The first two days, basically the whole weekend, has probably been the best days for introductions. Both Yerin and Kyungsoo not being at work so they had the time to get settled in the new set-up. Aside from the occasional indirect flirting thrown at each other, they’ve been pretty civil to each other. Civil, borderline friendly. Generally, Yerin still finds it hard to share a proper conversation with Kyungsoo without him throwing some sarcasm and meanness at her, it just comes naturally. On the other hand, inyoung has been recovering from her injuries pretty well, especially her sprained arm.

Today, she was set to come back to school after several days of rest.

“Ugh, my neck.” Yerin groaned as she got up, realizing she had slept on an uncomfortable position. She turned off her six o’clock alarm on her phone and got off bed. She’s back to work again after three days of being away, she feels quite nervous to go back and hear something from Junsoo. It was such a sudden request for a time off but since it went straight from Kyungsoo, it was possible for her. She got out of the bedroom and immediately smelled the nice aroma of coffee. “Oh my god, so early.” She mumbled, peeking and walking softly towards the kitchen and there was Do Kyungsoo all set and dressed up to leave for work. “Hey.” He turned to her while pouring coffee on a mug.

Her cheeks automatically burned.

A handsome, professional yet cold-looking career man in a semi-formal suit making coffee and looking categorically beautiful in her kitchen. What a sight in the morning. “Oh, h-hey. Very early, aren’t we?” She drew a quick yet awkward smile on her face before turning to Inyoung’s door. “I should probably wake her up now to get ready for school.” She immediately turned away to go the other way. She grabbed the doorknob and softly opened the door, peeking her head in. “Rise and shine, sweetie. Excited to go back to school?” She hushed and saw how her tiny figure hastily turned away, covering herself with the blanket. “Oh, you’re awake now?” Yerin stepped in comepletely and walked over to the bed, leaving the door opened.

“I don’t want to go to school, Eomma. . .” Inyoung mumbled under the blanket. Yerin sat down on the edge of the bed and patted her body before attempting to pull the blanket down. “Inyoung, you have to. Everything’s going to be okay, don’t you worry. Hm? Don’t you miss your classmates? Your teachers?” She tried encouraging the troubled kid but didn’t get any response. “I knew this was gunna happen.” The worried mother mumbled to herself while glancing at the door and outside. Turning to look down at her hiding daughter again, she lowered herself for a hug. “Inyoung, you can’t hide home forever. You have lessons to catch up to and when it’s time for exams, you’re going to have a very hard time.” She pleaded.

Inyoung then started crying hard under the bed. “B-but they’re going to hurt me again—Eomma, Mr. Byun can just teach me here, right? Please, Eomma. Just one more day and then I will go tomorrow.” The kid’s voice broke down in between heavy sobs. Just then, Kyungsoo came in after hearing it. “What happened?” He mouthed while sharing an eye-contact with Yerin who’s still bent all the way down to the kid’s covered body. “Tantrums. She doesn’t want to go to school today.” She murmured back and sighed. “Appa?” Inyoung mumbled and right away, she pulled the blanket down and jumped off the bed. “Appa, give me one more day no school, please! Appa, I don’t want to see them, please! One more day, I promise I will go tomorrow. I’m still scared today. . .” She collapsed down the floor crying hard and hugged Kyungsoo’s leg. “Inyoung, we can’t do that. We already had three days to rest, your teachers are going to be upset.” Kyungsoo bent down to grab her tiny body up to his arm. “Also, your Eomma needs to go back to work. As much as I want to give her more days off, I can’t do that.” He admitted while wiping her tears with one hand while supporting her back with one while she wraps her legs around his waist and latched on his neck. “But. . . but Appa owns the store, right? You can tell everyone Eomma is worried about me so she will stay with me one more day? Can’t Eomma stay with me for one more day? I feel so scared, I don’t want to go to school today. Please, Appa.” The kid begged and begged.

