Third Person's POV

“Nayoung-ah! Wake up! We’re getting late!” Daeyoung booms in front of the door to her room.

The sound of fist pounding repeatedly on the hardwood door fills the both the hallway and the room. Checking up on his wrist watch for the millionth time, he finally orders one of the maids to bring him the room’s spare key.

He’s been standing in front of her room and banging his fist on her door for more than ten minutes, his patience getting thin. The maid hurriedly gets him what he wants, panicked at his roaring voice. A mad young master has never been a really nice sight in early morning.

Daeyoung inserts the key into the keyhole and twists his wrist. He pushes the door opened and finds no one in her room. Her bed isn’t tidied up but she isn’t there either. The sound of water running in her bathroom greets him instead. He approaches the bathroom, the door isn’t closed.

There, he sees his sister, still fully clothed, staring at her own reflection in the mirror in front of her. Her palms are planted onto the sink supporting her body. Water keeps running from the faucet in front of her, but it’s like she doesn’t even realize it. Her eyes are blank and seems like she is deep in her own world.

Daeyoung sighs. He comes to her side, tapping the faucet off and pats her shoulder. “Nayoung-ah,” his voice in her ear makes her shoot up from her daydream.

“O-Oppa,” she holds her chest as if her heart were about to jump out of it. Her eyes are wide open. “You scared me.”

Daeyoung raises his brow, Nayoung calling him ‘Oppa’ feels a bit new. Ever since he came back from Paris she’s been refusing to call him ‘Oppa’ again, she was still angry at him for trying to ‘matchmake’ her and Hyukjae. But then again, it’s not like Nayoung was aware of her surrounding until he called her name.

“What are you doing?” he asks.

Nayoung blinks at the question and looks away. “Uh, I’m about to take a bath.”

“Are you planning to take a bath in the sink or something?” Daeyoung narrows his eyes looking at the faucet and then back to her. She hasn’t even prepared the bathtub yet.

Normally, Nayoung would shoot him back with a snort. But this time she doesn’t. She is busy keeping her eyes away from his gaze. Seeing the lacking response she gives to this, Daeyoung gives up. He knows something is off with his little sister, but they don’t have time for an interrogation.

“Hurry up, we’re getting late for the meeting. We only have an hour left.” He tells her.

But she seems to have tuned him out already. She just nods compliantly and doesn’t say anything. Daeyoung looks at her in confusion before getting himself out of the bathroom and closes the door behind him. He creases his forehead for a nanosecond, then he decides to shrug it off.

Inside the bathroom, Nayoung is still deep in her thoughts. She’s back to staring at the reflection of her brown eyes as if a movie were playing in it. She quickly snaps into realization. She pats her cheeks for a few times to get a grip of herself, only to frown again. It goes on and on like this since she woke up this morning. She even woke up before her alarm could ring.

Last night... was it real? The question keeps bouncing back and forth in her head and disturbs her brain from functioning properly.

She feels weird. She could clearly feel his warm arms around her. But was it all just a dream? She’s been dreaming about him for countless times, she doubts that this time it was real.

She trails her eyes to her clothes. She is wearing that white knitted sweater just like what she remembers. She’s not sure whether or not it was only a dream, but she remembers walking to a convenient store and running into Hyukjae there. They had several talks before walking to a park and... crying their hearts out.

But it’s almost impossible. One minute he was only an imagination but the next he was literally there. Or was it just her imagination again?

“Aish.” She ruffles her hair in both confusion and annoyance.

Confused whether or not she really was only envisioning him there. Annoyed because it would be so pathetic if it was merely an imagination.

But it felt all too real. His warmth, his touch, his hug, she’s sure she felt them last night. She blushes at the thought, but the crimson color quickly disappears when she remembers she woke up this morning on her own bed, not at the park and not with him. Which makes her doubt the validity of her memories. Her head could have created another imagination about something that she hoped was real.

With a sigh, she shakes her head a bit violently and makes her way to the bathtub. She tapped the faucet on to fill up the bathtub with warm water. She really needs to clear her mind now.

Daeyoung bites on his toast as he fixes his eyes on his sister. He observes her every movement, which all she does is only poking on her breakfast with a fork. She looks lost. The Kang siblings are having a quiet breakfast today. The maids lining up by the end of the long dining table would exchange glances once in a while. The air feels so dull.

But the seconds tick by. Daeyoung has it enough. “Yah quit it.” He finally speaks.

Nayoung lifts her head from her plate. “What?”

“I said quit it.” He hisses, pointing at her face with the slice of toast in his hand.

Nayoung turns her head to her left and right, verifying that he really is talking to her. “...me?”

“No, I’m talking to the wall behind you.” he retorts sardonically. “Of course you! Gosh Kang Nayoung come back to earth.”

“...Neh?” she raises her brows.

“Stop frowning!” he cries. The maids almost jump at the volume of his voice.

“Uh, okay.” She nods quietly and returns to forking her breakfast.

Daeyoung lets out a harsh sigh and wipes his mouth with a white napkin placed beside his eating utensils. “The meeting for today is important, Nayoung-ah. You’re the head of this division so please focus on it.” He gives her an authoritative stare. “You know who we’ll be meeting, right?”

Her eyes widen at the scrambled eggs on her plate before she looks at him under her lashes. She is alarmed. She knows. But she’s still nervous. “LJS... Construction.”

“Right.” Daeyoung nods firmly. “Don’t involve anything on this, okay? Business is business. Nothing else should be involved.”

