“Easy there, Y/N,” Jaebum mentioned as he helped you inside the apartment, your legs feeling like jelly.

Giggling, you swung around in his arms and pushed him up against the wall. Your drunken kisses littered his neck and exposed chest. “This is what we do best, Jaebs.”

“Is it?” he asked, holding your hips to steady you. “I don’t think we’ve ever done this whilst you’re -faced.”

“Maybe I needed to get this way to forget. Maybe I needed an excuse to do this,” you answered, your voice slurred. You blinked to refocus on his handsome face and let out a heavy sigh before you stretched to kiss him.

Jaebum cupped your face with concern. “You don’t need an excuse to kiss me. You don’t need an excuse to do anything to me. I’m yours.”

“Mine?” you asked with a laugh, shaking your head. “The trust fund is yours. What will you spend it on?”

“Y/N,” Jaebum growled, running an agitated hand through his hair before capturing your gaze in a hard stare. “Did you get drunk because of us?”

“Don’t flatter yourself. I just needed a reprieve. Work’s been kicking my .”

“You have always used , not alcohol, to release stress. We could have come home and made love instead of you downing all that wine. Had I known you were a lightweight, I would have stopped you after the second glass.”

“We could still have—wait. What did you just call it?” you asked, frowning as you tried to rewind the words Jaebum had used. You had to be drunk if you had heard him say what you thought he had.

You laughed again, bordering on hysteria. You needed to let this go. There was only a handful of days left of the contract and after that…

You didn’t want to think that far ahead. Your head was swimming, and what you needed was water. Lots of it. And probably a permanent spot on the bathroom floor next to the toilet. Your stomach roiled with the bitter tang of the aftermath of too much wine, and you grasped your head in a hand, lightly.

“I don’t feel so good.”

“No, I didn’t think you would after all that,” Jaebum stated, letting out a heavy breath as he leaned you against the wall before disappearing from your side. You grew cold instantly, rubbing your hands over your arms. Blinking, you wondered why your sleeveless dress had now grown sleeves. Holding out your arms, you marvelled at Jaebum’s jacket, the cuffs folded up, so your hands stuck out the end. You didn’t even remember when he put this on you, but the gesture now touched you infinitely, a noisy gasp leaving you.

Jaebum returned before you could say anything, slipping a glass of water into your hand. “Time to sober up, beautiful.”

“You’ve always called me that,” you mused in between sips, smiling sadly. “I like it.”

“I’ll always call you that.”

“Was my body such a good deal to receive?”

“Let’s not talk about this right now. You’re drunk, and you’re not going to remember a word I say.”

“I remember everything you say,” you refuted petulantly, and Jaebum cocked his head to the side. “What?! I do.”

“Baby, you either have one wicked sense of acting like you don’t hear me, or you really aren’t listening.”

“I’m listening now.”

Jaebum swallowed awkwardly, his gaze catching yours. There was that vulnerable look you had been noticing a lot lately. Your forehead creased in thought, wondering why he looked so nervous around you. He had always been the most confident man you knew. “Y/N, I—”

Holding up a hand suddenly, you then covered your mouth, racing into the bathroom, barely making it to the toilet before you heaved up all that was in your stomach. You groaned, gripping the porcelain as all the wine and misery in your stomach came up violently.

You startled when a hand gently patted you on the back before running up and down it soothingly, the other gathering your hair away from your face. Tears sprang up in your eyes. “Go. This is embarrassing.”

“This is vomit, Y/N. It’s not the worst thing in the world. You need me.”

You need me. Three words that you clung to as tightly as the toilet you were throwing up in, hoping that you could somehow find a way to need him even after the contract came to a close.

Groaning as your head thumped badly, you peeked through one eye before the other, testing how bright the morning light would be. Normally Jaebum drew the curtains open when he went to the gym, knowing you would wake up not much longer. However, the room was still dark, and you turned your head lazily to the side, peering at the digital clock.

It was nine in the morning.

Blinking slowly, you then looked around yourself, seeing the signs of last night. Your clothes were discarded in the laundry basket, Jaebum’s jacket strewn on a chair next to his pants. As you tried to wet your mouth and remove the desert upon your tongue, you spotted the stool next to your side of the bed housing a bowl and face cloth, and the medication with some water on your nightstand. Allowing your gaze to turn to Jaebum’s side of the bed, you found him sprawled on his stomach, his face pressed into his pillow with exhaustion.

You had kept him up half the night as you recovered from your drunkenness.

Groaning again, you sat up slowly, realising one of his arms was over your waist in the process. It tightened around you as you moved, and by the time you were seated against the headboard, Jaebum’s eyes were searching your face with concern.

“Sorry about last night.”

“Want to talk about it?” he asked huskily, propping an elbow upon his pillow to support his head as he stared at you. “No, actually, there needs to be a talk about this. You’ve been dancing around the topic for weeks now, Y/N.”

“The topic?”

Jaebum nodded. “About this marriage of ours.”