Obsession || [Jang Han-seok x reader]
note: I found this while purging wips. Why not share it?
When Han-seo was in elementary school, he was struggling with Math. He just couldn’t get the hang of it, and while the then fifteen years old Han-seok could have helped him, he simply didn’t want to. He had better things to do than trying to teach his brother something he surely wouldn’t understand.
So his father took on a business partner’s offer, who said his fourteen-years old daughter would gladly come over and help him. This is how he met you, sitting in his brother’s room by the desk as you explained something to him. You were kind based on what he saw from the door, someone who was clearly a lot more patient with the boy than he was.
He let you two be for now, so he went to the living room to watch TV, knowing full well you would have to pass by on your way out. He would stop you, as he had it planned out, introducing himself and asking you if you’d like to join his family to watch his next hockey match, and maybe the two of you could go and eat something after that.
“Wait!” he called out when he noticed you rush toward the front door half an hour later. You came to a halt and turned to him with a questioning look. “I’m Han-seok, Han-seo’s brother,” he explained as the two of you hadn’t officially been introduced yet. “I was wondering if you’d like to join us this weekend. I have a hockey match and my father and brother are coming to see me. What do you say?”
You thought about it with your arms folded over your chest. “I’ve never been to a hockey match before,” you mused as if you were trying to convince yourself. He put on his pleading look, a skill he had mastered as a kid, and still used if he wanted something badly and demanding it wasn’t working. “Fine. I’m sure Han-seo would be happy to have company beside his dad.”
He flinched at the mention of his brother. Of course, the two of you had been studying together for a few weeks now, it was no surprise that you got close. He was just either not around or interested enough to pay attention to you until now.
But today he saw you. Your natural beauty attracted him, and the way you giggled at one of Han-seo’s stupid jokes warmed his usually cold heart for a short while. He wanted to get to know you. He wanted to be able to tell everyone that you belonged to him, and him alone. He wanted to alienate you from your family. He wanted himself to be your family. He wanted to own every piece of you.
Maybe it wasn’t healthy. A part of him somewhere deep down knew it was unhealthy to want someone this much, but there was nothing he could do about his feelings. His first interaction turned you into a drug he got hooked on, desperately needing his fix to get through the days until the match when he would see you again.
But you didn’t come back again before the weekend, so he had to get your number from Han-seo’s phone. Good thing you gave him your number in case he wanted to ask you a question. He texted you on Friday afternoon, kindly reminding you of when and where to come, adding to wear something warm because it might be chilly by the ice rink. You replied almost immediately, and the two of you ended up exchanging a series of texts.
Han-seok: Let’s eat something after the game.
You: Just the two of us?
Han-seok: Just the two of us.
You: Sounds good.
And so you went on your first date together, which was followed by a second, a third and so on. Your tutoring sessions were followed by another hour or so in his company most of the time, usually locked in his bedroom where no one could bother you. He knew his father wouldn’t care much about whether or not he had a girl in his room alone, while the nanny looking out for Han-seo was afraid of him, so she wasn’t a problem either.
The turning point in your relationship arrived months later, when you went to see him at hockey practice one afternoon. He was just coming out of the locker room when he heard a strange noise from an empty room nearby. It was your voice, as he put it together, begging someone to leave you alone. Already seeing red, he barged in to see what was happening, and found you being pressed to the wall by one of the guys who was playing on their team.
He didn't ask for an explanation, he just grabbed the neck of his jacket and pulled him away from you, throwing him on the ground. “What the fuck do you think you're doing to my girlfriend, huh?” he asked as he threw his duffel bag on the floor and raised his hockey stick.
The guy raised a hand, muttering excuses like he didn't know you were with him and how he didn't mean to scare you, but it wasn't enough for Han-seok. He wanted him to pay for doing this to you, for trying to kiss you despite you struggling to get away from him.
So he raised the stick and hit him over and over again, aiming at his head until he managed to make the fatal blow. Throwing the stick to the side, he rushed up to you and cradled your face with his hands. Your eyes were wide, but you were speechless, no sound let your lips.
“It's okay, baby, he can't hurt you anymore. It's okay,” he repeated before he gently kissed your forehead.
“What–What have you done? You killed him, you're gonna get into trouble, you'll–”
Shaking his head, he let go of your face and took your hands instead. “I'm gonna be fine, don't worry about me.”
Your eyes fell on his, and he could tell you were fighting hard not to cry. “You don't even seem shaken. How can you not feel bad about this?” you asked weakly.
Because I'm not like the others, he thought, but for now he decided to hide the fact he had just been diagnosed as a psychopath not long ago. He didn't want to scare you even more, so he just pulled you into a tight hug and asked you to trust him. There was not much he could do in this situation except trying to make you feel safe.
