CHAPTER 2

"Ah, Lee Aera... I'm glad you could make it," Jihye said, waving her into the expansive living room of the summer home.

As Aera scanned her surroundings, she saw both kids sitting on the couch fidgeting to themselves, looking as though they were wishing to be anywhere else doing just about anything else. She also saw a quite frumpy looking girl sitting posture-perfect in an armchair next to the couch. She must have been the second nanny Mr. Bang was referring to, Aera was almost sure of it.

"Yeah. Yeah, I'll get back to you..." Jihye spoke, confusing Aera slightly until she noticed the Bluetooth device that was poised in her ear.

"Just let me call you back. Yeah. I'll call you back in ten," Jihye said, clicking off her ear phone device.

"So, where were we?" Jihye asked, smiling politely, finally focusing on everyone in the room rather than on her cell phone.

"Please..." Jihye said as she scooted Aera toward an available armchair. Aera felt slightly awkward, but took the seat anyway.

"Kids, do you remember Aera?" Jihye asked them with an exaggerated smile on her face.

"Hi," they both beamed back at Aera with smiling faces.

"Hi, Jaehyun. Hi, Areum. I'm super excited to be hanging out this summer. Are you guys ready to have fun?" Aera asked, smiling back at them, trying to sound as enthusiastic as possible.

"YEAH!" They both shouted excitedly.

In all actuality, Aera was just as excited. The moment she met the children, she instantly loved them. And she was certain the summer was going to be a blast getting to hang out with them every day.

"Aera, this is Minhee, the second nanny I hired. You will both be sharing duties over the summer. Thank God. It would have been impossibly hard to only have one of you. Oh, I can't even imagine. It would have been such a headache. I was actually contemplating three. But that's another story," Jihye talked a mile a minute, seemingly to herself, and it made Aera wonder if she was always that self-centered.

Jihye was definitely something else. To Aera, she looked like she needed a stiff drink... or something else that was stiff. She silently wondered if Mr. Bang – or Chan, as he told her to call him – was giving it to her regularly. By the way she stood like she had a stick up her ass, and that uptight attitude of hers, Jihye definitely seemed like a woman who could use a good go-around between sheets. And after really thinking about it, Aera's eyebrows contorted slightly as she wondered why the hell Jihye would ever turn down a man like Bang Chan  He had a body that was made for sex. And Aera would bet money that he was good.

"Will that work for you, Aera? Lee Aera?" Jihye asked impatiently.

"Huh?" Aera asked, snapping out of her lust-filled fantasies about her new boss' husband.

"I was just going over the schedule—oh, never mind. I'll type it up and have it for you both by tomorrow," Jihye said, waving it off, just as her eyes snapped up toward the doorway.

"Oh, Chan, honey," Jihye said, waving her husband into the room.

Chan also had to be snapped out of his own, not-so admirable thoughts – thoughts of the beautiful new arrival to the estate. After he had the pleasure of meeting their new house guest, Chan took Aera's belongings to the room Jihye already assigned to her, and he wasn't able to get her out of his mind – not even for a second. She was absolutely alluring.

Chan's vision fell away from Aera and landed on his wife who stood in the middle of the room wearing full business attire with her dark hair tied back tightly in a bun, despite the fact that she was on vacation. It really was a mark of her character, of who she was and how she was raised. She was a professional even when she didn't need to be.

"Daddy!" Areum beamed at Chan as he walked toward her mother.

"Hello, love," he said, smiling fondly down at one half of his pride and joy, and then at the other half sitting next to her – her brother.

"Chan, have you had a chance to meet Aera?" Jihye asked, grasping his arm lightly, holding out her other hand to present him to the young woman he just embarrassingly gawked at in the driveway.

It wasn't lost on Chan when Jihye's hand fell away from his arm almost immediately, as if touching him was frowned upon.

"Yes. I had the pleasure of meeting her in the driveway," he informed his wife with a pleasant smile, before sending a smirk to Aera.

