kywi!

“I wanted you to keep it in the vlog, it’s cute.”

“You’re lucky that you’re cute yn, or else I wouldn’t be taking you out to dinner during my day off.” You lightly tap Mingyu’s nose and take the camera from his hands. Mingyu fondly stares at the way you grin while flipping through the footage.

“Please, you know you love me,” You say as you continue to admire your boyfriend’s effortless, yet captivating appearance from the camera’s gallery.

“Yeah, I do.”

You glance up to see your boyfriend facing the window while hiding the blush that was creeping upon his cheeks. You feel your own face start to heat up as you place the camera down to admire him, realizing that this view was much better than anything captured on a screen.

8:00 PM~

“Are you sure you don’t just want to head to bed right away? You look tired.”

“Just a little longer, I rarely get to spend time with you like this.” Mingyu pulls the blanket over the two of you as you watch a drama. Somehow, even with the darkness surrounding you both and the faint glow emanating from the screen, you don’t find yourself getting sleepy. You rest your head on Mingyu’s shoulder and focus on the way his chest rises and falls. Your thoughts begin to slowly move farther away from the episode’s plot as your mind finds itself getting lost in his presence.

“Don’t you think they could have solved all their problems like two episodes ago?”

“Yn! Stop with the commentary and just enjoy the show.” You smile at his response before falling back into silence for the remainder of the episode.

At some point, Mingyu envelops you into his arms and you two fall back on the couch in a mess of amused whispering and hushed giggles. You move your hands to entangle your fingers in his hair as Mingyu nuzzles his nose into your neck. The soft breaths you feel against your ear keeps your thoughts occupied with him—and only him.

10:00 PM~

“Stop doing that.”

“Stop doing what?”

“Looking like some model who’s advertising that cleanser.”

“I’m just doing what I normally do.”

“That’s the worst part.” Your words don’t match the soft expression on your face while you hold the camera to film Mingyu as he did his nightly skincare routine. You knew that your boyfriend was handsome, like, stupidly handsome. And you were pretty certain that you had saved a country in your past life to have been blessed to be dating the most endearing person in the world. How Mingyu managed to make putting on moisturizer look like a commercial for a luxury brand product, was beyond you.

“Your turn.” You yelp in surprise when Mingyu suddenly steals the camera from your grasp. He checks the footage before turning it off and guiding your shoulders to face the sink. He pauses for a moment, as if thinking about his next actions, before placing his hands under your arms and lifting you to sit on the counter.

“What are you doing?” You say more out of surprise than in search for an answer, since it was pretty obvious from the way Mingyu held your face and began to cleanse it, following the same steps he was doing previously. You close your eyes and get lost in the moment, as you feel the way his hands cup your cheeks and you cherish the feeling of being taken care of.

When it was time to apply the moisturizer, you wrinkled your nose when Mingyu accidentally squeezed too much, causing the bottle to shoot the product onto your face. The sound of Mingyu’s laughter echoes throughout the cozy atmosphere you two have created, and you scoop some extra product onto your fingers to dab it on his nose in revenge.

11:30 PM~

“Thank you.”

“For what?”

“It was your day off and you spent the entire time taking care of me. Tomorrow I’m going to make sure that you have the best rest that you’ve ever had.”

“No need, I like taking care of you. It doesn’t have to be a two-way thing all the time.”

You don’t have any more words to say after that. If someone were to ask you what love looked like, you would say it was the way Mingyu was looking at you right now—a million words left unsaid, but communicated through a crinkling eye smile. If someone were to ask you what love felt like, you would say it was the warmth that swelled within your heart when you looked at Mingyu—a million truths burning with passion passing between you both.

11:00 AM~

You don’t wake up to the feeling of your boyfriend’s arms wrapped around your middle like you normally do.

When Mingyu told you yesterday about his day off, you expected to take things slow and to just relish in each other’s presence for the limited time you two had together. Oftentimes you would only catch your boyfriend early in the morning before he was to head off to start the day packed with schedules. And by the time he came home in the late evening, exhaustion would leave no room for words to be exchanged between the two of you.

So you couldn’t help but huff out in disappointment at waking up to an empty bed. A chuckle sounds from the doorway and you look up to see Mingyu holding a tray of breakfast. He walks over to your side and leans down to kiss your forehead before setting the tray over your lap.

“Did you miss me?” You roll your eyes at his cheeky grin and shoo him away before taking a sip of the coffee. Ahh, it tasted exactly how you always prepared it, but you knew that anything prepared for you by your boyfriend would taste perfect regardless. “Yeah, right.” You say it without any real meaning. Contrary to your response, you reach over to tug Mingyu’s sleeve and drag him back underneath the covers with you.

“I have to go back to work tomorrow,” Mingyu wraps his arms around your middle as you continue to sip the hot beverage and you giggle when he buries his face into your neck and whines. “Don't worry, there will be another day right? Let’s just enjoy this for now.” You can feel Mingyu smile against your neck and you cherish the feeling of his warmth as you feed him a couple bites of the pancake over your shoulder.

“Do you want to bake some cookies today? We can pack you some for your next appointment tomorrow.” Mingyu hums in agreement, “I’ll snack on them and think of you.”

You spend the rest of the morning in peaceful silence. At some point, you finish your breakfast and Mingyu takes it as his cue to launch himself at you and tackle you with kisses. “Ack! Mingyu, you know I haven’t even brushed my teeth.”

