ENEMIES WITH BENEFITS//TAEHYUNG FF//

TENSIONS!

The same evening -

You barely made it three steps with Director Choi, working in Aurora Holdings before the doors at the back of the ballroom opened again.

Not casually.

Not discreetly.

Authority walked in.

Mr. and Mrs. Kim.

They didn't rush.

They didn't shout.

They entered like people who owned the air in the room.

Whispers multiplied.

"That's his father."

"He's here?"

"They're going to shut this down."

Taehyung saw them immediately.

His jaw tightened — just slightly.

Mrs. Kim's eyes didn't search the room.

They landed on you.

And stayed.

Director Choi straightened beside you, sensing the shift.

Mr. Kim approached first, applause fading into silence as he passed tables.

"Congratulations," he said to Taehyung, voice calm but edged. "Impressive win."

Taehyung inclined his head. "Thank you."

Polite.

Distant.

A business exchange between men who shared a last name but nothing else.

Mrs. Kim stepped forward then.

"And this," she said lightly, glancing toward you, "is the analyst who seems to follow our son everywhere."

The words were silk.

The tone was steel.

Cameras zoomed in.

You didn't lower your gaze.

"I work where I'm assigned," you replied evenly.

A few executives shifted uncomfortably.

Mr. Kim's expression hardened.

"To disrupt an engagement dinner. To stand at our competitor's table. To attract speculation at a corporate award ceremony." He paused. "You do seem to be very... strategically placed."

There it was.

The accusation.

Not of romance.

Of manipulation.

Taehyung stepped forward immediately.

"That's enough."

His father didn't raise his voice.

But when he spoke again, the room listened.

"You humiliated this family once already."

"I refused a transaction," Taehyung corrected. "Not a family."

Mrs. Kim's composure cracked first.

"You embarrassed your fiancée."

"She was never my fiancée," he said flatly.

"And you," she turned sharply to you, dropping the performance entirely, "what exactly are you trying to gain?"

The ballroom was silent.