Kyungsoo grinned as he watched his daughter watch and sing along to the girl group performing on TV. As much as he wanted to focus on his work, Inyoung’s energy keeps grabbing his attention. It just makes his heart melt every time he sees her having a good time like this. The fact that this is the very first time he has ever brought the kid into his office is another reason for him to be happy. How he wishes they can do this all the time. “Appa, your office is so nice looking!” Inyoung ran towards him and leaned herself comfortably in between his thighs and hugged him. “Hush, people might hear you. Everyone is busy working right now. We don’t want to disturb them, right?” Kyungsoo calmly reprimanded the child but let her snuggle onto him like that. He swiveled the chair back to the direction of his computer making the kid stand there beside him, still latched onto his arm while watching intently.

“Appa, that’s so much numbers and words. Can you read them all? Appa doesn’t have good eyes, maybe you should take magnifying glass.” Kyungsoo couldn’t help but to chuckle while glancing at her. The kid then playfully fixed his glasses, pushing it higher to fit him better. “Appa’s wearing the magnifying glass already.” He replied with a calm sigh. “Eomma likes you in glasses.” Inyoung then chirped making him immediately tilt his head to stare down at the kid. “She told you that? When?” He asked, getting very intrigued by the sudden revelation.

“The picture of you I have in my photo album, Appa. The one you gave me last week. She said you looked good in it because of your glasses. Appa sometimes doesn’t wear them when you go to our house though.” Inyoung said. It is true, Kyungsoo usually switches contacts and glasses, he usually wears the glasses when he’s working a lot more and uses the contacts when he’s going out or meeting people to look more presentable, at least for him he thought it looked better. In his opinion, glasses tend to make him look younger and more like a loser, not a CEO.

Is it because he used to wear glasses full-time back in university?

Is that it?

Does she miss that Do Kyungsoo?

“What else did she say about me?” He asked but that’s when Inyoung literally drew a zipping motion across her lips motioning herself to stay quiet. “Inyoung, I just wanna know.” Kyungsoo laughed, still urging the kid to speak up. Three knocks on the door made him immediately stop from touching the kid and even moving his chair a little bit away to gesture the kid to move.

Kyungsoo cleared his throat while glancing at Inyoung. “Come in.” He said and patted the kid’s bum to gesture her to go back to the couch. “Thank you, sorry I got lost.” Yerin thanked Jihoon from outside before stepping into the office and closing the door behind her. “Wow, your office is fancy. I would never think this big store and warehouse would have a fancy looking office upstairs. Are all businesses like that? Like grocery stores? Are they hiding extravagant floors upstairs too?” She walked towards the table while holding her folder of documents and resume. “Most likely. So. . . how did it go?” Kyungsoo asked as he cleared his throat. His heart pounded as their eyes met. He’s still wearing the glasses, he all of a sudden started feeling self-conscious.

Yerin waved a hand at Inyoung before sitting down on the chair across the office table. “So that Mr. Kim, the creative department’s manager. . . he’s a player, isn’t he?” She then finally asked making Kyungsoo sigh weakly. He knew it. He definitely called it. The jerk must have done some serious flirting. “I—I’m not sure, maybe.” Kyungsoo awkwardly answered. “And he’s going to be my boss? You knew it too.” Yerin chuckled while folding her arms.

Kyungsoo rolled his eyes before looking back again. “Okay—I’m your boss, technically. Yes, he is kind of your boss in the department but I’m still the real boss so he can’t technically touch you or do anything or I’m going to kill him. . . I-I mean, fire him. Don’t worry, just ignore him.” He assured her the best way he possibly could. “Yeah, I know. It’s not my first time with a erted boss, it’s just. . . I would expect a bigger company like yours would have more decent executives.” Yerin nodded nonchalantly before pushing the documents towards him across the table. “Did he like you though?” Kyungsoo then asked as he started preparing some contracts and documents.

