The next few weeks were full of preparations for the company workshop slash employee gathering, such as finalizing the place and the activities rundown. Things were finally getting into place and the final date could be published to the others. While it wasn’t always smooth sailing, the team could still manage to work through it. 

Other than the team’s progress that you noticed, you also noticed Chanyeol’s behavior around you. After the time spent at the beach happened, you couldn’t help but realize how comfortable he got around you. He even sometimes took a little bit of his time to talk to you briefly after finishing whatever he needed to in Junmyeon’s office. 

What Chanyeol did was pretty unexpected to you. It just felt a little weird to see him act unguarded around you, unlike he was before. Although it was very much welcomed, you were worried about how the others saw you. While, yes, Junmyeon—the big boss—didn’t mind at all, you knew that people talked. As much as you wanted to ignore it, sometimes you simply couldn’t. 

On a particularly long day full of accompanying Junmyeon to some meetings while having period cramps, you just had to hear people talk about the nature of your relationship with Chanyeol as you rested in the employee’s pantry. 

You were minding your own business—sitting in one of the chairs facing the window with a cup of iced chocolate and scrolling through your Instagram—when you first really heard it.  

“Aren’t they so unprofessional, though? Flaunting their closeness in front of everyone.” At first, you still ignored it, deciding to focus on a particularly cute cat video you saw on Instagram instead. You didn’t want to expose yourself to the office’s gossip and negativity, especially after such a long day. 

“I think the HR department doesn’t say anything because it’s her and Mr. Park. They’re close with CEO Kim too, right? If this happens to the other employees, I’m sure it would be a different story.” On instinct, you looked up when your name was mentioned, looking to your left and right searching for the source of the voice. 

“I bet they’re already sleeping together for a long time, too.” 

It was the group of girls two tables away from you. They were hurdled with their cups of iced Americano on their table. From the five girls, you noticed one of them was Eunji, who was also in the workshop preparation team. You held back the loud sigh you desperately wanted to have. Of course, it was her. She was one of the girls who had a little crush for Chanyeol, but her attempts, though, were never acknowledged.

“Was that what they did when they surveyed the accommodation for the workshop? They must have tried out the room and the bed first.”

There were two ways that you could walk when it came to this thing. The first option was to keep your head held high and walk away—walk away from the negativity and take a moment for yourself in your desk before the lunch hour over. This was the mature way, but it was kind of hard to take. The second option was to confront that group of girls and stand up for yourself, to ask—with a very sarcastic smile on your face—if something was bothering them. This could end kind of ugly, but it would give you a piece of your mind, at least for the day. 

So, after taking one last sip of your iced chocolate, you finally made up your mind. 

Your heart was racing when you stood up from your chair, the palm of your hands starting to sweat as well. Doubts started to fill your head as you pushed the chair back a little bit, giving you the space to move. It got a little bit too overwhelming that you genuinely had started doubting yourself—whether you made the right move or not—as you took calculated steps towards the other girls’ table. 

But before you could even reach it, a familiar voice called your name. The timing was so annoyingly right as if it prevented you to do anything stupid that could worsen the whole thing. Taking a deep shaky breath, you stopped walking and spun your heels to face the person who just rescued you from doing something you were beginning to regret you almost did. 

“Hey, you finished your lunch already?” Jongin casually asked as he strolled towards you, an innocent smile forming across his face. The man walking beside him was the one who caught your eye, though. He was the main source of your problem at the moment—other than the uncontrollable feeling in your heart. 

For a moment, you kind of wanted to be mad at him, for doing subtle, sweet things that caught your and others’ attention. For turning your inside into mush and into a puddle of feelings whenever he did that. For making you turn a blind eye whenever he did that. But you couldn’t. How could you when he flashes that sweet, sweet smile of his that was so bright and took over his face? How could you when you knew you were a goner for his smile? 

A touch on your elbow—Jongin probably noticed that you kind of spaced out on him a little bit—pulled you back from your trance. Blinking your eyes rapidly to clear your head, your eyes zeroed on your cousin and his boss. Although you tried to best to keep your eyes on Jongin, feeling conscious of the girls from the other table. 

“Uh, no. I just had iced chocolate.” You hated how weird you sounded. To make things not awkward for you, you gestured at your lonely cup of iced chocolate on the table a few feet away behind you. 

“Ah,” Jongin nodded and you noticed how he glanced at Chanyeol who was standing idly next to him. “Should we have lunch together, then?” You could feel Chanyeol’s eyes on you, probably hoping that you would join them for lunch. It was tempting, though. A part of you was really tempted to throw all caution out of the window and join them for lunch. Sitting at the same table with them could be a way to show others that you didn’t care.

