(n) the bitter sweetness of having arrived in the future, seeing how things turn out, but not being able to tell your past self.

“You don’t know this new me; I put back my pieces, differently.”

Yejin was staring intently at the man across from her with her arms folded neatly in front of her chest. Sehun, on the other hand, scanning the document on his hand with his forehead slightly frowned, showing some disagreement and it didn’t even slip her eyes when he did that. Yet, she tried her best not to say anything before he did, or else she couldn’t even hold herself not to spit any annoyance or even fits at him. Her day was worse enough by now and it was only 6PM in the evening.

“If you continue staring at me like this, I might think that you fall in love with me.” His voice broke the silence, but his eyes didn’t leave the paper to look up at her.

Yejin scoffed, rolling her eyes in arrogant manner. How many times did he throw lines like this? It never affected her at all. Well it might affect the other co-workers but not to her, definitely not. Ignoring his remarks, she hit his table leg with her pointy heels, making a loud thud. “Finish what you started. I need the opinion right away.”

As she finished, Sehun gathered all the documents into one and put it on the table. “It’s already good. You just need to do a little more research on the new area that you suggested on your proposal. It won’t take long for me to finish the budget planning.” He informed her, handing back the brown envelope to her.

A smile almost crept on her lips, but quickly she regained her composure by clearing then took the envelope back from his hand. However, the gesture didn’t even slip from his attention.

Sehun put his chin on top of his palm, studying her from his place. “Are you that happy?”

She was slightly taken aback by his question, but the annoyed expression immediately showed up which made him almost frowned in confuse. Until today, he never saw she smiled in front of him, to him to be exact.

“What’s your point?” She was frowning at him.

He sighed, whatever his answer might be, she wouldn’t even satisfy with it. “Have a dinner with me.” He finally said, not answering to her question while stood up and gathered his stuff and his suit.

“What makes you think that I will have dinner with you?” She was even more confused at his sudden invitation. However, without waiting for his answer, she also stood up and walked toward the door, ready to leave his office.

Sehun who noticed that she almost leaving, quickly slung his backpack then rushed to the door before she could open it. Yejin was taken aback when he suddenly appear in front of her, blocking the door with his tall frame. She abruptly stopped her pace before she collided herself onto him. However, with her pointy heels it was hard for her to balance herself all too sudden, especially when the floor suddenly felt slippery to her soles. Sehun who saw that immediately reached out his hand and Yejin didn’t even think twice to grab his arm and steady herself before she fell and twisted her ankle. His other arm ghosted around her waist, ready to catch her but at the same time, keeping his distance since he knew she wouldn’t like it if he touched her.

“Yah, Bae Ye Jin.” He ducked down, tried to meet her eyes when she didn’t show any kind of respond after few seconds. With her grip tightened on his arm, he wondered what was going on through her head. This time, the silence bothered him a lot. “Yejin-ah.” he tried to call her again because her silent meant something. He just knew it. But he didn’t know the reason. It wasn’t because she almost fell right?

He raised his hand which was around her waist before to touch her shoulder. As the seconds goes by, he was getting worried about her still hanging her head down and didn’t even utter one word.

However, before he could touch her shoulder, she suddenly looked up and brushed off his hand before he could even touch her. Unfortunately, the gesture made her body swung backwards, unbalanced. On reflect; Sehun grabbed her fully on her waist to prevent her from falling. On the other hand, he was even more surprised that he just held the woman, the Bae Ye Jin, on his arm. There were no space between their bodies and he could felt his heartbeat fastened a bit with the fact that he was holding a woman, y one to be exact. Of course, no one could deny that her beauty already become the hot issue since she joined the company. As a man, Sehun couldn’t even deny his attraction towards the woman on his arm. It wasn’t usual for him to pay his attention towards the gossip on the company, but when the main character of the gossip itself became his partner and he involuntary started to pay attention to the issues. Out of those rare days, she chose to let her  wavy brown locks loose on her back when she usually tied it up, showing her oval face. It framed her face perfectly and Sehun couldn’t deny that she looked dazzling with her mono-lid eyes widened, staring at his own.

Although, the admiration that he felt won’t take that long before Yejin pulled away from his embrace.

“Don’t touch me casually like that next time, Oh Se Hun.”

His eyes twitched in annoyance at the arrogance on her tone. He literally had no idea why she never showed any proper behaviour in front of him and today, he was almost reaching his limit.

“What exactly is your problem? Did I do something to you? Tell me, Yejin. Tell me so I could fix it.”

Yejin took few steps back, creating a safe distance between them while holding the brown envelope on her hand. Her eyes were still hard and almost full of hatred which made Sehun confuse even more.

“Yejin-ah,” He called again but immediately cut off by her.

“Drop that. You are not even in close term to me to call my name like that.”

But Yejin forgot that Sehun was as stubborn as she was. “You are my partner for 2 years. I don’t see any reason why I shouldn’t call you like that.”

“You have no right to do that.”

“Then tell me why, not even once, you always act hostile towards me? Don’t tell me that it was just me, Bae Ye Jin. Because everyone in this company knows that you only act like this towards me.” He warned before she could even speak and told him unreasonable excuse.

Yejin sighed, clearly disliking this discussion. She really wanted to go out from his office but seeing him not moving from his original place, it was impossible for her to get out right now, unless she was crazy enough to shove him to the side which means another physical contact with him. She already lost her guard down when he caught her when she was about to fell.

“Let’s just keep it that way. As long as it doesn’t affect our work, I could live with that.”

“But I don’t!” He suddenly raised his voice, surprising himself why he suddenly lost control.

“I’m sorry,” she spoke. His eyes almost widened in surprise, thinking that might be the Bae Ye Jin could finally realize her mistake and apologized to him. However, she wasn’t done yet. “I’m sorry that it isn’t even on my concern. Never will.”

Her voice was dark, cold, and deadly. Just like her stare at him, he almost froze on his spot as he heard that words.

Yejin finally walked forward and angled herself to reach the knob before she twisted it and shoved his body with her strong pull alongside the opened door. Sehun stumbled forward, quickly balancing himself and watched her walk away from his office before the door finally closed again with a soft thud.

He groaned as his hands run to his hair, ruffling it in frustration. What did you just do, Oh Se Hun?! You just ruined your relationship with her even more! He sighed, shaking his head in confuse. I never understand her at this point. Aside from the excellence performance at work, I am sure she is hiding something. What is it, Bae Ye Jin? Is it related towards the way you treat me after all this time?

His eyes didn’t leave from the certain figure that night. Some of his colleagues distracted his attention by talking about their company and how they would do on the future as if their