a/n: this is my first ever post. i hope you guys enjoy! since we recently found out that jinyoung has been learning how to swim, i wanted to write a fanfiction related to this new fact. enjoy! :)
warning: minimal swearing, a lil suggestive, nothing else
EP . 1 , EP . 2 , EP . 3Â , EP . 4Â , EP . 5 , EP . 6Â , EP .7Â , EP . 8Â , EP . 9
You were a part time swimming teacher/coach at a small leisure centre in Jinhae. Many questioned why you moved from a city like Seoul to a small town, but you knew you needed a break from the city.
The pay was a little less but so were the bills. You were paying less than half your rent and had made amazing friends at your new centre. What more could you ask for?
A gentleman who would meet you when you arrived home would be nice but a man who would meet your high standards would be a miracle. You had closed the romance book a long time ago.
Now you devote your time to teaching people how to swim. A skill thatâs regarded as vital. Your groups tend to be filled with children aged 5-10. A reasonable age for students to start learning a life-long skill. Until one day a new student joined your group. A bit older. Much older.
PRESENT TIME
âYA Y/N! YOUâRE LATE AGAINâ, Jooheon was screaming again for the 100th time since the start of your job.
âSorry boss!â, you waved Jooheon off and went straight to your locker to change into your full bodysuit.
You and Jooheon were childhood friends so the worker-boss relationship was very light-hearted. Meaning being late wasnât going to cut it for Jooheon to sack you, luckily.
You came back to the staff room to check up on which group you had for Mondayâs morning group.
âRight, I have my 8 student group for the morning lesson.â
âMake that 9!â, shouted Jooheon as he exited the staffroom.
âRight, I HAVE 9 STUDENTS!â, you shouted back.
Hmm, 9 students? I guess I have a new student, you thought to yourself. Jinhae was a small town so your groups tended to be no more than 10-12 students. This was a plus compared to the place you worked in Seoul. Seoulâs population meant bigger swimming groups. It was hard having to supervise and teach 20 students at the same time. You would get paranoid every time you lost sight of a child only to find out they had gone to the bathroom without asking. In Jinhae itâs much more relaxed. Youâre able to control all students and they seem to be more understanding too. That could just be your luck.
âAhh, Y/N looking good!â
Thatâs Max. The swimming teacher of the teenage groups. He always came in early to fit in his own morning swim to then continue with his lessons. Also, top notch f-boy material. Heâd take any chance to check out the females in his groups. If Iâm honest though, they love the attention so itâs a win-win situation for both sides.
âMax cut it; you have an all-girls group in the afternoon. You can feed your eyes then.
Funny enough, you didnât spend much time in obtaining that perfect body. Other than the swimming lessons you donât really work out. You donât diet either. But you were lucky. I mean thatâs what Max says anyways. Apparently to him, your fat goes to the right places. You just take that as a compliment and donât question it or heâll get very⌠explicit?
âCome on, Y/N Iâm just playing with you.â
âTake your games elsewhere, I have a group to teach. See you at lunch.â
âSee ya!â
You headed down the hallways towards the pool. These short haul walks tend to be a bit⌠creepy? You realised the first time round walking down this corridor that there are many more guys just like Max. Thirsty. In other words, pathetic. Like damn, do you need to express everything thatâs on your mind out loud? Most days it feels like youâve just stepped foot into the Amazonian Forest surrounded by tropical parrots all whistling. But today was different. For you anyways.
There were whistles again but you caught glimpse of a parrot. A very silent one unlike the reckless individuals around him. He was new. You had been working in Jinhae for around 4 months now, so you knew more or less when you saw a new face at the centre. He seemed very⌠shy? You couldnât tell since it was just a glimpse and you had come to the end of the corridor.
You were early for your lesson. In 5 minutes, youâll have all 8 kids + the newbie running towards you with joy. You had an amazing bond with the kids in this group. They say you as their big sister who they saw weekly. Before they would arrive, you always fit in a quick 2 laps to get your heart pumping. Although, this time your little heart didnât need the 2 laps. If only you had known beforehand that an individual would do the same job as those 2 laps.
â2 laps in 90 seconds. Not badâ You looked at your Fitbit.
âY/N!!!â
âY/N eunnie!!!!â
âNoona!â
You could see your little herd of minions running to the edge of the pool where you were. They greeted you with little waves knowing you donât like it when they jump in the pool without warming up. We wouldnât want someone having a cramp mid front stroke.
âHello, everyone! How have you all been?â Hmm, weird you couldnât see the 9th student that Jooheon had mentioned earlier on.
âGood!â They all replied back in synchronisation. Cute.
âI heard that thereâs somebody new joining our group. Have any of you happened to meet the new student yet?â
âNo~â another reply in sync.
Maybe they got lost trying to find the pool? Maybe they are shy? Shy. No⌠you thought maybe the silent parrot from earlier on could be the new student and realised the age group of your students. See the groups were not categorised through age groups it was just a coincidence that all the beginners ranged from 5-10 year olds. The groups are organised as beginners, intermediate and advanced. Parents tend to send their kids to swimming classes at a young age hence why the beginnerâs classes consisted of young children.
âI heard from Jooheon Oppa that thereâs a new student joining us today. Jaehyun could you please lead the morning exercise whilst I try and find the new student? Once you are all done make sure to sit on the ledge of the pool and wait for me to come back. Jaehyun youâre in charge until I get back. Understood?â
âAye, aye Captainâ Jaehyun saluted back.
Jaehyun was the lifeguard at the pool you taught your lessons at. He was a year younger than you. Exactly a year funny enough. Same birthday, what a coincidence. Also, something else to point out which you may have realised. All the staff besides the receptionist are male. Donât know why, it just happened to be that I was transferred here upon my request to move from the city to a town.
You headed off to grab the register for the morning group. The new students name should be written there. Right? You entered back into the staffroom and grabbed the register of your desk. You ran your finger down the list and got to the last person of the list. Park Jinyoung. He must be the newbie. You fast paced it back to the group and mentioned the name to all the students again. Nope⌠they donât know who it is.
âJaehyun, any sight of a newbie from up there?â Jaehyun had returned back to his lifeguard dock after seeing you return.
âNo captain, actually- â
âH-hiâŚâ
You whipped your head round. Silent parrot? Wait no, Y/N he has a name donât be so rude. Park Jinyoung.
âHi, Park Jinyoung right?â
A subtle nod.
Thereâs a whole ass adult standing right in front of you. Note to self. Heâs really handsome⌠and fit. Anyways back to reality.
âJust to double check. Beginners class at 10 am on Mondays?â
âYes, Missâ
You whipped your head back round to the group of children whispering among themselves. Children. God knows whatâs going through their minds right now. The new generation are a bit⌠advanced.
You had to keep yourself composed. Cheeks are not turning red this easy. Knees are going to be fully functioning throughout this lesson. Breathing. Right we need to keep breathing, duh. You let out a deep breath and turned back round to Jinyoung.
âWell. We are now set. We have all 9 students. Anyone want to teach Jinyoung our exercise routine before he enters the pool?â
All hands were up. Wow. When were these students this hyper Monday morning? Kids these days.
âMe miss! Miss please me! Miss y/l/n please can I?!â
And that was Woojin. An enthusiastic ball of sunshine. Can be mischievous at times but his smile makes up for it.
âSure Woojin. Everyone else scoot along to give them space.â This was going to be funny.
You had this exercise + a song to go along with it that you prepared a couple years ago for when you had a kids group. Once you were assigned to these minions you have been using it since day 1. Some may say itâs⌠well⌠cringe? I donât blame the older ones but honestly its fun.
âYouâre in for a treat Mr Park. No ifs, buts, or ands. We students in this group participate in everything. We expect the same from you.â
âUnderstood.â One word answers. I guess he isnât much the talker, you thought to yourself.
Woojin was amazing. Jinyoung on the other hand. Well, you could definitely tell from his face that this exercise was more an embarrassment than a warmup for him. He wasnât in the plan so he couldnât blame you for it. You and the other kids were having the time of your lives giggling at the site in front of you all. You could also hear Jaehyun trying to keep his giggles in. One customer complaint and he could be dismissed, and he wasnât going to throw away this job.
âMr Park, for a new student that was an impeccable performance. Right everyone?â
A roaring applause came in response and Jinyoung realised you were trying to lighten the situation. But rules are rules and everyone in your group had to obey them. The slight blush on Jinyoungâs cheeks had died down a little by the end of the clapping.
âNow that everyoneâs all warmed up. Grab your floats and enter the poolâ
You helped everyone put on their arm floats and guided them to a spot in the water. Jinyoung being the grown adult he is was given a float board. The arm floats would have been the second stage of embarrassment.
You positioned everyone and guided Jinyoung to the last spot of the circle. Usually you would get straight to teaching but since you had a new student and introduction game was compulsory.
âNow since we have a new student, weâll be playing a âget to know each otherâ game to find out more about Jinyoung and for Jinyoung to know more about us. Understood.â
âYes, missâ in sync.
You glanced at Jinyoung and he responded back with another subtle nod. Cute.
âIâll begin and then weâll continue clockwise.â This meant Jinyoung was going to go last. Exciting.
âAs many of you know, my name is Y/N. Iâm turning 25 in May- â
âSo am I! But Iâm turning 24âŚâ Jaehyun had interfered into your introduction. Typical.
âJaehyun. Nobody asked.â The kids started giggling again and youâre sure you heard a slight chuckle escape Jinyoungâs mouth.
âAs I was saying. Iâm turning 25 in May so remember to bring me presents. 6th May to be exact. You guys can also see that Iâm a foreigner. Both my parents are from the Mediterranean hence the coloured eyes and unfamiliar name-â
âI like your eyes Missâ Classic Woojin with his cute compliments.
âI like your eyes too Woojinâ
You could see from the side that Jinyoung had a smile on his face. I guess heâs fitting in? you thought.
âHave I missed anything?â
âAre you single?â At this rate from all the neck whipping youâve been doing today youâre sure youâre going to dislocate it if you whip it one more time. Jinyoung being the source of the sudden personal question.
âHuh, Oh. Yes, I amâ
âYA, No personal questions!â Jaehyun yelled down towards your group. I swear this kid has superman powers to hear us all the way from up there, you thought to yourself.
âYA, have some respect. I know where to cross the line. Iâm willingly answering the question so mind your own business.â
Jaehyun sank back into his seat after realising he shouldnât have been eavesdropping.
âIgnore himâ, you directed towards Jinyoung. He just nodded.
The introductions went around, and you did the register simultaneously.
âWoojin, itâs your turn.â
âMy name is Woojin. Iâm 5 years old. When I am older, I will be Y/Nâs future husband- â
âHUH?â You let out a loud gasp due to the aspiration the young one had shared with the group. The other kids started laughing.
âWoojin you canât take away my future wife away from me like thatâ You hadnât realised but Max had been sitting on the bench near the edge of the pool. Weird, heâs usually in a different pool for his morning workout.
âMax, your 6 other girlfriends would be distraught if they heard that they werenât going to be the supposed âluckyâ one. Letâs not upset them.â
You heard a scoff from Jinyoung. He seems to be entertained and Max was not having it.
âDo you have something to say newbie?â The situation wasnât moving in a good direction but Woojin stepped in before you could.
âY/N is mine Max hyung. My favourite subject in school is colouring. I have a dog called JaeâŚâ
Luckily, the situation died down as Woojin continued with his introduction. You thanked him in your head. That was close. Last but not least it was now Jinyoungâs turn but you felt uneasy since Max was still in the vicinity.
âHello! Iâm Jinyoung. I was born and raised in Jinhae. I am 26 years old. I like listening to music and reading.â
âWhat do you do for a living?â You were curious about what the handsome gentleman chose for a career.
âI would like to keep that private, if itâs okay with you allâ
âYh sure thatâs fine. Right, now that weâve gotten to know each other, Iâll be splitting the groups into two. One half will go with Jaehyun to that side of the pool and practice staying float without your arm floats. The other half will come with me to learn front stroke. Agreed?â
âYes, Miss!â
Heâs mysterious too. Newbie is becoming more and more interesting. Obviously, you purposefully put Jinyoung in your group. You swam to the end of the pool you had assigned to your group, completely forgetting you have a bunch of immatures that need to be here too. You named your method of teaching, âsurvivalâ. For the students to start learning how to swim they need to find a way of getting to this end of the pool as soon as possible. This will give them an inkling to try and swim and overcome any form of fear towards water.
Minutes later all 5 students had arrived at the point you were at. You had sent Woojin to the other group. As hard as it was for him, he finally agreed to join Jaehyun and the rest.
âAlright. As you all heard earlier, weâll be learning front stroke today. Itâs the most common and popular type of swimming style. Iâll first demonstrate with one lap what front stroke looks like. I want you guys to pay close attention to the movement of my legs and arms. After that I want to see you guys attempt front stroke from purely seeing what it looks like. Iâll then come around to all of you and individually tweak your weak points. Is everyone okay with that?â
Everyone nodded. You proceeded to push off the wall and drifted under water. As you surfaced you started kicking your legs and rotating your arms. You shifted your head sideways when you needed to catch some air. When you arrived at the other end, you flipped and kicked back off the wall again and swam back to your group. You arrived back to a crowd of clapping seals, including Jinyoung.
âDid we all watch like eagles at the technique and movements I displayed?â
âYes, Missâ
âGreat, now can we all line up to get ready for a race?â
âA race?â Jinyoung questioned whilst the other students positioned themselves.
âIs there a problem Mr Park?â
âPlease call me Jinyoung, I was just a little surprisedâ
âIâll quickly explain why itâll be a race. As humans we all have our competitive sides. If we are competing, we all want to win right?â
Everyone nods.
âIf we want to win, weâll perform our absolute best to not come last. This means Iâll be seeing your optimum performance of front stroke. Itâs your survival mode kicking in trying to avoid becoming embarrassed in front of everyone. Understood?â
âYes, Miss. Can we start?â, Hyeji insisted with some confidence.
âYes, sure Hyeji. If everyoneâs ready, when I say go I want you guys to swim to that end and back. Remember, try to copy the same movement I was using when I swam. The closer you get to using the technique the quicker youâll go. Itâs not necessary to move quickly.â
Everyone takes their positions and you start to countdown.
â3⌠2⌠1⌠GO!â
All 4 of the beginner swimmers start swimming towards the other end of the pool. You watched them eagerly to see where each swimmer was struggling. To your surprise Hyungwon came first. He was a student you have been teaching for only 4 weeks so it was rewarding to see him improve in such a short span of time.
âHyungwon well done! Youâve improved so much since the first time I saw you swim. High five!â You high five Hyungwon and then the rest of the students. Jinyoung was hesitant at first but was willing to comply.
âIâll now come around to all of you and help you improve your front stroke, until then you guys can carry on practicing.â
You moved to Hyeji and explained to her how she needs to kick her legs. At first she was hesitant on how much her legs were splashing but you told her the stronger she kicks the better. Hyungwon had more or less nailed front stroke. You were with him for only a couple of minutes. You moved onto the other student and helped him out too. Then moved onto Jinyoung.
You were quite surprised on how good he was since he had mentioned it was his first ever swimming lesson. He was struggling with his hands.
âYouâve gotten the harder parts of front stroke. With your hands you need to capture as much water in it in order to move forward. To do this you need to cup your hands whilst you swim. Does that make sense?â
Jinyoung bit his lip. You could see he was pretty nervous. You couldnât understand why but you didnât push him out of his comfort zone unless he refused to swim. He moved away and started swimming, but something was off. His legs were kicking but they were completely submerged under water.
âJinyoung!â, you yelled to get his attention. He stopped in his lane and swam back.
âYouâve understood what to do with your hands, but Iâve noticed something else.â
âWhat is it?â
âYouâre kicking your legs which is great, but your legs are completely submerged under water. You need to make sure that you are kicking at the surface of the water.â
âHow can I keep them lifted? They just seem to sink.â
You couldnât help but let out a chuckle.
âItâs nothing against you. Just the way you described your legs it through me off guard.â
There was an awkward silence. You realised that he may have taken the chuckle to heart.
âLetâs do this. How about you get into the front stroke position and Iâll lift your legs where they need to be? Then you can start lightly kicking and Iâll slowly move my arm away and you can continue swimming. Deal?â
âDeal.â
You hadnât noticed but Max was still sitting on the bench watching your every move. Once he saw you make contact with Jinyoungâs legs, jealousy started kicking in. See Max wasnât the type to commit to a relationship, but he always questioned himself, if he had to settle down with someone this very day who would it be? and you were the first option that would come to mind. He was using all his strength to not jump into the pool and pull you away from Jinyoung.
âThatâs it, youâre getting itâ You cheered Jinyoung to make up for the awkward encounter. Jinyoung continued to swim and you concluded that he was a fast learner. You felt sad though. Youâve had many students who got the basic hang of swimming and so progressed to the intermediate classes which meant you no longer taught them. You kind of liked having Jinyoung around as your student so seeing him go so soon will be a bummer.
It had marked an hour since the start of your lesson which meant it was the end of Monday morning for your students. Your group and Jaehyunâs cohort re-joined and everyone spoke about what they had learnt today. You hugged all your young ones and shook Jinyoungâs hand. It was awkward but hugging might push Max of the rails.
Everyone exited the pool. Once Max saw Jinyoung off site he rushed to your side. He was ready to confront.
âWho is he?â
âMax, watch your tone. Heâs my new student.â
âNewbie seemed very excited when he heard you were single.â You flushed a light tone of red.
âAnd it seems like youâre a little excited by it too.â He snarked which started to piss you off.
âWho are you to be questioning my relationship between my student? Why do you even care?â
âBecause- â
âY/N?â
You snapped your head round to the direction of the voice. Worst timing Jinyoung.
âYes Jinyoung. Was there something you needed?â He also realised that he had interrupted a heated conversation. If anything, this was your escape from Max.
âI heard that thereâs some sort of form that I need to fill in for new students. I didnât have the time to fill it in before the lesson, by any chance do you have one for me to fill in?â
âYes, I do. Itâs on my desk. Give me 2 minutes and we can go.â
Jinyoung dropped back and waited for your conversation between Max.
âBecause? You were saying?â
âI- never mind. Just donât mix your personal life with work.â And with that Max left the pool area.
âWhat is up with him?â
You turned to face Jinyoung and showed him the way to the staffroom. You opened the door to see an absent Max and a present Jooheon.
âSo, did you find out who your new student is?â
âYes, Jooheon I did.â
âYou have another munchkin to teach now. Luckily for you, you actually enjoy your job.â
âI would exactly describe him as a munchkin per say.â You look at Jinyoung.
âWaaa, if youâre going to not describe him as a munchkin then he must be a real nuisance.â
You look at Jinyoung again and let out a small chuckle.
âJooheon if you could give me a minute to explain- â
âIf you want me to transfer the student to a different group I can happily do so.â
âJooheon!â
Jooheon and Jinyoung both look at you with a surprised expression.
âJooheon meet Jinyoung my new student.â You gestured towards the young man standing beside you.
âNew student?â
âYes Jooheon, new student.â You let out another chuckle.
âNow do you understand why I wouldnât exactly describe my new student as a munchkin?â
âYes, I do. I mean you could if you wanted- â
âJooheonâ You laughed his name.
âWas there something you needed?â
Before Jinyoung could answer you shifted back to what you were doing in the staffroom.
âJinyoung asked for a new student form. You know the one with extra contact details for emergency needs.â You grabbed a copy of the form and a pen of your desk and handed it over to Jinyoung.
âYes, sir. I wasnât able to fill in the form before my lesson or I would have been late so I asked Y/N about it now.â
âWhat do you think of our Y/N, Jinyoung?â
You shot your head up towards Jooheon to try and translate his facial expressions into his intentions. What was he trying to do? You thought.
âI think sheâs a really engaging teacher. You can tell she likes to teach and doing so her students thrive in swimming. I too improved so much in the span of an hour. I look forward to my future lessons with Y/N.â
You couldnât help but smile. Itâs always rewarding to hear students are glad a with your teaching. Itâs also good for your boss to hear from your students first-hand.
âItâs only been one lesson and you seem to be very diligent in learning how to swim. Iâm guessing this is the effect of Y/Nâs amazing enthusiasm.â
âYouâre correct.â Jinyoung placed the pen down and was quickly done with the form.
âDone?â
âYepâ, Looks like it was time to part away with Jinyoung. You were already beginning to miss his presence.
âIâll see you next week Jinyoung. Continue practicing and youâll be progressing up to the next difficulty level in no time.â Even though this wasnât what you wanted, the true reason he was here was so to learn how to swim.
âWith your help, Iâm sure Iâll do greatâ
âBye Jinyoungâ You waved.
âBye Y/N, have a great week.â And just like that he was out the staffroom.
It was now just you and Jooheon.
âJooheon?â
âYes Y/N.â
âMax has been acting a little off today. Do you know if somethingâs up with him?â
âFrom what I know, nothing abnormal has happened. Whyâd you ask?â
âWe all know he goes for his morning routine on Mondays before his lessons. Today he was watching my lesson. Then he questioned my new student over a small matter. Not only that he thinks Iâm mixing my personal life with my work. Can you imagine, me? You know how far away I am from even having a personal life let alone to mix it with work.â
âDo you really donât get why heâs acting that way Y/N?â
You took a minute to try and find an answer, but you didnât get it. You shook your head.
âHeâs jealous Y/N.â
Jealousy and Max. Nope, Iâm not buying it.
âYouâve got to be kidding me Jooheon. He has so many toys to keep himself busy with, why would he be jealous?â
âY/N I donât think you realise how many of the male customers and male workers would want to date you. Youâre up there in top 3 hottest females theyâve probably seen in their lives. Such low standards.â
âYA Jooheon! Just because youâre jealous too donât make rude comments.â
âMe? Jealous? Y/N donât make me laugh. Youâre like a sister to me. Brush Max off for now, heâll get over it. I donât blame Max though. Youâre someone to be jealous over especially when thereâs strong competition.â
âYou guys are really hard to hack, honestly. He could have just said but instead he trys to play a masculine role trying to win me over. Hes not even my type.â
âYou do you, Y/N.â
You and Jooheon hadnât realised but Max was listening to your dialogue from the beginning. And he wasnât the happiest.
âââ
Thatâs itâs for the first episode of âCanât Swimâ. Iâm so excited for this series. Iâve already more or less finished writing up the second part too. I hope to fulfil your expectations with this series ahgases!
Info: A flawled girl, easily falling in love all the time⌠when Jinyoung appears in your life, this time it felts like the love is not only coming from your side. Until your inmature nature gets the worst out you, hurting anyone on its way.Â
Pairing: Jinyoung x F!ReaderÂ
Gengre: fluff, angst, eventual smutÂ
A/N: a few warnings: smoking, cursing, heart breaking, overall is going to get sad.
What did I ever do to deserve Jinyoung? When he wrapped his arms around me it was as if the whole world stopped, my heart rate skyrocketed, but at the same time it felt as if also time did it, and that we were in a completely different plane of existence.
a/n: Happy New Year everyone! I thought a new episode wouldnât hurt anyone to start of the year with a little bang. I had to reread the last episode and how dare I end it off without letting you guys know who won Architect of the Year. I also havenât been able to find the GIF that I usually use for this series so we are settling for this one in the mean time.Â
Here it is! Enjoy!Â
warning: fluffy things may happen, uwu moments, mentioning of drowning
EP . 1 , EP . 2 , EP . 3 , EP . 4 , EP . 5 , EP . 6 , EP .7 , EP . 8Â , EP . 9
a/n: Happy New Year everyone! I thought a new episode wouldnât hurt anyone to start of the year with a little bang. I had to reread the last episode and how dare I end it off without letting you guys know who won Architect of the Year. I also havenât been able to find the GIF that I usually use for this series so we are settling for this one in the mean time.Â
Here it is! Enjoy!Â
warning: fluffy things may happen, uwu moments, mentioning of drowning
EP . 1 , EP . 2 , EP . 3 , EP . 4 , EP . 5 , EP . 6 , EP .7 , EP . 8Â , EP . 9
a/n: Happy New Year everyone! I thought a new episode wouldnât hurt anyone to start of the year with a little bang. I had to reread the last episode and how dare I end it off without letting you guys know who won Architect of the Year. I also havenât been able to find the GIF that I usually use for this series so we are settling for this one in the mean time.Â
Here it is! Enjoy!Â
warning: fluffy things may happen, uwu moments, mentioning of drowning
EP . 1 , EP . 2 , EP . 3 , EP . 4 , EP . 5 , EP . 6 , EP .7 , EP . 8Â , EP . 9
âThe award for Architect of the Year goes to⌠Y/F/N of Chevrel Architects! At such a young age Y/F/N has achieved so much recognition for her unique taste for the future of the industry. It would have felt like a crime if we didnât give this award to the shining star of the young generation. Come on up Miss Y/L/N!â
As the kind words of the awards director echoed into the hall, all you could do was stare blankly at the screen indicating that you had be elected, âArchitect of the Yearâ. You couldnât believe it! All the tiring days and nights you had worked along with your amazing team led up to this moment.
