Chapter 2

Jongin pretended to enthusiastically hear his date’s babbling words, throwing Luhan his charming smile while fishing out his phone of his pocket and put it on the dinner table behind his glass of wine.

“So, in my new movie my character will fall in love with his grandmother-”

That one sentence successfully brought back Jongin’s attention to Luhan. “He will what?” Jongin blurted, taken aback.

“Of course she won’t be wrinkly and old stuff,” Luhan grimaced, “Granny will be like the young, female version of me. Don’t ask how.” Jongin surely would not.

Jongin took a moment to process the information he just got, wondering if he had just heard wrong. He could not believe his ears. “You will fall in love with the female version of you, who is actually your grandmother,” he slowly said.

“Yep. It will be better if it’s gramps, I know. Can you imagine two Luhans making out? Hot as .”

Jongin made a face. There goes his appetite. “As a matter of fact I can. The disturbing image won’t go away and I blame you for this.”

“You’re just jealous, dear,” Luhan said with a wink, blowing kisses to his date.

Jongin sighed. “Really, what can I expect from the man who made out with his own life-size wax figure.”

“You’ve mistaken me for that Chinese actor Wu," Luhan chirped. “Lu Han doesn’t do wax figures, although if you insist, I might like to have the anime version of me-”

Jongin reached for his phone, occasionally nodding his head and making some murmuring sound to make himself appear as if he was still listening to Luhan. He opened his email, typing a message fast and pressing the send button.

Kyungsoo. Kyungsoo Kyungsoo Kyungsoo Kyungsoo

I need your ‘help’. You know what to do ;)

I’m at Pauvre Con

This message may contain confidential and privileged information. If this has been sent to you in error, please reply to advice of the error and then immediately delete this email. Please visit www.jonginn.co.kor/disclaimer for further information concerning the matter.

“Jongin, are you listening?” Luhan protested.

“Of course, Lu,” Jongin mumbled lackadaisically, putting down his phone and grabbing his wine glass as a cover for his lack of attention. Staring at the dark shade of red inside the glass stemware as he slowly swirled the wine, he decided that it would be better for him to finish off the content in one long gulp. A waiter came to pour him more, which he politely turned down. He asked for a glass of water instead.

“He would like to have a glass of water as well, thank you,” Jongin said when the waiter was about to offer Luhan a bottle. “We won’t be needing you again this night."

The man in his black and white uniform made a small formal nod, carrying a metal tray upon which sat a tub of ice with some cold water in it and the wine bottle Jongin had turned down before. He efficiently walked toward the wooden arched door, quietly opened it as he excused himself out, and closed it just as soundless.

“You’re being weird. You’re acting like you’re going to dump me right now.”

Jongin cleared his throat.

“Well, don’t break up with me yet, because you still owe me that delicious Tulipes with Raspberry Sorbet,” Luhan went on with a laugh, because he found the thinking that Jongin would dump him, the famous actor Lu, was hideous. Not when they were at this fancy restaurant. Not when he was this heavenly beautiful, wearing his Made-to-Measure lustrous silver Ermenegildo Zegna suit.

“Right, Jongin?” Luhan lightly asked, as he was slicing into his au poivre steak and put a small piece into his mouth. He swallowed and took the white napkin in his lap to blot his lips before taking a drink.

Jongin managed to laugh off the awkward moment his absence of affirmative answer had caused, making the clinking sound of his cutlery louder to hide his lack of words. Hearing his phone beeped once, Jongin quickly put down his knife and fork. He opened it to see a really short answer from his secretary.

This has been sent to me in error. Deleted.

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Jongin didn’t realize that his lips were folding into a silly grin, as his fingers were typing fast forming a re-reply he knew his secretary wouldn’t be able to resist.

Kyungsoo Kyungsoo Kyungsoo Kyungsoosoo Kyungdoo Kyungpoo

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Now all he should do was to wait for Kyungsoo to come.

“Jongin, are you listening?!”

Jongin slipped his phone into his pocket. He wouldn’t be needing it now. Raising his head, he mustered up an apologetic smile which didn’t seem apologetic at all. “Of course. Where were we?”

***

Kyungsoo entered the private dining room looking genuinely mad, the patron of the restaurant was behind him, restless and uneasy. It was not something that he handled everyday, to have an angry lover of a hotel tycoon who was in a romantic dinner with his other lover, who happened to be a really famous actor.

Jongin saw the restaurant’s manager cautiously took a step away from Kyungsoo, trying his best to be professional and attentive without the risk of collateral damage (him being the collateral damage). The poor man was confused. He had been informed before that someone might come to see CEO Kim, but never would he have guessed that the said person would be Mr. Kim’s lover. Or spouse. The latter would make the situation far worse. The restaurant manager took another step backward; he was now struggling to maintain his poker-faced elegance and tangible pride.

