Plop. 

Hyejin was shocked awake by a pain inching up her spine and at the back of her head, and opening her eyes slightly, she furrowed her eyebrows when she caught sight of the frame of the bed right beside her instead of underneath her. She was confused in her half-awake state, and she rubbed her sore spots as she tried to concentrate. Had she fallen off the bed? But then that meant... 

Whipping her body in the other direction, she came face-to-face with a sleeping Chen, whose face was less than 5 centimetres away from hers. Her head was on his arm as if using it as a pillow, and he had somehow tangled his legs together with hers. 

Shuffling a little at the sudden weight on his arm, he turned his entire body towards Hyejin and slung his arm around her body. He seemed still to be in an unconscious state — he snuggled against her like she was his bolster. She held her breath and fixed her stare on his closed eyes, softening as she gazed at his eyelashes. The room was silent. Hyejin heard her heart thump in her head. She was pretty sure Chen could feel it too. 

For a moment, she couldn't do anything besides stare at his amazing, chiseled features. She absorbed each eyelash, each freckle, pocketing each detail into her memory. When Hyejin was done, she realised she'd spent much more time than she intended to on Chen's mattress like this. 

Slowly, she tried to get up, hoping she wouldn't disturb him. But he stirred again, and only held her tighter. 

"It's okay, Hyejin. You can stay here," he mumbled suddenly, and Hyejin could do nothing but stare at his sleeping face and think about how absolutely warm it was being cradled in his arms. Somehow she felt blissful like this. She wondered if this was how it felt like to be a teddy bear snuggled in by a child. This felt even better than jumping into a warm blanket on a winter day. 

For a moment, she thought about how she got into this position in the first place. She forgot to bring out her keys. And for some reason Chen was outside her house, and being the nice senior he always was offered to let her stay a night, and then… then… 

She stiffened, although she didn't want to. Then she found her hand involuntarily pushing herself away. "Chen… Let me back onto the bed," she blurted, then squeezed shut her eyes. Was that disappointment that was coursing through her? Hyejin didn't actually mean to say it, but didn't know how to say the things she meant either. She always figured saying more 'correct' things would make things less awkward. She was such a doofus at these things. 

But Chen only snuggled closer, lightly nudging with his hand the back of Hyejin's head so it would leave no space between his chest and her cheek. He nuzzled his head onto the top of hers. "What if I don't want to?" He drawled, his voice so low and husky it made Hyejin's heart flutter… for the umpteenth time that day. 

"Then don't. I don't mind," she whispered and cuddled closer to breathe in more of him before she could stop herself. When what she'd said had finally registered with her somewhat washed-out brain cells, Hyejin's eyes flew open and immediately met with Chen's. He definitely was looking way more alert than before. 

He looked pleasantly surprised, and although his eyes were half-open, Hyejin found a small sparkle in them. 

Hyejin inwardly cringed, not knowing what happened to "making things less awkward".  She forcibly pulled herself off, but was lunged back onto the mattress by Chen, who held her closer than ever. Her face was planted right at the crook of his neck now. She held her breath, one — because she didn't want to tickle Chen's neck with her breathing, and two — because she had completely forgotten the need to breathe temporarily being held so close by him. 

"Good," Chen said, his voice raspy and heart-palpitatingly deep. "Because I really want to hug you to sleep tonight." 

She couldn't respond. So he her neck and continued. "You don't know how long I've waited for this. I needed this so bad." 

Hyejin smiled to herself. "I -" 

"I love you too." 

Her heart stopped. And the moment she turned up to face Chen, he pressed his lips onto hers. 

They were even softer than she imagined, and the way they moulded themselves onto Hyejin's lips, pressing against and moving with them was so perfect she couldn't think of anything else besides Chen, Chen and Chen. He held the back of her head with one hand and her cheek in the other, tenderly caressing them as they kissed. She closed her eyes. Her hands hovered around his waist, and after that tightly wrapped themselves around him, holding him as close as she could. 

When he finally pulled away, she could see he was smiling. Chen held her in his arms, their noses still lightly brushing against each other. Their legs were still tangled, but no one made an attempt to untangle them. Instead, he gave her one last tender kiss on her lips before pulling the blanket over the both of them. 

Chen wrapped his arms around Hyejin, and it was instantly a toasty warm, better than any warmth she had felt before. 

"Sleep well, my Hyejin." The blanket was pulled up to her chin, and his arms and body snuggled her body tight.  

That night, she slept more soundly than ever. 

_________________________________

Hyejin awoke the next morning to the satisfying crackle of food frying on a pan. Lazing around on Chen's mattress, she felt a beam creep up her face when reality slowly dawned on her that the night before was definitely not a dream, and yes, she was actually breathing in the scent of Chen through his blanket now. 

She got up after she had her load of burying her head in his blanket and walked out of his room. Hyejin saw Chen bustling around the dining table. He burst into a warm smile as soon as he saw her.   

"Slept well?" He asked, handing her a cup of tea, which she immediately recognised as jasmine. She nodded, sipping on her drink, and he grinned proudly. "That's because we cuddled the entire night." 

