It was a Monday morning, the start of a new day on a new week. For those with activities like going to school or work, they would wake up early to get ready so they wouldn’t arrive late and suffer the consequences. For mothers and wife, they would wake up even earlier to make sure their husbands or children are not racing against the time. Everyone is busy.

Including me.

I was standing in front of a full-sized mirror with an unfinished tie around my neck. I took a deep breath as I gripped on my tie. I was restless because of my dream last night. I have never been like this before but maybe it was because it involved one of my female co-workers. Unfortunately as I tried to recall how it actually went, it got more blurry. All I remembered was that she had long hair and was quite tall.

I shook my head because wondering about it would get me in trouble if I was late to work. As soon as I finished getting ready, I checked myself on the mirror once again. I went down the stairs to get to the small dining room near the kitchen. Despite the time, it was already filled with my three noisy housemates. Even though they just woke up, they sounded like they’ve been up for hours.

“Good morning, hyung.”

I just nodded as I walked to the kitchen to pour myself some coffee. It was thankfully already brewed by one of them. I didn’t have to wait for the coffee maker to be done because I was in a hurry.

“You look terrible.”

With a half empty glass on my hand, I walked back to the dining room where my friends were sitting and currently waiting for my comeback. I took a sip before replying, “I had a weird dream last night.”

“What was it about?”

I took a seat between my housemates and put the glass on the table. “I was inside some room, wearing a formal suit. There was my female co-worker in front of me and we were talking about something. Then, all of the sudden, I kissed her.”

For a while, none of us said anything. It was quiet. I was staring at my cup of coffee because I knew how ridiculous the dream was and that everyone was looking at me with a surprised expression.

“You know, people say that whatever happens in our dream won’t happen in real life,” said Jungshin, initiating a conversation. “Only the opposites happen.”

“And some people also say that when you dream of someone, that same person would somehow dream of you too,” this time it was Minhyuk. “How freaky is that?”

“Do you know who this co-worker was, hyung?” Jonghyun asked, ignoring the younger ones.

I shook my head. “Not a clue. I only know that she was tall and had long hair.” I then took a glance at the clock hanging on the wall not too far from us. “Okay, I’m running late.” I chugged the rest of the liquid down until there’s nothing left and placed the glass above the table none too gently. “Got to go.”

“But you have so much time to spare,” Minhyuk said, his eyes following where I was going. “What’s so interesting at the office so early in the morning?”

Before I could answer his question, someone else responded, “You don’t know?”

“I don’t know either.”

I turned around and saw that Jungshin was gasping for air, as if he was drowning (I might have exaggerated a bit). He looked like he was freaking out that he was the only one of the three who knew the reason why I go to the office early. I rolled my eyes as he grabbed his friends’ arms and shook his head vigorously.

“Why do you know?”

“Hyung told me,” Jungshin replied.

“Nobody told anyone anything,” I corrected him. In reality, he didn’t have a clue. I glared at my housemates, hopefully getting the idea that I would not tell any of them anytime soon. Without saying another word, I turned around and dashed to the front door to grab my bag before wearing my shoes and going out the door. I heard them arguing among themselves but I simply ignored them as the door behind me closed.

During my quick journey to the office, I couldn’t help but replay what my housemates have said about the dream. I’ve heard Jungshin’s so-called theory once before that whatever happens in a dream would not happen in real life. One time, I had a dream that I failed my final exam and I couldn’t graduate. It was a horrible nightmare and it took me the whole day to stop thinking about it. In the end, I did surprisingly well and graduated with honours.

The other theory about someone having the same dream was new to me. I have never heard of it before and I found it interesting. What if it was actually true that one of my co-workers had a dream about me last night? But the problem was: how would I know who this co-worker was?

Less than an hour later, I finally reached my destination. The roads were surprisingly still empty so I arrived at the same time as I normally do. I could still catch her before she went up the stairs.

