Chapter 18

It was strange, closing the file of venues once and for all. After getting my office cleaned up, it had taken only minutes to decide which venue to pick. I chose an endearing little snowy place, tucked away in mountains that were only three hours away. It seemed perfect, with little place for allergies, and had both the delicate beauty women so enjoyed and the rustic feel that men seemed to favor. Satisfied with my work, I printed the information and headed for AJ's office, a gleeful smile on my face.

"Guess what!" I exclaimed in excitement as I stepped into the office. My excitement faltered, however, when I was met by a menacing glare.

"What?" AJ asked slowly, apologizing with his eyes for Eli's presence.

"I decided on a venue," I said quickly, ing the information in his general direction. I did my best to avoid Eli's gaze.

AJ read a few sentences and grinned up at me. "This is perfect!" He reached over and ruffled my hair a bit. "Good job, Jess."

Eli cleared his throat, trying to draw AJ's attention back to him. I was thrilled when he failed.

"So what else can I do?" I asked, unsure of where to go after finally completing my first assignment.

"I'm going to need you to work in here with me, actually. I have to put together gift bags, and it'll go faster with two people. You game?" he winked.

"Sounds great," I laughed.

"Well, now that this little matter has been resolved, we have more pressing issues to deal with!" exclaimed Eli quickly. AJ and I both turned to face him quickly, having very nearly forgotten his presence.

"Oh, yes, the issue with the paper," AJ rolled his eyes. "I'm sorry, but you can't hold a publishing company responsible for the fact that you bought a book someone had scribbled in." I snickered a little at this, tickled by the ridiculousness of Eli's "problem."

"You have to fix it!" cried Eli adamantly.

"No, actually, I don't," said AJ cockily.

“And what could possibly delude you into believing that? I am a customer, you know!”

“Our customers are authors, not the people who buy their books. Get your facts straight before you come in and harass my company again!” AJ’s face was beginning to turn red with frustration.

“This isn’t harassment!” Eli practically screamed.

“Oh SHUT UP!” I yelled at the top of my lungs. Eli and AJ both froze, turned to me, stared in surprise. I turned to face Eli, hands on my hips in anger. “You’re stupid. You need to leave. Now,” I added menacingly.

“You can’t tell me what to—“

“OUT!” I pointed to the door, and Eli slunk towards it. He did not, however, actually exit the room. “And you!” I turned to AJ incredulously. “There are more people than just you in this building who can handle this situation!”

“I’m… sorry?” AJ said hesitantly.

“Look,” I sighed, “I’m not mad at you, I just wish you wouldn’t let Eli come in and so easily aggravate you. You have to understand, this isn’t a problem you need to handle all alone. Okay?”

“Okay,” AJ chuckled. “I’ll keep that in mind.” He grinned at me, and I grinned back, glad to have come to a quick resolution. We embraced for only a moment before Eli once again stepped in.

“Oh, that’s just disgusting!” he cried. “Now I know why all those little office girls gave your office a makeover,” he snickered. I slowly turned to face him, feeling the heat rising in my cheeks.

“Oh, I’m sure that it was because they were disgusted,” I said with mock sweetness. “I mean, of course they wouldn’t have done it just because you told them to!”

“Jess, what going on?” AJ questioned slowly.

“I’ll tell you later.”

“So you haven’t informed your… boyfriend?” Eli commented slyly. “Well, allow me then!” He stepped up to AJ and whispered almost inaudibly into his ear. He quickly stepped back, looking appalled.

“You can’t do that!” He said incredulously.

“I think I can,” said Eli, raising an eyebrow mysteriously.

“CAN YOU JUST LEAVE?!” I cried, fed up with his antics. “No one wants you here! No one cares! Just LEAVE!”

“No need to throw a fit, missy,” he chuckled. He tossed his hair, threw a flirty wink in AJ’s general direction, and floated out the door.

“What happened with the office girls?” asked my boyfriend as soon as the door was shut completely.

“They sided with Eli,” I shrugged,” so they played a few tricks in my office to get back at me from “stealing” you.” I used air quotes for emphasis.

“What? Why didn’t you tell me?!” He was beginning to get upset, and I honestly wanted the subject and the problem to disappear.

“Calm down, it’s no big deal. I already discussed it with them and they swore not to do it again. You don’t have to worry!”

