Looking for Breakfast

YongHwa seemed to find what he was looking for in the filing cabinet at the reception desk, letting out a deep satisfied chuckle which had the hairs on the back of your neck standing on end. You had never seen YongHwa like this before, he looked manic, his vision blurred to all things around him except that piece of paper in his hands which his eyes were running over with unmatched determination. "I found you," he muttered to it darkly, and jammed the paper back in its file, shutting the draw with such force the enter set shook back and forth noisily. With that, YongHwa his heel and marched right past you to the double front doors of FNC. You followed him out, a few steps behind as you were a little frightened of his demeanour, and managed to clamber into the back of a cab with him after he had hailed one assertively within moments of stepping out onto the street. He didn't seem to notice you were sitting in the back of the taxi with him, as he was muttering all kinds of things under his breath, totally distracted, and you shied away from him in hope he didn't notice you any time soon.

"That lying little creep," you managed to hear him say, although the rest up to now had been inaudible, his volume was increasing. "I can't believe it... What is he playing at?" YongHwa ruffled the back of his hair absentmindedly, scratching and pulling at it and in his teeth in frustration and annoyance. He gripped his knee as his leg started bouncing in its spot. He was agitated alright. So many ticks and twitches, he was like a ticking time bomb. "He was the one that made it all up, he admitted, he was sorry for it... So why is he starting this all up again? It doesn't make any sense..." He looked up suddenly and glanced at you as if he just realised you were there. In the dark of the cab he just stared at you, his face expressionless, his eyes unmoving, his leg continuing to bounce. It stopped. There was deathly silence. Then it started up again and he shot his gaze out of his window as if there was never any interval at all. "Obviously he hasn't been taking his medication lately... Maybe he's just lying because he's interested in her...." he trailed off and his jaw muscle twitched. He was silent the rest of the way, and so were you. Your mind was whirring with the series of mutters that were coming out of his mouth. Pieces were starting to jar together in your mind as you watched YongHwa from the corner of your eye. Could what he was saying possibly be the truth? Had you been believing the wrong guy this whole time? You couldn't handle the dilemma, and your brain felt like it was numbing itself at the process. "Adding a suicide... that's just going too far!" hissed YongHwa loudly as the taxi suddenly pulled to a stop and you were forced to deal with the situation as the leader flung himself out of the back of the car and was all but running towards a set of apartment blocks to the right.

What was he going to do when he got his hands on HanJu? Was what he was muttering about in the back of the taxi... Was HanJu the one in the wrong? You found it difficult to sift through all this in your brain and try to keep up with YongHwa. So you pushed your internal battle aside for the time being. He was much too fast, much too  nimble, he jumped the small fence that surrounded the set of apartment blocks with ease and you had to climb over it gingerly, getting your clothes uncaught from the barbs. Why was this guy so damn athletic? He took three steps at a time as he climbed three floors to finally get to the level he was aiming for, and you dragged behind, clutching your chest and panting heavily. He wasn't human... Why didn't this apartment building have elevators? Or did YongHwa just really love the burn that much? You gasped and fell forwards after him as he approached a door at the end of the hall, sure to be the apartment door of Park HanJu. He lifted the side of his fist, ready to pound forcefully on the door when you found yourself calling out to him desperately and he paused in surprise, turning the side of his face in your direction.

"Wait!" you had called breathlessly, strands of hair stuck in the sides of your mouth, were caught in your eyes and you pushed them away as you stopped at YongHwa's side. Your hand automatically flew to YongHwa's, your fingers resting around his fist gently to stop him, and moved softly down the back of his hand to hold his wrist. You managed to catch your breath as you held YongHwa there, and he waited expectantly yet patiently for you to compose yourself. "I believe you," you found yourself saying, as you withdrew your hand from his wrist and pulled back, watching him closely.

YongHwa's fist remained in mid air, just merely a half inch from the door he was about to abuse. He stared at it for a moment, and then turned around slowly, his eyes seeking yours and you found that they had normalised, the manic fire in them gone. They had rounded, widened, become innocent pools of chocolate brown that now regarded you in unexpected wonder. "What did you say?"

