#hyphen-ed

“Is there a problem?” Eun-Sang looked him directly in the eye and he ducked his head.

“Not yet.” He clenched his jaw and for a few seconds it looked like he wasn’t breathing. He covered his mouth. “I just need to make a few things clear so we don’t have the issue that drove away the last person in your position.”

“Right,” Eun-Sang remembered that from her interview. Resort culture had been uttered several times but she didn’t exactly know what it meant. “First, try this and tell me what you think, then you can yell at whomever you want.”

There was a part of her that enjoyed how baffled he looked whenever she spoke to him. It made her feel like this wild crush wasn’t entirely one sided. Eun-Sang held out a fork with the bite of steak out on the end. He took it and ate the piece. She mentally berated herself for finding the action somewhat sensual.

“Could be more rare,” he said, “But I like the flavor.”

“If it were anymore rare, it would be alive,” Eun-Sang muttered but smiled up at him.

“Is it Yoo-Ra again?” Bo-Na looked faintly nervous until Young-Do’s expression softened. He reached out and ran his hand over her hair. Her anxiety left immediately. Young-Do nodded and Bo-Na gave him a disgusted look. “That’s what you get for coupling with her more than once. Boredom is not a good enough excuse, Vice President. Not in your position. Is it the office or the locker room?”

“Office. I took care of cleaning it up already.” Eun-Sang gave a quiet groan. She thought the weird pushback would stop once she’d been here a few weeks. It had been almost two months. The restaurant was doing well and her staff was really good. She didn’t understand what she’d done to get these odd tantrums. Yoo-Ra was such a sweet girl to her face. Young-Do actually touched her shoulder. “I’m sorry. I promise, I’ll do everything I can to make sure it won’t happen again.”

“You’re not doing everything,” Bo-Na said in a quiet sing-song voice that oddly had Young-Do turning bright red. He hissed at her but Bo-Na just smiled brightly at him. “Rachel likes her. There’s no reason to hold back, Vice President.”

“Wait. Is your ex-girlfriend upset that you like walking me home?” Eun-Sang stared up at him. She enjoyed the fifteen minutes between the restaurant and her apartment every evening after she got off work. Young-Do did it the first night she worked here and she was glad it became a habit so quickly. He still made no move to kiss her and she was getting impatient.

“Yes,” Bo-Na said just as Young-Do, emphatically insisted, “She is not my ex-girlfriend.”

Eun-Sang raised her eyebrows and then pointed further into the kitchen. “Yoo-Ra is getting tonight’s desserts ready. Please don’t kill my best pastry chef just because she doesn’t like me and misunderstands our relationship.”

“She doesn’t misunderstand anything. He’s just bad at it.” Bo-Na murmured in her sing-song voice and got another embarrassed hiss out of Young-Do. He immediately left upon sighting Yoo-Ra. Eun-Sang winced when the tiny girl flinched at Young-Do’s anger. She started to go interfere when Bo-Na grabbed her hand. “He might make her cry but he will lose all credibility with all the girls that work for you if you insist there is nothing happening between you two.”

Resort culture really made no sense to her. Eun-Sang turned away when Yoo-Ra started stroking her hands over Young-Do’s chest in a movement that felt like fawning. She kept her voice low as she stared at the too raw steak she experimented with. 

“Nothing is happening. I thought he might be interested when he started walking me home at night but he never touches me. He doesn’t flirt with me even though I’ve tried flirting with him. I don’t know what to do, Bo-Na. I’m one more polite exchange on my doorstep from just jumping him and seeing what happens.”

“I would pay money to watch that.” She sighed softly and glanced over to the corner. “He doesn’t want to mess it up and he doesn’t know the correct next step so he just walks you home so he can talk and be with you. He takes running the resort for Rachel very seriously. He’s trying to get investors from Seoul and it isn’t going as well as he would like.” She wrinkled her nose and gave Eun-Sang a hug that made her feel a little better. “The other girls here don’t know how to handle you. An outsider confuses them. They don’t know your place yet and he’s not making it clear. His relationship with Rachel they understand. A girl from…the city…who got this job without any connections…it’s just going to take time. Please jump him tonight. That will definitely change things.”

“Are you one of his exes?” Until this moment, Eun-Sang didn’t think to ask. She just realized that Young-Do touched Bo-Na plenty more than he did her.

