Jihyo balls her hands tightly into fists. “You know Mother would have never approved of this.”

That makes CEO Song pause slightly as he exits the room. “Well, your mother isn’t here anymore.” He continues on his way down the hallway, and Jihyo glares after him.

Well, I just won’t show up, then, she thinks to herself.

“Oh, and if you don’t show up at the dinner tomorrow, I shall have to do something to that precious manager of yours,” he calls out over his shoulder.

Soon after, Jihyo steps out of the building with an overwhelming sense of dread. Gary straightens up from where he’s been leaning against the van, whistling to himself and browsing his phone while waiting for her to finish up her business. The corner of his lips pull up in a rare smile at her, seemingly in a good mood. Jihyo loves his smile- it makes him seem innocent, almost silly- a complete change from his usual unreadable, brooding look. On any other day, simply seeing that smile would have cheered Jihyo up completely, but today it just makes her feel worse, because she knows she doesn’t have much time until she won’t be able to ever see that smile again.

Of all days he just had to pick this day to be in a good mood.

“Done already?” he questions, the smile on his face fading into a look of surprise and curiousity.

“Let’s go,” Jihyo says abruptly, not looking at him because she’s not sure that she can hold back from bursting into tears if she sees his face.

They drive to her next schedule in silence, though Jihyo can feel his eyes peering at her curiously out of the corner of his eye. After a long moment of hesitation, Gary speaks up.

“Are you okay, Jihyo-ssi?”

“I’m fine,” she lies from where she’s slumped down in her seat. “Just tired.”

“Oh.”

There’s a silence, with Jihyo quietly watching Gary drive from under half-lidded eyes. She has always felt so peaceful there in that car with the person she loves most in the world there by her side; so lucky to be able to be so close to him. But her smile soon fades as she remembers that soon she won’t be so lucky anymore. Then:

“I like you, oppa,” she whispers, the tone of her voice serious. She wills him to reply that he likes her too, that he’s loved her all this time, but she knows it won’t happen.

Gary chuckles a little, glancing over at her with the smile back in his eyes.

“Tell me that when you’re conscious,” he replies lightheartedly. “You sound like the dead.” He pulls the car into the parking lot of a restaurant and exits the car. Jihyo watches curiously as he comes around to her side of the van and opens the door. He leans close to her, and Jihyo’s breath hitches. He’s so close that she can smell the scent of his cologne- something woodsy, like pine- and the cool scent of his aftershave.

Gary pulls on the lever that makes her seat lean backwards, apparently not noticing how she’s wide awake now, her heart pounding so loudly that it should be audible.

“There,” he says, leaning back with a satisfied expression on his face. “At least lay back when you sleep so that the sun isn’t in your eyes.” He shuts the door, walks back to the driver’s side, and settles himself back into his seat, grinning again when he looks back at Jihyo and sees her eyes closed.

“Out like a light, just like that. Yeoksi, just like Mong Jihyo,” he chuckles to himself and starts the car. “Yah, she can even confess in her sleep.”

In the passenger seat, Jihyo stops pretending like she’s asleep and watches him out of the corner of her eye sadly.

Oppa, would you still be like that if I told you I was getting married? Would you be sad for me, confess to me, or reject me? She ponders over this thought for the rest of the ride. Of course he’d confess, she thinks to herself indignantly. She’s confident that he likes her, too. But maybe somehow, inside her heart, she feels the tiniest bit of doubt beginning to form.