fic: Love to Hate You, chapter three
Park Bom can't deal with this. This being something akin to incest, them being in YG Family and all. Although, heck, the president had a twisted sense of marketing. Or maybe being virtually married to Choi Seunghyun aka Tee-oh-pee is a higher power's idea of a cosmic joke. Either way, she's not amused.
CHAPTER THREETOP ♥ Bom couple mission card
Drown your apprehensions this afternoon as you plunge and take your first strokes into married life... then decide if you are made for the long run.
Don't forget your swimwear!
"I'm not bringing one," Bom informs the cameraman inside her room the next day. When his puzzled face comes up behind his equipment, appearing to think she's nuts and oh my God my boss man will flip if this couple makes ratings tank, she grins enigmatically. "I'm bringing my ugliest shorts and shirt! If he thinks he'll see me in a skimpy bikini he's got another think coming!"
From the doorway Chaerin clucks her tongue. "You wear sexy dresses all the time and it's never bothered you," she points out.
Pragmatically, Bom turns to her leader, hands on her hips. "There's a world of difference between this and that. This... this would be for him. And I won't give him that satisfaction."
"Your husband," leader teases.
"Gah." Bom turns back to her closet, trying to unearth her ugly shorts, the long boyish ones that are all worn and becoming an ugly discoloured semblance of khaki because she wore them so much for dance practice when she began training.
"Are you making yourself look unsexy for big Seunghyun?" Chaerin asks suspiciously after a short pause.
"Maybe," Bom sing-songs from the depths. "Or maybe I just want to wear something low-key for comfort."
She can feel Chaerin's unconvinced eyes pierce into her back. "You could wear your one-pieces. He's seen you in them after all."
Sighing gustily, Bom turns back to her baby leader. "All right, you're right. I'm horrible?"
Chaerin scowls a bit more, then shrugs as if to say I don't get you but it's your life, and pushes away from the door to wander away. "You're overthinking it, though," she calls from a distance, "you know?"
Bom sighs, staring at the ugly once-khaki shorts in her hands, and unfolds them wryly. "You really are ugly, you."
#
"You still swim, noona?" Seunghyun asks conversationally as they walk toward the indoors pool complex looming before them.
Bom hugs her coat to herself as a particularly strong gust of spring wind barrels into them. "I still like to swim, if that's what you mean," she replies through her teeth, then relaxes when Mother Nature calms down. "But I haven't in a while. You?"
"Been a while as well," he answers, opening the door to the complex for her. "I'm curious about something," he says suddenly after a moment, making her stop in her tracks when she would have headed into the girls' changing room.
She turns to him, watching as he removes his shades and fixes her with a piercing look. "Mm?" she voices warily. She knows that look. Maybe.
"At this moment," he says slowly, as though at a crossroads between choosing his words wisely and wanting to shut up, "would you end this marriage?"
And ah, there it is. This is why she's seen that look before. She's dated before, she's been asked out, and she's certainly been asked what she thinks of "us". Do you love me, Jenny?
"Why - why do you ask?"
Seunghyun's eyes flit over her face, seemingly taking in everything, every trait, every detail. She's aware she must look a fright, and forces herself to look away. There's something truly unnerving about the way Seunghyun looks at people, sometimes. Not scary, not anything like that - Seunghyun wouldn't hurt a fly, and if he did it would be because it deserved a world of hell. But he's very, very smart in that not-booksmart way of some people, and he reads people very, very well. Introverted people tend to be the ones Bom watches out for, mainly because they're too much like her. He gets her hackles up out of nowhere, he drives her nuts at the innocent push of a button, and she constantly gets the sense that he knows too much. Ergo, she gets on the defensive all too quickly, and they go on full-circle ad vitam aeternam.
"It's a simple enough question, Bom."
That's right. I'm not Jenny anymore, she tells herself, wanting to be objective about this but failing hard. Still, she has to answer. Bom stares at him as she would... did... once upon a time, without reservations, and suddenly she feels like she's looking at seventeen year-old Seunghyun again, waking up bleary-eyed in the boys' dorm and finding her watching him from his belly with his hand lost in her tousled hair. She'd smiled; he'd gently tucked her hair behind her ear. Someone had then tripped over her feet.