"I believe you," you repeated with more clarity, feeling the rightness of your words reverberate within your very being. Of course you believed YongHwa. How had you ever doubted him? You may not have always gotten along with him at the best of times but he certainly wasn't the immoral monster you had allowed yourself to be fooled into thinking he was. At the end of the day, you knew YongHwa better than you knew HanJu. The assistant just happened to be very charming and charismatic. Regardless, seeing YongHwa's reaction, his frenzy at your words, hearing his murmured monologue of scattered disbelief... your head had corrected itself. But just because HanJu had lied, it didn't mean YongHwa had to dive in and do something he might regret. "I believe you but let's not make a big deal about it. Leave HanJu be... I don't want there to be any trouble, especially for you. You have to keep your nose clean," you added with a slight laugh. You held out your hand to YongHwa, who was just looking at you with enlarged eyes, "Come on, let's go back together."

YongHwa stared at your hand for a moment, then his eyes moved back to your face. He didn't take your hand, but to your surprise he took a step towards you, his eyes never leaving yours. "You believe me?" he said in a low voice, and there was an edge to it that sent your pulse quickening. "You're worried about me?" he added, and that edge in his voice came forth even more. His voice was husky, dangerous... It matched the change in his eyes, making him look like he was eyeing his prey, or just that he was suddenly very hungry. It made you a little uncomfortable that he was looking at you like that, but at the same time you were mesmerised both by his eyes and his voice.

"N-neh," you replied, heat creeping up your face as YongHwa's face came too close to yours like it had done earlier. He seemed to be forgetting about personal space again... This guy needed to learn some basic courtesy. However now wasn't the time to reprimand him, you had to keep him calm and get him away from this apartment building. Only then could you breath easily again. "I know you didn't do those things. I don't know why I even believed it for a minute... Mianheyo. Why don't we just go and-"

His warm lips were on yours suddenly, cutting you off from finishing your sentence. Your eyes widened as you took in the blur that was YongHwa's face right on yours. He pressed himself onto you with more force, though not without gentleness, and you found yourself being backed against the wall with his arms on either side of you, trapping you there. At first you were shocked, feeling the heat of YongHwa's muscular body against yours, his lips working furiously to coax yours open. You relented, and gave into the kiss. An overwhelming wave of thought scattering passion overtaking you, you opened your mouth to receive, kissing him back with a growing amount of fervour. You felt YongHwa smile against your lips as he kissed you deeply, he moved his hands from the wall and you reacted in surprise as you felt warm hands on either side of your shoulders working down your back and to your hips, but you didn't break the kiss. In fact, you only found yourself kissing him more passionately and he pulled you tightly against him, his scent and his warmth enveloping you from all sides. You shyly allowed your own hands to roam, sliding up his well toned back, you could feel the brawny muscles meet your palms and fingers with every rise and dip. Though it was only through his t-shirt, you could feel yourself blushing as you realised just how strongly built he really was. Your mind started wondering as to what it must look like without the layer of clothing covering it as you let you hands hug loosely around his torso. You fought back down the sudden notion to slip your fingers under his shirt to feel it first hand, when YongHwa slowly pulled his lips from yours with maddening softness, and your head craned after his lips, not wanting the kiss to end. Your eyes were still closed, your mouth pursed in the shape of the finished kiss and you heard a soft chuckle come from YongHwa as he must have been looking at you. To your surprise you felt a kiss on your forehead, and this time you opened your eyes to meet his unexpected tender gaze. You started. Although he had just kissed you, you hadn't seen his face looking so soft, so gentle at any given time since you had met him. It made you want to kiss him all over again.

"You have no idea how long I have wanted to do that," YongHwa admitted, pulling you into a strong hug so your face was squished up against his hard chest. He laughed into your hair, the sound made your heart sing. "You have driven me crazy since the moment you stepped into our company building. It's been chaos inside me ever since."