This old habit of mine started when I saw her on my first day in the office. It happened less than a year ago and I could still remember it vividly.

I was with the HR manager, introducing myself around the employees in the building. When I passed by her department for the first time, the glass door was closed because I was told they were having a meeting. There were ten people in total and less than half were women. I took a peek at the small gap on the door that’s not blurred. They were so focused on the board in front of them that I could only see their side profiles. And one of them looked extremely stunning.

For several minutes, I couldn’t take my eyes off of her. I was just standing there, staring at her like she was a movie playing on the TV. It was as if she was the only person in the room and I was outside just by myself. It sounded overdramatic, but that was only realised a few days afterwards.

The HR manager had to call my name more than once to get me out of that state. I gulped and cleared my throat, hoping that she wouldn’t know who I was ogling. We then continued our stroll until I was finally settled on my own department where I would work.

I later found out her name through my co-workers. They said that she has only started working a month ago but she was so diligent that she would finish her tasks before they were due. People love her because she’s really nice. Although, she’s kind of reserved.

One day, I was taking a walk upstairs because I arrived at the office much earlier than usual. I went to that floor hoping to find some company as being alone in my own department was eerie even if it’s morning. I ended up going to the top floor and found the janitor cleaning up. We started chatting and he told me a lot of things about this office.

A few minutes later, employees were starting to arrive. I decided to go back to my floor because as fun as it was to talk with a janitor, I was sure I was holding him up from his job. And that’s when I saw her. I was going down the stairs, she up. She was looking down as if to see whether her feet were working properly. I had never talked to her before so I didn’t greet her a good morning. I just simply let her walk up the rest of the stairs, staring at her retreating steps.

I found her mesmerising, just from her side profile. That was the closest I had ever been with her and I was already captivated. It was crazy to say the least. But that was when I decided to arrive early so that I could catch her going up the stairs. And I have never talked to her on that specific spot until now.

I immediately placed my bag on my cubicle and checked my watch. I still got time to freshen up before going to the stairs. Whistling, I made my way to the toilet feeling ridiculously happy for some reason. I have never failed to miss this ‘meeting’, so this sudden happiness that came out of nowhere was a surprise to me.

That was why I came up with a resolution: to get the courage to say something to her.

Checking my watch again, I smiled at my own reflection and nodded. It’s now or never, I told myself. I could either just stare at her or actually start a conversation. I settled on the former because it was ‘the’ day, I could feel it.

I exited the toilet and made my way towards the back stairs where I would go up and pretend that I was just taking a stroll before work started. As usual there were not that many people so I didn’t have to strike a conversation. It’s not that I dislike talking to my co-workers. I just wanted to talk to her first, for some reason.

Once I arrived at the other stairs where she usually goes up, I took a look around the second floor as I waited for her. If it wasn’t for the fact that there was light shining from the ceiling to floor windows, it would be quite creepy because of the silence and emptiness. It’s an old building and I’ve heard that my co-workers have seen things when they’re still at the office in the evening. I haven’t seen anything peculiar and I’m not planning to.

Shivers running down my spine, I suddenly heard a familiar sound: shoes clicking on the ground. She’s here! It brought a smile to my face and so I started going down the stairs, calming myself because I didn’t want to look desperate to see her. That was the last thing I wanted.

As usual, she was looking at her shoes. Instead of just letting her go, this time I purposely stopped in front of her since I knew she wasn’t quite aware of her surroundings. But as I saw her almost falling down the stairs, I realised that it was the wrong decision. I should have waited until we were on the same ground.

I immediately caught her arms before something terrible happened to her. She had her confused look on her face before it quickly changed to a nervous one as I saw her eyes suddenly widen looking up at me. I felt her figure turn rigid and I had to bite the inside of my cheeks so I wouldn’t laugh.

“Are you okay?” I managed to ask her.

For a while, she just stared at me and said nothing. My guess was she was too shocked to do anything, if I could be so bold. In the end though, she nodded as a response which made me smile because I thought she looked adorable.

