16: A visitor

**JASMINE POV**

I checked the peephole before opening the door, half expecting hotel staff, and instead found a striking stranger on the other side tall, black hair falling just above his shoulders, dressed like he'd wandered off a runway between meetings.

He smirked the second the door opened, clearly clocking the once-over I gave him before I could stop myself.

"You must be the famous redhead Peaches," he said, a slight British lilt threaded through an accent I couldn't quite place otherwise.

"How do you know my name?"

"I'm Alexander Shin. Old friend of Japheth's. He's mentioned you approximately four hundred times since I picked him up from the airport four years ago." He held out a hand, and I shook it, already deciding I liked him.

"Come in. He's still getting ready."

"Still primping. Some things never change." Alex strolled in like he owned the place, dropping onto the couch with the easy familiarity of someone who'd clearly stayed here before. "Has he been giving you a hard time?"

"Only the usual amount."

"Sounds about right." He studied me for a moment, something curious and warm in his expression. "You know, your picture didn't do you justice."

"He showed you pictures of me?"

"Japheth talks about you the way some men talk about their favorite football team. Constant. Slightly obsessive. Never shuts up about it." He grinned at whatever expression crossed my face. "Don't tell him I said that."

Japheth emerged from the bedroom a moment later, already mid-sentence about something before he even fully registered Alex sitting there. "You could've called before letting yourself in"

"I did call. You didn't answer, so naturally I assumed you were dead or in the shower, and only one of those options gets me let in by your very charming assistant instead."

"She's not my assistant anymore," Japheth said, an odd note of pride creeping into it.

"Financial analyst, actually," I added.

"Look at you, moving up in the world." Alex stood, clasping Japheth's hand in a brief, easy shake that clearly carried years of history behind it. "I'm stealing Peaches for the evening, by the way. Figured she'd rather see something more interesting than whatever spreadsheet you're planning to bore her with."

"You're stealing her for the evening," Japheth repeated flatly.

"Don't worry, I'll return her in one piece. Mostly sober, too, if I can manage it, though I make no promises given how much she's clearly craving a night out."

I looked between them, amused. "Do I get a say in any of this?"

"Do you want to come?" Alex asked, all easy charm.

"Depends where."

"Somewhere better than a nightclub. Trust me."

I glanced at Japheth, who was watching the exchange with an expression I couldn't quite read  not the tight jaw I might've expected a week ago, something more like resigned amusement.

"Go," he said. "Have fun. I've got calls to make anyway."

"You sure?"

"I trust you," he said simply, and it landed with more weight than the words alone should've carried. "And I trust Alex, mostly, despite considerable evidence against doing so."

"Rude," Alex said, entirely unbothered, already steering me toward the door.

****

The bar Alex took me to was nothing like anything back home, a beach-themed pub with sand covering the floor, deck chairs instead of barstools, and a small stage where a very enthusiastic, very off-key man was murdering a Korean pop song to the delighted roars of everyone watching.

"This is incredible," I said, sliding into a chair at the table Alex found for us.

"Better than a nightclub, yeah?"

"Infinitely."

We ordered a round of something called soju, which I discovered, three shots in, hit considerably harder than I'd anticipated, and Alex proved to be excellent, ridiculous company dragging me up to applaud the karaoke singer, attempting his own rendition of something I didn't recognize, laughing so hard at his own bad Korean pronunciation that half the bar ended up laughing along with him.

"You're funny," I told him, several drinks in, watching him take a theatrical bow after his performance. "Japheth's lucky to have a friend like you."

"Careful, he'll get jealous if he hears you say that."

"He knows I'm here with you. He said he trusts you." I said it lightly, but something in Alex's expression shifted, thoughtful.

"He does trust me. Took him long enough, mind you, but he does." He signaled for the check. "I think it's time we get you back, though. Before you're doing your own karaoke number and regretting it in the morning."

"I'm not that drunk."

"You're exactly that drunk, and I say that with affection." He helped me up, steady, careful, nothing but genuine friendliness in it.

The walk to the car was cold, bracing, sobering in the best way  the city glittering around us, couples walking hand in hand along the busy streets, neon signs in a language I couldn't read but somehow still found beautiful.

"Tell me about yourself," I said, once we were settled in the car. "Real Alex, not bar Alex."

"Real Alex is boring. Only son of a hotel magnate, destined to take over the family business, currently getting engaged for reasons more complicated than I usually admit to strangers."

"I'm hardly a stranger anymore."

He glanced at me, something warmer in his expression. "Fair point. I'll tell you the whole complicated story sometime, if you're around long enough to hear it."

His phone rang before I could respond, and I watched his face shift into fond exasperation the second he answered.

"Yes, mate, she's alive, we're on our way back, calm down." A pause. "No, I did not corrupt her, she's had approximately four soju and sang exactly zero karaoke songs, which honestly is a personal failure on my part."

I could hear Japheth's voice, tinny and urgent, through the speaker, and felt a small, warm flicker of something at the evidence that he'd actually been worried.

"We're five minutes out. Put the kettle on or whatever it is you do when you're anxious." Alex hung up, grinning at me. "He's been pacing, apparently."

"Should I feel guilty?"

"Absolutely not. It's good for him. Character building."

***

Japheth was waiting in the lobby when we arrived, and the second he saw me his shoulders dropped from somewhere near his ears down to something approaching normal.

"Hey," I said, a little more slowly than usual, definitely still feeling the soju.

"Hey yourself. Have fun?"

"So much fun. Alex can actually sing. Who knew."

"A poorly kept secret," Alex said, steering me gently toward Japheth. "Delivering her back mostly intact, as promised."

Japheth looked at me for a long moment, and I watched him visibly choose something, watched him decide not to ask the questions I could see forming, not to interrogate the night, not to do any of the things I half expected given how the week had started.

"Thank you for taking her out," he said instead, to Alex. "I mean it."

Alex raised an eyebrow, clearly surprised by the sincerity. "Growth. I like it."

"I'm working on it." Japheth's eyes came back to me, softer now. "I'm sorry if I seemed weird about it earlier. Old habits. I'm trying to unlearn the part of me that used to think caring about someone meant controlling where they went."

"I noticed the trying," I said, and meant it. "It's a good look on you."

He walked me up to our room, quiet and easy, and I fell asleep that night without a single moment of tension between us just the good, warm exhaustion of a fun night, and the growing certainty that whatever this was becoming, it was becoming something built on trust instead of fear.