Wicked Souls: A Limited Edition Reverse Harem Romance Collection

by Rebecca Royce

  When he looked up and saw me there, he fiddled around on his phone and then the music stopped.

  “Hey,” I said, gently. “Can I come in?”

  Kyun nodded, sitting up and scooted back up to the pillows. “What’s up?”

  “You’re avoiding me.”

  “I’m not avoiding you,” he shot back.

  “So the last two evenings where you decided you didn’t want to watch a film with us—”

  “I’d seen it—”

  “—and skipping dinner to eat ramyun in your room?”

  “How’d you know I wasn’t avoiding Jun?”

  I put my hands on my hips and gave him a pointed look. Kyun sighed and looked away. “Exactly.” I moved over to the edge of his bed and sat down. “I didn’t go snooping, Kyun, I swear. I emptied the laundry basket and I checked the pockets for anything that needed saving. Honestly, I don’t care what you spend your money on, and I’m never checking up on that. I just make sure the receipts can be thrown in the trash before I do that.”

  “But you asked anyway.”

  “It was a cash withdrawal for five million won.”

  “I told you what it was for.”

  I nodded. “I know.”

  Kyun finally set his phone down and glared at me. “Is this your way of saying you don’t think I should see my dad?”

  I swear my eyes bulged out of my head. “Kyun, I had no idea what that money was for, and the last thing going through my mind was a loan for your father. Are you forgetting that I’ve been encouraging you to make your own decision with him? I’m glad your reconnecting with him.”

  Kyun continued to glower at me. “But you don’t think I should have loaned him the money?”

  “I am not going to deny that I found it a little strange.”

  Understatement. The more I thought about it, the more I didn’t like the idea of his father appearing in his life and asking for money. But I’d grown up in America watching too many trash TV shows that my mom would have thrown a fit if she’d known.

  “Come meet him with me,” Kyun said, suddenly.

  “What?”

  He crossed his legs and leaned forward. “I am going to meet him later. Come with me.”

  “Kyun, I’m not sure—”

  “You only met him the once and that wasn’t a great first impression,” Kyun said quickly. “Mainly because of how I handled it. Come and get to know him.” He scooted off the bed and looked down at me.

  “Now?”

  Kyun nodded. “I was going to call a taxi soon anyway.”

  There was something about the way he was asking that told me he wasn’t going to take no for an answer today. But as this was an opportunity to kill the alarm bells that had started ringing regarding his father—ones that only Tae had until now—I would.

  “OK,” I conceded. “But you don’t need the taxi. I’ll drive us.”

  Kyun had arranged to meet his father at a food place in Gimpo. It was small and homely and specialized in soup and stew. Perfect for the icy weather outside.

  Ha Jeonggu was already waiting for us at the back of the restaurant. I’d followed Kyun through the near empty building to a secluded back area which had been sectioned off with a screen.

  “I asked the owner if she’d mind and she…” Kyun’s father trailed off when he saw me. “Vice Chairman Lee?”

  “This is great, thank you, dad,” Kyun said, pulling out a chair for me. “Holly’s our old manager. She might be the Vice Chairman of Atlantis, but she’s also my friend. You don’t mind her being here, do you?”

  Friend? That meant he hadn’t told his father about us.

  Strangely, I didn’t know how I felt about that.

  “Of course,” Jeonggu said, flashing me a suspicious look I managed to catch as both Kyun and I were distracted sitting down. “I’ve told you that I want to meet all of your friends.” When he saw I was watching, he gave me a polite smile. “How are you, Vice Chairman?”

  Had he known I was one of them, I had a suspicion that he wouldn’t have told Kyun that. There was no doubt in my mind that he saw me as the Vice Chairwoman. His posture had changed, his back straightening, and he was treating me as the most important person at the table, using honorifics with me. He was older than me and there was no need for that.

  “I’m good, thank you,” I replied. “And I’m hungry. Kyun was telling me on the drive over that you had said this place did a good yukgaejang.”