Jongin looked at his secretary. Kyungsoo was not known for his sense of fashion, but that night, he particularly exceeded Jongin’s expectation. It was either Kyungsoo had overly dressed himself, or he simply stopped trying to look like a decent human being. He might have grabbed everything caught by his eyes and put them on without a second thought. Is Kyungsoo color blind? Jongin questioned himself. His secretary was wearing a green checkered shirt, its shirttail was neatly pressed and tucked inside his mustard color trousers -- and as if he decided that his appearance was not vibrant enough, Kyungsoo wore a deep brown cardigan and a red bow tie. Red, green, mustard, meat color. Was he trying to be a hamburger?

Something on Kyungsoo’s pants had piqued his interest, a small piece of something looked like a paper tag- Oh. Jongin gestured the restaurant’s patron to go, which the man gratefully took as a cue to get himself out of the potential blood-bath situation.

That left only the three of them inside the lavish dining room. Kyungsoo threateningly had his way inside, toward Jongin and his dumbfounded date.

Jongin subtly moved the porcelain plates and the silver cutlery away from Kyungsoo. Should have not chosen French restaurant, he thought. Too many dangerous stuff that could get him killed.

“For months on end I’ve had my doubts,” Kyungsoo started, his voice was low and steely. His eyes found what they had been looking for. Jongin was what they had been looking for. “Denying every tear,” Kyungsoo hissed.

Jongin gulped.

“Jongin, who’s that?” Luhan’s melodious voice did not help to ease down the tense inside the room. The Chinese male actor confusedly looked at Kyungsoo and then at Jongin.

“K- Baby,” Jongin stuttered, his eyes were at Kyungsoo. His secretary was pissed, Jongin concluded.

“You say, I’m crazy.” Kyungsoo let out a dry chuckle. “You don’t think I know what you’ve done, do you?”

“Baby-”

Kyungsoo dismissed Jongin’s plea. “When you call me baby, I know I’m not the only one.”

“Baby, listen to me-”

“Don’t call me baby!” Kyungsoo wailed. Jongin let out a rumble in his throat, resembling more like a hungry stray kitten plea sound rather than a scared unfaithful boyfriend.

Kyungsoo could be so convincing if he wanted. The furious secretary slash fake brokenhearted boyfriend frantically looked for something, and his eyes landed on a glass of water -- the only thing he could find on the damn-too-sterile lavish French table.

The warning alarm in Jongin’s head went haywire. “No, no, no, Kyungsoo, no-” Jongin yelped as he felt the liquid against his face, blinking as water ran into his eyes.

Not satisfied enough, Kyungsoo poured another glass from the damn glass pitcher Jongin forgot to get rid of.

“Kyung-” Splash of cold water invaded Jongin’s mouth and nostril.

A shot of satisfaction ran through Kyungsoo’s face before he quickly replaced it with his furious-boyfriend act. “You’re lucky you cheated on me at this fancy French restaurant, otherwise I would have slapped you with kimchi!”

That was when Luhan decided that he had had enough. His suit was ridiculously expensive to face such horrendous fate, and the lack of kimchi situation barely eased down his anxiety. Wet Jongin was a perfect example.

As he got up, Luhan wiped his mouth with the white napkin, throwing the piece of cloth on the table. “I’m outta here,” he said as he’s walking out of the door. Dramatically, he stopped and turned around, staring at Jongin with a wounded look of betrayal.

“My heart hurts like a .”

Luhan turned his back around, and without saying another word he left.

***

After making sure Luhan was gone, Kyungsoo went back to his efficient, man of few words persona. He took off his glasses and cleaned them with his shirt. In his ‘moment of rage’, he had accidentally splashed a small amount of water on his glasses, getting them a bit wet.

Feeling Jongin’s eyes on him, Kyungsoo raised his head and put his glasses back on.

Jongin stared at his secretary’s outfit, head to toe, his brows arched in a questioning look.

“I tried to look expensive for you, sir,” Kyungsoo uninterestedly offered an explanation.

“You might need to try again.” Leaning back, Jongin gestured with his index finger for Kyungsoo to come to him. "Explain," he looked at Kyungsoo's outfit, an eyebrow raised, "This."

Kyungsoo sighed, unwillingly approaching his boss. “I was at the mall when I got the email. Was not wearing appropriate clothes, so I did a quick shopping to make myself more presentable. By the way, you’re paying for these, sir,” Kyungsoo said, showing Jongin his ‘hamburger’ outfit. The scent of new clothes invaded the air space around Kyungsoo, mixed with his pleasant scent Jongin always caught when his secretary was near.

