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Y/N’S POV

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“No, it’s not.” I crossed my arms, holding my chin high confidently. His possessive words did unnerve  me, almost convincing me that he was indeed right and that my life was his to toy with but still, a rational part of my brain absolutely refused to put up with the incredulous idea of giving someone else the power to ruin my life. It was a conflict that I hadn’t been able to resolve yet. Did being indebted to Jeon Jungkook mean that I had sold over my life to him? Wasn’t that like a slavery contract? 

But then, why did a more irrational part of me feel slightly validated and even…flattered when he talked like that, exerting his dominance over me? It almost felt like I enjoyed the thought of giving over the reins of my life to him in blindly rosy hopes of somehow softening his stone cold heart and getting him to actually care about me rather than viewing me merely as an unaccomplished task. 

But Jungkook wasn’t exactly capable of ever living up to those expectations was he? He was an emotional psychopath for whom every relationship was merely about give and take, a principle he ruthlessly followed until he’d seen that relationship through to the end. 

“My life’s not for you to ruin, or do anything with for that matter.” I repeated, with an even firmer resolve than before. “I do not give you that right, Jungkook.” 

It was hard to enunciate those words. I did not want Jungkook to look at me as if I was some sort of a traitor for telling him those words which was exactly what he was doing right now, looking at me as if he couldn’t believe I had had the nerve to disregard the extent of his hold over me. His eyes were narrowed as he sat up straight in his luxurious chair, eyeing me down with a visibly condescending look. I could tell he didn’t believe that I had the guts to actually, really stand up to him and he was ready to prey on the remainder of fear and hesitation in my mind like the calculating bastard he was. 

But these were office hours. And I couldn’t really afford to stand here in front of him contemplating and wasting time. Even if I did argue with him, trying to put things in perspective for him, it was only going to leave me with a huge load of pending official commitments on the first day of work and very less time to get it done. And the last thing I wanted was to give Jungkook another reason to ostracise me, a very formidable one too because as unmerciful he was as my brother’s best friend, he was absolutely diabolical as a boss. 

“Now, if you’ll excuse me, Sir.” I gave him an overtly sweet smile as he continued glaring at me impassively. “I should really get going right now.”

“Oh and Jungkook,” I looked at him just before I turned on my heels, ready to leave his office. “Please be careful with how you treat me around the office. I already have enough on my hands with my brother’s best friend intent on making my life living hell. I do not want you to act up as my boss too because that’ll really be a dealbreaker for whatever unkind intentions you have towards me.” 

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JUNGKOOK’S POV

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Y/N liked to act strong. She really did. It was almost hilarious how she thought she could handle dealing with the two sides of me when she couldn’t even put up with me as her brother’s supposed best friend. 

Unkind intentions? 

She was absolutely right. My intentions towards her were nothing close to kind. And perhaps a part of me knew that it was wrong to covet her like that but I was comfortable and I needed that sense of comfort to keep my head on straight. I was perfectly aware of my inability to form true relationships and that is why it seemed quite convenient to hold onto the familiar people in my life, revelling in the sense of familiarity they brought along. 

For me perhaps, those familiar people were Jaehwan and Y/N, Jaehwan satisfying the deficit of a healthy friendly companionship in my life and Y/N...well, I wasn’t really sure which part of my life she fit into the best. 

She was like a rare piece of puzzle that fit perfectly wherever I wanted it to go. 

I chuckled darkly to myself, my attention immediately diverted as I spotted her swift walking across the corridor two floors downstairs. The location of my office had been thought out well, placing me in a really advantageous position to keep a check on everything that went on in the building. A huge ceiling to floor wall made of one-way glass allowed me to have a clear view of all the opposite floors and that was how I spotted her, traipsing through the corridor, her hair which was down in the morning, now tied up in a messy ponytail and her chest heaving with every quick step she took carrying the huge boxes of waste paper. 

I frowned. She was not here for manual labor. What the fvck was the HR doing making her do the work of a staff assistant? 

“Mr. Kim, in my office.” I spoke into the phone shortly. “Right now.” 

“What the hell is going on with the distribution of work in our company these days, Mr. Kim?” I raised an eyebrow as soon as the HR Manager stepped into my office, looking anxious. “Have you finally gotten so busy with your ‘office girlfriends’ that you no longer have the time to deal with work?” 

The man’s face paled. “I-I don’t understand wh-what you mean, Sir.” 

I smirked. This man had really thought he could get away with not just ignoring his official responsibilities and violating the company’s policy of no dating at work but also faking ignorance when confronted and acting like an idiot in front of me? Not to mention he was a fvcking cheater. And while it wasn’t really my place to question or pry into my employees’ personal life, I certainly could afford to not have a person of such loose character at an important position in the company. 

If he could cheat on someone he’d vowed to be faithful to lifelong, he could definitely cheat on the company as well. 

“You know exactly what I mean, Mr. Kim.” I glanced at him firmly. “Your promiscuous behaviour and irresponsible actions far outweigh your contribution to the company and it’s high time you hand in your resignation. The Jeon Corp. is no place for insincere and distracted employees like yourself. You may leave.” 

I knew I was doing the right thing, my business instincts perfectly calm as the words escaped my mouth. It wasn’t a decision I’d made in haste and it most certainly wasn’t one that I’d taken right now just because seeing Y/N do something that was clearly hard for her had set me off…

It was just that even as the dismissive words left my lips, I could feel the remnants of very similar sounding words clawing at my insides. When she’d left my office, Y/N had sounded exactly the way I did now, uncaring and far too superior to make the other person understand what their fault was. 

And I wasn’t about to take that attitude from her. Ever.