HELLO! Gosh has it been a while. I never meant to take a hiatus however it seems the time away did me some good! And...I have some good news! I AM BACK BABY! Prepare yourselves for some content that has been much needed! Now I must admit, I do not plan to be posting excessively as I am actually writing an original book as we speak. However, I can't neglect you thirsty bitches. Without further adieu...here’s a sneak peek of “The Long Game”...a Mafia AU featuring our sunshine boy....Jung Hoseok.
- With love, T.
“Suck in.” Your mother bellows, relentlessly tugging at the back of your wedding dress in a false attempt at squeezing it around you.
You do as you’re told, tearing your eyes away from the person who’s been ordering you around since you were in diapers. You hold yourself at the midsection, feeling as your lungs scream for air. “I can barely breathe in this thing.” You say through sucked teeth.
“You’re the one that said you would drop a size before the big day when you chose it.” You feign offense, smiling at her because you know she’s right.
She backs away, eyeing you up and down; tears welling up beneath her lashes. “Mama…” You whisper, stepping forward with your arms outstretched.
A mere second passes, your arms never greet her with a hug of comfort. Instead…it wraps around her bleeding body after an ear shattering bang sounds. You shriek, looking up. Jung Hoseok, your husband to be stands before you, smoking pistol in hand.
“What have you done?!” Your voice cracks beneath the shrill in your voice. He crouches before you, taking your chin between his thumb and forefinger. He squeezes.
Summary: Charlotte Galloway is the leader of the up and coming girl band, “She-Bang”, with a side hustle as a photographer for anyone who will hire her. She meets a fellow professional photographer named Jung Hoseok who helps “She-Bang” realize their dreams and Charlotte to make a love connection along the way.
I knew better than to think that the girls would be keeping to themselves, sleeping or doing anything other than pestering me as soon as I walk through the hotel room door. So when I am greeted with exactly that, I am not surprised whatsoever.
"How was it?"
"Did you have fun?"
"Did you fuck?"
Is all I hear on my journey through the hotel room, hanging up my jacket and slipping off my shoes on my way to my bed. I send a glare in Leyah's direction, knowing where that last question came from, before I sit at the head of my bed. The girls proceed to get comfortable around me, awaiting details of my date with J-Hope.
"So?" Carrie begins the interrogation. I sigh humorously and call back tonight's events.
"Okay...well basically we just went to dinner at Gary Danko." I pause for collective oo's and ah's heard around the bed. "Yeah." I comment with a smug smile. "We just talked...and flirted. A lot." I laughed and the girls follow suit.
"We just got to know each other...yeah." I say still dazed by how amazing tonight was and satisfies with my description.
"Awwwww!" Squealed Carrie causing the rest of us to roll our eyes and eventually laugh at her.
And I thought I was the softy. "What?! That was cute as fuck." She defended. I just shrug.
"But Gary Danko. I thought this kid was a photographer." Leyah chimed in.
"He is." As far as I know.
"Must be dealing on the side or somethi-"
"Leyah!" I chide her. She snickers at me. "Sorry. I'm sure he's not Char...doesn't seem like the type anyway." She murmurs the last bit under her breath. "Okay." I say signaling that this conversation is over. The girls and I sit in silence for a few before Vicky's curiosity gets the better of her.
"So you really didn't do anything?" she asks with squinted eyes. I can only assume she meant sexually because Leyah adds "I know right?! That's what I'm saying.", incredulously. "Yeah." Carrie adds. I literally drop my face to rest in my palm at their lack of faith in my will power.
"Guys, come on. It's not like I'm fighting myself not to jump J-Hope whenever I see him." Although I am. "...We did kiss though." I finished looking down at the bed awaiting judgement.
"WHAT?"
"When were you gonna tell us this?!"
"Was he good?"
I nod in shame. "Yeah. Sorry, I kinda forgot, somehow. And yes, he's amazing." I smile at the memory of it. The girls oggle me. I suspect they took pity on me in my transformation into a lovesick fool and decided to lay off because they stopped teasing me.
"So are you gonna see him again?" Vicky asks gently. "Yes." I answer immediately and she smiles brightly at me. "Good" I hear Leyah say as she leaves my bed to find her own. "You deserve this Char." Vicky an Carrie find their way to the other half of the suite.
I just nod in thanks, not knowing how to respond. "Okay guys, don't get all soft on me now." I try to pull myself together and get things back to normal.
