CHAPTER 19
SONG NOEUL

Shoot.

The pain shot at my ankle. I had accidentally sprained it while I was running away from Hoseok. I knew that heels would kill me one day.  My team didn't pry when they knew I   was still angry about what happened. I was furious when I saw that woman in his apartment, which girlfriend wouldn't?! Wait, girlfriend? Am I considering myself his girlfriend now?! I shook my head and pulled my hair in frustration.

"Okay, this is just weird. Unnie," Kiran slammed her laptop shut. "What is going on?"

I looked up only to realise that I was still in a room, and I haven't even started on the morning briefing which was supposed to be half an hour ago. I lost thirty minutes of their time because of my problems! "Nothing, I'm sorry."

"That, earlier, isn't nothing," Eri pointed out. "You told Hoseok that you didn't want to see his face again!"

"Well of course! Because I couldn't believe that he would cheat on me when he had already had a girlfriend from the start!" There. That. I finally let out a burden. It lifted off my chest. There. Silence in the room for seconds which felt like minutes to hours. I covered my mouth and bit my lips, shutting up.

"Cheated.. on you..?" Jisoo repeated. "Wait, since when are you two together?" They didn't know. . They knew about Hoseok's feelings for me, but not me for accepting him.

"You had dated him already?!" Daeun squealed as she pulled me into a hug.

"This is such progress," Sooji laughed. "But Unnie, do you feel a sense of confliction and jealousy because that so-called girlfriend you were talking about could be not his girlfriend?"

I closed my eyes and I felt my sense of denial growing. "Whatever, there's a woman in his apartment and that's that."

"It could be his sister who is pretending to be his girlfriend."

"His sister used to be my colleague. So I am hundred percent sure THAT isn't his sister," my comment had made my entire team gasped. Sooji was dumbfounded, Daeun pulled back from the hug and stared at me. Eri and Jisoo had their mouth gaped ajar. Kiran who was always expressionless, had her eyes widened. "What?"

"I don't know what this is, Eul-ie.. but... I think I think you and Hoseok are really meant for one another."

"No. We're not," Denying. Fully.

"By the way," Kiran started, "What were you doing at his apartment in the first place?"

"To return his wristwatch."

"How did you ended up having his wristwatch?" Eri's turn to ask.

Crap. I'm falling into their trap. Their questions had become an interrogation for no reason. "I am going to get coffee now," I chose to say and avoid all the questions. I heaved a sigh as soon as I pressed the button for coffee on the vending machine. The bottle came down with clang as I reached out to take it out. Am I being jealous? Do I really happen to like Hoseok that much to be able to feel this way? The more I had spent more time with him, the more I felt my heart began to ache.
Walking back to my office room before going out to meet the client, I could feel pairs of eyes burning on me. The commotion that Hoseok and I had caused earlier had made rumors and gossips passed around like fire. And the fact the outburst I did earlier had totally raised a lot of question marks in the office.

'Is she really dating a CEO?'

'Wow, how can Noeul really scored a CEO to fall for her?'

'I never thought that she had it in her.'

It felt like no one actually adored me that much, not that I cared what other people thought about me. That was the thing, I had never once cared what other people thought or talked about my personal life not until Hoseok came into my life. As soon as I came back to the office, I get the necessary things in my hand and went ahead to meet my first client of the day.

It started with a bad day, and I wasn't sure how my day would end.

*

'I need your favor this afternoon.'

That was the last message I had received from Soojung Unnie. I was dumbfounded and speechless when I heard that I had to babysit my niece. "What?"

"Just for a few hours. I'll come by before 10 pm, I promised," Soojung said.

"We just needed to settle something," My brother finally spoke to me. Our gazes met and we both knew that there was still tension between us. It wasn't resolved because we didn't exactly know how to begin and discussed honestly.

