Trashterpiece Theater @biffhofosho - Tumblr Blog

Sep 10, 2025

What's Wrong with Director Ortega? | Part Two

Word Count: lol 22.4k BACK WITH A BANG

A/N: OH MY GOD THE EDITING TOOK ME SOOOO MUCH LONGER THAN I ANTICIPATED (redux). That's what happens when you take off so much time in between mega chapters. Anyway, the first of seven dates is upon us. You may want to reread Part One because I took so damn long. Also, thank you for caring when I was absent, dearly beloved readers!

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Cvr | 01 | 02

Unfortunately, Monday insisted on itself, and Maria found herself standing in the executives’ elevator with the stark chill of sobriety again in her veins and the relentless shadow of the unknown on the horizon.

By Saturday morning, it was next to impossible to tell how much of Friday night had actually happened and how much her hangover had fabricated. She still wasn’t sure.

But when the elevator doors opened, she startled. Hyungwon was there, tall and exceedingly well-groomed today. His silver hair had been styled into clean lines, corralling its free-spirited nature which otherwise lent itself more to a girlfriend's idle fingers than a comb. It wasn't a thing Maria had ever thought before, but her drunken Friday night fantasy had apparently planted some troublesome seeds that were all too eager to sprout.

She cleared her throat and bowed lightly. “Vice Chairman Chae, you're here early.”

“You sound surprised,” he said.

“I am surprised. Mornings have never been your strong suit, sir.”

“It’s all a matter of incentives, Director Ortega.”

He stared at her, his chocolate eyes drifting to her lips before hurrying back up to meet hers again.

For a moment, Maria felt her professionalism falter. Between those post-drunken, surrealist fantasies and Hyungwon’s early morning ambush, it was probably understandable, but damn Friday’s moment of selfishness. She hadn’t gotten drunk in years, and at the first taste of indulgence, her gkuttony was like a snowball rolling down a mountainside.

A gentle pinkness flooded his ears and spread to his cheeks in time with the mounting tension between them.

“You look…” he began softly, but Maria knew she had to interrupt him.

“Well, sir, regardless of the reason, it’s a pleasure to see you this early.”

Hyungwon smiled toothily, and it made him look so much like a shy high schooler that she faltered again.

“Good,” he said as he took a step closer. Panic took hold, but she didn’t know what else to say to stop her boss from talking. Quieter now, he continued, “Because I was wondering I could move up to first on your schedule.”

Work talk. That was a relief.

“Vice Chairman Chae, you know my schedule is fixed. It can’t be changed unless you discuss it with the other vice chairmen.”

He dipped his head, that carefully coiffed hair breaking free to shade his dumpling cheeks as he fumbled, “I didn’t mean your work schedule. I meant… What we all talked about on Friday.”

She should have interrupted him.

Maria’s coffee splashed across her hand as her arms fell limp. She hissed and winced, but her boss was quick to react. He snatched the cup from her as he asked, “Are you okay?”

“It’s fine,” she insisted even as she cradled her hand to her chest.

Her eyes scoured the atrium. Minha and Aera were thick as thieves in their own little world over by the coffee station, and none of the other secretaries were roving about yet. Maybe Maria could avoid suspicion entirely… were it not for her worst nightmare. Yujun, the world’s biggest gossip, was shuffling magazines in the waiting area, but as with most everything with him, it was pretense. He was watching her.

Like a hiker stumbling upon a bear, she had to remind herself: No sudden movements.

Quietly as she could, she took a small step back and mumbled, “Friday actually happened?”

“You don’t remember?”

“I mean, I remember. I just thought it was a hallucination…”

Maria winced again, this time for an entirely different reason.

“¡Que pendeja! ¿Qué estabas pensando al hacer algo tan estúpido?” she muttered under her breath.

Hyungwon leaned in as he whispered, “So was that a yes?”

Louder enough for Yujun to hear, she said, “I said I’d be happy to schedule an impromptu meeting, sir. I’ll see you in a bit?”

“Director Ortega—”

Maria bowed and hurried to the washroom to run her hand under cold water, but she wished it were her face instead.

In all her years at Xtra Mile, she had been the picture of professionalism. Calm. Staid. Reliable. In her more prideful moments, she considered herself a pillar. She always had an answer ready no matter which mercurial vice chairman she was shepherding for the moment.

Now, as she looked at herself in the mirror, it was clear she’d been betrayed by her own body. She had had a lifelong battle with blushing—not somewhere charming like her cheeks or ears, but horrible rosy blotches at her chest—that she’d thought she’d conquered through a decade of stringent self-control, but here she was, looking like a neon billboard. Despite her blouse’s conservative neckline, it was the absolute last place she wanted anyone to look considering everything that had happened at the noraebang was painfully and irrevocably real.

Maria patted her now-icy hand along her chest, closed her eyes, and sucked in several deep breaths.

Control. She needed control.

She emptied her mind and filled it once again with contract documents, company calendars, and financial statements. The hypnosis of office work treated her flush as well as a cold compress, and by the time Maria opened her eyes, she found Director Ortega waiting once again in the mirror.

She returned to the atrium and found all of the secretaries convening for their morning dialogue.

“—and once he’s reviewed his portion, I’ll turn the budget over to you, Secretary Two, for Vice Chairman Im’s final review, okay?” said Aera.

Changkyun’s secretary nodded before all eyes turned toward their wayward leader.

Yujun’s slender face lit up. “Ah, the infamous Maria Ortega has returned to her natural habit. It’s nice to see you again, boss. I almost didn’t recognize you.”

“Secretary Lee, we are on the clock, remember,” she answered coolly. “Let’s keep our focus on the new week.”

“Because we only have a few of them left,” Aera sniffed just as dramatically as her vice chairman might have.

“Please try and focus on the present, Secretary Guk,” Secretary One scolded as effortlessly as her own boss would have, too. “You’re not getting paid to cry.”

“I know…” the other secretary sniffled as she blotted her eyes with the back of her finger.

“Everyone,” Maria commanded, and her seven subordinates stiffened immediately, “our priority this morning is organizing an impromptu Vice Chairmen charette in the conference room.”

“Is something wrong, Director Ortega?” asked Haeun, but the director shook her head.

“Announcements will be made soon, but I would prefer to do so after I have debriefed all the Vice Chairmen.”

“Do we need to be in attendance as well?” inquired Minha.

“Not at this one. Instead, I will cover things with all of you in our eighth hour meeting. That will give me time to lay out a transitional plan first with minimal confusion and inconvenience to you all.”

“That’s our Maria,” sighed Aera as she stared starry-eyed at the director.

“In the meantime, Secretary Kwon, please immediately request to clear a half hour allotment from Vice Chairman Son first. He’s always the most agreeable about this sort of thing, but it’s best to do a bigger request like this in person versus email. Each and every one of your vice chairmen prefer the respect of an in-person conversation, but always follow up immediately with an email reiteration of what they told you. You absolutely cannot trust them to remember what they just told you. You should all make a note of that moving forward.”

Secretary One laughed lightly under her breath. “I’ve worked for Vice Chairman Yoo for three years now. How is it I’m still learning his interpersonal quirks?”

“It’s only going to get weirder once Maria leaves and they have no choice but to deal with us instead,” Haeun said. “At least I’ve got Vice Chairman Son. Sorry about your luck.”

Meanwhile, the director continued unfazed, “So long as Vice Chairman Son concedes his time without issue, the rest of you will notify your superiors. Let’s jump on this, okay? Does everybody understand?”

“Yes, Director Ortega,” the group chorused thanks to their daily practice.

“Secretary Kwon, let me know the second it has been approved. I will ready the conference room myself.”

“Understood, ma’am,” said the petite brunette and accompanied it with a shallow bow.

With a thank you, the director disappeared into the conference room while Secretary Kwon headed for the COO’s office, leaving five very curious secretaries gawking after their superior’s shrinking hourglass.

“What do you think that’s about?” wondered Two.

“You’ll know at Eighth Hour,” Hyeongseo answered matter-of-factly.

“You know something…” Yujun said, needle-like eyes trained on Vice Chairman Lee Hoseok’s secretary.

“Secretary Lee,” she retorted, “if you used those powers of perception on your feasibility studies, I have no doubt this company would already be on track to reach net zero on our Sustainable Development goals.”

“I’m choosing to take that as a compliment.”

“You should take it as a reprimand.”

He smirked. “Well, maybe I know something…”

Secretaries One and Two leaned in, but Minha waved her fairy hand. “You don’t know anything, Yujun. You just think you do.”

“Wrong,” he corrected. “I saw Vice Chairman Chae waiting for the Director at the elevator this morning. They were talking awfully close.”

“Could you hear what they were saying?” asked Aera, now also roped into the gossip session.

“Not really, but—”

“Told you he doesn’t know anything,” said Minha.

“I’d wager my yearly salary that whatever he whispered to her is what this morning’s meeting’s about. I’d even go so far as to bet next year’s salary, too, that it’s about what happened after we left the noraebang.”

Secretary Two wrinkled her nose. “We don’t know what happened after we left.”

“No, but we know enough, or did you all forget the Director’s drunken confessions?”

Hyeongseo narrowed her eyes at the man and took a step toward him. At once, the other secretaries straightened. There was something about Secretary Kim that they hadn’t quite seen before. “This is an executive office, and it’s working hours. You’ve all been given an assignment, so I suggest you get ready for Secretary Kwon’s greenlight and stop spreading rumors about our most seasoned executive.

Yujun flushed with a long apology and scuttled off to his desk as did the rest of the secretaries while Hyeongseo stared at the space her best friend had just left and thought about the biggest space she’d be leaving there soon.

-----

Not ten minutes later, the seven vice chairmen flowed through the conference room doorway to find their director standing as stately as a First Lady with her hands in front of her pencil skirt. She bid each one of them good morning as they took their unassigned yet regular seats around a mammoth smoky glass and steel conference table.

Maria waited for each of them to sink into their various stages of professionalism, but it wasn’t long for all eyes to finally train on her. With a deep inhale, she began, “Sirs, thank you all for coming on such short notice. Thank you especially to Vice Chairman Son for sacrificing part of his time for this meeting.”

“A true martyr,” Minhyuk said with a roll of his eyes.

Kihyun scoffed. “Like you’d have given up any of your time.”

“My goal is to keep this as brief as possible since I know Mondays are always packed.” Maria cast a warning glance between the CFO and the CPO before she continued, “First off, I would like to start our week off on a positive note.”

“You’re staying?” Jooheon shouted, practically launching up like an ejector seat.

“Though my resignation is still imminent,” she underscored, “I am happy to announce that Secretary Kim has accepted the promotion to Director of Facilitation.”

There was a round of dispirited applause that died after a few claps and echoed even more pathetically off the cavernous walls.

“Starting tomorrow,” the director resumed, “Secretary Kim will be shadowing me at all of our respective hours as well as joining us at any business meals or meetings. I would like to ask you all to please treat her as you would treat me and challenge her with the same sorts of assignments the position demands.”

The vice chairmen soured instantly except for keen-eared Kihyun, who smirked at one word. “Business meals are a vital component of this role, yes.”

“Yes, business meals are,” a revived Hyungwon agreed with his half-brother.

Jooheon scrunched his brow. “As opposed to?”

Minhyuk flicked his brother’s forehead. “Keep up, would you?”

The director stuffed the cranky genie that had been let out of the bottle on Friday back down where it belonged and clung to her composure with all that she had. There were more important things to deal with now.

Suddenly, she bent at the waist in a bow, her hair concealing her face like a square dancer’s petticoat, as she said, “Secondly, I would like to apologize to all of you for my behavior on Friday. It was deeply unbecoming of my position, and I regret it immensely.”

Hyunwoo and Hoseok, who were closest to the head of the table, each grabbed one of her arms and pushed her back up.

“Stop it,” insisted Hoseok.

“You don’t need to apologize,” Hyunwoo agreed.

“But I do,” Maria said. “It was never my intention to reflect poorly on Xtra Mile. I shouldn’t have had the party, and I definitely shouldn’t have had so much to drink. It has come to my attention this morning that I said some pretty out-of-line things, and I promise you won’t hear or see such behaviors from now until the end of my tenure here.”

Jooheon clapped his palms down against the table. “Who’s the dead man who said something?”

“Please, sirs,” she redirected, “accept my apology.”

“We do not,” snapped Minhyuk. “None of us asked for one.”

“In fact,” Hoseok added with one of his marshmallow smiles, “we owe that Maria a debt of gratitude because now we will all have the chance to—”

The director waved both hands in front of her to shush the Chief Security Officer. “You may choose not to accept my apology of course, but either way, I want to assure you that I will not hold any of you to discussions that may have been had outside of work under questionable conditions. None of you are accountable for my happiness. I am. I never intended to put you in such an awkward position, so I will, of course, accept any pay cut you deem appropriate for the insubordination.”

Silence ruled the room until Jooheon blurted, “Am I the only one who's completely lost? What on earth is Maria talking about?”

“I think she's trying to let us down as professionally as possible,” Hyunwoo summarized.

“What! You can’t!”

“You’re going back on your promise?” Minhyuk questioned.

“I wasn't in my right mind to make that promise, sirs,” Maria replied, “and neither were you.”

“We weren’t drunk,” Hoseok balked.

“I know. You were blindsided. You were doing damage control, and it’s completely understandable. I don’t hold it against you, but it’s better for all of us if it’s simply forgotten as we make it through these last transitional weeks.”

“No,” said Kihyun.

She swiveled to face the CFO. “Sir?”

“You're lying to us, Maria.”

“Vice Chairman Yoo—”

“Kihyun,” he corrected.

The director mashed her lips together. After a beat, she leveled her gaze at her boss as she said, “I don't appreciate being called a liar, sir.”

“Then don't lie.”