Mingyu responds by engulfing you in a hug and peppering your face with more kisses; his weight and your surprise causing you two to collapse back down on the bed. You hear the ruffle of the blanket when Mingyu sits up on his elbows and hovers over your figure, watching you in complete awe as you pout at him. “Please don’t be so cute.”

the tiny creak of the door interrupts your thoughts and you quickly squeeze your eyes shut and burrow deeper within the blankets. minghao doesn’t usually come home this late, but you figured that he was just as stubborn as you. you hear the quiet rustle of clothing as he changes into his sleepwear. you wonder if the couch in the living room will be favoured over your warmth tonight.

it’s pointless, to pretend that you don’t care.

“i’m sorry.”

it barely comes out as a whisper, but your heart quickens anyway. you raise the blankets over your head and will back the moistness forming around your eyes.

“i’m sorry too.”

a dip on the corner of the bed has you meekly peeking out from under the covers like a child checking for monsters. minghao breaks into a tiny smile when he takes notice of your staring, and you hesitantly smile back but it comes off more as a pout instead, which makes minghao chuckle, just a bit.

you reach out a hand, but your movement halts against your will. it’s okay though, minghao meets you halfway; your fingertips tickle the tips of his. not to mention the way your cheeks flood with warmth when minghao intertwines your fingers and brings your hand up to press a soft kiss on your knuckles. you feel silly for being so nervous.

but when he hesitantly places his other hand on the duvet, you realize that it’s your turn to invite him in. you carefully lift the blanket and let it drape over you both.

Pulling yourself together, you decide to surprise Jihoon at the studio on the one day when you didn’t have an exam to take. You prepare a homemade lunch using all of Jihoon’s favourite foods, topping it off with a handwritten note to encourage your boyfriend in the midst of the busy comeback season.

Now the original plan was to surprise Jihoon at the studio and somehow coax him into coming home for the night. However you knew that once Jihoon had set his mind to something, he wouldn’t rest until it was completed. That was why you also prepared a bunch of blankets and pillows to bring over to his workstation, in hopes that he would take a short break just to cuddle and catch up with you.

Now that was the new and improved plan. However, once you knocked on the door and were met face to face with a very grumpy looking boyfriend, you immediately search for a mitigation strategy.

“Jihoonie! Surprise!” You knew you had to be a bit more energetic than usual, in order to mask the combination of sleeplessness and hunger that were burning out your system.

“Yn don’t you know its comeback season? I’m still working on some stuff right now. And shouldn’t you be home studying for your exams this week?” If you were being honest, Jihoon’s state wasn’t very far from yours, which only encouraged you to press on further to get him to take a break.

“Ah...I thought you might need a little refresher before you go back to work.” You weren’t bothered with Jihoon’s initial reaction. Even his members would complain to you that he was a little irritable later in the day. “I brought some food! After maybe we could cuddle for a bit⁠—”

“Don’t you know how much work I have to do? You may watch our performances all the time but you don’t understand—”

“Stop right there Jihoon.” It wasn’t often that you called him by his full name and by the look on Jihoon’s face, you knew that you had just halted him from running his thoughts further. You hold yourself back from sighing in frustration. Was it so hard just to spend some quality time with the person you loved?

“Of course I understand the amount of hours you put into writing, and producing, and practicing and making everything perfect. I’m not asking you to take the day off, I’m just really worried that—”

“If you weren’t so airheaded all the time yn, you would understand that unlike some people, some of us are actually trying to do a good job.”

Pause. Jihoon pauses too. His eyes immediately widen after he registers the last thing he said to you and he quickly tries to remedy the situation with more words. However you stopped listening to everything that left his mouth after that. Your head is only ringing with the last thing you hear and god does it sting.

“I just wanted to bring you some food and get you to take a short break.” You’re sniffling now, and it doesn’t take long before you feel hot tears welling up. You knew that your body was tired from studying all night, but your excitement to see your boyfriend had distracted you from the exhaustion that was beginning to take its toll on your body as you became a stammering mess.

Jihoon reaches for your arm but you jolt back and turn away, you didn’t want him to see you crying. The last thing you wanted was for Jihoon to think you came all the way over to his studio to annoy him.

“Yn, oh I’m so sorry yn please look at me,” Jihoon is quick to take your hands in his. His heart aches to see you crying because of him. “Let’s go inside yeah? I want to talk about it.”

You nod your head and you’re partly grateful for the fact that Jihoon basically pulls you into the studio with him because you can barely see past your own tears. Tears that came from not only the current situation, but also from the exam stress that was beginning to weigh on your heart.

Jihoon closes the studio door and takes the bags from your arms. You feel everything suddenly go limp as you practically collapse on the couch as Jihoon wraps his arms around you and starts whispering a million apologies. “I’m sorry I said that, you were only trying to help and I didn’t appreciate it. I’m so, so sorry.”

You continue to nod and bury your face in Jihoon’s chest. You could feel your body weakening as the lack of rest, food and the extreme stress began to consume you whole. It wasn’t the first time you were stressed over university, but it was definitely the first time you felt this kind of exhaustion. Despite your efforts to fight away the fatigue, Jihoon’s soft caresses have you losing yourself to the steady rhythm of his heartbeat.

