Sleeping With The Enemy

The Way It Usually Happens

The Christmas gala at the Palace was an invitation Min Hyeon did not want to think about. There was no way he could fly under the radar and escape. His parents expected him to attend it together with them. They and other chaebol groups had been invited to represent Corean trade, along with nobility, charities and foreign dignitaries. Min Hyeon had already planned out a three-day Christmas trip with Seo Ryeong to Jeju Island. He sighed in disappointment and picked up the phone to call the hotel concierge that he had to cancel reservations.

The four months of dating had wrought a change in Min Hyeon. He found himself spending a lot more time in the library. Seo Ryeong wrinkled her dainty nose at him whenever she found out that he wasn't putting his all into getting the best grades. There was a downside to dating the class valedictorian – she tested him regularly about the lectures they attended together at the most inopportune moments. The pinnacle of all inopportune moments was the pop quiz during the Busan Tigers baseball game. Seo Ryeong declared that he failed the quiz. Min Hyeon said he couldn't even hear the questions amid the roar of the crowd. He tackled kissed her during that game just because she gave him that challenging look that rankled his ego. That kiss was highly satisfying as it was caught by the cameras in the stadium. He bought that footage immediately after the game.

His old friend, Shin Kyeong teased him about turning into a nerd and being pussy-whipped. Shin Kyeong didn't know that Min Hyeon wasn't getting any. Min Hyeon joined Shin Kyeong sometimes on his nightly drinking sessions but he found less satisfaction from it than before. The day he told Shin Kyeong that he needed to study was met with derisive laughter. Min Hyeon walked away from the laughter with no regrets. Instead, Min Hyeon found out that he rather enjoyed acing his studies and competing with Seo Ryeong. He was better at grasping concepts in their finance and economic papers. She excelled in subjects that needed memorizing.

For some reason, Min Hyeon was more than happy to just date without having any sex. Seo Ryeong had a way with words and mental mind games. He had never been so occupied and so entertained in his life. Seo Ryeong was also really busy with modelling and did not have time for hanging out. She had a one-track mind where earning money was concerned. Min Hyeon knew the reason for it, so he just chauffeured her to shooting locations whenever he had no classes. He was a year older than she was, so he took some papers that she had yet to take. The drives were always interesting. She had a lot of outlandish ideas and used him as a soundboard to gauge his response.

Their coursemates of course took notice that KU Group's Choe Min Hyeon was going everywhere with Koo Seo Ryeong. Min Hyeon knew Seo Ryeong received a lot of flak by going out with him. He knew from Eun Rim that people called Seo Ryeong a social climber. Min Hyeon also knew that Eun Rim was probably one of those people backstabbing Seo Ryeong. He was more than happy to see that all the gossip fell on Seo Ryeong's deaf ears. She was stronger than a lot of people gave her credit for.

The Christmas gala dinner was held at Busan Palace this year. Some years, it was held at the Autumn Palace in Pyeongyang. Others, it was held at Gyeongbokgong in Seoul. Min Hyeon wore his tuxedo. It was well-cut and exceedingly comfortable. Everything from the stitches, down to the cuff links was personally picked by him, executed by tailors at Saville Row and flown back to Corea in record time. He emerged from his dressing room and wished that he could have spent the night with Seo Ryeong and her family at their shop in Jagalchi Market. He knew he would have a lot more fun with them.

Seo Ryeong had a different view of the Christmas Gala Dinner. She said it was important for him to mingle and to network with people. Min Hyeon knew she was right but he wished that he had more freedom to choose where and how he could spend his own Christmas dinners. The Palace regularly invited them to New Year's dinner and Chuseok Festival. It was a rare thing to be able to celebrate a big festival the way he wanted.