“I have something I want to tell you.” He says, dark eyes dancing in amusement as he watches him.

There’s something slightly sad lingering in his expression, but Jaejoong can’t work it out as he stares back at him from behind the fogged surface of his glass.

“Mm, what’s that?” Jaejoong settles on replying with, sounding a little too far away as the words tumble from his lips without thought.

“Do you promise not to freak out too badly?” He asks, chuckling as Jaejoong whines back at him.

“What?” Jaejoong whines, pouting at his companion childishly. “Why would I freak out?” He pauses, brain sluggishly moving thoughts about his mind through a drunken haze. “Oh!” He then says, lips parting in slow starting shock. “You didn’t get Yujin pregnant, did you?”

“What?” Comes his companion’s reply. “Don’t be ridiculous! Of course not! Why do you always jump to such wild conclusions, hm?”

“But you sound so serious all of a sudden!” Jaejoong replies, lifting his glass suddenly, his heart feeling a little lighter now his fears had been denied. “Come on, we’re meant to be celebrating!”

Jaejoong beams as his companion, feeling a sense of pride when he spots the grin stretching across his face; heart fluttering just a tad. He goes to laugh, a soft feeling of contentment washing over him. Ah, should he say something? Should he confess? The mood felt right, the conversion between them was flowing, and he looked so, so good…

“Jaejoong… Yujin and I are getting married.”

Something snaps within his mind. Perhaps it’s the cords linking his sense of thought to his brain, or his brain to mouth filter – not that that had worked in years. However, he thinks it might have actually have been his heart itself. But, whatever it is, it leaves a cold feeling seeping through his chest, a type of pain that bleeds all the way to his core and poisons every and all good feelings that had been buzzing through him previously.

“Ah… Wha-” He croaks, eyes welling with damp emotion.

-X-

“You didn’t get a name? Not even a contact number? Honestly Changmin, if it wasn’t for you being my cousin, I would have fired you months ago!” Jaejoong gripes, fumbling with the scant slip of paper that Changmin had left out on his desk for him to find.

Changmin frowns from his chair over at reception and rolls his eyes in his usual brat like manner.

“Well if someone hadn’t decided to take the morning off, then maybe me and my lack of social skills wouldn’t have been left in charge of answering the phone.” Changmin sasses, shooting him a pointed look over the top of his coffee – the very coffee that Jaejoong had so kindly brought for him. “You should be thankful that I even booked them in at all. I wasn’t sure when you would be back. But they insisted on booking in as soon as possible. So get it together, they should be here soon.”

He rolls his eyes at the younger, intent on being done with the conversation, and goes back to scrutinising the little yellow post it note Changmin had left him with.

Well at least this would make his schedule seem a little less bare. Business as a wedding planner could sometimes prove to be a rocky career choice. Especially considering that the winter season was upon them. Brides tended to lean more towards the idea of summer weddings, enthralled with the old motion of being a June bride, and having all the superstitious luck that supposedly came with it.

Personally, Jaejoong liked the idea of being a winter bride. There was no summer scene that could beat a beautiful shot of a couple walking together hand in hand while snow fell around them.

He sighs dreamily at the thought, loosing himself for a moment within his own wedding fantasies that he’d had so much time to nurture over the years. Perhaps he could forgo the traditional white apparel, and instead go for Charcoal grey so as not to become lost within the winter setting, and then Yunho could wear-

“Jaejoong!”

“Wha-!”

“They’re here.”

 Jaejoong startles, looking up to see two people stood over at reception, and finds himself face to face with one smiling Jung Yunho, and his bride to be, Park Yujin. Shock clips him, heart sinking deep down to the dark depths of his stomach. They were his next appointment? Did that mean a date had finally been set?

The two of them seem a little amused by his shock, and Jaejoong makes sure to quickly right himself into a more presentable state. He smooths his features, pushing a pleased smile to his lips, and stands. “Ah, sorry!” Jaejoong says quickly, forcing a sharp laugh as he comes to greet them. “A certain someone didn’t inform me that you’d be coming.”

Yunho blinks at him, apparently confused, as the two of them close in for a quick hug in greeting. He draws back, holding Jaejoong at arm’s length as he turns to face his fiancé in question.

“I thought you called ahead this morning to book an appointment?” Yunho questions, a touch of a frown gracing his face as Yujin parts her lips to reply.

“I did.” Yujin confirms, furrowing her brows, and turning to fix Changmin with a look. “I think I spoke to this gentleman here…”

“You did, you did.” Jaejoong confirms quickly, rolling his eyes at Changmin. “It’s just he’s a little inept at times. He didn’t properly take down your details, and just booked the appointment in without a name or contact information.” He explains.

“Ah…” Yunho laughs, clamping Jaejoong on the back. “Well no wonder you’re so surprised then!” He continues brightly, sharing a laugh with Jaejoong before his expression turns to one of concern. “Now is ok though, right? For seeing us I mean. You don’t have anyone else booked in?”

