Work Text:
Selfishness and Jealousy, these are two negative traits when considered in a person. Yi-Seo, a high-functioning sociopath, has always known that people with these traits in them are not really the best people out there. She has also known that a person is usually selfish regarding the things they have and jealous regarding the things they wish they would have. Yi-Seo had been both selfish and jealous, in her twenty-five years of life. It had brought her to where she was.
Yi-Seo has always been a jealous person. She has lived life in a selfish way and isn’t afraid to go for what she wants, no matter the consequences. It was Yi-Seo’s selfishness that led her to her Daepyo-Nim. He was the total opposite of her and she was intrigued.
At first, he seemed like any idealist, hoping from the world what it didn’t ever offer and walking on a singular unselfish path that would lead to nowhere. Now as a selfish and a jealous person, Yi-Seo was determined to see this entire thing pan out. She hadn’t in her life seen an unselfish person achieve what they desired and to her, the person she had fallen in love with, was this perfect example of what an ideal man should be.
At least that was what she had thought.
She had thought wrong.
The moment she had come to know her Daepyo-Nim is also a selfish person too, she had fallen in love with him a bit more.
The day she had come to know that her Daepyo-Nim had known that she was giving up university to walk beside him in the path he had taken, she had immediately reasoned that he hadn’t tried to convince her to go to university because he didn’t want to interfere in her personal matters, because of what had already transpired between, what with him helping her and she calling him nosy for his interference.
But that hadn’t been the case. Oh, hadn’t that been surprising for her. Her Daepyo-Nim, the most idealist person she had met, the most unselfish person she had known, the one man who only thought about others, was selfish enough to not try to convince her to leave him for her own good, because she was good for him. Because Yi-Seo was good for him, and his pub, and his management. She had been utterly delighted.
She had come to know that her Daepyo-Nim can be selfish too and that too with her, and that had made her heart go bouncing inside her chest.
That fact had comforted her more than anything else could ever.
So she knew her Daepyo-Nim can be selfish, she had seen his bouts of selfishness enough times to know that.
What she didn’t know was he could be jealous too. She hadn’t ever seen him jealous. She had seen multitudes of emotions from him, she had seen the happiness, the sadness, the anger, the guilt, the longing, the pride, everything. But she hadn’t ever seen him getting jealous. She hadn’t ever had the chance to. She had never thought that he could get jealous, that too over her.
She hadn’t even sensed when it had happened. She had just thought that he was being protective, but no, he had been jealous. And it had made her so so happy, to witness his jealousy.
It all started with the new marketing campaign that was to take place to integrate the pubs under the name of Jangga Co. and IC Inc.. Jangga was still a big corporation and despite its brand image being tarnished at that moment, Jangga has always been the best in the food industry because of its flavours. Daepyo-Nim and the team were all over the place because of the announcement about the takeover and no-one except a group of small people knew that Daepyo-Nim Park had finally gotten together with his CFO Jo Yi-Seo. By a group of small people she meant the original DanBam crew only. Just Hyun-Hi Unni, Seung-Kwon Oppa, To-Ni and Guen-Soo. Well, Soo-Ah Unni too. Meh.
It was a trend anyway, to collect multiple stars, idols and even power bloggers to promote a particular brand. Hyun-Hi and Yi-Seo being well-versed in the current trends had decided on a few people they could recruit. Jangga was a big name and IC was the newest thing that had taken over the country despite having no connection to the Chaebol who resided in the country.
It was pure coincidence, her being asked to dinner by Choi Woo-Shik. She knew him, a well known name in the entertainment industry. He had everything, good looks, good physique, good roles, both past and future. He was, in short, the poster boy, perfect in every aspect of which an actor should be.
She hadn’t thought much of it, him being nice to her. She was beautiful, but moreover, she was the one in-charge, obviously these people would be nice to her. He also found time to talk to her at every break, and she remembers thinking, that yeah, it’s the entertainment industry, the more the connections the better. She remembers him asking her for dinner, and she had thought he meant everyone, and proceeded to book the terrace of an exclusive hotel, and had invited everyone to dine with them. It was just the first day, but impressions mattered to her.
It had been after this that she had realised what had been going on. She had cursed herself for being so clueless. She had been so dumb. It was like since she had first liked Daepyo-Nim, she didn’t even acknowledge other guys, but now that she was in an actual relationship with him, she couldn’t even recognise when she was being flirted with.
Daepyo-Nim had been the one to make her realise that Choi Woo-Shik was flirting with her. He had found her, all happy and had blurted out how it had been a good idea to turn the dinner invite to a gathering, that it was a good way of saying no to his flirtation than actually saying no.
She had looked at him confused, and he had gotten serious. As soon as she realised that she was being flirted with, he too realised that she had had no idea. That she was really clueless.