You felt your hand being squeezed and it was Jinyoung. His gesture brought you back to the bustling scene full of cheers and claps. You looked into his eyes and he signalled that you had to go on stage to give your speech. You mustered up the energy to function your legs and slowly walked up the set of stairs towards the mic propped up on stage. You shook the events directorâs hand as he gave you the gleaming award leaving you to give your acceptance speech.
You stared back at the crowd and looked back onto your table in search of reassurance. Jinyoungâs eye whiskers as he smiled gave you what you needed to start, ââArchitect of the Yearâ⌠wow. I didnât think Iâd receive such an honourable award so early in my career amongst inspirational figures like yourselves today. There are architects in the crowd today who I looked up to during my academic years and receiving this in front of you all makes me so happy. Itâs because of your contributions into the industry that I have been able to develop not only as an architect but an architect of the future. Alongside the industry my close workers⌠rather than workers weâve all become a great big family. This was exactly what me and Beck envisioned for the future of Chevrel Architects so thank you to you all too. We, not just me, will continue to provide what the architecture industry needs in order to fulfil a sustainable and immaculate future for the people of the world. Thank You.â You bow and the clapping rises but then you remember something else that you wanted to say so you take a step back towards the mic and tap it lightly to bring everyoneâs attention back to you.
Jinyoung looks at you with slight confusion thinking it wasnât like you to forget something. The same face was also planted on Beckâs.
âSincerely apologise for interrupting your claps,â You let out a little chuckle, âI had something else that I wanted to say today.â You look at Jinyoung to gain some energy since it was still nerve wracking to be speaking in front of many.
âAs some of you may be aware, I also teach swimming classes at my local leisure centre in Jinhae to younger kids,â you look up at Jinyoung, âand an adult.â Jinyoung smirked knowing you were referring to him as the adult. âI just wanted to take this moment to encourage you all to signpost anyone you know that cannot swim to a leisure centre which provides swimming lessons. Swimming is such a vital skill which with the absence of can lead toâŚâ You couldnât continue your sentence. You almost felt like you were muted by the universe, but you knew what you wanted to say. The words were on the tip of your tongue, but the air of the hall was suffocating you. You wasnât going to give up that easy though.
ââŚcan lead to helpless accidents and losses. Out of everything I said tonight that would be the most important thing which I hope you take home with you. Thank You⌠again.â
You walked off stage with the award towards your table with teary eyes. Everyone assuming that you were teary from the award, but you knew deep down what was triggering the droplets to show themselves. You sat back on your seat and Beck gave you a pat on the back as well as a âcongratulationsâ. The table mimicking the same mindful words, but Jinyoung could sense something was up.
The rest of the night was full of people drinking, networking and small talks on tables. Although you had to be honest. The hall was getting a little stuffy and all this architecture talk was hitting your limit. You spotted a balcony when you first arrived at the venue which looked out towards the sea and had planned to escape there if need be. It was looking like a possible venture to get some fresh air was needed soon.
You lightly tap Jinyoungâs shoulder to get his attention and whisper, âI can tell you want a break. Come with me.â He just nodded and the both of you got up from your seat. You told Beck that you werenât leaving, and youâd be back soon. He let you go and continued talking to the ladies and gents on our table negotiating about work.
You let your hand slip into Jinyoungâs and led him towards the balcony you had spotted earlier. On the way up the stairs to your much awaited escape pod, you were stopped by the eventâs director who had given your award minutes ago.
âAh⌠Y/N. Congratulations on the awards tonight.â You looked at Jinyoung and he could tell you kind of wanted to just ignore him.
âThank you so much, Sir. Youâve done a great job on the venue. You know how to up the previous years so well. I wonder what you have planned next.â
âThank you dear. I see you have brought a guest with you this year round. Usually, you come alone. I was shocked to see your request for another invite. I couldnât help but be curious on who you were bringing along.â The eventâs director looked Jinyoung up and down who had dropped behind your shoulder so you could engage in conversation.
âAh⌠this isâŚâ You gestured to Jinyoung to introduce himself.
âHello sir. My name is Park Jinyoung. Itâs a pleasure to meet you.â He shook the directorâs hand and gave him a warm smile.
âItâs a pleasure to meet you too. Youâve caught yourself a gem here Y/N.â Your eyes widened and looked up at the director but before you could say anything Jinyoung was on it.
âYou could say the same for me sir, but a gem would be an understatement.â That was it. Your cheeks had 100% reached a new shade of red. Definitely a shade off the spectrum.
The director looked at you and you just smiled at the praise. You couldnât help it.
âIâll leave you two lovebirds alone. Enjoy the night and let me know if you need anything.â You mouth was agape⌠did he just say⌠lovebirds?
A snap of Jinyoungâs fingers brought you back to reality from your thoughts and you continued to where the balcony was located.
You couldnât have spotted a better view in the whole of Jinhae. It was another full moon just like the night at the restaurant. The reflection of the smooth stone in the sky was glistening and lighting up the beach. The light sounds of the crashing waves was music to your ears in contrast to the uproar inside. You propped your hands onto the balcony edge and inhaled a deep breath. Jinyoung was watching you a couple steps back staring at you enjoying the simplicity of nature as well as your beauty.
âIt feels much better now that the results are out, huh.â His arms were crossed leaning against the frame of the balcony entrance.
â110%... I thought I was going to pass out as soon as my name was called out.â You looked back at Jinyoung who had a smile across his face.
âIt was really thoughtful of you to suggest people taking swimming lessons if they were unable to do so too.â With the mentioning of your suggestion to the crowd, a knot tied up in your stomach again and Jinyoung noticed that there was a sensitive reasoning behind it. He slowly walked towards your side and looked out to the sea, âDo you want to talk about it?â
âAs expected, Mr Park has caught up onto something else about Y/N.â You spoke in third person narrating the situation. You turned back round to look out to the sea and sighed.
âIf you donât want to, I wonât force it.â He reassured you.
âIâm willing to open up to you Jinyoung. You really are something and I trust you butâŚâ You drifted into a silence again and the tears were back in your eyes.
âAnother time?â He looked at you and you couldnât help but realise why he wanted to know. He cared so much about you and was trying to pass on your sadness to himself so he could witness you smile for the rest of your life. This guy that was staring at you right now was⌠in love.
You shook your head no. âThis might the best opportunity Iâll get to tell you so I might as well tell you now.â You looked back out to the sea whilst Jinyoung continued memorising your face.
âWhen I mentioned my change in career path from competing in the Olympics to architecture I never really mentioned why. I kinda just skipped that part.â You paused and exhaled the air you had unintentionally kept in. You continued.
âWe were going on a small trip to France for a history field trip the year I was going to take upon swimming as a profession. As you may know to get from the UK across to France youâd most likely take a boat which is exactly what the school had planned. The boat trip was going so well,â a tear dropped as you spoke, and you quickly wiped it away, âWe were nearing the edge of the port, but then a sudden thud came from the engine of the boat. The captain announced that the engine had caught on fire and informed for everyone to take a life jacket and jump off the boat. Obviously, our teachers tried to gather all the students to a meeting point to hand out a life jacket but there was someone that was missing. Her name was May.â You had to pause again⌠you hadnât said her name in so long and it brought back the same pain the last time you spoke about this tragic memory.
âMay was the first ever closest friend I had. We were always together. The teachers always partnered us up together for any pair work. We were inseparable⌠but the one time we split from each other, I lost her for good.â At this point you had multiple tears falling down slowly down your cheeks and wiping them away was pointless knowing that more will fall down in a matter of seconds.
âMy breathing was inconsistent, and everyone turned to me in the hopes that I would know where May was knowing that we were always together. I told the teacher that we had split when I wanted to stay near the coach, and she wanted to feed the seagulls and hadnât seen her since. Till this day I still remember the blood flush from everyoneâs face when they heard no one was aware of where May was since the start of the trip and I felt so⌠responsible for it.â Jinyoung took your hand into his as you continued explaining the story.
âThe captain ran to our teachers and informed that it was the last moment to jump off to guarantee everyoneâs safety, but the issue was May⌠May wasnât found in time to have her life jacket put on to abort the boat. The worst part was⌠I knew that May couldnât swim.â You dropped your face into your hands as you cried out the tears you were keeping locked up since the speech. Jinyoung wrapped you in his arms and let you empty out your feelings.
You slowly calmed down since the last sentence that had left your mouth and faced Jinyoung for a second. You then turned back towards the sea and continued, âI remember jumping off that boat with regret. So much regret that a child at that age should not carry with themselves. All my eyes were searching for was a sign of May. Maybe if we could spot her before she enters the water we could ensure she didnât drown but there wasnât a single spec of her existence. May was pronounced dead that afternoon when a local French man who was fishing at a pier found a young girlâs body. I lost one of the most precious people in my life and swore to never enter water again.â Jinyoung stared at you wide eyed. He didnât expect for you to have such a deep connection with the idea of swimming and your teaching sessions.
âThat seems to have changed. How come?â
âI knew youâd ask.â You let out a small chuckle in between your sobs.
âI realised that I was doing nobody including myself no good by not swimming. Why didnât I utilise this skill that I had and teach people how to swim so nobody ended up like⌠her. Thatâs why when the company started to pick up a sequence of projects and the staff team grew, I decided to spare some time to training to be a swim teacher and then work at Jooheonâs place once qualified. Since then, Iâve been teaching kids⌠well mostly kids,â You gave him a side eye and smiled, âon how to swim.â
âYou surprise me everyday Y/N.â You faced him due to the abrupt comment from out of the blue. He wiped your cheeks dry and you were happy that you went light on the makeup today and opted for waterproof mascara. He didnât remove his hands from your face and cupped your cheeks.
âHow come?â You asked eagerly.
âFrom the outside people would mistake you for someone who doesnât have problems, sad memories or just anything going wrong with their life but deep down you have so much caged inside in order to seem happy all the time. The worst part is that you do it so well that I even thought you had your shit together. You hide the sad parts so well but itâs only human to let them out. I appreciate you for opening up to me tonight. Iâm sure May would be proud of you for the person you have become. Look at you.â He took a step back, âYou have been chosen âArchitect of the Yearâ at such a young age and I have the privilege to call you my girlfr-â Jinyoung stopped in his tracks immediately.
âMy what, Jinyoung?â You have an idea of what he was about to say but you would absolutely love to hear it from him. You tried to read his eyes, but he was having a conflicting battle with himself it was so hard to see through the chaos.
âMyâŚâ Just as Jinyoung was about to presumably say âgirlfriendâ, Beck appeared at the entrance of the balcony out of breath. You switched your focus from Jinyoung to Beck but remembered to keep this moment noted in the back of your mind.
âEverything alright Beck? Why are you out of breath?â As you questioned Beck raised his hand for you to stop asking so many questions and to give him a second to catch his breath.
âIâve been trying to find you everywhere. The eventâs coming to an end and the director asked me to get you for company and individual photos thatâll be used in the magazine and website.â
âIâll be down in a second. Give me a couple of minutes in the bathroom to freshen up,â You looked back at Jinyoung and said, âShall I meet you at the reception of the building once Iâm done?â
âHow about the beach? Call me when youâre done.â With that Jinyoung gestured a goodbye to Beck and walked down the stairs to exit the building. You speed walked to the bathroom and freshened up to join Beck back at the main hall for photos.
20 MINUTES LATER
The photos had been taken and all the guests were starting to leave the hall. You, Beck and his fiancĂŠ made it to the entrance of the building in one piece.
âGet home safe you two. Text me when youâre home safe and sound please.â You waved Beck and his fiancĂŠ goodbye as they entered Beckâs car to head home. Once they had left through the venue gates you diverted your attention to a bodyguard who worked at the venue.
âExcuse me?â The bodyguard looked at you.
âYes, maâam.â
âI see that thereâs two paths heading towards the sea. Do you know by any chance which one will take me to the beach quicker?â
The bodyguard raised a brow,â Yes, ma.am I do. If you take the trail on the left it will bring you out to the beach in no more than 5 minutes. A man came by and asked me the same question do you know him by any chance? We wouldnât want something happening to you at this hour miss.â
âIf he was wearing a bow tie, you do not need to worry. Iâm aware of who it is. Thank you so much. Have a great evening.â You bowed and headed down the trail the bodyguard had indicated.
5 MINUTES LATER
You saw two wooden beach beds sheltered by a wooden frame with white fabric feathering over the beds. Candles scattered over the sand illuminating the beach. Your eyes trailed to the dark figure standing out looking at the sea right in the middle of everything.
You slowly walked towards the sand start and took off your heels. Jinyoung had his eyes shut and hands in his pockets. His dress shoes put to aside along with his blazer and bow tie. The first couple buttons of his shirt undone. He looked exactly like Prince Eric off of the well-known Little mermaid by Disney. You grabbed your heels and walked as silently as possible towards Jinyoung. You placed your heels besides one of the beach beds and stared at the back of the man for a couple seconds. He still wasnât aware of your presence, so you decided to back hug him and took in the strong smell of cologne. He smelt amazing.
âPhotos taken Iâm guessing.â He tried to turn round to you.
âCan we stay like this a little longer?â He nodded and you embraced his back for a little longer. You let go after a couple of minutes and took in the view around you whilst Jinyoung spun round to face you.
âDid you prepare all of this whilst I was gone?â Jinyoung nodded whilst trying to read your reaction.
Your eyes gleamed at the thought of someone spending time and effort to surprise you. Your eyes trailed over each individual candle and then back to Jinyoung. His brown eyes glistened from the sources of light on the sand.
âYou really didnât have to. Upon all you had to put up with tonight, you really didnât have to-â
âY/N, you are so predictable. I was literally thinking to myself how you would respond, and you said the exact words I predicted.â Jinyoung chuckled for guessing your reaction correctly. You lightly giggled at his amusement over something so little.
âYou really are something.â You just stared at the man in front of you. Jinyoung reciprocating the same. Time felt like it had paused and the only things that could be heard was the lightly crashing waves and the crickets coming from the trees behind the sand start.
âHow have I gotten so lucky?â Jinyoung questioned and then continued, âI signed up to the leisure centre for simply one thing. Swimming lessons. But I ended up discovering so much more. An amazing woman who has brought so much joy into my life unexpectedly that I didnât know I needed. You exert everything I was ever missing in my life and made me aware of what I deserved. I could go on for days about everything thatâs attractive about you but nothing I would say would live up to describe you Y/N. As much as I could list everything you also leave me speechless. I didnât even know that was possible.â Jinyoung was rambling on and on trying to express the feelings he felt towards you, but you couldnât hold back any longer.
Jinyoung wasnât looking like he was going to stop any time soon and you had a great plan to stop him in his tracks. You raised your left hand and cupped his cheek delicately which stopped him from talking and made eye contact with you. Without giving him another second to gather his thoughts you sealed the gap between the two of you by placing your lips onto his. You slowly engaged the kiss almost teasing him to see if he wanted this as much as you did. In a matter of seconds, he placed one of his hands on the back of your neck and the other on the small of your back pulling you closer to him. He reciprocated the kiss with so much passion with his slow and deep motions it almost felt like the world had stopped and you were both in a dream. As you guys parted Jinyoung wrapped both of his arms around your lower back encasing you in his vicinity.
âI will never let you go Y/N.â He dug his face into the crook of your neck and you just smiled at his puppy-like actions.
âIâd very much like that Jinyoung.â This guy just smelt amazing. You let go of you and picked you up bridal style out of nowhere.
âJinyoung! Donât you dare even think about doing what I think youâre going to do!â You wrapped your arms around his neck out of instinct and stared at his face.
âOr what?â He had a cocky smirk planted across his face and started to walk towards sea.
âJinyoung, please! I donât have any extra clothes to wear back home!â
âEven better.â You looked at him surprised at his dirty comment and smacked his shoulder.
âYAH! JINYOUNG PLEASE IâM BEGGING YOU!â He stopped right before making contact with the sea.
âY/N, did you really think Iâd drop you into the freezing cold sea?â He looked at you with a smile.
âYes, you looked so eager to drop me in. You nearly gave me a heart attack.â You slowly calmed down happy that he wouldnât be making you go through mayhem.
âYou thought correct.â With that Jinyoung let go of you but you reacted quick enough to save your upper half by clinging onto Jinyoung, but your legs couldnât be saved. They made direct contact with the liquid and it⌠was⌠freezing.
âYouâre so mean. So, so mean! What did I ever do to you?!?â Jinyoung was laughing his ass off at your reaction. He was so amused to the point where he completely forgot about the temperature of the body of water.
âHahahahahaha, Y/N please Iâve gotten a cramp.â
âGood, itâs better than being drenched waist down in freezing cold water Jinyoung.â You hugged him as he laughed like a mad man.
âWhatâs funnier is that youâre choosing to hug me instead of running out of the waterâŚâ Jinyoung was almost howling at how funny your state was and you acknowledged his smart comment and sprinted out of the water.
You turned back to look in Jinyoungâs direction as he made his way back, âI hope you planned a set of towels too.â
âDonât worry, Iâve got you covered. Come here.â He brought you under his arm and you both walked back to the beach beds. Jinyoung took down some towels which you hadnât noticed were hung on the wooden shelter above the beds.
âHere you go.â He wrapped the towel around you and sat you down on the beach bed doing the same to himself whilst sitting on the beach bed across you.
âNext swim lesson. You better watch out.â You gave him a glare whilst shivering.
âOooooo⌠Iâm so scared Miss.â He sarcastically replied.
âYou best be.â
---
Thats the end of another episode of âCanât Swimâ. Like I mentioned in last episodeâs notes, during the academic year posts will be posted inconsistently due to personal reasons. I think prioritising my education is a good reason for not being able to have regular posts especially because of the degree I am studying.
a/n: you might be questioning where I have been for the past couple of months. I have one word to say that should be a good enough answer. College. Iâve been studying none stop and found no time to write the next episode after university started. The posts will no longer be regular so just keep yourselves updated. Hopefully I will have another 2 episodes up between now and the end of the year at least but donât quote me on that. I hope you enjoy!Â
Iâm deeply sorry for my absence again x
warnings: nothing
EP . 1 , EP . 2 , EP . 3 , EP . 4 , EP . 5 , EP . 6 , EP . 7Â , EP . 8
a/n: you might be questioning where I have been for the past couple of months. I have one word to say that should be a good enough answer. College. Iâve been studying none stop and found no time to write the next episode after university started. The posts will no longer be regular so just keep yourselves updated. Hopefully I will have another 2 episodes up between now and the end of the year at least but donât quote me on that. I hope you enjoy!Â
Iâm deeply sorry for my absence again x
warnings: nothing
EP . 1 , EP . 2 , EP . 3 , EP . 4 , EP . 5 , EP . 6 , EP . 7Â , EP . 8Â , EP . 9
THIRD PERSON POV
The afternoon continued with Y/N and Jinyoung discussing life and getting to know one another whilst Y/N replied to her emails.
âItâs mind b-boggling how you and J-Jackson may have crossed paths back in 2012âŚâ Y/N had just mentioned how she was training for the London 2012 Olympics to compete for swimming.
âSimilar to Jackson, I switched career paths and decided to study architecture. Dad wasnât the biggest fan until he saw the passion and success I had gained in the industry. He soon came to terms with everything.â
âWow⌠do you r-regret it at all?â The clock marked 10:30 pm. You guys had been talking for the past 90 mins, getting to know each other.
âI think I regretted not swimming after deciding to study architecture. I didnât choose to not compete in the Olympics because I no longer liked swimming so I do regret not continuing although I must say, studying architecture might be the most time consuming degree out there. Thatâs why later on I decided to apply to become a licensed swimming teacher to undergo lessons. Iâd be teaching people how to swim whilst fulfilling my love for swimming.â
âBest of both w-worlds, r-right?â
âExactly.â Y/N had now placed all her work to aside with her back against the wall, legs crossed enveloped into the conversation.
Some seconds went by and Y/N wanted to know about Jinyoungâs initial dreams.
âWhat about you? Did you always want to be a singer?â
âAlways. I took up d-dance lessons when I was around 15. Then went to a-audition and got in to JYPE. That was when I met J-Jaebeom. We actually d-debuted together as a d-duo group called JJProject to later on d-debut with the r-rest of the g-guys as GOT7. Since t-then theyâve been my f-family rather than just my m-members. I think itâs g-getting to the p-point where I might have spent m-more years of my l-life with them then I did without. Time fliesâŚâ
âI could definitely sense the brotherly love you guys all have for each other. So how did becoming an actor happen?â
âI r-requested from the c-company to find roles I could take part in a couple years b-back. First it was small roles in small d-dramas and then being c-casted by more known d-directors to p-play bigger roles. All of that has l-led me to play s-second male lead for âWhen My Love Bloomsâ.â
âWhen do the episodes start airing?â Y/N had grown eager about Jinyoungâs talents.
âHold your h-horses⌠we havenât e-even started f-filming yet and wonât be until I r-recover⌠The original airing d-dates will probably be p-pushed f-further.â Jinyoungâs words drifted into a sudden realisation for his career.
âIf only-â Y/N was about to blame herself again.
âWeâve been through this m-multiple times Y/N. None of this is your f-fault so s-stop blaming yourself for t-things you have no c-control over.â
Y/N had her mouth open ready to retaliate but if she had to be honest⌠she couldnât be bothered to fight back considering it was now coming up to 11:00 pm.
âFine.â Y/N yawned and covered her mouth. Work had been extremely busy today especially with all the news floating around now.
âS-someoneâs tired.â Jinyoung eyed Y/Nâs tired state and decided to call it a night.
âI still have so much to do. I canât fall asleep now.â
âC-could you n-not spare an e-early n-night just for t-today?â Y/N recollected her thoughts weighing up if she could possibly sleep early tonight and get all the work done tomorrow.
âI couldâŚâ
âProblem s-solved then. Clear up your b-bed and get your pjs on. I d-donât want to f-face a t-tired Y/N tomorrow m-morning.â Y/N eyed your mean comment and huffed to your orders.
âYes, sir.â
2 WEEKS LATER
Y/Nâs POV
âMiss, Jinyoung has been recovering quicker than expected. He should be perfectly fine to attend the event. If anything unsettling happens you can give me a direct phone call.â
âThank you so much Doc.â You gave the doctor a large smile and she reciprocated a reassuring smile.
You entered Jinyoungâs room with your outfit for the architecture awards festival along with you.
âAm I allowed to come?â Jinyoung asked as soon as you entered the room. You gave him a nod.
Jinyoungâs voice was more or less back to 100% and his eye had completed healed by the end of last week. There wasnât much left until being fully recovered. Possibly parting from the hospital quicker than the original 2 months the doctor had estimated.
âI knew Iâd get the green light. I even prepared my outfit because I was so sure Iâd be able to come.â You hadnât seen someone so ecstatic for an awards festival.
