Thank You

The line in the drive-through at the McDonald’s beside the office building stretched out like a river. Luhan and I were stuck in his car, waiting behind an SUV with three children seated at the back while the line moved inch by inch. Whatever the holdup was, or how long we were taking sitting in Luhan’s car without food yet, the two of us didn’t seem to mind waiting. The air freshener that took shape as a pine tree hung by the rear view mirror and I poked at it, realizing that I haven’t been in Luhan’s car for a while. I sat at the front passenger seat beside Luhan with my head lolled to the side, almost looking like a lifeless body.

Noticing my change in mood, Luhan reached to take my hand. “Tough first day back at work?”

I couldn’t believe I could even smile because exhaustion just overtook me, but I did anyway. “Yeah...” I sat upright to look at him. “There’s a lot in my mind.”

“What are you thinking about right now?”

Answering, I didn’t have to think twice about it. “How Mrs. Kim got that promotion and moved up when she started working for Fatale later than I did, while I’m still stuck where I’ve been for so long. I’m just lingering. It’s all I seem to do now.”

He frowned at my worry. “I wasn’t going to tell you this in case the final pick wasn’t you, but,” Luhan ran his thumb over my knuckles and he stared ahead of the car, “I heard the Chief Editor is giving out one more promotion before she recruits new workers in and you were definitely a candidate on her list.”

“Really?” I didn’t think I wanted to ask who else was on the list.

“I’m serious. Honestly speaking, you have a good chance right now. If anything the Chief always went with your ideas or found some way to use it and scrapped the rest.” Leaning toward me, Luhan poked my cheek with a finger. “So lighten up, okay?”

I sat straighter in my seat, seeing us inch closer to the order box that stood at the corner of the McDonald’s. Luhan did manage to make me feel better. “Even if I do get promoted, do I still get to work with you?”

“Don’t miss that chance because of me. I don’t want to be in your way.” Luhan tugged at my hand, smiling to himself at my considerate thought anyway. “We’ll be in the same building. You’ll see me and I’ll see you.”

“That’s true.” His smile was contagious. “Are we even allowed to date? What’s the company’s policy on that?”

Luhan scoffed. “If it’s allowed or not, I wouldn’t care. I’m still going to date the heck out of you.”

I laughed at that, forgetting why I was so upset earlier. “I think they’ll make us sign a form saying our personal relationship won’t affect our work performance or something.” I shrugged, remembering someone mentioning that during a meeting so long ago, though I hadn’t thought I’d be with someone I worked with and zoned out through that topic.

“We’ll make people find out on their own,” he concluded.

The radio station had switched songs at that moment, bringing it to Troublemaker. The catchy tune of the whistling sounded and I cringed from embarrassment, remembering the last time I heard the song was in Jeju. Luhan and I practically karaoke-d in the van over it. Luhan burst into laughter immediately and I knew he was thinking the same thing.

“Sora! This song. We—”

I interrupted him with a sharp poke to his ribs. “Stop it! Don’t remind me.”

“But this song was our savior. You were practically ignoring me until this came on.”

I ducked my head, letting my hair cover my face. “You spontaneously kissed me at the villa. How could I not have been weird with you after that?”

“You liked it though! I could tell because you kissed me back and— Ow!”

He earned a slap to his arm this time. “Don’t even!”

“Fine, fine.” Muffling a laugh behind his pursed lips, Luhan carefully stepped on the gas pedal to move us ahead of the line. We were finally next while the woman in her SUV stated her order into the order box in front of us. Judging from the amount of children she had, it might take a little longer than average. “But Sekyung sent you an invite to her party this year. Didn’t you get it? I’m surprised you haven’t mentioned it yet.”

I grasped on the arm rest. “An invite? What?! I didn’t notice!”

“Are you going?”

“Of course I’m going. I heard she’s going to bring in a chocolate fountain this time.” Last year, Sekyung had brought in a wide adult-sized ball pit.

“Want me to RSVP for you when we get back?” Luhan drummed his fingers against the steering wheel.

“Yes, please. For two people, because you’re coming with me.”