She replayed the day in her mind and realised all that extra Daepyo-Nim she had seen today collided with the times Choi Woo-Shik was with her. All those times Daepyo-Nim appeared in front of her, with some extra work, he was actually taking her away from him. All those times she received those cute little text messages from him, she was actually already talking to Choi Woo-Shik.
She had chuckled then, thinking his over-protective tendencies had been weird all day. She had told him so too, and he had withdrawn from her. He hadn’t told her why, but she could see he was upset. She hadn’t understood. Although, according to her there wasn’t anything to understand.
She had always thought him incapable of jealousy.
But this fluttering she was experiencing, this utter happiness that she felt, this urge to blush, and the warmth in her body showed that she was absolutely flattered, but not because someone was flirting with her, but because the someone who mattered to her most was being jealous.
They hadn’t had the chance to talk after that. She was busy attending all these guests and he had received a phone call about a conference with someone or the other. He was the CEO of one of the top leading companies in all over Asia, and he had just taken over another one, of course he was a busy man.
She had wanted to talk to him, but he had already left. So she did what she should and left for her apartment. She showered and changed out of her clothes. She browsed her Instagram for a few minutes, posted a few pictures she had taken throughout the day. She then opened up her email and scheduled a few things in her calendar. She texted a ‘Good Night’ to some people and an ‘I Love You’ to her Daepyo-Nim.
And then she tried to sleep. Trying being the acting verb. She couldn’t sleep because she couldn’t stop herself from swooning over her boyfriend’s antics all day. His jealous reactions which she hadn’t realised then, but was blushing over them now.
When she did fall asleep, it was with a smile on her face and a satisfying warmth over her heart. Being in a relationship with someone she loved was clearly a good thing for her. Obviously.
The surprise came the next morning, when she woke up.It was bright, sunny and warm. A nice day was surely in the cards for them. Today would be awesome, she thought. Yesterday, it had been a treat watching her jealous Daepyo-Nim, but today there would actually be time for them to spend together. It was finally the weekend and they had made plans. The Wining & Dining kind of plans.
She got up relaxed and calm. She was going to have a nice day and it didn't matter what had happened yesterday because she was not going to kick a gift horse in it's mouth and ruin her Daepyo-Nim's mood by reminding him of his childish jealousy
Seriously, he should be aware by now that she loved him.
It was weird, at the office, cause it felt like everybody and their family was staring at her. She looked down at herself to see if she had something on her worth staring at and found that no, her regular office attire was just that, her regular work clothes.
The staring didn't stop, and when she entered the elevator it felt like she was Captain America, and the guys were gearing up to fight her. She finally understood why he had jumped out of that elevator. She too would, if she was able to survive a ten floor jump.
It all came to head when a secretary, not afraid of Yi- Seo, asked her to check Daepyo-Nim's Instagram. Commending her courage, although silently, Yi-Seo did just that. What she found was enough to shock her.
Daepyo-Nim had posted a picture. What? What the fuck?
He had posted a picture of them.
What had he been thinking? Oh my God! This was public. Oh God, what if someone wrong saw that? What if someone right did?
And then it was like a lightbulb going off in her head, she realised what he did. She realised his intentions. She understood what had driven him to use an Instagram account he didn't even use that much to post a photo of them.
He was making it official.
He was staking a claim.
That bastard.
She heard multiple gasps and realised she hadn’t just cursed in her head. That it had been out loud.
Fortunately, the lift halted and she exited along with all the others. She didn't wait. She headed straight to his office. She banged the door open to see him Iounging on his chair like he hadn't just declared their relationship to the world.
He raised his head to look at her and was back looking at the documents laid in front of hire. Oh no! Oh no he didn't get to this. This man, her Daepyo-Nim didn't just fost their photos on Instagram without even asking her.
That too because he had gotten jealous that she had been flirted with. No. Absolutely not. Not after all the time she had barely restrained herself while seeing him with Soo-Ah Unni and not doing anything about it.
She was about to give it to him but he got off his chair and came to stand in front of her. She tried again and started speaking but he interrupted her. He interrupted her by kissing her.
Daepyo-Nim was kissing her. In his office.
Oh the scandal!
So much damage control.
But it didn't matter. It didn't matter who saw them. It didn't matter because the relief and anxiety she could see in his eyes, strangely enough, both together, was a thing of beauty. Relief because it seemed like he had wanted to do it for a long time. Kiss her that is. And anxiety, clearly in anticipation of her reaction.
This man she loved, loved her too.
He worried for her.
He got jealous because of her.
He was possessive of her.
He was insecure about her.
Suddenly, it clicked, that this man Who had always been oddly selfish about her was made possessive of her too. She realised that she wasn't the only one scared of losing him. He too was equally afraid to lose her.
Yi-Seo was happy enough to let it slide this time.
Because it made her happy.
But this didn't mean she was not going to monitor all his social media accounts.
God, he had posted a photo of them together. With a red heart as caption.
Left to his own devices, her Daepyo-Nim would cause a social Media meltdown at this rate.
God help her.