Between Love and Affair

That sunny day Yuri came back to her desk from lunch, expecting it to be the same way she left before. But no. All of sudden four dozen breathtakingly gorgeous velvet roses sat on it, nearly covering the poor secretary desk completely. She swiftly searched for a card and when she found it, she removed the card from the bushes and stared at it. Her eyes widened in blank amazement.

Thank you darling

From, C

She reread it a few times, trying to figure out who’s the one with the initial C in her group of friends. She was thinking about her brother, Chansung, but the thought was too hilarious for her since they were not in a ‘peaceful’ kind of relationship. They are more to ‘cat and dog’ kind of siblings. Then, she started to think about Chanyeol, the cute guy with stern eyebrows who live across her apartment. However, the fact that they never talk to each other makes it impossible for him to know what she worked as or where she worked, Yuri simply shoved the idea away as soon as possible. Leaving her to one person. One of her friends that would be able to do all this. She instantaneously smirked.

When she looked up with a resolution in mind, a man, brawny, slightly tanned guy fully dressed in his light blue shirt with the sleeves that was rolled till his elbows, just enough to show his strong muscles, was standing in the doorway facing her desk. His strong shoulder leaned against the frame with arms crossed. His huge staring eyes were undefined. But there is something peculiar about the rigid set of his jaw that made Yuri shuddered at the sight of it.

“From a secret admirer?” he asked sarcastically.

She frowned, trying to give a brilliant answer.

“Not exactly.”

He snorted in return.

“Who is he?”

She tensed, thinking if it wise to bring up the name she thought just now.

“I don’t know. I’m not sure.”

He knitted his eyebrows, seemingly angry with her.

“You’re not sure?” his voice raised. “How many men with the initial C are you seeing? How many of them think that it’s worth to send you a thousand won roses just to say thank you?”

He walked a few steps towards her with his hand on hip and other pointing furiously at the innocent flowers.

“Thousand won? That expensive? Who would do that?” she was surprised, but another reality hit her soon after, “Wait, did you open the envelope and read the card?”

He smoothed his soft hair in a one enraged motion and trailed his tenseness behind his neck before he briefly had his eyes shut. “Wow, you must be getting better at ing to forget names.”

It was natural to feel livid when he accused her to behave promiscuously. She was about to retaliate her own boss when a tanned dark handsome man, her former boss, Choikang Changmin, walked towards them. He was balancing between two plates of birthday cakes and a green doll that she recognized from afar. She nearly squealed in terror.

“Minho!” he called. “Look at the doll Yuri gave to me for my birthday. She made it herself. And I brought you a piece of my birthday cake – she made that too.” His eyes suddenly riveted towards her desk, “Oh the roses came!”

She continued to stare at Changmin and once in a while at Minho, who was obliviously reddening with visible anger.

“Do you love it Yuri?”

She raised her eyebrows, unsurprised yet amazed by his fearlessness.

“Yeah I do. Thank you, Changmin.” She reluctantly replied.

All of sudden, Changmin leaned to her and place a chaste kiss on her cheek. She trembled with fear.

“I knew that you love roses. You told me a few nights ago, darling.” His voice was a loud whisper, intended to be heard by him.

Seemingly oblivious to Minho’s thunderous gaze, he grinned and added.

“She’s such a lovely girl.” And he leaned towards him with a whisper, “I’m sure my mother’s going to love her. Don’t you think so?”

He didn’t answer him. With a killing glance, Minho his heel and strode back into his luxurious office. And as she expected, he slammed the big wooden door, just to announce to the whole department that he was mad. Luckily, his room, her pitiful desk and a personal pantry was isolated from other colleagues by a soundproof access. This scene was seemingly usual, just with different reasons in other days. But she knew why. The reason behind the impending dynamite explosion from Minho.

She’d been denying him. Every parts of him.

