Over the next few weeks, Seonghwa and Hongjoong had agreed to start going through marriage counseling. They didn't want their relationship to end, but in order to prevent that from happening, they needed serious help to learn how to function as a loving, accepting couple.

The first few sessions were very rocky as they were trying to search out each other's flaws, but the more they stuck to the counseling, the easier it was to communicate and work through their usual petty squabbles. 

Hongjoong was becoming more accepting of the way Seonghwa was doing his work, he didn't push him as much, he learned to be more patient with him. Seonghwa had started making more time for his husband, treating him with more respect and putting him over his work every time, treating him more as a husband than an employee. He was learning to keep true to his word than finding loopholes. 

Everything was progressing smoothly, but that was going to be jostled by a lingering problem that hadn't been swept under the rug yet.

Just after breakfast one day, Hongjoong had finished the paperwork he had been working on for the past couple of days, so he was going to bring it to Seonghwa to review.

Walking into Seonghwa's bedroom, looking through the files as he approached the desk. "Okay, so I've finished gathering all we needed to know about that company up north, but I don't know if this-" Hongjoong trailed off when he looked up and didn't see Seonghwa sitting at his desk.

The smaller male was confused because he had just been there not too long ago. He then felt a pair of hands grab onto his hips from behind and a pair of soft lips against his ear.

"Got you... Hands up or I'll shoot." Seonghwa's voice taunted in a playful manner.

Hongjoong smirked a bit as he tossed the paperwork onto Seonghwa's desk, then he turned around to face the taller male. "And if I don't put my hands up?" 

"I suggest you do before I have to use force," Seonghwa spoke in a seductive tone, leaning his face closer to Hongjoong's

The white-haired male gave a small laugh before finally lifting his hands into the air. Seonghwa reached out and grabbed Hongjoong's wrists softly, putting them behind Hongjoong's back and pinning them there with his hands. He then brought the smaller male close, placing a sweet, passion-filled kiss upon the soft flesh of his lips. Longing sighs escaped from their mouths as the kiss became more and more heated. 

The moment was interrupted by the sound of someone clearing their throat. One of Seonghwa's many assistants had entered the room.

"Sir..." The man began while clearing his throat. "Your first client has arrived for their appointment. Are you busy?"

Seonghwa broke the kiss with an annoyed sigh. "Yes, I'm-"

"No, we're not," Hongjoong said with an awkward laugh, looking up at Seonghwa as he gently pulled away from his grasp. "Don't keep them waiting. We have all the time in the world to carry this on later."

"But, Joong-" Seonghwa began before the smaller male cut him off with a gentle peck on the lips. 

"Go on... I need to make a few phone calls anyways. We'll finish later for sure." Hongjoong reassured with a smile.

Seonghwa let out a small grunt before finally nodding his head. "Alright... I'll try to get through these appointments quickly then."

Hongjoong reached out a hand, gently tapping Seonghwa's cheek. "You better. You know I'm not patient."

As Hongjoong started walking away, he could hear the taller male let out a slight laugh from his remark. Running a hand through his hair, he started walking down the hall towards the living area where the first client would be waiting. He came out into the living area, laying eyes on two men that were all too familiar to him.

Standing up from the white leather couch, two young men greeted Hongjoong with a subtle bow of respect. Hongjoong froze a bit when he saw who they were. Mr. Jung and Yeosang stood side by side, hands folded at their waists politely.

"Ah, Mr. Kim. It's lovely to see you again. Is he free for our scheduled appointment?" Mr. Jung said with a smile.

"Er..." Hongjoong hesitated slightly as he couldn't break the awkward eye contact with Yeosang who was just smiling at him. "Yeah... You may go see him now."

"Alright." Mr. Jung said as he started to walk away. He paused for a minute to look back at Yeosang when he didn't follow. "Mr. Kang, aren't you coming?"

"Oh, no. I need to have a chat with Mr. Kim briefly before I go in. You go ahead." Yeosang nodded with a smile at Mr. Jung.

Oh god... Please, no... Hongjoong thought to himself in a bit of a panic.

"Oh, well, alright." Mr. Jung nodded his head then disappeared down the hall.