âAs expected⌠Iâm not even surprised. Will you be able to get dressed? Need any of my help?â Jinyoung was still a little instable since heâs been lying in bed for the past 2 weeks. His legs tend to give out for the first 30 mins.
âI think I can manage. Iâll get dressed quickly and then the bathroom is all yours.â You chuckled at his assumption that youâll take really long in the bathroom for the event.
Jinyoung heads towards the bathroom and you are left there practising a speech youâve written for all the awards you and your company have been nominated. This isnât because you knew you were going to win any of them but⌠the unprofessional scenes if you guys were to win an award and to not have a speech ready daunted you. There was nothing wrong with being prepared.
15 MINUTES LATER
You must say⌠I donât think you had ever laid eyes on someone so handsome in your life before. You could swear that this man was carved by God himself.
âHow much deeper are you going to fall into my looks?â You hadnât realised but you had been staring Jinyoung up and down for the past 30 seconds of him leaving the bathroom. Hair all styled. The suit was literally made for him. His cute bow tie was a little wonky leading you to let out a chuckle.
âWhat?â Jinyoungâs face turned serious thinking something was wrong with how he looked.
âYour bowtie is wonky.â You stood up from your seat and reached out to fix his bowtie. Your eyes were fixated in straightening the bowtie and all Jinyoung could do was analyse your face and how focussed you were.
âThere you go. Looks better now.â You lightly let go off the tie and looked up at Jinyoung who was already staring right back at you. Those bambi eyes were going to be the death of you.
âThank you. Now go and get yourself ready.â He pinched your nose and then you entered the bathroom with your dress, makeup bag and accessories.
20 MINUTES LATER
âJinyoung~~â You called out for Jinyoung. You were done with everything but couldnât reach the zipper on the back of your dress. You had been procrastinating on what to do and just gave up. Thereâs no way you could zip the dress up alone.
âYes, Y/N. Is everything alright?â You could hear his footsteps come closer to the bathroom door.
âIn a bit of sticky situation⌠could I ask you to do a favour?â
âSure, what is it?â You went ahead and unlocked the door for him. He took a step back and couldnât contain the sight in front of him. You were in a red bandeau strapless dress which had a structured skirt that was shorter at the front and longer at the back with. A very slight trail. Unsurprisingly your makeup was the bare minimum and you had left your natural hair out. His mouth was agape as you stepped out of the bathroom.
âHow much longer are you going to stare for Mr Park?â He had been in the same awe you was when he had stepped out of the bathroom earlier on.
âYesâŚright⌠the favour?â His soul re-entered his body trying to compose himself. You could only smile on the effect you had on the prince himself.
âI canât reach my zipper, could you zip up the back of my dress for me?â You saw his cheeks blush a light pink below the thin layer of bb cream he had on. Without the zip done neither of you were going anywhere so he had to do it.
He wasnât able to give a verbal response and just nodded. You turned around to have your back facing Jinyoung. He moved your hair to aside exposing half of your back to him. He was blushing so hard right now and was happy to have you facing away from him even though in a matter of seconds youâd be facing him seeing the shades of red planted on his cheeks. Jinyoung gently placed one hand on the zipper and the other hand on your back holding the fabric of your dress still. His fingers grazed your skin and they were a little cold leading you to jolt a little by the surprising cool touch. He notices.
âDid I hurt you?â His voice was a little worried. The slightest worrying reaction you make, and heâs so concerned. Heâs too sweet.
âNope, your hands are just a little cold thatâs all.â You say whilst you chuckle.
He apologises with his soothing voice and zips up the dress, letting out a quiet done when finished.
You turn back round and thank him for his kind gesture. You also noticed the flush of his cheeks. Heâs so cute, you thought. You quickly put your heels on and left Jinyoungâs patient room and entered the hall of the hospital. Expectedly, you guys received some stares and some whistles by the old women sitting outside their patient rooms. The event manager had organised a limousine to pick up each nominee for the awards hence why there was a lovely jet black limousine parked at the entrance of the hospital. The driver spotted you two and guided you the way and kept the door open for you two to enter the fancy vehicle. He ran back to the wheel and started driving towards the venue.
âAnything I need to know beforehand? Who should I present myself as?â Jinyoung had started with the questions during the car drive.
âWhoâd you like to present yourself as Jinyoung?â You wanted to fish out his intentions from him.
âPreferably your boyfriend in order to stop those punks from hitting on you but Iâd never want to force you into a relationship with meâŚâ He side eyed you as he kept looking out the window. You so wanted him to be your boyfriend.
âLogical. Agreed. If anyone asks, youâre my boyfriend.â
âWhat an honour.â You slap his thigh due to his sarcastic tone.
âWhatttt? Iâm serious. Iâm going to be the boyfriend of an amazingly talented architect whoâs bound to receive an award tonight. Itâs a genuine privilege.â You could only look at him in awe as he described the so called âprivilegeâ he was taking part of.
âIf you say soâŚâ
The humming noise from the motor of the limousine was really calming but Jinyoung broke the silence once again.
âAre you nervous?â His tone was much deeper and serious compared to how he was a second ago.
âA little. These awards happen once a year and weâve progressed so much as a company but so has everyone else in the industry. Itâs hard to tell if weâll be receiving the major validation from the institute. With or without the award tonight Iâm so pleased with my company, but it would be nice to get a recognisable achievement for all our hard work.â Jinyoung listened to you as you let out your insecurities for the upcoming night.
âIn the little amount of time Iâve met you, I think youâre the only person who deserves all the awards youâve been nominated for this year. No one can change my thoughts and itâs going to be a pleasure to witness your achievement first hand. I canât wait.â He rubbed his thumb over your knuckles trying to calm your nerves down. It was going to be a long night.
30 MINUTES LATER
Your limousine had rocked up to the red carpet laid out on the floor outside of the venue of the awards. You took a deep breath as the driver ran around to Jinyoungâs side of the limousine to let him out. Jinyoung agreed to open your door for you so he exited the vehicle first. Like he had planned, he went around to your side and opened the door for you to step out. The cameras started capturing every single moment as you wrapped your arm around Jinyoungs, and he gave you a reassuring nod. You gave him a smile and the two of you walked towards the entrance of the building slowly as you waved to the cameras and press greeting the two of you. The cameras were close to blinding, but you pulled through until reaching the entrance where the bodyguard escorted the two of you to your spaces in the main hall.
The building was full of white and gold decorations. You could definitely tell that the theme was highly influenced by Greek culture. The budget of the awards keep growing as the number of sponsors increase. The bodyguard escorted you to the table that Beck was already sat at with his fiancĂŠ. Beck realised your presence as well as Jinyoung. He stood up to give you a hug and shook Jinyoungâs hand. Beckâs fiancĂŠ shook both of your hands too and took your seats.
âThe famous Mr Park. Itâs nice to meet you in person. Iâm Beck, the other shareholder.â Beck gave Jinyoung a warm smile.
âItâs nice to meet you to Beck. It seems like you already know of my name, but Iâll reiterate for the norm. My name is Park Jinyoung, you can call me just Jinyoung.â You let out a scoff because of how formal Jinyoung was being with Beck.
âHeâs younger than you so you can ignore the formalities.â You said to Jinyoung and then Beck and him opened the conversation about age and their Chinese zodiac signs.
The evening began at 7:30 pm with the award winners due to be announced at 9:00 pm. Until then there was butterflies in your stomach ready to be set free any minute now.
Jinyoung came closer to your ear and whispered, âLoosen up a little. Thereâs no need to be this tense. Here hold my hand.â
Jinyoung offered his hand and you took it immediately as he gestured his open palm. Your hands were tiny compared to his manly hands. They encompassed all your digits giving youâre a sigh of relief because of the security they exerted. You let out a large sigh and continued with the discussions on your table with the new clients that were interested in your company. Having Jinyoung at the event really helped scare away the useless men who would only be interested in your physique and nothing more. His presence filtered out all the nonsense that would usually be taking place at the table.
The clock finally struck 9:00 pm and everyone went back to their designated seats in order for the awards to be presented. The event holder went through all the minor rookie awards to then move onto the company categories.
âHere are the nominees for Best Project of the Year.â The event holder signalled to the larger screen behind him as the nominees including your company are mentioned in no specific order.
âI was personally really fond of this project myself too. The meaning behind the design and the immense detail put into the façade really makes me excited for the future of this company. Iâll stop blabbing on and open the envelope.â You looked at Beck and then back at Jinyoung who was really eager to know the result.
âThe award for Best Project of the Year goes toâŚâ The event holder lifts the flap of the envelope and takes out the white sheet of paper inside. You hold your breath waiting for the result to be spoken.
âThe Chamberlain project, designed and constructed by Chevrel Architects.â The whole community around your table started roaring and cheering for you and Beck to claim the award. That was one award written down in the books for Chevrel Architects, a company you and Beck had started years back. You and Beck had decided that if this award was given to you guys then heâd give the speech for it. Beck was the reason for the Chamberlain project happening and hands down you could state it was because of him the project turned out well. You, Jinyoung and everyone else in the hall stood up clapping as Beck walked up to the stage and shook hands with the event holder along with receiving the award. He then walked up to the mic and started his speech.
âIâd like to first start off with a large thank you to everyone at Chevrel Architects. The amount of hard work that was put into the Chamberlain project is indescribable, without everyoneâs help it wouldnât have been possible to achieve such a great outcome. Iâd like to also thank Y/N for coming on this journey with me and trusting in me when I said that this company will create its own legacy. This is only the beginningâŚâ Beck continued to thank more or less everyone he knew and came to an end with another roaring applause by everyone.
He jogged back to your table and you admired the award he placed on the table. You felt Jinyoung squeeze your hand in encouragement for you to realise how much you guys are capable of although he still knew you were a little iffy because the individual architect awards hadnât been announced yet. You couldnât help but smile at the gleaming object right before your eyes. Having received this award you doubted that another award would be given to someone of the same company.
Minutes went by and the event holder had reached the most awaited award of the night. Architect of the Year. You were surprised that you hadnât left to use the restroom to throw up all this anxiety already. You were so ready to go home and relax. You wanted your normal heart rate back. You looked at Jinyoung and he gave you a look that melted your heart in seconds. He started massaging your knuckles with his thumb again and you could feel your body ease into his touch. The event holder for the last time of the night directs our attention to the screen for the listing of the nominees. Beck unfortunately wasnât nominated so he was rooting for you to win the award.
âI know for many of you this is probably the most important part of the night. Iâd like to first mention that to be able to be nominated for this award is ana achievement in itself so, you architects should all be proud of yourselves. It was a very hard decision that the committee made but we were able to make a decision. The award for Architect of the Year goes toâŚâ
I think it was mean of me to have ended this episode here, but it is 2:30 am right now as I write this episode. I hope you guys liked this episode. I shall be back somewhat soon so make sure to come back to check if an episode has been uploaded. Like always let me know your opinions on the story line and check out the other episodes if you havenât. It would be nice to get some feedback :)
i totally understand that sometimes it gets a little difficult to write (nasty old bitch called writerâs block), and that not all of us actively hit those skyrocketing 100+ notes on our posts (not even gonna go there anymore-).
but it genuinely makes me feel sad and upset when writers say that this site doesnât have anything for them. be it anons, or feedbacks, or even a reblog.
i understand, and i get it - and it really does build up to us feeling not-so-validated on here. and ofc, if itâs your choice to leave/go on a hiatus, its up to you.
but seeing writers feeling let down and saying how theyâre probably not meeting up to the audienceâs expectations - it genuinely hurts me a little, since iâve been there myself.
just a small reminder - your writing doesn not need to be validated. a lot of people would beg to differ ofc, but i mean it when i say that its okay to not have so many notes on your works. but donât let that bring you down. who knows, maybe your work is just not reaching people out there (yk iâm talking about tags smh, that shit is crazy).
donât feel let down!!
as for not feeling motivated enough - thatâs like?? normal⌠yeah, so donât worry, your writing cells arenât dead, just on a long hiatus (prolly on a vacay in hawaii); but youâll do well - you are doing well.
a/n: hehe, hate me all you want but iâve been having so much fun with this series. i hope the same goes for you guys. i havenât heard much from you guys feedback-wise so i hope itâs because the content im putting out is fun to read. enjoy!
warnings: swearing, a lil saucy at the end, pretty much it
EP . 1 , EP . 2 , EP . 3 , EP . 4 , EP . 5 , EP . 6 , EP . 7 , EP . 8
Was this doctor joking? How could there be good news next to this sort of bad news?
Tuesday MorningÂ
âDoc, what good news do you have?â
â⌠for 2 months.â The doctor finished her sentence.
You let out all the air you had held since the doctor had announced that Jinyoung wouldnât be able to sing. You held your heart and felt a little lightheaded and crashed back onto the bed. She did you dirty.
âMiss, are you okay?â The doctor dropped Jinyoungâs records to aside and rushed to you.Â
Your heart rate skyrocketed before the doctor mentioned that he wonât be able to sing momentarily rather than permanently.
âIâm fine. Maybe finish your sentence quicker. I thought it was permanent that he wonât be able to sing until you mentioned 2 months.â
âI apologise Miss. Hereâs a glass of water.â The doctor gave you a glass of water and you turned your attention back on to Jinyoung. He had also left a sigh of relief.
âD-doc. Until then what will happen?â
âRoutine scans to check your recovery rate. Our recommendations now are to speak as less as possible, in a couple weeks time weâll have you back on food and liquids.â
You smiled hearing that theyâll be a happy ending at the end of the dark corridor. You looked at Jinyoung with glee but remembered you had to change for work.
âIâll celebrate in a second. I need to get changed!â You legged it to the bathroom to change and the doctor and Jinyoung let out a chuckle because of your obvious excitement towards the good news.
THIRD PERSON POV
âYour girlfriend is so supportive.â The doctor commented after Y/N had entered the bathroom.
âG-girlfriend?â Jinyoung sat upright in his bed.
âOh, I apologise Mr Park. I just thought Miss was someone of that status. Sorry for assuming.â
âAhhh,â The doctor chuckled, âI hope she accepts.â
âMe t-too.â
Y/NâS POV
You looked at yourself in the mirror. Hair out from your twisted bun, lovely curls were achieved. You straightened your cropped cream blazer and fixed your lace top on the inside. You tightened you waist belt and then realised your heels were outside. Brushed your teeth with your belongings Mona brought in and then you were out.
âMe t-too.â
Jinyoung and the doctor looked at you as you were out.
âWhat?â They both looked at you without saying a word a bit too long.
âYou l-lookâŚâ
Jinyoung started.
â⌠Like a mess. I knowâ You placed your feet in your black stilettos and looked back at the both of them and they were still staring.
âNow what?â
âMiss. You look really classy and elegant⌠if thatâs your definition of a mess.â
âGood one, d-doc. You l-look great Y/N.â
âHmph⌠Thank you for your compliments. I need to get to work as you can see Iâm already running late. Doc, heâs all yours. Well, not all but you get what I mean. Jinyoung,â You checked phone to see if Mark had replied to your morning message and he had, âMark will be here in 10 minutes. Iâll be back in the afternoon. Anything you want that I can bring-â
âPause. My b-brain doesnât register that quick.â
âMark will be here soon. Iâll be back in the afternoon. Thatâs all you need to know.â You said much slower.
âGreat.â
âRing me if anything happens. Same goes for you, doctor. Bye~â You rushed out the room smiling and went to the garage of the hospital. Like Mona had said, your car was parked near the exit and you were off to work.
JINYOUNGâS POV
âGreat acting, doctor. She absolutely fell for it.â
âI must say Mr Park, your acting skills are much better than I expected. I almost believed your acting too.â
You both chuckled.You knew how much Y/N cared for you, so you took it to your advantage. The strangling and Max situation is all true. Although, those test results? Absolute bullshit. You were actually not that badly damaged. 2 months seemed like a reasonable time for you and Y/N to become close and then finally ask her out properly. You werenât sure if you could last that long, but you were sure it wasnât going to take any longer.
âI even thought I had really bad damage done to my throat.â
âJust some minor bruises Mr Park, I can assure you. Your eye will be fine in a one weeks time too. Ready to ask Miss out.â
âThanks doc.â
âItâs my pleasure Mr Park. Iâll be off for my morning rounds. Iâll be back to check later.â With that the doctor left and you were left waiting for Mark.
Y/NâS POV
You were driving and decided to switch the radio on to catch up with the world. To your surprise, a story familiar to you was being voiced so you turned up the volume. The report was as follows...
âGOT7âs Jinyoung suffered from a vicious attack yesterday in Jinhaeâs well-known leisure centre. The suspect allegedly strangled Park Jinyoung until he had passed out. Park Jinyoung has now been hospitalised. We are waiting for further notice from JYP Entertainment about Jinyoungâs current condition. The suspect is now being kept in custody as officers continue with their investigation. Itâs been speculated that the attack was triggered by the news published yesterday about GOT7âs Jinyoung and his potential new girlfriend. Weâll be back with more news once we are informed.â
Max.. held in custody? The guy who helped you through such hard times has now ended up in the hands of authority for violence. It was only 2 weeks ago where he would have been the closest guy friend to you and now heâs one of the furthest. How pathetic.
You arrived at the company entrance only to see paparazzi yet again. You wasnât going to adjust your lifestyle to them; You were going to hold your head high. They all realised the arrival of your car and started to surround it like moths to a light. You waited for your companyâs security guards to come near your door and opened it for you whilst creating a safety bubble. It was about a 15 second walk up the stairs and then threw the doors. Thatâs it.
âMiss, whenever youâre ready.â One of the guards told you. You gave them all a nod and started to walk. The questions came streaming through.
âWas the female at the beach you?â
âWhat response do you have for all the dating rumours?â
âIs it true that you were handling both Mr Park and the suspect at the same time?â
Dating both at the same time? These people are outrageous. These allegations were much worse than you expected.
âWe are halfway there Miss.â
âAre you with Mr Park for his money?â
Money?
âSome fans are blaming you for the situation, what are your thoughts?â (ahgases are not like this but this is for the soul purpose of the series x)
That was the end of the bombarding questions. You guys had made it to the building and the guards let you through to safety whilst they blocked off the paparazzi. You looked back and gave them a thumbs up whilst they put up with the paparazzi. You turned around to see Beck looking at your distress after the swarming of strangers.
âGood morning to you too Beck. Now can you stop with the staring?â You waved your hand in front of his face. He shook his self back to reality.
âY/N. What is going on?â You realised his stern and agitated face. He was expecting an explanation as he should.
âDamn. Not even a morning greeting. Fine, Iâll explain in my room.â
You guys took the elevator to your office. Beck sat down and was waiting in urgency for your explanation.
âWhere do you want me to start?â Which bit was he the most curious about?
âWhy did you need to leave from the meeting?â
âJinyoung, the actor from the news, he was strangled by Max at the leisure centre after the lesson had ended.â
Beckâs face dropped after hearing about what Max had done.
âI was hoping the radio was lying. I guess not.â
He was feeling a sense of disappoint in Max. Beck knew of Max, but you wouldnât regard them as friends. Beck just assumed people you were friends with had some sort of value. Max was an anomaly, as he described it.
âI wish it wasnât true too. I didnât get to see him at the hospital. Apparently he only had some minor scratches and once sorted out he was taken by officers.â You gave a sigh, sick and tired of things not going well.
âHereâs some good news, to make you a little happier,â Your face lit up immediately as soon as you heard the words âgood newsâ come out of Beckâs mouth, âThe dinner with Mr Chan went really well. He was a little gutted to not have you there, but I think I did a good job making up for it. Heâs a really chill person considering his age and status in the world. He does want to have another dinner but with you this time so make sure to give him a ring when heâs back in the country.â
âI most definitely will. Thatâs so good to hear. At least something went well yesterday.â As soon as you finished your sentence, you were getting a FaceTime call from your mother.
âIâll leave you to it. Once youâre done with your call can you come to my office?â
âWill do. This shouldnât take long anyways; Itâs mum.â
Beck left you to have your call and headed to his office across yours. You then accepted the FaceTime call.
âHi mum! Isnât it really late there for you to be calling me?âÂ
There was a large time difference between you and your hometown, so it was weird to be getting a call from her right now.
âY/N darling, please tell me that the news isnât true.â You gulped.
Your mum picked up on the silence which meant that it wasnât a lie.
âMum, itâs true. Although the news will be taken down soon.â You hoped anyways. You waited for her reaction.
âSince when did my daughter go kissing men in the middle of the night on a beach. Those photographs are atrocious Y/N. Did you forget you have a family back home who faces relatives every day?â
âMum Iâm highly aware but this isnât a fling. I donât go kissing guys on a daily basis. His agency is working on taking down the news as soon as possible. Could you be happy that Iâve found a guy that I can trust in? Forget about what others think. Isnât this what you always wanted? For me to settle with someone that I-â
âLove? If youâre about to say the word loveâŚâ
âI think I am mum. Heâs exactly what Iâve ever wanted. The only down factor is that Iâve only known him for 2 weeks but Iâm not planning on progressing quickly. That kiss solidified so much, itâs not just a kiss for me. It meant so much and Iâm 100% sure it meant a lot for him too.â
âY/N!! You should have said this earlier. My girl has found herself a man. It looks like youâre at work. Weâll talk about this later. About you and my soon-to-be son-in-law, bye!âÂ
She abruptly ended the call and left you gobsmacked. Wasnât she slewing you off a second ago and now sheâs excited about her potential son-in-law? Sometimes even you couldnât understand women.
âWelp⌠I guess time to go to Beckâs office.â You spoke out loud.
JINYOUNGâS POV â HOSPITAL
âMark hyung⌠You fell for it as well.â You started laughing your ass off.
âJinyoung, I swear to god. Once youâre out you better run from me and most likely Y/N. You and doc played us to get Y/N worried sick all for a surprise. Do you know how distraught she was? Youâre mean man Park Jinyoung.â
âI know hyung. Please donât remind me. When she came into the room and broke down I struggled to contained myself. I felt so bad. But Iâm going to make it up to her. I also got some time off work.â You smiled and winked at Mark.
âYou sneak. Youâre lucky you actually mean a lot to me or I would have snitched.â You blew Mark a cheesy kiss just to annoy him a little more.
âPlease, nothing cringey. Do you have anything planned?â
âIn a months time I want to take her out and ask her the second big question. Iâve been thinking about going out and doing an activity. Do you have any suggestions?â Mark always liked doing activities and sports, so he was the best person to ask.
âIâm sure she would like any water sport. You on the other hand. We canât risk a drowning so letâs stay away from water. Why donât you guys go horse riding? Its nearly the end of cherry blossom season but the field just out of town is still full of them. It would be perfect.â This is exactly why you ask Mark for ideas.
âYou never disappoint Mark hyung. Iâll give that a go but erm⌠where do we get the horses?â Mark gave you a grin knowing he had the solution to your problem.
âI have a friend who works on a farm. Iâm sure if I beg a little sheâll be up for lending two horses.â You clapped due to Markâs surprises.
âYouâre amazing Mark hyung. Donât know what I would do without you. Iâll let you know when Iâll need them so you can sort it out. Until then, I want to get to know Y/N more. It has just been the handful of occasions weâve seen each other so this month I want to know everything about her.â
âSheâs not a subject Jinyoung. You wonât be having an end of topic test on her in a months time, chill out.â You both chuckled at Markâs comment on a typical Jinyoung move.
âI know, I know. You understand what I mean though. Thereâs so much I want to know about her.â
âAlright love boy. Focus on getting better asap so you can fulfil what youâre planning on.â
âWill do.â
With you revealing to Mark about the real truth behind your recovery, you guys talked about what you had missed at the company plus what happened at the centre. All the legal actions being taken place now with Max and the news about you and Y/N. Your whole day was spent with Mark who had gotten the day off. He also went to get Milo to help with the recovery. Soon later the clock was showing afternoon hours and you were hoping Y/N would walk through the door any second.
TUESDAY AFTERNOON
âSheâll come soon Jinyoung. Now can you give me and Milo the same attention youâve been giving the door for the past 10 minutes.â You moved your gaze from the door to Mark and registered what he said.
