Sorry for being on hiatus for so long but I was travelling! Just came back from South Korea and got the renewed inspiration to continue all my fanfics because obviously Kpop land gives me so much appreciation for my idols. 

As if the gloom accumulated from Baekhyun's departure and my own sickness weren't enough for me to deal, my best subordinate had to apply for a medical leave for a good three days. That was merely ten days after I resumed work. Staring at my empty desk without my perfect cup of morning coffee, as well as the monstrous mountain of work left for me over my absence, I realised how much I had taken my young mentee for granted. That was why, for once, I decided to be a nice superior rather than the whiny old lady that I was becoming. I picked up some of Taeyong's favourite fruits (which I observed over all our lunches together, he only likes a selective few) at a store before heading over to his place to visit. A part of my brain told me that I was being a nice caring colleague, and more importantly a friend. Yet there was just that one brain cell in my brain screaming warnings about me being creepy, because Taeyong had never explicitly told me his address, and I was abusing my power as his superior to pull out his application records for the exact place. I could only hope that Taeyong would be just ill enough to overlook this weird part about me. 

My fears were immediately answered when it occurred to me, at his door, that Taeyong did not live alone. Unlike me, Taeyong lived with his parents as both his brothers were studying overseas. When the elderly couple opened the door to the bell, they looked visibly surprised to see a middle-aged woman with a bag of fruits greeting them sheepishly, introducing herself as their son's colleague. I had to come up with a lame excuse about him telling me his address once in passing, though I swore his mother did not look very convinced. One thing for sure was that I did not get the wrong house, because Taeyong was a splitting image of his parents, who were both really good-looking despite their age. 

Taeyong, as usual, came to my rescue at the nick of time when he yelled from inside the apartment about who the guest might be. 

"It's me!"

I was pretty certain I heard something similar to someone falling over a couch in his astonishment. A moment later, Taeyong had stumbled and ran to the door, unlocking it to let me in as all three pairs of eyes watched me in surprise. Before his parents could ask any more questions, Taeyong whisked me away to his room, but left it open for obvious reasons. I assumed he wanted to make sure I was comfortable. 

The first thing I noticed, even at the door, was that Taeyong was way too energetic to be actually sick. Yet when I finally sat across him and assessed him properly, the problem immediately surfaced itself. In the form an ugly bruise on his beautiful cheek. 

"You got into a fight? Gosh Lee Taeyong. Was that why your parents were so skeptical about letting me in?" I asked, not bothering to mask the shock in my voice. Knowing Taeyong, the most intelligent new employee we had in the department with a calm analytical mind, fighting someone was definitely not his style. I was pretty sure he would have thought of something smarter to get himself out of a troublesome situation, or he would have won the fight (the latter is blind faith, I don't actually know how well he fights).  

"I think they thought you were my girlfriend or something, because no girls visit me ever," Taeyong answered as he took over the bag of fruits gratefully and placed them on the table. I raised a brow at his answer, and the doubt in me was clear to him too. 

"Really. No girls ever come." 

I gave him the benefit of the doubt, nodding in a half-convinced manner. 

"Also, I did not get into a fight..." he added, "okay maybe I did. Technically I did. But I swear I did not initiate it. I was kind of...an innocent victim that just got roped into it? Essentially the fight shouldn't have involved me at all." 

Honestly I really wanted to punch Taeyong for being so deliberately vague about his answer and beating around the bush, but seeing him wince while making his explanation made my heart soft again. I just couldn't bring myself to be annoyed at