It started five months ago when she met a young tall man, willingly helped her when she slipped and sprained her ankle in a dark car park behind the building she was having an interview in. He invited her inside a new humongous office, claiming it to be the president’s and he, in fact, was actually designing it. She, obviously, believe him to just be a modest hardworking engineer who were exceeding his talent and spirit, given that he was still working even though it’s late. The next moment, she was already drowning in love with a ruggedly handsome lad that she barely knew. The next seconds, was when his lips locked into hers. The next day, she found herself next to him in the big cream couch, readily and gaily .

Happiness was the only thing she felt when she was with him, even for the few hours they spent, even when she lost her ity to a stranger. She thought he like her. She thought he love her. But she thought wrong. He was already another woman’s man. An engagement that was purposely publicized all over Korea a few months ago, a relationship that all of her colleagues have been gossiping about, but unfortunately a piece of news that she never knew of before. That information came when she began to work in the building. She even saw the paparazzi picture of him and his elegant fiancée at the airport one hour after they departed that morning. And that’s not all. She found out that he was the president of MY Corporation, Mr Choi Minho, which makes him her boss. She felt betrayed and furious. But it didn’t mean anything since, apparently, he didn’t remember her at all, or so she thought – until the day they realize they need a bilingual secretary who could speak French.

“I think I’ve seen you before.” He squint his questioning eyes.

She smirked, trying to stay as professional as possible. “We must’ve met a few times in the elevator before. It’s a common thing to feel like that when you’re working in the same building and using the same elevator.” She explained carefully. “And now, about the special project that require an additional secretary.” She continued. “I’ve been told that you –”

Minho suddenly raised his hand. “Don’t bother about it. I’ve already assigned an interpreter for it. My secretary will still remain with me throughout the project.”

She smiled in relief.

“Good. Then I’ll leave.”

Yuri marched across the room towards the door and hastily opened it, only to be closed again by another hand, a stronger one she must add. She turned around in surprise. His admiring eyes already looking down into hers with the cunning smile he always wear.

“I recognized you the moment you entered, Yuri.” Minho breathed, “You smelled just the way I remembered on that night. Just the way I like it.” He said as he trailed her neck.

She shoved his shoulder away from her.

“I’m sorry. But I didn’t know you before.”

He chuckled. “Little liar. We already know each other,” he reminded her, “intimately.”

She intensely gazed at the guy who had been mocking her. “I’m sorry, sir. I think you’ve mistaken me with somebody else. Now, if you could move your hand, I could go to my desk to carry on with my work.”

He gently shook his head. His eyes never left hers. Slowly, his hand reached for her waist.

“I could’ve never mistaken you with someone else. No one had ever dazzled me with wit and spirit like you did, you silly poodle. And no one, never in my life, had someone who like you did that night.”

She smiled. Cynicism was there in her lips. “Oh, not even Miss Yoona, whom I’m sure you’d as soon as you landed in Paris a few hours after we had one?”

She thought he could fidget by the sound of his fiancée’s name, but no, he chuckled at her.

“Are you angry with me, sweetheart?”

She groaned in frustration. With a huge amount of effort, Yuri swiftly shoved his hand away and opened the door for her to storm towards the elevator.  She was punching the button when his hand caught her wrist.

“Get back into my office, Yuri.”

“Take your hand off me!” she growled. “You lying scoundrel, don’t you dare appear in front of me again.”

He simply smiled at her agitation, and unexpectedly trapped her in his embrace in a split second. His arms, tight around hers, were not intending to let her loose even for seconds.

“Your eyes were definitely the most beautiful one I’ve ever seen before. It sparkled when you’re laughing. And when you’re angry –”

“Save it!” Yuri hissed, jerking violently to release herself. “You are nothing but a heartless bastard. Everything you said was a lie.”

He chuckled darkly. “You know, you just called your boss a bastard right to his face. You’re most likely to be fired.”

“Then fire me! Fire me so that I don’t have to be in the same roof as you are.” She said, still trying to be freed.

“Silly girl. You wanted to be with me every second.”

His mocking confidence knocked the fight out of her. Defeated, she leaned her shoulder against his arms and looked at him with helpless pleading.

“Please let me go, Minho.”

“I can’t.” he breathed affectionately beside her ears, “Whenever I see you, I can’t seem to let you go.”

