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joyofkinoko · 11 months

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In a final test to see if Lee Heeseung is ready to take over the Belift Underground’s drug business, you are sent to accompany him in meeting an important investor in Paris, France, the city of love - which would be way easier if only you liked each other at all.

.: 9.9k words .:. rivals/enemies to lovers .:. female reader .:. humor, action/adventure, thriller :.

.: tw: mature language, suggestive humor, gang violence, gun violence, smoking :.

.: masterlist .:. belift underground :.

“I think she’s hot,” Jay supplies with a grin.

“I think you’re forgetting she’s a murderer,” Sunghoon points out with a frown.

“I’m a murderer too though,” Ni-ki pipes up, raising a hesitant hand.

“I think you all need to shut up because she just entered the room,” Heeseung scolds them, whispering harshly over their table in the dining room, earning cheeky snickers from the boys at the table.

You, the very topic of their conversation, are not an idiot. You know they often talk about you, though to be fair, you talk about Heeseung often too. There tends to be much to say about people you carry heavy disdain for.

The four boys do their best to be discreet as they watch you from afar, entering the cafeteria and heading straight for the coffee station towards the back of the room. Heeseung, of course, pretends like he doesn’t care, almost regretting even bringing you up as a topic during their lunch together. He mentally blames Sunghoon, since the only reason he even mentioned you was that the poor card dealer was jealous that Jay and Ni-ki got to travel to Japan for a mission and he never had that opportunity.

“I’m travelling soon too actually,” Heeseung had shared, earning a jealous frown from Sunghoon. “It’s a little last minute, but let’s just say that I’ve been brushing up on my French.”

“Yikes, your French is shit,” Jay laughs, gulping down the last remnants of his meal. “Are you at least bringing a translator with you?”

“Someone who’ll double as my bodyguard apparently,” Heeseung mumbled in a low tone, hesitating to admit who’d been assigned as his partner in France.

Ni-ki looks up expectantly. “Damn, it could’ve been me if I hadn’t asked for a break.”

“You don’t even need a break. You just don’t wanna be busy in case your little girlfriend calls,” Sunghoon teases, lifting his chopsticks to his mouth for another bite.

“Not my girlfriend.”

“Yet,” Heeseung adds as the other boys laugh along.

Bringing the original topic back to the conversation, Jay then asks, “Wait, so who are you bringing to France then?”

Scratching the back of his head, Heeseung grimaces, grimly replying, “Ace.”

And well, Heeseung really shouldn’t have brought you up at all, because he’s observed that you’re the type of devil to appear when spoken about. And just as predicted, you arrive soon after, with a full coffee cup in hand, approaching their table with your signature confidence.

“Hey boys,” you greet with a smirk. “I feel like this table got substantially quieter when I entered the room. Any reason?”

“I feel like you think too highly of yourself,” Heeseung mutters under his breath, confidently knowing you’ve heard him.

“I deserve to, don’t you think?” you state confidently, winking at Jay who has too often attempted to ask for your personal number. You’ll give it to him one day, you promise every time. Turning over to Heeseung, you grimace. “You better finish up that lunch quickly though. They’ve moved up the flight for tonight instead of tomorrow morning.”

“What? Why?”

You shrug in response. “It’s a long flight and they want us there by the afternoon.”

“Do you guys get to share a hotel room?” Jay asks in a teasing tone, earning a playful elbow jab from Sunghoon.

“Two bedrooms in a single suite,” you answer with an innocent smile. “With only one bath though, so you better shower fast.”

Heeseung scoffs, looking right up at you with a smirk. “If you’re going to be impatient, we could always shower together Ace.”

And though he thinks he’s caught you faltering, you fire back as quickly as usual. “Alright, but if I laugh at…” you trail off for dramatic effect, glancing down quickly and yet effectively. “Well, just don’t be insecure.”

Heeseung begins choking on his drink and you almost get away with the upper hand in the conversation until Sunghoon opens his mouth. “France, right?” You nod in confirmation. “Don’t tell me you’ll be in Paris.”

Ni-ki then gasps overdramatically. “Not the city of love!”

“For the two aces of Belift? Good heavens!” Jay adds, and all of a sudden, you too wish you hadn’t approached the table. You let a scoff out unexpectedly, finding yourself flustered by their statements, though you gain a bit of confidence when you notice a blushing Heeseung that can’t even look up from his plate.

Hoping to end the conversation in your favour, you pout exaggeratedly. “Maybe you’ll find a nice French girl, Hee! I’m starting to think that getting a girlfriend here was difficult because they can actually understand you when you talk.”

“Yeah, maybe the language barrier will work in your favour,” Ni-ki adds to Heeseung’s dismay, though the tone in which he says it makes you think he genuinely meant it.

“And how many boyfriends have you had, Ace?” Heeseung asks, looking up at you for the first time during the conversation with a strict glare in his eyes.

“None,” you admit honestly, shocking the boys at the table and earning a satisfied grin from Heeseung. “But I have had two girlfriends, which is two more than you.” And you become the victor again. Little did you know how much that quip affected him.

“Well then, I hope you two have fun,” Ni-ki cheers with a genuineness in his smile.

“But not too much fun, you crazy kids,” Jay smirks, earning yet another jab from Sunghoon.

“Oh, we will. See you tonight, Hee!” And with an innocent smile, a flick of a strand of hair over your shoulder, and a sip of your coffee, you leave the cafeteria satisfied that you’ve won this round against Heeseung.

You’re not quite sure about when exactly your rivalry with him began. All you remember was being fifteen and watching V, in charge of the Belift’s business side, bring in a boy your age who he immediately prioritised and made his new apprentice. When you two were introduced, you had been welcoming - a trait rarely found in young assassins who begin training before they’ve even hit double-digits in terms of their age.

In your humble opinion, Heeseung honestly should have been grateful you were one of the first people who approached him. Compared to the other trainees, you were the highest ranked and yet the most amicable considering how competitive young assassins in training can be. You didn’t even know much about him but you remember finding comfort in the fact that V was bringing in someone new who had the potential to be your new friend.

