Suppressing a yawn, he threw a shirt into his suitcase, then looked around for the rest of his clothes. At this time, he would usually be at the office, busy with work. However, he had a flight to catch soon and thus, he was busy packing in his bedroom. To his surprise, Mrs. Han had informed him that Sungjong was at home. Usually, the younger left an hour within his leaving, busy as he was with his career.

Maybe he has a late shooting or something, he thought as he packed his ties. Normally, the younger helped him when he got ready for his business trips, but ever since the last two months, he had been just as busy, if not more, as him. He was working hard for his dream and Myungsoo appreciated that, but he couldn’t say that he didn’t miss him.

At this moment, Sungjong was in the bathroom, taking a shower. He could hear the water running, softly, while he packed.

It’s a good thing he’s home though, I can say goodbye, he thought as he folded his last sock. Packing was not his strongestn suit. Sungjong somehow always knew what to take and what to leave behind.

This trip had not been planned beforehand so he hadn’t been able to inform the younger about it. Only last night he had received an urgent call from Jiyeon in Australia. It had been brief, but she had been clear – she needed him there. Myungsoo had promised her this favour and he had not forgotten. Thus, he had Woohyun book him the first flight to Australia, which left in roughly three hours.

Yet, he was apprehensive. Sungjong still didn’t know to expect a baby of their own. He had decided not to tell him until he had brought the baby home. It wasn’t that he was afraid that the younger would refuse to keep the baby, it was just that the idea might seem ridiculous to him until the baby was with them, in their home, and he could see the reality of it.

The baby will be so perfect that he can’t possibly refuse.

Truth be told, he was excited at the prospect of including a new life to their small family. There were some joys of raising a baby that he could share with Sungjong. It was going to be like an adventure for them. Secretly, he was hoping this would bring them closer together, even more than now.

Distracted by his thoughts, he sat at the end of the bed, the sock still in his hands, when the bathroom door opened and Sungjong walked out in a fluffy, white bathrobe, hair dripping wet. Startled by Myungsoo’s presence, Sungjong gaped.

“What are you doing here?” he asked, padding forward towards him.

“Sorry babe, I have to go to Australia, urgently,” Myungsoo offered apologetically as he finished packing and shut the suitcase at his foot.

“Oh,” Sungjong said, his mouth twisting painfully, “I will miss you.” He was standing right in front of him and his hands were on his shoulders.

Myungsoo looked up into his eyes, those deep brown fantasies. They were close enough for him to be able to see his long, curled lashes and the mole on his nose clearly. His bangs were wet, sticking to his forehead, droplets of water dripping down their backs. The bare-faced beauty stared back at him, causing his heartbeat to quicken.

Just like day 1.

“I’ll miss you too, but I’ll be back real soon, promise,” he managed, as he continued to gaze into the younger’s eyes, as if mesmerized.

Sungjong only hummed in reply and slowly, leaned down, not breaking eye contact, to kiss him on the mouth. Perhaps he was saying goodbye, but the way his lips fit over his mouth and his tongue dragged urgently over his, it was more like he was asking him to stay. His soft, warm hands were tightly wound around his neck now, and Myungsoo’s hands found perch on Sungjong’s waist, over the belt of his bathrobe. They broke apart for a second but went at it again, Myungsoo feeling the heat oozing out of the both of them. Sungjong left his mouth a hot mess before at his jaw and proceeding to nip at his throat. The sensation caused his legs to tremble with need and his hands to grasp tighter at the slim waist.

When they parted once more, Myungsoo dropped his eyes to his wrist watch. He had exactly three more hours until his plane left, and he had to be at the airport two hours before his flight. If he instructed his driver to drive fast, he could make it to the airport in thirty minutes. That left thirty minutes to spare – just enough.

Making up his mind, he pulled the younger closer to him, between his legs. Sungjong understood, and ducked his head to let their lips mesh together. As he kissed him lazily, Myungsoo unfastened the belt of his robe. His hands skittered up his arm to push the robe away from his shoulders. The fluffy white robe slipped down his arms and fell in a heap at his feet, leaving Sungjong completely , a feast for the eyes. The younger however showed no sign of urgency, so he was forced to mutter, “I only have 30 minutes,” against his lips. That was when the kiss grew fervent and hot.

