As he promised, Jiyong called Taeyeon back, right in the evening.

“Hello?”

“Uh yes. Taeyeon-shi?” Jiyong thought it might be better to start off formal, but he hasn't counted on Taeyeon sounding so harassed.

“Jiyong-shi! Um yes, I'm  glad you called, really but now isn't a good time.”

“Really? I thought you finished work at this hour.”

“Sorry, I what?”

“I uh meant normally people finished work at this hour.”

“Yes, but I don't. Today SM Labs is opening their newest experiment. So yep. I am quite busy tonight. I'm sorry, but it really isn't a good time to ask about bringing me out for coffee.”

“So you were going to agree?” Jiyong was surprised. There was a sudden silence on the other end.

“Frankly speaking, no, since I don't know you.” Jiyong's heart dropped. “But I do know that my favourite coffee place is Starbucks. If you invited me there I may show up.”

“Ooh. Classy and expensive. “ He wanted to slap his mouth as soon as the words left it. “Uh sorry, too soon for this kind of jokes?”

“No, it's fine.” Her soft laughter trickled in from the other end. “Thank you. Talking to you actually calmed my nerves. A lot.” He could hear her smile through the phone. “I'll see you around, Kwon Jiyong.”

"I'm sure you'd do extremely well for your unveiled project, Taeyeon-shi. All the best." He heard her smile through the other end of the line, a cute little huff of laughter expelled through her nose.

"I shall take that as an accurate prediction or well wish for my success tonight. See you soon, Jiyong."

Jiyong smiled happily as she hung up. But what they didn't know was that they would be meeting each other, much sooner than they ever thought they would.

~~~~~

“Everyone. Cheers.” Lee Sooman raised his glass towards the crowd of spectators, grinning proudly. “To a new era of clean energy and wonders of science.” Taeyeon raised her glass of champagne, exhaling nervously before sipping the drink, eyes darting around nervously at the social gathering. She had wore a simple white floral printed dress with simple jacket and boots, and had, for the rare occasion, put on make up.

“Hey.” One of the tech guys sauntered over to her, obviously half hammered and quite drunk. “I've ne’er seen ya before in SM Labs, hottie. You're cute. Wanna go for a round with me?” She raised her eyebrows.

“Thom, I work here.” She watched as the male's eyes widened at her familiar voice.

“H-holy shiiiiit! Ms uh no, Doctor Kim!” The man flushed, fumbling over his words as his sluggish brain tried to match the hot messy cute scientist sans doctor he saw everyday in the office with this effortlessly beautiful woman with light make up in her face. “Your eyes look bigger.” Taeyeon felt like face palming.

“I put on make up. So…” She purposely trailed off,hoping he would have gotten her message to back off, but contrary to what she desired, the man simply stood stupidly at the same place, staring awestruck at her.

“Taengoo!” Her breath expelled in a heavy sigh of relief as she heard the familiar comforting voice of Heechul.

“Oppa.” She leaned forward to hug him. “Nice interruption anyway. It was getting awkward.” Heechul kissed her cheek, winking subtly at her before steering her away by the waist.

“You've been shocking everyone with your ravishing looks when you dress up.”

“Oppa, not you too.” Taeyeon rolled her eyes desperately. “Let me ask you one thing. How much have you drank?”

“About...five glasses?”

“Okay, give me that. You had enough. I'm surprised you're not hammered.” Heechul shook a blue concoction in front of her.

“Scientist, remember? I created a edible serum that would allow me to push back my drunk levels with a small sip. And why are you taking my champagne?” He whined. “You can't even hold your drink well! Your cheeks flush with one or barely half a cup of wine or alcohol and you're knocked out by the second glass! Have you forgotten how much of a alcohol trash you are?”

“No I haven't. I'm just, unlike you, exercising some self restraint.”

“It's a celebration for a reason, Taeng. Our work paid off. We've worked hard to deserve it.” She found herself at a loss of words as he took back the champagne from her hands, both of them staring with a mix of pride at the particle accelerator. “It's going to be such a bomb here. We'll have contributed so much to society with it's creation. With your science calculations and our tech building. It should be perfect.” Taeyeon smiled widely at Heechul and clinked her glass against his, his words sending her into a great mood.

But that's where everything went wrong.

It was subtle first, so Taeyeon had contributed it simply to the alcohol messing with her system. Water droplets of champagne slowly gathered and started drifting into the air. It dropped back into her glass a moment later, and Taeyeon shrugged it off, taking a sip of the beverage.

And then, everyone's beverages elevated, leaving the glasses and defying gravity.

“Oh, that can't be good.” She glanced at Heechul, terrified, and a split moment moment later, they both threw on their lab coats, rushing down towards their lab.

“Professor!” Taeyeon's voice was shrill, and her fingers flew across the keyboard hurriedly, watching as the rest of her team dashed belatedly into the room. Heechul in a harried breath as they looked at the stats.

“Talk to me! Doctor Kim?” Lee Sooman had thrown his celebratory drink to one side, running a hand through his messy hair and dashing towards their side.

“We need to shut down the particle accelerator, Professor.” Taeyeon's​ hands clenched into fists. “Right now.”

“No, absolutely not. There must be another way.” Lee Sooman shot down her suggestion.

“Professor! The particles in the accelerator have become unstable!” Taeyeon shouted. “If we let the machine continue it's course---”

“We could go nuclear.” Heechul finished Taeyeon’s sentence for her.

“What he said.” Taeyeon tried to smile at the group, who paled at Heechul’s words. The weather report station that Heechul had on alert mode started to beep shrilly, ringing its high pitched alarm. Heechul cursed, throwing himself over tables and chairs to desperately reach the sile