"Jealousy is a disease. Get well soon."
— Anonymous

The position of her hips. The placing of his hands. Too close. It's too ing close. Byun Baekhyun thought as he watched his wife sway her tempting body in the same direction as the great seducer, Zhang Yixing. Whether it was intentional or not, the two had managed to grab a spot at the edge of the dance floor—one that was clearly visible from their booth. One that gave him a front row seat to their seductive waltz.

"Tch," the Lothario hissed at the scene before diverting his frustrated gaze elsewhere. He brought the rim of the rock glass to his lips, took a long sip of chilled whiskey, and reflected on the current emotions swirling about him.

Baekhyun couldn't comprehend what he was feeling, nor why he was feeling it. He shouldn't give a damn about what the stranger he married does with herself, but somehow he did. Seeing her that close to another man made him feel a sense of frustration he had never felt before—and it made him wonder: was it simply because she was legally bound to him, or because she was someone who he was physically attracted to?

"Isn't that right oppa?" he heard Chaeyoung ask, her voice sounding muffled in his ears.

"Oppa? Baekhyun oppa?" she repeated, a little louder this time.

Baekhyun brought his senses back to his current surrounding and turned to face the wide-eyed Chaeyoung. With a loud clank of his glass hitting the marble tabletop, he grabbed his mistress by the wrist and dragged her down the angled steps to the crowded sea of bodies grinding against each other.

|| …………… ||

While her body remained in synced with the attractive man in front of her, Ara's mind was preoccupied with her current dilemma: to tell her best friend now or to tell her later. Does she confess to Chaeyoung now that the lover she was falling hard for was actually her husband? Or does she postpone her confession, and save her best friend from the possibly heartbreaking news?

"Hunan," a smoky voice whispered in her ear, hauling her away from her thoughts.

Just now remembering her dance partner, Ara laughed softly to herself. She had programmed her body to follow the thundering beats, but with her mind fixated elsewhere, she had forgotten about the man who had just made his way behind her. "Ah. I've never been," she replied over her shoulder.  

"Then I'd love to show you around," Yixing proposed, thinking of all the romantic spots his home province had to offer—all the landmarks that would guarantee a captured heart.

"Over my dead body," another voice interrupted just as the DJ mellowed the music to introduce his next mix.

Both Ara and Yixing were aware whom the swift objection belonged to, but they nonetheless slowed their provocative waltz to a stop and turned to confirm their accurate guess.  

Chaeyoung uncrossed her arms then glided herself in between the two, distancing her best friend away from the hungry wolf. "Ya Zhang Yixing, how could you be so brazen and steal her away from me?" she started grumpily.

Zhang Industries' CEO smirked. "Sorry, I guess you didn't know," he replied, switching his eyes to Ara, "I never shy away from anything I find an interest in."

"Then looks like now is a good time to start," Baekhyun interjected with a rather serious tone. There was a hint of anger simmering from inside him—something he didn't consider as jealousy at the time. He knew Ara was far from being his, but she was still his wife on paper. As hypocritical and selfish as it sounded, he didn’t want any other man making a move on her. After all, she was his conquest, and his alone.

Recognizing the look of lust and envy in his friend's eyes, Yixing's smirk grew. He and Baekhyun had never shared an interest in the same woman, but it looked like the magnetic Seo Ara just changed that. "Is that a request or an order?" Yixing asked with a slight tilt of the head.

"Neither. Just a suggestion," Baekhyun answered with a steady tone, but the expression in his sharp gaze told a different story.

"Then if that's the case, I think I'll pass," the Hunanese Don Juan countered. He was trying to see how many of his friend's newly discovered buttons he could push before an explosion of unknown magnitude occurs.

Despite the loud music blasting in the background, a moment of still silence ensued for the four of them. The glint in Baekhyun's eyes had darkened with Yixing's response, making it difficult for either women to interfere.

It was only after a second call from another familiar voice did the strange and heavy atmosphere dissipate.

"Chae!" the woman in silver called again as she approached the