SSS 2010: for bree_nd
For: bree_nd
From: Your (Emergency) Secret Santa
Title: Stand Too Close
Pairing: Onew/Key
Rating: R
Wordcount: 3,127
Summary: If I stand too close, I might fall in. But if I'm too far gone, I'll never win. If you believe in me, I might just want to spend some time with you again.
We always fight when he comes home smelling like sweat, booze, and sex. I can already see how this fight is going to play out, because it’s the same one we have every night.
I tell him how I don't like his job. He tells me to "kindly fuck off," and states that without his job, we wouldn't be able to pay all the bills. The worst part is, I know he's right, but I still tell him to quit anyway.
There is no overtime at my job. I work at a day care center, with hours from six in the morning until six in the evening. He knows that. He says my job is useless all the time. I start to get mad, then he gets mad. We yell at each other for a few minutes until he says he's had enough, then he goes to shower.
I crawl into bed and fume until the door to the bathroom opens again, quietly. He's still considerate even though we just fought. Then he'll put on some clothes and crawl into bed with me.
And in the morning, it'll be like nothing happened.
--
I remember the very first time I met Kim Kibum. His stage name was Key, and he was a erotic dancer. (I made the mistake of calling him a stripper once. I have the scar on my forehead to prove it. 'There's a fine difference!' He always said.)
My best friend, Jonghyun, thought it would be a good idea for me to spend time around people my age, instead of small screaming children. That’s how I wound up at the gentlemen’s club, juggling three drinks in my hands and side-eyeing the people getting lap dances.
“Lighten up, Jinki. You act like you’ve never seen people grinding on each other before. Much better in real life than on a computer screen right? Right?” Jonghyun elbowed me in the ribs painfully with a smirk on his face.
“Jonghyun, when you said you were going to treat me tonight, I thought you meant to dinner or something. Take me somewhere where I wouldn’t have to think about the tiny terrors at my work place.” I took a seat next to him and cast my eyes warily across the empty stage.
“I figured this would be the best place. Your mind should be focused on all these wonderful people with wonderful bodies, moving around in wondrous ways,” he said, taking a sip of his drink, eyes trained on the stage.
“When did you become a poet?” I smirked at him, taking a sip of my own drink. I had to admit, even though this wasn’t my kind of place to be, what with the scantily clad men and women, and the smell of sex and alcohol mixing together to give me a headache, it felt nice to be in the presence of adults, doing adult things. Well, not those kinds of adult things. You know what I mean.
Jonghyun turned his head lazily to me with a grin. He opened his mouth to say something, but the lights suddenly dimmed as the stage lights brightened, calling everyone’s attention to center stage.
That’s when I first saw him. When the music started, my mind went blissfully blank as I watched him dance around on that stage. I vaguely remember other dancers on the stage, but he had my full attention. I heard Jonghyun laugh from beside me, reaching over to push my jaw up with his hand.
“You have expensive taste.”
“Who doesn’t like expensive things?” I said quietly to myself, still in a daze. It should be illegal for someone to move like that around a pole.
After the performance was over, there was a moderate amount of clapping as he bowed on stage, looking up once to meet eyes with me. I could immediately feel my ears heating up as I looked away. Jonghyun chuckled beside me and waved him over with two fingers.
He grinned at me with an arrogant look on his face before I suddenly found myself very interested in the drink in my hands. I could hear Jonghyun whispering something to him as I twisted the glass around, taking a few full gulps.
I felt it in the air when the attention shifted to me. “Hello there.”
I kept my eyes on his feet. Man, he had nice feet too. “Hi.”
“My face is up here, handsome.” I felt a cold finger slip under my chin and push my head up, forcing me to meet eyes with him.
I gulped slightly as he cocked his head at me. “Not bad. He really is handsome. Your friend has paid a nice sum for me to attend to you.”
“Did he now?” I said lightly, trying to focus my attention on something else besides his gorgeous body and the growing bulge in my pants.
