Rolling over in your bed, you stretched out and smiled to yourself at the sleeping man beside you. If someone had told you this time last year that you would fall madly in love with Jung Daehyun and wake up on Christmas morning with him beside you, well, you wouldn’t have believed them.

Back then you had no interest in dating anyone, after all.

You wanted to make a name for yourself, build a career that you could feel accomplished with. Getting out and socialising was the last thing on your mind, you had no time for it. You were always staying back late at the office, drawing up new sketches to show your manager in the next ideas meeting. And then when you had been promoted, you were run off your feet with all the added work that came with it.

Dating, where would you fit that in? You had simply believed you would find love later on in life with someone as equally advanced in their career and ready to step into the next part of their life with you. Someone stable, independent, and calm.

Instead, Daehyun crashed into your world, literally.

 

 

~Ten Months Earlier~

“Oh my god, I’m so sorry!” he exclaimed as he opened the door to your car, his eyes washing over you for any sign of injury. “Are you alright? For some reason, my brakes jammed and I—, are you safe to get out? It might be best, here let me help you.”

He didn’t stop talking to breathe and that was all you could focus on doing yourself.

Inhale, exhale.

The sudden force of your car shunting forward as you waited at the set of lights had made you drop your iced frappe somewhere onto the floor, and you were aware your legs were now cold from it. He was still talking as you slowly looked up at him, but now his words only seemed jumbled up. Why was he staring at you with such a worried expression? He had caused this; he didn’t have the right to be worried for you. Or did he? Should you have demanded he worry for you if he hadn’t? After all, you would be driving off from these set of lights if he hadn’t of rear-ended you. But why did the emotion make you feel so uncomfortable? And what was he even talking about?

“Let’s get you to a hospital,” he said and finally took a heavy breath, his eyes deep with concern. “I’ll call for one.”

“Why do I need to go?” you asked softly, and he paused in pulling his phone up to his ear. The suggestion suddenly made you panic and you felt yourself over for whatever injury he could see that you couldn’t yet feel.

“You’re in shock,” he mentioned firmly and you blinked at his words.

Reality seemed to dawn on you then and you gasped. “I don’t have time to be in shock.”

“What? Listen, you are in shock. You’re pale and you’re--”

“Whether I am or not is irrelevant. My boss--”

“Will understand you have been in a car accident,” he intervened and the look within his eyes made you pause in any rebuttal. Why was he forcing this? And why were you listening? He helped you out of the car and began to call for assistance all the while you attempted meek excuses, each and every one being shut down by him.

You had to admit, whoever he was, he seemed to have a good way of directing you. As you waited at the hospital for a scan he had insisted upon, you wondered what type of job he had. Was he some kind of executive? A head of department manager? Someone who owned his own business? He wasn’t wearing a suit though, and as you stared at his distressed jeans you attempted to guess if they were store bought with the holes or not.

Not that clothing or position always made a person powerful; you were just so used to this kind of judgement. In the world you came from, it was almost second nature to evaluate how much of your precious time you should allocate to someone by how they appeared. And looking at what you saw, well, it conflicted with his direct nature or the way he handled everything during the car accident.

You were confused and your head hurt, but that could very well be from the fact that you had hit it in the accident.

“They said you’re going to be sore for a few days, but the scans are clear. I’ve paid for your visit. Look, I’m really sorry this all happened, and if anything else is a problem to solve outside of insurance, here’s my information. I actually have to get to work; do you want me to call you a cab or something?”

You shook your head and smiled lightly, accepting his business card. “I can manage.”

“Please, if you ever need to, don’t hesitate. I caused this, and I want to make sure it doesn’t affect you any further than it has.”

“Thank you.”

And with that, he smiled widely, waved and walked off, almost banging into a patient who he apologised profusely to before turning and waving again. You couldn’t help but smile at how endearing he was and then glanced down at the card in your hands, blinking slowly.

You hadn’t looked at the card as he handed it to you, but now that he was gone, you wondered why you had never once asked his name. Had he mentioned it? You were sure he had several times, but you were too much in shock to register it. The card had a name of a chicken delivery service on it and for a moment you were confused. Flipping it over you found his information scrawled on the back.

You honestly had no idea how much Jung Daehyun would change your world from that day forward.

 

 

“Okay, you are in charge of sorting out the tinsel, and I’m in charge in organising the ornaments!”

You glanced at Daehyun’s smiling face and rolled your eyes. “Says who?”

“Me, you most handsome boyfriend!” he chimed and you couldn’t hide your own smile. He chuckled and hugged you tightly. “See, you can’t resist me. Now, tinsel! Go go go!”

He was always like this with you. It didn’t matter how many months had travelled between you both, he’d always directed you around. You were the one with the job that called the shots. You were normally the firm, authority figure in the office.

But at home, Daehyun had you running around doing all his biddings.

It wasn’t that he was naturally a bossy human or anything. And he didn’t do it to get out of things. Not often, anyway. It was just in his nature to lead you well. You hadn’t realised when you first met him that this behaviour would become something you secretly enjoyed. Your whole life you had been left on your own two feet to make judgements. And you had worked to the bone to get to the point you were at now.

But when it came to the man you loved, well, you would literally do anything for him.

“Always bossing me about,” you chided as you set to work all the same, pouting for effect. Just because you liked it, didn’t mean you were always silent in your obliging behaviour though.

“You’re just so good at sorting things out unlike me,” he oozed and you rolled your eyes again. “Plus, setting up our first tree together like this is important, right? It means we’re celebrating one of the most special times of the year as a couple. We need to remember this, and make the tree look perfect.”

He had won you over right then, a giddy smile crossing onto your face. There was something magical all the time when it came to Jung Daehyun, but this festive season had been anticipated by you as the colder months grew closer. You had dreamed of setting up the tree in your first shared apartment and decorating your home together. Baking cookies and cakes to eat as soon as it was cool enough to, and wrapping presents whilst he sang to you.

Oh, that voice.

You hadn’t expected Daehyun to be a musician back when you met him, and you never had time for music past it being background noise in your car. But that voice had been the next step to getting here.

 

 

~Eight Months Earlier~

You walked down the steps into the less than desirable venue, checking your phone for the umpteenth time to ensure you had the correct address. When Daehyun had mentioned you could finally catch him today, you had jumped at the chance to. There had been an issue between the insurance companies and you had come to solve the problem, now two months after the accident. Daehyun had been out of the country so he had said, and then he was busy with work. You didn’t know what he did, but you had half assumed your destination would be a chicken shop given the card he had left with you.

Instead, you had entered a bar.

You hadn’t ever been clubbing, and you didn’t understand the need for endless rounds of drinking either. You were so disconnected from the world of socialising outside of work that you felt your mood darken upon entering the venue.

There was a surprising amount of bustle once you were inside. Everyone seemed to have tasks to occupy themselves with, darting in front of you as you walked in, as if you were in their way. You started to feel uneasy the further you walked inside, wondering where you could find Daehyun in this environment.

You eventually found him up on the stage with four others, all invested in a conversation that seemed rather serious. You saw his hands directing the words he was speaking and let out a small smile, it reminded you when he had flailed them about as he spoke to you during the ride to the hospital.

Some things never changed.

“Sorry, you can’t enter yet, we’re setting up,” a woman’s voice mentioned and you blinked away from your reverie, smiling politely at her. She didn’t return the gesture.

“I’m here to meet with Mr Jung actually. He knows I was coming.”

“Right, well he’s pretty busy setting up for the show,” she responded monotonously, giving your outfit a once-over.