Jessica tiredly opened her eyes and the first thing she noticed was that her entire body felt so heavy. After her eyes adjusted to the dimness of the room, she managed, with a bit of effort, to turn her head and stare at the clock on her bedside table and was a bit surprised to see how late it was.

She mentally calculated how much time she’d need to be able to get ready so she could make it on time for work, then slowly sat up and pushed herself towards her bathroom.

It was obvious that the beautiful brunette wasn’t feeling well and assumed that she must’ve had gotten the flu from Juhyun who recently got sick the week prior that she had to come and take care of her.

Usually she’d be up earlier to get ready on a work day but she felt so sluggish that she was tempted to just stay in bed but decided against it because she had lots of things to do.

The designer managed to get ready as fast as her body allowed and carefully made her way to the kitchen to pack some of the snacks her sister brought home the night before since she stayed over and decided to just eat them at the office. She tried to move as quickly as possible so that Krystal won’t be able to see her and find out that she was sick.

Apparently she wasn’t fast enough as she heard Krystal trudge her way out of her room. Jessica messily placed the snacks inside her bag and hoped that she could evade her sister without too many questions.

“Jess, hey. You’re still here? Everything okay?” the younger woman asked as she took in her unnie’s slightly unkempt appearance.

The brunette tried her best to act as normal as she could and smiled sweetly at her dongsaeng.

“Of course! I’m just a bit tired still since I got back late yesterday. Lots of deadlines to meet, with two of my assistants on leave for a few days.”

Jessica quickly sidestepped past Krystal and gathered her things. If Krystal noticed anything out of the ordinary, the designer wouldn’t be able to make it to work. She couldn’t really afford to skip that day because of the upcoming seasonal collection of her brand, and being short-staffed as is made her and her team’s work pile up.

The brunette hurriedly kissed her sister goodbye, and before the younger girl could do or say anything, Jessica was already putting her shoes on then went straight out the apartment.

Krystal stared after her for a minute then just shrugged and went about her business, getting ready for the day.

The young CEO was feeling worse than when she woke up that morning as soon as she slumped down in her chair.

Getting ready and evading Krystal took a toll on her, and by the time she arrived at the company, she felt like a sledgehammer was pounding on her head.

She clocked in and was disappointed to see that it was already too late for her to eat the food she brought, so she just asked her secretary to get her some biscuits and coffee so she could start her day.

‘Why is the time so slow today?’

There was still an hour before lunch break, and Jessica was already downright miserable.

Putting up a façade as she did her work, especially since she preferred to personally oversee the planning stages of her new collection, was taxing and all she wanted was to just crawl back to bed.

The medicine she took that morning didn’t even last her three hours, and she knew she couldn’t take another one for the next couple hours, at least.

“Boss? You look pale. Is everything alright?” The brunette looked up and smiled genuinely at one of her senior staff members, a woman in her mid 30’s that she was pretty close to, who, unfortunately, saw her spacing out inside the pantry.

“I’m okay, Unnie. Just feeling a tad under the weather,” Jessica answered, collecting her nth coffee for the day as she was escorted by her employee out of the room.

“You need to take better care of yourself, Miss Jung. You’re overworking yourself, especially since we’re understaffed right now. We know you’re stubborn, but even perfectionists like you need their rest. If something happens to you, I’m sure your partner will worry,” the older woman whispered.

The designer blushed at that.

Only a handful of her most trusted and loyal staff knew about her personal and private relationships outside the company and had never once judged her for her choice in partner, for which the CEO was most thankful for.

The older woman gave her boss a knowing look, and Jessica just blushed harder but tried her best to reassure her.

“I’ll keep that in mind. She does tend to worry a lot, and I don’t want to be one of the reasons for that,” the brunette said and smiled as she bid her employee a good day before going back inside her office.

“Miss Jung, you look terrible!”

Trust Jihyun, Jessica’s ever so blunt secretary, to call her out the moment she stepped foot inside the CEO’s office, documents in hand.

“Gee, thanks,” the designer answered sarcastically, and her secretary just smiled sweetly back at her, unfazed by her boss’ mood.

She continued on her way in nonetheless and frowned as she stared at her employer’s hunched back and weary face.

“Boss, you really don’t have anything major to do for the rest of the day. I’m sure the team won’t mind you skipping this afternoon’s meetings since you’ve been present in all of the previous ones even though you didn’t have to attend. Why don’t you just go home and rest? You’ve been running yourself ragged for the past few days and have been skipping meals during breaks.”

Jessica tried to open to retaliate but didn’t really have the energy to do so. She just sighed and rested her heavy head in her hands.