“Then don’t see me. We haven’t seen each other for these past few weeks and my life is perfect.” She sighed, “You should fire me.”

“It’s pointless.” He replied, “Because I would rehire you the moment you left my sight.”

“You don’t ever know I was working in this building until today!”

He burst out laughing, “Then, how do you think you were able to work under a vice president when you obviously not qualified nor experienced enough to work at that level? You think Changmin would want you there?”

“He said I’m competent enough to work with him.”

“No silly, I’m the one who put you there. I’ve told Changmin to take you since I’ve already had a secretary in my hand.”

“In which you probably had a with.”

He frowned, “Are you serious? Seohyun is eight months pregnant. And she’s carrying one of my best friend’s child.” He sounded irritated with a hint of impatience, “I know I’m a bastard but I’m not stupid.” His hands then gently cupped around her jaw and ing it towards him. She could feel his breaths on her blushing cheeks. “I want you, Yuri. I want every part of you. Now, what else do we need? What else matters?”

“What else matters?” Yuri hissed, pulling free of his arms, her eyes b with tears, “How can you ask me that? How about Yoona? Your fiancée? Are you telling me that you wanted a casual, unemotional affair with me while you go in public kissing her with the same shirt that you wear when you were with me? Or do you want me to wait for you at an Italian restaurant while sewing a doll that looked just like you when you obviously forget about your promise to meet again? Or you just want me to be your weekend’s playmate?” she sounded defenseless, her shoulder dropped, “I can’t handle a casual romp in bed with you. I’m not ready to be your weekend’s playmate, and surely I’m not strong enough to go through all of that again.”

His eyes then fury with anger. He punched the wall behind them.

“Damn it, then what do you want from me?”

I want you to love me.

“I don’t want anything. Just leave me alone.”

His insolent eyes raked over her.

“Before I go, I want to give you a piece of advice,” he said icily, “No man in these days wanted an innocent wife who was not experience enough in bed. You are stupid and naïve to believe that there is such man in this world. Grow up!”

Indeed, she did grow up but only in her sense. The next few days, she locked herself in her desk next to Changmin’s office, meditating, or praying perhaps, so that she wouldn’t encounter him again. But heaven obviously didn’t hear her. Thus, hell called for the umpteenth time. Seohyun, Minho’s secretary, had an early childbirth, forcing him to find another secretary as soon as possible. She was on top of the list. And surprisingly, Changmin recommended her to him, perhaps oblivious to the fact they had slept together before. Her miserable life began the seconds she sat in her new small secretary workplace.

The intercom on her desk suddenly buzzed. As a newly trained secretary, she immediately pressed the button, his deep voice came out from it.

“Yuri, will you come in here please?”

She picked up his message with a sigh and walked into the office.

“Yes?”

Minho was perched on the edge of his desk, his arms crossed over his chest.

“Come here,” he asked gently.

Yuri came forward but stopped just out of his reach.

“That’s not close enough.”

She silently groaned.

“It’s more than close enough.”

Amusement gleamed in his eyes. “We need to straighten out some personal matters between us. Why don’t we do it over a dinner tonight?”

She courteously refused with a lie, “I’m sorry, I already have a date.”

“All right, how about tomorrow night?”

She rolled her eyes.

“You already have a date – Miss Yoona at seven in the Leon Club.”

He seemed to ignore that reminder. “I’m leaving for Japan on Wednesday so we –”

“Have a nice trip then,” Yuri interrupted lightly.

“I’ll be back on Saturday.” He continued with the same trace of impatience, “We’ll go –”

“Sorry,” she said with an amused smile that was intended to annoy him, “I’m busy on Saturday and so are you. Miss Tiffany, or Fanny as she called herself, called to find out if the party that night was formal or not.” She added with a dazzling smile to her wit, “She called you Minny. It’s very adorable of her – Minny and Fanny. You guys got a cute nickname.”

“I’ll break the date.” He said tersely.

“But I won’t break mine. So, is there anything else?”

“Yes, damn it, there is. I hurt you and I’m sorry.”

“I accept your apology.” Yuri replied short.