“No need to thank me, Jinki. Consider it an apology for all those pedophile jokes I make about you all the time. Now shoo.” He waved his hand at us, as if he were dismissing us to go do whatever it was he expected us to go do.
Key’s hand moved to the collar of my shirt before he grabbed it and pulled me up from the chair, dragging me off to one of the back rooms I knew existed inside clubs like these but never had the guts to enter.
He pushed me onto the bed, straddling my hips before starting to grind them together slowly. My vision whited out for a moment before I managed to stammer something out. “W-w-wait. What’s your name?” He leaned forward and nipped playfully at my ear.
“Just call me Key.”
“No, your real name.” I could feel his lips trailing slightly over my cheek as he moved to face me. He was so close to my face I could feel his eyelashes brush over my skin as he blinked.
“Why?”
“So I’ll know what to scream later.” He sat up abruptly and laughed. No doubt I ruined the mood when I said that, but that was my goal, and I liked the way he laughed. Tears started to form in his eyes before he wiped them away, careful not to smudge his makeup.
“Oh god, you’re one of those people,” he said, leaning back onto my thighs as I propped myself up onto my elbows.
“Yes, I’m one of those people, whoever those people are.” He sighed and ran a hand through his hair.
“Do you even want to have sex with me?” I gave him a look of mock shock. “Do you even have to ask? It’s kind of obvious.” Both pairs of eyes traveled down to the bulge in my pants.
“Just making sure,” Key said before leaning forward and attacking my neck, sliding his hands up underneath my shirt.
“You never told me your name.” He smiled into my neck before biting forcefully, causing me to make a strangled noise of pleasure.
“Kibum. Now shut up.”
--
I don’t remember what time or even how I got home that night. I woke up with a mild hangover in my bed, cursing silently to myself when the sunlight hit my sensitive eyes.
I willed my body out of bed to clean myself up and fell into the kitchen, the smell of coffee was already reaching my senses. I stared at the sticky note on my kitchen table until my eyes started to get dry.
Jinki, I don’t know what happened, but it sounded like you had the time of your life. You’re welcome, and Merry Christmas for the rest of your life.
Underneath Jonghyun’s messy handwriting was a name and number.
--
It took me almost two weeks to work up the courage to send him a text. It took another week for me to call him.
“Hey, handsome. I was wondering if you were ever going to call me. I see your friend here all the time.”
“Well, I can’t exactly go all the time like he does. Money is tight, and it wouldn’t look good if the parents found out I was frequenting that type of place... you know.” I heard him laugh over the phone, and it was quickly becoming one of my favorite sounds.
“I wouldn’t know. Did you have a reason to call me today instead of texting me like you usually do?”
“Yeah, kinda. I was just wondering if you were free sometime in the evening to maybe come to dinner with me.”
--
“This is not what I imaged when you asked me to dinner.” I smiled at his mild look of surprise as I handed him a takeout box. The both of us were sitting on the couch, and I just put in one of my favorite movies.
“You already said I was one of ‘those guys’.” I made air quotations with my fingers. “I don’t know what you expected from me.” He shook his head with a smile before opening up his takeout box and taking in a deep breath.
“God, I haven’t had takeout in so long. This is going to go straight to my thighs.” I rolled my eyes and handed him a pair of chopsticks. “Don’t be such a girl. You need some more meat on your bones anyway,” I said, mouth full of food.
He gave me a disgusted look before picking at his own food. “Seeing that half chewed piece of orange chicken in your mouth just killed my appetite.”
--
I’m not sure how it happened. Kibum spent the night once a week when he didn’t have work, bringing more and more of his things every week until there was nothing left for him to go home to. All I knew is that one week, all of his stuff was in my apartment, and that he didn’t leave in the mornings anymore.
We hardly ever saw each other. I got up early in the morning when he was just barely getting home from the club. He slept until I got home, which is when he had to start getting ready for work. We had dinner together whenever both of us had the same day off, which didn’t happen very often.
