𝘚𝘩𝘦'𝘴 𝘢 𝘥𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘮𝘦𝘳 𝘢𝘯𝘥
𝘩𝘦 𝘪𝘴 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘥𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘮
❝ Do you know what my love for
you and this credit card have in common? ❞
"TAEMOO, WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" HYEJIN cleared her throat awkwardly once her friends were far away enough.
"What are you talking about?" He furrowed his eyebrows, shoving his hands into his pockets.
"You don't have to pretend to be my boyfriend in front of them too, you know." She shrugged before shaking her head with a sigh. "You shouldn't feel pressured into even having dinner with them. Especially with everything that's just happened, it wouldn't be fair-"
"Hyejin-"
"Plus your clothes are still wet-"
"Hyejin, can I-"
"And you must be tired after the-"
"Hyejin, breathe-" Taemoo bit down a smile and placed his hands on her shoulders but her eyebrows only shot up.
"Your hands are really cold-"
"Hyejin." He said sternly, softly squeezing her shoulders. "I'm alright."
Glancing at his outstretched arms, Hyejin gulped with a shaky smile. "You sure?"
"Are you okay?"
"I'm good, great actually!" She exclaimed, laughing nervously as she stepped away from him. "Let's get going, yeah?" Giving him no time to answer, she quickly followed the direction her friends went. Taemoo trailed behind her with a soft smile, his eyebrows shooting up at the sight of a smiley Jihoon sitting beside an annoyed Hari.
"Hyejin, Taemoo!" The man in the black trench coat smiled at the couple as he stood up. "I wasn't expecting to see you guys here."
"We decided to spend the night here because of the weather but ended up bumping into everyone else." Hyejin explained, raising her eyebrows at her brother as she discreetly glanced at the women next to him.
The smile on his face only widened as he placed a hand on the back of Hari's chair. "It's really nice to see you two, but Hari and I should get going before we're late."
"Where are you going?" Taemoo asked, pushing Hyejin's chair out for her.
"We have a reservation at a restaurant nearby."
"We do?" Hari questioned, looking up in confusion.
"Yeah we do. Come on, babe." Jihoon nodded, leaning down to grab her hand before gently dragging her up. "We'll see you all tomorrow."
"Have fun!"
✧༺♥༻✧
Wrapping her sweater tighter around her body, the girl in brown smiled politely as the waiters put down the last of the food. "Dinner is on me today. So please, eat all you want."
"You don't have to do that, you know." Hyejin frowned, leaning towards him to whisper. "Again, we're just playing pretend."
"Sweetheart, what kind of man would I be if I allowed you to pay? Do you know what my love for you and this credit card have in common?" The dark haired man genuinely asked, glancing in between the women's eyes as he pulled out his black card.
"Humor me." She bit down a smile as she slightly furrowed her eyebrows at him.
"They both have no limits. No limits at all."
Glancing at him with humor in her eyes, Hyejin let a chuckle slip as she pushed his hand back onto his lap. "So cool." Dahyne sighed, clapping just as Hyejin picked up her utensils, attempting to ignore Taemoo's intent gaze and cut into her steak.
"Let me help you, darling. I don't want you to hurt yourself." He gently placed his hand on top of her own before grabbing her fork and knife. "Would be a shame if anything happened to your pretty hands." Eyes widening at his comment, Hyejin attempted to ignore the heat rising up her neck as she stared at him, cutting her steak with a small smile on his face.
Just as he finished, another waiter came up to the group and handed everyone their cups of wine. "Excuse me, please replace this with water instead." Taemoo stopped him before he could leave, handing him Hyejin's cup.
"Is there a problem with it, sir?" The kind waiter asked, glancing at Hyejin for confirmation.
"My girlfriend doesn't drink." He explained, rubbing a gentle hand on the woman's shoulder as he glanced up at the man who nodded and walked away.
Jimin and Dahye sighed dreamily before Dahye shook her head. "So tell us, what about Hyejin caught your attention?"
