Wicked Souls: A Limited Edition Reverse Harem Romance Collection

by Rebecca Royce

  Maybe it was just that he couldn’t sleep, and he didn’t want to disturb me?

  The phone suddenly buzzed into life with emails and messages that a sender couldn’t seem to wait until Monday to worry about. Welcoming the distraction, I started filtering through them.

  Minhyuk finally made an appearance, his hair still wet, about ten minutes later. “I was just coming to wake you,” he told me.

  “I was wondering where you’d gone.”

  He walked over, stopping in front of me. With a soft smile, he leaned forward and kissed me. “I didn’t want to wake you. You seem to be getting as much sleep as we do.” He sat down on the bed beside me. “We need to check out soon though. Do you want me to order some breakfast up? They have American pancakes?”

  I glanced at the time and shook my head. “We will need to leave before they’ve cooked them. I’m good. We can check out and get something on the way home.”

  We gathered the last of our things together and left the room. Although Minhyuk held my hand in the lift down, he didn’t say much.

  Surely it was only in my mind, I didn’t say anything myself until we had traveled nearly an hour with minimal conversation. I put my phone down and swiveled in my seat. “Are you OK, Minhyuk? You’ve been quiet.”

  “I’m fine,” he replied, keeping his attention on the road. “I’m the quiet one in H3RO, remember.”

  I pursed my lips. “Compared to the others, yes. But not with me. Not like this.”

  Minhyuk shook his head. “It’s nothing.”

  “Which really means it’s something.” I reached over, placing my hand on his thigh.

  Minhyuk flinched, and the car swerved.

  “Sorry,” Minhyuk quickly apologized.

  My heart was pounding a million miles a minute. There had been nothing in the lane next to us, but we weren’t going slow, it was still raining, and the swerve had been sharp. “That’s not nothing. If my touch is going to make you have an accident, it’s not nothing and we should probably pull over.”

  “It’s… you made me jump.”

  “Minhyuk! If there had been a car in the other lane, of if you’d have turned that wheel just a little harder, your new car would have been a wreck and we would probably be lying bleeding at the side of the road.”

  Minhyuk ran his hand through his bangs, letting a long sigh escape. “I’m sorry,” he muttered, finally. “I was a little distracted.”

  Turning back in my seat, I stared out of the window, watching the water as it ran across the glass. Whatever was bothering Minhyuk, he wasn’t going to tell me now.

  We arrived back in Seoul a couple of hours later. To make the journey even more uncomfortable, there had been a wreck and we’d gotten caught up in the traffic.

  My plan to try again with Minhyuk was ruined when, instead of going back home, he drove to Atlantis. “Why are we here?” I asked as the parking barrier lifted. Thankfully, the rain had kept the streets clear, but I still slipped down low in the seat.

  “You left your car here,” Minhyuk reminded me as we pulled up next to it.

  I gave Minhyuk an awkward smile before turning it into a genuine one. “Thank you for last night,” I told him. Even if this morning had turned weird, last night had been nice. “I hope it was special for you.”

  “Like it was for you?”

  “Minhyuk, I—”

  “You should go, before anyone sees you,” he said, abruptly. “Leave your case in the trunk, if you like. I’ll take it up to your room when I get home.”

  I bit my lip, before leaning over and kissing his cheek. “It was special, Minhyuk,” I said, softly. Grabbing my purse, I got out of the car. I’d barely walked to the driver’s door of my Range Rover before Minhyuk had driven away.

  Leaning against the door, I rubbed at my face.

  Minhyuk thought I didn’t think it wasn’t special?

  It might not have been the best, but that didn’t make it not special.

  I was getting a headache and tempting as it was to hide in my office, I wasn’t going to do that. Unlocking the car, I got in. I was going home. It was already afternoon—this wasn’t going to continue like this.

  Although I was only minutes behind Minhyuk, he wasn’t at home when I got there. I’d realized as the sensor picked up my car and opened the garage, that Minhyuk hadn’t put one in his new car, so if anything, he should have still been parked up inside.

