Pairing/Characters: YunJae
Genre: Romance, Fluff
Rating: PG13 (for language)
Summary: Superstar Kim Jaejoong is having a bad day. His new bodyguard, Jung Yunho, isn't having a good day either.
Date Added: LJ - November 2, 2014; AFF - March 20, 2017

A/N: Slowly working on expanding this into a longer story in the future. Any continuations will be added here in The 'W' Collection!

*****

(2:46 PM)

As Jung Yunho exited the agency president’s office, he could feel the gazes of his coworkers upon him checking for any sign of tension that might be present - it seemed that the news had already begun to spread. He strode past the secretaries without a word, passed through the main office, and entered the small work room that he shared with three of his fellow security officers whenever they weren’t out on an assignment. He was holding on to the hope that, just maybe, the tiny room would be empty of his co-workers.

Luck was not in his favour today, it turned out, as both Jin Hyun and Tae Joon happened to be in the room. Jin Hyun was likely catching up on paperwork, as his last job had just finished, and Tae Joon, the newest addition to their agency, was on desk duty due to a shoulder injury. Their work, however, was quickly abandoned when Yunho entered in favour of finding out the details of Yunho’s new job.

“Yunho-hyung,” Jin Hyun greeted neutrally once Yunho had taken a seat at the corner desk. “I heard president Chang gave you your new assignment today.”

Scooting his chair closer to Yunho’s, Tae Joon added, “Is it true? Is your new post with him?”

Sensing that he wouldn’t be getting any work done before he started his new assignment this afternoon, Yunho pushed his chair back from his desk and turned to face the two men next to him.

“It’s true,” Yunho replied, running a hand through his hair. “I’m picking him up after his filming ends tonight.”

Tae Joon looked wide-eyed and somewhat fearful at this news, but Jin Hyun was obviously relieved as he leaned back in his chair with an air of ease, “That’s fantastic news - sorry Yunho,” Jin Hyun added as an aside to Yunho, “I was up for a new posting and I heard that that job was vacant again. Man am I ever glad it’s not me.”

Tae Joon nodded emphatically in agreement, “I wouldn’t want to get that job either; I heard Kim Jaejoong is a nightmare to work with!”

“You heard right - he goes through five or six agents a year,” Jin Hyun confirmed, “Dong Joo-sunbaenim worked for him for two months last year. He said he’s never hated a job more in his life - you should ask him to tell you about it next time he’s in the office. I think you’ve really got your work cut out for you on this one, Yunho-hyung.”

“So I’ve been told,” Yunho sighed, thinking back to the meeting he had just had with president Chang. The man had told him in no uncertain terms that he expected Yunho, his best agent, to be able to put up with anything Jaejoong could (and very well might) throw at him. Rumour had it that Kim Jaejoong, idol extraordinaire, was as volatile as he was gorgeous; Yunho had seen pictures of the man before and he had to say that if the rumours were true, Jaejoong must be absolutely terrifying to work with. “But, if I can stick it out, this is my shot at getting a more permanent position.”

Jin Hyun nodded in understanding; he knew that Yunho had been looking for a long-term assignment to help pay the extra expenses now that his grandmother was in a care facility and his younger sister was attending university. “Well, good luck hyung,” Jin Hyun said as he clapped a hand on Yunho’s shoulder, “I’m pretty sure you’ll need it.”

*****

(11:12 PM)

Kim Jaejoong rolled his shoulder stiffly as he made his way from the set to the dressing room. Today’s scene had taken a toll on the joint due to the extensive action required. Unluckily, he’d taken a blow to the top of his shoulder early on in the morning and had needed to push through the throbbing pain and finish out the shoot, so as not to let his colleagues or fans down. He hissed in discomfort as his ministrations resulted in an audible grinding from the socket of the joint. Perfect, he thought with a scowl forming on his face, the last thing he needed was to be forced into taking days off amidst his already tightly packed schedule.