When Yeosang looked back over at Hongjoong, he immediately started to walk away towards the parlor without a single word, and Yeosang didn't hesitate to follow him.

Hongjoong bit on the inside of his cheek as he walked into the parlor, making his way around the bar to get a drink.

Standing on the opposite side of the bar, Yeosang spoke up. "Would you mind pouring me a glass as well."

Hongjoong just let out a sigh, grabbing two glasses from below the bar and setting them on the counter. "What would you like?" He said as he looked up at Yeosang.

"Hmm... Just a bit of rum, nothing more." Yeosang replied with a subtle shrug.

The white-haired male nodded then proceeded to pour equal amounts of the designer liquor into each. Hongjoong picked up his glass in one hand before sliding the other glass over towards Yeosang. The blonde-haired male gave a small smile, picking up the glass and taking a sip of it, his eyes never leaving Hongjoong.

Drawing a deep breath, Hongjoong decided to break the awkwardness in the room. "What are you doing here, Yeosang? Weren't you specifically instructed not to attend the meeting with Mr. Jung?"

"I'm not though, right? I simply just tagged along. Nothing ill-intended about that." Yeosang tilted his head and shrugged. "Besides, I figured you would be happy to see me."

Hongjoong made a weird face as he took a sip from his glass. "Why would I be happy to see you? We had one mistaken date together, there was nothing even there."

Yeosang's brows furrowed slightly at the words coming from Hongjoong's mouth. "There was something there for me. You may say you felt nothing, but you DID kiss me back."

"I had more than a few glasses of wine in my system and I was emotionally damaged from separating from my husband, Yeosang." Hongjoong shot back with his eyes squinted. "Who, if you haven't noticed, is the owner of this estate, AND less than two hundred feet from this very room."

"I'm not sure I see your point. I only wanted to talk to you, I'm not causing any harm here. Besides, wine or not, I saw the enjoyment on your face when we danced together." Yeosang said as he started to round the bar, then stood in front of Hongjoong with a smile.

"You may not cause any harm, but Seonghwa will once he finds out that you tagged along. Nothing good is going to come from you just simply wanting to talk." Hongjoong tilted his head a bit.

"I just wanted to see you, that's all. I don't like how things had ended a few weeks ago. I wanted to make up for it." Yeosang put on a slight pout as he got a little bit closer to Hongjoong.

Hongjoong took a step back in response to this. "You seem to be misreading everything here, Yeosang. I'm working on my marriage, I'm trying to be happy with my husband, please don't do anything that will ruin that for me."

"What he doesn't know won't hurt him..." Yeosang persisted with a shrug of his shoulders, a smirk curling on his lips.

Yeosang had gotten close enough to where he had Hongjoong backed up against the bar, both hands on each side of him to prevent him from going anywhere. Hongjoong tried to lean back away from the blonde-haired male, but he couldn't get far because of the bar. 

"Yeosang, I'm serious, if you don't back the fuck off right now, you're going to regret ever coming here," Hongjoong warned, feeling his heart thud in his chest with panic.

"Why should I? You're not exactly pushing me away." Yeosang replied in a lower tone, leaning his face closer to the white-haired male.

"Get away from me, Yeosang!" Hongjoong shouted as he tried to shoved Yeosang back, but the other male wasn't budging.

"Fighting it won't prevent it from happening," Yeosang smirked as he tilted his head.

Yeosang had leaned in closer, but before he could even attempt to make a move on Hongjoong, the sound of the hammer from a revolver clicking back could be heard from beside them. Both males looked over to the side, seeing Seonghwa standing there with a gun trained right at Yeosang, a glint of primal energy in his eyes. Mr. Jung was standing in the doorway of the parlor with wide eyes.

"Seonghwa..." Hongjoong said cautiously, swallowing dryly as he blinked with shock.

"Back the fuck away from him right now..." Seonghwa demanded with a growl.

Yeosang immediately took a few steps back, putting his hands up in surrender as he cleared his throat. "Mr. Park, I-"

"I don't want to hear a god damn word out of your mouth." Seonghwa snapped at the blonde-haired male. "Joong... Come here right now."

