Puffer

At her explanation, Hyunseok found himself tilting his head as she spoke. He, personally, couldn’t understand or relate to the particular fear that she was talking about, but he had to remind himself that her circumstances were so much different than his own. “Still afraid of me running away?” It was hard not to notice how she averted her gaze. His hand found its way under her chin, gently tilting it up in an effort to catch it again, to regain that contact. “Well, I haven’t yet, have I?” he questioned with a smile tugging at a single corner of his lips.

But the smile was short-lived as she continued on, and a soft sigh escaped him as he thought about his options. “The thing is,” he began, reaching out to take her free hand in one of his own, “I don’t want to make a decision for you. Because this is just as much about you as it is about me. And I don’t want to come up with a solution that would make you unhappy or uncomfortable or unsatisfied.” He himself found his gaze turning towards the floor as thoughts whirred in his mind.

“But I think.. To answer your question,” he trailed off, giving himself another moment to think before locking his gaze onto hers again, “For me, I don’t see myself with anyone else. And I don’t plan on leaving you or looking for someone else for any reason, so I’d be comfortable saying that we’re a couple.. But that’s just me, and we don’t have to do anything like that if you’re not happy or comfortable with it.”

Although she had tried to keep their eyes from meeting, Hyunseok wasn’t going to let that happen. He was going to make sure that she was looking him in the eyes when he assured her. His emotions had always been easy for her to read. So, when she heard him speak and say that he wasn’t going anywhere, she knew that he genuinely believed that to be the case. That he genuinely didn’t want to go anywhere and that he was happy where he was with her. As it often did when he was around, her heart skipped a quick beat.

“I’m not… Like, I’m not against the idea of being in a relationship with you, obviously. I’m just scared. I’ve built up all these horrible things that will happen to me if I enter a relationship and it’s hard to get over them. Even this far in a year, where you haven’t given me any reason to doubt you or think that something is going to happen,” she said, her eyes looking at his face. He was handsome. There were so many beautiful women surrounding him all the time. Yet, he hadn’t strayed. He hadn’t gone with any of them. He stuck with her, even though she was damaged both inside and out.

“What more does anyone need in their life than comfortable serial killer furniture, honestly?” Elliot teased back in a deadpan voice, resting their head gently against Jayden’s and reaching out for his hand. They always longed for simple, easy moments like this, where they just got to be with each other. Sure, more often than not it ended up happening in strange places because of their jobs, but it was about each other’s company and not the setting.

“Oh?” Jayden’s comment about traveling piqued their interest immediately. They had never been much of a homebody and loved to travel - which made the job a bit easier at times (though not necessarily all the time). “And where did you hear that from? Someone important or someone just talking out of their ass?” It was as if ‘cynical’ was their default. But Elliot wanted to know whether or not they should start getting their hopes up.

It wasn’t long after, however, that their eyes were rolling and they leaned their head against the back of the couch with a heavy sigh. “’Because of us being Asian’”, they repeated, the distaste they found with the comment practically dripping from their lips. “I think it’s really just so they can exploit the culture for views, if we’re being honest.” Being such a popular series on the site, along with Japan’s own fame for the supernatural would without a doubt clean up in terms of views. Another sigh escaped them as they closed their eyes for a moment, before a smile spread on their lips. “Sure. My vote would be for the deer island, though. I want to pet a little baby deer. They’re so cute.” A pout tugged at their bottom lip as they looked over at Jayden.

“And, hey..” Elliot trailed off, a soft smile still present, “I know we do a lot of traveling for work, but do you think we can maybe just do some traveling on our own at some point? Just us two? Just enjoy ourselves..”

Jayden rolled his eyes at the serial killer furniture comment. He was pretty sure that there was a market for people that wanted to buy something that a serial killer owned. He already knew there was a market for people that wanted to have art pieces from a serial killer. No matter how many art classes the serial killer desperately needed. Man, some of them really didn’t know a thing about proportions. That was beside the point though, they were not going to have furniture inspired by a serial killer’s house.

“Someone that is important. You know I wouldn’t bring you information from someone that was just talking because they liked the sound of their own voice,” he said, smiling. He leaned over and kissed the pout off Elliot’s lips. He truly loved them. That was obvious by the way that they looked at Elliot. Something they did often and without shame. “Yeah, because we’re Asian and because they want to exploit Japanese culture. But, bright side for us, it would be a few weeks due to the content that they want to get for that season. So we could do all kinds of cool things between shooting,” he said, which was a positive. They could actually have a vacation through all the scary things that they did.

