“Achoo!”

Jihyun covered her nose with a tissue just as Daehwi lifted a thick ring file in front of his face, shielding himself from a possible infectious cold. The loud sneeze attracted the attention of other occupants in the room and they turned to the direction of the sound, some frowning as they walked further away and covered their faces. Jihyun ignored their stares and dug her hand into a tissue box, only to feel the empty, rough base of the paper box and it made her groan loudly in annoyance. Daehwi slowly shook his head and reached into a drawer next to him, unwrapping a new box of tissue (Jihyun’s second one) before sliding it towards his colleague, “Sunbae, please take the rest of the day off. You’re spreading germs in the studio,” he said, his voice was muffled as he covered his face with a black mask and the air humidifier to the highest fan speed.

“I’m not sick and I’ve taken some meds to prevent that,” Jihyun denied sternly, glancing at the time on the huge wall clock located near the entrance of the studio and counted. 3 hours. She had taken some cold medicine three hours ago and yet, her prevention strategy failed. Instead, it backfired and she ended up sneezing much louder and more frequent than before. To make matters worse, she couldn’t tick a single thing on her work to-do-list due to her blocked nose and the growing headache on the left side of her head. And she blamed it all on the guy next door, Mr. Always Up To No Good, Kang Daniel.

It had been three days since Jihyun and Daniel’s late evening pool incident, and Jihyun would not have pushed him into the water if she knew how much she’d suffer in the next few days. When they’d shared a breathtaking, fairytale-like moment staring into each others eyes while floating in water and holding onto each other for dear life in an unusually intimate way, she was almost certain that Daniel had wanted to kiss her from his eyes focusing on her lips, his arm wrapping possessively around her waist and his hand holding gently onto her cheek. Her conscience was telling her to push him away, yet her body reacted differently as it succumbed to anticipation and waited for Daniel to make the move. It had never occurred to her that one day, she’d have a crazy thought and imagine how would his lips feel on hers. When did he start having that effect on her?

Alas, imaginations and fantasies are different from reality. Daniel’s last words as he leaned closer and decreased the distance between his lips and her cheek were to notify that she had lost one of the diamond drop earrings on her left earlobe. Jihyun remembered cursing loudly and touching her ear to confirm the truth, as she noisily declared that the she has to return the earrings (along with the expensive perfectly tailored dress already soaked in chlorine water) the next day because they were part of the maid of honor ensemble sponsored by the bridal boutique. Daniel had earned a strong slap on his chest from the panicking girl as he was clearly enjoying her distressed state and had spared no effort to hide them by letting out a loud childish laugh. Despite still enjoying the scene, he had swum to the edge of the pool, carefully lifted her up in his strong arms and placed her by the poolside before diving underwater to search for her lost earring. She watched the water splashed around and waited with bated breath as Daniel resurfaced twice for air in a sudden search and rescue mission for the precious jewelry. A grueling five minutes later, he had emerged triumphantly from underwater with something small and sparkly in his right hand. Jihyun recalled expressing profuse gratitude to the moon and the stars as she retrieved the earring from Daniel (not before giving him another harsh warning and blaming everything on him) and proceeded to exit the rooftop pool, leaving droplets of water in her trail as she walked back to the main hall to change into something clean and dry.

“They're all expired,” Daehwi delivered the unpleasant news as he carefully inspected the medicine in the studio’s first aid kit. He made a mental note to exchange the contents of the box and supply some back-up medication in case his senior colleague decided to fall sick again, “You’ve been under the weather since that night after the wedding,” he continued, pushing an empty bin towards Jihyun when he saw her struggling to throw all the used up tissues.

“What do you mean?” Jihyun sniffed.

Daehwi scanned his surroundings and when he had made sure that other occupants in the studio were out of their earshot, he leaned in closer to her as if he was about to share a juicy gossip about famous celebrity figures and whispered, “I saw you walking back from your break at the rooftop pool… with the best man in tow… both of you drenched from head to toe. Care to explain?” he asked with a hint of mischievousness in his voice.

“There is nothing going on between me and the best man–” Jihyun was quick to deny, but she couldn’t find the right words to defend herself because Daehwi was actually telling the truth. After escaping the rooftop pool, Jihyun had carefully sneaked into the dressing room to change out of the heavily soaked dress. She had been on full alert mode in case any of the wedding guests or staffs left in the building were to see them together (she had even taken an extra precaution to lock the doors to the dressing room in fear that Daniel might suddenly appear without warning). When she was fully dressed in clean, dry clothes, Jihyun had sprinted towards the exit, ignoring Daniel who had been leaning against the wall next to the door (still in his wet clothes) waiting for her outside the dressing room. She had been positively sure that he was there to offer her a ride back home for the second time, but she was not sure how to survive the impending awkward moment between them after what that had happened a few minutes earlier and had chosen to grab a taxi back to the apartment instead.

“–who also happens to be your brother’s boss and your neighbour,” Daehwi pointed out the obvious, raising an eyebrow skeptically.

Jihyun failed to form any response to justify herself as was starting to ache and decided to return to her work, hunting for a suitable venue online for a client who had an urgent last minute request for a bigger wedding hall. Speaking of the devil, Jihyun’s phone lit up with a message from Daniel.

[Kang Annoying Neighbour, 4:31 pm] When do you get off work today?

[Kang Annoying Neighbour, 4:32 pm] Is your workplace in Cheongdam-dong? I’m in the area. I can pick you up if you want to…

[Kang Annoying Neighbour, 4:35 pm] Have you forgotten?? According to schedule you have to cook me dinner tonight :P

[Kang Annoying Neighbour, 4:40 pm] I know that you’re reading these texts. Why aren’t you answering Yoon??!!

Jihyun sighed heavily from the sudden flood of texts from the increasingly restless Daniel and could only stare blankly at the screen. It was almost time to get off work and she had planned to drop by the pharmacy to get some cold and fever medicine before heading home for some well-deserved rest. However, Daniel had other plans in mind as he hadn’t forgotten to remind her of her (unpaid) part-time job as his personal chef and had personally offered to pick her up from the studio, in fear that she’d run away from him again. Truthfully, Jihyun had been successfully avoiding any meetings with Daniel for the past few days since their pool incident. She was even more convinced of her theory that she should avoid Daniel whenever there are water in their vicinity, or else she’d end up either chucking water in his face or falling into a pool again (neither had any positive outcomes). It seemed that Jihyun could no longer avoid him because Daniel had growned impatient for her reply and decided to give her a call.

Jihyun grumbled as she left her desk and walked to the pantry. She closed the door and leaned against it before answering the call, “Hello–”

“Finally! What took you so long? Why didn’t you reply my texts?”

“Calm down Kang. Why are you getting so worked up for? Geez, you’re worse than Jisung,”

“You got me worried! Where are you? Is your office in Cheongdam-dong?”

“My studio is in Ahyeon-dong,”

“It’s going to take me an hour in this traffic. Don’t go anywhere, wait till I get there. Do you hear me?”

“I can’t hear you! What? My battery’s dying. Bye~!” Jihyun decided to no longer entertain Daniel’s absurdity and pretended that her phone battery died before ending the call with a loud sigh.

*****************

“Yoon?” She wasn’t surprised to hear that familiar voice after she stepped out of a pharmacy. Jihyun turned around, her expectation was correct as she made eye contact with Daniel, “What are you doing here? I was looking everywhere for you,” he closed the distance between them in a second, worry glazing his voice. He was panting with a few beads of sweat running down the sides of his temp