Aera couldn't help but smile back at Mr. Bang. Especially because the smile he sent her seemed like an inside joke just between the two of them – like they shared a secret no one else in the room knew about. And perhaps they did share a secret. Perhaps the little sneaking glances at one another in the driveway were enough for them to be inducted into some super-secret exclusive club for two. Aera was certain the fact that Mr. Bang had so blatantly checked out her ass as she walked into the house was the cementing factor in their wordless pact with one another. And it made her feel good.

"Good, good. Honey, could you show the girls to their rooms? I have to call the office back," Jihye said to her husband, not even waiting for an answer before calling her phone.

"It would be my pleasure," he said, rolling his eyes at his uppity wife.

"Kids, why don't you go up to your rooms for now?" Jihye said, immediately shooing her children away.

"I'll see you guys later, okay?" Aera said to the kids as they ambled off the couch before running out the door, their giggles answering her question for them.

"Come on, ladies. I will show you to your quarters," Chan said, smiling particularly at Aera, completely giving into the fact that he took a firm interest in her. A fact that would sure as hell get him into loads of trouble if the wife ever caught on.

Aera walked next to Mr. Bang as they went through the house, Minhee trailing somewhere behind them. She was in absolute awe at the architecture of the whole entire house – straight down to the crown moulding and antique-looking wall paper.

"This house is incredible," Aera said, looking around, her eyes wide and bright.

"It's something else," Chan said, looking at her from the corner of his eye.

The house wasn't the only thing Aera found incredible. Chan's scent was intoxicating. It was a mix between his cologne and the natural musk of his body – his hot, sexy body. She almost couldn't believe herself – fawning over a married man and all. But she just couldn't help it.

The summer house was so big that the help had its very own wing in the house. And lucky for the two au pairs to each have their own living quarters. Aera's room was rather spacious with a nice full sized bed, a decent closet, and even a desk and a sitting area. The white walls were slightly drab with nothing hung on them, but Aera was certain she would make the room feel like home in no time.

Minhee had the room across the hallway which mirrored Aera's in every way. They were to share a bathroom, which was sort of a drag, but they had their own entrance outdoors that they could come and go from as they pleased.

"So, girls..." Mr. Bang said, and almost immediately Minhee flanked to his side. It wasn't her being interested in him, no – not like Aera certainly was. It was more her being obedient – being the good little nanny.

Minhee intrigued Aera. She was definitely different. You could tell just by meeting her once that she was religious, reserved, and very soft spoken. Her fashion style, which was conservative, made it seem like she grew up in a strict Catholic home. She looked like she had never been out in the sun and almost looked like she belonged in a convent.

"We're really excited to have you here. And if you need anything, please, don't hesitate to ask," Mr. Bang continued on with a light smile on his face.

"Thank you, sir," Minhee replied, nodding lightly.

"Please, call me Chan," he corrected her.

"Chan," Aera said quietly to herself before she even realized she said it. Chan looked up at her almost immediately with a cocked eyebrow and a smirk on his face.

"So, where are you from? Seoul? Australia?" Chan continued on, asking both of the girls.

"I grew up in South Jeolla,sir. Though my family lives in Daegu  now. But I study in Yonsei " Minhee answered quickly.

"Like, University?" Chan asked her.

"Yes, sir," she said with a nod.

"That's great. Aera?" Chan asked, catching Aera completely off guard.

"Oh, um. I'm from Gwangju ," she answered with a small smile.

"Do you go to school?" He asked.

"Yep. SNU," Aera told him, biting at her lip.

"SNU, wow. Good for you. What are you studying?" He asked, seemingly taking more of an interest in one and not the other.

"Marketing. Business Marketing," Aera told him.

"Ambitious," he said, seeming impressed, and Aera couldn't help but feel flush with pride because of it.

"How old are you—ahem—both of you?" Aera asked, realizing he was playing favourites.

"Twenty-two, sir," Minhee said quietly.

"Same," Aera told him, biting her lip lightly. Chan couldn't help but find it entirely sexy.

"You're both twenty-two, huh? Getting close to graduating?" He asked curiously, trying to shy his mind away from the dirty thoughts he kept having of the girl standing in front of him who was much, much too young to be thinking about in that way.

"I am working on my Bachelor's degree, striving toward my Master's," Aera said proudly.