You open your eyes to find yourself bundled in one of the blankets and lying amidst the pillows you brought. You blink a few times to register your surroundings and upon noticing the dimmed studio lights, you feel your heart sink when your mind immediately goes back to the fight you had with your boyfriend.

Jihoon nervously glances up a few feet away as you slowly wake up. You notice that the homemade lunch is nowhere to be found and you feel a small wave of relief wash over you at the thought of Jihoon eating something proper for once. At least one of you would be taken care of, the sharp pang you feel in your abdomen attests to your last thought.

“Have you been eating yn? You look...exhausted,” Jihoon moves closer to you and brushes the hair away from your face as you stay in your resting position on the couch.

“It’s...difficult. Like I know I’m hungry but there’s so much work to do and I can’t bring myself to have a bite of— anything. I’m so tired Jihoonnie.” Jihoon kisses your forehead and pulls the blanket up to your chin. You tug his sleeve and try to invite him to join you under the covers.

“Not yet, I’m heating the food up right now. Let’s eat together, yeah?”

“It’s already late Jihoon, have you not eaten all day?”

“I could say the same for you.”

You pout at him and he gives you a small chuckle before moving in closer until your noses were touching. “I’m sorry for what I said earlier yn.”

“It’s okay Jihoon, I know you were just frustrated,”

“But what I said was not okay, you shouldn’t excuse any of that—”

“Okay then I forgive you Jihoon.” Jihoon pecks your nose with a kiss and squeezes your hand under the covers before heading out of the studio to bring back the food. Once he lets himself back inside, the atmosphere becomes much lighter, and you exchange small smiles before you scoot over to allow Jihoon to join you at your side.

Jihoon opens the first container and takes the chopsticks into his hand. You don’t fail to notice the hesitant glances he was making at you and you turn to face him, “Is there something wrong?”

Jihoon’s face flushes a light pink and you giggle at the way he avoids your eyes, “I know you’re— uh tired and all, so do you want me to feed you or something?”

You, feeling much better after your nap, cannot hold back the laughter that erupts from your gut and it echoes throughout the studio, much to Jihoon’s embarrassment. “Stop laughing yn! I’m being serious!” You weren’t used to seeing this side of Jihoon and while you always knew he was sweet, his attempts at being openly affectionate were too much for you to handle.

“You don’t need to go all mushy on me Jihoonie, I’m feeling much better now so I can eat by myself.” The sigh of relief that Jihoon does not attempt to cover makes you giggle and you grab your own pair of chopsticks before snuggling in closer to his side.

“Don’t you ever get tired?” You take a quick glance at your best friend as he folds up another piece of paper with a phone number written on it.

“Of what?”

“Of everyone in this school falling head over heels for you,” You say like it’s the most obvious thing in the world, proceeding to look back down at your notes. In reality, you were trying to prevent yourself from looking at the cute (albeit, confused) way your best friend was staring at you over your abrupt question.

“Well I can’t say I’m not flattered, but there aren’t really that many people yn,”

A total lie, you think to yourself. Every time you two walked around campus, your best friend attracted the adoring stares of all your classmates like some hotshot celebrity. Yes, he was popular, and yes, he totally deserved it, but if everyone knew how dorky he was, maybe they wouldn’t be so quick to hand him their number after a single conversation.

Another lie, if everyone knew what a nerd Jeon Wonwoo actually was, they’d probably fall for him harder. You would know of course, first hand experience taught you a lot of things.

It taught you how endearing it was when Wonwoo wore oversized clothing, so that he could pull the sleeves over his palms when sipping on a hot drink at the local campus cafe. It made you realize his habit of pushing his glasses up his nose, because he was too stubborn to get the bridge adjusted. It made your insides melt whenever he was nervous because he had a habit of fiddling with his fingers. You were certain that if anyone was completely head over heels and absolutely smitten by him, it was definitely you.

“Not many people my ass,” you scoffed, “you spoke to her once, just once! And now you are holding her number.” Wonwoo laughs at your poor attempt at hiding your annoyance, “For your information, we were talking about a group project, and exchanging contact information. Nothing more, and nothing less.”

You gave a little huff before going back to pretend-studying, you definitely couldn’t focus when he was sitting right across from you. You knew you were more prone to jumping to conclusions nowadays, and you hoped that Wonwoo didn’t notice your shift in behaviour. In reality, you couldn’t help but feel a little pang of worry whenever your best friend was asked out on another date. And while he rejected the offer every time, you worried that one day he might say yes and you could lose him forever.

Not that you were against Wonwoo falling in love someday. If he found a good person that he wanted to be with for the rest of his life, you would support him in a heartbeat. It was just the selfish feeling that blossomed in your chest that prevented you from feeling any true happiness for these kinds of situations, and you hated it.

You knew that he would never abandon you completely, because Wonwoo was the best friend you could ever ask for. But you also knew that it would kill you inside to see him sweep someone else off their feet.

You’ve known Wonwoo since high school, and you definitely harboured a puppy crush on him all of first year. This was back when he was still trading pokemon cards in the gym stairwell and poking at you to buy him something from the milk vending machine. The crush went away eventually and you found yourself enjoying the rest of your high school career with your closest confidant by your side.

Once you both entered university, Wonwoo had a sudden growth spurt that now put him a total head taller than you. He no longer lurked at the stairwells during lunch and instead made lots of new friends that he went out for coffee with. He started dressing nicer, and once he exchanged his old glasses for a pair of round silver ones that rested on his nose so perfectly, he instantly transformed into someone straight out of a kdrama.