"No, I believe you're the soft one." Leyah shot back. "Wahtever, I-" I start with her, but am interrupted by my cell phone ringing in my pocket. Looking at the caller ID, I say "Oh that's him now.", sweetly and picked up the call a bit too quickly. Stupid, stupid Char.
"Hey Jay." I greet him in the sweetest, most alluring voice I can muster at the moment, ignoring the gagging noises Leyah is making next to me.
"Hey there. I'm just getting in, wanted to let you know and see what we could work out about this photo shoot."
"Oh yes! Give me a second." I press the reciver of the phone to my chest and turn to the girls. "When are you all free to do the photo shoot with J-Hope?"
"I'm free whenever." Leyah droans.
"Yeah, me too." Vicky says.
"So I'm hearing tomorrow? Carrie?" I ask to make things official. Carrie doesn't speak for a couple moments and then utters "Um...I have a date tomorrow." Her eyes are everywhere, but on the girls and I start to get confused by her behavior.
We just gushed, literally gushed, over my date with J-Hope. We abolished our ban on romance and we are allowed to date again. So what's making Carrie act so preserved about it?
The silence passes as I congratulate her, not knowing what else to do I say, "Carrie, that's great!"
"Yeah, bro it's okay. We'll do it another time." Leyah adds. But Carrie still has that deer caught in the headlights look frozen on her face.
"So who is this guy, what's his name?" Its my turn to be nosey.
"...Her name is Roselin."
"Oh." Is my immediate reaction to her words. After that the girls are all silent. Not because we disapprove of her choice, but because we never knew Carrie was remotely into girls.
"That's great!" I say, awkwardly breaking the silence once again. "I'm so happy for you." Leyah and Vicky are quick to murmur in agreement.
Carrie gives a hint of a smile. "Thanks guys." she whispers, still looking down. "So I'm hearing Monday at noon?" Each of the girls nods and I relay the message to J-Hope. "That sounds perfect actually. I'll send you the address and details tonight. Oh and bring your equipment if you can."
"Okay, yeah sure. We can do that." Making a note to tell Kyle and Darren they actually had to do something in two days.
"Cool." J-Hope answers smoothly.
"Hey, thank you so much again for doing this, the girls and I really appreciate it." I stressed over the phone.
"Hey, don't even worry about it Char. I'm happy to do this for you." He assured "...and maybe your band too." He finished, making me chuckle. "Like I said, I really appreciate it Jay." I say dragging out my words in, hopefully, a seductive manor. Maybe I will repay him for his generosity in some other way, who knows. I can hear him let out a huff of air and I can just see his smug smile. "Oh. Ha. It's nothing." "Well, I'm gonna turn in now, so I'll see you on Monday?" I ask. "Yes you will. Goodnight, Charlotte." His sweet, deep voice drawled. "Goodnight, Jay."
+++++++++++++++++++++++
J-Hope had given me the address to an apartment building full of lofts that were apparently for sale. We were instructed to take the equipment to first floor of the building. We drug our instruments through the corridor that lead to the first loft in the complex and I was so impressed with and in awe of the scene we were met with after walking through the unlocked door that lead to our photo shoot.
The structure of the loft itself was beautiful. It was a spacious warehouse style with hard wood floors, concrete walls, a high ceiling and was only made up of the one room apart from the bathroom. The room was incredibly spacious and had a high ceiling to accommodate the fire escape-like steps that lead to the second-half-floor. I'd never seen anything like it in person. Not to mention the glorious sight of multiple white backdrops and lights in every corner with people to man them.
"Whoa." Is all I uttered as I walked further into the room, my friends behind me. "Yeah." Leyah weighed in.
I spot J-Hope talking to a pretty lady in a suit who looks to be in her mid-thirties, that beautiful camera in hand. He notices me at nearly the same time, smiling that blinding smile immediately in greeting. He looks breath taking in all black, bomber jacket, ripped jeans, pumas and all. His black hair parted down the middle, barely exposing his forehead and drawing attention to adorable glasses resting comfortably on his nose. God, is anyone else seeing this?
"Charlotte!" He approaches us, the lady he was talking to following behind him. "Jay!" I return his enthusiasm. Letting his camera hang around his neck, he leans in to peck me surprisingly on the cheek and grabs my guitar case from my hands in one fluid motion. I'm officially frozen to my spot in embarrassment and shock. He doesn't seem to notice as he greets the rest of the group.