We didn’t ever really define our relationship with each other. I guess it was silent understanding that we were dating. But in his line of work, I think it was better we never talked about it. I don’t think I would’ve been able to handle thinking about all those people staring at him, and what he would have to do behind closed doors to people he didn’t even know.
I know when those nights are, because he’ll take a shower, a long shower before he gets into bed with me.
--
Eventually, my insecurities caught up with me. I remember the first time I told him to quit his job.
--
“I want you to quit.”
He looked up from the magazine he was reading with a single eyebrow raised. “No.”
We locked eyes for a moment, his eyebrows furrowing as if he were trying to determine if I was being serious or not. “Why?”
“You barely make enough money to cover the rent and bills in this place. Especially since they started cutting your hours at the day care.”
“I’ll get a second job. Just quit.” Kibum put his magazine down this time, turning his body to watch me from the couch.
“A second job? Jinki. We barely get to see each other as it is. If you get a second job, then I may as well be the only person living here.”
“I’m not saying you can’t get another job or something. I just. Quit your job.”
“You know I can’t.” He picked up his magazine again, and that was the end of that.
--
He came home drunk at four in the morning one night. I was asleep until he practically fell on top of me. The smell of alcohol and sex was making my stomach turn.
“Kibum, what are you doing?” I mumbled sleepily. I turned over and immediately felt his lips on mine, his hands pulling the covers off of me. I turned my head away, trying not to throw up from the smell of alcohol on his breath.
“I have to be up in an hour. Let me sleep.” He sighed and snuggled into my bare chest.
“Jinki, I feel so dirty. Make me feel clean again. You always make me feel clean...” His voice trailed off as he passed out. That was the turning point in our relationship, when everything got so much more complicated.
--
“Quit.”
“No.”
“You need to quit.”
“I can’t afford to, and you know that. Are we really going to have this argument again?”
I stood behind him with my hands in my pockets, watching him get ready for another night at the club.
“Yes. We’re going to have this argument every night until you quit.” He set his eyeliner down in exasperation and rolled his eyes.
“Why don’t you just find a better job that makes more money then? I’ll quit when we’re financially stable.”
“I make enough money at my job now.”
“You make barely enough, Jinki. What if something happens? What if you forget to pay a bill, or you end up in the hospital for some reason? What if you get into a car accident? Are you just going let your debt pile up until you borrow money from gangsters to pay them off like in the dramas and end up getting beaten up when you don’t have the money?”
“At least my job is decent in the eyes of society. I’d probably get fired if they knew I was dating a stripper.” I knew I’d said something wrong as soon as he whipped around with the most furious expression on his face.
“What did you just call me?”
“You heard me. I-” I should’ve just kept my mouth shut. He swung at me, forgetting that his compact mirror was in his hands. I found out that day that Kibum packed quite the punch.
There was so much blood when he took me to the emergency room, apologizing to me over and over again with a look of absolute horror on his face. I didn’t know what to think now. I had to get three mirror shards removed from my forehead, followed by three stitches.
Kibum ended up taking me home before leaving me to go to work. He faltered at the door when I asked him to stay with me. I could almost feel his heart breaking when he said he couldn’t. Maybe it was mine.
“I have to get the money to pay your hospital bill somewhere,” was the only thing he said before disappearing through the door.
--
We were like strangers after that. I didn’t know what to say to him anymore. To be honest, I was kind of afraid to say anything to him anymore. I got anxious when he got closer to me, making excuses to move somewhere else.
I flinched whenever he reached out to touch me, to hold me, to caress my face. I could see he was hurt from the way I acted around him. I thought it was irrational too. I knew he wasn’t a violent person, but I just couldn’t help myself.
Eventually, we just stopped acknowledging each other presence altogether. He didn’t say hello to me when I came home from work. I didn’t say goodbye to him whenever he left for work. I couldn’t sleep so well anymore, so I waited for him to come home at four in the morning.