“Oh, alright,” AJ sighed.

 “Thank you,” I smiled. We paused for a moment, unsure of where the conversation needed to go. “So…” I began hesitantly.

“Oh, yes, you came to ask about a new assignment!” exclaimed AJ.

“Yeah, I did,” I laughed.

“Let’s see if there’s anything I can find for you to do…” AJ began digging through the papers on his desk, sifting and searching for any sort of assignment appropriate for his unpaid, inexperienced employee slash girlfriend. For some strange reason, I found it comforting to think of the situation that way. It was… easier, I suppose.

AJ froze, the sound of papers rubbing together halted. “What’s wrong?” He was looking past me, at something on the wall. I followed his gaze and discovered a calendar I had never really noticed before. It struck me as odd, that AJ would seem so arrested by a calendar. But then, upon closer inspection, I saw the bright red words in the square for that day: No more slushee guy! It was in AJ’s handwriting.

“It’s been a month,” AJ breathed.

“It doesn’t seem like it.”

“Kev, I—“

“Just make sure the event goes well, okay?” I interrupted.

“What?”

“AJ, I have to go back to what I was doing before. I have to get paid for work and edit my novel.” I laughed a little bit at the ridiculousness of how we were acting. It wasn’t like we would never see each other ever again.

“I’ll miss seeing you around here,” AJ shrugged.

“Well, we still get to see each other at home, and on the weekends, and… you never know, maybe I’ll stop by whenever I have meetings about my novel.”

“Promise?” AJ held out his pinky finger.

“Promise,” I smiled, linking my pinky finger with his and pressing our thumbs together.

“Will you stay the rest of the day?” asked AJ hopefully.

“Can I stay in here with you?” I countered.

“Of course.”

“Then of course I’ll stay.”

The rest of the day passed by quickly, AJ buried in his work while I sat by, curled up on the couch, biding my time with thumb wars (I won all of them) and tic-tac-toe (somehow I always ended up with a tie). We didn't talk much, but instead simply found satisfaction in the fact that we were somewhere together.

Soon enough, the day was over, and we headed home. It was a pleasant day until we were stopped at the door by none other than Lee Kiseop, with Eli in close pursuit. "Kevin, can I talk to you?" he asked quickly.

"Go ahead, talk to me," I shrugged.

"I meant alone."

"There's nothing you can say to me that you can't say in front of AJ," I countered adamantly.

"This is really important, Kev," said Kiseop in exasperation.

"Look, if you can't say it in front of AJ, I really don't think that I want to hear it."

"It's about what happened today... You know, with the office...?" I looked up at Kiseop in surprise.

"That has nothing to do with you, though."

"Well, actually... It might have a lot to do with me..." He took a half step back, seeming almost afraid.

"Oh really?" I said suspiciously. I stepped forward, trying not to laugh when Kiseop, in turn, took another step back.

"Now, look, Kev, it's not what you think. I really didn't mean it, I just... It was an accident, okay?"

"What was an accident, Kiseop?" I asked scathingly, now concerned with what he had to say.

"I might have mentioned something to the girls who wrecked your office," he said quickly. It took a minute for his words to register in my mind.

"Y-you... What did you say?!" I spluttered.

"They were just... They were talking about you, and I was still upset about your whole... relationship? And I kind of just told them that he dated Eli a while back and they thought you had taken AJ from him and I didn't correct them. Kev, I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to tell them that, it was an accident, I swear!"

I took a deep breath and silently counted down from ten, unwilling to blow up at someone yet again that day, especially when that specific someone was Kiseop. "Okay, I believe you. You're forgiven. But remember, next time you do something stupid, I won't forgive you so easily." I turned to Eli, who had managed to sidle up to AJ and hook their arms together."Eli, dear, would you please extricate yourself from my boyfriend?" I said sweetly. "You see, I can't punch someone well enough when they are hooked to someone else."

At this, Eli gripped AJ's arm even tighter. "Let go of me, Eli," commanded AJ.

"But if I do then Kevin will--"

"Let go of my arm, Eli," he said in the same exact tone.

Slowly and hesitantly, Eli let go of AJ's arm, but stayed rather close to his side. Finally pushed past the point of mere frustration, I walked over and grabbed Eli's arm, yanking him out of the building with me.

"Kevin Woo, let go of me this instant!"

