#oooooooooooooh

In the entire year, Hoseok always gives himself three weeks for a break.   He uses that time off to either travel, rest, or visit family during the holiday season. Being a partner of a firm, it comes with the privilege that he can take as many days off as he chooses, whenever he wants to, but he restricts himself as a form of discipline. He loves his work and takes pride in it. So the surprise is only imaginable when he calls in and lets the office know he’s taking a few days sabbatical.   And the place where Hoseok finds himself is not in a doctor’s office to scour for answers or some kind of temple to meditate and quiet down the chaos in his mind. Rather, he walks into a lion’s den that is sure to make his headache worsen.   His knuckles rap against the smooth surface of the door. It’s quiet for thirty seconds and he wonders if she’s even here, but there’s the sound of padding footsteps on the floorboard and the door swings open.   The woman on the other side is in her pajamas with a bathrobe on top and she leans against the door frame with a scoff, eyeing him up and down. “Well, well, well, look who we have here. Finally coming to visit this dead sister of yours? I never thought you’d care to visit.”   Hoseok doesn’t say a single word. There’s no remark made, no teasing, no banter. He pushes his way past her into the living room and she shuts the door, standing there with her brows raised. “What’s the matter with you, Seok?”   “Why didn’t you tell me?” The lawyer meets her eyes and she notices how swollen his are, as if he’s been crying for the past day and rubbing at them constantly. He looks worse for wear too, nothing like the energetic or polished kid that she’s used to.   “What are you talking about?”   “I found out about Y/N,” he murmurs and it’s all he needs to say to explain himself and he questions the only people he can. “Mom, dad, you...why didn’t any of you tell me?”   Hoseok thought he finally had it. After he woke up in a daze in the hospital, he slowly began to piece the entire puzzle together. He figured out the important people in his life, his childhood, the life leading up to now, who he was. Yet, an entire chunk of his life is missing from his memories. The picture was never complete. It was too empty. He was wrong. And he feels betrayed — betrayed that his entire family, that the people who mattered most to him, they agreed to hide this portion of his life. They didn’t tell him a single thing. He was played like a fool.   Sowon sighs and crosses her arms, leaning against the wall. “It’s not my place.”   “Then whose place is it?!” Hoseok lashes out, jaw ticking and teeth clenched. “I had no idea. I had no idea she even existed for years and no one thought to bring it up?! I was going to marry her—”   “Stop finding people to blame.”   She cuts him off with one sentence. Stern. Silent. Angry. His older sister takes two steps forward, eyes narrowed into him. “I’m your sister, Jung Hoseok. I’m not the first person who would bring up the topic of your ex-girlfriend, alright? When you woke up and didn’t remember, mom, dad, and I decided it was just better not to tell you about it. The past is in the past.”   “Stop saying that!” He’s sick and tired of that — the past is in the past — no, he refuses to believe that. Hoseok refuses to let go. He refuses to move on. The past is his present. No matter what people tell him, history has affected his current circumstances, has affected where he is and what his relationship is with you. Just because it’s today and there’s a tomorrow doesn’t mean yesterday has died. “And she’s not just an ex-girlfriend.”   “Then if she was so important to you, why did you break up with her in the first place?!”   “That’s what I’m still trying to figure out!”   He runs his hands through his hair in frustration, brought to the brink of tears once again.   Hoseok was losing his goddamn mind.   “I didn’t bring it up because I knew it was painful.” There’s an extended silence and Sowon sighs, moving to sit on the couch. He follows after her, falling down, slumped poster, downcasted head, defeated. “A few days before your accident, you called me on the phone. Drunk. You told me the entire time, you thought Y/N depended on you too much. She was ready to give up everything to be with you, and you didn’t want that. It was too much pressure. It was too much for you. But it turns out, you were the one who depended the most on her.”   The two of them look at each other again. “You were a mess, you know. And this was months after the break up. This was months after you packed your bags and left this place.” A wistful sighs leaves her mouth and she tips her head to stare at the ceiling, recounting the weeks before her brother landed himself in the terrible accident, telling him everything that she knows. “You were the one who broke up with her. But even after so much time, you were a mess. You even told me you wanted to quit law school.”   “What?”   