Not knowing what is happening, I hold my hands behind my back and look at him, who is silently staring at me with anger. So, I nibble on my inner cheek and nervously fiddle with the strap of my watch.

"Don't you have anything to tell me?" he speaks first, in a thrilling tone of voice. "I don't know..."

"You don't know?" he leans forth. "Then why the fuck did a client come up to me and complain about the fact that you refused to stay with him?" he reminds me of a mistake I have done for a certain reason. "Uh? Haven't I told you to do your fucking job properly already?"

"He was drunk...I was scared," I tell him the truth, looking into his eyes, but he chuckles as if this was not serious. He leans back in his chair. "Scared? Are you fucking kidding me?"

"I'm telling the truth, Sookyung. He's disgusting, I didn't want to stay with him! You don't know what it is to deal with that!" I get upset at him for not believing or caring about me, but all of a sudden, he stands up, and my heart skips a beat. He hurries towards me and throws his hand in my face, making my body go backwards as the shock spread through my veins, and he violently grabs my throat. "Who allowed you to raise your voice at me?"

I cannot react anymore, my entire body shaking, his breathing hitting my face, my throat tightening in his grip, I lower my eyes. "I'm sorry."

"Do not ever dare fucking talk to me like that again, got it?" he inches his face closer to mine, frightening me with hurtful actions. "You are the most privileged one in here because of me, but you still have the fucking audacity to complain?"

"I'm sorry," my voice quivers, and my eyes get filled with tears. "I won't do it again, Sookyung. I swear."

He does not say anything, his hand not letting go but obstructing the way for the air to reach my brain. I lift one hand up to his arm as kindly as possible and ask him to let go. "You're hurting me..."

He releases his grip but does not move away. "I do not ever want to have to call you again for such a reason, so you do your job, understood?"

"Yes," I submit to his orders I cannot oppose myself to. "Get out," he hurls out, and I leave the office while crying.

/ end of flashback \

"I love you," he tells lies in my ear, and I say the same words. "I love you too."

"You forgot about everything after last night anyway, right?" he brings up, smiling and touching me under my shirt. I nod to not say anything. "I know you like it when I'm rough, and you deserved to be punished," he presses his lips on my shoulder and drifts his fingers up to my breasts to squeeze one, then he steps away as I managed to remain calm and emotionless.

I miss Mister Jeon so much.

•••

1:30 pm.

Jun now sleeping in his crib, I stay on the rocking chair in the corner and take my phone out, certain that Sookyung will not come in, I am safe, so I get into my messages and pick the conversation with Mister Jeon.

[ Hey, I'm sorry if I'm bothering or being inappropriate, but I wanted to know how you are doing >

I send the text after reading it more than five times to make sure I did not leave a single mistake, and I hold the teddy bear he gave me.

Then, I see an answer from him, already.

< Hey, don't say that. I'm so glad to see a text from you. I'm doing fine, how about you? How was it last night? ]

[ I'm doing fine too. It was alright, what about you? Did you sleep well? >

< It was alright as well. I did sleep well but not a lot, and you? I hope you had enough rest ]

[ I did too >

I do not say anything more, feeling like I might distract him since he must be at work right now.

< what are you doing? ]

I smile at this. He did not let this small talk end, which is pretty relieving since that means he does want to talk.

[ Nothing, I'm relaxing. And you? I hope you're not overworking >

< Good to hear, keep taking some time for yourself. You deserve it. I'm on a break right now, then I'll go back to working ]

[ You never told me what your job is, are you not allowed to say it? >

< I usually don't like to talk about it, but I trust you. I used to be a police officer but lost my job a few months ago, but since I come from a wealthy family, I also have to take care of some business because I own a building  ]

[ Oh, at least you can take a break. Being an officer isn't easy at all >

< Yes, you don't hate me because of this, do you? ]

[ I don't, I'll never hate you >

< I'm relieved because I know that a lot of people hate cops, so I didn't want to tell you about it ]

[ I don't hate cops, I hate some of them, but I'll never hate you, you're too much of a good man for that >

< You're so sweet❤ ]

My body stops working for a moment after seeing this heart, and I nibble on my inner cheek but do not think twice before answering.

[ I'm just telling the truth❤ >

[ By the way, are you coming tonight? >

I send this text but get startled by some knocking on the door. "I need your help, y/n."

I stand up but exit the messages and lock my phone. I leave the teddy bear on the chair, take one peek at my son to make sure he was not awoken by the sound his father made, then I get out. "What?" I close the door behind me. "I need you to wash my shirt and iron a black one for tonight," he hands me the clothing, standing shirtless in front of me. "What happened?"

"I got mad over some stuff and spilled some wine over it," he explains, briefly, so I do not ask more, and he goes back to his office. I head to the bathroom and do as told, but once I am in, I put the shirt down and check Mister Jeon's answer.

< I'm not sure ]

Why is he not coming anymore? Does he not realize that I want to see him, even if I am not allowed to?

I leave him on read and do my job.

— One week later —

Sunday, August 8th, 2021.

9:40 pm.

I walk up to Jae to get the drinks ready for Chaewon and his friends, and I make fast to place them over a tray and go back to their high table.

