[Series]Betrayal -- A Prequel
Title : Betrayal - A Prequel, Chapter 3-end
Author : freedomthisway
Rating : R for the usage of bad languages and mention of porn.
Character/Pairing : Eunhyuk, Yehsung, Junsu and other made up characters/YeHyuk, friendship HyukSu.
Word Count : 4075 words for this chapter
Warning : Bad, bad Yehsungie.
Genre : angst, maybe a bit of crack, and then angst again/Office AU
Summary : It’s the story about Hyukjae in the past, and there’s Yehsung, there’s a self-recorded porn, there’s betrayal, there’s a glorious career suddenly hit the bottom, and it’s all united to create the character of Hyukjae I need to build the story in the oncoming sequel the way I want it.
Oh, and there’s Junsu as Hyukjae’s knight in shining armor, platonically. :DD
Author’s note:
Last chapter for a prequel written for Nhi, and also for all SuJu fans out there (hello kiirohana16 and renichifreak…:D)
And yes, I've gotten several murderous attempt on me due to the direction this fic is going. xDD
I'm sorry?
Hyukjae stares blankly at random papers scattered on his desk. He kept thrashing uselessly on his bed the whole night last night, resulting in him waking up very late this morning and he realizes that what Jaemin had told him yesterday still has full effect on his sanity right now.
Hyukjae rubs his temple, and his hand moves quickly to grab one of the papers and squashes it hard into a ball.
Facts have hit him with full force these couple of days and Hyukjae knows it’s stupid, but there’s still a large part of him that wants to believe in Yehsung.
Maybe it’s some fucked up form of his ego defense mechanism, but Hyukjae really thinks that what he has with Yehsung is beautiful in the least. He really doesn’t want to deal once again with the whole there-must-be-something-wrong-with-me-phase.
He had had enough of struggling on that in the past for at least half of his lifetime.
It’s critical, because if the whole thing he has been trying to deny since yesterday turns out to be the truth, Hyukjae can’t imagine how wide the scar it’ll left in his heart after. He doesn’t even think he will have enough strength to overcome it.
The sudden beeping sound from the I-phone in front of him makes him jump off his seat. He picks up the receiver quickly. “Yes, Jung Hyun?”
“Hyukjae-sshi, boss is expecting you in his office.” Jung Hyun’s voice is heard from the other end of the line.
Hyukjae sighs. Here we go.
“Ah, yes. I’m going to be there in a minute. Oh, and have you put up the ads, Jung Hyun-sshi?” Hyukjae asks Jung Hyun, absentmindedly rubs his temple again.
“I never forget my task before, Hyukjae-sshi. So, yes, I’ve put up the ads. Thank you.” Jung Hyun replies and cut her end of line.
Hyukjae frowns, because that just now: is a harsh answer to a very polite question. Jung Hyun is a calm person and only bites when someone or something annoys her greatly.
Is it possible that someone right now is Hyukjae? What did he do?
Scratches his head, Hyukjae gets up and walks out of his office.
Jung Hyun is either refuses to look up to his passing by figure or she is just in the middle of doing a very attention-consuming task in her computer. But Hyukjae has no time to think about his assistant’s weird behavior further because his CEO must have been waiting for him to show up at any second right now.
Walking towards the CEO office, Hyukjae notices that a pack of women employees that was just trading gossips hotly some seconds ago in front of a coffee machine at one side of the office hallway is suddenly in mute when he passes them by. That kind of thing is never a good thing. And then he found two male employees who are giving him not-so-subtle glares as they cross him from opposite direction and Hyukjae frowns deeper.
Hyukjae can’t help but think that somehow there is something very, very wrong related to him today, and Hyukjae has no clue whatsoever about what that is.
Still confused, Hyukjae knocks once and enters his CEO’s office. Kang Ji Soon, his CEO, is sitting with his chin on his fists, and no smile on his face.
It seems he’s in a gloomy mood, and Hyukjae braces himself for things to come. It’s a high possibility that Ji Soon will talk further about his report this early morning that the five resigning directors have indeed been confirmed for signing contracts with MK with Kim Jongwoon’s persuasion in the background.
Ji Soon signals Hyukjae to take a seat, so Hyukjae does, purposefully choosing the other chair in the left that doesn’t face the CEO directly.
Minutes passed, but Ji Soon hasn’t said even a single word, and Hyukjae suddenly feels like fidgeting on his seat, wondering why in the hell is everything so weird today?
Suddenly, Ji Soon sighs, and it sounds so loud in the quiet room that Hyukjae jumps a bit in surprise from his seat.
“Park Dong Seok and I are indeed always involved in a competition, even since we were still a best friend in high school and found ourselves had many crush on the same girl each time.” Ji Soon finally says something, his smile forced and bitter.
Hyukjae frowns. Park Dong Seok is MK’s CEO and everyone knows that even though Ji Soon and Dong Seok had been in a very good term in the past, but now they are rivals attacking each other with subtle and sneaky ways. A good relationship between MK and KOOL is always so fragile and it only exists just because they haven’t found a surefire way yet to take each other down.
But Ji Soon never talks about it openly like this before.
“Dong Seok must have been the one behind Kim Jongwoon’s hijacking five of my best workers.” Ji Soon’s next words bring Hyukjae back from his wondering.