But it was him who turned you away. Who turned his nose up at you and asserted that he was the more talented agent. Who refused your offers and advices and claimed he didn’t need help from someone like you. Who shattered all your hopes at making a new friend.

And in this industry, finding a friend is rare, so making an enemy within your own team? Not unsurprising, for the most part. But for those who meet as children? Well, kind of unexpected to be honest.

At least, back then.

So despite working in completely different factions of the mafia, you and Lee Heeseung carved your fates out in the stars - that you would either take the other down or go down trying.

And when you get to the lobby of the Belift Lab Club & Casino, you feel the beginnings of a stomach ache when you see Heeseung has arrived earlier than you.

Observing him from afar, you can see that he looks good. You’re not blind, he knows how to dress in his silly little loose button-ups and skinny jeans. He’s even donned a black beanie today. And he’s always had those doe-like eyes, perfect for charming clientele. You would almost call him handsome if it wasn’t for his personality, and the cigarette that he thoughtlessly lifts up to his lips.

Despite your line of work (or perhaps in spite of it), you’ve never liked smoke.

Rolling up next to him with your luggage, he acknowledges you with a nod and dives straight back into whatever’s got him so engrossed on his phone. And though you almost miss it, you appreciate the way he walks a few feet away, discarding his cigarette after one last puff.

Regardless of the small act of respect, the same silent treatment continues throughout your limo ride to the airport. Although the same cannot be said for your time at the airport since you’ve decided your cover story for travelling is an engagement celebration.

“Our families said we’re still too young to get married, but what’s wrong with an early honeymoon, right babe?” His emphasis on the nickname makes you wanna throw up, but you’re a professional and you need to get past security cleanly, so you don’t hesitate to snake your arms around his waist and rest your head on his chest.

Pouting cutely, you smile at the man at the counter. “We know Paris is stereotypical, but we’ve been talking about going together since we first met.”

“Well then, I wish you two a happy trip,” the man said with amusement that you know has to do with a cynic response to young love. Regardless of the stranger’s opinions, at least it means you’re selling the story.

The story no longer needs to be sold once you sit in the plane though, so after an aggressive round of rock-paper-scissors, Heeseung wins the window seat leaving you rolling your eyes stuck with the aisle. And as the other passengers get on, you two are already waiting and bickering.

“If it’ll make you happier, you can take the window seat on our returning flight.”

“As if you’d willingly offer to make me happy,” you retorted, seeing Heeseung nod in realisation.

“You’re right, but I’m offering it anyway,” he smiles cheekily, amused by an eye roll from you that he’s gotten so used to now. “You didn’t have to hug me and all that earlier, by the way. It was kinda gross.”

You have to hold yourself back from rolling your eyes again, having your own bone to pick with his half of the cover story. “Okay, and what was the deal with ‘babe’?”

“You’re supposed to be my fiance, idiot,” he defensively points out. “Don’t couples call each other dumb shit like that?”

And after his comment, you turn and smile at him and his stupid big, brown eyes. “Right. I forgot girls don’t give you attention.”

Taking you by surprise, however, Heeseung leans in closer to you. “Because you give me so much of yours.”

And as much as it pains you to see the satisfaction on Heeseung’s face for effectively flustering you, you turn away to break your eye contact. You hear him laugh to himself beside you, and while you aren’t looking at him, you can just feel his eyes still looking at your side. You don’t think you’ve ever felt this self-conscious in front of Heeseung.

Clearing your throat, you attempt to gather your bearings. “Sweetheart. I think I prefer that over ‘babe’.”

And as you find yourself subconsciously looking down at your chipped painted nails, Heeseung replies with a smirk that you can hear in his tone. “I’ll keep that in mind then.”

The following thirteen hours are hell.

Or at least they would have been had Lee Heeseung not been there.

Surprisingly.

In many cases between rivals, there’s also that one unspoken common enemy, or rather, in this case, an unspoken understanding. Because Lee Heeseung knows that you hate aeroplanes. You’ve never told him why and he’s never asked. You've never thanked him and he doesn't need to hear you say it.

All Lee Heeseung knows is that when he first joined Belift at the ripe age of fifteen, you were both sent to Singapore for a training program along with a handful of other young Belift agents and the seating arrangement placed you and him together. And well, despite how much your rivalry had already grown by then, you grabbed his hand tightly during the ascent, the turbulence, and the descent and he didn’t let you go until you were okay again.

All Lee Heeseung knows is that every time the plane shakes, your fingers are intertwined, and he watches silently as you shut your eyes tightly in fear of allowing the tears to slip from your eyes.

It’s the only time Lee Heeseung ever considers how real of a person you are.

Minutes after, of course, it’s back to regular old Ace versus Heeseung all over again.

Just as things have always been, and probably will always be.

It’s a cycle that continues throughout your thirteen hour flight, just as other travels you’ve gone on together before. It’s a cycle that may or may not include sleeping on one another’s shoulders and maybe forgetting to let go of his hand after a particularly intense turbulence in the sky. It’s a cycle that also naturally includes a bit of bickering and Heeseung going to the toilet even if he didn’t need to, just so he could annoyingly squeeze past you.

After finally touching down at the airport in Paris, the act continues, picking up your luggages at the carousel together as a duo and strolling out and into the Belift-ordered limousine holding hands. It’s when the car door is shut by your chauffeur, Felix, that your fingers pry themselves apart simultaneously.

“You sweat a lot huh?” you comment, making a show of wiping your hands on your jeans.

“What can I say? I get nervous around you,” he teases with his signature grin, prompting you to turn away and lean into the window on your side. While you were used to travelling abroad for many of your missions, it was your first time in Paris, the stereotypical dream city of any young girl. Sure, you’re here in a way that you never could have predicted - with a man that you could never love - but it’s Paris nonetheless.

In its busy streets, aged architecture, and lively people, you were excited to spend a month in Paris even if you wouldn’t get to experience it the way you’d always hoped to. There was always the future to do so anyways.

It’s when your drive passes by the Eiffel Tower that you feel your heart stop in its tracks. You’ve heard people say that it’s not as magical as you’d think, or that taking pictures with it in the background is about as cool as it gets, but seeing it even just through your limousine window takes your breath away. To you, the Eiffel Tower means that you’ve made it. You’ve achieved your dream.