"Here you are," I put it down, all of them thank me, and Chaewon runs his fingers through my hair but touches my neck to inch me closer to him. "Stay a little, I'll pay you."

I do not refuse, remembering the fight that happened with Sookyung after I dared to say no to one of the clients I hate the most. I stand by his side like he wants me to, and I make sure to give him what he is asking for.

"Can you remind me of your age?" one of the three other men leans forth on the table, and I answer him. "Twenty."

"Hm, you're such a pretty girl," he smiles, inappropriately, and he takes a sip of his alcoholic drink. However, I take a look around to check if another client needs help, but my eyes fall upon someone I have not seen in days, and my heart jumps out of my chest.

Mister Jeon notices me pretty quickly, and we both make eye contact. My heart is beating so hard and fast. We spend the last days and nights texting only, so this feels so good to see him. I never expected that.

"Don't you wanna drink?" Chaewon tries to have my attention, and I shake my head, often peeking at the only one I want to be close to. At some point, Mister Jeon comes closer but heads to the bar. I check what he is doing for a second, but then look back at my clients. "Eat this, Babygirl," the one who asked for my age holds a grape up to my lips, so I take it in my mouth. "What a good little girl," he smirks and stares at me, but his eyes drift their attention to my right.

"Hey," a familiar voice I missed hearing brushes my ear, and a warm hand softly touches my shoulder, making me turn around. I instantly wrap my arms around him. "Mister Jeon. I missed you so much."

He hugs me with one arm to keep a hold on his drink, and he presses a tender kiss on my head. "Let's get on a sofa," he whispers in my ear, being audible even through the loud music, and I follow him without thinking twice. I let him take my hand in his bigger and warmer one, and he leads me to the part of the room where many sofas are individually hidden behind some curtains.

He picks the furthest one, and once we reach it, he closes the curtains, puts his drink down on the low table, and he softly looks into my eyes before sliding his arms around my waist to hold me tight. I get drawn closer to his protecting build, and I let go of everything. I close my eyes, breathe his cologne, which I missed smelling, in, and I snake my arms under his dark blue suit jacket to hug him back. He is giving me the most sincere embrace I have not felt since he disappeared. "I missed you so much too," he responds, one of his hands running up my back to shiver me. My heart beats harder under my ribs, and he tangles his fingers in my hair.

He makes me feel so good, and I feel so ashamed for the feelings I have inside of me right now, only because he is the one holding me, touching me, comforting me.

"Why were you away for so long?" I cannot even hold back from allowing my emotions to take the upper hand on my actions, and he pats my head, which I do not want to move away from his tough chest that exposes his fast heartbeat. "I'm sorry, sweetheart, I needed to stay away."

I raise my teary eyes up to his dark ones, and his hand delicately follows the movement to end on the side of my face. "Was it because of me?" I do not behave professionally anymore, I am incapable of doing it after all the time he stayed so far away from me. "It wasn't. Don't say that," he shakes his head, staring into my eyes and caressing my cheek.

I glide my hand towards his thin waist, and I do not glance away. "Don't ever do this again, please...And why didn't you come back earlier? You know I'm gonna leave for Hawaii tomorrow..."

"I thought about not coming back before the end of that trip because I knew it'd be hard to stand it, but I couldn't help it. I needed to see you, at least one last time before those long fourteen days," he brushes some strands of hair away from my face with his fingers, and some pain seems to add more weight to my heart. "It's thousands of times more hurtful to see you today only...right before leaving..."

"Does that mean I should leave and not stay for the night?" he smiles as if he already knew the answer, and I shake my head. "Stay with me, please..."

"That's the only reason why I came here, and since I'm not a VIP anymore, Sookyung must not even have noticed me, so we're fine," he skims my jawline with his fingers and smiles, and I drop my attention to his rosy lips. "He watches everything that I do, so he'll quickly notice you."

"Not if we stay behind those curtains all the time, no one will see anything," he makes a point and manages to curve the corners of my lips up. He does not say anything else, and I eventually bring my focus away from his lips, and we both make eye contact.

We remain silent for quite a long moment as if staring into each other's eyes was mutually comforting, soothing, and pleasing. The feeling of his thumb stroking my cheek calms me down, and I find myself being trapped more than I was two weeks ago. The time that physically separated us engendered a certain need that I did not even know I had, and it became so strong throughout the days that I fear letting go and having to go through that again.

"I missed seeing my beautiful sweetheart," he gives me butterflies, his soft expression affecting mine. "I want to stay with you..." I admit, in a low voice, but he does not hear me and brings his face closer to ask me to repeat. "Hm?"

I peek up at his penetrating eyes, then down at his lips, which are close to mine and way too much for me to not feel the guilt that a sin could cause. "I want to stay with you..." I clench my hands on his white shirt, and we both look deep into each other's eyes. "I'm scared without you...It felt so horrible to be here when you were not...and I'll barely be able to text you in Hawaii because he'll probably be next to me all the time..."

No words leave his mouth, he only keeps his gaze steady on me, and I become conscious of what I have said. "I apologize...I shouldn't have told you all this..." I express regret and disgrace for being so personal with him. He does not reply but cups my face with both of his hands. "Do you love him?"