Chapter 17

Nightcall

 

Kris rested his head on the palm of his hand with his elbow supported on the pillow. He was meant to get up and cook breakfast but gazing at a sleeping Hyoyeon, who was breathing in and out gently from the small opening in between , seemed like the far superior choice.

Hyoyeon was his pipeline for life and thrill, his soul mate; he wouldn’t know how to live without anymore. He had grown irrevocably dependent on her and it didn’t bother him one bit.

He didn’t even become bothered when his thoughts strayed away to Kai.

 He thought about the position his blonde friend was placed in; having to give up someone like Hyoyeon did not seem too easy of a task. He was immensely grateful that his lawyer friend had not given him the fight of his life, but he laughed to himself thinking that he wouldn’t have given up so easily and he would have cheated his way to her heart.

In reality there was only one thing that really irked him; it was a thought that brought a needless pang about his chest.

In the time that he was gone, Hyoyeon could have fallen out love for him. She could have easily succumbed to Kai’s insistent flirting. After all, Kai was a handsome man; he had graduated an Ivy League school at the top 3% of his class, he was just as rich as he was and best of all, he was kind. There was no reason Hyoyeon could not have fallen in love with him.

Kris tormented himself thinking about it. But he also thought about how terribly lucky he was.

Because right now, at this very moment, in whose bed was she sleeping?  His.

Who did she come home to every night?  Him.

Whose name did she call out in her sleep?  His.

So, no; he couldn’t feel bad for his friend. Not one bit.

 

“You’re mine.” He whispered, raking her blonde silky hairs away from her cheeks, massaging the top of her head with any excuse to touch her.

Kris outlined the curve of her lips with his fingertips.

She shivered when his finger skimmed down the side of her neck, stirring her awake. She looked at him with no expression in her eyes. She had vaguely felt his touch. So it seemed she wasn’t the only one completely enamored with certain features of a certain blonde’s face. She smiled and buried her face on his chest to resume her interrupted sleep.

He gave her a kiss on her exposed shoulder and wrapped her tight within his arms, falling asleep as easily as he had woken up.

. . .

They woke up again at 10:00AM.

 Hyoyeon wiped some wet strands of hair from her face and Kris slapped a hand to his cheeks, removing drops of sweat. They looked at the clock simultaneously, then at each other and shrugged. It was too late; they weren’t going to show up for work again.

Also, the clock’s built in thermometer read 98 degrees farenheit/ 37 degrees celcius; they guessed this was summer’s preview in the midst of February’s winter days. It was so hot they were close to a sweaty drench; too lethargic to do anything other than sit or lay down.

After 30 minutes of lazing around in bed they got up groggily, changed out of their sleeping wardrobe and walked down the stairs into the kitchen.

Hyoyeon sauntered in barefoot and stretched her arms high over her head, yawning.

Kris took out a pan and meandered to the fridge. He stuck his head in the freezer for a couple of seconds before he switched doors to take out a bowl of eggs. He started to sweat once again before he even got to turn on the stove.

Kris bit his lip in deep thought and looked back at Hyoyeon who was still busy yawning and trying to blink away the sleepiness.

“Nope,” he said, scooting everything aside. He walked to her with a suave elegance, picked her up and placed her on top of one of the kitchen counters.

“Cereal?” He asked, inches from her face with his hands resting on her thighs.

“Cereal.” She agreed nodding before letting her face fall on his shoulder, getting just a couple of seconds of shut-eye before he helped her down.

It was too hot to cook or eat anything else.

When they finished they threw everything in the sink and ran up the stairs into their bedroom, where they could safely say they would stay cool. The bedrooms were the only locations in the house that had cooling systems.

Hyoyeon went over to the air conditioning and turned down the dial to its maximum cooling capacity. Kris took off his shirt and plunged back into bed.

They were lying in their bed in a crisscross shape. Kris was as always reclined against the bedframe with his arms crossed behind his head and Hyoyeon’s sprawled over his hips doodling on her sketching notebook, not forgetting to eye her engagement ring every few minutes.

 Kris had decided to start a movie marathon beginning with the Star Wars trilogy to pass the time before dinner. Hyoyeon dangled her legs up in the air, working her pens on the white acid-free paper, not needing to look up at the flat screen as she had already watched the saga countless of times before.

 She could imagine the scenes in her head just by listening to the dialogue. Kris however was having a hard time focusing on the movie as his gaze had shifted elsewhere.