Though not quite in the way young you would have ever pictured.

“I didn’t realise you were such a girl,” Heeseung comments mindlessly.

Refusing to let his comments get to you at this moment, you close your eyes and take a deep breath before looking out at the tower again. “I am a girl.”

“I know that,” he replies. “I just mean… I didn’t know you were into this Paris stuff too.”

Traffic continues and pulls other buildings in the way, allowing you to whip your head back around to Heeseung, who’s simply scrolling through his phone. “Is it so bad to be a little into it? I have interests too.”

“You kill for a living, I can’t help it,” he shrugs, once again not quite thinking before he lets his thoughts escape him.

“You know it wouldn’t kill you to see me as a human being every once in a while,” you retort. “You should know better than anyone that growing up in this industry doesn’t necessarily make you heartless.” And before Heeseung even has the chance to come up with a response, you make a show of plugging your ears with your headphones, cutting the conversation there.

It’s just another set of usual banter with Lee Heeseung, so why were you so upset?

The rest of the ride feels much longer than the plane ride did.

Your first meeting is a dinner at some fancy restaurant with a foursome of French investors, all new interested parties as referred to by current French allies of the Belift Underground. Preparing yourself for an evening of drinking with greasy, power-hungry, old white men, you put on a little black dress with a sweetheart neckline accentuating your, well, assets. Anything to distract and draw attention away from business and towards fun.

Just another part of the job description.

“Ready to go, Ace?” you hear Heeseung from the living room of the suite, knocking on your door softly. You haven’t talked much since arriving, taking the afternoon to yourselves for unpacking and prepping for the month’s schedules.

Clearing your throat and adjusting the ruby pendant on your neck, you grab your purse to join Heeseung in the living room. Swinging the door open, you unexpectedly find yourself just inches away from the boy in question, towering over you even in your heels.

You watch him look you up and down, proud of yourself when you notice the inklings of his right eyebrow arching. “Take a picture if you’d like to stare longer, but we’ll be late if we don’t head out now, yeah?”

He smirks, stepping aside to let you lead the way. “You don’t have a cardigan or something? It’s supposed to get a little chillier tonight.”

“Be a gentleman and give me your blazer then,” you reply without even looking back at him, heading right to the door and out into the hotel hallway. “Or if we’re lucky, one of those Frenchies tonight will like me enough to keep me warm.”

“Wait, you wouldn’t actually-”

“Ew, no!” you exclaim, laughing as you turn around and catch the unexpected concern on his face. “I’m paid to kill. If Belift wants me to do more than that, they’ll have to pay me a whole lot more. Looking pretty just helps seal the deal; you should know this. After all, it’ll work in your favour.”

Heeseung clears his throat, eyes daggering into yours before brushing past you and heading towards the elevator without another word. Without a clue of what might be in the poor guy’s mind, you shrug it off and follow him.

The drive to the restaurant is wordless once more, and you start to get a feeling it’ll become a common theme throughout the trip.

You spend the next few hours in a private room wining and dining and translating discussions and jokes between Heeseung and the investors. The four men are just as you predicted, even shamelessly commenting about how much richer they’ll be when the deals have gone through and about how girls like you would be a nice addition for their afterparties even when they know you understand them clearly.

Thankfully, they don’t understand your Korean and so the night is also spent unexpectedly laughing at Heeseung’s blunt remarks and comments. You exchange a plethora of insults together, while proudly smiling at the men you have to dine with. And in between the immature jokes, Lee Heeseung also takes moments to check on you and whether or not you’re comfortable as the only woman in the room. You’ve always known he wasn’t as much of an asshole as he tried to act, but it was still a gesture that took you by surprise.

An appreciated gesture, though you think you’d rather die than admit that out loud.

And so while silences have become a trend in your Paris trip with Lee Heeseung, it seems a trend has also been made out of sharing a language.

The next week or so is a routine of more meetings and brunches and lunches and dinners with the same French foursome and a handful of other interested parties and parties Belift is interested in. There are nights spent fraternising with unknowing politicians at late night jazz clubs and there are days where you rendezvous with vendors incognito at museums or parks.

In less than two weeks, you have explored much of your dream city of Paris, all with Lee Heeseung by your side. And you hate to admit it, but it hasn’t been that bad.

Of course, you still have your moments.

Heeseung, for example, takes way too long in the washroom every morning that you’ve had to change your routine and shower before bed in order to make your appointments on time. On your end, you can’t help but find yourself enchanted by Paris, losing time as you try to do your work in your suite’s singular balcony that Heeseung likes to use for his smoke breaks to your dismay.

There are also constant disagreements regarding how to approach meeting a new person. You prefer the easy route of batting your eyelashes and charming your way into a deal, and Heeseung likes the challenge of banter and using conversation to gain more intel. To be fair, both methods have worked equally effectively, but you concede most times to Heeseung, aware of how much this trip means to his career and future with Belift.

There are, however, also moments where Heeseung concedes to you without even knowing. Moments when you open doors for clients and help their assistants with their papers. Moments when you fix him a cup of coffee without his asking. Moments when you put others first, despite their lack of attention towards you. You’ve always been generous and attentive, but it’s only here in Paris after your years of rivalry that he notices for the first time.

He doesn’t know why he stays up thinking about it.

It’s the night of a gallery opening at the Musee d’Orsay when your Paris routine breaks.

Choi Seungcheol, the current mayor of Seoul, is your main object of interest tonight, though Heeseung takes charge in the conversation. As his ‘date’, you are introduced to and spend the most time with Mr. Choi’s wife and daughter, the latter of whom you take a particular liking to for her cynicism.

“You know this really wasn’t what I pictured when my father said we'd be spending a weekend in Paris,” she deadpanned.

“Every trip is a business trip, huh?” you answered, keeping your eye on Heeseung laughing heartily with Mr. Choi and a few other diplomats.

“He’s eyeing a seat in the House,” the daughter tells you honestly, her own eyes trailing after. “Whatever gets more votes, I guess.”

