FIFTEEN

Seorin cautiously made her way back to the intern office, wondering what was in store for her. She had just had the most lovey-dovey conversation of her life on the phone – and it had been with none other than Do Kyungsoo… She couldn’t deny that her heart was beating faster than normal, and she was feeling awfully anxious.
She slowly opened the door, slowly being able to see more and more of the room. Jongin and Soojung were already back from their lunch break, and she supposed Sehun was still out. She almost exhaled a loud sigh of relief when she realized Kyungsoo wasn’t back yet either. And yet he was the one who told me to hurry back…

Sehun was standing outside the office with Kyungsoo, arms crossed sternly. He was younger than Kyungsoo, but he thought of himself as far more mature. “… Explain,” he demanded.

Kyungsoo looked at him innocently. “Hm? Explain what?”

“You and Seorin.”

“… What are you talking about?”

Sehun sighed. He knew how stubborn Kyungsoo could be. “I know there’s something going on between you two,” he stated flatly. “You guys are dating, right?”

Kyungsoo decided to take this opportunity to ease Sehun into his lie as well. He seriously nodded, apologizing for not telling him earlier. “… We were trying to keep it a secret,” he lied. “Can you keep it on the down low?”

Sehun raised an eyebrow, not being able to shake off all the suspicion.

Kyungsoo gave his younger friend a small smile. “… Now I’m going to hurry inside – my girl is waiting.” It was really just an excuse to get away from any questions Sehun was prepared to throw at him, but it worked in his favor.
He barged through the door, putting on a bright grin at the sight of Seorin. “Hey, you,” he gushed.
 

Seorin gripped the edge of her seat until the ends of her fingers turned white. Kyungsoo was looking at her with absolute marvel – it was too overdone to be real, she was sure of that. She still wanted an explanation for the mushy talk on the phone, but then again, he was probably curious as to why she responded in the same way.
Is he being this sweet because he mistook my lovey-dovey speech for real feelings? That was a possibility… But if that was true, that meant he actually, really liked her. Her heart skipped a beat at the thought.
For some reason, that possibility didn’t seem all too bad.
No, no, no, she quickly scolded herself. She wasn’t supposed to be thinking that way. It’s just cause he’s good looking and has a nice voice, she tried convincing herself. You’re just being swayed by trivial things.

She noticed Sehun staring at her for a bit before quickly turning away. What was that about? But she shrugged the feeling away as she worked to finish up her project for Hades. There were only 10 days left until the presentation and although she was basically done, she still had a few finishing touches. And on top of that, she had to prepare her speech. There was still much work to be done.
Even worse, Jackal was still far from being finished. She had taken the liberty to organize the data of their previous advertising campaigns that had been very much directed to the male population. She was prepared to present those old ones in comparison to their new one, which would decidedly be oriented to females – well, Kyungsoo will do the presenting. She was just doing the work…
But she couldn’t say that she did all the work – he had helped a little. After all, he was the one who had helped her realize the way to go with this advertising project was to target the female population… Without him, she wouldn’t have stumbled along this gem of an idea.
But seriously, other than that, he has contributed zero of anything else.

If only he could come up with a truly solid slogan or method to lure in the girls… She was obviously a female herself, but she couldn’t think of anything that would truly catch her eye to make her pick Jackal over another brand like Nike or Adidas. That was the final thing they needed, more than anything else. The speech, presentation style – all those could be discussed later. For now, they just needed that one cinching slogan.

An assistant obediently delivered a tray of coffee cups to the office – paid for by Kyungsoo. He was strangely in a good mood today, but there was no way he’d admit that it was due to Seorin. Maybe she finally fell for my irresitabl