  Yukgaejang was a filling soup made with brisket, daikon, mushrooms, and a few other vegetables. It was also very spicy. My mom used to make it on the coldest days, and although it wasn’t quite that cold—yet—since Kyun had mentioned it, I had a craving for it.

  “I found it a couple of years ago when I moved to the area.”

  “How was work today?” Kyun asked.

  “I spent the day going back and forth to the airport,” Jeonggu told him. “There was one tourist who thought he was flying out from Incheon, only to discover when he got there it was Gimpo, and then, when I was taking my break, waiting for my next fair, he came running back because he had left his passport in the hotel safe.”

  “Did he make the flight?” I asked.

  Jeonggu shook his head. “I don’t think so, but by that time it was rush hour. His flight was at six and we got there ten minutes before then. He was my last job. I dropped him off and came straight here.”

  “Kyun said you have been a taxi driver all your life. You must have some interesting stories.”

  Jeonggu looked at me, looking almost insulted at the comment. “Not really. Passengers here seem to be a lot better behaved than in America.”

  “Oh, what part of America have you been to?” I asked. I wasn’t particularly loving his tone, but he wasn’t wrong. In college alone I’d heard some stories about what drunk students got up to in taxis.

  “I haven’t,” he replied, shortly.

  OK then…

  “We filmed the Heaven video in Los Angeles,” Kyun told him. “If you thought our traffic was bad, it has got nothing on LA rush hour.”

  The waitress came over, handing us some menus and I ordered the yukgaejang I had been craving. Between then and the food arriving, the conversation slowly got easier.

  As Jeonggu started to tell us about the first time four-year-old Kyun had seen a sheep, I relaxed. Kyun’s father just seemed nervous around me and I couldn’t blame him. He had been expecting to have dinner with his son, not his son and his son’s boss.

  Just as I discovered Kyun had asked for a pet sheep on his fifth birthday, my phone rang. I glanced over, frowning as I saw Inhye’s name. Seeing as she would only call if it were important, I gave the two men an apologetic smile. “I’m sorry. I need to get this.”

  I hit answer as I walked away, heading for a secluded corridor out of the way. I probably shouldn’t have been there, but I wanted the privacy. “Hi Inhye, what’s wrong?”

  “You know I wouldn’t call you at this time unless it was important, right?”

  “It’s fine,” I assured her. “What’s up?”

  “Two things, actually. Just as I got off the phone about the first one, I got a call about the second.”

  “And they are…?”

  “Sejin cancelled the wait staff for Halloween.”

  “Fuck’s sake,” I growled, ready to head straight over to China to punch him in the dick. “What?”

  “I was working through the list of things for party that needed to be finalized, and when I called the company, they said Sejin had been in touch to say that they were no longer required and seeing as it’s Halloween they were snapped up for another event.”

  “And let me guess… nowhere else has anyone available?” I rested my forehead against the wall. Why the hell did Sejin cancel them?

  Stupid question.

  Sejin did it to fuck with me. Pure and simple.

  “And what’s the second thing?”

  “You had a call from Ruby Lim.”

  Closin
g my eyes, I tried to place a face to the name. She sounded familiar, but I was drawing a blank. “Who?”

  “Lim Yongsoo—Ruby Lim from Divine9… Korea’s sweetheart.”

  Divine9 was a nine-member girl group. Although they were signed to a smaller company, they were a group from the same generation of idols as H3RO and had effectively saved their company from bankruptcy. The group had been quiet for the last six months, but until then, they’d been busy with comeback after comeback.

  “Why on earth is Ruby wanting to talk to me?”

  There was a long pause on the other end of the phone. “Well, I got the impression that it was related to a dating scandal, but she hung up and said she’d call again another time. I thought you should have a head’s up.”

  “Thanks, Inhye,” I muttered before hanging up.

  A dating scandal.

  That was just what I needed.

  I knew it wasn’t any of H3RO or Onyx. Most of BWBB were still enlisted until the end of the year. Which left Zodiac… And I already knew half of them were dating.

