He told her she could be greedy.
At the time, she considered how he had offered to renovate his apartment; the blue velvet dress on her wardrobe door. And so it was that she fell silent, closing her eyes and taking in the smell of his silk pillows.
He said she could be greedy…
...but he did not know how hungry she could be.
She tested the waters a little at a time: painting her fingernails the darkest shade of purple she owned and licking her lips as she referenced her misbehaviour; stroking her fingertips along the edges of his desk with a knowing smile and nothing more. He told her once she was an oasis, but as she tore at his clothes and smiled into his feverish kisses, it occurred to her that she was no such thing. She was an open flame, and he touched her only when he wanted to burn.
He was perhaps the most compliant lover she had ever had. He made such wonderful sounds when she dug her nails into the curve of his back and, on occasions that she gripped hold of the bed frame, decorated the insides of her wrists with such perfect little kisses that she examined the skin afterwards, almost sad that no visible mark remained.
But even so, there were things she had yet to ask of him. Things she considered as the pair of them dozed between the covers. She had to laugh at her own indecision; she who had insisted on a trip to the cherry farm and slipped off her underwear the moment she got out of the car. She was not shy and, while her appetite had brought lurid blushes to Jumin's face, he had never refused her.
Still, she felt more than a little bit exposed as she sat in bed with Elizabeth 3rd purring in her lap. Jumin brushed his teeth in the bathroom and Nari considered that this was the perfect time to ask him. He had been in an uncommonly good mood when he returned home from the office and spent almost all of dinner explaining the new contract they-no, he -had finalised.
"I think a celebration is in order," he had said when they rose from the table. "Rome? Paris? Take your pick and we can fly out in the morning."
And at that, she merely smirked and reached up to stroke his jawline.
"Oh," she had purred in the voice she reserved for the bedroom."I'm sure we can think of some other way to amuse ourselves."
And amused was certainly one way to put it; Nari gasping in the way she knew that he liked as he hoisted her onto the bathroom sink. With one hand, she gripped his hair and the other she smoothed her fingers over the muscles of his back, not entirely sure at times where he ended and she began.
Afterwards came a warm shower; the usual routine on occasions that they did not make it to the bed. Softer, gentler kisses followed suit as they ran shampoo through one another's hair.
"I'm proud of you," Nari had whispered as he kissed her to the forehead and leaned his head into the crook of her neck.
I have to ask him this time , she thought, glancing across at the bathroom door. It has to be today.
She took a deep breath and climbed out from the covers, leaving Elizabeth to make a nest in her absence.
"Jumin?" Nari said, knocking at the bathroom door a grand total of three times before stepping inside.
He stood there in his pyjamas, toothbrush in hand and lips covered in toothpaste; a mental image that once she had been unable to fathom, but now was part of the everyday fabric of her life. She could not help but feel a little smug at the thought of all of the employees of C&R who saw him every day, but never got the chance to know him as intimately as she did.
"Is something the matter?" He asked.
"Oh, right," she said, realising she had gotten distracted. "I was wondering."
"Paris or Rome?" He smiled.
"No, not that...something different."
He raised an eyebrow at that.
"...London?"
"No," said Nari, then, sighing, "let's start from the beginning. How would you feel about trying something new...together?"
"Oh!" Jumin leaned out towards the bedroom. "I put the catalogue in the tie section of our walk in wardrobe...I was starting to get concerned that the maid might find it."
Nari laughed and wrapped her arms around his neck, mostly at the ridiculousness of the doubts that had plagued her mind. She had been so convinced that he would be repulsed by the question that she had never asked it.
"I love you," she said, kissing him on the nose. "I just-I wanted to know how you felt about a a...threesome."
Initially, he said nothing at all, washing away the toothpaste that coated his lips and proceeding to walk the length of the bedroom in silence. Elizabeth, who jumped to her feet the moment he entered the room, mewled as he walked right past her.
"If you're uncomfortable with the idea of it, I understand," Nari said, following him out of the bathroom. "I just...I thought I'd ask."
He was fiddling with the buttons at the end of his pyjama sleeves, the same thing that he did with his cufflinks when in deep thought.
