"It's not ing funny," she growls, tightly clenching onto the metal pole to steady herself as she peers back to silence the insistent snickers. At the instant meeting of her fiery glare, the young man immediately bites his lips to cease the audible giggles, though his shoulders proceeds to tremor as he continues to quietly laugh to himself.

She is beyond livid to meet his comical expression, so she settles with scrutinizing the white, steam-pressed fabric on his chest instead, watching it rise and fall with each chuckle. Steam erupts from her ear–he's doing a lousy job of concealing his bunny-toothed grin from her as he holds back. He slowly releases the lock on his lips, where his teeth had sunken is now a deep rose. His unforgivable smile is gleaming white and would smell and taste like peppermint if she was close enough, but her stubborn head was blocking access. Her stubborn, wet head, she reminds herself.

'Goddamn,' she curses as her mind temporarily breaks from Jungkook to deal with another predicament. She reaches up to run her hand through her long, dripping tresses to comb out the tangles, flinching when her fingers would get caught. Unlike most mornings, Joy was off to a rough start. She had woken up late and she barely had time to jump in the shower and before racing out of the house to catch the 8:15 bus. Happy to say, she was now on her way to work, although, her hair is still sopping wet, her face is jarring, and her wardrobe is far from being professionally presentable. 'Definitely ready to be the clown of the meeting,' she mutters underneath her breath, fidgeting with her attire.

"Stop laughing," she hisses, after a while, when enough time had passed for Jungkook to forget and forgo his censorship. The obnoxious snickering had recommenced much to her displeasure. Fed up, she decides to show him no mercy as her elbow manages to find its way to his rib cage, instantly shutting him up with a jab.

He yelps, captivating the attention of neighboring passengers with his groan. He doubles over, clutching his side as if her blow had punctured through like a gunshot wound.

"Are you okay?" Joy hears someone ask while Jungkook buckles over in pain, unaware that his fake was pretending. She rolled her eyes, even if Joy really tried to injure him, the guy was made out of steel, nothing could faze him.

Nursing his affected area, he smiles sheepishly and nods his head, assuring the naive stranger his contentment. She feels him closing in on her, his hot breath hitting the back of her neck as he takes the opportunity to lean on her for support. Quickly, she shrugs him off, turning around to shoot him a dirty glare and catching an arrogant smirk in return.

Just as she had expected, he was ing with her and feeding off of her frustration. The more she pushed, the harder he pulled; Jungkook was terribly ecstatic in making her morning a living hell. After a couple minutes passed of their staredown, with Jungkook wearing the most ridiculous and hysterical expression just to drive her absolute bat crazy, Joy is seriously considering whether or not to murder the man on the spot.

Around the mutual passengers sharing the morning public transit were beginning to sense her apparent distress, glancing up from their laps to curiously analyze her uneasy state of being. Feeling their eyes, she spins around to face forward again in attempt to calm herself down.

The plan was that maybe if she ignored him and his annoying , he would eventually stop bothering her and she would be able to relax. However, that idea quickly blew over when, behind her, Jungkook grew more mischievous.

"Babe–" He slowly begins to snake his arm around her waist to which she immediately reacts and swats his wandering hand away.

"Oh, don't you dare 'babe' me. Won't you quit it already?" She was growing weary of the aggressive reprimands as they were clearly having no effect against Jungkook's insufferable elations. He was completely unfazed by her rejections, grinning like the Cheshire Cat. He was beaming with pride and it was getting to a point where Joy knew she wasn't going to win this battle. It was inevitable, considering Jungkook was equally as hard-headed as she was and unwilling to let her negativity affect him. He wasn't going to let this go, not even if she were to explode right in front of him.

He settles with hanging onto the strap from her handbag when she wiggles her body away to evade him. "Oh, come on. Don't be like that. You're really going to be grouchy all morning? Babe, calm—"

"—you better not be telling me to calm down, Jeon Jungkook, because I am not going to calm down. Because of you, I'm nearly half an hour late for work. Stop laughing, it's not funny! I had no time to do anything this morning. I barely had time to shower, my hair is still dripping wet—"

"Well, at least you got your coffee—"

"—because you already had a pot brewed from your own! I am standing on the public bus with slippers for god sakes!" She grits through her teeth in a low grave tone just as the bus rolls to a dramatic halt. "Thank god, we're here."

