Jisoo went to work with so much lighter and fresher feelings on Friday morning. And Friday was consultation day. This was also one of those many perks she got as the young professor that people kind of loved. Because she often visited the administration office on the campus while bringing food, the people there recognized her well enough. Jisoo tried not to be picky with who she was hanging out with, she tried to always smile and greet all the campus staff, even though she didn't really know them. Maybe because she didn't have many friends, she tried to make everyone her friend, just in case she needed them one day. And actually she never really buy the food the herself. Most of them were given by her students, which Jisoo knew she wouldn't be able to finish them alone, so she would be better off sharing with many people than leaving them wasted. Since she got herself volunteered in Africa while she was still in Germany and saw how difficult the life was there, Jisoo tried to always to finish her food as a form of her concern for the poverty out there.

Anyway, making friends with the administration staff was proven to make her administrative documents were more easily resolved. Often time she took precedence if she had to prepare some travel documents or others that she needed for research importance. The staff were more careful when working on her documents, so that she never experienced having to complain because there was some typos or something, like the other lecturers had complained about. The people there took her more seriously, especially when she requested the responsible staff to arrange her class schedule following her individual schedule rules.

Jisoo always made a work timeline to get herself easier in managing her schedule to teach and do other activities. Monday and Tuesday were exclusive for class activities, as much as possible she only managed to teach a maximum of four classes for one semester. She had her teaching assistant team from the master or doctoral students who would always ready to substitute her when she couldn't make it to the class. Almost every meeting her assistants would be present in her class to stay updated with the material she delivered. Wednesday and Thursday were days when she received invitations from outside the campus or even the university to go out of town filling an event or if she had to meet with the associates for her research (this didn't not apply to overseas invitations), sometimes even standing by in her deputy office to serve for the IRO; while Friday was the day she met the master and doctoral students who had made prior appointments to consult on their theses and dissertations.

And she was pretty busy today, after the Chuseok holiday, at least five students had resquested for a meeting and queued since morning to see her. So she spent all morning until the afternoon sitting in her office meeting them. Luckily a kind-hearted student, who was scheduled to meet her at 1 pm, brought her a lunch box, knowing that she couldn't leave the room that day. She wan an international student from Thailand named Lisa, Jisoo knew her quite well because the girl was very assertive during her class. She spent more time with her talking about a lot of stuffs besides her thesis while finishing their lunch together.

It was about four thirty when the last students left the room. She stood up to stretch up her muscles and took some fresh air as she opened the window, watching the view outside. And she let the autumn breeze filled in her room by leaving it ajar to walk up to the drawer and fished out her phone. Just like any other day, there were about ten missed calls and hundreds of unread messages waiting for her reply. But from all those, she didn't expect Yixing to call and left her a message.

'hey, are you busy?' it read. The message was sent about three hours ago, after a missed call. He didn't seem to mind that she had let his message unreplied for that long since there was no other call or message after that.

Jisoo decided to give him a call.

"Hey, there." Yixing answered her call at the third ring, his voice was calm like usual, meaning that he wasn't upset.

"Hey, I'm sorry I just read your message. I was in a meeting with my students since the morning, and my phone was in the drawer all the time." she tried to explain the situation.

"Yeah, yeah, that's fine. I can see that it's a habit of yours." he said, referring to the same situation they had last Chuseok.

"Um, is it a bad thing?" 

"Well, you like to be focus, I think that's professional. I wish I could be just like you, but my father would castrate me if I were unreachable even for a minute." Yixing started to laugh, and Jisoo went with him.

It's kind of nice of to hear his voice again. She had to say that her views on Yixing began to change since last night. Knowing how that man's effect could be that big on her, Jisoo was kind of afraid to face him before, because dealing with him made her unable to think clearly. He was so tricky, to the extent that his words could be so trapping, and suddenly she could not escape from his spiderweb.

Yixing had once traumatized her, but the way he tried to make it up to her last night, and how he convinced her that he wasn't as bad as what she thought of him; it melted her inevitably. There was something inside him that made her believe that he was sincere with what he said, he was willing to wait for her, and Jisoo was very appreciative to that. She was thankful, and it was only fair that she gave him the opportunity to prove his seriousness in their relationship. She tried to be more open to him now.

"Well, I'm not busy now. What was it that you're going to say?" Jisoo said after a moment of silence, she spun around to lean herself to the window frame, staring at the wind shaking the trees in the park behind the campus, and brought the leaves to the lake. The scene was so serene, she felt calm seeing it. It had been one of her favorite views here for the past year.

"Ah, it's nothing important. I just called to ask if you want to have a date with me tomorrow." Yixing cleared his throat, trying not to sound awkward. "That, if you don't have any schedule."

"A date? Okay. Unlike someone, I never have work schedule on weekend." she teased, and Yixing laughed merrily at this.