He studied her with narrowed eyes, “Yuri, I’m trying to apologize to you –”

“You already apologized,” she interrupted.

“ – so that we can go on from here and started again.”

Fury, not pleasure, tinted through her smooth cheeks. But somehow, she managed to sound more perplexed then she thought of.

“Started what? A new sleazy affair?” she protested, “You know what? I’ve taken your advice –”

“Good.”

“And manage to find a few men who were competent enough to teach me how to excel in bed. And I just found out that you ! You are too young, too inexperience that I even wondered if I ever had with you that night. But you know what they said, it always going to get better than the first experience. In fact, I’ve already decided that when I have a daughter of my age, I will send her to you to let you show her how a preliminary education should feel like so that she will learn on –”

One step wasn’t enough. He lunged forward, seized her wrist and jerked her between his muscular thighs. His eyes flaming with alarming anger and desire, “You beautiful outrageous –” his mouth swooped down, seizing her lips with raw devastating hunger. She tried to resist him but none was accepted by the beast she was handling at that moment.

“Is this, what Yuri supposed to be doing here?”

Changmin’s amused drawl aborted the kiss, and their heads snapped around towards the doorway. Yuri wrenched free of his arms as Changmin straightened from the doorway and strolled into the office. He seems surprisingly calm even though he just watched his friends flirting with his secretary, or worse, if he thought the otherwise.

“This will make things rather awkward for Yuri,” he continued thoughtfully, “In the first place, I think the whole office witnessed a bit of this scene when I opened the door just now. They probably bound to blame Yuri.”

Yuri was mortified with horror upon his announcement.

“In the second place,” he lied with a bland grin, “The date you wanted her to break on Saturday happens to be with me. Since I am one of your oldest and closest friends, and since there are seven night in a week and you probably had booked a girl each night, I don’t think it’s very sporting of you to try to usurp my night.”

“I sincerely hope,” he interrupted shortly with an eager furiousness, “That you have a valid reason for this unscheduled visit of yours.”

“I have none. But I have more reason to take Yuri back to her desk and watch her completes her work.”

He frowned. “She had been reassigned to me. Haven’t you heard that?”

Changmin raised his eyebrow with a cunning smile of him.

“I know. I just want to make sure that she would able to work comfortably around here. If she not, I happened to like having her around my office. She’s very good at making a coffee.”

He smirked. “Well I’m afraid I’ve to deprive you of coffees for the next few months. The Ilgoryeo project needed her.”

“Really? I thought you’d hired an interpreter for that?”

“Well I decided to use any source available in the company to cut the budget.” He simply explained in a half truth, “And now, if you excuse me, Yuri and I would some space to do our work.”

“Alright. Let me accompany her to her office then.”

“She didn’t need to. I have a huge space here. She can work in my office. I’ll ask somebody to place a table here.” He pointed at the huge couch that had our history on it. “Seohyun’s office is off limit. We had a lot of confidential files in there. I don’t trust her enough.”

Her heart sank with his last sentence. But she remained still.

“Well, I think the space in front of your door is quite big too. I believe a small desk and a few racks would fit in there.”

He rolled his eyes reflexively. She, on the other hand, couldn’t be thankful enough to Changmin.

“Fine, whatever you want to do, Changmin.”

He nodded agreeingly, feeling satisfied with the wager.

“Should we go now?” he asked her, ing his palm towards the door.

Yuri gave a little nod before she followed his pursuit to walk out from the door. Before the door is closed, she heard him muttered.

“!”

Yuri thought she’s going to be scolded by Changmin the second they went out from his office. But he didn’t. Instead, he congratulated her for resisting his physical retaliation. She was surprised by his lack of sense of loyalty towards his friend. However, according to Changmin, Minho was the one who betrayed him. Miss Im Yoona, Minho’s fiancée, happens to be Changmin’s longtime love that he met during his business school. Three of them were colleagues but Yoona was attached to him for the reasons Changmin can’t seem to identify. He didn’t blame the treacherous bastard, the name that she called him now, because he was always a step slower than him. And he claimed that Yoona was happy with him. For these reasons, he took a step back and be the ‘nice guy’ for both of them.