“Oh really?” I could already tell that an idea had formed in his head as soon as his mischievous little smirk broke the seams of his mouth. “What if I told Sekyung that you hate her and never want to go to one her of parties again? Would you kill me?”

“If you do, I swear to God... You better be joking.” My legs thrashed around just by thinking of it. If there was a party to look forward to yearly, it was always Sekyung’s. I got the pleasure of being invited every time it happened because I’ve known her since my university days. If everyone a person knew was at her party and they weren’t, that person was practically on the D list.

“What if I do though? I’m just asking. Would you...” Luhan squinted in thought. “Would you push me out your window?”

“No.” Elbow against the armrest, I rested my cheek against my palm. “I love you too much to see you fall four floors down.”

I expected to hear a reply from Luhan that would probably make me consider thinking of something more painful to do, but it was surprisingly quiet that I was immediately suspicious. Sitting straighter, I faced Luhan to see him having to bite down his lip from smiling too much. Was there something I was missing?

I stared in curiosity. “What? What happened?”

Luhan rubbed his nape, looking at me only after swallowing and still appearing flustered for whatever reason. “Did you just say that you love me?”

My skin felt hot suddenly. “What?”

Going against the strain the seat belt across his chest was giving, Luhan turned his body until he faced me and I had all of his attention. “You did.”

“That was...”

I stared at my lap, my brain scrambling for anything I could excuse the whole thing for but at the end, there was nothing. Meeting his gaze seemed impossible.

“I did,” I admitted quietly. Because I meant it. I didn’t just like him—I loved him. And it took me until then to admit it for myself. I felt like I had wasted so much time in the past few years not being with him, because instead I chased someone that would never make me as happy as he could.

I froze as soon as I heard his seatbelt unfasten. Part of me thought that he had left the car to let me be swallowed in my own embarrassment by myself, though his voice was closer than expected when he spoke again. “Sora.”

“Mm?”

“But I wanted to say it first though.”

I looked up at his comment.

Luhan’s smoldering brown eyes were almost hypnotizing and he pressed his lips against mine firmly for a heart-pounding moment. He slightly pulled away, a light red color covering his face and the tips of his ears visibly. “I love you too,” he said. Luhan’s hot breath blew against my freshly-kissed mouth.

Ignoring the tug of my own seatbelt, I stretched to pull him back into our kiss with my fingers just resting against the side of his neck. I always thought that his plush lips were as soft as they looked.

The loud honk that sounded from the car behind us reminded me that it wasn’t just Luhan and I in the world. Our moment was cut too soon. The SUV that used to be in front of us was finished ordering a while ago. Releasing from each other in laughter, Luhan moved the car forward.

I shook the half empty box of fries in front of me and continued to devour the rest. After showing my lunch no mercy, one last chicken nugget remained out of the six to my dismay. “Could you give me the sauce?”

Luhan and I were sitting in his car on the parking lot, waiting for time to pass until we were scheduled to be back to work. I watched coworkers slowly make their way back to the building from out of the windshield.

“Do you want...” Luhan dug through the brown bag, “barbeque, sweet and sour, honey or mustard?”

I reached for a napkin. “Honey mustard.”

“I said honey or mustard. There’s no honey mustard.”

“Who dips their nuggets in mustard? Urgh.”

“Some people do.” Pulling out the honey, Luhan passed it to me and stuffed the rest of his wrappers in with the other garbage. “Just a heads up, I’m telling my friends that the wedding will be off soon.”

I suddenly felt the weight of Luhan’s ring on my finger. “Aren’t they still in Seoul?”

“Don’t worry. I’m mentioning it to them when they’re not here anymore.” Luhan stole a fry from my share and popped it into his mouth. “It’s more convenient.”

I dipped my nugget in the honey in thought, almost not noticing that Luhan stole another fry. It would have been sad if the last of his friends would remember me by was Luhan’s ex-fiancée, but it couldn’t be helped. “Before they leave... and before we tell them, could we just have a final meet-up somewhere? Like a last little gathering?” I could need to wear the ring a while longer now.

He grinned,