His words hung as evenly as the awards hung on the wall. Her jaw dropped along with several of the vice chairmen’s.

“Kihyun…” Changkyun said gently, reaching for his cousin's forearm.

But the other vice chairman yanked his arm back as he snapped, “No. No way. I'm not letting her walkout on us so easily. For somebody who claimed to be so drunk, you were pretty damn impressive at binding us to verbal contracts, Director Ortega.”

“So you're going to hold an employee to a contract she agreed to under the influence?” she challenged.

“We agreed to all your terms, didn't we? I fail to see how you're being taken advantage of in this situation. If anything, we are the ones with damages.”

“Damages?” Maria crowed. “What damages?”

Kihyun rocked back in his chair and crossed his arms over his chest. “I'd say this falls under pain and suffering.”

“Pain and suffering!”

As her outburst rattled the glass tabletop, Changkyun got up to double check that the door to the conference room was tightly shut.

The director shook her head, still laughing. “If anybody is entitled to pain and suffering, it would be me after putting up with you seven intractable mules for four years.”

“Which is why we're trying to compensate you now,” Jooheon interjected, “but you're reneging on our deal.”

“Dating all of you sounds like more work to me than I already have right now. How could that possibly be compensation?”

Minhyuk smirked. “Some of us are just as diligent and determined as you are, Maria. Allow me to show you how generous a guy I can be when it comes to paying back a debt.”

Hoseok leapt out of his seat to clamp his hand over the CPO’s mouth. “Don't listen to my brother. He's just as heartbroken as the rest of us.”

“But with way less shame,” said Hyungwon.

“And much looser lips,” added Changkyun.

Maria straightened and faced her superiors once again with her professional mask firmly again in place. On the back of a long inhale, she said, “It's fine, sirs. As I said, we can forget the whole thing and finish out the month as we always do.”

With that, she bowed to them again and headed toward the door when a single word rang out as deep, resounding, and commanding as a church bell.

“Wait.”

At the sound of the COO’s voice, she froze.

“Kihyun made some pretty good points. After Friday’s dressing down, I think you owe us a clear resolution. I’ll ask you again, Maria. Is Kihyun right? Are you lying to us?”

The director turned slowly and found Hyunwoo’s calm brown eyes. He was as sure of himself as he always was, and like a snake charmer with his cobra, she found herself lulled.

“I’ve given my life exclusively to all of you for four long years to say nothing of the decade I gave your grandfather,” Maria confessed, this time without liquid courage in her veins. “I know your every taste, your every preference. I know which side of the bed you all sleep on—or don’t and instead sleep dead center, Vice Chairman Lee Minhyuk. I know which suits you wear when you’re angry and which you wear when you feel arrogant. I know your colognes before you turn the corner, and I know what to get your mothers for Christmas before you ask. Vice Chairman Lee Hoseok has said I know his thoughts before he thinks them, and Vice Chairman Chae has said I’m the only one who ‘gets’ him.

“I know all of this… So tell me why the only thing I don’t know is why any of you would want to date me? Because the only thing that makes sense is that it’s too much work for you to retrain anyone else to be your canary.”

“How do you know which side of the bed we sleep on?” Jooheon probed before he got a slap on the shoulder from Changkyun.

“Read the room, man,” the youngest hissed.

“You're still doubting us,” sighed Hyungwon, his long form hunched like a shepherd’s crook.

“Why shouldn’t I? I have four years of evidence to the contrary,” Maria replied.

“If you thought about it hard enough, you would know that isn't true,” Changkyun insisted.

She laughed. “Really? You all thought about dating me before last Friday?”

Their communal “Yes!” reverberated off the glass as well as Maria’s ribcage.

“Look,” said Hyunwoo after a moment, “you already made it official with Secretary Kim. We know your decision is final. This one doesn’t have to be.”

Clear-eyed and clear-headed this time, Maria was out of arguments. If she thought sympathy or selfishness was driving them, their pleading looks erased that notion. They were as pitiful as orphans begging for one more serving, and all the red tape in the company couldn’t hold her back from one final strategic decision.

“Then,” she said carefully, “if I agree to this, now stone sober, all my terms still stand. All of them.”

“Agreed,” said Kihyun.

“No arguing amongst each other,” she continued, casting a warning glance at Hyungwon now.

“Agreed,” he said.

“And no loopholes,” she added, this time with a squint at Minhyuk.

“On my honor,” the CPO said.

“Psh, what honor?” chuckled Jooheon before he received a stern look of his own.

“I’m not obligated to do anything other than one date with each of you,” Maria warned, “and if you’re a terrible date, I can leave at any point.”

Kihyun smiled his shark smile, the one that also came with that cocksure glint in his eye. “You won’t want to, but agreed.”

The director swallowed hard. The way they were all looking at her now… There was nothing pitiful about them anymore. They were too confident, too pleased, too handsome. She felt the traitorous carnations bloom at her neck once more, and she tugged up her neckline hoping to hide them.

“And—and,” she said, fumbling the first time in as long as she could remember, “and I’m not obligated to do anything beyond blind date stuff.”

Their confidence only seemed to supernova.

Maria cleared her throat roughly and said quieter, “Just making that clear.”

“Agreed,” Hyunwoo said, but it sounded amused, even for a stoic man like him.

“We should put it in writing,” she suggested, but came out like a question.

“Ooh, that’s fun,” said Minhyuk. “We’re venturing into Fifty Shades of Grey territory.”

“Scratch that!” Maria squeaked. “Just be gentlemen or I’ll report you to HR.”

The vice chairmen all laughed, but when they saw her doe-eyed stare, they tempered.

“We’ll be on our best behavior, we swear it,” said Kihyun. “You know we’ll hold each other accountable.”

The director let out a shaky breath. “Okay then. In lieu of a contract, shake on it.”

Each of the men stood at last and extended their hands to her, but Maria shook her head.

“Not me. Each other. You’re the ones who have to get along, especially after I leave.”

With uneasy faces, each took turns shaking the others’ hands. Maria kept a mental checklist to be sure all parties agreed, especially between a few of the bumpier relationships, but they all did, even if there were a few grimaces and white-knuckled grips.

“So,” said Changkyun when all was said and done, “how do we go about scheduling who goes when?”

“Ah, well,” Maria started sheepishly, eyes cast to her kitten heels, “Vice Chairman Chae approached me this morning, so I’ll have to honor that first.”

“What!” Jooheon shouted as he scowled at his cousin. “That’s not fair. We didn’t even talk about it.”

Hyungwon simply shrugged a shoulder. “We talked about things on Friday.”

“That’s not the same!”

“I call second!” Minhyuk trumpeted.

“You can’t—”

“Maria,” Changkyun said gently, “would you let me take you out third?”

“Guys, stop!” the CMO whined fruitlessly.

Meanwhile, Hyunwoo circled the table, sat casually at the edge, his big arms stuffed across a bigger chest, and smiled as gently as a teddy bear at the director. “Whenever you have time after Changkyun, I would like to take you out.”

Jooheon stuck out his fat bottom lip. “None of you are following the contract.”

“Of course we are,” said Hoseok over a meaty shoulder as he breezed past his brother. “You’re the only one lagging behind. Meanwhile, I’d like to ask Maria to consider me next.”

With a huff, the CMO shot forward, one hand slapping the edge of the table. As out of breath as if he’d just run a mile, he pitched forward and shouted, “Please let me take you out and show you the best time of all!”

Maria bit the inside of her cheek to stifle a laugh. Instead, she pulled out her trusty tablet and opened a notepad. “Okay, so that’s Vice Chairmen Chae Hyungwon, Lee Minhyuk, Im Changkyun, Son Hyunwoo, Lee Hoseok, Lee Jooheon… And that leaves…”

She glanced up to find Kihyun sitting alone at the table. His cheeks and eyebrows were both prominent and his smile secretive as he met the director’s gaze.

“I thought you’d be a little faster, sir,” Maria commented.

“No need,” he said coolly. “As far as I’m concerned, I’m in pole position.”

Hyungwon rolled his eyes. “Let me guess. The best for last? You’re so prosaic.”

Kihyun sniffed a laugh and clapped the other on his half-brother’s shoulder. “You think too small as usual, dear brother. I’ll be the one to leave the last impression.”

With that, Kihyun headed back to his office, the other vice chairmen leaving one by one until only Hyunwoo lingered.

The COO remained at his perch at the edge of his table, waiting for Maria to approach him.

“I’m sorry you lost your hour, sir,” she said. “If you’d like, I will work through my lunch hour to make up time.”

“There’s no need, Director Ortega,” he said though his eyes had shifted to the small party of secretaries loitering catty-corner to the door at an easily explainable distance. “I’ll see you shortly?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Thank you for the meeting, Director Ortega. We needed it.”

Maria bowed lightly, and that was the COO’s cue to leave.

With a heavy sigh, she ran her hands through her hair a few times and then checked her blouse. Something about that meeting made her feel strangely undressed, so she double-checked the buttons on her blouse one-by-one.

“Thank you for that.”

The director nearly jumped out of her skin as the whisper from behind her coiled its way into her ear. Her finger tore the top button from her shirt, and it pinged off the tabletop somewhere.

“¡Ay güey!” she yelped as her head whipped over her shoulder. “Vice Chairman Chae? I thought you’d left.”

Hyungwon swerved around her and smiled sheepishly. Despite his good looks, the man had always had the ability to fade into the background when he wished. One of his more popular nicknames in the company was The Chameleon because he could materialize again from nowhere when people were gossiping.

“We have unfinished business, Director Ortega,” he said. His eyes darted to the flash of new collarbone there before he returned to her fox eyes.

“We do?” she asked as she cleared her throat and pulled out her tablet again, flipping through her calendar that looked more like a Mondrian painting.

“Mm. I have to thank you.”

Her tablet drooped. “Thank me for what?”

“For honoring my request for a date even when you hadn’t planned to.”

“You know I'm a fair person, sir.”

Hyungwon pursed his lips. “If that were true, you’d let me call you by your first name like you let the others. It's going to make for a weird date.”

“You’re an imaginative person, sir. I'm sure you'll get creative,” she said dismissively.

Gradually, his scowl morphed into a smirk. “I can do that.”

“I look forward to it then. Now, we owe Vice Chairman Son for giving up most of his time slot, so if you’ll excuse me…”

“Wait,” he said as he reached forward.

His fingers glanced down Maria’s foreman, and she heard a gasp, yet somehow, it hadn’t come from her. Outside, Secretary Kwon was still loitering in the lobby, though the second Maria spotted her, the other woman scurried off head down, leaving the director with a chest so red she looked like she’d been scalded.

Maria pinched the collar of her blouse closed and hissed, “Not here!”

“I’m sorry. One second, please!” Hyungwon whispered. “Just one last question.”

“Wait until your hour, sir.”

“If I get impatient, I can’t say what kind of trouble an imaginative guy might create in the meantime,” he warned though it was coupled with another pretty smile.

Between his overwhelming charm and his honey-coated threat, Maria relented. “What is it?”

He brightened in an instant, his eyes squishing shut between pillows of cheek and lid. “When would you like to go out?”

“Whenever you're available, sir.”

“How about tonight?”

“Tonight?” Maria blinked. Her hands found the next available button, and she worried it. “Don't you have the meeting with Aeon’s Director of Compliance?”

“I'll cancel it.”

“Sir, you don't need to do that. The merger’s our top priority.”

“Is it?” Hyungwon repeated sulkily.

“Yes,” she insisted. “Don't cancel it. We can’t afford to make Xtra Mile look like it’s prioritizing anything else.”

His thick lips curled into the most attractive snarl Maria had ever seen, but he nodded.

“How about tomorrow?” the director suggested to appease him.

“Tomorrow it is,” he promised quickly. “Wear something comfortable. I'll pick you up around 7:00?”

She raised a brow. “When did you have time to plan anything, sir?”

“I've had more time than you think.”

“Okay, then. It’s on my calendar now, okay?”

Hyungwon beamed. “I guess I don’t need to get creative in the meantime.”

“Please don’t, sir.”

“What a shame,” he said. “I’m feeling inspired…”

He cast one last glance at the skin sheltering beneath her collar before the vice chairman left Maria to her last solo day as Director of Facilitation.

Aside from her morning outburst, the rest of Maria’s Monday proceeded as nearly every one had before it. Her routine, however demanding, was as effective as a tranquilizer for her nerves. To their credit, all of the vice chairmen behaved as though nothing had happened—in fact, it were as though she had never filed her resignation at all.

Maria made notes of every open issue and closed what she could ahead of Hyeongseo’s start. She tidied up each vice chairman’s inbox and powered through every last housekeeping chore she could so as not to scare away her friend before she even started. At lunch, because Hyunwoo insisted he did not need her to make up her morning time with him, she instead visited IT to pick up Hyeongseo’s new tablet before the director returned to the office she rarely used. It was so rare, at some point, someone had drawn a crude puppy face in the dust on the monitor.

But after 14 years, it wasn’t Maria’s office anymore. The thought hit her like a freight train. This part of her life was ending.

It was what she had wanted.

It was what she had planned on.

But as that puppy made big, round eyes at her, she wondered if it was the right decision.

“Don’t let them upend your life anymore, Maria,” she swore to herself, and she swiped her hand through the dusty doodle.

She cleaned out what she could of her personal effects and dumped them in a box unexpectedly small for the decade she’d worked. When she finally headed home with the shoebox in tow, she was ready for her next chapter.

Tuesday felt less like a new chapter and more like a whole new book.

The second Maria walked into their offices, the vice chairmen brightened, though as soon as Hyeongseo stepped out of the director’s shadow, their smiles slipped away. Even Hoseok seemed unhappy to see his long-time secretary.

The director used the first few vice chairmen as templates for how Hyeongseo’s trial run was likely to go. Luckily, the day always started with the COO, and Hyunwoo just so happened to be the easiest to manage even if his position was, by definition, the most demanding. Hoseok, too, was straightforward, especially since Hyeongseo knew his habits well.

