When my moon rises
Your sun rises as well under the same sky
In this different time
Our hearts are connected under the same sky

— Sun & Moon by NCT 127

---

 

"No, no, no!"

 

A loud scream of despair startled Moon Sera from her sleep. Quickly, she sat up while pulling the thick grey blanket to cover her chest. Rubbing her tired eyes, she shifted her gaze to the owner of the voice who was pulling on his hair.

 

"What have we done?" The man was pacing around in distress, top .

 

"What's the matter?" Sera ran her slender fingers through her messy long hair. "We are adults. Xiaojun, come on." She didn't understand his words but his actions seemed like he was regretful.

 

"That's not the point! What we did is wrong! Wrong!" Xiaojun crouched down to the floor, hitting his head to the floor, but not to the point of bruising himself.

 

"I don't understand. What are you even saying?"

 

"I HAVE A GIRLFRIEND!" Xiaojun screamed in English but the anger was directed more to himself rather than the woman who was still under the blanket.

 

"Oh." Sera guiltily bit her own finger, thinking of an excuse, a reason for the night they spent together. "But you're the one who wanted to come here."

 

"We were drunk!" Xiaojun rose from the floor, defending himself with both arms moving around in panic and fear.

 

It was obvious to Sera that Xiaojun could understand her but refused to reply in Korean. "Listen, Xiaojun. It's not fair that you can understand me when I don't understand a single Chinese word. Let's talk in English."

 

"If Yuqi found out, I'd be a dead meat." He groaned, blaming himself. "And today is only the third day of me here."

 

"Let's be real, last night was…" She whistled, reminiscing last night. "You're amazing."

 

"Stop it, you ert." Xiaojun finally spoke in Korean. "I couldn't remember anything."

 

"Liar." She chuckled. "Your earlobes are red."

 

The man consciously covered his ears with both palms. "I'm leaving." He collected his crumpled white shirt from the floor before putting it on. He stepped out of the master bedroom and then out of the apartment.

 

Few steps out of her place, Xiaojun began to realize a few things.

 

Firstly, he didn't know where he was. It was a place he had never been before.

 

Secondly, he didn't even remember his own address.

 

Last but not least, "Where the heck is my wallet?"

 

"Xiao Dejun, you're an idiot." He slapped his own forehead before making his way back to her door. He forced himself to ring the bell and it was opened within a few seconds.

 

He was greeted by a smile, "Are you here for your wallet and socks?" She playfully held out his black socks and wallet with one hand. Before Xiaojun could reach out for his belongings, Sera pulled back her arm with a grin, she was in a black cotton bathrobe.

 

"Or are you here because you forgot your underwear?"

 

Xiaojun screamed.

 

He really screamed out of embarrassment because he didn't even know he actually did not put on his underwear. He was in panic as soon as he woke up earlier. He snatched the piece of clothing and hid it in his shirt. The man kneeled down, crying without tears. If the floor could swallow him, he would gladly be swallowed right there, right then.

 

Sera laughed at his reaction. In her eyes, he was so clumsy yet adorable. "Calm down. Everything is fine. I won't tell anyone about us. She is not here so she would not find out. Stop thinking too much."

 

"What do you mean 'about us'? There's nothing between us." He quickly denied.

 

"There's nothing between us, yes, but that was last night. We were so it can't be helped." Sera shrugged.

 

"I want to go home." Xiaojun whined. He was exhausted physically, mentally and emotionally. He just wanted to go home and hide himself under the comfort of his blanket. Better if he could fly back to China. He'd love that. He wanted to be anywhere but around Sera.

 

"Do you want me to call Ten? I think he can come and pick you up."

 

"No!!!" He was rather aggressively against the idea. Ten was his senior, the one in charge of taking care of the new interns from China since he was multilingual."What if he found out about us?"

 

"You said there's nothing between us?"

 

"Still! He's going to misunderstand the situation!"

 

"What's there to misunderstand?" She started to get annoyed. "We fuc--"

 

"Hey!" Xiaojun panicked again, looking around to see if anyone was there. "You want the whole building to know, don't you?" His eyes were wide.

