Wicked Game 2
PREVIOUSLY KNOWN AS THE BODYGUARD
Chapter: 2/5
Rating: R
Cast: Yunho x fictional character
Disclaimer: Purely fictional. No, I do not own him as much as I would like to.
Author’s Note: This is the result of watching Beautiful You MV and hearing that Yunho wants to be a bodyguard on Bigeast.
Summary: Yunho is a professional bodyguard who's been hired to protect the wife of a wealthy businessman. Little does he know that she's the one he needs protection from.
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Yunho is a man of little words. Are all bodyguards like that?
Yunho and Hankyung had worked out a schedule where at least one of them would be with us at any one time. There were days where I would only see him in the day and also days where he would show up suddenly at mid-day and disappear again early next morning. In the hours that he kept vigilant, he spoke little to me. Whenever he spoke, it was always either related to my schedule or to someone else in the house. In those few instances, I had come to memorize the low cool tone in his voice.
I wondered if he had a dozen of those black suits at home. He was always in the same suit and white shirt every single day. His hair was always combed back the same way and his suits were always pressed to perfection. The man is so cool and composed that even when the weather is hot, he doesn’t break a sweat on his face.
I wonder how he would look like when he loses his composure?
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YUNHO’S POV
The couple is a strange one. I had expected them to be a loving couple since her husband had bothered to hire me for her protection. I soon learnt that the truth was far from what I thought. Their conversations were at best civil and the most physical contact I ever saw was of her holding his arm during dinner functions.
Later, I found out that her husband had many women on the side when Hankyung took a day off and I had to pick him up from a function. I wondered if she knew about his infidelities. From the way they treated each other, my guess is that she did. Even so, I had never seen her make any comment about his activities. What never fails to me amaze me every time is how the couple goes from nearly being strangers in the car to being a picture perfect couple once they step out of the car. Despite my surprise, I also knew it was my place to maintain my silence.
Her days were mainly spent at home, the salon, the shopping district and occasionally the theatre. Like me, she didn’t seem to have many friends. I don’t have many friends because most of my days were always spent revolving around someone else’s life. It never really bothered me either. Guess I am used to being a loner.
As the days passed, she began to be less conscious of my presence. It always starts out with the client being mindful of you being in their space but that usually changes over time. They start to loosen up a little and for us, it’s a good sign. Co-operation breeds well in familiarity and co-operation allows us to breathe a little easier. It would not be too much to say that we lead pretty high-strung lives due to the constant need to stay alert. Perhaps this job was going to go smoothly.
I should have seen it coming. I should have known that letting my guard down was mistake.
“Yunho? Come sit down and have tea with me.”
She got me there. It was the first time she actually spoke to me directly for something that was not related to her security needs.
“I’m fine just standing here, ma’am.”
She looked at me with a hint of annoyance. “I don’t need a statue to stand around me all day. Sit down.”
I shouldn’t have, but I did.
“Tea or coffee?”
“Coffee would be nice. Thank you.”
“Sugar? Milk?”
“It would not be necessary.”
“You take coffee black? That’s not very good for your stomach, isn’t it?”
“It helps me to stay alert.”
“I see…” she nodded absentmindedly as she placed the cup of steaming hot coffee in front of me.
“So tell me about yourself, Yunho.”
I nearly choked on my coffee and burnt my tongue in the process. “What?!”
She laughed. “That was fun, but do tell me about yourself.”
“I don’t think it is necessary…”
“Yunho.” She said firmly. “I would like to know more about the people who stay around me all day and you,” she leaned in closer, “happen to be one of these people.”
I could smell the flowers in her fragrance. As she leaned in, the sheen on her bare shoulders became more apparent to me. I tried not to look at the valley that was peeping out of her dress.
“I erm, am a personal security personnel.”
She laughed again. “Yes, I already know that. You are quite cute when you stammer.”
“I am sorry that I embarrassed myself. I should get…” I stood up to leave but felt a smooth hand on mine. I nearly froze.
“I am sorry that I laughed at you. Please sit down.” Her eyes softened.
“It’s okay. I really should get going now. Han…” I pulled my hand away and all of a sudden, I felt a scalding heat on my pants. We had accidentally spilled the hot coffee over onto my pants.
“Oh my! I am so sorry!” She immediately handed me a napkin. “Does it hurt?”
“It’s okay. I am changing shift with Hankyung soon anyway. Don’t worry about it ma’am.”
“You can call me by name, you know. Ma’am sounds so old.”
“I take my leave, ma’am.”
I quickly turned and headed for the door. It wasn’t the pain on my thighs that scared me. It was the how fast my heart was beating and how I realized that I has been holding my breath that frightened me.
This must never happen again.
