Chapter Text
“What do you think of this one?”
A watch Seungcheol swears is the exact same design as the one Jeonghan insisted on buying last week is shoved under his nose. He pushes Jeonghan’s hand away, frowning at him. “Don’t you have like, three of these already?” he asks.
“I do not!” Jeonghan protests. He sees something behind Seungcheol that makes him smile, a mischievous glint in his eye, and Seungcheol knows there’s a horde of paparazzi outside the glass windows with their huge camera lenses pointed at them when Jeonghan links their arms together. “The one I have has a blue strap, this one has a black strap, see,” Jeonghan explains in a way that makes Seungcheol feel stupid.
The shop attendant who’s cooing at how cute the two of them look, the same one that’s been assisting them since the first time Jeonghan dragged him to this store, helps Jeonghan somehow convince Seungcheol to shell out money again. This earns Seungcheol a wet kiss on the cheek from Jeonghan, after his boyfriend had finished jumping up and down victoriously.
“I’m tired and want ice cream,” Jeonghan announces as they’re loading Seungcheol’s flashy sports car with Jeonghan’s shopping bags. How Jeonghan even finds this much stuff to buy, Seungcheol could never understand.
“I’m driving us home,” Seungcheol snaps, sitting at the driver’s seat. He’s tired from all the walking around and carrying shopping bags. He just wants to go home, finish all the work he still has to do and then go to sleep. “When we get there, unpack all of this garbage you bought, and then go out by yourself to get ice cream.” Ha. That would show Yoon Jeonghan who’s boss. Seungcheol tried his best to look as intimidating as possible, although the pride he felt was threatening to make him smile.
He regrets it immediately when Jeonghan grabs his arm, pulling him closer to look him in the eye. Jeonghan gives him an icy glare as he articulated the words: “Ice cream.”
Seungcheol grits his teeth as they drive to the artisanal gelato place Jeonghan wants to go to, getting more irritated by the minute as Jeonghan sang Cheer Up happily. He’s letting Jeonghan win this round, but next time he would certainly put his foot down.
-
They’d met when Jeonghan joined that one popular modeling reality show. Seungcheol’s company had always sponsored the show, offering commercials and magazine shoots promoting the company’s beach resorts and malls to the challenge winners if they managed to impress the CEO.
And was Seungcheol so impressed by Jeonghan’s charm and beauty that he included dinner with CEO Choi Seungcheol in the prizes and made sure Jeonghan won, then proceeded to pull strings to be able to contact Jeonghan while he was still doing the reality show.
Jeonghan didn’t win the competition, but Seungcheol thought he did get pretty lucky, getting a rich and handsome boyfriend instead of the title.
The rich handsome boyfriend did have a rough time with him though.
“Hi!” Jeonghan’s voice is as charming as always through the phone. It makes the butterflies in Seungcheol’s stomach go crazy, but he really did have to go back to work now.
“Hi, honey. What is it?”
“Guess what?”
“I don’t know. Just tell me.” His clients and subordinates are checking on him from the small glass wall of the conference room. He really should get back to his meeting now.
“Guess!”
Seungcheol gave an exasperated sigh. His head is starting to hurt and his clients are looking at him disapprovingly. “Jeonghan, I’m in the middle of a meeting now. Is this important?”
“You’re no fun. I’m not telling.”
“You can tell me later. I’ll call you back, ‘kay? I love you.” For some reason, he never forgets to add that last bit even when Jeonghan is being so damn irritating. He’s about to hang up when he hears Jeonghan start talking again.
“It’s good news.” Jeonghan sounds hopeful. “Can you come home early tonight and celebrate with me and my friends? Pleaaase.”
“Jeonghan, I told you I wasn’t coming home until tomorrow. Remember that video conference with overseas clients?” He really shouldn’t be keeping his clients waiting. “I’ll pay for everything you need for tonight. I really need to hang up now. I love you.” And Seungcheol goes back to his meeting, apologizing profusely to everyone.
-
“Why do you even put up with him?” his secretary Jihoon asks one day. It’s Lee Jihoon who’s completely fed up with Jeonghan, as it’s him who always has to be the one to order all of Jeonghan’s shopping demands. “You know he’s just after your money.”
To others it might have looked like Jihoon was a very rude employee, sticking his nose into his boss’s personal life like that, but Seungcheol valued his opinion. He always did his job exceptionally well despite complaining about it, and he was almost always right when he spoke of what he thought of other people.
“I know you want a pretty trophy husband, but is this guy really worth all this trouble?”
“A trophy husband, huh?” Seungcheol chuckles. That got to him. It was almost like a fake relationship, this thing with Jeonghan. Jeonghan would always hold his hand and cling to him when the paparazzi were around, but at the flat they shared he wasn’t really like that. It wasn’t just Jeonghan who was using him for his money though; he was also using Jeonghan as some kind of accessory. Having Jeonghan around gave the illusion that Choi Seungcheol was a man who had everything to be jealous of: good looks, money, and a beautiful lover. “I think every person I date’ll be after my money though.”