You laugh, turning towards her. “Well, we live in a world where it’s better to have friends in high places.”

“Friends?”

“Allies,” you correct yourself. For some reason, she’s easy to be honest with.

She chuckles, motioning towards a painting of a garden. “How do you feel when you look at that?”

Turning to observe the painting closer, you shrug. Art’s never been a main interest of yours though you can appreciate the colours on the canvas. “Feel? Safe, I suppose. The garden feels safe.”

“Impressionists liked doing that. They focused on capturing feelings rather than accuracy,” she replied, and you think back to your file and remember how she was a student in an art school. “But by doing so, they neglect to paint the real stuff. The details. The nitty gritty bullshit that pretty things are made of.”

“You prefer realism then?”

She bursts out laughing at that. “Quite the contrary, I love surrealism.” You nod to let her continue. “It’s not real, it’s not pretending to be real, it’s out of this world, and it’s completely impossible.”

You smile. “I like that.”

It’s nearly an hour later when Heeseung and you reunite. In this place after all, you are simply a couple enjoying art.

“How has your evening been?” he asks, pecking the back of your hand before slotting his arm around your waist.

“Choi’s daughter is an absolute delight. It’s not a wonder RM is interested,” you answer.

Heeseung blinks at your response; that the friendship you’d developed is what your answer evolved around. “Anything else of note?”

“She thinks fairly low of her father, understandably,” you responded, your brain unconsciously running through all the ways you might possibly be able to help her. “It made things easy in terms of gathering intel.”

Heeseung smirks, sincerely impressed. “If the murdering doesn’t work out for you, you should really think about transferring over to the business division.”

“And compete against you?” you rolled your eyes. Belift should be grateful you two aren’t direct competitors.

“What? Afraid you can’t beat me?” Heeseung jokes back.

“I like where I am, thank you very much,” you answer sincerely. “Besides, I’m upstaging you on your own mission. I don’t think I’m the one who needs to be worried about being beat.”

And in reply, Heeseung can only scoff though you swear you see a hint of an amused smile on his face. In order to rejoin the crowd of politicians and businessmen at the other side of the hall, you pull away from Heeseung expecting him to simply follow behind you.

“Ace?” he calls out and you turn, looking at him questioningly to let him continue. “I feel like we’ve done enough tonight, don’t you?”

You nod slowly, unsure of where Heeseung’s going with his line of questioning. “I suppose.”

He sighs, slipping his hands into the pockets of his suit pants. “Wanna get out of here?”

“Sure,” you nod, slipping your phone out of your purse. “I’ll call the chauffeur.”

“Nah, I don’t-” he pauses, hand on your phone as he pushes it down. “Let’s just walk around for a bit, yeah? I don’t really wanna go back to the hotel just yet.”

Noticing a distant look in his eyes, you calmly agree and allow him to lead you out of the museum and into the late night streets of Paris. It’s been an exhausting couple weeks after all, and you both deserve a break. And even in the darkness of the night, you feel safe - mostly because of your training, but additionally because of who you’re with.

And not even three minutes into your walk, Heeseung has already forced his blazer over your shoulders since your dress does nothing for shielding you from the light breeze. You cringe at the idea of his kindness but accept it nonetheless.

In the dark blue of the near midnight skies of Paris, the streets are a lot less busy than the mornings, with only the streetlights, a handful of other pedestrians, and one or two street performers at block corners to accompany you and Heeseung. If you were with anybody else, you might even call the evening romantic.

There’s a mime that indulges you two for laughs for a little while, and when you reach a particular street corner featuring a violinist, you find yourselves enamoured by the old couple slow dancing nearby. You buy ice cream at a local shop you pass by and you buy a third for an old man sitting alone, who looked like he needed a reason to smile. You walk and walk with Heeseung, and it’s truly the first time you feel you can be yourself with him. And you walk and walk side by side until you turn a street corner to the one thing that makes the whole month worth it.

“I guess it’s kind of pretty,” Heeseung mutters, eyeing the way your face lights up at the sight of the Eiffel Tower, all lit up in the middle of the night.

“You guess?” you reply breathlessly.

“Yeah.”

You can’t help but burst out into laughter, and without thinking, you take Heeseung by the hand and start running. Your heart leaps in the moment, hair and gown dancing in the evening wind as you dash through the streets, watching as the Eiffel Tower grew larger in size the closer you got.

It was a dream come true to be here.

In all the time you were in Paris, France, you haven’t had the opportunity to truly experience the city the way you’ve always dreamed of. You’d spent every day exploring the city streets, visiting restaurants and museums and other landmarks, but you were all too busy with the darkness of your career, too focused on the task to fall in love with the city the way you’ve always wanted to. And right beside you, running with his hand in yours was one Lee Heeseung.

And you couldn’t say you were mad about it.

Since it’s not exactly the tourist season, the space around the tower wasn’t as crowded as you thought. With Parisian locals and the unique foreigner dancing along to a jazz quartet performing nearby, you weren’t surprised when you began to feel the tears well up in your eyes. For the first time, you got the chance to enjoy something without any responsibilities or weight or pressure.

It was just you, the music, and him.

He spins you into him, and you happily oblige, too engrossed by the haze of the evening to care about anything else. “What is it with you and Paris?” he teases.

You frown, though your eyes still glisten. “You would never understand.”

“Can I try to?”

Sighing and looking away, the image of the jazz quartet catches your eye and you linger on them for a while. “How do you feel right now?”

“Hm?”

“In this moment,” you look back at him. “How do you feel?”

He takes a second before answering sincerely. “Safe, I guess?”

“Me too,” you share. “And I don’t know about you, but I don’t think I’ve ever known what that’s like.” Lee Heeseung takes a moment with you, in the lights of the Eiffel and the sound of the band, to breathe and be safe. “This safety…” you continue. “This is reality for other people. Their normal.”

He can’t help but notice the bittersweetness in your eyes. He’s never stared into them for so long. And, are those tears?