It was the latter half of the morning that became more challenging. Minhyuk was… mercurial. When he wanted to work, he was a perfectionist prone to noisy commands, and when he didn’t want to work, he was more distracting than a 3-year-old tugging at a pant leg. Today, it seemed, he was muted to both extremes, or maybe he was taking pity on Secretary Kim, though Maria found that hard to believe.

From here, the director’s day would always grow exponentially more predictable. Kihyun was ever a drill sergeant (and today was certainly no different) while his half-brother was predisposed to daydreaming (or, often, actual dreaming). Today, however, Hyungwon would be a much bigger wild card—considering what was looming after hours.

With Hyeongseo in tow, thankfully, he couldn’t discuss their date, nor could any of the others, but it was clear all the vice chairmen knew it was happening even though Maria hadn’t told them. The director couldn’t put her finger on it, but she could feel it. The air felt thick, like the last moment before a thunderstorm erupted.

This was even more obvious when Hyungwon’s hour rolled around. The others had been tense, or maybe a better word was reserved, but Maria was shocked to find the Chief Sustainability Officer, who usually favored reserve, warmer than she’d ever known him.

He kept bursting into shy laughter for no discernible reason and with no ready explanation. He had always been one to zone off into the distance, but today, his eyes kept gravitating toward Maria. Weirder still, Hyungwon found a half dozen excuses to redecorate an office that had been comfortably arranged for all four years she'd worked for him. While Hyeongseo briefed him on the bullet points from a potentialne minute, he'd hoist his all-in-one printer overhead, and the next, he’d bicep-curl a box of printer paper on his way to restock his shelves.

While the vice chairman was in the middle of grunting his way through a shoving match with his massive mahogany desk, Maria’s friend pulled up close beside her and tsked.

“Wow,” whispered Hyeongseo into the director's ear, “they're really taking it hard, aren't they?”

The director quirked a brow. “What do you mean?”

“Come on, Maria. You quit, and now Vice Chairman Chae can’t even stand to have his office the way it was with you?”

“I think you’re reading a little too much into it…” the director murmured as it was her turn to zone out watching her boss’s forearms twitch and stipple with sweat, bared for once where he’d rolled up his dress shirt sleeves.

“Director Ortega?”

“Director Ortega!”

Maria blinked, and suddenly, she realized she’d been standing there in the middle of the room, her tablet clutched in her arms and her lip nestled between her teeth.

“You okay?” asked Hyeongseo. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you drift off like that.”

“Sorry,” she said as she glanced between her friend’s concerned gaze and her boss’s blank expression. A wave of embarrassment threatened to overtake her, so she blurted, “I was running through loose ends.”

Hyungwon said nothing though his attention lingered on the director. Finally, he took a seat, opened his laptop, and called over Maria while Hyeongseo took a seat across from them.

“Secretary Kim,” said the vice chairman as he pushed a presentation folder across his newly relocated desk, “why don’t you take a few minutes to read through the opening pages of Aeon’s sustainability initiative while Director Ortega and I discuss a few of those loose ends?”

“Right away, sir,” said the secretary before she began to page through the report in her lap.

Meanwhile, Maria joined him behind his desk. There, he’d opened a spreadsheet they’d been compiling over the last two weeks ahead of the merger. She stooped down beside his shoulder as she tutted.

“No, sir, right click. Right, not left. I swear your grandfather was more technologically savvy.”

“He was not,” Hyungwon argued.

Maria glared at him. “Chairman Choi never needed me to coach him on how to copy and paste into Excel. He also forgot his passwords a lot less.”

“That’s only because I want you—”

The director caught Hyeongseo listening to them, and Maria hurried to interrupt, “Secretary Kim, if you can train this man to so much as stop taping his passwords under his keyboard, I will personally send you a bonus check from my own account.”

Hyeongseo laughed. “If Director Ortega hasn’t been able to train the vice chairman after all these years, then there’s no hope for me, I’m afraid.”

“I’m starting to feel a little insulted,” Hyungwon pouted, looking up at Maria with a charmingly wounded expression.

“Sir, we would never dare,” she replied through a smirk.

Behind the desk, his fingers brushed hers.

Maria jolted. In an instant, his featherlight touch generated more desire within her than all of her last dates combined. She shouldn’t have felt this way—not at work, not with her boss, and especially not with an audience. Luckily, his touch was out of sight of Secretary Kim, but if the director wasn’t careful, she would draw attention from both of the others, and she didn't need either one seeing how affected she was by something so insignificant.

“One other thing, Director Ortega,” said Hyungwon. “Take a look at this document and give me your thoughts.”

Suddenly, that graze of his fingers became his entire hand slipping into hers. Those long digits danced across her palm and hooked her, and with a discreet tug, he pulled her a step closer to him, leaving Hyeongseo none the wiser.

He toggled over to a Word document with a single sentence typed on the screen.

I can’t wait to see you tonight.

Maria bit her lip to keep from shouting at him.

She was furious. Well, she was supposed to be furious… Her heart was hammering. It had to be because of anger?

As quickly as she could, she shook her hand from his but said evenly, “Let me correct this one mistake, sir.”

Her hands flew across the keyboard, each clack thundering.

Stop it.

Hyungwon hummed as he readied to type as well. “How about this then, Director Ortega?”

You look so beautiful today.

Maria highlighted the word “beautiful” and typed “troublesome” instead. She punctuated this sentence with a glare at him.

The vice chairman remained unfazed. He took a deep breath. His hands joined hers on his desk, and his pinky wandered over to skirt along hers.

Maria should have moved her hand. She didn’t. And when he returned to the keyboard, she even felt a traitorous pang of longing.

Your new perfume smells incredible, Hyungwon typed this time.

He’d noticed…

She’d vowed to herself when she’d put it on this morning that it was simply because she was excited to try it, but maybe it had been a test, too. If she wasn’t supposed to see them as bosses anymore but rather suitors, she needed to believe they were actually interested in the new role.

I’m having trouble thinking professional thoughts, Maria.

The director swallowed roughly. Even her name on his dexterous fingertips felt penetrating.

Her fingers flew across the keys one last time.

You're one keystroke away from an HR complaint, sir. :)

Their eyes caught.

Hyungwon wet his bottom lip, and time seemed to catch, too.

Find a way to send Secretary Kim out, he typed, each keystroke like cannon fire.

Maria gaped at him. She shook her head lightly, and the way he smiled back at her—as though he knew what would come next—nearly knocked her off balance. Her fingers raced to the keyboard to decline, yet she froze.

Softly, the director said, “Secretary Kim, before we head off to Vice Chairman Lee Jooheon, would you please take that sustainability initiative and cue it up on the conference room monitor? While you’re at it, please check the break room refrigerator. There’s a container of mandu in there with my name on it. Please heat it up and bring it to the conference room, too.”

“Mandu?” asked Hyeongseo.

“Vice Chairman Lee thinks better on an afternoon snack. And perhaps it makes it easier to persuade him, too,” Maria said with a grin.

The secretary nodded and jotted down another note on her tablet. “I’ll take care of it, Director Ortega.”

Maria closed the door behind her friend, and when she turned back, she found Hyungwon standing in the middle of his office, looking taller and broader than she’d ever remembered. His hands were stuffed in his pockets, and while his silver hair shimmered in the sunlight, his eyes looked pitch black.

“Did you make it or did you buy it?” he questioned, chin high and voice thin.

“What, sir?”

“The mandu.”

Being all alone with the vice chairman had never before been an issue, but right now, the director could feel the air thick as blanket fresh from the dryer and just as charged. Coolly as she could, Maria said, “I made it last night.”

Hyungwon’s lids drooped. “You made him mandu…”

“You know how your cousin gets. I want Secretary Kim to start off on the right foot with him, or he’ll pout his entire hour, and she’ll learn nothing.”

“What about me, huh? You didn’t make me anything.”

“I didn’t realize you were going to be sulky, too, or I would have.”

“I’m not sulky,” said Hyungwon. “I’m jealous.”

The first bolt of that gathering electricity discharged, and Maria felt her body go rigid.

He took a step closer, then another and another until she was flat against the door with only an arm’s length of space between them.

“What’s there to be jealous of, sir? You secured the first date,” she said in a hush.

“When it comes to you, I’m always jealous.”

The director raised an eyebrow as she stared up at him in challenge. “But you all agreed to get along through this charade, remember?”

“I did. Are you afraid I’ll sabotage the others?”

“You wouldn’t stoop so low, sir.”

“I might. I’m after your heart after all.” Hyungwon took another step forward. The air evaporated between them as his palm flattened on the door beside her.

Her eyes closed as his lips descended. She waited for the first press of his mouth, her heartbeat in her lips, but it never came.

Instead, she heard the click of the handle as Hyungwon tugged the door open and retreated. Off balance now, she lurched forward, her hands bracing against his chest. He looked down with a smile.

“Already throwing yourself into my arms, Director Ortega?”

She shoved back indignantly as she snapped, “We are in the office, sir.”

“Of course I know that. You’re the one touching me, aren’t you?”

Maria scoffed. “You act like your little computer game was so innocent…”

“It was. I was just setting a playful mood for tonight. What, were you hoping I would press you up against this door and—” He jerked back and cleared his throat. His ears reddened despite his cool tone. “All I'm doing is seeing my colleague out. It seems to me you're the one with the unprofessional thoughts. Are you disappointed?”

“More like annoyed,” she grumbled as she straightened her blouse.

“Why? I have to give you something to look forward tonight.”

Maria chewed her bottom lip to keep her cuss word to herself. “That assumes I’m looking forward to more, sir.”

Hyungwon hummed and leaned forward again. His lips drew up alongside her ear as he whispered in an even deeper rasp than usual, “Then I’ll have to work harder to make sure you do.”

At once, he stepped back and motioned for her to head out.

“Have a great rest of your day, Director Ortega.”

Maria looked back at his handsome cherub face. Hyungwon was so good at looking so sweet that it was almost easier to believe the last half hour hadn’t even happened. His marshmallow cheeks alone were enough to completely gaslight her.

“I warn you,” she hissed before she slipped through the crack in the door, “I’m a different Maria off-hours. You’re going to regret today.”

Hyungwon smiled even broader, the silver fillings at the back of his teeth flashing in the intimate office lighting. “I’ve never looked forward to anything more in my life.”

Maria had wracked her brain all day trying to plan an outfit for her date. It didn’t help that she was genuinely out of practice with dating at this point, but the few looks she’d managed to eke out of her overly professional closet had all been formal—skirts or dresses, something cute or at least a little elegant. But Hyungwon had said “comfortable,” and that made her decidedly uncomfortable, especially when she’d only ever worn business looks and the occasional evening gown for company galas with him.

Comfortable.

She mused on the word for far too long before she finally gritted her teeth and selected pair of jeans, a loose tee, and a lightweight pullover that had just a touch more style than a sweatshirt in case she misunderstood the assignment.

If Maria thought picking an outfit was hard, choosing complementary hair and makeup was worse. She had her usual professional regimen, but she had no idea how to look when the intent was to date her boss. If she settled on her daily routine, then she would be treating it like work, which defeated the whole point. If she picked a more glamorous look, then she wasn’t following instructions.

And her hair! What was she supposed to do with it?

Maria wished she could ask a friend about it, but almost all of her friends were work friends. Horror seeped in at the thought. They’d be more likely to recommend a good sexual harassment lawyer than pick a color palette for her.

In the end, she let the theme of the date influence her decision. She settled on a neutral palette with a little gold shimmer to warm her cheeks and a muted lip that didn’t demand he focus on her mouth. She stuck with a light tame of her waves and a tuck of her hair behind her ears. One last look in the mirror, and she felt surprisingly pretty.

Still, all her waffling put her behind schedule, and Maria was never behind schedule. She told herself not to worry since Hyungwon was always behind schedule, but when her phone rang at seven on the dot, her stomach tightened.

“I’m downstairs,” the vice chairman said.

All of Maria's confidence evaporated. Her hair looked messy. Her makeup looked unfinished. Her clothes looked cheap. But she had never been late to anything in her life, and she wasn't going to let the man who was chronically late to everything undo that.

“I'll be down in a minute, sir,” she replied.

He sighed. “Are we really going to go through a whole date with formalities? I thought you didn’t want this to be like a work thing?”

On the other end of the phone, Maria mashed her lips together. Hyungwon was right, but she was so far out of the game to begin with that she’d almost turned to jelly at just a brush of his fingers. Add to that the fact that Hyungwon had always had a way of listening to people, like his whole body was tuned to them instead of just his ears. That had always made her feel… important. He was precisely the kind of guy that, outside of a professional setting, put her at serious risk of falling faster than was safe. If he said her name into the darkness, she really didn’t know if she could trust her heart.

“Old habits die hard. Let’s just see how the night plays out, okay?” Maria said noncommittally, and he sighed.

“Okay, fine. Will you be down?”

“Coming, sir.”

She felt a bit badly about the honorific after the fact, but at least this one was accidental.

When she reached the lobby, she swallowed roughly.

Hyungwon leaned against the side of a foreign SUV, arms stacked across his chest. He wore a black tee tucked into slim fit jeans that drew her attention to shoulders much broader and a waist much tinier than she’d ever noticed before. She’d never seen the man in anything less than a three-piece suit, but somehow, she never wanted to see him in one again. He belonged in soft things, cozy things. To make matters even worse, his hair, which was often neatly styled for work, was tousled with strands of silvery bangs tickling his bright eyes.

Maria cleared her throat and approached, keeping her attention solely on the car. “I was—”

“You look so beautiful,” Hyungwon said in a rush.