His work is his sole passion. It’s his life. His practice. Hearing that he wanted to quit out loud sounds so entirely absurd. He wonders how much pain he was in, what his mindset was like, if he had trouble getting out of bed, if he was really as broken as his sister describes. It sounds like she’s speaking about a different person — he doesn’t know if he can believe it.   But at this point, everything was nonsensical.   “Yep. I was shocked too. After you told me that, I knew something was wrong.” A small smile graces her lips and Sowon whispers like it’s a secret she shouldn’t share, but she spills it anyways, “Y/N loved you. A lot. I knew it from the first time you introduced me to her. Our parents adored her too. We thought….‘Thank god. Hoseok finally found someone so amazing that he was going to marry and grow old with. He doesn’t need to feel lonely anymore’. Or at least, that’s what mom and dad hoped for. But….”   He swallows the thick lump in his throat. It physically hurts to hear what she has to say, yet he aches to hear more. “But?”   “I also knew she loved you a lot more than you loved her.”   The heavy atmosphere thickens, suffocating him. It feels like someone’s struck him across the face. The amount of shock is unbearable and his grip on what is real and what isn’t bleeds together like watercolours on a canvas. Part of him wants to shut his ears, refuse to believe these things, that he and you were once in love, that you had dated for nearly half-a-decade, that he was going to marry you, and now he doesn’t have a single memory of these things.   Maybe this urge for denial was what you were so fixated on.   “I didn’t bring it up because I didn’t want you to remember something so painful. It was better for you to forget. And I figured if she was that important to you, if you truly loved and cared for her, you wouldn’t have broken up with her in the first place.” Sowon inhales another breath. “I didn’t tell you because it wouldn’t be fair to Y/N…”   He lets it sink in. “Did I always treat her so badly?”   “I don’t know. You’re one hell of an asshole, that’s for sure.”   “Y/N deserves better.”   His sister scoffs and shakes his head, telling him that he’s got it all wrong. Again. “Don’t pin this on her. It’s you who needs to clean up your act.”   //   It’s a sunny day, clear skies the vivid shade of azure. As irrational as it is, he can’t help but feel like the weather is taunting him. The cloudless horizon fitting for summer mocks the anguish he feels. He’d rather it rain. For fog to dim the brightness. For the outside to be as miserable as he is on the inside.   Hoseok’s been sitting in his car for the past hour, parked right outside of a suburban street. He’s a coward who doesn’t know what to say, how to make things better, who hesitates more than he acts. But the one thing he knows is that he can’t ignore this. He can’t be like you and pretend that it didn’t happen. He can’t act like you mean nothing to him. He’s more sure than ever that you are the answer to what he’s been missing most.   So with a large inhale, Jung Hoseok opens his car door and gets out. He takes yet another deep breath and crosses the street, stepping up to the house. If he was being honest to himself, he was absolutely terrified, not sure if his words or efforts will be of any use, not sure what the response will be. But he pushes fear to the back of his mind, braces himself, and rings the doorbell.   Hoseok waits. He waits and waits. He’ll wait as long as he needs to.   Eventually, the door creaks open and you’re there. He notices that your neck brace is gone, your whiplash most likely recovering better than expected, but your left shoulder is still in a sling. The bruises on your face have faded in colour and although your eyes were puffy from crying, it seemed like you were gradually making a smooth recovery from the accident.   “Hoseok?” You’re frozen in your spot, eyes wide, clad in pajamas. “What are you doing here? How did you even find—”   “The address was on your emergency contact form. I—...you didn’t pick up your phone.”   You’re panicked, turning around slightly before back at him and lowering your voice. “You need to leave, Hoseok. Now.”   “No, wait—!” He holds his hands at the door frame and before you can think twice, delayed in your thought processes, you’ve slammed the front door forward. It jams, catching on his fingers. He winces back with a sharp shout and you gasp.   “Oh my god!” You shove the door open again, grabbing his hand with your uninjured one. “Are you okay?!”   “I’m sorry.” He ignores the throbbing pain, the swelling digits and spits out what he’s been meaning to say before it’s too late and he’s run out of chances. “I’m sorry.” Your grip on his hand loosens and he clutches it tighter before it can slip through the gaps of his fingers. His voice is quiet and desperate. “I’m sorry.”   “That…” You stare towards the ground, cotton filling your mouth. “...that doesn’t make it any better.”   “I know,” Hoseok whispers.   There’s no point. “You don’t even remember.” He doesn’t even know what he’s apologizing for.   “I know I blamed you for not telling me — I’m sorry.” Hoseok swallows hard and looks at you past his bangs that have begun to poke into his reddened eyes. You can’t recall the last time he looked so disheveled and…..sad. “I know that I left you and that I hurt you — I’m sorry.”   “I don’t blame you for what happened back then,” you interject before he can continue with his endless apologies that sound too genuine, but are meaningless to you. Your hand is taken from his grasps, returning to your side. “At least not anymore. You don’t even remember us. You don’t remember what you did. So, there’s no need for all of….this.”   Hoseok searches for what to say. “I don’t want you to quit because of me.”   “I wasn’t planning to,” you tell him with confidence, looking directly into his pupils. “Our personal and professional relationship are two different things and I love my job. Not even our past would make me give up on what I love. I’m not like how I used to be…” Your voice trails off and you sigh, meeting his gaze once more. “So you can go home now if that’s it.”   He speaks up before you can close the door again, too pathetic and desperate to talk to you. “I’m not done.”   “Then what else do you have to say?” you question the man who stands front of you and appears less like the put together lawyer, less like the bubbly boy you know, and more like the shadow of someone broken. It’s not fair. He was the one who dumped you after all. “What did you come here for, Hoseok? Was it just to say that you were sorry? So you can feel less guilty? Was it so you can make sure your HR manager is still working and you won’t have to hire someone new?”   “I...I-...I want us to be okay.”   You nod. It makes sense. He always thought about business first and wants to make sure it doesn’t interfere at the workplace. You can agree with that. “We’re okay then.”   But then Hoseok asks again, like he’s seeking a deeper answer, like he wants to know what you truly think and that it’s not simply business-related. “Are we?” His smooth timbre is far too sincere and seeking — it makes you shift uneasily.   “When I went to that interview more than half a year ago, Hoseok, I decided that we were okay. When I got the job and I had to see you everyday, I decided that it was okay.” With how many times you’re repeating it, it’s almost as if you’re trying to convince yourself. “It was okay before you knew, and it’ll be okay now. So is there anything else? Because I think you should go.”   But Hoseok doesn’t move. He doesn’t leave or enter. He just stands at your doorway, gazing into your eyes, letting the silence simmer as if he is savouring this painful moment. He searches your eyes and you realize how difficult it is to look at him — not just because the sunlight was piercing against his backside and made the edges of his frame fuzzier in the warm light.   It’s difficult when your heart aches so much, when it feels like the knots in your chest are tightening and tightening, yet never to snap.   The pause lingers in the air and his gaze becomes too intense, too intimate.   “What are we, Y/N?”   You shake your head, brows furrowing. “What do you mean?”   “What are we?” He reiterates, asking to clarify the chaos in his mind, to understand the picture and make it more clear, to fit the puzzle pieces together and make the image complete.   You never thought there would be a day Jung Hoseok would appear at your front doorstep, begging for forgiveness and asking you the question that you’ve been wondering since this all started. You’ve dreamt about this moment for so long that you never realized it was a nightmare instead of a dream.   “You’re my boss and I’m your employee,” you assert firmly. “We’re exes that don’t let our past personal relationship affect our current professional relationship.” Your voice becomes weaker as it goes on and you shouldn’t ask, but you itch to know what’s going inside that mind of his, to know if your feelings are once again unrequited. “Why? What do you want us to be?”   He seeks your eyes earnestly, tone as soft as yours.   “Is it selfish if I want us to be more?”   “....yes...it is.” It’s too much. It’s overwhelming. Hoseok is being too honest and you swore you wouldn’t cry in front of him again. “You can’t just appear in front of me years later and tell me you want to try again. Whether or not you remember, I do and it hurts.”   “Y/N.”   “Who’s at the door?” An older woman approaches, footsteps increasing in sound, coming closer and closer. “Don’t leave it open like that! You’re going to let bugs through—”   “Mom!” Immediately, you turn around before you can process your movements and your neck becomes sore from the swift motion. Still, you attempt to cover the man at the doorway with your own body. Your efforts are fruitless.   The old woman in the purple floral apron sees right past you and she stares. It must be your mother and he muses that you share a resemblance to her. Hoseok gawks before his head dips slightly. “Hello.”   She looks at you and deadpans, “What is he doing here?”   “He was just leaving!” You rush to push him through the door, but before any of you can react, she’s grabbed the broomstick leaning against the entryway side table.   “Get out!”   “Mom!”   “Get out!” She yells and hits him with the brush end of the broomstick, scratching him. His arms lift automatically to defend his head and she screams, chasing him out until he’s stumbling back onto the lawn. “You have the audacity to show up at my house?! You’re shameless! Get out! Get away from my daughter!”   “Mom!” You run out into broad daylight when she switches the broomstick in her hand, wanting to hit him with the hard plastic handle part instead of the brush. But before she can beat him with it, you lug your body in front of Hoseok. At the same time, she strikes down and smacks your left shoulder in the sling.   A cry tears out from your throat and she drops the broom like it burns her. “Y/N! Oh my god! Oh my god!”   Hoseok’s eyes are wide, nearly falling from his sockets, brows furrowed, features twisted in sick worry. “Are you okay?!”   “Just go,” you grunt out past gritted teeth.   He begins to back away, not wanting to, but finding no other choice. Your mom scrambles by your side, giving him no time of day when she ushers you back into the house. Hoseok gets into his car, gripping his steering wheel with trembling hands, feeling more pathetic than he did before.   //   It’s tragically funny how you’re the one who has to placate your mom’s hysterics when she should be the one comforting you. But oddly enough, you feel calmer when someone else is going crazy. It’s like they’re doing it for you and you can live vicariously through their emotions.   “Was he the one who made you like this?!”   Your mom points to your shoulder and you shake your head.   “No. I told you. It was an accident.”   She leans forward, sitting at the kitchen table across from you. “Then why was he here, Y/N? What does that man want from us?!”   “I—” You don’t know what to tell her, if you can bear to reveal that you work for him now, that he doesn’t remember a single thing from the past, that he came to apologize even when he can’t recall, that he questioned what the two of you are, and how he asked you if it was selfish to want to be together.   You still can’t wrap your mind around the conversation. All you know is that it hurts. You’re at a loss. A loss for words. A loss of what to do. What to feel.   “How can you be with someone who has made you cry so much?! He left you!” Your mom is enraged, upset, and when she looks at you, your pain is also her’s. “Don’t you have any self-respect for yourself, huh?”   What’s more hurtful than Hoseok showing up at your doorstep is the truth. Your voice is hoarse. “I still love him.”   “W-What?”   “Is it so wrong to love him even after he’s done so much to hurt me, mom?”   You look at her, meeting her eyes, begging for an answer. Her hardened expression softens, mouth opening before closing, speechless. The old woman shuts her eyes, sighs and leans back into her chair. She pinches the bridge of her nose, wondering how she raises such a hopeless daughter. But her anger has dissipated into tender pity and sadness.   “I don’t want you to take beatings for him,” she whispers, like she’s the one pleading for you not to be like this anymore, not to do this, not to feel this way. There were so many people to love in this world — why did it have to be that man? “I don’t want you to run in front of him and defend him like you did earlier. Do you think this is what your dad would’ve wanted for you?”   “I can’t help it.” You’re frustrated, feeling a loss of control. It was an impulse to run to him, a reflex that doesn’t make you think twice. “I’ve tried and tried, but...I still love him. I don’t think I ever stopped.”   She calls your name gently, helpless, unable to find any other word.   “What should I do, mom?” This time it’s you who’s pleading. Pleading for a way out, for any explanation or cure. “What should I do when I’m still in love with Hoseok?”

It’s a very question that you ask yourself over and over again. Nights are spent sleepless when the realization of your emotions plague and haunt your sole being. When your denial fixation and your defense of making light of the situation have been stripped away, there are unhealed wounds left. The skin underneath your bandages are still bleeding. The stitches never mended your skin. And it’s completely pathetic how you’re still crying over an ex like this.   Eight years of recovery are washed down the drain when you still haven’t gotten over the man named Jung Hoseok.   “Hello.” You end up sounding chirpier than the voice droning inside your head. “Where are we off to this evening?”   “Hello.” The older woman smiles, wrinkles creasing around her eyes, grey streaks vivid in her hair that’s pulled into a low bun. “I believe it’s called Sunnyside Street.”   “Alright.” The traffic is heavier on this main road and as you wait for it to pass before pulling away, you glance into the rear-view mirror. “Are you having a good night so far?”   “Yes.” The apples of her cheeks blush in a bright shade, glowing and making the old woman look much younger and more radiant. “I went on one of the greatest dates with my boyfriend.”   “That’s so nice.” You melt a little, a tiny smile taking its place on your visage.   “And how are you, dear?”   “Honestly…” It’s a loaded question and for a second, you can only answer with a long sigh. The old woman has no idea that she’s about to open Pandora’s Box, that your head is a pressurized geyser ready to burst. “Not so good.”   “Oh, why not?”   “I..uh..recently dislocated my shoulder.” You leave out the part about getting into a car accident, not wanting to alarm the poor woman and make her question your driving skills. “I’m better now, but it still kind of aches sometimes.”   “My goodness. That sounds awful! You should be more careful then.”   “And that’s not all.” You laugh and it’s far too bitter than what you’re used to hearing from yourself. “I strained my neck too and I...I moved back into my mom’s house and the...the...laundry machine is broken and there’s...there’s noth...ing… in t..he fr...idge t..hat I li..ke to ea..t.”   By the time that you’re finished, you’re full on sobbing into your hands. You’re crying hysterically, vision clouded with teardrops, as if you just finished watching The Titanic or The Notebook, except this is real life and you’re not crying because of fictional characters. It’s definitely a new low when you’re having a mental breakdown in front of a passenger who’s more or less a stranger.   “Are you alright?” The sweet old lady is genuinely concerned and not as freaked out as you would be if your taxi driver suddenly bursted into tears.   “I’m still in love with my ex!” You cry out, beating the steering wheel with your closed fist like you’re punishing it. “I’m in love with him!”   “Oh, sweetheart.” She leans forward, patting your back to comfort you. “You deserve better. It just takes some time to heal.”   “No, no. This is different.” You’re still weeping and it’s uncontrollable as it is unbearable. “He...I t-think he wants to get back together...and I love him.”   “Then what’s the problem?” She tilts her head, sympathizing. “Is it a problem with his personality?”   “No.” You shake your head, feeling like a child throwing a tantrum especially when you’re hiccuping and sniffling through every other word. “He’s sweet and kind and my best friend. He’s the nicest person I’ve ever met.”   “But?”   “W-Wh..at if...we won’t work?”   What if everything happens over again. What if this is all wrong. He’s thrown you away before and he can do it again. You can put your heart on your sleeve and he can break it once more. He wants you back after he’s abandoned you. It’s unfair. It’s cruel. And it’s pathetic that you’re even considering running back to him. It’s pathetic that you’ve even allowed him to enter your life again, that you let him stand in front of you and tell you the things you wanted to hear so badly years ago. Just because he wants you now still doesn’t change the fact of what happened, regardless if he remembers or not.   You’re crippled and you’re not so sure you have the strength to walk alongside him anymore.   “Well, that’s a question everyone asks.” Your passenger gives a gleaming smile, one that reminds you too much of him. “If things have changed and timing is good, then why not? There’s no harm in trying, right? You don’t want to be my age and look back and wonder. Take it from someone who’s only finding love now.”   Somehow, the lovely woman is more calming than you expected. She helps you breathe through your meltdown and pats your back in constant beats comfortingly until you get a grip of yourself.   “Does he make you happy?”   “Yes…”   “Then that’s your answer.” Her smile widens and she makes it sound so much simpler than it actually is. Your heart aches, torn between what you want and what you are fearful of.   //   It’s easy to make a decision. It’s much more difficult to make the right one. Maybe because most of the time, no one knows what the right decision is. No one knows what the consequences may be. A year from now, he could either leave you broken-hearted again or make you the happiest that you’ve ever been. You don’t need him. You want him. But just because your heart wants to be with him doesn’t mean you should obey to its will, especially when your mind tells you that you’re an idiot for even having such a desire.   Jung Hoseok — the epitome of sunshine, that illuminates your world and gives colour to your surroundings, painting it in vivid hues, but who pulls you away from the comfortable darkness, turning you blind, someone who used to make you feel so inadequate from his sheer radiance.   He may not have changed. But you have.   You aren’t so weak anymore. Your confidence will not be so easily swayed. But the fear of all the assurance you’ve built in the past few years crumbling is too great.   “Y/N?”   “Hey…” You clutch your phone tighter in your hand, not letting it slip even when your arm is trembling. “...how are you?”   “I’m good.” The voice on the other line is smooth and gentle. “You?”   “I...just needed someone to talk to.”   “I’m all ears.” Hani’s smile is practically heard in her voice. Your old best friend is one of the few people that actually know the history and you decided to reach out to her, chose her out of everyone else. After reconnecting, it occurred to you that no matter how much physical distance there is between you both, how much time has passed, she’ll always be a friend. You were wrong when you thought there was no one left to depend on.   