Homme Fatale | KSJ | ✓

8 His revenge

Kim Seokjin smiled as his eyes swept over the crowd of female fans who had assembled around, watching him intently with their wide enthusiastic eyes.

"Lee Jieun-ssi."

Seokjin pointed a finger at Jieun, the female who was standing at the utmost center of his crowd of admirers, and Jieun's eyes widened at the sudden acknowledgment. Seokjin gave her a reassuring smile. "What's your favorite flower?"

"My favorite flower? Mmm...." Jieun pondered over the question, tapping a finger against her chin earnestly wondering about it before she shortly replied, "Roses."

"Roses ah! A very wonderful choice!" He announced to the crowd of ladies who all cheered. Slowly Seokjin brought his hand forth to her face as he looked into her eyes with an alluring smile and Jieun stared into his eyes as if she were entranced. Suddenly he moved his hand behind her head in a fluid motion and brought forth a vibrant red rose to view. "Oh la la!"

A chorus of surprised gasps arose from the crowd, and a moment later loud resounding applause broke out along with delighted squeals and cries.

"Merci, merci." Seokjin was saying as he bowed to his audience. He resumed his show with a flourish of his hands and he swept the rose along the length of his forearm in a flash. "Poof!"

And the next thing they knew, the rose had vanished into thin air. Seokjin opened both his palms and raised them to their eye levels inviting them to confirm it for themselves. Another round of applause swept over the crowd.

"Whoa..."

"Awesome!"

"How do you do it?"

"Are you a wizard, Jin-ssi?"

Seokjin only answered their questions with simple nods of his head, jet black locks of his hair bouncing at the movement. His gentle smile conveyed a hint of sheer satisfaction at the compliments.

"Ahem!"

A loud clearing of a throat echoed through the 13th-floor hallway silencing the crowd into a pin drop silence. The group looked towards the source of the noise dreading the sight that awaited them.

 A feminine form stood there, her cool eyes trained on the spectacle before her. She slowly strolled down the hallway, a bone-chilling glare directed at the person at the center of the commotion, Kim Seokjin. Her high heels clicked loudly against the tiled floor and the ladies nervously gulped down in fear. This was Han Jaehwa, the most feared secretary of Holo.

Seokjin's face broke into a wide grin, "Mlle Han! We've been waiting for you."

"Waiting for me?" Jaehwa tilted her head.

"Yes," he clasped his hands together as he spoke expectantly, "Look inside your bag please."

She raised an eyebrow skeptically. "For what?"

"Just look please."

Jaehwa wasn't too intent on succumbing to his request easily, but curiosity got the better of her and she shoved her hand inside of her bag and felt around until her fingers came across something long and prickly. 

What's that?

She couldn't remember placing something remotely of such sorts in her bag at all. Quickly, she pulled the entire prickly thing out and a chorus of Oohs rose from the crowd as a small bouquet of red roses came into view.

Seokjin's grin widened and he spread his arms presenting the bouquet of roses with a final cry, "Voilà!"

Several noises of wonder and amazement erupted from the crowd and all of his audiences had huge wide grins on their faces mixed with looks of admiration except one. Han Jaehwa did not seem the least bit affected by his little demonstration as she folded her hands and shot him a look.

"I thought your place was at the secretary's desk outside Director Min Yoongi's office. What are you doing here, Kim Seokjin-ssi?"

She did not even care to conceal her resentment in her harsh tone. Seokjin's smile remained the same, though his eyes told her a different story.

"I was just showing these lovely ladies some tricks I have picked from a Parisian street magician. They insisted that I show them a few."

"Really?" Her voice was as cold as eyes as her chilling gaze swept over the crowd. The ladies who had gathered quickly averted their eyes and scrambled out of her sight, too scared to say anything and within a few seconds, the entire coast was clear except for the two secretaries. Jaehwa snapped her gaze back to the subject of her hatred.

"Now, what are you waiting for? Scat. Begone."

"Alright, fine, I'm going. No need to be so rude." He said, walking back with a smile that irritated her to the core.

"Rude?" She scoffed, "You are the one to talk."

Not surprisingly, he responded to her remark with another one of his cheeky smiles. It didn't help that his smile was one of the most charming she had ever seen. It only made it even more infuriating.

 "A bientôt!" With a final nod, Seokjin stepped out of sight and went on his way leaving a glaring secretary behind. Jaehwa huffed. "That prick has some nerve."

Stomping back to her desk, Jaehwa plopped down on her chair and was about to vent her anger out on her work when she became aware of the rose bouquet she still had in her hand. Her first impulse was to hurl the thing into the nearest trash can, but on second thought it wasn't fair. The poor bunch of flowers did nothing to deserve such unfair treatment. Taking the flowers, she placed them at the far end of her desk, just far enough to convey her contempt for him but close enough that it was visible. With a satisfied smile, she turned back to work. 

Almost thirty minutes later, she was still at work intently focusing on her computer screen when a strange pungent smell softly tickled her nose and she let out a loud sneeze. "Achoo!"

Jaehwa looked around eyes searching for the source of the awful stench in vain. What is this smell? Where is it even coming from?

The clicking of heels let her know the presence of her best friend walking up to her desk. When she walked further her face slowly contorted into a grimace as she scrunched her face and she pinched it close. "My God, what is that smell Jaehwa?"

"I don't know either Jieun, I'm wondering the same thing." She replied absent-mindedly as she looked around the place. Seriously where is it coming from? The smell was slowly spreading all over and vaguely in her memory she remembered that Sahan was supposed to have a personal guest in ten minutes. Oh frick! What am I going to do?

"Open the windows, open the wind-" Jieun cried as she began furiously coughing at the stench. Jaehwa quickly scrambled up to the windows and tried to open them in vain. The window was shut tight as if they were superglued together. "Jieun, h-help me."

 Jieun somehow managed to control her coughing fit and help her with the window but it was of no use. It was stuck.

What am I going to do? The guest is going to arrive anytime soon.

What was even worse was the fact that if Sahan came to know about the weird stench, she'll have to take all the blame.

"Ah! I give up. Let's just look for where it's coming from." Jieun cried, rubbing her hurting hands against each other and Jaehwa nodded. Anything to get the damned smell out of here.

It was as she was looking around when her eyes fell on a package sitting at the far end of her desk. As she neared the weird-looking box, the pungent smell intensified. Urgh! Found you.

Jaehwa frowned. She didn't remember placing that package there. In fact, wasn't the bouquet of roses she had placed there. Where did it go now?

Jaehwa's eyes slowly widened in realization. No way... Could it be?

It very much could be.

Kim Seokjin, that jerk!

________________

Voilà!- There it is

Merci-  Thank you

A bientôt!- see you soon

Mlle- Mademoiselle