The stars peak through the tattered curtain into my bedroom. My pale stomach sank into the sheets that felt like the fur of a wet dog. I had been in such a rush to remake my bed that I had only left my sheets in the dryer for ten minutes. When I had arrived at my apartment building, I sprinted up the six flights of stairs with my giraffe-like legs; I sprinted back down to the basement; I shoved the cloths in the washer; I fidgeted in the corner of the laundry room for forty-five minutes, afraid that I would miss the drone that signaled the finished cleansing process and that someone would steal my sheets; I shoved the blankets in the dryer; I walked up the six flights of stairs to start boiling water on the stove; I sprinted back down to the basement, again in fear of someone stealing my precious blankets. By the time I started tucking the edges of my dog sheets into my cloud-like mattress, I was grimacing at the smell that reminded me of that wretched, wet Welsh terrier that had contaminated my hand with its nose on the way home.

Now, though, I lay on my stomach, the stench covered up by the scent of soft ramyun noodles wafting into my nostrils. My bowl sat atop a small folding table that stood at the foot of my bed. I leaned over to slurp the tangled mess of my dinner. I returned to balancing my weight between my two elbows as I surveyed the neat spreadsheets before me. With my pen, I underlined the important statistics in the droll sales report. President Kim was expecting me to hand him my analysis notes tomorrow morning. Craning my neck, I glanced at the alarm clock that was my daily rooster. The numbers that looked like tomato juice – darn, I forgot to slice tomatoes for my lunch tomorrow – read 23:00. It looks like I’d have to pull another all-nighter to complete this assignment. This was the third sleepless night of the week.

But such is the life of an intern.

If I wanted to stand a chance at being accepted to study for a graduate degree in business, the Great Kim Junmyeon’s requests must be followed through as completely as my bed was wet. This internship at Exotic, a clothing store, is what I needed to boost my acceptance into Seoul National University’s Graduate School of Business. Hoping that the ingestion of ramyun would not cause me to get droopy-eyed over the course of the night, I turned my aspiring focus to the figures on the pages.

But then I heard the beeping of the electric rooster beside my bed. After my eyelids, which felt like a tree branch being forced down to the ground by the annoying, pesky child called “Sleep,” began to sink once more, my body took on the launching power of a rocket. I shot out of bed, the dampness of the sheets present on my bare abdomen. Running my trembling fingers through my bedhead, I looked over at the empty space on my mud-colored sheets.

“W-w-where…w-wha—” I stammered as my eyes flashed rapidly around my surroundings. Where were my papers? Where were my papers that I was supposed to hand in – when did it become seven o’clock in the morning? – in one hour? I was sure that I had had that sales report right in front of me, right beside the fold-out table.

Wait a minute; didn’t I have the fold-out table in here? I ran with the speed of a cheetah into the kitchen, which lay just around the corner from my bedroom. I slipped on the hardwood floor with the gracefulness of a hippo, my tall body slamming loudly on the floor in the process. From my position, I was able to view the space between the refrigerator and the cupboard. The table was tucked away, exactly where I put it two nights before last, the last time I remember having time to prepare a modicum of food for myself.

My head cocked to the side in anxious confusion before the angel known as “Common Sense” resolved my silent questions.

It was all a dream, Chanyeol. After making my bed last night, you had just gone straight to sleep. That sales report isn’t due until the Monday morning’s meeting; you have four more days to read it. Taking a deep breath, I buried my face in my hands. My bony elbows dug into my thin thighs. I just sat in this position for a moment, tugging the skin of my face down with my hands, as if my hands hoped to pull this mask of stress off. Work began in less than an hour, and I couldn’t walk into the building with this disheveled anxiety distorting my facial features.

There was no time to sit here. I needed to put together this shattered, glassy-eyed face now. The energetic demon that had possessed me escaped my body as I stand, but reentered me once I glanced at the clock.

7:15.

“You’re still a couple minutes early, Parkie,” the secretary at the front desk, whose name I cannot recall in my rush, assured me as I sprinted through the lobby. I smiled and bowed to her, but continued my race. There was no time to rest when there are only “a couple minutes,” Secretary Person. As the elevator lifted me up to the penultimate floor, I panted at my mushy reflection off of the doors. Despite my hopes, my ruffled hair and wide, bouncy eyes conveyed the nervousness of the morning. The doors began to slide open, and once the opening was wide enough for my lanky frame, I slithered through like a skinny snake and galloped with the speed of a frightened horse to the clear doors of the office area. Breathing deeply, I entered the crowded room of cubicles.

7:59.

The demon exhaled out of my body for the time being. I swiped my intern identification card through the slot that recorded my arrival.

Park Chanyeol is not late.

“Hey, Parkie Channie,” my mentor, Kim Minseok, called. He waved his hand for me to approach him. “The boss wants me to bring you to his office,” he informed me with a sunny smile.

