Work Text:
When you have to get a new secretary for the fourth time in two weeks, you can probably start suspecting there’s something wrong with you.
Even if you have a thousand of piles of papers to read, organize and sort into categories and conferences to attend every four hours, it’s still not an excuse to be so unbearable that all your secretaries give up after a few days and quit willingly – which just means another thousand of papers to dig through, something she definitely doesn’t need next to all the other duties she has as a minister.
No matter how she tries, though, she can’t find the problem and therefore she only sighs when her new secretary is introduced to her. The first thing that surprises her is that the girl isn’t American; she’s Korean, the assistant tells her and also informs her that although she can speak English, she’s not extremely fluent in talking but writing. The minister frowns upon hearing that at first, but she’s assured that this absolutely won’t be a problem so she just believes it.
Once they’re left to themselves, she takes a short time to let her eyes wonder up and down the secretary’s body. She’s rather attractive; the official secretary outfit gives her a sort of plain look, true, but it also puts emphasis on the girl’s curves that she, admittedly, isn’t lack of. Her short, platinum blonde locks are tied back in a tiny ponytail, but her hair is too short so there are some strands escaping the tail that frame her heart-shaped face. There’s a reserved, barely noticeable smile lingering upon her coral lips and when the girl notices the minister’s intent (and probably embarrassing) stare, she bows her head a little and her cheeks flush with red.
“I’m looking forward to working for you, Miss Minister,” the girl speaks in a confident, but very soft voice and the minister just has to smile at that.
“Me too. What’s your name again?”
“Hyomin, Miss,” the girl replies. “Park Hyomin.”
“Oh god, how do you even pronounce that?”
“The way I just did,” Hyomin says and the somewhat cheeky tone surprises her; but she certainly isn’t turned off by it. Then the girl says her name once again, and the minister tries to pronounce it a few times but with small success.
“Can I just call you Min?” she asks finally and the secretary cracks a small smile.
“Of course, Miss Minister.”
“Okay, great,” the minister says and then clears her throat, winking once. “You can call me Crystal when we’re alone, too.”
The girl only smiles.
*
The first problem occurs when Crystal first throws away her consciousness and good judgment as she wipes every single clutter off her desk with one swipe of her arm just so Hyomin could fit on top of it; using her own pair of lips to stifle the suspicious sounds that threaten to hear up from Hyomin’s throat before anyone could hear. Crystal thinks that the speed she uses to free the secretary from her clothes could become a new record; but that thought is soon clouded by the kisses Hyomin plants onto her neck and Crystal doesn’t hesitate to slide a hand under the blonde’s skirt anymore.
*
The second problem occurs when Crystal excuses herself from one of the conferences to go to the bathroom when Hyomin is already waiting for her and the first thing that happens is joined hands and husky murmurs of love in-between short, but passionate kisses. It’s something Crystal has never experienced before and the novelty and suddenness of it completely flips the minister’s world upside down up to the point where she forgets that she has duties to attend and that becomes the third problem.
*
“This isn’t right,” Hyomin whispers one night as they’re in bed together, Crystal’s head on the blonde’s chest and an arm around the younger’s waist and it just feels so right that the minister grunts displeasingly.
“What are you talking about,” the woman murmurs and nuzzles her nose into Hyomin’s skin, tightening her hold around the other as if begging her not to let go.
“What if someone know?” Hyomin asks, voice full of worry but the only thing Crystal pays attention to is her broken English and just how cute it is.
“No one will know,” Crystal lifts herself up and hovers over Hyomin only to plant her lips onto the other’s, kissing her gently, slowly, cherishing the lovely moments akin to this one having been her only sanctuary lately. She doesn’t want to let go of them even if she knows all the troubles and consequences they would have to face in case they ever found out – but why would they?
“You’re famous, Crystal,” the other woman says to break their kiss and she turns her head a little bit just so the minister couldn’t be able to interrupt her. “Paparazzi follows you everywhere.”
“But we’re never together in public,” Crystal argues and she takes Hyomin’s hand only to pull her up and the blonde reluctantly, though, but sits up. When their arms finally sneak around each other and lock in a warm, slow and luxurious hug, the minister feels like all oppositions to their love melts one by one. Hyomin’s chest rising and falling against her own, their breaths in unison and the warmth of each other is something Crystal would never want to give up and even just the thought of it causes a knife to pierce through her heart.
