Ara was alone in the study room; busily typing away to complete the last of the report she had to hand in the first thing tomorrow. She did not even notice the sound of Baekhyun entering the room.

She almost let out a scream of murder when Baekhyun slid his arms around her and gave a back hug. Looking away from the laptop, she turned to look at Baekhyun.

“Yes?”

Baekhyun rested his head on her shoulder, “Go and change,”

Frowning, “Where are we going?” Baekhyun let go of his arms and looked at Ara with a playful mean look as if she was trying to joke.

There was a temporary pause between both of them while they exchanged stares.

He sighed, tucking his hands at his waist, “Don’t tell me you forgot,”

Ara panicked, she quickly scanned through the data stored in her head, what day was it today? The day him and her sister met? The day when they had their first kiss? The day when he-

“I reminded you yesterday!” he chided lightly; Ara could tell that he was trying not to get angry at her.

She closed her eyes, hiding her face in her palms. “So sorry, I can’t remember anything else but the report I have to complete. Do you mind telling me?”

Baekhyun rolled his eyes while shaking his head. “We have a dance party to attend.”

“Organised by which company? If it’s not really important I’ll have to skip it. This report is really important for the company,” Ara returned to her laptop, typing away.

“The party is really important for my company too? My partnering company is about to celebrate their thirtieth anniversary and you need to be there, as my wife.” He explained.

This wife and husband thing were starting to annoy the heck out of Ara. Never once she had to attend parties or celebrations in the name of the company. Areum was always there in place of her.

Looking away from the laptop again, “I’m sorry, Baekhyun. This report is really important. I’m pretty sure the report will remain uncompleted if I attend the party,”

“I’ll help you with the report, so now you go and change,” Baekhyun lifted her out of the seat, walking towards the door.

“Baekhyun!” Ara let out a surprised yell.

He let her down at the door to their room, “Go wash up and get dressed, I’ll complete the report in a moment,”

Ara ran back to the study room, locking herself inside the room right before Baekhyun could enter. “I told you I’m not going!” she shouted, in response to Baekhyun’s attempt to turn the doorknob.

He gave the door few loud knocks; Ara knows that he’s not kidding anymore. “Ever wondered how the people will see me if I appeared in the party without my wife?”

Ara could not be bothered, she returned to her seat with her earpiece in her ear. “I’m not going!”

There were few attempts at trying to reason with her using loud knocks and shouting behind the door. An hour later, Ara noticed the absence of door banging and knocking. Removing her earpiece, she went over to open the door.

Lights along the hallway were all switched off; Baekhyun would usually be sitting in the living room with the television switched on and a laptop right in front of him.

She figured out that he probably left for the party. It was then, she realised that she should have prioritised the party before her report. Workaholic Ara knew no boundaries to stop working.

It hit her hard, as she recalled how unreasonable she was to Baekhyun before. It was too late to make it to the party, after calculating how much time she needs to wash up and dress up and to travel there.

Ara heard doors slamming right after stepping out of the shower. Baekhyun must be home. Looking at the clock, she was surprised that he had returned early.

She was about to head out and strike a conversation with Baekhyun but what happened before he left for the party made her stop in her tracks. She stood outside the shower, frozen. Baekhyun must have been angry and frustrated at her for doing this to him.

Ara was so into her thoughts and she failed to realise Baekhyun entered the room.

Baekhyun gave a quick glance as he removed his tie, “You’re done with your report?” Ara jumped, dropping the towel she had been using to dry her hair.

“You seem to be in deep thought, care to share?” he probed. Ara gritted her teeth, it was nice of him to ask about her but he had asked about it with an emotionless tone. It hurt her pride.

“I was wondering how the party went,” Ara picked up the towel and set it aside, walking to her dressing table.

Baekhyun set his belt on the bed, walking into the shower. “It went well, almost told them that a company report was way more important than their silly old celebration,”

Ara raised her eyebrows; he was trying to guilt trip her.

“Oh, I apologise for viewing my company as the top priority. Pretty sure you could throw a lie or two to them and go missing from the party and they wouldn’t make a fuss out of it. Your company is one of the larger ones, after all. If anything, they should be afraid.”

Ara heard the water from the showerhead stop. Baekhyun came out of the shower with a half shampooed head and a towel around his waist.

He looked at her with a hardened look, “Is it that hard for you to apologise?”

Tilting her head, she looked at him lazily, “Not sure who was the starter of the fire,”

Baekhyun walked back to the shower, without making much noise. Ara could only hear his deep breaths. He was trying his best to keep it in and not lose his temper.

There was a momentary pause in the shower before Baekhyun continued showering.

It was getting hard to stay in the same room with Baekhyun, Ara chided herself lightly, and she should have apologised, and not put up such a childish fight.

Grabbing a pillow, she headed out of the room as quietly as possible; she wouldn’t want to have an encounter with Baekhyun again for the night.

