Wendy raised her hand, blocking the blazing sunlight from blinding her. She fluttered her eyes feeling like she had been awake the entire night when in reality she passed out like a log the moment her back met the mattress of her bed.

She woke up with a pounding headache and feeling hot, her entire body covered in a thin layer of sweat. She forced her eyes to stay open and the events of the previous night's visit came rushing back to her. 

She was so taken aback by that unexpected kiss that her body didn't even notice that the water in the pool was actually cold. It took her a good ten minutes to come out of her trance and get out of the pool. She was so ready to get her payback but it seemed like she had to wait because Irene had left saying she didn't feel well, leaving her there alone.

Thankfully the staff had a spare change of clothes and it made things a little easier for her before she went straight to her condo instead of returning back to the office.

Groggy and disoriented, Wendy dragged herself out of bed and stumbled towards the bathroom. Looking at her reflection in the mirror, she noticed her flushed cheeks and glassy eyes. It was clear that she had fallen ill overnight.

Feeling weak and fatigued, she didn't put any effort to dress up and grabbed a presentable black shirt with pants. She made her way downstairs, feeling her body ache with every step and made her way to the kitchen. Rummaging through the cabinet through the box of medicine to find something that'll calm her fever down.

It would've been ideal if she could just stay in her bed the entire day and rest, the best way to recover from a fever. But she didn't want to skip work so early in her tenure as a CEO and decided against it.

She gulped down the medication with a glass of water and then made her way outside to her car where her driver was waiting for her. She nestled under her blazer after lowering the temperature, hoping the medicine would soon provide her some relief.

She stepped inside her office and exhaled loudly. The room felt uncomfortably warm, aggravating her discomfort. She took off her upper wear and draped it over her chair and reached out for the remote of the air conditioner to lower the temperature.

As she sat there, the door to her office opened and she immediately knew it was her secretary to remind her about her schedules. “Ms. Shon, you have only three meetings today. One with the Board of Directors regarding the proposal you presented to them the previous day, the marketing team representatives also scheduled a meeting to discuss the potential ambassadors for the SHH and your last meeting is with Im Tech.”

She mentally slapped herself realizing that all of them held great significance and she had to be attentive toward all of them. She let out an exhale and typed everything she heard from her secretary because she didn't trust herself to keep up with everything in this condition.

“Summarize everything in a file about Im Tech archive about their past projects and deliver them to me,” she croaked out, realizing how scratchy her voice was.

She didn't dare to look up because she wasn't ready to face Irene both physically and mentally after their kiss the previous night. Instead, her mind wandered to the events that were scheduled for the day. She had important errands to run and a work deadline to meet, there was no time to slack even if it was clear that her body was in no condition to handle such responsibilities. 

She put the thoughts about her body burning to the back of her mind and distracted herself from her throbbing headache by reluctantly focusing on the screen of her monitor, getting as much work done as possible.

She stepped out of the conference room after everyone had left and leaned against the marble wall, feeling extremely dizzy. Her gaze was flushed, and she sniffled and gulped, feeling a weird sensation in .

She gathered all the remaining strength inside her and managed to walk back to her office without being noticeable in anyone's eyes. She looked at the files on her desk alongside the report she asked Irene to make.

“Just need to finish this…” muttering to herself she sniffled, her nose flushed as she sat on her chair and looked briefly through the files, her eyes weary as she struggled to keep them open.

Halfway through her report, she couldn't fight the throbbing pain in her head anymore and rested her head on her working desk, her body finding it difficult to battle the fever.She succumbed to exhaustion and dozed off on her desk.

(...)

Irene bit her lip, a little suspicious about something being wrong with the CEO. She couldn't shake off the feeling that the younger girl was not fine. She had her doubts the moment she heard that scratchy voice coming out from the younger girl's mouth. Her suspicion only grew when she noticed the CEO gulping down loads of water during the meeting and struggling to walk back to her office.

She looked around after organizing her desk, contemplating for a moment before she made her way inside Wendy's office to see her dozing off. She stepped closer to wake her up when she flinched upon making contact with her skin.

