Business Partners | A Novel ❖

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Ring ring... Ring ring... Ring ring...

Seonghwa groaned as an excruciating pain exploded behind his temples the instant he blinked his eyes open.

Awoken by the blaring sound of his ringtone, Seonghwa sadly, and regretfully, awoke from his deep sleep. His body felt heavy and exhausted, and dear lord, he felt like he'd been hit by a truck.

Rolling over in bed, he groped around for his phone, but when he couldn't find anything, he opened his eyes to see suddenly that he was sleeping with his head at the wrong end of the bed, and on a diagonal angle.

'U-ughh...' he groaned, crunching to sit up and really feeling the burn in his abs. Crawling over to the bedside table, he frowned for a moment when he realised he was stark naked.

He grabbed his phone and sluggishly answered, looking around and wondering where his pants were... 'Mm'ello?'

'Jesus, hello? Hwa, why the fuck do you sound like you're hungover?'

Seonghwa groaned, rubbing his head. 'I- I...' Slowly, memories of the wild night before and his groggy trip back to his room began to come back to him, and suddenly, he felt his cheeks burn.

Falling back into the bed, he closed his eyes in defeat. 'Fuck.' He rubbed his head, nursing his headache and giving into the shame of his actions.

'Did you drink last night?!'

Seonghwa moaned, covering his eyes with his arm. 'No. But I think I might've done drugs,' he slurred.

A splutter sounded through the phone, followed by a 'You fucking did what?!'

Seonghwa groaned, pulling the phone away from his head to protect his ears from the harsh volume level. 'Not directly,' he countered, rolling over, wrapping his naked leg over a pillow and burying his face into his sheets, letting his bare ass poke out into the room.

'Park-Seong-hwa, you are literally working. Do I really have to be the one to tell you what you should and shouldn't do at work?!'

Seonghwa rolled his eyes from behind his eyelids, whimpering in pain as it irritated his accumulating headache. 'Says the one who was once fired for belting one've your co-workers.'

'He deserved it. Not the point. Why the fuck are you getting stoned at work?- Actually, let's just not go there. Look, there's a reason I rang.'

Seonghwa frowned. Pulling his sheets over his head to keep the light out of his vision, he let the phone sit on the bed beside him and sunk into the mattress. 'Mmm. Wha'tis'it?'

A faint electrical beeping sounded from somewhere outside his room, but Seonghwa ignored it, too tired as his headache magnified two fold with each passing second.

'I didn't realise you knew San.'

Seonghwa groaned as noise suspiciously similar to a door opening behind him made his ears pain. 'Mmm, we met once'r'twice.'

'Oh. Well he wants to talk to you about something... It kinda sounds important, but like... He says it's about work stuff and it's over my head.'

Seonghwa groaned, especially when he heard the sound of a water tap running in the background of his hotel room, disturbing the quiet around him. 'Wha'tis'it about?' he moaned, trying to think of anything particularly business-related that he might have had with him, and coming up with nothing.