“Can’t believe I’m about to be late on my first day!” Ara checked herself in the mirror for the last time, not forgetting to grab a hairband before she goes.

“I’ll drive you,” Baekhyun offered, retrieving his coat from the closet.

Ara almost agreed, biting her tongue lightly to stop from rambling away. She turned away and sighed, she had to eliminate any potential chances that might give her identity away.

“It’s alright, dear. I’ll take a cab, you have your breakfast.” She assured, putting on her shoes hurriedly, opening the door.

Ara was preoccupied with all the criticisms she could think of receiving, especially the ones by her closest friend and boss, Kang Seulgi. Kang Seulgi was incredibly sharp-tongued; she could not think how far her insults would go. That alone sent shivers down Ara’s spine.

“Darling,”

Ara hummed a reply, with a desire to not turn back to face Baekhyun. She felt hands on her shoulders as she felt Baekhyun turn her around.

“All the best for your first day, and I love you.” Baekhyun gave Ara a soft kiss on the forehead, before getting her to go ahead.

She stood in the doorway, stunned. Baekhyun caught her off guard once again, oh great. Her heart was still not adapting well to the surprise kisses that Baekhyun snuck every single time.

Ara quickly regained her composure, returning him a smile. “You have a great day too, Baekhyun.”

Rushing out of the elevator and into the office, Ara barely made it on time. She was just so close from being an hour late.

Standing right before her, was a lady wearing white formal top and black trousers paired with a pair of black heels. Ara knew someone who went by that style.

“Miss Han, do you know what time is it now?”

Opening to explain, she stopped herself from adding fuel to fire, she forgot that Seulgi hated hearing excuses.

“I apologise for being late, I am really sorry.” She replied.

“I do not want to see you coming late ever again, is that clear?”

“Yes, Miss Kang.”

There was a temporary pause, Ara realised what she had done. Seulgi had not introduced herself yet.

“As you know, I’m Miss Kang, and your working space will be just outside my office.” She explained, pointing at the cleanest white table in sight.

“Your buddy will be sitting right opposite your table. Do ask him if you have any questions.” She added on.

“Now, off to work. I’ll have someone bring you your files later on,” Seulgi waved her away before walking back into her office.

“This Kang Seulgi needs to learn how to get the files herself, god damn it.”

Ara tried so hard to stifle her laughter. She wondered if Jongin had always been this loud when he complains about her in the office.

She rushed up and took all the files from the male, surprising him. “Holy sh-”

“I assume these files are for Miss Kang,”

It felt weird to address Jongin formally. It was like as if she had woken up on the wrong side of the bed.

The male cleared his voice, regaining his composure. “Yeah, she wants it in her office right now.”

“Sure, Mr Kim.”

There was a strange feeling disturbing her. She turned around, realising that the male was staring at her strangely. Her heart stopped, she allowed run loose again.

“You know me?” he questioned.

Ara looked at him with trembling pupils, “You look like a Mr Kim!”

“Right, I’ve heard that somewhere too.” He agreed, flashing a grin.

She turned and marched towards Seulgi’s office, with Jongin following behind. “Shall we get those files into the office?”

Barging into the office like usual self and placing the files on the glass table as she grinned “Here are the files that you’ve requested,”

Jongin joined Ara after closing the door. Colours slowly drained out of Jongin’s face as he hissed at Ara. “You’re supposed to knock!”

Seated behind the glass desk, shooting glares at the both of them, it was a clear indication that Kang Seulgi was dissatisfied at the disturbance in her office, her territory. 

“Mr Kim thanks for the files. I’ll talk to you over lunch. Miss Han, please stay.”

The male scurried off, knowing that the temper of the female was not to be tested with.

“Miss Han, I’m sure you know that you’re being impolite by barging into my office,” Seulgi started out.

It took Ara moments to realise that she was acting like her usual self. “I apologise for my disrespectful behaviour moments ago, it was-

“I do not want to hear any excuses from you!” Seulgi lashed out, slamming her table. Ara jumped slightly, Seulgi rarely exploded in the office. She used to keep her anger inside, only releasing it out on rare occasions.