“I guess between the two us, he’s always the one who won’t mind using dirty tricks. I can’t say I’m surprised about what he did.” The CEO said with a bitter smile on his lips.
Hyukjae is fiddling with his fingers on his lap, doesn’t know what to say at that kind of statement. But then he sees Ji Soon reaches inside one of the drawers in his desk, and pulls out a quite big and already opened brown paper package.
Hyukjae stares with piqued curiosity as a CD inside a case is pulled out from inside the package by Ji Soon, and as the CEO is holding it between his fingers, he gives Hyukjae a sharp stare. “The trick Dong Seok has pulled on me, I get. But what I don’t get is this.” And he shakes the CD case in his hand to stress his point.
Hyukjae looks at the CD case and back to stare at Ji Soon with a confused look. “Ji Soon-sshi, what is that?”
But instead of answering, Ji Soon just keep staring at Hyukjae for a long time until Hyukjae can’t stand the sharp gaze anymore and chooses to divert his view downward on his fiddling hands.
“Tell me, Hyukjae-sshi.” Putting the CD case on the table, Ji Soon leans forward on his desk, eyes still set on Hyukjae. “Do you have any other form of relationship with Kim Jongwoon other than the professional one?”
Hyukjae pales. Oh, fuck.
“W… What?” Hyukjae really wishes he wasn’t born lame because stuttering at a critical time like he is right now is definitely unhelpful. “Um…, of course there’s nothing, Ji Soon-sshi. We’re friends back in high school, but that’s all there’s to it.”
“Really? Are you sure?” Ji Soon watches him closely and sighs when Hyukjae just nods at his confirming question.
“Then…” Ji Soon picks up the CD case, extracts the CD in it and inserts it in his laptop’s player in front of him. He scrolls and clicks several times before finally turns his laptop so its screen is facing Hyukjae, and says. “How are you going to explain this, Hyukjae-sshi?”
The second Hyukjae’s gaze landed on the screen, they’re widening and Hyukjae can’t help the gasp of surprise coming out of his mouth at what he is seeing.
Right there, on the 17” screen, a video of two men in the middle of having sex is being displayed. And no matter how many times he blinks his eyes in disbelief, that is NOT a damn porn because he still recognizes his bed, messy due to wild moves happening on it. The room those two men in is his own, faint lights from one of the turned on table lamp on the left side of the bed gives Hyukjae clear enough view to realize that the two men who both are currently moaning loudly as one guy slams himself over and over again onto the other man beneath him, is no other than Yehsung and himself.
The sight sends him into a trance and Hyukjae doesn’t know how many seconds have passed when finally he snaps out of it and quickly, with his trembling fingers, he shuts the laptop closed, suddenly can’t bear to watch more.
Hyukjae can feel his face burns and he doesn’t even sure how his heart can still beat with all the shame and shock he’s feeling.
Ji Soon is staring at him, but Hyukjae can’t lift his gaze up, definitely sure he won’t be able to look into Ji Soon’s eyes properly after this.
In the middle of his messed up mind, Hyukjae finds himself remembering the wild night Yehsung and he were having that was recorded in that video.
That night, they were celebrating. Their team had succeeded on finding a breakthrough in the project they’re working on together and Yehsung came to Hyukjae’s apartment with two bottles of expensive wine in his both hands.
And what should’ve been a simple celebration was turning into a nasty wild night.
Hyukjae is always such a loser in term of drinking alcohol. Emptying just a few glasses full of wine into his mouth would mean idiotic grins the whole night, loose mouth, loud singing on the table, and in some worst cases: taking off his own clothes. Not to mention the fucking hangover in the morning that would hurt like bitch.
But that night, Yehsung kept pouring the silken red wine into his glass over and over again, and Hyukjae was too much carried away into the euphoria that all he could do was just gulping them, one after another.
6 glasses later, the idiotic grin started to spread on his face and on and on he was blabbing whatever things crossed his mind to the laughing and amused Yehsung. He made what must had been an outrageous performance as he sang the whole album of Wonder Girls complete with the clumsy and all-over-the-place-choreography.
The difference that night was, when it came to taking off clothes part, it was Yehsung’s clothes that were finally thrown and slumped on the floor beneath them.
And the next thing he remembered was him on top of Yehsung, basked in Yehsung’s hungry gaze, as he proceeded with a simple strip and tease of his own.
Hyukjae had never been that wild before, yet the image of scratches and bites he inflicted on Yehsung’s white skin the whole night that night are suddenly popping up into his mind as the memory keeps assaulting him.
But why the hell was that recorded? And how the fuck did it get into Ji Soon’s hands?
Hyukjae’s head spinning as that question leads to only one possible answer. Unless he himself was unconsciously having an episode of closeted-psycho-exhibitionism at that time, then the only person left who could pull all those stunts is Yehsung.
And after chains of fucked up things happened to him in these past few days, Hyukjae now finally understood --painfully and sadly-the whole frame of Yehsung’s scenario and why Yehsung did it.
“Hyukjae-sshi,” Ji Soon’s calling him takes Hyukjae off his wandering mind. “The CD came with a note. It’s for you.”
Hyukjae can only stares as a perch of note is laid right in front of him on the table. Hyukjae can instantly recognize Yehsung’s neat handwriting on it.
