Affectionately Yours

treat me soft and tender, love me hard and true

This chapter is R18.

--

"Cheol-ryeong samchon!"

The fourteen-year-old shrieked with her eyes bugged out, realizing what she held in her hands. Mijo couldn't help but chuckle along with the rest of the group when she began jumping up and down and hugging said uncle, who just walked back into the room after leaving something in the kitchen. Cheol-ryeong looked bewildered, tapping her back and scanning the room for answers.

"She couldn't wait to open your present," Kang Jin-tae, Cheol-ryeong's partner-turned-boss, said by way of explanation, which cleared up the expression on the younger man's face and brought out a smile.

When the birthday celebrant released him from the hug to marvel at the concert tickets again, he spoke up, "I was told that you are at the top of your class, Yeon-ah. Keep it up, and you can expect more presents like that from me."

"Damn it, Cheol-ryeong. Stop spoiling her," Jin-tae grumbled good-naturedly.

Park So-yeon, his wife, whispered over to Mijo. "Sometimes, we feel like our daughter loves Cheol-ryeong more than me and her father combined."

Mijo giggled, finding the whole exchange heart-warming and hilarious.

Yeon-ah, clearly hearing none of the words from her parents' mouths, was looking up at him in teary wonder before giving him a mock salute, "I will do my best, samchon!"

Cheol-ryeong messed up her bangs before walking over to sit beside Mijo on the couch. "So, whose present are we opening next?" he asked, placing an arm around her to keep her close.

"You can't raise the bar that high and watch everyone else fail to bring out the same reaction," Jack complained to which the others agree. Cheol-ryeong only shrugged with a self-satisfied expression to which Mijo had to hide a smile. "You should open your dad's gift next, Yeon-ah."

"You bastard," Jin-tae laughed, throwing the balled-up wrapper from Cheol-ryeong's gift at him.

Soon after, there were scattered gift wrappings and ribbons all over the floor. Birthday candles blown, well-wishes and applause all around. And the nerves Mijo suffered earlier dissipated.

When Cheol-ryeong invited her to come to the party with him, she knew that she would also be meeting his closest friends. She was pleasantly surprised when they welcomed her warmly and made her feel as though she had been part of their group for a long, long time.

Their dinner conversations ranged from work complaints to must-try restaurants to Jin-tae's embarrassing stories to Jack's impossible stints before it finally arrived to her awaited subject.

"It did take us a while to get through to him," Jin-tae started, opening another bottle of soju. "He barely talked in the beginning and would do all these crazy things as if he were in an action film."

Min-young piped up. "Oh, yeah. I remember the first time we saw him on the news. There was a car chase, and Cheol-ryeong jumped on top of the moving vehicle to stop the man from getting away."

"I am still trying to figure out how he managed to fight off nine armed men with a roll of tissue paper," Jin-tae brought up. "But I did manage the tenth guy with a mean kick on the chest."

"Honestly, and he knows this, I hated him during the first few months because Jin-tae would always come home black and blue," So-yeon added. "It was only later when I found out that my husband's injuries were really his own fault."

Amidst the others' laughter, Jin-tae complained, "Ya, yeobo. You should be on my side."

Cheol-ryeong placed a hand on her bouncing leg under the table, her anxiety far away from the eyes of others. "Come on, you guys," he admonished lightly. "You exaggerate. I wasn't that bad."