Hearing the story, Yuri’s hatred towards him became solidified. Choi Minho is indeed a bastard. But she loves that bastard and somehow couldn’t get herself out of that state of affairs. She managed to maintain her professionalism in front of him. But behind his back? God knows how much she flutters every time she saw him or heard his voice. Unfortunately the bastard she loves doesn’t seem to appreciate her love. He wanted an affair which would make her look stupid and she wanted love which he thinks will make him stupid. Guess what, love is stupid but it was a different type of stupid. The kind that made you locked in a heaven. The kind that made everything seems ethereal. The kind that made both of us looks stupid.

At one o’clock the next afternoon, Yuri went inside Minho’s room again.

“I understand that you have an urgent task for me?”

Minho quickly tossed the documents he was reading down on his desk, leaned back in his chair and lazily surveyed her. His irritating smile appeared soon after. “I do.”

She stared him blankly. “What is it?”

“I want you to go to the coffee shop and get me something to eat.”

“That –” she choked, “That’s your idea of urgent?”

“Very urgent,” He replied imperturbably. “I happen to be starved.”

Yuri clenched her hands into fists. “To you I may merely be some frivolous, amusing ual object, but I have some important job to do than attending some bastard’s foolish needs.”

“I need you sweetheart.”

“Don’t you dare call me sweetheart!” she burst out.

“Why not?” he cajoled, smile lighting his face. “You’re sweet.”

“You won’t think so if you called me that again.” she warned.

One of his brows rose, and she was forced to remind herself that he was still her boss.

“Alright!” she gave up ungraciously, “What do you eat for breakfast?”

“Irritating secretaries.” He mocked.

She walked of through the door almost immediately after that, and Minho, he didn’t have any lunch that day.

A joint conference call was scheduled that evening. As the president’s secretary, she was meant to be present to take down the figures that were discussed. As soon as she entered his office, Minho gestured towards his chair and got up so that she could sit at his desk and take notes. Two minutes after Yuri sat down, he leaned over her from behind, braced his hands on the desk on either side of her and brushed his lips across her hair.

Her self control snapped, “Damn you, stop it!” she burst out.

“What?”

“What?”

“What”

Three masculine voices chorused. Minho leaned towards the speaker and drawled, “My secretary thinks you’re talking too fast, and she’d like you to stop it so she can catch up.”

“Well. All she had to do was ask,” one offended male replied.

“I hope you’re satisfied!” Yuri whispered furiously.

“I’m not.” Minho chuckled in her ear. “But I’m going to be.”

She snorted.

“Of course you are.” She hissed in a low voice and silenced her next words.

She was debating on what to buy Changmin for his birthday when a sudden shrill ring of her doorbell interrupted her thoughts. When she opened the door she stared at the man whose tall frame seemed to fit the doorway. Dressed in an open-collared cream shirt over his shoulder, Minho looked so unbearably handsome that she could have cried. She forced herself to sound composed and only mildly curious.

“Hi Minho. What are you doing here?”

He frowned. “Damned if I know.”

Unable to suppress her smile she said, “The usual excuse is that you happened to be in the neighborhood and decided to drop by.”

“Now why didn’t I think of that?” Minho mocked drily, “Well, are you going to invite me in?”

“I don’t know,” she said honestly, “Should I?”

His gaze traveled down the entire length of her body, her white oversize shirt and a disappeared shorts. And it lifted to her lips, “I wouldn’t if I were you.”

She chuckled wanly. With reluctant, she made her decision.

“In that case, I’ll follow your advice. Goodbye, Minho.”

Her door was closed and was never open again – sadly.

During the next few days, Yuri saw sides of Minho that she had only imagined existed. Gone was the teasing man who had held and kissed and to relentlessly pursue her. In his place was a powerful, dynamic businessman who treated her with a brisk, aloof formality and as a professional relationship. That Wednesday evening, Minho called her into a conference room to take notes during a meeting of the financial staff. Yuri’s attention was focused on her shorthand notebook while one of his manager gave a presentation, her pen flying across the pages when Minho’s voice slashed into the proceedings.

