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Tennis shoes was a big mistake. Not only did her feet sink with every step but tiny grains of sand swam into her shoe. Namjoo ended up taking her shoes off, carrying them with her, and walking barefoot beside Sehun.

“It’s so pretty,” Namjoo gasped staring into the bay at the pine trees and rock structures. “It’s such a shame we can’t go that far out.”

They had trekked past the family infested waters into the area with lone adults floating into the water. Basking on their tubes as the waves carried them. The water was so cleanly blue Namjoo had to keep staring. Trapped in the city with the demands to make a living getting out to the seaside for an hour of freedom had sounded too tiring. She was glad she had come.

“The water’s as pretty as Jeju Island’s. It’s so glassy and crystal like,” Namjoo mused. “The sunshine looks like diamonds on water, don’t you think?”

No answer.

Namjoo wondered if she’d been giving some sort of monologue. Was she that boring for talking about water?

The second Namjoo began turning something rammed into her. Expecting to fly forward, but she didn’t. Arms locked around her waist like a vice. She shrieked when her legs were lifted off the sand. It hit her a second later it was Sehun playing around. About to carry her into the water.

“No!” she yelped.

The surprise of the abruptness of the act suddenly became the last of her worry as well as the shock that Sehun was doing this. Curling her legs up she continued screaming happily as they sloshed into the ocean and Sehun twirled her around once. The wind whizzed past gluing her eyes shut, but the thrill of it made her laugh endlessly. He finally set her down gently and she witnessed one of the biggest smiles she’d seen yet on his face.

She hit him playfully.

Truthfully this should be weird. Having a date with her CEO, who had come onto her out of the blue. Yet he wasn’t her boss right now.

Sehun was just a man enjoying a normal day with her. And he was turning out to be harmless though she’d wondered if she should be scared at the beginning.

“It’s cool now, right?” he asked removing a loose strand of hair off the crook of her neck.

The force of the abrupt play and spin had left him panting, but suddenly Namjoo started breathing heavier. Her heart fluttered upon the gesture. The intimacy of his hands brushing her skin like air whistling past her. It was teasing.

The other thing, he was quite the looker. Sweating. Glistening dew drops clung to his hairline. Namjoo didn’t dismiss the way his chest bobbed up and down as he caught his breath. He was hot with every inch of manliness.

Namjoo didn’t know what to do about it.

Her eyes timidly swayed downwards only to catch his plain gray t-shirt hugging his torso. Imagining the tightly woven muscles underneath the material.

“Come on,” Sehun said unaware of the dangerous thoughts lingering on her mind. “I left my shoes behind.”

Namjoo watched him walk out of the water first. Felt the water calmly wash up onto shore. Cutting through her feet as she noticed he’d rolled up his pants while she’d been talking aloud to herself. His calves were built up with a good amount of muscle. Leg hair fair and dark.

He was all the man she could imagine.

Today he’d invited her out on a date. Because he was interested in her.

It was a good thing.

Energized Namjoo rushed forward slamming into him. Grabbing the sides of his shirt intending to knock him over. She foolishly did no damage, but cause him to budge half a step during the crash.

Embarrassed, she looked up to find Sehun peering over his shoulder. It was strange again. She could really feel the broadness of his shoulders. The thickness of his back. The woven muscles. The trace of his shoulder blades.

Sehun was the perfect definition of a man.

Namjoo faked a laugh and began to remove herself. As fast as that her cheek whammed back into his shoulder and instead of clutching onto his shirt, her arms fully slid around him. Courteous of his doing.

Namjoo’s lids fluttered surprised when she felt his big hands covering hers. Something indescribable in his eyes softened, intensified. Her heart raced one pound at a time into his back. Sehun held her eyes so vigorously she couldn’t look elsewhere. Namjoo witnessed the tantalizing smile crawling over his lips.

“Hug me a bit,” he said.

In the entirety of her life no man had ever done this with her. Attempted these antics and successfully succeeded.

She’d never felt like she was special. Not to a man.

One homerun for Sehun, because she was really being swept off her feet.

He laughed, teasing her with moon shaped eyes, “You wanted to hug me, right?”

Immediately pulling away Namjoo smacked him embarrassed. Listened to him laughing delightfully. Pouting Namjoo side stepped around him to head off without waiting for him.

Crap, she was really awestruck and happy. Worst of it, she didn’t know what to do.

Sehun caught up easily. Contrary to asking permission for everything else, he grabbed her hand as he passed her and pulled her along.

