He was dozing off — slowly, but definitely. The countless cups of caffeine he had inhaled hadn't seemed to be taking effect at all. Blinking, he tried to comprehend the figures in his screen although they seemed to get blurrier by the second. Jongdae squinted at the screen, going closer. 

A shrill voice suddenly burst in from the door of the office. "Kim! Jong! Daeeeeee!" 

Startled, Jongdae stood up from his seat immediately, toppling over an empty mug in the process. His eyes traced the two figures stumbling into the otherwise quiet office.  

"Ah! Thereeeee you are!" To Jongdae's shock, the owner of the voice was none other than Hyejin, who looked as if she had drunk an entire gallon of alcohol. A hand gripped her as she lost her balance. It was then that Jongdae noticed the man beside her. He struggled to support the lumbersome Hyejin and kept her from crashing into objects as she walked unsteadily in the direction of a seat. 

"Jasmine!" Jongdae gasped, rushing forward to help the drunk girl. Hyejin plopped onto her seat clumsily and let her head flop back, covering her forehead with her arm. Jongdae stared at Hyejin a while before he glanced up at the man, who was perspiring and breathless. 

"She's drunk," the man said, dabbing at his sweaty face with the back of his hand. 

"Kim! Jongdaeeee!" Hyejin suddenly burst out, scaring both Jongdae and the man, before flopping down in another direction and sleeping again. 

"Yeah, she's really drunk." Jongdae continued staring at Hyejin before raising his eyebrows. "She never ever calls me Kim Jongdae." 

"What?" 

"Nothing." There was silence for a while before Jongdae raised his head to look straight at the man. He felt his heart drop as his brain acknowledged his presence in front of him. So this was him, huh? 

Jongdae squinted questioningly at the man, before gingerly pulling a piece of tissue from a tissue box nearby and handing it to him to clean off his perspiration. 

Taking it with both hands, the man pressed his lips together in a smile. "Thank you." 

His voice is smooth. Wow. 

Jongdae scanned the man silently. He tried to keep his quick breathing in check as he calmed himself down. The man's patent leather shoes were polished until they shone, and he donned a crisp cream-coloured dress shirt that looked to be tailor-made, as well as a sturdy suit which showed off his broad shoulders. Anyone could tell that the watch on his wrist was of one of the most expensive and premium brands, and his jet-black hair was moussed to a neat perfection. 

Clearing his throat, Jongdae tried to appear mightier in front of the man. "So how did Jasm- no, Hwang Hyejin get drunk?" 

"You don't want to know who I am first?" 

"Do you want to tell me who you are?" Jongdae raised his eyebrows. The man smiled and extended his hand for a handshake, which Jongdae didn't return. 

"I don't do formalities," he said. 

The man seemed unfazed. "Okay then. I'm Kim Joonmyeon. Was Hyejin's blind date and university course mate. Now I prefer to be addressed as her —" 

"Duly noted," Jongdae cut in. He wasn't sure he was ready to hear Joonmyeon call himself, you know, her boyfriend. And even if he wasn't her boyfriend he wasn't all that interested to know what Joonmyeon preferred to be addressed as. Jongdae coughed. "You haven't answered my question, though. How did Hyejin get drunk?" 

"Well, I'm not sure either. When I reached the place we had agreed to meet up at for dinner, she was already obviously not sober. She was even laughing to herself and stuff. And judging by the number of soju bottles on her table, she probably had drunk a lot." 

"And then? How did you end up here?" 

"I don't know her address, and she was too drunk to answer my questions properly, but I know she works here, in WS Group. So in order to make sure she was safe for the night I figured this was the best place to leave her. I used her staff ID to get her up here." Joonmyeon leaned against a small shelf, hands in his pockets. "Are you her colleague, then?" 

"I'm her senior. The leader of her team," Jongdae curtly answered. Hey, he had some authority too, although he wasn't as showy in terms of his fashion as big-shot Joonmyeon was. 

"Ah. Interesting." Following that was a brief silence which was stiflingly awkward. 

