***

 ‘If people have a control over the outcome, I would have long choose our ending,

and wish not to meet you this way’

‘It’s so strange…’ Jaejoong mumbled after averted his eyes from keep staring at the person by his side. It was first time he watched the fireworks blooming on the night sky, but somehow, this current situation sending a familiar feeling of déjà vu nibbled his insides, bringing a sudden sadness shrouded him.

For the next half hour, the two sat side by side in silence lingering upon them. It was weird how Jaejoong found it was so comfortable to have a silence company, moreover with the stranger. Indulge in a time of peace and tranquillity. It didn’t prolong though, when the man’s cell phone suddenly broke the lingering silence upon them.

“Yes, I’m speaking.” Yunho answered as he listened to the caller. “Are you already here?”

Jaejoong glanced over at the man, who sounded like he had to meet someone sooner.

“Okay, I’m coming now.” With that said, he ended the call.

“You have to go now?” Jaejoong asked with a wondering look.

“Yes, I have to meet someone. So, can we go now?”

“Huh, why I have to go too?”

“You can’t tell me that you wanted to stay here, alone?”

The idol pouted, now looking discontented. “Can’t I just stay here a bit longer? I will go back in another half hour.”

“No, not allowed.”

“I promise I will directly go back…” He tried to assure the man.

“As if you remember the way back to the rest house, but still I can’t leave you here alone unprotected. I feel it’s still a part of my responsibility to make sure you’re safe.” Yunho said as if he was replaying the stringent rule in his job to his many clients.

Jaejoong stared at the man in disbelief and grumbled. “Fine! Tch, you’re really know how to annoy me out with that attitude of yours again.” With that said he stood up from the bench and stomped ahead of the man.

“Not that way, it’s this way…” Yunho called as the other was heading to a wrong way blindly with a sulking look.

“I know!” Jaejoong retorted and turned back around. He just had his look down as he followed Yunho’s lead.

Yunho couldn’t help, but feel the corner of his lips curled up for the first time because of the person. ‘He is still cute, just like before. Still the same and still my…’

“…Joongie…” Absentmindedly, he mumbled out.

 “Did you call me?”

Yunho was startled for a mere seconds as the idol turned at him. “Uh, no..." He responded shortly.

Jaejoong frowned while staring at the man’s back, who suddenly started walking ahead of him. He believed that he heard like his name was slipped from the man’s lips.

“What a weird and suspicious man…” Jaejoong mumbled lowly.

As they reached the entrance of the rest house, someone suddenly dashed toward them.

“Jaejoong-ssi, where have you been? I was looking for-” Seungyu couldn’t finish his word as his eyes caught who was the other that stood before him. “S-Sunbaenim…” He muttered, looking alarmed.

Jaejoong could feel a sudden bad feeling crept inside him now, afraid his lies would be discovered. ‘… this guy why would he be outside.’

“What… were you actually here all this time?” Yunho asked the young protection officer.

“Yes… I… I was looking for Jaejoong-ssi. He suddenly disappeared and I couldn’t find him in the rest house area.” Sungyu said and looked down, shuddered at the sight of his strict superior.

“So, you’re actually here…” Yunho repeated, as he finally able to read the real situation. “Why did you let him wondering around unprotected just now?” There was an irritation in his voice now, making Jaejoong head snapped up at him, a bit surprised at the tone of his voice. The look in Yunho’s eyes changed; obviously he was irked by the sudden awareness.

 “I… I’m sorry.” Sungyu bowed down slightly, admitting his incompetency.

Jaejoong couldn’t help but feel bad; aware of his action was the cause for putting the other in such a bad spot. “It’s not his fault. I was the one who sneaked out of the room and -”

“This is not the first warning for you, isn’t it? So prepare to report yourself first thing tomorrow morning at the main office.”

“Huh?” Jaejoong looked at Yunho in confused; the other was totally ignoring his explanation, his attention was still on his subordinate. The man looked so different from the warm person that he had just been with a moment ago. “I said it’s not his fault!” Jaejoong tried to clear the thing, feeling bad at the young bodyguard now.

Yunho turned to look at him. The man’s eyes were emotionless as usual. “For him to be easily fooled by the client, and being reckless about his duty. It’s enough to show how incompetent he is, neglecting to perform his duty properly. This simple act of negligence could lead to a big trouble if he is this gullible and unaware of his surroundings.”