Hongjoong pushed off the bar and rushed over to the taller male. Seonghwa grabbed ahold of the smaller male's waist, pulling him in close to his chest.

"Give me one good reason not to put a bullet between your eyes right now... You were warned, Mr. Kang, you were told to never come around him again. Yet, here you are in MY FUCKING HOME! YOUR HANDS ON MY HUSBAND!?" Seonghwa's voice gradually raised into an angry shout.

"I-I... Sir, I didn't mean anything by it..." Yeosang tried to reason with him.

Suddenly, an ear-shattering sound had erupted through the tension in the room. Hongjoong shut his eyes tightly, hiding his face into Seonghwa's chest and fearing the worst. Unharmed, Yeosang dropped to his knees, hands covering his head as he cowered in fear. Seonghwa had raised the gun to the ceiling and let off a single gunshot.

Seonghwa then set the gun on the counter of the bar, now wrapping both arms around his husband in a protective manner. At this point, 4 large men in black suits strapped with heavy guns came rushing into the room after hearing the gunshot.

"Get him out of here... Lock him in the basement, I'll have a friendly little chat with him later." Seonghwa barked, the primal look still in his eyes as he stared Yeosang down.

All four of the men rushed over to the cowering male on the floor, forcing him up to carry him out of the room as instructed. Hongjoong had looked up to watch Yeosang being dragged off with a struggle, he was yelling and fighting back as much as he could. A strange, heavy weight of guilt settling in his chest.

"Mr. Jung... You're dismissed." Seonghwa spat out.

"But, sir-" Mr. Jung fell silent when Seonghwa snapped his head and shot a look at him. Without another word, the man immediately left the room to get out of there as soon as possible.

Seonghwa turned his attention back to his lover, his demeanor took a total turn as he softened for Hongjoong. He let go of the smaller male's waist to cup his hands on Hongjoong's cheeks, a slight look of concern in his eyes.

"Are you alright? Did he hurt you?" Seonghwa asked softly before placing a loving kiss upon Hongjoong's forehead.

"I-I... I'm fine." Hongjoong replied with a slight nod. "Seonghwa... You're not going to kill him are you?"

Seonghwa frowned slightly as he looked into his lover's eyes. "He shouldn't have touched a single hair on your head... He was warned, he ignored my authority. Whatever I see fit will happen to him."

Hongjoong looked down at his feet, biting down on the inside of his cheek.

"Don't tell me you're defending him now..." Seonghwa's eyes squinted with suspicion.

"I'm not. I just could've prevented all of this happening if I didn't make that stupid decision..." Hongjoong said softly, shaking his head a bit.

"Hey... Stop that. Don't blame yourself, alright? He's going to get what's coming to him for not taking a hint. No one lays a finger on my husband without my say. Your safety and wellbeing are more important than anything to me." Seonghwa stroked the smaller male's cheeks with his fingers. "Don't worry about what the consequences are. He knew what he was messing with and continued to ignore that, alright?"

Hongjoong let out a soft sigh before nodding his head. "Alright... I'm glad you came when you did... I was scared."

"You don't have to be scared anymore. I'll handle this, this won't happen to you again, and I'll make sure of it." Seonghwa reassured with determination in his tone. "I'm gonna go have a little chat with our friend downstairs... Go take a bath and relax."

Hongjoong gave a slight nod, putting on a smile for his lover. He knew that whatever was going to happen to Yeosang wasn't going to be pretty, but regardless if he lived, when Seonghwa was done, he wouldn't be a problem anymore.

After Seonghwa gave him a loving peck on the lips, the taller male let go of him and walked out of the parlor. Hongjoong stood there for a moment as he watched him walk away. He let out another sigh, then also made his way out of the parlor to prepare a bath for himself. 

Hongjoong didn't want to think about all of the things that could possibly happen.

****THE STORY WILL CONTINUE IN THE NEXT CHAPTER. THANK YOU FOR READING****

(A/N: sorry the ending is crap. I didn't know how to end it properly >;3 oh well, hope you enjoyed anyways :)))))) )