“She's burning,” she muttered to herself and bent next to her to see beads of sweat all over her flushed face. Her mind wandered to her pushing Wendy in the pool after the kiss and it explained her being sick.

A wave of guilt washed over Irene as she came to the conclusion that Wendy got sick because of her. She felt responsible for Wendy's condition, blaming herself for it.

She tapped the younger girl's cheek lightly to wake her up. Their eyes locked when Wendy looked at her with that half-lidded weary gaze and slowly lifted her head, massaging the back of her neck that got sore because of sleeping in that uncomfortable position.

“You are burning!” Irene breathed, glaring at her. “How are you even here? You should be resting,” she reasoned, finding it difficult to hold back the temper in her voice.

“I—can't…I have work to do,” Wendy stammered, her voice cracking as she faced her monitor. Irene grabbed her by her wrist and helped her up, fighting against the younger girl's protest and led her to the couch making her sit down.

“You can barely speak, your eyes are struggling to stay open, your body is probably aching and I am sure your head is throbbing like someone struck it with a hammer,” she exasperated, finding it unbelievable that the younger girl was prioritizing her work over her health.

Wendy blinked as her eyelids grew heavy, “Just one last meeting,” she mumbled and tried to get up but couldn't balance herself and stumbled.

Irene immediately lurched forward and managed to steady her, providing her shoulders as a support before she grabbed her by her waist and made her sit down on the couch. “You can't even stand properly and you're thinking of doing a meeting,” huffed Irene in annoyance. She took out her phone and eyed the younger girl, waiting for someone to pick up the call.

“Is this Ms. Im's assistant speaking? Hello, I was wondering if you can reschedule your meeting with Son Holdings to another day. It's just that Ms. Shon is not in the condition to continue working and needs immediate treatment,” she mumbled, waiting for a reply from the other side. “That's a relief. We appreciate the understanding. Please pay our apologies to Ms. Im.”

“You can't do that,” Wendy croaked out, finding it unbelievable that such an important meeting can be rescheduled on a mere phone call.

“I can and I just did,” she replied smugly as she rummaged through the desk to organize Wendy's stuff before she turned off the monitor and grabbed all the necessary things.

“We're going to the hospital and after that I'm taking you to your place,” she commanded and helped the younger girl stand up by draping her arm over her shoulder and grabbing her by her waist.

She was determined to make amends and thankful that the CEO didn't argue with her much during their journey to the hospital. She immediately sprang into action and rescheduled most of the meetings of the next day to other days, giving the CEO more time to recover.

It turns out that she was indeed right about her boss getting sick because of getting drenched in the pool water and the guilt washed all over her again. She felt thankful that Wendy traveled around with a driver because imagining her driving around with a condition like that scared her.

“You live here alone,” she muttered, looking around the latter's condo. Everything from the interior to the furniture, the flooring and the color scheme of the place screamed luxury.

“It's fairly new, got it after returning from Canada,” rasped Wendy as they made their way upstairs.

“Have you eaten something since morning?” Irene asked after she made her sit on her bed and looked around the gigantic room that was almost the size of her and Yeri's room combined.

“I didn't feel like eating,” Wendy shrugged and massaged her forehead.

Irene opened the closet and couldn't help but gasp upon seeing how huge it was. Shaking her head she rushed to grab the most comfortable piece of clothing before she closed it and went to the younger girl.

“Can you shower or do you need my help?” she asked.

Wendy snickered and wiggled her brows. “Really, that's how you're gonna do it. Just say you want to have se—Ouch!”

“You wouldn't even last a minute so don't push it baby-face,” Irene rolled her eyes, satisfied at herself for that smack on Wendy's head. “I'm going downstairs to cook something for you. Go and take a shower,” she ordered to which the pouty CEO compiled and walked to the bathroom.

She had her doubts about Wendy being a disorganized and messy person but her condo screamed otherwise, even the stuff in her pantry and fridge were organized. She didn't find any