Taehyung rushed through one of those revolving doors of a hotel, feeling tired from the lack of energy within him. You see, he didn't have time to eat breakfast this morning.

The man woke up to an empty apartment. He figured Jeongguk had left early because he had a presentation. Although, the raven-head still made him breakfast before leaving... he's so thoughtful. 

Anyway, Taehyung was just about to dig into the scrumptious blueberry pancakes his boyfriend had stored for him in a Tupperware on the kitchen island when his phone rang. It was Mr Han. He was practically yelling on the other side saying something along the lines of, "Mr Seo pushed the interview up. He's free right now and wants to see you. Get to the conference room of the hotel he's staying at right now!"

No one likes being yelled at first thing in the morning but there wasn't really anything the brunet could do. So with a loud groan, he ran to the bathroom to get ready, abandoning the pancakes like that. 

The weather outside was already cold and when Taehyung entered the giant lobby of the hotel, the air-conditioned atmosphere caused little goosebumps to appear on his skin. The man was covered from head to toe; he had his brown boots on leading up to the huge coat he wore that practically swallowed his frail form (on a side note, he may have accidentally worn Jeongguk's coat but whatever), finally ending with the thick wool scarf wrapped around his neck.

He approached the front desk, greeting the beautiful receptionist there before inquiring about where the conference room was at. The kind lady directed him to the fifteenth floor and soon Taehyung found himself standing in the elevator, backed up towards one corner. One of his greatest fears was probably being cramped in a crowded elevator. Who didn't have this fear? It was just the worst.

As the mechanism moved upwards, occasionally stopping on some floors for other people to get in and get out, Taehyung had the time to think about last night. Oh what a rather 'eventful' night it was indeed.

A part of him was actually glad that Jeongguk left early today. He wasn't ready to face the other after the sex they had previously the night before. Thinking back to the moment where he begged the other to 'fuck him'... oh god, did he really say that? It didn't seem cringy last night though. However right now, upon replaying the scene in his head, the brunet really wanted to yeet himself off this elevator.

He felt like every pair of eyes of the people in there was directed at him... almost like they knew what he did- what he 'said' to be more precise. Of course, this was just the paranoia playing with him. Although subconsciously his hand was reaching up to touch the scarf around his neck. 

Besides the cold weather... there was another reason why he had it on.

Fortunately, the elevator finally stopped on the fifteenth floor. Taehyung couldn't get out of there faster. Soon, he was walking through a path with big brown double-sided doors on either sides of the isle. Each door most likely led to a conference room or something. He remembered the receptionist saying that it was the room at the end of the isle.

When Taehyung reached the end and stood in front of the said room, he raised a hand to lightly knock on it. There was no answer. He knocked again and this time added an: "Excuse me, Mr Seo?". 

Still nothing.

Then with a sigh, the brunet thought about it for a while before just reaching for the doorknob, turning it in the process. As the door swung open, he was greeted by a very huge conference room; a long table sat in the middle of the place with a dozen chairs pushed under it on both sides of it. There was another bigger chair at the head of the table and the room was even colder compared to the hotel lobby. 

Suddenly, a voice behind the man caused him to turn around. The door closed behind Taehyung as he faced another pretty employee. She had the same uniform on as the receptionist, only her hair was pulled up into a tight bun. 

"May I help you sir?"

The brunet quickly fumbled with the ID tag hanging around his neck. He held out his company tag towards the lady. "I'm Kim Taehyung, from Seoul Daily News. I'm suppose to meet Mr Seo Jil-su here for an interview."

"Oh," The lady nodded but then furrowed her sharp drawn-on eyebrows. "Yes Mr Seo is currently staying at this hotel but he isn't here at the moment."

What the hell?!

Taehyung wanted to scream. Like really scream but just took in a deep breath instead. He was one hundred percent sure that he hated this swimmer more than anything right now. Before the brunet could continue with his thoughts of punching Jil-su in the face, the lady in front of him spoke up.

"Mr Seo is down in the VIP lounge at the moment. You can take the elevator down there."

Oh. 

Okay, so maybe Taehyung wouldn't have to punch Jil-su... yet.