It screeches as it pulls over to the curb and the doors swing open to reveal the sleek grandeur entrance to their sixty-two story office complex. Joy's heart nearly jumps from her chest upon their arrival, the apprehension of being tardy had been quietly gnawing at her for the last ten minutes. She immediately leaps from the bus and shoots towards the rotating doors, dragging her house slippers across the cement pavement as she goes. Jungkook follows suit, closely behind her, although he's fully dressed and properly adorned in his business suit with black dress shoes.

She uses her shoulder—her busy hands occupied with her pair of strappy heels, handbag, and paperwork—to push past the doors, entering the building, paying no attention that she nearly squashes Jungkook with the revolving doors as she jets through the entryway.

"You know, you're already half an hour late. What's another five minutes going to matter?" Jungkook calls out from behind her and if the elevator doors weren't about to close Joy would've taken the opportunity to shoot back something snarky. But she was too preoccupied with saving her breaths as she sprints across the lobby to catch the lift to say anything.

Upon safely arriving the vacant elevator, Joy nearly collapses onto the floor if it wasn't for Jungkook there to steady her as they begin their ascension. He jams his finger on the '31' button before offering his hand out as a signal to Joy to hand over her belongings.

"Don't think that being nice to me will get you off the hook. I'm still going to light your on fire," she mutters, starts slipping on her heels.

Jungkook scoffs and rolls his eyes. "Please, you're really going to demonize me? Forgive me for wanting to hold you in bed for a little bit longer this morning."

"Okay, 'a little bit longer' is not the same thing as 'shutting off all my alarms and sleeping in an extra hour,' Jungkook." Her eyes narrow. "I'm never late and out of all days too! It had to be today? The biggest conference meeting of the quarter is today and it's my first time attending. It starts in twenty minutes but with all the things that I have to play catch up for being late this morning, I won't have time to prep for it."

Jungkook snorts. "Woman, you've been preparing for this conference for the past month. You've run through that damn presentation at least a hundred times within the last three days. You're going to be fine."

"Jung–"

"No, no, no," he shakes his head, cutting her off. "Now don't you 'Jungkook' me. I knew you were stressing about it last night and you stayed up really late because of it. That's why I turned off all your alarms. I couldn't let you go losing sleep because of this stupid conference and I figured today, out of all days, you needed all the energy that you could get."

Joy freezes, her expression softens as his words sinks in. Seeing her walls coming down, he emits another radiating smile with the tilt of his head. Instantly, that plucks a heartstring and her heart begins to flutter inside her chest.

"I know sales have been rough and it's been especially pressing for the finance department to get back on its track. And I know that you're trying your hardest to get promoted for that open position, but babe, you gotta take care of yourself. Look at you," he raises his free hand to caress her sunken cheeks. "You're skipping meals, losing sleep, and getting sick. It kills me seeing you beat yourself up like this."

He drops his hand, allowing his thumb to gracefully shift from her cheeks to outline her jawline as he presses the rest of his hand against the nape of her neck, hidden behind her wet locks.

"You and I both know that you got this under your belt but that meticulous side of you, who wants everything to be perfect, is driving you more nuts that I will ever. You're going to do great, you always have and you always will."

Joy doesn't say anything, her teeth digging into her bottom lip as if to prevent her from responding. She was probably thinking of how to apologize from having spoken and getting cross too soon. Jungkook could detect the nervousness and hint of humiliation from her impending silence, softly chuckling when he could see peeking through strands of hair, her ears had flushed scarlet.

He quickly leans over and presses his freshly wet lips against hers, causing a loud smacking sound to resonate throughout the elevator.

She immediately cringes upon feeling his moist lips and attempts to push him away, causing Jungkook to briefly break away and burst out laughing before reeling her in for another proper kiss. Despite her tensed body, her lips had soften and relaxen for the second kiss, tasting his peppermint breath and accepting his display of affection this time. The kiss is almost as fleeting as the first when Jungkook pulls away, but only because time always seemed to stopped whenever he would hold her in his arms.

