Jessica rummaged around in her bed, opening one eye and keeping another closed to leisurely take a peek at the clock, hoping that there’d still be another 10-15 minutes before the alarm went off. It was 8:30. “Crap!” she shouted. She could’ve sworn that she set the alarm last night. She was going to be late for work. She didn’t know why she didn’t hear the alarm go off – it’s just her luck, she thought.

 

 She got out of bed and ran towards the door. At the same time she opened her door, the door opposite of hers opened. His disheveled hair emerged from behind the door as he opened it, his eyes groggily staring back at her.

 

They both looked towards the direction of the bathroom and back at each other. Almost as if they read each other’s minds, they both made a run towards the bathroom. Since he was far more athletic than her, he swiftly slid into the doorway and blocked it with his body by spreading his arms to prevent Jessica from getting in.

 

“YAH! JIYONG! I have work in half an hour, I’m going to be late!” she shouted angrily. “Let me use the bathroom first.”

 

“Looks like there was a power outage last night, my alarm didn’t go off,” Jiyong informed her. “And, I have work at 9:00. I’m going to be late if I don’t use the bathroom first.”

 

“But it’s my first day of work!” Jessica yelled. “I can’t be late.”

 

“And what makes you think I can?” Jiyong retorted.

 

Frustrated, she tried to push him out of the way and get around him. However, as soon as her fingers made contact with his body, she takes a step back in shock and looks down at the ground. She was so preoccupied with the fact that she was going to be late, she hadn’t realized that he was shirtless. She could feel the temperature in her cheeks rising. She knew her cheeks were turning a shade of red now.

 

Jiyong smirked as soon as he noticed and , “What’s wrong? You should realize that I always sleep shirtless by now.” 

 

“Whatever, just hurry up and use the bathroom since you’re not going to budge,” Jessica told him in an annoyed tone, trying to avoid making eye contact – or any contact with his exposed body.  She pushed him into the bathroom and closed the door behind him, rushing him to hurry up.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Jessica ran to the bus stop. She missed the earlier bus, so she had to wait for the next bus to come. She dropped herself on the long, black bench. She let out a sigh as she saw that there was no one else around her waiting for the bus. “They were probably all already at their work,” she thought. “It was almost 9, she was the only one running late.” She took out her phone to text Seunghyun as she waited. 

 

Seunghyun oppa! You stayed overnight at work last night?

 

Within a couple seconds, she received a reply.

 

Yeah, I had to finish my proposal. Good luck on your first day. Remember, I’m here if anyone tries to bully you for being a newbie. Fighting! :)   

 

A smile formed on her face. She could always count on Seunghyun to have her back.

 

Who do you think I am? I’m not going to let anyone take advantage of me! You watch out for yourself, ahjussi. It’s

not good for your body to be working all night like that.Take a rest when you have time! ^___^

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Jiyong was sitting in his car, waiting at the intersection for the stoplight to turn green. He didn’t know what the kids were going to say if he turned up late. He was the director afterall. He had an example to set. His eyes fidgeted around. He sat anxiously; waiting for the red light to disappear and turn green so could get to work faster.

 

He glanced to his right side and back to the light. However, something caught his eye and he looked to his right again. She was sitting on the long, black bench all by herself waiting for the bus. He rolled his passenger window down and was about to call out to her, but he realized he would’ve been late if he took her to wherever she worked. He rolled his passenger window back up and was snapped out of his train of thought when the car behind him honked at him, signaling the light had already turned green.

 

He took another curious glance to the right, at her again, before he drove off. The weird thing was, she wasn’t angry and frustrated like she was this morning. No. She had a smile on her face while looking at her phone. “I wonder who she’s texting,” he thought.

Choi Seunghyun. Does that name sound like it belongs to an ahjussi to you? >:O But, this handsome man will listen to you and take a nap to rest now. I'll see you at home later! 

 

Handsome man? I think someone needs to get their eyes checked :P My Seunghyun oppa listens

so well hehe. My bus is also here now. I’ll talk to you later. Have a nice nap ^^

 

Jessica looked up and saw the bus stopping in front of her. She grabbed her bag and got into the bus. Luckily, since she was late, there was practically no one on the bus and she had plenty of empty seats. The smile on her face faded when she remembered she was going to be late to work on her first day.

