My Client's Former Best Friend | MEANIE/MINWON

Chapter Five.

As he sat in his office, Wonwoo didn't waste a single thought on one of the two men he'd met the night before. All his attention was focused on the other, the powerful, fragile man who needed his help. Junhui was the most challenging, thrilling case he'd ever encountered, and his first move had to be perfect.

Even before Mingyu's interruption, Wonwoo had known he'd accept Junhui's case. He'd grown bored with his typical clients. A person could only spend so much time helping teenage TV stars save face with their preteen fan clubs. He'd helped rappers keep their disreputable image, "it" couples maintain the charade after they broke up, and the truly tortured artists only appear tortured. But his résumé didn't include a three-time winner of America's Sexiest Man Alive who wanted to keep his heir fiancé's murderous schemes under wraps. That Junhui, an intelligent though neurotic man, would make the conscious decision to stay with a man who wanted him dead was intriguing.

Well, maybe he did think about Kim Mingyu for a minute. Or an hour. Or whenever he tried to focus on his work. The man was hot, in the completely opposite way Junhui was hot. Junhui was sexy and rich without a hair out of place. Mingyu was...a mess. His suit well-tailored but wrinkled, the top buttons of his shirt undone under his knot of a bow tie and his hair falling hopelessly over his eyes. He was muscular and his face had the haunted look of too many late nights. But the way he crashed into the room, not giving a damn what anyone thought, determined to save his friend at all costs, that was the sexiest thing Wonwoo had ever seen. He tried and failed to stop imagining what he looked like naked.

He pushed his thoughts of both men aside and got down to the real problem at hand, Xu Minghao.

It took him all morning to research Minghao. As the only child of Xu Yiming and his first wife, whose name no one remembered, Minghao was set to inherit millions, maybe more. Millions that were tied up in the vast holdings of Xu Enterprises and guarded carefully by his father. However, party boy Minghao didn't seem to want to be a CEO, given that his activities were largely composed of throwing drinks at people in public places, giving interviews about his eating habits, and being a celebrity judge at modeling competitions. He was well known in his own right, but his relationship with Junhui had made his status soar and even, Wonwoo suspected, spiral out of control.

There were articles on Minghao and Junhui, on every outfit he'd ever worn anywhere, and on the fights he'd started with other men, most notably his feud with Kwon Soonyoung. Then the story he'd been looking for popped up on his laptop as he sipped the last spice-laden dregs of his quad-shot, skinny, extra-dry cappuccino with a sprinkle of cinnamon between the espresso and milk. In the screaming pink headlines of a three-month-old Just Like Us magazine was an article about Minghao. Prominently centered below the title "Daddy's Little Boy Disowned" was a huge photo showing the Xu Enterprises heir strolling along the beach in crochet swim briefs, his long blond hair dancing across his pale face. While the picture was flattering, the story was anything but. Minghao, reportedly, had gone to his father for money. Negotiations had turned into a verbal blowout in the crowded bar of the Xu Suites Hotel. A witness had filmed the debacle, and the video had gone viral within the hour. Wonwoo watched the linked footage eight times-for research purposes, of course. It was an ugly fight. Minghao pouted like a preteen, while the normally laconic Xu Yiming threatened to cut him off without a credit card and have everyone in the place arrested if they didn't fuck off immediately. Finally, after smashing several martini glasses, Minghao stormed out, vowing never to speak to his father again. The article speculated on why Minghao hadn't gone to his rich fiancé for money instead.

Wonwoo had met Xu Minghao two years ago. He'd been attending the premiere of the latest blockbuster, written, directed, and produced by Wen Junhui. Also starring Wen Junhui, naturally. His plan had been to gather intel for his new client, model Kwon Soonyoung, whose Korean actor fiancé, Junhui's co-star, had just been caught in bed with the entire production team. It was the year gold was in and so he'd worn gold, a simple, elegant shirt, without showing much skin and no daring short sleeves or bold accessories. He had worn the perfect outfit to ensure he didn't end up on either the best- or worst-dressed lists for the night.