"Hello everyone. This is Janice Bailey, this is actually her building." J-Hope explains. I unfreeze and promptly reach for Janice's hand to shake it. "It's nice to meet you. Thank you so much for letting us use this space. I'm Char." I say shaking her hand a little to wildly. "It's nice to meet you all as well. And I simply owed Hoseok a favor, this was him calling it in. I only wish to observe today's events." So that's how you say his name.
"If that's okay with you all." J-Hope looks over the group for objections, as do I. "Yeah, of course. It's fine." I assure them. "Great! You guys can set up whatever you need to against that backdrop over there." He said pointing to the largest backdrop of them all. I gently grip J-Hope's jacket before he can help She-Bang, Darren and Kyle to set up the drum set and keyboard. "What is all this Jay?" I whisper to him. "What?" He looked down at me with a clueless expression on his face. I just tilt my head to the right and lift my right brow. "This."
I gesture to our surroundings. I start to count the people in the room that seem to be helping with the shoot. There are six. One man is helping the group put together the instruments, one man is finishing setting up the backdrops, a woman is checking the lighting, another man seems to be already editing test photos and the last man and woman are stood at the back of the room talking over coffee. The woman excuses herself from the conversation to search through a crate of some sort that looks chuck full of makeup products. That's when I notice the coffee, donuts and other goodies along the wall near the bathroom. My jaw drops.
"Is that a makeup artist?" I ask incredulously. J-Hope pauses before responding. "I just wanted to be prepared." He sighed. "But you all showed up looking beautiful as always." He brushes the back of his fingers against my cheek and I deflate, all feelings of anxiety vanishing from my body at once. I sigh as well.
"You really didn't need to do all this." I remind him, wondering why someone would do all this for me.
"I wanted to. It's nothing really." He shakes his head drops his hand down to my arm before giving it a gently squeeze. I glance up at him in awe. "Thank you." I say for the thousandth time. He just nods and leads me to the rest of the band at the larger backdrop. As I turn around my eyes meet Darren's focused ones, he immediately looks away with a clenched jaw and furrowed eyebrows.
Right. Almost forgot about Darren's pure hatred for J-Hope. Please God, let this go well.
J-Hope carefully took Bruce, my guitar, out of it's case and handed it to me and then handed the case to one of his staff...Friends? Employees? Is he paying them for this?! I feel uneasiness rise in me once again. This all too much. I know he said he wouldn't charge us, but I could never pay him back for this. On the other hand, as I look around I realize I've never had anyone go to this length to impress or even make me happy. Darren breaks me out of my trance.
"You okay, Char?" he asks, from the sidelines of the drop to my left. My head cocks in his direction and I sigh before replying "Yes.", trying to reassure myself as well. He just nods, unconvinced.
"Okay guys!" An energetic J-Hope grabs my attention next. "While Leyah is sitting at the drum set and everyone has their instruments, why don't we get some somewhat candid shots?" The girls and I nod in understanding. My hands fly to a familiar chord on my guitar so that I look more natural. We even have some amps set up in the front and back to look more authentic.
J-Hope starts taking pictures frantically from different angles and the girls and I look at the camera fiercely, kind of loving the attention after a few moments I look passed the camera to J-Hope in awe. It's downright impressive to watch him in his zone and easy to see why he's in his position.
He knows how to get a specific reaction from his clients and knows how to capture their best sides, even though there are four of us, going as far as instructing some of us to pose specifically to get a good vantage point.
We immediately lock eyes when he looks up from the camera to us to gather himself and his next approach. He smiles fondly at me and I'm forced to drop my gaze to the floor and smile stupidly. Dumb ass.
"Charlotte." My eyes immediately flip up to meet J-Hope's, awaiting further instruction. "Could you possibly tilt your head to the left and jut your chin out the slightest bit?" I ponder his request in my head with a confused expression and attempt the position he just described.
"More out." He demanded. Attempt #2. I try to follow the order I've been given.
"No, like more natural. He offers, even trying to pose himself to serve as example. Okay, attempt number three. "Uh...No." He gives up and approaches me. Modelling is hard. J-Hope reaches me with his arms stretched out towards me, but pauses.
"May I?" He asks with curious eyes. I can only assume he's asking if he can touch my face and I accept.