That moment is eclipsed by the echo of a booming smash as Seunghyun ended the phone call with his ex, and the distant deadness in his eyes as he handed over his phone the next day and stayed apart from the rest. He nearly blew it, too. Nearly got kicked out for recklessness.
The moment resurfaces in her mind's eye with such clarity that it nearly hurts again, the way it did then, to know that she'd been witness to such a heartbreaking moment when she shouldn't have been. And... she hadn't been able to say a thing. Not when he rejected attention. Defense mechanism...
Wasn't she essentially turning the tables on him now? So she takes the plunge, convenience be damned, and holds his gaze as she replies, somewhat breathlessly, "No... I wouldn't."
As he continues staring at her, Bom holds her breath, feeling slightly faint as he does so, until he slowly, almost questioningly, slips his hand in hers, as though considering she'll pull away. But she can't. She really can't. Not in this moment, not when whatever holds their threads together for the first time in many years can so easily be snapped in half. Because she feels it: the ball is in her court, and if she messes up then the ensuing fiasco is entirely her fault... She wouldn't have anyone else to blame for things bouncing back to the way things have been.
Bom wishes she'd brought her one-piece as a backup plan. In case the shorts had suddenly been attacked by mites of gangrenous mould or something equally disgusting. Not that old sweat isn't. They really are ugly, too!
#
"When are you taking off your shirt?" Bom shoots at him playfully as he swims over to her, crossing his arms over the pool's edge. She sits cross-legged before him, enjoying her height advantage over him for once. "I've seen you work out, mister."
Seunghyun smiles bashfully. Not on tv... his eyes seem to say. It's something of a sore subject for him to talk about his figure, sometimes. Though he takes pride in how he looks now, Bom supposes it's a vestige of his "big boy" days and that he'll probably never willingly and freely take off his clothes for entertainment purposes. Which isn't bad, per se. Goodness knows, Bom thinks, the industry is riddled with objectified boys; she's glad he's a breath of fresh air. Not to mention that he's been burned before by the media and that must still rankle.
Bom knows the feeling.
"When you ditch those shorts," he finally rejoinders, only to blink up in shock at his own words. "Wow, I didn't mean it that way."
But Bom's laughing her rocks off, kicking at him. "Wah, you pervert! Didn't your mum teach you better?" Suddenly she leans over, mirth dancing in her eyes, and pokes his nose. "I'll tell on you..."
The next instant is a blur, but somehow - actually, she'd half-expected it! - she finds herself simultaneously sputtering water out of her mouth and laughingly submerging Seunghyun's head before he reverses the tables on her and tickle-attacks out of nowhere. She narrowly escapes, fleeing underwater to the other end of the pool, and breaks the surface to find him still hovering in place, treading peacefully. Bom smirks. "Come and get me, sleaze!"
Thus provoked, Seunghyun cocks a brow and proceeds to dip underwater. Bom tracks his advance through the changeable glassy surface, trepidation and excitement bubbling up within her. Finally, he's close enough to touch her, but he merely explodes up, caging her between outstretched arms to the wall.
His eyes are piercing, dancing. "Are you gonna make it that easy?" he challenges.
Bom tamps down a shudder at his tone. Her instinct tells her to escape but... "What do you think?" she challenges back, staying in place.
"What do you want?" He approaches his head infinitesimally. "A kiss?" he murmurs.
He's testing her, she realises, as well as ensuring the nation will talk about this segment for the next year or so. They'll name it the "pool kiss" or something equally as silly.
"Isn't that what you want?" she counters, pulling away a fraction.
"Hm, I dunno," he muses out loud. "What would kissing sexy Park Bom be like..."
"I'm not old enough to be your type, kid."
He smiles, undeterred. "I've never had a set standard, noona. Three years, five years... it's all the same to me."
Bom swallows. "Five years is a bit much for me."
Seunghyun stares a moment, his eyes tracking a drop of water sliding down her temple. "Then we're fine, aren't we?" He keeps staring, immobile but for the gentle waves lapping between them, drawing them in closer together with every come and go.
