More than just a pet || Seongjoong || + other ships

26: Second date

This chapter took so long to write because I got distracted by the comeback.

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Ten minutes later by car, Seonghwa had parked inside a mall's parking hall and was now leading Hongjoong by hand again, walking at an unhurried pace with the Omega by his side. They passed by all kinds of stores and Hongjoong was trying to figure out the reason for what they were doing in here.

'I guess this is where he wants to treat me before going to his workplace. He did say it's his turn to pay now.'

And that's when he noticed Seonghwa just about to step inside a very luxurious looking jewelry store. Hongjoong's eyes widened and he stopped in his tracks right before they could enter.

"No. You're not going to buy me something from here." He protested.

"What's the name of this store?" Seonghwa asked.

"Uhh.." Hongjoong looked up and read the letters on the sign.

"Diamonds & Rosettes?"

"Yeah, and what am I?"

"A leopard..." Hongjoong voiced, realizing now that Seonghwa's species was connected to the name of the store. (Rosettes are the name of the pattern on leopards and jaguars.)

"I told you I'd show you where I work. Come on." Seonghwa encouraged and Hongjoong finally allowed himself to be led inside, and past the two security guards in front.

"You work here just because you're a leopard?"

"Not exactly." Seonghwa started to explain.

"I inherited this company from my mother earlier this year, but I've been working here ever since I graduated from high school. And the office where I work is somewhere else, but there's no one there today because it's Saturday, so it's no fun going there right now. This is just the store... Or at least the main one."

'So that's where all the money came from. And the ring I stole earlier?' Hongjoong was thinking while the other talked.

"What do you do then? As the owner?"

"Usually, I don't really do much... There's not much to do when you're the CEO of a small company, and all of your workers do their job properly. I mostly just keep track of everything, check that everything's going as it's supposed to, and that everything's on schedule."

"But sometimes, mostly when we are coming up with a new line of jewelry, that's when I actually have stuff to do."

"Like what?" Hongjoong asked, his ears perked up in interest.

"I have to come up with all of our business ideas, which is technically just me drawing some kind of weird mess, and then giving it over to the designers who actually make something great out of my awful sketches. Then I have to choose which ones we'll develop further into actual jewelry and send those over to the manufacturer team."

"Sometimes we come up with special edition jewelry, like for Christmas and Valentine's day. And I get to see everything before the customers, which is really fun." Seonghwa spoke with his eyes shining in excitement.

"Did you design that too?" Hongjoong asked while pointing at the ring on Seonghwa's index finger.

"This ring is from an earlier line, when my mom was still the CEO, so honestly, I didn't even recognize it was one from our brand at first."

Hongjoong hummed as he didn't really have anything to say back.

"Do you like this kind of design by the way?" Seonghwa asked while holding his hand up in front of his chest.