He could only thank the heavens for today’s unbearable heat wave that had caused Hyoyeon to change out of her jeans and tank top and into a white satin nightgown that left very little to the imagination. And with most of her body fully exposed before his eyes it was hard for Kris to think about anything other than having her help him quench his pulsating build.

But he couldn’t interrupt his hardworking blonde. She looked too focused and too busy on her sketchbook.

Her forehead’s lines would motion up and then cease. She was probably giving her designs their last finishing touches. He admired her dedication for work.

And she was definitely hard at work, but not on her designs; on something she thought was far more important, something that needed dealing with immediately. It was a pressing matter that if Hyoyeon did not have fixed, a vein in her forehead would surely pop.

She had written his name in every corner of the paper with flying hearts and darting arrows and now she couldn’t settle on how to complete her work of art.

HYOYEON LOVES KRIS, she wrote in the center and then it away immediately.

It was replaced by KRIS LOVES HYOYEON on the bottom edge. ‘Ugh…no,’ she thought, completely unsatisfied.

Then she replaced that with just KRIS AND HYOYEON.

‘Almost,’ she thought, somewhat pleased.

She had her tongue sticking out at the edge of her bottom lip, focused as she crossed out the KRIS AND HYOYEON on her notebook and changed it to what she thought had the nicest ring to it: HYOYEON AND KRIS.
 

“There…much better,” she snickered, finishing her masterpiece by encircling the letters within a gigantic red heart. She giggled and quickly placed a hand over when she felt her gum falling out.

Kris shook his head, inevitably laughing as well. That was yet another thing that he loved about her. That in the office, in front of peers she could be bossy, demanding and stern, but in front of him she was soft, cuddly, and childish; a real marshmallow.

. . .

“Show me what you’re working on.” He asked drawn by Hyoyeon’s ability to remain concentrated on that one single page for the duration of the movie. It had caught his attention that she was looking at it with such a possession and pride, it had to be a heck of a design to keep her entertained for so long.

“No,” she cried out quickly hiding the paper below her chest.

“Come on. Let me see. “Kris sat up and tried to pull the notebook from underneath her.

“I’m shy.” She said turning a dark shade of red and pushed his hand away.

He arched his eyebrows and smirked. He trailed one hand to the hem of her gown, pulled it up and squeezed one of her cheeks, shocking her enough to release her notebook.

With his free arm he snatched the notebook away. He looked at her drawing.

“Oh,” he said, raising one eyebrow in an attempt to look smug. But, he couldn’t keep himself from releasing a laugh that intensified each time he looked back at her paper.

‘She was hard at work alright.’

Hyoyeon’s eyes bulged out. “You weren’t supposed to see that,” she cried out, dropping her face to his stomach, adorably embarrassed.

“Give me your pen?” Kris stretched out a hand.

“What for?” Hyoyeon asked him curiously as she scrambled to find one.

“This sketch is good, but it needs a few changes.”

Hyoyeon sighed and tossed him a red color pencil. She watched him intently, furrowing his eyebrows like he was solving an Albert Einstein leveled math problem.

A couple minutes of silence after he scribbled, wrote and erased he handed Hyoyeon back the notebook. “There, all fixed.”

Below where she had written HYOYEON AND KRIS it now also read: FOREVER.

She smiled widely at the flattering gesture and then her lips flanked downwards. There was a weirdly drawn creature that was fluttering across the page. “Wow,” she said hesitantly, squinting, with her eyes pinpointing on the figure. “What a cute doggy with…wings?”

“Hyoyeon, it’s a dragon.” He said as if it were something quite evident.

“Obviously.” She said snorting, unable to look away from his ‘clear’ artistic talents.

‘Finally,’ she thought incredulously. Kris seemed too perfect at times, that Hyoyeon wondered if he had any real flaws. Well there was. He was a terrible artist and for some weird reason, Kris thought he was some sort of Pablo Picasso.

‘What a fool,’ she thought, laughing inwardly. ‘But, you’re my fool.’

“They’re majestic and regal. I love dragons.” Kris seemed to still be babbling on about dragons. She only heard the last of it as they interrupted her thoughts.

“Me too.” She squeaked, before she turned to a more joking manner. “But could you please put the DRAGON, down there away.” She said propping herself above her position on his hips and pointing downward at the aforementioned spot. “It’s poking me in the stomach.”

They locked eyes as she bashed in red, too late to take it back. Kris had a way of making her say the most of inappropriate things. But Kris wasn’t left behind. He was just as equally erted. They both had such a desire that it was a miracle they had been able to remain so tame with one another, never losing an opportunity to kiss or touch.