"Well, good for you. Seriously. That's definitely impressive," Chan nodded.

"And how old are you?" Aera asked boldly, causing Chan to let out a light chuckle, bashfully looking toward the ground.

"Much older," he said as he looked up and smirked back at her.

"How much older?" She cocked her eyebrow.

"Try a decade—and then some," he chuckled.

"Thirty-three?" Aera asked.

"Thirty-three this coming year. I'm an old man," he joked.

"I wouldn't say that," Aera said, her voice coming out with an air of seduction.

Chan could tell right away she was flirting. It was apparent. He could spot that eyebrow twitch a mile away. And no matter how many times he found himself looking at her, he would have been willing to bet she was looking back at him just as much. And something like that did not go unnoticed by his ravenous libido.

"Oh, yeah? What would you say then?" Chan flirted back, egging her on.

"Mature. Cultured. Developed," she said, emphasizing the last word in the sexiest way possible, and Chan was entirely floored over it. He was certain a summer with her around was going to absolutely wreck him.

"Why thank you, Aera," Chan said, giving her a pleased smile before his eyes wandered up her entire body – from her killer legs to her flat stomach to her amazing breast and then up to her beautiful face.

Aera cocked her eyebrow at Chan again, letting him know without words that she just caught him checking her out – again. But Chan wasn't worried about any repercussions. He knew their mutual flirting was as fun for her as it was for him.

"Aera – what kind of name is that?" Chan asked curiously, changing the subject.

"My mom named it.  In Japanese, there is a culture of Kanji which is a set of characters originated from Chinese characters, and the meaning of the name changes according to the choice of Kanji characters and Aera has the meaning 'Love' and 'beautiful'.　she explained.

It was something Aera had to do often with a name like hers. Her explanation was well-rehearsed, because she explained it to so many people in her twenty-two years.

"Fascinating," Chan told her sincerely.

"Yeah, super exciting," she said facetiously, causing Chan to chuckle.

The two of them were broken out of their one-on-one bonding time when they heard Minhee lightly clear her throat. They were both quite startled, having forgotten she was even standing there.

"Well..." Chan said, clearing his throat as he took a step back from Aera, looking over at Minhee sheepishly.

"I'll uh... I'll let you two get settled. And I'll uh, see you for dinner," Chan said just before he stepped around Minhee and made his way down the hallway back toward the common areas of the house.

Chan felt slightly ashamed that Minhee was witness to their blatant flirting. He could already picture her saying a prayer for her perverted boss, who was this close to some sort of emotional adultery, and the flirtatious young nanny who provoked him. Good God.

Once Mr. Bang made his exit, Aera almost immediately began unpacking her suitcase, but stopped abruptly when she saw Minhee was still standing in her doorway.

"Uh, hi," Aera stammered, feeling slightly uncomfortable with the girl staring at her.

"I look forward to working with you, Aera-shi," Minhee said politely.

"Yeah, you too," Aera said, eyeing her. Minhee nodded once before she spun on her heels, heading off to her own room.

"Weird," Aera said under her breath, trying to shake off the awkward encounter as she began sifting through her belongings.

Aera happily unpacked as visions of Mr. Bang and his well-developed body invaded her mind. He was eye-candy, indeed. She smiled as she thought of how excited her roommate Jennie was going to be when she heard the news.

As Aera went through her toiletries, ready to bring them to the bathroom, she came across her little pink vibrator – definitely a girl's best friend. She was now thankful she made the conscious decision to bring it along, because she was certain she was going to need it if Mr. Bang kept looking at her like that – and kept looking like that.

...

During dinner, Minhee made the mistake of asking Jihye something about what she did for a living – thus throwing Jihye into a long-winded conversation about the business deal she was working on. Chan's brain seemed to shut down whenever Jihye began talking about her job. It was all the same, all so mundane.

"Jihye, can we not talk about work right now, please. We have our new guests here," Chan finally said to shut his wife up.

"Oh, right. Yes. So girls, tell us a little more about yourselves," Jihye said, looking between both of them. When neither of them spoke up right away, Jihye picked one of them on a whim.

"Minhee?" Jihye asked with an expectant look on her face.