‘This is our parting gift. Thanks for everything Hyukjae, is what it says and nothing more.
And now Hyukjae doesn’t know whether he should laugh or cry at his stupidity and he remembers Yehsung’s words to him at their first meeting.
You were really cute back then, Hyung.
Hyukjae snorts, feels bitter and cynical all of a sudden. Cute, my ass.
He realizes Ji Soon is still staring at him, waiting for some kind of explanation for this fucked up situation. But Hyukjae doesn’t have any. At least nothing that won’t make him seem less stupid than he already does.
“I didn’t leak the information if that’s what you want to know from me.” Hyukjae can only says as he grits his teeth, referring to the fact that MK knows exactly about KOOL’s employees’ compensation and benefit data. Nevertheless, he knows his statement is useless.
Ji Soon looks at him with disappointment etched on his face. “You perfectly understand that things don’t work that way, Hyukjae-sshi. I have more than enough hard proves in my hand while all you can offer as a self defense is just your own word.”
Hyukjae doesn’t answer. He finds himself suddenly loses any strength left in his body and it’s hard for him to move his lips.
Ji Soon sighs again, leaning back at his chair and for a moment none of them says anything.
“Hyukjae-sshi.” Ji Soon waits until Hyukjae lifts his gaze up so their eyes met. “I don’t like making this decision and trust me that it has absolutely nothing to do with your… sexual preferences. But after all these things happened, I don’t think I can risk keeping you here.”
“I’m sure you’ve already known the procedures, but I hope you won’t bother coming back here tomorrow. There have been too many rumors concerning this that works their way around outside my office, and I don’t want anyone to make a scene. Jung Hyun will replace you temporarily until we find better person for the Head position and in two days, I’ll make sure you get every necessary administrations paper, officially claiming that you’ve been fired and no longer works in KOOL.”
Hyukjae keeps his silent and lowering his gaze again, no longer surprised because they both know that it’ll come to this in the end anyway. There’s no one else to blame but himself, but he still needs to know one more thing.
“Ji Soon-sshi, how many people have known about what’s inside the CD?” Hyukjae asks grimly. From the way his female workmate went silence in the middle of their group-chatting as he was passing by earlier, somehow Hyukjae knows that he won’t like Ji Soon’s answer.
Women hush themselves when you’re around only when there’s something very wrong about you and they’re in the middle of gossiping about it.
Ji Soon clears his throat. “I like you, and even if I don’t I still won’t release any public statement or interoffice-memo on this thing. But the truth is, a woman from EDP Department found this package sealed with nothing written on it this early morning on her table. By the time it reached my hand, it’s already opened. So…”
The CEO stops his words. He doesn’t need to continue anyway, because both of them know what that means.
It means Hyukjae’s name and reputation is already on the ground, available for anyone to step and stomp on. Not to mention his credibility and professionalism that will be questioned wherever he’s going to apply for his next job in this city.
It’s a small town and words have been known to travel fast.
Hyukjae knows he’s been so fucked up that there will be no point of return right now. And his heart suffers the most damage.
---00o00---
Feeling blank, lying on his bed in the dark that night, Hyukjae keeps replaying his meeting with Ji Soon today. And then his hand reaches over for his cell, and pushes the quick dial connecting to Yehsung’s.
The phone rings twice before Yehsung’s low voice heard from the other line. “Hyukjae-ah.”
Hyukjae squeezes his eyes shut at the sound of Yehsung’s voice. Pangs of pain in his heart easily overpower the feeling of longing suddenly blooming inside.
“Why, Hyung?” Hyukjae asks the simple question with a hoarse voice.
Yehsung’s breath is the only thing heard for several seconds, before the older man finally sighs and answers. “Look, for what it’s worth, I’m sorry, for everything.”
Hyukjae bites his lips hard until he can feel blood to stop the sobs threatening to come out of his throat.
“At first, all I want is just that data from your laptop.” Yehsung explains with a calm voice. “I mean, the plan was to search information about you as much as I can gather and then pretending to be your high school junior to court you so that I’d earn your trust enough to secretly hijack into your laptop in the end.”
Hyukjae takes a deep breath, doesn’t know if he can listen to this conversation further without wanting to curse anyone or just simply throwing anything nearby, or worse, breaking down and cry.
“I’ve done it successfully, and so I’d been trying to disappear from your life. But then my boss knew that you’re good at what you’re doing. Too good, in fact, and he decided he wants you to be the next hi-jacked employee. But money never attracts you before, and I know how loyal you are to your boss. So I told my boss that.” Yehsung sighs again. “Well, apparently my boss thought that if he can’t hi-jack you, then you working under his rival even just for a little bit longer would be a big threat for him…. So he told me to take care of you.”
“And so you did.” Hyukjae says, picking some invincible threads on his pillow to divert his thought from the way he feels so numb and his throat feels sore for too much holding back his sobs. “You did very well; in fact, you’ve managed to destroy my life along.” Hyukjae laughs grimly. “And it was a nice video present too, by the way. I’ve never known I have such talent to become a porn slut.”
Hints of sarcastic anger in Hyukjae’s words are clearly heard, and Hyukjae is waiting for Yehsung to apologize or giving him some self-defense statements, anything that can stop this self-worthlessness from growing deep inside of him.
But Yehsung just mutters his sorry once again before hanging up on him.
