Naeun’s head was snuck inside her arms folded on the table. She couldn't bother looking up when she heard the sound of the door opening.

Taemin was home, and he would now ask a number of questions seeing her gloomy face so obvious by her spoiled day, but she had no intention of pretending to be fine today.

The day was exhausting enough for her to put her mind into escaping him now.

She wasn’t going to smile and welcome him when she was not feeling like doing so.

It was her first time bringing work back home and especially showing it to him, for a relationship that was still growing it was as hard as hiding, she wasn’t sure how much he would be able to take this side of her, but she was thinking of doing it anyway.

Both of them were really enthusiastic to quickly move in together for a relationship of six months then, but now that they were living together, here she was in her dark caverns today, showing him the hopeless part of her heart too along with the good parts.

It was a bad day at the workplace for her, and it wasn’t just bad to move on with a cup of coffee & her favorite cupcake today. 

Being a PR manager for a cosmetic brand, Naeun was working hard on a product launch for the last four months, and she had to give it all away to her senior because of a silly dispute between her team leader and her rival. 

She had no idea that she would lose even her valuable research that she had done working hours and hours contacting all of their customers for every single review personally in the ego fight between her seniors.

She was feeling useless, agitated at her own self, frustrated that she had worked hard only to give it all away to a group of opportunists because of someone else’s mistake, who she would have to keep catering to in future too, because of her position in the company.

She knew she had no power over the situation and it was killing her inside more. 

Taemin was inside the house, as she could hear his footsteps approaching her way, “Are you okay?” She heard him closer, as she found herself tearing up on hearing his voice, after spending last whole hour alone tormenting herself with all the negative self-criticism. 

She was regretting her decision of moving in with him at this point.

She was not ready to share such a space of her life with him as she thought she would be, she didn’t know how to, she had not shared her problems like this with anyone before, showing someone her vulnerable self was something she had not done before in her life.

She had decided to move in with Taemin because they had the trust she needed to make that decision even though it was a bit early & that was still a surprise for herself but she said yes very spontaneously without pondering much on her thoughts as always, when he was the one asking her first, and it was just a quick, easy decision. 

But now that she was already home, crying on her luck and what not problems of her life suddenly on this one single day, she forgot for a while that she had another person now coming to the same home, with whom she was supposed to share her space and time.

It felt like she was caught red handed doing some crime.

Her eyes were probably red and puffed because of the tears, and her face turned pale too by now, as she continued to keep her face inside, trying to hide all of it.

“Naeunah?” She heard the bag dropping on one of the chairs, as she could feel his presence beside her, and for some reason she couldn’t stop her tears, when she was trying so hard to do so.

If she walks away in the room right now, he would not ask her much and would let her be if she wanted that, but now that he was here she felt the need to stay with him for this while.

It was a funny dilemma in the pathetic situation at the moment. 

She was ugly with a pool of tears still left in her eyes, so she would not dare to raise her head up in that state but also couldn’t stay there now just crying & keep him hanging with no answer, it would be just rude then.

His hand had touched her back, and there was much little she could think in her noisy head right now than going in his arms.

Till now, she was filled with coldness of her agony and feelings of resentment, but his one touch felt like a strong, warm support in that instance.

She wanted to believe that he was on her side no matter what, but the very next second she was scared that this wouldn't be true, that he would judge her for being so petty & crying over a small project.

Even though she hadn’t done anything wrong, she wasn’t even able to get anything right in her place of action, she was humiliated by herself, how was she supposed to explain anything to him about it then.

“Are you crying?” he could feel her trembling muscles of the back under his palm too obvious now, when he had wrapped his hand around her shoulder now, “Why are you crying?” he sounded worried now, his soft, low voice filled with concern.

He had moved his chair near hers, as she heard the creaking sound of the wood and took a deep breathe to pull herself up finally, reaching to wipe her tears before rising up completely.

“Let me get some water” she muttered, wiping off her eyes dry with the corner of her sleeves, but he had stood up before her, to reach the glass and jug, kept in the center of table, “Here!” he handed her the glass of water, sitting back on the chair again, watching her patiently.

She wasn’t looking at him deliberately, as he waited till she could gulp down the whole thing down her dry throat.

She still had the choice of not sharing the problem with him & telling him to not worry and that would still be fine but she wanted to talk to him irrespective of what her mind was blabbering inside her head. 

She looked up to find his eyes filled with care & concern for her, as her heart was heavy once more until she was tearing up again.

He was there for her, right there, waiting for her patiently to say a word from the last 15 minutes, without asking another question, and she knew that she didn’t have to do this alone anymore, she had him to blabber whatever she had on her mind, he can even judge her and she won’t have much reason to mind that.

He had reached for her tears strolling down her cheeks, when she was just blankly watching his eyes on her, unaware that she was tearful, “You wanna tell me what happened?” Taemin asked, holding her cheeks in his palm, as another tear fell down with her following breath.

She was feeling much lighter now, as she had started breathing again, as she him gave a soft nod, straightening up to lean back on her chair comfortably, relaxing to speak, as Taemin moved forward, turning himself in her direction. 

She clicked her tongue contemplating how to start now, when he was sitting in front of her patiently, still in his office clothes, as she looked at his bag on the other chair, and then him again, “Don’t you need to freshen up?” 

She was well aware after living with him for three months that he always needed a shower after work, and it was a kind of stress relieving exercise for him to end his day, so she insisted knowing he must be uncomfortable sitting here for almost 20 minutes without it now.