 

Jiyong was someone that stressed highly on punctuality. He was usually on time for everything and he didn’t want to wait on people if they’re going to be late. This meant that he expected the workers to be on time every single day, as well as himself since he had to set a model for them as the director.

 

He looked at his clock. “9:10,” he groaned. That was still 10 minutes late, something that rarely ever happens for him. The only time he’s ever late for work is when he was forced to stay home because he was sick but still snuck to work later or back when he dated Kiko and she made him come to her house to personally see her outfit for the day. This time it wasn’t because of either of those reasons.

 

“Well, well, well,” a spirited, young man with his hair slicked back and eyebags that seemed to have a life of its own welcomed Jiyong with his voice. “Look who’s finally here. You don’t look sick, director, so what happened? Kiko-shi and you had a good morning I take it?”

 

Jiyong flinched at the sound of her name. She used to come in and out of the office, hence why the workers knew about their relationship. The spirited, young man ignored his co-workers who were shushing him and telling him to be quiet.

 

 “There was a power outage at my apartment this morning., so the alarm didn’t go off,” Jiyong simply stated, ignoring what the guy had said, before walking into his own personal office.

 

As soon as she entered the workplace, all eyes were on her. She quickly bowed to everyone, hoping they’d return their focus to their task at end if she greeted them. Nope. They continued looking at her.

 

“Are you the new addition to our team?” a seemingly animated guy with a grin on his face stood up and asked her.

 

She simply nodded and introduced herself to everyone, “I’m Jessica Jung. It’s nice to meet you guys.”

 

“You’ve got some guts, coming in late for your first day of work,” the guy said.

 

“Stop scaring her,” a pretty girl with sleek, black hair nudged him and walked up to Jessica to introduce herself. “It’s nice to meet you. I’m Kwon Yuri.”

 

“But, hyung, you agree with me right?” the animated guy now turned to shout across the room to another guy, who had a large smile and ears that seemed to want to fly off the sides of his head. “It takes guts to come in late to work, not to mention someone’s first day.”

 

The guy with the large smile and ears took his turn to walk up to Jessica. “I’m Taecyeon. Just ignore him, he likes to talk a lot. You’ll get used to it.”

 

“Hyung! What’s that supposed to mean?” the animated and confident aura about the guy now disappeared.

 

“That’s Seungri, by the way. The one that keeps blabbing away,” Yuri introduced him to Jessica.

 

Seungri’s head perked up as soon as he heard his name. He made his way to Jessica and stuck his hand out to formally introduce himself, “You can call me Seungri-oppa.” 

 

“You look younger than me. I think I’d be your noona,” she shook the hand he stuck out. “Nice try though.”

 

Yuri and Taecyeon tried to stifle their laugh, only to earn a glare by Seungri.

 

“But, you were still late today,” Seungri brought up again. “The director hates it when people come in late.”

 

“It’s 9:15 though, I was only 15 minutes late,” Jessica tried to reason. “There was a power outage at my apartment, so my alarm didn’t go off.”

 

“Interesting,” Seungri raised one of his eyebrows. “Our director said the exact same thing when he came in late.”

 

“You guys probably live in the same neighborhood!” Yuri guessed.

 

When Jessica was about to open to ask a question, a thin voice interrupted their conversation.

 

“What’s everyone doing standing up?” the woman she had seen the last time she was here questioned. “Get back to work!”

 

“It’s Dara-shi, right?” Jessica walked towards her with a warm smile on her face as everyone else suddenly shifted their focus back to their work. “It’s nice to see you again. I’m here to report for work today.”

 

Before Dara could reply, a recognizable voice struck the air as the door to the director’s office directly to her right opened, “Secretary Park, can you –“

 

Jessica’s eyes bulged out as soon as her eyes landed on the figure walking out. The black suit, the gelled hair, the chiseled face, the husky voice – all too familiar. It was as if she had seen all of this just this morning, literally.

 

Jessica noticed Dara looking at Jiyong with curiosity since he stopped his sentence midway. Now, she noticed that the rest of her co-workers joined as spectators when they saw Jiyong shift his position to face Jessica. It made her feel uncomfortable.

 

“Yah, what are you –“ Jiyong began to ask.

 

“It’s nice to meet you, sir,” Jessica cut him off before he could say anything, yet again, and extended her hand as she put on a smile. “I was accepted through the online interview.”