Bo-Na blinked and growled at her. “I would never do that to my Chan-Young!”

Eun-Sang had never seen a more faithful widow, not even on television. When they were roommates in college, Bo-Na would talk to her wedding picture constantly. It broke her heart that Bo-Na couldn’t move on. All of the stories about him were wonderful, so she could almost understand why she was so heartbroken.

Bo-Na glanced back at Young-Do and wrinkled her nose. “I think I’m the only girl here to reject him when he offered though. It was right before I met you. I think Rachel encouraged it. She’s worried I’m broken because I don’t want any of the boys.”

“You’re not broken just because you don’t want to have sex with just anyone.” Eun-Sang wiped her hands and hugged Bo-Na tightly. “Will you be offended if I think resort culture is a little weird? It’s like a strange, tiny kingdom here and I don’t know the customs or rules.”

“We are strange and tiny but I think you will fall in love with us and want to stay.” Bo-Na started to do that odd fawning with her hair and back so Eun-Sang kissed her cheek. It always seemed to calm her down.

“I am in love with you and Rachel,” she teased. “I’d be in love with him, if he’d let me. I wish I could understand why you’re so confident in his attraction to me. I don’t feel it at all.”

“I would never suggest this to any of the other girls here, but maybe try being direct with him. He loves Rachel best and she’s very demanding.”

“I don’t want to be his sister. I want him to fuck me,” Eun-Sang whispered and immediately jumped when a stack of plates broke. She whirled around to find the mess around Young-Do and Yoo-Ra. Bo-Na just giggled and went over to help clean it up.

He stepped over the mess and looked like he was going to awkwardly rush out of her kitchen but Eun-Sang grabbed his hand before he could just go past her. He stiffened but she pushed forward anyway. She didn’t want him to skip out of tonight. “Eleven?”

Young-Do cleared his throat and squeezed her hand. Just this little contact felt so nice. He bent down into her space and that warmth pressed against her skin. She’d had flings in college but never had she wanted a man the way she did Choi Young-Do. It was getting obsessive. “I’ll be here.”

“Good.” She met his eyes and tried to smile as sweetly as possible. She told herself, it wasn’t a real kiss, when she pressed her lips against his cheek. “I’ll see you then.”

“Tonight.” There was something pleasantly dark in his voice when he returned her kiss. Eun-Sang almost turned her face so she could get him to kiss her on the mouth. She watched him go and almost commented that it was unfair that such a man had his ass and shoulders.

“I retract my earlier suggestion,” Bo-Na murmured after they finished cleaning up the stack of broken plates. “If you jump him tonight, you will definitely get done by him. You probably won’t be able to walk straight tomorrow.”

That might actually be pleasant. It had been way too long since she had sex good enough where she couldn’t walk straight the next morning. Eun-Sang shook her head. “He’s not going to go from kissing me to fucking me. Not after how slow he’s been.”

Bo-Na gave her a look that expressed just how delusional she thought Eun-Sang was before they started in on their busy night. Yoo-Ra kept a wide and polite berth of her and Eun-Sang barely grilled more rare steak than she had in her entire cooking career. She really didn’t get why so many people wanted it. Even finicky Bo-Na liked her steak rare and a little too bloody.

The time moved quickly and suddenly it was after eleven and the last dish was clean and put away. Eun-Sang heard Young-Do talking to someone on his cell phone as he sat at his usual table to wait for her. She gathered her things and went to go sit with him while he finished it up.

“I don’t need help,” he grumbled at whomever was on the other line. “Just think about it. We need a good lawyer and we don’t have anyone to fill that place. We should think about reaching out to Kim Won.” He winced and Eun-Sang was certain she heard Rachel being cranky at him. “We can’t hate the whole country because of what happened. I’ll talk to you when I get home. Eun-Sang is here and I need to walk her home.” He barely paused and then got mildly irritated. “Rachel, I don’t need help!”

He hung up and smiled tightly at her. “You have a sister, right? Do you often want to throttle her in her sleep?”

“Every time we talk,” Eun-Sang laughed and stood. He followed her and they began their nightly ritual of walking to her apartment together. It was always so quiet. She could only hear the ocean. It was about to be summer and there were no animals noises around them. Even in Seoul she could hear cats or birds but this little town had almost nothing. “Is everything okay with Rachel?”