“Mm...,” Jongin hummed nonchalantly. “It’s not like you’re Prada shopping.” He pointed at Kyungsoo’s pants, his left hand was unnecessarily on Kyungsoo’s hip while his other hand was grabbing the small paper label attached to the upper-right side. “You forgot to tear off the price tag.”

“I’m returning these. They’re too tight.”

“Hmm?” Jongin hooked a finger inside Kyungsoo’s waistband and gave a small tug.

Kyungsoo raised his head to look at his boss and quickly added, “You’re still paying for them, sir.” After getting the same ‘It’s not like you’re Prada shopping’ response, Kyungsoo bloomed like Fawn lilies in spring. Maybe next time he really should do that Prada shopping his boss kept telling him.

“Hand me your coat, sir, I’ll ask a restaurant staff to get your coat dried off so you can wear them back. We don’t want you to get sick,” he lightly said, as if he was not the one who had splashed not one, but two glasses of water on his boss’ expensive suit.

Kyungsoo turned around to help Jongin taking off the damped coat. The prospect of getting some free clothes had made Kyungsoo not that mad at his boss anymore. His night was not entirely ruined by the CEO who couldn’t maintain his love life by himself. (His boss was a jerk.)

“Hey,” Jongin casually said. “Do you want to stay for the desserts? I’ve paid for them. That if you like Tulipes with Raspberry Sorbet.”

Kyungsoo’s face brighten to a smile Jongin rarely saw on his secretary. Jongin quite liked it.

“I don’t even know what it is but it sounds so delicious I am accepting the offer. Thank you, sir.”

Humming, Kyungsoo neatly folded his boss’ coat and draped it over his arm, cheerfully leaving the dining room.

Jongin looked at the back view of his secretary’s mustard color pants, watching them slightly move against the owner’s plump bottom, fabric stretched up just enough. In his professional opinion they were not too tight in the . Those pants fit Kyungsoo like a glove. Kyungsoo didn't need a size bigger, he decided. His phone rang, breaking his thought. Even without checking the caller id Jongin could assuredly guess who the caller was. He reached for his phone and took the call, and almost instantly, when he pressed his phone to his ear, his left eardrum was bombarded by the screeching voice of his furious friend.

“ you Kim Jongin! I was expecting for my ing Tulipes with Raspberry Sorbet! I thought you’re not breaking up with me tonight!” Luhan’s high-pitched voice went up several notched. “And did your secretary just Sam Smith me?!”

“You’ve been Sam Smith-ed,” Jongin confirmed, moving his phone from his ear a bit. “Are you driving?”

“Don’t ‘are you driving' me!"

Jongin softened his voice and tried his best to sound sincere. “I needed to break up with you soon-ish, because you’re going back to China in two days. And all this break up thing is your fault; you’ve promised to accompany me to the charity event and after some weeks you ditch me cold-heartedly just for a million Yuan CF contract.”

“Please, CEO Kim, you are not that special. I am willing to trade you for numbers that are far less.” Luhan’s anger cooled down, because it was indeed kind of his fault that Jongin had to pull out a lame trick to get a date. “Damn, I got Sam Smith-ed. What a horrible way to get dumped,” he complained in his now normal voice.

“Baekhyun got Adele-ed,” Jongin offered a comfort. “I got slapped with Kimchi.”

The valuable information seemed to completely put Luhan at ease.

“I don’t understand why I should pretend to be your fake boyfriend, so you can get your secretary to go with you to the event. You could’ve just asked him.”

“I needed to make Kyungsoo feel that he's somehow responsible for my date-less situation. The first time I asked him, he refused, saying, quote, ‘I’ll scream,’ if I order him to accompany me to a party.”

“He agreed to be your fake boyfriend but not so willingly wanted to go out with you?” Luhan asked in disbelief.

“I put the ‘helping CEO to avoid any unwanted situation with male or female companion’ clause in Kyungsoo’s contract of employment,” Jongin lightly explained. “Just in case.”

“Geez. Go get yourself a real boyfriend, Jongin,” Luhan said with an apparent sigh. “You got a fake boyfriend to dump your fake boyfriends. That’s sad. You’re a sad, sad man, CEO Kim.”

“Shut up, Lu. Anyone will be honored to be able to go out with me. Plus, there will be a lot of fancy food. Kyungsoo will like the event, I’m sure.”

“If you say so, Kim.”

***

“I don’t like it here,” Kyungsoo said.

.............................................................................................................................................................................

a/n

For those who don't know, Kyungsoo recited lines of a -- super famous -- song by Sam Smith, 'I'm Not The Only One', to express how his heart had been deeply hurt by his cheater 'boyfriend'.