The Prince

“Because it was your wish Junmyeon.”

Those words wouldn't leave his mind nor did the sympathetic look on her face. She was the one living in a room the size of a shoebox and working as a waitress in a busy restaurant, so why did she look at him with sympathetic eyes? It had been almost a week since his visit to her apartment, that he sent his P.A. out to find the address to, which Jongin seemed a little too pleased to do.

After Aeri had said that to him, she gave him a brief yet polite farewell then shut the door on him. Junmyeon didn't know what to say then – he still didn't know how to respond now – so he merely turned and left the building with her words echoing in his head and more questions than he entered with. Now he still had hundreds of questions and no answers as he sat at his new desk at the new Busan headquarters office. Min Adz had been on the verge of collapsing when Junmyeon became the president of the company – which most people didn't know about because it was such a well known and respected name – but over the last two years the man had managed to rebuild the infrastructure and get the company back in working order. Still Junmyeon didn't know how Min Adz had gotten into such a terrible state and neither Mr. Min nor Aeri told him about it before hand.

“Sir,” Jongin called knocking on his door.

Shaking off his circling thoughts Junmyeon swiveled about in his office chair to face the door where his P.A. peered in.

“The first project meeting is about to start,” Jongin informed.

“Thank you. I'm on my way,” Junmyeon replied.

As he stood the CEO smoothed down his tie and shirt front before pulling on the suit jacket and doing up two buttons. He expected Jongin to leave immediately after delivering the news, but as Junmyeon slid his phone into his pocket he saw the P.A. standing there staring at him intently.

“Is there something else?” he inquired.

Adjusting his tie absently Jongin said, “You haven't mentioned what happened with Aeri.”

Junmyeon hesitated in his steps towards the door, his gaze narrowing at his assistant as he continued forward. “I don't believe that's any of your business,” he commented.

“Maybe not, but I can still worry for an old friend,” Jongin countered calmly.

Junmyeon breezed passed the younger man, his steps stiff and quick. “She's Oum Aeri, not Min,” was all he said as he left his office.

Jongin said nothing in return.

The project meeting went nowhere near as smoothly as Junmyeon had hoped for. Each plan presented was generic and average, he wanted better out of the team he had hand picked, yet their results were merely sub-par. When it was over Junmyeon left the conference hall angry, agitated and with a project delayed for another week. The man was ready to wring the neck of the first person that bothered him.

He had only been seated at his desk for three full minutes when his cellphone rang. Junmyeon hissed like a rapid lizard as he picked up the device and answered the call.

“What?” he barked.

“Woah,” Yixing drawled back. “What's got your boxers in a knot? You still wear boxers right? You didn't go briefs have you?” he rambled nonchalantly.

“Yixing,” Junmyeon huffed. “I'm at work, what do you want?”

“So am I, but I still got time to chat with friends,” Yixing replied.

Junmyeon leaned back in his desk chair his feet propped up on the table as he took a long deep breath. His friend was such a weirdo. He deadpanned, “What do you want Yixing?”

“A little birdie told me you bumped into Aeri recently,” he said. “How is she doing? What did you two talk about? Do you know why she up and left Seoul?”

All questions Junmyeon wanted the answer to too, but he had nothing. His chest tightened as he pinched his eyes shut and tilted his head back with another lengthy sigh.

“I'll take that as I ed up again,” Yixing muttered dryly.

“I didn't!” Junmyeon snapped. “I wasn't the one who broke up our marriage.”

“Oh, I wasn't referring to that, but we can count that too since you were the one who filed for the divorce,” his friend shot back.

“My father said–”

“I know what your father said! But the fact of the matter is that you actually believed that Aeri had an affair, and you ended a relationship that you never gave a real chance to all because of some stupid meeting you overheard years ago.” Yixing took a moment to catch his breath before carrying on in a more composed and indifferent tone. “I didn't call to have this fight again, I just wanted to know how Aeri's doing. Is she okay?”

Junmyeon's temper simmered some as he scowled up at the ceiling of his office. He hated fighting with his friend, but he hated it even more when Yixing brought up the past. That day had ruined everything for him, weeks of planning with Yixing, years of caring and cherishing Aeri. That day made Junmyeon question everything he knew, second guessed all Aeri said to him, fear for what he thought meant everything to him.

Eighteen:

There was a hop to his step as he entered his home after school. He had a date with Aeri, finally, and she had said yes with a wide grin and pink cheeks. He thought she looked so cute at that moment that he almost kissed her at that time. He had kissed her once before, but that was on a dare and a quick peek on the cheek. This time, during their first ever date – a real date not two friends hanging out – Junmyeon would confess and hopefully share a proper kiss with her. He was pretty sure she liked him back, Yixing was certain about it too – he always mentioned how blind and oblivious he was – so Junmyeon was extremely confident in tonight.