“With your tardiness, I don’t expect the company to stay successful.”

Ara flinched, it was her first day as Areum at work and such sharp remarks were aimed at her, she was sure that she had made it to Seulgi’s hit list.

“I’ll amend my ways, I apologise.”

“Get out,”

Ara retreated from the office with a crestfallen face. It was the first time that she heard such words from Seulgi and that she sounded so casual in contrast to the words she said.

Ara returned to her seat after lunch, alone. Ara overheard Seulgi’s conversation with Jongin over lunch, with Seulgi complaining at the lack of manpower and the number of reports an ex-employee left uncompleted before he resigned. She felt particularly motivated to barge into Seulgi’s office to seek the permission do the reports that were due by the end of the day.

There was barely anything for Ara to do anyway since she had to wait for her office buddy to complete his report before she could help him proofread it, and her part of the presentation was long completed. She wanted something more challenging to do.

Tap. Tap. Tap.

Ara continuously tapped her heels against the floor. She was contemplating if it was a good idea to shamelessly request to do such a big assignment on her very first day in the department.

The very next moment, she found herself in Seulgi’s office, standing right in front of her, staring at her. Ara flashed the sweetest smile she could muster, it was a way to get herself out of the scolding that Seulgi is about to lash at her.’

“Miss Kang, I was wondering if you need help at the reports you were talking to Mr Kim during lunch,” she asked.

Seulgi gave her a doubting stare, “I don’t think you are qualified enough to write the report?”

“I’m sure I can do it, I’ve seen my sister’s report countless of times.” she lied, trying to convince Seulgi.

“I’m sure you know proofreading a report is different from generating a good report,” she replied.

“I’m willing to be subjected to any kind of punishments if the quality of work is not up to your standards.”

“Very well, I expect the report to be handed up to me by the end of the day.” Seulgi threw the thumb drive to Ara and Ara excitedly left the office to start on the report.

It was minutes before Ara could knock off from work and she managed to finish the report and have it polished. Shutting down her desktop, she headed to the same office that she had been to countless times today to hand in her report.

Ara actually remembered to knock before entering, which was a surprise as she had never had the need to knock on anyone’s office door back when she was in the company as herself.

“I hope the report is up to your standards.” She remarked as Seulgi scanned through her work. Ara noticed a slight frown from Seulgi but she did not dare to ask, for fear that she might be reprimanded.

“It’s good, you can get off work now.” Seulgi gave a nod of approval and snapped the file shut, piling it onto a bunch of papers.

“Thank you, see you tomorrow!” Ara excitedly answered, jumping out of the office.

“I can’t believe I volunteered to work on a report on my very first day!” Ara boasted to Baekhyun over dinner as they were having steak at home.

Baekhyun asked Ara about her day at work and she chattered away, from the moment she arrived at work to the time she knocked off from work. Ara felt the sense of accomplishment radiating from inside, she had never felt this proud of her own work before. It was abnormal.

Ever since she entered the company, it was as if it was natural for Ara to be good at handling projects and reports, no compliments were showered on her. She always kept her work life to herself and her colleagues; it was all about stress and complaints about the project, never something worthy of boasting.

Right now, Baekhyun’s way of communicating with her made her feel special and appreciated. It was all due to a simple gesture Baekhyun made over during dinner.

“I really hope that they keep giving me reports to complete, I really hate helping people to proofread their presentations and reports. It was such a headache. You should have seen my buddy’s report. It was disastrous.” Ara rolled her eyes, shoving another piece of steak into .

Baekhyun chuckled, his hands reaching to wipe away the sauce from Ara’s lips. “Eat slowly,”

Ara felt all the good feelings she had for Baekhyun disappear. It was supposed to be her first instinct to move backwards and feel slightly disgusted but she felt her heart race again, before subduing to her expected feelings.

