Dead silence fills the space between the two of you. You're unable to comprehend anything, desperately trying figure out if your boss is simply pulling an insanely cruel joke on you. However, the longer you stare at your boss, the more you doubt yourself. His expression remains unchanged as he waits for your answer.

“No.”

“What?” Surprise flashes across his features.

“You know I can’t.”

“Tell me why,” he demands.

You think about it for a moment, trying to find an appropriate way to answer him.

“I don’t date co-workers. It gets too complicated.”

“I’m not your co-worker,” Sehun frowns, stressing on the incorrect label you’ve tagged him with.

“I don’t want to involve my private life with my work life,” you try to reason, sensing that you’re treading on thin ice.

“It’s a little difficult, considering that your occupation title is, you know, my personal assistant,” Sehun chuckles wryly. You purse your lips together, unsure of what to do. You don’t feel threated about the chance of your job being taken away from you. You know your boss isn’t that kind of person.

“Can I ask why?”

“Why what?” Sehun looks at you.

“You know what.”

Sighing, Sehun down the rest of his drink before he decides to answer you.

“There’s really no reason,” he says casually. You don’t say anything, feeling as if he has more to say. “Don’t tell me you don’t find me attractive, though,” he adds.

Frowning, you answer him, “Yes, I do find you extremely attractive. Exceedingly so.”

“Then why the rejection?”

“I told you already.”

“So it’s all about not wanting to involve your personal life and work life?” Sehun asks again.

“Mostly, yes,” you nod.

“So, if I wasn’t your boss, your answer would be yes?”

You think about it for a moment before answering, “No.”

“What?”

“I have no power in determining what isn’t fact. As of now, you are my boss and I am your employee. I can’t determine my answer in another dimension, because I have no other way of thinking of you.”

Sehun sinks back into his seat, seemingly amused by the situation now.

“Then should we find out?”

“How so?”

“What if I were to fire you? Right now. We wouldn’t have a working relationship anymore.”

You find yourself tensing over his words. Maybe your judgement on Sehun’s character was incorrect? Maybe he was the type to take his position into advantage for situations such as this. Watching Sehun’s expression, you determine that your initital judgement is correct.

“You wouldn’t,” you tell him confidently. Sehun raises an eyebrow, as if challenging you.

“I know you wouldn’t, because I know you,” you add. Sehun says nothing in return. With one final sigh, he calls for the bill and stands up. You follow immediately. You follow behind Sehun, who’s steps are too large for you to follow, especially with the combination of your high heels, and how tired you are due to how late it is.

Waiting outside for the driver to arrive with the car, you try to keep yourself busy, distracting yourself from the cold. Fidgeting with your fingers in an attempt to stop them from numbing, you suddenly feel a coat drape over your shoulders. When you look next to you, Sehun has his hands in his pockets, looking straight ahead, paying no heed to you. You’re about to thank him when the car arrives and he walks ahead first.

The driver opens the car door and Sehun gestures for you to head in first, which you do. He then says something to the driver before getting in as well.

The car is filled with complete silence throughout the entire drive. When the car comes to a complete stop, you look out the window to see your apartment building.

“How do you know where I live?”

“Don’t you know where I live?” Sehun asks instead before exiting the car. You sit there dumbfound for a moment before slapping your forehead. Of course he would know where you live. Every employee’s details are in the files of Oh Corporations. Of course, not everyone has access to them, but Oh Sehun sure as hell does.

With a huff, you follow him out of the car. You're about to take off his coat when he stops you.

“Later,” he tells you, “I’ll walk you to your room.”

“You really don’t–”

“One rejection is enough for the night. Let’s not have another,” Sehun says as he begins to walk towards the direction of the building. You don’t want to fall into the trap of feeling bad, but you can’t help it as you quickly follow after him.

Once you reach your apartment room, Sehun waits for you to unlock the door before he says anything.

“Take the day off tomorrow. Rest up. Tonight was a long one.”

You want to argue that you're more than capable to working tomorrow, but you decide against it.

“Are you taking the day off tomorrow?” you ask instead. Sehun nods. You both fall into silence again.