Wordlessly, Heeseung pulls you closer, his arms wrapping around your waist as yours do around his neck, your head leaning on his chest. You sway back and forth like that for a while, safe and comfortable and present. When you think about it, the last time you felt this kind of safety was probably on the plane, with Heeseung’s hand in yours. You wonder why.

You also wonder why you think you feel Heeseung press a soft kiss onto the top of your head. You chalk it up to acting upon the evening’s vibes. It must’ve just felt right.

When it all becomes too overwhelming for you, you pull away from Heeseung, refusing to look anywhere near his eyes and immediately digging through your purse. “Are you-”

You turn around, coin purse in hand, and stroll over to the musicians who gaze over at you with interest. With a greeting bow and a grateful smile, you drop whatever change in euros you had into the little donation box they had set up in front of them. When you turn around, you are taken aback by Heeseung’s proximity, one of his hands placing itself on your back and the other dropping a bill into the box as well.

He takes one last look at you, and you don’t look away. It takes another moment for you to smile softly, whispering “Let’s turn in for the night.” And with an agreeing nod and a phone call to Felix, you head back to the hotel in silence.

And in silence is how you two spend the remaining week or so of your trip, communicating only when necessary and sharing smiles only when undercover. So silent that you think you catch Felix, who for the most part has been a silent and indifferent chauffeur, side-eying you both through his rearview mirror. So silent that you think you might even be missing the bickering. There is no anger or even really awkwardness, just silence.

“I’ll be using the bathroom first, if that’s okay,” Heeseung would say once you reach the suite at night.

“That’s fine,” you would reply

“Breakfast’s on the table,” he would call out, lightly knocking on your door when you wake up late once.

“Okay,” you would answer.

“V just called me to double-check if you got his email?” you knocked on his door once.

“Yup,” was all he would say back.

And once he’d listen carefully to hear your footsteps fade outside of his door, Heeseung would flop back down on his bed to ignore said email in favour of groaning right into his phone microphone where three certain idiots were on the other side of the line.

“Was that her? What’d she say?” Jay giggled, ready to gossip further.

“Something about emails, I don’t know,” he mumbled, shoving his face into a pillow in embarrassment. As a group of young boys who’d grown up together, it wasn’t rare for them to talk about their romantic interests and experiences, but never had Heeseung been the particular subject in question.

“Well, I hope you know,” Sunghoon starts, leading Heeseung to roll his eyes already knowing what his friend was about to say. “We’re proud that you’ve finally admitted to your feelings for Ace.”

“I don’t know what you idiots are talking about,” Heeseung mumbles into his pillow.

“You called us up because a girl isn’t talking to you after a romantic evening. You’re in love, dumbass,” Jake points out.

“And we’re happy for you! Really,” he can hear Sunghoon’s smile through the phone.

Jay then chirps in. “Honestly. It’s been a long time coming.”

“No it hasn’t.”

“Stop being in denial,” Jay frowns. “You’ve always been bound for this.”

“But at the same time,” Jake continues from Jay’s point. “You’ve kinda been a bitch to her for... forever?” Heeseung supposes he isn’t wrong there. “It isn’t really a wonder that she turned your advances down.”

“She didn’t turn any advances down! That would imply that I made an advance,” he argued, in denial of his own actions and feelings.

“You slow-danced with her by the Eiffel Tower in the city of her dreams,” Jay scoffed. “If I were her, I would’ve proposed.”

Sunghoon hums from his side of the call. “Enemies to lovers type beat.”

“Okay, to be fair, she’s a bitch to me too!” Heeseung retorts, attempting to defend his actions.

“She literally spent your first year with Belift trying to be your friend,” Jay points out, remembering the days when he had to accompany the duo to their training sessions with the weapons. “God, you two were a pain to train together. I third wheel you bitches for nothing.”

And even through the call, Heeseung can hear Sunghoon snapping at Jay’s comments. “Yeah, Ace was so nice to you back then. Why were you so mean to her?” Heeseung wishes he had an answer.

“Yeah, I’d reject you too,” Jay jokes.

“Plus, isn’t she gay?”

Huh.

It was Jake who’d just spoken up, muffled as if he’d just stuffed his mouth with another bite of the pizza he’d ordered for himself. “I’m pretty sure she dated Yunjin. The chick's been stationed in Thailand for who knows how long.”

“Oh my god, I remember Yunjin telling me that she was seeing someone within Belift,” Jay gasped, finally connecting the dots. “They probably broke things off due to the distance.”

“You know she did say she had two girlfriends, like, the day you two left for Paris,” Sunghoon comments, mostly to himself.

“Oh, no wonder she kept rejecting me!” Jay pouts, earning howls of laughter from the other two boys his age. Though his pursuits were more or less just an ongoing joke from growing up together at Belift, it was still odd for him to realise that perhaps you were, in fact all this time, just a lesbian.

And as the three (idiots) boys continued to discuss your dating life and sexuality, Heeseung couldn’t help but feel odd inside. Because he does remember you mentioning your dating history, but he had forced himself to forget it so that he could continue pursuing you without feeling guilty. But now that he’s being confronted with the facts... Well...

Does this make him a shit ally or a selfish straight?

Or both?

You’re lucky I like bad boys, you’d once told him after a silly gambling game in the Belift Lab casino, but it turns out you might not even like boys at all.

You have six days left in Paris, and Lee Heeseung vows to make it up to you.

Okay, so maybe his friends were right. Perhaps he isn’t in love, per say, but he cares about you a little more than he would ever like to admit out loud. And if there was any chance he'd made you uncomfortable because of your sexuality, then he was gonna make it up to you.

In small ways, of course.

“You can shower first if you’d like,” he offers before you even step off the hotel elevator.

“We don’t have time for breakfast so I bought some muffins and a cup of coffee,” he calls carefully through your bedroom door, seeing as he woke up an hour earlier than normal to make sure you could be fed. You mumbled a ‘thank you’ when you noticed he remembered your coffee order.

“She may be my bodyguard but trust me, I’m who you should be worried about if you look too long,” he whispered threats to a particularly sleazy lawyer during a dinner in which you’d worn a particularly low-cut top.

