The CEO and his Appointed Secretary
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Chapter 1: The CEO is gay
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Jaehyun stands in the middle of his room, in a penthouse located in the heart of the most exclusive neighbourhood of Seoul.
He looks over his reflection in the full-length mirror—the dark blue Louis Vuitton suit is tailored to fit him like a glove.
The silver Burberry cuff-links are a gift from his mother under which lie his tattoos, completely hidden from view.
He adjusts the collar of his dress shirt and skinny black tie for the nth time before finally putting on the tie clip that was given to him by his stylist. He tries not to fiddle with the off-white pocket square too much.
"Why the fuck do I need a pocket square?" Jaehyun had asked the small stylist with a frown.
"Watch your language, Jaehyun. You're the CEO of the family empire. You're Jaehyun." His mother had told him with her signature Disapproving Mom Look. "And for what it's worth, it makes you look sophisticated." She continued, as if it was something he should've known already.
He picks up the white gold Rolex his grandfather had gifted him with. It costs well over $20,000, not that Jaehyun gives a fuck since it's practically lunch money to him at this point.
The SJ Group is a conglomerate worth in the multitrillion won range with resorts, golf courses and shopping centers all over the world from Phuket to Vienna.
His grandfather, Jeon Jeongho, had founded it as a small real estate development company. Skip ahead several decades and Jaehyun is now the heir of a giant multinational corporation.
Jaehyun has only been back from the University of Chicago for three weeks but he's already being thrown into the dragon's den as the next CEO. Today happens to be a welcoming slash congratulations party thrown in his honour at one of their hotels in Seoul.
Since his mother doesn't trust him with any matters, fashion included in the long list, he was greeted a couple of mornings ago by the voice of a cheery and overly enthusiastic stylist.
He was ushered back into his room, awkwardly standing in the middle of it while the stylist (whose name is escaping Jaehyun at the moment) took his measurements, getting a bit too handsy to be considered completely professional.
He doesn't understand his mother to be perfectly honest. If anyone needs a style intervention, it's his best friend Taemin, who will of course be attending this little gathering. Taemin is even richer than Jaehyun himself but you would never be able to tell from the way he dresses—as he likes ripped shirts with gaping collars, pants he picks up at the second-hand store and black strappy sandals.
Rather than the son of the chairman of an agricultural super-giant, he looks like could be smoking a joint in the back of a van.
"I'm an artist," he likes to say dramatically.
He is a best-selling romance novel author under a pseudonym, his rise to success was with his book Hold Me Tight which he published when he was only twenty years old. It got raving reviews and a movie deal shortly after being published.
However, Jaehyun hopes Taemin can at least put in a bit of an effort today for his best friend's congrats party. "Taemin, I know you like to make a statement—"
"It's hyung to you, brat." Taemin had replied, deep voice rising in volume.
"Taemin-hyung, please, please, you know how my grandpa is." Jaehyun had, admittedly, and embarrassingly, begged.
"What do you take me for Jaehyun -ah? My best friend is becoming a CEO! Of course, I'll dress up nicely." He had replied, voice sounding completely earnest.
Taemin said he would be there for "moral support", with his signature boxy grin.
He is one of Jaehyun's oldest friends and a rare, genuine one. Since he was a little kid, it has been practically drilled into Jaehyun's head that people want to use him and hang out with him for their benefit. They want his money, his connections, anything they can get their greedy hands on.
Still, even with Taemin there, Jaehyun is terrified because this is something that Taemin can't really help him with. He's terrified because he has to endure social interaction for the next couple of hours without rest. Jeon Jaehyun is many things, but a social butterfly he is not.
He vividly remembers the way he used to stutter when his teacher would pick on him during math class back in middle school. His mind was already a jumble because it was math, which is one of the few things that he's not good at, and all the attention suddenly focused on him would fluster him too much.
He could still hear the echoes of muffled snickers coming from the back of the classroom in his head. The day that class was over was the most relief he'd felt in his short life.
That was back in Busan, which became a distant memory when his family finally decided to leave for Seoul. The only reason they lived in Busan until then was because his grandfather had insisted on Jaehyun knowing his 'roots' and 'where the family business was born' and for him to experience life as a 'commoner'.
In Seoul, he'd been placed in an exclusive private academy where everyone who was anyone went to, from the daughters and sons of politicians to heirs of multinational businesses like himself, to the children of diplomats from other countries.
Coming to Seoul was like shedding old skin, or putting on a new persona you could say. He was Jeon Jaehyun, an heir, he had to get his shit together.
Every time he remembered the laughter of his classmates, he became even more determined to change. He would be more confident, he would be more fitting for an heir instead of the awkward, pimply teenager that he really was.
He changed the way he dressed, he got a haircut. He was a new person. Or so he liked to believe.
He met his best friend Kim Taemin at that school. Taemin was already a somebody but he decided to take the prickly Jaehyun under his popular wing. Plus, Taemin wasn't hanging out with him because he was rich, he was there because, for some strange reason, he saw Jaehyun as someone worthy of being friends with.
Jaehyun might not be able to say it out loud, but he's endlessly grateful for Taemin and his unconditional friendship.
That school became home to many of Jaehyun's escapades and acts of rebellion. An example that Jaehyun still remembers very clearly happens to be with the only son of a famous politician, Seung Woo, who was Jaehyun's first gay experience.
They'd been dared to kiss each other during a game of truth or dare and that turned into making out in a bathroom stall during class. Embarrassingly enough, they'd been caught by a teacher who screamed at the sight as if he never saw gay people before.
Jaehyun was given a warning and let go without punishment because his family were big-time donors to the school but Seung Woo, poor Seung Woo had left the school a couple of weeks later.
He couldn't even look at Jaehyun in the eye after the 'incident'. Not that Jaehyun cared because the only reason he did what he did was because well…he could.
Because when he came to that school, Busan was a distant memory, and people actually wanted him. Or his body. Whatever. Most of them had their heads too far up their own asses to care about anything else.
A couple of weeks after Seung Woo left, a diplomat's son from Germany transferred to their school. He too, had succumbed to Jaehyun's charms, charms that Jaehyun himself could not fathom. Because he was kind of cold, he didn't like showing affection. 'Tsundere' as Taemin likes to call him sometimes, but it only took a week before Jaehyun was having his first real sexual experience, in the same bathroom, this time locked in a stall with Adrian's large hand covering his mouth.
He was clearly more experienced than Seung Woo had been. Jaehyun came with a muffled groan, painting Adrian's other hand white.
They fooled around for a couple of months until Adrian had the strangest idea that they were now boyfriends, so when he saw Jaehyun making out with someone from the dance club, he went livid.
It was quite embarrassing, as Jaehyun remembers, not for himself but for poor Adrian. He went red to the roots of his dirty blonde hair as he yelled at him at the top of his lungs in the middle of the hallway. He too, left soon after that.
Jaehyun supposes he should feel bad about all of...that, but then thinks, Why? Why should I feel bad about something that's not even my fault? Because it wasn't his fault, not really.
His high school years passed in a blur of fooling around with anyone and everyone and coming to the realization that he didn't like girls.
He told Taemin when they were sitting around in his living room one day, while Taemin was looking through a suspiciously pink magazine.
"I'm gay."