She felt the red blotches already blooming under her t-shirt. She was wearing one of the plainest outfits in her closet—something she had worn to the grocery store dozens of times—yet with one sentence, she felt like she was walking down a church aisle. This was Chae Hyungwon’s true power, and it was clear Maria’s four-year inoculation to it had worn off.

Softly, she said, “You look nice, too, sir.”

He didn’t say anything.

“I was half-expecting a limo,” she continued, hoping he would hear her this time. “I didn't think you could drive.”

Hyungwon grimaced. “Maybe some of my more pretentious relatives don't, but I'm a good driver. Besides, I didn’t want anybody else joining us tonight.”

“Fair enough. So where are we headed?”

“How do you feel about surprises?”

“I hate them.”

He laughed. “I figured. You’re used to being the boss of the bosses after all. In that case, we’re headed up to Ingwangsan.”

Maria looked up at the sinking sun. “Isn’t it a little late for a hike?”

“Not if you want the best view,” he said. “Besides, it’s a short hike.”

“What about dinner?”

Hyungwon smiled. “Director Ortega, I promise I thought this through. A lot.”

He thumbed at the back window, where she saw a backpack on the seat.

“You look skeptical,” he said. “You wanted to see Inwangsan, and I wanted to give you the best view with dinner, but if it’s too much after the day today, I can think on my feet.”

“No, I want to. I’m just surprised,” Maria insisted. “I’ve never taken you for a hiker.”

As Hyungwon opened the car door for her before slipping into the driver’s seat, he said, “I like doing things at my own pace. Plus, if it gives me time to myself, even better.”

“Makes sense.”

“I like being at home as much as the next person, but there’s so much out there to see and do, and you’ll never realize that more than when you’re standing at the top of Inwangsan.”

“Oh really?” she asked with a grin.

“You’ll see,” he replied as he slipped into evening traffic and piloted toward the mountain.

Despite how Maria was conscious of every word that escaped her mouth, conversation flowed easily between them. Hyungwon, like the rest of his family, was incredibly skilled at making her feel relaxed. For all their money and power, she never seemed to feel the gap between them unless she thought too much about it herself.

He asked her about her family, her first celebrity crush, her favorite alcohol, and the best concert she’d ever been to. He asked about her dream vacation and what superpower she wished she had. For as much as he wanted to know about her, he shared just as much about himself, too. Somehow, even with all the shifts in topics, it all flowed organically, and with every kilometer, Maria felt her attention shifting from the window to the tendons in his forearms, flexing as he negotiated narrow Seoul streets. By the time they found their parking spot on the mountainside, she wished he’d keep driving and talking though she didn’t admit that.

Instead, she joined Hyungwon on the sidewalk as he shouldered his backpack.

“That looks kind of heavy,” she commented, eying the bulging monstrosity. “What on earth did you pack?”

“Dinner,” he said matter-of-factly. “Don’t worry, I see your face. I didn’t make it. It’s takeout.”

Maria laughed. “It’s fine either way, sir.”

“Uh-huh… I know none of you will let me live down that ramyeon I brought at Chuseok, but I promise you I’ve gotten better.”

“I believe you.”

He stared at her for a long moment before his face screwed up and he said, “No, you don’t, which is why I ordered out this time. But in the future, I will prove to you that I’ve gotten better.”

The director bit her lip and nodded before she said, “Come on. The light’s already getting thin.”

Maria turned toward the stone stairs set into the mountain and started up, leaving her date in the dust. Hyungwon was quick to follow, and soon, he was at her side. His long legs made it much easier for him to climb while her short ones had to work twice as hard to keep pace, but he was attentive to her every breath, and he always pulled them to a stop under the guise that he needed a drink of water instead.

Even in the confines of the office, Hyungwon was an easy guy to talk to, but with the distraction of the hike, conversation had never moved more naturally. He asked interesting questions and provided even more interesting answers. And he was such a good listener. Even if he couldn’t look at her while they hoofed it step by step, Maria could tell he was internalizing her every word.

He was also right: the hike wasn’t very strenuous—just a never-ending flight of broad steps with plenty of places to peer out over the stone wall along the edge to see the carpet of Seoul’s lights extending throughout the countryside. More people were coming down than going up, but it felt like all of them were looking at her and her date. She supposed that was an unintended hazard of dating one’s boss—the idea that the whole world was looking at you disapprovingly.

By the time they reached the summit, the sun hovered at the lip of the horizon. The valley was swaddled in shadows while the last of the sun’s rays bathed Maria’s flushed face in tangerine.

“We did it,” said Hyungwon with a breathless smile.

“We did.”

“Would you take a picture with me? You know, to commemorate our achievement?”

She gnawed on her lip. She’d taken pictures with all of the vice chairmen over the years, though it had always been for company newsletters or incidental in a background for magazine articles and press releases, but this was a photo that wasn’t meant to be shared. This was just for Hyungwon.

“Okay, sure,” Maria said hesitantly.

There were only a handful of hikers left at the summit now, so they had to wait a minute for one to climb down from the rounded bluff at the peak. The rock was worn into natural divots from the thousands and thousands of hikers who’d come before them, so it was an easy final climb.

There, Hyungwon took a seat, his spindly legs folding like a lawn chair in front of him. The setting sun bathed his face in warm light as he smiled up at her and patted the rock beside him. Maria hunkered down next to him, unsure of the appropriate space to leave between them, which didn’t end up mattering since he closed what she’d left anyway.

His bare arm pressed against hers, skin so flush with the exertion of their hike that it felt like a heating pad. He lined his face up beside hers, his chin practically resting on her shoulder, as he shifted the camera angle to include the shimmer of the city lights beneath them. He counted down and took several pictures before he pulled back.

Just out of frame, one of the other remaining hikers asked, “Would you like me to get a picture of you two?”

Hyungwon thanked the woman and handed her his phone. As the hiker stepped back to get all of them along with the background in frame, he took the opportunity to wrap his arm around Maria’s back and nestle her into the crook at his shoulder.

The other woman counted down, and the director’s heart slowed with the count.

Three.

Two.

One.

Maria remembered to exhale. Her legs wobbled, but Hyungwon was quick to grab her hands to steady her. While he collected his camera and returned the favor for the hiker, the director clambered down the summit back to the ancient stone wall that lined the trail.

Looking at the tapestry of Seoul, everything felt surreal. A few weeks ago, when the pot inside her head had boiled over, she never could have imagined that it would lead her to the first of seven dates with the Seven Princes of Seoul, as one magazine had named them. How the hell did she end up here, and where would this path lead her?

A chill overtook her at the trailhead, and she untied the pullover at her waist to snuggle into it.

A moment later, Hyungwon interrupted her trainwreck of thoughts with a dopey grin. “Sorry about that. You hungry?”

“I could eat.”

The vice chairman motioned over to a natural outcropping of rock, and Maria took a seat. Removing her purse felt almost as good as filing her resignation letter, and it carried with it the same weight of pride. She hummed contentedly as she looked out at the glimmering horizon while Hyungwon deposited a food thermos on her lap.

“Tteokbokki?” she said as she unlatched the lid. “That’s my favorite.”

“I know,” he replied. “I also bought gimbap and japchae and some kimchi.”

All my other favorites, she thought.

“I can’t believe you didn’t bring fried chicken, too,” she said with a look before she took her first bite.

“I wanted to, but I thought maybe it wasn’t such a good idea halfway through a hike.”

“You don’t get nearly enough credit for your strategizing, sir,” Maria observed through a bite of rice cake.

With the sun now sheltered behind the mountains in the west, the true majesty of nighttime Seoul twinkled before them. A heavy quilt of clouds amplified the brilliance of the city with Namsan Mountain the only black hole in the center.

“You really can see everything,” she mused as she watched police lights trundle through one neighborhood pocket in the distance. “It’s so beautiful.”

“It’s been a long time since I’ve been here,” Hyungwon agreed. “I think since my grandfather brought me as a kid. It feels different looking at the city than it does being in it. Imagine what it must have looked like back in the Joseon era.”

Maria laughed. “You really are an old soul, sir.”

“Kihyun often says that, though it’s meant as an insult.”

“I admire it. When you’re in the city, it’s easy to simply become a part of it. Everything has to be current and fresh. There’s no time for thought beyond the next moment and the one right after. God knows that’s all I’ve been doing for a decade. A view like this is what I’ve been looking for. The big picture.” Maria turned her head to him then and found him waiting with big, black eyes in the thin streetlight. “You can’t see it without a change of view.”

Hyungwon didn’t respond. He ate a couple more heaping bites and stared into the hazy light pollution, the barest hint of a smile puffing his cheeks.

Though the sounds of the city still made their way up on the wind—the honks, the sirens, the buzz of the highways—there was no doubt she was above it all. With Hyungwon as an anchor at her side, she felt a sense of calm she hadn’t managed to indulge in for ages.

“As far as first dates go,” she said, “this has probably been the most exciting one I’ve been on—unless you count the one where I hijacked our taxi to pick up Jooheon’s suit from the dry cleaner and delivered it to him so he could have an emergency meeting with the KCC.”

She was trying to make a joke. It missed completely.

Hyungwon narrowed his eyes. “I see. It’s ‘sir’ for me, but the others get familiarities?”

“It seems that way.”

Maria said it blithely, but, with perhaps the exception of his half-brother, no one could match Hyungwon’s intensity when annoyed. He glared at her, his tongue curled over his canine beneath those thick lips.

“You wanted to be the first. I’m afraid you’ll have me at my most guarded, sir.”

He grumbled. “That’s why I thought the hike would help...”

She thought back to how easy the conversation had been on their way up, and the director marveled. He was a strategist indeed.

“I’m sorry, sir. I’m trying. It’s just a lot to process in a very little window of time.”

“As long as it’s not—” Hyungwon paused as he scrambled to gather his thoughts before he blurted, “I’m not forcing this on you, am I?”

Maria nearly gave herself whiplash with how fast she spun to face him. “What?”

“I know we said everybody would have a chance at a date, but if you don't like me, I’ll accept that.”

“I promise you that's not it, okay? I'm really happy to be here with you tonight. Honestly, I’m glad you approached me first.”

His eyebrows were high—hopeful. “Really?”

She laughed. “Can you imagine if Minhyuk had beaten you? Talk about headfirst in the deep end.”

Though Hyungwon was smiling, he pressed, “You're sure?”

“You may be a stubborn pain at the office and more than a little shameless yourself, but I like you. How could I not? You're a good man, Mr. Chae. And maybe part of that is, mm… I don't know, maybe...”

“Maybe?” There was that hopeful brow again.

“You’re easy on the eyes, okay? Don’t act like you don’t know that.”

He let out a little breath, and his hands unclenched at his knees. “Usually, I do. It’s just easy to feel insecure when it’s a woman you like.”

Maria’s eyes dropped to her bowl, and she busied herself stirring the leftover noodles with her chopsticks. When she glanced back up, she avoided his eyes and watched the skyline instead. The clouds were lower now, big, bulging bellies that scraped the antenna on N Seoul Tower in the distance.

She hummed. “We might want to head back down.”

“Already?”

“Haven’t you noticed we’re the only people left on the mountain? If we don’t leave now, I think we’re going to get caught in the rain.”

Hyungwon shook his head even as he looked around the deserted summit. “Impossible. They said it wouldn’t rain.”

“Ah,” Maria said with a little half laugh, “since Vice Chairman Chae said it’s not going to rain, it won’t. You sound like Jooheon.”

Hyungwon stiffened, and Maria realized all at once just how out-of-practice she was at dating.

“I’m sorry. I’m just teasing.”

“I know. It’s just— Saying other men’s names on our date feels a little unfair…” said Hyungwon with the gathering crackle of electricity.

“Maybe cut me a little slack, sir. I’m used to working with all of you all the time. For better or worse, your family has been a part of my personality for the last 14 years. Besides, I have to protect myself somehow,” she confessed. “I don’t have my armor here.”

“Armor?”

Maria smiled softly. “My tablet and my schedule.”

Hyungwon wrinkled his forehead. “I don’t—”

“If I don't keep the lines clear and straight, I might endanger myself,” she blurted

“Endanger? Are you afraid of me?”

“Oh, absolutely. I've seen firsthand your effect on women. Have you forgotten the four secretaries you had before Yujun? We had to let them all go for unprofessionalism. And I’m pretty sure even Yujun’s compromised now. I saw he changed his lock screen to your headshot recently.”

Hyungwon chuckled. “He said that’s so it’s easy to recognize his phone when he leaves it around the office.”

The director rolled her eyes. “Ah… so he has plausible deniability. Impressive gameplay.”

“I wouldn’t mind if you put my picture as your lock screen. I’ve already put ours from tonight as mine.”

He pulled his phone from his pocket and illuminated the screen just long enough for Maria to catch a glimpse of herself seated next to him on the summit rock, the whole of Seoul glittering behind them and the fading pink of daylight blushing their cheeks. It was impossible to miss—and even more impossible to forget—the way his hand clasped her side there.

“Ah!” she said, feeling the red patchwork knit under the collar of her pullover. “Sir, you really shouldn’t. If the secretaries see, they’ll get the wrong idea, especially Yujun. You know how he loves to gossip.”

Hyungwon’s smile faltered as he ceded, “You’re right of course. I jumped the gun, didn’t I?”

“It’s fine. It’s a beautiful photo. I’m flattered that you want to see it every time you look at your phone.”

Quietly, he changed the settings back the Xtra Mile emblem as a stiff wind buffeted them.

“Come on, sir, we really need to go,” Maria said. Hyungwon packed his bag like a turtle, but as soon as he shouldered it, she sighed. “Sir, you forgot the food.”

“Uh, keen as ever, Director Ortega,” he said as he went back to collect the missing cartons. He was about to make his second attempt to her side when she let out a little laugh.

“You also forgot your shirt, sir. It was right next to the thermos. How did you miss it?”