“If it really bothers you that much; I can tell you where I can put it away.” Kris sat up, placing an arm under her waist, bringing her into a sitting position on his lap. She tangled her arms around his shoulders and interlocked her fingers below his collarbones.

“I’m sure you do. But that fire-releasing dragon is going to have to wait a little longer before it can make its way inside my walls.”

“You’re such a tease.” He drawled, wriggling his nose.

“I know.” She said matter-of-factly, closing in on his lips and stealing a kiss that took his breath away.

---

. . . . . . .

The next day was just as hot, but it was almost time for dinner and neither had decided on who was going to cook or what they were going to eat. So they opted for the obvious.

“Where do you want to eat?” Kris asked putting on a thin white cotton shirt over his bare upper body.

“Hmm…” She curved her index finger under her chin showing she was thinking seriously. “Let’s go that burger place you took me last time.” Her eyes flashed with a glimmering mirth, trying to convince him with what she would suggest next. “Oh and can we walk there?”

It was damned hot, but when she begged with giant, pleading eyes and a moping pouty frown it became one-hundred percent impossible for him to resist her. It was her foolproof method for getting what she wanted.

. . .

Hyoyeon’s chest was resting comfortably on his back muscles. She was smiling and of the top of her chocolate flavored ice cream cone, while Kris gave her the piggyback ride that somehow along the way, had become his idea.

They were strolling along a shopping mart, when he turned to Hyoyeon and noticed that the lively face she had walked out with was now replaced by flushed cheeks and dehydrated gasps. The water they took with them had warmed up drastically.

That is the reason he had been somewhat reluctant to take the walk in the first place.

So, he had suggested that she climb on his back so he could carry her for at least a couple blocks. She denied this suggestion at first. But he demanded that she do as he say, otherwise she could forget about their walk and he would just end up cooking something for her back at home.

When they stood side by side their height and size difference was ostensibly visible, some even thought it was cute. But more than cute it was advantageous. He could carry her effortlessly.

Hyoyeon felt light like a feather wrapped on his back, but the sun was not as forgiving, and although he was sweating bullets as their bodies cut through the scorching heat, not once would he regret his decision. He would do anything to keep his gorgeous 5’3 blonde-haired beauty, happy.

Her smile was more than worth it. She also wasn’t incredibly ungrateful. Every few minutes, she would dab her lilac colored handkerchief across his forehead, removing the beads of sweat that dripped down his temples. She also refrained from finishing the ice-cream by herself; they took turns the ice-cream cone clean.

---

. . . . . . .

February 12^th 10:00 PM

 “Your shoes?”

“yes.”

“Your underwear?”

“Yes.”

“Your cooki—”

“Baby, yes I have everything. Will you stop worrying?” Kris hushed her resilient babbling with a kiss.  

His fists were propping him up on the mattress as Hyoyeon pressed her lips on his with a ravenous need, pushing her blankets off herself to make direct contact with his body.

Kris parted from her, feeling dazed, but before he could even fully stand she reeled him back in by the hanging cords on his coat and she nailed him against her body with her legs wrapped fiercely around his waist.

“I’ve changed my mind. Please, don’t go. I’m getting a bad vibe about this flight.” Hyoyeon dug her nails on his back, refusing to let go.

“Yeah, me too. They’re probably going to lose my luggage like they always do.”

“That’s not funny. You know what I mean.” Hyoyeon made languid up and down his back, popping her s up to his chest, seducing him into agreeing with her. He almost succumbed to her alluring form of persuasion but he shook it off and tried to remain firm.

“If something bad is going to happen to me, it could happen anywhere; out in the street, on my way to the airport, or on my way back home to you.” Kris tried to comfort her, unsuccessfully.

“Kris, stop trying to make me feel better.” She whined sarcastically, slapping him on the shoulders. “Please, don’t leave me.” She begged in a last attempt to make him stay.

“Tell me, do you really want me to stay?” Kris asked her seriously, gently dabbing her nose with his.

Hyoyeon sighed and rolled her eyes. “No. I know you have to go.”

“Good. I have to go now or I’m going to be late for my flight. Good luck with your designs. They’ll be total idiots if they don’t decide to produce all of them.” Kris gave her a kiss on the forehead and tried to stand, but once again she pulled him to her, this time by the collar on his shirt. She forced his mouth open with her lips and slipped her tongue in.

They separated and he his lips, savoring the leftover sensation from her shameless intimacy. He held her chin tenderly and he whispered to her. “I love you.”

“I love you too.” Hyoyeon smiled. “Please come back to me safely. And get the damn contract signed.”