It took a certain amount of willpower not to kick him for his greasy comment (though she knew it was true), but also a certain amount not to melt into goo. Especially when he led her to the dining table and told her that he had prepared all the food there for her. She was about to die of happiness. 

Tucking into the food, she smiled to herself as Chen sat opposite her, mostly watching as she ate. He propped both his elbows on the table and sat his chin on his palms, tilting his head slightly as she munched. 

"You're not going to eat?" Hyejin asked, mouth full of food. 

He shook his head. "I've eaten. This is all for you." She bit her lip, feeling a little bad, but then continued to dig into her meal after being unable to resist the whiffs of food that had wafted into her nose. Chen's cooking was really not bad — she didn't think she'd be sick of it, not even if he cooked the same few meals for her every day until they were old (thinking about it made her heart flutter). 

She was halfway through her fried egg when she realised Chen had been talking. She tried her best to catch up with what he was saying, although they made no sense because she had totally missed the context. 

"... Yeah, so he's actually quite nice," he finished, and all Hyejin could do was nod, before going back to her food. His fried rice was really good. She scooped continuous mouthfuls of food into , munching contently. 

"Oh, and that time, he also helped my dad move his truck when it got stuck," Chen said again, and Hyejin let out a muffled 'oh', before grabbing more kimchi with her chopsticks, lost in her distraction of food. She chewed the kimchi and looked upwards at him. He had stopped talking, and was now cocking his head to one side, like he was expecting an answer. 

Hyejin didn't hear whatever question he was asking. So she just swallowed her food and nodded, but he didn't seem satisfied. 

Leaning in, he squinted at her. "You didn't hear me, did you?" Hyejin stopped chewing. Instead, she laughed and shook her head. 

"Sorry," she mumbled, full with food. 

Chen leant back on his chair, crossing his arms and pouting almost coyly. "I'm never going to get you breakfast again." 

"Why?" Hyejin asked, her tone on the edge of a whine. 

"Just because of this breakfast I don't have any attention from you! At all!" He exclaimed, with a childish innocence that just made her feel like playing with him again. 

"Too bad," Hyejin grinned, filling her spoon with more rice. 

Chen scoffed and got up from his seat, his face threateningly close to hers. "Don't make me." 

"What?" 

The next moment, he had lifted her off from her seat and pulled her onto his lap, winding his arms around her waist tightly. His eyes twinkled with mirth and just that bit of cheeky. 

"Feed me?" He asked, the edges of his lips curving upwards. 

She pushed his head away laughingly but that only made his face contort into a pout. 

"Hwang Hyejin," he whined, and she shook her head resolutely, pursing her lips. 

"You're so cheesy, gosh!" She chided, albeit not being angry or annoyed per se, and Chen seemed to know it because it only made him smile wider. He showered her left cheek with kisses. 

"Get used to it, jasmine," he said. "I'll be like this all the time. Who asked for you to get yourself such a cheesy boyfriend?" 

"Since when were you my boyfriend?" Hyejin asked, just for the sake of it. Saying the word 'boyfriend' made her heart flutter more than it should. But Chen let go of Hyejin, his arms falling away from her waist. His face reverted swiftly to a neutral expression. 

"Okay then. I'm not," he stated, his expression so calm it made her hesitate for a moment. She wanted to grab his arms and wind it around herself again, so she did, but Chen pulled away from her and crossed his arms. "Friends don't do that. Boyfriends do," he said pettily, and she wanted to strangle him. 

"Fine, will you be my boyfriend?" She asked, tugging at his arm. She thought she saw a tiny smirk appear on his face. 

"I'll think about it," he said airily, before landing a quick surprise kiss on Hyejin's cheek. Chen bit his lip, hiding the small upturn of the corners of his lips. "By the way, what I just did was not something friends would do. Just saying." 

___________________________________________________________

When they returned to work, the morning was filled with a series of rendezvous at the coffee machine, making cups of jasmine tea for each other and stealing quick hand holds, because the rest of the trainees were still in close proximity and Hyejin didn't think it was a good idea for them to get caught, not so soon. 

Chen proudly proclaimed lunch as their first date. He dragged her to an expensive French restaurant but one glance at the prices of food written on the menu was enough to make the both of them do a double take — one portion would cost Chen the money he earned from his entire day of work. The both of them escaped it secretly after enjoying the complimentary bread basket offered. Walking around for ages hand-in-hand, they somehow ended up at the Chinese restaurant they frequented. 

"It's okay, really," Hyejin had tried to assure after seeing the look of ultimate disappointment on Chen's face. She could tell that he really wanted to make their first date as special as he could, but for some reason they had ended back at a place he didn't think was all that memorable for a first date. 

"The black bean noodles here are my favourite! I prefer it to duck confit and blue cheese," she exclaimed, in what she hoped was a chirpy enough tone to convince Chen. It wasn't a lie at all — Hyejin never really liked going to overly classy places anyway, and black bean noodles had become one of her comfort foods as well, so she didn't mind having it any time of the day. 

Chen didn't look all that convinced but he still tucked into his food, vowing afterward to bring Hyejin somewhere better on their next date (despite more assurances from her that she liked it here). 