"I'm starting to free myself from it too now. Spending weekend with a real human seems more interesting these days."

Jisoo rolled her eyes, "Duh, what a workaholic you are." 

"Said the one who makes a call back hours later." he retorted, and it couldn't stop her to laugh again. Well, he's right about that, at least that made the two of us, she thought.

"So, I'll pick you up at ten tomorrow?" Yixing asked again to confirm a moment later.

"Ten sounds good." 

"Okay, I'll be there. No need to buy a new dress, I'll like anything you wear." now it's his turn to tease, which Jisoo was failed not to chuckle.

"Thanks for the tip, I'll take that into a serious consideration." she replied, making it into a serious tone.

"Good. See you tomorrow then."

"See you too, Yixing." 

And he hung up the call, and she couldn't help to smile like a fool replaying the conversation with him. How easy it was for him to get her smitten? It had been one of her weaknesses, she used to be very gullible. There were number of times that people would take her for granted after using her for their benefits just because she believed what people said too easily.

She got herself doing her friends' papers and being the only one who participated the most in group work when they said she was a very nice person, and that they liked to hangout with her only be ditched on weekend just because she was too young to go in a club or take alcohol. She got herself once in trouble for lying to the head security about the illegal party that her friends held at the dorm because they asked her so, which it almost got her expelled from her own dorm room. And she thought she learned her lesson enough as she graduated from school and headed back to Korea, only to meet Baekhyun and fell into the same vortex of lies.

And now there was Yixing, and Jisoo was again giving him the benefit of the doubt. She was risking everything now, it could end up a happy ending for her, or take the same heartbreak that she once had from her relationship with Baekhyun. She wanted to stop, but couldn't help to think that maybe, and hopefully, Yixing was indeed different. She wanted to believe when Yixing said that she could put her trust on him, because unlike her past relationship, she had her family on her back now. And she knew it best, that Minseok wouldn't let him off the hook a single bit if Yixing stupidly enough did something to hurt her.

A knock on the door snapped her out from the reverie, she turned her head to the door and invited whoever it was to come in and see Baekhyun poking his head in.

"Hello," he greeted as he made his way in to her office. He held two paperglasses on his both hands, and hand it to her soon as he stood next to her. "Your fave caramel latte with extra whip."

"Thanks." she took a sip on it and hummed on its perfect blend of the espresso and the caramel syrup and the hint of sweet taste of the whipped cream that she liked the best on her favorite drink. Baekhyun was one of the few who knew it well.

"How was your weekend last week?" he asked.

Jisoo tilted her head, hum, other than the messy mess with Yixing and stuff? It's pretty annoying. She had a quite chaotic weekend, but no, of course she didn't tell Baekhyun that. At least for the reason that it ended on a cloud nine, she was being considerate to Yixing's effort to make her happy.

"It's nice. How's yours?" she asked back, only to be polite.

"I texted you, you didn't reply it. You didn't even call me back." he then pouted. It was the habit of him when he was disappointed or felt dejected. He meant it to be a joke, and in the past, that face of him was all it took to fall for him over and over again. Baekhyun was cute. He was an attentive boyfriend, and he liked to joke around. Back when they were still in relationship, she recalled how he loved to lighten up the situation and be the clown to make her laugh.

He could be serious at times, but tended to make fun of his seriousness most of the times. This was what made her fall for him in the first place, because he looked like he had nothing to worry about. He was her breather from the stressful days, and he fell for her as who she was, not because she was the new lecturer and the youngest one their department had ever had, not because she was the face of the faculty right after that, and not because she was popular among the graduate male students. He fell for the Kim Jisoo in her, or at least that's what he told her.

"Ah, that. I'm sorry, I was too occupied since last weekend with the family and conference stuff." now that he mentioned it, Jisoo actually remembered reading his message. He sent two messages for the exact, one of them inviting her for another dinner; one that she once said no to, and the second one asked if she was okay since she didn't reply his previous message. She read them clearly, but failed to remind herself to reply them since it was that time when she was still in Hong Kong. "Why were you so eager to invite me over dinner?"

"Well, can't I?"

"That's inappropriate, Baekhyun, you're a married man. You're not supposed to have a private dinner with me." she proposed.

Baekhyun clicked his tongue, bent forward and leaned his upper body on the window, "I'm divorcing her, remember? Taeyeon refused to sign the petition, so I'll have a laywer to deal with her. I'm giving her anything she wants, she can take everything, I just want to be free from all of this." and once he'd finished his sentences, he turned to her. "I want to get back with you."

Jisoo sighed deeply. She hated this. This would probably make her hyperventilate if it happened a year ago when she was still head over heels for him. She once wished that he would just leave his wife for her, she wished that every single day when she loo