The only time we would even talk anymore was when I told him to quit. Something about tonight felt different though, when he came through the door with a slight smile on his face.
We stared at each other for a moment until a full smile creeped onto his face.
“I quit.”
I blinked a few times in surprise.
“You... quit?” I repeated, unsure that I was actually hearing him correctly. I hoped my brain wasn’t playing tricks on me.
“I did. I got a job as a dance instructor at a studio downtown. One of my... clients offered me the job last week. Tonight was my last night at the club. The studio job won’t make as much money as the club but... it makes enough.”
I stared at him in disbelief.
“You really quit?” He chuckled at me as he moved over to sit down next to me, grabbing my hands with his.
“I’ve been thinking a lot about this. About you, about me, about us. I hated seeing that look on your face whenever I left for the club. I hated having to pretend to be interested in people, especially after I met you.” He wrapped his arms around me and pulled me closer to him.
“I don’t want you to be ashamed of me.” I pulled back and gave him a remorseful look.
“I wasn’t ashamed of you. I never was. I just wanted you to be happy, and you were never happy when you got home.” Kibum nodded, reaching out to ruffle my hair.
“Well. Now we can sleep together at a decent hour. Wake up at a decent hour. Eat dinner together, and spend evenings together. Like a real couple. You know?”
“No, I don’t know. But I’m sure we’ll figure it out. Are you sure you won’t get sick of me after spending so much time together?”
“I won’t. But the only time I ever want to hear the word ‘quit’ come out of your mouth again is if I’m doing something to you that you don’t want me to do.”
I rolled my eyes.
“Like that will ever happen.”
“Then I better not hear you say that word ever again.”
I smiled at him and leaned forward to plant a chaste kiss on his lips.
“I’ll try. I can’t promise that I won’t say anything inappropriate at inappropriate times. You know how I like to run my mouth all the time.”
He rolled his eyes and smiled, kissing my forehead, then my nose, then my lips.
“I know. You’re just one of those people.”
From: Your (Emergency) Secret Santa
Title: Stand Too Close
Pairing: Onew/Key
Rating: R
Wordcount: 3,127
Summary: If I stand too close, I might fall in. But if I'm too far gone, I'll never win. If you believe in me, I might just want to spend some time with you again.
We always fight when he comes home smelling like sweat, booze, and sex. I can already see how this fight is going to play out, because it’s the same one we have every night.
I tell him how I don't like his job. He tells me to "kindly fuck off," and states that without his job, we wouldn't be able to pay all the bills. The worst part is, I know he's right, but I still tell him to quit anyway.
There is no overtime at my job. I work at a day care center, with hours from six in the morning until six in the evening. He knows that. He says my job is useless all the time. I start to get mad, then he gets mad. We yell at each other for a few minutes until he says he's had enough, then he goes to shower.
I crawl into bed and fume until the door to the bathroom opens again, quietly. He's still considerate even though we just fought. Then he'll put on some clothes and crawl into bed with me.
And in the morning, it'll be like nothing happened.
--
I remember the very first time I met Kim Kibum. His stage name was Key, and he was a erotic dancer. (I made the mistake of calling him a stripper once. I have the scar on my forehead to prove it. 'There's a fine difference!' He always said.)
My best friend, Jonghyun, thought it would be a good idea for me to spend time around people my age, instead of small screaming children. That’s how I wound up at the gentlemen’s club, juggling three drinks in my hands and side-eyeing the people getting lap dances.
“Lighten up, Jinki. You act like you’ve never seen people grinding on each other before. Much better in real life than on a computer screen right? Right?” Jonghyun elbowed me in the ribs painfully with a smirk on his face.
“Jonghyun, when you said you were going to treat me tonight, I thought you meant to dinner or something. Take me somewhere where I wouldn’t have to think about the tiny terrors at my work place.” I took a seat next to him and cast my eyes warily across the empty stage.
