If I Could Be (I Would Be Yours) [2/3]
Title: If I Could Be (I Would Be Yours) [2/3]
Author: Sum3r
Pairing: Yunho/Changmin
Rating: G - NC-17
Disclaimer: Plot is mine. Characters aren't. All terms/references from dictionary.law.com
Summary: Yunho is one of Seoul's top lawyers ever since he graduated from law school. Now, four years later, he's about to take on a case with an opposing lawyer who's quickly rising on top and making him question what and who he's fighting for.
Inspired by:
kurogoma who gave me this idea of a lawyer!fic with opposing sides and it just got me hooked. It's completely her fault. Beta'd by: the amazing
sly_pantera (Thank you!)
[A/N]: Because it would be easier to believe that Seoul's law system is similar to the U.S's....XD!
Bom sighed, setting the cup on the desk only for it to be picked up by Changmin a second later. Lost in the files before him, Changmin barely heard the door closing as Bom let herself out of his office.
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[Third Day of Hearing]
“On this third day of hearing, the fourteenth of November…”
Changmin watched the other man from the corner of his eyes. He could tell Yunho was either nervous or frustrated from the way his left leg shook up and down. His entire body was tense, and his face was dark as he watched both the judge and jury.
Changmin was about to look away when Yunho glanced over for a second, eyes heated and blazing with anger. Fuck, he thought, straightening the papers in front of him, as his blood pumped heavier through his veins, and his throat swallowed the thick tension between them. He felt tendrils of desire pool in his belly, the temperature seeming to rise a few degrees. Changmin could see that the older man was re-adjusting his tie, loosening it with lean fingers as his cuff-links glinted under the light shining through the courthouse windows.
Changmin looked away.
“First witness, please come to the stand.”
As the session wore on, Changmin swore he felt the heat between them becoming hotter and hotter, and rather than be thrown into jail himself for wrongful conduct during a hearing, Changmin forced himself to leave his facial expressions blank, regardless of how exasperating the older man was. And exasperating he was.
“Did your daughter know you where in the kitchen making the sandwich?” Yunho asked, his voice harsh as the question rolled off his tongue quickly.
“Yes.”
“Is your daughter’s favorite stuffed animal a penguin?”
The man looked at Changmin, and the younger man quickly said, “Objection! Relevance, your-”
“Overruled, please continue.” The judge nodded at Yunho as the older man smiled tightly.
“Just answer the question- is your daughter’s favorite stuffed animal a penguin?”
“Yes, but I don’t know why that would matter in…”
“Do you like tomatoes, Mr. Kwong?”
The man looked at him, confused and annoyed and said, “What does this-”
“Answer the question.”
Changmin clasped his hands together as he watched the older man conferring with his witness. Where is he going with this?
“No, actually I do-”
“Then please explain to me why there were tomatoes in your sandwich? Had you made it yourself, you wouldn’t have put it in, would you? And what exactly was your daughter’s favorite stuffed animal doing on the kitchen table when you and your wife know very well that she hardly ever lets it out of her sight?”
Shit. Kwong was silent for a moment before he began to stutter, “I have no idea what you’re talking about…have you spoken to my daughter? I-Is she here? No, right? Then y-you can’t prove anything…”
After the hearing ended, Changmin caught up to Yunho behind the building. The majority of people had left, leaving them alone in the parking lot. “What the fuck was that?”
“What was what?” Yunho asked smoothly as he raised an eyebrow. Changmin was itching to punch him. He clenched his fist and tried to restrain his rage.
“You know what I mean,” he snapped. “That evidence was not supplied through-”
“Evidence is evidence,” Yunho said, cutting him off, “so why don’t you go back to your baby cases and read over all the evidentiary support that can be used.”
Changmin’s fist was swinging before he knew it. He could almost hear the crack of flesh meeting bone, but Yunho caught it with his palm and, within a second, pushed him around, slamming him against the front door of his car and pinning him against the window.
“Think about what you’re doing for a goddamn second…do you want us to be kicked off this case and thrown in jail for disorderly conduct?” Yunho hissed, his sinful mouth twisted in a sneer.