"Post its," he said, finally breaking the silence. "I need post its…"
"I…" Nari glanced around the room. "Okay."
Retrospectively, she was glad there were no guards to see her dart through the apartment in a negligee.
I have to call Jaehee , she thought, switching on the light to Jumin's home office. I need to tell her I broke Jumin...maybe she can help.
Jumin had been doing a lot of work there in preparation for that newest contract, bringing binders home from the office and revising line after line of documentation. It took all of thirty seconds for her to discern that he had yet to return them and she sat down at the desk to open one drawer and then another, pulling out a unsealed pack of post its from the last drawer she tried.
She felt almost smug as she stood up from the desk and rushed back to switch off the light...only to return moments later and grab the bottle of wine she had spotted tucked away in a bookcase.
In her absence, Jumin had wheeled out the presentations board that he had been keeping in the utility closet and positioned it at the foot of the bed. When he saw her return, he grinned and accepted the post its.
"Perfect," he said, drawing a circle in the centre of the board in dry wipe marker. "Now...that's us."
He pointed to the circle and scribbled 'JH and Nari' inside.
"Jumin," said Nari. "I...you don't have to do this. Just forget I said anything."
"Nonsense," said Jumin, putting the lid on the marker and holding it between his teeth as he picked up a biro. "This will only take a moment."
She sat down on the edge of the bed and set down the wine as he scribbled something on a post it and stuck it to the board, then again and again until the board looked like a clock face. Elizabeth, who remained unimpressed that no one was paying her any attention, used that particular moment to rub against Nari's legs and jump back up onto the bed.
Nari had to appreciate the irony that only a short while earlier, she had been feeling so incredibly smug about how Jumin's staff would not have been able to envisage such a domestic scene. But, as she watched him take the pen from his mouth and connect each label to their names, that mystery was all but gone. If she put a tie on him, anyone might have thought they were having a slumber party with the department of accounting.
"Right," said Jumin. "That's us."
"Uh huh."
"These," he gestured to all of the post its with the end of the marker. "Are all of our shared friends...and some alternatives."
She approached the board, examining each one of the post its for the first time. Jumin had written on them quickly, but she could make out his handwriting; the first one said 'Zen', the next said 'Jaehee', then 'Yoosung' and so on and so forth.
"We can remove each name from the board until we find the perfect person," said Jumin, putting down all of the pens and wrapping an arm around her waist.
"So…" Nari glanced from the board to him. "You're okay with this?"
Oh thank God, I didn't break him.
"It's what you want, isn't it?" He asked.
"Well...yes…"
"Then that's all you need to know," he said, planting a kiss on her temple.
It had taken him all of five minutes to put this together and, despite herself, Nari was impressed.
"I never thought I'd say this," she said, "but the stationery is kind of doing it for me."
"I wasn't planning on taking the board back until Thursday."
"Excellent."
That first night, she and Jumin talked for hours and eliminated most of the board.
Yoosung, Jaehee and all other C&R employees were the first to go. While Yoosung would probably be curious of such an encounter, they reasoned that he was probably saving his first time for someone special. Jaehee and other employees, for obvious reasons, could not be considered for reasons of consent. Beyond his Father, there were very few people to outrank or otherwise equal him in the company.
"My Father would be up for it," sighed Jumin as Nari giggled into his chest. "I'm certainly not."
Zen and Seven were the next to be eliminated. It would be a miracle if Zen agreed to be alone with them at all, let alone naked and enthusiastically so. As for Seven… they lingered over that one for a while before Jumin eventually put his foot down (as much as one could while curled up in bed, anyway).
"We should not give him any opening," he said, then off her expression, "he will almost certainly use the chance to come for Elizabeth."
Next to be eliminated were strangers, whether sex workers by trade or someone with a similar interest.
"We cannot guarantee that they will not recognise us," said Nari, "and we need to know that the person we choose can be trusted."
That left only one name and she climbed up onto all fours to peel it from the board.
"Do you think he would agree if we asked him?" She said, getting back under the covers. "You know him the best."
Jumin took hold of the paper and held it up to the light.
"I think he will."