The walls that surrounded Mari were white. Framed pictures hung from the walls, the blurred painted faces staring back at her. She laid on a soft mattress that carried her weight effortlessly, her elbows digging into the bed. A lilac blanket lay over her and she sat up, shielding her eyes from the sunlight that filtered through the window. Specks of dust floated in the air.

The scent of bacon and eggs wafted into the room, a static radio playing in the background. It hummed an old song with an upbeat tune that slowly woke up the sore muscles of her back and shoulders. Mari stood up, following the sound, the dim lights of the hallway making it difficult for her to find her way. She didn’t recognize the place, but it felt familiar. It felt like home, and the dulcet, angelic voice of a man singing floated around the air.

Mari followed the sound as if under a spell, her feet taking her forwards until the sound became clearer, louder. She recognized the song now. It was an old English song that woke up the butterflies in her stomach, erupting until they collided and crashed with one another.

The song hit her with a wave of nostalgia as her bare feet padded on the ground, the voice singing along with the man on the radio getting louder and clearer. Mari arrived at a room dripping with yellow, a wooden table in the middle with a vase of sunflowers inside, adding to the warmth of the room. A man stood there flipping something in a pan, his broad shoulders clad in a plain white shirt, while a red and white patterned apron wrapped around his slender waist.

His voice became clearer. The English words that rolled off his song were hard and accented, the L’s and R’s almost sounding the same. The man swayed his hips side to side into the beat, the words broken yet tender from his tongue rolling off like waves on a shore. Put your head on my shoulder, he sang, wrapping his arms around himself before tipping his head to the side, a dreamy sigh escaping his lips. Hold me in your arms, baby~

The morning breeze brushed against her bare shoulder. Mari looked down at her shirt that had ridden down, revealing a red bra strap that made her blush. Consciously, she pulled it back up the same time the man turned around, and Mari gasped.

He smiled, eyes disappearing and cheeks getting rounder with every strain of his face muscles. From beside them, the radio kept playing, but Mari could only stare at his face. Somehow, he’d gotten older, the wrinkles on his face becoming more prominent, yet he still looked so handsome that her worries ebbed away, her shoulders relaxing immediately.

Squeeze me oh so tight, he grinned at her, eyes closed while his slender fingers beckoned her to come over. She walked up to him in slow, careful steps, the beating of her heart stable and steady in her ribcage, a warm sensation flooding her nerves. He smelled faintly of citrus and detergent, mixed with the brewed coffee he prepared. Show me that you love me too.

Mari shut her eyes. His hair had now been dyed black, making him more handsome than ever, and his ivory skin glowed under the morning light. She reached out to cup his face, but then he disappeared, bringing darkness along with his absence. Her hand dropped down to her side, the walls closing in on her the same time the floor beneath her feet vanished, and she fell. She kept falling, falling, falling—her body weightless and a scream lodged in her dry throat when-

“Mari,” someone shook her awake, her shoulders moving in the process. “Mari, wake up.”

Her eyes fluttered open, her vision focusing in and out of the sight of red hair. “Baekhyun?” she muttered, his face now clearing up in her view, and she sat up straight, eyes wide. “You’re awake! Are you okay now? Let me check your temperature—”

Baekhyun chuckled, the deepness of it rumbling through his chest. He cradled her hands that almost slapped on his forehead, gently pushing it away as he looked down at her. “I’m okay. Thank you for taking care of me. I feel a whole lot better now.”

Mari looked down at her lap, ignoring the way his thumb massaged her wrist. “It was my fault. You were in the rain and...you should’ve brought a bigger umbrella,” she pouted, making Baekhyun laugh.

“It was the only umbrella I had. I’ll make sure to bring a bigger one next time.”

“How’d you even find me?”

Baekhyun let go of her hand, sitting down next to her. He was silent for a moment, his brows furrowed and his hand scratching at the back of his neck. “Jongdae told me where you went.”

So he knew I found out. Mari looked away, watching the way the sunlight shyly peeked through the blinds of his windows instead. She stared at it for a moment, her mind barely recalling a vivid image of seeing that before in a dream. She couldn’t remember what it was though, so she shook her head, pursing her lips. “Chanyeol…” she began, twiddling with her fingers in her lap. Even his name made dry and croaky, as if the word itself tasted like poison. “He’s dating Evelyn, isn’t he?”

