A/N: Hi everyone! Thank you so much for the subscribes, comments, and upvote! Shameless Plug: I have another fic going on with Shownu, so if you’d like to see a story with the amazing leader of Monsta X, check it out :)

I’m back with the next chapter for this fic, and it somehow took way longer than I'd anticipated to finish it, so I hope it's worth the wait. Also, there's some strong language in the chapter and pretty much the rest of the story as well, but I didn't want to rate it M just for that. Hope you like it! Enjoy!

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Chapter – 2: He Said She Said

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At an ungodly hour that night, Ji Hyun discovered an effective way of instantly waking up – face planting on the floor.

‘That’s got to be some sort of record. Was this the twenty-sixth time?’ A dry voice remarked, and Ji hyun shot Hyungwon a sour look as she straightened up and took up the sofa across from him.

‘How long was I out?’ she asked as she reached for a water bottle lying on the coffee table between them.

‘A little over half an hour, don’t panic.’

‘The report?’

‘Chief Shin brought it over about ten minutes ago.’

She groaned. He’d obviously seen her sleeping, and she was sure he’d be making jokes about her drooling for the next week. Not that she did drool, that is.

‘It looks good,’ Hyungwon said, ignoring her as he passed her the folder, ‘We just need to add our part and the conclusion, and we’re set.’

‘Thank you,’ She smiled gratefully, ‘You should head home, it’s really late.’

He hesitated before posing his question, but his concern won out.

‘Are you going to be okay?’

‘Not the first late shift I’ve pulled,’ she laughed tiredly, ‘Go, I’ll be fine. We have lots more to do tomorrow.’

After he left, Ji Hyun used her renewed determination to finish off the rest of the work in the next hour and was almost giddy with relief by the time she shut down her computer. The clock by the cubicles outside her office read 4 am, and she carefully locked her office door before making her way through the quiet building. As she exited the elevators and walked through the vast and deserted lobby though, despite her best efforts she found her relief being tamped down by the uneasy feeling that came with being in a dark, empty space all by herself.

She was probably being paranoid, but she felt a presence near her as she traversed the parking lot and got to her car. A firm believer in better safe than sorry, she started to rummage around in her purse. As a hand clamped on her shoulder, she swung out with her keys poking out from in between her fisted fingers and nearly missed the person’s stomach.

‘What the ?!’ a familiar voice growled, and she looked up into the face of a shocked Wonho.

Ji Hyun shakily lowered her hand.

‘Are you insane?!’ he barked.

‘You’re lucky I didn’t have my pepper spray.’ She whispered, slowly regaining her composure as he gaped at her.

‘Yes, lucky.’ He snapped, and she felt her temper rise through her exhaustion.

‘What do you want?’

‘Just wanted to know if you got your done.’

‘Of course, I did. And you couldn’t just call out to me like a normal person?’

‘What? And wake half the neighborhood?’

She rolled her eyes at him.

‘Yes, because they can all totally hear you right now.’

‘It’s called being polite. You should try it sometime.’

fell open in indignation, and he just smirked at her before leaving her there to walk away to his car.

I would, but you’d have to be able to understand it. There. A bit lacking, but a comeback, nonetheless. Why couldn’t you just say that Ji Hyun-ah?! She mentally berated herself as her prized black Audi beeped open. And then she noted that something was off.

A flat tire.

‘WHY?!’ she yelled in frustration, surely rousing all those neighbors that Wonho was obsessed with. Ji Hyun sighed and pulled out her phone to open a tab on changing tires. Even though she had no clue how to do it, she’d made sure that she always had the equipment in her car for emergencies.

The tired woman popped open the trunk, and dragged out the spare, before going back and getting out what the instructions told her were a jack, a lug wrench, and a set of wheel chocks. As she scrolled through the instructions, she toed her heels off, gathered her ponytail into an impromptu bun, and got down on the asphalt to try to make sense of what she was doing.

A sudden glare of headlights momentarily blinded her as she heard a car honk.

‘Problem?’

‘Yeah, one just showed up.’ She said to Wonho, who was smirking at her from behind his rolled down window.

‘You have no idea what you’re doing, do you?’ he asked, ignoring her.

‘I’ll figure it out.’ She replied grumpily, and then blinked in astonishment as he killed the engine and stepped out.

‘Move over.’

‘What?’

‘Maybe you need new eardrums to go with that brain transplant I mentioned last month.’

‘I’ll get one when you will.’

‘Seriously, move over.’

‘And what would you know about cars?’

‘More than you, at any rate. And changing tires is a basic skill.’

Ji Hyun hesitated, and then made room for him next to the front left tire. She wanted to steamroller ahead and do it on her own anyway, but she had to concede that it would take her so much longer than him judging by his confidence. And there was nothing more she wanted right then than to get some food and then get in bed.

‘Shine some light for me.’ He said, and she her phone and held it up.

One of the most aggravating things about Wonho was that he had the ability to be effortlessly attractive, which she was reminded of as he rolled up his shirt sleeves, took off the hubcap, and started using the lug wrench to loosen the nuts, the movement enhancing the veins of his toned forearms.

Ji Hyun shook herself out of her thoughts after discovering that she was paying an uncomfortably unnecessary amount of attention to her so-called rival’s physical attributes. Although, she couldn’t help but note the practiced ease in his actions as he worked.

‘You look like you’ve done this a lot.’ She said at length, mostly to undercut the awkward air around them.

‘Spent a lot of time in high school on bikes and in auto-shops.’ He replied nonchalantly, and then stiffened as if the words had slipped out of him without permission.

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Wonho wished he could take it back. It was just a small titbit about him, but he couldn’t understand why he had told her of all people even the smallest detail about himself. And it’s not like he just went around telling people anyway.

‘You?’ she blurted, and he turned slightly to meet her incredulous stare, ‘You were in a biker gang?’

He winced. And there it is, judgement galore.

‘A bunch of high school boys messing around is hardly a biker gang. And so what?’

‘I-It’s just surprising, you just seem so polished.’ She stammered, and he gaped at her.

Polished? Chief Choi thought he was polished?

She realized what she’d just blurted out and quickly looked away from him, but unfortunately for her, she saw the smirk that spread across his face.

‘Well don’t hold back now, let’s hear you tell me how amazing I am.’

The annoyed woman just stared upwards at the night sky, hoping for deliverance as she ignored the impertinent child next to her.

‘Are you done?’

‘Yes, Your Highness,’ he sneered as he straightened up, tossing the lug wr