save horses, ride me ~ bts fanfiction

~prologue~

Park Jimin looked around the neat little office of the employment agency and wondered miserably whether his world would ever be the same again. What a fool he had been! He had really believed Jackson Wang when he had said he loved him.

All Jackson wanted was a decorative, amusing companion. He had no intention of tying himself up – least of all to a boy whose face was his fortune. When Jackson married it would be to a girl. A girl who fitted his public image. A girl with the right connections and enough money to help his career.

Jimin had resigned his post as his secretary and walked out of the office and out of Jackson's life. He had been an idiot, he told himself, but he wasn't going to sit down and cry about it. For a start, he would get himself a new job – preferably one very different from his last.

A bell rang sharply. The young woman sitting at the desk looked up and smiled.

"Mr. Park, Mr. Jeon will see you now."

Mr. Jeon seemed very kind. His eyes beamed behind his thin-framed glasses, his longish hair waved softly about his face. He wore a crisp grey pinstripe suit, and shirt lapels and cuffs were very white.

"Ah, Mr. Park, do please sit down." Mr. Jeon waited until Jimin obediently sat in the chair in front of the desk. "Now let's see- you state here that you want a post in which you can become one of a family, as it were?"

"Yes, please."

"But you do not particularly want domestic duties?"

"Not unless I'm prepared to be thrown out on my ear, Jungkook. Oh, is it alright if I call you Jungkook? I am so sorry if I'm too forward, I read it on your name tag- "

Jungkook gave a firm nod, followed by a smile, interrupting Jimin's incoherent rattling.

"In other words, Jimin," the boy grinned at being called by his first name. "you want a living-in post as a secretary. Your qualifications are such that you will have no difficulty in getting a position, indeed a highly paid and tremendously interesting position anywhere in industry. I do wish you would consider- "

"No, thank you, Jungkook. I want to work away from home – that is most important to me."

"Oh?"

"I have a very large and loving and wonderful family. I have never been away from them before – but I've never made a complete and utter fool out of myself before, either. I do not want a young and dishy boss, or even a middle-aged dishy boss, Jungkook, I fall in love with dishy bosses! What is infinitely worse I tell my whole family about my pie-in-the-sky plans."

Jimin found himself staring down at the toes of his shoes. What on earth would Jungkook, this calm and dignified Jungkook think of his stupid and rather incoherent outburst?

"I see." Jungkook sounded as if he really did see and Jimin felt comforted. "Well, I have a post here that might interest you. However, I should warn you that you will be following in the footsteps of numerous secretaries."

"Because the employer is hard to please?"

"Impossible to please, so I've been given to understand. And I'm afraid that comes from men and women much older and infinitely more experienced than you. Mr. Kim Namjoon pays extravagantly high wages, but- "

"He's an ogre? Well right now I think I'd prefer an ogre to Prince Charming. Is there a Mrs. or maybe another Mr. Kim?"

"Not now. Divorced, I understand. Jimin, are you quite sure that you want that post?"

"Do I have to cook, things like that?"

"Good gracious me, no! There is a full staff. You will have your own private sitting-room with a TV, as well as s bedroom. You will be free to use your own initiative, and I understand that there are no hard and fast rules about working hours. There will be periods when you are required to do nothing very much, and others when you'll be at it hammer and tongs. Mr. Kim writes!"

"I see."

"It is only fair to tell you, Jimin, that Mr. Kim Namjoon will not go out of his way to treat you as s person. His favourite pastime is to yell that he doesn't give a – excuse my language – fuck whether I send him, Martian with a green body and two heads, just so long as it has two hands and can type. I have had many nightmares about Mr. Kim, Jimin. Officially we crossed him off our books two years ago. It made no difference. His demands and phone calls became more forceful, that was all."

"I'll take the job."

"I should warn you that- "

"I'm in the mood to take the man down a peg or two."

Jungkook said: "Well, I have warned you. This agency likes to be fair. Also, to be frank, Mr. Kim has become a challenge. We have now reached the point of feeling that if we would be able to find someone to suit Mr. Kim, then we would be able to find someone capable of suiting kings, queens, millionaires, oil-barons or anyone you care to mention!"

"Jungkook, have you personally- "

"Oh, yes! I went there full of ruthless determination. I would please the man, I thought, even if it killed me. And while I was pleasing him, I would be analysing his needs. I'm afraid I wasted my time. I managed to complete typing his manuscript for him, though. I left even more bewildered than before. He had been rude and pig-headed during my stay. When I told him, I was about to leave him, he pleaded me to reconsider! I would not be telling you this, but I learned that one must stand up to Mr. Kim. Jimin, you will be doing this agency a favour if you accept this post."

"It's accepted, Jungkook," Jimin said.

They discussed working conditions; Jungkook mentioned a salary which seemed to Jimin extremely generous. The boy made a note of Mr. Kim's address, and declared that he was willing to start work at once if necessary.