Just in case, since I just updated a chapter last night, do read the previous chapter if you haven't :)

Working for a director like Suzy was hard enough. Being her personal assistant was twice as hard.

Hyejung sighed plopping down on her seat behind her desk when Suzy had entered her office with Lay trailing behind her after a long meeting. She knew Lay was Suzy's bodyguard, but she didn't initially think the cold director would let the guy stick to her side like a gum. 

It was surprising to see her trusting someone this much. And in such a short time! Hyejung wondered if it was because Lay was such a polite person. It couldn't be that though. She had shown her best behavior, yet it took Suzy two months to rely on her. 

Hyejung buried her face in her hands as she took a deep breath.

In any case, she hoped Lay's presence wouldn't be in her way to gain Suzy's trust. She needed it to stay in the job. 

"Ms. Kim?"

The voice of the CEO startled her; she immediately jumped to her feet. "Y-yes, Chairman?" She kept her head low in respect.

"Hyejung?" Another voice called her name with a bewildered tone.

She looked up as her heart lurched forward recognizing the voice. Her eyes were immediately rounded upon seeing Chanyeol. 

"You know each other?" CEO Bae asked in surprise before she could even say anything.

Her heart suddenly picked up its pace.

"We-we're college friends, Father," Chanyeol answered in her stead as he smiled to his father-in-law.

Father? Hyejung blinked surprised.

"Ah, is that so?" The CEO chuckled. "Good." He turned to Hyejung again. "Then, Ms. Kim, please help my son-in-law if he need to know Suzy's schedule. Chanyeol will soon be our company's president anyway."

Son-in-law? "Yes, sir." She nodded avoiding Chanyeol's gaze which suddenly felt heavy on her. Her mind was overwhelmed with the new revelation.

How could she not know that her boss' husband was her own past? And he was going to be working here in the same building as hers? She wished this was a dream. 

"No one is going to have to tell anyone of my schedule." Suzy interrupted exiting her office with a frown. Hyejung held her breath when Suzy turned to look at her. "I'm going out for lunch."

"Yes, ma'am." Hyejung quickly nodded and gathered her things afterwards.

"You don't have to come," Suzy stopped her.

Hyejung's eyes rounded. Suzy would always take her if she was eating out. So, why not now? She couldn't have possibly heard the earlier conversation, could she? Did she hear that Chanyeol and I were college friends? Her heart race with nervousness at the thoughts.

"Then, let's have lunch together," Suzy's father suggested. A suggestion obviously Suzy wasn't fond of, judging by the scowl on her face.

Suzy's eyes fleeted to her husband. "Don't you still have to parade my dear husband around, Father?" She stared back at her father. "It's important to let the employees know of the stranger who will become their President." Her statement received an amused scoff from her father.

"Su-" Chanyeol spoke up but stopped himself when Suzy gave him a cold glance.

"I'll take Lay with me. Let's go." She walked past her father and husband with Lay following behind her bowing to the CEO.

Once Suzy and Lay were out of sight, the CEO scoffed loudly then dryly chuckled. "That impudent daughter!" Hyejung flinched at the tone while he turned to Chanyeol. "Was that the friend you told me about?"

Chanyeol raised his brows. "Lay? Yes, Father." He nodded once.

"You trust him?"

"With my life."

The CEO surprisingly gave a small smile while nodding. "That's good enough. Let's go now. I do need to... parade you around- as my daughter had put." Before walking away, he glanced at Hyejung who immediately bobbed her head. "Don't mind my daughter, Ms.Kim. Do tell Chanyeol of her schedule every now and then."

Hyejung hesitantly nodded. The CEO walked away first while Chanyeol paused in his steps and briefly turned to her.

"I'll text you," he quickly told her before following his father-in-law.

They definitely had not reconciled, Yixing observed.

"Sit down," Suzy told him who kept on standing beside her seated self. Yixing only blinked down at her. She sighed clicking her tongue before looking up at him. "I know you're my bodyguard, but people will stare at me if you stay standing like this. And I hate having people staring at me. So. Sit. Down." She gritted her teeth and pointed at the empty chair across her. "Order something too."

Yixing smiled and nodded earning a roll of her eyes. It's a habit of hers that he had somehow gotten used to. In fact, he found it cute. He thought of it as a little gap in her strong wall of emotional barrier. It was a proof that she was very much a human. Not some cold robot. No matter how cold she was, she was capable of showing a little emotion. Though it was just that of an annoyance. Suzy was good in keeping her emotions hidden- or rather running away from them, but she could never hide it when she was annoyed.