Now, you have caught feelings again. And you’re scared to admit that this time a puppy crush doesn’t even encapsulate everything you’ve been feeling lately. Of course Wonwoo’s sudden change in appearance didn’t spark anything new in your feelings towards him. It was the fact that he had a new air around him that was just completely different.

Wonwoo in high school was shy, and you loved him for who he was. You two had your own small circle of friends and you would spend all your time reading or playing games in his bedroom. Wonwoo in college however, was breaking out of his shell and being the first to approach people and make new friends. He was still introverted of course, shyness and introvertedness were two different things after all. But you were proud to see Wonwoo take the initiative to make plans more often and reach out.

Wonwoo has also gotten a lot more comfortable around you. He’s grown fond of resting his head on your shoulder after a long day of classes, and wrapping you in his sweaters whenever you came by his flat. In conclusion, everything about university student Wonwoo, was driving you, (and probably the entire campus) crazy.

“Hello? yn? Don’t you have a class soon?”

You swat away the hand that was waving in front of your face to meet the eyes of the cause of all your heart troubles. One smile from Wonwoo and you were in shambles. You had it really, really bad. “Right, right, sorry I was just...distracted.”

“We’re still on for tonight right? You can just head straight to my dorm after your last class.”

“Of course Won, did you really think I was going to miss out on another rewatch of Extraordinary You?”

“Of course not,” Wonwoo chuckled. You were met with another one of those soft gazes from him, and you immediately tried to break your stare. Something in your heart tells you that you should just confess right now, and that Wonwoo was a sensible individual who wouldn’t let go of your friendship if he didn’t feel the same way.

“Hey Won, can I tell you something after class later?”

“Of course.” There was that smile again. If you weren’t so busy trying to slow your heart rate down, you would have caught the way his eyes brightened at hearing your question, and the way he looked down to twindle with his fingers.

You give Wonwoo your own smile before heading off to your last detour of the day.

Sleepovers with Wonwoo always consisted of a mountain of blankets, a never ending pile of snacks and a show to watch before eventually both of you fell asleep. When you arrived at his flat just as he was adding the finishing touches to a home cooked dinner, you realized that sleepovers with Wonwoo also consisted of another thing: Your tragic inability to keep your heart rate down.

“Dinner will be ready in a bit, you can just wash up and get changed for now,” Wonwoo turns to greet you before adding some pepper to the tteokbokki.

You nod and head over to his bathroom, where you already find your change of clothes resting on the counter. Any outsider would have been under the impression that you and Wonwoo lived together, considering that pieces of you were scattered all over his apartment. From the matching toothbrushes that were kept by the sink, to the drawer reserved only for your clothes in his bedroom.

The only reason that you and Wonwoo didn’t room together upon entering university, was the fact that your parents were wary of you rooming with a boy you weren’t even dating. Not that it mattered now, considering that you at least spent two nights at his place away from your own dorm.

After you showered and changed into your pajamas, you realized that Wonwoo had given you one of his sweaters to wear, instead of the usual shirts you slept in. Usually you would have raided his bedroom after dinner to steal one (you slept much better when you wore his clothing) but this time it appeared that he had taken the initiative for you.

Once you stepped out of the bathroom, you saw that Wonwoo was already sitting at the dining table and was on his phone. It looked like he was texting someone, and you felt your heart sink a little when he laughed at a message. No, you are not going to be jealous. You are going to be happy for your friend because he deserves all the happiness in the world.

“Is that the girl from your group project?” You sat down across from him and started piling the tteokbokki and rice onto your plate. “Yeah, she said that the professor just sent out a mass email to our class, saying that we were going to be given an extension. Turns out that email was meant for another course, but everyone is already celebrating the new deadline.”

Wonwoo shuts off his phone and turns to you, “Was there something you wanted to tell me today?”

Right. You were going to confess your feelings. It was now or never, and you weren’t sure if you could hold it in much longer. “I can just tell you after dinner, I’m starving.”

Tragic. Tragic. Tragic. Why couldn’t you just say the words, “Hey Won, I have feelings for you, do you feel the same way?” Must you be in a spiraling paradox of questioning the presence of unrequited love in the relationship you had with your best friend? Yes, most definitely yes. Since the world likes to make everything difficult for those in love.

Dinner was eaten in a comfortable silence for the most part. You liked that you never felt the need to fill the air with more conversation whenever you were with Wonwoo. There were days where you would just sit in each other’s presence and do your own thing, and those days left you with lots of time to ponder on your feelings for him. Tonight was the night that you were going to say these feelings aloud for the first time...you just needed a bit more time to procrastinate.

After you both finished your food, you relocated yourselves to the couch. You fidgeted with the end of your (his) sweater while Wonwoo searched for the show on Netflix. You figured that you would let him know in the morning, since there was a chance that you two would fall asleep before the episode ended. And you didn’t want to confess beforehand either, in fear of having to endure a brutal one hour of awkward tension if he didn’t feel the same way.

“Who would have thought that out of all the days the wifi could have chosen to bail on us, they chose the day where we were going to find out whether Haru belonged to Dan-oh’s story or not,” Wonwoo fiddles with the remote some more, while you panic in silence at the thought of spending the night with no distractions from your feelings.