Changmin froze.
Heat rolled off them in waves. He couldn’t even concentrate; his breath hitched as their suits grazed each other, Yunho’s thighs trapping Changmin in like a vice, and oh shit-this is not how this is supposed to go. Changmin didn’t even know why he had to prove himself to this selfish attorney in the first place; it wasn’t like they knew each other or worked with each other, but nonetheless it was still there.
This desire to make himself equal to, or better than, this man had him blazing with anger and bristling with indignation.
He surged forward as Yunho took a step back, and he said, “What about now? You think they won’t throw us in for disorderly conduct for acting like this? Smart move, Yunho.”
He could almost taste Yunho’s animosity, and he fed on it, anticipating the brawl. He threw in his game piece and smirked, face tilted up as his eyes gleamed with impudence, egging the older man on. Yunho grabbed him by the lapels of his suit jacket, pressed him against the door and kissed him.
It felt like he was sucker punched, even though it was Yunho’s mouth and not his fist. Changmin raised his hands to push him away and opened his mouth to yell, but the older man simply took the opportunity to slide in his tongue, mouth eager and wet and oh, oh oh shit, because this? This was good.
Changmin’s heart was thudding in his chest. Changmin’s hands gripped yunho’s hair and yanked because he wasn’t about to just lay down and be the bitch-Changmin pushed up against him, mouth hard and messy and it was like they were eating each other, because the kiss just turned filthy with teeth and saliva and oh-
Changmin yanked himself back, breathing hard as he wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. Yunho said nothing, and his chest was heaving as they looked at each other, slightly bewildered and slightly angry. When the younger man said nothing, Yunho’s jaw tightened, and he pushed Changmin away, slammed his car door shut, and drove away.
--------------------------------------
“You need to get laid.”
Yunho barely blinked at the words as Junsu walked in through his office, setting down the cup of coffee on his desk.
“What I need,” said the older man, hand automatically curling around the china, “is for that child to testify. If she testifies, then we’ve got this one in the bag.”
Junsu shrugged, eyes alight with liveliness. “Nah, still think you need to get laid.”
Yunho sighed, taking a moment to rub his eyes and shake himself out of the achy sleep deprivation that hung on his bones and joints. He felt split up; there was Yunho, hard-working and studious attorney, and there was other Yunho, a Yunho that couldn’t stop thinking about how Changmin felt against him, how the heat between them smoldered and sparked, and how fucking good it felt to kiss like that…
“Well then why don’t you go out tonight? Take a break and catch up with old friends, take a few shots…?” Junsu asked tentatively.
The idea was actually appealing to Yunho, if only for him to focus elsewhere and to leave his goddamn office.
“Sure,” he said offhandedly, and Junsu beamed, face lighting up as he quickly shuffled the papers together and left Yunho’s office.
[That Night]
“…And I said that it was completely worth it, but she didn’t buy it for a second, and to think…”
Yunho struggled to pay attention, but the man he was talking to was boring as fuck, and even though he felt bad about it, he still politely excused himself to the bathroom.
He stared at himself in the mirror as he washed his hands, noticing the pale skin and bags underneath his eyes. Who would understand? Who would know what it felt like to come home knowing I either freed an innocent man or sent him to jail?
As an attorney working in a firm, he had no authority to claim his clients or his cases; he was handed a client, a file, and was told to represent-and win-him or her in court. Sometimes he wondered if it was even worth it, whether he should have just gone into anthropology instead of following in his father’s footsteps.
He looked down, watching the water swirl around his hands before sliding down the drain. It’s worthless to think of what-might-have-been now; it’s already too late.
Slightly more downhearted than when he came in, Yunho walked out of the bathroom and headed towards his table, only to be stopped by a gentle touch on his back.
“Excuse me?”
Yunho whirled around, eyes falling on a woman with a small smile, big cheeks and large brown eyes. The bar was pretty full, so Yunho assumed that she mistook him for someone else.
Then she held out her hand and asked, “Jung Yunho?”
He nodded, watching her as he shook her hand, and said curiously, “I’m sorry, but do I know you?”