 

“Sir. Sir? Sir?!” he replayed the word in his head that came out of and ignored everything else. Who does she think she’s speaking to, making him feel so old? He might be a workaholic, but he’s still young and wild – or that was at least what he would like to believe.

 

He just stood there and stared at her, furrowing his eyebrows. He didn’t expect to see her here and, not only was she pretending that she has never met him before, she was talking to him so formally that it made him feel old. He left her standing their awkwardly as she held her position with her hand still sticking out, waiting for him to return the handshake.

 

“I feel like I’ve met you before,” he decided to play along as he began to and shook her hand. “But, no, that couldn’t have been you. You seem much too nice and polite to be that barbaric girl I met.”

 

Jessica gave him a small, forced smile. She wanted to say something back so badly, but she held it in. “Yes, it couldn’t have been me. I would’ve remembered if I met someone like you, you would leave such a strong impression on people.”

 

 “Is that so?” Jiyong smirked.

 

Before he could say another word, his secretary chimed in. “Miss Jung here was late today, Director.”

 

 “She could’ve just let it go and let me off, yet she decides to rat me out when he wasn’t even asking,” Jessica thought bitterly as she looked at Dara.

 

“Is that so?” Jiyong repeated himself.

 

Jessica looked down at the ground. “I’m sorry, I won’t be late again. It was just, unforeseen circumstances at my home caused me to be late.”

“She had a power outage that caused her to be late like you too, director!” Seungri’s big mouth blurted out even though he was supposed to be doing his work.

 

“I see…” Jiyong stated. “That’s still no excuse for being late. I stress heavily on punctuality and I plan to enforce it.”

 

“C’mon, director,” this time, Taecyeon voiced out. “It’s her first day, let her off the hook.”

 

Jessica looked to the side to give Taecyeon a small smile. She appreciated that he tried to help her out.

 

“I probably would have if it was the first time,” Jiyong’s voice caused her to look back up at him. “But I was told she was late when she came to pick up the files to start work last time too.”

 

Jessica looked over at Dara. That was the only person in the office that day she came. “But that’s because the jerkface –“ she began to raise her voice as she remembered that she was late because she ran into him, unfortunately, that day but stopped herself when she realized where she was.

 

Jiyong’s right eyebrow perked up at the sound of her raising her voice, as did everyone else’s. She lowered her head and admitted that there was no way out of this today. She would just have to accept that it was just her luck.

 

“Nevermind. I’ll accept that it’s my fault I was late. What do I get? A warning?” She asked as she lowered her head.

 

“No. I’m not that evil of a director,” Jiyong spoke with a smile on his face. “Here we just don’t let the worker go out for their lunch break if they’re late.” 

 

Jessica looked up at him as soon as those words left his mouth and stared at him with disbelief. “No lunch? But I didn’t even get to eat breakfast this morning because I overslept,” she thought as she let out a sigh.

 

“Fine,” she interjected. “But I guess that means the both of us won’t be able to go out for our lunch breaks since you were late too.”

 

The others stared at her, aghast. They were shocked by the audacity of this young girl for talking to their director like this. It’s not that she was even being rude, but the fact that she spoke to him as if she had no fear. She wasn’t scared of him and she sure as hell didn’t look like she was going to back down.

 

Jiyong hadn’t expected that. He ignored her, instead, and said, “Get back to work everyone!” He gestured for them to turn around and shift their focus back to their work as he returned to his office.

Jessica settled herself down in her own cubicle. She was officially a member of the PR & Marketing Team at Kwon Industries, the biggest Architecture and Construction Company in Korea. She had her own computer, her own phone, and her own desk – a small space just to herself for work. She smiled as she opened the file that was placed on her desk.

 

Choi Dongwook,” Jessica read aloud as soon as she saw the first line inside the file she had just opened. Jessica had read about him in the documents that Dara had given Jessica last week. Those documents were starting to make sense now. He was the owner of a chicken chain restaurant that was very famous and attracted tourists from all over the world.

 

Jessica guessed that she had been too preoccupied of reading the files that time passed by so quickly. Her co-workers were already starting to leave for their lunch break.

 

“I’ll bring something back for you!” Yuri snapped Jessica out of her train of thought as she shouted to her on her way out. Jessica gave her a small smile to thank her for her kindness.

