adora • lookism

2. ONE MCN

"You've been working at your desk a lot recently?" she asked, feeling the tension in the back of his neck. His hum of agreement was a deep rumble she could feel in her fingertips. "It feels almost as stiff as it did last week."

Ari had washed her hands in the nearest washroom before coming to his office, but she made sure to thoroughly sanitize her hands again. Then she began to disinfect his back and neck with quick swipes of a disinfectant pad.

"I'll begin with the neck," she informed him, once she was done. Without waiting for an answer, Ari picked up several of the fresh needles from the tray and held them between her fingers. "Tell me if you feel any discomfort."

Her movements were like moving clouds and flowing water, fluid and unfaltering: one after another, hair-thin needles trailed their way along Samuel's neck, across his shoulders, and down his back. Each needle was an extension of herself, and of course she needed no extra thought to locate any of his acupuncture points. The hyperfocus, the accuracy, were things she had honed through years of practice. There were very few things she was more familiar with than this, regardless of what world.

In little time, she was finished with Samuel's entire back, which rose and fell with long, soft breaths. Upon the sea of ink quivered a colourful navy of thin acupuncture needles.

"And now, 20 minutes," Ari told him, carefully arranging the blanket so that its corners draped his arms but not his back. "It would do you good to take a nap while we wait, Director Seo."

He grunted in response, which she took as a positive answer. Grabbing his office chair from his desk, Ari dragged it right up against the side of the treatment table and curled up into the vast leather seat. Then she gently pulled one of his limp arms into her lap. It lay warm and heavy across her thighs, thick with muscle.

Holding his wrist in one hand, three fingers laid over the pulse point, and her phone in the other, she settled in for the wait.

• • • •

A soft beep dragged Ari away from the message she was reading. Laying Samuel's arm back at his side, she stood and began to delicately pluck the needles out. Once all the needles were gone, her hands moved over his back again, pinching and kneading and fluttering.

She wasn't sure if Samuel was sleeping or not; his slow breathing seemed to indicate he was, but she'd been surprised before.

Ari bent in close and softly called, "Director Seo? It's time to turn over."

Samuel was silent for a moment. Then, with the same immensity of a shifting mountain, he began to get up. The muscles on his back and arms flexed and bulged as he got up onto one arm and then turned over on the table.

When he was settled again, Ari leaned over his face and pressed her fingers to his head and neck. She began to massage again, more thoroughly than during her investigation earlier. The end of her braid swung over her shoulder and occasionally brushed his ear.

"You know, Miss Lim," Samuel suddenly said. His eyes, which had still been closed when he'd turned over, had blinked open at some point. "At this point, you may as well call me more casually."

Ari kneaded over his temples and down into the sides of his neck. Focused on working the tension that she found hiding there, she distractedly echoed, "More casually?"

"Mm," Samuel hummed. She couldn't tell if this was in response to her words or to the deep press she was knuckling into the junction of his neck and shoulder. "After all, there are very few places on my body that haven't yet been touched by you."

Ari paused. Not that he didn't have a point, but that was really just awful wording.

"Not that you don't have a point, but that's really just awful wording," she said. She squinted down at him doubtfully. "I didn't have anything against it before, but I kind of don't want to now."

Samuel smiled up at her. This time, she suspected he might be legitimately amused.

Ari swiftly brought her thumbs to the bridge of his nose and began to rub there, hiding his curved eyes from view. How dangerous. He was way too pretty for her good.

"Miss Lim, I would much rather you call me by name," Samuel insisted, his lashes sweeping her palm. "I feel that would help me relax more."

Well, if the lunatic himself was extending an olive branch to her, there was no reason to refuse. In this world, a girl never knew when she would encounter a dramatically contrived risk to her health and wellbeing. The more violently overpowered allies the merrier.

"Well, I'm too young and cute to be called by my last name anyway," Ari finally announced, after a bit of thought. She smoothed her fingers over Samuel's brow bone and back into his temples, revealing deep eyes fixed directly into hers.

"Then just call me Ari, okay?" she said, dimpling down at him. "Samuel-oppa."

___

[ Author's Note ]

Gonna use oppa and you can't stop me. I'm korean so I have the right. :^)

Please let me know if you liked. Please also let me know what u didn't like. I'm very sturdy!