It only takes you four days for your silences to turn from neutral mutual understanding to actual awkward silence. Heeseung is none the wiser, but you are all too aware of the oddness, the change in these last four days compared to your first few weeks and the days in between your night at the Eiffel Tower and now. You’re unsure of how to approach him, honestly unsure of how you even got to this point with Lee Heeseung.

Sure, you’ve always found him a bit of a nuisance, but you’ve never hated him. It’s an odd dynamic, with his sudden kindness; one that neither of you are used to and one that you can’t seem to understand. But at the end of the day, you’ve always known that Heeseung never had any intentions to really hurt you. The teasing and the insults and the back-and-forth really never was nothing more than the dynamic that you have always had.

It was Lee Heeseung who turned his nose up at you first. It was Lee Heeseung who’d told you to back off when you offered help. It was Lee Heeseung who began ignoring you and turning his friends against you.

And yet it was Lee Heeseung who held your hand in the clouds. Lee Heeseung who took you dancing in Paris. Lee Heeseung who kissed you when you cried.

Two days before your flight back home to Seoul takes you and Heeseung to a helicopter pad just outside of downtown Paris, as invited by a group of three (corrupt) French governors looking to take you both on a flight above the city. Joined by two helicopter pilots who don’t bother providing safety drills, your party of seven takes to the sky with a breathtaking view of the city you’ve always dreamed of.

But you think it looks prettier from the ground.

After a brunch together of way more mimosas than you lot should have had, a flight seemed almost fun when the proposal was brought up. Without practical safety advice and without doors on the helicopter hinges, however, you think you just might throw yourself out of the plane.

Heeseung takes good care to remember the way you don’t do too well with flying, and so he takes the edge seat, sandwiching you in between himself and one of the pervert politicians, the other two seated behind your trio. Had Heeseung been able to speak up against your clients, you wouldn’t have gone on the flight at all. Not even two minutes airborne and his hand is already wrapped around yours, unable to communicate directly considering the limits of the given headphones and the sound as obstructed by the wind.

Your dream city looks prettier with Lee Heeseung’s hand in yours.

You snap right into attention when one of the pilots swiftly pulls the politician sitting beside you to him, positioned right by the helicopter opening with a gun to his head. Heeseung’s hand tightens in yours, almost enough to cut off your circulation.

He begins yelling orders in French at you four, the other pilot continuing to fly in enthusiastic compliance with the gunman. Heeseung’s brain, on the other hand, goes into complete overdrive, immediately assessing that the other two politicians will be no help considering their greed and level of intoxication. But alas, without your translations, he has nothing but his hand in yours and his prayers that you will both make it back down to the ground.

You are his priority.

“Pick up the fucking case,” your brain translates his barks at you, though your body doesn’t move as you feel the wind pick up in the sky. “I want the pretty girl to do it. My partner will not hesitate to crash this copter if you don’t listen.”

Tears prick at the corners of your eyes as he takes the gun and pokes the barrel at your knee. “Okay! Okay!”

On any other day, during any other attack, you would have been on top of your game. This is what you’ve been trained for. You were sent here to protect Heeseung. But in the sky?

All you can remember is the day you lost your parents. The day you woke up in the hospital. Later an orphanage. And just a few short weeks later, the day you were invited to join the Belift Underground.

In the sky, you are nothing but another child who lost everything.

Shaking, you pull your hand away from Heeseung, as you unbuckle your lap belt and take the briefcase from one of the politicians sitting behind you who seem hesitant to pass it off. You rip it away from his hands, however, reminding him that no money nor information would be worth dying in the sky for.

Fiddling with the codes on the side, you think you pick up a Nordic language between the two hijackers, and you immediately think of a Swedish mafia that Belift has a dramatic past with. You just hope Heeseung, despite his limited knowledge of languages, picks up the idea as well. With only a small dagger strapped to your thigh and the lighter you know Heeseung keeps in his pocket, you try your best to keep your mind clear and try to think of the safest way to land the plane.

You have being a girl to your advantage at least. To them, you are still only Heeseung’s assistant.

“Open the fucking case faster!” he continues to threaten, pushing the crying politician in his hold even closer to the edge of the copter.

“I don’t know the code,” you answer honestly and submissively, leaving the case on the floor beneath you. “The guy who does is the one who you’re threatening to push out.”

“Don’t talk back.”

“I’m telling you that he knows the code,” you reply as calmly as possible, though you can hear your voice break. “Let him live and you’ll get what you want.”

It’s your request that sends the gunman spiralling, shooting right into the hull of the vehicle and earning angry curses from his partner, still steering the plane. The shot pushes the plane out of balance and without your belt, both the politician and you are thrown off your stances, tumbling over, and you swear you feel your heart drop.

With the politician tossed towards the cockpit mindlessly, the gunman takes you by the wrist, wrapping his arm around your waist and pushing the barrel of the gun into your head. Gun aside, you become painfully aware of how close you are to the helicopter door frames. “You know the drill. Open the case.” The politician doesn’t hesitate this time, scrambling to do as told.

Blinking your tears away, you force yourself to focus, taking in the combination lock on the side of the briefcase. They’re letters. Four letters.

Without a second though you yell out “Bull”.

“Excuse me?”

“Try it. Bull.”

“The animal.”

“Yes. Bull.”

With his only accomplice focusing on steering the aircraft, the gunman has to loosen his grip on you to grab at the briefcase, switching his gun’s aim towards the two politicians in the backseat who continue to cower in understandable fear.

And as he struggles to input the letter code with all the turbulence, the pilot, sitting right in front of Heeseung, catches on fire.

Bull.

불.

The Korean word for fire.

Chaos erupts, with his uniform burning the pilot’s body, and the plane immediately shifting in trajectory in the sky. Heeseung may have understood your code, what with his trusty lighter always in his pocket, but you might be now plummeting right back down to Parisian grounds.

As curse words and bodies fly across the aircraft, you let your instincts guide you to snatch the gun right off your primary attacker, ordering him in French to steer the plane lest you all die considering his accomplice’s situation.

