#𝗟𝗢𝗡𝗚 𝗙𝗟𝗜𝗚𝗛𝗧; 𝗗𝗢𝗧𝗔𝗘

十一

doyoung froze as he saw taeyong walk onto the elevated area at the front of the hall behind kun, a shy smile on his face and bright red ears with flushed cheeks.

eyes scouring the hundreds of faces in front of him, taeyong took a deep breath and bowed to the audience as they applauded lightly. kun started off with their presentation, more specifically about how the pilots have been taking extra classes for newer models of planes to fly them safely and comfortably for both the staff and the passengers. taeyong nodded along with what the captain was saying and desperately ignored the part of his brain that was trying to force him to look for a certain male.

doyoung, meanwhile, did his absolute best to get taeyong to see him by drilling holes into the man's head. failing miserably, doyoung sat back in his seat, crossing his arms and pouting slightly. it did, however, catch the attention of yukhei who was just staring between doyoung and taeyong, with a weird, unexplainable tension between the two of them. deciding that it wasn't his business, he turned away and focused on the actual presentation.

the second that kun and taeyong's presentation was over, they walked away and into the crowd that had just been dismissed for a quick lunch break before having to resume the conference. muttering out a quick apology to yukhei, doyoung rushed after them, bumping into random people who threw him nasty glares. doyoung disregarded them and continued to frantically search for the black-haired male.

finally catching sight of taeyong, doyoung ran up to him, grabbing onto his arm lightly.

"sweetheart?"

taeyong flinched and turned around, face turning slightly distressed before his neutral expression returned.

"ah, hello mr. kim," he said curtly, avoiding eye contact with the male. doyoung frowned, confused about the change in attitude all of a sudden. wasn't the taeyong that he knew (albeit only for 14 hours) shy yet cheerful and bubbly? shaking it off, he smiled at taeyong.

"how have you been? i was really surprised to see you here but you did an amazing job presenting in front of everyone."

"i've been fine. you?" taeyong was looking somewhere behind doyoung and his eyes widened incredibly. "shit—"

"what?" doyoung said and tried turning around, only to be twisted back by taeyong.

"don't turn around. just pretend like we're having a great conversation, please. just play along here."

doyoung nodded along and looked at taeyong curiously. "is everything alright?"

"just peachy. now i might say some really fucking stupid shit so just pretend like you know what i'm talking about."

the look of confusion on doyoung's face only grew as he was turned around, taeyong maintaining an iron grip on his poor hand.

"taeyong? oh, mr. kim?" a tall male with ash grey hair walked over to them, stopping in front. his name tag read 'kim jungwoo — vellichir' and he had a small smile on his face.

"hi jungwoo," taeyong said, sending a smile towards the male. he moved his hand up and threaded it through doyoung's arm, holding it tightly. "how have you been?"

"i've been fine. you?"

"well, not too bad. i'm enjoying my time as a flight attendant."

doyoung stared between the two of them, wanting to step in and ask how they knew each other but he refrained, knowing that he would probably piss taeyong off.

"oh, allow me to introduce myself mr. kim. my name is kim jungwoo and i'm here to represent vellichir today. how has your day been so far?" jungwoo asked, turning towards doyoung extending his arm out for the man to shake.

doyoung clasped his arm firmly and shook it, sending a business smile his way. "my name is kim dongyoung of hanjin group. and i've been good today. tired and really wanting to go sleep, but good nonetheless. if you don't mind me asking, and forgive my ignorance, what does vellichir do?"

jungwoo let out a tinkling laugh.

"oh don't worry, you're totally fine. vellichir is a publishing company and we deal with some of the biggest author's in the usa and also a few in korea. most people don't pay attention to the publishing company compared to the actual book which is technically our goal. we want to put out quality books that entice readers so even if they don't remember us, they'll remember our book."

doyoung hummed, quickly staring at taeyong who maintained a blank expression from the corner of his eye. "that's a very good goal to have."

"why thank you. if you don't mind me asking, how do you know taeyong here?"

taeyong unconsciously tightened his grip on doyoung's arm. to be honest, taeyong didn't want jungwoo to know exactly how the two of the met but he really couldn't just tell doyoung to lie to jungwoo's face. lucky enough for him, doyoung seemed to somehow catch on and didn't tell jungwoo the whole truth.

"ah, we just met while i was going around to see all the employees who were in korea at that time around a month or two back. it hasn't been too long. how about you?"

jungwoo nodded and responded to his question with an answer that drew a reaction from taeyong which made doyoung even more curious about the man.

"oh did you not know? i thought you would know seeing how close you two look. we actually had a book deal for him before everything happened."

"everything happened?" doyoung was extremely confused by now but he could see that taeyong was turning paler by the minute next to him so he pretended as if he wasn't. "ah yes, i remember now."

"yeah it was before his fami—"

"i think that's enough for now jungwoo. mr. kim and i have to go talk to captain qian about something regarding our airline so if you'll excuse us..." taeyong said, sending a curt smile jungwoo's way before whisking doyoung away from him.

doyoung was quiet for a while before attempting to talk.

"for the record, i don't really care much for what he was about to say but i'm here if you want someone to talk to."

taeyong turned his head and faced the male.

"why did you lie? you didn't tell him how we met and you pretended as if you knew what he was saying."

"well," doyoung scrunched his nose slightly. "it just seemed like that's what you needed me to do. was i correct in assuming that?"

taeyong turned back around, not letting doyoung see the soft smile blooming on his face.

"yeah. thank you doyoung."

-

YOOOOOO HI

DAMN IT'S BEEN 2 TO LIKE 3 ISH MONTHS SINCE I'VE UPDATED THIS SHITTY BOOK I'M SO SORRY I HAD REALLY BAD WRITERS BLOCK BUT I SWEAR I HAVE A PLOT READY NOW SO LOOK FORWARD TO THAT

seriously, i love you guys. thanks for putting up with my non-existent updates 💕💕

take some baby taeil pics because we need to appreciate this man more: