| CHAPTER FOURTEEN |

More Than A Fairytale

Wow. Just wow. Jiwon ran her fingers along the textured details on her hips. White and gold. Glitters. Gems on the torso. Laces on the back; off-the-shoulder sleeves, a heart-shaped neckline that exposed the big beauty mark right on her right cleavage. A long slit on the left that showed her leg. When was the last time she found herself so gorgeous like tonight? Uh, never? She carefully brushed her hand on the big vintage waves the stylist did on her hair. She never thought it was possible to make her hair so voluminous. She pressed her blood-red lips together, spreading the color more evenly.

She was never the vain type of woman but she was one tonight. “I’m gorgeous, what the hell?” She turned to Chanyeol who stood there in satisfaction as if she was his own work of art. From the dress to the all over appearance of Kim Jiwon tonight, he made it all happen.

“Of course, you are, I think everyone will look at you tonight.” He beamed.

A small blush overlapped on Jiwon’s already pink cheeks. She may not have had any romantic feelings for the man but she really appreciated him making her feel so beautiful tonight. It had been a while … seriously. “Be careful though, Hara doesn’t like the spotlight taken away from her.” Jiwon laughed at what he said. They were definitely siblings after all. She cleared and squinted her eyes a bit. “Anyway, why aren’t you ready yet? I mean, I guess it’s much faster to get ready for men.”

Chanyeol grinned, trailing his eyes from left to right. “Actually, I’m ditching the ball. I have this really cool concert I need to go to and I have a backstage pass so I can’t miss it. Don’t worry I brought a proxy for you.” He skipped to the door and opened it, revealing a man.

Jiwon’s shoulders fell. “OH, SHUT THE FRONT DOOR.” She hissed in English.

Byun Baekhyun. Of ing course. She glared at the man in a nice tuxedo, hair up showing his forehead, face more on point than usual. Her eyes softened. He looked good, she hated to admit that to herself, even. Baekhyun scanned her from head to toe, no words came out of him. Unusual. By now, she would have expected some comment from him, erted comment specifically. A tap on his shoulder woke him up. He looked back at his good friend, Chanyeol. “Thank you for the tickets and the backstage pass, I swear to god I owe you big one.” He grinned before looking briefly at Jiwon. “Bye, Jiwon. Enjoy the night, you two!” He walked away, closing the door behind Baekhyun.

The stylists who had finished packing up all bowed to them before leaving the big dressing room as well. “I heard that, you gave him concert tickets? Was that your bribe? How big is this concert that he will ditch me?” Jiwon groaned of irritation.

Baekhyun blinked. “Girls’ Generation. I h-had … I had the backstage pass given by a producer friend. I didn’t want it anyway, so.” He cleared his throat, not liking how stuttered he just sounded.

Jiwon laughed sarcastically. “Seriously? Girls’ Generation? He would ditch me for Girls’ Generation?”

Slowly but surely, Baekhyun got his groove back from what she said. “Uhm, yea? Which stupid man in his right goddamn mind wouldn’t ditch you for Girls' Generation? I would love to date even just one of them and I could die right there.” As he had expected, he received a glare from her with his answer. He felt satisfied. More calm. Still awestruck but better. “Huh, then what are you doing here?” Jiwon interrogated, folding her arms on her chest making her cleavage more prominent.

Dumbfounded, he was again. Her gaze, her red lips, her hair, her legs, her curves, her cl—Baekhyun shook his head and looked away. “Goddamn you’re right, I’m that stupid man. Let’s just go.” He walked out of the room first, gesturing her to follow. Jiwon heaved a deep sigh, trying to hold the smile from coming out of her lips. Why did he look … cute, saying that?

The way he said goddamn was so … goddamn infuriating in a different kind of way that only he did to her.

Well, the night escalated that quickly. Now, she was sitting right on the passenger’s side of Baekhyun’s car. How did things ever end up to this? She was looking forward to being the date of the one and only Park Chanyeol, she was going to post it on social media and make her friends jealous. She should have seen this coming? Just remembering how calm and unaffected Baekhyun was when he found out she was going to be Chanyeol’s date, she should have known that the man would have done everything not to make that happen.

She folded her arms and glared at him who was focused in driving. “Just so you know, I’m only going because I promised Hara. If I didn’t, I would have left right on the spot when you appeared. I will make sure to explain to Hara as soon as I see her and I’m sure Chanyeol will get in trouble. Not just you.” Baekhyun only smiled while nodding. She didn’t like how calm he was, how … gentle he seemed.

Baekhyun cleared his throat and turned the radio on. A love song started playing. Unfortunately, only three notes into the song and it was turned off by Jiwon. “Nope, not happening.” She shook her head furiously; he could see from his peripheral view. Aside from focusing on the drive, which was the right things to do, he also remained still to simply avoid the gorgeous creature beside him. It was dangerous how beautiful she looked tonight. It was triggering defeat. If he looked for more than five seconds, breathing would have been a boundless obligation. In fact, it already was.