"I-I attend college at Yonsei University" Minhee began to explain. It made Aera snicker slightly to herself. Seriously, Yonsei University?

Minhee went on to tell the family who she was, what she did, how she spent her time. But Chan wasn't listening. As she began talking about where she went to school, he began to tune her out, because out of the corner of his eye he was watching Aera, who seemed to be trying her hardest to pay attention to the very uninteresting girl that was sitting across from her.

"And you, Aera?" Chan asked, once he was sure Minhee finished her life story.

Aera's eyes shot up to his, and he immediately registered some kind of playfulness in them. She was amused that he was the one to speak up, and she was amused that he sat there with a smirk on his face as she began speaking.

"Well... I am twenty-two years old..." She started.

"Oh, she's just a baby, Chan. Ten years younger than us," Jihye's voice rang through the dining room, tearing Chan's eyes away from Aera.

"Yeah, a baby," he said awkwardly, giving his wife a small smile before focusing back on Aera.

"I'm working toward my Bachelor's degree in Business, with an emphasis in Marketing. Uh, I have two older sisters. Ji-eun is twenty-eight and Heeyoung is twenty-six," Aera continued after Jihye interrupted.

"Hey, maybe her sisters remember your group, honey," Jihye interrupted her once again.

"Your group?" Aera questioned, smirking wildly at Chan.

Chan wasn't going to go around bragging about his group or anything, but if she was willing to listen, it gave him free reign to do a little peacocking.

"Oh, yeah. He and his friend were in a group that was pretty much it back in the day," Jihye said, smiling amusingly. Chan eyed his wife through his eyelashes, fully annoyed by her.

Jihye loved teasing Chan about being in a boy-group, and it bothered him since it was his career that bought them their million dollar home, and that still managed to bring in income even though he'd been out of the spotlight for nearly seven years.

"You act like it was decades ago. It's been less than ten years," he said, trying as best he could to keep the annoyance out of his tone, but he was sure it was unsuccessful.

"Tell me about it," Aera said to Chan, her voice coming out soft and airy, ignoring Jihye altogether. Chan's entire body began to tingle as her earnest eyes watched him constantly.

"It was just this thing I did with some of the kids," Chan said, feeling bashful for the first time in a long time.

"They were world renowned. You actually might still hear about them. Some of the members are still out there making music," Jihye went on to explain.

Chan's annoyance came back with a vengeance toward his wife as she once again stole Aera's attention and in turn, stole his right to be the one to explain about his own life.

"Oh, really?" Aera cooed, turning her eyes back to him.

"Stray Kids. They were SKZ ," Jihye blurted out, causing Chan to scoff lightly. Apparently Jihye really wasn't going to let him tell his own life story.

"No way!" Aera yelped, looking at him wide-eyed.

"You know us?" He questioned, smirking widely at her, feeling completely elated that someone as young as she remembered them.

"Oh my god. My sister Jieun was obsessed with you guys. Heeyoung liked you guys too, but not like Heeyoung. She was totally going to marry Felix," she laughed.

"Felix, huh?" Chan chuckled, giving her a cock of his eyebrow.

"Totally," Aera laughed.

"Last I heard, Felix's wife's name isn't Jieun," Chan told her with a smirk on his face.

"Sucks for Jieun then," she said with a shrug and a laugh.

It amused Chan, probably more than it should have that she actually knew of his group. He was enjoying her company as they sat around the table eating dinner with the family. It had been a long time since he had a nice conversation with a woman. Jihye left a lot to be desired, unfortunately.

"You never listened to us?" He asked Aera curiously.

"In passing. I was like, seven or eight. And I was more into sports than dreamy boys," she said, batting her eyelashes at him dramatically. Chan laughed out loud, feeling young again.

"Cookin' like a chef I'm a 5 star, ..." She sang softly, revealing that she knew the lyrics and melody of one of SKZ's  biggest hits to date.

"Are you sure you weren't a fan?" He asked, cocking his eyebrow inquisitively at her.

"Sorry. I was out on the baseball diamond with all the neighbourhood boys," she said with a passive shrug, bouncing her eyebrows at him playfully.