“What? No, of course not!” Jaejoong confirms, lifting his hands in a placating manner hurriedly. “The appointments still yours, so come through.” He says, guiding them to the back to where his desk is set up, an array of bold and bright wedding brochures littering the workspace. “So, you managed to set a date finally then?”

The questions a hard one to ask, and even as he says it, he finds himself having to literally push the words past his lips. He makes it even by worse by forcing busy actions, such as looking about his desk for a working pen, and his usual notepad to start drawing up a plan.

“Yes, though it might be a little of a rush to get everything sorted out in time for when we’re thinking.” Yujin says, her words slow, and cautious as Jaejoong glances up to meet her eyes finally.

“A rush?” Jaejoong echoes, pausing in his scribbles momentarily. “How come? When are you thinking exactly?”

“A month.” Yujin tells him, a tight smile pulling across her lips.

Jaejoong draws a breath, mind whirling suddenly as he turns to glance at Yunho for confirmation, eyes bugging when Yunho nods his head curtly at him. A month! That was hardly enough time. Venues alone sometimes preferred to book a year in advance, and Jaejoong just knows that Yunho’s parents are going to want their son’s wedding to be nothing but the grandest of affairs, and so naturally the wedding venue would have to match that expectation no doubt. Plus, there was catering, entertainment, props, guests, colour schemes, outfit coordination, invitations, placements, music, lights, menu ideas-

“It’s ok! You’re the best in the business, right? I’m sure you can handle it Jaejoong.” Yujin says with the upmost confidence as Jaejoong begins to decent into a wedding planning meltdown. “Plus, Yunho wanted it to be you that planned it. He seems to have the upmost faith that if anyone can do this, it’s you. So, if Yunho trusts you, then I do too.”

Jaejoong mentally deflates, his eyes locking with Yunho again, and for a moment he worries that his cheeks might catch colour. Of course Yunho wanted him to plan it. No doubt his first thought had been to get him involved. How long had he been cleaning up Yunho’s messes for now? His childhood friend was forever getting himself in the worst of situations, and then calling Jaejoong up for help. His wedding appeared to be no different. Still, that didn’t mean it didn’t sting a little.

Once Yunho was married it would mean all hope of them ever being together was truly beyond his reach…

“Not that I ever stood a chance anyway.” Jaejoong reminds himself bitterly, the image of Yunho’s scowling mother quickly coming to mind.

“Well I…” Jaejoong says, fiddling with his pen, and staring about the office distractedly. “I can’t really say no to that.” He laughs. “I’ll get Changmin to make us some drinks.”

Jaejoong reckons he’s going to need something far stronger than coffee. It turns out that Yujin doesn’t seem to have much if an idea of what she really wants. She offers plenty of suggestions, but when it comes to actually making a decision, she stumped; and Jaejoong can only recommend so much before he needs an actual verdict.

Jaejoong had ploughed into very depths of his brochures and had around 30 odd tabs open on his monitor with examples of everything from napkins, linins, and draping’s, to lighting fixtures, marquee letters, and custom-built bars. They were getting way too deep for the first appointment, and Jaejoong had no idea as to how they’d even fallen on these topics in the first place.

He’d started off by asking the simple questions, just bouncing ideas about, with the notion of getting a vague idea of a theme. But then in the next moment they were suddenly discussing the pro and cons between renting a photo booth for the reception.

By “they” of course, he meant Yujin, and himself, because Yunho looked about as interested in the conversation as a teenager sat with their phone out at an old people’s home. He’d barely contributed to the conversation since they’d first sat down, other than trying to make himself look interested when Yujin occasionally turned to him for his opinion. Normally, had he been speaking with any other client, Jaejoong would have directed more questions at him to get him involved. But he’s known Yunho since they’d been in diapers and knew that Yunho was just not at all interested in discussing the shade difference between cream and ecru; honestly, Jaejoong wasn’t either, but it was his job to be, and he at least got paid for being interested.

Not the mention he seemed to be generally staring off into space, and Jaejoong’s beginning to pick up on some pretty serious “I really don’t want to be here planning this” vibes, that he usually only encountered when dealing with the “we’re only planning this marriage in a last ditch attempt to save the relationship” couples. Suffice to say, he’s a little concerned to say the least. Especially considering how quickly they need to have all of this planned out. A month? He still can’t believe they’re serious regarding that. Even with the biggest budget in the world (which they seem to have considering Yunho’s parents are business tycoons), things were still going to be tight. Yet even after Jaejoong had questioned why they were looking to tie the knot so soon, neither of them had been willing enough to step forward and cough up the reason. If anything, the conversation had abruptly gone sour, and had ended with Yunho rather awkwardly shifting the discussion to floral arrangements of all things. Because, naturally that was Yunho’s biggest concern – he thinks not.

Either way he’s keen to find out what’s going on under the premise of this rather rushed affair, which means he’s going to have to have a private chat with Yunho sometime soon.

He glances up at the clock on the wall and sighs.