"Maybe," Bom muses softly, drawing even closer and biting her lip at the way his eyes flare. "But you'll have to wait a little longer for that kiss," she informs him sullenly, after which she pokes him away, grinning as he lands splashing on his back. "After all," she adds dramatically, "time makes the... oh, what's the saying? Stop laughing!"
"I'm not laughing," he assures her with the straightest face he can muster.
Liar. "You're snuffling to yourself," she sniffs.
"I'm not a dog."
"You've been hanging out with dogs for too long," Bom parries back, thinking herself quite clever for thinking up that one. Let him anguish over the double-entendre.
If anything, it makes him snuffle and convulse harder although she can tell he's trying really hard to hold it in and look offended. "Did you just call my boys dogs?" he crows incredulously.
Bom shrugs enigmatically, all winful smiles. "I have no idea what you're talking about, TOP-TOP-TOP."
That sends him over the edge. Seriously crazy. Grabbing his head and bashing his face ineffectually at the water like the nutcase she knew was sleeping inside of him, he whines, "Why. Are. Women. So. Difficult!" And straight at the cameraman that's treading water just a few safe ways away from their invisible circle of crazy, Seunghyun, for the first time, breaks his own award-winner pretend-there-are-no-cameras rule and whines pitifully at it, "Waeeeee!"
She knew he had it in him.
"Speaking of dogs, though," Bom begins, as if Seunghyun hasn't just broken down into a puddling, whining goo at the injustice that women are master mind-bogglers - hey, enhancing reality is cool okay - she breaks off into a tangent. "I love dogs," she informs him.
Carefully, Seunghyun stares at her through the cracks between his fingers. "You own two dogs, don't you?"
As though she could forget. Tsk. "I love dogs," she repeats, infusing a big hint-hint! into her eyes.
Silence on his end. He's looking at her as if she's grown antennae.
Bom breaks down, gesticulating and splashing wildly. "I meant, you idiot, I'd like to meet your dog!"
The lights dawn. "Oh..."
"Duh!"
Silence. Pointed. Then, "I need a Bom-language guide," he mutters to himself, loud enough for her to hear. "Seriously." Then, louder, "Maybe later," he grumbles.
CHAPTER THREETOP ♥ Bom couple mission card
Drown your apprehensions this afternoon as you plunge and take your first strokes into married life... then decide if you are made for the long run.
Don't forget your swimwear!
"I'm not bringing one," Bom informs the cameraman inside her room the next day. When his puzzled face comes up behind his equipment, appearing to think she's nuts and oh my God my boss man will flip if this couple makes ratings tank, she grins enigmatically. "I'm bringing my ugliest shorts and shirt! If he thinks he'll see me in a skimpy bikini he's got another think coming!"
From the doorway Chaerin clucks her tongue. "You wear sexy dresses all the time and it's never bothered you," she points out.
Pragmatically, Bom turns to her leader, hands on her hips. "There's a world of difference between this and that. This... this would be for him. And I won't give him that satisfaction."
"Your husband," leader teases.
"Gah." Bom turns back to her closet, trying to unearth her ugly shorts, the long boyish ones that are all worn and becoming an ugly discoloured semblance of khaki because she wore them so much for dance practice when she began training.
"Are you making yourself look unsexy for big Seunghyun?" Chaerin asks suspiciously after a short pause.
"Maybe," Bom sing-songs from the depths. "Or maybe I just want to wear something low-key for comfort."
She can feel Chaerin's unconvinced eyes pierce into her back. "You could wear your one-pieces. He's seen you in them after all."
Sighing gustily, Bom turns back to her baby leader. "All right, you're right. I'm horrible?"
Chaerin scowls a bit more, then shrugs as if to say I don't get you but it's your life, and pushes away from the door to wander away. "You're overthinking it, though," she calls from a distance, "you know?"
Bom sighs, staring at the ugly once-khaki shorts in her hands, and unfolds them wryly. "You really are ugly, you."
#
"You still swim, noona?" Seunghyun asks conversationally as they walk toward the indoors pool complex looming before them.
