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9:00am

 

'Oh .'

 

Kim Taerin cursed inside her head. She had a very long day at the office yesterday, with all the paperwork, meetings and stuff and only had gone home at 9.30pm. She went straight to bed when she entered her apartment. She did not even realized she slept with her office attire. She quickly pulled away the earphones and neatly winding it up together with her mp3 player before dashing into the bathroom for a quick shower. Thankfully, she already had ironed all her office wear on the weekend so she would not have to prepare in the morning before she went to work.

 

Without having, at least, a piece of bread, she bolted towards the door and went to work.

 

10:30am

 

As she stepped out of her manager, Kim Joonmyeon's office, Taerin felt another burden on her shoulder.

 

"You're not going home until you finished all these reports."

 

She sighed.

 

'It's gonna be another long day...'

 

Before she reached her work cubicle, her stomach growled, asking to be fed. She looked around to see if anyone heard the grumbling. Fortunately, everyone is focusing on their share of workload instead of hearing the embarrassment. She grabbed her purse from her handbag once she was at her table and went downstairs to have some bread.

 

10:45am

 

"Uhh... Are you okay, Tae?"

 

Taerin looked up from her PC screen and turned to her left. She saw a glimpse of worry from her desk neighbour aka her best friend, Sky Lee, eyes.

 

"Yeah, I'm fine. Why?"

"I had metalcore songs playing on loop with my earphones on and I still can hear your stomach literally growling. Don't you eat your breakfast?"

 

Taerin told her about her waking up late, heading out of her house without any food, being stuck at a stupid traffic jam for an hour and getting a 15 minutes lecture on time management from their manager.

 

"And when I was at the cafe, most of the food were gone. Another batch of bread won't be done for another 15 minutes, so I just left."

"Why didn't you tell me?"

 

Taerin just shrugged. Sky shook her head while murmuring about 'being a bad best friend' while rummaging her secret food supply box and pulled out a pie.

 

"Chanyeol decided to have a baking frenzy this morning and gave me a dozen of chicken pie."

 

Taerin felt like giving her best friend a big huge bear hug. She thanked Sky profusely and promised to treat her lunch. The latter just pushed her back to her cubicle and told her to eat because 'I'm not carrying you bridal style if you faint or something'. Taerin just playfully threw a ball of wastepaper towards her before thanking her again for the pie.

 

1:03pm

 

"It's lunchtime."

"I know."

"Lunchtime means chill and eat."

"I know."

"So why are you still typing?"

"If it's not by 2, Joonma will ing kill me."

"He should have done it himself."

"I'm already halfway. I'll get my lunch when I'm done with this okay? Pinky promise."

 

Sky just rolled her eyes before mumbling a 'fine' before walking out of their workstation. Taerin, on the other hand, still worked diligently on the slides for the surprise 2.30pm meeting with their client. This is for one of the project she took part in as the accountant, therefore she has to prepare the slides.

 

1:30pm

 

"Here are the slides you asked for."

 

Her manager just grunted a 'hm' without even looking away from whatever this moron reading or watching from his laptop. Probably another video of his favourite artist, Kris. Taerin was just about to exit when her manager stopped her tracks.

 

"Sit. I trust you with the slides. But I want this to be perfect. If there are any mistakes, you can correct it straightaway."

 

Right.

 

How can she forget?

 

This is Kim Joonmyeon.

 

The forever meticulous (read: ing fussy) Kim Joonmyeon.

 

2:15pm

 

"You can't make it tonight?"

"I'm sorry, mum. Audit Day is almost here, so I have a lot of work to do."

"It's been awhile since I met my daughter..."

"I'm sorry, mum..."

"It's okay, sweetheart. You just come home when you're free okay? Dad and I will wait for you with open arms."

"Thank you, mum." Taerin smiled even though she knew her mum would not see it. "How are you? Is Dad okay?"

"Same old, Tae. Some old." Taerin could hear her soft laugh. "How are you?"

"I'm good, mum. Just a little tired."

