“Um, well, you see,” Jessica began, sneaking a sideways peek at Jaejoong, who only nodded slightly in encouragement and didn’t speak as she was hoping he would. “Jaejoong wanted to, uh, meet you.”

The two of them were now seated awkwardly on the couch inside of Eric’s office. After their equally as awkward run-in in front of the elevator, Eric had ushered them inside of his office and ordered Saehee and Yura to go back to work. Jay had disappeared sometime in between the whole exchange, though Jessica had been too busy stuttering and trying to come up with something to say to notice where he went.

Now, Eric raised a brow, a look of amusement entering his face. “The CEO of COEX Mall wanted to meet me?”

“Well, yes, he thought it would be…” Jessica trailed off, her eyes darting back to look at Jaejoong again. “He thought it would be, um…very…important to meet you.”

“Since I’m her fiancé,” Jaejoong added smoothly, sounding composed and professional, “I thought it would be important to come here and explain some things to you.”

Eric’s jaw dropped. “Excuse me?” He turned to Jessica, the expression on his face an exact mirror of the expression on Jay’s face just a few minutes earlier. “What did he just call himself?”

“Her fiancé,” Jaejoong answered, his charming smile back in place. He scooted a bit closer to Jessica and leaned in close to her. “Don’t we look good together?”

She winced in embarrassment and looked up slowly, half-afraid to see what the expression on Eric’s face would now look like.

Truthfully, out of everyone, it was Eric that worried Jessica the most. There was no way that she and Jaejoong would be able to fool him. After all, he had known her and been friends with her since she had been in college. And over the past two years that they had supposedly been dating, Jessica had seen Eric almost every single day. She couldn’t quite remember every little thing that happened over the course of those two years, but she could bet that there would be some key detail that would completely ruin Changmin’s carefully set-up plan.

“Of course you two look good together,” Eric replied, chuckling. Jessica was glad that he seemed to have taken a liking to Jaejoong. Eric eyed them with newfound interest. “So how long have you been dating?”

“Two years,” she answered, taking extra care to make the words come out sounding natural and carefree, as if it wasn’t a complete and total lie. Jessica laughed and turned to look at Jaejoong, finally using what she had spent practically two hours perfecting at those stupid Couple Lessons on Sunday.

 But when she looked back at Eric, Jessica felt her breathing quicken with dread at the disbelief on his face. “You’ve been dating him for two years – ”

“Well – “ Jessica’s mind searched frantically for words that would make everything seem believable but, unfortunately, none came to her.

“ – and you never even told me?” Eric shook his head in mock disappointment, sighing. “And I thought we were close.”

“We are!” she said quickly, letting out a small sigh of relief. “But I had to keep it a secret. Otherwise people would totally doubt my credibility. You know that, Eric.”

As soon as the words were out of , Jessica felt the weight of Jaejoong’s gaze on her, surprised and almost impressed. Truthfully, she wanted to give herself a pat on the back as well. It was the perfect explanation for why no one in her life had known about her relationship of two years with a famous CEO.

“Her credibility is exactly why I wanted to meet with you,” Jaejoong added, jumping in to finally get to what he came here to talk about in the first place. “I just wanted to let you know that the articles about her are completely false and that we’re actually two people in a committed relationship. In fact, we’re planning on getting married next summer.”

Jessica felt her face getting warmer for the hundredth time that day. With the press conference looming up, she had a sinking feeling that she would only blush even more throughout the night.

“Marriage?” Eric’s eyes bugged out. “Next summer?!” His eyes stretched even bigger, which she didn’t think was even humanly possible.

Jessica swung her gaze forward to meet his. “Am I supposed to feel offended?”

“Oh, no no, of course not, that’s not what I meant,” he replied quickly, giving a nervous laugh that immediately implied that yes, she should feel offended.

Jessica looked away and huffed in annoyance when Jaejoong laughed beside her. Stupid, stupid, stupid. Why did I let this – all of this – happen again?

“So, about Jessica’s credi – “ Jaejoong began, but was just as quickly cut off by Eric.

“Mr. Kim, you have absolutely no reason to worry. I’m not planning on letting Jessica go anytime soon,” he answered, his eyes meeting Jessica’s. Eric gave her a wink. “She is my favorite employee, after all.”

“That’s wonderful to hear,” Jaejoong said, standing up. He straightened out his suit and adjusted his tie before holding his hand down to Jessica. “It was great meeting you. But if you’ll excuse us, we have a press conference to get to.”

Jessica shot Eric an apologetic smile and took Jaejoong’s hand, standing up as well. Her fiancé led her out of Eric’s office. When the door swung closed behind them, Jaejoong turned to her.

“Let me see your office,” he commanded.

Jessica looked at him and shook her hand from his. “You’re kidding.”

“Come on, you’ve seen my office. It’s only fair if I see yours.” Jaejoong his heel and headed down the hallway with an air of self-assuredness despite the fact that he clearly didn’t have any idea where he was going.

Jessica sighed and hurried to catch up. When they were side-by-side again, she nudged him. “If you want to see my office so badly, stop going the wrong way.”

He looked down at her and smiled slightly. “Why, Miss Jung, please lead me in the right direction then.”

“You know, I like it when you call me ‘Miss Jung,’” replied Jessica. She turned and led him through row after row of office cubicles. When she noticed people shooting her strange looks, Jessica all but stopped in her tracks and attempted to kick herself in the face. With all those rumors flying around the building…and now, here she was, parading Jaejoong around. Stupid, she shouted furiously in her mind. Jessica Jung, you spent four years in college for nothing.

Then she felt Jaejoong take her hand. Oh, so he noticed the looks too. For the first time, Jessica felt comfortable holding hands with him. It made her feel slightly shielded from the outright stares. She continued down the hallway, past the coffee room, and finally stopped in front of her door.

Jessica reached out to open it, then paused with her hand in midair, trying to remember if there was anything embarrassing out in the open. Before she could complete her train of thought, Jaejoong rolled his eyes with impatience and pushed open the door. Jessica was relieved to see that her desk was completely empty and that everything was neat and in its place. Jaejoong stepped inside, pulling her after him, and tugged the door closed behind them.

The two of them stood there for a moment. “It’s nice,” he commented after a moment of silence.

Jessica snorted. “It’s nothing special compared to yours, Mr. CEO of COEX Mall.”

“No, I like it. I like your chair too.” With that, he sat down in it and crossed his legs casually. “Swivel-chairs are my favorite, you know.”

She couldn’t help but laugh. “Actually, I do know that. You put it down in Stage 3.”

He looked impressed that she remembered. Then he took a look at his watch. “As much as I hate to ruin our tour of your work building, it looks like we have to get going.”

Jessica’s smile disappeared and the dormant butterflies in her stomach started fluttering again at full force. 

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Hello everyone!! Please forgive me for being MIA for so long! Regular updates are soon to come!