“I figured this would be the best place. Your mind should be focused on all these wonderful people with wonderful bodies, moving around in wondrous ways,” he said, taking a sip of his drink, eyes trained on the stage.
“When did you become a poet?” I smirked at him, taking a sip of my own drink. I had to admit, even though this wasn’t my kind of place to be, what with the scantily clad men and women, and the smell of sex and alcohol mixing together to give me a headache, it felt nice to be in the presence of adults, doing adult things. Well, not those kinds of adult things. You know what I mean.
Jonghyun turned his head lazily to me with a grin. He opened his mouth to say something, but the lights suddenly dimmed as the stage lights brightened, calling everyone’s attention to center stage.
That’s when I first saw him. When the music started, my mind went blissfully blank as I watched him dance around on that stage. I vaguely remember other dancers on the stage, but he had my full attention. I heard Jonghyun laugh from beside me, reaching over to push my jaw up with his hand.
“You have expensive taste.”
“Who doesn’t like expensive things?” I said quietly to myself, still in a daze. It should be illegal for someone to move like that around a pole.
After the performance was over, there was a moderate amount of clapping as he bowed on stage, looking up once to meet eyes with me. I could immediately feel my ears heating up as I looked away. Jonghyun chuckled beside me and waved him over with two fingers.
He grinned at me with an arrogant look on his face before I suddenly found myself very interested in the drink in my hands. I could hear Jonghyun whispering something to him as I twisted the glass around, taking a few full gulps.
I felt it in the air when the attention shifted to me. “Hello there.”
I kept my eyes on his feet. Man, he had nice feet too. “Hi.”
“My face is up here, handsome.” I felt a cold finger slip under my chin and push my head up, forcing me to meet eyes with him.
I gulped slightly as he cocked his head at me. “Not bad. He really is handsome. Your friend has paid a nice sum for me to attend to you.”
“Did he now?” I said lightly, trying to focus my attention on something else besides his gorgeous body and the growing bulge in my pants.
“No need to thank me, Jinki. Consider it an apology for all those pedophile jokes I make about you all the time. Now shoo.” He waved his hand at us, as if he were dismissing us to go do whatever it was he expected us to go do.
Key’s hand moved to the collar of my shirt before he grabbed it and pulled me up from the chair, dragging me off to one of the back rooms I knew existed inside clubs like these but never had the guts to enter.
He pushed me onto the bed, straddling my hips before starting to grind them together slowly. My vision whited out for a moment before I managed to stammer something out. “W-w-wait. What’s your name?” He leaned forward and nipped playfully at my ear.
“Just call me Key.”
“No, your real name.” I could feel his lips trailing slightly over my cheek as he moved to face me. He was so close to my face I could feel his eyelashes brush over my skin as he blinked.
“Why?”
“So I’ll know what to scream later.” He sat up abruptly and laughed. No doubt I ruined the mood when I said that, but that was my goal, and I liked the way he laughed. Tears started to form in his eyes before he wiped them away, careful not to smudge his makeup.
“Oh god, you’re one of those people,” he said, leaning back onto my thighs as I propped myself up onto my elbows.
“Yes, I’m one of those people, whoever those people are.” He sighed and ran a hand through his hair.
“Do you even want to have sex with me?” I gave him a look of mock shock. “Do you even have to ask? It’s kind of obvious.” Both pairs of eyes traveled down to the bulge in my pants.
“Just making sure,” Key said before leaning forward and attacking my neck, sliding his hands up underneath my shirt.
“You never told me your name.” He smiled into my neck before biting forcefully, causing me to make a strangled noise of pleasure.
“Kibum. Now shut up.”
--
I don’t remember what time or even how I got home that night. I woke up with a mild hangover in my bed, cursing silently to myself when the sunlight hit my sensitive eyes.
I willed my body out of bed to clean myself up and fell into the kitchen, the smell of coffee was already reaching my senses. I stared at the sticky note on my kitchen table until my eyes started to get dry.