Your chin brushed against his chest as you managed to look up at him, although all you could really see from that angle was the bottom of his jaw, his lips and nose. Wow, you had never seen YongHwa from that angle before, not many girls have. The angle only viewed from hugging YongHwa himself. It was a special thing, and you knew it as you noted the heat from his body seeping through your clothes, you smelled the soft scent of his cologne. You hadn't noticed he worn any until now, it was such a subtle kind. Unless it was his shampoo or shower gel. You frowned and found yourself sniffing harder at his neck, stopping in horror as he shuddered and laughed suddenly.

"Are you sniffing me?" enquired YongHwa, with a hint of amusement. "You know that's creepy right?"

You froze in his arms in horror at yourself. "Aniyo... I was... you..." you cursed yourself for being so stupid. Your head wasn't working properly right now. This powerful, gorgeous guy that you had always adored... though of late had been so utterly frustrated and consumed by, was holding you against him like you were his. It was too much to take in, it didn't seem real. You couldn't make decent conversation right now while he was holding you, his scent sticking in your nostrils, his heartbeat against your chest... Feeling a surge of indignance that he was making you too mellow and you had gone a little bit stupid, you attempted to push him away so you could face him properly and gain your wits.

YongHwa's grip only tightened at your struggle. He made a noise of disappointment. "Awwuh, are you trying to escape me already? You're too cruel ______." His tone of voice pulled at your heartstrings and you stopped struggling. At this he rested his head happily on top of yours. "That's better. Let's stay like this for a while. I don't want to let you go yet..."

You huffed, slackening against him as he just held you there. He was just too strong. You also had to admit you enjoyed this new side to Mr Jung YongHwa. However, did that mean now you were going to see less of his mood swings? Curious as to what happens from here, you cleared your throat.

"Mmmm?" he replied lazily. Nuzzling at your hair. It gave you pleasant goose bumps.

Unsure how to go about voicing your train of thought you took a few seconds to answer. "So... does this mean that we're... dating?" the words sounded clumsy in your mouth and you frowned at them. It felt like a ridiculous question to ask, you half expected YongHwa to laugh at you, let go and tell you it was all just a joke. This couldn't all be real after all. This wasn't the YongHwa you had come to know. 

YongHwa didn't laugh at you like you had expected, instead he did something entirely unexpected. Tonight he was full of surprises. You felt a tickle in your hair and down your face, and then you realised he was kissing you everywhere on your head. His soft lips gently touched your eyebrows, your cheeks, the bridge of your nose, forehead, chin and finally brushed against your lips, but he didn't kiss your lips, instead he teased you with his own lips and you couldn't help but grin at his playfulness. He brought his cheek to yours and hugged you tightly. "Of course," he murmured in your ear, his breath tickling you so you almost shuddered against him. "I've claimed you as mine now. You can't look at any other man from now on." He paused. "And you especially can't be hanging out with HanJu anymore. Arraso?"

You nodded obediently and you felt his smile against your cheek, so you smiled too. "I'll tell my manager and Administration that I don't need a Personal Assistant anymore."

YongHwa made a noise of satisfaction, "Mm-hmm, you have me from now on. Why would you need a Personal Assistant? I can do a much better job than any assistant. In fact... there's not a lot I can't offer you..." you felt him prod you and wondered exactly what he meant by that comment.

"Ah but we can't let anyone know that we're seeing each other," you said urgently, pulling away from him to meet his eyes sincerely.

He peered down at you with a slightly bothered expression. "Why not?"

You raised your eyebrows, he should know better than you in this department, having been in the business much longer than you have. "We can't date anyone... the contract clearly states..."

It was his turn to raise his eyebrows. "You actually read the contract? Wow I underestimated you... And here I thought you were a cool rocker girl that didn't care about the rules, or even take the time to read the finer print."

