CONDEMNATION ✓

Chapter 69

It was a long twenty minutes you spent hiding away in the bathroom of that upscale restaurant. The periwinkle walls were starting to make you feel sick. Tapping the pads of your fingers under your eyes, you make sure you make up was intact and flawless as you tried to figure out how to reverse the mess you had made. Seojoon hadn't come for you, perhaps he just left the restaurant and cut his losses. He could have been on the phone with Hoseok now, trying to refund the money he spent on your phony ass. If that was the case, it was very likely Jungkook was on his way to pick you up and return you back to the mansion to get a thorough ass beating from R. Was it too late to flee to Mexico and change your name? Yeah.

Taking in a breath, you brushed your fingers through the wig fibers that you flaunted as your natural hair and straightened out your dress. Heading for the door, you grasped the curved brass handle and yanked it open. Might as well get it over with. Flinging the door away from yourself you headed into the hall. Surveying your surroundings briefly as you made your way back to the dining room. Stopping at the mouth of the hall, you stared toward the patio seating. You couldn't see the table from the back corner of the restaurant, but that didn't stop you from straining your neck in attempts to.

"Mr. Richards and his fiance left." A menacing voice spoke from a few feet behind you. Flinching, you quickly whipped around as you placed a hand over your chest in defense and surprise. Seojoon. Oh, thank fuck. Releasing the breath held in your lungs you lowered your hand. "Rather quickly might I add."

"Mr. Park. I am so--" You readied your rushed apology, hoping he'd buy every word and not terminate your time with him, just not before the assignment was over. He sliced through your words with a single name, his own.

"Seojoon." He corrected as one of his hands slipped from the pocket of his slacks and waved lifeless in the air. "I never liked him anyway." His eyes rolled back in his head for a split second before returning to your face. He pushed himself from the wall he had been so patiently waiting against. "In all honestly, I had been trying to break away from his corruption for two years now. His business practices are not something I want to be associated with my name."

"Seojoon..." You started as your shoulders slumped down. "Never the less, I apologize." Insisting you went on with your plea despite his interjection prior. "It wasn't my place to speak out like that." You folded a bit of hair behind your left ear as your eyes averted to the floor. "I should have bit my tongue."

The tips of Seojoon's oxford shined shoes came into your view before you felt length fingers take stock of your chin and raise it up. "You're willing to renege on your nobel words in attempts to please some wealthy businessman you do not know?" He questioned as his dark brown gaze peered into your false hazel eyes. "How unremarkable."

Raising your brows you were taken back. Did you just fuck up your mission by apologizing for speaking out? There was no winning for losing. This was a first, not being able to read a client so easily. Normally it was a breeze. You knew exactly what they wanted when they wanted it but Seojoon Park was a whole different game. You weren't sure how to play it.

"I... I can see if my agency can refund your money for tonight if you'd like." You reverted back to old ways. Bashful words lingering on shy lips. Reverse phycology, inwardly you could only pray it would work. Let him take pity on you, let him forgive you - for whatever rationality he deemed. It didn't matter, but you couldn't fuck this up.

"That would leave two more days unaccounted for." His remark symbolized that he wanted an entire refund, which wasn't unreasonable. It's what you had implied. Clearly, he didn't realize that. "I'd rather you pay me personally." Or he did... Before you could ask exactly how he dropped his hand from your chin and reached for your wrist. "We've got a date with a few bottles of soju after the night we've had."

His abrupt words caused a bit of nervous laughter to come up from your throat. How could he be serious? Before you could question his authenticity, he began to move with you toward the door of the restaurant. A brief stop at the doorman to recollect your clutch purse and the two of you were off. Back onto the busy nightlife streets of Stocgate. You let him lead and for the time being, kept your mouth shut.

You breathed in the cool night air as Seojoon released your wrist and slipped his cellphone from his pocket, checking a few details that flashed across the screen. You tossed a bit of hair behind your shoulder, waiting for further instruction as a car veered from the street and off to the curb. A sleek black Rolls-Royce Cullinan coming to a stop right in front of where Seojoon stood. Reaching out he grabbed the handle of the back door and swung it open before tossing you a knowing look.

He cocked his head to the gapping invitation and you quickly put some pep in your step. Hurrying to his side you nodded your head in thanks before slipping onto the leather seats with the help of his strong arm. He shut the door behind himself and the door across from you swung open thanks to a waiting driver. Seojoon slipped into his place beside you and soon after the driver got back into the car.

Setting your purse into your lap, you leaned against the leather seats. For the first time, your tongue felt too dangerous to use. You had to figure him out, figure out what to say to put the night back on track. He asked you to be more genuine and you let it get to your head in attempts to put a dick-head in place, affectively ruining a business deal. Whether it was bound to break or not the fact of the matter was that you caused their deal to go sour and you had no right to toy with a man's business practice like that when you were nothing more than a hired whore.

Still, here you were. On track for the assignment just like planned and Seojoon pretending as if nothing happened. How lonely was his life that he tossed the idea of a business deal to the wind in attempts to keep his company for the evening? Maybe he meant it when he said he had been trying to shake Mr. Richards for some time and you helped move that process along by blatantly insulting him. Would it lighten the atmosphere if you tried to joke about what had happened? Or would it be better to just shift gears and just change subjects to a more flirtatious or comedy filled nature? Fuck, you hated second-guessing yourself.