LOVE GOT SOME NERVE.

CHAPTER 2; LIVING TO CARE LESS.

Director Park Jimin looked at his perfect reflection that stared back at him in his office dressing mirror.

It was a cool Friday afternoon, and he knew he looked ravishing even with scrubs and a white lab coat on.

He also knew that after a week’s long shifts doing him in, he was badly due a night or two of getting totally wasted and much later into that wicked night, after one crazy pool party he would agree to go on with Jae Hyun, he rightfully deserved to go home with one very lucky dude who would proceed to out do himself in an effort to give him a memorable night.

With a demanding job like his, Jimin barely got time to spend getting laid, so the sex could turn out to be good, or even great, depending on how loose the alcohol would unhinge his reservations. But a memorable moment? That was stretching it too far.

When physical needs called, and they did pretty more often than he would have wanted them to, Jimin always chose his partners with great care.
They had to be someone of equal or more social standing and moral substance as he was.

He preferred someone who could take a rejection in his stride and not cause an unnecessary scene. He didn’t like clingy bedmates as he was the type to forget the face and name of the man as soon as he reached his climax.

He was very skeptical about entrusting his life to others, especially when it came to giving love, loyalty, and commitment. That is why he kept on refusing proposal after proposal.

The tabloids called him the cold prince because of the number of broken hearts he littered along his path, but he couldn't care less.

In his opinion and absolute defense, people like Jin Young  and so many others he had had the misfortune of meeting, were generally weak and could only give unto others up to the extent their insecurities could allow.
And in a way, that was also their greatest strength. He credited them for being able to give up the fight with little or no effort invested at all.

Surprisingly, Jin Young was lasting past the expiry date he had initially slapped on him, and so far, he beat every other suitor Jimin has had in persistence by a great margin of a whole two years. But he was still not Mr. Right, at least not for Jimin.

Jimin believed he was someone who could love beyond the finish line. Once one sunk deep into his heart, there would be no extraditing them. And that would be the beginning of eternity on his part. That right there was his greatest weakness.

His heart wouldn’t know when it started to beat crazy for someone and at what exact point to stop. He would choose them over himself over and over again.

A love like his was bound to end in his heart getting shattered. He would end up being left behind. He hated being left behind with every drumming beat of his heart.

He knew this from a bitter experience. He had been once bitten when he loved his own mother with his whole being, but in the end, his aching heart had meant nothing to her.

And now he was twice shy, and he couldn't be in a much better shape. He could do without the unwavering love  of Jin Young and all the romantic drama they came with, and he would be just fine. 

He loved his freedom more than he cared about the idea of being in love with anybody. But most importantly, his trust came at a very expensive price, not just anybody could afford it.

So far, only his dad and Jae, his best friend, owned his heart, and he was good with only them who could never betray him. His focus was on making money and spoiling himself silly.

He smiled a little as he reached down his pocket to fish out his phone, which was now ringing for the umpteenth time in under five minutes. He didn't have to look at the caller ID to know it was his best friend, Ma Jae Hyun,  burning to scream his head off of him for daring not to pick his call at the first ring.

“You fool,” Jae started on the other end of the line with all the anger he could master in his voice as soon as Jimin pressed answer.

“In four hours, I am working, you dolt,” Jimin laughed as he cut the call, robbing his dear friend of a chance to scold him even when he knew he was due one long scolding session.

He had clocked out of his first operation for the day an hour ago and had absolutely no excuse for ignoring Jae except that he was physically drained and was not in the mood for a long episode of another possible love of Jae's life.

His phone rang again, and he decided to take his daily dose of torture earlier than usual by picking it up.

“No, you are not, you liar,” Jae hotly accused immediately he had Jimin on the line.

Jimin took his phone off his ear to decline a switch to video chat request from Jae.

“I called Hosuk first, and he said you were due for your lunch break an hour ago.”

“Exactly, a lunch break and definitely not gossip time, Manager Ma.” Jimin playfully scolded him, fully aware that nothing in this world would stop Jae from talking to him if he so wanted to.

Jae Hyun, his partner in crime and colleague, was almost everything to him. He could count the number of people he loved more than he loved that man on just a finger, and he could still be conflicted as to whether there was one he loved more between Jae Jae and dad.

While his dad was someone who loved him with everything in him, it was only natural that such a love existed between them, for they were only father and only child and only God knew what they had been through together.

On the other hand, Jae was a stranger who chose to turn family. Jae had chosen him and still chose him regardless of which side of  the bed Jimin woke up on every day.
They had both met in college and had hit it off immediately as each other’s personal person.

Despite his beauty and popularity in school, Jimin had been terribly anti-social, and he hadn’t liked to mingle with others.

He had only had one friend at the time, and he hadn’t bothered to make more. And when Choi Tae Ming, his best friend and roommate at the time had gotten into a relationship and decided to move to a different country with his boyfriend, Jimin had been cast again into a world of loneliness with nobody to trust.

Not that he had had a shortage of friendship offers, no, Jimin was a man everybody wanted to have on his list of friends or even as a boyfriend. Jimin was just never available to take. He liked his friends like he liked his money, consistent and reliable.
He needed someone he could trust not to hurt him, and none of the people who threw themselves at him could convince his heart that they were dependable.

When he met Jaehyun, he knew immediately that he had found more than a best friend. And from that day, none of them had looked back to a place where they didn’t have each other.

“So what is the emergency this time?” Jimin asked as he struck one more arms in the pocket side look pose in the mirror before he grabbed a water bottle from his office fridge and headed out to his favorite pavement  for his daily dose of  fresh air.