 

"We slept together. That's all." Sera chose a better word. "It's not like you purposely cheated on her. You said you were drunk so stop fussing over it."

 

"It's easy for you to say that because I'm not your boyfriend." Xiaojun let out a sigh.

 

"Oh, is it a shame that you're not my boyfriend?"

 

Xiaojun grunted because of her quick wits, "What would you do if you found out your boyfriend spent a night with another woman?"

 

"Dump his whole , obviously."

 

"See???" Her answer did not help to calm his nerves at all. "I don't want to ruin our relationship over this kind of mistake."

 

"But, maybe, I'd think twice before dumping an as fine as yours."

 

"Can you be serious for once?" He'd had enough of her dirty jokes for the day.

 

"Suddenly you're so fluent in Korean?"

 

"Whatever. I just want to go home. Now. Right away. Send me home." He had no other option than asking for her help. In current state, he didn't think he could make it home by himself.

 

Sera folded her arms against her chest, waiting for the word. She raised her brow, silently urging him.

 

Xiaojun sighed and rolled his eyes, "Please."

 

"Good boy." Sera tapped his chin with her finger before going in to change and get her car keys.

 

***

 

"Any question?" The woman in black one piece dress placed the laser pointer when the slide show ended. Her smokey eyes looked at the audience around the long oval table one by one. There were 23 young men from all over the world, were brought in by NCT Corporation to be trained with Korean advanced technologies and skills for two years. After two years, the company will establish three new branches which will be in China, Japan and the US.

 

It seemed like nobody was going to ask a question until a man in glasses raised his hand. A collective grunts from the others who were eager to leave the meeting room could be heard.

 

"Miss Moon, what will happen if we fail the monthly assessment? Do we have to leave this company?"

 

"What's your name?" Sera kindly asked.

 

"Huang Renjun."

 

"Good question, Renjun. Instead of that, we will send you to a private lesson with Madam Boah and nobody wants a private lesson with Madam Boah."

 

"Why is that?" The man fixed his glasses, curious. Sera noticed that next to him, a man was hiding his face behind an A4-sized book. The woman tried to stifle a laugh as she already knew who he was.

 

"Ten." The only woman in the room called out her best friend, who was doodling next to her, obviously bored of the content of the meeting since he went through the same thing last year. Ten was her classmate back from Thailand, when she was forced to live there alone and away from family to learn English.

 

"Ugh." He was annoyed as she interrupted his little doodling session but still answered without being asked. He was the one who'd had direct experience with Madam Boah as he was the first participant of the global project. He started explaining in Chinese, telling them how Madam Boah would not let him go home until he memorized all the answers for the assessment.

 

"What does that mean?" Another voice could be heard, one of the audience who did not understand Chinese like Sera.

 

"Don't ask me, I don't understand either. What's your name, by the way?" She asked for the name, it was hard to remember everyone because it only had been few days since they met each other.

 

"Mark Lee."

 

"Mind translating what you just said to Mark Lee and the others?" Sera almost laughed when Ten sent her a glare. Ten hated it when Sera asked for his help in a formal tone, it sounded too sarcastic. But, he still did as asked when he repeated his little story about Miss Boah in English.

 

Three more questions from Renjun were answered yet there was this one particular man who still had his face covered by the book. Sera wondered if his arms did not get tired of holding the book that long.

 

"Xiaojun, which part of the manual is so interesting that you practically have your face glued to it?"

 

The man flinched, acting like he was discovered from his perfect hiding. Xiaojun lowered the book to the middle of his nose, finally showing his beautiful thick brows and a pair of eyes that's blessed with lashes. Audible whispers from the others could be heard because Sera already knew his name.

 

"I'm sorry, Miss Moon."

 

Finally, Sera thought. She had been wanting to hear his voice since the beginning of the meeting. “Everyone is dismissed except you.” Sera pointedly said which caused a happy roars from all the men except one. Xiaojun sighed before resting his face on top of the book which he had placed on the expensive wooden table.

