Arranged || Dino ff

seven

Upon entering the bar, they were seated at a private booth and chatted with each other before a server came up to their table with two glasses and a bottle of water.

"Hello! What can I get you two?" He asks as he takes out a notepad and pen.

"Hi! We'd like to order the fried chicken, two bottles of strawberry soju-" Jia Mei then asks Chan "Anything else you want?"

"N-no, I'm fine. Thank you." He states sheepishly, not wanting to drink in front of her.

"Is that everything?" The server asks, both of them confirming before he excuses himself and leaves them alone again.

"Alcohol? At this time?" Is the first thing he questions as he looks at the time on his phone, but she just chuckles.

"Oh no, I'm taking those home." She then flashes him a cheshire grin "I'm more of a night drinker."

Not really knowing the meaning behind her words, he just nods before feeling his phone buzz in his pocket. Taking out his phone, he sees that he got a text notification from Seungcheol and unlocks the screen.

Keep an eye on Ms. Rose, Chan. You're in the downtown area.

Ah, just the usual reminders. 

Chan rolls his eyes as he locks his phone and places it back into this pocket. Turning his attention back to Jia Mei, she was just looking towards the bar and watching the bartender grab what seems to be the bottles she ordered. While she was distracted and spaced out, Chan was staring at her side profile and studying her features. Her focused gaze, her cute button nose, her adorably rounded cheeks--everything about her made his heart skip a beat.

She's so beautiful, angelic even- 

His stomach twisted while watching her, and once she moved her eyes back to him, he averted his eyes away from her.

Meanwhile, Jia Mei observes him quietly as the silence filled the space between them. The longer she stared at him, the more he became more intimidated. Soon she began to focus on his facial features and realized how attractive he was.

He is pretty good looking.

After several minutes of silence between them, their drinks were finally served to them as Jia Mei cleared her throat and spoke up.

"Chan, may I ask you something?"

His attention went straight to her, eyes locked with hers and listening attentively to whatever she needed to say, which was strange.
Chan is normally a calm and laid back person, and when being spoken to he wouldn't even look at the person. But he could help but act like an obedient dog when she opened her mouth.

"Yes, Jia Mei?" He answers as he began to get nervous, feeling his own palms become sweaty.

She then leans a little bit closer to him over the table, making his heart pound, before looking around and quietly asking "So I've been hearing some rumours about Royal One-Seven for a few years. Care to tell me more about this?"

He blinked and cleared his throat, trying not to break eye contact "Those rumours are most likely aren't true, but would you like to tell me about what you've heard?"

"Well..." She then moves closer to the point where he can feel her breath on his cheek as she whispers "I know your company is good underground as it is above ground."

He froze, unknowing of what to say.

She can't be serious about knowing, can she? Mr. Rose told us that she has no idea about the Diamond Clan.

Keeping his poise and remaining calm, he questions "And what do you mean by that?"

"Don't play dumb with me, Chan." She scoffs at him "And don't think I don't know shit just because my father says so. I've been aware since the first business deal your company agreed to with my father. I mean, how else were you able to convince the most stubborn businessman from France, Mr. Monet, to agree in our project last year?"

He then took the opportunity to brag "Pure negotiation. I am the company's best negotiator after all."

"Right... Then would you consider this 'pure negotiation'?" She then pulls out her phone and shows him security footage of Chan holding a gun to Mr. Monet's chin while Junhui was holding a blade to the neck of his translator, Mr. Dupont-Lee.
Chan's eyes widened immediately in surprise at how she was able to get her hands on such evidence that can expose him and the rest of the company.

"Where did you get that footage?" He asks instantly reaching and trying to grab for her phone, only for her to pull away.

"Oh, I happened to be alone in the security office when the moment occurred, I was being taught how to run back on security footage if needed and the employee training me went on break. Then this caught my eye, and I thought it was interesting." She stated so nonchalantly "As soon as I saw this happen, I recorded it immediately and emailed it to my phone."

"So what're you going to do with it? Blackmail me? Tell the whole world about Royal One-Seven's secrets and underground 'techniques' to ruin our reputation?" He narrows his eyes at her, but she just smiles and shakes her head.

"Nope. I just wanted to know if your 'secrets' were true." She giggles, making him stare at her in confusion.

"And you had to ask in such a way that made me panic?" He lets out a breath, trying to calm his rapidly beating heart and tense shoulders.

Jia Mei shrugs "Yeah, I just wanted to know."

Chan just sat there, dumbfounded at his "fiancé's" technique of getting the truth out of him: fear. He then rested his chin in the palm of his hand.

"Well, this... Is going to be a very interesting marriage." He says as he takes a sip from his glass of water.

"You better get used to it." She smiles as she finally puts her phone back into her pocket "I don't really have much options after our wedding, but I might as well make fun of this. Besides, a naïve woman is only going to bore you to death."

Her words made him scoff, but also felt a tinge of sadness. He didn't want her to feel trapped or weighed down by their marriage, but before he could say anything, the server had come back with their food.

"Hi, thank you for waiting!" He exclaims while he scratches the back of his head "I accidentally dropped your original dish and they had to make it again, so as an apology I asked for the chef to make extra."

"It's ok, you really didn't have to. We're not in a hurry." Jia Mei then flashes a charming smile that makes the waiter blush as he thanked her again before leaving them alone. 

Meanwhile with Chan, the scene going on in front of him irked him a bit. Him and Jia Mei were spending their first day together as an engaged couple, yet something about her smiling at the server and making him blush irritated him. Once the server left he was going to speak his mind, but Jia Mei beat him to it.

"Oh, and before we discuss wedding plans tomorrow with the rest, there's something I also want to discuss with you first: understanding and communication."

"Alright, anything specific you want to talk about?"

"Just one thing I want to get off my chest, really..."