𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐏𝐇𝐎𝐄𝐍𝐈𝐗

Fanning Flames

> This chapter is a continuation of the flashback itself. Set soon after their first meeting.

> Also, some cursing. Some caveman tactics. Beware. 

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Three Weeks, Two Days, Seven Hours and Some Minutes Since the First Meeting Later (Not that she was counting or anything)

Everyone laughed. Chaeyoung swallowed and sipped her wine, aware of the gazes scrutinizing each other covertly.

Her father was hosting a small dinner party tonight. Only the Bratva was present with their families and the group expanded up to more than twenty people or so, and that was excluding all the little midgets. The house was lit up, the dining hall felt and looked lavish with the blood red drapes and the chandelier and the candles on the long table. She sat beside Anatoly somewhere in the middle. The head of the table, at one end, was occupied by her father, while her mother sat on the other end like a queen. Pun not intended.

Her eyes drifted to the pun in question, seated right opposite her. Jeon Jungkook.

The man simply fascinated her. He was full of secrets and mysteries and lord knew how much she loved mysteries. Well, solving them. His handsome face was wearing a polite mask with a smile that looked so fake it seemed like he wasn't even trying. His gorgeous eyes looked dull as he listened to some person from somewhere drone on and on about his first hit. His eyes were more haunted than dull and god knows why, she wanted to erase that look from his face.

It had been three weeks since their very heated first meeting. Since then, her father had kept him more occupied than anyone she had seen before. Her father and Anatoly, both hard men to impress, also had a very, very high regard for him and that told her a lot. First, this man was danger-on-legs and he was really good at it. Second, he was quickly rising within the Bratva and soon might even be a Captain himself, which was as rare for an Korean as it was to see flying pigs, which was like never. And third, he was not here just to do business with her father. For three weeks, Chaeyoung had observed him from afar, reading him and it was not easy, but she came to the conclusion that he had a reason for being here- a reason he was very clearly keeping to himself and a reason she wanted to get out because whatever this man was, he was definitely threatening.

They had hardly interacted for the three weeks (and two days, seven hours; she totally wasn't counting), yet his promise that day was imprinted on her brain. She had been waiting for the other shoe to drop for a while and it hadn't and that only made her more jittery. She was in unfamiliar territory here. Yet, that troubled, dull look in his eyes made her want to shield him from the mundane conversation and worthless facades. She was surprised at her own protective reaction of him. She barely even knew the man! Except his erection, she knew that well.

An idea came into her head and she inconspicuously looked around, seeing who was where. Jimin stood near the entrance with a few other body guards, broody and handsome, all familiar faces except one- the Korean who looked like Hulk . He was gigantic and he was, by her sleuthing of three weeks, Jeon Jungkook's bodyguard. Although why he needed a bodyguard was beyond her. His own arms were bulging with muscles. Anyhow, knowing that nobody could see what she was going to do, she took a deep breath, her insides quivering like jelly, and slowly moved her heeled foot forward.

Her toes made contact with his seriously muscled calf (lord, was the man carved out of stone!) the same moment his head shot up towards her, the naked surprise evident in his eyes. He just looked at her for a few moments, the conversation around them getting farther and farther away from her, before the surprise turned into amusement. At least she had successfully erased that dead look off his face. She smiled, satisfied and started to pull back her foot when she felt his hand, rough and warm, grip her ankle. Her breath hitched and she gasped out loud.