Hearing Suji giggle caused an involuntary grin to spread across Hyunseok’s face. At one point in his life, he had been just about certain that he was never going to hear that little giggle again. And while the road back had seemed a bit more than just sketchy at some points, here they were - alone, together, in his apartment after a long, hot day of work, laughing and playing together. He didn’t think that he could ask for anything more.

But at her response to his question, he felt his smile fade a bit. At first she just seemed shocked - and he wasn’t sure whether he should take that as a good sign or a bad sign. He suddenly felt nervous. Which, for him, wasn’t something that happened very often. It felt as though his heart was lodged in his throat. Though only a moment had passed, it felt to him as though it had been silent for far too long. 

“More than that?” Hyunseok found himself repeating, his smile by that point completely faded as he contemplated her answer. He didn’t know what he had been expecting. Hell, he didn’t know if he had been expecting anything at all. But if he had, that answer wasn’t it. It was so.. vague. It wasn’t something that he could really grasp exactly what she meant by it.

But he found the question that she threw back at him interesting. Wasn’t it practically the same question he had asked her? What was she trying to get at? “Well..” he trailed off in a quiet voice, leaning in close enough to rest his head gently against hers, “What do you want us to be?” 

The sudden change in his demeanor told her that she had not answered the question he way that he wanted. The truth was, she didn’t know how to answer the question. So when she had tossed it back to him, and he didn’t answer, it wasn’t terribly helpful for her to figure it out. The idea of a permanent relationship was frightening, but not because she was afraid of being with someone for the long term. It was the fear of putting so much stock into one person and having that person leave without another word. She didn’t think lowly of Hyunseok. He was a good person, he had a big heart and she found that she fit perfectly there.

“I don’t know,” she admitted softly, looking into his eyes. She didn’t want him to think that she wanted him to go. She didn’t. She wasn’t sure what she would do if he suddenly got up and left. Which was a lot of the problem that they were having. “It’s scary to think about being in a permanent relationship. Even though I know you’re not the kind of person that would just run away… I guess I’m still afraid of that,” she said, glancing away from his eyes and more towards the center of his chest.

At the feeling of her hand on his cheek, Hyunseok turned his head to try and bite at her fingers in a playful manner. If there was one thing that having grown up with Suji resulted in, it was the lively air that he felt he could have around her. He didn’t feel the need to be stuffy or serious around her. And that was a welcome change, since sometimes his job made him feel like an over-glorified babysitter. Even having her at the job offered some relief. While anyone looking may have thought he was just poking his head in her office to check on progress, that wasn’t necessarily always the case - even though he did still need to play it safe.

“Well, I don’t mind helping you, you know. I just worry about pushing you too far.” The last thing that he wanted to do was make things worse. But at the same time, he still wanted to do things like have snowball fights and play in the snow to offer her some semblance of normalcy. He could only imagine how much of an outlier she must feel like - and he wanted to be a source of relief from that. But he didn’t want to push things too far. 

A small chuckle slipped past his lips at her mention of ‘burning to a crisp’. “Yeah, it seems like mother nature is just out to get us no matter what. She’s trying to put us back in our place.” As he straightened up, hands raised to rub his eyes, not being able to help the bit of fatigue that accompanied having been overheating the whole day. “You know what we should do? We should start our own business. That way we can actually keep the building at a reasonable temperature all year. No overheating in the summer and freezing our asses off in the winter. Plus, then we wouldn’t have to do this bullshit of hiding from everybody.” There was a pause and a glance towards her before he continued, “Speaking of which, I was wondering.. What do you consider us to be?”

A giggle left Suji as Hyunseok nipped at her fingers, snatching her hand back immediately and holding it to her chest. It was always nice to be around him, when it was just the two of them. Not that they were really allowed to be together when they were at work. Too much attention on each other would raise an eyebrow or two. Although she was the editor for the photo department, he was supposed to pay attention to everyone equally. And the writing department was probably the one that needed the most attention. Writers were needy by nature.

Suji had been there for a year and had found herself a niche within the company. She was, for the most part, left alone. People were polite to her, but they didn’t go out of their way to talk to her. That was fine with her because she liked being focused on her work. The people that worked under her tended to respect her a great deal more. Mostly because she had made sure that they stopped getting yelled at for fucking up models’ bodies.