 

Since she was all alone in the office, she decided to check her phone.

 

1 NEW MESSAGE

- TIFFANY HWANG

 

“How’s your first day of work going, dear? Hope it’s going well! ^^”

                                                           

“Kill me now, Tiff! It’s only my first day and I’m already stuck here all alone without a lunch break.”

 

“Why? What happened?”

 

“Did you know we lived in such a small world this? You wouldn’t believe who my evil boss is :’( ”

 

“Tell me about your evil boss next time! I have to get back to work now, ttyl.

Have fun (:”

 

“Evil, huh?” she heard a low voice emerge from behind her. She jumped up from the shock, causing herself to lose balance and falling out of her chair.

 

“Yah, why are you always falling out of your chair?” he asked as he held her up. “You just want to act like the damsel in distress so I can help you, huh?”

 

 “Please, Jiyong-shi. Don’t flatter yourself, ” She rolled her eyes and retorted as she glared at him. “Why are you always popping up when someone isn’t expecting it?”

 

He chuckled at the sight of her being angry as he moved the chair in the cubicle next to her closer and took a seat in it. “Hey, I was kind enough to bring you food,” he said as he held up the box of food to her eye-level.

 

Jessica’s eyes brightened as soon as she heard the word “food.” She was about to take the box out of his hands but hesitated, “Wait… didn’t you say I don’t get my lunch break since I’m late? Why’d you’ bring me food? Did you poison it?” She eyed him suspiciously.

 

“ I never said you couldn’t have your lunch break. I just said you couldn’t GO OUT for your lunch break,” Jiyong defended himself. “But, fine. If you don’t want it, then more for me.”

 

Jessica reached over for the box of food as he stretched his arm out to get it further from her reach. “No, I was just kidding! I’m starving, thanks for the food!” She said as she gave him a big, forced smile. She began to munch away on the kimbaps.

 

She looked up to see Jiyong staring at her. “You didn’t have breakfast either. You should eat too,” she said as she took a piece and shoved it in his mouth.

 

Jiyong was flusted at the sudden contact she made with him. He looked at her with curiosity as he slowly chewed on the gigantic piece of kimbap she stuffed in his mouth.

 

After a short moment of silence he finally spoke, “If you told me you were going to work here, I could’ve given you a ride this morning you know.”

 

“If you told me you worked here, I could’ve asked you for a ride you know,” she turned his sentence around back at him.

 

“Point taken,” he acknowledged. “Why’d you pretend you didn’t know me anyways?” The company doesn’t forbid you from knowing your co-workers or boss or anything like that.”

 

Jessica stopped eating and placed the piece of kimbap she was holding down. She looked up at him slowly. Her eyes met his and their eyes locked for a minute as he was waiting for an answer while she tried to think of an explanation.

 

“I don’t know… It’s just, I guess people will always say something if you know the boss or if you are connected to them in some way,” she said in a sad tone, almost a whisper. “And it’s just not a nice feeling when people are talking about you in that way.”

 

Jiyong stared at her. This was the first time she’s shown this side of herself to him – a softer, more vulnerable side. For some reason, she sounded so genuinely sad and it made him curious.

 

Her attention returned to the kimbaps as she picked up the piece she had just placed down to finish it. He sensed the seriousness and tension building inside of her so he broke it by shouting, “Oh yeah, remember to never call me “Sir” ever again. That’s gross!”

 

Jessica laughed. “Okay, Jiyong-shi.”

 

That was still formal, but at least it was a vast improvement from “sir.” And that was the first civil conversation they’ve probably had since they first met.  

 

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A/N: Hi guys! I just finished my midterm exam yesterday. I don't think I did too well, I want to cry T_____T But finishing and putting this chapter up made me happier lol. Oh and don't know if you guys know, but GD won the Style Icon of the Year Award so congrats to him! He's the youngest to ever win the award alone :) I wish Jessica attended too, but Sooyoung and Sunny were also at the event so I wonder if they told Jessica about seeing GD there ;) AND Big Bang is confirmed to attend MAMA next month! I'm so excited. I hope SNSD will confirm their appearance at MAMA soon too. Then we'll finally see Soshibang at the same event ^_____^ I already planned out the next one, but I have midterms next week as well... so hopefully I'll have it up by next weekend :) Anyways, I hope you enjoy this chapter!