It’s been almost two months since that night Handong would rather forget.

Not that anything bad had happened during that night per se, but there’s been this weird feeling hanging around her since her interaction with JiU, that she couldn’t seem to shake off, no matter how hard she tried to drown herself in work. 

After telling her friends what happened at the bar, they had just stared in disbelief, acting as if Handong had done something unimaginable. Which, according to them, she had done, cause according to everything they knew and had heard no one had ever turned down JiU.

She had tried to placate her friends and stop them from staring at the other woman but it was in vain, they were as subtle as an elephant trying to pass as a sheep; and even though she hadn’t turned around to see if JiU was staring at them, she knew her eyes were on her. 

(And Bora had told her that too in an attempt to get a reaction out of her.)

Handong knew it wasn’t healthy to try to drown her thoughts in work and alcohol and that she could try and talk to her friends about it but it’d probably end up in disaster: Yoohyeon would say something completely out of place in an attempt to distract her but end up making things awkward, Gahyeon would probably say what she needed but didn’t want to hear, and Bora would just tell her to get laid.

It wasn’t like she wouldn’t appreciate her friends attempts at helping her but sometimes they could be too much. 

Once she came back to their table, her friends tried (but failed) to pretend like they hadn’t been watching Handong’s exchange with JiU from afar.

“Oh Bora! You’re so funny!”, Yoohyeon said abnormally loud and fake laughed as soon as Handong was upon them.

Bora and Gahyeon grimaced at Yoohyeon’s attempt to act natural and pretend they hadn’t been spying on their friend for the last five minutes.

Instead of saying something to her friends, she just shook her head and placed their new drinks on the table and downed one of them in one go.

“That bad?”, Bora scrunched her nose at the sight of Handong seemingly losing composure, in all her years of being friends with the CEO she had never seen her this shaken, it seemed like whatever had happened with JiU at the bar had really affected Handong.

“She’s just…”, Handong really had no words to describe the encounter she had just had. 

The audacity of JiU, trying to proposition her after exchanging just a few words was something that she couldn’t wrap her mind around; after all, Handong was known for turning everyone down in the past since they just couldn’t reach the standards she had set, and that’s how she won the “Ice Queen” title after rejecting one too many. Nowadays, if anyone tried that with her they were either stupidly brave or a fool, however Handong couldn’t decide in which category JiU fell.

“You could have slapped her like you did with Jackson”, Gahyeon pointed out.

“Or you could have fallen into her charms”, Bora wiggled her brows, “I heard she’s amazing in bed”

Handong just rolled her eyes and ignored her friends' chatter as they stared unabashedly at JiU, abandoning the pretense of trying to be subtle. 

Soon enough they changed the topic as Yoohyeon accidentally spilled her drink over a guy that was passing by, she tried to apologize but the guy got so mad he threatened to get her banned from the club forever.

(“As if he could”, Handong whispered to Bora, “I’ll just buy it and ban him forever”

Bora was about to dare her to do it when Gahyeon, seemingly fed up with the guy, just took Yoohyeon by the hand and pulled her to the exit, yelling “we’re leaving” as she passed them by.

Knowing better than to go against their youngest, they left the guy fuming behind, not without Bora flipping him off one last time.

And as they walked to the exit, they were unaware of one curious pair eyes watching them leave).

It was yet another boring business gala and though Handong had wanted to send her CFO Wheein in her steed, her continuous absence would surely be noticed and talked about, rumours would surely fly about the reason behind it, and surely, none of them would paint her in a good light.

When her friends asked about her absence during their weekly hangouts, Handong would simply wave them off and say the company was going through their busiest quarter of the year and she had to oversee everything. It seemed plausible enough that they couldn’t really call her out on it.

(Even though it was kinda true, since they had acquired a new radio station and the paperwork had been abysmal, Handong tried to bury deep down inside of her the dangerous thoughts about the blonde woman that just wouldn’t leave her mind and that she did…

...not (definitely not ) want to see ever again).

So here she was, pretending to be interested in whatever the old businessmen in front of her were saying while being bored to death on the inside. As much as the desire to leave this place overwhelmed her, she couldn’t deny the importance of making herself and her company known.

As one of the few women in power in this country, everyone was looking at her through a lens, waiting for her to fail and prove to them that “ a woman like her wasn’t fit to handle a corporation as big as Han Consolidated” and that everything she had accomplished so far wasn’t on her own merits but “ everything was handled to her in a silver plate” .

While usually it seemed like nothing could get Handong down, deep down, past her cold and seemingly unwavering facade, she struggled with the feeling of not being enough.

(That’s why she worked her off and basically lived in her office, a habit both Yoohyeon and Gahyeon constantly tried -but failed- to break).

Before she could continue down that train of thought, a hand on her arm got her attention.

“Miss Han, the head editor of Daze Magazine is looking for you”

“Excuse me, gentleman, as much as I would like to continue with this…”, Handong smiled coily at the men in front of her, “... delightful conversation, the work of a CEO never stops”, the you wouldn’t understand it went unspoken.

The men nodded in agreement but the jealousy they felt over her status could be felt in the atmosphere.

With one last goodbye, Handong left arm in arm with the woman that interrupted her.

“It would have been more believable if you actually knew who the head editor of the magazine was”

“Pff…I know it is…Min…”, her hesitation made Handong laugh, “...something-something?”

“Bora, how can you not know the name of your biggest competitor?” 

“Daze Magazine is technically one of Yoohyeon’s biggest competitors, not mine. Just because I invest my money on Brave Mag, doesn’t mean I have to deal with it”.

Sometimes Handong couldn’t believe the words that came out of Bora’s mouth; they were clearly complete opposites of each other, and maybe that’s why they got along so well. 