A refreshing sweat began to run down my back as I followed my senior to the office of the Great Kim Junmyeon. After the race across Seoul on that June morning, the sweat was slightly comforting. It was a signal of my efforts and of a reward for those efforts. The stress was worth it sometimes.

However, the energetic demon had a friend that sometimes took over when he wasn’t around: the worrisome warlock. Doubt instilled itself in my mind, and my legs became increasingly shaky, like a Jenga tower on its last foundation block. But I continued to follow and fiddled my fingers behind my mentor. I didn’t stop. There was no time to stop. If I didn’t enter the office at the same time as Minseok, both he and the chairman would know of my reservations.

Suddenly, Minseok turned into a room. Not noticing, I continued to walk and fiddle. Just as I passed the doorway, Minseok grasped my elbow, which was at his chest level, and sharply pulled me through. Bowing slightly in thanks, I bit my lip in an attempt to prevent my thin, dry lips from curving into a nervous smile. I caught my breath before the worrisome warlock could push out a weak giggle.

“Well, if it isn’t my productive Park Chanyeol,” Chairman Kim greeted with a friendly grin. Minseok lightly shoved me forward with a gingerly pat. My teeth dug into my lip even further, this time to try to quell the quavering goblin that took the place of the previous enemy in my body. I inched my way to the monstrous desk. As I did, I noticed the presence of another brown-haired adult dwarfed by the desk. And I’m not referring to my short mentor, or even the chestnut-sized chairman, although the size of his desk made him look rather small as well.

To keep my hands from shaking, I clamped them into tight fists.

The boy who sat in front of the chairman’s desk was obviously shorter than me, but had locks of hair that looked like short waves of chestnut-colored bliss. I lowered my baggy, fatigued eyes to glimpse the glowing porcelain of the male’s face. Just as my eyes began to focus in on the stranger’s eyes, the unfamiliar bunny bounced to his feet and turned to face me. A bright grin radiated like the sun from behind a pair of soft lips that must have been fashioned from rose petals. Eyes holding fireworks gave me a welcoming and pleasant punch to the gut.

Well, aren’t you attractive? The roses beckoned me to smile back with my bitten, stubborn lips that had only enough energy to lift halfway. Screw you for being so gosh-freaking energetic and pretty at eight in the morning.

“This is Byun Baekhyun, our new intern. He’s here on a six-month internship, just like you,” Chairman Kim explained. “since you’ve been here for a month, I was hoping you would work with Baekhyunnie. You know, to show him the ropes.”

Instinctively, I began to nod. Wait…Why do I have to take him on? Shouldn’t his mentor be in charge of him? This weary tower of an intern paused. I opened my mouth to speak.

“Excuse me,” a throaty, yet smooth voice interjected beside me. I watched in awe as the confident boy of shorter stature spoke in his comforting, tenor tone. “I was wondering if I had been assigned a mentor.” He glanced back at me with another sunny smile. “I don’t mind working with…” he paused, and his eyebrows scrunched together cutely as he tried to decide what to call me, “this intern…However, is there a senior employee I’ll be with as well?”

Before I could register the adorable maturity of this new intern, Minseok entered the conversation. “That would be me.” Minseok silently placed a slender hand on Baekhyun’s shoulder, which was clad in a casual blue dress shirt. “Welcome to Exotic, Baekhyun. I’m trusting Parkie Channie to get you situated, but if you need me for anything, I’ll show you where to find me. Chanyeol can also give you my number later.” After giving Baekhyun a nod of encouragement, Minseok gave me a thumbs up – because it was uncomfortable for my short sunbae to reach up to my high shoulders – and exited with nonexistent steps.

////////////////////////

“Hey, Chanyeol,” Baekhyun called over the wall the following Monday. I sat at my cubicle that was cramed in the corner like a square peg in a circular hole. I’d just handed in the report from last week – the one I nearly threw myself out of a window over. This was my chance to breathe for a few minutes before the next batch of orders came out, with stressful sprinkles and bitter aftertastes and all.

I responded with nothing but a fatigued murmur and slight turn of the head in response. My head of demons was resting on my long, bony hands. Baekhyun the shadow loomed over the wall that separated us. He gazed at my puffy eyes and hollowing cheeks, and that stupid smile of his crept up and pulled at the roses on his face. He hadn’t been assigned much more than routine checks of my work and a few food runs, but my shaggy, unkempt appearance made him excited, just like I had been. I bet he was thinking that his internship wouldn’t be boring, at least.

One thing seemed to be bothering Baekhyun, though. “Are you okay?”

“Fine,” I mumbled with fatigue slurring my speech. I set my tree-sized hands upon the desk and pushed myself up. Continuing to use the desk as support, I straightened my stringy trunk legs. Baekhyun watched, worry blooming in his eyes, as I swayed slightly. “I just needed a minute before I start on the statistics work Minseok asked me to do…”

“Do you want me to do something for you? Should I work on your assignment until you’ve rested more?” Baekhyun offered, sincerity soaking his speech.