“It’s not like we don’t already know how it ends,” You take deep quiet breaths to calm yourself down, you can definitely make it through the night, “We can just do other things.”

“What do you have in mind?”

You couldn’t answer him right away. The only thing you had on your mind was the fact that Wonwoo’s hand was now resting on your knee and that it was baffling how good he could look in pajamas. Wonwoo, sensing your inability to form words nervously glanced up at you before moving the conversation in a different direction, “Look, I know you had something to tell me today yn, but I realized that I wanted to share something with you too. I am in love-”

“I am in love with you Jeon Wonwoo!”

There. You blurted out a long-awaited confession before the anticipation consumed you whole. You couldn’t tear your eyes away from your hands in fear of seeing the look on Wonwoo’s face.

“Let me hear you say it again.”

“What?” You turn to Wonwoo, who no longer looked nervous. Instead, he wore the biggest shit-eating grin on his face that made you want to both kiss and strangle him. “Say it again.”

“Not when you look like you just won the lottery you nerd, you didn’t even say-”

“I am in love with you too yn.”

Well, you were never one to complain about the fact that your feelings were returned. But the way Wonwoo was cooing at your adorable expression of shock only made you want to shove him off the couch.

Which you proceeded to do.

“Hey! Aren’t you happy that I like you too?”

“Of course I’m happy! You didn’t have to try to beat me to my confession though, tonight was going to be my night!”

“You didn’t seem like you were going to say anything for the rest of the evening! You were going to wait until the next day weren’t you?”

Absolutely yes. “No!”

Any remaining tension in the atmosphere washed away as you and Wonwoo made fun of each other on the living room floor. You were beyond relieved and a little giddy that your best friend in the whole wide world saw you in the way that you saw him.

“But on a more serious note Won, were you also going to confess tonight too?”

“Actually no, but once you came out of the washroom wearing my sweater, I just had to say it before I tackled you with cuddles or something.”

“You gave me your sweater instead of my clothes to wear!”

“I know!” Wonwoo was holding your hand now and rubbing circles into your palm. The idea of cuddling the entire night didn’t sound so bad. “But you looked all nervous and shy and I was hoping that you were going to be the one to say something first.”

“Can we just agree that we confessed at the same time?” As the adrenaline from the confession began to slip away you suddenly became very tired, and you were hoping to just spend the night in the arms of your favourite person.

You had a killer resume, flawless time management skills and were exceptional at handling tough clients. Your professionalism with him however, was—unique, as a CEO who was trying to maintain a clean image would put it.

If you had any fear about losing your job, you definitely didn’t show it because you continued to complete all the tasks Seungcheol assigned to you with efficiency, but with an air around you that was borderline unsettling.

You would hand him a perfect coffee order but wrinkle your nose at him when he took a sip. When you were given the freedom to book his appointments at any time of the day last week, you scheduled them all to be before 10 am (Seungcheol still fists his sheets in the morning when he thinks about this). And earlier today, you had let the newbie intern enter his office when you knew they were always too excited in the mornings for Seungcheol to handle.

The only reason why he hadn’t done anything about your eccentric behaviour was the fact that he had a conference to attend this weekend, and he really, really needed your deflecting skills to avoid the nosy representatives, who were always trying to find a reason to demean his accomplishments.

“You have a meeting with the director of finance at 8 am tomorrow morning Mr. Choi.”

“Another 8 am? Are you trying to kill me yn?” Seungcheol pinched the bridge of his nose and held back the nth exasperated comment of the day. He was not going to lose it when he was only on his first cup of coffee for the morning. You, as per usual, remained indifferent, and kept flipping through the tablet planner.

“You’ll thank me later when you don’t have to settle that client’s budget complaints later in the afternoon, because the marketing head tells me they tend to be a bit more reasonable in the mornings.”

It’s not like you weren't respectful, you were professional in giving all the appropriate greetings and even occasionally treated your company underclassmen to meals after work. It was just that you were so odd with him, like you were always trying to keep a certain distance.

“Did you already book the tickets to fly over to the conference this weekend?” You briefly glance up from the schedule to nod and bow your head. Without another word, you turn on your heel to leave the office. Seungcheol sighs as he falls back onto his seat, all he wanted to do was to spend more time talking with you. You had been in the company for a little over a year and he felt like he didn’t know a thing about your life.

Seungcheol shakes his head and goes back to wrapping up some reports ahead of the busy weekend.

Now you knew it was bound to happen. As you were doing the last round of checks for Seungcheol’s team’s luggage on the plane, you mentally give yourself a pep talk for the weekend’s conference—your mind was used to spending the majority of your day by Seungcheol’s side, but the thought of being in such close company for the entire weekend was making your heart run laps.

You made sure to book first-class tickets of course, but you also made sure that you were seated as far away from Seungcheol as possible. It didn’t matter that you were his personal assistant, the spacious cabin gave you lots of leeway for roaming around the plane and answering his requests. You just could not handle spending the twelve hour plane ride sitting so closely to him.

You were pretty sure that people were under the impression that you lowkey hated who you worked for, but anyone with two eyes would know that it was the opposite, really.

Lucky for you, Seungcheol’s team had the observational skills of a toothpick.