The staff members walking towards him down the hall accidentally made eye contact with him at that moment and then, startled at whatever they had seen, scurried past him as though afraid he might attack them at any second. Jaejoong was somewhat startled himself and paused to turn and watch the staff members hurry away with their shoulders down-turned to make themselves as small as possible. Sure, he’d heard the rumours about himself and, sure, he knew that his facial expression sometimes made him seem somewhat cold and aloof, but he hadn’t realized it was this bad. Was he really such an awful person? Did people believe anything that was published in the tabloids these days?

He sighed heavily, thinking that it was no wonder he had only a handful of friends left in the hell-hole his life had become lately. It seemed that he couldn’t even keep his staff for more than a few weeks - he knew for a fact that a new bodyguard would be starting this evening.

Clutching his injured shoulder with his hand, he trudged the last few steps to the dressing room, hurting something terrible and in a mood as black as a starless night. Of course, since his luck was simply spectacular today, immediately upon entering the room he collided with six feet of solid muscle. Slightly stunned from the impact, it took him nearly fifteen seconds to realize that the person he had just walked into also happened to be carrying coffee; fresh, boiling hot, and now seeping through Jaejoong’s shirt at an alarmingly fast rate.

Jaejoong swore colourfully and loudly, both in shock and distress over the searing agony that was becoming apparent across his chest. In a panic, he sought to strip the sodden garments roughly from his person.

Just outside his consciousness, he could hear the owner of the coffee apologising to him most profusely. A fat lot of good that would do at the moment, Jaejoong thought. And, judging by the spluttering of the man before him, Jaejoong had accidentally said that thought out loud.

“Right, right, of course. Let me just -” large hands reached towards him and began to help him with the buttons that were valiantly resisting Jaejoong’s frantic attempts to unfasten them.

Seconds later, Jaejoong was free of the stranglehold that the shirt and jacket had had on him. He collapsed inelegantly onto the couch by the doorway, eyes closed and chest heaving shakily from his panicked state. The rush of air against his burning bare skin was only a small relief to the bone deep ache in his shoulder joint that was only worsening thanks to the collision.

With his heart pounding so heavily in his chest, and his shoulder alongside it throbbing to its own painful and unique rhythm, it took him a few moments to realize that someone was touching his chest. His eyes snapped open to see a man - big, splattered with coffee, handsome, Jaejoong’s brain supplied - crouched down before him, gently pressing a damp cloth to the bright pink patch of skin that began at his right collarbone and stretched down almost as far as his navel. Jaejoong blinked and stared at the stranger who was currently giving him some strange variation of a sponge bath.

The man gazed upwards, and noticed Jaejoong’s unwavering attention. “Er, are you feeling alright? I think it should be okay, it doesn’t look too bad,” the man shrugged as he leaned in to inspect Jaejoong’s skin a little more closely.

Jaejoong could feel the man’s breath fluttering against his abdomen as he examined the tender flesh. The soft sweep of air left his skin tingling in the most pleasant of ways and Jaejoong’s eyes locked onto the smooth, plump lips that hovered just to the side of his belly button. Oh, Jaejoong thought, and suddenly the burns on his chest were no longer the hottest part of his body.

His attention was drawn from his thoughts to the man as he began to speak again.

“I’m really sorry about that, I was just… and then you…,” he trailed off with an embarrassed yet endearing smile, “I’m Jung Yunho by the way.”

Jaejoong stared in confusion at the expectant look on Jung Yunho’s face.

“Er, Jung Yunho? Your new security agent?” Yunho prompted.

Jaejoong’s eyes widened in surprise. “You…”

“Ha ha, yeah. Sorry, again, about the coffee that is,” Yunho said as he ran a hand through his hair, “I had meant to give that to you, actually - I heard you liked it. Anyway, I seem to have given you a terrible first impression and -”

Yunho’s somewhat nervous ramblings were cut off by Jaejoong, “It’s alright, Yunho-ssi. It was as much my fault as it was yours.”

Yunho was open-mouthed and appeared to be shocked at Jaejoong’s easy dismissal of the incident. Jaejoong made a mental note to get in touch with his PR people - the rumours about him had clearly spread much further than the filming staff if even his bodyguard thought he would fly into a rage over a relatively harmless accident.