“Mr Park!” he snapped murderously, “If you can tear your attention from Miss Yuri’s bust, the rest of us will be able to finish this meeting.”

If Yuri flushed a vivid pink, the elderly Park Leeteuk had turned purple hue that might be indicative of an impending . As soon as the last staff member had filed out of the conference room, Yuri ignored Changmin’s warning look and turned furiously on Minho.

“I hope you happy!” she hissed furiously, “You not only humiliated me but you nearly gave that poor old man a heart attack. What do you plan to do for an encore?”

“Fire the first woman who opens !” Minho retorted coldly.

He walked around her and strode out of the conference room. She started to follow after him, but Changmin stopped her.

“Don’t argue with him,” he said, gazing after Minho with a beatific smile on his face. He looked as if he witnessed a miracle. “In his present mood he’d fire you, and he’d regret that for the rest of his life.”

“Then let him be. I’d rather be jobless and starved to death than being stomped by him all the time like this. He’s an ugly heartless beast.”

“But you love him.” He said so suddenly.

It was not a question, but it was a statement. A strong fact that it made her sighed and gently sat on one of the chairs that were eagerly inviting her to sit.

“Yes.” She admitted. Her voice struggling with fury and hopelessness.

Changmin was obviously hiding his amusement by her actions, “I know you did.” He claimed calmly, “And I also suspect that he loves you.”

She chuckled wryly.

“Love is subtle nowadays, Changmin.” She placed her palms on her temple, “If you mean by spending a few nights in bed was love, by all means you are very wrong. That is not love. That’s just a plain stupid .”

He took a chair beside her and sat with serenity in his expression.

“And by all means – I’m not that kind of person who understated love, Yuri. I know what love means.”

She began to stare at the long table in front of her, trying to suppress the anguish hope inside her heart.

“What makes you think so, Changmin?”

He crossed his arms as if he already expected the question from her.

“To begin with, he isn’t treating you the way he normally treats a woman.”

She snorted in agreeably. “I know that. He’s nice to the others,” she said with bitterness.

“Exactly!” the latter agreed. “He’s always treated his women with an attitude of amused indulgence, of tolerant indifference. When a woman begins to bore him, he firmly dismisses her from his life. Not once in my knowledge has any woman touched an emotion in him deeper than affection or desire – not even Yoona. Some of them tried to make him jealous yet he has reacted with nothing stronger than an amusement. Which brings us to you –”

He paused to take his eloquent breaths. He deemed to be very enthusiastic of storytelling and she didn’t mind about it. She was interested of how different she was with the other women Minho had taken to bed.

“You,” he continued quietly, “have evoked genuine anger in him. I mean, look at him, he was ing mad!”

She couldn’t disagree with that.

“He was annoyed with his fellow partners, his staffs and more of that he was actually angry with you. He was so frustrated with you and himself. Yet he doesn’t dismiss you from his life, he doesn’t even send you to me, for God sake.” His tone became softer, “Minho is a complex man, Yuri. He’s just a child. No child wants to share his beloved belongings. If he can’t use you, he won’t let others near you.”

“I’m not his toys, Changmin and I refused to be one.”

“Yuri, I didn’t mean that. It’s just hypothetical. Can’t you see what he’s actually trying to do to himself and you? He’s obviously madly in love with you. And you obviously and stupidly love him back.”

Yuri sighed. “Even if you’re right, it’s useless. He’s going to marry Yoona in a year or so. And I’ll be vanished before that.”

“Don’t be silly. I won’t let him marry her.”

His brave statement caught her attention. She riveted her gaze to him.

“Are you crazy? What are you planning to do?”

His smile right then was the creepiest thing she’d ever seen.

“Oi!”

A rough husky whisper jerked her from her daydreaming.

“Huh?”

Changmin, grinning from ear to ear, looking down to her as if he’d won a huge battle, which remind of her of the present scene.

“What possessed you?” she demanded of Changmin.

His grin becomes wider. “Called it an uncontrollable impulse.”

“I call it mad!” she bursts out. “He was positively explosive.”

He snorted teasingly.