He takes hold of my chin with his thumb and index finger with a gentle grip and redirects my head to fit his vision. His attention goes lower and to my chest and my eyebrows sky rocket until I see he actually means to adjust my jacket caught under my guitar strap. It is then that I realize I would not give a fuck if J-Hope were actually checking out my cleavage right now and I'm actually shocked and kind of offended that he isn't. The fuck?
He then makes his way back up like he's studying me for any detail out of place. His eyes lock on the hair hanging against my face and he reaches up rearrange the strand, but as he finishes we make eye contact once more. We've only been this close with each other three other times and this time I really took the time to appreciate how actually beautiful this man is up close. What is his damn skin routine?!
I hear someone clear their throat off to side, breaking me out of my trance and I realize J-Hope and I have been staring at each other that entire time. Great. J-Hope clears his throat as well, but out of embarrassment.
J-Hope continues on with the shoot just as professional as ever before making a wonderful request to Leyah. "Leyah, can you actually play the drums for a little bit?" Leyah shrugs her shoulders and plays a simple groove and Vicky decides to add a fitting baseline. Carrie and I follow suit because we can't let half the group have a jam session by themselves.
After a few minutes I'm not even worried about the camera because this place has the best acoustics I've ever heard and I finally feel totally comfortable.
J-Hope then had us move to the second backdrop across the loft without the instruments to take group shots. Leyah took full advantage of this opportunity to annoy me to no end without the consequence of me beating her ass because we're in public, but it made everyone else laugh and J-Hope wouldn't stop snapping photos so we must be doing something right.
Soon J-Hope ran the photos by us and we deemed the shoot successful and done. He's even agreed to spread the word about us to his celebrity friends. Not sure how seriously the rest of the group took that statement, but I held fast to that promise and am incredibly thankful. One of J-Hope's staff saves the pictures on a flash drive and the girls go to get the instruments packed up along with Darren and Kyle as I approach J-Hope.
"Jay, thank you again. This means so much to us." I say for umpteenth time. He just smiles at the floor before gazing up at me with kind eyes. "Don't mention it Charlotte, really. I actually had a lot of fun today. I actually took some video too, of the jam session if you're interested in that." he offers.
"Thank you. Yeah, no kidding. You were...amazing today." Damn, just suck his dick right here, why don't you?
J-Hope looks genuinely humbled by my compliment. "Thank you so much Charlotte. Maybe the roles can be reversed in the future." He proposed suggestively. "Whatever I take wouldn't be able to touch this, but sure." I accept, as I would any opportunity to learn from J-Hope. He pulls a face and says "I'm sure they would be incredible." He grabs my hand and gives it a squeeze. This kid is really into skin ship, which is more than I'm used to, but I can't see myself complaining.
Just let it happen Char.
"Hey, what are you doing for the rest of the day?" He brings his hand to wrap around my waist and rest on my lower back, only his camera between us. Hopefully you.
"Nothing, why?" I look up at him with hopeful eyes.
"How about an early dinner?" He invites licking his lips.
"I would love that." I answer more to his lips than to him. I assume I've been caught because he chuckles at my response and completely takes me by surprise when he pecks my lips. If I could blush I would, but instead I smile like an idiot as he lifts his hand to my shoulder and leads me over to my waiting group of friends.
"I'm gonna stick around here with Jay, you guys can go without me." Darren nods with a tired expression and exits the loft without a word, carrying the kick drum, symbols and one amp. Everyone looks at the exit for a few moments before returning our attention each other.
"Okayyy. Thank you for today J-Hope, you're a real one." Leyah says nodding and sporting a genuine smile. Vicky and Carrie follow suit and gives their thanks as well.
"It was no trouble at all ladies. You all did great work today." He responds, giving my shoulder a ginger squeeze. And smiling at the floor like an idiot becomes my permanent stance. How can someone make someone feel this stupid and good about themselves all at the same time?
"We'll see you at the hotel Char." The girls and Kyle say their goodbyes on their way out the door and then its just me, J-Hope and his crew.
"Okay, I have to stick around for a bit and get everything packed up before we can go." He explains. "That's okay I'll help out." I reply. J-Hope gives me an appreciative look and then nods. "Thanks, Charlotte." I help Jay and his crew clean up the drops, lights, tables and stands and snack on the provided donuts. I even take some for the girls because there are still so many left. I thank the crew for all their hard work today and soon I'm being escorted into J-Hope's car on our way to dinner.