His eyes narrowed. He swiveled around to find his flannel in a ball on the rock, and he snatched it, too, before he blew past her to the steps. “Okay, let’s go.”

“Lead the way,” she said with a smirk.

They were maybe ten steps down the mountain when he announced, “I think we forgot—”

“We didn’t, sir, and if we did forget something, at this point, I might accuse you of doing all this on purpose.” Maria shot him a side eye just in time to catch him swallowing hard. “Come on. I don’t want to get caught in the rain.”

“Sorry,” he mumbled. “If we do, I’ll, um, be your umbrella.”

The director laughed. It wasn’t a far stretch to imagine. He was a head and shoulders taller than she was, and his shoulders had only gotten broader over the years. Just the thought of him looming over her, spine to the sky as she sheltered beneath his chest like something out of a manhwa, made her laugh again.

“I was serious,” he groused.

“Yes, I know, so I’ll hold you to it.”

She looked up at him with a gentle smile and reached for his hand. It was more forward than she’d ever thought to be with him, but she figured she owed him an olive branch after being stuck in office neutral their whole date.

Hyungwon slipped his fingers into hers, and abruptly, she tugged him forward. He stumbled over the first couple steps, and it was everything Maria could do to focus on those and not her boss’s hand in hers.

They weren’t even halfway down the mountain when the first raindrops plinked off the wall and whisked through pine needles. The whir-whir-whir of crickets died back in favor of the crunch of stone beneath their shoes and the hum of traffic below. The gold halo of the foot lighting illuminated a misty rain too fine to dampen the wink and blink of the bustling Jongno and Insadong neighborhoods straight ahead of them.

Maria shot her date a scowl. “I told you.”

They picked up the pace, eating up the stairs until those transitioned into a dirt path. It was darker here, no overhead lights or accent lighting along the trail, but thanks to the haze of the city and the burst of Hyungwon’s flashlight on his phone, it was easy enough to see.

By the time they reached the next flight of stairs, it was raining steadily. Luckily, here, the pines shared the canopy with leafy trees to hold back most of the onslaught, save for the occasional fat droplet.

“Here,” Hyungwon said, pulling her hand—which he’d insisted on holding the whole way down—toward a nook in the center of a thicket of trees. A few small boulders squatted there as makeshift chairs, but otherwise, it was nothing more than a break in the slog of their descent. “We can wait out the driving rain here.”

Tucked back in this shady recess, it was hard to tell they were in a city. Not even the lights of Itaewon made it through the woodland. Though the rain had brought a cold breeze, the trees offered a nice windbreak.

“I thought you had this whole thing planned,” she observed just a little bitterly as she lamented her now no doubt frizzy crown of hair.

“I guess planning is my brother’s thing. I meant I had a loose outline of a vision, which, in my opinion, is better than a plan. It’s easier to improvise this way,” he countered. “Why are you looking at me like that?”

Maria, however, was smiling now. “I’ve never heard you refer to Kihyun as your brother.”

“Oh,” was all he said. He rolled a pebble under the ball of his sneakers as he hedged, “Speaking of plans, what are you going to do when the month is up?”

“I don’t know,” the director said. “Do nothing for a half a year? Travel? Go back to Arizona for a bit? I’ve had lots of flights of fancy.”

“If you go back, will you stay?”

“I don’t know… Most of my family’s there, but all of my friends are here. I really don’t know. I guess I’m just waiting.”

“For what?”

She shrugged. “I have no idea. I hate to admit it, but resigning was more spur-of-the-moment than I let on. Yeah, I’d been thinking about my life and where I’ve wanted it to be for a while now, but as soon as I put in my notice, I realized I have no clue what I’m actually supposed to do to get me there.”

He hummed.

“I know,” she said, “that’s not what you’d expect of me, huh? Me either. Honestly, I’m way more organized at work than I am at home. I think that’s part of it. I’ve forgotten who I am when I’m not working. I think I was once adventurous and hungry and maybe even a little reckless, but I’ve been playing a different role completely for over a decade. How much of me has changed and how much of me is just buried?”

She looked at Hyungwon then. His face was gentle and attentive, dotted with two big eyes that searched her like he was trying to unearth the other Maria for her.

“Sorry,” she said and hid behind her dampening bangs. “That’s a bit much for a first date. I told you I was out of practice.”

“No, don’t be,” he insisted. As an afterthought, he added, “Thanks.”

“For what?”

“For sharing that with me. For a moment, this really felt like a date.”

“Isn’t it?”

Hyungwon pressed his lips together as he took a deep breath. “I don’t know… I think I was starting to rethink my idea to bring you here. I mean, besides the weather, this isn’t exactly a Michelin restaurant with roses and candlelight, is it?”

Maria cocked her head. “Does it need to be?”

“No, I— I guess I thought maybe the others might do something like that, and I know you said you had always wanted to come here, so I figured it would be more memorable, but in thinking about it, I guess most first dates don’t hike mountains together. It’s kind of weird.”

“Hm, I don’t know,” she said with a small smile. “It feels very Chae Hyungwon to me.”

At the first mention of his name without a title or an honorific, the vice chairman perked up. The pebble beneath his foot went skidding into the shrubbery as he took a step forward.

Overhead, the rain contained to drill, and it dribbled through the sieve of the canopy in irregular plip-plops.

Maria tutted as she brushed a droplet from her cheek. “I thought you were going to be my umbrella?”

“What kind of a date would I be if I didn’t fulfill my promises?” Hyungwon lifted his arm, his chest flaring with the gesture. He beckoned her in with a wave, and the director stepped into his embrace. Her shoulder fit neatly under his as one arm wrapped around hers and the other arm encircled her waist, big hands fanned wider than she realized they even could. He snugged her against his lean body, and when his cheek nestled onto the top of her head and her nose disappeared into his collar, Maria realized how effortlessly she could disappear into him. “How’s that? Dry?”

“Warm,” she whispered.

With her lips resting against the sliver of bare skin at his throat, she inhaled the fading tendrils of his cologne—fresh, cool, invigorating. If she thought about it, they were the exact words she might use to describe the man himself. Quiet and humble as he was, Hyungwon had an aura about him that put people at ease despite a face so handsome it could make them nervous.

“So,” he asked, “how am I doing? Are you getting wet?”

Maria bit her lip. She couldn’t answer. She had always been troubled by the sound of Hyungwon’s voice, especially early in the morning when it was extra gravelly, but it hit much harder pressed up against him.

His arms tightened around her as his cheek nuzzled her head. “Letting me hold you like this is a mistake. I never want to let go.”

“Should I release my umbrella from his promise then?”

“Don’t,” he said quickly. “It will remind me that you’re leaving me in a month.”

“Sir—”

“Maria.”

She shivered, and the tiniest whimper escaped. If they’d been at the noisy summit, Hyungwon never would have heard, but now, he was looking at her with a pinched brow and thorough eyes.

“Are you cold?”

“No.”

Still, his hands rubbed small circles on her back, one between her shoulder blades and the other in the dip at her waist.

“What—” he started and cut himself off.

Maria’s ears pricked with her curiosity. “Hm?”

He cleared his throat lightly as his hands stilled, though his fingers dug in hard enough to feel them through her pullover. “What would you say if I kissed you right now?”

Everything stilled except her breath, which seemed to grow louder by the second.

In a matter of a handful of days, somehow, Maria had transformed from a decade’s long consummate professional to the real woman she was with needs and desires she rarely risked thinking about, even outside the office. But here, cloistered in the shadows of a mountain in her boss’s arms, those needs and desires were amplified. She could feel them throbbing beneath her skin, in her chest, and even between her legs.

As coolly as she could manage, she glanced up. Hyungwon was waiting, eyes as soft as his lips.

“I suppose it depends on your performance, sir,” she said.

“After all these years by my side, pretty lady, I think you know how hard I work when I’m motivated.”

He wet his bottom lip. He leaned down. Maria drew in a breath as steadily as a wave recoiled from the shore.

Despite how soft it was, the first press of Hyungwon’s lips stunned her more than a taser could have. They were exactly as full and soft as they looked though there was no mistaking the taste of their restraint. They moved pendulously across hers, sampling no more than small nibbles though that was more than enough to send her heart rushing to her throat. He was smooth, attentive to her every twitch and breath-catch, and more practiced than she wanted to think about. Combined with the way his enormous hand tangled in her hair to cradle the back of her head, Maria melted into him.

And then Hyungwon pulled back, leaving her mouthing the mountain air. She hissed and buried her face in his shoulder to hide her embarrassment.

“How was that, darling?” he whispered into her hair.

Maria swatted his chest and cursed lightly. “You’re such a jerk, calling me out like that.”

“Usually, Director Ortega likes to check her progress as she goes to make sure she’s on the right track. I just want to show that I’ve been paying attention all along.”

She wrinkled her nose as her finger idly played with the button on his flannel. “Yes, well, I suppose that’s not a bad strategy.”

“So, how am I doing?”

“I’d like to take points off for toying with me,” she chided.

His voice was husky, and his eyes feigned innocence even as they were black with desire. He twirled a lock of her hair around his finger, tugging lightly though it managed to spawn a shower of sparks in her belly. “Who says I’m toying with you?”

If Hyungwon wasn’t teasing her, then it had to mean he was giving her a way out before…

That thought begged a bigger question: what was she expecting?

When Maria was younger, she’d refused to so much as kiss on a first date, but the more she’d matured—and the more her career had consumed her life—the less time she’d had for hesitation. This late in what was left of her youth, she’d forgone dates at all in favor of select one-night relief.

But Hyungwon was her boss, not to mention, this was her first date of seven. Whatever she chose here, she’d likely want to choose for the other six if she had any hope of making an informed decision. After all these years, Maria was nothing if not equitable. No matter which route she took, it all seemed destined for disaster.

Yet maybe, for the first time in a decade, she wanted to be a little greedy. Hyungwon was gorgeous, and despite the front she’d carefully cultivated, even she wasn’t immune, especially now that she had sampled the goods. And they were good…

“You okay?” the vice chairman asked, his hand cupping the whole side of her face.

“I’m fine.”

“Just fine?” he said with an unmistakable sour note.

“Mm, judging by how quick you were to be my first date, I figured the quietly competitive Chae Hyungwon might be just as assertive tonight.”

“Maybe he wants to be, but maybe he’s also afraid it will be one-sided. Perhaps the beautiful Director would be kind enough to show him how she’d like him to kiss her.”

She thought about teasing a bit in return, but Hyungwon was already waiting so sweetly for her that it withered in her chest only to be replaced with an ache like she hadn’t felt in years.

She bit her lip as autopilot took hold. Her hands snaked around his neck, her thumb twisting the fang of hair at the nape before she guided him down to her mouth. As she drifted up on her tip toes, she kissed him.

Maria pressed against him, as much with her body as her lips. Restraint evaporated in favor of hunger. She suckled his bottom lip, tasting a hint of dinner, and once she’d savored it fully, she traced her tongue along the seam of his mouth. Hyungwon opened immediately for her, but as much as she wanted to devour him, she wanted him to come to her. She’d had enough of chasing these men over the years.

This time, she wanted him to beg for her.

She curled her tongue along his like a finger beckoning, and he followed obediently. The artful way it glossed along hers had her longing for more, far beyond the scope of kissing. She wanted his tongue along her throat, in her collar, around her nipples, and between her legs. Maria wasn’t discriminating anymore.

“You taste so good,” he groaned before he kissed her harder.

This time, his hands knotted in the fabric of her pullover until his fists dug in against her spine, and if his tongue weren’t so distracting, they might have hurt. Meanwhile, Maria’s hands had a mind of their own, groping everything she could. Though she loved how sturdy his neck and shoulders felt, when her fingers cinched around his narrow waist, she felt light-headed—and that feeling only grew worse when her body impulsively tugged him to her so his hips could rut against her.

Maria gasped so hard her mouth jerked away from his. Hyungwon seized the opportunity and tongued the rain from jaw before leaving a necklace of kisses around her throat. She squeezed him tighter, and again, he rocked his hips against her. Even through the thick denim, she could feel the press of his hardness. Her eyes glazed over as her head tipped back, mouth open and catching the rain.

Her chant of “yes yes yes” tangled in the treetops like a mobile. In response, Hyungwon ramped up his efforts. His hands guided her hips to meet him grind-for-grind until he’d lined them up just right for her to cry out.

The echo of Maria’s pleasure coming back to her snapped her eyes open.

“You need to stop,” she panted feebly. “Someone will see.”

“You said it yourself. There’s no one left on the mountain but us,” he mumbled before his mouth latched to her neck again, and immediately, her resolve crumbled.

“Ah, shit. Fine, but don’t leave marks,” she hissed.

He growled, his fingers curling into her waist the way his teeth longed to nibble her throat, but he held back. Maria melted into him and the hypnotizing curls of his tongue, and for a moment, she forgot her fears, but then she swore she heard a stone tumble somewhere behind them, and she pushed him back again.

A moment later, a cat burst through the bushes, but instead of inspiring relief, it reaffirmed her worries.

“Please, Hyungwon,” she begged, petting his hair, “let’s get back to the car.”

He pressed his forehead against hers and sighed but said, “Only because you said my name.”

He kissed her lips quickly and took her hand. Maria had never seen the man move so fast. His spindly legs ate up the stairs as she spent every ounce of energy to keep up.

“Slow down,” she begged.

He came to a sudden stop two steps down from her and looked back at her like a hypnotized man waiting for his next command. For once, she was taller than he was, and even with the rain sending icy fingers down her back, she couldn't let an opportunity like this slip through her fingers.

“Come closer,” she ordered, and he leaned forward.

Rain speckled his lips. His tongue darted out to clean them, and Maria hissed.

“Don’t,” she warned. She gripped his chin and parted his lips. “That’s mine.”

