One Temptation | Choi Yeonjun Fanfiction

Chapter 28 - Glad You Noticed

You land a brutal punch on his nose and push him against a wall, clawing at his hair with enough force to pull them all out along with his scalp. A tiny stream of blood makes an appearance from his nose and slowly trails down towards his cracked lips.

"Crazy! This woman is crazy! Save me!" He starts struggling to break free from your grasp, but your hold only tightens.

"Should've thought about the consequences of yours words before opening your mouth." You grab his arm and twist it behind his back that makes him howl in pain.

"y/n!" Before you could inflict more pain to the wrinkly old man, Yeonjun grabs your arms and pulls you away from him, panic etched across that pretty face of his. You glare back at him and pluck your arm free from his hold.

"Stop this nonsense right this instant!" Yeonjun's father steps between you and Ryan and orders harshly.

"You, crazy bitch!" Ryan yells, pointing a shaky finger at you.

You look at Ryan over your shoulder and narrow your eyes, causing him to take a step back behind Yeonjun's dad, to use him as a shield in case you jumped at him once more. "You got that quite right." You nod your head calmly and turn to face him, or more precisely Yeonjun's dad, who was now a barrier between you two. "I am a crazy bitch. I don't waste time barking. I bite."

"Show some respect, Park y/n." Yeonjun's dad frowns.

You laugh in disbelief. "Respect? Hah. Respect is shown to those who deserve it, not just anyone, or else that shit starts getting to their heads."

And before anyone could say something else, you walk past them and storm off without saying another word. You don't know what happens after you leave – what Yeonjun's dad says to Yeonjun or what Ryan has to say about you to the other two – but, soon enough, Yeonjun catches up to you right outside his office and stops you by holding onto your wrist, spinning you around so you could face him.

"What is it, Choi?"

"Ryan... Was it Ryan who attacked you?"

Your lips press into a thin line as you think about whether you should tell him who exactly attacked you... Since you purposely avoided it the last time you were telling him about the incident, even though he did ask a couple times.

I've already told him almost everything about that day, I guess it wouldn't hurt to fill in the last empty blank... If only for the sake of formulating an efficient and foolproof plan.

You sigh. "It was Liam. He was personally there himself. But, I wouldn't put it past Ryan to have had a hand in it as well."

"Why didn't you tell me?" A flicker of hurt flashes across his face.

As much as it hurt- no. No. Why should it hurt? It shouldn't hurt. So what if you hid an important piece of information from him... It was just guilt doing its work, making you feel this feeling akin to being hurt. Nothing else.

"I'm not obligated to tell you everything."

"Yeah, right..." Yeonjun nods, offering a tight smile. "I think... I understand your reservations... But, now that I know who's involved has made the situation more complex." He groans, running his fingers through his hair, disheveling them, making him look all the more devastating than he already was.

"Oh, I wonder why." You drawl sarcastically, earning a soft laugh from Yeonjun, lightening the mood, even if just by a tiny bit.

"I doubt dad's going to be happy about you being my assistant. And now that many people in the company have seen you parading around in the building alongside me, I believe we might have another headline in the news tonight... *sigh*"

"Interesting choice of words." You roll your eyes, somewhat lightheartedly. "Anyway, what are you suggesting we do then?"

He shrugs carelessly. "Eh. Nothing, actually."

"..."

"We'll just tackle these nuisances as they come. No need to dwell on the what-ifs beforehand and waste our time when we have a more important issue to deal with."

"You sure are a little too optimistic for your own good." You fold your arms in front of you, shaking your head in disbelief.

His signature smirk makes a reappearance. "Why wouldn't I be? We've got brain and brawn. It'll be a piece of cake, I'm sure."

"Oh? And I wonder who's the brain and who's the brawn."

Yeonjun chuckles. "Darling, who said one of us has to be the brain and the other has to be the brawn. We both have got both, which is exactly what gives us the upper hand."

Your heart decides to make a jump in your chest over him casually throwing a pet name for you in the conversation out of nowhere, and you, as usual, try to hide this unwanted feeling by acting as if it didn't suddenly affect you. "Are you trying to compliment me, Choi?" You tilt your head with a tiny grin.

"Glad you noticed." He playfully rolls his eyes and walks past you to enter his office.

Well, fuck...

જ⁀➴

You busy yourself with some paperwork for the next meeting inside Yeonjun's office. None of you having said each other a word after the exchange in the hallway outside his office.

To prevent yourself from thinking about anything unwanted that has been happening between the two of you, you instead divert your thoughts to other more pressing matters. Matters that involved you dealing with your parents and letting them know about all the development in the past couple of days. You also needed to somehow urgently contact Yuna to ask about the current affairs in the company. You bet nothing right would be happening right now, which put you at unease.

Sometimes dealing with the aftermath of a tragedy was more punishing than the tragedy itself.

You hadn't touched your phone, or listened to any news broadcast about your situation. And as Yeonjun said, you were in for another surprise tonight. Who knew how your father would react to all this, what conspiracy theories the tabloids would be cooking up, and what else Ryan and his son would be plotting against you.

Soon enough, all these bombs would start denoting one by one, until they would push you to your limit, which was starting to make your confidence in being able to handle these blows to waver.

"One step at a time, y/n."

Yeonjun's soothing voice pulls you out of the void you had started falling into.

How did he know...?

Seeing your baffled expression, his lips curve up. "Accompany me for this last meeting and you'll be free for the day." You wipe the surprise off your face and nod, gathering the pages that were sprawled in front of you on the coffee table.

As you grab the handle of the office room to exit, Yeonjun calls out from behind, "y/n!" "Hm?" You turn around to see Yeonjun walking towards you, his long legs carrying him across the room in just a few strides before stopping in front of you, unintentionally making you hold your breath.

He pauses for a couple beats, scanning your face. "You're doing amazing."

Three words. Once sentence. That's all it took for the butterflies in your stomach to start thrashing against their confines. Such simple words, yet they had such an impact on you; and why wouldn't they? When your life had taken such a shitty turn and you were so lost about it all, these little words of affirmation had the potential to instill new hope that would help in overcoming any hurdle thrown your way.

A meek, yet genuine smile unknowingly makes its way to your lips. "Thank you..."