Bom hugs her coat to herself as a particularly strong gust of spring wind barrels into them. "I still like to swim, if that's what you mean," she replies through her teeth, then relaxes when Mother Nature calms down. "But I haven't in a while. You?"
"Been a while as well," he answers, opening the door to the complex for her. "I'm curious about something," he says suddenly after a moment, making her stop in her tracks when she would have headed into the girls' changing room.
She turns to him, watching as he removes his shades and fixes her with a piercing look. "Mm?" she voices warily. She knows that look. Maybe.
"At this moment," he says slowly, as though at a crossroads between choosing his words wisely and wanting to shut up, "would you end this marriage?"
And ah, there it is. This is why she's seen that look before. She's dated before, she's been asked out, and she's certainly been asked what she thinks of "us". Do you love me, Jenny?
"Why - why do you ask?"
Seunghyun's eyes flit over her face, seemingly taking in everything, every trait, every detail. She's aware she must look a fright, and forces herself to look away. There's something truly unnerving about the way Seunghyun looks at people, sometimes. Not scary, not anything like that - Seunghyun wouldn't hurt a fly, and if he did it would be because it deserved a world of hell. But he's very, very smart in that not-booksmart way of some people, and he reads people very, very well. Introverted people tend to be the ones Bom watches out for, mainly because they're too much like her. He gets her hackles up out of nowhere, he drives her nuts at the innocent push of a button, and she constantly gets the sense that he knows too much. Ergo, she gets on the defensive all too quickly, and they go on full-circle ad vitam aeternam.
"It's a simple enough question, Bom."
That's right. I'm not Jenny anymore, she tells herself, wanting to be objective about this but failing hard. Still, she has to answer. Bom stares at him as she would... did... once upon a time, without reservations, and suddenly she feels like she's looking at seventeen year-old Seunghyun again, waking up bleary-eyed in the boys' dorm and finding her watching him from his belly with his hand lost in her tousled hair. She'd smiled; he'd gently tucked her hair behind her ear. Someone had then tripped over her feet.
That moment is eclipsed by the echo of a booming smash as Seunghyun ended the phone call with his ex, and the distant deadness in his eyes as he handed over his phone the next day and stayed apart from the rest. He nearly blew it, too. Nearly got kicked out for recklessness.
The moment resurfaces in her mind's eye with such clarity that it nearly hurts again, the way it did then, to know that she'd been witness to such a heartbreaking moment when she shouldn't have been. And... she hadn't been able to say a thing. Not when he rejected attention. Defense mechanism...
Wasn't she essentially turning the tables on him now? So she takes the plunge, convenience be damned, and holds his gaze as she replies, somewhat breathlessly, "No... I wouldn't."
As he continues staring at her, Bom holds her breath, feeling slightly faint as he does so, until he slowly, almost questioningly, slips his hand in hers, as though considering she'll pull away. But she can't. She really can't. Not in this moment, not when whatever holds their threads together for the first time in many years can so easily be snapped in half. Because she feels it: the ball is in her court, and if she messes up then the ensuing fiasco is entirely her fault... She wouldn't have anyone else to blame for things bouncing back to the way things have been.
Bom wishes she'd brought her one-piece as a backup plan. In case the shorts had suddenly been attacked by mites of gangrenous mould or something equally disgusting. Not that old sweat isn't. They really are ugly, too!
#
"When are you taking off your shirt?" Bom shoots at him playfully as he swims over to her, crossing his arms over the pool's edge. She sits cross-legged before him, enjoying her height advantage over him for once. "I've seen you work out, mister."
Seunghyun smiles bashfully. Not on tv... his eyes seem to say. It's something of a sore subject for him to talk about his figure, sometimes. Though he takes pride in how he looks now, Bom supposes it's a vestige of his "big boy" days and that he'll probably never willingly and freely take off his clothes for entertainment purposes. Which isn't bad, per se. Goodness knows, Bom thinks, the industry is riddled with objectified boys; she's glad he's a breath of fresh air. Not to mention that he's been burned before by the media and that must still rankle.
Bom knows the feeling.