"No. I mean, how are you?"

"I don't see any difference with your question, mum." She chuckled dryly, even when she knew what exactly her mum meant.

"How are you...coping?"

"Oh. I'm good." Taerin felt like choking. "I gotta go, mum. The meeting is about to start. Talk to you later. I love you."

 

Taerin cut off the call without hearing her mum's reply.

 

6:03pm

 

Taerin slowly munched her second chicken pie. She refused to accept the offer but Sky, being a stubborn brat, placed the box in front of her and forced her to finish the rest of the pies. She felt guilty for eating what Sky's boyfriend baked for Sky but she was the one who had two-third of the pies.

 

"One more sorry from you and I'm going to hate you for the rest of your life."

 

Taerin just nodded and slowly grabbed the box from Sky's hand before the latter punched out. She was getting dizzy from reading the full-with-errors reports. Therefore, she decided to take a break and eat the pie.

 

'Sky is so lucky for having someone by her side.'

 

Taerin tried hard to kill the green monster inside her, feeling stupid for being jealous over her best friend and replaced it with feeling thankful instead.

 

She looked to her right and saw the mountains of files.

 

She sighed.

 

9:00pm

 

Taerin turned the doorknob before slowly entering her apartment.

 

Pain.

 

That was what she felt right now.

 

Pain.

 

All over her body.

 

Her feet felt like crushing when she opened her ballerina flats.

 

Her knees felt like cracking when she bent her knees while sitting down.

 

Her back felt like snapping when she lay down on her bed.

 

She felt so tired.

 

So tired.

 

It has been a long day.

 

She turned to the side table and reached for her mp3. She unwrapped the earphone wires before plucking one of the buds into her ear. She pressed play.

 

'Hey there Taerin. How's my baby doing? Had a long day? My poor, poor baby. Have a good rest okay? You did a good job today. I'm very proud of you, Tae. I wish I could hug you now, wifey. Gosh, I can't believe we're married but we have to live far away from one another. I wanna go home so bad. Too bad I can't. The country needs me. Seoul needs me. Okay, so I had an excellent team with me. But whatever. I still want to go home. To hug you. To kiss you. To be with you all the time. I love you, baby. Thank you for being there for me. Thank you for accepting me. Thank you for staying, even when I'm not there. You've worked hard today, my love. This is for you, baby.'

 

Hold out your hand, wrap it around my neck

 

Taerin wrapped her hands around the pillows beside her. It was his pillow.

 

"Even the pillows still held your scent, Jongdae." She chuckled a little.

 

Because even though we've been in different worlds all day

We always end the day together

 

"I'm sorry I missed your one-year anniversary, baby," she mumbled to the pillow.

 

"Mrs. Kim Taerin?"

"Yes, that's me. Who is this?"

"I'm Captain Lee Jongsuk from Seoul Metropolitan Fire and Disaster team."

"Yes?"

"I'm afraid I have a bad news for you."

 

Your small shoulders, your small hands

Become my cozy blanket at the end of a tiring day

 

"I miss hugging you, Dae." She slowly whispered to the Jongdae-scented pillow.

 

You did a good job today, you worked so hard

I hope my shoulders and my thick hands

Will become cozy comfort for the end of your tiring day as well

 

"I miss your hugs, Dae." She sobbed.

 

I wanna warmly hold you without any space left

 

"I wanna hold you one last time, Dae. One minute is enough for me. Just... Just one minute..."

 

At the end of my day, filled with awkward mistakes

You, my prize, are waiting for me

 

"I want to see you at our couch, surprising me with your homecoming."

 

Like a child, I can whine and then laugh till I run out of breath

 

"I give anything to hear you whine one more time, Dae."

 

You did a good job today, you worked so hard

 

"You did a good job too, baby." Taerin sobbed. "You worked so hard, until your final breath."

 

'I love you, Kim Taerin!'

 

Taerin laughed at Jongdae's melodic voice, telling her how he loved her.

 

"I love you too, my unsung hero..."

 

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