“Well, I’ll see you next time at work,” you mumble before taking a step into your apartment. Sehun remains in the hallway and you hide half your body behind the door.

Sehun opens his mouth, as if he has something to say. You wait for him to speak.

“About what I said earlier, at the bar,” Sehun starts off, “I was serious. Just consider it for a while” he tells you. You open your mouth to say something but Sehun stops you. Instead, you sigh and nod.

“Goodnight, Boss,” you bid him, taking his coat off your shoulders to hand it back to him. You see the corner of his lip twitch when you address him. He nods again and turns to walk away. As you close the door, you hear your boss murmuring something to himself, but you don’t catch it.

That night as you lay in bed, you’re ever thankful that your boss gave you the following day off because for the entire night, you're barely able to catch any sleep, your thoughts too occupied with the what ifs involving your boss.

¤

The days and weeks following that night were strange. For you, at least. Your boss had acted completely normal, as if nothing had happened. It made sense, why should he have to dwell on something when you've already stated that you were definitely not doing to be involved with him for as long as you work for him?

Despite that though, you do happen to notice a slightly change in your boss’ actions. Whether they’re accidently or on purpose, and as much as you hate to admit it, it does affect you.

Just this morning, along with a couple other workers, you were on your way to meet a potential client. The meeting was held at their building, rather than Oh Corps. You were following their employee up the staircase towards the meeting room when you tripped on the last step.

Luckily, your boss was quick to catch you, grabbing onto your waist and pulling you against his chest. He’d leaned closer to your ear and whispered a gentle, “careful,” before pulling away slightly. Only, his arm remained on the small of your back as you both resumed to making your way to meet your client.

Annoyed that you had let that happen as you reflect back on the incident, you stop your foot on the ground, the one that had failed to lift up another 2cm, causing you to almost fall flat on your face. Had it not been for your boss, you would have made a complete fool of yourself.

You're about to head off to grab some lunch when your boss calls for you. When you enter his office, he asks if you’ve had lunch yet. When you tell him you were just planning on grabbing some, your boss nods and stands up.

“Let’s go together,” he says.

“Oh… kay,” you agree, slightly confused. Hearing the way you answered, your boss slows down and looks over at you.

“Do you not want to?” he questions.

“No, that’s not it. It’s because I was just planning on going to the stand down the street for a bagel.”

“I don’t mind a bagel,” he answers with a shrug. You tilt your head a little, slightly amused but you agree nonetheless.

“What’s wrong with me having a bagel?” you’re asked.

“It’s just not the image you really project to the public. You seem more… fine wine and dine, you know?” you tell him. You hear a chuckle in response and the both of you head out together. On your way out the front of the building, you pass Baekhyun in the lobby.

“Are you guys going to meet a client?” he asks. Your boss doesn’t answer him and just walks past him. You slow down your pace to turn your head to look at Baekhyun.

“We’re going to grab a bagel” you answer him, your face full of fascination. “Bagel” you mouth once again. Baekhyun’s face contorts into confusion, causing you to chuckle.

Sehun’s already out the door so you have to jog a little in order to catch up to him. However, once you reach him, you find yourself having difficulty keeping up with Sehun’s pace. Walking in 6 inch heels definitely isn’t helping.

After having to jogging to catch up with Sehun’s pace, he then slows down so you’re now able to walk beside him. You can’t help but smile a little, noticing his efforts to seem indifferent about his actions. It suddenly hits you that your boss has most likely been walking at a slower pace whenever he walked with you so that he would match your pace. He probably just forgot to adjust his pace this time, giving his good deed away.

It’s not a long walk to the stand, so you both reach it in no time. Being quite a regular at the place, you’ve long established your ‘regular’ order with the owner. So when you step up to order, the owner recognises you and greets you.

“Ah, my favourite customer!” he exclaims.

“Please, I heard you say that to at least another 2 customers before me,” you scoff.

“Darn, was I too loud?” he jokes.

“Just a little,” you grin. The owner laughs.

“Just the usual today, lovely?” he asks as he starts to prepare your food.

“Actually, I need to order one more,” you tell him quickly. You turn to Sehun, who is still looking at the menu.