"Well just look at her. She's the most stunning girl I've ever seen." Taemoo hummed, putting the fork in his hand down. Turning to meet eyes with Hyejin, he reached out and tucked her hair behind her ear. "So stunning."
"She's one of the most famous designers in the continent, if not the world. People tell her she's beautiful all the time." Jimin shrugged her shoulders, pointing at Hyejin with her fork.
Gently moving Taemoo's hand from where it rested on her cheek, she gave Jimin a timid smile. "I wouldn't say-"
"You're right." Taemoo nodded. "Before I got to know Hyejin, all I knew about her was that she was this extremely talented and respected fashion designer." He said, ignoring the way she chuckled into her glass.
"Then when you met her?" Yoora asked, nodding to a now very intrigued Hyejin.
"When I first met her," He chuckled, a small reminiscent smile making its way onto his face as he glanced at the girl already looking at him. "I knew she was the one."
"I'm so jealous, Hyejin. Your boyfriend is such a sweetheart. Your brother too." Yoora said with a smile.
"Come on, Minwoo's no chump either. What if Minwoo was here too, being all sweet to you..." Jimin said before shuddering. "Creeps me out just thinking about it."
"I'm sorry Minwoo? You don't mean Chef Lee Minwoo, right?"
"Yeah, that's the one. You know him?" Yoora asked, taking a sip from her glass.
"I've seen him at work in the office. Yeah I know him." Taemoo said.
"Oh, so you work at the same company as Hari?" The girl in the black turtle neck said.
"Yeah, Hyejin and Hari were actually the ones who helped me choose Chef Minwoo." He said, picking up his cup.
"Oh, Hyejin helped too?" Yoora asked in shock.
"All I did was dress Hari." She chuckled nervously.
"Yeah, you kind of helped her hide her identity." Taemoo chuckled.
"That's why we're so lucky to be friends with Hyejin, she's always there in the midst of our worst outfit malfunctions." Dahye said, smiling towards her before glancing back at Taemoo. "So what department do you work in? You must be really important if you get to pick who works with the company."
"Well that depends." Taemoo shrugged. "What department does the president work in?"
"The president?" Jimin gasped, her and Dahye leaning into each other with wide eyes.
Glancing at Yoora, Hyejin let a tight smile make its way onto her face. "Say what you have to say."
"Hari is dating your brother? The president of your family's travel agencies. And you're dating the president of the company she works at?" She hummed, scoffing slightly as she glanced between the couple.
"Congratulations Yoora, you solved the oh so difficult puzzle." Hyejin said sarcastically as she got up from her seat, the others doing the same.
✧༺♥༻✧
Walking into the hotel suite, Hyejin awkwardly glanced at Taemoo as he entered seemingly unbothered and made his way to grab a bottle of water. Placing her things on the dining table, she glanced around the area with furrowed eyebrows. "Are you okay?"
"Huh?" She snapped her head towards Taemoo who was pulling his dark trench coat off, his biceps flexing the slightest. "Oh um yeah, I'm fine."
"Are you sure?" He furrowed his eyebrows, crossing his arms over his chest in a way that made it hard for Hyejin to ignore the heat rushing up her neck.
"Yeah, I'm good, I'm good. I'm just going to step out to uh, make a phone call" She gulped, nodding her head as she dragged her eyes from the man standing in front of her. "Yeah, make a phone call." She repeated quietly to herself as she grabbed her phone out of her purse and turned to walk out.
"Okay." He nodded with furrowed eyebrows. "They only left us a bottle of wine, do you want me to ask customer service to bring you anything else?"
"No, no!" She exclaimed loudly before clearing her throat when she almost bumped into the wall. "Wine is great actually."
"But you don't drink?" Slamming the door shut, Hyejin leaned her head back letting out a deep sigh. Opening up her phone and scrolling to Yeonmi's contact, she quickly raised the phone to her ear, stepping to the side.
"Hyejin, hi." Yeonmi's soft voice made its way through her phone.
"Yeonmi." The girl in black sighed, deflating. "How's your trip?"