“What?” She asked, because she was not expecting the question. She probably should have known that it was coming. Hyunseok was very forward and wasn’t the kind to beat around the bush. She didn’t know how to answer him. She didn’t want to lose him, because she loved him. She knew that. That was hard to say though, for someone like her. Someone that was so not self-confident and had little faith in her own ability to keep people around her. Except for her brother, but he kind of was stuck with her.

“I mean, I guess you’re right,” Elliot agreed with a tilt of their head, “But at the same time, sometimes all the traveling and deadlines get to be a bit much. We don’t have 9 to 5′s but that doesn’t mean our jobs are a walk in the park either.” There was a moment of contemplation before they continued, “But I think you mean we run around the United States and waste people’s time by finding no evidence ever because ghosts aren’t real.” If there was one thing they could never pass up, it was teasing Jayden about his belief in ghosts. It was just something Elliot couldn’t get themselves to believe in. There was never any substantial proof.

A mischievous smile accompanied by a nonchalant shrug followed his accusation. “That sounds pretty good too, I have to admit. You know me so well, babe.” Had Jayden’s words not been accompanied by the quick kiss, Elliot might have continued on with their little game. But they couldn’t help but succumb to his displeasure with their idea with even the slightest bit of affection. It didn’t take much for Jayden to be able to win them over.

“I’ll hire the best goddamn interior designer in the country and our place will make this place look like a dump.” Hands slid around his neck, and they figured that since they had already kissed twice, a third kiss wouldn’t be devastating. They just wanted to be able to milk it as long as they could considering stuff like this was so rare. That was the price to pay, they figured. 

Once they pulled away, Elliot once more grabbed onto Jayden’s hand and started tugging him along. “Come on, I want to see the rest of the house,” they said, as they led him back down the hallway and into what must have been the living room - wasting no time in plopping down on the couch. “At least it’s comfortable - I would have been disappointed if it wasn’t.”

The comment about ghosts not being real was typical of Elliot, but it still made Jayden let out a dramatic and disgruntled sigh as he followed him towards the couch. The sigh came after the third kiss and he was tempted to make it a fourth but figured sucking face in a serial killer’s house was probably weirder than it needed to be. Then again, they had sucked face in a former penitentiary and an old tuberculosis ward. After a while, these things just seemed less intimidating.

They, to most people, didn’t make a whole lot of sense as a couple. Elliot was a lot more down to earth and genuinely seemed to enjoy riling up Jayden when they were on camera with his comments. Jayden was a dreamer and was way too jumpy to probably survive an actual haunting. But they worked, evening each other out so that Elliot wouldn’t be too cynical, and Jayden wouldn’t be a crying baby. It worked out great for them and they were the most popular series on the website. That was impressive.

“Comfortable serial killer furniture,” he teased, plopping down with them and resting his head on their shoulder. They shut their eyes and let out a sigh. Soon, they would have to start filming. But for now, they were able to relax and just be with one another. “I heard someone say that we might get the chance to go Overseas if this season does well. They’re thinking Japan because of us being Asian and also because Japan is wild with ghost stories in their culture.”

So was the United States, but that was besides this point. Their boss hadn’t seemed to realize that they were both Korean and not Japanese, Chinese, Taiwanese, or any other Asian country that their boss might now. Japan was often fetishized by white people (and Korea was getting up there awfully quick thanks to Kpop).

“I mean..” Elliot trailed off in thought as they considered their argument. “I guess we kind of are, but we’re also here to film a show, we’re not really on a vacation, babe.” When it came right down to it, it was basically the exact opposite of a vacation. They were there as a part of their job. They were there for work. And Elliot couldn’t really imagine any other reason why anyone would want to be there.

“But okay, alright, we’ll sleep in the same room.” They couldn’t help but find the way Jayden immediately answered a little endearing. Even if it was partly due to fear. “I prefer it that way, anyway. I like sleeping close to you.” If there was one thing that Elliot was not shy about, it was sharing how they felt. And that extended to things such as ghosts and spirits. Their blatant lack of faith in such things paired with Jayden’s strong belief contributed partly to the success they were currently experiencing with their series. “I wanna grow old and be a lazy fuck with you, Jayden.” How romantic.