Hearing the continuous beeping sound from the cut phone line, Hyukjae hurls his cell towards the wall and it breaks in pieces all over the place. Then he finally lets go and allows himself to cry.
---00o00---
It is three months after, but still there’re so many people asking stupid questions, so many sneering stares directed at him, and so many judgments made up on him behind his back.
But Hyukjae keeps his silent, hiding his wounded heart, and tirelessly trying to distract himself from everything’s going on by working hard in his two, sometimes three, part time jobs as letter by letter of rejection is sent to his address in response of his application letter.
Apparently, more than he had feared before, words have greater impact than years of experience and convincing curriculum vitae because it looks like now he’s one of the blacklisted job-seekers in the whole city.
His father still refused to talk to him, looks like he’s set his mind to disown him despite his mom’s continuous bugging on Hyukjae to stop being such a prideful brat and just come back home.
But he can’t go back. Not with his tail behind his back.
He believes there’s still hope for him in this town. He has to believe it. All he needs to do is just hangs in here and try to bear all of these for a little bit more. The tide will come down sooner or later anyway, it always does.
At least that’s what he has in mind, until one day he got fired from one of his part time jobs at a family restaurant just because the owner lady heard things about him from one of his customer who is one of KOOL’s employees.
I’m sorry but I don’t think you fit well with the image of my restaurant, Hyukjae-sshi, the owner says it with a disgusted stare at him.
That is when he realizes that his reputation has been leveled with those prostitutes down the street and it leads him into decision that he definitely can’t stay this way.
The only person left whom he can turn to at this kind of situation is Junsu. And even now that he has decided to make some change, Hyukjae doesn’t like the idea of asking Junsu’s help for even one bit.
Xiah Junsu is the only real best friend he has. Junsu’s house used to be next to his parent’s house and they’d been gone to the same school ever since kindergarten. They’ve been friends since forever and Hyukjae can still remember Junsu’s wicked grin at him after he punched the guy who had tricked him for the bet right on his nose back in the high school.
But then Junsu’s family had to move to Seoul and Junsu had to continue his study in university there.
Both of them didn’t cry when they took turns saying their parting words, but Hyukjae could feel some parts of him gone along with Junsu’s waving figure behind his car’s window until it disappears at the street corner.
And Junsu’s hoarse voice as he called Hyukjae the minute he got into his new house somehow informed Hyukjae that his best friend felt at least the same way.
This time, Hyukjae is reluctant to pick up his phone and ask for Junsu’s help because Junsu knows him too well and he’ll sense right away that something isn’t right and in the end Hyukjae has no other choice but to tell him about everything that had happened.
Hyukjae knows a lot of his friends and acquaintances, and even some of his relatives that all of a sudden turn their back on him after they heard about the incidence.
It fucking hurts, and Hyukjae really doesn’t want to imagine how much more hurts that he must bear if Junsu does the same to him after he tells the truth.
Well, Junsu indeed just looked at him for a long time before smiling and patted him in the back when Hyukjae told him that he was gay, and the only thing changed between them after that was just Junsu’s stopping his effort to matchmaking him with his ladies friend. And, his playful nudges on Hyukjae’s ribs every time Hyukjae took to much time on drooling over a cute or handsome guy walked pass them.
But this is different.
They are grown ups already. No matter how bad Yehsung had tricked him, sleeping with someone closely related to your company’s rival is a stupid thing to do. And Hyukjae should’ve known better than surrendering to his lust.
He’s a laughing stock of the town now. And he knows it’s stupid to doubt the depth of his friendship with Junsu, but Yehsung has shredded most of his not-so-much-confidence about his self-worth and lately Hyukjae can’t even stand looking at his reflection in the mirror.
Will Junsu still be his friend knowing all of these?
But Hyukjae knows he has no choice but try anyway. Things have become too fucked up for him to solve all by himself.
---00o00---
For a long moment, nothing was heard from Junsu’s phone line after Hyukjae finishes his story. But a minute later, Hyukjae has to keep the receiver away from his ear while Junsu is spilling out strings after strings of curses for Yehsung.
“Go pack your bag after this, Hyuk.” Junsu says grimly after he’s done venting his anger out of his system.
“So you can help me find a job there?” Hyukjae asks, excitement and hope are clear in his voice.
“Sure, I can, you dickhead. Just take the first early train tomorrow morning and I’ll pick you up at Seoul’s train station. Seoul is as bitchy as every other big city in the whole world, but at least there are only a few judgmental people here and I’ll be right there behind you to make sure nobody can fuck you around.” Junsu says, his tone has become softer.
Hyukjae feels his spirit starts to come back again little by little and his heart beats faster at the possibility of leaving this town and actually lives in Seoul, making his way up back from zero.
“Really, thank you, Junsu.” Hyukjae’s voice hoarse with all the emotion mixed up inside him.
“Oh, come on. Stop being all mushy on me or I’ll leave you alone at the train station to get lost in Seoul.” Junsu grunts and Hyukjae laughs a little.
He never felt this relief since days.
END
PS: LOL. You think it’s a sad ending? Guess again. xDDD
There’ll be a sequel series for this story. It’ll be titled: A Fragile Heart, feat. KangHyuk yes, again. It’s my #1 OTP so sue me as the main pairing. I’ll post the 1st chapter as soon as I finish giving it a final touch.