âSorry, hyung. I just want to see her. Ask her how her day went, what she did today and so on.â Mark was grinning at Jinyoungâs in love state. It was nice for him, seeing his younger member finding someone who he thought completed him.
âSheâll be here soon donât worry- â And right at that moment the door opened to reveal Y/N with paperwork and what you guessed was food in a bag.
âHi Mark. Whoâs this?â She gestured at Milo.
âThis is Milo. Milo, this is Y/N.â Y/N knelt down and gave Milo loving kisses and a rub on the tummy. Your heart wonât be able to contain any longer the overload of cuteness the two excreted.
âAnother male from the club. Have you looked after Jinyoung for me whilst I was gone?â She cooed at Milo as if the puppy could give her a reply. You were sure your heart was about to leap out of place.
âW-whatâs in the b-bag?â Mark whipped his head round towards you since you were back to acting badly injured duties. He couldnât help but let out a helpless smile.
âI figured Mark wouldnât have had a proper meal yet, so I brought a late lunch/early dinner over. You on the other hand. Bon appetite to your syringe meal.â Mark laughed at Y/Nâs comment and you gave her an annoyed gaze hoping sheâd get the idea.
âMean.â
You werenât going to sulk now. Not when Mark was here.
âThanks Y/N. Iâll eat here and part to meet with the rest. Wonât you be eating?â
âI havenât had much the appetite lately but donât mind me, enjoy the food.â Mark gave you a gaze knowing Y/Nâs loss of appetite was mostly likely related to you being in hospital. You felt bad but you were going to make it up to her.
âYou bought steak! I love steak. Cough it up, who told you.â She smiled as if she knew he would be happy.
âI have my ways.â She brushed her shoulders.
âI need to learn your ways. Thanks for the food. Bon appetite Jinyoung!â He held up a piece of steak and cheers with the syringe tube that was feeding you.
âY-youâre actually pathetic Mark hyung.â Y/N let out a laugh and Mark choked on his steak laughing at your comment. Milo had taken his place lying on Y/Nâs feet slowly falling asleep. She realised the puppyâs position and gathered him onto her lap so he could fall asleep in a comfier place. You just looked at her in awe at her loving character.
âH-how was your day?â She focussed back on you and gave you a smile.âBusy as usual. Sending out documents to third party teams for the eco hotel. Held a company meeting. Got an invite for an architecture festival award thing thatâll be taking place in 2 weeks times, debating on whether or not I should go.â
âThat sounds like really good news. Why wouldnât you want to go?â Mark questioned.
Y/N let out a self-conscious chuckle and continued, âThese awards end up always being a load of guys trying to either have a fling or get my number. Itâs a bit disturbing if Iâm honest. It has itâs good sides, my shareholder is able to make good connections but when I try to do the same the opposition is more interested in me rather than the work. I tend to just not go.â
âIâll c-come.â Y/N and Mark looked at your sudden invite to the occasion.
âIâd like to remind you Jinyoung that you wonât be fully recovered until 2 months. This night will be in 2 weeks.â
âY-Y/N, Iâll be better in 2 weeks. Itâs not l-like Iâve b-broken my l-legs. I could still attend.â
âAnd why would you want to attend?â Mark was grinning at the situation since you were making it extremely obvious that you were jealous.
âBecauseâŚâ Sheâs got you on the spot again. Sheâs good at this.
âBecause?â She repeated waiting for you to continue.
She interrupted the silence, âIt seems to me youâre jealous. Donât you think Mark?â She directed to Mark hoping he would agree with her.Mark made only one comment which led her to smile widely.
âYouâre making it obvious Park.â He ate another bite of his steak whilst grinning at his self. Mostly because he just sold you out in a second.
âWaaa, Mark hyung. Thanks f-for selling m-me out.â
âIâll take that as a yes. Letâs say this⌠If you are definitely well enough in 2 weeks time. Then sure, you can accompany me at the awards. If doc says itâs fine too.â
âT-This is going to b-be fun. An architecture a-awards festival. Will y-you be getting an a-award?â You were curious about how things worked in her field.
âI donât want to sound vain, but I think our company will be receiving an award. Donât know about the individual architect awards though. Weâll find out that night.â You couldnât wait. To get to see other peopleâs achievements, especially someoneâs who you care about so much.
âC-canât wait.â
âI canât stand the flirting. Me and Milo are leaving. Iâll continue with the steak later this afternoon. Thank you for the food again Y/N.â Mark waved you both goodbye and left the room whilst you guys laughed at his childish behaviour.
âHe can b-be a k-kid sometimes.â Y/N nodded.
âHow was today? Did you hold up well?â
You gave her a nod and an okay sign.
âGood, good. I brought over some of my work to do here. I hope thatâs fine by you. I might zone out so beware.â She smiled as you waved her okay.
She gathered all the paperwork and her laptop. She took off her heals and slipped on the slippers the hospital had given her and headed into the bathroom to clean up. Soon or later, she came out of the bathroom with her hair held up in a bun with a pen and no makeup on. You were happy that she felt comfortable to show this side of herself to you.
âWhat will y-you be working on?â She propped back on the bed with her legs crossed and her laptop on her lap.
âI need to get back to some emails. Then send some blueprints to our construction team for the hotel. Send an apology email to the client for the hotel too. Start coming up with ideas for a fruit orchard-â
âDamn. Youâre b-busy.â She nodded as her eyes were fixed on her laptop screen.
âDonât you think y-you should take a b-break, having c-come from w-work.â She lifted her head from her screen and looked at you.
âThis is the life of an architect Jinyoung. We are busy from day 1. I had my little break last week. Back to action.â
You gathered that it was going to be hard to get Y/Nâs attention when she worked. You were thinking of ways you could get her off her laptop and a sneaky idea came up to mind.
âBut I donât f-feel too well.â She immediately retracted her eyes from her laptop to you and left her laptop to aside.
âShall I call doc? Or a nurse?â She was close to hitting the notifying buzzer, but you got a hold of her wrist before she could. You stared into her eyes, wishing it would last forever. You also noticed the shift in colour of her cheeks.
âWhat can I do to help?â You pulled her closer to you, so she was now sitting on your bed with her face above yours.
âThis.â You closed the gap between the two of you. You didnât even know where you had gained this sort of confidence from, but you werenât complaining. Â Your lips moulded with hers moving at a slowly pace, enjoying every second of the kiss. Your hand reached behind her neck pulling her closer in order to deepen the kiss. It had been so long since you wanted to do this. You also thought it would be the best way to get her to stop working for a bit. She reciprocated with the same amount of passion and emotion. You could sense how much she also wanted this. You would wanna do more, but your current state and the location was exactly appropriate.You guys parted from each other, both breathless from the passionate kiss.
âYou are an absolute dick, Park. How do you think Iâll manage to do my work, now that you have me allâŚâ Her words drifted into a silence and she bit her lip restraining herself from continuing. If she continued on like this, you wouldnât be able to hold yourself from going in for round 2.
âAll what Miss?â You gave her a pair of innocent eyes knowing she was about to say hot and bothered but you wanted to push her to say it.
âYou know what I mean?â She tried to loosen her hand out of your grip, but you werenât going to let her go that easy.
âAll what Y/N?â You gave her a stern look almost demanding her to say it. You liked this affect you had on her, letâs see what she was going to do about it.
âYouâre a bit overly confident for a man handicapped to a hospital bed, donât you think?â She fluttered her eyelashes at you and eyed your face. She built up her defences and wasnât planning on giving in easily to your game either. Competition, ay?
âImagine how I might be out of this hospital bed then.â Your eyes dropped to her lips for a millisecond only to look back up to make eye contact with her beautiful eyes again. She wasnât going to continue was she? Surely, youâve got her on the spot.
âA bit hard to imagine. Gonna have to wait for you to just show me.â She really is something else, you thought to yourself.
---
Iâm not teasing this episode. It got a little saucy near the end, I hope you guys liked it! I have so many plans for future episodes, but they are further along after all of what is done. I love the cocky attitudeâs both characters are displaying towards each other although I donât know if I can get into naughty writings, so I apologise. I feel like Mark is a really good big brother figure, so weâll see a lot of him too. Also, Jinyoung is lying to Y/N but she has no clue. I probably gave some people heart attacks making you guys think Jinyoung wonât be able to sing again EVER.Â
a/n: dont hate me pls, i swear Jinyoung is okay... kinda. yall gonna hate me for this ending too
warning: swearing, hospital setting, mentioning of injuries
EP . 1 , EP . 2 , EP . 3 , EP . 4 , EP . 5 , EP . 6 , EP .7 , EP . 8 , EP . 9
The day started well but it didnât last long. The call from Jooheon led the day to plummet into a shit hole. The eco hotel was now under your guysâ belt but Jinyoung was now a patient in the local hospital. Shit really hit the fan.
Monday Afternoon
You had rushed back into the meeting room and said your apologies to both Beck and Mr Chan. You were sure this was a good enough reason to rush out of an important meeting like this one. You took note to let them both know the reason why you had to leave once things had died down.
Now you were at the hospital outside of Jinyoungâs room waiting for the doctor to come out. What could have gone wrong for him to be hospitalised?
âMiss?â The doctor left Jinyoungâs room and saw your concerned frame.
âYes. Is Jinyoung okay?â
âHis condition is currently stable. We are running some scans to check his condition. Weâll be able to comment in better detail once the results are out.â
âWhat did he come to the hospital with?â She looked up at you after rereading Jinyoungâs record.
âIt looks like he was strangled. He also seemed to have taken a great impact in his right eye, he mentioned momentarily not seeing hence why we need to run some things.â
âDoc, youâre telling me he was strangled and punched.â
âNot punched. He was strangled up against a wall to the point where he passed out. The suspect left him to drop causing the patientâs eye to collide with a surface.â You understood the collision analysis. It was possible to hit something when falling in the leisure centre. Stairs, fencing, shower steps, (etc).
âAnd have the authorities found out who did it?â
âA male by the name of Max Poach. He had some minor scratches, most likely by Mr Park whilst trying to resist the strangling although I canât confirm. Heâs in a check-up room near reception for your interest.â Your face dropped. He took it this farâŚ
With that the doctor went back to doing her rounds leaving you to process all of what you just heard. Max left Jinyoung there passed out? He took whatever it he was building up inside, all the rage and anger and acted so viciously all for what? You didnât even know if you could step inside Jinyoungâs room. Whilst you were debating with your head in your knees on your seat you heard a load of rushing footsteps coming your way. You couldnât even bother lifting your head up to see who they were. They stopped in front of you before entering the room. Who did you have to confront?
âY/N?â Sounds like Mark.
âItâs my fault. Itâs all my fucking fault.â Mark looked at Jaebeom who was beside him. The rest stayed at JYP to continue with their company meeting. If it was a serious case under their judgement they decided they would call the rest to come.
âHow is he?â You picked up on Jaebeomâs presence too.
âI just came.. I-I donâtâŚâ You started sobbing. You couldnât bring yourself to enter the room. You didnât want to see the damage done to someone you⌠you didnât even know⌠did you love him?
âShhh⌠Y/N. None of this is your fau-â Mark tried to calm you down but you predicted this phrase to escape his mouth.
âIt is Mark. These two know of each other because of me. They had a serious fight because of me. If I was just there today⌠may-maybe just maybe I could have stopped it.â
âYou werenât teaching today?â Jaebeom was confused.
âI-I had a meeting with that important client I men-mentioned last time we met. Usually when I donât come to lessons, Max takes over. Jooheon, my boss, rang to say everything was fine but itâs not f-fine.â You were practically crying at this rate. You couldnât believe things had gone too far. You imagine what sort of hopeless situation Jinyoung must have been in. Strangled and left passed out. It just triggered you to cry more.
âY/N. Me and Jaebeom are going to go inside. You can join us soon once youâve calmed down and ready, okay?â Mark kneeled down to your level and made sure to make eye contact, you looked up at both of them and gave them a slight nod.
âJust knock and weâll be there. Donât worry. Weâll get through this Y/N.â Jaebeom patted your head as they passed you and entered the room.
THIRD PERSON POV
Mark and Jaebeom entered the room slowly just in case Jinyoung was asleep resting. This wasnât the case. Jinyoung was up and turned his head slowly towards his members.
He had bandaging wrapped around his neck restraining him from any sudden movements. Packed cushioning on his right eye held by some more bandaging. The colour from his face had drained. He was already pale but now he was just like a sheet of paper. He looked ill. The life out of him sucked out. What the fuck had Max doneâŚ
âBefore you ask, yes sheâs here. Sheâs trying to muster up the courage to come in. Sheâll be here once sheâs ready.â Max beat Jinyoung to his question.
âI donât blame her. Look at me.â Jinyoung signalled at his battered state.
âWe all know you could have retaliated but itâs too risky. You have a lot on the line. The group being one of them so thank you.â Jaebeom grabbed a chair and sat near Jinyoung.
âNext time beat the shit out of him though. You have our permission. I donât care what we have to go through to clear your name. Youâre still human at the end of the day, you donât deserve to be treated like this.â Mark bursted in anger. His duality would scare anyone. He entered calm and composed only to set alight as soon as he spoke. He wasnât having it.
âWill there even be a n-next time? He was caught on camera. I overheard the d-doctors talking about officers b-beside him throughout his check-up.â Jinyoung spoke. His voice sounded groggy.
âHeâll probably just be charged or some sort of warning. Heâll probably be sacked too, he works with people, Iâm sure the centre wonât let him continue.â Jaebeom gathered.
âThis guy must be a maniac. He just ruined his life over a female. I know you have an interest in her, but you need to think for yourself before anyone else.â Mark clarified. He didnât get why someone would resort to violence without trying to sort out the situation like civil people. Similar to Y/Nâs thought.
âShe must be so conflicted.â Jinyoung struggled to voice his opinion. It hurt for him to speak. He just hoped his vocal cords werenât damaged, nothing permanent at least. Doc said sheâd clarify him of the results to confirm any damage, aware of his profession. Singing is his life; He wasnât going to lose his pride possession that easily.
âIf she comes, can you guys give us some time?â The other two nodded.
âYour life was on the line yet youâre here thinking about her. Youâre not just interested bro, youâre whipped.â Jaebeom gave a sneaky smirk trying to lighten the mood up. Jinyoungâs expression changed showing some form of life; He smiled knowing what Jaebeom had said was right.
âWhat did the doctor say?â Mark was still really concerned.
âV-vocal cords. Sheâs checking them.â
âFuck my life. Itâs that bad. Should I ring the others to come?â
Jinyoung waved his hands no, âI-I donât want to handle questions. I-I can barely speak.â
Suddenly the 3 guys turned their heads due to a click near the door. Y/N had built up courage to check Jinyoungâs condition. She had enough of imagining and just wanted to know how bad he was.
Y/NâS POV
You took a deep breath in. You could do this. You would have to see him at one point anyways so just do it now instead of eating away on your own sanity. With that, you got a good grip of the door handle and pushed the door open.
â⌠I-I can barely speak.â You heard the ending of a sentence by a croaky voice. It started to settle in even more how bad Jinyoungâs condition was.
You could only see the edge of Jinyoungâs bed when you entered but you made instant eye contact with Mark. He gave you a reassuring smile which prompted you to walk in a little further.
âWeâll be outside.â Mark signalled his head towards the door to Jaebeom. Jaebeom got the idea of who had entered the room.
The two walked past you. Jaebeom gave you a brotherly pat on the shoulder as they left. You could do this.
You took small steps to the corner that would reveal Jinyoung fully. You revealed your head around the corner to see Jinyoung laying there but you couldnât handle the site. You retracted back to hiding. You were going to converse from here if you had to.
âDoes it hurt?â You didnât even know what to say.
âNo.â Jinyoung was trying he best not to sound hurt so you didnât feel any form of guilt.
âLiar.â But you were too smart.
âA little.â
âHmm⌠Iâll save you the talk then. I know how much Iâve apologised to you since weâve met, and youâve mentioned how you donât want me to apologise for othersâ actions. B-but Jinyoung Iâm so sorry.â You crouched down with your back against the wall. Jinyoung could hear your sobbing.
âIâm so so sorry. Iâm s-sorry I didnât tell you I-I wouldnât be in today. I should have got in contact.â You had lost it again.
Jinyoung couldnât handle not being able to hug you in his embrace. He didnât like how hopeless he was in his hospital bed. He wanted to shh you and tell you to not apologise. He wanted to tell you what was on his mind, but his body wouldnât allow it.
âY-Y/N.â Jinyoung heard your sobs hold back when you heard your name.
You looked up as he called your name. It reminded you of when he called your name for the first time. You liked the sound of your name when he said it.
âHmm.â You hummed in response.
âC-come here.â
You were hesitant but it wasnât the best thing to not listen to Jinyoung right now. You got back onto your feet and peaked at Jinyoung around the corner again. He was directly looking at where you would show up. You werenât able to make eye contact with him as you walked to the seat Jaebeom had pulled to Jinyoungâs bed. Your eyes were glued to the floor.
âL-look at me Y/N.â You knew the reason why his sentences were more demanding. He could barely speak so he kept it short. You looked up at the one eye that wasnât covered. He met your watery eyes. He wouldnât think to see you crying again after the day you stepped between him and Max. He made a promise to himself to make you smile no matter the situation.
âI-Iâll definitely be drowning now, wonât I?â You couldnât believe he was making a swimming joke at this moment. You let out a chuckle more because you were shocked at this comment.
âSeriously⌠youâre making a joke at this point of your life.â
âItâs p-perfect timing. I get to see you smile; it suits you... to smile.â His comment towards your smile made you smile even more.
âIt suits you too⌠to smile.â You took a hold of his hand and rubbed your thumb against his knuckles. You let out another chuckle because of the size difference between your hands.
âWhat?â
âI understand why people say I have small hands.â You lined up your hand and Jinyoungâs hand together and showed him the big difference. He smiled at your innocence and purity.
âYou know what they say about big hands.â You mouth fell agape. Was he making dirty jokes in this current situation as well?
âI thought Jaehyun was bad.â He chuckled but it hurt for it to last long. He winced at the pain.
âYou good? Should I call a nurse?â Jinyoung waved you no.
âItâs expected. Waiting for results now.â You nodded wishing that the results would be out at this very moment.
âIâll ask what happened between you two when youâre better. I donât want to cause even more damage to what has already been done.â
He gave you that gaze again. Taking responsibility for othersâ actions. He hated it.
The door opened and the doctor from earlier walked back in.
âHello Mr Park. Feeling any better?â
âBarely.â You looked back down again, eyes glued on the floor.
âResults are not out yet. I was going to check if you could consume food or if weâll need to feed you through a syringe. Iâve bought some soup from the cafeteria. Miss can help you to see if you can eat.â You looked up at the tray in the doctorâs hand and took it from her. You gave her a nod.
âIâll let you know if heâs able to eat the soup. Iâll press the buzzer to have you notified.â
âGreat. I wish you a quick recovery Mr Park.â
The doctor left the room. Jinyoung didnât have a âtime to drink soupâ face on but you were going to convince him no matter what.
âDonât even think of not having this soup. Iâll try my best not to mum you, but you heard the doc.â
âMum me⌠I-I donât mind.â You scooped a spoon full of the soup and blew a little on it (not advised during the periods of COVID-19, take care of yourselves).
âOpen up. Try your best.â He swallowed the soup and his arm gripped your arm due to the pain. The instant reflex caught you off guard and you felt sorry for the pain he was feeling.
âDoable?â
You looked up at his one eye ready with another scoop. He nodded wanting to try once more. Yet again he winced in pain with the same reflex.
âSyringe?â He nodded again. You pressed the buzzer on the wall and the doctor was back again soon after.
âI donât think Mr Park will get through a bowl of soup without a lot of pain. I think the syringe will be better.â The doctor took note on Jinyoungâs record and called in a nurse about the syringe hours.
âThanks doctor.â You liked the kind and keen approach she had towards her job.
âItâs our job Miss.â The doctor then left the room.
You looked back at Jinyoung only to see him staring right through you. He wanted to ask you why you werenât in and luckily you owed him an explanation.
âI wasnât in for the lesson because I had a project meeting with the hotel client I mentioned on Friday. Whenever Iâm not in lessons, Max covers for me since heâs the only teacher free during that period. I gave Jooheon a ring and he told me not to worry and just concentrate on the meeting. I was going to tell you prior to the lesson but I had so much to do over the weekend for this meeting that it went over my head. Iâm so- â
âDonât.â You stopped in your tracks. Right donât apologise for everything.
âHow d-did it go?â
âIt went really well. He mentioned theâŚâ You trailed off having realised that you had completely forgotten about the news that was published across all platforms.
âThe news?â So, he was aware?
âTo our luck he actually seemed fond of the news. He even bought flowers as a congratulations gift which was a little odd. I did break it to him what the actual truth was, but he was happy regardless. We swiftly moved onto the project and he was really happy with the outcome. The hotel will be built for 2022 and construction starts really soon.â
He felt like a proud mum. He wished he could go on and on about how proud he was of your achievement, but his current state wouldnât allow him.
âI-Iâm sorry for the n-news.â This was different, he was the one apologising this time.
âI would say that itâs fine, but I have to be honest itâs not. My phone has been going off since the meeting from random numbers and my company entrance was filled with paparazzi right before the meeting. I havenât got back to my friends or family because god knows where to start.â
âMy manager will h-handle it. Y-you shouldnât have to go through this c-crap.â You guessed that the news will be taken down or some sort of announcement will be made by his side to clear it up.
âThatâs good to know. Iâm going to give the meeting holders a quick ring, I left abruptly after hearing Jooheon over the phone. Give me a second.â
You got off from the chair and gave Beck a ring whilst gazing out the window. This was so hectic.
âHey Y/N, is everything okay?â Beck sounded so worried on the other end of the line.
âHi Beck, youâre going to have to go alone with Mr Chan. I wonât be able to make it. Let him know that Iâll make it up to him but Iâm at an emergency situation right now. Iâll talk to you later too. I owe you one.â
âUnderstood. Donât drain yourself out with whatever it is. Me and Mr Chan will be fine. We seem to have caught him on a happy day anyways, donât worry.â You knew you could always count on Beck.
âThatâs great. Make sure to forward him my apologies. Have fun.â You hung up the phone and returned back to Jinyoungâs side.
âYou should g-go.â Jinyoung spoke up.
âYou want me to go to a meal knowing that youâre being fed through a needle looking out the window with only one eye. I donât think so Jinyoung.â It was unfortunately the bitter truth. He read your face well and you werenât up for listening to him right now.
For the rest of that day you were with Jinyoung. Every time the nurses would come to change his bandaging youâd have to step out. You couldnât bear to look at what Max had done to Jinyoung. Youâd always ask the nurses as they left if there were any signs of healing, but theyâd just say itâs too early to tell. Later on, in the evening the rest of the guys came by and stayed with Jinyoung. You would also leave then, to give them time to have their talks.
Monday Evening
âY/N, Iâm sure Jinyoung wouldnât like to see you slaving away in the corridors of a hospital. Why donât you head home and rest up? You can come back in the morning to check up on him.â Mark stepped out of the room and started to get worried at how long you hadnât eaten and gotten some rest.
âMark, Iâm really not in the mood. Iâll just end up procrastinating at home and get even more worried. Sleep definitely wonât be visiting me tonight if anyhwere but at this hospital.â Mark shook his head, understanding where you were coming from.
âIâm going to stay over the night. You guys can all go. Heâs in good hands. Hereâs my number. You can contact me if anythingâs up and Iâll make sure to pick up.â You handed over your business card which had your contact details on it to Mark.
âWeâll be leaving in 5. Make sure to get some rest too. I donât want another casualty in our hands.â He smiled trying to make you feel better.
âDonât worry. Iâll take good care of both of us.â
Like Mark had said, 5 minutes later the boys departed from the hospital informing you to get in contact with them if anything in the slightest happens. You said your goodbyes and they were off. You returned back into Jinyoungâs room to see his eyes shut.