“Come on,” he said looking at her. “Let’s go wash our feet.”

Today, he was winning. Her rationality was about to fall off the face of earth. She wasn’t seeing him as her CEO anymore.

“Where are we going?” Namjoo asked after they walked away from the wash station.

“I saw a restaurant across the street,” he told. “You’re not hungry?”

“I’m,” Namjoo prolonged the word, “hungry.”

Sehun starkly grinned. “Then let’s eat.”

Getting into his car they merged with traffic. Arriving approximately 15 minutes later at their destination. A Japanese ramen house with more than noodles on the menu. Upon entering they were led to a dark wooden table separated from others by traditional Japanese paper walls. The waiter in a black uniform handed them a thick leather book disappearing after asking them their preferred drinks.

“We’re on a date,” Sehun reminded, “so order anything.”

“It’s ok,” she tried. “I can handle it.”

“I’ll pay.” He insisted.

Namjoo glanced over her menu at him. “Couples pay separately these days.”

A second past and Namjoo felt like shrinking for mentioning the world ‘couple’ as if they were already officially boyfriend and girlfriend. There weren’t any commitments between them.

Yet.

“I mean,” Namjoo tried to correct herself, but blushed immensely at Sehun’s too happy smile. “You know what I mean.”

“I’ll pay for your meal,” Sehun ended their banter.

Giving up because of her own stupidity, Namjoo chided herself.

The waiter returned, dropped off their glasses of water, took their orders, and disappeared again. Grabbing her cup Namjoo took a long sip, set the glass back onto the wooden table, and didn’t know how to proceed.

“Did you have fun?” Sehun wondered.

“Of course,” Namjoo piped up. “The scenery was pleasant and it was nice getting fresh air.” She looked at him bashfully, “And you.”

His gentle smile grew firm. “The best part of it was you.”

Namjoo should have cringed, fisted her hands, and let out a shriek to relieve herself. But actually, she kind of melted hearing him tell her everything face to face like he needed her to know, wanted her to hear.

Also because of it, she didn’t know how to react again.

He was everything she had never imagined, known before in her life.

She just wanted to shrink in her seat, slide down onto the floor like a cold, dead fish.

“Namjoo,” his voice brought her eyes to him, “you’re very pretty today.”

She blushed.

The waiter returned first with their side dish. Went away again and then returned with their main dish. Sehun cut up a portion of his tonkatsu into bite size pieces dropping them into her empty soup bowl. Namjoo jubilantly accepted his offerings. Struggling not to smile too widely every time she took a bite.

She was so full on the ride home that she feared falling asleep. What if she drooled? What if she looked so ugly, she turned him off?

“I haven’t been seeing you in the cafeteria,” Sehun said.

“Huh?” she quickly looked at him. She didn’t know he’d been going there assuming he’d been too busy in his office. “You went there?”

“I thought you’d be there,” Sehun explained. “I have to eat, too, so I can spare a few minutes.”

She darted her eyes elsewhere to avoid his questionable gaze. She didn’t intend to let him know she was being harassed. Tattling to him was her last option. She could handle that man she supposed, but making a scene of it in the cafeteria made her feel bad. The best she had been able to do was avoid the problem, which was actually the problem, too. Least of all, Namjoo hated the picture of becoming the damsel in distress. Sehun didn’t need to be saving her.

“It’s hard for me to leave the building, so let’s eat together Monday,” Sehun suggested.

“Monday?” her tone diminished. The thought of the man touching her inappropriately made her mind scream. She didn’t want Sehun to see her as incapable of handling matters. She wasn’t a weak woman.

Namjoo would lose her integrity if it happened in front of Sehun. The thought was horrifying.

The quietness stretched between them. In case he might ask what was wrong, she answered, “Ok.”

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Sehun pulled into the front of the building just as the sun started descending. An orange glow streaked across the skyline casting the sky into an array of pink and darkness. The air in the city was changing. The brisk spring air turning humid within a few weeks. Summer would be here soon.

Stepping out of the car he wondered if Namjoo might start wearing dresses or skirts soon.

“Thanks,” Namjoo met him at the curb, “for everything today. I really enjoyed it.”

He enjoyed it more he wanted to say.

“We could do it again,” he said, “sometime.”

A sprinkle of bashfulness turned her cheeks up. It was the smile. Every form of it that said she was excited, eager, shy, nervous.

The smile that always got him.

“Can I,” he nervously wondered, “call you sometime?”