Joonmyeon started fishing in his pocket, and Jongdae watched cautiously. He pulled out a teabag, wrapped in several layers of pink tissue, and pressed it into Jongdae's palm. 

"I heard Hyejin likes to drink jasmine tea, so I got her this bag of Jasmine Phoenix Dragon Pearls Tea. I had to search a lot for the tea so ask her to drink it well and steeple it at 195 degrees Celsius for 2 to 3 minutes," Joonmyeon instructed, smiling slightly. "I would have passed it to her myself but since she's in this state can you pass it to her tomorrow? It'll probably help with her hangover as well." 

Jongdae looked at the pyramid-shaped bag of tea and controlled himself from squashing it flat. Thinking about it then, he really was quite petty, but at that point of time that was the least of his concerns. 

"Sure," he said through gritted teeth. He went back to his desk to continue work and hoped Joonmyeon would be smart enough to see it as a signal for him to leave. He didn't. 

"Also, this is for Hyejin. It's her birthday gift. Could you help me pass this to her too?" Joonmyeon instead walked towards Jongdae's desk and dropped a small bag onto an empty space on his messy tabletop. Jongdae observed it as if the bag was an animate object and would eat him up anytime. 

"What is it?" He found himself asking Joonmyeon.

"Nothing much. Just a small brooch." 

"Hyejin hates brooches," Jongdae blurted before he could help it. He felt a little bad as Joonmyeon's face fell, but he was telling the truth. So what he did could be justified — yes.  

"That's unfortunate," Joonmyeon said, then slowly brought the bag back into his hand. "I'll exchange it for something else, then. Sorry. I don't know her that well yet." 

"It's okay," Jongdae said. He figured if Joonmyeon got too disappointed he would feel guilty as well. So it was Jongdae's job to make sure Joonmyeon wasn't heartbroken so that he could continue being petty. "If you want to know, she likes bracelets," he added, and felt like some sort of angel afterwards.  

Ah well. Hyejin could always wear two bracelets — his, and the future one Joonmyeon was going to give her.  

"Oh, that's nice," Joonmyeon opined. "But aren't bracelets a little too… romantic? I don't know." 

"Wait, what?" Jongdae couldn't comprehend him at all. 

"I mean, you don't typically see male cousins giving their female cousins bracelets, right? I thought the circular shape of a bracelet was supposed to represent eternal love or something." 

"Cousin?" Oops. Did he just misunderstand everything? But some things still didn't seem to add up. Why was Hyejin so secretive when Joonmyeon called? And when Taehwan was teasing her she didn't even clarify anything, as if she had no clause to argue. And Joonmyeon had said he was Hyejin's blind date... right? 

"But H-Hyejin, she —" 

Joonmyeon chuckled. "She doesn't know yet." 

"What?" Jongdae felt like someone was speaking to him in an alien language for the second time in that few minutes. 

"It's a long story. We got set up for a blind date at first because our mums met at a sauna, and decided we both needed partners. But later they found out they were cousins they didn't even knew existed. Hyejin's mum wanted me to tell her myself but I've missed two chances already. One, when we coincidentally met at Yeouido one day when she was doing her surveying and I wanted to break the news to her during lunch then, but she suddenly ran away after receiving a call. And the other, today, but with her in this state..." Joonmyeon let his voice drift off, shifting his gaze to look at Hyejin, who was still sleeping on her table. 

Jongdae was too embarrassed to say anything after that, so he just kept silent, and only opened his mouth to mumble a small goodbye when Joonmyeon said he was leaving. 

"Make sure she's safe. I trust you, Kim Jongdae," Joonmyeon stated as he circled a desk to exit the office, then locked eyes with Jongdae for a second, making him flinch slightly because of the intensity of his gaze. Jongdae found himself nodding obediently. 

When Joonmyeon had left, Jongdae abashedly picked up the bag of tea and scrutinized it. It looked really expensive. He had originally intended to throw the teabag away once Joonmyeon left with the excuse that the taste of it would probably be far from the cheap 20-packets-in-a-box type of Jasmine tea Hyejin liked the most, but now he had totally no intention (and reason, honestly) for him do to so. 

