Our Empire

 The lights of the early morning peek into the comfortable office at the last floor of the building. Sitting at his desk, Cha Jae Wan is looking at some papers. He isn't sure why the moment after the sun rises in the middle of a summer day is perfect for revising documents. Perhaps it is his morning spirit that allows him to do his job at such an early time of the day. He has always slept for two hours at most and never had much to do besides working out and well, working. But things are a bit different lately.

You've done it again. Next time I won't forgive you, Cha Jae Wan! He smiles when he reads the text he just received, and he is aware it won't be the last one. In fact he is nowhere the end of the paper that he gets another. This is the seventh time this week. Everything is going to be ok, we've checked one hundred times.

He shakes his head. “Uhm, she really loves to send texts for no reason,” he murmurs to himself as he puts the phone aside until some new messages arrive few minutes later. I know you're reading, why don't you answer? I'm really going on a sex strike if you do it again. I warned you. He sighs and types a quick reply. As expected, his phone stops ringing for about a hour and half until it's that time in the morning employes come to work. It's also the moment when he usually finishes his revision.

When he is done, he sneaks out of Ciel to go back to his house to have breakfast before he has to get back to work again. He wouldn't do this if he was living alone, but for the love and the joy of living with somebody else, he doesn't want to miss any precious moment because of his workaholic attitude. After he presses the code to get in his house, a tempting smell invades his nostrils. A voice coming from the kitchen is calling for him.

“Ah, when he is going to get back? These will get cold.”

He walks to the place where she is and lets her notice his presence as usual. When she finally does, she jumps. “Omo, you're here. You should have announced yourself!”

Jae Wan smiles. Even though he knows that he scares her every time because she is too deep in what she does to realize he has been there for a long time, he keeps on doing it.

“I'm here” he just says, his tone is playful.

 She doesn't look satisfied. “I don't want to talk to you.” She then says, looking back at what she is doing next to the kitchen sink. “I'll pretend you aren't here.”

He knows she is mad because he went to work early, so he tries to beg for his forgiveness in the best way he can. He arrives to where she is standing. She is very good at pretending not to care and avoid him. After all, she learned it from the past him. But he has a trick up on his sleeve. With the point of his index he slowly caresses the back of her arm. She seems unmoved at first, but after the fourth touch, she stops what she is doing. Ugh, how much she hates when he does that. It takes a little to make her shiver. But she still doesn't give up.

She keeps on ignoring him for a longer minute until he is fed up and decides to pass to action fast. He circles her with his arms and then turns her around so that they face each other. She is pouting at him before he closes his eyes to lean in to kiss her. Mo Ne struggles to get his hands and lips off her, but his determination to be forgiven in the end has the best and she gives herself into the moment. Her lips are swollen when they part, and she can't open her eyes because she is mad at herself. She let him win again.

“You've become filthy. You are so despising. And here I thought you were a gentleman” she teases him. He knows she is being sarcastic.

Jae Wan just smirks at the admonition and takes a bite of the breakfast she had just put on the table. He sees her frowning at him but he doesn't mind. She is usually moody at that time of the day, so he is used to it.

He sits down and watches her as she puts their breakfast on the table and then takes a seat in front of him. They are quiet while they eat. He wonders when she is going to ask him about satisfying one of her demands. She is unusually silent. He looks at her while she eats. Mo Ne seems deep in her thoughts and is eating slowly. Perhaps she is still mad and he is kidding himself that she'll let his working attitude pass. At some point, he sees a tear fall down on her cheek. He tells himself that nowadays for her is normal to be in such emotional turmoil. A lot of things have happened in their life and even more will happen.