Haeun walked into her apartment with a conflicted heart and hands full of groceries. On one hand, she was excited that she was going on a date. Finally, after so long, she was going out with someone who might actually really like her. The last time she went out on a date with someone, he was just using her to make his soulmate jealous, and she had given him quite the earful when she found out. Thinking back, she wished that she had given him more than just a verbal beating, but his poor soulmate would suffer along with him. Even so, it didn’t seem like Taehyung had any other intentions other than just hanging out with her, and maybe even get to know her better than just friends.

Then there was Baekhyun. Baekhyun who seemed to care for her, but then he also would act as though he were controlling her. He was also starting to understand how she worked and how much her job meant to her. They were getting closer, but there was still a wall between them. Haeun wasn’t sure if she cared enough to climb that wall.

Contemplating her strangely messed up – yet not messed up - life, she walked over to her refrigerator and put the groceries away that she had ended up not buying the first time she had gone to the store. She ended up going to the store after she left the police station. After putting the groceries away and feeding Kai his dinner, she made a quick early dinner for herself. She curled up on the coach as she ate her fried rice with a drama playing on her TV. Kai jumped up on the coach behind her, pushing his face into her food. Sighing, she put her index finger in front of Kai’s mouth to block him from moving closer towards her bowl, his whiskers tickling her finger. It was insane how Kai would disappear for hours on end, simply roaming around in the apartment, not needing her affection, but when it came to food, he was the sweetest cat ever and ever so attentive. Great, even a cat preferred food over her.

“No, Kai. You’re not allowed human food. How do you even smell the chicken when it’s literally buried under the kimchi?” The cat simply blinked up at her, as if wondering why she wasn’t giving him more food. His orange tail swished in the air in a slow back and forth motion as he sat down in his spot. She could practically hear the cat say human, give me the chicken. Haeun sighed, and she pushed the cat across the couch’s back. Kai slid away from her, and he got up on his legs to make sure that she wasn’t actually going to end up pushing him down. Once she was sure that Kai wasn’t going to attack her, she continued eating. Soon enough, the cat climbed up into her lap, and Haeun was used to it enough that she didn’t even blink at the action. Instead, she just lifted her bowl up higher, so it was out of Kai’s reach. Occasionally, she had to push Kai’s face down away from her bowl, but once she was done eating and placed the bowl on the coffee table in front of her, Kai wandered over to sniff at the empty bowl. A few of the sauce, and he realized there was nothing in there to eat. Instead, he made his way back to Haeun’s lap. She mindlessly pet his fur and got comfortable with the sound of his purrs blending into the drama’s sound. She didn’t realize how the time flew by as she ended up spending most of her night watching TV. Tired, she put Kai into his bed for the night and fell asleep.

~~~

Bright and early Monday morning, Haeun walked into her office, her ID card hanging in as she tied her navy hair up into a ponytail before stopping short at the sight of the stack of papers on her desk. She mentally cursed, and she grumbled her way over to the desk about her alarm not going off in the morning, causing her to be nearly late to work. After the mess of a weekend she said, she had completely forgotten about the interview that was scheduled for later in the day, and now looking at the papers, her brain was going to overload. Thankfully, she had completed most of the paperwork and preparation for it last week, but it still made her feel stressed and panicked that it had completely slipped her mind. She also had to go deal with her boss about Jieun’s stalker case which she had taken on without permission – which was why she came in early -, but knowing him, he probably already knew. 

She was also grateful that no one else was in the room asking her for paperwork or bothering her about something. Usually the offices in the building were shared by two lawyers and an assistant, but after the lawyer that worked with her had transferred to another department, no one had replaced that desk. Instead, she used it as a second bookshelf. Her assistant was also coming in late that day, so she’d have to check her schedule herself.

After setting her purse down and checking her hair in a mirror, she grabbed her folder with the notes that she took from the interview with Jang Moohyun and the case details before heading down the hall from her room to her boss’s room.

She knocked on the door timidly before she heard a faint “come in.” Of course, it was 8:30AM and her boss was already in his room ready to go. Haeun walked in with a deep breath and bowed when she entered the room.

Jang Wooyoung was her boss who received cases and then assigned them to public attorneys who worked in the law firm. While he was a kind man, he was also a man who cared for nothing but getting the job done properly. He would call people out in front of everyone for slacking off during work time, but he knew how to enjoy himself outside of work when they would go out for work dinners. Haeun admired the man, but she was also absolutely terrified of him. He hated when people would go out of their way to do things without his permission or without checking with him. His response would always be: who needs a boss when they’re clearly doing things on their own?

He was wearing a dark teal suit with a black tie that had streaks of gray and red running through it. He was rolling up the cuffs of his light green button up shirt, and unlike what Haeun had originally thought, it looked like he had just gotten into his office. His bronze colored hair was gelled up nicely, and Haeun wondered what Baekhyun would look like if he wore a suit like that. Then belatedly, she realized that she should’ve been thinking about what Taehyung would look like.

Either way, the two of them would look really, really nice.

 “Good morning, Haeun,” he greeted casually. Haeun was shocked for a moment that he was addressing her by her first name instead of “Lawyer Na.”

“Good morning…” she trailed off. Wooyoung saw her confusion and laughed.

“It’s not even 9AM yet. You’re not technically supposed to be working, it’s okay to be casual.” Haeun simply smiled at that. He looked like he was in a good mood, so maybe he’ll take it easy on her. “What brings you here so early?”

“Over the weekend I was at the police station due to some, uh, circumstances, and I ended up taking a case…” Haeun replied, handing the file over to Wooyoung. His jaw set, and he sighed. He grabbed the file from her hand and sat down in his large leather seat. He opened it and glanced through the notes.

“Kim Heechul asked you to take the case?” he asked.

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“I was already at the police station,” she repeated.

“You didn’t think to ask me first?” he asked, looking at her with hard eyes. Haeun almost flinched, but she couldn’t show her fear.

“I did, but I didn’t want to bother you over the weekend. Plus, they couldn’t keep Jang Moohyun in holding very long. His bail had been posted by his family.”

“Did they file a restraining order?”

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