“Two ways he liked me. One – he said he likes my determination and my creativity. Two – he said he liked my hair and my neck, for some reason. And he somehow managed to made that quite clear without saying the actual words. I guess it’s not really a bad thing, maybe I really have a nice neck? And I take pride for my hair, I take care of it. It’s just. . . he knows how to stare.” Yerin explained in disgust. Kyungsoo looked up trying to suppress the anger building up inside him. He leaned down the table while pressing his fingers on his temples, feeling the growing tension in his head. “Okay, we uh—, I talked to him about this already.” Kyungsoo groaned while printing the contract.

Yerin laughed. “Don’t worry, do I not look tough to you? I’m not worried at all. He seems like he’s all words anyway. He stares but they’re not like. . . eyes or anything ually creepy.” She assured him as she noticed his slight panic. Kyungsoo suddenly pointed at her and tapped the table twice with a slight force. “Listen, you need to let me know even the slightest discomfort he gives you.” He replied, almost pleading. Without verbally responding, Yerin simply looked at him and smiled. Somehow, he could feel the gratitude just by looking at her eyes.

For a moment there, he felt the same strong spark they used to have.

Used to. . . or has it always been there?

After they signed everything, went through with the rules and regulations and scheduled a start date, Kyungsoo finally let her go. “So, welcome to Avantgarde. I expect to see you on time on Wednesday then. On your actual first day, you can enter the main entrance first and my staff can help you set up your I.D. and entry code later on. Okay, thank you.” He offered a handshake like a professional. “Oh geez, this man. This one’s better.” Yerin chuckled and instead of taking the handshake, she walked around the table to his side and jumped on him for a hug. “I really appreciate this, Kyungsoo. You have no idea how happy and excited I am. I thought I was gunna have to go back being a barista after losing that one good job I was actually proud of. But thanks to you, I can continue growing in it.” She mumbled on the crook of his neck – saying such a long thank you message the whole time she had almost touching his neck was very triggering for Kyungsoo.

The way her hot breath hits his already warm skin made his chest tighten, he could barely breath. “Even if this might be temporary, I know this is going to help me in the long run.” She said and finally pulled away but kept the same proximity of their bodies.  At this point, Kyungsoo just basically stood there like a dead fish – including his round unblinking eyes made him resemble a fish even more. “Okay, I’ll stop. You’re turning into stone again.” Yerin, knowing him very well already, finally let go and walked towards Inyoung who was already standing closer to their direction while giggling.

Just then, she got a text which made her pause.

Hey, the conference meeting is finally done, actually finished a little bit earlier than anticipated. May I come over for a visit later?

It was Baekhyun. It put an even wider smile on Yerin’s lips. It’s been a while, he was quite silent for the past few days, only texting her twice or three times a day but she understood because there’s an upcoming children’s event in school that he’s helping out in. Is it too weird to call him now? Yerin was afraid that it might be too much for the guy but she kind of want to hear his voice. “Okay, we’ll be going now I guess.” She turned to Kyungsoo as she gestures Inyoung to bid a goodbye to her father. The child gladly skipped towards him for a hug. “Okay, it was nice to see you, sweetie.” Kyungsoo bent down to plant a kiss on the kid’s head before patting her on the back.

Once the mother-daughter pair was out, Kyungsoo proceeded to his work. He still couldn’t believe that he actually did this bold act of hiring her in his company. He could barely concentrate because of the thought.

He wishes he had an actual plan before going through this. 

He feared that this decision of his would just hurt him even more in the future.

“Hey.” An automatic smile formed on Yerin’s lips as soon as she opened the door. He came later than she had expected. It’s already nine in the evening and Inyoung is already sleeping. She had thought that he would be there by the time they get back. “Hi, sorry. I had to head home to fix some things first before coming here.” Baekhyun apologized right away as he stepped in. “Are you okay? You look pale.” Yerin noticed immediately as soon as they reached the living room. Baekhyun remained silent as he sat down the armchair and rested both his hands down h