She stooped over him and sucked his bottom lip into her mouth. She was supposed to be the one in charge now, but the way it plumped between her teeth wasn’t a fair fight, and Maria moaned.

He joined her on her step and, suddenly, she was moving back, back, back until the pavement gave way too dirt. She collided with a tree trunk, and raindrops showered them both.

“Some umbrella you are. I’m soaked,” she complained.

“Really? I want to feel,” he said against her lips while his hand slithered down to the waist of her jeans.

Was that what she’d meant? Maria felt like she was forgetting something or maybe everything. Weren’t they supposed to be going somewhere or doing something? Didn’t they have somewhere to be?

But with his tongue back in her mouth and his fingers flicking the button at her jeans open, what was the use of those other plans? This was all she cared about.

His fingertips slipped under the satin waistband beneath the denim and over the little tuft of curls until Maria felt the pad of his middle finger questing at her lower lips.

“Aish! Why are these pants so fucking tight?” he grumbled against her mouth. “Didn’t I tell you to wear comfortable clothes?”

“So that's what you had on your mind this whole time! Chae Hyungwon, you may look nice, but you don't act nice.”

“That's a hell of a thing to accuse me of when I was planning to make you cum.”

“Oh, you’re still going to do that,” she volleyed back.

“Yeah?” he challenged through more kisses. “Keep smart-mouthing me, Maria. See what happens.”

The director had about a dozen barbs waiting on the tip of her tongue, but they died there the moment he parted her folds. A moan came tumbling out instead that Hyungwon echoed much more gently.

“Fuck,” he grunted. “How have you not soaked right through your jeans, jagiya?”

Maria felt dizzy—floating and falling all at the same time. She could have blamed it all on the finger now nestled in her walls, but the truth was far more pathetic. She was coming apart at the seams because of one measly word.

Jagiya…

It was a word she’d heard often out on the streets or in ill-lit restaurants or even dramas. It wasn’t a word she’d heard for her ears only.

Hyungwon kissed her again, yet somehow, it caught her off-guard. Her eyes flung wide, catching sight of his pretty lashes feathering his flushed cheeks. His brow furrowed as his lips worked to impress her, and Maria’s heart throbbed strangely in her chest.

Her hands cupped his face, and her eyes closed at last as she disappeared into his kiss.

Though he had little room to work with, his finger delved deliciously inside her core while his palm stoked the friction at her clit. If he kept this up, she’d cum in minutes.

Against a tree. On a public mountain.

Maria’s eyes snapped open. The realization was strong enough to rip her mouth from his, but not potent enough to pull her back entirely. Instead, she nibbled at his earlobe as Hyungwon made the raspiest groan she’d ever heard in her life. Pride as much as greed ballooned in her chest.

“We need to get back to the car,” she warned.

“Now?”

He was practically begging, and her resolve nearly crumbled.

“Yes, now,” she asserted though she gave him another peck at his lips.

“Just remember, you’re the one who stopped me.”

“I have to. You’re a villain, Vice Ch—”

Hyungwon smothered her with another kiss, and when he pulled back, she was panting and the shades of her eyes were drawn with lust. He rested his forehead against hers and whispered, “You’re only making yourself suffer, jagiya, but it’s okay. I plan to take my time with you anyway.”

His kisses switched then from frenzied to sensuous even as he withdrew his fingers from her, and regret instantly set in.

“Come on,” she hissed as she buttoned her pants and hurried down the sodden steps. “Hurry.”

The temperature rose the farther they came down the mountain, but that was in part because they kept stopping every few steps to make out. Hyungwon kept his hands to himself as promised, but Maria couldn’t. His wet hair was too charming plastered to his face, and his lips were too glossy. She found herself pushing him against the stone wall and biting at those puffy lips while her hands grabbed fistfuls of flannel. When she’d come up for air, she’d remember where they were, and they’d trample down a handful more steps until history would repeat itself, their peels of giddy laughter crystallizing in the rain.

“I feel like a teenager again,” she gasped as his tongue retreated from her mouth.

“I’m good at making up for lost time,” he said proudly.

At last, they reached his car parked along the edge of the road, and though Maria had thought things would stay just as heated, when the car doors snapped shut, there was a surprising awkwardness in the musty quiet.

It wasn’t the typical Hyungwon silence, where he felt like he was on a different timeline. Now, he was all too present yet quiet enough to hear the gears whirring behind that tight-lipped stare.

“Sorry,” he said as he fumbled around in the backseat. “I don’t have any blankets or towels in here.”

“It’s okay. It’s not that far to my place. I just want you to know you’re a terrible umbrella. I throw those out, you know.”

“I have other uses,” he retorted with a pout when he returned his hands to the wheel.

Maybe it was meant to be snarky, but in the seclusion, it felt like something else entirely. Maria nibbled her bottom lip.

“So, uh,” he started as he fidgeted with the keys on his keyring, “I guess I’ll take you home now?”

“Okay.”

Hyungwon directed the air vent toward Maria though the warm air felt cool against her wet clothes. Of course, maybe all her shivers weren’t related to that either.

The night shifted with the transmission, and both driver and passenger felt the course change.

The drive was quiet, filled with soft music and the occasional snuffle thanks to her boss’s chronic rhinitis. The familiarity felt safe in an otherwise unfamiliar scenario, and Maria worked her hardest to focus on that and not the way his damp forearms straianed when he cruised around corners.

Once they turned back onto her street, she said, “Just a couple more blocks. There’s a little parking lot around back. You can park in space number three.”

Hyungwon pressed his lips together. “Uh, okay…”

“You sound surprised,” she laughed. “I thought you might want to see how the lower classes live?”

“I haven't forgotten,” he said casually, and she blinked.

“Sir, I'm not sure you can convince me that the grandsons of Xtra Mile’s founder and chairman grew up average in any way.”

Hyungwon shrugged a shoulder. “You'd be surprised. My grandfather doesn't believe in handouts or awards without merit.”

“You forget I worked for your grandfather for a decade. That was one of my favorite things about him. I just didn't think it applied to family.”

The vice chairman’s fingers tightened around the wheel. “It did. All seven of us grew up in homes with parents who made their own fortunes, and when it was time, we had to rise up the ranks on our own, too.”

“You know how much I respect your grandfather and all of you,” Maria said with a hook of a grin, “but I think most of the world would be hard-pressed to think that all seven of his grandsons were so exceptional at business that they earned their vice chairman roles on their own.”

“Ouch.”

She chewed on the corner of her smile now. “Just statistics, sir. No reason to take offense.”

“Statistics… hm. And what if I told you my grandfather favors you, Director Ortega, more than he favors any of us?”

“Then I would argue that just proves my point since you lot are the vice chairmen and I am not.”

“Do you want to be an executive?” Hyungwon suggested.

“I don't even want the job I have now, do I?”

Hyungwon’s playful grin evaporated immediately.

Maria didn’t have time to acknowledge it before she squeaked, “Turn here! The lot’s right behind the building.”

Silently, he parked in the spot she’d designated though he did not turn off the car. Instead, his hands ringed the steering wheel like he was polishing it. Maria hopped out, but when she turned around to close her door, she found he hadn’t moved a muscle.

With a light laugh, she said, “Come on.”

Hyungwon snapped awake as he fumbled, “What?”

“You're coming upstairs, remember? You're soaking wet. I can't send you home like that.”

“You don’t have to—”

Maria sighed in exasperation. “With all due respect, sir, shut up. I know exactly how far you live from me. Even if you get all the lights green, pneumonia will set in by the time you get home. Let’s go.”

“Yes, boss,” he said with the creep of a smile.

Hyungwon followed her up two flights of stairs to a communal balcony hallway. They stopped in front of a door just like all the others yet unmistakably hers. Beside it squatted a tiled table and a lone chair with a once-bright-now-faded yellow sunburst design with a bucket seat. On the other side of the door was a robust tree.

“It’s cute,” he said as he looked around.

“Thanks. I can’t wait to spend more time here,” Maria replied as she opened the door. “My lemons are maybe another month or two from ripening.”

His voice was more somber as he added, “Glad you’ll get to enjoy them.”

She gave him an amused stare as she held the door for him. “Don’t worry. I’ll save you one, sir.”

Her apartment was on the larger size for Seoul, though compared to the places her bosses owned, anything would have felt cramped. The main room had a small couch and two chairs around a coffee table and a television mounted on the wall between two bookshelves crowded with everything except books. Maria might have been the pinnacle of minimalism at work, but her home was chockful of tchotchkes she’d picked up on her many world travels as well as picture frames of the friends and family she’d kept in her life before her current job. Plants were tucked into every free nook, and they lent a freshness to the space despite the stiff city air.

“Not what I expected,” Hyungwon mused.

“Too much?”

“No,” he murmured, his fingers skimming over the chunky yarn of a throw on the couch. “It’s so… intimate. It feels like a home.”

Maria wanted to tease him, but the natural gravel in his voice did feel far too intimate in her home, as comfortable and inviting as a good couch. Instead, she said, “Yeah, um, let me see what I have for you to change into. If you need the bathroom, sir, it’s just around that corner. I’ll be right back.”

As she rifled through her wardrobe, the director called out, “If it had been a few years ago, I might have at least had a few things that would fit you, but since you had to go and bulk up, pickings are slim, I’m afraid.”

“Didn’t think you’d noticed,” Hyungwon called back.

“Give me some credit. Even a blind person would have. Now, I’m kind of proud of how well I hid my staring.”

His awkward laugh spilled in from the living room, and Maria smiled as she dug further and further back into her closet. At last, her hands closed around her prizes, and her smile turned wry.

She returned from her bedroom in a fresh sweatshirt and sweatpants of her own, humming as she carted in two full hangers. “Unfortunately, I don’t have anything to fit those long legs of yours, so unless you want to wear a towel, sir, you’ll have to make do with wet jeans. As for tops, looks like all I've got are these two.”

She presented a blue sweater first, big enough that it might fit Hyungwon’s broad shoulders though the torso was decidedly short. With a smug grin, she showed him his second option: an oversized minty robe with frog eyes on the fluffy hood and mitten webbed feet on the ends of the sleeves.

Hyungwon scowled.

“Let me try the blue first,” he said, but as soon as it was in his hands, he checked the tag and his scowl deepened. “Men’s? Whose sweater is this?”

Maria shrugged. “I don't remember his name. He was only here for a night.”

“Forget it,” he grumbled as he cast the sweater onto a free chair along with his flannel button-up. “I'll take the other one. This one's yours, right?”

“It is,” she laughed. “It definitely is.”

“Good.”

“I’ll go put a kettle on. Just put your shirts on the table there, and I’ll toss it in the dryer.”

“Don't bother. Just replace that blue atrocity with it in your closet.”

“So you’ll have a spare here, huh?” Maria laughed again, but it was short-lived.

Without warning, Hyungwon jerked his tee shirt over his head, the wettest bits peeling from his skin as reluctantly as her eyes. He stood in the middle of her living room, half-naked and focused solely on his hostess.

Hyungwon was like an optical illusion. He was so much bigger than he’d ever looked under the safety of a dress shirt. His shoulders were knotted with muscle just as his chest was stacked and his waist was sculpted by smooth lines.

They stared at each other for an eternity before he said, “I’ll just hang it here.”

He settled the shirt over a hook at the entryway, and any hope of his spell over her breaking on its own evaporated. His back was a masterpiece, especially when he stretched. The way the muscles pulled taut flooded Maria’s brain with X-rated visions of what they’d feel like under her fingertips as she clung to him.

She was so lost in her own fantasies that she didn’t even notice that he’d donned the robe until he turned, marshmallow cheeks framed by the fuzzy hood.

Maria burst out laughing.

“What?” whined Hyungwon. “Do I look stupid?”

“I wish you did. It would make things easier.”

“It’s actually pretty cozy,” he said, stuffing his hands in the mittens before he marveled at them.

“It weirdly suits you, not that I ever pictured you in anything outside a suit before.”

He frowned. “Never? You only ever saw me as your boss?”

“It was safer that way… But…” she began, her breath catching, “there was one thing I always wanted to do.”

“You should probably do it then,” Hyungwon urged.

“Are you sure about that?”

“Oh, definitely.”

Maria bit her lip. She reached out until her hands slipped under the hood and her palms cupped his cheeks.

“Really?” he huffed, coupled with an eye roll. “That's what you wanted to do with me?”

The corner of her mouth twitched up. “That's one of the things.”

“You can do all the things…”

Maria struggled to stay conscious. When he spoke low and slow like that, she had trouble remembering her name.

This time, she pushed the hood back.

“Sit down,” she ordered, nodding to the couch.

Hyungwon sat immediately.

She returned from the bathroom with a towel over her shoulder before she kneeled next to him on the cushion, her knees digging into his thigh. She brought the towel to his hair and patted his crown before dabbing dry the silky fringe at his nape.

They were quiet for the moment, just the soft shush-shush of the cotton as it swirled, but as she reached around to the opposite side of his head, Hyungwon tugged her waist, and her leg automatically straddled him.

“It was an odd angle,” he said as he grinned up at her.

Maria narrowed her eyes. “Mm, I’m sure.”

“Isn’t this easier?”

“Hardly.”

Now it was impossible to ignore such luminous eyes as they stared up at her. Even worse, his hands had settled on the meat of her hips, innocent enough, sure, but then again, Maria knew all too well the kind of man Chae Hyungwon was—innocence had always been his camouflage.

She cleared her throat, dropped the towel, and, instead, pulled his hood back up. The merciful distraction of those huge, puddling frog eyes gawked at her from atop his head, and she chuckled.

“You look so cute,” she said.

“That’s not what I was going for,” he retorted.

“No? What then?”

Hyungwon’s hands flashed to his sides as he yanked spitefully at the robe. An avenue of cool ivory skin appeared then, cutting from the sculpted collar at his throat perilously down his toned chest to his navel.