Minutes later, after taking the elevator down to the ground floor, Taehyung walked in the direction of the hotel facilities. He was a little puzzled as to where the lounge was. Then he finally saw it as there was a drinks area there- a bar to be more accurate. And there were also some guests, looking extremely snobbish with their fancy suits and diamond necklaces. 

Not gonna lie, he felt really out of place there.

But more importantly, there were no signs of Jil-su in there; yup, no traces of his stupid brown eyes with his stupid blond hair with that stupid smirk on his stupid face.

So Taehyung left the lounge and walked further down the row of the facilities there. Gym, nope. Library, nope. Spa, nope. Computer room, nope. Clothes store? Okay, wait. This hotel seemed to have almost everything. Just when it seemed like Taehyung was never going to find Jil-su, the brunet's eyes caught a sign on a door. It said: Second VIP lounge. The fuck? This place had two lounges? Why didn't that lady say so?!

Without wasting another second, he walked into the said lounge only for his eyes to widen at the view in front of him. There, the spacious room glowed a light blue color that illuminated off the walls and ceiling with the echoing of some water splashing. 

It was the pool room. 

And sure enough, there was one other person in that place. 

The blond swimmer was currently shirtless, floating around on the surface of the water. He had his eyes closed and hadn't notice the journalist there.

Upon hesitating a little, Taehyung took cautious steps towards one side of the pool, closer towards Jil-su. He was confused, not knowing what to say at first. He wanted to find Jil-su. Now he did. But the man was swimming right now or floating in this case- the main point was he's in the water.

Didn't Mr Han say that Jil-su was free? Why did he call Taehyung here if he was busy- Oh wait... of course the swimmer would do this. He had a knack for troubling other people, remember. 

Ugh, the brunet was already dreading this. However he had a job to do so with a deep breath, he put on a small smile and called out.

"Mr Seo?"

Jil-su's eyes slowly peeled open, his sharp gaze settling down on Taehyung. The swimmer got out of the floating position he was in, now only his upper body emerging out of the water. He then used both his hands to push his hair back as a smirk slowly made its way to his face. 

"You actually came?"

Taehyung refrained from rolling his eyes. Well duh. "Of course, it's my job."

"Yeah, of course..." The other mumbled, more to himself. 

Meanwhile, the brunet glanced around to see if there was a proper place for them to sit and conduct this interview. There were only those long lounging chairs lined up along the two sides of the pool with a tiny side table next to each of them. To be honest, Taehyung wasn't sure of anything at the moment. Was this really the normal way to do an interview?

He turned away from the chairs to face Jil-su again. To his surprise, the swimmer was already looking at him. Taehyung immediately shifted his gaze away while clearing his throat. "Are you going to stay in there the whole time?"

"Why Princess?" The blond casually moved towards the side of the pool, leaning up at its border, right next to where the brunet's feet were at. "Do you want me to get out of the pool that bad?"

Taehyung almost snorted out loud. As if.

He heavily sighed and glared down at the other. "Mr Seo, could you please cooperate here?" 

Jil-su kept his eyes on Taehyung before groaning and leaning back into the water. "Mr Seo? Why the hell do you have to be so formal? Just call me Jil-su."

"No, I won't." 

"Why not?"

While his arms hugged his upper body from how cold the place was, Taehyung moved his eyes to the man in the water again. "Because I don't know you and I don't intend on getting to know you. So let's not be informal with each other." 

The blond nodded, unfazed by the other's words. "For someone who likes to keep his professionalism in check, you sure glare and roll your eyes at me a lot. That's really rude, you know that Princess?"

What the hell?! Taehyung really wanted to punch Jil-su now. He was the RUDE one here?! What about this asshole? From the start, he was never once on time, he wasted the brunet's time by not answering any of the interview questions at their previous meet-up and today he changed their interview schedule just to his own liking. But above all, he still called Taehyung 'Princess' after he clearly told him to stop. 

And now, he dared to say that-

Taehyung was rude here?

How could someone be this obnoxious and have a total lack of disregard to how they treat others?

Jil-su must've noticed how his words had successfully affected the journalist. This made him smile even more. "Oh what? Are you mad now?"

There were so many things that Taehyung could've done. He wasn't the scared and quiet person he once was. Well, he was a little. But he was stronger now and that meant that he wouldn't just let someone walk over him like this. He so badly wanted to tell Jil-su off but... what good was that going to do? 