Jinki, I don’t know what happened, but it sounded like you had the time of your life. You’re welcome, and Merry Christmas for the rest of your life.
Underneath Jonghyun’s messy handwriting was a name and number.
--
It took me almost two weeks to work up the courage to send him a text. It took another week for me to call him.
“Hey, handsome. I was wondering if you were ever going to call me. I see your friend here all the time.”
“Well, I can’t exactly go all the time like he does. Money is tight, and it wouldn’t look good if the parents found out I was frequenting that type of place... you know.” I heard him laugh over the phone, and it was quickly becoming one of my favorite sounds.
“I wouldn’t know. Did you have a reason to call me today instead of texting me like you usually do?”
“Yeah, kinda. I was just wondering if you were free sometime in the evening to maybe come to dinner with me.”
--
“This is not what I imaged when you asked me to dinner.” I smiled at his mild look of surprise as I handed him a takeout box. The both of us were sitting on the couch, and I just put in one of my favorite movies.
“You already said I was one of ‘those guys’.” I made air quotations with my fingers. “I don’t know what you expected from me.” He shook his head with a smile before opening up his takeout box and taking in a deep breath.
“God, I haven’t had takeout in so long. This is going to go straight to my thighs.” I rolled my eyes and handed him a pair of chopsticks. “Don’t be such a girl. You need some more meat on your bones anyway,” I said, mouth full of food.
He gave me a disgusted look before picking at his own food. “Seeing that half chewed piece of orange chicken in your mouth just killed my appetite.”
--
I’m not sure how it happened. Kibum spent the night once a week when he didn’t have work, bringing more and more of his things every week until there was nothing left for him to go home to. All I knew is that one week, all of his stuff was in my apartment, and that he didn’t leave in the mornings anymore.
We hardly ever saw each other. I got up early in the morning when he was just barely getting home from the club. He slept until I got home, which is when he had to start getting ready for work. We had dinner together whenever both of us had the same day off, which didn’t happen very often.
We didn’t ever really define our relationship with each other. I guess it was silent understanding that we were dating. But in his line of work, I think it was better we never talked about it. I don’t think I would’ve been able to handle thinking about all those people staring at him, and what he would have to do behind closed doors to people he didn’t even know.
I know when those nights are, because he’ll take a shower, a long shower before he gets into bed with me.
--
Eventually, my insecurities caught up with me. I remember the first time I told him to quit his job.
--
“I want you to quit.”
He looked up from the magazine he was reading with a single eyebrow raised. “No.”
We locked eyes for a moment, his eyebrows furrowing as if he were trying to determine if I was being serious or not. “Why?”
“You barely make enough money to cover the rent and bills in this place. Especially since they started cutting your hours at the day care.”
“I’ll get a second job. Just quit.” Kibum put his magazine down this time, turning his body to watch me from the couch.
“A second job? Jinki. We barely get to see each other as it is. If you get a second job, then I may as well be the only person living here.”
“I’m not saying you can’t get another job or something. I just. Quit your job.”
“You know I can’t.” He picked up his magazine again, and that was the end of that.
--
He came home drunk at four in the morning one night. I was asleep until he practically fell on top of me. The smell of alcohol and sex was making my stomach turn.
“Kibum, what are you doing?” I mumbled sleepily. I turned over and immediately felt his lips on mine, his hands pulling the covers off of me. I turned my head away, trying not to throw up from the smell of alcohol on his breath.
“I have to be up in an hour. Let me sleep.” He sighed and snuggled into my bare chest.
“Jinki, I feel so dirty. Make me feel clean again. You always make me feel clean...” His voice trailed off as he passed out. That was the turning point in our relationship, when everything got so much more complicated.
--
“Quit.”
“No.”
“You need to quit.”
“I can’t afford to, and you know that. Are we really going to have this argument again?”
I stood behind him with my hands in my pockets, watching him get ready for another night at the club.