Yixing was sure that behind the barrier lay her deepest emotions. Anger towards Chanyeol was probably one of them.

"You guys are still fighting, aren't you?" He finally asked after their ordered foods arrived.

Suzy didn't look up as she spoon her soup. She seemed to be holding back a groan, but answered him anyway, "We never really talk in the first place." She shrugged. "So we're not fighting. What is there to fight anyway?"

Despite her words, the grip on her spoon tightened for a brief moment. Yixing noticed. "You're jealous of whoever girl Chanyeol's been with these past few days," he stated.

Her eyes snapped up to him and her lips curled into a smug smirk. "Fat chance! Whatever made you come to that conclusion?"

Yixing shrugged with a smile. "You're his wife. My idiot friend has been coming home late- possibly from clubbing. Why wouldn't you?"

The roll of her eyes made an appearance again. "How shallow of you to think that way. He can play around with whichever he wants, and I won't even mind. I have better things to think about." She went back to eating. "I agree that he's an idiot though," she mumbled.

Thinking. She always did that more than feeling. But it was obvious that Chanyeol's recent behavior had been bothering her. Yixing contemplated on confronting his friend later as he silently watched her eat. She tried to hide it and everyone else might have been fooled, but by watching her work every day, he knew she was actually haggard.

After a while, Yixing noticed her fingers clenching her spoon tighter again. He couldn't imagine just how much anger towards Chanyeol she had been hiding. Then, a realization that it wasn't anger but pain she was currently feeling dawned on him when he saw her hand trembled and the other one clenched her chest.

"Are you okay?" His heartbeat raced and he frowned.

She didn't answer right away when she momentarily closed her eyes, making him even more uneasy with every passing second of silence. "I-" She struggled to talk and Yixing immediately went to her side. 

"What is it?" He knelt down beside her trying to read her expression. "Your medicine. Where's your-" She raised a hand to stop him.

"I-" She stood up pushing her chair back. "I need to go to the restroom."

He scrambled to his feet. "Wait." 

She ignored him and staggered taking a step. "Just stay here!" She ordered and glared at him. Finding her balance, she strode toward the restroom.

Despite his gut feeling, Yixing obeyed and sit back down with a defeated sigh. He knew better than to push himself on her. Still not wanting to risk her safety though, he told himself to follow her if she took too long. Yet after only a little more than two minutes, he couldn't ignore the growing uneasiness inside of him. He left the table to follow her and arrived in front of the door to the ladies' restroom just when Suzy came out of it looking pale.

"...Lay-" She couldn't even finished her sentence when she suddenly lost strength.

Yixing luckily caught her just before she fell. His eyes briefly locked with her hooded ones before hers dropped to a close and she passed out in his arms. 

 

Bright light struck her sight when her eyes fluttered open. Curtains were on both sides of the bed. Her mind was in a haze, but Suzy knew well where she was. And she immediately hated herself.

"You're awake," came Lay's voice. "I'll call the doctor."

Once the doctor came with the nurse and checked her, the nurse dismissed herself to get Suzy a drink while the doctor stayed behind.

"You're lucky you weren't far from here."

Suzy's tired eyes glanced sideways toward the doctor. She already knew who the owner of the voice was before her gaze landed on his name tag.

dr. Kim Junmyeon

She rolled her eyes then closed them. "With you being here, I'm not so sure if I were lucky," she mumbled.

Dr. Kim frowned crossing his arms. "I've told you you need to be treated properly. I need you checked again."

Even in her state, Suzy managed to let out a soft scoff. "No. And let's not fantasize about barely-existing treatment," she weakly retorted.

"I'm sorry," Lay interrupted, "but what is she suffering from?"

Junmyeon paused and briefly turned to him before looking back at his patient. "Your husband?"

Suzy opened her eyes meeting her gaze with Lay's. "No." She diverted her gaze to her doctor. "He's my bodyguard."

"Oh." Junmyeon cleared his throat and turned to Lay again. "Then, I can't tell you-"

"It's okay," Suzy spoke up under her breath surprising Junmyeon. "I know I told you not to tell anyone. But you can tell him." The doctor blinked at her. "I trust him," she added before closing her eyes again.