She chuckled, but for some reason, as the older man continued to stare at her, he noticed there was some serious and decisive behind her smiling, playful mask. Cautious, he waited for her to say something, and she did not disappoint.
“I noticed you walking in as I was sitting with my friends,” she said, pointing to a table of four a little bit further behind her as the three girls surrounding it talked and laughed, glancing at them ever so often. “And I just wanted to say a few words on the account of my employer, but not on his behalf.”
Rolling the words around in his head, Yunho narrowed his eyes at her curiously and replied, “I’m sorry, do I kn-”
She suddenly leaned forward, and Yunho stopped talking mid-sentence as she narrowed her gaze and her voice dropped all pleasantness. “Whatever it is that you’re doing with Changmin, you need to either finish it or drop it.”
Yunho gaped at her, open mouthed, because I was trying to get over him, and he’s fucking invading everything in my life and-
“He’s losing concentration,” she snapped, and Yunho pulled himself out of his thoughts, “and whatever it is that you guys have to do to get it out of your system-”
She’s serious, Yunho thought as he continued to listen, but she’s honestly worried.
“Fuck for all I care. He could use a little rough sex once in a while, those pansy boys…ahem.” She fidgeted, knowing she had gone off-topic.
Yunho almost choked as she said the words out loud because he didn’t even like him, that cocky fucker, and wait…pansy boys? He fools around with pansy trash? It didn’t sit well with him, and Yunho didn’t want to contemplate it, but for some reason the thought that Changmin was fucking around with some stupid pretty boy just didn’t sit well inside him.
“I don’t even kno-” Yunho started saying, but she cut him off with a hand and firm shake of her head.
“Just think about it okay? I’m sure this isn’t an unheard of phenomenon for you either,” she said dryly, her smile amused as she bowed slightly in respect and turned around, high heels clicking against the wooden floor as she sauntered over to her table.
The older man rubbed a hand over his face, wondering if he was thinking too much, or not enough.
--------------------------------------
[Final Day of Hearing]
Yunho was running out of options, and they were going fast. He bit his lip, and his left leg shook with anticipation. Of what, Yunho didn’t know. He had laid out all his evidence to the judge, had talked and persuaded and tricked each and every witness into bending toward his side, and Changmin was only seconds away from finishing with the last one and-
BAM. The courtroom doors burst open as a woman, with similar facial features to Mrs. Kwong, came strolling up the aisle with Min-sung in tow. “She wants to testify,” huffed the woman, in an apparent rush.
Yunho was rising up, but Changmin snapped out, “Objection your honor. She-”
“Overruled, I’m interested in what she has to say. Bailiff, see to it that Miss Kwong safely reaches the stand as our final witness.” The judge nodded to the bailiff as Yunho glanced over at Changmin, the younger man’s expression telling him everything he wanted to know. Looks like you lost this one, he told the younger man in his smirk, but Changmin merely turned away, refusing to acknowledge him.
After that, everything fell into place, as Min-sung told the judge and jury, with stuttering and hesitant sentences, what exactly went on that night and how her father had actually treated both her and her mother. The entire jury nodded sympathetically and shook their head pityingly with each word spoken, and Yunho just ate it up.
He was glad when the judge finally pounded the gavel on the sound block and announced that the closing statements were set for tomorrow at the same time and place. Without it being said, Yunho already knew he won this case.
He was piling in all the paperwork in his briefcase when he felt a presence near him, and he just knew who it was; maybe it was the smell, sharp cinnamon and warm vanilla, or maybe it was the animosity that crackled between them. Whatever the reason was, Yunho just knew.
He glanced up and met Changmin’s eyes. The air between them thickened and the silence stretched. Changmin watched him with his chin turned up and his eyes narrowed.
Yunho wanted to say something, but he didn’t know what or how he should say it. It was strange, this thing between them, and he didn’t know what to do. Changmin waited for a fraction of a second longer and then walked out, this time leaving Yunho behind.
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[A/N]: I'm glad you're enjoying this series guys :D! You could totally blame this on kurogoma- I am merely the hands that write - because of her amazing prompt. Comments and critiques are, as usual, loved, and the third (and final) part should be up soon :D!