“I will, after we are finished talking” “Go on” he urged, as she took a brief pause watching him in contemplation, “But-” 

“Just tell me” he whispered, making her sigh out a heavy breath before starting her story finally, “Our new collection launch I was working on, we gave it away to Mr Baek” “Jane was playing her own game trying to piss him off, and I wasn’t even aware that she was messing with his product launch” “Director Kim got to know about it yesterday and in compensation we had to give away our product to them as well” the anger was coming back in her voice now.

“I had to give them all my research and my customer feedback and surveys and what not I had prepared throughout these four months for this product all by myself” she was worked up again while talking about it now, “I had done all the reserach by meeting each & every customer personally just to make sure there’s no corrupted feedback, and they just took it away from me” “They had promised me this project and finally I had a chance to have my promotion”

She was angry again and he did his work of listening silently, “It all came back to starting anew again with a messed up low-budget launch now” she scoffed curtly, before looking at him again.

He was speechless, of course from his place there wasn’t much to say, he knew she was stuck and there wasn’t much they had in their hands to change the situation, and even she knew that, but he had a gentle smile on his face suddenly, “Need a hug?” he asked, surprising her, as she blinked watching him with the dumb face now, 

“Come here” he had reached for her hand, pulling her forward now, as he moved ahead to wrap his arms around her shoulder, as her hands subconsciously reached his waist in reciprocation, “You worked really hard” “Of course you deserve to be angry” he spoke ahead, as she was just listening now, resting her forehead on his shoulder, “You should’ve punched their faces right there!” He had a firm voice, without any hint of humor, but she ended up laughing.

“Hmm” she hummed in response with a lazy tone as she was much relaxed now, “I should’ve” “As hard as I can” she chuckled, as she heard him chuckle too then, “Why didn’t you do that?” “Why are you crying here alone?” he nudged her top of head with his side, as she smiled then.

“I know right” Naeun whispered, as she moved ahead to rest her chin on his shoulder, “I was so angry but I couldn’t say a word to them” she was still a bit sad, disappointed by how helpless she was feeling at that time.

“I can punch them for you” he joked, as she laughed back, pulling back from him to see his mischievous smirk.

“Well, I appreciate you saying that,” she smiled, watching him turn serious again, “It must be really frustrating!” he was observing her, as she smiled watching his concerned face, “It was, a lot" she remembered her thoughts from a while ago, "But I guess I am good now” she assured, she was feeling a lot better for real, like she was able to put down her sword finally and end the fight with the world & herself, she had all day, today.

“Are you sure?” He had no knowledge of how relaxing it was for her to just talk to him right now, “Just take leave for a few days if you want?” he suggested, still worried if she needed some time off from work, “I can take a leave for a day too” he was already planning before she could confirm, but it was cute.

“Isn’t it you, who wants a day off for yourself?” she teased, pausing him for a long second before responding, “You can say so, but I’m serious” he was, with his sincere eyes looking straight through her, as she couldn’t help herself from feeling intimidated that she was unable to answer him in return.

He was trying to read her blanked out face, as he rested his elbow on the table, placing his chin in the palm, watching her intently, “We can spend the whole day together?’ he was smiling coy, which she knew meant what, as she ended up blushing before taking his hand to stand up, 

“Go and have your shower now” she pulled him up with her, as he sniffed his clothes in concern now, “Am I stinking?” he was suddenly self-conscious by her mentioning of the shower. And Naeun ended up laughing, as she managed to shook her head in denial, “That’s not what I meant” she had turned to walk away, stepping ahead to their room.

But before she could walk farther, he had reached her waist to pull her back to him, hugging her back, as she turned her neck to him with a shocked face, “Then what do you mean?” he whispered, holding her against him, as she was dumbfounded by his unpredicted move.

She recognised the mischief in his eyes rising, and it wasn’t a foreign expression to her anymore, as she had relaxed back into his arms, with her face eased down too, when she was smiling to herself without answering him anything in return.

He was just staring at her in that brief moment, “I love you” he blurted, having her amazed gaze back on him, “I’m here with you, for everything you need” he continued, as she was lost in his sincere gaze, absorbing his words at her own pace now, “I know” her answer came out just like that, without hesitation, like that was the only answer she knew then.

Her body had turned to face him before she consciously recognized, as her hand on his chest had slipped up to hold onto the collar of his shirt with her grip tightening on it, hinting him of her intentions, when she tiptoed raising her head to kiss his lips, as his arms were wrapped around her, securing her in his embrace, before he could lean in to kiss her back.

She was taking this spontaneous spur of passion further now, and he was losing strength in his legs to keep standing, feeling weak in knees, as he stepped back, taking her with him to settle back on the chair behind, as she had climbed into his lap, wrapping her arms on his back, when he reached her neck to make sure he was sparing her only few quick breaths in between.

This was one of the ways she could tell him that she loved him back, and so she was on it, not shy, not overthinking, not doubting at all, because she somehow knew now that she was in love with him too, and she needed to tell him how much more,

“I love you” she whispered, against his lips, among one of the spared breaths, "I know" she felt his lips curling up against her, as she pressed her forehead against his, smiling herself, giving few soft pecks only to transform them into a deeper one, as their smiles had disappeared soon, getting to business again.

A/N : Okay this was just another plot with a slightly different space of feelings, Paradise is a song From Onew's new album Circle, and it's one of my favourite track, so I used it to put out a deeper meaning that the lyrics depict, how a home/paradise can sometimes will be a person, the one you wanna hug & share your blues with, the story was meant to deliver that meaning and I hope i did the job well!?

Thank you for reading as always and hope you liked it. 

P.S.: We're here for romance so I'm just trying to get parts of it here & there, approaching different emotions thru my writing and songs I'm choosing. Thank you for coming here every week to support this concept & encourage me with your comments!! 

And yes, Happy 15 th anniversary to Shinee !!