Preparation Costs (25.3)

 "You know, I think that out of everyone in the group, you're the only one with a healthy relationship with their parents. I'm an orphan, Chaewon and Leon's parents basically avoided them, Xander and Lumina have the fucked up situation with their aunt and uncle, let's not even get started on Mina, Bella and Fenix also have an aunt and uncle problem, Kaedan and Owen's mom was insane and their dad is a little bitch, Val, Nia, and Elliot, I have no idea but I haven't heard anything about parents from them so…" Risále said.

"Huh. You're right, actually. You know, maybe y'all should meet my mom. She'd love everyone and I think all of you need a real mother figure," Hyunwoo said, swinging his legs lightly.

She snorted, "Basically calling all of us out for motherless behavior," She said, typing something up.

"And some of y'all get fatherless behavior as well. I had mine for a while and he was a good one at least."

"Damn, Hyun, you're brutal," She clutched her heart as though she had been wounded, "How could you be so insensitive to the feelings of a poor little orphan?"

Hyunwoo laughed, "Does the poor little orphan need someone to kiss her bruised ego better?" He asked, raising his eyebrow, "Because I'm willing to make up for my mistakes if that's the case."

Risále choked on air, "Damn, you smooth motherfucker," She cursed under her breath, "I really want to take you up on that. You know what, Apocalypse, how much longer will this take, vieja?"

"Should you really be calling the ghost queen and old lady?" Hyunwoo asked, laughing lightly.

"What's she going to do? Kill me? Then she loses her host body," Risále shrugged as she typed something really quickly and pulled the USB out of the laptop, "Alright, I think this will work," She picked up the small tattoo gun-like contraption that was used to inject one of the mind control chips, "Okay, so, I'm going to attach this chip to the side of my neck—Once I do, I'll be under the control of the—"

Hyunwoo frowned, "Hey, love, why are you putting the mind control chip on yourself? Shouldn't you be the one to not be under its control so if it doesn't work, you can fix it?"

Risále hummed, "True, but I'm pretty sure this will work. Besides…" She looked at him carefully, "I didn't think you'd want to be put in a situation where you were under someone else's control so…"

Ah.

"Sweetheart," Hyunwoo said softly, "...I'm actually really touched you thought about that. Really."

"Of course. What kind of partner would I be if I didn't? On top of that, I may have been a scientist but I'm not gonna forget about ethics," Risále smiled.

She went to move the contraption to her neck but Hyunwoo slid off the table, moving his long hair over one shoulder, baring his neck, "I'm really happy you were considerate of me, but I think you underestimated just how much I trust you."

Risále looked a little bit worried, "Are you sure? I really don't mind doing it myself."

"Yeah, just…What exactly are you going to be doing?" Hyunwoo asked carefully, "I'm already okay with this but it would help to know beforehand."

"Of course. As soon as I put the chip on you, I'm just gonna ask you to do something very simple, probably put your hand on the table or touch your head, something along those lines. As soon as I'm sure you're under the control of it, I'm going to plug this USB into this laptop, which acts as a mainframe for this one chip. It should, if I've done this correctly, immediately mess with the chip and leave it nonfunctional, to which it can easily be taken off," Risále explained, "Are you okay with all of that?"

Hyunwoo smiled, "Perfect. You explained it wonderfully," He leaned down slightly, tilting his head away to show more of his neck, "Is here a good enough place?"

Risále grinned, "You know, if you're gonna offer me your neck so easily, you might as well be telling me to give you a hickey."

"You want me to make you work for my neck?" He raised an eyebrow, "Miss Risále, I didn't know you were into that kind of discipline. I'm quite sad about this actually, that information could have certainly made things more fun—"

"Okay, okay, that's enough, it's like whatever I give you give back with twenty times the force," Risále muttered, her face red as she pushed him lightly, his back hitting the table behind them, "No one else would believe you're like this, you know?"

He grinned, a little bit mischievous, "I thought that would be something you'd like. You, Leon, and Bella are the only ones who really get to know this side of me. Just you three."

Risále paused for a moment, "Okay, not gonna lie, I do like the sound of that."

"Thought you would. And if you really want to put a hickey on me, I'm absolutely not the one stopping you," Hyunwoo winked.

"Stop that, you flirt, I need to focus," Risále smacked his shoulder and then paused, "God, I never thought I'd be the one to say something like that. Anyway, there's time for that later. Lean down a bit, would you? Your giraffe height is causing some problems."