At your extended silence, she pipes up again. “What’s wrong?”   “I don’t know what to do,” you murmur, slumped in your childhood bed, door shut and caught between the walls of where you grew up, before any of this had happened.   “Is this about Hoseok?”   You pause. “Yes.”   Her breath softens and steadies, heard on the other end. Hani sops whatever she was doing and you brace yourself. “Do you remember halfway through our first year?” she asks you suddenly. “Taeyeon wanted to get back together with that asshat...what’s his face...Soonyoung? God!”   A small laugh leaves through your throat, husky around the edges. “I remember.”   “On their fifth date or something, he went and invited her out to one of the most expensive restaurants and then he ditched her halfway and made her pay! He raided my fridge too. I’ll never forgive him for stealing my steak takeout,” Hani mutters, still holding the grudge. “And I couldn’t believe she was so head over heels that she wanted to get back together with him! Do you remember what we told her?”   “Yes.” You smile, beginning to feel calmer. “We told her that she deserved better.”   “Yeah and thank god she ended up with Baekho. Their kids are the cutest things ever.”   “They are,” you agree.   “What I’m saying is that it’s always been a rule of mine not to get together with an ex. You broke up for a reason and people don’t change all that much. Chances are things might not work out again for the same reasons.”   “You’re right.”   “But I don’t think anyone’s more perfect for you than Hoseok,” Hani says, unexpected and causing a thick lump to form uncomfortably in your throat. You pull the covers over your head as if it could shield you away from the light above your head that’s suddenly too bright, exposing too much. “Y/N?”   “Hmm.” You hum, acknowledging that you’re listening.   “I mean it when I say it. I obviously don’t know your relationship as well as you do, but he never mistreated you once in those four years and even when you fought, you both made it okay again. I’m not a hopeless romantic. I’m not even a believer in soulmates. But I remember back then thinking how jealous I was of you, jealous that you found someone who cherished you so much.”   Not another word is spoken from your lips, yet the female knows all too well that you heed every syllable she utters. “You can imagine my surprise when you left with him and then came back alone. I was shocked. I was really……...really rooting for the both of you.”   A long sigh is heard over the other line and you shut your eyes tight, listening to the fuzziness of her timbre, the slight white noise and buzz of speaking on the phone that makes you nostalgic of years ago when you used to curl up in your bed and talk to each other in the same manner.   “He was young then and so were you. Life was getting started, so I understand if he didn’t want to tie himself or you down so soon. You were going to get married and all and he was going to finish law school soon….” Her voice fades off into silence. “Whatever you decide, if you get back together again, it doesn’t mean you’re committing yourself to anything. There’s no harm in trying.”   You swallow hard, voice croaking when it comes out. “I just…”   “I know.” Her smile is heard in her voice again. “But it’s been eight long years since then. How many more years are you waiting for?”   //   His office seems much more suffocating than it used to. He doesn’t know why that’s the case when the walls have not altered and his furniture stays the same. Still, Hoseok’s eyes stray off to the window, caught in a daze. He’s going against everything he stands for, the code of professionalism, of not overstepping boundaries, of not imposing himself onto you.   Being with you makes him selfish.   Every time, Hoseok’s eyes wander unintentionally, it always lands on you, finding it so easy to pick you out in a crowd of people. And he always feels sad when he looks at you. Hoseok doesn’t think he could ever make up or atone for what he’s done. The entire time, he thought you were playing him as the fool when you were actually sparing him and suffering silently.   You bear the burden of those memories alone.   He wonders what you thought every day when you passed by his office, when you ate with him, spoke to him, laughed with him, and he was completely oblivious. It’s sheerly mind boggling that you were his fiancée at some point in his life. In a million years, he could’ve never imagined the person he hired, the person who he works alongside would’ve meant so much to his former self.   “Jung Hoseok?”   “Yes? My apologies.” The lawyer looks back to his client across from him. “You were saying?”   “I was thanking you for all the work you’ve done for me.” The young man, no more than twenty-four, smiles. “But I spoke about it to my wife and in the end we decided we’re going to stay together.”   “You’re staying together?” He frowns, unable to quite understand.   