Though the deafening silence was unmistakable, Mari could still feel the tension both from inside and outside the room. Ever since it was announced she’d be going to work, Yui had woken her up at exactly five in the morning, just in time to see her fiance coming back from the gym sweating with a forced smile on his face before he disappeared in his room.

Mari tried not to flush at the sight of his well-defined muscles underneath his tight shirt.

But that had been almost an hour ago since Yui drew her bath for her filled with essential oils like lavender to ‘relieve any mental stress.’ Mari didn’t bother explaining to her assistant who seemed more stressed out than her that she was more excited than nervous. Yui, on the other hand, had her brows furrowed and her thin fingers trembled the slightest bit as she brushed off imaginary dust from Mari’s coat.

“Why is everyone panicking?”

“As if you’re not used to it,” she muttered, taking a step back to look at her before nodding in satisfaction. “There. You’re all good to go.”

Mari did a little twirl, “How do I look?”

“Professional. Mr. Park would be pleased to see you,” At the mention of his name, three firm knocks came from the door before it opened, revealing Chanyeol who was now dressed in his usual three piece tailored suit, the fabric now a deep shade of blue that complimented perfectly with his black Italian leather shoes.

His platinum hair that she saw ruffled this morning had now been brushed up to its usual style, and although he looked polished and ready for work, Mari couldn’t help but see that there was some reluctance behind those dark eyes of his. She wondered if maybe she didn’t look the way he wanted her to, so she cleared instead and avoided looking at her own feet.

Yui bowed before leaving the room.

“Good morning, Chanyeol. Did you eat well?”

“I did. You look nice,” he replied monotonously, “Are you nervous?”

“More excited, if I’ll be honest. I’ve mostly been working from home and I haven’t even seen my parents’ office so this is all such a new thing for me. What about you? Are you excited to go to work?”

Chanyeol was in front of her in four long strides, his broad shoulders raising in a shrug as his eyes swept down her form inquisitively. “It’s the same for me everyday. But I guess today will be… interesting if you’ll be there. I believe there are many things you can learn about when you become a hands-on boss, but I suppose I should learn more from you, right?”

“We can learn from each other, Chanyeol. I’m looking forward to see what I don’t know yet,”

His eyes snapped up to hers, “I’m looking forward to find out everything as well,”

Mari’s smile froze. She didn’t know why his statement threw her off guard, or maybe it was because his eyes had become cold and empty again, his jaw set a little tight as he looked down at her. There was no trace of amusement or a smile on his face at all until he was all seriousness and power, just like he did when they first met, and although Mari was finding it harder with each passing second to not be affected by the intensity of his gaze, she also couldn’t take her eyes off of him.

There was something about him that made him look dangerous. Maybe it was the way his jaw was clenched tight that accentuated the sharper features of his face, like his tall nose and how he suddenly seemed too tall and large that he made the room feel small. Almost suffocating.

His eyes lacked so much warmth that Mari felt the room become cold until she shuddered underneath his gaze, and that’s when she saw it. A flicker of satisfaction, of pride — until it was gone all too soon.

She wasn’t even sure if she saw it at all, or her imagination was just fooling her.

“Chanyeol, have you seen— oh hey, there you are,” Baekhyun’s head popped out from her bedroom door suddenly, making Mari release a breath she hadn’t even realized she was keeping at all and for Chanyeol to take a step back, his eyes burning into hers for a moment longer. Baekhyun must have noticed the tension between them as Mari blinked rapidly, almost as if waking up from a trance, and he looked at the two of them with narrowed eyes. “I’m sorry, did I interrupt something?”

The taller man hummed, his eyes sweeping down over Mari’s figure once more before turning around until all she could was the retreat of his solid back. “Not at all. Let’s go,”

Mari released a shuddered breath, her hand coming up to her chest where her heart had started to pound furiously. Suddenly, it felt as if her body had been on fire and the warmth of Chanyeol had up at her skin, melting her skin and showing parts of her she didn’t want to show. A faint memory of knowing eyes that looked at her in a way that made her feel uncomfortable rose in the back of her memory, but a warm arm wrapped itself around her shoulders before she could see what the memory was.

She looked up hesitantly, her eyes meeting those of Baekhyun’s who looked slightly different than he did yesterday. Her gaze travelled down from his hair to his eyelids that were faintly lined with kohl, bringing out the specks of green in his dark eyes that she hadn’t even seen before. She always thought his eyes were just brown. And like always, those eyes always looked at her so softly, so quietly, that she relaxed in his hold and a small smile painted her face.

Baekhyun smiled back, though he didn’t say a word.

None of them said anything even as they left the penthouse followed by Chanyeol’s and her security team down to the lobby of the hotel where a fleet of black cars were aligned perfectly and waiting for them.

Chanyeol was already inside the car, long legs crossed against the other while his large hands cradled a tablet displaying documents, his jaw cradled by his free hand as he swiped up and down. Mari took her seat silently, making sure to keep a safe distance between the two of them. She wasn’t sure if she could handle having him that close to her again until his presence overwhelmed her senses and she became highly aware of not only his scent and build, but of herself as well.

One glance at her future husband too immersed in his tablet was enough to make her inhale sharply again before she opted to just stare out the window.

A few minutes passed where Mari just played with her fingers, her heels occasionally tapping in a rhythmic pattern on the ground before the silence grew uncomfortable. It didn’t help that the driver remained unaware of the both of them, his eyes looking directly at the road and focused on his simple task of driving. Meanwhile, Mari was growing more and more aware of her surroundings at the moment, like the way Chanyeol’s breathing was barely audible and she’d heard an occasional low grunt from the man before he ran his hands through his hair.

She couldn’t handle it, couldn’t handle the silence as it made everything louder. Her heartbeat pounded in her ears when a stray hair fell on his forehead that made him look ten times more attractive under the waking sunlight. All her attention was now focused on him, watching the way he breathed out through his nose in a frustrated manner when he read something he didn’t like and he’d close his eyes for exactly two seconds before reading it again. She looked at the tablet in his hands, the source of his distress, and saw that his nails were short and clean while hers were long and painted a clear gloss with the tips white.

Mari’s eyes zeroed on his hands. While they weren’t beautiful pianist fingers like Baekhyun’s, his hands were the type of hands that made wedding rings look y. Long fingers, with veins running down his arms that were hidden by his shirt and suit but peeked out anyway, and rough, calloused hands that were a sign of hard work.

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