CHAPTER 9

JEON JUNGHO

I press the button on the coffee machine and wait for it to fill up my cup. Since I came back from the north all I suppose I could think of is him and his golden eyes. It's been a week since I last saw Jihan and I still can't seem to take him off my mind. 

He really is something else. 

The way he looks at me with that look in his eyes that draws me to himself is hard to resist and I wonder if he's aware of all of this. The effect he had on me. 

The way he talks, the way he moves, and the way he looks— it's divine. 

Yesterday, I got a call from Jeder from Ciria, where I'm going to finish my study about the pack duties. And I'll be going to Ciria next month, so I think our engagement will go through a quite stretch and will be by the end of this year, and I'll have to come back home for it. 

"So, how is it going for you?" I take the cup of tea from the counter and turn to the voice. 

"Well. . .  good, I guess. How was it for you in Elisam?" I ask as Juli walks toward me, a playful glint in her dark brown eyes and a beam on her red-painted lips. 

It was much better when I didn't have to see her face for a week. I blow down and take a sip from the hot coffee in my hand. It burns my tongue in a pleasant way. My eyes rank with her. 

"Well, it was not so good for me because my lover boy was not there with me," Juli says with a pouty edge in her voice. Standing just before me like she never heard the word called space. She travels a hand up my shoulders and moves closer. 

Loverboy, my ass!  

"Didn't you miss me, daddy?" God, she's up for it again. I rip her hand off my shoulder and take a step back from her unwelcoming touch. 

"Never did. And don't come to me calling me that shit." I grumble and begin to walk back to my office. But Juli being her sultry self dared to hold my wrist, restraining me from moving further. 

"Oh, really? I don't like you grumpy, darling." She moves her hand from my wrist to my forearm in a way I loathe. 

Okay. . . Juli is not that bad thinking of the help she did for me all the time when I had to throw myself into the piles of overloaded files and shits and pull all days'. She was a good friend until she decided she didn't want to be just that and to have more of me. How could I not hate this side of her? When she's so keen on getting inside my freaking pants every time she sees me? 

"What if I don't want you to like it, though?" Her face drowned in an instant. Eyes rounding.

"Can't you just not be so rude for a second, Jungho?" Now she completely takes her hands off me and takes a step back, looking at me as disbelief swam through her eyes. 

"Remember it's the same you who fucked me into oblivion two weeks ago." She says with an ugly grimace, she looks like in a debate to move closer to me or keep these two feet distance and choose the latter which I'm glad for.

"It was a mistake, I told you just that so many times already. Yet what made you think it was not?" I ask, brows scrunching in frustration. Because it was! I was fucking drunk and she basically dragged me to the spare room and then…well, I did what was to be done from there. 

"The way you did it," Juli says without an ounce of shame even after her shameful deed. I place the cup on the counter with a light thud and draw close to her.

"God, I was drunk, Juli. I was fucking drunk and you did that to me." My teeth clenched as I hushed it out. "This is a workplace for fuck's sake, can you be more responsible?" I breathe, running a hand through my hair, I can't stand her.

"Oh, now I'm the one being irresponsible not you for fucking your coworker in your cabin, huh? Ain't that funny, darling?" Her mockery gets under my skin in a way I don't want it to be, tempting me to throw my hands at her. 

Juli's hand lifted and long fingers dug into her slim waist above the tight maroon dress she wore. Brown eyes were wide and challenging and a wicked smirk kept one side of her lips high like her eyebrows. 

"Don't start with that, Juli. And literally don't roll that filthy tongue at me about that shit. Something that never happened. You did this same thing two weeks ago, didn't ya? Have some shame, Juli." 

"I think I have enough, honey." I roll my eyes at the bullshit she keeps spilling. 

"I don't have time for your bullshit, Juli." A vicious grin spread my lips wide as I look into her eyes, red bleeding to my eyes. 

Juli tensed her jaw and clench her hands into a fist trying hard to not duck her head down in submission. But she only made it to two blinks of eyes to look down at her feet. "See ya, my Juli. . ." I pet her red, smooth hair in irony. She's fuming under my hand. 

"Yes, Juli?" 

"Yes, alpha." All her efforts have gone to waste as a whimper still follows after her strained words.

A horrendous laugh leaves my mouth at that.

I close the door to my cabinet behind me and plop in the chair. The reason I decided to get my ass out of here was to get some coffee to dull the headache. And now what? The coffee is long forgotten and cold on the counter out there. I throw my head back on the headrest of the chair. 

About to close my eyes, a knock jerks me away or cuts me off from drifting away. I turn to the door to see Hyeri, dad's manager,  a woman in her late forties with black hair slicked back in a bun and cat-like eyes with wrinkles fanning to the sides of them every time she smiles in a very kind way that I doubt I've seen from anyone, peeking her head inside. 

I sit straight and spin my chair to face her properly, "Yes?"

"Your dad wants you to attend the meeting with him which apparently is in two minutes and you don't look okay?" 

"I'm very much okay, I guess." I rumble out a laugh. 

"Then please come. Get a coffee maybe?" 

"Would like to."