The male nods. “We’ve been seeing a counselor together and we decided to pull through or at least see what happens.”   The corner of Hoseok’s mouth quirks. “I’ll admit, I’m a bit surprised.”   “I know. As they say, love isn’t all rainbows and butterflies.” The man nods to himself, explaining the situation to make sense of it. “It was difficult for her when the honeymoon stage of our relationship ended. I still loved her...but maybe not like how I used to. But y’know, we got the break we needed and we talked and I missed her a lot. I realized it wasn’t that I didn’t love her anymore. It was more like our love had just become a bit different.” The smile that appears on the young man’s lips are reserved more for himself. “We made a choice to stay together.”   “Alright then.” The lawyer shakes his client’s hand, both standing up to conclude the meeting. “Call me again if you ever need to.”   “Hopefully, I won’t,” he laughs.   Hoseok always regarded himself as the Grim Reaper of marriages. He breaks off relationships every day, calling their time of death in the courthouse, severing unions meant to last a lifetime. It’s not often that he loses business like this, but it’s still refreshing to see someone walk out of his office still with their spouse and content with it.   “Hoseok?” Jimin snaps his fingers, forming right in front of him like a magician. “Are you okay?”   “I’m fine. What?”   “You’re just standing there staring off.” He leans in, whispering and finally pressing the button to call for the elevator. “You’re kind of freaking out our poor receptionists.”   “Sorry.” Hoseok blinks a few times, trying to break out of his trance.   “There’s been something off about you. Are you sure you’re alright?” Jimin’s brow is raised in skepticism, crossing his arms and tapping his foot. “Speaking of which, I’ve also caught wind that there’s something weird going on between you and Y/N. Care to explain? Does it have anything to do with the fact that she took two weeks off work?”   “It’s nothing,” he reassures and makes it short, not wanting to divulge in his personal problems and not knowing where to even begin. Hoseok steps into the elevator when the doors part, feeling the thumps of an oncoming headache.   “Then you won’t mind telling Y/N about the upcoming weekend vacation?”   “It’s this weekend?”   “Yes, it’s this weekend. Did you forget? All the expenses paid for the entire firm to go relax. We talked about it for a month.”   “It just...slipped my mind.”   Nothing ever slips Hoseok’s mind. He is punctual, organized, methodical. Jimin knows that much, but he doesn’t pester him about it. “Remind Y/N too. She must’ve forgotten.”   Hoseok often bends to Jimin’s will, giving in to his partner for the sake of harmony, but this is one of the few times he doesn’t. Instead, he tells Seulgi to inform you and when she asks why he won’t do it himself, he answers with a glare, making the female purse her lips and remember her boss before you came along and softened his tyranny.   Seulgi doesn’t come to your office alone either, bringing along Lisa, Dahyun and Sunyi with her.   “Oh yeah, I almost forgot about that.” A smile more tense than intended appears on your face. “Thanks for reminding me.”   “Y/N….it might not be my place…” Sunyi glances at the other females, hesitating. “So, don’t feel pressured to tell us...if we’re making you uncomfortable then...you know...we’ll leave…”   “Oh, just cut to the chase.” Lisa rolls her eyes and looks directly at you, never favouring the method of beating around the bush. “Is Hoseok going to fire you?”   “What? No.” Or at least, you don’t think so.   “Good or else we’ll join together and beat him up.” Dahyun grins, cheeks puffing out, Lisa having rubbed off on the girl and making her more brave.    You smile, but Seulgi doesn’t completely buy it. “Is there something going on then?”   The legal assistant is too sharp. She’s quickly caught on that you no longer speak to each other, that you don’t even look at each other. Except, when you’re not paying attention, Hoseok stares at you while wearing the most guilty expression she’s ever seen from him. You both look terribly sad, a stark contrast to just a few weeks ago when you were practically best friends in the office.   “No, not really,” you lie.   “Well, we’re here for you if you need it!” Sunyi reaffirms enthusiastically. “Don’t be afraid of him. If he does something to you, just tell us. I’m a lawyer. I’ve been looking for excuses to sue Hoseok anyways.”   “I’m a paralegal,” Seulgi adds on with a sheepish smile, brushing away her suspicions to try to cheer you up.   “I have a knack for fighting with my fists.” Lisa jumps into a boxing stance and you laugh. You really needed this, you really needed to be reminded of why you loved this job so much.   “I..uh...have poison ivy in my garden,” Dahyun says out of the blue, having nothing else to offer and also making each of them turn towards her with a frown. You grin, genuinely feeling better.   You’re not alone. There are great people in your life that you had pushed aside and you’ve met great people being here. Jung Hoseok just happens to be one of them. He’s not the only one.