Hyejin didn't know what it was like to fall in love. But if the bliss she felt eating a simple bowl of black bean noodles with Chen was love, then she was sure she had fallen in love, right at that moment. 

__________________________________________________

Their team was assigned to make a preliminary design of advertising flyers for the company. It made Chen more stressed than ever. 

Their design was rejected once by the company already, because they had apparently misinterpreted the information sent by the core advertising team. So now they were stuck in the office after office hours, all of them huddling around a table, trying to make sense of all the numbers and spreadsheets on their screens. 

"So does this term apply to this product, or not?" 

"It probably does. See, here says that the sales of it dropped by 62.1%, so yeah." 

"But then why are we not including this brand when their sales obviously have dropped as well?" 

The office was suddenly shrouded by a thick layer of confusion. Chaeyoung pouted, and Jinkyung thoughtfully took a sip of her espresso. Taehwan merely screamed in frustration. 

And as for Chen, he slid his hand into Hyejin's under the table. She removed them hastily, eyeing him to tell him not here! But he didn't seem to get the look on her face, or maybe he just didn't want to. He held on tighter, the back of her hand with his thumb. 

Hyejin shot up straight, then fidgeted a little, her eyes dodging around the room. She had a gut feeling someone saw it, or was seeing it, or something. Doing things in secret was so stressful. She attempted to wriggle her hand out of Chen's grasp but he didn't seem to want to let that happen. 

"You okay, Hyejin? You look a little antsy," Chaeyoung suddenly said, and all eyes (which Hyejin realised weren't on them at first) turned to look at them. She thought she heard Chen's stifled laughter as he gently pulled his hand out of hers. 

"I-I'm fine!" She grinned, not knowing if it looked too exaggerated. She felt a slight twitch at the corner of her lips like it was going to freeze in place so she retreated back into a neutral expression before it happened. Hyejin cleared . 

"Let's go home and think about it, then come back tomorrow ready with analyses, okay?" Chen spoke. Hyejin looked at him — she had no idea how he remained so calm at everything. After the team had left slowly, she stayed behind for a while as usual, and hovered around his table. She knew he wasn't going to go home that quick, and she wanted to stay for a while more so he wouldn't feel that lonely in the empty office. 

"Don't hold my hand in front of the rest like that again," she said, dragging a chair over to sit at his desk. 

"Why? You like it," he said, a small smirk forming. 

"No," she insisted, but honestly, she wasn't sure. "Just don't." 

Chen tore his eyes away from his laptop and sighed. "Jasmine, I don't know why you don't want others to know about our relationship." 

"Because it's going to make the rest of the team awkward with us. You're our team leader!" 

"I think you're the one feeling the most awkward about this," he pouted. 

"Taehwan's going to tease me so much about it. Chaeyoung is going to flush red all the time. Jinkyung, w-well, Jinkyung. She's going to give me one of those disapproving looks again." 

Chen stared at her for a minute, then held her face in his hands, and gave her the sweetest look ever. Hyejin felt her heart doing one of those skipping things again. She would never get tired of these hands, and staring into those eyes. 

"Aw, my baby," he cooed. "Okay, fine. If it makes you uncomfortable I won't." 

She was literally melting in her seat, and couldn't say anything back. Instead, she closed her eyes and savoured the feeling of his warm hands on her cheeks. 

"Sorry, Chen," she said after she managed to gather back her sanity. Hyejin felt a little bad because it was so obvious that he was giving up something he really wanted just for her, and yet now he was the one pampering her with his words yet again. She didn't want that — just because she was a lady didn't mean that Chen, as a man, had to give in to her all the time. 

He her cheek with his thumb. "Not showing affection when others are around doesn't mean I don't when no one is." And then he smiled and leaned in, giving her a big kiss on the lips. 

"Chen!" She laughed, shooing him away. He only continued to gaze at her, and she cocked her head curiously at him. 

Sighing contently, he spoke gently, "You give me so much energy and joy, jasmine. I have no idea what I would do without you." 

And as much as Hyejin gave Jongdae energy and joy, the harsh reality of the working world smacked him right in the face when she left that night. She had fallen asleep on his desk and Jongdae had driven her home before returning back to the office to get a little more work done. He flitted through a sales report for a while, analysing its content. Then he fell asleep with his head on the desk. His computer was still on. 

Jongdae awoke the next morning to a phone call on the office's phone. Sleepily, he massaged his cramped neck and aching shoulders before fumbling for the phone. Sleeping the whole night with his head on the desk was definitely not a good idea. 

"Kim Jongdae from WS Group Training Team 1 speaking." 

"Mr Kim Jongdae? This is the printing company for the design of flyers you sent out last night. This is just an acknowledgement call for us to start printing the flyers and distributing them." 

Jongdae was confused. Had he sent out any design last night? Printing? His brain was still half asleep, and he rubbed his eyes. He thought it might be the absolute fatigue that was causing the confusion — he didn't know what he had sent out, but he was pretty sure he meant to send it. 

"Go ahead. Thank you," he mumbled into the phone, then put it down. 

For a moment, Jongdae gazed blankly at the reports on his table. Then he stretched his arms, yawned, and began work again.