Just to keep the act going, a small pout found its way onto their face. “But why not?” they pushed, Jayden's grumble not escaping their notice. They moved closer, cupping his cheeks in their hands and leaning in close to him. “I want us to spend our future in a beautiful home together-”

“Although that may be valid, I’m pretty sure that everyone thinks that what we do is a giant vacation. Because neither one of us is exactly struggling to get through a 9 to 5 job. We run around the United States and get freaked out by ghosts that are definitely there,” Jayden said, once again making it clear that they were a part of America that believed ghosts existed. And aliens. But not Bigfoot, for odd reasons that neither one of them understood. There were just certain things that not even Jayden could believe in.

“No, you think that we can grow old together and lazy fuck. We both know who you are,” Jayden laughed, pressing a kiss immediately to Elliot’s lips the second that they had cupped his face. There was nothing wrong with wanting to kiss your significant other at any chance that he got. Because they loved each other. “We can have the best house in the world, if it isn’t modeled after a serial killer’s family home. That’s just not a great way to base your style choices after.”

“Alright, but did I?” he asked her, a sudden hint of defensiveness in his tone, “No, I didn’t.” If anything, it had probably been an even less pleasant situation for him than it was for her. With arms folded and a slight pout like a child, he muttered, “It’s not my fault they never had any air conditioning in that building..”

The last thing he wanted to think about right then was the new girl at work. He knew that nothing would come of it, in part due to the fact that he wasn’t at all interested, but also because it wouldn’t be tolerated. He just wished he didn’t feel as though he needed to train her in that sense. With a heavy sigh, he rubbed his face with his hands, his shoulders slumping as he settled into the couch. 

He sat there, quietly enjoying the cool air swirling around the apartment until Suji emerged from the shower. Had it been a year in the past, he might have been shy to see her in only a towel, but there had been enough instances of each seeing the other in various states that he had become accustomed to it. Not that that meant he didn’t have to stop himself from letting his gaze linger longer than might have been appropriate. He didn’t even feel the need to tell her that she could borrow clothes from him at that point - it was pretty much a given.

“I know,” he pouted as he made room for her, leaning over a moment later in order to rest his head against her bare shoulder. “It’s too hot outside, baby,” he whined at her as if she could do anything about it, “I want winter back. I want to go ice skating and have snowball fights. The only good thing about summer is that the sun actually comes out.” But at what cost.

It was fascinating to Suji when she looked back on her relationship with Hyunseok and how it had developed in the last year. A little over a year ago she had been desperately trying to hide her identity from him, not wanting him to have to reconcile the beautiful young girl that had been his first love to a scarred, bitter young woman. It turned out that she had nothing to fear from him. She was lucky that he had been willing to forgive her for lying to him. They were both lucky that they had managed to remain undetected by human resources. In the office, they were nothing but two people that seemed to get along a normal amount. There was nothing for anyone to really focus in on. No one had seen them go home together or spend so much time together.

Her heart felt nice whenever Hyunseok called her ‘baby’. It made her feel warm and as though she was just an average girl with an average boyfriend. She laughed softly and reached up, gently touching his cheek in an affectionate manner.

“You say that, but then you have to half-carry me back to your apartment because my legs freeze up when I’m walking in the cold like that,” Suji said, her eyes scanning his profile. He did a lot for her, she appreciated him. Especially when she was having a hard time walking due to the damage that had been done to her legs in the car accident. Things that seemed to flare up when she was walking long distances, or when it was very cold.

 A soft snort of laughter came from Elliot at Jayden’s mention of the place’s lost potential to be an Air BNB. “Yeah, I think a serial killer having anything to do with a place is kinda gonna ruin any future potentials it might have.” It was then that they caught sight of the portraits. “Oh, you gotta be fucking- really?” The slight sneer that lifted their upper lip couldn’t be helped. “Isn’t that a little.. I dunno, disrespectful? I don’t know, I don’t want to look at these things.” Maybe it would have been different if it had just been the victims, but putting the killer in there as well rubbed them in some sort of wrong way.

Despite the history of the house, Elliot was in no way convinced that there were any spirits or ghosts residing in it. Sure, it might have been host to a dark past, but nothing else. All it was was a building with a couple people wandering around in it. But no ghosts. 

“Would you feel better if we slept in the same room together? And besides, you don’t annoy me.” Usually it was a given that they would sleep in the same room, but they still wanted to give him an out if he wanted to try to sleep by himself. “But we’re not rich enough to sit around being fancy, babe. Come on, let’s go check out the rest of the house.” 

