Yunho was in his office one night long going through the day’s video feeds taken from his company’s security centre.

It wasn’t part of his job as the Editor in Chief to do such a thing but it sure was his responsibility to correct inappropriate behaviour from his staff.

His main priority was the Wardrobe, because despite countless warnings on not openly expressing their love for each other (Jaejoong and Latecomer), their hormones would get the better of them and cloud their judgement.

True enough, he saw his younger brother sitting on Latecomer’s desk while they engaged in a rather heated French kissing session.

A normal person would have just continued to watch the video while ing.

But no, this didn't apply to a peculiar being by the name of Jung Yunho.

He stopped the video the minute their tongues came out to play, closed the window, clicked and dragged the video file out from the security feeds and placed the make out session evidence into a special folder labeled: Forbidden.

Not that Jung Yunho was going to ravish the video secretly at home but he couldn’t just delete any security feeds in case something happens in the company and all the videos had to be used for investigation, for example, a theft case or murder in the company (touch wood). And if a certain day’s video went missing, Yunho would be in big trouble.

For now, he was going to hide these make out sessions to save those lovebirds’ dignities.

He then started to wonder if there was something terribly wrong with his hormones.

He had never been in love nor had a crush before.

Hell, he wasn’t even interested in either .

Maybe all his ‘love’ had been channeled into his obsession with numbers.

After all, he felt at peace only when he dealt with them.

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Yunho had two dreams when he was little.

He wanted to attain a PhD in Mathematics and become a statistician.

He also wanted to be a good son to both his parents.

Both dreams clashed when he learnt that his father wanted him to take over Blitz Magazine.

‘You will still deal with numbers, Yunho,’ his father had said.

It sounded ‘somewhat’ similar his dream, so Young-Yunho promised Daddy Jung that he would take over as Editor in Chief after his father retired.

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But it wasn’t what he had expected.

Being faced by 4 black walls, sitting behind his lonely desk and going though countless financial sheets every single day.

Sure he loved numbers, he finished checking through them all within a couple of hours.

Because it was such an easy task for him, he would go around terrorising his employees.

But that eventually became boring as well. He got the same old reactions: The squeals, the nose bleeding, the constant ‘hand-fanning’ gestures. That made him want to roll his eyes so much that his eyeballs would fall out.

The day Louise, his secretary in chief, informed him that a certain interviewee was late, it sparked his interest.

No one in the history of Blitz was ever late for an interview, not even for work. Lateness was never tolerated and that would mean immediate dismissal if there wasn’t a valid reason.

‘Interesting,’ Yunho thought.

He decided to give the latecomer a chance to see what that person was really made of.

When the latecomer entered his office he studied her.

She came in confidently, not like one of those qualified gold-diggers who swayed their hips so hard that they could easily dislocate them. He also appreciated her attempts at not wanting to ‘jump’ him on his desk.

After all, it was large enough to do more than just paperwork on it. 

Yes, Yunho mastered the art of observation very well, in fact, so well that it gave himself nightmares.

Yunho was well read, and we aren't just talking about books here. As the Editor in Chief, it was most beneficial for the company that he identified new and upcoming talents in the field of writing if he were to maintain the level of professionalism and skills in Blitz’s writing team.

He had come across the latecomer’s works before. He would be lying if he were to say that he wasn’t the least bit impressed by them. She didn’t write bull, unlike what many of the new reporters nowadays do by adding in salt and pepper here and there.

He decided to test her.

He pretended to be nonchalant, which was simple enough for him since he just had to carry on wearing that poker face of his as he read though her resume.

She didn’t flinch one bit but there was confidence in her eyes that told him that she knew he was at least impressed by some of her achievements.

He was, but he continued to put on a facade.

It was truly impressive, she was both bold (to come in late and still dared to show her face for the interview) and confident of her skills.

Before anyone could score an interview with Blitz, they had to undergo a writing test and a preliminary evaluation by the Senior Writers’ panel.