“I’d like that,” she stole a glimpse of him then at her feet trying to hide her big grin. It was so cute he wanted to tuck her in his pocket and run away with her.

“Ok,” he tried not to laugh. “Get some rest and have a good night.”

Namjoo nodded.

Sehun took a long look at her to fill himself up. Tomorrow would be without her. Tomorrow would be a really long day of thinking what else he could do with her to get closer in her world. Tomorrow would be spent thinking about her all day.

“Sehun.” Namjoo called out when he stepped off the curb.

His pulse leapt. Eagerness spread through him when he stopped. Half pivoting he saw Namjoo taking three fast strides to him. It happened so fast he may have just illusioned it. The soft of her lips touched his cheek then disappeared.

“Good night.” She scurried off through the automatic doors as fast as it happened.

Freezing, he touched his cheek as if trying to embed the peck into his hand. Replaying, replaying, and replaying what just took place.

Since the time of the flowers and Namjoo caught him in her office, Sehun had no idea what Namjoo’s impression of him was. If she could like him. Miss him. Be curious about him. Yearn for him.

Want him.

All the colors in his life brightened like the scale of brightness on his laptop.

That night he went to bed not recalling the plush that he once filled his bed with but imagined someone laying with him.

How nice would it be to have someone want to go to bed with him? Turn in the middle of the night and cuddle with him? Wake up to have a warm meal prepared and waiting for him? Drink a cup of coffee with him? Sit with him on the patio and have conversations about the weather, the news, the next-door neighbors, of the dog.

Tell him he was valued and deserving.

One day he could be like the next person on the street. Blend in with the crowd and feel no different from the man laughing in front of the coffeeshop.

He could be like anyone else.

One day he could have a wife, and he’d come home to her.

Before waking up that was what he saw. Opening the door. Finding Namjoo. Catching the sunny smile on her face as she ran toward him. Throwing her arms around him and saying, “You’re home!”

Only it was a trick of the mind when his eyes opened to nothingness despite his heart racing madly. Pushing himself up he left the bedroom. Washed up, pulled on some fresh clothes, headed downstairs to make himself a cup of coffee. Then grabbing his keys, he drove out.

As CEO he might drive out to a private cabin he owned isolated in the middle of nowhere. Surrounded by lush wild trees on a land overrun by boars, birds that chirped all hours of the day, a lake home to some of the rarest water gliders. He’d spend the quiet day fishing or taking his boat out.

CEOs would spend their free day at the golf course. Have lunches with their other rich friends. Chat with them and their wives over too expensive cups of black coffee. Sit back to relish in the scenery from inside an air-conditioned building.

Drive to work. Mull over paperwork, finances, call in the board of directors to lecture them about research and planning. Ensure his company would run smoothly in the future. Success be in his hands.

The electronic store came up into view as he pulled up. Nothing fancy was in his plans today. Pulling his phone out upon entering into the cool store, Sehun walked up to the kiosk. Helping himself to a cable cord he plugged in his phone.

Televisions of all sizes hung off the wall, sat atop tables. Every one showing the same movie on their screens. At the counter a young man in tight jeans and slim fit t-shirt was making a purchase for one of the newest Samsung smartphones. A couple debating in hushed voices over a game console walked back and forth adjacent to him. Warm air breezed in as a family of three entered. Their child’s eyes widened upon spotting the technologies of today that was most likely limited in his home.

Finally, the pictures in his phone finished loading. Most of them rather boring pictures of venues he needed for business homework. Majority of them random candid shots he’d taken of Namjoo from afar. Of times when she never noticed him in the room and he’d pretended to be on his phone.

In every frame some kind of smile decorated her pretty face.

Sehun didn’t think he was a stalker. At least he didn’t follow her around. Everything about Namjoo just captivated him.

He only printed one picture of her.

The day she came out to the event at the showroom. She had pressed her lips shut. Eyes wandering around the room lost, confused, but she had been so pretty in her dress. Resembling an innocent girl that day.

Sehun could still recall her face lighting up when he went to sit with her, and that would be what he would remember each time he looked at this picture.

Namjoo shining with relief when she saw him.

He paid for the picture and left. Going in search of an expensive photo frame. When he reached home and after carefully sliding out the sample standard picture and Namjoo’s in, he went into his room. Cautiously planting the photo on the bedside table angling the picture just perfectly, so whenever he lay down, she would be the last thing he saw when he went to sleep. First thing when he woke up.