Settle something, I glanced to the both of them back and forth. I was hoping it wasn't any rash decision that they've made. Then, I saw Soojung's hand wrapped around my brother's arm. How I used to see it as something so romantic, but now, I just felt everything was just pretending. Soojung was holding back the uneasy feeling she had and brother was just as confused on how to react towards her gesture. Their love between one another as became more awkward.

"Fine," I said, agreeing to help them. Soojung passed Ahreum to me and explained the needs, timing, and necessities for Ahreum in case she threw tantrum. They bid us goodbye before I heaved a sigh and decided to inform my team and Namjoon that I wouldn't be able to return back to the office due to personal reason.

As soon as she cried, it went crazy. I panicked for a moment before I could get the hang of it. While I was in the midst of calming her down, the front doorbell rang. "Dammit," I cursed under my breath. Struggling but successful in opening the door with Ahreum in my arms, my eyes widened in surprise.

His facial expression mirrored with mine.

"D-Didn't I tell you that I didn't want to see your face?" Despite the harsh words that I've said, my heart was actually feeling happy that he was standing right here in front of me. "I am busy now, so if you would please-" I tried to close the door when Hoseok stopped me. He entered my apartment and closed the door behind him.

He didn't say a word but took Ahreum from my arms. "What are you-"

"Go and make her the milk, that was what you're trying to do before I came right?" He said as he looked at me. How could he figured out in seconds when Hoseok gestured his chin to the bottle on my dining table. I was trying to make milk for her and he noticed.

Without any hesitation, I made it with the amount that Soojung had reminded me. And with that, I began to feed Ahreum until she finally calmed down and fell asleep. It was silence between us throughout the minutes that I spent my time trying to make Ahreum sleep. We only communicate only because I had needed his help to assist me while my hands were full of Ahreum.

It was then, he knelt down in front of me making me feel even more flustered, "H- Hoseok!" He held my sprained ankle that was actually swollen earlier. His hands held my ankle delicately. He even noticed this. I have forgotten that I had been limping while making milk for Ahreum earlier.

Honestly, Hoseok was awfully quiet than he used to. It made me slightly nervous when I gazed him and he was already staring straight to me. "I'm sorry," he said to me.

"What are you sorry about?" I didn't want to talk about it honestly. I knew that I had to face him about the situation. And it made me clear that Hoseok was really serious about being with me. I felt kind of happy when he actually persistent about trying to make things right between us.

"Sunhee is my ex-girlfriend," he cut in immediately and I looked at him. Hoseok was being aggressive and trying to get his reasons heard. "I broke up with her years ago. I made a mistake to let her overnight at my place. Because I heard that she had some trouble," He sighed. "Sunhee, she's.. she's a troublemaker."

I remained silent. "Look, I understand if you hate me because of the mistake that I did. But what I promised you is real, and what I feel for you is real," Hoseok held my hand and I felt the electrifying chemistry that I had just like the first time whenever he touched me. "And I think to see you today with your niece in your arms, I feel even more in love with you."

I blushed. How could he even say it so easily?? "Don't be so cheap with your words," I chose to say, keeping my composure trying not to buy it. "You should understand why I would easily misunderstand everything," without me realising, I was opening up to him once again.

I glanced to my niece who was sleeping soundly on my bed. "In a home where love dies," I said. "I feel sorry for her more than anything else. To know that her family was falling apart before she could even recognised her parents properly. The pretense in the family is like living a lie."

Hoseok tightened the grip on my hand. "It's hard to understand to feel what you're feeling, even I tried to comfort you as much as I can. But it made my eyes wide open to understand that I, myself, wouldn't want to have a family that is broken. But there's always ups and downs and reason behind everything. Give them time to make up and work things out between them. What her parents' mistakes were miscommunication and not being honest with one another," Hoseok explained. "But seeing what you went through, I couldn't help but promise even if you didn't want to believe it. I love you and I.." He sighed, pausing for a moment.

"..Call me crazy.. but I thought a lot about making you mine." My eyes widened.

"Mine as in.." he took out something from his pocket.

It made me speechless.