The next day, a brand new suit was waiting for me at work. It was draped over the chair in my working room within the mansion. I took a look at the tag and saw a label that I knew would cost at least a few thousand dollars. I held the material in my hands. It felt a lot softer than the ones I usually wore. I knew what I had to do.
I found her reading in the study.
“Ma’am, I need to return this to you. It’s not necessary to replace a suit for me. Moreover, this is too expensive.”
She set her book down on her lap and smiled at me. “I must have scared you yesterday. This is my way of saying sorry. Don’t worry about it, it isn’t as expensive as you think.”
“Perhaps you would like to give this to sir instead?”
“It doesn’t fit him. Your shoulders are broader.”
A flush ran up my cheeks. I hoped it wasn’t too obvious.
“Yunho, I need to be in the public very often and you are around me most of the time. Don’t you think it would reflect well on me if my companion looked good too? Please do keep it or else you can throw it away.”
“Throw it away? But it’s so expensive.”
“My husband has many suits far more expensive. This is nothing.”
That’s the difference between the rich and common folks like me. “Thank you, ma’am.” I left the study quietly with the new suit on my arm, its plastic creating a soft rustling sound in the silence of the day.
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He was shaken. I knew he was.
He did not wear the suit I gave him, much to my exasperation. He continued to show up in his old suits and address me the same way day after day. I had to admit that it was frustrating but it only made the challenge more exciting.
He must have sensed it by now. After all, he was trained to pick up on the smallest of suggestions. He began to keep his distance and only came near whenever someone else was around. He was so determined about it that it was almost amusing. The more he tried to move away, the closer I wanted to be.
I must have been too happy in my quest that I forgot the reason why he was in my life in the first place. He was doing such a good job of protecting me that I forgot about the danger I was in.
It was one of those usual days where I popped over to the theatre alone to listen to the symphony. I liked this time to myself so I always went alone. Even Yunho was kept a few seats away. After the performance, I strolled out to the carpark, knowing that he would be just a few steps behind. He was always there whenever I turned my head so I had expected it of him each time.
The crowd spilled out of the theatre in droves. It was a big crowd that day as the orchestra was a famous one. Fearing that we might be separated, I turned around to look for him. Cold fear squeezed my heart when I could not locate his face. I never knew how dependent I had grown to be on him.
“Yunho? Yunho?“
A pair of hands grabbed my hands and another covered my mouth before I could utter another word. Those hands dragged me against the concrete ground towards a dark van. We had parked the car in a quiet section of the carpark at my request and that was turning out to be a poor decision now. As much as I struggled, I couldn’t break free. I was about to give up when I felt one of my assailants being thrown off. I turned my head and there he was.
I thought these things only happened in movies. The sight of him pushing and punching the two masked men effortlessly was surreal. Before I knew it, the two men had scampered into the van and took off.
“Are you all right?” He bent down and tried to pick me up but my legs wouldn’t move. My vision was starting to fail me.
I tried to answer but instead, my voice choked and tears started to stream out of my eyes. I was positive that my mascara must have smudged by then. I must have looked quite hideous but I was too weak to care.
“I am sorry. This should not have happened.” He tried to gather me into his arms. My vision was getting darker and my strength was leaving me. It might have been chloroform but I knew it was also because I finally felt at ease again.
I might have been wrong but before my eyes closed, I thought I heard him call my name.
“I would like to apologise for what happened. It shouldn’t have happened. I can request for a change of personnel to my boss.” He bowed politely in front of my husband who was now sitting next to my hospital bed.
“What in the world were you doing? My wife could have been kidnapped!”
Yunho kept his head down. “I am really sorry, sir.”
“Dear.” I reached for my husband’s arm feebly. “It was my fault too. I went out of his surveillance. Yunho has been very responsible to date so let’s just forget it this time.”
My husband stayed in silence for a while before he spoke again. “One more time and you are fired.”
Yunho bowed again. “Yes, I understand.”
I fell asleep soon after and when I woke up, the lights had already been turned off. However, I could see an outline sitting in a corner in the dark.
“Dear?”
There was a brief silence before the person answered. “It’s me, ma’am. Yunho.”
I felt a great sense of comfort to hear his voice. “Why are you still here? It’s late.”
“I should be here.”
“You don’t have to. Go home and rest now.”
“It’s okay. Please get some rest.”
“So you will stay here the whole night?”
“Yes.”
“Do you want to ask the staff to get you an extra bed?”
“It’s not necessary. Please get some rest.”
With a sigh, I closed my eyes and tried to sleep. A voice shot out of the dark.
“I am sorry for what happened. I shouldn’t have lost sight of you. I will pay more attention from now on. Thank you for speaking up for me.”
It was the first time he said so much to me at a go. “You’re welcome. Good night, Yunho.”