  No, that wasn’t fair. There was also Cupcake and Glitter. I couldn’t rule out Ruby dating someone from one of the girl groups.

  I groaned.

  “Holly, are you OK?” Kyun asked, making me jump.

  I whirled around and gave him a sheepish smile. “Just Inhye delivering some great news,” I told him, dryly.

  “Does that mean you need to leave?”

  Puffing up my cheeks, I shook my head as I exhaled. “It is nothing I can deal with tonight.”

  Kyun stepped up to me, cupping my cheek. His dark eyes locked with mine as I leaned into his palm. “I think you need another assistant.”

  “I think I need a hitman,” I muttered, darkly.

  It earned me a bark of laughter. Kyun leaned in and kissed me, smiling against my lips. “If you don’t have to leave, the food is here.”

  Kyun lead the way back to the table. As he had said, a bowl of steaming soup was on the table, waiting for me. “This smells incredible,” I said, inhaling the aromatic steam.

  “Is everything OK?” Jeonggu asked me, half nodding in the direction I’d taken the call.

  “I was just telling Kyun that it’s nothing that won’t wait until tomorrow,” I told him.

  Most of the meal was eaten listening to Kyun explain to Jeonggu how I’d saved the group from being disbanded and how H3RO had produced their first album created almost entirely by them. I nodded along where needed, but otherwise, I was happy to just listen.

  Or rather, watch.

  I loved how Kyun’s eyes, normally narrowed and suspicious, would light up when he was talking about H3RO and how hard they worked. The only thing better was watching him come alive on a stage.

  By the time my bowl was empty, I knew it was time to leave. My doubts about Jeonggu had gone, and I’d already crashed their meal for long enough. I wanted to let Kyun have another hour or so longer with just his father.

  “Gentlemen, it’s time for me to leave. I have to work tomorrow and I need to run a few errands. Kyun, it was lovely to see you, and Ha Jeonggu-ssi, it was great to be able to meet you again.”

  As I stood, so did Kyun, his eyes wide. “You don’t have to leave.”

  I stepped back, nodding. “I do. You enjoy the rest of your evening.”

  Before leaving, I went to pay. Nothing had been mentioned, but I felt it was the least I could do.

  “Your friend is an idol, yes?” the old lady said as I paid. I glanced back at Kyun. “There are two girls who had been lingering around outside. I’ve told them they’re not allowed in unless they sit over there,” the woman pointed to a corner, completely out of sight of Kyun. “They can’t see behind the screen, but they caught a glance of him as he went to the bathroom. They won’t come in, but I thought I should warn him before he leaves.”

  “Thank you,” I said, gratefully. “I’ll go let him know.”

  Secretly, I was relieved that Jeonggu had been there, because if I had been caught with them, which was likely, it could easily be dismissed. As for Kyun being spotted, I wasn’t too worried. He was an idol with a handsome face. Being spotted was flattering, so long as fans didn’t mob anyone.

  I hurried back to Kyun, but as I got close, I caught the conversation.

  Knowing it was wrong as I did it, I hung back behind the screen and listened.

  Like We Used To

  “I know it’s a lot of money, son, but I’m being evicted, and the landlord won’t give me my deposit back.”

  “If you’re having problems with the landlord, I can ask and see if the legal team can help,” Kyun replied.

  “No, no, that’s not necessary. I just found a nice place, and I wanted to sign for it before it goes. It’s in Seoul, so it will make visiting you easier, but I can find somewhere cheaper in Gimpo…”

  Gimpo was half an hour from our home on a good run. It wasn’t like the man wasn’t a taxi driver with his own car…

  “I can help,” Kyun said, quietly. “It’s just, I don’t have ten million won on me. I will have to go to the bank to get that.”

  “You can just transfer it to my account,” Jeonggu said, a little too quickly for my liking. “Here are my bank details.”

  I stepped out from behind the screen, just in time to see Kyun swipe a piece of paper off the table.

  “I thought you had gone,” Jeonggu said.