"Not happening," I yelled back.

"Kev, what are you doing?" AJ asked.

"This probably isn't the best idea, Kev!" Kiseop called, close behind AJ.

I marched over to a nearby fountain and halted, looking Eli in the eye. "I've had enough of you screwing around with me. Get over the fact that I'm dating AJ. Get over the fact that he doesn't like you. Get over yourself and leave me the heck alone!" With that, I gave him one violent shove and watched as he went toppling into the fountain. I grinned at the spluttering mess he quickly became, flopping around in the water like a drowned rat. His hair was plastered to his forehead and his eyeliner ran down his cheeks, transforming him into a rather frightening clown. I heard laughter from behind me, recognizing both AJ's deep chortle and Kiseop's lighter sporadic giggles. I turned around and mimicked brushing my hands off, which only made them laugh harder.

"KEVIN!" screamed Eli. He somehow managed to climb from the fountain, marching over to me, dripping water onto the pavement.

"Don't even try with me, Elison," I said scathingly. "I'm sick of your crap and I refuse to put up with it anymore."

"You have no idea what you've just done! You messed with the WRONG person, Kevin Woo!" He stomped his foot on the ground for emphasis, but it only made me giggle.

"Yeah, keep telling yourself that." I rolled my eyes, hooked arms with AJ, and walked off in the direction of his car. I heard Eli yelling something behind us, but I didn't bother to listen. Every threat he made was an empty one by that point. I had finally stood up to him, and it had been exhilarating.

"That was amazing, Kev," AJ grinned when we reached the car.

"You should try it sometime; it felt great!" We both laughed at my statement, and then happily sat in silence the entire way home.

About halfway through the drive, I was once more struck by how odd it seemed to know that AJ was going home with me. It felt so comfortable to think of it in such a manner that I didn't really know what to do with myself when I realized that it had only been going on for a few days. To simply understand that we were going to the same house together, and that he was staying... I could hardly wrap my mind around it.

Ted was waiting at the door for us, a plate of nearly raw chocolate chip cookies in his hand. I smiled a little at the old man's ridiculousness. He always had the very best intentions, even if they didn't turn out exactly how he'd planned the first time. I gave him a hug and thanked him for making the cookies, and he just grinned up at me and held out the plate. With a shrug, I took a cookie and bit into it, surprised to find that, even though they seemed at least warm, they were not cooked by any sense of the term. All I could think was that Ted was lucky cookie dough was on my top ten list of favorite snack foods.

We all shuffled inside and Ted inquired after our day at work.

"It was... interesting," I laughed.

"And pretty sad, too," AJ sighed.

"And why is that?" inquired Ted.

"Today was my last day at the company. Tomorrow I go back to working part time at the coffee shop," I informed him.

"You work at the coffee shop?" AJ said in surprise.

"How else would I know DongHo and Hoon?" I laughed.

"I guess that makes sense..."

"It was your last day?" Ted said incredulously. "AJ, aren't you the president of the company? Just re-hire him!"

"It was my choice, Ted," I chuckled, placing a hand on his shoulder.

"Well, it was a stupid choice," he muttered.

"Oh, don't worry, nothing's really going to change!" I laughed reassuringly. Part of me, however, did not actually believe myself.


A/N: HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO ALL MY AMERICAN READERS! And Happy Thursday to everyone else~ <3 I'm so incredibly proud of Kevin in this chapter! I wasn't expecting him to freak out so much, but it sure did pay off xD. This pie has DEFINITELY worked some sort of strange magic! NOW RAISE YOUR HAND IF YOU CALLED THE COFFEE SHOP THING. I didn't realize until I was done with this chapter that I had never actually mentioned that Kevin worked part-time with DongHo and Hoon. I just mentioned that he had previously worked a part-time job, so... Yeah. This chapter is 2,367 words, and I am only about 6,000 behind on NaNo. If I get 800 more words written tonight, I will be satisfied. Wish me luck? Let me know what you think about this chapter! And, in case you missed it, I had two updates yesterday! ^_^ AND HOORAY FOR THE OFFICIAL START OF THE CHRISTMAS SEASON! If this fic doesn't end before Christmas, then we might get to see AJ and Kevin have a Christmas. However, I make no promises of anything more than a Christmas-themed oneshot. LOVE YOU ALL~! <3