As he steps backs to fully admire her, guilt washes over her and her carob orbs immediately drop to the ground. "I'm sorry for being mean this morning," she softly murmurs, pouting.

"Don't worry, you don't need to apologize." Jungkook smiles as he graces her with another chaste peck on the forehead. "I forgive you for being a little grouchy this morning," noticing her shoulders finally loosening as the burden drops. He snatches the slippers from her hand and shoves it into her handbag before returning the bag and her paperwork back over to her.

"Here, take your things." He says, handing back her items.

"Wait, I'm not done putting on my shoe, give me a sec."

Jungkook sighs, shoving her belongings back to her, "I'll do it, here. Just take your things." Bending on one knee, he finishes strapping the heel that she had neglected to secure. As he does, Joy can't help herself and run her hand through his dark locks. "Uh, ma'am, could you not? You're messing up my 'it-took-an-extra-five-goddamn-minutes-to-do' do."

"No," she huffs, grinning while continuing to run her fingers through his soft tresses. "If I'm showing up to work looking like a mess, you're going to too."

Jungkook grunts. "Revenge is sweet, huh? But you don't ever look like a mess. You're always smokin', so quit it."

She rolls her eyes, continuing to ruffle his hair until he intentionally moves his head away.

"You are evil," he declares, glaring up at her while attempting to salvage his hair.

"What did you expect?" Joy laughs, "That you'll get away scot-free for making me late this morning?"

"Fine, I'll forgive you. But only because you're cute."

She snorts, "What?"

"I said, I'll forgive you only because you're so ing adorable that I can't ever stay mad at you," Jungkook gushes, rising onto his feet again. Joy rolls her eyes, looking at him in disbelief.

"You're so over the top, I can't even with you."

"What? You are! You're just mad that your revenge fell through. God, you're so ing adorable right now I don't even know what to do with you! But believe it or not, you're even cuter when you're sleeping."

"Oh my god, Jungkook–"

"No, honest. It broke my heart when I finally had to wake you up this morning," he feigns agony and  dramatically clutches his chest. "I swear, having your shift start at 7:30 is so unfair. You should file a complaint, or sue."

She cracks a smile, "Not fair for you or for me? Because yes, rising at the crack of dawn should be a crime but I don't think that's what you meant."

"There's not enough hours in the day for me to watch you sleep!" Jungkook exasperates, "Look! Look at your pouty face when you sleep, it's so–"

"You took picture of me sleeping?" She shrieks, utterly horrified when Jungkook decides to whip out his phone to exhibit his flooded camera roll. "How many did you take?! Jungkook! Delete those! Oh my god, is that drool? Am I drooling in that one?"

"Yup, that's the golden one. So cute," he sighs, completely lovestruck, as he regrettably locks his phone before Joy could get ahold of it. The screen instantly fades to black and there's nothing to view besides his reflection.

"Delete those!" Her cry pulls him out his daze. Grinning like he's mad, he snatches his phone away and slides it into his pocket, out of her reach. "JUNGKOOK!"

"Never," he defies, cackling as he fends her off. "These precious babies are staying with me forever."

"I swear, if you ever post those anywhere, I will murder you. I'm not kidding." Joy threatens. "My god, were those from today? You let me sleep in so you could take pictures of me, didn't you?"

"Maybe, maybe not," Jungkook answers, rather exuberantly. His eyes begin to twinkle like a little kid on Christmas day, "I mean, I let you sleep in because I was worried about you, remember?"

"Bull!"

"Aw, you're so cute when you're all mad like this, but your accusation lacks substantial evidence." Jungkook quickly defends. "And as much as I would like to stay here and let you figure this all out," he pauses and glances over at the screen on the wall. The ascending crimson numbers slowly come to a halt and doors burst open, welcoming them into the corporate kingdom.

"I've got to get to work," he says, flashing a mischievous smile. "Don't want to be late, unlike somebody." She shoots him another dirty look.