You felt a pang as you remembered your role, you had forgotten all about it for the time being, being caught up in the drama at hand. You were giving YongHwa a good look at your real self right now, and you instantly panicked. Was this going to ruin everything? Could you even see YongHwa romantically and still do your job as you had promised to your manager? The two of you hadn't discussed what the event of a romance might do to the grand scheme of things. Surely it didn't matter, you pushed the thought away as you peered up at this beautiful specimen before you. Even if your manager told you to abandon this affair, you didn't think you could do it. Now that you had tasted the sweet lips of Jung YongHwa, there was no going back. You were already addicted to him. Like the poisoned fruit in the garden of Eden, though of course, there was nothing at all poisonous about this particular fruit. It was sweet and delicious and warm, you brought your arms back around his torso absent-mindedly, and caught him smirk at your willing touch. "There is a lot about me you don't yet know, Mr Jung YongHwa."

His smirk dropped slightly, "You're still going to call me that?" To your surprise he lifted you off your feet and slung you over his shoulder as if you were a sack of bread rolls. "You're seriously going to be like that to me now, _______?" He started walking back down the way the two of you had come, pushing open the doors to the staircase with his foot and jabbing you in the sides with his index finger as he held you firmly over his shoulders with his other hand. You laughed loudly and struggled in his grip, your squeals echoing down the confined walls of the staircase. "This is your punishment!" he declared with a booming voice, and you were certain the combined noise of the two of you was waking up the tenants of the apartment block, but you were laughing too much to be able to quieten yourself or him. "Repeat after me, _______. I will not speak rudely to YongHwa-ah, instead I will use the sweetest form of banmal I can think of." He jabbed you with each word and your shrill laugher bounced off the walls, your hand flying to your mouth to cut off your volume. "Come on, repeat it!" He started tickling you up your stomach and you almost kneed him in the face in your attempt to avoid him. "Oof! You almost took off my nose! Watch where you swing that leg!" He caught your leg with his hand and held it firmly in place as he exited the apartment block and the taxi came into view, waiting for the two of you there like he had instructed it to.

You made to slide off his shoulder as the two of you neared the taxi, but he stopped you from climbing off you. His hand ran up your thigh distractedly and you jolted against him at the shock of where his fingers were going. "Mr Jung YongHwa!" you snapped huffily, pushing away his hand and forcing yourself down from him now, "I don't think I gave you permission to run your dirty hands all over me just because I let you kiss me!" You pushed him aside and made to get into the taxi first but a hand shot out from beside you and opened the door for you. You glanced around at YongHwa who was holding the taxi door open for you, and nodding you ahead to get in. He was smiling,  a small dimple at the side of his face showing in the shadows of the moonlight and you realised you had never noticed it before.

"My apologies, Miss," he bowed to you as you entered the taxi, fixing your seat belt for you once you had settled in. "I just don't know how to control myself when I'm around you." And with that comment he left you stunned and closed the taxi door to walk around the other side and get in. He fastened his own seatbelt, grinning to himself but not looking at you. He informed the taxi of your address and slouched back in his chair casually as the taxi pulled away from the curb and headed towards your dorm.

"How do you know where I live?" you questioned YongHwa after a few moments of silence in the back of the taxi. He had his eyes closed, and a smile was playing on his lips as he rested his head back on his head rest.

"That wasn't the first time I've snooped in the files at Administration," came the reply in a sleepy voice beside you. His head lolled to the side and landed on your shoulder. You looked up in surprise but then caught yourself smiling. YongHwa's heavy head sat on your shoulders the rest of the way to your apartment block, and you could hear his soft breathing but you knew he wasn't asleep. He adjusted himself so that his nose was nestled into the crook of your neck, and he let out a deep sigh of contentment. Coincidentally he scratched his face and casually let his hand lay beside your thigh, but it didn't fall still after that, you felt it moving, curling against your thigh at irregular intervals and you wondered if he was just trying to touch you or if he really did have a strange habit of curling his fingers that way. The corners of your mouth twitched as you guessed that wasn't a natural habit to have.