“Great to hear,” I replied before remembering that we were currently in a literally dangerous situation. “Ah, we have to get you safe and sound.” Still hanging onto her arms, I walked backwards until we were both on the same level. “Here we are.”

She once again just nodded.

Assuming that was a sign for thank you, I smiled and said, “See you around, Seohyun-ssi.” I bowed and let her go. I fought with myself not to do anything else because that was by far already the boldest thing I’ve ever done and settled with leisurely (hopefully) go down the stairs to go back to my workspace.

The rest of the day went by smoothly and really well, just because of that one incident. It went even better when I found out that we had a meeting with everyone in the building and I used that opportunity to get her to sit right beside me. I put a pocket book on her seat so nobody would take it. Nevertheless, I still had to tell some people off. I might have embarrassed myself in doing so, but I couldn’t care less. It was worth it.

All of the sudden, it was time to go home. Just like the morning, I had to rush so I wouldn’t miss her. Thankfully, I finished everything for the day on time and nobody asked me anything why I was in a hurry. It’s not like I excused myself early.

With a spring on my step, I walked out of the office. I couldn’t help but smile for the journey to the bus stop. And what I saw next – or rather, whom I saw next – made my grin even wider. Right ahead of me, just a few metres away, was the object of my affection. She wouldn’t have to turn around or even say anything; I could recognise her back even from afar based on months of watching.

That’s when I realised something, to the point of stopping in the middle of the road. She has long hair and is quite tall, just like the girl in my dream. The more I let this realisation sink in, the more convinced I was. What if…?

My head tilted to the left slightly feeling rather confused, I continued my walk behind her. She was almost out of my sight so I hurried my steps. I even managed to cross the street at the same time as her, even though I had to run a bit because the pedestrian light suddenly turned red. I was panting as I watched her standing at the end of the bench.

I really should exercise more.

I took several deep breaths before I made my appearance beside her. I usually just stood at the other side of the bus stop. But because of the dream, it intrigued me: what if it was actually her? And even if it wasn’t, there’s nothing wrong with chatting with her.

I smiled before opening my mouth to strike a conversation, “Oh Seohyun-ssi, we meet again.”

She blinked and looked up from her left where she’s been staring at some people over there. She widened her eyes as if shocked to see me. “Yonghwa-ssi, y-you’re here.”

“As always,” I said and made my way to stand beside her. “Why do you look so surprised?”

“But I’ve never seen you before today.”

Of course not, I thought. I smiled and shrugged my shoulders. She didn’t have to know that. At least not yet, anyway.

So instead, I asked her this, “Do you maybe want to get dinner someday?”

It was the longest pause I have ever experienced. A lot of things ran in my head in that moment; two of which were: she might reject me politely like the nice woman she was or she might do it looking disgusted. I shouldn’t have asked her that question. She looked burdened.

But finally she answered, “Yes, that would be nice.” A smile then appeared on her lovely face.

I felt like jumping and running on the street. I felt like dancing in front of everybody. I felt like pumping my fist in the air. But I settled with grinning (and biting my bottom lip to avoid doing all of those things mentioned) and nodding at her acceptance.

She might be the girl on my dream, or she might not. But I really didn’t care. She agreed to have a date with me. That’s good enough. I would let everything go with the flow. And maybe, just maybe, we would have a lot of dates in future.

THE END

A/N: Hi!!! First of all, I would like to thank each and every one of you who has subscribed to this story. I wouldn't imagine that it would have 41 subscribers! The most I've had in this website. I'm sorry that I can't thank everyone. Anyway, this story only has two chapters; one is in Seohyun's POV and the other one is in Yonghwa's. I hope I don't disappoint anyone. I was going to write another chapter but somehow I couldn't get it started. So unfortunately, this is the last one. Anyway, I hope you also enjoy this one and please don't forget to comment. Thank you and see you in another story/one-shot!