Everything went well, that's the only thing Jisoo could say about this week. Yixing told her that the court trial would be finished much earlier since Baekhyun finally pleaded guilty and wished to receive reduced sentences. No one knew what made Baekhyun changed his mind, but Soojung briefly said that the possibility of Baekhyun's in-law's visit to prison (she apparently checked the list of his visitors) several days before had affected the decision.

Jisoo was glad. When she watched the footage from the first trial recording, Chanyeol looked a bit upset because he felt that Baekhyun pleading guilty made the trial no longer fun for him personally, Soojung in the other hand, looked very relaxed seeing her workload just reduced. In two weeks they had three trials, and once the verdict was read, the judge decided to give him a maximum sentence that the prosecutor had demanded, of ten years in prison with a two-year reduce for his cooperation, as well as 250 million won fine. The boisterous of satisfaction cheers came from the families of the victims who were present there that the judge had to remind them to control themselves. Jisoo also saw several media were inside the hall to cover the open trial.

The evening news broadcasted the footage from the course of the hearing and verdict reading. Several people made their comments there, including Chanyeol, who spoke on her behalf, expressing their gratitude to all those who have helped them to reach the end of this case. He wasn't very satisfied with the two-year sentence reduction which he considered too generous, but at least all their demands had been granted. The victims' families also seemed to be quite satisfied with the jury's decision, and that was the most important.

Yixing invited her to celebrate the day by opening a bottle of wine which he deliberately kept only for important events. They spent it together sitting on the bathroom couch, enjoying the night view while chatting about the future.

After discussing with him, Jisoo decided to turn down the university president's offer to take the dean office. She wasn't ready with that responsibility right now, with her lack of experience—especially with the wedding plans along the way and all her delayed work, she had a hell of catching up to do already. This didn't mean that Jisoo refused the chair forever, she would consider taking the offer when the time was right. Instead, she was willing to return to teaching there and had herself reinstated to all the positions she had previously taken responsibility for before. Minseok wasn't very happy with the decision, but he didn't say much.

"You're mature enough to decide what's best for you. Whatever you do, I just want you to be happy," he said when Jisoo called to inform him of her decision.

They also decided to have a small housewarming party and invited their friends to their house. The initial plan to hold it at Luhan's apartment previously was canceled because of the incident with Taeyeon, and Yixing proposed that it would be better if they held it here this time. They planned to invite them to have some dinner then to also told them about their wedding plans. Jisoo notified Sehun about the invitation, telling him to take Soojung too. Then she gave Kyungsoo a call to invite him too because she needed to ask him to be their photographer for the pre-wed shoot and to be at the ceremony of the D-day.

Yixing called Yifei to invite her too. It would be a low-key dinner, so she could come casually. He then invited Chanyeol, but unfortunately, he had to return to the US immediately before the end of the week. Jisoo watched him chatting with her friend, sincerely expressing his gratitude and apologizing for his reckless attitude while he was here. Jisoo was glad to see that Yixing was big enough to admit that he had treated him terribly all this time. But what surprised her was when Yixing invited him to their wedding, and that he would make sure that he would accept his invitation in a few months—because the two of them had not really decided the date yet.

"What was that?" Jisoo asked as Yixing ended the call.

"That's the least I can do after all his efforts to help us." he gulped down the remaining wine of his crystal glass and pour some more on it, "It's about the time we put the past in the past and start our own book of life." he sipped on his wine again, "So, no. I don't imagine him ing you anymore (Jisoo cringed at the words) every time I see him, I'm fine. He's invited to the wedding."

Jisoo had no idea what to say for that. She was happy that Yixing invited Chanyeol to the wedding. Even though she said it was fine not to invite him previously, she was feeling suffocated inside. Chanyeol was one of her very best friends, and she just knew that he would feel so disappointed if he's not invited. But Jisoo didn't want to hurt him by being selfish, and that's why she never said anything about it ever since. But looking at him now, he almost finished the 14% alcohol wine bottle himself in an empty stomach, and with the funny slightly raising intonation, she couldn't help but ask,

"Are you drunk, Yixing?"

Yixing only scoffed to hear that and started to chuckle, "Oh, I'm offended." he put his hand on his chest, exaggerating the hurting expression, "This doesn't get me drunk, Baobei. I can finish three bottles of this and still won't miss your lips to kiss you."

Jisoo laughed. "Okay, sure. Thank you for inviting Chanyeol anyway." 

"Give me a kiss then to show how grateful you are." Yixing leaned in sideways with puckered lips and half-shut eyes. She laughed again, now was certain that Yixing was indeed drunk. She leaned forward to give him an open-mouth kiss, hands on each side of his cheeks to feel his burning skin. Yixing grinned foolishly when she pulled away.

"You're a good kisser, you know that?" he commented, index finger pointed to her nose.

"Yes, I do." she chuckled, "Come on, let's call it a day. You're drunk." she slid off from the couch to pull his arms to rise.

"I'm not drunk, told you."

"Yes, yes, of course you're not. Go wash your face and brush your teeth then."

She walked just right behind him to see if he could walk straight to his side of the sink. One step, two steps.

He could apparently, it's only his eyesight that didn't work properly because he suddenly said that he couldn't find his facewash when it's right before his eyes. Holding her laughter, Jisoo helped to wash his hand and put some gel into his hand so he could spread it on his face. She then helped him put the toothpaste on his toothbrush and gave it to him after he washed away the foam on his face before she went to take care of her night routine.

Jisoo watched him from the mirror, how he bent down on the sink, propping his palm at the edge of the sink while brushing his teeth with his eyes shut completely. She pushed his arm lightly, and Yixing flinched to wake up,

"I'm up, I'm up." he said eagerly as he brushed his teeth faster.