“I'll call my dad quickly to figure out how to handle this, until then you should go. You shouldn't watch his dead body, I don't want you to have nightmares,” he said with a barely visible smile.
To his surprise, you just shook your head. “No, it's okay. I'm not leaving you here alone,” you said as you pulled out a tissue from your bag and began to gently wipe away the blood from his face.
His father wanted to give you hush money to make sure you wouldn't talk about what had happened that day, but Han-seok told him it would only enrage you. “She won't talk. Trust me,” he said, knowing full well you loved him enough to keep his secret.
He knew you were grateful for being saved by him, and once he found out his father was about to send him to the States, the two of you began to plan your future. You would apply to the university he went to, and you would live together as you have a fresh start far from home. It was perfect. He would finally have you all to himself.
Your parents wouldn't know that he was also there, and his father would believe you knew nothing about his whereabouts. He kept in touch with you with a secret phone he bought once getting there, and you talked every day until it was time for you to join him. It was hard to be away from you, but he managed to stay faithful. Girls tried to throw themselves at him, but he could only think about you.
So when three painfully long years after his departure you arrived, he finally felt like he could breathe again. He pulled you into a tight hug when you showed up at his apartment with your suitcases–after getting rid of your parents who had come with you to see if everything was okay at your new place–and didn't plan to let go anytime soon.
“I missed you so much,” he murmured into your hair, unable to fight back a smile.
Despite being separated for so long, things turned domestic really quick. You were still madly in love with him, and it would have been a lie to say he didn't feel the same way. Every time some guy looked at you with lust in their eyes, he felt like hurting them, but it was only because he deeply cared about you, he knew that.
“You might experience love at one point despite the result,” the psychiatrist had told him after he was diagnosed, although he couldn't really care about that at the time.
Back then he liked you, but it felt like he just wanted to keep you close as if you were just a trophy of some sort. But then that asshole attacked you and he lost it. He wanted to protect you, he was actually worried about your safety. Probably that was the turning point for him, the moment he realized what he felt must have been love.
By now he was certain it was love, there was no question about it. So he did his best to show it, and even told you about the diagnosis, slightly worried that you would push him away. “Can't say I'm surprised,” was all you said. He smiled and gave you a kiss, happy to hear you weren't about to run back home.
Your time together in your own little paradise flew by fast, and before you knew it, you returned to Korea with him with a ring on your finger. He knew you were hesitant about coming back for two reasons. One–his father wanted him to stay away from the country, so there would surely be some sort of confrontation. Two–you were worried about Han-seo and what he would do to him.
He didn't like how close the two of you had gotten while he was away without you, how you kept in touch even after you joined him in the States. You had a soft spot for his little brother, and he knew you would try to make him go easy on him. But that wouldn't happen. He wouldn't make it easy for him when he was nothing more but a puppet of his.
The more time he spent playing that annoying intern at Wusang and controlling Babel from the background, the less time he had for you, and all of this inevitably caused a rift he didn’t like. Han-seo often came over for instructions or to listen to his scolding, and almost every single time you left the house with him, saying you needed to go out for a while after working all day. You were avoiding him, and Han-seok began to wonder if you were this cold because of how he treated his brother.
“Tell her you can’t hang out with her anymore,” he ordered one day.
Han-seo looked surprised, but he didn’t say anything. He just nodded obediently before taking another bite of his breakfast.
“Who is it that he can’t hang out with?”
He turned to see you walk in wearing nothing more but one of his shirts and boxer briefs. Han-seok was definitely the jealous type, and despite knowing full well his little brother would never be bold enough to make a move on a woman a few years older than him, let alone his future sister-in-law, he still didn’t like the idea of you walking around like that.
When you sat on his lap with an arm wrapped around his shoulder, he gave you a quick kiss and said, “Just some woman I don’t trust,” he lied.
“You never told me there was a woman in the picture,” you noted, giving Han-seo a fake shocked look. “I hope she’s nice.”
Han-seok raised an eyebrow as if he was also interested in the answer, and his brother began to stutter instead of properly answering at first. You flashed a supportive smile at him and it seemed to do the trick.
“I–I–It’s not… She’s not… It’s not like that. She’s just a friend,” he managed to say.
“You should introduce her to me. I’m sure I could easily decide if she could be trusted or not.” His little brother nodded before returning his attention to his breakfast. “Well, boys, I wish I could stick around, but I have a meeting I can’t miss,” you announced once you stood up and began to back towards the bedroom.
“What about breakfast? You shouldn’t miss that either,” Han-seok called after you.
“I’ll grab something in the cafeteria.”
Sometimes he didn’t know what to do with you. He hated the idea of not being able to control you the same way he did with his brother, but at the same time he didn’t want to keep you on a short leash either. As long as you were free, you wouldn’t leave his side. And for now that was important.