Hes had a rough day. A really rough day. Itâs weird how both of your days started of normal only to stoop to a miserable level. Itâs expected for him to be tired. Now was the time for him to get some rest in order to recover. You just hoped that no permanent damage was done, or you wonât be able to forgive yourself until the day you die. You were willing to be by his side until he was fully recovered. Stay beside him and even have him in your own home so you can nurse him easily. You could hear his light snoozing as he drifted into a deeper sleep.
The nurse came in to check everything for the evening. She noticed the patient asleep so toned down her voice.
âMiss, would you like us bring in a portable guest bed?â
âIf it wonât cause much hassle and noise, then that would be great. Thank you.â The nurse smiled and left the room to bring you your bed.
âŚ
Your bed arrived with its sheets and a plump pillow on top. The hospital even had some pyjamas laid out on the bed for you to change into. You used the on suite bathroom to change into the pjs. You had taken off your makeup with the cleansing wipes you always carried with you and sat on the bed.
You couldnât take your eyes off Jinyoung. The poor man went through such a traumatic day with you being the cause of it all. You slowly got off the bed avoiding any creaky noises from the springs and kneeled down, so you were level with Jinyoungâs face. You brushed the strands of hair that were covering his face to aside. He looked effortless even in this state. Not many could achieve. You lighted stroked his cheek feeling his warm skin which had gained more colour compared to what it looked like at first. His calm sleep self gave you so much to look at. His perfect proportions, short but cute eyelashes, noticeably larger but cute ears and his lips. Oh, how much you wanted them to make contact with yours again, just like they did in the sand that day. You were sure he felt the same, there was no denying.
JINYOUNGâS POV
You were sure she thought you were sleep. Her presence was near enough for you to guess the difference between you two. 10cms apart from someone you gave so much care about. 10cms away from someone you were sure you could say, you loved. No matter how early it may be, you knew from the start that she was the one. You were just too hesitant on things moving quickly. This injury being one factor thatâll definitely be slowing down anything from progressing quickly, deterred you from that happening.
You really wanted to open your eyes. To look into the deep world that her eyes held and be her guardian angel. To tell her how much sheâs been on your mind since the first encounter. Whilst you were running through the things you wanted to say to Y/N, you felt a gentle peck against your cheek and a whisper.
âWhat have you done to me silent parrot? Goodnight.â
Silent parrot? You guess thatâs something youâll need to question Y/N on once youâre more able to talk. With that, you sensed Y/N snuggle into her bed and you decided to do the same. Lots of sleep is going to be needed in order to recover from all the injuries.
Tuesday Morning
You were an early bird. Having the nurses change your syringe and bandaging every so often didnât exactly help with a consistent sleep. Every night visit by the nurses youâd make sure to ask them to be really silent, so Y/N didnât wake up.
The clock across you struck 7 am but you didnât care what the time was because you had a little lamb beside you still fast asleep. She looked so cute. You noticed how true she was about her hands too. They looked tiny as they laid on the pillow next to her face. She was snuggled, hugging her duvet like it was a snuggly toy.
The sun started to peak through the blinds and hit Y/N directly in the face. She should wake up soon, you thought.
Y/NâS POV
You woke up to a small heat against your face and a lightened environment. It was now morning. You rubbed your eyes and slowly opened them. You checked over at the side table and grabbed your glasses to clearly see Jinyoung. He was wide awake.
âG-good morning.â There was a little more life in his voice but still groggy.
âGood morning, did you get some sleep? How do you feel?â You sat up with your legs crossed under the duvet.
âIn small dosages, yes. I-I feel a b-bit more rested.â You shot him a smile and got up from your bed due to a knock at the door. Considering it wasnât a doctor since they didnât just come in you guessed it was a visitor of some sorts.
âIâll get it.â You told Jinyoung and opened the door. Jinyoung was able to hear who you were talking to.
âOh. Hi Mona, Iâm guessing Beck sent you with all the things I asked for.â
âYes Miss. I have your workwear in here and a light breakfast too. Iâve parked your car downstairs so you can get to work with no hassle. If thatâs all, Iâll be off.â
You ruffled her hair for being so formal even though you knew each other for the past 4 years, âStop being so formal. I know youâre my assistant and all but youâre also my friend. If there isnât much work for you today why donât you hang around and we can go to work together?â
âIâd love to Miss- â
You chuckled, âStop with the Miss.â
âFine. Mr Longing had some tasks planned for me to do when I got back and apparently they are urgent, so Iâll have to decline Y/N. Maybe another time.â
âBummer. Alright, thank you for helping out. We can have a meal another time. I should be at the company before midday.â
âSee you Y/N.â You waved Mona goodbye and headed back into the room. Jinyoung almost had a sulking face on and you never knew you needed to see him pouting in your entire life.
âAre you sulking⌠by any chance?â You stood at the end of Jinyoungâs bed and looked at his facial expression.
âNo.â As he declined your outrageous question, he crossed his arms and looked away from you. You were dealing with grown baby.
âCould it possibly be because I need to head to work?â
âHmph.â He kept his arms crossed. You didnât know youâd see him in this way in your life.
If he was playing baby, letâs see what he felt when you told him, âI never really liked guys who sulked.â You werenât being serious, but you just really wanted to get a reaction out of him.
He uncrossed his arms immediately, âI wasnât sulking. I was justâŚâ.
âJust?â You got him on edge, and it was funny to see you mostly in control of a situation this time round. Heâd usually be the one with the upper hand but not this time. Still no answer.
âCat caught your tongue Park?â You were having way too much fun.
âDamn. You really donât like guys who sulk?â You couldnât hold in the truth any longer.
âI donât mind Jinyoung. Iâm just playing with you.â You chuckled at his defeat.
âPhew. Back to what I was doing,â He crossed his arms again and faced away from you, âDonât go.â
You couldnât believe your eyes. He just switched back into a baby in milliseconds.
âNo wonder why youâre an actor. Acting⌠shit. Whatâs going to happen with the drama?â It sunk to you how many things this situation has affected.
âP-postponed.â You felt shit again. He stopped with the sulking at this point and realised your drop in energy.
âDonât worry about it Y/N. Things will be b-back to normal soon-â
Before Jinyoung could finish his words, his doctor rushed into the room. She seemed like she was out of breath. You looked at Jinyoung and you both eyed the doctor waiting for her to explain her rush.
âSorry forâŚthe sudden entrance. The⌠results-â She was really longing out the news. Was it bad? Was it good? You couldnât handle her short pauses.
âCan you just say it?â
âYes⌠Miss. Thereâs good and bad news.â You looked at Jinyoung and his face was definitely different to how he was a minute ago. No longer a child but an adult.
âD-doc. Bad n-news first.â
âMr Park⌠your vocal cordsâŚâ The doctor was also aware of how much Jinyoungâs vocal cords meant.
âSay it, Doc.â Jinyoung couldnât take it anymore either.
âYou wonât be able to sing...â
---
I can already hear all of you hating me for this ending too. I feel so evil. I was planning on continuing but I wanted to be a tease again. Youâll have to be back for the next episode to find out the good news. I wanted to say whilst writing this episode half of the time I was in delulu land. I felt sad having Jinyoung in such a vulnerable situation and thought what it would be like looking after him. I have left that land though, much healthier not thinking delulu.
listen even if you think they've heard it a thousand times, even if you think you aren't adding anything meaningful, we eat that shit up, EVERY SINGLE POSITIVE THING
PLEASE send your content creators interactions. please reblog. please reply. leave something in the tags (MOST OF US READ THOSE!! yes!! i do go into every single reblog to check for tags!!!)
like listen. we love talking about what we made. ESPECIALLY if it was a product of extreme passion. there are a thousand and one things i would love to just word vomit at anyone who gives me the opportunity about my intentions and thinking in my works (and content creators please god come talk to me about your works like your intentions your anxieties i EAT THAT SHIT UP TELL ME EVERYTHING)
even if the only thing in your brain is screaming, COMMENT THAT. COMMENT A KEYBOARD SMASH. it takes two seconds and it shows us you're engaging with our works!! it means the absolute world!!
please for the love of god, make our days!! even just a simple "you're doing amazing and i love you and i can't wait to see what comes from you next" can leave me giggly for the next SIX HOURS!! there's a person consistently leaving commentary on each part of my au and it's so simple and it makes me SOB like it makes me so happy!! you don't have to write an essay or a book report!!! just show us you're excited!!!! just show us you enjoy it!!!!!!!
please!! every content creator i know has expressed a kind of exhaustion from lack of engagement at some point and i just wanted to make sure you knew, it doesn't have to be elaborate to make somebody's day. i resumed work on several stories i'd discarded after someone left a comment on a part saying how much they liked x element
if you want more content, just tell the creator what you liked about the content and YOU'LL GET MORE CONTENT babe i promise it's really that simple
a/n: a quicker comeback unlike last time. i know the ending might annoy some people but i wanted to try out a cliffhanger having got the chance.
warning: swearing, thats it lol
EP . 1 , EP . 2 , EP . 3 , EP . 4 , EP . 5 , EP . 6 , EP .7 , EP . 8 , EP . 9
Well, Friday was unexpected. Friday answered many things. Jinyoungâs job. Jinyoungâs friends. Your feelings. Jinyoungâs feelings towards your feelings. So much happened in one day even you couldnât believe your life had gotten so much action.
Now it was the weekend and luckily you had things to do to take yesterdayâs doings off your mind. The eco-hotel.
Saturday Midday
You had Beck come over for the weekend to work on the eco-hotel together. The sheets for the new hotel plans were distributed across the living room floor and the sun was at its peak. You went over to your air con and switched it on. Beck wasnât a stranger, so you were dressed in a pair of shorts and an oversized short sleeved top. Your hair was up in a messy bun with a pencil behind your ear. You had all your equipment around the room. To be completely honest, the room was an organised mess. Note the word organised.
âY/N can we take a break? Itâs boiling in this room.â Beck looked absolutely drained from the morning session working to finish the eco-hotel.
âI was about to ask the same thing. Want an ice cream or a cold drink?â You signalled that you were gonna head to the kitchen.
âA cold cup of water should do. Iâll be out on the balcony.â You headed over to your kitchen and grabbed a glass of cold water for both of you.
You made sure to manoeuvre through the sheets of paper without dropping a single drop on the them. You gave the drink to Beck. He downed the whole glass in seconds.
âBeck, if you were this thirsty youâre no stranger you could have gotten some water.â You chuckled at his obvious thirst. You sipped some of your water.
âI didnât even realise how thirsty I was either. Let me go grab another glass.â Beck went back to grab more water.
âBe careful of all the sheets on the floor. No frog movements please, just be extremely careful.â You shouted back into your home hoping he got the message.
You thought to yourselves how youâll be able to have all the drawings done for Monday morning. You and Beck decided that it was both of your faults for having one of the pieces of land stolen from the next door firm. Hence why you called off all your employees that were working on this project. So, it was just you and Beck until Monday morning
âItâs going to be a rough weekend isnât it?â Beck came back onto the balcony and saw your nervous face.
âIâm so scared we wonât finish it on time. I even considered calling the client and completely blowing off the project.â
âGood thing you didnât. I believe we can do it. Even if it does mean less hours of sleep. This is nothing new Y/N. This has been our lives since the first year of architecture school.â
âSpeak for yourself. I didnât cut any hours of sleep for our under grad.â
âThatâs true and somehow you still completed your work with flying colours.â You brushed your shoulders and flicked your hair trying to act out the phrase âwhat can I say? Iâm that goodâ in actions.
âDonât get too happy. We need those skills back in action until the end of this project.â
âI think what hurts is that this project is actually finished but the client wants hand drawings as well as digital orthographics. Who even wants hand drawings anymore?â You sighed at the unnecessary request by the client.
âYa! Donât say that, especially not near the client.â
âI know, I know. Heâs a big deal. Everyone knows him and his creations. Who thought heâd want a hotel built in a small town like Jinhae?â
âI guess he heard about the increasing number of tourists coming to Jinhae, especially during the cherry blossom season. If you ask me, itâs a smart move.â You nodded in agreement.
âCome on, letâs get back to work. Enough chit chat.â You headed back into the living room. Beck straight behind you.
âI finished the floor plans. So, we have elevations and sections to draw. Weâve done the axonometric drawings digitally anyways. Mr Chan is gonna have to excuse us for one missing drawing. I may try and do it if we have enough time.â Beck looked at you with a shocked expression.
âYou have all the plans done already? Why in hell are we stressing then?â Beck had a smile on his face. Why in hell is he smiling?
âWhy are you smiling? We still have so much to do, come on.â You faffed your hands around trying to get Beck to now focus on his work.
âOkay, okay! Iâm working.â You guys returned to working at a reasonably fast pace hoping to have most of the drawings done by the end of today.
6:00 PM
You both ended the day by 6:00 pm. You guys had most of the drawings done by then anyways. Beck had never actually had a sit down session alongside you and was shocked at how quick you were. You were done with your drawings, but he had a couple left which you guys both agreed on finishing for Sunday. You still insisted for him to stay the whole weekend which was the original plan.
You guys made eye contact having declared that was enough for the day.
âTakeout.â You both mouthed to each other at the same time.
âGreat minds think alike.â Beck exclaimed as you grabbed your phone to call in your usual order. Pizza. A food thatâs simple, easy and you just canât go wrong with.
âCan you order a x-large for today? Iâm feeling extra hungry.â
âAlrighty, give me a second?â You rang up the usual place and processed your order. The person on the other end of the call took your order and read back that it should be there in 20 minutes.
âWe have 20 minutes to kill. What do we do?â
âI think you should make a call to the leisure centre too.â
âWhy?â Were you missing something?
âThe meeting is at 11:00 am. Your swimming lesson?â
âAh shit. I was looking forward for that lesson too. Maybe I can move the lesson so itâs after the meeting. Are we available then?â
âBad news. The client said to leave the rest of the day free after the meeting. He didnât say exactly why but I say we listen to him.â
You were looking forward to seeing Jinyoung. More than that whenever you couldnât make it for your lessons, Max would be the one to cover for your group. Although, everyone knew that wasnât a good option considering the awkward situation. But you had no choice, it was now up to Jooheon to solve the issue.
You dialled Jooheonâs number.
âHey Y/N!â He seemed really cheery. You were sure the news you were gonna give him now would kill the mood.
âHi Jooheon, got some bad news.â
âWhat is it?â
âYou know about the eco-hotel⌠The presentation for the project is at 11:00 am on Monday meaning I wonât be able to come for the 10:00 am beginners class.â
âThatâs fine. Iâll let Max know he has a cover for Monday.â
You waited in silence hoping Jooheon got the idea why it was bad news.
âOh shitâŚâ Took him long enough.
âYh⌠hence why I said bad news.â
âWe donât have anyone else free during that period too. You know about that.â
âI was going to see if we could rearrange the time but turns out the client wants the whole day off with us. No clue why.â
âIâll talk with Max, you donât worry. If you can contact Jinyoung prior to the lesson too that would be great.â
âIâll try my best to squeeze in some time. We are busy as you could imagine.â
âYou guys get back to work. Iâll solve the problem. You donât need to worry. If thatâs all I need to get back to my own work too. Talk to you later Y/N!â
âThank you so much Jooheon!â
You hung up.
âSorted?â
You nodded at Beck.
The afternoon continued calmly, and you guys discussed the eco-hotel presentation thatâll take place. The pizza arrived and you guys tucked into your food. Your anxiety was growing as the minutes went by. How was Monday going to turn out?
âŚ
Sunday Evening
You guys were actually ready. You both were shocked after rehearsing the presentation for the 10th time how well produced all the work was.
âI wouldnât have even thought that Iâd be getting a nightâs sleep before this meeting.â
âI think sleep was the big motivator. You know how I can last on a hand full amount of sleep.â
âThatâs true. Youâre useless when it comes to working during the night.â
âWooow, rude much.â
âIâm kidding. You performed really well. You reminded me why I partnered with you to start up a company.â You smiled at this compliment.
âYou gonna stay over tonight as well or crash at home?â
âCould I stay over so we can just go to the meeting together tomorrow?â
âYeah sure, this is like your second home after all. I feel like youâd also want to take advantage of my signature breakfast.â
âWas I that obvious?â Beck laughed at his failed attempt.
âI can read you like a book. You donât need to hide your intentions.â
âDamn it.â
âIâll prepare the long awaited breakfast tomorrow morning. Be up for 9:00 am. Set an alarm if you have to. Iâll tuck into breakfast with or without you.â You headed over to your bedroom and waved Jooheon goodnight.
âGoodnight! Sleep tight, donât let the cantilevers bite.â
You went back to react to his really dead architecture joke.
âGet in the bin.â With Beck laughing at this really bad joke, you went back into your room and headed off to bed.
âŚ
Monday morning
âBeck get your ass up its 9!â Typical, he hadnât moved a single inch for the past minute that his alarm has been going off for.
âY/N 5 more minutes.â
â5 more minutes and youâll get no breakfast.â
âBreakfastâŚBREAKFAST!â Beck jumped out of the bed and flung himself grabbing some clothing on the way straight to do bathroom.
âThis guyâ You laughed at his reaction.
You left him to get ready and went back to the balcony and poured both of you some rich black tea. You settled in your usual seat and started filling your plate with all the different delicacies you laid on the table earlier on.
âYouâve done it again! I love these Mediterranean breakfasts you make. I need to come here more often.â
âBe my guest. Itâs sometimes lonely enjoying a feast alone.â
âI could imagine. Although, that should have changed no?â What was he on about?
âOnce youâre gone Iâll be back to having lonely breakfasts.â
âNo, I mean you and your new boyfriend. When were you planning on telling me? Youâve been silent all weekend about it- â
âBoyfriend?? In whoâs world did you hear that I have a boyfriend?â You used all your strength to not spit out the tea you had just sipped.
âThe singer-actor guy? What was his name again? You were making headlines with him all weekend have you not checked your phone at all?â
You leaped back inside and grabbed your phone. No messages. No calls. What? Was this some kind of joke?
âBeck I havenât got a single notification. Are you taking the piss?â
He grabbed your phone from you and enabled your WIFI. He knew you would switch it off whenever you had important things to do like this weekend. As soon as your phone connected to your router, all sorts of things flooded your phone screen. You took it back off him and read all the headlines.
Love strikes under the full moon
Waves were not the only things crashing that night
GOT7âs Jinyoung and his secret lover
Who could she be?
Secret Girlfriend and Aspiring Actor kicking it off on the Beach
âYouâve got to be kidding me?! Right before an important meeting as well. The companyâs image. My image. My parents. How in the hell did this all happen?â
âY/N sit down. Itâs kinda late. Youâll just have to explain everything to whoever asks. Donât worry about the companyâs image, we all know how hardworking and talented you are.â
âGive me a sec. I need to make a call.â Jinyoung must have seen all the news too. You gave him a ring but no answer. He might be thinking that heâll speak at one point during the leisure centre and you hadnât found the time to let him know you wonât be in.
âY/N calm down. Focus on the meeting please. You can sort out whatever this is afterwards.â You sat back down and tried to calm yourself down. Beck was right. You guys had an important meeting to focus on.
âSorry.â
âY/N shut up. I donât want to hear it. Eat up, we have a long day ahead of ourselves.â
You tried to eat something, but it just wouldnât work. Every mouthful felt like labour. You guys cleared up the table and went to prep for the meeting. You brushed your teeth and took a quick shower. You knew you were ready for this meeting, now it was just time to act on what you knew. You took out a pair of cream shorts alongside a white oversized tank top and a brown belt. You grabbed your nude heals and the gold accessories off your drawers to put on as you left. You had your hair wavey from your twisted bun that you always slept with in and a little mascara, the usual. Beck had loaded your car with all the sheets to pin up for the meeting alongside all the small scale models you had at your house.
You locked your house and ran to your car. Beck was ready in the passengerâs seat running over the minor things on his iPad.
âHave you rung the company to check the room is prepared, refreshments all that jazz.â
âErm⌠yeah but thereâs apparently loads of paparazzi that security is trying to hold off.â Your head shot towards Beck. As if that was needed.
âGuess we are entering through the back entrance. Call the client at let him know to do the same.â
âOn it.â Thank god for Beck.
âŚ
20 minutes later
You were driving past the usual entrance of the company and saw the tons of people that the security was blocking off. In a million years you wouldnât have thought youâd have paparazzi at your company door.
âCan today get any worse?â You questioned out loud.
âDonât say that. Just get in through the back, itâll be over soon.â
Your receptionist let you through the back entrance and you guys moved to the meeting room that was prepped for the meeting.
âThe room looks great. Just like how we agreed on.â You smiled at your receptionist.
âThe presentation team did a great job. Iâll treat them for a meal.â Beck offered. You agreed with his statement.
âMr Chan should be here in 30 minutes. Letâs pin up the sheets and bring all the models to this room.â You both left your belongings in the room and went down to the fabrication labs down stairs. To head to fabrication, you guys had to walk past the front entrance. You peaked to see if the people had gone but no. It had gotten worse. There were more people we even bigger cameras. How on earth?
JINYOUNGâS POV
You were right on time for your lesson. You and the kids were waiting at the pool side for Y/N. You kind of felt giddy after what happened on Friday. What stage would you call you and Y/N now? You checked the clock and saw that she was 5 minutes late. This didnât seem like Y/N, sheâs always early. Or has been for the past 2 lessons anyways.
âWoojin, is Miss ever late?â Woojin shook his head no.
Jaehyun heard from his dock and decided to let you know about the news.
âJinyoung hyung, Y/N has a really important meeting today. She called in to say she wonât be making it for this lesson meaning Max will be taking over for today.â
Max⌠is taking over? This isnât going to go well.
âThanks, Jaehyun.â Jaehyun saluted which is his way of saying âno problemâ.
You were thinking why Y/N wouldnât have told you until you realised⌠the missed call this morning. She tried to get in contact with you, but you werenât available. Damn it.
âJaehyun, do you know where Y/Nâs company building is at?â
âYh, itâs the one and only big fancy glass building in the town centre.â She works there? Sheâs very humble for a CEO.
âRight, Iâll be absent for today. You can let Max know when he does the register. Also, what time is the meeting?â
âIt starts at 11:00 am, why did you ask?â
âIâm going to attend.â
Jaehyun started cackling, âDo you think you can just walk into a client meeting? You must be mad. Jinyoung hyung itâs a serious meeting, you canât just barge in.â
âFine, Iâm going to wait for there then.â
âNo can do.â Max was behind you ask he listened to the conversation. You turned around to face Max.
âI can leave if I want.â
âKids, do we want Jinyoung to leave this lesson? We all want him to stay donât we?â You couldnât believe he was going to use the kids as bait for you to stay.
âYes, Jinyoung oppa please stay!â
âJinyoung hyung, donât go!â
The kids started whining, hoping you would stay for the lesson. He used his weapons well; you couldnât break the kidsâ hearts especially when you knew how much Y/N cares for the kids. You were gonna stay for her sake.
You knelt down to the kids and gave them a smile, âFine, Iâll stay.â
You gave a glance to Max and hopefully you both sided with getting through this lesson without any disruptions. And so, the lesson commenced.
âWe will be doing a test today.â
âA test?â, Hyungwon gulped, âBut Miss didnât mention a test last week?â
âWell Hyungwon, this is a surprise test. Iâll be marking everyone on how well they perform on the things Miss taught in the past 2 weeks.â This guy is doing this on purpose.
âHow will you be marking us?â You spoke up.
â3 columns. Speed. Technique. A race. The place you come in the race will determine how many points you get for the âraceâ column.â
âIâm gonna beat you all.â Woojin was already hyped to get the highest score. You would have probably been as excited as Woojin if the teacher was different.
âRight, we will be starting with Technique. Iâll be going off the register order so line up in that order and Iâll be testing your technique swimming front stroke.â You lined up along with the kids. You were obviously last.