Author : freedomthisway
Rating : R for the usage of bad languages and mention of porn.
Character/Pairing : Eunhyuk, Yehsung, Junsu and other made up characters/YeHyuk, friendship HyukSu.
Word Count : 4075 words for this chapter
Warning : Bad, bad Yehsungie.
Genre : angst, maybe a bit of crack, and then angst again/Office AU
Summary : It’s the story about Hyukjae in the past, and there’s Yehsung, there’s a self-recorded porn, there’s betrayal, there’s a glorious career suddenly hit the bottom, and it’s all united to create the character of Hyukjae I need to build the story in the oncoming sequel the way I want it.
Oh, and there’s Junsu as Hyukjae’s knight in shining armor, platonically. :DD
Author’s note:
Last chapter for a prequel written for Nhi, and also for all SuJu fans out there (hello kiirohana16 and renichifreak…:D)
And yes, I've gotten several murderous attempt on me due to the direction this fic is going. xDD
I'm sorry?
Hyukjae stares blankly at random papers scattered on his desk. He kept thrashing uselessly on his bed the whole night last night, resulting in him waking up very late this morning and he realizes that what Jaemin had told him yesterday still has full effect on his sanity right now.
Hyukjae rubs his temple, and his hand moves quickly to grab one of the papers and squashes it hard into a ball.
Facts have hit him with full force these couple of days and Hyukjae knows it’s stupid, but there’s still a large part of him that wants to believe in Yehsung.
Maybe it’s some fucked up form of his ego defense mechanism, but Hyukjae really thinks that what he has with Yehsung is beautiful in the least. He really doesn’t want to deal once again with the whole there-must-be-something-wrong-with-me-phase.
He had had enough of struggling on that in the past for at least half of his lifetime.
It’s critical, because if the whole thing he has been trying to deny since yesterday turns out to be the truth, Hyukjae can’t imagine how wide the scar it’ll left in his heart after. He doesn’t even think he will have enough strength to overcome it.
The sudden beeping sound from the I-phone in front of him makes him jump off his seat. He picks up the receiver quickly. “Yes, Jung Hyun?”
“Hyukjae-sshi, boss is expecting you in his office.” Jung Hyun’s voice is heard from the other end of the line.
Hyukjae sighs. Here we go.
“Ah, yes. I’m going to be there in a minute. Oh, and have you put up the ads, Jung Hyun-sshi?” Hyukjae asks Jung Hyun, absentmindedly rubs his temple again.
“I never forget my task before, Hyukjae-sshi. So, yes, I’ve put up the ads. Thank you.” Jung Hyun replies and cut her end of line.
Hyukjae frowns, because that just now: is a harsh answer to a very polite question. Jung Hyun is a calm person and only bites when someone or something annoys her greatly.
Is it possible that someone right now is Hyukjae? What did he do?
Scratches his head, Hyukjae gets up and walks out of his office.
Jung Hyun is either refuses to look up to his passing by figure or she is just in the middle of doing a very attention-consuming task in her computer. But Hyukjae has no time to think about his assistant’s weird behavior further because his CEO must have been waiting for him to show up at any second right now.
Walking towards the CEO office, Hyukjae notices that a pack of women employees that was just trading gossips hotly some seconds ago in front of a coffee machine at one side of the office hallway is suddenly in mute when he passes them by. That kind of thing is never a good thing. And then he found two male employees who are giving him not-so-subtle glares as they cross him from opposite direction and Hyukjae frowns deeper.
Hyukjae can’t help but think that somehow there is something very, very wrong related to him today, and Hyukjae has no clue whatsoever about what that is.
Still confused, Hyukjae knocks once and enters his CEO’s office. Kang Ji Soon, his CEO, is sitting with his chin on his fists, and no smile on his face.
It seems he’s in a gloomy mood, and Hyukjae braces himself for things to come. It’s a high possibility that Ji Soon will talk further about his report this early morning that the five resigning directors have indeed been confirmed for signing contracts with MK with Kim Jongwoon’s persuasion in the background.
Ji Soon signals Hyukjae to take a seat, so Hyukjae does, purposefully choosing the other chair in the left that doesn’t face the CEO directly.
Minutes passed, but Ji Soon hasn’t said even a single word, and Hyukjae suddenly feels like fidgeting on his seat, wondering why in the hell is everything so weird today?
Suddenly, Ji Soon sighs, and it sounds so loud in the quiet room that Hyukjae jumps a bit in surprise from his seat.
“Park Dong Seok and I are indeed always involved in a competition, even since we were still a best friend in high school and found ourselves had many crush on the same girl each time.” Ji Soon finally says something, his smile forced and bitter.
Hyukjae frowns. Park Dong Seok is MK’s CEO and everyone knows that even though Ji Soon and Dong Seok had been in a very good term in the past, but now they are rivals attacking each other with subtle and sneaky ways. A good relationship between MK and KOOL is always so fragile and it only exists just because they haven’t found a surefire way yet to take each other down.
But Ji Soon never talks about it openly like this before.
“Dong Seok must have been the one behind Kim Jongwoon’s hijacking five of my best workers.” Ji Soon’s next words bring Hyukjae back from his wondering.