  The Audi wasn’t inside when the door opened.

  Grabbing my purse, I walked into the house. Dante and Nate sprawled out on the couch watching something where the actors had a British accent. One of them hit pause as I walked in. “I, uh… is Minhyuk back yet?” I asked, trying to keep my tone light.

  “If he is, he didn’t say hi,” Nate replied. He frowned. “How come you came back separately?”

  OK, so Minhyuk wanted to do the avoiding.

  Fine.

  “I left my car at Atlantis.” I buttoned my coat and slid it off. “Where are the others?”

  “I think Jun is in the games room,” Nate replied before looking to Dante.

  Dante shrugged. “Not here annoying me? Tae’s in the studio, already working on our comeback.” Dante’s nose wrinkled up. “I don’t know where Kyun is.”

  “He went out…” Nate picked up his phone. “A couple of hours ago.”

  Nodding, I walked over to the back of the couch and stared at the screen. “What are you watching?”

  “Peaky Blinders,” Nate said, his eyes lighting up. “It’s about a gang in England who did really violent and fucked up shit, after the First World War. It’s amazing. Want to join us?”

  I looked at the screen and the amount of blood I could see and shook my head.

  “We can put on something Holly-friendly?” Dante offered.

  I shook my head again. “I have a rare few hours at home. I have exciting things to do. You enjoy the show and I’ll join you both later.”

  Leaving them there, I went and hung my coat up before heading down to the laundry room.

  Laundry was my exciting thing to do. When everyone was in, the laundry was usually done by Nate or Tae. Apparently the two had alternated that chore back when they were in their dorm, and the habit had stuck.

  They’d been gone for most of the last four weeks which meant most of what was there was mine anyway, but I also found sorting the laundry and doing some ironing strangely therapeutic.

  Grabbing an empty laundry basket, I headed upstairs. I quickly worked my way through everyone’s bedrooms, emptying their laundry hampers and filling my basket. Back in the laundry room, I put on some music and started sorting.

  I was in the middle of emptying pockets when I pulled out a receipt. I scanned it over to make sure it wasn’t for anything important—Jun had a terrible habit of buying snacks and drinks from the convenience stores and hoarding the receipts in his pockets.

  It wasn’t a receipt from a convenience store. It was as receipt from an ATM for a withdrawal for five million won.

  That was over four thousand dollars.

  Biting my lip, I stared down at the piece of paper, before looking at the pants I’d pulled it from. It wasn’t Jun’s clothing, but Kyun’s.

  Feeling like I was snooping instead of just doing laundry, I set the receipt to the side and continued with the laundry. But my attention kept drifting back to the transaction receipt.

  Despite how advanced South Korea was, it still liked cold hard cash. Carry large amounts of money around wasn’t completely out of the ordinary, but that amount…

  Kyun had worked his ass off since being a teen—they all had—and they’d finally started earning money. It wasn’t up to me to monitor what they spent it on, nor did I really care. If Kyun wanted to buy a building, or Minhyuk wanted to buy a sports car, then that was their prerogative.

  But something didn’t feel right.

  Nope—I thrust the pile of laundry into the machine and poured in the washing powder—I was not going to become that gi
rlfriend.

  My stomach grumbled and I realized I hadn’t eaten since the sushi. After setting the washing machine going, I returned to the kitchen and started looking through the cupboards. They were full of Kyun’s ramyun.

  I grabbed one, emptied out the powder and ‘vegetables’ and added the water. As I was waiting for the noodles to cook, the electronic beep of the front door carried down the hallway.

  A few moments later, Kyun walked into the kitchen. Seeing me, he gave me a smile and hurried over to wrap his arms around me. “Kyun, you’re drenched!”

  He kissed me and then stepped back, shaking his jacket off, dripping water over the tiled floor. “It’s raining outside.”

  “Where have you been? Didn’t you take an umbrella with you?”

  Kyun hung his jacket up on the back of one of the breakfast chairs before taking a seat in it. “I was with my father.” He peered past me at the ramyun. “Is there any more?”