Max got to you. You had a feeling he was gonna try and do everything to give you a bad mark. You remembered all the things Y/N had taught you and starting swimming to the area Max marked. You hated that this man was good at something you werenât. Knowing he was ahead in something gave him more say and material on you.
âI feel sad for Y/N,â You waited for him to continue to see what he meant, âFor having such a crap student.â He jotted down a fat 0 next to your name under the technique column. Jaehyun heard from his dock the comment Max had made and made eye contact with you. He was pleading for you to not react to Maxâs words since that was exactly what he wanted to do. You clenched your fists and took a deep breath. You werenât gonna lose this easily.
âI feel sad for Y/N too. Different reason though.â You gave Max a dirty look so he got the idea that you were referring to him in some way.
âMax hyung, are we moving onto speed now?â Woojin separated both of your focusses onto him.
âYes Woojin-ah, get ready Iâll be timing you guys. You all have to swim in whichever style you want from one end to another.â
âGet to the side.â Max turned his face back to you and spoke in a demanding tone. He was really grinding your gears. This was going to be a long hour.
Y/NâS POV
âGood morning Mr Chan. I hope your flight yesterday was well.â You shook Mr Chanâs hand as he took his seat in the meeting room.
âGood Morning Miss Y/L/N and Mr Longing. I arrived without any problems. I got some rest too. All in all, Iâm ready for todayâs meeting.â
âAgreed, Mr Chan. Iâll begin with the site analysis and our response with our design.â You and Beck agreed for Beck to start the meeting and then you to end it.
âSo, as you may have heard one of the plots of land were taken out of our hands. There was some complications with the landowners, but we decided that one plot of land was enough to fulfil the criteria of an eco-hotel.â With that Beck continued with explaining the new updates on the hotel design after the land issue.
âMr Chan, the maquettes and models are laid out in the order of development. This is how the overall design developed into the final result. The 3D printed large model at the end is the final version of the hotel in a simple representation of the surrounding area around it.â You moved towards the model and showed Mr Chan where the sun would be travelling throughout the day. You brought along all the hand drawings from the past couple days too to show what each individual room would look like from all angles.
âThese look amazing. Iâm really thankful for the models and the drawings, they give a really good idea of what the final outcome will look like.â You and Beck looked at each other and gave a smile. All the hard work you both had put on for the past couple days had come through.
âAlthough, I wanted to ask one thing.â You diverted your attention to Mr Chan.
âYes, Mr Chan go ahead.â You were nervous from his sudden question. You were sure you and Beck hadnât missed out on any information.
âIt hasnât got to do with the project.â
âWhat exactly are you referring to Mr Chan?â
âYou, Miss Y/L/N.â You looked up at Beck. What could Mr Chan want to know about you?
âGo ahead, Mr Chan. Iâm listening.â If you were honest, you werenât feeling well. You started breathing heavier than usual scared of what Mr Chan was going to ask.
âThe paparazziâs at the front door. Why are they here?â Fuck. This should have been something you should have thought about earlier on. You looked at Beck for help. You had no answer to give.
âThat wasnât Miss Y/L/N, Mr Chan. There has been a misunderstanding. The news reports are still speculating who the person is and Miss Y/L/N has just been mistaken for the girl that the actor was with. As you may have seen the photographs were taken at night, so it is hard to tell who it is, as expected.â Beck covered up for you.
âI see⌠and Miss Y/L/N what do you plan on doing about the news.â
âIâm aiming to get in contact with the actorâs agency to speak up and deny allegations about my involvement since that is the truth. Iâll also be holding a conference soon to news outlets about the situation. I donât want anything like this to throw dirt under our companyâs name.â
âI thought it was you Miss,â Is he being serious?, âI was going to congratulate you on your new relationship. That was the reason for the flowers. Youâre also human. I thought you were taking a step forward in your person life. I know about how popular you are among fellow architects, for your work and for you too.â Me? Popular among architects? Step forward in my person life? Can life stop throwing new surprises nowadays, you were happy with your boring life.
âMr Chan.â Beck addressed your client.
âWe thought you would be disappointed about the truth. If that is the case Iâd like to firstly apologise for what I just said. I didnât mean to lie Mr Chan, but we didnât want anything to cause you to- â
âItâs fine Mr Longing. Congratulations Miss Y/L/N. Itâs really nice to see the new generation finding love. Iâm sure you have found the right person for you.â
âMr Chan, I appreciate your comments although itâs a little more complicated than that. We are not exactly dating or havenât exactly clarified it between ourselves.â You struggled to keep eye contact with your client at this rate. Beck eyed you knowing you could have just suggested that you had a fling days before an important meeting.
âIâm sure you guys will even end up getting married one day. I sensed it when I saw your photos side by side.â You just smiled at Mr Chanâs observations.
âI hope whatever is best for the both of us is what happens.â Mr Chan agreed and focussed back on the project.
âWas there anything else youâd like to ask Mr Chan?â Beck wanted to make sure Mr Chan was completely clear of the new changes in order to process the build.
âCan I decide on which trees and floors to have planted in the hotel? I know the botanic designers tend to do so.â
âOf course, Mr Chan. As long as the greenery you choose passes the climate test meaning theyâll stay alive in Jinhaeâs weather conditions, you can choose which ones we decorate the hotel with.â
âGreat, that marks the end of the meeting. You guys have done an outstanding job. Better than what I expected. Whatâs the estimated date of completion?â
âIf everything goes well, the hotel should be completely finished and ready for service for the month of March 2022.â
Mr Chan clapped in happiness. You were happy to have made your extremely important client over the moon.
âIâd like to take you guys out for dinner. I hope you guys made sure the rest of your days are free-â
You were getting a call from Jooheon. You never get calls from Jooheon during meetings, he knows not to disturb unless itâs an emergency.
âMr Chan, could I please take this call?â
âSure, go ahead. Me and Mr Longing will decide on where to eat.â You smiled and left the meeting room and picked up the call.
âJooheon, what is it?â
âY/N.. I-â
âJooheon please tell me. Did something happen?â
âJinyoungâŚHeâs in the- â
âThe what Jooheon can you just say it already?â
âThe hospital.â
âHOSPITAL?!?â
---
Oooooo⌠the suspense. I havenât tried these sorts of endings before, so I wanted to give it a shot. I want to leave it up to you guys for now to imagine what may have happened. Until the next episode, see you! Next episode will be extraordinary, you can count on me.
Someoneâs comment on the latest episode of Canât Swim made me realise about the âkeep readingâ button.
I know the episode was long (id like to point out this is the reason why I mention the word count at the beginning of every episode) but Iâve been uploading via mobile, hence why I havenât been able to add the âkeep readingâ feature (the keep reading button isnât available to add on mobile, the app specifically). I donât have access to my laptop as of right now since Iâm on an abroad family visit but once Iâm home Iâll be uploading using my laptop. Thatâll mean I can add the âkeeping readingâ button since Iâll be uploading from a desktop.
Sorry for any inconveniences this may have caused.
Here are the episodes for anyone that has missed any:
a/n: iâm late. Iâm well aware. i donât really know what to say to be honest. i hope the episode being close to 10k words makes up for the long wait. thereâs alot that goes on this episode. enjoy! we get a peak of jinyungâs pov at one point too! so exciting! no swimming lesson for today though :)
warnings: fluff shit near the end, swearing, dirtyminded stuffs, change in langugage at one point (ive placed translations too so no worries)Â
EP . 1 , EP . 2 , EP . 3 , EP . 4 , EP . 5 , EP . 6 , EP .7 , EP . 8, , EP . 9
Thursday had arrived and you spontaneously called a friend who had come down to Jinhae to see if she was available midday. She happened to have some time to spare between her schedule so you two met up for brunch and a simple walk around a local park.
Thursday midday
âItâs been so long since we got to hangout Tan.â
Tan, short for Tanya, was your close friend from university. She now works in a global firm which meant she travelled quite often. You knew she was in Seoul and was going to travel to Busan for a bit. You asked if she could squeeze a bit of her day to travel to Jinhae to hangout and she was happy you offered.
âTell me about it Y/N. You always claim that nothing had changed but Iâm still going to ask. Anything new in your life? Anyone new in your life?â Tan had a smirk on her face knowing she was hitting spots that were non-existent, she thought.
âI usually answer no.â Tanâs face lit up due to the unexpected change.
âGo onâŚâ She was getting extremely excited.
âIâve met this guy- â
âYou⌠MET A GUY??â Tan had absolutely lost it at this point, and she didnât even know his name.
âTan calm down. Weâve only known each other for a week and a half. He joined my beginners class last week.â She bursted into a loud laugh.
âYou are telling me the guy you met canât swim.â
âYA! Donât be mean. Heâs at least mustered up the courage at this age to come and learn. Some people canât even manage to do that these days. They care too much about image.â
âIâm sorry. I just didnât expect you to meet your soulmate in a swimming lesson. I thought maybe at the office- â
âYou know how Iâve said I would prefer to spend the rest of my life with someone in a different sector of work. I wonât be able to stand someone from the same field of work bringing nothing new to the relationship.â
âI know, I know Y/N. You want to learn from each other rather than talk about the same topics. I understand where you are coming from.â
âBut yeah. I donât actually know what he works as. Iâm meeting him tomorrow afternoon for âthingâ as he described it. He said Iâll be able to know then what he does then.â
âHe seems really mysterious. I hope youâre not getting into something dodgy.â Tan was always protective when it came to you and guys. She knew you had a gullible and fragile personality when it came to men.
âI donât think so. I donât even know how to explain it. Every time Iâve been with him Iâve felt giddy and bothered. He does the bare minimum and my whole world flips- â
âY/Nâ
You stop in your tracks realising that you had gotten way too ahead of yourself.
âY/N, you sound like youâre in love. Or close in the least.â
âTan Iâve known the guy coming up to 2 weeks.â
âYes Y/N. I understand but you sound like youâve known him for years and youâve only just realised your feelings towards him. I havenât even gotten to ask, whatâs his name?â
âHis name is Jinyoung. I donât want to jump in too deep. These feelings need to be reciprocated in order for there to be progression. To him Iâm probably just his swimming teacher.â
âRight, and since when did students meet their teachers outside of lesson hours and not only that basically go on dates.â
âYA donât call them dates. We are just hanging out.â
âHanging out my ass. Heâs bringing you into his life and introducing you to his world. Enjoy the ride Y/N. He sounds like a keeper.â
âYou think?â Tan nods and helps you come clear with your feelings.
You two continued with your walk in the park with Tan and settled on a bench after a while.
*ding*
You checked your phone having received a notification. It was Jinyoung.
âHey Y/N. I hope youâre doing well. If you are still able to come for tomorrow we can meet at 7:00 pm. Iâll be waiting for you at the parking lot again.â
You hadnât realised but you were smiling like a fool beside Tan.
âYep, confirmed. Itâs him isnât it?â
You look up at Tan as she took you away from your little bubble. You gave her a nod.
âY/N this is thee guy for you.â
You didnât understand how Tan could be so sure. Yes, you have feelings for him but to claim Jinyoung as the guy for me was a little too much, right?
âHow can you tell?â You were interested on what she had to say.
âYouâre smiling like a 5 year old on Christmas Day. I havenât seen you like this since you got a first in our last year of uni. This guyâs effect on you is so obvious. He canât be empty back; I can bet on it. With me just talking about him youâre smiling like an otter.â
You hit Tan on the shoulder lightly for teasing you. You were going to be open-minded about the situation and know that anything can be possible.
âAnyways, why did he text?â
âHe just let me know what time to meet up. He hadnât mentioned it at first.â
âGood luck Y/N.â
Your day with Tan continued. You appreciated being able to catch up with an old friend. You started to feel thankful for Jooheonâs call off. You were able to do things you may have had to wait months for. Although you still wished the call off was given for a better reason.
âŚ
Your day with Tan sadly ended earlier than you wanted, and she was off back to Busan for work.
You prepped breakfast for yourself this blissful Friday morning. You laid out a traditional Mediterranean breakfast since you now had the time. You missed it back home. To have this breakfast alone did drain itâs vibe, you were used to having these large breakfasts with your family. You took advantage of the weather and had breakfast on your balcony. The bay had to keep your company for now until you went back home.
You were caught off guard by a call from your company. You picked up.
âMiss?â
âYes, Beckâ
âWeâve got a dilemma.â You werenât surprised.
âGo on.â Youâd be shocked if something hadnât gone wrong while you were out of office.
âThe eco-hotel that was going to be built on two pieces of land- â
âWhat about it Beck?â Oh boy. What now?
âAnother firm somehow bought one piece of land which we were going to use for the greenery requirements to pass the eco test.â
âWhich firm? Beck Iâm gone for a couple days and shit has hit the fan this badly?â This was the biggest project in your hands, and it was slipping right through.
âThe next door firm- â
You hung up immediately. You were using all your might to not dash your phone into the sea ahead of you. Your rivalry between the next door firm had been going on for years but this time round it was going to be rougher than usual.
You rushed over to your closet and took out a navy suit alongside a simple white shirt + a pair of clear heals. With that you took your car keys and some documents to head to the company.
The speeding cameras could probably understand from the speed you were going at that something important was going on. You arrived at the entrance of your architecture office.
Yes, your full time job was as an architect.
You chucked your keys at the door keeper to park your car and dashed up to the 4th floor of the office. The whole company had turned into chaos in a matter of 2 days. All your employees were rushing around and there was around 6 people all surrounding Beck.
Beck was the second shareholder alongside you of the company. You both graduated as architects and decided to start your own firm as junior architects. Whenever one was out of office, the other covered for the both but this time round Beck was not able to handle all of this by himself.
You called out to Beck and his face changed from stressed to relieved. You and Beck moved to your office and discussed the situation working towards a solution.
A couple hours later
âWait, Beckâ
âWhy canât we just implement all the eco-factors into the hotel on one piece of land?â
Beckâs face was blanked 90% of the time until he heard your suggestion. He sighed a breath of relief.
âWe can just add terraces and add green to the lobbies, outdoors and any other dead space we have.â
âYouâve done it again!â Beck rushed to hug the shit out of you. He raised you off your feet and swung you around.
âBeck, calm down!â He put you back on your feet with a large smile on his face.
âY/N this is exactly why this company needs you?â You high five each other. A weight had lifted off both of your shoulders.
You hit Beckâs shoulder realising the rush you had been to get here.
âWe could have solved this with a Facetime call. Did I really have to rush over here?â
Beck just gave a childish smile. We all knew he just wanted you to be there physically. He couldnât be the only one suffering in the company. Even if it was for a couple of hours.
âThatâs all?â
âYep, can we not have a tea? You havenât been at the company for days.â
You checked the time and saw it was 4:00 pm. You could spare some time for a quick tea.
âYou did absolutely ruin a lovely breakfast that I had prepared at home. Teaâs on you.â
You guys walked down to ground floor to grab a tea from the company cafĂŠ. There was a duo table free near the entrance windows, so you guys sat there.
âY/N. How do you manage to keep up with the projects and the swimming classes? Isnât it too much?â
Youâve heard these questions from Beck on countless occasions. He knows the answer but just canât process how itâs possible.
âBeck you know that the swimming classes donât feel like a job to me. Itâs so nice to share a skill with those who are unaware of it. I love seeing all the kids smile every lesson. Itâs so refreshing and fun it makes me forget about the projects. When it comes to the company, I have a really reliable shareholder who fills my absence when needed.â You smiled at Beck knowing he would get an ego raise at the compliment.
âYou bet. The other shareholder is extremely reliable.â
âYou can always tell me if I start to drift a little too much from the company. I sometimes lose track on how much time Iâve spent on both jobs.â
âY/N are you kidding me? You somehow do the same amount of work as me whilst having another time consuming job. You finish project drawings in less time than the workers that have nothing better to do. Youâre doing more than enough, trust me.â
You smiled. It felt good that you were able to balance both jobs well with any concern.
âThatâs good to hear. I have plans for the afternoon so Iâm going to have to dip early. Thanks for the tea. Next time, consider a Facetime call when it comes to a similar dilemma.â
Beck waved you off as your car was brought back from the parking lot to you. You waved Beck goodbye as you drifted from the company back home to get ready for this âthingâ tonight.
You arrived home to see the time was now 5:00 pm. You need to leave at 6:40 pm. That gives you an hour and forty minutes to get ready. You didnât even know if there was a dress code. Was this a meal or an activity that you were going to? You circled in your walk-in wardrobe trying to figure out an outfit that would suit most occasions. You looked at casual floral dress. It would work only if it were daytime, itâll be close to the evening so that wonât work. Jeans and a top? Too boring? Ugh.
You spent 30 minutes trying out outfits and hadnât settled down on even one. You figured to solve the dress code problem by giving Jinyoung a ring. As much as it may be an embarrassing question you didnât care. You werenât going to take the risk and make a terrible impression of yourself to his circle.
He picked up.
âHey Y/N. Are you well?â
âHi Jinyoung. Iâm well. I hope youâre too. I was getting ready for this âthingâ of yours, but I have no clue if this âthingâ will be taking place in a casual or formal setting. Basically, I donât know what to wear.â You chuckled as you gave up trying not to be direct about why you called.
âHahaha,â Great made a fool of yourself again, âI understand. I wouldnât call it a formal setting. Thatâs for sure. A simple casual outfit would do. Just donât come looking like a hobo.â He chuckled again.
âGreat you just saved me from my worries of making a laughingstock of myself.â
âDonât worry you wonât. See you at 7.â
âSee you!â
Now that, that was out of the way you went back into your closet to pick out an outfit. You chose a pair of denim mom jeans and a black sleeveless bodysuit. You glammed up your outfit with silver jewellery pieces and your black Chanel bag. You wore a pair of white air forces to make sure your feet were comfy and headed over to your makeup stand.
You werenât exactly a big makeup girl. You tended not to use a skin makeup like foundation or concealer. You basically used mascara and that was about it. You werenât going to fake it; you were happy the way you were. Your lashes were curled, and you glided some mascara onto them. You werenât going to bother with contacts this afternoon, so you put back on your turtle shell brown glasses. It was now 6:00 pm.
You had 40 minutes to spare so you went on your laptop to reply to some emails and work on some renders for the eco-hotel you worked on with Beck today.
40 minutes flew by and you shut your laptop and took a deep breath. Donât fuck this up Y/N, you thought to yourself.
You hopped in your g-wagon and drove a new route to the entertainment company parking lot. Jinyoung was there like he had promised and waved you hello. You flashed your headlights as a way of reciprocating to Jinyoungâs wave. The gates slid open and parked your car in a free slot. There were more cars this time round. You guessed that there was something going on at the company.
âHow have you been Jinyoung?â You greeted him as you locked your car.
âIâm a little nervous,â He saw your puzzled face, âYouâll understand why soon donât worry.â
âCanât wait.â You both strolled towards the entrance of the company. The same flashes started again. Like last time.
Jinyoung wrapped his arm around your shoulder and guided you quickly into the building. He whispered in your ear to keep your head low until he said so. You did as he said. Around 10 steps after walking into the building Jinyoung let you know that you could look up now. You were puzzled as ever. What is going on? Jinyoung realised the both puzzled but also annoyed/stern expression.
âJust a little longer. I promise.â
You guys took the escalator to the 2nd floor this time alongside several other people. It was busier than the last time you were here. A lot of cameras and staff. You could hear them whispering among themselves in the lift. You were sure you heard the words âactorâ and âscript readingâ. You had no clue what they were referring to. Probably some entertainment company things.
The lift arrived at the corresponding floor and you guys all stepped out. You were registering the things around you. There were banners hung up near the glass room ahead. They read âdrama script readingâ and we were walking straight towards it.
You tugged on Jinyoungâs sleeve. You kind of felt uncomfortable feeling so alien-like in an extremely new environment. He took you to aside to avoid being in peopleâs way.
âY/N I wouldnât do anything to harm you. Trust me. This is all new to me as much as itâs all new to you. I wish I could be by your side, but weâll be separated. Remember Bambam for last time?,â You nodded, âIâm going to sit you next to him and my other friends heâll introduce you to them. Donât worry they wont bite.â He lightly chuckled.
You guys slowly headed to the glass room. It was packed with tons of staff and people like you. A long banner was pinned up to the wall. When My Love Blooms was what it read. Underneath it in smaller font read four names. One of which was⌠Park Jinyoung.
Heâs an⌠actor?
You saw Bambam like Jinyoung had said and was seated next to him. You took this chance to ask Bambam what in the world was going on.
âHey Y/N.â Bambam seemed really excited too.
âHey Bambam. Can I ask whatâs going on?â He realised your puzzled expression. He could tell Jinyoung hadnât told you anything about tonight.
âJinyoung hyung hasnât told you?â You shook your head no.
âToday is the first script reading of a drama Jinyoung hyung will be acting in. Heâs the second male lead actor. He plays the younger version of the main character.â So, he was an actor.
âHe didnât even tell me that he was an actor. He hasnât told me anything about his work.â
âThatâs typical Jinyoung hyung. Heâs usually secretive when it comes to work and this industry. Itâs kind of complicated to explain but he treats all the new people in his life the same way donât worry.â
âRightâŚâ This whole industry thing was new to you too. You were going to go with the flow and see what happens.
âHe also mentioned meeting his âcircleâ as he described it. Who exactly is he referring to?â Bambamâs eyes lit up as he looked to his other side which consisted of 5 other guys. Very handsome you must say.
âGuys!â Bambam got the attention of all 5 of them.
âBam what do you want now?â The guy with 2 moles on his eye lids looked up from his phone.
âJinyoung hyung wants us to meet a friend of his.â You were kind of nervous. The one who had replied to Bambam had a bit of a cold aura.
âReally?â His expression kinda lightened.
âYes hyung. Guys this is Y/N.â You gave a smile to all of them not knowing who should speak next.
âHi, itâs nice to meet you all.â That should do it.
âHello Y/N. Iâm Jackson.â He had a bright puppy smile on his face. He seemed like a social butterfly very eager to meet new people.
âIâm Mark.â Mark raised his hand to show who was talking. The staff were making a bit of noise, so his voice sounded a little muffled, but you were able to hear him. He seemed cool though.
âIâm Jaebeom.â The 2 mole guy spoke. He gave a sweet smile. You take back your thought of him having a cold aura. He seemed nice.
âIâm Yugyeom.â He started throwing gang signs trying to act cool. The guy beside him bursted out laughing and hit his shoulder trying to get him to stop. You joined in with him due to his contagious laugh.
âHi Y/N. Last but not least Iâm Youngjae.â He gave you wide and welcoming smile.
âSo thatâs everyone Jinyoung hyung wanted me to introduce you to. Youâll most likely see us often. We stick together most of the time.â Jaebeom rolled his eyes at the clingy child.
âHow did you meet Jinyoung?â Jaebeom asked after putting his phone away.
âActually, Jinyoung is my student. Iâm his swimming teacher.â The guys looked at each other and started laughing.
âWaaa, that punk actually signed up to take lessons. Good on him, I thought he wouldnât be able to.â You were kind of confused
âHow come?â
âJinyoung doesnât like it when heâs not good at something. Heâs an absolute perfectionist so to see him show a side of himself to people in a skill where heâs not thriving in⌠I didnât expect him to actually sign up for classes.â
Ahh, so heâs a perfectionist.
âI didnât know but he has been attending and cooperating well. Heâs also a quick learner so heâll be advancing quickly from my inspection.â
âTypical Jinyoung hyung,â Bambam commented, âHeâs always good at everything.â
An old man stood up from the table Jinyoung was on and silenced the whole room for the beginning of the script reading. You looked over at Jinyoung to see that he was already focussed on you. He looked a little nervous so you sent over a small smile and nod to let him know that youâre fine and that he can do this.
âThank you all for joining us today for the first script reading of When My Love Blooms. We will now be starting with the first episode reading. Letâs see how the actors have worked on their characters.â
You were excited to see what this was going to be like.
The script writing commenced, and everyone was concentrating on all the characters and the scene. The story line sounded really interesting and the chemistry between the actors and their characters seemed like a match made in heaven. You internally giggled when you found out that the main characters name was Jaehyun, remembering that this Jaehyun wasnât the lifeguard Jaehyun back at the centre.
