jessica almost choked on her soup, and started coughing hard, whilst Nichkhun quickly patted on her back gently.

“Oh, so who’s there? Your new girlfriend? Where’s that old one? I mean Yul, no, Yuri.” The woman asked as she scrutinized Jessica from head to toe.

“She’s Jessica Jung, Aunt Mary.” Nichkhun said.

Jessica smiled at the woman, whom gave a scowl in return. She could somewhat sense the hostility coming from the woman, and to make matters worse, Nichkhun did not seem to be on her side either.

“She looks quite pretty.” The woman commented.

“Ha, she’s still passable with this look. You look better, Aunt Mary.” Nichkhun answered with a laugh.

“Yeah, khun oppa’s right.” jessica added on reluctantly.

“Oh my, what a sweet girl. She must be really good to you, am I right, khunie?” The woman asked.

“Ha, so-so. She can be better.” Nichkhun replied.

After another few rounds of ‘interrogation’, the woman finally decided to leave the couple alone and left the table. Jessica’s expression immediately changed at that instant.

“So which other part of me are you still unsatisfied with? Better to tell me now than embarrass me in front of your relatives.” She questioned.

“I’m not. I was…just being…modest…and humble about my girlfriend.” Nichkhun replied with a smile.

“Oh really? Do I look so bad? Or do I have to treat you better next time, Your Majesty?” With that, jessica stepped on his foot hard with her heels, got up from her seat and walked away.

Nichkhun yelped in pain silently, and rubbed on his shoe, “Hey sica!” He stood up and watched her disappear into the crowd, “Ugh, how about my pepper crabs?” Nichkhun finally chose to chase after her.

“Stupid Nichkhun. Stupid, dumb man.” She cursed under her breath, trying to find the washroom.

Suddenly, jessica accidentally bumped into someone and almost fell backwards. Fortunately, the person managed to catch hold of her in time. Looking up, Jessica realized that it was Nichan’ Nichkhun brother . He stared longingly at her.

“Are you okay?” He finally asked, letting go of her.

She nodded her head, and smiled shyly. Nichan was about to speak when someone else joined them. It was Nichkhun. Hooking her hand around Nichan’s arm.

 “We got to run now, Nichan. Bye!” Nichkhun appeared from nowhere, and held onto Jessica’s hand, taking her away from the awkward situation.

Once they were outside the mansion, Nichkhun looked over at Jessica.

“I’ll send you home.” He said.

It was complete silence throughout the entire journey. Nichkhun occasionally peeped at her, and found her to be staring out of the window deep in thought. Soon, they arrived at her home, and he pulled over in front of the gate.

“We’v…” He turned around and said, but realized that Jessica was sound asleep in her seat, and facing Nichkhun.

Nichkhun did not disturb her. Instead, he quietly lay on the side of his face on his seat as well, looking at Jessica directly.

“Ah, her skin’s so smooth and clean.” He thought silently to himself as he gazed fondly at her sleeping expression.

Gently, he reached over and touched on her cheek, as his eyes slowly traveled down to her lips. Nichkhun started to lean forward to her face, having the urge to kiss her. However, he suddenly stopped, and withdrew from Jessica immediately.

“What am I doing?” He cursed himself for trying to take advantage of jessica.

Looking over at jessica again, he whispered, “And what have you done to me, Jessica Jung?”

If it was in the past, he would not have bothered by her reaction. But now, it was a different story entirely.
_________________________

“Are we meeting Mr. Smith now?” jessica asked, as she and donghae walked into the hotel lobby.

“Yes.” donghae nodded.

“But don’t you find that it’s an odd place to discuss serious matters here?” Jessica questioned.

“Oh well, Mr. Smith is currently using his hotel room as his temporary office. You don’t have to worry, I’ll be accompanying you.” donghae reassured.

“Alright.” jessica agreed after having donghae’s assurance, as they entered into the elevator.

“Please come in.” Mr. Smith opened the door and welcomed both of them.

“Wow, the room is spacious and big.” Jessica noted silently as she scanned around the surroundings.

Smith signaled for both of them to take a seat at the sitting room, while he went into another section of the room to retrieve the contract. Pouring them a glass of red wine each, he started explaining the terms and conditions in the contract, while donghae listened on and jessica had her attention on the glass of red wine. The taste’s perfect, she thought as she took another sip of it.

“If there’s no problem, you can sign here, Miss jessica.” Smith said.

Jessica looked over to donghae, whom glanced through and nodded his head to acknowledge that the contract was fine. She accepted the pen and put her signature on it.

“All the best for our cooperation.” Smith raised his wineglass, and both of them followed suit.

Donghae excused himself to the washroom first, leaving Smith and jessica alone in the sitting room. Smith waited for the door to close, before he made his way nearer towards jessica. Trying to distract her attention by chatting with her some casual topics, Smith slowly ran his hand onto jessica’s lap. However, jessica’s vision started to get a little dizzy and blur, and her awareness of the surroundings dropped significantly. Smith grinned in delight, and closed in on her, becoming more daring with each move. Meanwhile, donghae was getting a terrible stomachache in the toilet, and began wondering what he ate wrong. Just then, he caught sight of something suspicious in the dustbin placed right under the sink. Stretching his hand over and rummaging through the contents, donghae discovered two empty packets of powder, and sniffed it. They were definitely of different content. Beginning to feel uneasy, donghae quickly cleaned up himself, and quietly opened the toilet door. Taking a peek outside, he realized that jessica and Smith were no longer in the sitting room.

“Damn it.” donghae cursed under his breath, and tiptoed around the hotel suite, trying his best to ignore the immense pain in his stomach.

Hiding against the wall, donghae turned and peeped into the bedroom. He saw the unconscious jessica lying on the bed, while Smith was starting to undress himself. He needed to act fast, without putting a fight with Smith since his current physical condition would place him in an unfavorable position. Scanning around, his eyes landed on a golf club, and he went over to take it.

“Pretty girl, I’ve been waiting so long for you…” Smith stared lustfully at jessica, before going on to remove her clothes as well.

All of a sudden, a huge impact landed on his head. Collapsing to the ground, Smith saw a blurry image of a man holding a golf club in his hands, before passing out unconscious. donghae had ensured that he had not applied too much force, lest the Caucasian got injured badly. Pressing against his stomach, donghae used much effort in lifting jessica over his shoulder, and quickly made his way out of the hotel suite. Once outside, donghae requested assistance from a bellboy, before he went unconscious as well.