“Ya! Ya! Hongbin-ah!” Hakyeon called out. He wandered around the office searching for Hongbin, but he was nowhere to be seen. Hakyeon made his way back to Hongbin’s desk when he ran into Jaehwan. “Jaehwan-ah!” he proclaimed, “Have you seen Hongbin, he didn’t show up to the officers meeting and he never returned my phone calls.” Jaehwan shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t know, I haven’t seen him at all today either. Maybe he’s…”- Jaehwan stopped and slowly pointed behind Hakyeon. Hakyeon turned around to see Hongbin, panting as he rushed to chief officer Hakyeon. Hakyeon folded his arms at the sight of Hongbin with anger in his eyes. “Hongbin! Where have you been?! I’ve looked everywhere for you! Why weren’t you at the officers meeting, President Lee was there and how do you think it looked when I had to confront him stating that one of my best recruit was nowhere to be found! The meeting was canceled because of you. Instead of you giving you presentation to all the executive officers in.our.field! We all sat there waiting for you to leisurely show up…AND YOU DIDN’T! That just completely decreased our chances at getting new foreign recruits for the NPA. Do you have any idea what you have done?” Hakyeon demanded folding his arms and continuously staring at Hongbin. Hongbin regained his composure and bowed, never standing up, then Hakyeon spoke once more. “Fine, at least tell me where you were…there’s a start” he suggested. Hongbin stood up. “I am so sorry sir” he said and bowed once more. “No, this is unacceptable. You are a senior officer with five years previous training with the FBI. You have personally accompanied me to all the major cases and investigations and I gave you a chance to prove yourself to not just me, but to the whole executive division.” Hakyeon sighed. “You have no idea how truly lucky you are…because they decided the reschedule the meeting. Just.For.You. You’re lucky I have talked you up and they are willing to give you another chance at the next meeting, but you will be present at the rescheduled meeting next Friday, or …or look for another job.” He said. Hongbin reacted immediately. “Friday…but sir I scheduled Friday off, you see it’s my anniversary and I can’t-“

“You were also scheduled for a very important meeting today and you missed it, you’re just lucky that you are good and actually stand a chance. If President Lee had never personally offered to do reschedule… your office would’ve been all packed and thrown out the window once you came back from wherever the hell you decided to go no matter what your rank.  You will be there Friday, or else…” Hakyeon threatened then left.

Hongbin sighed and pondered what he had done. He decided to skip probably the most important presentation of his career, just to spend time with Youngji. He thought about what would have happened if he didn’t miss it though, he would have never surprised Youngji. He only surprised her at her office because he promised; he needed to make it up to her. He couldn’t miss that, he wouldn’t miss anything for her, but he shouldn’t have missed the meeting either…Hongbin let out a heavy sigh then suddenly Sanghyuk came up behind him. Sanghyuk wrapped his arm around Hongbin and patted his shoulder. “aish, you really did it this time” he said. Hongbin forced his arm off him and began to walk away. “Ya!” Sanghyuk proclaimed and chased after him. Hongbin rolled his eyes and faced Sanghyuk. “Look I really don’t want to deal with you right now.” He bluntly stated and turned away from him. Sanghyuk placed his hand on his shoulder to stop him. “Okay okay, I know I’m just the rookie who’s barely able to land an investigation team…but hey, I just wanted to offer some help” he said. Hongbin once again shrugged him off. “I don’t need any sympathy from a newbie, look just bug off ok?” he said and walked away from him again. Sanghyuk didn’t stop him this time; he knew that Hongbin was pretty upset to just blow him off like that, although they were close friends.

Hongbin walked slowly to his desk and shuffled through some papers. Stacks of paperwork stacked on his desk that for weeks he had put off in preparation for his anniversary. Hongbin placed his hands on his desk to balance his weight; he had been so stressed out this week. Finishing his presentation and on top of that, making sure everything was perfect for the day he decided to propose to Youngji. Hongbin looked up at his computer monitor, there taped to the edge of the screen there was a postage note that read:

“오빠! I had a great time! Thank you so much for surprising me today~ Can’t wait to see you tonight, 사랑해요!”

-❤ 영지 ❤

Hongbin cracked a faint smile and stood up to peel the note off his desk. He held the fragile sheet of paper between his fingertips and smiled. No matter how bad of a day he had, Youngji always seemed to cheer him up at the right time. As Hongbin stared at the note, someone knocked on his desk. Hongbin immediately turned around only to see Jaehwan, his co-worker. “Oh…it’s just you” Hongbin sighed and placed the note back on his monitor. Jaehwan read the note and chuckled. “Youngji, huh? Should’ve guessed. I would have never imagined you blowing off something like that unless Youngji came in the picture.” He said leaning on the edge of the desk. Hongbin sighed. “You know too?” he asked. Jaehwan laughed. “The whole floor has been talking about it! I mean come on! Outstanding Senior Officer blows off the Executive meeting…I mean geez…I wouldn’t be surprised if you’re on the news tonight.” He teased, causing Hongbin to punch his arm. “Ya! Alright alright….I’m sorry man…I really am, but hey look at the bright side. You managed to actually get a do-over. I mean the whole executive division is willing to give you another chance! That just proves how good you really are. They have faith in you, and believe it or not, so does chief Hakyeon.” He said rubbing his arm which still stung. Hongbin looked down. “I know, and I still can’t believe I got a second chance either…but there’s another problem…”

“What?” Jaehwan insisted.

“Youngji and I have our anniversary on the day of the meeting”

“Come on man, just tell her about the meeting, she’ll understand”

“I don’t know…I already blew her off a lot and I need to make it up to her. I can’t blow her off again…not on our anniversary. I already planned everything”

“Planned? Planned what?” Jaehwan insisted inching his face in curiosity

“I…I’m going to ask her to marry me”