True to his word, Yunho did not try to keep his distance after that incident. There were times where he would talk a little more and even eat lunch with me if I requested. Throughout it all, he kept silent most of the time.
“Yunho, do you not like to talk?”
He looked up in surprise. “No, why?”
“I hardly hear you say a word.”
“I have been trained to keep my silence.”
“Well, do try to speak more.”
“Is there a reason why?”
“I like to hear your voice.”
He did not answer but I think I saw the tiniest of a smile on his face.
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YUNHO’S POV
I thought I was going to get fired for sure. It would be a first for me, a first that I wasn’t willing to experience. Thus, it had surprised me when she spoke up for me. I felt ashamed of myself. I had betrayed my professionalism by staying away from her due to my personal feelings. Maybe she wasn’t as bad as I thought.
It had started out with short conversations over tea which evolved into having meals together when her husband was out. There was a nagging feeling at the back of my head that told me this was not right but it had fallen on deaf ears. I have had clients where I could converse with and I thought that she would be the same. I thought that I would be able to stay in control as I have always had.
After the incident, she stopped going to the theatre for a while. One day, she decided to go to another performance again. When we entered the hall, I made my way to where I was usually seated when she suddenly stopped me.
“Where are you going?”
I was confused. “My seat.”
She smiled. “Look at your ticket. You are sitting next to me.”
“But I thought you always wanted to be alone.”
“Come sit next to me.” She took my hand before I could protest and led me to the seat. I quickly retracted my hand before people saw us.
Her eyes were transfixed on the performance once it started. There were moments where she closed her eyes in appreciation. It was the first time she had been in such close proximity. Her cheekbones were high and her lips looked even softer on closer look. The make-up on her face was minimal but it served to enhance her natural beauty. It wasn’t till she called me that I realized I was staring.
“Yunho?”
I quickly looked away. “Yes.”
“It’s intermission. I want to go to the bathroom.”
I breathed heavily before I could barely reply. “I will follow you.”
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He was staring. I could feel his eyes on me even when my eyes were closed. I saw how his breath nearly hitched when I called his name.
I was winning and there was no way that I was going to stop now.
After the intermission, he did not look my way again. When the performance ended, I leaned closer to him and whispered into his ear. “Beautiful, isn’t it?”
His shoulders tensed up. “Yes, a very beautiful performance.”
In the days that followed, he started withdrawing from me again. It was amusing to see how my little actions affected him. The careless grazing of his hand when he opened the door for me, the gentle tapping of his shoulder from the back of the car whenever I wanted to talk to him and my favorite- whispering into his ear. It got him all flushed up every time. It must be a sensitive spot for him.
Unfortunately, he began to switch shifts with Hankyung so I began to see less of him. There was once where I didn’t see him for three days at a go. Unlike Yunho, Hankyung was a total bore to me. I saw him again when he had to accompany both of us to a wine party.
As usual, my husband did his socializing while I tried to do my part with the ladies in the crowd. My lips might have been speaking to them but my eyes and mind were on another gentleman standing in a quiet corner of the hall. I was paying so much attention to him that I didn’t notice my husband getting too cosy with one of the models.
“Dear, let’s go shall we?” I whispered to him as I tried to pull him away and keep a smiling face at the same time.
“You can go back first. I have some business.” He looked pleasingly at the model next to him.
“Don’t think I know nothing about your so called businesses. Don’t embarrass me here.” I gritted my teeth as my smile turned stiff.
“Yunho will see you back. Don’t wait up.” That was all he said as he took the model by her waist and disappeared through a side door.
I took another glass of wine from the table nearby and drank it down in one shot. After nearly slamming the glass onto the table, I held my head high and walked towards the exit. Yunho followed suit.
“Shall we see you back home now?” He asked.
“Let’s go.”
I was humiliated. Never has he been so blatant in public. He had embarrassed me in front of a number of socialites and most importantly, he had embarrassed me in front of him.
I kept my eyes on the road on the way back. The wine was making me dizzy and my anger which was boiling over did not help either.
“Stop.”
“But we are not home yet.”
“I said stop!”
The car pulled to a screeching halt. I bolted out of the car and started walking away.
He grabbed my arm. “We are almost home. Come get in the car.”
“Let go of me.”
He did not budge.
“Let go!” I twisted my arm out of his grip. “Go ahead and laugh! Laugh at me! I am such a joke isn’t it?! A woman that no one wants!”
I tugged at my dress roughly. “So what if I have this? So what if I have all these!” I pulled at my hair which fell from a bun into loose stresses. “Nobody wants me!”
“That’s not true. Come on, get in the car.”
I turned back to him suddenly and found myself right up against his shoulder. I was stiffened by the shock. I slowly looked up at him.
“Really? prove me wrong.” I grabbed his face down to mine and pressed his lips to mine.
His lips had the taste of coffee.