Gu Jun Pyo rarely ever felt peace.
He spent his early years being largely ignored by his parents, surrounded by a small army of maids and butlers who couldn't give him the familial love he was sorely lacking. In his solitude, he found no comfort. In those years, the occasional presence of his older sister was the only thing that kept any shred of his waning empathy intact.
A good portion of his teen years were the same. He was angry, resentful, lonely, even in the constant presence of the F4. He was stuck in a constant flat emotional state, unable to take pleasure out of anything. His days were spent seeking thrills wherever he could get them, even if it involved tormenting others, just so he could feel something. In a few years, he would be taking over his father's role as head of one of the largest conglomerates in South Korea, and from then on, his life would no longer be his own. He had long resigned himself to that fact.
Then Geum Jan Di stormed into his life, daring him to tell her to stop.
That idiotic, stubborn, insufferable girl has accomplished what few others were able to do; she made him feel something. At first, that 'something' had been a deep, simmering anger. How dare some irrelevant girl insult him of all people? But as the dust settled and the two exchanged a few tokens of revenge on each other, his anger turned into something… different. Something new.
Seeing her face scrunched up in frustration and barely contained rage made something in stomach flip over, but not uncomfortably so. When she snapped at him with a witty retort, it took all his self-control not to grin from ear to ear like some sort of clown. When she entered a room, she was the only thing he could focus on. Something about her silently commanded all his attention. When she wasn't around, he found his thoughts to be dominated by thoughts of her and when he would see her again. It took him a long time to realize that all these feelings and sensations could be summed up in one word:
Love.
He was in love with Geum Jan Di.
She was stubborn. Infuriating. Impulsive. Clumsy. Prone to trouble. But somehow, she had wormed her way into the great Gu Jun Pyo's heart and planted roots there. He couldn't rip her out even if he tried.
Now, looking at her sleeping form sprawled out next to his, he wonders why he ever wanted to.
Just hours before, he was ready to ruin his life and marry a woman he didn't love. He came so close to losing Jan Di forever because he was too scared to stand up to his mother. He shakes his head, trying to banish the memory. It doesn't bear thinking about.
He doesn't know how long he's been looking at her when her eyelashes start to flutter, indicating she's waking up. He's still leaning up on his elbow, silently watching her. She lazily opens one eye before the other, as if checking the area before she decides she can wake fully. Jun Pyo resists the urge to laugh at her weird habits.
Finally, both her eyes flutter open and she squints to adjust to the darkness. The only light in the large suite comes from moonlight streaming in through the large window overlooking the resort. It hits right above Jun Pyo's head, casting a light down on him. Jan Di's eyes finally land on Jun Pyo's illuminated face, causing his breath to catch in his throat.
What is it about this stupid girl that can make him lose all semblance of cool?
Jan Di quickly loses her languid, groggy expression and sits straight up in bed with wide eyes. She holds the silk sheet to her bare chest as her free hand desperately searches around on the bed. Jun Pyo narrows his eyes in a mixture of annoyance and concern.
With a twinge of guilt, he wonders if maybe her shoulder is bothering her again. Yet another casualty of his ignorance.
"Jan Di?" he rasps in a voice dripping with sleep. He reaches out to touch her shoulder, but she pulls away before he can.
"Let me put on my clothes first, you pervert!" she admonishes.
Jun Pyo resists the urge to roll his eyes at her dramatics. It's only after she points it out that he remembers the both of them are naked, with the exception of the sheets covering them. He can just barely see her outline in the dim moonlight. His eyes are drawn to the dark hair casting a shadow over her face, then down to the curve of her pale shoulder. He swallows hard.
How did he ever find her to be anything less than blindly beautiful?
Jun Pyo quickly regains his composure before she can notice that his eyes are about to bulge out of their sockets at the sight of her bare skin. He knows he'd never live it down if she saw him as anything less than his stoic, cold-hearted self.
"Don't be ridiculous," he scoffs. "Are you forgetting I saw you completely naked a few hours ago?"
His words cause Jan Di to look down, her skin tinting a light shade of pink in embarrassment. He smirks a bit at her sudden shyness. It was practically nonexistent hours before. He feels his own blush form as he remembers the events that transpired. He had no idea Jan Di could get so loud…
"Yah! Where is my underwear?!"
Jun Pyo rolls his eyes and points at the desk chair across the room. Sure enough, her simple pair of white cotton underwear just barely hangs off the end of one of the arms of the chair.
When they began tearing each other's clothes off, they had very little care for where they landed in the room. As a result, their clothes were strewn all over the luxury suite. A suit jacket lays on the couch, a dress sits on the floor next to the right side of the bed, and a pair of boxers are draped over a lamp.
Jan Di blushes harder as she stares intently at the underwear. Jun Pyo can hear the gears in her head turning. He knows what her thought process it; she wants to get up to retrieve her underwear, but she can't do that without revealing herself to him.
The thought makes him chuckle out loud. Even after the two have already bared everything to each other, she's still stubborn and determined not to make anything easy for him. It's the same infuriating attitude that made him fall in love with her.
"What are you laughing at?" she asks in an exasperated tone, tilting her head to the side.
He smirks and flicks her on the nose, earning himself a small slap on the shoulder. Annoying her is one of his favorite past times. It brings out the fierce attitude of hers that made him fall in love in the first place. The way her nose scrunches up in annoyance makes something in his chest stir.
Emotions are weird.
"Just leave your clothes where they are," he insists in the agitated tone he always uses around her. "You can get dressed in the morning."
Of course, this causes her to scrunch her nose up in that way he loves so much.
"Do you always have to be such a stuck up, infuriating, arrogant –,"
Jun Pyo cuts her off by ramming his lips into hers in a searing kiss. It doesn't take Jan Di long at all to respond to his advances, their lips falling into a familiar rhythm. One of his hands slips up her neck and up into her short, dark hair, while the other hand wraps around her covered waist to pull her closer.
The feel of her body through the thin silk sheet, pressed flush against his, makes all his nerve endings sing. It's taking every ounce of will power he has not to take that kiss further and have a repeat of what happened just hours before. But he knows they both need sleep. They'll have a lot to answer for in the morning.
Reluctantly, Jun Pyo breaks the kiss. He revels in the way Jan Di's plump lips remain slightly agape, as if waiting for the kiss to continue. The fact that he can have the same effect on her as she has on him is the strongest aphrodisiac that he can think of.
He tucks her head into his chest before she has a chance to recover from the surprise kiss.
"Go to sleep, idiot," he murmurs, tucking her head under his chin.
He expects her to snap back with some witty retort and attempt to pull away from him, but she says nothing. Instead, he can feel her faint smile against his chest. Her body relaxes and her eyes flutter shut.
This moment was something Jun Pyo always imagined; falling asleep cuddled up to the girl he loves. He never let himself entertain the idea that it could become a reality, but it was a nice daydream.
Now here it is, a reality.
With a small sigh of contentment, Jun Pyo closes his eyes.
He has found his peace.
Jan Di is his peace.