Still holding the other’s hand, Elliot led him down a hallway that ended up dumping them out in the kitchen. “Oh, good, they didn’t feel the need to put a picture of a serial killer in every room, at least,” they commented as they took in the room. “This place really is nice, though,” they said as they let go of his hand, turning to face him with a bit of a mischievous grin, “What do you think of modeling our future house after a murder’s house?” they snickered. Of course, it wasn’t meant to be taken seriously, they just wanted to see if they could get a reaction out of him.

    “You say that it’s lost potential as an Air BNB, but let’s be honest. We’re here, pretty much using it as an Air BNB,” Jayden said, his eyes scanning the portraits of the deceased. All of them were dead, the killer had been murdered in prison (that seemed like justice). It seemed like a tasteless thing to do but there was nothing that they could do about it. They certainly couldn’t put it in the video without the owner losing their shit on them. Jayden didn’t want that kind of confrontation, something he would be the one to deal with without a doubt. It was, after all, his idea to come up to this house and he had been the one in contact with her. For now, all he could really do was follow Elliot through the house like a lost puppy.

“No!” He said immediately, pretty sure his soul would just walk out of his body if he didn’t have Elliot there to wind him down. He loved sleeping with Elliot anyway, in the time that they had been dating it had become something that he needed to do in order to sleep. “Let me dream of a future where we can have a nice house and be lazy fucks, Elliot. If we keep this gig up, that might actually happen.”

They were the most popular people on the website. They were even getting noticed places. It was weird, but money.

“Why- why is that a perk? I don’t want people to look at my biceps, I just don’t want to die from a heat stroke. You know how badly I handle heat.” There had been more than just a few instances in grade school where he had found himself in the nurse’s office during some of the hotter months. But he couldn’t help himself but snort in laughter at her following comment. “I noticed that, I was honestly trying really hard not to laugh. What the hell was the matter with her? It was embarrassing. We’re in the workplace, let’s be professional,” he found himself scolding a co-worker who wasn’t even there.

He had to agree with Suji, though. It was embarrassing. Not only for the new girl, but for him as well. Especially since he couldn’t say anything outright. Dating coworkers was still banned, and he and Suji had been treading a thin line for a year. At least, that was his assumption. They had never really made anything official. Maybe, he figured, they should have a talk about that. “Okay, suit yourself,” Hyunseok said with a shrug and amusement in his voice as he put back one of the two drinking glasses he had pulled from the cupboard. 

Once his water had been downed and he heard the shower running, he moved across the room to pick up the clothes that Suji had left in a heap on the floor and put them aside for her. He then busied himself in changing into cooler clothes - some shorts and a light T-shirt - before plopping himself onto the couch and waiting for Suji to finish in the shower.

    “I distinctly remember you almost throwing up on me one time because you were so overcome due to the heat,” Suji said, scrunching her nose up. That hadn’t been a pleasant time for her. She had panicked because she had thought her gagging friend was really going to upchuck on her. Really, it was the school’s fault for not having air conditioning in the classrooms. They had managed to devise a system so that they could both sneak into the nurse’s office, claiming that the heat was getting to them. Then they could make each other feel better by just sitting around and talking.

“When the temperature goes up, people get thirstier,” Suji called over her shoulder before shutting the door. She had been shocked by the woman’s forwardness. Although it had distracted her for the rest of the day. She could no longer pretend that she didn’t see his biceps and that he really did look quite good. He was no longer wrapped up in sweaters. Even though Suji had the chance to see him in various stages of undress, she had been taken aback when she had seen his arms after the woman had pointed it out.

Scrubbing the sweat from her body, she let out a sigh of relief. She no longer felt and looked like a hot mess. Wrapping a towel around herself she headed towards where Hyunseok was.

Elliot’s gaze darted between Jayden and the house, brows knitting slowly as they listened to him go on about what happened in the house. “I - I think we might have different ideas about what ‘awesome’ is, but the house itself is pretty cool.” What Jayden was probably worried about was very different from what they were, they would venture to guess. It was likely that Jayden was worried about ghosts or spirits residing in the house, but they were more concerned with the history of the place. In all honesty, they would have preferred to have gone without hearing about it.

But a place to stay was a place to stay. And Jayden was right - it had been cleaned up very well. It was actually very nice. And they didn’t need to pay. Which was always a perk. So they didn’t really have much to complain about.