Hyunwoo couldn't help but laugh out loud at that, "I'm not even the tallest out of everyone in the gang, Xander's taller than me!" 

Risále scrunched her nose, "Which is why I never volunteer to do his hair when he asks anyone if they want to. The man is a giant. Alright, I'm going to count you down," Hyunwoo nodded, "Alright, attachment in 3…2…1," She pressed the tip of the attachment device to Hyunwoo's neck and he made a small sound of discomfort as the chip latched onto his skin. For a moment, there was silence, and the Risále moved away, "Hyun?"

There seemed to be slight recognition in his eyes but there was no response, not really, and Risále couldn't help but shiver lightly at this. It felt…Wrong, "Hyunwoo? Can you…" She thought for a moment, "Alright, I'm testing if the chip works now. I want you to do whatever it is that comes to mind first for you. Anything you want to do."

To her surprise, Hyunwoo slowly leaned down and pressed his lips to hers. She made a small sound of surprise before cupping his face, in her hands. She stopped him, gently pushing him back. As much as it was nice, she didn't want anything to happen while Hyunwoo was in this state. At least now, she had confirmation that the chip was working.

She turned away for a moment and took the USB, plugging it into the mainframe. A red button and a green button appeared on the screen and she pressed the green one. She waited a few seconds, mentally counting to ten before, "Risá, I think you did it."

Behind her, Hyunwoo was much more relaxed and he cupped his hand by his neck to catch the loosened chip from his neck and place it to the side.

The two of them stared at each other for a moment, "Oh my God, I did it," Risále whispered.

"Yeah, you did. I knew you could," Hyunwoo smiled.

"Holy shit, I really did it—I'm a fucking genius," She laughed before throwing her arms around Hyunwoo's neck, pulling him down into a kiss. The older made a muffled noise of surprise but couldn't stop himself from smiling against her mouth.

When she pulled back, he tapped her on the nose lightly, "I knew I had nothing to worry about. Though, that was a strange question. Why did you ask me to do whatever I wanted to do?" He asked.

Risále shrugged, "I don't know, I still felt…Weird about telling you what to do so I thought maybe if I asked that then it would more just be whatever your instinct was. And your instinct was to kiss me?"

"Who wouldn't want to? Look at you, love. Also, additional mention, you look very attractive when you're concentrating and focusing on something so no wonder my first instinct was to kiss you," Hyunwoo said simply.

"You can't just say that—" Risále cut herself off by pulling him down by the collar of his sweater and kissing him again, this time a bit rougher. Hyunwoo's hands instinctively moved to the small of her back as hers trailed down the sweater, slipping under to feel his warm skin.

Hyunwoo pulled away, breathing a bit rougher, "As much as I hate to interrupt this, you should probably send the code over to Leon and Bella."

"Yeah, you're…You're probably right," Risále panted, stumbling slightly as she moved quickly over to the laptop.

Hyunwoo couldn't help but giggle, "Careful, sweetheart. You move any slower and I might just get bored and leave," He drawled, teasing her.

She glared back at him, "You did this. Take responsibility."

"Oh, don't worry," He smirked, "I'll take very good care of you. You worked very hard."

The moment it was sent, she slammed the lid of the laptop down and turned to look and her partner. For a moment, neither of them moved.

Then, as if some sort of spell had been shattered, they were pressed up against each other, Hyunwoo leaning down, his hands on Risále's back, pushing her closer against him as her arms were wound around his neck, tugging him down. She made a small noise against his mouth as he easily, gently worked her mouth open, biting softly on her lip. Without hesitation, he leaned down even further and hooked his hands under her thighs, lifting her up with no problem as she wrapped her legs around his waist.

Reaching back, Risále shoved whatever was on the table behind her out of the way as Hyunwoo placed her on it. They pulled apart, breathing hard as Hyunwoo stood in between Risále's thighs, "You're okay with this?" Risále asked breathily.

"More than okay," Hyunwoo smiled, kissing her again, a bit calmer than before, "I want to take care of you, help you de-stress."

"Oh fuck, yeah, okay, that sounds—That sounds really good."

"Bedroom?" 

Risále grinned, "Hey, a random question that has absolutely nothing to do with any of this whatsoever, remember that lace black silk robe you bought earlier?"

"...Yeah?"

"Is that in our bedroom?

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure it is."

"Then to the bedroom it is."