“I will.” He blew a kiss at her and closed the door behind him.

---

. . . . . . .

Hyoyeon rested her forearms on her office desk and frowned, feeling lonely and scared. Kris was supposed to have called 2 hours ago. He was supposed to have arrived at 11:00AM. It was now almost 1 in the afternoon and still no information on Kris’s whereabouts. She had begun to think of possible reasons for a delay; scaring herself senseless. She began to calculate minutes in her head. 

“Hey!” Baekhyun clapped his hands, startling Hyoyeon. “Have you heard from Kris?”

“Not yet. I’m starting to get very worried. He won’t answer his phone.” Hyoyeon exhaled, looking dejected, with dark circles in her eyes.

“Don’t get too worried. They probably lost his luggage again. That always happens to him.” Baekhyun laughed and explained Kris’s usual flying dilemma. “His phone probably ran out of battery and he hasn’t charged it. He’ll call soon. You’ll see.”

She shrugged not fully convinced and not at all comforted. If she could just hear his voice. But deep down, there was a dangerously bad vibe pulling on her gut. It was a heavy feeling in her chest and she couldn’t explain why. It didn’t help that Kris was not calling.

“Anyways,” Baekhyun said trying to distract her. “How did your designs’ showcase go?”

“It went well. They liked most of my dress designs. 9/10 isn’t bad, I guess.” She said smiling, forcefully.

“Hyoyeon, why don’t you go home? You’re not going to get any work done worrying about Kris here. To tell you the truth, I’m actually a little worried myself. I actually called the airport, and they said the flight had been delayed. But with the time they gave me, he still should have arrived at his hotel by now.”

“That’s why I’m very concerned. I also called, but I just ended up getting in a fight with one of the workers. They’re so incompetent. They couldn’t even tell me what time the plane had left.” Hyoyeon spoke frustrated.

“You look like you didn’t sleep well last night. Just go home and get some rest. I’m sure Kris will call you first, but if he were to communicate with me; I’ll let you know.”

“You’re right. I think I’ll go home. Thanks Baekhyun.” Hyoyeon packed her belongings and went out the door with the brunette headed man guiding her.

-4 hours later-

“Why won’t you answer your phone, damn it?” Baekhyun complained, yelling into his phone, dialing his blonde friend for the umpteenth time.

It was getting dark, almost night time and he was getting exhausted. But like a ray of sunshine, he heard a ringing signal being answered. “Finally.”

“Baekhyun?”

His voice soothed him instantly, making him sigh in a much needed relief. He breathed heavily, like he had just run through miles and miles of hurdles. It was because his breath and the inside of his mouth had become dry. He didn’t know how he was going to break the terrible news to his best friend.

“Baekhyun, why isn’t Hyoyeon answering my calls? Her phone keeps sending me to her voicemail. Oh, and it’s been the worst flight experience EVER. The flight got delayed. Some jerk took my phone by accident. I’ve spent the last 4 hours trying to find it. Luckily the jerk took it to the lost and found, EVENTUALLY. All payphones were out of order. I guess nobody uses those anymore. I think he gave my phone a virus. Can you believe that?” Kris went on, not allowing his friend to utter a single word. “But I’ll tell you something you will believe. They lost my luggage AGAIN.”

Kris was just exiting the airport’s double doors, readying himself to signal a cab, as he switched his phone to his other ear and waited for a response from his friend, but it didn’t come. It gave him a heart wrenching feeling. And then it was as if he knew.

It was the long silence between the two that provoked him to ask the right question. “Baekhyun, why isn’t Hyoyeon answering my phone calls?”

“Kris you need to buy a ticket back to Korea and try to get here as soon as possible. I’m going to tell you something you don’t want to hear.” Baekhyun spoke with a calm demeanor, but with a sadness that was direly implicative of the situation at hand.

Kris listened intently to him on the other side, a whole ocean away.

His eyes watered and his breathing became difficult to control. As if his energy had been completely drained away by his friend’s words, he couldn’t even hold the weight of his phone in his hands; letting it shatter to pieces on the concrete floor.

_______________________________________________________

Well another chapter, yay! I hope you enjoyed it. If there are mistakes or you don't understand something, please point it out.And as always thanks to all the lovely readers, commenters, subscribers and upvoters.

Just a hint, if you really, really,really enjoy this story and would be dying to know: the ‘consequences’ Kris was going to face(remember I wrote about it in the forward) by consequences, I didn’t mean Hyoyeon giving him the silent treatment at the beginning of the story. So………

Thanks everybody who supports this story in one way or another. I love you all. Enjoy!