This side of Jinyoung looked so classy and sophisticated. He had a similar pair of glasses on like you and a simple black shirt on. He would move his glasses up whenever they would slip a bit whilst looking at his script. You could see how much he was in character and the passion in his voice trying to voice his inner Jaehyun.
âFrom today onwards, weâre dating.â The dialogue between Jinyoung and the younger role female lead continued until the director interrupted.
âI wishâŚâ Everyone started laughing at the directorâs sudden comment. I donât blame him. The story line is to die for. If only life was the same.
Every now and again the boys beside you were trying to contain their laughs. They were like a bunch of brothers trying to find dirt on Jinyoung to tease him about later. They reminded you of your friends when you all hangout together specifically for someoneâs occasion.
The script reading ended soon after the funny moment. The staff started packing up all the refreshments and the paperwork everywhere. The actors were taken to a little set up area to take teaser photos ready to be posted before the launch of the drama.
âSo, Y/NâŚâ Jackson caught your attention and you drew your eyes from Jinyoung and the other actors to Jackson.
âYep.â
âYou teach swimming lessons. Is that your full time job or is it a hobby sort of thing?â
âItâs a part time job I do on the side. I pursue a more serious career as an architect.â Jacksonâs expression turned surprised.
âYouâre an architect?â The rest of the guys circled around you with interested looks.
âGuys calm down. I just design buildings for a living. Me and a friend own a company- â
âYouâre CEO?â Jaebeom launched himself forward towards you since he was out of it at first. Was it this big of a deal?
âMore or less.â The boys all started clapping. The staff joined in thinking they were clapping for the actors and the end of the first script reading. You joined in to cover up for their initial intention.
Jinyoung joined you guys as the claps continued. He was baffed at what was going on, but you just shook it off. He whispered a simple âyou good?â in your ear. You nodded in response to his question. The group + you faced Jinyoung and continued clapping in his face like a bunch of seals. Jinyoung wrapped his hands around yours to stop you from clapping. The contact between you and him caught you off guard but his hands were warm and protective. Your small hands fit perfectly in his much larger hands. It felt like the contact you wished for years to happen between you and your dad but that never happened. Your eyes were close to tearing, but you knew showing any sign of sensitivity will trigger another load of questions not only from Jinyoung but the rest too. He removed his hands realising the awkward closeness he showed among all the guys.
The clapping ended.
âHow was I?â Jinyoung diverted his attention from you to the rest of the guys.
âJinyoung hyung as always performed well. Iâm starting to get used to the fact that youâre good at everything hyung.â Yugyeom tried to act unphased but we all knew the experienced actor could see right through his lie.
âYou outdid yourself again Jinyoung.â Jaebeom patted his shoulder like a granddad (lol).
âIâm jealous of the female character.â Everyone looked at Bambam waiting to continue why he said what he said.
âIâd wanna be dating Jinyoung hyung too, itâs not fair.â Jinyoung put an arm around Bambamâs shoulder and you all started laughing at the absurd comment.
âJinyoung hyung already has someone in mind Bambam. You have to go search for someone else.â Jinyoung had someone else in mind? He likes someone? You just kept smiling trying to show you werenât hurt from the sudden confession. Damn⌠looks like you were a little late Y/N. Of course, a fine man like Jinyoung wouldnât go for you, you thought.
Jinyoung gave Youngjae a death stare. You guessed that wasnât information he was willing to just share casually.
âIâm sure sheâll fall for you with those acting skills.â You tried to lift up the mood that had turned awkward. The guys gave you a look and then looked at Jinyoung. They knew who Youngjae was referring to. You were the only one that was oblivious to the situation.
âI hope so too Y/N. I hope so too.â Jinyoung gave you a warm smile. His eyes crinkled and his teeth gleamed white. Whoever she is, sheâs lucky you thought.
âIâm starving, can we go for a meal?â Mark suggested as he changed the topic.
âYh, Y/N you can also join us unless youâre busy.â Yugyeom kindly offered.
âNo thereâs no need. I donât want to be interrupting your guysâ meal.â
âThatâs ridiculous. Iâm sure Jinyoung will be happy with you joining us anyways.â
You looked over at Jinyoung and he just smiled. You guessed Bambam was right. You had nothing planned for the rest of the evening, so you joined them.
âDid anyone come by car? All the staff vehicles are being used for the directorâs team.â Mark raised his hand although there was still a problem.
âYh but thereâs 8 of us Mark. Your car can hold 5 of us, what about the other 3?â
âLooks like itâs good that Iâm coming then. I came by car too. The other 3 can come with me. Iâll follow Mark.â
âAre you windows tinted?â What a weird question to ask.
âErm.. yes.â
âGreat, that works.â Jaebeom clapped after the situation was solved.
âLetâs go half and half. Iâm going with Y/N.â Bambam came by your side ready to follow you to your car. Jinyoung joined him and shrugged a helpless shrug towards Mark.
âYou fuckers are leaving me, wow.â Mark put a hand on his heart acting like he was heartbroken.
âDonât worry Mark. Iâll join you.â Jackson and Yugyeom joined Mark.
âRock, paper, scissors?â Youngjae offered to Jaebeom.
âGuys itâs just a car rid- â They were actually doing this werenât they.
âRock, paper, scissors!â Youngjae threw rock and Jaebeom threw paper.
âGood luck putting up with Jackson and Yugyeom.â Jaebeom waved Youngjae a farewell. Now that this was decided, you guys headed out of the company building.
âIâll tail you until our destination. Just in case we lose your car, does anyone riding with me know where we are going?â You walked along Mark settling on an agreement.
âYh, Jinyoung knows where we are going. He can guide you just in case you lose the car.â
âSureâŚâ You couldnât lie. You kind of wanted to know what it was that he was going to say.
âWAAAAA⌠Y/N youâre full of surprises. First it turns out that youâre actually an architect now we find out you rock a classy car too. Keep it coming.â You guess Bambam is the type to hype his friends. Like you mentioned before, praise is something that motivates you. Itâs rewarding.
âWAAAAA⌠Bambam itâs just a car.â You mimicked him.
âYh⌠but a really nice car.â He eyed your possession and circled round it.
âLook at this big boy⌠what did you name it?â This kid honestly.
âI shall not be disclosing that piece of information.â Bambam gave you puppy eyes in hopes for it to work.
âFine. Heâs called Prince.â You shut your eyes with your hands to avoid the embarrassment.
âAhhhh and because you own him⌠does that make you a Queen?â You laughed at Bambamâs analogy.
âNo specific reason for the name Bambam. Come on, Mark and the others are waiting for us.â
Jinyoung took the passenger seat beside you whilst Jaebeom and Bambam sat behind. Bambam specifically behind you.
âEveryone seat belts on please. I trust my driving, but I donât trust the driving of others.â You smiled at your comment. So vain.
âIâm going to tell Mark hyung you donât trust his driving.â Bambam is an actual kid, you concluded in your mind.
âThatâs not what I meant Bambam.â
âI know, I know.â You started the car as all of the guys, and you had put on your seatbelts.
You signalled to Mark for him to go ahead since your car was now ready. You followed his white Jeep out of the parking lot and started your journey.
âSo where exactly are we going to?â You still didnât know what you was going to be eating for dinner.
âWe often go to this seafood place near the bay. The fish comes fresh every day and they also have non-fish options too. Jackson doesnât like seafood much, so it works well for him too. Youâll definitely like it.â
Hmm, there was a restaurant at bay that you also went to often similar to what Jinyoung was describing. Maybe itâs the same place.
âWhatâs the place called? I live near the bay so I may know of it.â
âItâs called Aliâs Clam.â Bambam responded from the back.
âAli with the lisp?â If he replies yes now, you knew exactly where you were going.
âYou know of him?â Of course.
âWe come from the same country. Iâve known him since I moved to Jinhae. He was one of the first people I met.â
âSmall world. Weird how we didnât recognise each other. We must have been present at the same time at some point.â Jaebeom figured.
âI would agree but I always order into the company or home. I donât usually have the time to eat in. Itâll be a great surprise for him too since itâs been a while Iâve been at the restaurant.â
A couple minutes of silence went by. You had some music from back home playing quietly as you drove to Aliâs. You do love jamming loudly to music but only when alone. You werenât going to embarrass yourself in front of people youâve only met a couple hours ago.
âSo where exactly are you from Y/N?â You appreciated how the guys actually wanted to get to know you.
âMy parents are both Turkish. Although⌠I was born and raised mostly in London. I did go back often to see family, but I lived and grew up in London. Studied there and then work led me to Jinhae.â
You stopped at a red light.
âI was going to ask what coloured contacts you used. I guess they are real.â Bambam and his ridiculous questions.
âYes, they are real Bambam. Sorry to disappoint.â
âItâs okay. Iâll just stare at them instead.â This kid. Jaebeom and Jinyoung laughed at the sadness in Bambamâs voice.
âIâll let you borrow them if you want.â Bambam triggered your sarcasm to come out. What a fool.
âIâd be honoured.â You liked how he continued.
âSo, Y/NâŚâ Jinyoung spoke up.
âYouâre an architect?â You just nodded and you kept your eyes on the road.
âWhy teach swimming then?â This question again.
âHereâs how Iâll answer that question,â He was listening, âIsnât it so refreshing and fun being with the kids in our group? To see their faces light up every Monday morning because of me and my lessons. Itâs an amazing feeling knowing Iâm touching their lives by giving them a life skill that theyâll be grateful for. It never feels like work.â
As you explained your reasons, Jinyoung had been staring at you in deep thought. The way you were concentrating on the road as you spoke about pure innocent things. The way you were so passionate about helping the kids learn a vital skill. He couldnât register everything at once and felt so overwhelmed. Your eyes glistened as you continued talking about your love for the kids and how much you loved swimming. He watched your every move and could feel his heart thumping stronger than usual. He knew what was happening and was willing to comply to his heart.
You realised you had been rambling off for a while and hadnât heard a single thing from Jinyoung. You glanced to your side to see a loving stare coming your way. You wished you could reciprocate but eyes on the road was something you were going to stick to. He realised his own stare and directed his look to Bambam. You just smiled. Luckily it was dark, so your flamed up cheeks werenât visible to anyone.
âŚ
Your phone rang⌠it was Max. You guys still hadnât sorted out whatever it is thatâs between you two now. You didnât know if you should pick up. Due to the lovely thing called technology, your car picked up on the fact that you were getting a call so everyone could see who was calling. Jinyoung aware of who Max was.
âFeel free to pick up.â Jinyoung prompts you to pick up.
âYou guys okay if I pick up?â
âGo ahead.â The other two responded.
You picked up the call.
âHey Max, how are you?â
âDoing better Y/N. You free to talk?â
âYh sure, go ahead.â
âI wanted to talk about Monday.â
You looked over at Jinyoung. He didnât seem phased, but you felt uncomfortable.
âIâm listening.â
âStay away from him.â Not this again.
âElaborate âhimâ.â
âYou know who Iâm on about Y/N. Donât make me say his name.â
âElaborate or Iâm hanging up.â
âFine. Iâm on about Jinyoung.â Oh boy the air in this car just got even more awkward.
âFuck my life Max. Youâre still dragging this out? Can you speak up like a man with a pair of balls?â
Jaebeom and Bambam looked at each other. They sensed the change in atmosphere as expected.
âAlright Y/N. What Iâm saying is you have to stay away from Jinyoung from now on! I see the way he looks at you Y/N. His ass is so whipped for you and it has only been 2 lessons- â
âAnd?â The awkwardness had hit cloud nine. You wanted to hide in a box and stay away from humans for weeks at this point, but you had to stay strong. You werenât going to give in like a weakling.
âWhat do you mean âand?â? Arenât you bothered? Are you ready for someone else to crush your heart again just like Chas- â
âDonât you dare say his name.â Max was crossing over the line. This call being on speaker didnât help either.
âYou get the point. Your ass is going to fall deep into his trap too only to be left like a shattered mirror again. Continue being like this and I wonât be there to fix you either.â
With that Max hung up. You didnât speak. You were trying to contain the anger you were feeling rise up. You were carrying lives in the car. You werenât going to express the anger now.
âYou good?â Bambam couldnât stand the silence and asked the comforting question. You had to be honest. You werenât exactly feeling like answering although you thanked him internally for caring.
You mustered up the energy to talk after burying the anger inside.
âI deeply apologise for what just happened. I didnât exactly want you guys to witness this not-so-nice side of me let alone on our first meeting,â You faced Jinyoung for a split second, âI owe you another apology. I donât know whatâs gotten into him but- â
âYou truly are unaware arenât you.â Jaebeom interrupted you. Kind of rude.
âI donât know who that guy was, but he sounds extremely jealous.â This again. Jinyoung opted to stay silent.
âYou think?â
âI think? Itâs almost fact. He sounds so riled up. As a guy the only reason Iâd ever be so âlike himâ would be because Iâm jealous.â For everyone to say this keeps solidifying the assumption. You guess everyone was right.
âJaebeom hyung is usually right when it comes to knowing things. What he says usually turns out correct. I also agree. He sounds pissed and jealous.â
You chose to stay silent until you arrived at the restaurant. Everyone went back to what they were doing before the rude call. A couple minutes later you all arrived at Aliâs Clam.
You and Mark parked near the venue and walked it to the table Ali had given the rest.
âNo way!â Ali ran up to you and gave you a warm hug. It had been around 1 month since the last time you saw him. Although you could feel the life being squeezed out of you too.
âAli let me breath,â you laughed as you hugged him back, âItâs good to see you too.â
âY/N seni bir aydÄąr gĂśrmĂźyorum. Nerelerdesin?â
[âY/N I havenât seen you for a month. Where have you been?â]
âBizim bĂźro bĂźyĂźk bir proje kaptÄą. Beckâle onun ĂźstĂźnde çalÄąĹÄąyoruz. Biliyorsun ki yĂźzme derslerim de var buraya gelmeye zaman bulmak zor oluyor.â
[âOur firm received a big project. Iâve been working on it with Beck. You know about the swimming lessons too, itâs hard to find time to come.â]
The guys all picked up the change in language. This is what it must feel like for our fans, they thought to themselves.
âSo how come you know of these lot?â He was referring to Jinyoung and the rest, âAnd how do you guys know of Y/N?â
Yugyeom stepped up to explain.
âLong story short, Y/N is Jinyoungâs swimming teacher. The rest of us met Y/N today at Jinyoungâs script reading.â
âRiiiight⌠So, what can I get you guys today? Everythingâs on me!â Ali clapped in excitement for reuniting with his friend alongside his favourite customers.
âCan we get our usual lobster in the middle plus the baby crabs plus Jacksonâs order?â These guys donât order the stuffed oysters. What in the world?!?
âYou know what else to add Ali. I canât believe you guys donât order the stuffed oysters. Itâs Aliâs signature dish.â
âI got you Y/N! Iâll make it a bigger portion so the rest of you guys can try it too.â Ali jotted down the order on his little notepad.
The small chit chat continued. You were sat between Jaebeom and Jinyoung. Your table looked out to the bay and was decorated with shells and blue and white ribbons. You always loved the ambience of this restaurant. It reminded you of the fish restaurants back in Turkey that you and your mum would go to when you were younger. Whenever you felt homesick you knew you could come here to sink the feeling away.
âSo, Miss is an architect.â Jinyoung turned to you as the rest spoke among themselves.
âI guess I am, and Mr is an actorâ You chuckled. You both found out each otherâs careers in very different ways.
âI guess I am.â He mimicked you. You eyed him having picked up on what he was doing.
âSo, whatâs the story behind you and everyone? How did everyone meet each other?â
âGet ready for another surprise. Iâm not exactly just an actor⌠All 7 of us make up a k-pop group called GOT7.â
âYh, right.â You laughed at him assuming he was joking around.
âWow donât believe me. Guys!â Jinyoung got the attention of the rest of the guys.
âJaebeom hyung when did we debut?â
â16th Jan 2014.â
âSeun-ah what was our debut song?â
âGirls, girls, girls they love meâ Jackson sang and displayed some hand movements along with it. Were they being serious?
Ali came over with the baby crabs and the stuffed oysters. He was just about to go back for the lobsters but Jinyoung asked Ali the same questions he had asked Jaebeom and Jackson.
âYou guys debuted under JYP Entertainment as GOT7 on 16th Jan 2014 with the song,â he changed his stance like he was ready to dance, âGirls, girls, girls they love me.â
âJackson also had a plant sticking out from the top of his head then.â The boys started laughing but Jackson gave Ali a deaf stare. Ali gave him an apology hug and insisted that he couldnât let the opportunity slide.
âIs that why you kept your job a secret at first?â Jinyoung nodded.
âPeople tend to act different towards us as if we are not ordinary people. There seems to be this analogy of a pedestal where we are placed higher and we donât really like that since it makes it hard for us to get to know genuine new people. Me keeping that a secret meant you looked at me for who I was not for someone who was a singer.â
âThat makes sense. People forget behind the stage and platform thereâs someone just like all of us with feelings and hobbies. We all like to chill, lounge around, go for a walk. It makes up only a part of us not all of us, but many people donât see it that way. So, I understand why you chose to hide it although I can let you know that Iâm not one of those people. Itâs the inside that counts.â You pointed to your heart. Jinyoung just kept falling for all the mutual comments you were making. He agreed with everything that was escaping from your mouth.
âIâm happy we are on the same page.â He ruffled your hair like you were a 10 year old kid. His eyes gleamed with playful energy. You wish you could have stared longer but you were among his friends. You didnât want them to get the wrong idea. With that you sorted your hair along with Ali placing the lobster and Jacksonâs dish on the table.
âEllerine saÄlÄąk Ali. Her zaman ki gibi çok gĂźzel kokuyor her Ĺey.â
[âThank you for the meal Ali. Like always the food smells really good.â]
âThis isnât fair we donât understand.â Bambam started sulking like a kid.
âIâll try and contain myself. Since I usually come here alone Iâm used to speaking in Turkish with Ali. Sorry.â You showed your innocent eyes (not an aegyo way, not a fan) to Bambam.
âIf you look at me like that, how can I even get annoyed? Talk all you want I trust you wouldnât speak ill of us to Ali.â You smiled at the kind words from Bambam.
âLetâs tuck in!â Youngjae suggested. You all started tucking into the food laid out. You had convinced Jaebeom to try the stuffed oysters since no one would say yes. You showed him how to open the oyster and scrape the filing with one shell from the other. Then eat from it like it was a spoon.
âHow is it?â You tried to read his expression. He continued chewing and his eyes started to widen.
âWeâve been missing out.â Mark passed his plate over to you for you to put some oysters on his plate after seeing Jaebeomâs reaction.
âHow do you did it again Y/N?â Mark asked.
âLetâs do this. Anyone who wants to try it put your hand up?â
Everyone but Jinyoung and Jackson put their hand up.
âIâll let Jackson slide since you donât like seafood,â You turned to Jinyoung, âThis is bad sportsmanship come on everyoneâs willing to try.â
JINYOUNGâS POV
Sheâs hitting you with those colourful starry eyes again. How could you say no?
âFine Y/N. For your sake.â A wide smile spread across her face. She passed you an oyster too.
âIf everyoneâs ready, watch me then copy. We good with that?â
âThis sounds like another swimming lesson.â You couldnât help but remind her how similar her instructions sound like her lessons.
âWooow. Are you criticising my teaching?â You could now pick up on her sarcasm. She wasnât being serious. You just shrugged playing secretive like always.
âYou should appreciate you havenât drowned with your skills.â Oh no she didnât.
âWAAAAAAA⌠I like it. Finally, someone else as savage as me.â Bambam high fived you across the table. Jaebeom had his mouth agape and Youngjae looked at you.
If the guys had made that sort of comment, it would have been game on. But when it came to Y/N, you couldnât even find a way of retaliatin. Not only did you not know much about her, you got caught looking at her in disbelief. Your brain couldnât register a comeback.
âWaaa⌠she actually got him silent. You achieved something I havenât for the past 6 years Y/N.â Yugyeom started clapping. You looked at him and your eyes did the job. He stopped clapping as soon as he realised he werenât going to take shit right now.
âLike I was saying. We ready?â Everyone raised their oysters. You watched her eagerly demonstrate how to eat her cuisine. Her passion for her homeland was present and you liked how she was patiently teaching you all how to eat the delicacy.
âThen you scrape it like itâs a spoon using the empty shell, like this.â
Surprising you all were pretty good. None of you dropped the filling on your plate.
âThenâŚ,â Y/N got up from her seat and grabbed a lemon slice, âYou squeeze some lemon on it. Keep your oysters up a little Iâll come around and squeeze some.â
She went around the table and dispersed some lemon.
âNow voila, eat.â You were a little hesitant. You werenât a big fan of oyster, but you were willing to try it based on Y/Nâs recommendation.
And you werenât disappointed. The combination of the crustacean, rice and the herbs worked so well together. You could see why Y/N was surprised when this wasnât a part of the groupâs order. It tasted delicious.
âI can read all your faces now and no one seems disgusted besides Jackson.â She laughed at Jacksonâs reaction to all of you tasting the new dish.
âBro, how do yall do it?â Jackson questioned.
âDo what Jack?â Mark didnât understand.
âEat seafood. Madness.â Jackson resumed to eating his burger.
Ali dropped by having seen you guys taste the oyster.
âWhat do you guys think?â Ali asked.
âY/N is right. Ali where have we been?â Youngjae was experiencing his version of food enlightenment.
âI donât know Youngjae. Where have you guys been?â Ali laughed at Youngjaeâs absurd question.
You guys dug into your food whilst conversing and getting to know each other. It turned out that Jackson and Y/N were close to meeting each other earlier on in life. If they had both pursued in their sports and competed in the Olympics there was a chance they would have met. Small world. Jackson explained to Y/N how he switched his career path and Y/N spoke about the lack of opportunity and motivation in that field left her to divert her attention to architecture. Both succeeding exceptionally well in their fields.
Y/NâS POV
âSo, whatâs been like your biggest project so far?â Mark asked since you both stopped eating having felt close to full.
âWe have an active project going on right now for an eco-hotel set to be built near the end of the bay. The client is a really well-known person although I canât disclose who he is due to privacy regulations. I can say you are all well aware of who he is thatâs for sure. I never imagined someone with such high status would want us to design something for him but yh⌠we are working on it.â Y/N explained.
âThatâs really cool. Itâs nice to hear what people are doing in different industries. We are always surrounded by the entertainment industry so itâs nice to see a different expression of creativity going on around us.â You appreciated Markâs kind words and appreciation for the architecture field. The field didnât receive much cover and is overlooked so it was nice to hear those words.
âI agree. The same thing goes for you guys. I have one friend who does work got to do with music production although I didnât really get much insight into what he did. It must be really warming having an audience who support you and your work constantly.â You liked having logical conversations. It seems like Markâs somebody you would get along with well. He seems very knowledgeable.
âAli! Can you bring over a couple bottles of soju?â
âComing right up Jaebeom!â
Ali came pacing to our table and placed 7 glasses and 5 bottles of soju. He knew you didnât drink.
âYou forgot another glass.â
âAh, I donât drink.â You waved off Jaebeom.
âWaaa⌠does that mean we all get to drink? We have a driver to get us home guys!â Jaebeom joked around since you would be sober.
Ali came back since he heard what Jaebeom had said, â7 drunk guys and Y/N that sounds like chaos.â
âCome on Ali! We arenât that bad drunk, are we?â
âDefinitely not Jaebeom.â You picked up on Aliâs sarcasm.
âIâll join Y/N for today. We wonât drink you guys go ahead.â Jinyoung joined the sober team for today.
âJinyoung hyung~ youâre like the most entertaining person when drunk. Are you just too scared youâll end up confessing to Y-â Yugyeom smacked his hand across Bambamâs mouth and kept it shut. Was he about to say your name? Nah⌠surely not.