When you were being interviewed by the hiring manager, you of course knew the company that you were applying to, and the person who would be in charge of all your daily tasks. At the time, Going Company was still small, and you knew that there was going to be a lot of hustling while it was in its beginning stages. You were ready for the over-time stress, the several cups of caffeine and the frequent nagging of either your boss, or his colleagues, that were under the impression that you worked for them too.

You however, were not ready for the boss that told you to go home early when he caught you blinking back eyes that lacked sleep, or the boss that invited you to drink with all his colleagues after work, and said colleagues treating you with an utmost respect that you had never seen from any previous position of employment.

It was a bit sad that you found yourself absolutely smitten at any acts of kindness shown to you in your workplace, but the accompaniment of your boss’s tiny mannerisms really hit a spot in your heart that you never even knew existed before.

Maybe it had to do something with the way Seungcheol was exceptionally grumpy in the mornings, but after you gave him his coffee, his eyes would fall shut and a soft smile would grace his features after the first sip. Or it could be the way he was not afraid to whine in front of you about the silly clients he had met for the day, or the way he would write little notes on the edge of your meeting minutes when you two were stuck in a boring product presentation, or the way he would patiently listen to all the young interns who barged into his office with jittery excitement, or the way—

In short, you loved the company that you worked for (and the person who ran it).

Despite the endearment you had towards your boss, professionalism came first above everything. You decided that you would keep your distance from Seungcheol. You would still perform all of your duties with efficient ease, but any possibility of growing closer was out of the question. Conversations would be kept straight-to-the-point and company dinners would end early for you. You were not risking Seungcheol finding out that you held any sort of feelings for him.

However, the world seemed to have other plans for you, because Seungcheol was now heading in your direction, and when he stationed himself in the adjacent cabin across from you, you were pretty sure that he had no intention in returning to his booked seat.

“Mr. Choi, was there something wrong with your seat?” Seungcheol hasn’t met your eyes yet, instead he smiles while facing forward as if knowing that you were going to ask that question, and he responds with, “Mingyu finds the back more spacious, so we agreed to trade seats.”

How strange, you were pretty sure that each cabin in the first-class area had the same amount of legroom. Unbeknownst to you, Seungcheol had actually not-so-subtly pleaded with Mingyu using the bribery of extra vacation days to switch cabins in order to be closer to you. Reason being, well— he has yet to figure that out.

The first two hours of the flight was spent in blissful silence. You figured it wasn’t so bad to be seated closely next to Seungcheol if you could just pull the divider to separate your areas and turn the lights off so he would think that you were sleeping.

Unfortunately, everyone on the plane had to eat dinner, so you were forced to come out of hiding. Fortunately, you were blessed to find a delicious bowl of bibimbap being handed to you by the flight stewardess. After you thanked her for the meal, you take the chopsticks into your hand and are just about to dig into the meal, before you hear a knock on the dividing partition.

You slide the door open to be met with Seungcheol, who was also holding his bowl of bibimbap and you give a slight bow to acknowledge the request he was about to make. “Would you like to have some extra bibimbap of mine?”

You try to mask the confusion that washes over your face at Seungcheol’s unusual request. If he asked you to place an order for more food, you would not have batted an eye, but to no surprise his unwavering kindness nestled its way into your heart despite your internal protests. “Are you not hungry Mr. Choi?”

“I’m supposed to be dieting right now, there’s going to be another magazine shoot when we get back from this trip.”

“I’m sure the photographer would gladly take your pictures regardless.”

“And what do you mean by that?”

“I mean that you will always look good on camera no matter how much your outside appearance changes—”

Your sentence comes to an abrupt halt as your eyes widen slightly at the realization of your words and you plead to the empty air that the conversation you were having was just a figment of your imagination. The curious, yet endearing grin that was immediately sent your way made it very apparent that the words spoken were not a delusion.

“You sure know how to flatter someone, miss ln, and I thank you for your kind words. But I also noticed that you buy this for lunch almost every Friday, so I thought you would like some more of it.”

Had Seungcheol really noticed the foods you enjoyed during the lunch breaks of your work week? Your mind cannot find any further responses to Seungcheol’s last comment, so you just give a small smile and nod in thanks when he scoots closer to your side to pile some extra bibimbap into your bowl.

Seungcheol does not say much to you for the rest of the flight. He figured that you wanted to get as much rest as possible before the start of the hectic weekend. You on the other hand try to ignore the disappointed pang in your stomach when he doesn’t knock on the partition for the rest of the journey.

Conferences were the worst. The whole making connections aspect was so tiresome and kind of shallow if Seungcheol was being honest. But alas, he is CEO after all, and he does try his best to spend more time around the people who seemed the most genuine.

As planned, you were by his side for most of the evening. You were organizing all the business cards that were collected from the other attendees, as well as redirecting the conversation once it got too uncomfortable for Seungcheol’s liking. Majority of the attendees were already middle-aged, and it irked Seungcheol when some of them refused to treat him as an equal. In his mind, business was business, and it didn’t matter that he had spent less years working in the corporate sector than others.

Seungcheol was pleased to have a reunion with Minghao, a distributor in the China district. He was around the same age, and Seungcheol would even consider him as a close friend, as far as partnerships go. You, being the absolute legend you are, not only arranged an event itinerary for Seungcheol that had ample time to meet new people and get work done, but with lots of leeway for him to socialize with mutuals and enjoy the time away from Korea.