“Of course. He supposed to do that. I’ve told you that I will light a match under him. And trust it me, it will work.”

She rolled her eyes.

“Well then, keep me out of your stupid games.” She began to take the roses down from her table, “I don’t want the blast to hit me. I’ll be dead by then.”

Her intercom buzzed a second later. She widened her eyes. Fear and terror accompanied her as she pressed the button.

“Yuri, come to my office immediately!” he hissed.

She turned to Changmin who already burst out laughing. She knuckled his shoulder as she ran past him.

“By the way, Yuri.” He called her.

Yuri halted against the door.

“The nearest fire extinguisher is beside the elevators.”

He claimed and walked away with a loud laughter that somehow becomes annoying to her when the fact she was the only one who will face the explosion.

She sighs and took a brief moment to pray – earnestly.

“Yes?”

She took a step inside the room but was force to forward when a strong hand grabbed her wrist. Minho nailed her hand against the door behind her and instantaneously it closed, not without a loud thud. His hands swept around her, grasping her hips, holding her tightly against him. In a state of shock, she stared at his furious eyes.

“You vindictive little , you gave him my doll!”

It really hurts to see him like this. But it also felt good, for her…for him.

“It was not yours. What makes you think it was yours?”

His hands tightened. Her body crushed against him.

“You liar! You made me that frog doll that matched with my eyes in the restaurant that we supposed to meet.”

Her eyes stung with remorse and she closed them in vain.

Still crouching, Minho cupped her, now restored, heel in his left hand and reached over to pick up her sandal with his right. Just as he was about to slips the sandal onto her foot, he glanced up at her and his lazy smile sent Yuri’s pulse racing as he asked.

“Isn’t there some fairytale about a man who searches for the woman whose foot fits into a glass slipper?”

She nodded, her eyes bright.

“Cinderella.”

“What happens to me if the slipper fits?”

“I turn you into a handsome frog.”

He frowned and she grinned mischievously at the sight of it.

“Because your eyes huge and clear, just like them.”

Yuri opened her eyes again. A drop of tear accidently fell down to her cheek.

“You didn’t come, Minho.” She croaked. “I’ve waited for you but you didn’t come. You forgot about me once you were with Yoona in Paris.”

She could feel his warm breaths against her neck.

“You’d turned me into a raving maniac, Yuri.” He said with a sudden gentleness in his tone. “You’d been driving me insane! Every time your phone rang I always wonder which of your lovers was calling you. Every time a man looked at you in the office, I’ve an urge to smash that man’s head and crush his eyes. You don’t have any idea how mad I am, Yuri. And I don’t know even know what’d happen to me.”

Yes, he’s just like a child. So helpless, more naïve than her.

Minho smiled somberly, “I want to belong to you – in every way.”

Yuri’s heart flung itself against her ribs. He was offering himself to her. Choi Minho was surrendering himself to her.

“Consider what an amoral, unprincipled cynic I am – think of all the improvements you could make to my character.” He softly kissed her neck, “Kwon Yuri, I love you.” He breathed to her.

Her head shot up. Unable to believe her ears, she stared at him through tearful eyes. And he saw her tears.

“Don’t you dare cry,” he warned tersely, “I have never said that to a woman before and I –”

His words trailed off as Yuri unexpectedly flung herself into his arms, her shoulders shaking. Uncertainly, he tipped her dent chin up and gazed at her face. Yuri could see in his eyes, he was actually bracing himself for rejection that she could make.

“I think you are so beautiful,” she whispered brokenly, “I think you are the most beautiful –”

A low groan tore from Minho’s chest, and he smothered with his. Devouring her lips with the insatiable hunger that had been torturing him from months. He kissed her fiercely, tempestuously, tenderly and still he could not get enough of her. At last he dragged his mouth from hers, fighting down the rampaging demands of his own body and held her in his arms, pressed against his pounding heart. Yuri raised her face to his. A question rise through her eyes.

“No,” he murmured tenderly. “Not like this. I’m not going to walk in here and rush you into that couch again like I did before.”

She smiled at her best.

“I love you.” She said honestly.