Author: Sum3r
Pairing: Yunho/Changmin
Rating: G - NC-17
Disclaimer: Plot is mine. Characters aren't. All terms/references from dictionary.law.com
Summary: Yunho is one of Seoul's top lawyers ever since he graduated from law school. Now, four years later, he's about to take on a case with an opposing lawyer who's quickly rising on top and making him question what and who he's fighting for.
Inspired by:
kurogoma who gave me this idea of a lawyer!fic with opposing sides and it just got me hooked. It's completely her fault. Beta'd by: the amazing
sly_pantera (Thank you!)
[A/N]: Because it would be easier to believe that Seoul's law system is similar to the U.S's....XD!
Bom sighed, setting the cup on the desk only for it to be picked up by Changmin a second later. Lost in the files before him, Changmin barely heard the door closing as Bom let herself out of his office.
--------------------------------------
[Third Day of Hearing]
“On this third day of hearing, the fourteenth of November…”
Changmin watched the other man from the corner of his eyes. He could tell Yunho was either nervous or frustrated from the way his left leg shook up and down. His entire body was tense, and his face was dark as he watched both the judge and jury.
Changmin was about to look away when Yunho glanced over for a second, eyes heated and blazing with anger. Fuck, he thought, straightening the papers in front of him, as his blood pumped heavier through his veins, and his throat swallowed the thick tension between them. He felt tendrils of desire pool in his belly, the temperature seeming to rise a few degrees. Changmin could see that the older man was re-adjusting his tie, loosening it with lean fingers as his cuff-links glinted under the light shining through the courthouse windows.
Changmin looked away.
“First witness, please come to the stand.”
As the session wore on, Changmin swore he felt the heat between them becoming hotter and hotter, and rather than be thrown into jail himself for wrongful conduct during a hearing, Changmin forced himself to leave his facial expressions blank, regardless of how exasperating the older man was. And exasperating he was.
“Did your daughter know you where in the kitchen making the sandwich?” Yunho asked, his voice harsh as the question rolled off his tongue quickly.
“Yes.”
“Is your daughter’s favorite stuffed animal a penguin?”
The man looked at Changmin, and the younger man quickly said, “Objection! Relevance, your-”
“Overruled, please continue.” The judge nodded at Yunho as the older man smiled tightly.
“Just answer the question- is your daughter’s favorite stuffed animal a penguin?”
“Yes, but I don’t know why that would matter in…”
“Do you like tomatoes, Mr. Kwong?”
The man looked at him, confused and annoyed and said, “What does this-”
“Answer the question.”
Changmin clasped his hands together as he watched the older man conferring with his witness. Where is he going with this?
“No, actually I do-”
“Then please explain to me why there were tomatoes in your sandwich? Had you made it yourself, you wouldn’t have put it in, would you? And what exactly was your daughter’s favorite stuffed animal doing on the kitchen table when you and your wife know very well that she hardly ever lets it out of her sight?”
Shit. Kwong was silent for a moment before he began to stutter, “I have no idea what you’re talking about…have you spoken to my daughter? I-Is she here? No, right? Then y-you can’t prove anything…”
After the hearing ended, Changmin caught up to Yunho behind the building. The majority of people had left, leaving them alone in the parking lot. “What the fuck was that?”
“What was what?” Yunho asked smoothly as he raised an eyebrow. Changmin was itching to punch him. He clenched his fist and tried to restrain his rage.
“You know what I mean,” he snapped. “That evidence was not supplied through-”
“Evidence is evidence,” Yunho said, cutting him off, “so why don’t you go back to your baby cases and read over all the evidentiary support that can be used.”
Changmin’s fist was swinging before he knew it. He could almost hear the crack of flesh meeting bone, but Yunho caught it with his palm and, within a second, pushed him around, slamming him against the front door of his car and pinning him against the window.
“Think about what you’re doing for a goddamn second…do you want us to be kicked off this case and thrown in jail for disorderly conduct?” Yunho hissed, his sinful mouth twisted in a sneer.
Changmin froze.