Nayoung gulps her saliva and nods again. LJS Construction... President Lee Hyukjae. She doesn’t know how to face him after the scenes that constantly play in her head.

Both Nayoung and Daeyoung made it to the front of the meeting room with Secretary Kim blabbering about the project all the way. Secretary Kim drove them to the office and he kept telling them about the details of the project’s main concept and all, until they arrived at the office. In front of them is a pair of tall doors leading to the meeting room.

“...so I think the manifestation of the project is going to be started at least two weeks from now. We need their agreement though, but my source said that LJS had prepared it propitiously. Further details will be explained by their spokesman.” Secretary Kim ends his little speech with a smile and bows to the siblings.

Daeyoung nods and pats his shoulder. “Good. You’ve worked hard.”

“Ah, thank you, President.” He bows once again before ordering two workers to open the double doors. A vast meeting room is soon revealed with people in black suits and white dress shirts in it.

One of them is Hyukjae. Nayoung, all too quickly meets eyes with him, and he flashes her a gentle smile. A warm feeling surges through her body. Her heart starts picking up its speed, the scene of her in his embrace playing again in her head. She flushes.

She stands a bit behind Daeyoung as he begins to walk toward his best friend. Both his and her secretaries line up behind them. She follows her brother and they stop right in front of Hyukjae. Daeyoung smiles politely and stretches out his hand.

“Good morning, Mr. Lee.” Daeyoung speaks formally. Nayoung blinks a couple of times and looks up at her brother. Then at Hyukjae. They don’t seem like they’ve known each other for a very long time. They seem like... only business partners. Why is that?

“Good morning, Mr. Kang.” Hyukjae shakes his hand, equally civillized. Tens of eyes are on the two young business men the whole time.

“I’m sorry I couldn’t attend the last meeting. I was in a business trip.” Daeyoung flashes him a mischievous grin that only Hyukjae can tell.

Hyukjae keeps his calm expression when in reality he has the compulsion to whack his head hard. Of course, you left me no choice but to meet your sister that unexpected day, you idiot. “It’s okay. I understand.”

“Did my sister do well at the meeting?” Daeyoung inquires. Is he teasing him or what?

Hyukjae glances at Nayoung over her brother’s shoulder with a smile. “She did well.” He nods.

Nayoung blushes and feels more than relieved that Hyukjae didn’t mention about her running away from the meeting room that day. But he looks like a stranger again today. He acts exactly the same as how he did on their first meeting. Why? Was her conversation with him last night really just a dream?

“Ah, I’m relieved then.” Daeyoung laughs oddly. “Now let’s get started with the meeting, shall we?”

The meeting goes with Nayoung unconsciously tuning out the spokesman. Her attention is on Hyukjae all the time. Not because he looks outstandingly good just by sitting in a simple black suit – but because he looks extremely, extremely tired.

Seems like he’s zoning out, too. His head keeps nodding off and his eyes are red. Nayoung remembers that he did look exhausted last night at the park - despite of the ambiguity of the memory. From across his desk, she notices his eyelids close off a few times but he would force it open right after. He keeps downing the mineral water in front of him. Sometimes he would catch her staring at him too. Every time he does, he only smiles at her and returns his attention to the presentation screen.

Nayoung sighs heavily. One, because Hyukjae looks foreign again. Two, because Hyukjae looks really tired and it worries her so badly.

The meeting continued just like that until it was dismissed. As a formality, the siblings walked Hyukjae off to the elevator. Daeyoung and Hyukjae had some casual talks about the project, but they’re still using honorific. Which is suspicious.

“See you at the next meeting.” Daeyoung bows to Hyukjae after shaking his hand and thanking him for the presentation.

Nayoung stares at the scene in front of her with a dumbfounded face. Usually her brother and Hyukjae would be smacking each other’s head and laughing like two maniacs but here they are now, politely smiling and shaking hands. Yes, they're now adults. But this is way too abnormal.

Hyukjae bows to him as well and gets into the elevator. His secretary presses the floor button and as the doors close, Hyukjae makes sure he sends Nayoung a firm smile until the elevator is closed shut.

The smile was, of course, disarming, as usual. But did he really just smile at her? Nayoung is left stupefied. It makes her confused. One minute he was a stranger but the next he was flashing a warm, meaningful smile like a beaming sunlight. Was last night a dream or not? Why so enigmatic, Lee Hyukjae?

The meeting has been ended half an hour ago but Nayoung’s head is still filled with that certain person. She shook her head multiple times to get rid of his face in her mind, to no avail. After some time, she gives up. She lets him to linger in her thought, even though that means she can’t focus on the paper works sitting neatly on her desk.

She rests her chin on her hands and stares blankly on the spotless marble floor. Her mind is everywhere but here now. The sound of knocking on the door to her office wakes her up from her little trance.

She straightens her body a bit. “Come in.” She calls out.

The door slowly opens, revealing not her secretary, not Jinhee, but someone that’s been distracting her thoughts. Her eyes widen as she feels her breath hitch. Even the tips of her fingers get stiffened.

“Hello again,” Hyukjae chuckles softly. A warm smile is painted on his face, his eyes shimmering. It’s a simple smile but it’s more than enough to light up her world.

Nayoung doesn’t realize her jaw has dropped on the floor. Seriously. One minute he’s a stranger but the next he's smiling sweetly and showing up in front of her office. A cute, middle-sized pink ribboned box in his arm. Nayoung hears the back of her head screaming once again; Why so enigmatic, Lee Hyukjae?