But you couldn’t. You weren’t as brave and strong as you thought you were. As much as you wanted to ignore the heat of the stares on your back, you couldn’t.

“Nah, I have lunch plans with Junmyeon. See you all later.” Before someone could say anything else, you flashed a small smile at them before making your way to the elevator. You could still feel their eyes on you even when you stepped into the elevator and the doors closed. From that weird minutes, you could only hope that none of them would question you about it. 

Standing all alone in the elevator, you could feel your heart was beating way too fast for your liking. You even had to shut your eyes and take a few calming deep breaths to keep your head clear. As you felt the elevator move down, you kept taking those deep breaths and counted to ten to yourself until there was a ding signaling that you were already at your floor and the elevator finally stopped, the doors finally opening.

Opening your eyes and letting out a staggering breath, you hurriedly walked out of the elevator and turned right into the direction of the toilet. Roughly you still had about fifteen minutes before your lunch break finished and before Junmyeon started to search for you. Pushing the door of the toilet open, you were glad that it was empty. You made your way to one of the empty stalls—the one by the corner of the room—and locked the door. 

Inhaling a deep, deep breath, you sat on the closed toilet lid and perched your elbows on your thigh, leaning your head on your hands with closed eyes. 

It had been a long day to you, when in fact, it was still midday. Only half a day had passed and you still had a few more hours before you could leave. It’s going to be hard. So hard to get through the remaining of your work hours when those girls’ words kept repeating in your brain. It worked like a broken record and you prayed and willed for it to disappear. You wondered what you had to do for it to disappear. Should you drink? Or should you walk all the way home until you couldn’t think of anything other than your aching feet? What should you do? Who would understand you enough to make this decision? 

It took you a few minutes before you could finally make up your mind and finally leave the toilet. There was someone by the sink when you walked out of the stall and you tried your best to ignore the confused stare you got from her, continuing to wash your hands and dry them before you finally walked out of the bathroom to escape her stare. It was better outside with everyone just got back from their lunch, crowding the hallway and talking amongst themselves. 

“I’ve been looking for you everywhere.” Junmyeon was already waiting by your table, his hands perched on his hips and his eyebrows were furrowed. Something must have happened during the lunch break and it pissed him off. 

“I was in the toilet. What’s up?” 

“I need the notes from the meetings.” Without uttering another word, you took a seat on your initial chair and started scrolling through the meeting notes in the computer which was synced with the ones in your work iPad. 

“I’ll send it to you, okay?” You made quick work of sending the note he wanted to his email. Junmyeon nodded and went back to his office. 

The remaining of the day was fast enough that it didn’t drive you completely crazy. Junmyeon still asked for a couple of files that he needed to revise for the meeting on Monday, but other than that, no one came up to your desk or anything. You were glad you had plenty of alone time behind your desk to solely focus on your work (not really) and occasionally reply to the texts from your mother. 

Everything was good until you had to share an elevator with Chanyeol and the gossip girls from the pantry before. Although you were glad that you weren’t alone or you weren’t only with the girls, but you could still feel the bubble of annoyance build within you. It felt like an itch that you couldn’t scratch or the feeling when you wanted to sneeze but it didn’t happen. It annoyed the hell out of you for the words they said back in the pantry were replaying inside your brain and there was nothing you could do to stop it. Even when you closed your eyes, you could still see the images of them talking and giggling playing on the back of your eyelids. 

Chanyeol flashed you a small smile as you walked into the elevator and stood next to him. You did nothing other than pressed your lips into a thin line at his smile, though. Throughout the ride to the ground floor, the elevator was filled with complete silence. If someone dropped a pin, you were sure that it would be heard clearly. It was an intense few seconds for you, and gosh, the things you would do to be out of the elevator… 

As soon as it arrived at the ground floor and the elevator doors opened, you quickly walked out, heading towards the exit door as fast as your feet could take you. But of course, of course, before you could even walk out of the building, Chanyeol just had to call your name, gaining a few other people’s attention as he did so. 

Inhaling a deep breath and cursing to yourself, you stopped walking and turned around. Your eyes zeroed on Chanyeol’s figure as he made his way towards you, the scene making you feel a rush of dejavu. The rolled up sleeves and the blazer slung over his shoulder reminded you of how he was back during high school. It was a familiar look that you used to see after school years ago. Younger Chanyeol with his school shirt sleeves rolled up to his forearms with his backpack slung over one shoulder and holding the school blazer on one hand and a younger you sitting one of the school benches just watching him talk to Jongin and wishing that someday you would have the bravery and the chance to talk to Chanyeol too. 

The younger yourself wouldn’t even know, though, that years later you would work alongside with him and get so close with him—closer than you would even think before. Figuratively speaking, the whole thing felt like a dream come true, but that was before you found out the thing that had been