Jaejoong made to stand, only to fall to the couch clutching his shoulder with a groan of pain. Yunho was on his feet and leaning over Jaejoong to peer at his shoulder mere seconds later. His large hands were careful in their perusal of the inflamed tissue - trailing smoothly, taking in the scope of the injury.

“You’ve dislocated your arm, Jaejoong-ssi,” Yunho spoke with certainty as he sat beside Jaejoong on the small couch, “did you twist it or land on it at an odd angle when you fell?”

The man looked genuinely concerned about Jaejoong’s injury, and Jaejoong suddenly realized that he couldn’t remember the last time someone had looked at him, really looked at him, and not seen Kim Jaejoong, international superstar.

“I might have,” Jaejoong paused, taking note of Yunho’s increasingly worried expression. Before his bodyguard could apologise again, Jaejoong added, “it wasn’t your fault though, Yunho-ssi. It was already injured from the filming today.”

“Ah,” Yunho hummed in understanding, “that would be why it’s so swollen already. You didn’t receive medical attention earlier?”

Jaejoong shook his head. “I needed to finish the scene - the episode is airing tomorrow.”

“Well, there’s probably not much to be done, in any case,” Yunho stated matter of factly, “I can pop it back in for you easily enough, but you’ll need to rest it after that or you could risk having it dislocated again.”

“Okay,” Jaejoong agreed, pleased that he wouldn’t need a visit to the hospital. He tried to avoid those as a rule, as they had a tendency to turn into a media storm. With the state of his image at the moment, the reporters would surely have come up with some elaborate fiction about him that played into his bad guy reputation.

Yunho grasped Jaejoong’s elbow tightly and raised his other hand to rest atop Jaejoong’s shoulder. “This is going to hurt like hell for a minute, but it will start to feel better once it’s back in the socket.”

Jaejoong nodded and took a deep breath to ready himself.

Yunho was right; it hurt like a . Almost as soon as Jaejoong had nodded, the hand on his shoulder had pressed down onto the inflamed tissue with great strength. At the same time, the hand wrapped around his elbow forced his humerus upward sharply. The sudden, stabbing pain forced Jaejoong to cry out. Thankfully, the agony was as brief as it was intense and, with a slight popping sound, the shoulder was back in place and hurting no more than it had before Jaejoong had collided head-on with Yunho.

“Alright?” Yunho asked softly.

“Yeah. Yeah, thanks,” Jaejoong replied in relief, “You seem to know a lot about this kind of thing.”

“Ah, yeah,” Yunho agreed as he carefully felt at the swollen joint once more, “I was actually a paramedic for about a year.”

Jaejoong’s eyes widened in surprise. “Really? What made you want to get into security, then?”

“I wasn’t really cut out for it, I suppose,” Yunho rose and walked over to the refrigerator in the far corner of the dressing room, “I wanted to be a paramedic to help people - and I did, I loved that part of it - but I just couldn’t handle all the times that I couldn’t help, you know?”

Yunho opened the freezer and rummaged through its contents until he pulled out a cold pack with a triumphant smile. As he strode back towards the couch, he picked up a face cloth from the make-up coordi’s bag, which must also have been where he had picked up the cloth he had dampened earlier to ease Jaejoong’s burn.

“That must be hard,” Jaejoong said, “seeing people suffer like that.”

Yunho was silent as he carefully laid the cloth on Jaejoong’s shoulder and positioned the soothing cool of the cold pack on top of the fabric. Jaejoong sighed as the throbbing in his shoulder eased to a steady, but bearable, thrum.

“You look tired, Jaejoong-ssi,” Yunho said, “let’s find you some clean clothes and get you home.”

“Thank you,” Jaejoong spoke, eyes locked with Yunho’s as he covered the bodyguard’s hand with his own, “for everything. I have a feeling I’m not going to be needing a new bodyguard anytime soon.”

Yunho blushed at the unexpected intimacy, and Jaejoong allowed a small, contented smile to grace his lips.

Perhaps, he thought, this day hadn’t been so unlucky after all.

*****