Seungcheol also did not fail to notice how you really shone in your professional attire, and how the way you weaved in and out of the crowds of hotshot business owners and investors made it seem like you owned the place. At first, you were a little hesitant to come on the business trip as personal assistants did not have much of a role in these kinds of events, but through Seungcheol’s polite persuasion, you had agreed to lead the team in navigating through the weekend.

"Miss ln, I'll have you know that your input has actually helped the company grow lots in the past year, and it would be a pleasure to have you take the lead in some of the conversations we will be having with the shareholders we are going to be meeting. This is, only if you'd like to, of course."

It all came down to you in the end, and you figured that it would be a good experience for personal growth as well. You didn't think many CEOs involved their personal assistants in business decision making so much, but you were happy to try something other than mastermind scheduling (even if that was a great feat in it of itself).

You were first afraid that the other attendees would see you more as an unnecessary dead weight. However, if anyone felt that way, they would have immediately been proven wrong when they saw how you and Seungcheol worked seamlessly at each other’s side.

Seungcheol had insisted that you were a valuable asset to the team, and while you believed that your appeal came from the sole fact that you were practically a microsoft office god who was amazing at schedules, Seungcheol knew that you were more level headed when it came to business decisions than you let on. While his original intentions were to have your support when speaking to haughty investors, he soon came to realize he valued your insight more than anything.

“Mr Choi, shall we head over to the next panel now?” Seungcheol figured that the tiresome weekend had just begun to take its toll on you. Your eyes were slightly hooded, and a soft, almost dreamy smile had somehow broken through your cool business persona. He liked it when you smiled, you were always pretty beforehand, but he would say that your smile made you look younger, and a little more at peace.

“Right, I can take over for now miss ln, you can head back to the hotel room and rest for the remainder of the day. We still have that dinner tonight, and I don’t want you to be tired.”

“What about you though?”

“I’ll be fine, just make sure to get some rest, okay? Is it alright if I walk you back to your room?”

“Thank you, but I’ll be just fine, you need to be at the next panel soon anyway.”

You bow your head once more before heading off in the direction of the exit. Seungcheol knew that he would see you in a few more hours anyway. It was your first trip out of the country, and he didn’t want you to be drained by the end of it. While you had somehow managed to keep your distance from him all weekend, Seungcheol still managed to learn a few more things about you in the pockets of downtime.

He learned that you were all alone in Seoul, and that you chose to work elsewhere because of the lack of opportunities in your hometown. You didn’t talk much about it, but Seungcheol could tell that your previous places of employment weren’t so good to you, from the way you shifted your eyes at his questions. You weren’t too acquainted with each other, so Seungcheol didn’t pry.

He also learned that you were more of a tea person, hence why you couldn’t help but wrinkle your nose a little when Seungcheol sipped onto his bitter caffeine in the mornings. (Seungcheol of course didn’t know about your fondness towards him when he drank from a perfect order in one of those tiresome mornings). You always booked his appointments early in the morning because he was less likely to make impulsive decisions earlier in his day, and you noticed that the longer Seungcheol spent thinking about a decision, the better the outcome was for the company.

You liked to invite the new interns into his office frequently, because one time when you accidentally gave the green light to a freshly graduated intern, Chan, to enter Seungcheol's office, he left with the biggest smile on his face and rambled to you about how amazing the boss is (you already knew that, of course). You had been letting in new interns whenever Seungcheol wasn’t busy since he was the perfect example of a good mentor, and you wanted everyone in the company to learn of his down to earth, almost fatherly-like nature.

Additionally, you liked to collect different kinds of plants, and Seungcheol made a mental note to gift you a set of succulents at the next office Christmas party. You had a knack for witty jokes, and Seungcheol found himself laughing at the side commentaries you would make after another attendee made an arrogant comment about something neither of you particularly cared about.

You were, for a lack of a better word, intelligent, interesting, and funny. Seungcheol admired how dedicated you were to your career, but he wished you would just stay this way without losing any aspect of yourself.

The rest of the conference went by smoothly, and Seungcheol was pleased to have made more connections in hopes of expanding Going Company into international markets in later years. The conference was going to end with a dinner banquet, and if he was being honest, he had little motivation to go. Back to back early mornings was something Seungcheol had grown somewhat accustomed to, but the constant monitoring of his words and the never ending flow of conversation left him exhausted.

“Mr. Choi, we are to head to the dining hall in approximately fifteen minutes,” Seunghceol sighs when he hears your voice softly echo from the other side of the door. Seungcheol, he’s been asking that you call him Seungcheol when you were no longer in business settings.

When he opened the door to find you in a gorgeous shimmery dress that not only emphasized your beauty, but also made you glow, Seungcheol forgets why he was so opposed to the dinner in the first place.

“Your tie.”

Without another word you move closer to Seungcheol to adjust the tie around his neck properly. Seungcheol tries not to notice the soft curve of your lips, or the gentle flicker of your eyelashes that accompanied the air of elegance that wafted around you.

“Yn, I—”

“I’ll be handing in my letter of resignation once we come back to Korea Mr. Choi.”

“What?”

You had been in the company for barely over a year and Seungcheol thought that you had really enjoyed the flexibility of your schedule and the bonds you had formed with your colleagues.

“Is it Soonyoung from advertising? I know he can be a little energetic but I can have a chat with him and ask him to tone it down a little. Did you not like the event the marketing team held last month? I know it was a little different from what the company is used to but I want you to know that your opinions are valued and— or was it me? Did I forget to approve your last vacation claim—?”