Young-Do gave a quiet sigh and looked troubled for a few seconds. “We’re struggling to raise the value of the resort and draw in tourists. Our entertainment isn’t what it could be but we can’t afford to book any big names from Seoul. Bo-Na is brilliant when it comes to marketing. She’s gotten a few travel agencies to recommend us but we need more. You’re doing great with the restaurant,” he rushed. “It’s our biggest draw right now, but…She also needs a lawyer and we don’t have one yet.”

Eun-Sang felt like Rachel needed a boyfriend, too. Or a girlfriend, if that’s what she liked. She just needed someone to bear her load that wasn’t her brother. Young-Do took being vice president very seriously. And he was always at Rachel’s beck and call.

“Bo-Na is talking about turning the noraebang into a club.”

“I think it’s a great idea. Rachel isn’t sure yet so we’ve got to wait for her approval.” He breathed in deeply and startled her a little when he stopped and looked in the direction of the restaurant.

“Something wrong?” She looked and didn’t see anything.

“We used to have gangs. I’m just sensitive to that. I thought we were being followed.” He frowned and oddly sniffed at the air. He shook his head and sighed. “Nothing. Sorry. I’ll feel better once you’re safe behind locked doors.”

“Gangs? In the middle of nowhere?” Eun-Sang still slipped her hand into his and pressed a little closer. He let go of her hand but wrapped his arm around her shoulders. 

“Even little resort towns have their problems. Rachel is something of a local hero, you know. She is the one who stood up to the gang leader and ran them out of town. Without her, our resort wouldn’t be safe.”

“I bet you helped.” Eun-Sang took advantage of their position and got her arm around his waist and tucked her head into the crook of his arm. His legs were incredibly long but she managed to keep pace with him. 

He didn’t answer her immediately. Eun-Sang was just shocked he was opening up to her. She mostly did the talking on their walks home. “A little. She didn’t need much help and I was in a bad place. The gangs wanted me as a member and there are consequences to refusing.”

It was time to move away from this conversation. His voice was tight and his body tense next to hers. Eun-Sang rubbed at his back and smiled up at him when he looked down.

“I’m glad they failed. I think you’d make a bad gangster.” She got a chuckle for that just as they hit her stairs. They had to uncouple to walk up to her floor but he kept his hand against the small of her back. Thank goodness, her neighbor’s dog wasn’t obnoxiously barking tonight. She unlocked her door and turned around to face him. “I’m glad we do this but…”

Eun-Sang bit her lower lip and swallowed. It really was now or never. Bo-Na was going to laugh at her. Eun-Sang just went for it. She stepped into him, grabbed the lapels of his suit jacket and yanked him into her. She kissed him, intending to keep it brief and maybe a little bit hard, and hoped she’d just taken the next step and not ruined anything that could happen between them.

When he surged into her, lifted her up, and pressed her against her door. Eun-Sang wrapped her legs around his waist and almost giggled to herself about how easily they would fit together if she could get his pants off. Kissing him was marvelous. His lips, his tongue, the way he grunted when she twisted her fingers in his hair and rubbed her body against his…all wonderful.

And she finally had his hands on her. Her face, her hair, her waist, her thighs…

She touched him everywhere she could reach before she decided she couldn’t wait anymore. Eun-Sang found his belt and really didn’t care if he did her against her door as long as he did. They could go inside for a second round. They hadn’t even started and she knew once wouldn’t be enough.

He growled when she got her fingers inside his pants. It was enough of a shock that she pulled back to look at him. The streetlights made his eyes look red as he stared into her. She pulled her hand back but refused to back down from what she wanted. Eun-Sang unzipped her pants, found his hand, and without looking away from him, encouraged him to touch her.

“I want you,” she whispered against his mouth. “I have from the moment I saw you. I think you want me. I would like to be your girlfriend but if you don’t want that, I’ll settle for fucking you tonight.”

Eun-Sang was amazed at his strength as he lifted her up just enough to fit them together so she could slide down onto him. She closed her eyes and leaned her head back against the door as she tried to breathe. She laughed before she kissed him again. It was much better than she imagined. 

“I’m not going to settle for just tonight,” he said and it was the most beautiful promise she’d heard in a long time. The sex was rough and quick and she came sooner than she expected. He set her down when they finished and she buried her face against his chest as she hugged him tightly. He was so gentle as he pressed his lips to the top of her head and ran his fingers through her messy hair. She’d lost her ponytail at the start.