Heat rolled off them in waves. He couldn’t even concentrate; his breath hitched as their suits grazed each other, Yunho’s thighs trapping Changmin in like a vice, and oh shit-this is not how this is supposed to go. Changmin didn’t even know why he had to prove himself to this selfish attorney in the first place; it wasn’t like they knew each other or worked with each other, but nonetheless it was still there.
This desire to make himself equal to, or better than, this man had him blazing with anger and bristling with indignation.
He surged forward as Yunho took a step back, and he said, “What about now? You think they won’t throw us in for disorderly conduct for acting like this? Smart move, Yunho.”
He could almost taste Yunho’s animosity, and he fed on it, anticipating the brawl. He threw in his game piece and smirked, face tilted up as his eyes gleamed with impudence, egging the older man on. Yunho grabbed him by the lapels of his suit jacket, pressed him against the door and kissed him.
It felt like he was sucker punched, even though it was Yunho’s mouth and not his fist. Changmin raised his hands to push him away and opened his mouth to yell, but the older man simply took the opportunity to slide in his tongue, mouth eager and wet and oh, oh oh shit, because this? This was good.
Changmin’s heart was thudding in his chest. Changmin’s hands gripped yunho’s hair and yanked because he wasn’t about to just lay down and be the bitch-Changmin pushed up against him, mouth hard and messy and it was like they were eating each other, because the kiss just turned filthy with teeth and saliva and oh-
Changmin yanked himself back, breathing hard as he wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. Yunho said nothing, and his chest was heaving as they looked at each other, slightly bewildered and slightly angry. When the younger man said nothing, Yunho’s jaw tightened, and he pushed Changmin away, slammed his car door shut, and drove away.
--------------------------------------
“You need to get laid.”
Yunho barely blinked at the words as Junsu walked in through his office, setting down the cup of coffee on his desk.
“What I need,” said the older man, hand automatically curling around the china, “is for that child to testify. If she testifies, then we’ve got this one in the bag.”
Junsu shrugged, eyes alight with liveliness. “Nah, still think you need to get laid.”
Yunho sighed, taking a moment to rub his eyes and shake himself out of the achy sleep deprivation that hung on his bones and joints. He felt split up; there was Yunho, hard-working and studious attorney, and there was other Yunho, a Yunho that couldn’t stop thinking about how Changmin felt against him, how the heat between them smoldered and sparked, and how fucking good it felt to kiss like that…
“Well then why don’t you go out tonight? Take a break and catch up with old friends, take a few shots…?” Junsu asked tentatively.
The idea was actually appealing to Yunho, if only for him to focus elsewhere and to leave his goddamn office.
“Sure,” he said offhandedly, and Junsu beamed, face lighting up as he quickly shuffled the papers together and left Yunho’s office.
[That Night]
“…And I said that it was completely worth it, but she didn’t buy it for a second, and to think…”
Yunho struggled to pay attention, but the man he was talking to was boring as fuck, and even though he felt bad about it, he still politely excused himself to the bathroom.
He stared at himself in the mirror as he washed his hands, noticing the pale skin and bags underneath his eyes. Who would understand? Who would know what it felt like to come home knowing I either freed an innocent man or sent him to jail?
As an attorney working in a firm, he had no authority to claim his clients or his cases; he was handed a client, a file, and was told to represent-and win-him or her in court. Sometimes he wondered if it was even worth it, whether he should have just gone into anthropology instead of following in his father’s footsteps.
He looked down, watching the water swirl around his hands before sliding down the drain. It’s worthless to think of what-might-have-been now; it’s already too late.
Slightly more downhearted than when he came in, Yunho walked out of the bathroom and headed towards his table, only to be stopped by a gentle touch on his back.
“Excuse me?”
Yunho whirled around, eyes falling on a woman with a small smile, big cheeks and large brown eyes. The bar was pretty full, so Yunho assumed that she mistook him for someone else.
Then she held out her hand and asked, “Jung Yunho?”
He nodded, watching her as he shook her hand, and said curiously, “I’m sorry, but do I know you?”