The nurse came back and settled a glass of water on top of the bedside table.

Junmyeon cleared his throat again. "Well, then. Can you follow me?"

Suzy heard their leaving footsteps and slowly opened her eyes again staring at the curtain beside her bed in the ER. The nurse who was still there softly giggled.

"Your husband is very manly. And he must love you so much! He came in carrying you in his arms and demanded immediate attention. He tried not to show it, but it was very obvious he was panicked and worried. He didn't even left your side for once!" The nurse giggled again while offering the glass of water to her.

Suzy held back a groan as she tore her gaze off the curtain and settled it on the nurse. She tried to get up and drink before she revealed, "He's not my husband."

Surprised, the nurse's eyes widened then she awkwardly apologized and excused herself afterwards. Suzy lightly shook her head and let out a content sigh for finally being left alone. Staring up the white ceiling, she thought of her own earlier words. She hoped she didn't make a mistake for trusting Lay.

Myocarditis. That was what dr. Kim told him. In short, it was the condition of a swelling heart. Apparently, Suzy suffered from it two years ago and it got better on its own. But turned out, the disease can recur. Being informed that stress might be the cause of recurrence, Yixing agreed to the the doctor's suggestion that she should stay at least a day or two in the hospital. However, being herself, Suzy adamantly refused and halfheartedly promised Junmyeon she wouldn't skip her medication. Yixing had no choice but to follow and drive her home.

"Staying in the hospital wouldn't do me any good," Suzy told him even though he didn't ask. She leaned her head on the headrest closing her eyes. "How long was I out?"

"About two hours," Yixing answered. "I called Hyejung." Suzy's eyes snapped open at that and she glanced at him. "Don't worry." He turned the steering wheel. "I didn't tell her what happened. I just told her something came up, the traffic is heavy, and you wouldn't be coming back to the office. I told her she can go home early too."

"Good." Suzy averted her gaze to the window. 

Yixing briefly glanced at her from the corner of his eyes. He couldn't forget that she said she trusted him. Even though she had been letting him stay by her side, hearing her actually say she trusted him was like finding a treasure. But it worried him that Chanyeol didn't even know of her health.

"Don't tell Chanyeol," eyes still not leaving the window, she told him after a long silence. "I don't want him to know."

"...Why?"

"You may think I don't want him to worry, but it's not that." Slowly she turned to him; tiredness written on her expression. "He's an enemy."

Yixing frowned.

"You think I'm worried of my marriage with him," she stated instead of asked. "You're very wrong. I'm worried he will destroy me," she revealed. "I need to destroy him first-" She suddenly chuckled dryly, Yixing snapped his head to her. "What am I saying! He already did take away what supposed to be mine."

Yixing frowned even more. "Whatever it is that's supposed to be yours, he wouldn't do such thing. And even if he's been such an idiot these past few day, I know that he loves you."

Shaking her head, Suzy bitterly chuckled again. "That may be right, but I don't care about that. He took away my chance of being the President. Wait, no. My father did. Chanyeol-" she sighed "-was just used by my father. Just a pawn of my father. But I still need to get rid of him." Bitterness coated her words as she blankly looked ahead. 

Yixing didn't completely understand what she was saying, but at least now he knew of her ambition. An ambition born of bitterness. Yet with all those bitterness she seemed to harbor, oddly Suzy didn't say she hated Chanyeol. 

"He's still not the President yet, you know?"

"Not until the start of next week," she ruefully reminded.

"There must be a way-"

"Why are you saying this?" Whipping her head toward him, Suzy cut him off sounding annoyed. Yixing was still taken aback by the question when she continued, "Even if there's a way, it's not like you will go against your best friend and help me, is it?"

He could see her rolling her eyes from his peripheral view before silence befell over them again. Her question somehow stumped him. What was he trying to do with saying those? To instill hope that might not even be there? He had not even completely understood her situation. She was right. It wasn't like he would go against Chanyeol.

He did want to help her nonetheless. Every human needs a hand of help at some point in life. Even more so someone like Suzy.

"You're right," he finally spoke up breaking the silence. "I won't go against Chanyeol." He heard a soft scoff from her and smiled. "I can help you still." He turned to her who furrowed her brows at him. "I'll help you help yourself."

I'm back! Sorry for updating only now. But I'll be updating more often from now on. Thank you for being such patient readers!