âYou guys know Iâve been cutting down on drinking. Thereâs no other reason besides how wild we are when we are drunk. Canât let Y/N handle all of 7 of us alone.â You appreciated his concern.
âThanks.â
âŚ
It took about 20 minutes for all 7 of the guys to be out of it. You and Jinyoung took the opportunity to part from the group and walk along the beach.
You could hear the waves crashing gently in the summer breeze. You took a second to take deep breaths of fresh air.
âAhâŚâ You sighed as you let out the fresh air, âDonât you just love the sea?â
âI think I would like it more if I could swim in it.â You giggled at his confession.
âIâll make that happen one day. I promise.â You smiled up at Jinyoung as you watched your feet sink into the sand as you guys walked. You both stayed silent until something came up to mind.
âI mean you can still have fun in the sea without having to swim in it.â
âWow, I thought Jaehyun was the dirty minded one. I can see who he learnt it from.â He eyed you knowing that what he was hinting at was most likely something that wasnât on your mind.
You were gobsmacked. Him too? Were all guys like this?
You slapped his shoulder, âYou guys are atrocious. I meant splashing each other.â As you said the word âsplashingâ you knelt down and splashed water at Jinyoung.
He was ready to win you over at this fight. He retaliated with even more water and caught you off guard. You guys ran up and down the beach trying to splash one another as well as not get caught by the flying water droplets. The cool breeze made the water on your body colder than usual. You guys were practically drenched when you dropped on your ass because your foot got caught sunk in the sand.
âYou okay?â Jinyoung crouched down to your level and smiled at you like a child.
âI would be if my ass wasnât soaked.â He lent you a hand. Was he this naĂŻve? You took the opportunity to give Jinyoung a taste of what it felt like. You grabbed his hand and dragged him done to your level.
âI should have seen that coming.â Damn right he should have. You both chuckled as you watched the moon and the rippling reflection on the seaâs surface.
You started to tear up at the familiar scene although the person beside you wasnât the person in the flashback. It was Chase. Chase was your ex-boyfriend. He was probably the best shot you had with a guy and things were going well until you found out that he was cheating on you for 2 months with a waitress at Aliâs restaurant. You had shared your ups and downs with him meaning him cheating on you left you extremely hopeless for other guys. Maxâs extra possessive and protective reached its peak during that time hence the phone call today. When Ali found out, he fired the waitress immediately knowing how hurt you would feel every time you came across her at the restaurant. Even worse when she was with Chase. You guys would hang out at the beach after meals similar to how you and Jinyoung had today. Although today felt different, Jinyoung meant more to you than Chase in a shorter period of time. You still lacked on so much about Jinyoung, but he never gave off a single bad impression on any occasion. You trusted him.
He realised your mood change.
âDid you come here often with him?â How did heâŚ
âI can tell you havenât been here alone before. Did you guys come here together before? With the guy Max was about to mention on the phone call.â Smartass.
âWow, I didnât even need to explain. Youâre spot on.â You let out a chuckle. It must have been really obvious.
âIt must suck. We can go back-â
âNo, no⌠Iâm not going to let past memories be the reason for me to run away from a beautiful landscape. You being here helps too.â
âIâm glad to hear that. Although my backside is about to drop off.â You had completely forgotten that your bottom halves were being repeatedly soaked by the crashing waves.
âNot having much fat in that area is a struggle isnât it. I canât relate.â
âI have you know I have an ass.â You were dying at the confidence. You make sure to check him out secretly when the peach is in view.
âClearly not big enough for the cold.â He pushed you over and your back got soaked from the damp sand.
âAhhhh! Jinyoung Iâm gonna catch a cold. Itâs freezing!â
You were going to get your pay back. You launched your hands onto his shoulder in the hopes that he would also fall back but you underestimated his strength. You guys squabbled trying to put the other down. As expected he had you done in no time grasped onto your wrists. Some water droplets from his shirts fell down onto your warm skin. The position you guys were in raised the heat of your body at an unhealthy rate. Your faces were inches away just like how they were at during the water dodgeball game. Your chests heaved trying to get back your breaths, but he looked too good to be true. How could you go back to breathing normally when he looked gorgeous?
âStill cold?â He swept you away from your thoughts.
âY-YhâŚâ You were boiling to be exact.
âThis should help.â He dropped lower towards your face. Your noses brushed each otherâs, and you could now feel his warm breath across your face. He looked deeply into your eyes as if there was a transcript written in them. He took his time analysing your features until he got to your lips. He couldnât help staring at your lips for a little longer than your other features until he couldnât take it anymore. He was going to make the first move he wanted to make since the beginning.
He teased your lips slowly making contact with them not knowing this was going to be the beginning of something life changing. You moulded into his lips and you could understand that he wanted this as much as you did. The passion as he moved trying to taste every inch of you made you blame yourself for not noticing his interest sooner. You were most definitely not cold anymore.
You were happy that your interests were not one sided and couldnât wait for what else this new possible love had in store.
---
Thank fudge cakes this episode is over. I apologise for how late this episode has been. I think the word count being close to 10k explains why it took so long. I struggled to find a place to stop for this episode, so I just continued writing until I was happy with it. A lot goes down in this episode so grab a snack and enjoy. It was also really nice bringing in some native tongue into the series. Iâd like to get your opinions on whether I should continue with the native tongue conversations between Y/N and Ali. I also introduced Y/Nâs full time job. I hope it was a nice surprise for you guys. Until next episode đÂ
a/n: im late. i apologise. i had some internet problems in the afternoon yesterday. i just fixed the problem so here is the next episode. it was nice to write an episode that didnât consist of a swimming lesson. enjoy! âşď¸
warning: swearing, thatâs about it to be honest
EP . 1 , EP . 2 , EP . 3
After the incident with Max, you had found Jinyoungâs number on a post-it note on your desk. You had given it a ring but no answer. You thought heâd call back having seen the missed call.
Jooheon called you off for the rest of the week after Monday. You told him that he was being overprotective and the week call-off wasnât needed but he wouldnât listen. He practically pushed you out of the centre along with all your stuff. He insisted that seeing Max and him seeing you may trigger another incident. You were left with no choice, so made your way home.
Wednesday morning
The kettle was bubbling with water for your tea. A black tea was awaiting to be consumed. You were back on your balcony watching the bay and reflecting back on what happened on Monday. Could he actually be jealous? Why is he acting on it so aggressively even if he is jealous? Why canât he use words instead of fists to solve whatever the situation is? Ugh, you have been having these sorts of questions on repeat since Monday and theyâve given you a mild headache.
And then thereâs Jinyoung. What has he even done to grind Maxâs gears? Heâs been onsite on only 2 occasions and heâs been able to trigger Max onto a new level of angry. You wanted to apologise on behalf of Max and the centre. Max probably hasnât thought about the image of the leisure centre whilst acting the way he had. It was the least you could for Jooheonâs sake. He has worked extremely hard on building this leisure centre and its image. Max was also your friend but your relationship with Jooheon runs deeper so you werenât allowing Maxâs unacceptable behaviour be the reason for Jooheon losing customers. He didnât deserve that.
Jinyoung hadnât called back either after your first ring yesterday. You were contemplating if you should ring again. You didnât even know what he got up to outside of the swimming lessons. He wanted to keep his job private. Maybe heâs really busy with work? Maybe heâs tired from work? A lot of maybes were going through your mind. You stopped blurring your mind with all the what ifs and just rang again. This time round the call was picked up.
âHello?â
âHiâ
âIs this Jinyoung?â
âAh, Y/N. This must be your number. I wasnât sure who had rung yesterday. I tend to have loads of unknown numbers call me often thatâs why I didnât pick up. How are you?â
Why does he receive calls from unknown numbers often? Spam? Fraudsters?
âThatâs fine. I thought youâd call back, but it didnât settle with me, so I gave another ring. Iâm doing better. Jooheon called me off for the rest of the week so Iâm just home.â
âLooks like you should have no excuse for a coffee. Would you like to meet up today?â
âActually, I do have a good excuse although Iâll still take the offer. Only if you can make it up to me with a different beverage. Iâm not a coffee drinker.â
âHappily! Iâll send you a location and we can meet up around lunch time. Preferably around 2 pm?â
âSounds great. Iâll let you know when I arrive.â
âDeal. See you there Y/N.â
âSee you Jinyoung!â
You hung up just liked that. Seconds later you received a text message from Jinyoung with a location. JYP Entertainment (a/n: Iâm aware that the JYP building isnât in Jinhae but for the sake of the imagine it will be :D)
An entertainment company. Heâs got weird taste for a meet up location. You let it slide and checked how long it would take you to get there. 20 minutes. You still had time to enjoy your morning. It was 11:00 am so youâd need to leave at 1:40 pm the latest. You continued with some bits and bobs and some chores to pass time.
It was now 1:00 pm. What do you wear? It was mid-summer, so your options were kind of limited. You wouldnât want to be sweating on your first date. Date? Did you just call this a date? It kind of was but he didnât exactly call it a date so⌠Letâs just call it a meet up for now. 28 Degrees Celsius was what your phone showed for the rest of the day. A pair of wide leg trousers and a blouse should do the trick. Not too fancy but not too casual and you wonât be boiling your back side off the whole day.
You left at 1:30 pm giving yourself an extra 10 minutes just in case you were caught in traffic. You were financially well off. You drove a black G Class Mercedes Benz. Many questioned why you still opted working in a part time job as well as a full time job considering you full time job paid so well. You had your reasons.
To your assumption you were right. There was some traffic near the entertainment company building that Jinyoung had said to meet up at. A lot of people too. Weird. You couldnât find a parking spot near the company building so you gave Jinyoung a ring to see if he had an idea where you could park since the area was unknown to you.
âHi Jinyoung, Iâm in the area although I have a minor dilemma.â
âHey. Whatâs up? Are you okay? Youâre not hurt?â
âNo Jinyoung,â You chuckled due to his anxious and worried tone,â I was just going to ask if there was suitable place you know of for me to park my car. Iâve been wondering around the area for a while and couldnât find a spot.â
âAh, got you. How about you park in the parking lot of the company building I sent to meet up at. Iâll meet you there to let you in.â
âSure, if itâs not much of a hassle with you Iâll be there in a minute.â
âGreat, see you!â
He sounds so excited. You smiled at the thought. You drove up to the gated area to see Jinyoung. He was covered up waist up. Like he was hiding his identity. Maybe he was sick? A cold?
He spoke to the guard. You couldnât hear what he was saying to him but soon the gates started opening up for you to drive through. You winded your window down to thank the guard and Jinyoung.
âNice car.â He had a bit of a surprised look. You were used to this reaction. It was really rewarding to receive praise for your hard work. Anyways.
âThanks, Iâm just going to park over thereâ You pointed at an empty spot in the corner.
âYeah, sure Iâll be at the entrance door there.â You nodded in response and drove off to park.
âŚ
You and Jinyoung took the escalator up to the top floor of the building. This place seemed fancy and was wondering what sort of association Jinyoung had with an entertainment company like this.
The escalator indicated that we had arrived at the designated floor. The doors open to a really nicely decorated corridor leading up to a wide space that looked like a canteen. The brick aesthetic working really well with the neon lights. A guy was walking towards you two as you guys left the escalator. He had a really sheepish smile on his face looking towards Jinyoung. He was tall and skinny. Top notch model proportions if you said so yourself.
âHyung!â The young man initiated conversation with Jinyoung.
âSince when were you here Bam-ah. I thought you were still in Thailand.â
âPD-nim called in and asked if I could come back earlier so I jumped on an earlier flight.â
âAh, did he say for what reason?â The young man just shrugged.
âWhoâs this?â He diverted his attention to you.
âAh, This is Y/N. Y/N this is Bambam.â You shook the tall figureâs hand and smiled.
He nodded with a bright smile. Can a human being be so happy? âAlthough, I think we are close enough to call each other family. Right, Jinyoung hyung?â
âYou are an annoying dongsaeng so yes you could regard us as family.â
âHyung come on, youâre giving off a bad impression.â You laughed at the mildly childish tone Bambam had put on.
âJinyoung hyung is joking around. Iâm actually a really nice person. I have to be somewhere, so Iâll catch up with you later hyung. See you around Y/N. It was nice meeting you.â
âIt was nice meeting you too Bambam. See you around.â You waved him goodbye as he entered the lift.
âHe seems like a really affectionate friendâ You stated to Jinyoung.
âHe definitely is but I wasnât lying when I said he could be annoying.â You smiled at his comment.
You both continued down the corridor and your guess was right. There was a huge canteen area which spanned across the open space + sitting areas.
âI would have liked to have taken you to a better place, but Iâll make it up to you another time.â Jinyoung suggested. Another time? You were growing eager.
âJinyoung itâs fine. Iâm easily impressed you donât need to go all out.â Jinyoung smiled at your appreciation for his minimal efforts.
You both grabbed a tray and Jinyoung kept adding all the things he loved from the canteen. I guess heâs a regular. Your tray was practically overflowing by the time you had gotten to the end of the options.
âJinyoung, your plate is practically empty. Focus on yourself, Iâll be sinking in our next lesson if I eat all this food.â He let out a loud laugh. When he laughed his eyes crinkled but he covered his mouth. I guess itâs a habit of his. Cute.
âFine, fine Y/N. We wouldnât want a sinking teacher with a group full of students who canât swim.â
âThereâs always Jaehyun.â
âTrueâ
You guys proceeded to an empty table which looked out towards the sea. You were full of questions but Jinyoung beat you to it.
âHow are you feeling?â He asked after a couple of bites into the food.
âMuch better after getting some rest and time to reflect.â You hoped he couldnât see through your lie.
âYou sure?â He was catching up on your lie, you could tell. You stayed silence.
âI think Miss is a bad liar.â He caught it. Damn it.
âYou observe well. Your speculations are probably correct but Iâm not in the mood to really talk about it. Letâs just say that I am getting better gradually.â Jinyoung nodded and appreciated the fact that you had lowkey opened up to him with the truth.
âThat reminds me. Iâd like to apologise on behalf of the leisure centre and Max. Itâs the first time something like this has ever happened between an instructor and a customer. He acted out of ord- â
âItâs fine.â You looked up into Jinyoungâs eyes. Was he just going to let it slide just like that?
âYou shouldnât be apologising for other peopleâs actions anyways. Let alone in that situation. Iâve left what happened on Monday in the past. Plus, what happened between me and Max isnât important. Iâve basically forgotten about it. I was so worried after you broke down and I had to just leave. You were on my mind the rest of the day. I felt helpless knowing you werenât well, and I couldnât do anything.â
You looked at Jinyoung as he spilt everything that was on his mind. He had such a worried expression as he spoke. Itâs been a while since someone had showed so much sympathy towards you that you didnât know how to react. He realised your silence and stopped talking. You mustered up the energy to reply back.
âI appreciate your concern. Iâm sorry I left you worried- â
âYou donât need to apologise Y/N. I just hope youâre back on your feet and happy soon. I donât want a sad lesson on Monday. Especially with Woojin giving me a death stare for the whole hour.â His expression was light and pure again.
âYA donât talk about Woojin like that. He was my favourite student.â
âWas?â Oh.. no. Busted. Did you just talk in past tense? Heâs gonna know. Heâs going to find out. Found what out Y/N. What is it that youâre hiding?
âWas because Iâve liked how Hyungwon has been listening well to the feedback and improving quickly.â Great cover up.
âIâm jealous of Hyungwon.â Did he just- If only you had grown a pair of balls like that too to be as confident.
âWhy is that?â You were trying to keep your cool.
âItâs embarrassing not being the favourite swimmer among children.â This guy thinks just because of his age he would be my favourite student. He can barely swim. (lol)
âThey are children, but my favourite student tends to be the one whoâs the most enthusiastic about swimming rather than the teacher. Thatâs why Woojin dropped from the favourite spot.â
âHe is fond of his teacher a little too much. He acts like your guardian angel especially since I joined the classes. If looks could kill. My funeral would become a weekly occasion.â
You laughed at his exaggeration, âI donât think heâs that bad. Although I have noticed his extra protective and clingy behaviour since you joined. Kids these days.â
âHe does make the lesson fun; Iâll give him that. Heâs a charmer for sure.â You nodded in agreement over the conclusion Jinyoung had made about the young one.
You both continued eating with small talk between bites. Jinyoung was really nice to talk to. He listens really well and concentrates on what youâre saying as you speak. His eye whiskers every time he laughed would make you smile along with him. They were too cute to handle. A worker at the canteen came over to clear up the table alongside with a bill. Weirdly only you had been charged for your meals.
Jinyoung took the bill from your hand, âIâll take care of that.â
âNo, Jinyoung. Thereâs no need for the kind gesture.â
âNo ifs, buts or ands Miss. Let me.â Did he just use the same phrase you told him on his first lesson? Smartass. He gestured for a worker to come and whispered something into his ear. Jinyoung ignored you completely and continued with his kind gesture.
âYou really didnât have to.â You had a helpless look on your face. I donât think many people are a fan of others paying for their bill and neither were you.
âLetâs leave that behind. So, you said you didnât drink coffee. How about I offer you tea, juice or something else?â
âIâll have some green tea under one condition.â Jinyoung raised an eyebrow waiting for the deal.
âDrinks are on me.â Jinyoung just smiled at your kindness. He knew that you werenât going to let this go without a fight, so he just let you pay this time.
âI feel like you might fight me at this rate. Fine. Drinks are on you but only this time round.â You smiled happy that he hadnât declined the offer. He gestured for a green tea and an iced americano.
âSo, you have the whole week off. What do you plan on doing?â Jinyoung changed the topic.
âI wasnât prepared for a sudden call off so as of right now I havenât got anything planned.â You didnât want to mention your full time job. Youâve had enough people question you on it. Even though you trusted Jinyoung more than most of the people you had disclosed the information to, you didnât find it necessary.
âAs I expected. Do you think you will be free Friday afternoon?â
âAs of right now, yes. I should be free.â
âI have this thing that Iâd like you to attend.â
âThing?â Heâs acting so mysterious.
âIâm not really allowed to say what it is much youâll be able to know when you come. That is if you come.â
Jinyoung noticed your silence.
âI know it sounds sketchy but trust me youâll be able to find out more about who I am and what I do.â
âYou were secretive about your job during the first lesson. Will I find out what you do for a living then?â
âPartially. Youâll also be able to meet more of my circle too.â
âHmm, your circle? Iâm becoming more and more curious. Fine, Iâll make sure to keep Friday afternoon empty. Can I ask one question though?â
âGo ahead.â
âDoes this company have any significance to what you do?â
Jinyoung knew that you werenât a dumb person. He predicted that you would catch onto the location he had picked to meet up today. It wasnât exactly the most normal meet up setting.
âI canât really directly say yes or no but I can say that youâre in the right direction.â
Jinyoung didnât like that he couldnât just say that he was an idol. It was partially his choice if he wanted to tell you, but he didnât want you to get any wrong ideas or even to get dragged into this âworldâ without knowing. It was for your own good. He planned to tease you into what he does but never fully disclosing what he did.
âGreat. Friday afternoon it is then. Where exactly are we meeting for Friday?â
âHere again.â Your brain was working at mental speeds. You were guessing that you were right when you asked about the company and his job.
âPark Jinyoung. You are a mysterious man.â
âWhat can I say? I have many things up my sleeve just like you probably do Y/N.â
âI guess youâre right.â
âŚ
The endless chatting at the cafeteria came to an end around 7 pm.
âI would offer taking you home but youâre well off driving home in your car. Unless youâd like me to drive.â
âHow about if youâre done with what you have to do here, I drop you home and we part from there?â
Jinyoung was kind of startled. He kind of wished he could be the one to offer what you had. He wasnât the type to spend a load on possessions hence why he hadnât invested in a vehicle yet. The offer sounded nice to him since that would mean more time spent with you although he hadnât finished up at the company.
âI would have liked spending more time with you, but I havenât finished up here. Still have a couple hours worth of things to do. Maybe next time. Iâll see you on Friday though. Iâll text you the exact time as well.â
âIf thatâs best for you, sure.â
You guys slowly walked towards the parking lot. Considering the speed both of you were walking at, neither of you wanted to part ways. You reached the parking lot and headed to where your car was parked.
âI guess this is goodbye until Friday.â
âYepâ
Jinyoung looked upset that you were leaving. He was happy to see you smiling again after what happened on Monday. Heâs aware that you have a past that with time you may share with him but for now itâll stay as a secret. Jinyoung held your door open just like the real gentleman he is but something caught his eye.
There was a sudden flash near the greenery surrounding the gated parking lot. Shit.
âY/N continue driving away from the parking lot. Keep your windows down and try to cover your face. Donât stop for anyone or anything. Try to take a detour to get home.â
The sudden change in Jinyoung kind of spooked you at first but you trusted him. It would do no good to question âwhy?â considering the panic he was displaying.
âYou have a lot of explaining to do the next time we meet Jinyoung.â
That was the last thing you said before Jinyoung shut the door and gave you a reassuring nod. He signalled the guard to let you through and you did as Jinyoung told you. You had a hat in the passengerâs seat which you put on and a face mask you had in your accessories slot. The flashes from earlier on multiplied in seconds. You could see dark figures coming up to the car directing their cameras towards your windows trying to catching a glimpse of you.
What had you gotten yourself into?
You took a completely new route to get home and as you drove away from the company building the number of people and flashes declined. By the time you were 5 minutes away from home there were no more people following your car. You made it home safe and sound.
*ding*
You received a message from Jinyoung as you shut your front door.
âLet me know when you get home :)â
You rang him to give him the good news.
âHello Y/Nâ
âHey Jinyoung. I was calling to let you know Iâm home safely.â
âPhew,â Jinyoung let out a sigh in relief, âI was worried something may have happened.â
âNope, everythingâs fine. What was that all about back then?â The expected question had left your mouth.
âItâs really hard to explain. Just keep safe and donât answer any questions from strangers. Y/N when the time is right Iâll explain in detail everything you need to know for all of this to make sense.â
You had met this guy 10 days ago, but you could trust him with your whole life. You didnât push it with Jinyoung and let him take as much time as he needed to come clean with whatever he was keeping a secret.
âIâll wait. Whenever the time is right you can say whatever it is.â You could take a guess what Jinyoungâs face looked like on the other end of the phone. He was relieved at how understanding you were.
âEnjoy your afternoon Y/N and see you on Friday.â He hung up just like that.
You smiled at your phone like an idiot. How could you have been so lucky to collide with such a man? He was sweet, caring and interesting. His personality just clicked well with yours and his looks are a bonus. You spent the rest of your afternoon smiling reminiscing on the day you spent with Jinyoung.
You were now sat on your balcony with another black tea. It was windier than Sunday afternoon but still warm enough to stay out with your dressing gown. The liquid warmed up your body as it travelled down your system every time you took a sip. As you were enjoying your peaceful moment, your mum was facetime calling you. You occasionally called your mum to get an update on how the family is back in the Mediterranean.
âLook at my gorgeous daughter!â She greeted you through the phone.
âHi mum, how are you guys?â
âWe are all well. Your brother just found out that he got into the university to study piloting.â
âPiloting? My brother got into university?â You could hear your brother further away from the phone laughing at how surprised you sounded.
âY/N, I couldnât believe it either,â Your brother joined the call,â Sis you shouldnât underestimate the power of your lil brother.â
You were gobsmacked. The kid who hated studying and school in general just got into university to study piloting.
âWhere will you be studying?â
âI was hoping you could help me research which university out of the 5 I have a place in I should go to. Iâm torn on all of them.â
The afternoon continued with you and your brother figuring out which university would be the best option for him. Your little brother is now a university student, wow.
You ended the call around 11:00 pm. Now to wait until Friday to discover new things about Jinyoung and his âcircleâ.
âââ
With that we come to the end of EP . 3. I hope you guys are enjoying it as much as I am. It was nice writing about Y/N and Jinyoung in a completely new setting as well as introducing new characters. Some may say that the extra characters which donât add to the plot are pointless, but I like adding as much context to the characters as possible. I hope you guys do too.