The plane crash lands, without deployment of wheels and without communication with the air travel tower, swooping down as slowly and smoothly as possible though the craft itself is surely now beyond repair. It doesn;t burst into flames or anything, but it causes enough commotion that Parisian police are quick to arrive at the scene, gunmen soon arrested and governors soon praised in the media for their bravery (since naturally, the Belift Underground’s involvement have to remain under the table).

With Felix fast to pick you up, you both somehow inconspicuously return to your hotel, crashing your own bodies into the sofa together wordlessly.

“‘Bull’,” Heeseung laughs from delirious relief. “Imagine I was dumb and didn’t get it.”

You scoff and hit him thoughtlessly in the arm. “You are dumb. Was setting the guy’s uniform on fire really the first thing that came to mind?”

“What other fire could I have realistically set that wouldn’t have killed us, huh?” You blink up at the ceiling, your lack of an answer becoming glaringly obvious. “Just admit it, I saved us."

"Thanks to my suggestion."

"I still did it. You're welcome." You can picture his smirk already.

Though you can feel the corners of your lips curling up, you still find yourself habitually rolling your eyes. You mentally hope he’s staring up at the ceiling too instead of looking your way. “Suddenly I’m grateful you smoke.”

He takes a moment before responding. “I’ve been thinking of quitting actually.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah.”

"Good. That's good to hear."

This time, you see Heeseung turn his body to face you out of the corner of your eye with the brightest smile on your face. "It's good?"

"Well, yeah, those things can kill you."

"Aw, so you don't want me dead," Heeseung teases.

You turn your head towards him, taking a moment to acknowledge how close your faces are. "I wish you had set the whole helicopter on fire."

"Thank god I'm not stupid, huh."

God, his eyes are pretty from up close.

You snort, pushing yourself up to take a shower. “I’m gonna call V and tell him I want to go back to Korea on a ship.”

“Fuck, get me a ticket too,” he laughs, and you think it sounds pretty.

Without any other meetings or appearances booked, your remaining day or so in Paris is filled with uninterrupted rest and quiet. After, of course, a long debriefing phone call with your bosses back in Seoul about the incident.

You keep yourself essentially locked inside your bedroom, and you only assume Heeseung has been doing the same as well. Packing, napping, and just breathing. After all, a ship back all the way to Korea is just unrealistic. You still have to get back on a plane tomorrow morning and you need your time to mentally prepare.

At about nine in the evening, when you’re just about to go to bed reading some e-book you downloaded months ago, Heeseung knocks at your door.

“You haven’t come out for dinner yet. Are you not hungry?”

At the mention of dinner, you feel your stomach rumble. And upon realising that Heeseung has noticed, you feel your heart jump as well.

You step out of bed, swinging open the door and eyes widening at the sight of Heeseung in a three piece suit. It’s one of the ones he’s been wearing at meetings, and yet the look of him tonight in it still manages to surprise you.

You clear your throat. “I had a late lunch.”

“Oh,” he mumbles. “Well,” he clears his own throat. “I prepared something,” you blink, “if you’d like.”

You chew on your lip. “Should I… dress up too?”

“You don’t have to! You look fine. The pyjamas are fine. It’s not like we’re leaving the place. I was just- You’re fine. I should change-”

“I’ll put a dress on.”

He blinks. “Okay.”

And so you do.

Something simple, but red, because you know it’s his favourite.

When you exit your bedroom, you see that the living room is empty, but as you’re about to call out your partner’s name, you see the curtains flowing out of the corner of your eye. The doors out to the veranda are wide open, a blanket laid out on the floor with room service dinner all over it. There are a few candles, set up a comfortable distance away from the cloth.

But what really catches your eye is Heeseung’s silhouette, as he leans on his arms over the patio fencing, and the distant light of the Eiffel tower. You find the view catches your breath too.

You clear your throat to alert him to your presence and he turns around, smiling brightly and motioning towards the blanket as he crouches down to sit opposite of you. Your heart is pounding.

“What’s this all for?”

“Paris,” he shrugs as he pops open a bottle of champagne. “I think I fell in love with it too.”

Allowing him to pour your glass, you grimace. “I don’t know. I think the magic might be disappearing.”

“It’s definitely prettier from down here,” he jokes and you can’t help but laugh.

Dinner is delicious, and the conversation is just as exciting. It’s as if you’d made an unspoken agreement to be actual friends tonight.

You tell him about the time you awkwardly caught Jake and his girlfriend in the janitor’s closet. He tells you about Sunoo having to meet up with them in secret considering he’s officially cut ties with the mafia. You tell him about why you hate flying. He holds your hand and doesn't let go. He tells you why he wants to quit smoking. You feel a sudden shift in the air.

“I started so young,” he admits. “Selling's what got the mafia's attention after all."

"Surely you knew how bad it was for you then though."

Heeseung chukcles bitterly, swirling his wine glass and watching the redness temporarily stain the sides. "Well, I had nothing to live for. Death was something I was ready to welcome.”

You don't hesitate to caress his hand in yours with your thumb. “Has that changed then?”

“I think so.”

“You’ve found something then?”

“Hm?”

You look at him, meeting his beautiful doe eyes in the Parisian moonlight. “Something to live for? You’ve found it?”

He smiles, eyes piercing right back into yours. “Yes.”

There's a sudden shift in the air. And it feels really nice.

Once you touch back down to Seoul, it feels like Paris never even happened.

Not necessarily in a bad way, just in that you and Lee Heeseung go back to barely talking, busy and back to your regular responsibilities in Belift. With your return to the weapons and combat division, Jay has once again become your closest work friend, pestering you about Paris endlessly. And with Heeseung back having succeeded in his mission, V has granted him the official title of Belift’s business apprentice.

While everyone’s always known he’d be up next, V has recently essentially confirmed that he’s considering an early retirement after having just bought an island. And with him potentially leaving his underground life behind sooner rather than later, Lee Heeseung is up next, as approved by grandfather RM as well.

You congratulate him, not without a roll of your eyes when he smirks, of course, but you feel proud of him nonetheless. And you’re ashamed to admit it, but it does feel nice when people commend you as his mission handler in Paris. A part of his success includes you, after all.