She chuckled, but for some reason, as the older man continued to stare at her, he noticed there was some serious and decisive behind her smiling, playful mask. Cautious, he waited for her to say something, and she did not disappoint.
“I noticed you walking in as I was sitting with my friends,” she said, pointing to a table of four a little bit further behind her as the three girls surrounding it talked and laughed, glancing at them ever so often. “And I just wanted to say a few words on the account of my employer, but not on his behalf.”
Rolling the words around in his head, Yunho narrowed his eyes at her curiously and replied, “I’m sorry, do I kn-”
She suddenly leaned forward, and Yunho stopped talking mid-sentence as she narrowed her gaze and her voice dropped all pleasantness. “Whatever it is that you’re doing with Changmin, you need to either finish it or drop it.”
Yunho gaped at her, open mouthed, because I was trying to get over him, and he’s fucking invading everything in my life and-
“He’s losing concentration,” she snapped, and Yunho pulled himself out of his thoughts, “and whatever it is that you guys have to do to get it out of your system-”
She’s serious, Yunho thought as he continued to listen, but she’s honestly worried.
“Fuck for all I care. He could use a little rough sex once in a while, those pansy boys…ahem.” She fidgeted, knowing she had gone off-topic.
Yunho almost choked as she said the words out loud because he didn’t even like him, that cocky fucker, and wait…pansy boys? He fools around with pansy trash? It didn’t sit well with him, and Yunho didn’t want to contemplate it, but for some reason the thought that Changmin was fucking around with some stupid pretty boy just didn’t sit well inside him.
“I don’t even kno-” Yunho started saying, but she cut him off with a hand and firm shake of her head.
“Just think about it okay? I’m sure this isn’t an unheard of phenomenon for you either,” she said dryly, her smile amused as she bowed slightly in respect and turned around, high heels clicking against the wooden floor as she sauntered over to her table.
The older man rubbed a hand over his face, wondering if he was thinking too much, or not enough.
--------------------------------------
[Final Day of Hearing]
Yunho was running out of options, and they were going fast. He bit his lip, and his left leg shook with anticipation. Of what, Yunho didn’t know. He had laid out all his evidence to the judge, had talked and persuaded and tricked each and every witness into bending toward his side, and Changmin was only seconds away from finishing with the last one and-
BAM. The courtroom doors burst open as a woman, with similar facial features to Mrs. Kwong, came strolling up the aisle with Min-sung in tow. “She wants to testify,” huffed the woman, in an apparent rush.
Yunho was rising up, but Changmin snapped out, “Objection your honor. She-”
“Overruled, I’m interested in what she has to say. Bailiff, see to it that Miss Kwong safely reaches the stand as our final witness.” The judge nodded to the bailiff as Yunho glanced over at Changmin, the younger man’s expression telling him everything he wanted to know. Looks like you lost this one, he told the younger man in his smirk, but Changmin merely turned away, refusing to acknowledge him.
After that, everything fell into place, as Min-sung told the judge and jury, with stuttering and hesitant sentences, what exactly went on that night and how her father had actually treated both her and her mother. The entire jury nodded sympathetically and shook their head pityingly with each word spoken, and Yunho just ate it up.
He was glad when the judge finally pounded the gavel on the sound block and announced that the closing statements were set for tomorrow at the same time and place. Without it being said, Yunho already knew he won this case.
He was piling in all the paperwork in his briefcase when he felt a presence near him, and he just knew who it was; maybe it was the smell, sharp cinnamon and warm vanilla, or maybe it was the animosity that crackled between them. Whatever the reason was, Yunho just knew.
He glanced up and met Changmin’s eyes. The air between them thickened and the silence stretched. Changmin watched him with his chin turned up and his eyes narrowed.
Yunho wanted to say something, but he didn’t know what or how he should say it. It was strange, this thing between them, and he didn’t know what to do. Changmin waited for a fraction of a second longer and then walked out, this time leaving Yunho behind.
--------------------------------------
[A/N]: I'm glad you're enjoying this series guys :D! You could totally blame this on kurogoma- I am merely the hands that write - because of her amazing prompt. Comments and critiques are, as usual, loved, and the third (and final) part should be up soon :D!