"YongHwa-ah," you whispered to him the way he had wanted, you noticed his breathing halt momentarily, "I think you are a very crazy guy."

"Hmm?" he murmured, pretending he had been asleep the whole time. "_____, did you say something? Sorry I," he yawned, but not quite naturally, "I was fast asleep."

You chuckled and let him believe you were fooled. Instead of challenging his claim to have been sleeping, you patted him fondly on the head, touching his soft hair and winding your fingers through the strands. He made you laugh by making a purring sound like a cat as you did so, and you felt your heart bursting with complete happiness. It was the most pleasant ride in a taxi you could ever remember having, and you wished it didn't have to end.

The next morning you arrived early at the FNC building, ready to start your first official day of work. You had enjoyed a beautiful night's sleep, the first time all week that you had slept at a decent hour, and slept deeply right through. Your dreams had been mixed instances of intimate time with YongHwa, nothing naughty of that kind, just sitting together, talking, laughing... fine dining. The thought of a candle-lit dinner with YongHwa made you blush as you remembered that particular dream. How cheesy. However also how very  appealing. Wouldn't that be a perfect date? You two were dating now... secretly of course... but still dating. Your steps were light and springy as you approached the reception desk, remembering the events that had unfolded last night, starting here in this very room, and then marvelling at how the night had ended... so perfectly. As you signed your name and time, returning the greeting from the woman at the desk, you then remembered the less desirable outcome of the night.

"Ah," you said suddenly, and the woman at the desk looked up at you with mild expectation. "I wish to withdraw from the complimentary transition Personal Assistant program," you said. "I think I know enough about the company now so I'd like to go it alone from here."

"Kreyo," nodded the woman, and she tapped a few keys on her computer easily. "Can I ask if there was anything which made you wish to withdraw so soon? Was your Personal Assistant perhaps not up to your standard? We do very much appreciate the feedback our clients can offer us. How would you rate your experience?"

Slightly taken aback at the questions, you thinned your lips and thought about it. You didn't really want to go into the details about why you didn't want HanJu as your Personal Assistant anymore. The less the workers of the company knew, the better. You weren't looking to undermine HanJu in any way, he had still been a very good Assistant. You just didn't appreciate the lies he had told you, though that really was nothing to do with the work here, it was personal. "Aniyo, there was no particular reason for my withdrawal other than that I don't feel the need for a Personal Assistant anymore. I know my way around, I know what to do. Any further questions I can ask my sunbaes who I have now gotten to know quite well." You managed to stop yourself from blushing at this last comment, as you had one particular sunbae in mind as you said this.

"Ah, kamsahabnida, we are glad to hear it," said the receptionist cheerfully enough. "Well then, continue to enjoy your experience and don't hesitate to ask if you are ever in need of any further assistance."

You nodded your thanks and turned towards the elevators, arms full of your work for the day. No doubt today you would be receiving more information about your debut song, and meeting with some producers in person so that they could speak to you about it beyond what had been documented. You had heard there were some thematic changes in your piece, and the best thing was to talk through it in person. Your manager would also be present of course, so if you didn't understand anything they had to tell you, you could always ask him later. The elevator dinged and you stepped through it. Someone else entered the elevator with you swiftly, and you whirled around at their speed as the doors were closed prematurely at the of the button from this other person.

Your eyes widened and you smiled brightly at who had jumped into the elevator with you at the last minute. It was YongHwa! How long had he been down there in the foyer while you took your time? "YongHwa-ah!" you exclaimed in greeting, and he didn't waste time in sidling up beside you in the small space of the elevator, and putting his arm around your shoulder. He kissed you on the cheek and you felt your cheeks going pink at the gesture.

He drew back to gaze at you, cocking his head to the side and regarding you in that cute way he had in the practice room the other night. This time you didn't have any problem finding it cute. He looked very fresh this morning, obviously he had been sleeping a lot better since last night also. His eyes were big and bright, full of energy. "_______," he crooned, brushing the hair off your face and tucking it behind your ear. "I don't think I've ever been so excited to come into work."