I answered with a weak smile, my face then immediately dropping as if being pulled down by the groggy gnome within. “It’s okay, Baek; you probably have a few things to do, and I need to get this in by Thursday, so…” I trailed off as I staggered to the water jug. As I tipped my paper cup, I felt the soft paper on my lips and the rush of ice water filling my empty body. For a moment, I felt relaxed. Turning back towards the pair of desks in the cramped corner, I let the anxious devils take over.

“Time to work.

////////////////////////////////

On Friday night, I remained at my desk. Despite the concerned looks from Minseok and Baekhyun, I hunched over my desk with my new projects stacked up. The report on the probability of the company’s floating-balloons advertising plan’s success. The presentation I had to set up for The Great Kim Junmyeon’s directory meeting. The notes from the previous day’s meeting that had to be combined into a coherent report.

Why didn’t they assign any of this to Baekhyun? I wondered bitterly. Still, I didn’t want to ask my coworker to take on my burden – the boy should get his rest. But simply because I started my internship an extra month early, I was the mule everyone packed their projects onto. It wasn’t like I could ask for fewer tasks. That would make me look lazy. That would make me seem unable to handle the workload I myself took on. Don’t screw this up, Chanyeol. There are six more months of this.

9:00

“I should head back,” I yawned. The drowsiness filled the air around me, but the anxiety concerning the lack of progress I’d made compressed the air around me.

My phone buzzed to a steady rhythm next to my hand.

“변백현,” read the screen. I couldn’t answer. There was no time for small talk when I risked losing sleep, or even falling asleep late, which would’ve caused me to start working later, which would’ve given me even less time to complete the tasks. No, I couldn’t answer.

The buzzing halted, but promptly resumed. I rolled my eyes, and as I did, caught a glimpse of the same name flashing on my phone. The prospect of leaving my desk for the comfort of my bed ran away screaming from my mind as the energetic demon returned to my brain to push my work into the night.

My back hurt. My neck hurt. My hands hurt. My head hurt. My existence was in pain, but the demon pushed me on. I couldn’t leave yet. I needed to get as much done during that stretch of time as I could in order to lessen my workload for the weekend. Just finish half of this report, I encouraged. And after I reached that point, You might as well complete it. There, now a third of your work is done. I felt like Forrest Gump on his run across the country. I just couldn’t stop. There was no one there to stop me.

Suddenly, I flinched when a small hand pressed down on my large one and forced it into stasis. I fought the limb, but the strange, porcelain hand wouldn’t break from my own. The fiend of frustration clawed and tore its way through my brain.

“What are you doing, you moronic –” I growled as I rocketed from my seat. My arm rose above my shoulder and angled downward, ready to pummel this imbecile who dared to interrupt my streak. I noticed the rose petals and the chestnut bliss staring up at me in annoyance and worry, and my arm dangled to the side.

I wasn’t going to punch him, anyway. That would have gotten me a negative mark on my internship summary.

“No, what are you doing, you sacrificial workaholic?” Baekhyun responded accusingly. “I’ve called you over and over again, and you’ve been here for five extra hours!” He pointed at the clock on the wall in our cramped corner.

10:30

“I have –”

“And I have not. You’re getting swamped with everything, Chanyeol,” the shorter intern observed. “I know this is your internship, too, and that you want to do your best, but that doesn’t mean you have to do everything!”

“I’m aware,” the frustrated fiend stated for me. “But they all asked me to do this stuff. If I ask someone else to do my work, it’ll look bad for me!”

An exasperated breath from Baekhyun blew over my face as he leaned his head back. “But we’re both interns here. I’m here to help you, just as you’re here to help me.”

“I’m here to get into university. If I don’t have it all together and work hard, I won’t get into the school I want,” the worrisome warlock responded.

“Chanyeol.” Baekhyun placed a delicate hand on each of my drooped shoulders and raised himself on his toes in vain so that his eyes would be somewhat closer to my own. “If you work too hard, you won’t be able to work at all.”

I needed to escape this. The things he was saying were making my head hurt. The demons of my existence were battling with the words of this flowery face. My hands pressed on the sides of my cranium as words and demons bang against every cell of my brain. I fell to the floor like a boulder, and I numbly heard Baekhyun’s cries fly by my ear.

I was drowning.

I was suffocating.

I was falling.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________--

I'm so sorry about this...This story will end up being this huge disappointment filled with short chapters and awkwardness, so please accept my apologies in advance...If I decide to continue it later on, one of my friends might write an *ahem* chapter *raises eyebrow* so you can look forward to that because my writing is nothing to anticipate...

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this weird chapter that I'm not even sure of it's role in the story because it was written as a hastily-ended oneshot. (The last few sentences I left out will start the possibly-occuring next chapter.)

ExoLove,

Pamela