“I guess between the two us, he’s always the one who won’t mind using dirty tricks. I can’t say I’m surprised about what he did.” The CEO said with a bitter smile on his lips.
Hyukjae is fiddling with his fingers on his lap, doesn’t know what to say at that kind of statement. But then he sees Ji Soon reaches inside one of the drawers in his desk, and pulls out a quite big and already opened brown paper package.
Hyukjae stares with piqued curiosity as a CD inside a case is pulled out from inside the package by Ji Soon, and as the CEO is holding it between his fingers, he gives Hyukjae a sharp stare. “The trick Dong Seok has pulled on me, I get. But what I don’t get is this.” And he shakes the CD case in his hand to stress his point.
Hyukjae looks at the CD case and back to stare at Ji Soon with a confused look. “Ji Soon-sshi, what is that?”
But instead of answering, Ji Soon just keep staring at Hyukjae for a long time until Hyukjae can’t stand the sharp gaze anymore and chooses to divert his view downward on his fiddling hands.
“Tell me, Hyukjae-sshi.” Putting the CD case on the table, Ji Soon leans forward on his desk, eyes still set on Hyukjae. “Do you have any other form of relationship with Kim Jongwoon other than the professional one?”
Hyukjae pales. Oh, fuck.
“W… What?” Hyukjae really wishes he wasn’t born lame because stuttering at a critical time like he is right now is definitely unhelpful. “Um…, of course there’s nothing, Ji Soon-sshi. We’re friends back in high school, but that’s all there’s to it.”
“Really? Are you sure?” Ji Soon watches him closely and sighs when Hyukjae just nods at his confirming question.
“Then…” Ji Soon picks up the CD case, extracts the CD in it and inserts it in his laptop’s player in front of him. He scrolls and clicks several times before finally turns his laptop so its screen is facing Hyukjae, and says. “How are you going to explain this, Hyukjae-sshi?”
The second Hyukjae’s gaze landed on the screen, they’re widening and Hyukjae can’t help the gasp of surprise coming out of his mouth at what he is seeing.
Right there, on the 17” screen, a video of two men in the middle of having sex is being displayed. And no matter how many times he blinks his eyes in disbelief, that is NOT a damn porn because he still recognizes his bed, messy due to wild moves happening on it. The room those two men in is his own, faint lights from one of the turned on table lamp on the left side of the bed gives Hyukjae clear enough view to realize that the two men who both are currently moaning loudly as one guy slams himself over and over again onto the other man beneath him, is no other than Yehsung and himself.
The sight sends him into a trance and Hyukjae doesn’t know how many seconds have passed when finally he snaps out of it and quickly, with his trembling fingers, he shuts the laptop closed, suddenly can’t bear to watch more.
Hyukjae can feel his face burns and he doesn’t even sure how his heart can still beat with all the shame and shock he’s feeling.
Ji Soon is staring at him, but Hyukjae can’t lift his gaze up, definitely sure he won’t be able to look into Ji Soon’s eyes properly after this.
In the middle of his messed up mind, Hyukjae finds himself remembering the wild night Yehsung and he were having that was recorded in that video.
That night, they were celebrating. Their team had succeeded on finding a breakthrough in the project they’re working on together and Yehsung came to Hyukjae’s apartment with two bottles of expensive wine in his both hands.
And what should’ve been a simple celebration was turning into a nasty wild night.
Hyukjae is always such a loser in term of drinking alcohol. Emptying just a few glasses full of wine into his mouth would mean idiotic grins the whole night, loose mouth, loud singing on the table, and in some worst cases: taking off his own clothes. Not to mention the fucking hangover in the morning that would hurt like bitch.
But that night, Yehsung kept pouring the silken red wine into his glass over and over again, and Hyukjae was too much carried away into the euphoria that all he could do was just gulping them, one after another.
6 glasses later, the idiotic grin started to spread on his face and on and on he was blabbing whatever things crossed his mind to the laughing and amused Yehsung. He made what must had been an outrageous performance as he sang the whole album of Wonder Girls complete with the clumsy and all-over-the-place-choreography.
The difference that night was, when it came to taking off clothes part, it was Yehsung’s clothes that were finally thrown and slumped on the floor beneath them.
And the next thing he remembered was him on top of Yehsung, basked in Yehsung’s hungry gaze, as he proceeded with a simple strip and tease of his own.
Hyukjae had never been that wild before, yet the image of scratches and bites he inflicted on Yehsung’s white skin the whole night that night are suddenly popping up into his mind as the memory keeps assaulting him.
But why the hell was that recorded? And how the fuck did it get into Ji Soon’s hands?
Hyukjae’s head spinning as that question leads to only one possible answer. Unless he himself was unconsciously having an episode of closeted-psycho-exhibitionism at that time, then the only person left who could pull all those stunts is Yehsung.
And after chains of fucked up things happened to him in these past few days, Hyukjae now finally understood --painfully and sadly-the whole frame of Yehsung’s scenario and why Yehsung did it.
“Hyukjae-sshi,” Ji Soon’s calling him takes Hyukjae off his wandering mind. “The CD came with a note. It’s for you.”
Hyukjae can only stares as a perch of note is laid right in front of him on the table. Hyukjae can instantly recognize Yehsung’s neat handwriting on it.
‘This is our parting gift. Thanks for everything Hyukjae, is what it says and nothing more.