'It’s none of that Mr. Choi, Going Company has the best company culture that I could have ever asked for. You were the perfect boss, and I thank you for letting me have an amazing work experience.”

“But why?” Seungcheol knew that it was no longer his place to be asking you about such things. You were in no way obligated to give a reason, but his emotions have gotten the better of him. He really, really liked you, and he felt guilty for making this a personal matter.

“I— I don’t think I can work under you anymore. I’m sorry but it seems that— I might have—”

You aren’t sure where the words are coming from. You were definitely not going to tell Seungcheol that you were quitting your job because you had fallen in love with him.

“I can’t give you an explanation, but I am going to resign and find a suitable replacement in due weeks time—’

“Yn, I like you.”

You feel your whole body freeze and stare up at your boss, no— Seungcheol, who for the first time in the several months you had worked at his side, looked a little unsure.

“Don’t say that. I’m going to start searching—”

“Will you just listen to me?” You were always so quick to respond to whatever Seungcheol asked you to do. But this time you felt as if you had lost the ability to speak.

“Be honest with me yn, are you— do you like me? Even just a little bit?”

You aren’t sure where your voice went. It’s somewhere far away but you have no intention of finding it. You hoped you could just melt into the ground and go back to your hometown without having to be in this situation. Life was much simpler there, there were no fast-paced evolving corporations and there were no endearingly nosy bosses.

“I do like you, very much so— and I’m not going to let that interfere with everything you have worked so hard for, and I’m sorry—”

“Please don’t apologize. Please don’t be afraid of me. And please don’t be afraid to fall in love, even if you would like nothing to do with me.”

“It’s not professional, what happens if something goes wrong?”

“Then we’ll work through it! You want to be serious about this right?”

You find yourself choking up, so you could only reply with a small nod of your head. This weekend was almost impossible to get through. You had promised your family that you were going to work hard and make it big in Seoul, this situation was something you never had expected to happen. You didn’t want to tell them about all the horrible treatment you had gone through under past employers. You avoided mentioning the sleepless nights, little pay and the side jobs you took on to pay the bills.

When you had secured a position at Going Company, the business was still small and trying to have its big break. You weren’t expecting the company to grow rapidly in just a little over a year, and you knew a big contributing factor to the company’s success was because of Seungcheol and his persistent efforts towards the employees. You didn’t want to tell your family that you had fallen in love with the first person that had treated you as an equal in the soul-sucking world of corporations.

“How do I know if I don’t like you just because you’re nice to me? You wouldn’t want someone like that, would you?”

“Well, do you?” This was the first time Seungcheol had seen you lose a bit of your composure. If he was being honest, you looked a little panicked and if you were under different circumstances, he would wrap his arms around you and curse every being that had made you think, for even a second, that you weren’t allowed to feel things like love. “What is it that you like about me?”

“I like your dedication to your employees. You never cared about what their position was and always valued their thoughts and opinions regardless. You never raised your voice when someone made a mistake, and you would always guide them through it. You never seem to lose your passion, even when the day goes haywire…”

You kept your head bowed down as you rambled on about the true feelings you had towards your boss. You felt pathetic, and you were not looking forward to receiving a call from home asking if you had finally settled on a job that was perfect, and that had met all your needs. If only your family knew that you were constantly in between jobs because several workplaces had been unkind to you, not because you were ambitious and were not willing to rest until you found something exactly to your liking.

“Would you like to try to make it work?”

There it was again. Seungcheol’s way of speaking never failed to amaze you. He would have never forced you to come on the business trip unless you agreed to it. He didn’t force you to speak with him for the entire plane journey and he didn’t further insist that he walked you to your hotel room. Everything always came down to your choice, and you knew that Seungcheol definitely was not going to force you into attempting a relationship, even if he knew that you shared the same feelings.

This is why you loved Seungcheol. And the realization brings you a comforting peace that you had been searching for, for so long. You were going to tell your family that you had found the perfect job, and you were going to say that it had everything you could have asked for. You were also going to tell them that you had found someone who was your perfect match. And that you wouldn’t trade either for the world.

“Can we? You know— try? I really, really would like to try.”

“Then we will, and we’re going to make it work.”

“Is it okay if we talk more about this once we’e back in Korea though? We’re still in the middle of, you know, business stuff.”

Seungcheol laughs for the first time in the evening. He’s tired, but it’s hearty and full, he can’t believe that you somehow regained your professional attitude in the midst of all this. “Of course we can, you know, after all this business stuff.”

Hello lovely people ! As I was looking through my blog, I noticed I had hit a major milestone !

I officially passed 200 followers !! It’s so crazy to think that when I first started I thought I wouldn’t gain attraction because I was a newbie but I’m very happy to have proven myself wrong.

In celebration of such milestone, I had come up with a pretty simple idea of creating a prompt list and let you guys go nuts and request what you’d like 💓

The prompt list should be up soon and in the prompt list I will also be listing the rules for how to request. Requests will be answered in between Curious Cat uploads (mostly because I want to have a busy schedule uaufhiehfhh) so you get the most of my work ♡♡

Thank you guys so much for enjoying my writing and liking as much as to follow me :') it seriously means a lot to me and I hope you continue to support me in the future ♥︎