As Myungsoo’s hands ran all over his smooth supple skin, Sungjong’s hands were pushing him back flat on the bed. Myungsoo gripped his waist, pulling him along, which resulted in Sungjong sprawled on top him. He could feel Sungjong’s heat all over his body and he bit back a whimper and a curse when his hips buckled into his. In one fluid motion, Myungsoo turned them both over, so that he was on top now.

He heard Sungjong gasp loudly as he made himself comfortable between his legs. Heat was spreading fast through his body and pooling below his stomach.

“I love you,” he whispered, as he felt Sungjong’s legs hooking around his waist.

When Myungsoo was in his limousine, speeding towards the airport 45 minutes later, he received a phone call. It was the private detective he had assigned to find proof of Sunggyu’s wrongdoings. He had good news apparently – he had unearthed evidence that Sunggyu was indeed corroborating with Royals Magazine. Excited by the news, he didn’t even ask how he had managed to find such proof. His mind was already churning out images of the day he would present that evidence to the CEO in front of a shell-shocked Sunggyu. The executive editor had taken him for a fool but he was going to prove that he was capable of running his company.

“I’ll be back within a couple of days,” he told the man on the phone. “Until then, hang on to the proof.”

---

Ever since Sungjong had started at Royals, his life had turned upside-down. The first few weeks had been painful – if he had thought that he knew all there was to being a model, he was wrong. He went through grueling practice and a severe diet regimen. After two weeks of this life, he had almost given up. But Myungsoo had helped him, he had encouraged him.

“You won’t remember the pain, because the happiness of achieving will be much greater than the pain,” he had told him. Every time he was about to break, Myungsoo would hold him close and fix the cracks.

If I didn’t have him, I couldn’t have made it, he thought, lying on their bed. Myungsoo had just left for the airport. He didn’t like the fact that his husband went on trips so frequently, but with his own schedule, he couldn’t accompany.

At least this time he said he’ll be back soon.

The heat had still not completely left his body. Truthfully, in the past few months, he had missed Myungsoo, missed making love to him. With the both of them busy with their own things, they hadn’t found much time to be intimate.

But his hardwork had paid off. Only last week, he had posed for a photoshoot. He wouldn’t make the cover, not yet anyway, but he had hope. Two weeks later, he would have his ramp modeling debut, so practices were tight. It was a gala event and he hoped Myungsoo would be back in time to be there. He wanted his husband to be in the audience when he walked down the stage, his moment of glory.

Running his finger through his bangs, now wet with sweat instead of water, he climbed out of the bed and entered the bathroom again. A large floor-to-ceiling mirror greeted him. Tentatively, he inched forward, feeling apprehension in the pit of his stomach. He had had this feeling for some time now – it was as if he was afraid by his change.

In the last four months, he had changed a lot, but he had been so busy, that he hadn’t had time to monitor the change. Of course, the company checked his weight and his measurements regularly, but they were superficial changes. Sungjong was worried that something had changed within.

His reflection stared back at him – pale and unfriendly. His face was unusually thin, framed by his now shorter, browner hair. His bangs swept his forehead, almost falling into his eyes. The stylists had been rejoiced over his hair. No amount of teasing or dyeing or straightening did any damage to his hair and they could style it in any way they wanted without much hassle - it would suit him just fine.

Even though the stylists were pleased with him, his fellow trainees were not. He had hoped to make some friends but he realized that when you are competing to be the first one to debut, to become famous, you have no friends. Sungjong was easily the best out of all the trainees, all younger than him and some of them had trained for 2 years already. Thus they were all turned against him, jealous, angry. There was not one friendly face among them, not one helping hand extending towards him when he fell down.

I guess when you climb higher, you leave your friends at the bottom of the staircase.

His gaze fell on his prominent collarbones, which threatened to break out of the skin. He had always been slim but now he looked starved. His legs were so narrow that he was surprised he was still standing on them. Myungsoo always complained when he took him in his embrace how he was only skin and bones – he could see why.

Is this what I wanted for myself, he wondered. Sighing, he got into the shower once again to wash off the sweat and Myungsoo’s scent.