 Now Jaejoong noticed the other was somehow annoyed at him, for lying. But the man didn’t directly express his anger at him, instead he vented his anger over his trainee.

“You might take this thing lightly, but to the person who carried a responsibility to protect you as his job, it is something serious. If anything happened to you when you were nowhere in their sight, the result is something he has to face and bear himself. So, don’t joke like this again.” Yunho said, enough to make the idol looked down with nothing to debate, as he lost his ability to argue the man as he usually did. Silently, he admitted his fault this time.

“Sunbae…” Sungyu tried to say something, as he saw his senior was started to look annoyed at their client himself. Somehow the man looked so worked up over this one person. He wondered why.

Once again, the tense atmosphere was disrupted by the sudden call from Yunho’s phone. It seemed he had something else to care at the moment. But he had used his time to accompany the childish superstar instead. He picked up the call naturally. His tone was back to normal. Jaejoong casted a glance at the man as he could catch the female voice from the other’s cell phone, as he stood right by his side.

‘What’s with the sudden changes in his tone? Is that… his girlfriend?’ Jaejoong thought grumpily. The sudden thought had enough to bring a mild feeling of uneasiness crept into his heart. As Yunho ended the call, he turned back at Sungyu who still couldn’t look at him, seemed still in self-resentment.

“I hope this kind of stupid thing won’t happen again. For today please keep escorting him and don’t let him out of your sight. I will be back soon and check on you later.” Yunho ordered and without looking at the idol, he walked to his car as he seemed rushing for something more urgent. Jaejoong could felt his heart swollen with an irritable petulant feeling.

“That jerk, how could he say that when I was right in front of him. I’m not an object!” Jaejoong rebuked before he stomped back inside the rest house. Sungyu let out a sigh, knowing the moody Kim Jaejoong meant the more challenging he would be and hard to deal with.

***

A bell of the florist shop jangled overhead as a man stepped into the shop, eyes wondering around before a cheerful shop assistant stepped out and greeted him from behind. “You are a bit late today.” The girl smiled brightly as the man turned around to face her.

“Oh, sorry about that. I’ve something to settle before. Thanks for keep the shop open for me at this hour.”

“Yeah, you should… if you’re not coming in another minutes I was going to close. What have you been up to? Were you out for dating?”

“No.”

“That was such a quick denial. That meant it’s true!” The girl pointed out and laughed.

“Shut up. It’s not it.”

“Okay, I won’t tease you anymore. Tch, it’s not fun to tease such an emotionless guy.” The girl muttered and smiled nonetheless. She had known the man for six years after the shop was passed down to her by her mother. The man had been their regular customer for more than ten years now. On this very special day, the man would come and ordered a bouquet of white calla lilies. And she already knew how the man preferred it to be arranged and wrapped. 

“Here, your flowers Mr. Jung.” The girl said as she handed him his order.

“It’s perfect as always. Thank you, Jess.” Yunho smiled.

“Well, I’d learn from the best. My mom would nag at me if she knew I’m being careless in taking care of your order. After all, you’re her favourite customer.”

Yunho chuckled and shook his head while pulling out his wallet and make his purchased. “Say hello to her and tell her I’ll drop by sometime for a cup of tea.”

“Oh, she would be happy to hear this. Sure, I’ll tell her!” The girl said and waved cheerfully as Yunho walked out of the shop.

Once he got into the car, Yunho settled the bouquet with a great care on the passenger seat and stared at it sadly for a long moment. Tomorrow was the day, the 15th death anniversary of his father and Jaejoong's mother. That was the reason why he was here, in Gwangju. His hometown. He usually would prepare the flower a day earlier, since he would go visit the graves at dawn and it was like his habit to stay there until the sunrise.  But he didn’t guarantee he would be able to do so tomorrow, considering there was certain someone who had disrupted his schedule and day-off today.

***

“Bring me a new towel!” Jaejoong ordered, his temper flared as he threw away the towel that had accidentally dropped on the floor. He seemed pissed off over something right now. But he couldn’t point out what was the cause that making him felt sullen. He walked off to the bathroom and slammed the door shut.