Tap. Tap. Tap. Jiwon seriously needed to stop tapping the hard surface of her tiny purse that matches her gown. Baekhyun couldn’t handle the impatient sound it was creating; it was calling him. He couldn’t look or he might just crash—because once he looked, he’d have to look for more than five seconds and—he cleared his throat to wince away from another wave of thoughts about her.

“For the record,” Baekhyun spoke as he stretched his neck from side to side. “I don’t necessarily enjoy these kinds of events so feel free to roam around and talk to people comfortably, you’ll find me outside.”

Jiwon frowned. So, she would basically be alone? He won’t even stay with her? Not that she badly wanted to but it was her first time ever going to one, she wouldn’t have known anyone, would she? She would have been that new girl everyone would have looked at and judged and wondered, 'Where’d this girl come from? She doesn’t look like she belongs.' and all sort of stuff she was already making up in her head so that if it ever happened, it wouldn’t have hurt as much since she was prepared.

“Then why’d you come then?” Her voice was sharp, almost sending even more warmth to Baekhyun’s cheeks. He went every year; he was invited every year. The charity was for children—neglected and abused children. He participated in the charity, every year, but never really enjoyed hanging out with the elite people who only did the charity for exposure. He knew very well because he used to also be a paparazzi—kind of, some magazine he worked for did those sort of stuff too, so he had to— and he was once hired by popular person to follow her and take candid pictures of her doing good deeds and giving donations and .

Obviously, Baekhyun didn’t think the same towards the Park’s because they really did hold these events for a good cause annually, with a genuine heart.

He sighed. “In this ball, by the middle of the event, orphaned children would usually perform something special which they excitedly prepare months prior. They would be so excited just knowing what sort of performance they’d do for the upcoming ball and they would practice each week. They love it so much. For this year’s ball, one kid told me they were doing an interpretative dance, I think. I just want to see it.” A smile escaped his lips. He would visit these orphanages to escape and hangout sometimes, usually with gifts and goods. He never really told anyone about it because he just wasn’t the type of person who felt the need to broadcast things like that.  

Jiwon gulped hard as she turned her body more to his direction, leaning her shoulder on the seat. “How’d you know? You … visit them?” She asked. Baekhyun expected that question. Why did he even speak up in the first place? He ed up. He seriously ed up. No, she wasn’t allowed to see that soft side of him. Why couldn’t he just keep his mouth shut around her? What was so hard about that? Before he could protest and say anything, a small giggle came out of Jiwon.

A giggle he never heard from her before.

In fact, he didn’t remember her ever giggling for him—well, except that one drunken night which he had successfully moved on from and now he was remember them again and—

“What?” He asked, his eyes still glued to the road. “Nothing.” Jiwon faintly answered before adjusting herself to sit comfortably again, her head awkwardly turning to the window. The smile never left her face. A grown man visiting orphaned children and possibly spending time with them. Hmm, the imaged looked … very handsome, except it felt very new and unexpected to see Baekhyun’s face in that image. But she did. It was his face, bright and clear. It was easy to think of too, she didn’t expect that.

All of a sudden, the womanizer Byun Baekhyun she only saw disappeared. Where was he? He hasn’t been around for a while now.

“I’d love to just hide away from the crowd with you later and maybe make out but I know you wouldn’t say yes to that so maybe I’ll have to find someone else to do that with.” Baekhyun suddenly spoke, the bright and romantic image in Jiwon’s head suddenly fogged up really quickly until they vanished in darkness. She turned her head to him quickly, throwing him a sharp glare. “Seriously? You’re joking, right?” She asked.

Baekhyun laughed loud, too loud for his own good. What the did he just say? Why did he say that? He wasn’t going to do that at all. He just wanted to see her reaction, hopefully be jealous? “There’s going to be a lot of models there, beautiful actresses, hmm, delish.” He smiled proudly. For some reason though, he disgusted himself. The ? Why did that sound so wrong in his head all of a sudden?

Jiwon scoffed. “I didn’t know that was allowed. Too bad, I should have been with Chanyeol tonight and did that with him, I was really looking forward to it.”

Baekhyun’s eyes bulged out in shock and terror. Stop sign, phew. He quickly turned to her. “Excuse me? Chanyeol is my friend, he’s off-limit—wait, no that sounded wrong, really wrong. I mean you are off-limits, Miss Kim. You’ll be carrying my last name and my children in the future so you behave.” He argued. Jiwon laughed just as loud as he was laughing earlier, even bouncing on the chair. “You’re ing hilarious, I’m the one who decides whether I am off-limits or not, idiot. And no, I’m not carrying no for you!” She continued laughing hysterically to piss him off more.

Whoops