“They’ve been together since college.”

Mari recoiled. “And he didn’t tell me? So what was the point of all this—this marriage?”

“It was a loveless relationship from the start, Mari,” he said before placing his hand on top of hers. Mari watched every move he made. He did look better, save for the bags that rimmed under his eyes. Baekhyun shook his head. “But don’t think about it now. You didn’t do anything wrong.”

She sighed, letting herself relish in his calloused hands roughly moving on top of hers. It felt oddly relaxing and comfortable, but she couldn’t get rid of the hurt that ached within her. “You knew it too. Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Because it wasn’t my place to tell. I’m a bodyguard under his employment before I’m his friend. I know my place and the boundaries I can’t cross.” Mari nodded. She forgot that even though Baekhyun was her friend, he was still a working man, and he kept a code of honor. While Mari admired he knew what line not to cross, she couldn’t help but feel selfish, frowning at the thought that he knew all along and didn’t even warn her.

Her cheeks flushed in humiliation. She felt so stupid that Chanyeol fooled her all along, feeding her sweet lies about a happy marriage when she could never have his heart in the first place.

Baekhyun squeezed her hand, catching her attention. He looked back at her with a soft smile, his red hair a strong contrast to the gentleness of his actions. Out of nowhere, a faint echo of a song played from the distance, probably from the neighbours. The words were blurred and barely incomprehensible, but Baekhyun understood them, and he mouthed along the words.

“Put your head on my shoulder,” he sang, his voice husky from sleep yet tinged with warmth. His hand guided her closer to him, where he let her place her head on his shoulder. The warmth of his skin eased the way her shoulders shivered, and he threw the thin sheets over them one more time.

Mari allowed herself to sleep one more time.

She conceded to the pleading of her heart to forget about the world for a while. Her life flipped upside down and her dreams crashed in front of her, but she could worry about them tomorrow. Nothing was going to be easy and she had to be stronger, but no matter how much her head grew heavy with the responsibilities she had to face eventually, she didn’t feel weak.

She didn’t feel she was alone, because not only did Baekhyun welcome her warmly in her dreams, but he was also her shoulder to lean on. That even if the world turned his back to her and Mari ended up astray, Baekhyun’s presence assured her she’d never have to be alone.

***

Mari grew a habit of adjusting Baekhyun’s tie. Ever since he’d recovered from his illness, the two of them eventually went back to work. He’d assumed his role to stand stiffly outside her door every morning, merely bowing as an acknowledgement of her presence before she left for another meeting.

Today was no exception. The office was rather tense with everyone looking around before speaking in hushed whispers, and their distress was tangible. It reached Mari’s office that she and Yui frowned all the time, their legs bouncing up and down. Something didn’t feel right, but none of them knew what it was. Unable to just sit in her office and do nothing, Mari stood up, picking up the latest envelope she prepared for Chanyeol.

She left her office and Baekhyun nodded. Mari stopped in her tracks, turning back to him with a glint in her eye. He looked dashingly handsome again today, his eyes lined with kohl and his bangs falling messily in his eyes. He raised a brow at her, thin lips fighting back a smile, and Mari grinned.

Tucking the envelope under her armpit, her hands clasped around his tie. Baekhyun rolled his eyes at the gesture, but relaxed and raised his head instead to let her do his job. For some reason, Baekhyun could never get his tie right. It always looked skewed or tilted to the side, something that bothered Mari. So she took it upon herself to tighten it when it was loosened, fix it to the center when it moved sideways, before patting down his collar with a shy smile.

Baekhyun found it odd at first. The first time she did that, he looked at her with narrowed eyes, but it had become a daily occurrence for them that he allowed her to do whatever she pleased. Once satisfied, she waved at him, walking into the elevators and watching as his figure thinned then disappeared with the closing of the doors.

Chanyeol’s floor was empty. No guards were stationed around and the place felt eerily quiet, her breathing sounding incredibly loud through the silence. A look of puzzlement crossed her face. Usually, the guards would be lowly chattering, or Jongdae would burst out of his room with a phone pressed to his ear. But his office was silent even when she walked by, and she knocked once on Chanyeol’s door before entering.