"It's so nice, Hyejin." Yeonmi's smile was heard as she talked excitedly about her first day in Italy. "And now Mingyu just stepped out of the room to get us brunch."
"You guys are sharing a room, huh?" Hyejin's eyebrows shot up as she teased her friend.
"Shut up." Yeonmi rolled her eyes. "How about you? How's your trip with your boyfriend?"
"He's not," She began before stopping at her volume. "He's not my boyfriend, Yeonmi. But I guess I really want him to be." She continued the last part much quieter, glancing around the empty hallway.
"You're finally admitting it to yourself?" The short haired girl chuckled. "Why the change of heart?"
"Maybe I'm a bad person, a bad person who only really goes for-"
"You saw him what he had to offer under the trench coat in an intimate setting and let me guess, you had to be alone for a second."
"Okay first of all, I don't appreciate you finishing my sentences if you're going to make me sound like a pervert." Hyejin scoffed, shaking her head. "And for your information, my moment alone was spent on the phone with you. So get your head out of the gutter."
"But was I wrong?" Yeonmi said.
"Okay maybe not, but it's not like that, okay? We stopped at this hotel because of the weather, bumped into Dahye, Jimin, Yoora, and Hari, and he was doing a really good job at pretending to be my boyfriend. Saying all of the right things, doing all of the right things." She sighed, covering her eyes with her hands. "And we're sharing a room too."
"Okay so what's the big deal? Turn fake boyfriend into boyfriend." Yeonmi hummed, the sound of a door opening and closing being heard.
"But, what if he doesn't like me anymore?" Hyejin bit her lip nervously, playing with the tips of her hair.
"He's not going to pretend to be your boyfriend in a situation that has nothing to do with your deal, if he doesn't like you."
✧༺♥༻✧
"So how are we going to go about this?" Hyejin questioned, hands on her hips as she and Taemoo stared at the queen sized bed.
"You can take the bed, I'll sleep on the couch." He shrugged, nodding his head towards the couch in the main area.
Frowning slightly, she dropped her hands to her sides as she turned to glance at him. "That's not fair at all."
"Are you insinuating that you want to sleep with me, Ms. Choi?" Taemoo smirked, laughing at Hyejin's eye roll as her face turned red.
"No." She quickly emphasized, scoffing. "I was going to say that it wouldn't be fair for you to sleep on the couch when you paid for the room."
Before Taemoo could say anything, there was a knock on the door. "Who is that?"
"Coming!" Hyejin's eyes lit up excitedly as she quickly made her way to the door. "Hello."
"Ms. Choi?"
'Yes! Please just place the bags near the couch." She smiled at the two younger boys who blushed profusely under her stare as they entered the room, each boy carrying two duffle bags. "Thank you. Get home safe."
"What's this?" Taemoo furrowed his eyebrows, nodding to the baby pink duffle bags neatly placed together.
"Our things of course."
"Our things?"
"Yeah, our things. Did you think I was going to stay here for the weekend with no clothes? Of course it's not what I'd usually pick out, but under short notice it'll have to do." She shrugged.
"You haven't even opened them yet?" His eyebrows furrowed deeper as he stared at her squat down to now open the bags.
"The clothes are from our Busan location which has a predominantly male demographic, meaning whatever is in stores caters to men. So obviously whatever is sold for women is based on what we've seen through our female customers, which are mostly teenage girls." Hyejin explained, fishing through the bag and finally pulling out a matching white set that was littered with small red hearts. "This is the doing of a teenage girl."
Staring at her with raised eyebrows, clearly impressed. "I thought you were a luxury brand though?"
"We pride ourselves in our duality." Hyejin shrugged standing up. "If the customers in a specific location are teenagers, we'll cater to them. If they're older men looking for comfortable suits with high-end fabric, we cater to them too."
"I wasn't aware you were so involved in your company." He hummed watching as she pulled her phone out of her pocket.
"Companies. More than one." She corrected, glancing at him with a small smile before returning her gaze back to her phone. "And just because Yeonmi is my secretary doesn't mean she does everything. I'm just as smart."
"I never doubted that."
"Good."
