D-28

“How’s your day going?” Eunbi asks into her phone. Lately, her lunch hour was filled with talking to Chaeyeon as she ate in the comfort of her small office.

The person on the other line clearly wasn’t having a good day by the sound of her loud exasperated sigh. “Not good.”

“What’s wrong?”

Another sigh. “We’re sponsoring a product that’s launching soon, but a competing company is selling it at a lower price. Basically… we have less than a week to figure out how to launch ours without looking like an overpriced gimmick.”

Eunbi can just about imagine how Chaeyeon would be brushing her hair back forcefully like a mad woman, plopped down inelegantly on her chair and bouncing her leg anxiously. If something was especially going wrong, then Chaeyeon would be chewing on her bottom lip too. Eunbi had seen glimpses of this sight when Chaeyeon worked from the office in their bedroom, and she remembers cupping Chaeyeon’s chin carefully and kissing her worries away.

Eunbi loathed being apart right now, and wishes for some way to make her wife feel better. “Anything I can do to help?” 

Without skipping a beat, Chaeyeon replies, “Just talking to you is enough.”

Eunbi looks down, smiling to herself as a blush quickly makes its way to her cheeks. “...such a flirt,” Eunbi mutters under her breath.

Chaeyeon still heard it clearly. “You like that about me.”

Eunbi does, but she’s not going to admit it that easily. “Shut up.” She scoffs before changing the subject, “Will you still be able to come to my office party, or should I start begging Wonyoung to accompany me?”

“I doubt Wonnie would like to spend a whole night with adults talking about work—No matter how cool your job is compared to mine.” 

“True.” Eunbi shrugs, already imagining her daughter whining about it.

“I’ll be there, don’t worry.” 

“You don’t have to come to the party if you’re busy, Chaeyeon.”

“No, no!” Chaeyeon quickly objects. “You said it was an important event, and I want to be there for you.”

Eunbi knows there’s no point in arguing anymore. Chaeyeon seems adamant in coming to her office party since the first time Eunbi mentioned it to her wife a week ago. When she got the email from her work to RSVP for the party with an additional guest invite, Chaeyeon quickly agreed to it.

“It’s not that important..” Eunbi comments off-handedly. Technically it was true, it was just some annual get-together for the company. But it would also be Eunbi’s first event after the accident, so there was a somewhat importance to the event for Eunbi. “But okay,” she relents. “Just let me know if you have to cancel.”

“It’s at 8, right?”

Eunbi hums in affirmation. Her eyes flicker to the digital clock on top of a speaker in her office. She groans. “My lunch break is about to end.”

“Yeah. I have to go too,” Chaeyeon says sadly. “Have a good day, Eunbi. I love you.”

Eunbi pauses with the phone still pressed against her ear. Chaeyeon recently started saying those three words more often than usual. It didn’t bother Eunbi much, only made her unsure of what to say next. Eunbi has to admit that she does like hearing it—likes the way Chaeyeon is so honest and completely sure when she says it.

It almost makes Eunbi want to say it back.

But… Eunbi just isn’t sure if she’s ready yet.

“Have a good day too, Chaeyeon. I’ll see you later.” She ends the call. Eunbi presses the phone against her chest, closes her eyes and sighs to herself.

Eunbi knows It’s only a matter of time until she says those three words back—hell, she’s already been tempted to say it a few times for the past week. She managed to stop herself each time, though. There was an asterisk to saying it back, with the incident and their deal, Eunbi wants to make sure that when she does say it, she really means it—that she does love Chaeyeon so overwhelmingly, and without any shred of doubt, there was nothing left to do but to say it out loud.

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Eunbi couldn’t lie and say that she hadn’t been looking forward to the dinner party. Maybe that’s why she couldn’t stop bouncing her leg in anticipation. 

Carefully, Eunbi fixes her makeup in front of the vanity, all the while trying to keep her shaking hands steady so she doesn’t ruin painting over her lips with the dark shade of red. When she was done, Eunbi inspected her work for any imperfections and found her makeup satisfactory.

A thought crossed her mind at that moment.

Eunbi wonders where Chaeyeon was, seeing as she somehow imagined she’d be fixing Chaeyeon’s lipstick too by now. She remembers vividly from their conversation in the morning that they had agreed to meet at home before leaving for the restaurant together. But it was already nearing 7.30 p.m., and Chaeyeon was still nowhere to be found. 

Eunbi supposes she should call Chaeyeon now before they both become late.

Surprisingly, the line was left unanswered and went straight to voicemail for the first two times before it finally went through.

“Lee Chaeyeon speaking.”

“Are you still at work?” Eunbi asks, unfazed by the way her wife answers her phone. Though this time Eunbi doesn’t bother to tease Chaeyeon about answering her personal phone so formally.

There was a momentary pause, likely Chaeyeon checking the caller ID. “Eunbi! —I didn’t see the time. I’m sorry, I’m still reviewi—you know what, it doesn't matter… I’m still stuck at work.”

“Does this mean I should invite Wonnie instead?”

“No—no you don’t have to do that. I