—————————

HAEWON'S POV

—————————

Hello, Mischief."

I resisted the strong urge to roll my eyes at the all-too familiarly irksome nickname and kept my gaze fixed on the floor as Jungkook paused in front of me, an epitome of corporate elegance.

It was ridiculous how someone as handsome as him could be so awfully aggravating at the same time.

One look at that icy face and I couldn't resist the urge to smack him.

With a brick the size of Texas.

Perhaps, that would make the annoyingly impervious and unruffled façade of his finally crack.

"Pleased to see you too, Sir." I replied curtly, trying not to make the sarcasm dripping from my voice too obvious. Jerkily bending my back, I bowed to him so as to not come off as an arrogant recipient of his preferential treatment.

As one of the newly recruited employees who had just finished training, I was one of the bottom feeders in the corporate ladder of this company and the last thing I wanted on the first day of work was to be flouted by my own colleagues just because this devil of a CEO had forgotten to draw a line between his professional relationships and more personal ones.

Starting to dread his silence in the answer to my sharp tone, I sneaked a sideward glance at him and let out a sigh of relief when he quietly moved past me, his perfectly polished shoes falling on the expensive white marble in a quiet, practised manner.

"What a psychopath." I muttered under my breath irritatedly.

Now when I called him a psychopath, I didn't mean to say that there was something dangerously wrong with him. Jungkook although extremely intimidating and sometimes nervewrackingly so, wasn't really capable of becoming a potential threat to anybody in my opinion.

Unless incinerating people with ice cold gazes was considered a means of murder.

He was just terribly detached and apathetic to anyone and everyone around him, didn't know what it meant to be empathetic and certainly didn't know how to care even for people that he engaged with on a daily basis.

Having known him for years, first as my older brother's best friend and after Haejoon oppa's accident, as someone who was incredibly interested in my well-being and thus, went out of his way to be around me, I could point out every single time that he would rifle through his acquired and memorised emotions, picking out the most suitable one for the situation at hand and then following it to the T.

He was like a human robot, designed to perfectly handle the most taxing of circumstances because he wasn't someone who thought from the heart.

Everything was a game of simple calculations for him, a tricky balance between victory and loss in which he was determined to always stay on the winning side and I knew for a fact, that no emotion and no relationship in this world came naturally to him... except one.

Obsession.

Everything that I thought I knew about him, or every aspect of his cold, complicated self that he let himself show to the world, came crashing down like a house of cards once this particular emotion took hold of him. The grip of this deadly emotion was as strong and unyielding over his psyche as his unnatural control over the rest of his feelings.

It left me bewildered, confused and grappling with a lot of questions. Considering that he had so much in his life that he could exert control over, breathing life into the authority loving, dominant control freak inside him, how had he not fallen prey to his obsessions yet?

Or perhaps... he was just that good of an actor that he'd manipulated himself into believing that he was not a slave to this hamartia of his.

"I'm sorry, Miss Haewon. Would you care to repeat what you said just now?"

I froze as his footsteps got closer, those horridly expensive patent leather shoes making no noise against the marble as I watched them get nearer and nearer out of the corner of my eye.

Shit.

I shut my eyes, cringing inwardly.

Why did this completely batshit crazy man also have to have the hearing of a freaking bat?

Before I knew it, he was standing in front of me, staring me down as I swallowed nervously.

And even though I saw him almost everyday, this was the Jungkook that sent shivers down my spine. The realisation that I was the one who could make his cold gaze, which was usually devoid of any expression whatsoever burn with that strange intensity always gave me the chills.

"I believe I asked you something." He purred softly, his hands casually pushed into his pockets as he stood gazing at me with the comfortable ease of a man who had all the time in this world. "Are you not going to answer me?"

Cheeks flushed with embarrassment, I avoided his gaze with a desperation that could only be reflected in my racing heartbeat as my heart threatened to jump out of my chest. I could feel the silence of other secretaries weighing me down as their gazes remained fixed on the two of us, curious and unblinking.

"I—I'm sorry." I finally uttered only causing Jungkook to smirk, his amusement clearly audible in his breathy tone.

"This is the Jeon Corp, Miss Haewon. You do not diss the CEO and get away with a simple apology." He stated smoothly, boring holes into my face with his deep brown, nearly obsidian eyes that shone with a silent challenge.

"I expect you to report to me in my office at ten AM sharp and then, perhaps, if you manage to come up with an explanation sound enough to justify your incredibly offensive words, I could let you off this one. Is that understood?"

Ughh, bipolar asshole.

"Yes, Mr. Jeon."

———————————

JUNGKOOK’S POV

———————————

Kang Haewon. That little fucking brat.

She, unfortunately, was the little sister of my best friend.

But was Haejoon even my best friend?

No. I didn't think so. Haejoon was the closest thing I had to a best friend. He was someone who'd been there with me in the most tumultuous times of my life and yet, my feelings for him were nothing more than that of loyalty. A deep rooted, unshakeable sense of loyalty that had made me invest all my spare time in providing the best for him after his accident and subsequently develop an unnervingly inexorable interest in his little sister... princess Haewon as she liked to be called, back in the days when Haejoon's parents were alive and the family was quite well off.

Enough to be able to easily buy her a luxurious pink and gold canopy bed with a round mattress and glittery curtains that looked like they were spun out of diamonds.

"What the hell were you thinking asking me in your office like this? Do you want everyone to hate me on the very first day?"

I looked up to find a very annoyed Haewon glaring at me, her chin jutting out wilfully and huge deer-like eyes full of resentment.

It wasn't hard to see why she had liked to be called a princess as a little girl or why I liked to call her mischief. She had that spoilt, brat-like look to her, a mouth that knew no filter and a moody demeanour that changed the minute she was scolded. Because despite being the most annoying little tyke who was extremely clumsy and always got into trouble, she wasn't exactly accustomed to being reprimanded.

"That's no way to talk to someone older than you, Mischief." I smirked.

I don't know when it started, this strange desire to always keep her next to me, to ensure that she didn't go anywhere without my knowledge, to have the reassurance that she was safely tucked away from the world outside, where nobody was going to give two fucks about how lovingly she'd been brought up and how vulnerable she really was despite the mature, grown up facade she put up around others.

But it was a way of life for me now. To see her when I woke up and to see her before I slept. Even though I wasn't really inclined to give her a romantic position in my life just yet and was pretty sure she wouldn't want it either.

And why would I even put in such a Herculean effort when she was already here, spending all of her energy, time and emotions indiscriminately on me.

I already had what I wanted.

All of her attention.

"Oh don't you play the older card on me. And don't try to be my brother either. You were, are and will always be just Jungkook to me. Someone who's determined to ruin my life!"

I suppressed a sardonic smile. "If you think that I have any intention to be your brother... you are so much more idiotic that you come off, princess. And if you think that I'm someone who will ruin your life… you're way too fucking smart for your own good. Wanna know why?" I smiled.

"Because it's mine to ruin. And no one else's."