He swallowed, getting up from his desk and heading towards Hyejin's, teabag in hand. "Hyejin, I'll keep this for you first, okay? I'll make some tea for you to help with your hangover tomorrow morning," he gently said, hovering the teabag in front of her. 

Hyejin lazily got up, and stood up shakily. "You!" She exclaimed, pointing a finger directly at Jongdae. "You with the teabag!" 

"Yes?" He asked patiently, sitting Hyejin down again. He didn't want her to fall while standing up since she couldn't even balance properly. 

"Are you Kim Jongdae?" Hyejin asked, and Jongdae laughed. 

"Yes." 

"Good!" Hyejin shouted as she tried to stand up again, but he pushed her back onto her chair before she was even halfway up. "Because you need a scolding." 

"Yes," Jongdae repeated. 

"You're so mean, do you know that?" Hyejin pouted, and Jongdae couldn't help but ruffle her hair in response. 

"Yes. And I'm so sorry," he said. "For being so petty and all." 

She closed her eyes and opened them again slowly, then turned to look directly at Jongdae. Hyejin rolled her chair nearer to him, got up and leaned in, until their faces were only about a pen's width apart. Jongdae gulped. All he was aware of were Hyejin's eyes staring right into his, as well as the sound of his heart — it was beating too fast and loud to be ignored. 

"H-Hey, J-Jasmine," Jongdae stuttered, clutching on to the desk he had stumbled onto. "W-What's up with y-you?" 

"I love..." Hyejin started, and he swore he found coyness in her gaze, but by this time he was too nervous to breathe properly. 

"You..." She continued, and Jongdae's eyes widened. 

"R... Jasmine tea... Make some for me." 

Jongdae scoffed to hide the embarrassment boiling over in him. He was pretty sure his face was red and his expression stiffly strange, but he was aware too that Hyejin wouldn't notice in her state. And it was the best he could do to hide his utter embarrassment at thinking Hyejin would actually confess to him like he thought she just did. 

Drunk confessions only appeared in dramas, Jongdae knew. Drunk people in real life blabbered nonsense with no context whatsoever. 

"You're drunk," Jongdae said after a while. 

Hyejin bobbed her head up and down animatedly. "I know," she grinned sleazily. 

He reached his hand out, and as if Hyejin knew what Jongdae was going to do, she grabbed her phone off her desk and scooted it behind her back. After minutes of wrestling, he managed to squeeze her phone password out of her and messaged her mother, telling her to pick Hyejin up at the bus stop in front of WS Building. 

"Who even sets their password as their birthday anymore?" He asked when he was done, placing the phone back on her table. "Also, you should change your wallpaper." 

"What? You have a problem with my phone?" Hyejin shouted, eyes half open. 

"Silly. Yes. I want your phone wallpaper and password and everything else to be related to me. Why aren't they?" 

"Why would you say that now?" 

"Because you're drunk," Jongdae stated, then pulled away from where Hyejin was to return to his own desk. "And you won't remember anything I do — which then I'd also rather not do anything too special. So I'm going to work now. I've loads to complete because of you, Jasmine." 

"Why me?"

"Nothing. I'll bring you out of the office in a jiffy. Let me just finish this up." 

"Are you going to leave me alone outside?" Hyejin whimpered, almost like a child. 

There was a momentary pause as Jongdae looked up from his screen. 

"What do you think?" 

_________________________________________

Jongdae (obviously) didn't leave Hyejin alone at the bus stop to wait for her mother, although he figured it would be too much for him to explain the situation if he was beside her when she arrived. Instead, he hovered behind a nearby tree, ready to protect the drunk Hyejin if anyone strange approached, or catch her if she wandered off the sidewalk and onto the road. 

Thankfully, nothing of the sort happened. He subconsciously smiled as Hyejin's mother pulled over at the bus stop and lugged Hyejin into the car, grunting and nagging at her daughter who seemed to pay no heed to anything she said. 

It was oddly quiet after Hyejin had left. Jongdae turned back to the building that seemed to get a little more massive every time he looked, and braced himself for an all-nighter, his computer and a few night lights for company.