Jisoo cracked up in an instant. She never saw him like this before, Yixing didn't really drink. As they were together, she could count on only one of her hands of how many she had seen him actually drinking. It never more than three pours of wine and some shots of whiskey. She could see that he was happy today from how he decided to open up his $500,000 Screaming Eagle and even finished it in not more than an hour, no wonder it got him drunk. But unlike him, Jisoo couldn't handle too much alcohol in her system. Thank God that she only had a glass tonight, she wouldn't be able to witness this if she got more than that.

He was still able to walk properly despite the heavy steps and she followed him to his room just to make sure that he wouldn't pass out on the floor. He jumped on the bed and laid on his stomach,

"Stay, Baobei, stay." he said as she tucked the blanket over his body, his tone sounded like an order rather than a request. And Jisoo just scoffed.

"I think it's better if we stay in our own room tonight." 

"I'll sneak into your room later then," he said again lazily, peeking up from his shoulder as saying that,

"No, you won't. I'll be locking the door."

Yixing sighed, "Don't you dare. I'll kick your door if you lock it." he pointed on her again, with his face still stuck on the pillow facing the other way.

Jisoo chuckled inaudibly, she patted his head and landed a kiss on the back of his head to say her goodnight. Yixing didn't answer her, it seemed like he drifted off already. And she walked out of his door holding her laugh.

Drunken Yixing was inexplicably adorable.

Jisoo went back to work the next day. It was so nice to be back in her office again and to see that nothing had changed. The staff and some lecturers made a small welcoming party to have her back to the office. She had a meeting with her assistant team too on the very same day to talk about the classes they had been handling in her absence. 

Jisoo had just planned to really return to the next week's class while she finished the pending assignments. What Jisoo didn't expect was that, besides her regular job as the lecturer, IRO was kind of a mess without the head of the office. Since she was laid off as its deputy, the university has left it vacant for a while. The vice deputy was in Europe for his doctoral studies, and there was only some staff in the office in charge of local administration. She didn't expect that in two months, so many things had happened, and she had to handle them all because it had been delayed long enough.

For several days that week, Jisoo focused on taking care of IRO, from starting to reply to research request emails, the visa invitations for several international students that should have been sent since a few weeks ago, as well as ratification of invitations for speakers who would be present at several events internationally at the university. It was a great thing that she was a good multitasker because while taking care of all that, she also had to sit down with her students who were taking her whole schedule to wait in line to consult their thesis and dissertation since the morning.

She was back into the working mode as soon as she reached the desk in her office. But unlike before, she hadn't kept her cellphone in the drawer since the third day because Yixing would call her occasionally. At first, Jisoo left the call unanswered and only called back when there was some free time (which was only around 4 or 5 in the afternoon after work). It's just that Yixing was no longer like he was willing to wait for hours, now he tended to text her every hour just to ask 'are you done?' or 'still busy?', and Jisoo felt uncomfortable having to keep him asking the same thing, hence the change of the habits.

At least, what made her comfortable with the current situation, it was kind of the same old brand new thing. People never mentioned or even discussed Baekhyun in front of her, sometimes it felt as if he never existed at all. But she would find people whispering a few times though, and they immediately stopped when they saw her, Jisoo was never too concerned about it. Yixing had warned her about this, and besides, she began to be indifferent to what people said.

So, well, whatever.

Friday was quite a tiring day. Her duties at IRO had begun to be under control, but it's really draining her energy, especially with the consultation schedule that didn't stop at all. She deliberately to call it a day early from the office, seeing it was still four pm, Jisoo thought of visiting Yixing's office to see if she could kidnap him and had a very very late lunch (for her) or early dinner (maybe for him).

Once in front of his office, she stood for a moment to look at the towering building before her. This was the first time she had gone there, and she was wondering how many floors this office had, seeing from the building was higher than some of the other office in the area. Rows of single alphabets formed the 'Zhang Dong' on the tower's chest with 'Petrochemical' in a smaller font next to it. This tower had a more modern design than other buildings around here. She imagined Yixing intentionally built it to make it easier to point it from the sky only from its architectural design.

The lobby alone had a luxurious interior. The blast of cool air immediately slapped her face as she passed the giant sliding door, she looked around watching people dressed in typical suits of office outfits passing by. A woman standing behind the reception desk had been watching her since she entered, she bowsed lightly as Jiso walked up to her.

"Good afternoon, can I help you?" the girl asked flatly.

"Yes, I want to meet Zhang Yixing."

The girl, who seemed to be about her age, looked at her face and appearance with a look of judgment. Jisoo raised her eyebrows, noticing the judging look and wondering if something was wrong with her. Jisoo uncapped her snapback when she realized she was still wearing it⁠—since she wore it occasionally to avoid the media, Jisoo started to get used to it as part of her fashion these days. She ran her hand to her hair and the receptionist girl started to put on a stoic face,

"Do you have an appointment with Mr. Zhang, Miss?" she asked, and Jisoo shook her head automatically,

"I don't, but you can tell him that Kim Jisoo wants to meet him."

As if ignoring the mention of her name, the girl shook her head, still with her stoic face but with a more stern tone.

"Well, then, I'm sorry, Miss. Mr. Zhang is unable to receive guest if you don't have a prior appointment with him." the girl then turned away from her to speak with her friend, and Jisoo scoffed with the rudeness.

She could call Yixing right now, but she didn't want to make this problem big. Seeing how Yixing's character was, she was sure the girl might not be here again tomorrow if he knew what treatment she was getting right now. After all, this wasn't something that needed his intervention even though she hoped someone came to help