“Chanyeol. Here’s the proposal for the—”

His lip was caught between his teeth as he abused the poor muscle, nibbling at it every now and then. Draped on top of his chair was his jacket, the sleeves of his dress shirt now rolled up to his elbows. His usually gelled back hair was messed up and falling messily across his eyes, almost as if he ran his hands through them several times. Mari paused from the doorway, studying the way his large hands loosened his tie, a grunt falling from his lips—a low, attractive sound if she ever heard one.

Mari swallowed, dry and parched. Even with anger bubbling in her chest, she couldn’t deny the fact she was still very much attracted to him. Memories of holding him close, having him all to herself—they were all so painfully vivid.

It didn’t help that Chanyeol remained unaware of her feelings for him, or if he did, he didn’t care. Because he loved someone else, for a long time now apparently, and Mari was the unexpected factor in the equation. No wonder he was so cold and distant to her from the first time they met. He’d never been interested, but did he really have to play around with her feelings? Couldn’t he just have told her the truth and let her down easy instead of making her fall for him—only to take it all away in one instant?

The fact he didn’t have any idea was even worse.

Chanyeol groaned, muttering something to himself with his head buried in his hands. It snapped Mari out of her reverie, and she stepped closer to him. “Chanyeol? What’s wrong?”

His head snapped up at the sound of her voice, and he sighed when Mari offered a shaky smile. He brushed his hand through his hair again, the platinum locks now pushed back. “Kim Jungwoo left. He’s gone AWOL, but take a look at this,” Chanyeol tilted his monitor her way, gesturing to the screen. “The system crashed. He took his firewall with him and replaced it with this goddamned malware.”

Mari leaned closer to the screen, gasping when the digits in front of her decreasingly dropped. She cast a worried look to Chanyeol. “The stocks are falling.”

“Rapidly,” he remarked, leaning back in his seat with his eyes closed, followed by a deep groan. “What the hell is going on here? No one in the IT Department has the slightest clue where he went or what the hell he did to the system. Any longer and our files and even our most sensitive database will be accessed by competitors, or worse, criminals.”

Mari leaned back in her seat as well. The envelope she had no longer seemed important compared to this.

Kim Jungwoo was an asset to them and she was well aware of his capabilities. She even talked to him at least once or twice when they passed by each other during lunch breaks, but Jungwoo was always shy and reserved, barely speaking a few words before going back to his office. She couldn’t wrap her head around the thought that someone as nice as him would be even capable of doing something like this.

At the same time, Mari chewed on her lip. Perhaps she’d read him wrong or simply didn’t know him well enough. She couldn’t make assumptions about people’s personalities with just a few meetings.

Then, Mari stood up, her hand already fishing her phone out of her pocket. “I know someone who can help.”

Chanyeol looked confused for a moment, but said nothing as she talked to the other person on the phone. It wasn’t easy to convince him, but he arrived half an hour later, shaking his head in disapproval at the expectant look his sister sent him.

“I can’t do this, Mari. I have a few years left on my contract. This is totally against the protocol.”

“I know, but no one understands what’s going on. Whatever Jungwoo did, it’s going to crash everything. The stock market is already falling down. Jongdae is stuck in his desk taking calls from partners because everyone is pulling out because of the malware,” she lowered her voice. “We need your help, Kyo. I promise I’ll pay you handsomely.”

He sighed, pushing past her office and turning on her computer anyway. “You don’t have to do any of that. Just think of this as me making it up to you for many years of absence.” Kyo shooed her from the room, claiming he needed utter silence to concentrate so he could work his magic.

Mari obediently left the room, wishing her brother good luck. From outside, Yui and Baekhyun were already waiting for her. The news had reached them as well, and from the other end of the hallway, Chanyeol was talking to someone in the phone, a hand placed on his hip. He shouted to someone on the other line about ‘stupid hackers’. Mari rolled her eyes. He definitely had the temper when you pushed the right buttons.

She huddled closer to Yui and Baekhyun. “The system’s been hacked. Several people have gained access already, and the IT department is doing everything they can to control the chaos while Kyo fixes the malware and installs his own firewall.”

Baekhyun’s muscles went rigid the same time Yui pulled out her phone. She showed them a blurred black and white photo, probably taken from a cheap surveillance camera. The figure in the photo was blurred and distorted, but Mari could make out his soft and handsome features that were contorted into a scowl, a laptop bag slung on his shoulder.

Yui spoke lowly. “Kim Jungwoo was found exiting his home at three in the morning. He looked frantic while on a phone call. He hasn’t been spotted ever since.”