let me be your killer king

“you can dance with me and we can pretend like we don’t hate each other for at least 3.5 minutes, or you can draw all the attention in the room to yourself by fussing and arguing with me for no reason.” the steel of his teeth graze against his lips by the end of that sentence, the demand for her compliance clear, no room for hesitation or any more battles. she’s always drowning herself in war these days it seems, as though the child he had met so long ago had decided only mountain-sided bones could get her through life, a gun attached to every limp, teeth and claws and barely restrained hatred.

attending a business school in japan and returning to take over the reins, at least in a single hotel for now, are pieces set in the puzzle of jongin’s life, building him up into the company head— that is, unless mr. kim manages to kill him first, or unless his clandestine nightlife activities put him in the ground. despite preparing himself for his roles in society for over two decades, something in the darker recesses of jongin’s soul tells him he won’t make it too far anyway, he shouldn’t plan so far ahead, not with the kind of deathwish he walks around attached to.

still though, might as well go through the motions, part of which being a deal brokered by another influential mr. kim, this one with no obvious ties to his family, thankfully enough. rumor has it, despite having lived his life under the thumb of the elder mr. kim, hoseok is about as adept at this job a newborn fawn would be in an office, something jongin sincerely hopes is an exaggeration given that he’s never been capable of exuding patience or guidance.

something in him wonders if there’s any more of that girl inside sumin, if there’s anything left of her beneath the sharpened edges, the knife-bladed havoc of her skin, her eyes, her wit. she is all offensive slices of apathy, a cool-tinted shade plastered across her face, with or without the mask, and jongin reminds himself they are not here together because of any feelings held between them. she is here as his guard, somewhat, despite his interest in other things, despite the fact that he has another guard lurking around the premises, once he trusts slightly more not to get too drunk by the end of the evening.

but then she just looks back at him and smiles, expecting him to make nice of this situation, the way she always has. she raises her tea and says something to mrs. kwon, something jongin tunes out because he’s too busy wondering how he’s going to communicate with jiyong without letting on that they already know each other, without hinting to their mothers that something might be awry. it’s usually his father who enjoys putting jongin through uncomfortable trials, not his mother, but nevertheless, jongin’s face is a mask, a vague frown adorning his brow as he watches the man he’s being imposed upon.

when the other looks up, jongin can tell they are both having the same difficulties, and he decides at some point today, he’s going to have to find some time alone with him. not for anything sexual ( at least not yet ), but to have some kind of candid conversation where they establish that this is probably the worst situation to ever be found in with a one-night-stand. jongin doesn’t buck though, doesn’t wince or shift away as jiyong looks over at him, smiling, having spent way too many years under the watchful eye of a monster to give anything away too soon. he is nothing but a mask of himself.

he can remember the last they’d seen of each other, her eyes lit up almost in fury, like they are now, always so keen on playing the plucky hero, and him the villain. he hadn’t been sure of how to talk to her, really with any note of gravity in his voice, a vague request for seriousness that she hadn’t grasped, thinking him unendingly cold and frustrating. maybe he was pretty frustrating. maybe he still is. he doesn’t mold himself to fit her ideal of a gentleman, or a boyfriend, and her prideful side never seemed to accept that. he’d wanted to tell her goodbye but she thought he was only being malicious. as usual.

and now they stand in front of each other, nearly five years gone, although not all of it has been spent in tokyo, on his part. he’s been working hard at his business, working on setting everything up, applying his knowledge and skills, buried in anything he possibly could to convince himself he didn’t have any time to reconnect with her. she wouldn’t want him anyway, and that’s more obvious now that he’s in front of her, it’s more apparently written over her face that it had ever been inside his mind. he could be on fire and she probably wouldn’t spit on him, with all the hatred she holds against his family at the very least. that’s normal. he’s used to it.

Honestly, it has been a while that she meet someone other than to have sex. No wonder why she was never in home after all this time. “Home” she couldn’t really call her house a home, to be very honest. Her home was with herself but still couldn’t find her true place. It could be on the bar that she worked, no wonder she always was in someone else bed in the morning. She has someone that could make her feel at home, her best friend and confident. It has been a long time until have a few time to spend with him. Having Jongin by her side was something like a blessing, although she doesn’t quite believe in God. She was missing him too much that she couldn’t handle to stay without his company any longer. She had a lot of things to talk to him since the last time that meet him, on other hand she would love to hear him as well.

In any case, she was ready to go to home after her shift, something that is rare to happen. She mostly go home just to change her clothing. But, this time, she invited her old and best friend. Aya was so excited that she bought a few things to eat with him. Junk food was her favorite thing since beginning. It kinda show her rebel side since she knows very well that she could die earlier because of that. Inviting him to come to her house wasn’t a big deal since they are childhood friends that kept contacting each other a lot, enough to have a really expensive phone bills every month. She remembers when her parents wanted to fix them, they never believe truly that they were just friends, though they didn’t believe in friendship between a male and female. After get really comfy at her house, she couldn’t even sit for a few minutes and heart her bell ring. She walked lazily to the door and opened it with a smile on her lips. 「 Nini, it has been a while! 」 She said, opening her arms to hug him tight.