“Yes. We’re going to have this argument every night until you quit.” He set his eyeliner down in exasperation and rolled his eyes.
“Why don’t you just find a better job that makes more money then? I’ll quit when we’re financially stable.”
“I make enough money at my job now.”
“You make barely enough, Jinki. What if something happens? What if you forget to pay a bill, or you end up in the hospital for some reason? What if you get into a car accident? Are you just going let your debt pile up until you borrow money from gangsters to pay them off like in the dramas and end up getting beaten up when you don’t have the money?”
“At least my job is decent in the eyes of society. I’d probably get fired if they knew I was dating a stripper.” I knew I’d said something wrong as soon as he whipped around with the most furious expression on his face.
“What did you just call me?”
“You heard me. I-” I should’ve just kept my mouth shut. He swung at me, forgetting that his compact mirror was in his hands. I found out that day that Kibum packed quite the punch.
There was so much blood when he took me to the emergency room, apologizing to me over and over again with a look of absolute horror on his face. I didn’t know what to think now. I had to get three mirror shards removed from my forehead, followed by three stitches.
Kibum ended up taking me home before leaving me to go to work. He faltered at the door when I asked him to stay with me. I could almost feel his heart breaking when he said he couldn’t. Maybe it was mine.
“I have to get the money to pay your hospital bill somewhere,” was the only thing he said before disappearing through the door.
--
We were like strangers after that. I didn’t know what to say to him anymore. To be honest, I was kind of afraid to say anything to him anymore. I got anxious when he got closer to me, making excuses to move somewhere else.
I flinched whenever he reached out to touch me, to hold me, to caress my face. I could see he was hurt from the way I acted around him. I thought it was irrational too. I knew he wasn’t a violent person, but I just couldn’t help myself.
Eventually, we just stopped acknowledging each other presence altogether. He didn’t say hello to me when I came home from work. I didn’t say goodbye to him whenever he left for work. I couldn’t sleep so well anymore, so I waited for him to come home at four in the morning.
The only time we would even talk anymore was when I told him to quit. Something about tonight felt different though, when he came through the door with a slight smile on his face.
We stared at each other for a moment until a full smile creeped onto his face.
“I quit.”
I blinked a few times in surprise.
“You... quit?” I repeated, unsure that I was actually hearing him correctly. I hoped my brain wasn’t playing tricks on me.
“I did. I got a job as a dance instructor at a studio downtown. One of my... clients offered me the job last week. Tonight was my last night at the club. The studio job won’t make as much money as the club but... it makes enough.”
I stared at him in disbelief.
“You really quit?” He chuckled at me as he moved over to sit down next to me, grabbing my hands with his.
“I’ve been thinking a lot about this. About you, about me, about us. I hated seeing that look on your face whenever I left for the club. I hated having to pretend to be interested in people, especially after I met you.” He wrapped his arms around me and pulled me closer to him.
“I don’t want you to be ashamed of me.” I pulled back and gave him a remorseful look.
“I wasn’t ashamed of you. I never was. I just wanted you to be happy, and you were never happy when you got home.” Kibum nodded, reaching out to ruffle my hair.
“Well. Now we can sleep together at a decent hour. Wake up at a decent hour. Eat dinner together, and spend evenings together. Like a real couple. You know?”
“No, I don’t know. But I’m sure we’ll figure it out. Are you sure you won’t get sick of me after spending so much time together?”
“I won’t. But the only time I ever want to hear the word ‘quit’ come out of your mouth again is if I’m doing something to you that you don’t want me to do.”
I rolled my eyes.
“Like that will ever happen.”
“Then I better not hear you say that word ever again.”
I smiled at him and leaned forward to plant a chaste kiss on his lips.
“I’ll try. I can’t promise that I won’t say anything inappropriate at inappropriate times. You know how I like to run my mouth all the time.”
He rolled his eyes and smiled, kissing my forehead, then my nose, then my lips.
“I know. You’re just one of those people.”