You chuckled at his comment and he went on. "You see... I'm working on this new song that's really exciting, it's probably the best song that I've thought up in so long. So the first thing I thought when I woke up was: Oh my god I can't wait to get to work and see where I go with that new song!" Your face dropped at the direction he had taken, thinking perhaps the reason he couldn't wait to get to work was something else... But just as you turned away in disappointment, you heard a guffaw of laughter beside you as strong arms gripped your shoulders and whirled you back to face him. "Oh, ______! Did you really think that was the reason?" he teased, and before you knew it he had pulled you into his warm embrace tightly. Feeling indignant, you refused to return the hug. Fancy toying with you so early in the morning? "Of course it was you that had me practically running down the street with my coffee, practically skipping breakfast just so I could get a glimpse of you sooner!" His words touched your heart, and you smiled despite yourself and hugged him back.

"Did you really skip breakfast?" you scolded him when the two of you finally broke apart.

A cheeky look flashed across YongHwa's face and he brought it close to yours when he said these next words. "I was hoping you could be my breakfast..." Your noses were just touching, and he was eyeing your lips when suddenly the elevator door opened and the two of you both sprang backwards hurriedly. You flicked open your booklet of projects and YongHwa cleared his throat and stared ahead as two more people boarded the elevator. The next floor was yours and you grinned over your shoulder without looking directly at him as you stepped out the elevator. You caught a wink from him just as the elevator doors closed again to hide him from view. Things were going to get extremely interesting around here, you thought to yourself, unable to stop yourself from grinning as you made towards your usual practice room. So lost were you in your thoughts that you forgot to select a guitar from the instruments room on the way, and you had to back track the way you had come after already reaching your practice room door.

_____________________________________________________________________________

YONGHWA P.O.V.

YongHwa continued up the next floor in the elevator, grinning goofily to himself at nothing in particular. He almost forgot to get off at his floor, and was interrupted from his daydreaming  by the man standing next to him who he had seen in passing almost every morning on his way up, and this man kindly reminded him that it was his floor that they were stopped at. Before the doors shut again, YongHwa thanked the man profusely and leapt through the doors as they bounced off his sides mid-close. He was already losing his head... one kiss from a girl and he had lost all his wits. Shaking himself, YongHwa strutted into the CN BLUE practice room and wasn't surprised to realise he was the first one there. He usually was the first one there, and of course he was this morning because the band wasn't due to meet for another two hours.

He had only come into work so early because he couldn't wait to see you, he wasn't lying about that. His stomach growled at that moment. He also hadn't been lying about skipping breakfast. He stood where he was for a moment, not really seeing anything in the room before him and his eyes shot back to the door. Why didn't he just go and get the breakfast he really wanted? His face broke into the smile of a child on Christmas morning as he made up his mind and dashed back through the practice room door, sliding to a stop at the elevators before then running on to the staircase. He didn't want people to see where he was going, everyone in the building knew where his practice room was, he had been here that long. It would seem strange if people started catching him visiting the second floor too often. Best stick to the staircase. So YongHwa flung open the door to the stairwell and bounded down the stairs three at a time, eyes bright with excitement, face broken into an uncontrollable grin.

Like a puppy chasing after his master, he ran with passionate speed to the second floor and jogged down the corridor to the door of your practice room. He peeped inside the small window in the door and spotted you setting up your things, lost in thought. You looked so beautiful when you were concentrating. You looked so beautiful anyway... He went to knock at the door, but stopped to compose himself first. He wasn't looking very cool right now. He straightened his fringe back over his face where the wind through his run had misplaced it. He also relaxed his expression so that he didn't look as desperate or excited to see you as he really felt. Feeling satisfied, YongHwa proceeded to knock on your practice room door casually. His breakfast was waiting inside. He didn't think he'd ever want to taste anything else but your lips from now on. At that cheesy thought he planned to share with you, his lips twitched despite himself. Smooth YongHwa, he thought to himself. Very smooth.

End Chapter Eight