And now Hyukjae doesn’t know whether he should laugh or cry at his stupidity and he remembers Yehsung’s words to him at their first meeting.
You were really cute back then, Hyung.
Hyukjae snorts, feels bitter and cynical all of a sudden. Cute, my ass.
He realizes Ji Soon is still staring at him, waiting for some kind of explanation for this fucked up situation. But Hyukjae doesn’t have any. At least nothing that won’t make him seem less stupid than he already does.
“I didn’t leak the information if that’s what you want to know from me.” Hyukjae can only says as he grits his teeth, referring to the fact that MK knows exactly about KOOL’s employees’ compensation and benefit data. Nevertheless, he knows his statement is useless.
Ji Soon looks at him with disappointment etched on his face. “You perfectly understand that things don’t work that way, Hyukjae-sshi. I have more than enough hard proves in my hand while all you can offer as a self defense is just your own word.”
Hyukjae doesn’t answer. He finds himself suddenly loses any strength left in his body and it’s hard for him to move his lips.
Ji Soon sighs again, leaning back at his chair and for a moment none of them says anything.
“Hyukjae-sshi.” Ji Soon waits until Hyukjae lifts his gaze up so their eyes met. “I don’t like making this decision and trust me that it has absolutely nothing to do with your… sexual preferences. But after all these things happened, I don’t think I can risk keeping you here.”
“I’m sure you’ve already known the procedures, but I hope you won’t bother coming back here tomorrow. There have been too many rumors concerning this that works their way around outside my office, and I don’t want anyone to make a scene. Jung Hyun will replace you temporarily until we find better person for the Head position and in two days, I’ll make sure you get every necessary administrations paper, officially claiming that you’ve been fired and no longer works in KOOL.”
Hyukjae keeps his silent and lowering his gaze again, no longer surprised because they both know that it’ll come to this in the end anyway. There’s no one else to blame but himself, but he still needs to know one more thing.
“Ji Soon-sshi, how many people have known about what’s inside the CD?” Hyukjae asks grimly. From the way his female workmate went silence in the middle of their group-chatting as he was passing by earlier, somehow Hyukjae knows that he won’t like Ji Soon’s answer.
Women hush themselves when you’re around only when there’s something very wrong about you and they’re in the middle of gossiping about it.
Ji Soon clears his throat. “I like you, and even if I don’t I still won’t release any public statement or interoffice-memo on this thing. But the truth is, a woman from EDP Department found this package sealed with nothing written on it this early morning on her table. By the time it reached my hand, it’s already opened. So…”
The CEO stops his words. He doesn’t need to continue anyway, because both of them know what that means.
It means Hyukjae’s name and reputation is already on the ground, available for anyone to step and stomp on. Not to mention his credibility and professionalism that will be questioned wherever he’s going to apply for his next job in this city.
It’s a small town and words have been known to travel fast.
Hyukjae knows he’s been so fucked up that there will be no point of return right now. And his heart suffers the most damage.
---00o00---
Feeling blank, lying on his bed in the dark that night, Hyukjae keeps replaying his meeting with Ji Soon today. And then his hand reaches over for his cell, and pushes the quick dial connecting to Yehsung’s.
The phone rings twice before Yehsung’s low voice heard from the other line. “Hyukjae-ah.”
Hyukjae squeezes his eyes shut at the sound of Yehsung’s voice. Pangs of pain in his heart easily overpower the feeling of longing suddenly blooming inside.
“Why, Hyung?” Hyukjae asks the simple question with a hoarse voice.
Yehsung’s breath is the only thing heard for several seconds, before the older man finally sighs and answers. “Look, for what it’s worth, I’m sorry, for everything.”
Hyukjae bites his lips hard until he can feel blood to stop the sobs threatening to come out of his throat.
“At first, all I want is just that data from your laptop.” Yehsung explains with a calm voice. “I mean, the plan was to search information about you as much as I can gather and then pretending to be your high school junior to court you so that I’d earn your trust enough to secretly hijack into your laptop in the end.”
Hyukjae takes a deep breath, doesn’t know if he can listen to this conversation further without wanting to curse anyone or just simply throwing anything nearby, or worse, breaking down and cry.
“I’ve done it successfully, and so I’d been trying to disappear from your life. But then my boss knew that you’re good at what you’re doing. Too good, in fact, and he decided he wants you to be the next hi-jacked employee. But money never attracts you before, and I know how loyal you are to your boss. So I told my boss that.” Yehsung sighs again. “Well, apparently my boss thought that if he can’t hi-jack you, then you working under his rival even just for a little bit longer would be a big threat for him…. So he told me to take care of you.”
“And so you did.” Hyukjae says, picking some invincible threads on his pillow to divert his thought from the way he feels so numb and his throat feels sore for too much holding back his sobs. “You did very well; in fact, you’ve managed to destroy my life along.” Hyukjae laughs grimly. “And it was a nice video present too, by the way. I’ve never known I have such talent to become a porn slut.”
Hints of sarcastic anger in Hyukjae’s words are clearly heard, and Hyukjae is waiting for Yehsung to apologize or giving him some self-defense statements, anything that can stop this self-worthlessness from growing deep inside of him.
But Yehsung just mutters his sorry once again before hanging up on him.