The pair leave the elevator, with Jungkook making his way down the hall, past a maze of cubicles and printers, and Joy scurrying behind him. He chuckles, hearing her heels click against the tile floors as she marches in his footsteps. They blend in with the low humming of the copying machines and clacking of keyboards, distant conversations and ringing telephones.

"Um, ma'am, I think you missed your stop," he smirks, veering left into an empty corridor leading to his private office. "In case you've forgotten, your desk is the other way."

She scoffs. "Don't worry, I have no interest in creeping on other people like you, Jungkook." Joy responds, reaching out to grab ahold of his hand in order to catch up and match his pace.

"The meeting is going to be held in the conference hall in the north wing so I'm going to dump my things in your office and pick them up later."

"What? Since when is my office a dumpster for your things?"

"Since you decided to make me late this morning. You're ready for me to leave, aren't you? Don't think that we're done talking about this because we most definitely are not.  You are not getting away with any of this. Not only did you shut off my alarms, you did it on purpose so you could take pictures and creep on me. What kind of person does that? Is this some kind of weird ? Should I not let you come over anymore? Because you have no right–"

"Fine, fine, fine, fine," he concedes, interrupting her. They stop in front of Jungkook's office, the glass wall exhibits a dark and empty room waiting for its owner to return from the night. He takes a deep breath, as if he's exhausted but the curl of his lips says otherwise.

"I get it, I get it, okay? How about I take you out for lunch to make this up? Sounds good?" He suggests, she frowns. "Just imagine the biggest, juiciest, most fattening and unhealthy cheeseburger in existence and eating it. Think about it, it's the best way to destress after this morning. You, me, at Jenny's, one o'clock. Lunch date. My treat."

She huffs out of frustration, unable to meet his awaiting gaze, and Jungkook cracks the widest smile because he knows he's got her stumped. It was a proposition that he knew she couldn't pass up, not when the best cheeseburger in town was on the table.

Joy finally gathers the nerve to face him and after clearing she declares, "That will be one o'clock sharp and that will mean you'll already have a cab at hand by the time I make it to the street."

Jungkook snorts, turning around to unlock the door. Within seconds, the dark room is illuminated with a vanilla glow, exposing his sleek, high-end, modern office. "Alright, anything else, your majesty?"

Entering the room, Jungkook throws his briefcase onto his desk, while, Joy dumps her excess belonging onto the obsidian sofa. Tongue in cheek, she takes a moment to sulk but eventually shakes her head. "No, not for now. But you better be ready, that's one o'clock sharp. Screw this up, Jeon, and it will be the end to your sleepover days."

She slowly lifts her gaze, allowing for the words to sink in and for him to absorb the severity of her threat. Patiently, she waits for the moment when fear flashes in his eyes.  It comes a heartbeat later, causing her to drop her scowl and abruptly break out into a wide, open grin, throwing Jungkook even more off guard.

"W-wha–" He stutters, his face completely pale. But before he could continue, she marches on over to him.

"Well, have a nice day at work, babe." She smiles, reaching up to fix a stray piece of hair before dropping down to give his cheek a quick pinch. "God, you're so cute when you're scared. Huh, I should learn to take a picture next time, shouldn't I?"

"No, don't tell me that you're ing with me. Babe, you know you can't do that. Seriously, sleepovers are a highly-sensitive topic. You know you can't just joke around like that!"

"ed and ed. Don't overwork yourself, creeper." She shrugs nonchalantly, ignoring his complaint and sliding her hand down his chest, gently pushing him away. "I'll be looking forward to this lunch date so we can discuss about your current sleeping arrangements–"

"–you mean, talk about how totally rocked this presentation, right? Fan-ing-tastic. Glad that we're on the same page here. Hell, I'll even treat you to a foot massage later tonight once we get back to your apartment." Jungkook saves, pressing one last peck against her lips before spinning her around and leading her towards the door. "Now run along, don't want you to be late for your first meeting! Good luck!"

Joy chuckles as she stumbles off, "One o'clock, Jeon! That cab better be parked at the curb!"

"Yes, ma'am!" He salutes.

"Alright," she waves with one last smile before disappearing down the hall. "I'll see you at one with the latest. Love you."

"Love you too."