He chuckled, “I was beginning to think you were never going to say that,” And then he brushed a kiss over her smooth forehead, “I love you too.”

She raise on tiptoe to give him a kiss. She stopped to meet his eyes for a while. Yuri was bewildered when she saw his lips twist in a humorless smile and knitted eyebrows. But she was utterly stunned by his next words.

“Let’s get it over with, so I can stop wondering. How many have there been?”

She stared at him, “How many what?”

“Lovers,” he clarified bitterly.

Yuri could hardly believe her ears. After treating her as if her standards of morality were childish, after acting as if promiscuity were a virtue, after telling her how men preferred experienced women, he was jealous. Because now he cared. Yuri decided to exact just a tiny bit of revenge for all the misery and uncertainty he had put her through.

“Why should the number make any difference?” she asked innocently, “You told me that men don’t prize ity anymore, that they don’t expect or want a woman to be inexperienced. And that women –”

“Yuri,” he warned in a low voice, “I asked you a simple question. I don’t care what the answer is, I just want an answer so I can stop wondering. Tell me how many they were. Tell me if you liked them, if you didn’t give a damn about them, or if you did, it was to get even with me. I won’t hold it against you.”

Like hell you wouldn’t!

“Of course you won’t hold it against me.” She said happily, “You specifically said –”

“I know what I said,” he snapped tersely, “Now, how many?”

She flicked a glance in his direction, implying that she was bewildered by his tone.

“Only one.”

Angry regret flared in his eyes, and his body tensed as if he had just felt a physical blow. She could his clenching fist behind her back.

“Did you – I mean, did you care about him?”

“I thought I loved him at the time.” She said brightly.

He squint his eyes before he forced himself to relax.

“All right. Let’s forget him.” Minho said curtly.

“Are you going to be able to forget him?”

He sighed, “I will…after a while.”

“What do you mean after a while? You said there was nothing promiscuous about a woman satisfying her biological –”

“I know what I said, dammit.”

“Then why do you look so angry? You didn’t lie to me, did you?”

“I didn’t lie,” he said, slamming his hand onto the door again. “I believed it at the time.”

“Why?” she goaded.

“Because it was not convenient to believe it,” he bit out, “I was not in love with you then.”

Yuri loved him more at that moment than ever.

“Would you like me to tell you about him?”

“No,” he said coldly.

Her eyes twinkled, “You would’ve approved him. He was tall, slightly tanned and handsome just like you. Very elegant, sophisticated and experienced. He wore down my resistance in just a few seconds and –”

“Dammit, stop it!” Minho grated in genuine fury.

“His name is Ch –”

Minho braced both hands on his ears childishly, “I do not want to hear this!”

“Choi Minho!” she clarified loudly.

He looked at her in silence, and then he drew a long deep breath.

“Yuri,” he began gravely, “I would like five daughters with a brown almond eyes, stubborn dent chin of yours. Also, I’ve become very addicted to your rich black-colored hair, so if you could manage I would like our daughters to inherit that trait of yours and left every spiteful and boring trait of mine. And brace yourself, we’ll be going to practice it over this weekend. And of course, we’ll go to the chapel and get our license beforehand. ”

Her heart burst with happiness, jarred by the same emotions that were shaking him.

“How about Yoona? Aren’t you going to give her a basic courtesy to break engagement formally instead of rushing a wedding without telling her anything?”

“Changmin will handle her.” He claimed confidently, “That bastard! He couldn’t get the nerve to ask her to marry him and I ended up having to make some arrangement with Yoona to wake the man out of him.”

Her eyes widened in surprise.

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Because back then, I don’t think you need to. Or probably because I thought so. Like I said. I was not in love you back then.”

Her lips twist out of curiosity.

“Minho?”

His eyes remained on her.

“When did you realize that you were in love with me?”

He smiled meaningfully.

“When you told me to up my balls in French during the conference call.”

She laughed heartily.

“So you do understand French.”

******

Enjoy

Words from author,

This is a tribute to one of my favorite author, Judith McNaught, from her book, Double Standards. I love it and I hope you it too.