She felt conflicted.

She was torn over showing an annoyed frown or a thankful smile, “Thank you, Baekhyun.”

Both of them had their dinner in silence right after, with Ara struggling to ignore the fact that Baekhyun had kept his eyes on her the whole time. It was more of suffocating rather than cute of him to look at her in a loving way. Despite this, she could not bring herself to stop Baekhyun from looking at her.

As soon as they had finished dinner, Baekhyun took the plates and convinced Ara to rest early, since she was busy completing another report just before dinner.

“I’ll be in the other room if you need me,” Ara said, heading back to the room to start on another report.

“I was wondering if you would want to go get groceries right after I finish with the dishes,” Baekhyun asked, right before Ara left the kitchen.

“Sure, why not.”

“Can you help me get my grey coat? That and we’re ready to go,” Baekhyun said as he wiped the tables.

Ara and Baekhyun entered the mart, seeing couples hand in hand shopping for their groceries and exchanging loving gestures. Ara cleared her voice, dragging Baekhyun to the snacks counter.

“Let’s get lots of snacks; I need it for my report.” Ara smiled in glee, putting numerous bags of snacks into the shopping trolley.

“Shall we get all of the snacks so that you can do well on your report?” Baekhyun answered.

Ara beamed, grinning bashfully. “Yes please.”

It has always been a habit for Ara to munch on snacks while she did her report. This was the first time Ara had someone not chiding her for having a trolley full of unhealthy snacks. Even Seulgi and Jongin scolded her lightly whenever the three of them went shopping together.

That little action brought a smile to Ara’s face.

As they strolled along the counters Baekhyun rested his arm around Ara’s waist, temporarily making her stop in her tracks.

It was an action Baekhyun used to do so often when he was with Areum. Ara didn’t know.

“Is there anything wrong?” Baekhyun asked, slightly furrowing his brows. Ara her lips, finding an explanation for her action.

“Nothing, was just thinking if we need to get cooking oil.” Ara smiled. “Okay act natural,” Ara thought. She cleared her voice and placed her arms around Baekhyun’s waist, like how Areum usually do when Baekhyun and Areum came to visit their parents’ over dinner.

Think like Areum, think.

“Shall we get some green tea too? I think we’ve run out of those this morning,” Baekhyun asked, slowly leading Ara into the tea section.

“Can we try Earl Grey tea? Heard from Ara that it’s pretty good,” Ara said, reaching for the box of Earl Grey sachets that were too high for her to reach.

“Let me get it,” Baekhyun smiled at Ara’s cute attempt, placing the box into the trolley.

“Thanks,”

“Are there anything else you would like to get?”

“I think that’s all, we can go back now.” Ara scanned the products in the trolley, making sure she was not missing out anything.

Just when they were heading to the checkout counter, Baekhyun stopped Ara. “We forgot about your strawberry milk.”

Ara wanted to roll her eyes, how could she forget.

Strawberry milk has always been Areum’s must-buys during grocery shopping since they were young. On the other hand, Ara despised strawberry milk with a passion. It just wasn’t her type. The naturally sweet-sour strawberry smell that she hated was what her twin sister loved so much.

Ara preferred Banana milk or chocolate milk than strawberry milk.

“Baekhyun, it’s getting late. I think we can skip out on the milk. I can survive few days without the strawberry milk.” Ara convinced.

“Don’t worry; I won’t take more than a minute to get those. Don’t want to risk having a grumpy you in the morning.” Baekhyun winked. Ara grabbed onto Baekhyun’s wrist, shaking her head.

“I’m not feeling the strawberry milk recently. I’ve had a stomach ache from drinking it this morning,”

“Then we’ll get it when you feel better,” he shrugged, unloading all the products from the shopping trolley on the cashier counter.

Ara sat down right in front of her laptop in the study room, with packets of snacks in her hand. The grocery shopping had tired her out. Scratch that, it was the acting she had to put up in front of Baekhyun that tired her out.