  Pursing my lips, I pulled open the cupboard and pointed at the six dozen pots of various flavors of ramyun. “This is the best stocked ramyun house in Seoul.”

  “Which I eat when I’m not out on promotions,” Kyun protested, before smiling sheepishly at me. “Extra hot, please.”

  Faking an exasperated sigh, I pulled one of the red pots from the cupboard and began preparing his ramyun. I slid the pot in front of him. “Your father? Things are going well?”

  “I think so,” Kyun told me.

  I grabbed my own pot and some chopsticks, taking a seat at the breakfast bar beside him. Lifting the lid, I stirred the contents. “I’m glad you decided to see him. it’s good that it seems to be working out.”

  “How are things going with your father?”

  I sucked up a mouthful of ramyun before answering. “Better. He lets me get on with things at work, and we get lunch together occasionally.”

  “But?”

  “But, I know I’m the third favorite child. Which is fine, because he’s my second favorite parent.” I blew on my ramyun. “I just wish that sometimes he’d side with me instead of automatically assuming Sejin is in the right.”

  “At least Sejin is in China. He can’t do much from there.”

  As I had a mouthful of ramyun I didn’t tell Kyun he was still able to be a pain the ass.

  “But there’s something else bothering you.”

  Setting my chopsticks on the side of my bowl, I turned and propped my head up with my arm, my elbow resting on the counter. “Me or you?”

  Kyun who had been peering under his ramyun lid turned and arched an eyebrow. “Huh?”

  “Is everything else OK with you?”

  Kyun continued to stare at me.

  “I was doing some laundry before and I emptied an ATM transaction receipt from your pockets. You have your own money and you’re entitled to spend it on whatever you want, but that’s a lot of money to carry about in cash.” Now the words were out of my mouth, I was well aware that I sounded like a paranoid girlfriend, but equally, it did seem odd.

  “Oh.” Kyun reached for the ramyun again, he peeled back the lid, sticking his chopsticks in to stir them up. “That.” He shrugged. “My dad asked if he could borrow some money. His car needed fixing and he couldn’t use it to earn money.”

  From nowhere, alarm bells started ringing in my head. “You’ve been reconnected for a week and he’s asking to borrow money from you?”

  Kyun’s eyes narrowed. “Like I said: his car needed fixing. He’s a taxi driver. He needs it to earn money.”

  “It just seemed off…” I told him. “So long as—”

  “As you said, it’s my money,” Kyun said, suddenly turning cold. “And if you must know, I was meeting him today because he was returning it to me.” Kyun stood, the chair screeching across the tiles, and pulled something out of his pocket. He slammed it down on the counter beside his ramyun.

  Staring at the pile of money, Kyun stormed off.

  “Fuck,” I muttered, before dropping my head on the counter.

  I couldn’t blame him for being pissed at me. I was pissed at me. I hadn’t gone snooping and it genuinely wasn’t because I needed to know what he spent his money on… I was honestly concerned.

  And now I seemed like a crazy possessive girlfriend.

  Fuck.

  Remember Me

  For four days, both Kyun and Minhyuk had been avoiding me, and for two days, I’d had the most excruciating pain in my side. I wasn’t sure if I was relieved or not when the doctor gave the all-clear, physically.

  Seeing as though I had finally gotten everything organized for the Halloween party, I decided I wasn’t going to hide away in my office all night. I had enough work to do that, but my spirit animal was not an ostrich, no matter how much I wanted it to be.

  It was time to be a wasp and be annoying as fuck until I got what I wanted.

  When I got home, I checked the studio first. Tae was in there, deep in concentration under his headphones, but as Nate was in the recording booth, I decided not to disturb either of them.

  They weren’t on my hitlist, anyway.

  Jun was, as predicted, in the games room, engrossed in some online game which had him yelling at someone via his headset. He did manage to look up briefly and wave, but his attention returned straight to the screen.

  I hadn’t expected neither Minhyuk nor Kyun to be in either room, but like I was a character in Jun’s game, I was going to sweep each room and make sure neither got by me.