Hearing the continuous beeping sound from the cut phone line, Hyukjae hurls his cell towards the wall and it breaks in pieces all over the place. Then he finally lets go and allows himself to cry.
---00o00---
It is three months after, but still there’re so many people asking stupid questions, so many sneering stares directed at him, and so many judgments made up on him behind his back.
But Hyukjae keeps his silent, hiding his wounded heart, and tirelessly trying to distract himself from everything’s going on by working hard in his two, sometimes three, part time jobs as letter by letter of rejection is sent to his address in response of his application letter.
Apparently, more than he had feared before, words have greater impact than years of experience and convincing curriculum vitae because it looks like now he’s one of the blacklisted job-seekers in the whole city.
His father still refused to talk to him, looks like he’s set his mind to disown him despite his mom’s continuous bugging on Hyukjae to stop being such a prideful brat and just come back home.
But he can’t go back. Not with his tail behind his back.
He believes there’s still hope for him in this town. He has to believe it. All he needs to do is just hangs in here and try to bear all of these for a little bit more. The tide will come down sooner or later anyway, it always does.
At least that’s what he has in mind, until one day he got fired from one of his part time jobs at a family restaurant just because the owner lady heard things about him from one of his customer who is one of KOOL’s employees.
I’m sorry but I don’t think you fit well with the image of my restaurant, Hyukjae-sshi, the owner says it with a disgusted stare at him.
That is when he realizes that his reputation has been leveled with those prostitutes down the street and it leads him into decision that he definitely can’t stay this way.
The only person left whom he can turn to at this kind of situation is Junsu. And even now that he has decided to make some change, Hyukjae doesn’t like the idea of asking Junsu’s help for even one bit.
Xiah Junsu is the only real best friend he has. Junsu’s house used to be next to his parent’s house and they’d been gone to the same school ever since kindergarten. They’ve been friends since forever and Hyukjae can still remember Junsu’s wicked grin at him after he punched the guy who had tricked him for the bet right on his nose back in the high school.
But then Junsu’s family had to move to Seoul and Junsu had to continue his study in university there.
Both of them didn’t cry when they took turns saying their parting words, but Hyukjae could feel some parts of him gone along with Junsu’s waving figure behind his car’s window until it disappears at the street corner.
And Junsu’s hoarse voice as he called Hyukjae the minute he got into his new house somehow informed Hyukjae that his best friend felt at least the same way.
This time, Hyukjae is reluctant to pick up his phone and ask for Junsu’s help because Junsu knows him too well and he’ll sense right away that something isn’t right and in the end Hyukjae has no other choice but to tell him about everything that had happened.
Hyukjae knows a lot of his friends and acquaintances, and even some of his relatives that all of a sudden turn their back on him after they heard about the incidence.
It fucking hurts, and Hyukjae really doesn’t want to imagine how much more hurts that he must bear if Junsu does the same to him after he tells the truth.
Well, Junsu indeed just looked at him for a long time before smiling and patted him in the back when Hyukjae told him that he was gay, and the only thing changed between them after that was just Junsu’s stopping his effort to matchmaking him with his ladies friend. And, his playful nudges on Hyukjae’s ribs every time Hyukjae took to much time on drooling over a cute or handsome guy walked pass them.
But this is different.
They are grown ups already. No matter how bad Yehsung had tricked him, sleeping with someone closely related to your company’s rival is a stupid thing to do. And Hyukjae should’ve known better than surrendering to his lust.
He’s a laughing stock of the town now. And he knows it’s stupid to doubt the depth of his friendship with Junsu, but Yehsung has shredded most of his not-so-much-confidence about his self-worth and lately Hyukjae can’t even stand looking at his reflection in the mirror.
Will Junsu still be his friend knowing all of these?
But Hyukjae knows he has no choice but try anyway. Things have become too fucked up for him to solve all by himself.
---00o00---
For a long moment, nothing was heard from Junsu’s phone line after Hyukjae finishes his story. But a minute later, Hyukjae has to keep the receiver away from his ear while Junsu is spilling out strings after strings of curses for Yehsung.
“Go pack your bag after this, Hyuk.” Junsu says grimly after he’s done venting his anger out of his system.
“So you can help me find a job there?” Hyukjae asks, excitement and hope are clear in his voice.
“Sure, I can, you dickhead. Just take the first early train tomorrow morning and I’ll pick you up at Seoul’s train station. Seoul is as bitchy as every other big city in the whole world, but at least there are only a few judgmental people here and I’ll be right there behind you to make sure nobody can fuck you around.” Junsu says, his tone has become softer.
Hyukjae feels his spirit starts to come back again little by little and his heart beats faster at the possibility of leaving this town and actually lives in Seoul, making his way up back from zero.
“Really, thank you, Junsu.” Hyukjae’s voice hoarse with all the emotion mixed up inside him.
“Oh, come on. Stop being all mushy on me or I’ll leave you alone at the train station to get lost in Seoul.” Junsu grunts and Hyukjae laughs a little.
He never felt this relief since days.
END
PS: LOL. You think it’s a sad ending? Guess again. xDDD
There’ll be a sequel series for this story. It’ll be titled: A Fragile Heart, feat. KangHyuk yes, again. It’s my #1 OTP so sue me as the main pairing. I’ll post the 1st chapter as soon as I finish giving it a final touch.