Play With Fire

5: The Film Experience

CHAPTER 5
The Film Experience (⚠️)

    "How long will it take for us to get there?" Jin could hear his voice amplified in his headphones against the roar of the helicopter blades.

    "Four hours by car. But since we'll be flying, it will just be over an hour, baby. Better than sitting in traffic, right?" Taehyung boyishly grinned at him and continued the pre-flight checks.

    Unlike poor Soobin who set off two hours ago to drive my Porsche to Ulsan, he huffed inwardly.

    It was too much to hope that Taehyung would allow him to drive to Ulsan by himself, even if accompanied by the security team --- so here he was, setting off for his second day at work by helicopter.

    Soobin would meet them at the hotel's heli-pad and Taehyung had given his reluctant blessing to Jin of driving the short distance from the hotel to his newly acquired manufacturing plant in his Porsche. It was an elaborate pantomime of course, but it should help to maintain their deception a little longer.

    As Jin looked out over an awakening Seoul, he reflected on the evening before. Taehyung had been true to his word --- albeit with some effort and had not felt compelled to punish him despite his recalcitrant behaviour yesterday.

    While Taehyung was still battling with his control freak tendancies, deep down Jin knew he did it because he cared about him and his safety. Jin felt a little guilty for worrying him by going AWOL.

    But I think I made that up to him last night-- several times, in fact.

    Poor Soobin had not been so lucky.

    Jin overheard Taehyung shouting at him, furious that he had exposed him to danger by allowing him to leave the building unaccompanied. He suspected the fact that he had slipped through the security turnstiles in a group had enabled him to covertly leave the building. He needed to apologise to him for that. It was not intentional-- did not even give it a thought.

    Now, Jin needed to find the right moment to remind Taehyung about their arrangement as his greeting yesterday --- pleasant though it had been --- had set a few hairs raising with his colleagues.

    "You're quiet, baby. You okay?" Taehyung had noticed his pensive mood.

    Jin smiled at him. "Yes, I'm just thinking about today. You, me and the other interns. Why didn't you just shake my hand yesterday like everyone else? People will gossip, and I don't want it to be about me."

    "I was going to shake your hand-- right up until I got to you. Then two things happened. First, you were looking at me," he looks at Jin slyly and grinned, "in that way."

    Jin looked down at his fingers, embarrassed. "I was looking at your arm, the way your muscles moved and-- I guess I suddenly had a vivid and rather pleasant recollection of another occasion where they were-- er-- tensed like that."

    He could feel his ears burning.

    How can I still feel embarrassed in front of this guy after all we've done together?

    Taehyung looked at him sideways and flashed him a devilish grin. "A vivid recollection, huh? You will have to talk me through that later-- see if I can refresh your memory. Must have been a good one to have you looking at me like that."

    Jin grinned at him shyly. "You said there were two reasons. What was the other?"

    Taehyung's voice suddenly hardened. "I really didn't like how close that preppy fucker was standing next to you and I needed to make him understand he needs to back the fuck off."