She locked herself in the study room, yet again, this time with a pillow in her hand with the thought of sleeping in the study room.

The next morning, she woke up earlier than she was supposed to and crept into the room to get ready for work. By the time Baekhyun was up, she had already been out of the house.

Days went by with Ara trying her best to avoid Baekhyun by volunteering to stay back late in the office to complete assignments and reaching early for work.

It all seemed to go well until she caught a fever and was forced to head home. Despite her protests, Seulgi forcefully gave Ara the weekends off and gave her easier assignments to work at from home.

Seulgi had driven Ara back home, ensuring that she wouldn’t sneak anywhere else and not return home.

Upon opening the door, she saw Baekhyun sitting at his usual spot, on the couch in the living room with the television on and his laptop right on his lap.

She cursed under her breath, it was a bad day for her to be sent home by her manager and now she had to play husband and wife with Baekhyun.

“You’re home?”

It felt suffocating for Ara to decide if she should reply him and the condition she was in didn’t help a bit at all.

She could feel the burning sensation behind her eyeballs and her head feeling heavier, “I’ll be in bed if you ever need me,”

Ara could hear Baekhyun’s footsteps trailing behind; she can’t be bothered to close the room door and immediately crawled into bed after dropping her bag.

The last thing she could feel was warmth around her, gently patting her back as she drifts off to sleep.

It was four in the morning when Ara woke up from her sleep, the nap made her more lethargic than before. Baekhyun roused from sleep, with Ara’s attempts to get out from his arms.

“You’re awake,”

Ara crawled out of bed awkwardly, “Yeah,”

“Let’s head to the kitchen, I’ll heat up the porridge for you.” He said, rubbing his eyes as he pulled Ara along, with her hands in his.

He made her sit down at the dining table while he the gas and heated the food.

This made Ara regret her actions more. She should have apologised and stopped being so childish about it.

“You know, I’m not really used to see you as a workaholic,” Baekhyun said as he placed a glass of water in front of Ara.

Ara laughed nervously, Areum was far from being a workaholic. Areum loved to spend time with herself out of work and always knew how to split work from personal life. On the other hand, Ara was the complete opposite. It was as if Ara lives to work, not work to live.

“I guess time changes people; I’m not that young now. I should be managing the company, like how you are doing but I’m nothing but a small employee in the company.”

Ara could see Baekhyun’s expression soften, unsure if it was out of pity or anything else.

“I’m sorry about the party; I was so driven to complete the report that I neglected you.”

Baekhyun shook his head, “I’m sorry too, I was overly sensitive and childish about you not going to the party.”

Both of them exchanged understanding glances, letting out smiles before Baekhyun served the hot porridge on the table.

There was a notification from Ara phone, a text message from Seulgi.

‘Your sister’s sick, gave her the weekend off so do visit her.’

To which, Ara replied, ‘She’s not the one sick, I am.’

A few moments later a call came. Ara left her seat, walking to the study room to receive the call.

“Hello?”

“You’re sick? Do I need to come over?”

Ara giggled, “Not sure if you can get to see me at the old house anymore. I’ve moved.”

“Moved? Where?!”

“I’ll give you the address; you can visit me the first thing in the morning tomorrow,”

“Fine, rest well alright, see you later.”

Ara walked out of the study room, with smiles hung on her face.

“Do you have good news?”

“It’s nothing much, my good friend is coming over later on,”

“Excellent timing, I’ll have to fly off to France in the morning,” Ara raised her eyebrows, she never heard him mention it in front of her.

“It was a last minute decision,” he scratched his head, scrunching his face.

“I can handle myself, don’t worry and go on,” Ara assured. Ara observed a shocked face from Baekhyun.

“Is there anything wrong?” she probed, scooping another mouth of porridge into .

“It feels really weird; you used to make a fuss out of everything and wanting to come along when I said I have an overseas trip.”

She chuckled, her sister needs to grow the heck up.

“I guess time really changes people,” she remarked.

“Do you need me to send you to the airport?” Ara asked as she helped Baekhyun adjust his tie.

“You’re still sick, you should stay home,”

Ara smiled, handing Baekhyun’s jacket to him as they walked out of the room towards the main door.

Standing right in front of the main door, Ara adjusted Baekhyun’s collar for the last time before opening the door, “Take care,”

Baekhyun leaned in, kissing the top of her head. Ara closes her eyes, unsure whether this was the way she was supposed to act.

“I’ll call you when I reached,” he assured, giving her hands a tight squeeze. Ara nodded, trying the bite back the excitement that has been counting down to the moment Baekhyun leaves the door.

Just right after Baekhyun went off in a taxi, a posh car pulled over.

Ara recognises the car. “You weren’t driving this car yesterday!” she shouted, running over to hug her girl best friend.

“I thought this was your sister’s?” Seulgi asked, pulling away from the hug.

“Long story, come on in and I’ll explain.”