"When you ditch those shorts," he finally rejoinders, only to blink up in shock at his own words. "Wow, I didn't mean it that way."
But Bom's laughing her rocks off, kicking at him. "Wah, you pervert! Didn't your mum teach you better?" Suddenly she leans over, mirth dancing in her eyes, and pokes his nose. "I'll tell on you..."
The next instant is a blur, but somehow - actually, she'd half-expected it! - she finds herself simultaneously sputtering water out of her mouth and laughingly submerging Seunghyun's head before he reverses the tables on her and tickle-attacks out of nowhere. She narrowly escapes, fleeing underwater to the other end of the pool, and breaks the surface to find him still hovering in place, treading peacefully. Bom smirks. "Come and get me, sleaze!"
Thus provoked, Seunghyun cocks a brow and proceeds to dip underwater. Bom tracks his advance through the changeable glassy surface, trepidation and excitement bubbling up within her. Finally, he's close enough to touch her, but he merely explodes up, caging her between outstretched arms to the wall.
His eyes are piercing, dancing. "Are you gonna make it that easy?" he challenges.
Bom tamps down a shudder at his tone. Her instinct tells her to escape but... "What do you think?" she challenges back, staying in place.
"What do you want?" He approaches his head infinitesimally. "A kiss?" he murmurs.
He's testing her, she realises, as well as ensuring the nation will talk about this segment for the next year or so. They'll name it the "pool kiss" or something equally as silly.
"Isn't that what you want?" she counters, pulling away a fraction.
"Hm, I dunno," he muses out loud. "What would kissing sexy Park Bom be like..."
"I'm not old enough to be your type, kid."
He smiles, undeterred. "I've never had a set standard, noona. Three years, five years... it's all the same to me."
Bom swallows. "Five years is a bit much for me."
Seunghyun stares a moment, his eyes tracking a drop of water sliding down her temple. "Then we're fine, aren't we?" He keeps staring, immobile but for the gentle waves lapping between them, drawing them in closer together with every come and go.
"Maybe," Bom muses softly, drawing even closer and biting her lip at the way his eyes flare. "But you'll have to wait a little longer for that kiss," she informs him sullenly, after which she pokes him away, grinning as he lands splashing on his back. "After all," she adds dramatically, "time makes the... oh, what's the saying? Stop laughing!"
"I'm not laughing," he assures her with the straightest face he can muster.
Liar. "You're snuffling to yourself," she sniffs.
"I'm not a dog."
"You've been hanging out with dogs for too long," Bom parries back, thinking herself quite clever for thinking up that one. Let him anguish over the double-entendre.
If anything, it makes him snuffle and convulse harder although she can tell he's trying really hard to hold it in and look offended. "Did you just call my boys dogs?" he crows incredulously.
Bom shrugs enigmatically, all winful smiles. "I have no idea what you're talking about, TOP-TOP-TOP."
That sends him over the edge. Seriously crazy. Grabbing his head and bashing his face ineffectually at the water like the nutcase she knew was sleeping inside of him, he whines, "Why. Are. Women. So. Difficult!" And straight at the cameraman that's treading water just a few safe ways away from their invisible circle of crazy, Seunghyun, for the first time, breaks his own award-winner pretend-there-are-no-cameras rule and whines pitifully at it, "Waeeeee!"
She knew he had it in him.
"Speaking of dogs, though," Bom begins, as if Seunghyun hasn't just broken down into a puddling, whining goo at the injustice that women are master mind-bogglers - hey, enhancing reality is cool okay - she breaks off into a tangent. "I love dogs," she informs him.
Carefully, Seunghyun stares at her through the cracks between his fingers. "You own two dogs, don't you?"
As though she could forget. Tsk. "I love dogs," she repeats, infusing a big hint-hint! into her eyes.
Silence on his end. He's looking at her as if she's grown antennae.
Bom breaks down, gesticulating and splashing wildly. "I meant, you idiot, I'd like to meet your dog!"
The lights dawn. "Oh..."
"Duh!"
Silence. Pointed. Then, "I need a Bom-language guide," he mutters to himself, loud enough for her to hear. "Seriously." Then, louder, "Maybe later," he grumbles.