-
“Seungcheollie.”
“Yes, baby?”
“Come home.”
Seungcheol puts his other phone on hold; he had been busy talking to a business partner when Jeonghan called. “Jeonghan, you know I’m busy.”
“Come home. Now.”
“Honey, you’re being unreasonable again.”
“Please…” Jeonghan’s voice sounded a little muffled from the other side of the line.
Seungcheol sighs. Jeonghan’s probably found some bag he has ‘feelings’ for again. “Just use your credit card, you know I’ll pay.”
There’s silence and Seungcheol thinks his boyfriend’s hung up on him and almost goes back to his other phone where his business partner is on hold, but Jeonghan suddenly talks:
“Seungcheol, it’s not just money I need from you.”
-
“Jihoon!” Seungcheol calls his Jeonghan interpreter once he’s finished the conversation with his business partner.
Jihoon lies back on his chair to look back at Seungcheol through the door frame. They often talked like this, as Jihoon’s desk was located outside of Seungcheol’s office. “Yeah?”
“He said it’s not just money that he needs from me.”
Jihoon shrugs before looking back at his monitor screen. “Your body? He’s horny?”
“What the hell.” Jeonghan calling him at work for sex? That was kind of hot, but it didn’t sound like Jeonghan was horny. He knew Jeonghan would just send him provocative pictures or talk dirty to him if he was.
“Or maybe…”
“Maybe what?”
“He wants to be with you.”
Seungcheol thinks about it for a while, staring at the painting on the wall that he didn’t even like but it was supposedly worth a lot so it was in his office. He wonders if Jeonghan was sick. Or maybe he was sad? Whatever the reason was, he decides to bend to Jeonghan’s demands again, telling Jihoon a quick goodbye that has Jihoon complaining about having to apologize to everyone on Seungcheol’s behalf again.
After buying flowers and the wine Jeonghan keeps telling him to buy for him, Seungcheol comes home to find Jeonghan lying on the couch, his hair a mess and his face buried against a pillow. His shoulders are shaking and Seungcheol could hear him sniffling, and it just clenches at his heart how vulnerable Jeonghan looks.
Seungcheol sets the flowers and wine bottle on the carpet, sitting down on the same carpet to stroke Jeonghan’s hair. “I’m here now.”
Jeonghan looks up at him, eyes puffy and face streaked with tears. He sits up and wipes his face hastily with the back of his hand.
“Flowers!” Seungcheol says quickly, pointing at his gifts. “Wine, too!”
“You’re an idiot, you should’ve just come home quickly instead of wasting time buying those,” Jeonghan whines, and Seungcheol feels annoyed. Why couldn’t Jeonghan just appreciate his efforts? But Jeonghan wraps his arms around him, burying his face in his chest and starting to bawl like a kid, and Seungcheol wishes he did come home sooner. Wishes he had more time to stroke Jeonghan’s hair and rub soothing circles on his back as he whispered words he hoped brought even a little comfort to Jeonghan.
Once his crying had subsided and reduced to sniffles, Jeonghan lets go of Seungcheol to grab some tissues. “I was almost done crying and you had to come home,” Jeonghan whimpers before blowing his nose.
“You told me to come home,” Seungcheol accuses.
“It’s all your fault I started crying again!”
Jeonghan clings to him again, and Seungcheol hugs him back, resuming his attempts at comforting him. “You wanna talk about it?” he asks against Jeonghan’s hair.
Jeonghan nods against his chest. Then he starts complaining to Seungcheol about how everything in his Vogue magazine shoot was so stressful, that the asshole of a photographer had been yelling at him and degrading him the whole time, that he was so uncomfortable in the clothes, that he wished he didn’t celebrate getting that job at all and that he was going to look ugly in all the photos because he was so stressed out. Seungcheol just listens to him rant. He didn’t know being a model was so stressful, thought Jeonghan just had to look pretty and the money would come rolling in.
“The pictures’ll look beautiful,” Seungcheol reassures him softly. “You always look beautiful.”
“I’ll look so ugly you’ll break up with me,” Jeonghan mumbles.
“Hey, no self-deprecation,” Seungcheol scolds him. “Wait. You had a Vogue shoot? That’s amazing.”
Jeonghan pinches his side hard enough to hurt. “I was about to tell you, but you were busy,” Jeonghan says mockingly. “You didn’t even come to my party and just kept waving your money at me.”
Seungcheol nods slowly. So that was what that annoying call during his meeting was. He pulls away from Jeonghan to smile at him. “Want me to make my business contacts give that asshole photographer a hard time?”
“You know I want you to.” Jeonghan smiles, and even though his hair is a mess and his eyes are all red, Seungcheol thinks he’s beautiful. He gives Seungcheol’s lips a chaste kiss before wrapping his arms around his neck again. “You really love me, Seungcheol.”
Seungcheol finally understands why he would always put up with all of Jeonghan’s demands, why he would always let Jeonghan walk all over him, why he still answered Jeonghan’s calls when he was busy instead of just putting his phone on silent. “I guess I do.”