“I know this was all so sudden,” the minister speaks in a hushed voice, lips brushing against Hyomin’s ear. “I know we barely even know each other. But you also can’t deny that there’s something between us… why would you want to make all this disappear?” she asks, a finger of hers tracing down the younger’s arm and she can feel the other’s goosebumps along her touch.
“I don’t want this to end bad,” Hyomin whines and Crystal loves the fact how despite the blonde’s objections, she seems to enjoy her touches and is not keen on ending them. Crystal takes advantage of it and moves her lips closer to the other’s lips, placing a very short kiss in the corner of them.
“It won’t. We’ll be careful,” Crystal says, ending the argument but she knows that it is always easier said than done.
*
She wishes she had actually kept herself to her word.
She wishes they had actually been careful.
But they hadn’t.
And now – it’s too late.
When she’s wildly awakened by her father (someone she barely sees unless he needs something) and the first thing she notices through the glass of the window is a bunch of paparazzis, she knows something is wrong. Her father is yelling at her viciously and she’s still too dizzy from sleep and confused to understand his words, but she does catch Hyomin’s name and fear invades her mind.
Then she’s literally dragged out of bed and now she finally understands her dad’s words: apparently someone has taken photos of her and Hyomin kissing and now they are all over the news and in the headlines of every magazine in the country and some people demand her immediate resignation.
“Where is Hyomin?” is the only thing Crystal wants to know, however.
“In her deserved place,” her dad answers and that is enough for Crystal to snap.
“What the fuck do you mean by that?”
“I mean that she’s getting what she deserves for doing this to you,” he speaks and that’s when she tears her hand out of his grip.
“Don’t talk to me,” Crystal grunts, voice full of anger as she rushes out of her room, maneuvering through the never-ending halls of her private mansion to end up hiding in one of the guest rooms, praising herself for having grabbed her phone on the way out.
She quickly dials Hyomin’s number and eagerly puts the phone to her ear, her heartbeats multiplying with each buzz coming from the device.
She doesn’t answer the call.
Crystal tries again, the life-giving organ thumping against her chest ridiculously loud now.
“Crystal?”
And she’s lost.
Crystal releases the breath she didn’t even realize she was holding, letting herself cherish the way Hyomin breathes her name in that silly Korean accent of hers. There’s warmth rushing through her veins and it’s the same feeling she experienced in every second she spent with Hyomin and it makes her realize that she had always been something special in her life.
And that she doesn’t want to let go of that.
“Where are you? Are you okay?”
“Well, I woke up to paparazzi all around my house and yelling and shouting and names I don’t want to hear,” Hyomin says on the other side of the line, but there’s a light chuckle escaping her that comforts Crystal. “And I guess I do not have a job, but I am fine.”
It hurts. It feels like someone is trying to rip her heart into tiny pieces only to step on each one afterwards. Guilt is trying to yank her into an unstable mental state Crystal refuses to give in but she bites down on her lower lip and lets a frustrated yelp erupt her lips.
“I’m so sorry, Hyomin,” she murmurs into the phone, fingers running through her messy, chocolate locks, “this is all my fault. I never should’ve dragged you into all this. I should’ve known that I’m way too much of an important person to be able to hide something like this – or anything really, for that matter.”
For a few seconds, there’s absolutely no reply besides the soft sound of the other’s breath and her own but then Hyomin giggles and Crystal swears it’s the cutest thing she’s ever heard.
“I don’t regret,” she says in the end and Crystal wishes she could see her face right now. See the way the corners of her lips twitch upwards to reveal her perfect teeth in a lovely smile that had become Crystal’s drug in the past weeks.
“I love you, Crystal,” the girl says and it almost causes the minister’s heart to just give up and stop beating. “And it’s me who’s sorry. I probably ruined your career.”
“Stop that!” Crystal interrupts her harshly, “I don’t care about that, I just… hey, you know what? I’m hopping over. Wait for me.”
“How…” Hyomin starts but by the time she could finish the question, the line is cut and Crystal is out of the room.
And bumps right into his father and his anger-filled eyes.