Maria’s tongue probed the inside of her cheek. “You know, I’m starting to think my superior is trying to seduce me.”

“Is that so? From down here, you look like the higher-up.”

She sneered at him. “You’ve always been dangerously good at wordplay.”

“I’m good at many things. What happened on the mountain was just a preview. I can take you much, much higher if you’ll let me.”

“I don’t know. I’m a little afraid of what it might cost me.”

“Aren’t you already leaving?” he asked rather bitterly. “I’m not sure workplace ethics have the same weight anymore.”

“It’s not my career I’m worried about.” Maria traced his bottom lip with her thumb as she mused, “There’s something about these lips I’m afraid of…”

“I promise they’ll never lie to you,” he mirrored in a murmur of his own.

“It’s not the lies that are dangerous.”

“Then they’ll be silent,” he whispered.

She must have been drifting closer in that fog of his innuendo, for Hyungwon barely had to lift his chin to reach her lips. The first brush of skin felt like satin, and Maria tumbled back into his mouth as though they’d never parted. It was all too easy—and just as she’d thought, far too dangerous.

Under a microscope now that they were truly alone, it was clear Hyungwon was an incredible kisser, with attentive lips and a sparring tongue that left the director both breathless and hungry for more. There was passion, sure, but more so, there was a sweetness to it. Maybe that wasn’t the right word either, but she couldn’t think straight enough to pinpoint what lurked beyond those lips beside his teasing tongue.

Spindly fingers caressed her waist and rocked her subtly in his lap, but the moment she buried her fingers in his damp hair, his grip cinched like a vise, and suddenly, he wasn’t guiding her hips so much as grinding them on a fresh hardness beneath wet denim.

His attention turned to the column of her throat, where he pressed his lips a few times before following that with a searing brand of his tongue.

Maria’s hands locked on his shoulders as she hissed, “Don’t you dare leave any marks, remember!”

“This time,” he mumbled against her throat.

“I’m serious, Hyungwon.”

“So am I…”

He insisted on bathing her neck in kisses until she made a noise somewhere between a moan and a purr, and, finally, he carved a path to her collar.

“How far can we take this?” he breathed as he yanked back the neckline of her shirt to nibble at her shoulder.

Maria stiffened. She should have downed a bottle of whiskey before she’d invited him up here. It was one thing to let things fall into place and another entirely to ask a sober professional to say to her boss what was really in her heart.

“What are you asking?” she said.

Hyungwon’s eyes implored her. “I’m asking if I can finish our night inside you.”

Maria broke into a fit of coughs as she choked on air.

“Beast!” she shouted as she stamped her hands over his mouth.

She could feel his smirk behind her fingers. He tipped his head to the side to escape her muzzle and asked, “Is that a no?”

“I thought you were going to stay quiet…”

He hummed and frowned. “Avoiding the question is my cue to revisit this conversation another time.”

Abruptly, he shifted his grip on Maria’s waist to hoist her off to the nearby cushion so he could stand up and adjust his uncomfortably tight jeans.

“Chae Hyungwon!” she barked. “Why do you have to be so difficult?”

“I don’t want pressure you into something you don’t want to do, especially considering our existing relationship.”

It was a valid point but for the fact he’d said it in a baiting tone. It made her blood boil and her throat run dry.

As if reading her mind, he turned on his heel to face Maria, her knees now huddled in front of her chest, and added, “I’m serious. I want you to want me, too.”

“Yeah, but why’d you have to say it out loud?”

“Aren’t you the one who overshared first?”

“Last time, I was drunk! Saying this out loud now… It makes me sound desperate.”

“I like it when you’re desperate,” he said with a cheeky smile, but she didn’t lift her chin from her knees.

“I said I don’t want this to be a—a pity thing.”

Immediately, Hyungwon sat at her feet, his body leaning against her shins as his nose leveled with hers. “Again with that nonsense? Director Ortega, you still insist on underestimating the hold you have over us. If you think it’s just about sex—”

“Fine, I admit it. I don’t want our night to end, okay? Let’s just see where things go. If you want me to say anything more than that, then you need to stop talking.”

Hyungwon nodded, those all-too-present eyes boring into her.

Maria’s thumb spared one last trace of his lips before it caressed the arc of his cheek. “From now on, you’re only allowed to stop if I tell you to.”

“If?” he said with a wolfish smile.

“What did I just say?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

He pried her knees apart so he could glide his torso between them before his big hands framed her face and brought her mouth back to his. This kiss was sloppier, needier, and it had Maria acutely aware of every inch of her body since her blood was now pumping recklessly through it. Hyungwon favored her bottom lip until it was fat and throbbing and every nick of his teeth felt like fireworks behind her eyelids.

Tentatively, his hand slipped under her shirt, over the plain of her stomach, until his fingers clutched at the smooth skin of her breast.

“You’re not wearing anything underneath?” he said breathlessly.

“I’m not,” she replied cheekily.

“Fuck, I’m sorry. I have to.”

The next thing she knew, he’d unceremoniously whisked her sweatshirt over her head. Maria didn’t even have half a second to feel self-conscious or exposed because Hyungwon’s lips were already fixed around her breast. Her hands clasped automatically to the back of his head as she lost herself in his mouth.

Everything his kisses had promised amplified. Despite how busy he was with dastardly nibbles and his deft tongue, he also brought those sinful fingers to her neglected breast. He traced its circumference, mirroring his tongue on the other side, the spiral getting tighter and tighter just as her nipple did. When he reached her bud, it was pert to the point of agony, and with a single flick, he triggered a full-body shiver through her.

“So it was all a front, huh?” Maria gasped out as she arched into his mouth.

The vibrations of Hyungwon’s distracted “hm?” traveled through her nerves straight down to her aching core, and she groaned.

She dug her teeth into her bottom lip to maintain some tether to reality as she struggled out, “All these years, you could multitask just fine. You big liar.”

The “mm-hm” that followed was even more devastating, and Maria’s sanity felt like a listing ship about to submerge into uncharted depths. Her eyes rolled to back of her head. This was Chae Hyungwon, her boss, who was now purring around her nipple. Nothing mattered anymore beyond the swirl of his tongue.

She lay there, tucked into the corner of her couch, completely at his mercy for far longer than she could have ever imagined—or perhaps not. Time was molasses. She thought a quiet, aloof man like Hyungwon would lose focus as quickly as he did in every meeting, but either that had all been an act, too, or Maria had misread him because he showed no signs of slowing his indulgence in her.

Instead, his fingers traded their caresses at her chest for slow tickles down her ribcage, to her waist, and across her belly until, finally, they reached the hem of her sweats. They dove easily beneath the waistband to find she was bare there, too.

The moment his middle finger glanced across her glossy seam, his suction finally loosened at her nipple as a reedy gasp escaped his lips.

“This is so much better than those damn jeans,” he sighed. “I can finally play with you the way you deserve.”

“Would you shut—oh!”

Maria’s head kicked back as she gasped. In slow, attentive strokes, Hyungwon massaged her aching outer lips, and it sent all her blood rushing to her core in a surge like she had never felt before. She mashed her lips together to quell her moan, but when his lips returned to her nipple, the dam broke anyway.

She clung to his back, the fluffy robe depriving her of the grounding feeling of his muscles beneath her nails.

“Take it off,” Maria demanded.

“Can’t,” Hyungwon mumbled around her tit. “Can’t stop.”

With a growl, she shoved back what she could from his shoulders while he shrugged out of one sleeve. It left the rest of the robe dangling from his busy arm over the edge of the couch, but at least now she was free to grope his sculpted back. Adding to her frenzy, his bare chest ironed to hers in a while that smoothed every last wrinkle from her brain. And all the while, he coaxed her swollen sex until Maria thought she’d really scream, neighbors be damned.

Which was exactly when Hyungwon moved in for the kill.

His freshly greased fingertip slipped between her seam and made straight for her clit. There was no hesitation, just pure expertise from a man who knew exactly what he was doing.

Her nails raked down the length of his back, and he hissed against her chest.

“I’m sorry, sir, I’m sorry,” Maria babbled as she jammed her eyes shut against an onslaught of pleasure.

“Don’t care. Mark me all you want, jagiya. I want you to.”

His finger circled her clit in loving circles, each completion matching the rise and fall of her chest. She was awash in a sea of sensation, feeling like her mouth was just above water gasping to stay conscious.

It had been so long since she’d been touched and far longer since she’d been touched with such devotion. She didn’t expect a wave of such desperation to overtake her so soon.

“Put them in,” she said. “Please.”

“But I’ve barely—”

“Please, Hyungwon!”

He lifted from her tits and brought his lips back to hers. As their tongues met once again, his middle finger entered first and gave two slow strokes along the front of her walls before he squeezed in a second finger beside it.

“Yes…” she gasped into his mouth.

“Feel good?”

“So good…”

Hyungwon pushed in again, this time deeper, and Maria’s nails dug into the meat at his ribs while her hips lifted to accept him. He kissed her deeply, too, the two penetrations robbing her of what was left of her sanity. With a purposeful rhythm now established, he went to work as he never had in the office—without break, without distraction. His fingers and tongue were the perfect co-conspirators, and in no time at all, they had her completely at their mercy.

Maria whimpered into his mouth, but Hyungwon had to pull back.

“What is it?” he asked, his brow pressed to hers.

Another whimper escaped as he buried his fingers in knuckle-deep.

“I want to cum,” she pleaded.

The absurdity of such words uttered just for her boss’s ears was lost on her dopamine-saturated mind. Maria had one wish, and she needed Hyungwon to fill it, roles be damned.

He smirked. “You want to cum for me, darling?”

“Please!”

As his mouth traveled to her throat, his fingers withdrew from her core and moved back to her clit. This time, there were no sensuous circles, just determined rubbing at a speed she had never expected from him. Her body tightened automatically.

Meanwhile, Hyungwon kept his promise not to mark her neck, but his shower of kisses was just as branding. Velvety lips painted her skin in gentle swipes. Hot breath bloomed in the shadowy recess below her ear. The unexpected lash of his tongue along the length of her throat sent Maria arching upward, the arm of the couch digging in at her shoulder blades.

“Oh, more!” she keened. “I’m close.”

“Already?”

But she couldn’t answer except with desperate pawing at his back.

Hyungwon pushed up onto one arm to focus all his attention into his other fingertips. His circles grew faster until he switched to a rub along the tip of her bud. It brought her to the inch of lucidity until it plunged Maria into total madness.

Every muscle in her body went rigid except the ones in her core that sucked greedily at the emptiness there. Her legs jerked and her hips twitched and her throat hitched out a cry.

She puddled into jelly. Hyungwon’s ministrations slowed, but they did not stop. Instead, he looped lazily around her swollen clit, his tongue cocked behind his teeth as he watched her shake beneath him.

“Wait! Please,” Maria whined, her thighs desperate to shackle him. “It’s too much.”

“Call me ‘baby’ and I’ll stop.”

Without an ounce of hesitation, she cried, “Baby, please wait!”

Just like that, Hyungwon withdrew his finger from her sweatpants and smiled with all the innocence of a cherub instead the scoundrel he’d just been. He pecked her on the corner of her mouth as he squeezed in the little space between her and the couch. Her thighs sealed the vault while chasers of ecstasy and exhaustion zipped through her bloodstream.

“Extortionist,” Maria grumbled.

“Extortion? I don't know, Director Ortega… You just called your boss ‘baby’. Seems we’re both a little compromised.” Hyungwon sucked the tips of his fingers dry, and she scowled at his pretty, troublesome mouth.

“Kihyun was right about you pushing boundaries.”

“Are you seriously going to bring that low life's name up now?”

“You started it.”

“And finished it. Speaking of…” Hyungwon settled in deeper, his warmth flooding her back while he situated his discarded robe over them as a makeshift blanket. He hid his face in her shoulder as he hummed. “Do you want me to go home?”

The baleful terrycloth frog’s eyes pleaded with Maria from their new home resting at her hips. Without the moans and the panting and the rustle of fabric, the only soundtrack playing around them was the whoosh of wet traffic beyond the little den.

Maria’s fingers plucked at the ratty ends of her damp bob. “It’s still raining. I guess you can stay until it stops.”

“What if it never stops? Do I get to move in?”

“I can’t afford you, sir.”

“Baby,” he corrected.

“Sir Baby,” she ribbed.

But Hyungwon bypassed the jibe entirely, his fingers choosing instead to guide her face toward his.

It was so close here. The space between them evaporated down to nothing. His breath crashed over her face like the sea at a cliff. Maria found herself tumbling into it.

It might have been the gentlest kiss of her life, with all the same tenderness as he had treated her throat. His hands threaded through her hair as he cupped the base of her head. Only bits of breath and some foreign feelings passed between them.

Hyungwon parted just long enough to whisper, “I want you, Maria.”

“Oh, por Dios,” she murmured. “Not here. Come on.”

She pushed off the couch, her body icing over where his had pressed. She offered her hand to him as she led him to her bedroom. As soon as they crossed the threshold, he enveloped her. His huge hands cupped her face to direct all her attention up to him, and he kissed her with more fervor now. He pushed her back until she hit the edge of the bed, and they both fell onto it, him on top of her.

Hyungwon felt softer on the bed, closer somehow, too. He was a fixture now, as inviting as the comforter beneath her. He pressed her first up the bed and then into it, their legs as tangled as their tongues. The plink-plink of a leaky gutter splattered against the window behind them as a backing track to their grunts and sighs.

“There's something you need to know,” Hyungwon said between kisses.

Maria’s heart lurched at his ominous words. If he weren’t steadily nibbling her lips, she might have felt complete panic, but, thankfully, he showed no signs of abandoning her.

“What?” she breathed.

His mouth moved to her ear now—every breath, every word like a flame. “I play for keeps, and I don't play fair, so I need you to consider that before we do something that fixes me forever.”