“What a temper…” Sungyu sighed and walked to the wardrobe, to proceed with the superstar’s order when someone stepped into the room.

“Let me take it to him.” Sungyu stopped from his move. He turned around and saw his superior. “Sunbaenim… how did you…”

“The door is not locked.” Yunho said, in reprimanded tone.

“I’m sorry…” Sungyu muttered, he was in a bad state again, being careless. It was just that Kim Jaejoong had kept ordering him around, that made him even forgot to do the simple thing straight away.

“Tomorrow, you’ll go back to the main office and return to go through the basic again. I already informed Yoochun regarding this sudden change of your duty.” Yunho said again.

“Yes, I’ll do that.” Sungyu knew he had nothing to argue.

“So, for today go back and rest up. I’ll take care of the thing from here.”

Sungyu looked up at Yunho, looking a bit hesitated. Yunho who caught the look on the younger man, raised an eyebrow. “Do you have something else to say?”

“Erm… I just wanted to tell you that Kim Jaejoong… he would do something unexpected, so are you sure to stay here alone? If you don’t mind, I can still guarding outside the room.”

“Is he?” Yunho pondered for a moment, as what he realized, the superstar was not that hard to handle, only lately the guy seemed a bit clingy from what he had observed. He contemplated what Sungyu said, before he shook his head. “It’s okay. I can take care of him. You may go.”

Sungyu nodded and thanked his superior. At least, the man was kind enough to give him another chance when it was not his first time failed in carry out his assignments.

Jaejoong closed the tap and stepped out from the shower after finished clearing his mind, he felt refreshed under the cold water. He was about to grab his cloth when he aware that he was still not given his new towel. He sighed before opened the bathroom door. He peeked out his head behind the door, looking for the young bodyguard.

“What takes him so long to bring my towel?” He grumbled before decided to put on the bathrobe first and stepped out of the bathroom without drying himself.

“Yah! What have taking you so long to-”

He couldn’t finished his words as the one that turned around, facing him now was someone who he didn’t expected would be in his room at the moment.

“Sorry, here your towel.” The man extended the white towel to him.

Jaejoong stared at the taller man before him, unblinkingly. His hands stiffed at his side, didn’t reached out for the towel that he had demanded so much.

Seeing no movement from the latter, Yunho stepped closer and casually, he draped the towel on the idol’s head. It was irritating for him to see the water kept trailing down the younger man’s hairs and neck. For a moment, Yunho once again seemed get carried away. He felt like back to old days, where he used to scold the other for not drying himself properly, since Jaejoong prone to catch a cold easily back then after he had done his surgery.

On the other side, Jaejoong couldn’t comprehend a thing. It seemed so natural to have the man’s strong hands moved rhythmically on his head, drying his damp hair. Never once in his life he had someone who would do that to him, not even his father would pamper him that way.

His eyes slowly closed, relishing the moment. He wondered why the man’s warm hands always gave him a sense of comfort. It was strange coming from a stranger.

“Jaejoong…”

“…………”

“Jaejoong-ssi…”

“…………”

 “Kim… Jaejoong-ssi…”

Jaejoong eyes snapped opened. His eyes locked with those dark, compelling eyes of Yunho’s that stared at him questioningly.

He looked a bit lost before realized that he had absentmindedly leaned closer to the latter, so close at eye level with the man’s chin. He even could smell the clean, masculine scent of him. The intimacy of the man’s scent had enough to set his heart beating abnormally, let alone his presence.

Jaejoong immediately drew away from the other. “W-what are you doing here?!” He snapped and bit down on his lower lip, feeling embarrassed as aware the question was too late to be asked now.

“I return to guard you.”

“Huh?” He stared back at Yunho confusedly.

“I’ve sent off the previous guy back to do the basic. He will be taking a tough training again before he could be back to receive a real job.” Yunho’s steady gaze didn’t veer from the latter before him. Unaware of him that he was making the smaller man’s heart rate soared by such a look.

“So, don’t ever think to run or escape again. This time I’ll be strict on you more than before.” Yunho added.

Jaejoong didn’t response, inwardly feeling happy as the man was back to be his personal bodyguard. He grabbed the fluffy, white towel from Yunho’s hand, trying to act natural. He kept it draped over his head to hide the flush coloring his cheeks