Bora shoulder-checked Handong softly, “Also, where’s my thank you so much Bora for saving me from those vultures? I don’t know what I would do without you ?”, her voice went down a few octaves and she tried to sound disinterested in a failed attempt of imitating Handong’s business voice.

“I don’t talk like that”, Handong lightly pushed Bora away, but the shorter woman kept a strong hold on her arm, “but thank you, I was about to pull my hair off.”

They continued their chitchatter as they made their way to the lonliest looking bar -among the ten or so that were scattered around the venue- and as they waited for their drinks, their small talk turned into a game of trying to find the best and worst dressed of the night.

“ Fancy meeting you here ”

A voice coming from their left interrupted their game, both women were shocked -for completely different reasons- at the people standing next to them. 

JiU smirked once she got Handong’s attention and saw the redhead’s eyes subtly looking her up and down.

The blonde woman was wearing a navy blue three piece suit that fitted her like a glove, a very sharp contrast to what she was wearing the last time they saw each other.

For a moment, Handong was in awe of her beauty, she couldn’t deny that JiU was really attractive and made her feel something; but then the blonde had to open and ruin everything.

“If you’re still afraid of STDs let me assure you I got tested today and I’m a hundred percent clean”, the smug voice and the annoying ( but attractive , her mind betrayed her) wink that was sent her way made her forget all those good feelings she was having. 

The blue haired woman next to JiU chuckled and tried to high five her, but the blonde left her hanging, making her pout. 

Handong rolled her eyes at the childish display in front of her, she turned back to Bora but found an empty space where she should have been.

Weird , she thought, I wonder where she disappeared to and why, but that’ll have to wait.

It seemed like JiU was still waiting for a (good or bad) response from her, but as she looked at her stupidly annoying (and gorgeous) face, Handong took her and Bora’s abandoned drinks and walked away.

Sometimes the best comeback was not giving a response, leaving the other one wanting for a confrontation that they’d never get.

“Dude”, Siyeon looked at Handong’s retreating form in awe, then turned to a -once again- stunned Minji, “She walked away from you...again”.

Her surprise turned into amusement as she thought of the situation Minji was in, never in all their years of friendship had she seen Minji being turned down this way, not once but twice .

Siyeon’s laugh brought Minji back to the present, her shove did nothing to shut her best friend up.

“Wait till Yubin hears about this! Oh man, she’s going to be so mad she missed this! The first gala she misses since you started showing up to every single one of them after that afterparty and this happens!”

Even though she was still trying and failing to shut Siyeon up, Minji’s eyes never stopped following Handong’s form since she walked away ( again!) from her. There had always been something about Handong that made her want to give and receive all her attention; and while when they were kids it had been childish love and admiration, she couldn’t deny that now that they were older, there was something about Handong that called to her.

Also, Handong had been the first woman in years to not fall into her charms.

That’s why she had been attending every business event that she could in hopes of seeing Handong again; something her friends knew and loved to about.

“I can’t believe the great Kim Minji’s charms have failed once again, on the same woman no less”, while teasing Minji, Siyeon was also updating Yubin via text about what had happened mere minutes ago.

Minji rolled her eyes, “Maybe third time’s the charm”

Siyeon scoffed in disbelief, “Right, it seems to me like the she wants absolutely nothing to do with you”, the ping of an incoming message was heard, “Yubin says there’s no way you’ll ever get into The Ice Queen’s pants, that it’s impossible you’ll succeed, no matter how hard you try”, she snorted while typing back a quick response to their friend, “and I agree with her”.

There had always been something about being told that she couldn’t do something that made Minji’s blood boil, the thought of being called a failure at something she was supposed to be good at tended to cloud her judgment and that had always been her downfall. 

“Wanna bet?”

Her response seemed to surprise Siyeon, there was no way this could end up well, but if there was something that Siyeon loved where bets and this one was too good to pass up. 

“A bet, you say?”, she didn’t waste a second before texting Yubin the new development, who instantly texted back. “What about this, when you fail, you’ll give me your house in Piri Forest and Yubin wants your race car collection”.

Oh, Minji thought, we’re playing that way then. After some thought, a lightbulb turned over her head. 

“I’ll make Handong fall for my charms, and when I succeed, you’ll give me part of your Daze shares and Yubin has to give me ownership over Pandami Zoo”, to be honest Minji didn’t know why Siyeon had this weird obsession with Daze Magazine when there where better companies to invest her money in, but if her friends wanted to go after some of her most prized possessions, she would do the same.

It seemed like Siyeon was going to hesitate about the bet after hearing what was at stake, but another text from Dami made her confident in them winning. 

“But you don’t only have to sleep with her”, she stuck her hand out to Minji, “you have to make her fall in love with you”.

Now it was Minji’s turn to hesitate for a second, could she really do it? If it had been about any other person she would have accepted in a second since she was confident in herself, but this was Handong they were talking about.

Her gaze swept over the venue and even thought she wasn’t actually looking for Handong, their eyes connected for a second before Handong scoffed in disgust and looked away, her attention going back to the woman in front of her. 

That second -and the subsequent reaction- was all it took for Minji’s decision to be made.

“Deal”, she shook Siyeon’s hand and with that, the deal was sealed and her life would forever be changed by the decisions that she would take in the future. 

For better or for worse.

what's the deal with jidong's past? where did bora go? will minji succeed or will she lose one of her houses and her race car collection? keep reading to find out.

thank you all for liking this fic so far, i hope you'll keep on liking what i've in store for this fic.

you can also find me on tw: @anothershipper
cc:/anothershipper
btw i know i at updating but imma try my best to be more constant. tbh before joining kpop stan twitter i had written 0 fics in years cause i had lost all motivation and confidence in my work, but kpop gave it back to me haha

also, sorry for any mistakes this has been proofread like once but english aint my first language u.u