“I guess you’re right. It won’t do anyone any good if I suddenly collapse here. You sure I don’t have anything important to do this afternoon?”

The younger woman shook her head no. Jessica nodded her head and slowly started to gather her things and call it a day.

“Okay. Please update me on any changes the team comes up with or if there’s any addition to the collection or whatever. I’ll just take a quick nap here before going home. And before I forget, don’t you dare call her and my family, got it?!”

Despite her miserable appearance, the designer tried her best to glare at the other woman to get her point across which made her secretary gulp and nod her head obediently, knowing full well who she was referring to.

“Get some rest, Miss Jung. I’ll hold down the fort from here.”

And just as the secretary closed the door to her boss’ office, the phone rang.

“Good morning, Miss Jessica Jung’s office. How may I help you?”

“Jihyun-ah? It’s me. I was just wondering how Sooyeon’s doing. Her sister said that she seemed a little off this morning, so I’m a bit worried.”

‘Uh oh. Well, she did say I couldn’t call her myself. She didn’t exactly forbid me to tell the truth in the event that she was the one to call.’

“Actually, Miss Kim, she’s already getting ready to go home in a bit. She wasn’t feeling well as soon as she came in this morning so she asked me to cancel her appointments for this afternoon.”

“Tsk. I knew something wasn’t right when Krystal called me. It’s so like to her to not say anything to me when she’s sick. She’s resting now, I take it?”

“Yes. She said she’ll go home after a quick nap.”

“Okay. Please look after her for a while, Jihyun. I’ll be there as soon as I can. Keep her private elevator free for me. Thank you!”

The call got cut off before the secretary could even say goodbye. Jihyun just chuckled and placed the phone back on its cradle.

For her, it was wonderful to see a relationship as strong and devoted as her CEO and her girlfriend's. Even though the relationship itself wasn’t to everybody’s knowledge and perusal, the secretary could always see how her boss looked whenever she got to talk to her partner on the phone. Even the mere mention of her girlfriend’s name would bring a smile to her face and brighten her mood.

She had been Jessica’s secretary slash friend ever since the brunette started her company several years ago, and she was always glad whenever Kim Taeyeon had the chance to call or even stealthily visit, which resulted to her boss being in a good mood, which ultimately meant a good day for everybody.

Jihyun just hummed to herself as she went back to work.

“How’s she doing?” the singer asked as Jihyun followed her inside Jessica’s small bedroom inside her office where a sweaty faced brunette was currently curled up in a ball, sleeping.

“She’s got a fever, and she didn’t even stir when I placed a towel on her forehead. She needs to drink her medicine soon, but she hasn’t eaten anything yet since her sorry for an excuse of a breakfast when she arrived.”

Taeyeon looked at her, confused, then silently opened her lover’s bag to reveal the packed snacks from that morning, untouched.

The older woman frowned.

“Krystal did mention that she didn’t see any dishes and that some of the snacks she bought were gone. Aish, this girl. I’ll take it from here, Jihyun-ah. Can you please ask her driver to ready her car? We’ll be down in ten,” Taeyeon instructed as she sat down beside her girlfriend.

“Of course, Miss Kim. Excuse me.”

As Jihyun left, Taeyeon turned towards her lover and gently her wet forehead to wake her up. The brunette moaned slightly and tiredly peeled one eye open then the other, confused as to why Taeyeon was there, staring at her.

“Taengoo? What are you doing here?”

Said girl smiled and continued to caress Jessica’s face tenderly. Seeing her sad state, she could lecture her about her health some other time.

“We’re going home now, Love. You’re feverish, and you need to eat something first before taking your medicine.”

The midget helped Jessica to sit up then adjusted her position so the designer could lean on her while she got her bearing.

“I thought I told her not to call you,” Jessica mumbled and pouted, the singer chuckling and affectionately kissed the top of her lover’s head.

“That’s so like you. It’s a good thing Soojung noticed your strange behavior this morning then immediately called me, so I called Jihyun to ask how you were. Remind me to send her something for Christmas for not covering up for you,” Taeyeon said, smirking.

Jessica just snorted.

“Pabo. I hope you didn’t drop anything important just to come here. I would’ve been fine going home on my own.”

At that, Taeyeon carefully lifted Jessica’s chin up so that she could stare at her seriously.

“You know I would drop anything for you that’s within my power, Sooyeon-ah. You rarely get sick, but when you do, you tend to have it worse compared to others. I know you can handle yourself, but I still worry. So please, be a good girl and don’t argue with me, okay?”

Taeyeon leaned in and kissed her lover briefly on the lips before standing up.

“Let’s get you home, Love”

A/N:

Part 2 tomorrow. thanks for reading! <3