And when Heeseung decides he still owes you, since dinner in Paris really isn’t much of an apology for all he’s put you through, he decides to ask V for your birthday.

V bursts out in laughter. “Since when have we ever cared about birthdays?”

Heeseung shrugs shyly. “I’ve known her for almost a decade and I still don’t know her birthday. It’s just weird.”

The businessman sighs, pushing himself off of his seat and stalking over to one of his many shelves for the employee files. “Buy her something expensive, yeah? You know she’s the reason I picked you at all.”

Heeseung’s heart stops. “What do you mean, sir?”

Shoving a drawer closed and going through another one, V thinks for a second. “Well, you know… We always do peer review. She’s the one who pushed you for negotiation all those years ago after Singapore. She’s the one who recommended you for the Alpha Three project, and you remember how good that was for you. That work put you on RM’s radar too. And uh, she-” V stops, talking out a stack of binders and flopping it down on his desk. “She told me about the plane. That you controlled the situation and saved everyone. After that, there was just no doubt.”

Fuck doing something nice for your birthday.

Lee Heeseung needed to find you now.

And at a bright and early eleven in the morning, Heeseung dashes out of V’s office (who, while he found it disrespectful, chuckled to himself at the sight of young love) and goes through every floor in the Belift Lab building. When he reaches the main floor, he finds the club and casino virtually empty, except that you were laughing with Sunghoon at a poker table.

“Ace! What the hell are you on?” Heeseung’s voice echoes in the empty casino after you.

You whip your head around, Sunghoon’s own following your eyes to the boy stepping off the elevator. “Heeseung-”

His hand wraps around your wrist, forcing your eyes to meet his. “Why does V think I saved the Paris mission?”

“I don’t know if I should be here,” Sunghoon’s eyes narrow but neither you nor Heeseung even hear him.

“You did,” you answer, eyes unwavering.

“I didn’t-” he clears his throat, letting your wrist go and leaning an arm against the table behind you. “I wouldn’t have been able to if it weren’t for you.”

“And vice versa.” You don’t even know why he seems so upset. “Why are you being weird?”

“I should go…” Sunghoon mumbles, though his feet don’t move an inch.

“Ace, you-” Heeseung stops himself again. “You are so frustrating.”

You roll your eyes, turning back around though his arm doesn’t move, eventually caging you in with your back just inches from his chest. “Yes. I get it. I’m the worst.”

It takes a few moments of silence before you suddenly find Heeseung’s arms hesitantly but surely making their way around you, holding you to his chest and resting his head on your shoulder. You freeze. His breath on your neck makes your heart drop.

“Thank you. And I’m sorry.”

You blink. “For what?”

“For everything," he answers and you hold your breath. "I didn’t think playing nice would make me look good in front of the bosses. Back when I was new, all I thought about was how to survive. I didn't think you could be a part of that.”

“Well it worked and you got your promotion right?” you reply nonchalantly, trying to wiggle your way out of his weird back hug.

“Thanks to you, Ace,” he tightens his hold and you let yourself melt into his touch. “God, I’m so sorry.”

Fuck it.

“It’s okay,” you whisper in return, turning around to face him though his arms remain secured around you. “You’re forgiven, okay? You’ve made up for all your bullshit enough with the amount of times you’ve sat next to me on a plane.”

He chuckles, closing his eyes and leaning his forehead against yours. Eyes slowly flickering open, he meets yours, and somehow, so do your lips.

The moment almost lasts forever if only you didn’t hear Sunghoon’s phone click.

You two turn right around, giving the boy disapproving looks. “What? I figured the boys would wanna see. It’s for my Snapchat streaks.”

“Get out of here!” Heeseung sneers, pulling away from you and stomping over to hit his best friend in the arm.

Sunghoon laughs to himself as he finally walks away, typing up a caption and mumbling it out loud, “2023, colourized, Lee Heeseung kissing a lesbian.”

And at that word, Heeseung freezes, your eyes meeting in shock once again. “Oh my god, I’m so sorry-”

You interrupt him with a laugh. A big, bright, beautiful laugh that sends both warmth and worry to Lee Heeseung’s heart as Sunghoon skips away to officially leave you two alone.

“Why are you laughing?”

You can’t help but keep going, leaning against the table to hold yourself up with the sheer panic in Heeseung’s eyes.

“Stop laughing. I really am sorry. I forgot.”

“I- What?” you ask, smiling brightly at him.

“You dated Yunjin right?” Heeseung asks with all the awkward hesitation in the world. Truly, it’s nice to see a man you’ve always known to be so confident break down in front of you. “You’re a lesbian. I just kissed you. That’s, like, weird. But I swear, I will make it up to you. This was not a part of the plan.”

“First of all,” you chuckle. “The only thing weird here is that you kissed me-” you pause as you smack him in the arm, “after you’ve been hating me all this time! And all for your stupid promotions,” you frown.

“I-”

“Second of all,” you smile, eyes and everything, finally unafraid that Lee Heeseung is looking right at you as you approach him, resting your arms atop his shoulders with hands meeting at the back of his neck. “Bisexuals exist.”

You see the shift in Heeseung’s eyes - from panic to confusion to delight. “Oh. Oh.”

“Mhmm, oh.”

“So…”

“Can I, like, kiss you again?” Heeseung asks, his signature smirk appearing, although this time you admit it’s quite attractive.

You touch noses with him and pull away. “Yes, but we should go find somewhere else. I have a feeling Sunghoon’s still watching.”

"No I'm not."

Heeseung grimaces. "Oh my god, get out of here!"

author's note:

thank you for reading! for my followers, i know it's been a hot minute, but here it finally is :)

i'm a thousand or so words into jungwon's one-shot which is the upcoming one sooooo we'll see how much progress i make on it soon lol. regardless of my snail pace in writing, i hope you enjoy my work nonetheless.

let me know what your favorite part of the series so far is!

#enhypen #mafia au #enhypen x reader #enhypen imagines #enhypen headcanons #enhypen reactions #enhypen scenarios #heeseung #lee heeseung #enhypen heeseung #heeseung x reader #heeseung x you #heeseung fluff #heeseung angst

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