“Ok, well I think I have enough here to be going on with for now.” Jaejoong says slowly, reviewing the notes he’d been making previously. “So, I’ll go over these notes, and put together some further ideas, and then at our next appointment we can review those, and start making some appointments to speak with venues, catering, and other vendors. Does that sound like a plan?”

“Sounds like a plan to me!” Yujin beams, looking possibly ecstatic as he she takes out what looks to be a diary. “So, when are you next available? Obviously because of our time constraint it will need to be as soon as possible.”

“To be honest, I don’t have a lot on right now, due to it being the winter season, so I can work around you.”

Yunho looks thoughtful for a moment, before titling his head to Yujin.

“How about Monday?” Yunho offers. “We’ll be busy over the weekend with my parents. But Monday should be fine provided you can speak with your boss about getting the time off, right?”

“That should be doable.” Yujin agrees, already opening her diary to the necessary page. “Would the same time be alright?”

“Yeah, this suits me fine, and at least next time I’ll know who to expect.” Jaejoong says, shooting Changmin another meaningful look to where the younger boy is sat at reception.

Changmin simply smirks, leaning his chin to his open palm, and offering a cheery wave in their direction.

Honestly, if it hadn’t been for his aunt and uncle begging him to give Changmin a job for work experience for his university course, Jaejoong would have never had hired him.

-X-

Around half an hour after the happy couple had left, Jaejoong had decided to shoot Yunho a message regarding meeting up later for a drink. Or rather, he’d sent Yunho several messages regarding them having a drink; because he knew that Yunho found it annoying, and well, Jaejoong likes to take the opportunity to annoy him where he can. Naturally, Yunho had resorted to calling him, knowing that Jaejoong’s fast fingers would only carrying on shooting him messages if he didn’t reply in what Jaejoong deemed to be the correct response time.

They’d agreed to meet up at a place they’d been going to since their early university days. A little run-down bar on the outskirts of town that had seen plenty better days, and could do with a total refurb, and a good of fresh paint. But despite the bad visuals they did what Jaejoong thought to be the best drinks in town, and the inside felt cosy with its worn leather barstools, and quiet background music. The barman also knew them both by name, and he even knew Jaejoong’s favourite drinks order. He may also have been a little more familiar with Jaejoong’s body than most people… But Jaejoong hadn’t told Yunho that.

“So, what’s with the rush?” Jaejoong asks as he takes his drink from the bar, smirking a little around the glass when the barman subtly winks at him.

“Oh… Yeah, about that.” Yunho sighs, taking a substantial swig of his own drink before he slams it down against the bar. “My parents want me to take over the company by the end of the year.” He explains, turning to glance at Jaejoong from the corners of his eyes.

Jaejoong feels the beginnings of a bubble of apprehension bubbling up inside of him. He can’t deny that he’s a little put off that Yunho hadn’t told him that he was taking over the company quite so soon. Though he can’t say that he hadn’t seen it coming. After all, he’d known for years that it would one day be expected of Yunho to take up his father’s mantel. It had been one of the reasons why Yunho’s and his friendship had crumbled during the middle of their university years. But to now have the event upon them… Well it felt a little surreal.

“Well, that’s a little unexpected.” Jaejoong comments, sighing heavily as he begins to bleed empathy. “But why the sudden urgency?”

Yunho sighs too, swilling the remaining dregs of his drink around the glass, his gaze stern as he stares down into it.

“Mum wants dad to give it up. His health hasn’t been the best, and you know how traditional about these kinds of things they are. She’s put her foot down finally, and they’ve decided, and announced, that the changeover will be happening at the end of this year. He doesn’t want to hire a board, or have outsiders come into to take the reins. So that leaves me – his only son. Because God knows he doesn’t trust my sister to be able to manage it. Even though we all know she’s more than capable.”

Jaejoong rolls his eyes at that. Yunho’s sister was more level-headed than all of them combined. Not to mention, like Yunho, she already worked for the company, and had worked her way up from the bottom to a senior role. She was a born businesswoman, and Jaejoong adored her immensely.

But as Yunho had already pointed out. His parents were the definition of traditional, and they wanted the job to go to Yunho. Always had, and likely always would.

“Well that’s typical of them.” Jaejoong grumbles, trying to rein in his bitterness, Yunho likely wouldn’t appreciate him wailing on his parents – despite him knowing about the bad blood between them.

“Yeah, it is.” Yunho sighs, is shoulders sagging. “But there’s a catch to me taking over.” He goes on to say, face crumbling into a pained expression that had Jaejoong’s heart twisting over itself. “They want me to be married before it happens.”

“Oh.” Is all Jaejoong can reply back with, his heart throbbing painfully in his chest as he glances back down to his own drink now looking a little lonely against the dark stained wood of the bar.

So this might be somewhat familiar to those who have read my other story 'Iteration'. This story is essentially one of the au's from that fic that I wanted to explore more, and people seemed to like WeddingPlanner!Jaejoong - so this is for you guys who wanted me to write that!

Anyway, let me know what you think! Is it worth continuing? ^_^