"Can we please just start already?" Taehyung gritted out.

There was a long pause before, "Alright."

Not really caring whether or not the blond intended to get out of the pool, Taehyung proceeded to take a file out of his bag that contained the questions in it. All he needed was Jil-su's answers. It didn't matter if Jil-su was in or out of the pool.

Soon, the brunet was sat at the foot of a lounge chair with the file on his lap and a pen in his hand. He kept his head down, focused on the words before surfing through the questions (skipping all the basic ones like 'where are you from?' or 'which school did you go to?') and starting.

"How do your parents feel about the success that you've acquired through this sport?"

No reply. 

The silence from the other caused the journalist to look up. And he found the blond staring back at him, seeming to be in a daze. His previous joking manner had completely evaporated and suddenly Taehyung felt a little concerned. Should he have not asked this?

There were so many questions on that paper and he exactly chose the one that had Jil-su saying: 

"They're dead so I wouldn't know."

Damn it. How could he not know that Jil-su's parents had passed away? Taehyung had read a dozen different articles and profiles about Seo Jil-su and not even one had mentioned anything about his parents being dead.

"Oh, I- uh. I didn't know. I'm sor-"

"Whatever. Just leave."

"W-what?" Taehyung abruptly stood up as he watched the blond male getting out of the pool. 

That's it? Just like that, he wanted Taehyung to leave? The interview was over? They hadn't even gone through two fucking questions for goodness' sakes!

"Are you deaf? I said leave." Jil-su said, grabbing a towel nearby there.

The journalist stood a few feet away from Jil-su, just watching him. Without even knowing it, Taehyung was tightly gripping the pen in his hand. No. This won't do. Just because he asked something personal, Jil-su's all sad and touchy now? What was he?  A five-year-old? 

Screw it, Taehyung thought. 

"You can't just cancel the interview. You're doing it again, only caring about yourself. What about the people that took the effort to set up this interview huh?"

Almost immediately, Jil-su turned to face the other. He had a strong glare on as he casually dropped the towel in his hand to the ground. With his sharp eyes piercing into Taehyung, he took a few steps until he was right in front of the smaller man.

Just like the other day, they were face to face. The brunet felt his heart beat faster as he was inches away from the shirtless blond. He avoided Jil-su's stare with everything he had, fixing his eyes on the ground below them.

"Look Princess, I don't want t-"

Before he could even help it-

"I told you to stop calling me that."

Taehyung was now dead-on glaring back at the taller man. He watched an amused expression take over Jil-su's face. "And I'm telling you now that I'll call you whatever I want." He then continued in a lower tone. "That's how you look like to me. A helpless, scared little princess..."

"You don't know anything about me." 

A small insincere chuckle left the swimmer. "I don't need to get to know you. I just take one look at someone and judge them."

With his fists balled by his sides, Taehyung swallowed hard. He hated every word that came out of the other. All he could say back was, "I feel so sorry for you."

Jil-su's confidence never wavered as the smirked on his face returned. He took one step forward which led the brunet to step back. "Oh yeah? You feel sorry for me?" He raised a brow. 

By now, Taehyung had taken so many steps back that one of the lounging chairs was blocking him from the back, preventing him from stepping back anymore. And right in front of him was Jil-su as smug as ever. "You should know that I don't care about what you think. I don't feel bad for what I'm doing. In fact..." He smirked that stupid smirk of his.

"Do you know what I see when I look at you right now?"  

Taehyung's breathing quickened. He had no where to go and the blond was now reaching a hand forward towards him. He was taken aback when Jil-su suddenly latched a finger onto his scarf, pulling it down. 

Slowly the fabric fell down, exposing his bruised skin. Then Taehyung's eyes widened tremendously as he watched the other scan over the hickeys coating his skin and leaned into his ear, whispering:

"I see a slut."

In the next second, a sharp 'slap' sound resonated through the hollow pool room. 

Jil-su's head was faced to the side with Taehyung's hand raised in the air. It took the brunet a while to register that he had just slapped the swimmer. Then with his heart racing in his chest, Taehyung pushed past the other and rushed out of the place, picking up his bag in the process.

He just needed to get out of there.