Yunho had read though the article she had written for the test and found that it was splendidly straightforward and practical.

She was definitely someone who spoke her mind. He wouldn’t be surprised if she had quite a crude mouth to go along with that brilliant writing skill of hers.

And how right he was.

After she left his office, he leaned back on his chair to think.

She could keep Jaejoong in check. And if things go well…

He shuddered at the thought.

Smiling to himself, he did the necessary arrangements to assign Latecomer to the Wardrobe.

‘Life will be interesting from now on,’ Yunho thought as he emailed Jaejoong to inform him about the latest addition to his younger brother’s department.

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Yunho, however, was caught by utter surprise for the first time in life after his birthmother died from cancer.

Unfortuntately, the illness wasn’t the shocking part.

It was the fact that he had suddenly become the legal guardian of his mother’s adopted daughter that had caught him off guard.

He had absolutely no blood relation to this girl who had just popped out of nowhere, marking the end of his life as a single without any ‘relationship burden’.

She was an extremely quiet and reserved 10-year-old Japanese girl by the name of Sumire.

And it took half an hour of ‘coaxing’ from Yunho to get her to admit that she was hungry.

‘Whoever's listening up there, why me? The kid might be dead by the end of this week,’ Yunho thought bitterly in his head as he struggled to cook lunch for them both.

It was the first time in years that he had taken a day off from work. He was sure loads of hanky-panky would go on that day without him around. And like the saying goes, ‘When the cat’s away, the mice come out to play’.

He definitely had to stay overtime tomorrow night to watch the security video feeds and catch guilty employees. 

He had ‘collected’ her early this morning from the child services as per his request at 10.38am.

‘What’s your name again?’ Yunho asked when he appeared in the living room to tell the kid that lunch was ready.

He had always been bad at remembering names so he always renamed people (Classic example: Latecomer).

‘Sumire,’ he almost missed it but suddenly recalled the name when he caught the last syllable ‘re’. 

‘Can I just call you Kid?’ Yunho asked, ushering her into the dining room.

She nodded once and her gaze fell onto the plate of noodles before her.

‘Does it at least look edible?’ Yunho sat down across the table from her.

She nodded once again and picked up her chopsticks.

Yunho watched her slurp the noodles and chewed slowly.

She lifted her head and nodded at Yunho.

‘Thanks,’ Yunho chose to believe that her nod just told him that his food was to her liking.

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It was only a week later then did Sumire initiate a conversation with Yunho.

‘Can you tie my hair?’ She asked looking at Yunho with her huge eyes.

‘I’m a guy,’ Yunho was sprawled on the sofa busy doing Sudoku puzzles.

‘Can you try?’

‘Don’t blame me if you look horrible for school today,’ Yunho put down his bible of a Sudoku book and gestured for her to stand in front of him as he attempted to ‘collect’ all her hair to one part of her head, preferably at the centre-back of her head, and tie it all up.

That’s supposed to be the goal… right?

‘I won’t… Daddy.’

Yunho was motionless for a second before he recovered his cool composure.

‘All done,’ Yunho patted her shoulders and went back to his Sudoku solving.

‘I’m going off now, my school bus should be arriving soon,’ Sumire announced.

Yunho looked at her and nodded.

She nodded back and left the apartment.

The silence was almost deafening and Yunho sat up on the couch.

Shaking off the troubled thoughts in his head, he decided to head for work earlier than usual.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

‘You look horrible,’ Jaejoong commented in the lift.

‘I’ve got my signature black suit and usual poker face on. What’s different?’ Yunho replied.

‘We know each other best… It’s Sumire isn’t it?’ Jaejoong smirked.

Yunho nodded.

‘What’s with you and nodding these days,’ Jaejoong rolled his eyes.

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Guess you could call Yunho and Sumire the 'Nodding Couple'.

COMMENTS PLEASE?