“What does that mean?”

Hyungwon pulled back. He looked down at her with black eyes and pink cheeks. “If I offer you my heart, I'm not taking it back. Can you accept the consequences, Maria?”

“Which are?”

“I won’t give up after one night.”

“Hyungwon…”

“I don't want to be just another shirt in your closet.”

“You’re not,” she promised though she added, “but I can’t guarantee anything beyond the here and now.”

“I know. I just need you to know I’m serious about you. It isn’t just sex.”

She caressed his cheeks again, reveling in the way they melded to her palms. He was so unfairly pretty.

He leaned down, lips brushing hers, as he said, “Consider yourself warned, Director.”

“Noted, sir.”

Kisses melted into petting—her hands all over his chest and his all over hers—until petting melted into the shedding of the last layers between them. It all happened seamlessly. One minute, they were clothed and the next, they were skin to skin, her back flat to the mattress, his skin a blanket of all-consuming fire.

His thigh rested between her legs, propping him up, and she could feel it sturdy against her heat. Desperate for friction, Maria rutted against it. She let out a series of whines, but if Hyungwon got her shameless hints, he ignored them all. He seemed content to let her body beckon him while his own taunted her.

She could feel the iron of his cock against her own thigh, so close to where she wanted him and yet unwavering. She tried to urge him by pressing her leg against it, but he shifted, an inch closer yet deliberately elusive.

“What are you waiting for?” Maria hissed.

“You,” he said firmly. She stiffened, her whole body listening. “Show me that you really want this. Put it in.”

“Are you serious?” she gasped.

He smiled as he brushed back a lock of hair from her forehead. “About you? Always.”

She stared up at him, but there was no hint of him changing his mind. She couldn’t think straight, couldn’t talk straight. The room closed in. The temperature skyrocketed. Everything clouded around her.

All she could see was Hyungwon, and all she could feel was emptiness.

She spread her thighs, and he slipped his other leg between them, too. His lean frame sheltered hers, both elbows propped beside her shoulders. His cock was an anvil now pressing expectantly against her mound. With every second, his breath escalated.

“Where do you keep—” he began before Maria lost what was left of her lifelong control.

She plunged her tongue into his mouth, her teeth clacking against his. One hand clutched at the back of his neck while the other snaked between their bodies with resolve. Her fingers closed around his shaft, and Hyungwon ripped his mouth away from hers to let out a whistle like a tea kettle, but she couldn’t slow down.

As she pumped his length a few times, she took his earlobe between her teeth and suckled.

“Maria,” he whimpered.

Without another word, she lifted her hips and welcomed his cock inside her.

If either one had intent to savor the moment, human instinct overruled them. Hyungwon fucked into her in one smooth stroke, and she gasped with relief. Her head burrowed into the mattress while her hands gripped his waist. Something about the way his muscles rolled beneath her fingertips as he plunged in and out of her drove Maria to the brink anew.

Hyungwon fucked exactly like he worked. One minute, he would be so focused that she felt the full weight of the sun itself consuming her, and the next, he’d be lost in some fog, lips parted as he panted, eyes shuttered as he reveled in whatever vision played behind those lids.

“So warm,” he purred.

He disappeared at her neck, his lips idling in hollow of her throat. His tongue swirled in the divot there, and as sweet as it felt, Maria didn't want any more sweetness.

She delved into her director's playbook and broke out the one thing that always seemed to pull this man from his reverie.

“Vice Chairman Chae?”

His head perked up immediately, his eyes shimmering. Until they narrowed.

“You’re provoking me now?”

“Mm. You're stalling.”

“How did you—”

Maria traced a thumb over his eyebrow, and the creases there fled. “I spend more time in that office than I do in these sheets. I know all your tells. Would you like to know one of mine?”

He nodded absently.

“When I get needy, I get bossy.”

“Ah. I see. Then you must have been starved these last few years,” he added with a wry smile.

She swatted his shoulder as she cursed, “Jerk.”

But Hyungwon’s playful face melted before her eyes, replaced with something she’d never seen before. He was too focused, too present. His hips rocked again, this time shallow but menacing. His swollen tip massaged just the right patch of her walls to make them throb around him.

In a gravelly whisper, he said, “Tell me what you need from me, noona.”

Maria gaped at him. This was supposed to be her power dynamic. With one nickname, he’d obliterated that.

With a touch of indignance to replace the nerves racing through her, she pushed him back, sat up on her elbows, and ordered, “I want you to take me from behind.”

This time, it was his turn to choke.

She smiled, but the second the dust settled, he was nodding furiously and pulling out to scramble off the bed. It was quite the sight to see: her boss of many years, standing naked in a net of shadows, gripping his wet cock at his base.

“Where?” he asked.

She joined Hyungwon at the edge of the bed, and he seized the moment to sidle up behind her. He snugged her against him, his sex pressing into the small of her back. He held her like that for a moment, his nose at the crown of her head.

With a kiss there, he bent her over.

Hyungwon took a moment to trace the apple of her ass before he guided her thighs closer together. He glided in again, her body squeezing him all the tighter this way. When her ass was seated neatly in the saddle of his hips, one hand snaked under her belly and the other hugged her chest to engulf one of her tits.

Slowly, he guided Maria up, her back flush to his chest, until she was in the most intimate embrace of her life, his cock shifting to press against her belly from the inside.

“I’ll give you what you want soon. I just need this for a second,” said Hyungwon as he pressed a kiss just behind her ear.

“O-okay.”

She covered his hands with hers but didn’t dare move, not when the sound of his tiny hums burst like champagne bubbles in her head.

But then the next moment, his fingers were inching toward her heat, the pad of his middle finger finding her clit again as though this were their hundredth time together. He rubbed until she was whimpering while he pressed another dozen kisses at her neck.

At last, Hyungwon released her, and Maria tipped foward, her hands bracing at the edge of the bed. The next thing she knew, he gripped the dip in her hourglass and tugged her roughly back, allowing him even deeper access to her.

She let out a little hiccup followed by a cry.

“Happy?” he said.

“Very.”

“You want it hard, right?”

“And fast,” she added.

As in the office, Hyungwon’s follow-through was immaculate. He wound up with a few smooth thrusts, and in moments, he’d established a delicious cruising speed. Maria’s thighs rubbed together and massaged her clit, which was growing needier by the second. The friction overwhelmed her, and she could already feel the kindling catching fire, begging to burn.

He kept his strokes just inside her entrance, but every so often, he would plunge in full-length. It was delicious and addicting, but there was no warning, no pattern she could cling to, so she lived in perpetual craving of her next injection. It fogged her mind and stirred her blood.

“More,” she pleaded. “More!”

With each thrust, Hyungwon pulled back on her hips to meet him stroke for stroke, and Maria melted right into it, bouncing in time with him. It was as automatic and necessary as breathing. She fucked him as greedily as he was fucked her.

Her tongue stalled at the corner of her mouth. Her throat went dry from panting.

“More,” she cried.

Each clap of their skin boomed in the small room.

Her thighs burned as hot as her core since she had to squeeze them together to stand tall enough for Hyungwon. To add to the fire, he stayed fast and shallow, the head of his cock rubbing just right against her walls to send colors shooting behind her eyes.

His legs trembled from the speed, but Maria’s buckled outright. He caught her waist, and in one swift motion, hefted her on hands and knees on the bed. His dick slid back inside her immediately, almost as though it had never left, and he resumed pummeling her core.

“Touch yourself,” he demanded.

Even though Hyungwon had long been her boss, most days, the director had been the one giving him orders. In the past, when he had given them, they were always polite if non-negotiable. Not tonight.

That tone—midnight black and irrefutable—governed Maria’s every thought. She slipped one hand beneath her and bumped both her clit and his cock. He groaned; she whined. Her trigger was primed from the friction, aching, begging for release.

“Oh god, I can feel it,” Hyungwon grunted. “Come on, jagiya.”

Her walls seized. Her hips bucked. An unintelligible river of gasps came babbling up from her chest.

Maria pitched forward into the comforter, her cheek skidding back and forth on the fabric as Hyungwon chased his end. Wave after wave of spasms shuddered through her hips even as her fingers fell limp to the bed, too.

He pulled out in a flash, and though she had no energy to turn her head, it was even more overwhelming hearing his whimpers coupled with the frenetic melody of sloppy stroking. She wasn’t sure where he came, but judging by the long string of grunts, it was a lot.

“Was that… okay?” came a stained voice a minute later.

“What?” she croaked from the covers.

“Was I okay?”

She wasn’t sure where Hyungwon was since he wasn’t on the bed. Her head lolled to the side in hopes of finding him, but her reserves were too depleted, and it was just enough to manage, “Sir, you're good at everything.”

He let out a big breath as he finally plopped down on the edge of the bed. “Okay, good. It’s just— That's not my… usual style, so I just wanted to be sure.”

Her smile vanished as her body cringed. “Oh my god, I’m sorry. I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable.”

“You didn't. I loved every second with you, Maria. I just wanted to please you. If I didn't, I'll fix it right now.”

Hyungwon reached out, but she raised her hands and squeaked, “Trust me, sir, I haven't felt this good in a long time. Any more, and I might pass out.”

“Okay then. I’ll be right back,” he said in a thin voice, followed by the shuffling sounds of an old man.

The rain had stopped entirely. All Maria could hear was the rush of water from the bathroom and the sounds of her own steadying breath.

After a few minutes, Hyungwon returned back in the frog robe to find her curled up on her side with the flap of the comforter flopped like a tortilla over her. He pushed a hand back through his damp bangs and smiled sheepishly.

“Sorry. Bathroom’s all yours,” he said.

She mumbled from underneath the cover and then shimmied over the edge of the bed, her hand groping for her night shirt. Standing was unpleasant, but there was no way she was going to ask him to carry her, so she managed her own shuffle of shame.

Finally in front of a mirror, Maria recoiled. Her makeup had long since washed away, leaving her with a pair of undead raccoon eyes and a face as red as a marathoner’s. Her hair was textbook “just fucked,” with locks and frizz piled like a nest on top.

She let out a sigh as she mumbled, “Maria Ortega, how the hell are you going to go back to work tomorrow?”

To distract herself, she washed down quickly at the sink, scrubbed her face clean and blotted with cold water, and then rubbed in some lotion to dampen the musk of sex. She donned the satin nightgown she had set out before she’d left for her date and then detangled what locks she could before she headed back to the bedroom.

Hyungwon was sitting on the edge of the bed, fiddling with the robe’s belt. He looked up at her with his ever-bright eyes.

The mood shifted.

“Do you want me to go now?” he asked.

Maria answered instantly, “It's okay if you stay.”

“I can stay on the couch if you—”

“Hyungwon, don’t be silly. I'm not going to make you stay on the couch, especially not after how hard you worked... for a change.”

She smirked at her needle, and he full-on beamed enough to shine through the darkness.

“I never expected our straight-laced Director Ortega to be so good at teasing.”

“Well, I have to counterbalance the seven teases I have at the office, don't I? And I did warn you I was a different Maria outside of the office. Just look what happens when I indulge you.”

“I wouldn't blame you if you keep it up.”

“The shareholders might,” she retorted as she settled into her usual spot on the bed. Softer, she added, “Either way, just so you know, despite what happened tonight, tomorrow at work, nothing changes.”

“Then, tomorrow can wait…”

Hyungwon propped his hands under his head as he carved out a spot on the neighboring pillow, and once he was settled, he closed his eyes, and let out a hum.

Maria, however, stared owl-eyed at the ceiling, tucking the sheet around her chest with the same tension as hotel bed corners. He said nothing and neither did she.

Time passed, though she refused to look at her clock to see how much. Eventually, she risked a glance to her right only to find that Hyungwon was still awake, too. He rolled his head on the pillow toward her, but she looked back to the ceiling. He didn’t say anything, but it soon became clear Maria wasn’t going to get any sleep if she didn’t offload her busy mind.

“What’s your usual style?” she blurted.

The vice chairman squinted through the darkness at her profile. “What?”

“Earlier… Afterward… You said that’s not your usual style?”

“Oh.” He laughed awkwardly and then cleared his throat. “I like to be, mm… close.”

“Close?”

“Yeah, mm… Lots of kissing and just, uh… watching.”

She bit her lip. “Oh. Watching?”

“Um, yeah. I guess, I mean, I like to see… the moment.”

Maria raised an eyebrow.

This time, Hyungwon looked to the furthest corner of the room as he mumbled, “The moment you fall apart.”

Heat rushed to her cheeks. She thought about putting the pillow over her own face. This was knowledge no Director of Facilitation should have access to, and now that she did, her brain had to slavishly file it away as neatly as it did every other preference of each vice chairmen—iced Americanos always, asparagus never, lovemaking not fucking.

“Okay. Thank you for answering. Go to sleep, sir,” Maria blabbered through a tidal wave of mortification.

“I’m more obedient with a goodnight kiss.”

At least his bait was mercifully distracting. With a huff, she said, “You sound like Minhyuk.”

“Wow. I was trying to be cute, but you went for the throat.”

“I know exactly how hard it is to wake you up as is, sir, so if you don’t want me to throw you out, I suggest you close your eyes and your mouth.”

“Okay, okay. Sleep well, Maria.”

Her body threatened to turn on its own toward Hyungwon’s lips one last time, but luckily, she had over a decade of militant professionalism to fall back on.

“Goodnight.”

She closed her eyes and begged her mind to let her off the hook or the consequences would be dire. After all their years of traveling together, she knew if Hyungwon fell asleep first, she’d be at the mercy of his snoring.

Yet Maria’s last conscious thought was the most troubling of all.

If this much of her office armor had crumbled after one date, what would happen after six more…

#monsta x smut #hyungwon smut #wwwdo #reverse harem #miniseries #original character #ot7 #coworkers to lovers

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