“Do you know what to get?” you ask him, gazing at the menu with him.

“There’s more to choose from than I thought,” your boss muses. You agree. The first time you ordered was a bit intimidating as well.

“Why don’t I order something for you?” you suggest. Sehun agrees immediately. So you end up ordering Sehun the same one as yours. You're about to pay when Sehun’s arm extends past you and pays for the food.

“You didn’t have to do that.”

“I’m sure you have a decent idea of how much I make, so I'm sure you know that I can buy out every bagel stand in multiple cities. I can afford to pay for 2 bagels,” he tells you as he takes the food and hands on over to you.

“Alright then, thank you. But next time it’s on me,” you say.

“It’s a date then,” Sehun smirks when you miss your footing and almost trip on air. Once again, with the help of Sehun you’re able to spare yourself from an embarrassing fall in public.

The both of you walk to the nearby central part and take a seat on a bench. You watch Sehun take his first bite, anticipating his reaction.

“It’s good,” he comments. Grinning, you take out your own bagel and start eating. You both eat in silence until Sehun finishes eating first. You tell him to go ahead first, but he refuses and stays besides you, patiently waiting for you to finish eating. When you finish, you apologise for making him wait, but your boss simply shakes his head.

“It was nice spending a little more time outside,” he says, “The company made it even nicer.”

Your mind boggles for a moment, trying to figure out what Sehun meant by the word company, thinking he literally meant Oh Corporations. When you realise he was actually referring to you, you have to look away in an attempt to hide your face, as you feel the heat rising in your cheeks.

“Let’s go back,” you mumble as you stand up and start walking away. You hear Sehun chuckling behind you. He eventually catches up to you and you both walk back to work together.

Upon returning to the office, you find a large bouquet of flowers on your desk. You search through them and around your table to see if there’s a card that came with it.  Baekhyun then appears and greets the both of you.

“Hey, Boss. Hey, gorgeous. It seems like it’s from some guy from your old workplace. Didn’t think you would capture so many hearts, that’s so ruthless of you,” Baekhyun says.

“How did you know it was from a former co-worker?” you frown. Baekhyun holds up a card in his hand, grinning and you quickly snatch it from him to read through it yourself.

“But the guy waits till you leave the place to hit on you? What’s up with that? I know Chanyeol doesn’t have any policies against dating within his company,” Baekhyun frowns a little.

“It’s her own policy to not date anyone in her workplace,” Sehun grumbles as he walks past and into his office.

“Oh, what? So you’ve basically just rejected me before I could even ask, gorgeous?” Baekhyun sulks. He then realises something and whips his head towards the direction of Sehun’s office.

“Wait, Boss, how did you know that?!” he calls out as he follows into Sehun’s office, closing the door behind him.

You look over towards Sehun’s office, remembering that night a few months ago, feeling as if the wounds have opened up again. Looking down at the card again, it is indeed from your former co-worker. You remember working with him for a couple of projects during your time at Park Enterprise. He was handsome, and always passionate whenever he talked about his job and the work he did.

Placing the card down on the table, you pick up the bouquet of flowers to take a better look at them. You’re not much of a person who likes flowers, but you could definitely appreciate the beauty of the ones in front of you. As you place them behind your desk to keep them out of sight, Baekhyun exits Sehun’s office and approaches your desk.

“What are you going to do with the flowers?” he asks you.

“I’m going to bring them home?” you answer him. What else were you supposed to do with them?

“You could leave them here and use them to decorate the office. You know, brighten up the place,” Baekhyun suggests.

“I don’t think Sehun would appreciate me using a bouquet of flowers sent to me, by some random person he doesn’t know might I add, to decorate his office,” you muse. Baekhyun hums in agreement and forward against your table, and closer to you.

“Since when did you start calling Boss by his name?”

That was anticlimatic af. This chapter's also shorter than the others so far, I apologise. I have an assignment due in a couple of hours that I haven't started, and instead wrote this :---) 

I'll make it up in the next chapter. THE ROMANCE SHALL BLOOM SOOOON. I PROMISE. Thanks for reading!