  The living room was empty, as was the kitchen and the laundry room. I moved through the house until I got to the gym. The last room on the floor to check before I went upstairs.

  Finding Minhyuk or Kyun in there would have been amazing, but it was Dante I found.

  Wearing only a pair of shorts.

  His body covered in a slight sweaty sheen which just seemed to make them even more edible.

  Dante was working his thighs on one of the machines, the muscles bulging as he pushed the weight back.

  … I completely forgot why I had gone in the gym as I stared at him, shamelessly.

  Finally realizing he wasn’t alone, he looked over. “Like what you see?”

  “Do not stop on my account,” I told him. “I am committing this to memory.”

  With a smirk, he carried on working out his legs, all while flexing his arms. “What brings you in here? And if you say sex, I’m down.”

  “I was looking for Kyun or Minhyuk.”

  Dante arched an eyebrow. “In the gym? You might as well tell me that you want some earthshattering sex them, because that would be more believable… Oh, wait… no.”

  My lips parted. “What?”

  The machine clanged as Dante let the weight return to its original position. He swung his legs around, sitting sideways on the bench as he reached for a towel. “Not Kyun. Maybe he could give you earthshattering sex. Not as great as me but—”

  “Dante!”

  Dabbing at his forehead then flinging the towel over his shoulder, Dante got up and walked over. “I heard you and Minhyuk didn’t have the best time in Gangneung.”

  My cheeks flamed. “He said that?”

  “Oh, don’t worry,” Dante said, dismissively, waving his hand. “I told him you’re great in bed so he had to be the problem.”

  Mortified, I swiped at him. Dante grabbed my wrist before I could connect with his skin, chuckling. “Relax, beautiful. He never said that, and I never said that.”

  “Did he say something to you?” Still dying on the inside, I moved over to one of the machines and sat down on it.

  “Not what you’re thinking,” Dante said. He crouched down in front of me. “I sent him a message hoping everything went well.”

  I very much doubted those were the words Dante used in that message…

  “He called me back—you’d gone to sleep at this point—and he gave me a few details. I may have mentioned something about time and he went into a massive tailspin…” Dante had the grace to look guilty at that. “I tr
ied to assure him it was his first time and it could only get better, but he’s embarrassed.”

  “You talked about this?”

  Dante shrugged. “We shared a room since we were rookies. We talk about everything. Don’t you talk about these things with your friends?”

  Outside of H3RO, my friends were Kate and Inhye. Given the slimmest of opportunities, Kate would happily regale me with tales of her sex life. I barely got relationship status of Inhye.

  But when it came to me, I didn’t really talk about it—I never had. Not the details anyway.

  I shook my head.

  “Huh… Well, we did.” Dante stood, stretching. “And he rightly thinks you are a goddess, so you don’t need to worry about that. But now he’s doing that annoying thing Minhyuk does and is hiding out because he’s too chicken to get you to go for round…” He tilted his head. “What attempt would this be now? Four? Whatever it is… he hasn’t realized that the only person who was an expert at sex the first time was me.”

  “Modesty looks so good on you,” I said dryly.

  “Most things look good on me. But I look better with nothing on. We both know you know that.” He shifted his weight, doing so in a way that allowed him to flex his muscles.

  I stood and brushed off my skirt before giving him a nonchalant shrug. “Depends on who is judging.”

  Dante smirked. “Uh-huh.”

  I stepped past him, heading for the door.

  “Minhyuk is at the dorm,” Dante called after me. “Unless you plan on going there, you’re going to need to wait until another time. But for what it’s worth, Minhyuk will come to you. He always does.”

  I got to the door before I remembered I was looking for two people. “Have you seen Kyun?”

  “Brooding in his bedroom. I have no idea where he keeps slinking off to, but his mood is back to being as steady as a rollercoaster.”

  “Thanks Dante,” I called over my shoulder. I shut the door behind me and then went upstairs.

  There was music coming from behind Kyun’s door. I knocked, but as I wasn’t sure if he’d heard me, I tentatively pushed the door open and stuck my head in. Kyun was lying on his bed, reading something on his phone.