“Why are you going and making promises you know you can’t keep?” they asked him in a playful tone, reaching down to take his hand. If they knew Jayden, they knew that the two of them probably weren’t going to end up staying the entire night in the house. Which was a bit of a shame. Sure, the history unsettled them a bit, but not enough to give up free housing. But if there was one thing Elliot didn’t want to do it would be to make Jayden uncomfortable. So if he wanted to leave, they would go, even if there would be a little bit of teasing involved. “Come on, let’s go inside.” With that, they started forward, tugging on his hand as they went to urge him along and up into the house. “Oh, it’s nice in here-” they found themselves saying as they flipped on the light.

    There didn’t appear to be anything from the original house left as they entered, everything had been updated for a more modern taste. It didn’t look as though a serial killer in the late eighties and early nineties had lived there at all. That was kind of disappointing for the video but probably a good thing for Jayden. The people that were renting the house had done some tasteless things; like photos of the serial killer and his victims in framed portraits. The way that someone might do for a family. Thankfully, none of the photos were of the victim’s post-mortem. They didn’t go that far.

“You know, this looks like it could be an impressive Air BNB if it wasn’t for the serial killer part of things,” Jayden said, glancing around. He had the camera bag over his shoulder as he kept close to Elliot. Not that he was about to lose his partner in a three-bedroom house.

Unless the ghosts dragged them away. That would be dramatic. They weren’t that kind of show though.

Mother nature did as she pleased, and the sudden heat wave that was passing proved that fact with little mercy. At the very least Hyunseok had air conditioning at work - which meant that he wouldn’t suffer too much from the heat while he was there - but he worried about Suji. He knew she liked to cover up. As often as he could manage without turning heads he would check in on her to make sure that she was alright. And as soon as they were in his car he was blasting the ac, for both of their sakes.

“I know, it’s bullshit.” Sleeves rolled, tie loosened, top button undone - he still felt like death. He had never dealt well with heat. Which was why he was thankful when he finally opened the door and led her into his apartment, feeling as though he had walked straight into heaven. He relished it for a moment, quite literally peeling his shirt from him in order to fan his torso with it. “I’d take snow again over this any day. I feel disgusting.”

Had he been able to see how sweaty Suji was, he would not have judged her in the slightest for it. He was just as bad - if not worse - and she had been covered up much more than he was. Besides, that sort of thing didn’t bother him much. “Of course you can. Do you want some water first though?” That was where his mind was, and where his feet were taking him. “If not it’ll be waiting for you afterwards.”

    “Except for the perk that everyone gets to see your biceps in those shirts,” Suji pointed out, shutting the door behind her as she entered his apartment. One thing that she found particularly difficult since the accident was not being able to go swimming. Because she had loved swimming and probably could have done it professionally if she had kept up with it. But, she didn’t. For obvious reasons that come with wearing bathing suits. “I swear, when you were giving the morning speech I thought that some of the girls were just going to crawl over the desk and attack you.”

It was kind of embarrassing to watch. It was a new girl though, pretty much everyone else in the office had accepted that they had no chance with Hyunseok for whatever reasons. They didn’t know, most of them thought that he was 100% gay. If he wasn’t going to hit on models, then what was he going to do?

Removing the dress and tossing it into a pile, Suji shivered over her own body. It was cool due to the temperature change inside of the apartment from outside. But it was a welcome change. She had on the thinnest bra that she owned to lessen the torment of the day.

They had officially made it. They were famous enough that they were offered a place to live without paying for it. It was obvious that the owner just wanted to rent the place better. They were free publicity.

“I promise I won’t keep you up tonight, I promise,” Jayden sighed, leaning up and pressing a kiss to their cheek. It was a lie. He would definitely keep Elliot up with his minor freak outs. Then they would sleep in a nearby hotel, which was definitely an hell of a lot more gross than this house.

“It was snowing two weeks ago,” Suji complained, walking to Hyunseok’s apartment with him from his car. Their relationship had been going on for almost a year, although they had yet to put an actual name on what was going on between them. Suji knew that she wasn’t seeing anyone else, and she was pretty sure it was obvious that no one was remotely interested in her. Everyone was interested in Hyunseok. He was attractive, tall as hell, and nice. Like, so nice? Maybe not the brightest but he was good at his job and that required a lot of him. “And now I’m sweating my soul out.”

Pulling the front of the dress from her chest, she tried not to shiver. Because she was sweaty, and it was disgusting. Thankfully, it was a dark dress, so no one could see that she was trash.

“I can take a shower, right?” She asked, although it was a silly question. They practically lived in Hyunseok’s apartment together.