"What were you even thinking, Juho?" Kaija asked with a sigh as soon as they reached the dressing room.
There were only the two of them inside the room now, and she had insisted the staff from earlier stay outside without disturbing them.
"I was only joking when I told Mr. Dalton over the phone that I had you as my bodyguard," Kaija went on. "As much as I appreciated your help, I didn’t actually mean you should assault my ex right in front of everyone."
"He was going to touch you both times, without your consent. That was me defending you, not assaulting," Juho said. His face was unperturbed, as if the man himself hadn’t done such a thing to her quite a few times already.
"You’re not quite getting what I mean," Kaija pinched her temples. "I’m not saying I disapprove of your actions. What concerns me is that you did that in front of everyone, especially after you pissed Marja off earlier. You’ve basically ensured you’ll get fired and never booked again for any shoot with this highly regarded magazine."
A warm smile finally appeared on Juho’s face after all this time since the incident. "Are you worried about me?" he asked, tone amused.
"Of course I am!" Kaija admitted plainly, displeased that he even had to ask. "If it weren’t because of me and my problems, you wouldn’t have gotten yourself into such trouble."
Juho’s smile deepened into soft chuckles. Finally, after all these efforts, she was starting to say something he wanted to hear.
"What makes you think I wouldn’t have my ways to make sure I still keep my job after all that?" he asked, stroking the side of her face gently. "If I didn’t have a way of handling the consequences, I wouldn’t have done what I did in the first place."
Kaija’s cheek started burning hot again beneath Juho’s gentle fingers. Though she’d always known this warm, gentle façade was a mask he wore to hide the demon mode he kept so carefully inside, being touched like this after hearing him call her his girlfriend so decisively earlier still hit her differently.
"We’re alone now. You don’t have to play my boyfriend anymore," Kaija said, her gaze dropping away.
Juho’s eyes widened slightly at that, surprised by the subtle shift in her composure.
Her skin had burned beneath his palm earlier in the corridor; he hadn’t forgotten that. Now it was burning again, and her eyes were no longer so indifferent when they looked at him. The shyness he’d once seen when he first kissed her had already crept back in.
"What if I told you I wasn’t playing a role at all?" Juho asked, his voice low, as if seducing her.
"Don’t make those kinds of jokes. They’re not funny," Kaija mumbled, taking a step back from his searing palm at once.
The hand lingered in the air before reluctantly lowering back to Juho’s side, a faint smile still playing on his lips. At last, someone was getting not so comfortable around him anymore; he could see that as clearly as day. The first sign that Kaija was affected by his presence was her little attempts to hide her flustered state, and he counted that as a small victory.
"So what are you planning to do to take care of the consequences then? Threaten the staff? The editor-in-chief?" Kaija asked, steering the conversation back to serious matters.
"There are more people in this industry involved in drug use than you’d think," Juho replied smoothly. "I can only say that my long list of clients in this building is enough to keep a few mouths shut, and a few pairs of eyes blind."
"Ha, I see..." Kaija’s face twitched. "Threatening it is."
Sometimes she couldn’t help but feel jealous of Juho’s superpower. With his knowledge of people’s dirty little secrets, he could basically manipulate and control anyone he wanted.
If she had that same power, perhaps she wouldn’t have gotten herself into so much trouble so far. While she was still amusing herself with her own mischievous thoughts, she hadn’t noticed how Juho had stepped much closer.
"You’re starving," Juho said, his hands finding the small of her back.
The sudden touch made Kaija’s shoulders jump, snapping her out of her thoughts. Turning to him, she stammered, "How... how do you know?"
"When I was helping you into your outfits earlier, your tummy was already shouting," he explained, fingers finding the zipper. Now that he was standing this close to her again, more protests came from her tiny waist, if not louder than before.
"Oh, I see..." Kaija replied, glad that Juho was just helping her with the dress again. Her shoulders once again relaxed, as she let him work the zipper fully down. "It’s a normal thing. Lunchtime is near. I’ll eat well later."
"It shouldn’t be a normal thing," Juho said, disapproval etching across his face. "I know a good place to eat. Let me treat you to lunch."
"Esko is waiting for me outside. He already asked me to join him for lunch when we were on our way here."
"Maybe you could let him join the makeup people for lunch?" Juho suggested, unwilling to give up. "On our way here, I saw him flirting with a guy among them. You shouldn’t be taking away his chance."
Kaija’s brow drew together, actually considering Juho’s words. She thought she was the only one who noticed that, but it turned out Juho had caught sight of it too.
Perhaps she could at least be glad Esko was oblivious to the entire commotion they’d caused outside the studio room. But soon, Esko wouldn’t be so oblivious anymore, given how fast words spread inside a place like this.
Juho might have his ways to save himself from the consequences, but for her, not so much. If this lunch invitation could save her from Esko’s lengthy lecture on behavior in public, she would surely seize it at once.
"Where is this lunch place you’re thinking of?" Kaija asked.
"I can’t tell you right now. You’ll find out when you arrive," Juho replied with a mysterious smile. "Just let me take you there. You’ll surely love this place."
Kaija’s face started twitching again. She knew Juho was full of secrets, but did the location of a lunch place have to be kept a secret too?
Starving, she didn’t even feel like probing anymore, just shifting her hips left and right to get out of the minidress with Juho’s help.
At this point, Juho was very certain that no matter how many times he’d seen Kaija with almost no clothes on, his seasoned body would still react the same way it had when he was in his teenage years.
His throat went dry, and his hand took great effort to remain steady as he collected the dress, bringing it to the rack and hanging it up neatly.
Kaija, on her end, once again seemed as unaffected as ever, as if she wasn’t blushing simply from being touched on her cheeks just now.
Her face remained a calm mask as she put on the jeans and sweatshirt she’d worn to the shoot, utterly careless of how her voluptuous bosom dangled as she helped herself into the jeans.
Juho sighed, the sound as quiet as his inner turmoil. Just thinking of the place he was about to take her to for lunch, he could already imagine the kind of self-restraint he would have to put on, once the two of them got there.