  Ignoring him, I focused on Kyun. “The lady who runs the restaurant told me there was a group of girls outside who had spotted you. She thought they were calling their friends. It’s up to you, you can stay, but if you want to get out relatively unnoticed, I don’t mind giving you a ride back to your place, seeing as though we’re both in Seoul.”

  Kyun tried to look past me at the window, but I was blocking his view. He looked back to his dad and shrugged. “One or two is manageable, but more than that might cause trouble for this place. I don’t want to stop you coming back here.”

  “If you need to go, do so. But think about what I said, son.” Jeonggu gave me a dark look. “I should go and pay.”

  “I already took care of it,” I told him, giving him a fake smile. “Don’t worry about it.”

  I waited for Kyun to say goodbye to his father, trying to politely ignore that things had gotten frosty between us all. On our way to the door, the woman stopped us, offering the use of the back door. I glanced at Kyun who nodded, and we followed her to the other side of the restaurant.

  After successfully avoiding the fans—there was more relief for me because I’d had no idea how many were actually out there when I implied there was a large crowd—we got to the car unnoticed.

  I spent the whole drive back, chewing at my lip. Did I bring this up or not? It was more information I had stumbled across without looking for it, and I’d upset Kyun the last time.

  But ten million won was not the first month’s rent and a deposit, unless he was planning on renting a penthouse apartment in Gangnam…

  Kyun spent the time on the phone, texting.

  Not once did he bring up the subject of his father wanting to borrow more money.

  We pulled up into the garage and I stared at the steering wheel.

  I couldn’t do it.

  If Kyun hadn’t brought it up, I wasn’t going to.

  “Are you coming in?” Kyun asked, half out of the car.

  Nodding, I killed the engine and grabbed my purse. I was exhausted. Kyun, lost in his own thoughts—probably the same thoughts—followed me up the stairs before heading to his room. I went to my own and flopped down on my bed.

  Now what?

  “Oh, you can’t do that, Holly,” I muttered to myself, letting my forehead fall to my desk.

  I hadn’t brought up the subject of the money with Kyun, and neither had he. Instead, I had gotten to myself to the place I was now—contemplating hiring a PI to dig up some information on Ha Jeonggu.

  I let out a long sigh, raising my head to stare at my computer screen. Work was
going as well as this conversation had.

  No, I was not going to hire a Private Investigator. Nor was I going to run a background check on him. Even if it was tempting.

  “Focus, Holly,” I instructed myself, straightening my back. “It’s up to Kyun to come to you. Until then, you have a party and no one to work it.” My pep talk helped a little as I scrolled through the Naver search results.

  I had other, equally big problems to deal with. I had ten days until this party, and I was getting desperate enough that I was considering serving the drinks myself.

  Maybe Minhyuk could help…

  If I was doing a stellar job of avoiding talking to Kyun, Minhyuk was doing an award-winning job of avoiding me.

  Still.

  Standing, I stretched and decided to call it a night. Or an afternoon.

  It was a Sunday, and I was trying to keep the work to a minimum, but I couldn’t stop myself from doing a couple of hours. I turned my computer off and shut the door to my office behind me as I left.

  Downstairs, I found Minhyuk in the living room with Jun and Dante. The three of them were watching Iron Man. Again. Every so often, I could see Jun’s mouth moving along with the script as he held his hand up like it had Tony’s blaster on it—regardless of whether or not Tony was in the Iron Man suit.

  It was Dante who saw me first, grinning as he waved me over. “About time you escaped that office. I’m going to put a lock on the door and lock you out.”

  I moved around the couch, heading for a vacant spot, but he leaned over, grabbed me, and pulled me onto his lap. “Then you’d never see me because I’d always be at the office.”

  “You work too much.”

  Leaning my head back to look at him properly, I arched an eyebrow. “Have you looked in a mirror lately?”

  Dante smirked. “Regularly, and it’s worth every minute.”

  On the other side of the couch, Jun started making retching noise.

  Dante picked up a cushion and launched it at the side of his head.

  “Seriously though,” Dante muttered, repositioning me so he could rest his chin on my shoulder. “You need to take some breaks.”