Lee Dong Wook hated mornings. He hated waking up early even more. But he sometimes did. For no particular reason. Not because of nightmares. Hell, he even woke up before the alarm clock could go off some mornings. And when he was awake, he had to start getting ready for work. He didn’t have to go to work early. He rarely did, actually. But if he was already up, however earlier than he would like just like this morning, he had no reasons to laze around at home. Might as well get to work and see who else turned up early.

Lee Dong Wook, 29 years old, was a man of principles, responsibilities and routines. He hated doing things out of routines. Because whenever he did, troubles ensued. It wasn’t like bad things happened all the time, but they happened enough times to wear him out. Waking up early was out of routine. And so was going into the office early. Still he decided it was better than to spend his waking hours in his huge house alone.

So he was grumpy throughout the whole drive to work. Even the fact that the traffic was clear because he left home before the rush hour didn’t help improve his moods. The light was green, but he didn’t feel the rush to speed up before it turned red. It was a slow morning, anyway, so just let it be. Several meters away he noticed someone practically dancing by the traffic lights, desperately trying to get a better hold of whatever there were in their arms. Guess others have their bad morning, too.

Ding!

The notification sound got his attention. But what felt like one second that he took his eyes off the road to read the preview message on the screen was a great mistake. The moment he looked up was a moment too late. The person was clearly tripping onto the road in front of his car, and he was too close to hit the brake soon enough.

Dong Wook hurriedly got out of his car to find a woman lying on the road. She seemed to be half-conscious, so he picked her up and asked if she was ok, although he could tell by the look of it that she wasn’t. The crowd was gathering when the woman slowly opened her eyes, and upon seeing his worried face, she apologized to him before losing consciousness for real.

“I’m sorry?” Dong Wook murmured incredulously to himself as he drove the unconscious woman to the hospital. She might be the one falling in front of his car, but as a driver he had no business taking his eyes off the road. Clearly it was his fault. Driving at his speed, any capable driver would have been able to avoid the accident if they looked where they were driving. He sighed and thanked goodness he was driving slowly at that time.

…………………………..

“Are you with Ms. Go Ha In here, sir?” By the time they reached the hospital, she regained enough consciousness to tell them her name.

“Yes, I am. Is she hurt anywhere seriously?”

“Well, she has scrapes and cuts here and there, a sprained ankle and a few stitches on her forehead. She also seems to be running a cold fever, and we’ve given her some medicine for that too.”

“Thank you, doctor.”

“Umm, can I go home?” The woman, Go Ha In, who looked more sick from her fever than from the accident weakly asked the doctor.

“You can, but it’s advisable to stay in the hospital a little longer, miss.”

“But I hate the smell of the hospital.” Dong Wook couldn’t believe a grown-up just flat out said that without reserve.

“Well, if you insist.”

“Please, wait here. I’ll go take care of the payment.”

Done with the bills, Dong Wook took out his phone to call his office.

“Yes, boss?” A lazy voice answered as soon as his call was connected

“Sung Jae-ah. I’m gonna come in late today.”

“Don’t you always?”

“Ya!! For your info, I was going to get there early today.”

Turning around, a woman was bowing to him and muttering something he couldn’t hear properly. Still on the phone, and not paying attention, he bowed back, and she slowly limped away.

“Come on, Hyung. Nobody here wants to see you in the early morning. Your morning face is too grumpy to deal with. Take your time. I’m getting back to work. See ya.”

“Ya!!” He chuckled despite being hung up on. He figured he was too lenient with his employees these days, and that he should teach them a lesson some time.

Wait! That woman!

He sighed and as he started running to catch up with Go Ha In, he could already tell that this was gonna be a long day.

“Where do you think you’re going? I told you to wait, didn’t I?”

“I’m going home. I already apologized and thanked you. You’re free to go now.”

“What do you mean free to go? You can barely walk. Can you actually get anywhere on your own?”

“Don’t worry about it. My sprained ankle is not your doing. It was cuz I lost balance of my footing.”

“Still, no offense, but you look like you’re gonna walk into another accident.” Ha In couldn’t refute to that because that was very likely to happen, and that amazed Dong Wook greatly. For real? He tho