 

He could not look at her for too long, the faint memory of that night haunted him. There was this little part of him deep inside that actually enjoyed the night they shared, which made him even guiltier. How could a nobody like him had the privilege to sleep with the smoking hot heiress of NCT Group?

 

To be honest, she was not even close to his ideal type. Her attitude was as bold as her smokey eyes, her outfits was as vulgar as her slightly husky voice. She was men’s wildest fantasy, whom Xiaojun was not interested in. He had Yuqi and his sweetheart was all he would ever need, the most perfect woman to ever exist in Xiaojun’s life.

 

“Am I that boring? Ouch, I am very offended.” Sera said to the man who was six seats away from her as soon as the last person left the room. “You didn’t spare even a glance at me.”

 

“Can we just pretend like we don’t know each other?” Xiaojun furrowed his brows, obviously distressed.

 

“I am so sorry I can’t help you because I don’t understand.” She took a step forward, walking her way to Xiaojun, who was still seated. The man in light blue crisp shirt hurriedly jumped out of his seat, increasing the distance between them. “Why are you running away from me?”

 

“Stay away from me! Don’t come closer!” Xiaojun pointed the pen with NCT Corporation written on it, which he carried unconciously with him, to her. At that moment, he was using the tool as a weapon. “I said don’t come closer!”

 

"What are you going to do? Are you going to stab me with that?" Moon Sera provoked, cornering him who was stuck between the wall and the table where the leftover refreshment was placed.

 

"I am going to stab you! I'm serious!" Xiaojun leaned his back on the table, careful to not flip the fragile glasses off the table. His arm was still stretched out, threatening the lady with the blue pen. "Stop!"

 

With his body almost lying on the empty space on the table, Sera leaned down to hover above him. She caressed his tie and pulled on it, successfully decreased the distance between their faces. The pen fell off from his grip and now both hands hung awkwardly in the air because Xiaojun did not want to touch the woman.

 

"Why didn't you pick up my calls?" She stared into his trembling eyes, Sera knew he was not scared of her. He was more scared of the possibility of being gossiped with her because Xiaojun's only fear was their little secret being found out by his girlfriend.

 

"Why should I?" Annoyance was obvious in his clear voice.

 

"Because I'm your superior?"

 

"Not after working hours." He replied boldly. "Stop texting and calling me. What do you want from me? I have nothing to give you." 

 

"It's not about what you have to offer, it's about mine. I want to give you my attention." Sera twirled his neck tie, smiling. 

 

Xiaojun shut his eyes for a moment and sighed. Sera took the chance to enjoy the sight of Xiaojun's beautiful face up close. She had never seen a man with a visual like this.

 

"Miss Moon, I've a girlfriend. I respectfully decline your offer."

 

"And I respectfully decline your declination."

 

"Are you going to keep being shameless?" Xiaojun retorted at her stubbornness. He was not sure why this woman was so persistent in pursuing him after the night. Was the night so hard to forget?

 

Sera let go of him and stepped back. "I'm not the type to give up easily."

 

"You're fighting for something that's not yours to begin with." Xiaojun wished to knock some sense into her. She was a successful and well educated lady, she must know better than wasting her time on him. "Forget me. There's so many other men who wants you."

 

"I told you. It's about what I want. Not yours, not those other men you mentioned."

 

There was no point in talking to Sera. She would not listen to him. "I'm leaving." Xiaojun was about to exit the room when Sera called out his name again. They were back facing each other.

 

"That night is the best moment in my life." It was an honest confession.

 

"You're crazy and I don't want to be a part of any of this nonsense. Goodbye, Miss Moon."

 

Few seconds after she could no longer hear footsteps, Moon Sera reached for bottled water and took a sip with a heavy chest. Rejection, she's used to that.

 

When she turned to also leave the room, she was surprised by someone who she thought already left. He had his body leaned on the frame of the door, hugging himself.

 

"Don't do things you're going to regret, Rara."

 

"I like him, Ten. Like a lot." When Ten called her by her special name, she knew her bestfriend was being really serious. "Just let me be stupid this time."