Staring at her face being lit up by the light coming off her phone, Taemoo couldn't help but furrowed his eyebrows when he saw her eyes squinting in annoyance. "Is everything okay?"
"Yeah, everything's fine. The girl's are just being annoying." Hyejin hummed, thumbs rapidly typing away.
"Are they getting suspicious over our relationship?" He asked, nodding towards her phone when she looked up at him.
"Why would they be getting suspicious? Of course they'd believe someone like you is my boyfriend and completely in love with me. Don't be silly." She chuckled, shaking her head at him.
"You don't think it was because of my perfect acting?" He raised his eyebrows at her comment.
"Your acting was good." She shrugged, not saying anything else.
Fighting off a smile, Taemoo nodded towards her phone once more. "Tell them we went on a blind date and it was love at first sight."
"But we actually did that?" Hyejin slightly tilted her head in confusion.
"So it should be easy to type out and send. If it's too cheesy to type on your own do you want me to type it out? All right." He asked and continued before giving her a chance to reply and leaned over.
"Hey, hey, hey!" She quickly exclaimed, putting a hand on his chest and pushing him back. "I'm committed to this role of fake girlfriend, I can do it."
"So why are you hesitating so much?"
Dropping her hand, she sighed with a shake of her head. "I'm not hesitating, it's just now Yoora is going to start problems just because I'm dating you and Minwoo works at your company. And I don't want it to be awkward between the two of you if you ever bump into each other."
"Are you worried about me being in an awkward position because..." He began, looking between her eyes. "It sounds like you're worried about your feelings for Minwoo." As Hyejin froze with wide eyes, Taemoo swallowed as he looked away.
"You think-" A loud burst of laughter escaped through her mouth, throwing Taemoo off guard as his eyes moved back to watch her throw her head back in laughter. "You think that I-" she attempted to continue, only for her laughter to cut her off again, this time doubling her over as she clutched her sides.
"What's so funny?" Taemoo blinked as she took a seat on the couch, hand on her chest as her laughter died down, giggles still escaping.
"The fact that you think I have feelings for Minwoo is hysterical." She sighed, wiping her tears as she stood up. "Don't worry, that's my brother's problem to deal with, not your's." She chuckled once more, patting Taemoo's shoulder as she made her way to the bedroom.
"What?" He mumbled to himself, watching as Hyejin grabbed a bathrobe.
"You always say you're good at a lot of things, but I didn't know that meant you were also a comedian." She giggled to herself, shaking her head as she walked to the bathroom. Taemoo stood in his spot motionless for a second only to snap his head in the direction of the bathroom where she stuck her head out. "The other two bags are your stuff."
Swallowing at the sight of her bare upper body, only the towel being held up to her chest, Taemoo turned his head just as fast as he looked and nodded silently.
✧༺♥༻✧
"Are you sure you're comfortable with me sleeping here?" Taemoo questioned, glancing towards Hyejin who was now clad in heart pajamas with her hair half dry.
"Do you snore in your sleep?" She asked, grabbing extra pillows she found in the small storage closet and began dividing the bed in the middle.
"No."
"Do you kick or punch?
"No. Do people do that?"
"You'd be surprised." She nodded, raising her eyebrows. "If you don't do any of those things then I don't mind."
"Are you sure?" Taemoo cleared his throat, crossing his now gray sweatshirt clad arms over his chest.
"Yeah, just don't cross the barrier." Hyejin shrugged, getting into the right side of the bed and grabbing her pink silk eye mask and putting it on.
Taemoo stood there unmoving, unsure of what to do until he noticed the rhythmic breathing leaving her slightly agape mouth and took a deep breath. Turning the lamp off, he made his way to the left side of the bed, careful as to not mess up Hyejin's "barrier."
authors note;
❣️unedited but honestly what's new
butttt I finally updated again and this time with a longer chapter! 3k words of nothing but Taemoo and hyejin being cute
I hope you guys enjoyed reading 🫶🏼 lmk your thoughts, feelings, and just anything you want to say!
I love you mwah ♥️