Winter's Child (10/?)
TITLE: Winter's Child
GENRE: Angst, Romance, arranged marriage, drama, mpreg (possibly I am not certain) and a whole lot of genres I've never explored.
RATING: NC 17
SUMMARY: Jae is the unwanted son of a wealthy family with a dark secret and Yunho the ambitious businessman who agrees to an arranged marriage with a practical outlook. Will Yunho be the savior Jaejoong was waiting for and save him from the daemons that haunt or will he cause the poor boy more pain?
Previous Chapters
Chapter 10
Jaejoong woke up with his alarm clock muffled underneath the pillows, he found himself nestled against the crook of Yunho’s neck. He briefly moved trying to reach for the phone, except Yunho held him closer.
“Yunho” he said nudging the taller man “I need to go”
He barely remembered the events of the night; he was sick- that much remained painfully clear. But the worry he saw reflected on Yunho’s eyes was what made him wonder if he had genuinely imagined the concern.
The older man had stayed besides him insisting that he drink or eat and finally insisted they sleep together. He was too tired to protest by then, just fell onto the bed almost entirely supported by Yunho’s weight and fell asleep.
Waking up however seemed a different matter altogether, he wanted to run, back into the comfort that his bookstore had offered than pondering over the nuances of married life. Of whether this act of kindness had meant anything at all, whether sex had really changed the nature of their relationship.
Yunho however only replied by holding his closer, his warm breath on his cheeks
“But I am comfortable”
There was a childish innocence with which he said that, Jaejoong resisted the urge to smile as he weaned his way out of the older man’s arms.
“Don’t go” he pleaded again “take a week off”
He didn’t quiet know what to make of the whole scenario, he stood there uncertain.
Yunho watched his spouse stall; there was something so vulnerable in his eyes like he was afraid to hope. If anything Yunho was afraid of disappointing him, he wondered how he had missed the naivety in the other’s eyes. Wide eyed and trusting, he looked scared to move.
“We never did have a honeymoon”
There were a million other reasons Yunho knew of, but right now his mind was drawing on blanks instead. He stood up and moved towards the smaller man
“Lets start over” he said “lets give this marriage a chance, get to know each other”
Jaejoong nodded, his heart beating like a trapped hummingbird.
Physical intimacy was something his body was used to, sex was fine and Yunho was far from being too rough or violent in bed. But emotional intimacy was an unchartered territory for him. There had never been proper dates or hand holding, he wasn’t even interested in men till 16 and till then he fancied himself too cool to show interest in girls.
The earnest look in the other man’s eyes scared him.
“I have to talk to the book store owner” he said weakly “I can’t just walk away”
Yunho nodded, feeling rather foolish for his impromptu plans, “ah ok” he said.
The disappointment was evident in his voice and eyes that Jaejoong felt guilty, of course he was running away from the fact that Yunho seemed changed, but he didn’t want to lose his one chance at happiness.
He smiled softly “I will try to talk to him” he said “maybe a week off isn’t a bad idea”
Yunho looked delighted at the idea and rewarded him with a near blinding smile.
“I should go to the office and let them know” he said jumping up and literally bounding towards the bathroom.
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Yunho found out that managing a business was not a task he could leave without a prior notice.
“Are you seriously telling me that I can’t take a leave of absence Tiffany?” he asked in the sternest office he liked to use “from my own business”, however Tiffany seemed unfazed by the whole thing.
“Sir you have four extremely important meeting scheduled just for the next two days” she said smiling, managing her two boys had taught her that handling her boss was no different from handling her sons when they were trying to get out of doing homework.
Yunho sighed dramatically, he hated the next part of course, but desperate times called for desperate measures.
“Junsu ah, can you take over for the next week” Being almost the same age, Yunho knew Junsu was the most capable person to handle his affairs. But of course asking Junsu to help also meant a lot of other things.
“Honey moon with the sweetheart” Junsu teased “Oh man the great Jung Yunho whipped”
Yunho just smiled.
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Jaejoong stepped into a mercifully empty house, the message informed him that Yunho had to close up work before he could make the grand escape and very specifically to pack his bags.
Jaejoong walked in through the empty door ways, into his empty room. There were barely any clothes worth packing, faded jeans, frayed tee-shirts and a few hoodies. He felt ashamed; he looked at his reflection on the huge mirror in the corner of the room.
He had a pale face, too wide eyes and lips that would have looked better on a girl. He was not masculine, was not feminine either a strange mix of neither here neither there.
His long hair fell easily onto his narrow shoulders, he truly had nothing. Not the looks, not the personality, not the money, maybe everything would keep Yunho interested in him a few weeks, but then what?
He sat on the empty bed reminiscing, on the times he spend climbing school walls with Yoochun. The unpopular emo kid who wrote love songs, but there was something in his eyes and maybe that’s what Jaejoong understood when Yoochun whined on about his uncaring father and trophy wife.
He always thought that the sloe eyed boy had too much on his plate than Jaejoong adding to it, even when his own world fell apart Jaejoong had chosen to run away than trouble Yoochun with the truth.
The past would always remain, unchanging like a huge gash that time could never heal and everything in his life just proved the existence of the wound than any attempts to heal it.
He wondered if Yunho would hurt him more, he pulled his legs closer unconsciously barricading himself.
He was too caught up in his thought to see the other man step in.
Yunho was overjoyed no doubt, the private beach was a brilliant idea for some ‘alone time’ and he was sure that any man or woman would be more than happy to accompany him to such a spot.
It had a private mansion and a ‘crew’ who would drop by once in every two days to clean up and restock on fresh linens and food. It was isolated but luxurious as well and ideal for their vacation he decided.
And of course the island provided with a lot of other entertainments in the form of scuba diving and ‘exploring’ in chartered territories with little tree houses in between.
He had childhood memories of that place, visiting when he was in his early teens. He did think of bringing someone important there someday.
He found Jaejoong deep in thought, his eyes looking out of the window but his mind somewhere else entirely.
Yunho watched in fascination at his long lashes and its languid strokes or his pale fingers that moved unconsciously around his ring, he seemed humming the melody of some sad song. And even with the few low notes, Yunho found himself wishing to listen to no more of such heart break; he tugged on the shorter man’s arms pulling him towards himself.
“What are you thinking?” he asked, it seemed to bring the other man away from his thoughts.
He smiled “nothing”; it was a sad smile, like the torn edges of a children’s fairy tale book.
Yunho wanted to stop that sadness, even if it was something silly and so fleeting that he even doubted that he saw it.
“We will have fun” he promised “you will be really happy there” you will be happy with me he implied, wrapping his hands around the younger man.
“Let’s sleep now” he said smiling, slowly leading him out of the lonely room into the confines of his room and a warm bed and maybe maybe even love.
A/N: Thanks to everyone who wished me...and no I didn't spend my birthday writing. I wrote this yesterday and couldn't post it till night cos I was busy today
To all those who haven't taken the poll, I am closing it by the 8th.
If its past 8
You are late.