[CONTENTID1]3[/CONTENTID1]

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[CONTENTID3]

(takes place among the timeline of 'his favorite little thing' chapter after donghae's visit to hyukjae's office)

Principal architect Lee Hyukjae was strict with his work ethics—the interns feared him, that was for the obvious, partly because he was their principal but mostly because he always had this scowl in his face when he was not smiling.

She feared him as well. Highly respected him mostly, as she should, as one of the new summer interns in the company, just a fresh graduate from her undergraduate school. He never talked to her directly, save for the times they were running into each other in the hallway (she was running late, stupid intern girl, and he was out for scheduled meetings outside the office) and she just had to make a fool of herself by bowing a total ninety and her glasses accidentally slipped and fell onto the floor with a loud cracking sound.

(it was not broken, thankfully)

"Be careful." Was all that Principal Lee said to her before handing her her sorry glasses.

That was a blood curdling experience.

And many weeks later, somewhere during winter, she found him crouching near his car an hour before work hours ended, too busy trying to bait a kitten who found a nice settlement probably between the tires to acknowledge her presence. When he did, though—he jumped onto his feet—something she had never seen in her 24 years of life—and that kind of gave her a huge whiplash, especially when Principal Lee spoke to her in a voice that sounded quite high, so unlike his professional self.

"Ha-na, right?" He asked, his usual sharp eyes shined with something like worry, wide open. He was still munching on something as he spoke, on his hand was a bag of bean rice ball snack and that was… very extraordinary to see, that she had to take a few steps back. "Excuse me. I may need your help."

"I need to pick my boyfriend up, but there's a kitty under my car," Principal Lee said, pointing towards a little tail behind the tire, a thing she didn't notice until he pointed it out. "But… I was, ah, allergic to cats. And cats… fear me. I saw you feeding these strays in the parking lot. Can you keep an eye on the kitten for a minute so I won't accidentally run over it?"

She didn't know which one was turning her into a flabbergasted situation; the casualty in his voice as he said that he was going to pick up his boyfriend (she had seen the boyfriend before in the office. He was young, and absolutely lovely), the fact that Principal Lee just asked for her help, or that he just used the word kitty to address a kitten.

Or that he was talking through a mouthful of crispy rice balls… that was something absolutely impossible.

So she held the kitten close, keeping it from running back towards the car as Principal Lee drove off, nodding at her before he rolled his window up and disappeared behind the turn of the office's gate.

It wasn't an hour later when her phone rang and she was behind her computer on the second floor trying to finish the workload for the day, and she was nearly dead dead when she realized that Principal Lee was calling her.

.

"Pick it up," her deskmate encouraged, although she could see it in her eyes, the pity. "Pick it up, Ha-na."

Of course she would pick it up—she wanted to keep this job for as long as she could, for God's sake.

"I'm so sorry for calling you like this, Ha-na," his voice sounded muffled, as if he was out of breath, and it sounded like he was on the side of the road. "but can you or one of the kids come and pick up this… other kitty? It was inside the front hood all the time. I can't touch it or else—wait. Wait, nevermind, it flees—"

He hung up.

And she was far too flabbergasted to even do anything.

But still she passed the news to the remaining people in the office, people who probably were going to work overtime tonight.

But it was raining so heavily, and maybe God was not on Principal Lee's side because none of the remaining employees brought a car to work today, not even her.

She glanced towards the clock. Principal Lee's lover was around her age, maybe younger. He was so nonchalant about it, and of course no one dared to even question his choice, although she knew that some of the girls talked about it in the pantry during break time. While she was worried that they might talk bad about the pair (his boyfriend seemed so kind, so angelic—she would fight against all odds for him if he were to be harmed, really), it turned out that the girls were actually fawning over the couple.

What were they calling it nowadays? Shipping? Those kinds of things. Who would expect that the ever so strict, cold Principal Lee, calling cats as kitty and he turned out to be a total whipped fool for his young lover? He was all kinds of those main love interests the PDs would portray in television dramas.

Regardless of not bringing a car, it was almost an hour later when one of the senior male employees offered to help—and as he shrugged into his waterproof jacket, Principal Lee called her again.

"Ha-na," He sounded out of breath. "I just got back from a hunt. No need to pick it up. I'll take care of the kitty. Excuse me for disrupting your work. Thank you. Good evening."

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