"Daddy, I like your music," Chan heard Areum's tiny little voice and it snapped him out of his one-track mind, making him feel guilty that he just completely monopolized the conversation – among other things.

"I do too, dad," Jaehyun piped in too.

"Thanks, loves. You're the best," Chan beamed at his children. No matter what, he knew his kids were his biggest fans.

...

After dinner, Chan and Jihye gave the new nanny a crash course in bathing and bedtime with the kids. It was entirely chaotic and hectic, especially when Areum had a meltdown over her missing stuffed dog that no one could find for what seemed like forever. It was definitely a trying night and Chan breathed a sigh of relief once he and Jihye were finally in their bedroom alone.

"Ugh. Sometimes these children make me so glad I got my tubes tied," Jihye grumbled as she started to remove her jewellery from the day.

Chan's whole entire body froze with his wife's words before his blood started boiling rapidly. First of all, it was a low blow to both him and the kids. And second of all—what the fuck?

"You what?" He choked out.

"Hmm?" She hummed, looking over at him like her words didn't hold some sort of fucked up meaning.

"You got your tubes tied?" He asked carefully, narrowing his eyes at her, feeling as though he was about to come unhinged.

"Oh—" She said, realizing she just made a colossal mistake letting that one slip.

"What in the fuck, Jihye?" Chan growled.

"Chan—be serious," she scoffed.

"Be serious? What the fuck does that mean?" He shot at her as his anger encompassed him.

"After Areum, I—" She started before he cut her off.

"After Areum ? You got your tubes tied five years ago and didn't think to tell me!? I'm your goddamn husband!" He yelled, feeling the animosity and irritation boil over and seep all around his body.

"I told you one child, Chan! And then... and then I got pregnant again. I just... I..." She stammered. Chan's head felt like it might explode as he stood there listening to his wife's excuses, which only made her sound like the most selfish god damn person on the planet.

"We agreed on one child, but Areum—god, I can't believe the way you—ohmygod," he growled, unable to complete a full thought, let alone a sentence.

"What are you so mad about?" She scoffed with a snide attitude that only worked to piss Chan off further.

"If you don't know what I am so mad about, then you don't know me at all, Jihye!" He yelled at her, his chest nearly heaving with anger.

There was a long, weighted silence between them, where Jihye just stood against the dresser, biting at her lip and Chan just tried to control his breathing and temper.

"I got it at the same time I had the C-section with Areum. You were so wrapped up in the baby..." She said quietly.

"You are so god damn disrespectful," Chan said through a clenched jaw as he shook his head lightly, feeling so much anger toward the woman he vowed to spend the rest of his life with. He was so angry, he felt like he couldn't even be in the same room as her.

"I didn't think you'd ever find out. I just... I didn't mean for you to find out. It just slipped out," she said, looking rather flustered.

"You still don't fucking get it, Jihye," he shot at her, his fiery eyes burning into her.

"What!? What don't I get? What don't you get!? I don't want any more kids!" She screamed at him, letting her own irritation out.

"I am your god damn husband, Jihye! You aren't supposed to keep things that are life changing from me! What the fuck trust do we have left if we're keeping secrets this fucking monstrous from each other!?" He screamed at her. He didn't usually make it a habit to scream at the mother of his children, or any women for that matter, with that much anger and expletives, but Jihye really did a number on him.

She stood silently staring at the floor, keeping her lips pursed tightly together.

"Fuck, Jihye!" He growled, throwing his hands up.

With her complete indifference and disregard for his feelings, something inside of him snapped. And it broke Chan's heart to realize it was the last little thread that held their teetering, fragile relationship together. He knew he would never be able to look past what she did. It was just too much.

Without another word, Chan stalked out of the bedroom – down the hallway, down the stairs. He ended up in the kitchen, grabbing the bottle of vodka .He planned on drinking it casually – make a vodka tonic here and there. But it was definitely a night where he needed a friend and it was going to be that bottle of vodka.

The remainder of Chan's night consisted of watching a lot of Netflix in the pool house by himself, drinking nearly the entire bottle of vodka while drowning in the sorrowful mess that was his life.

And he was greeted with a lovely hangover in the morning.