Staring at her half-written report, Ara sighed. She lost the motivation to complete her report. At the back of her mind, she was imagining how Seulgi would reprimand her as she tries to come up with a reason for not completing the report.

Opening a packet of snacks, Ara noisily munched on her chips as she waited for her motivation to start coming back to her.

The door opened slightly with Baekhyun head poking into the room. “Do you need help?”

“I’m not sure if you can help me on this, but I’m lacking the motivation to complete the report.” Ara answered, shrugging.

The male on his teeth, “Not sure if anything helps. You know what you did when you had no motivation.”

Ara arched a brow, genuinely curious. “Would you like to remind me of the things I do when I’m out of motivation?”

Baekhyun laughed, “You binge-watch sad romance movies remember?”

She shot him a horrified look, “Gross, I can’t imagine myself doing that anymore.” There is no way Ara would ever watch what her sister loves to watch. They always had distinct tastes, opposite from each other.

Ara always preferred to watch comedy and horror films, what’s worse, back when she was in high school, she forced her class to watch a horror movie in the middle of the night during a camp. That night, no one fell asleep, except for Ara.

“I guess I better find another way to make myself complete the report, I’ve got no time for movies. It’s due the first thing in the morning when Seulgi steps into the office. I don’t wish to get scolded her again.” Ara said, putting her snacks aside.

She stared at Baekhyun, expecting him to head out of the room. "Yes?" the male asked. "I'm pretty sure you have work tomorrow, you don't have to wait for me to complete the report. I can tell you're exhausted," she answered, getting up from her seat to pull Baekhyun to the door.

“I’ll be in the bedroom if you ever need me,” Baekhyun sighed, giving Ara a peck on her cheeks before walking out of the room.

As soon as she heard Baekhyun shut the door, she had a sudden itch within her. Ara knew what she was going to do about it. Unlocking a drawer from the study table, she retrieved a pack of cigarettes and snuck out of the house, finding a place far enough to be able to be spotted from her house.

“Hey, still working on your assignment?” Jaehyun asked as he hugged Areum from the back. Areum placed her sample papers back on the desk and returned the hug.

“Yeah, I need to come up with Ara’s portfolio for the interview tomorrow.”

“It must be hard for you, having to work from the bottom all over again.”

“I have to, if not I wouldn’t be here with you.” Areum reminded, sensing the sudden increase in tension in Jaehyun while she waited for his reply.

Jaehyun sighed, bringing her closer to his chest. “Thank you for everything.”

Areum pulled away, smiling. “Haven’t you had anything to complete?”

Jaehyun shook his head, “The department head just took over Ara’s position today. Everything wasn’t in place,” Areum felt her guilt stabbing at her gut. It hasn’t been a full day since she managed to get whatever her sister said during their quarrel out of her head and now she’s being reminded of it again.

“Aren’t you heading to bed now?” Areum asked, picking up her papers, wanting to resume her work. “I’m accompanying you,” Jaehyun answered, smiling sweetly.

The female rolled her eyes mentally; it was a hard task to wake Jaehyun up in the morning with him getting enough sleep. She couldn’t imagine having to wake him up with lesser sleeping hours. “I’m fine. You have work in the morning. Go to sleep,”

“Don’t worry, I’ll get up on time tomorrow.” He assured.

“Darling, I’m almost done with my portfolio. I’ll follow behind,”

“Alright, I’ll head to bed first,” Jaehyun got up from the chair, giving a kiss on Areum’s forehead before heading out.

Ara dragged her feet out of the bathroom, slipping under the bed covers, with Baekhyun sleeping soundly beside her. She could care less about Baekhyun right now; she can’t even resist not closing her eyelids.

Completing the report drained the life out of her.

It was as if the sleeping demon took over Ara, she subconsciously moved closer to Baekhyun as she slips into her dreamland. Her action woke Baekhyun, in which he placed his arms around Ara, pushing her closer to his chest.

Both of them returned to dreamland with each other’s comfort.