While he dressed, his mind was in a far-off place. What if he had not taken this job? What if he had just another plain job, which didn’t require him to lose weight and practice walking until blisters erupted on his feet? Then, he would have been able to go on trips with Myungsoo, spend more time with him.

This is not the time to ache for the past, he reminded himself. He straightened his shoulders, just as his instructor had said. Tilting his chin upward, he perfected that haughty, smouldering look in his eyes. He nodded appreciatively at himself in the mirror – he was a model – his job was to give the clothes he wore life. He was a star, one everyone looked up to.

His phone rang. Biting his lips, he received the call. His manager’s angry voice reached his ear as he sighed, watching the clock. He was late.

“I told you I’ll pick you up but did you listen to me? You’re going to practice two extra hours today, understand?”

Before he could reply, the man hung up.

Jo Kihoon was a big man, with muscly arms and chest. He was at least a head taller than Sungjong and he always wore an expression of utter distaste. There only a few occasions when that expression changed. Sometimes when Sungjong practiced his walking, he could see a lecherous smirk on his face in the mirror.  He had also caught the same smirk one day while he was changing, and Kihoon had barged into his changing room. To be honest, the man intimidated him to no ends. At first when he had been assigned Kihoon as his manager, he had protested and asked Kibum for a different manager. But the chief editor had assured him that Kihoon was very good at his job and he would help him to become famous.

Quickly, he collected his bag and drove himself to Royals. The car was a present from Myungsoo for their one month anniversary. Myungsoo had taught him to drive himself; but Sungjong soon found out that he had a knack for it. However, he didn’t get many opportunities to drive. Usually his manager pcked him up and shuttled him from one place to another. He hated how he drove, quite unlike Myungsoo.

Those were the good times, he sighed as he parked the car in the massive parking facilities in the basement of the building where the Royals office was. More than the practices, he found Kihoon’s nagging tedious. He was a cruel rough man with a language to match. Some of the things he said to Sungjong when he collapsed from tiredness made his skin crawl.

The manager met him in front of the practice room. Leering down at him, he told him to get into the practice room.

“And you’re not coming out until I say so,” he warned. Sungjong only nodded. He was used to long practice hours anyway.

After three hours of constant practice, he finally sat down on the floor, wiping the sweat from his face with the hem of his T shirt.

If Myungsoo could see me now, he thought mournfully.

His husband was protective of him; if he had gotten wind of what actually went down during the practices, and how grueling they actually were, he would have begged him to give it up. And without Myungsoo’s encouragement, he would have probably given up. So it was a necessity to not tell Myungsoo exactly how long he practiced for or how hard.

As he poured some cool water from his bottle on to his face, the door to the room opened. Thinking it might be Kihoon, he sprang to his feet. But it was someone unexpected.

He hadn’t met Tao since the day he had joined the company. True to his words, the CEO had made sure that he only dealt with the chief editor and other editors and not him.

At first, he thought that the man had the wrong room, but Tao padded towards him determindedly, a half-smile forming on his face. Before he could move, he had pinned against the wall in a sudden motion.

“Sungjong,” he softly breathed, their faces dangerously close.

“Sir, what are you doing?” he asked as boldly as he could. He wasn’t afraid of Tao.

“You’re so ungrateful. Not once did you thank me for bringing you where you are now. If I hadn’t asked Kibum to break the rules for you…”

It was true, Tao had actually helped him to reach this position. And he had not thanked him for it. But he was wary of approaching him, because he was aware of the man that lay beneath the surface, the curel, cold Tao, who didn’t stop at anything.

“I’m sorry-”

“Dinner on Friday, I’ll pick you up at 7,” Tao cut across him.

“But-”

“No buts,” Tao’s tone held finality. “To celebrate your debut soon. And you can pay your debt to me this way. Don’t worry,” he leered, his smirk in place, “I will keep you safe until your husband arrives.”

How does he know Myungsoo’s away?

Without giving him a chance to reply or protest, Tao his heels and marched away, leaving him alone in the practice room again. The sound of the music was suddenly deafening, and all he wanted to do was to run away from this place, with Myungsoo by his side.