“Crystal, we need to talk.”
“No, we don’t,” the girl says and tries to push through the guard her dad is putting up – to no avail.
“This isn’t right. You need to go out there and deny the rumors.”
“Deny them? They have a fucking photo of us kissing, dad!” Crystal yells, her irritation growing gradually. “You can’t just simply make something like that disappear, dad.”
“Then I’m going to do it,” he says but Crystal bursts into a laughter.
“You? You are no one in this situation, dad. No one. You’re no more than a civil when I’m supposed to be a minister. You are my father, but no one is going to believe the words of a desperate man desperately trying to save his daughter’s ass. Which I do not need, thank you very much.”
“How can you be so stupid?” her father sneers, “you’re completely ready to throw away the career you had struggled so much to build for yourself for a girl?”
“You and me both know I never wanted this. It’s always been you and mum who kept pushing me to become someone important so that I could pay for your asses!”
She knows she went too overboard. She sees the way something cracks in her dad’s eyes, but she’s too much of a coward to face whatever consequences her words bound to cause so she just shakes her head and angrily stomps away, taking advantage of her father’s shock to escape the house through the emergency exit.
Of course, there are paparazzi there as well; but only a few and they aren’t exactly much of a trouble to pass through although she does have to shove some of them in the side just so she could get away. There’s a taxi coming right up and Crystal wants to murmur a prayer for her small luck today.
The contrast between the number of paparazzi around her house and between Hyomin’s is huge – but if anything, Crystal is happy that she can just simply run past the waiting photographers and journalists, quick enough for them to notice only when it’s already too late and she’s opened the door to Hyomin’s house (bless the keys she gave her only a few days ago).
She finds Hyomin in the living room, sitting on the couch with one leg in her lap and her head snaps in the direction of Crystal once she steps into the house. The minister lets out a deep sigh and rushes over, dropping herself down next to the Korean girl and wrapping her arms around her slim body, keeping her close and just enjoying the warmth radiating from the body and the fact that she’s here.
“Hi?” Hyomin speaks in a high-pitched voice that’s so cute Crystal just wants to pinch the other’s cheeks. She pulls away so she could look at her and giggles, forgetting about everything happening around her and the whole world but Hyomin.
“Hey. It’s nice to see you.”
Hyomin just hums, worry soon drawing itself upon her features.
“What’s going to happen, Crystal?”
The minister bites down on her lower lip and shrugs. “I have no idea, Min.” She presses her forehead against the other’s and breathes in the mix of mint and orange scent of Hyomin’s cologne.
“You lose your job, right?”
Crystal shrugs again.
“I don’t want that for you.”
Crystal shakes her head.
“I don’t want to lose my job either, despite it not being my dream,” she says, lifting a hand to tuck a bundle of hair behind Hyomin’s ear. “But I also don’t want to lose you. So I’ll have to figure something out to keep you both.”
“Is that possible…” the blonde mutters, her voice sounding a lot more hesitant than Crystal wants her to be. The minister nods her head, and it’s a firm, determined nod.
“I’ll make it possible,” Crystal says, cracking a small smile. “This is the US. People here should be more tolerant about things than in your country, so I assume some ass-licking will cement my place in the ministry.”
Hyomin doesn’t look too convinced, though.
“Hey,” Crystal purrs, leaning closer to the other woman’s face, their noses brushing against each other. “Do you not want to go through this with me?”
“No,” Hyomin answers and then shakes her head. “I mean, no it’s not that. I want to.”
“Then stay with me and we’ll see what happens,” Crystal suggests and she doesn’t wait for a reply before planting a soft kiss onto Hyomin’s lips. The younger girl hums in contentment and with closed eyes, allows a smile to grace her lips.
“Yeah. Okay. Let’s do this together.”
Crystal’s lips curve into a wide smile and for another moment, nothing exists to her but Hyomin.
And she realizes why.
“I love you, Hyomin.”
The confessions seems to throw off the girl’s balance and for a few seconds, she’s just being stared at. Crystal wonders if it’s the same storm of emotions happening inside Hyomin akin the one inside her. Then Hyomin shows her the biggest and most beautiful smile ever and Crystal knows she had made the right decision.
“I love you too, Crystal.”