“No, Inyoung. I have to say no this time. We can’t do that, come on. Let’s eat breakfast.” Yerin got up the bed and tried to get the kid from Kyungsoo. “Ahh, Appa! No, hold me! I don’t want to go, please. . .” Inyoung started freaking out, screaming and latching on Kyungsoo even harder. “N—stop, she’s crying. Can you not?” Kyungsoo sternly disagreed glaring back at Yerin. He turned away and got out of the room. “Kyungsoo, you will get used to this. You can’t let her get her way all the time. She’s acting up and she can’t do that, we have work.” Yerin followed and walking straight to the kitchen. Kyungsoo on the other hand went to the living room to sit and have Inyoung sit on his lap and cry.

“Appa, help me. . .” Inyoung whimpered in his neck.

The thing is, he never had to deal with Inyoung’s morning tantrums for school days. “You have no idea how often she does this. Can you just bring her to the table? She needs to eat and take a shower.” Yerin’s stern voice could be heard from the kitchen. “Come on, eat your breakfast first. Your mother and I will talk about it.” Kyungsoo stood up and took Inyoung to the table. “Please, Appa. I promise, just one more day?” Inyoung cried while looking up to him. “Ssh, I’ll see what I can do.” He whispered back before walking into the kitchen towards the mother. “Yah.” Yerin turned to him in surprise. “What—okay, are you now getting mad at me for not being an enabler?” She scoffed immediately after getting Yah-ed by him.

“Are you serious right now? You know why she’s all scared like that, you don’t even care?” Kyungsoo frowned harder but made sure to speak as softly as possible. “Wow, oh so now I don’t care? She needs to be strong, she can’t just hide here forever. What does one more day gunna do to her? Tomorrow, she’d say the same thing, don’t you get it?” Yerin put the bowl of fruits down the counter to completely turned around and face him. “No, I totally get it. But the thing is, the main reason she was even in this position was because of us. Now I can’t let her force herself to go back to school being all scared like that because that’s just gunna be another reason for other kids to pick on her. If I could spend one more day to boost her confidence and comfort her. To assure her, why the hell not?” Kyungsoo moved even closer this time to further emphasize his words despite whispering.

Yerin gulped hard while slowly moving her hands up behind to hold onto the counter. “Well. . . I need to work. Eomma is watching my cousin’s kids today because my cousins went on a vacation. My dad went to Daegu for work. See how impossible this is? And please don’t try to use your power again and give me one more day off because people are going to start suspecting something, think about it and I am not that kind of employee. Maybe you could stay in.” She grunted softly before turning around. Kyungsoo rolled his eyes before moving closer again, his head almost touching her ear from behind. “No, I—it’s more difficult for me to just do that, you know that. You’re not that kind of employee, well I’m not that kind of CEO. You need to do it.” He insisted only making yerin flinch, feeling his hot breath near her face.

“Hey—can you—just—” She shifted her body down to escape his trap. “Yah.” She glared at him. “Well, unlike you, I know how to handle a child’s tantrum maturely. I don’t buy it. So, you do something about it. If not, Inyoung’s going to school whether she likes it or not because that’s just how life works.” She said with finality before taking the bowl of cereal and fruits and leaving the kitchen. Groaning with annoyance, Kyungsoo followed out and suddenly snatched Yerin’s phone. “Hey—what—” She flinched when Kyungsoo put up the phone screen in front of her face to unlock with Face I.D. Once it’s unlocked, he took it away and walked off. “Yah—what do you think you’re doing.” Yerin left Inyoung to eat and followed Kyungsoo in the guest room.

“You’re emailing Junsoo to ask permission to take Inyoung with you to work today.” Kyungsoo said while typing very fast. “What? Are you crazy—stop—give me that—hey!” Yerin started hopping with struggle while trying to snatch his phone back but Kyungsoo was very swift about it and he continued typing while lifting his arm all the way up. “Sent.” Kyungsoo then gave the phone back to her and walked off. “What the hell is wrong with your brain?” Yerin hissed in disbelief before looking down to her phone and checking the text message he sent.

Good morning, Mr. Kim. I know that it’s very early in the morning and I have been away for the past few days because of what happened with my daughter so I’d like to thank you for your consideration. Today however, my daughter is still not in the utmost condition and I was hoping you could permit me, even just for one