"life throws some interesting things at you sometimes."

overtime;

drabble | romance | pg | 1174 words

Her name is Krystal. It is kind of an exotic name, quite unique, nothing like how she really is. This Krystal is demure, hardworking, plain. She goes to work with her hair down, wavy locks of dark brown hair, limp and boring. Her skirts reach all the way to her knees, the fabric primly hugging her waist and her blouse neatly tucked in. Her name is Krystal, the dependable employee whom everyone liked but never really paid much attention to. A clipboard in her hand, a pencil stuck behind her ear, her eyebrows crinkled in thought. Maybe the one interesting thing about her is her sense of sarcasm, which she normally keeps to herself anyway.

Enter in a snobby son of the CEO, who goes by the wonderfully and equally exotic name, Kai. His real name is Jongin, but he always insists on using the former. Krystal believes that if only he didn’t have such a supercilious nickname like Kai, it would maybe keep his over-inflated ego in check. But even that prospect seems a little hopeless; his arrogance is definitely unable to be corrected. Of course, she doesn’t say these things out loud, since she believes in proper etiquette, especially in an office setting. She’s a stickler for things like that.

And so, in order to make life just a teensy bit easier (although working overtime still isn’t really her best idea of an amazing life), she simply tries to avoid him - which of course, isn’t a very easy task in itself. He’s everywhere, always finding excuses to be commanding and to show off his high status in the company.

“Yah, you girl over there,” he shouts across the cubicles. The other office workers look up in annoyance. Krystal silently fumes beneath her calm facade.

“Yes?” she sighs exasperatedly.

“I expect the bi-monthly report on the business finances to be done by tomorrow afternoon, the sooner the better,” he declares, as if he had simply asked her to get him a cup of coffee.

“Yes, sir,” she mumbles, but she flashes him a quick smile to keep up appearances. (What does he know anyway? How old is he? Only a little older than her? she scoffs to herself and throws him a glance of disdain.)

She grows to associate him with the annoying smirk on his face, his perfectly gelled hair, and that black suit he always wore. Maybe if he weren’t so annoying, she would find him a little attractive.

One day (or rather, evening), the office empties out, with Krystal still typing away at her computer. The door squeaks open, and hard footsteps are heard traveling in her direction. She keeps her gaze focused on the LED screen before her, her eyes straining and tired.

Someone clears his throat next to her. She whirls around in her chair, only to catch a glimpse of her nemesis, the Jongin-Kai creature thing, the stupid, ignorant jerk -

“Good evening,” he interrupts her thoughts.

She does a double-take. ‘Good evening’? She almost wants to barf. “Good evening to you, too. Now if you’ll excuse me because I have to work -”

“You’re excused.”

She chokes on her own spit. The nerve of this guy, she thinks. “What do you want?”

He simply shrugs. “You can stop working now. It’s getting late. You take the bus here right? I’ll drive you home.” There is a lazy smile set on his features, his eyes nice and hooded.

“N-no, totally, it’s fine...why are you so friendly with me all of a sudden?” she wonders aloud.

He doesn’t directly answer her question. Picking up her purse, he beckons her to follow him. “Get up. Let’s go.”

He says it with such a finality (then again, he says everything with finality) that she has no choice but to obey. She swears under her breath for being pushed around like this. “Okay, okay,” she grumbles, getting up and smoothing her skirt.

They shut down the office, setting the alarm and locking up. The cool night air surrounds the two as they continue to his car in silence. Mercedes-Benz, she notices. Of course.

She is pleasantly surprised when Kai opens up the passenger door for her like a gentleman. Who would’ve thought? But when he gets in on the driver’s side, he simply sits there, the keys positioned in his hand but not plugged into the ignition.

Krystal looks at him apprehensively from the side. “Uhm,” she voices aloud.

She is replied with a forlorn sigh on his part. “Are you okay?” she asks, thoroughly confused. He seems like he has a headache. Despite him being the douchebag that he is, she can’t help but feel concerned. “Earth to Kai,” she prods when he doesn’t immediately answer.

“O-oh. Yeah. I’m fine,” his jaw is firmly clenched and his lips flatten into a straight line.

“Uh, but you don’t quite seem like it...” She notices the dark bags under his eyes, the exhausted look in his orbs, and the throbbing vein along his neck.

A silence engulfs the interior of the car, their breaths making little fog clouds on the windshield. Krystal stares out into the night, trying to stay awake.

“I hate this,” Kai suddenly says, his teeth gritted.

“Excuse me?”

“No, not you, I mean -” he closes his eyes for a brief second. “I wasn’t made for being in charge of a company, okay? I hate suits, I hate sitting in an office, I hate meetings, I hate everything.”

She can’t help it. She laughs.

“What?” he asks, slightly annoyed by her insensitivity.

“Sorry, I just -” she giggles a little more. “I never thought you would say something like that. I thought you loved being in charge.”

He turns around to face her so that she can see his dark intense gaze. “I’m dead serious.”

Krystal forces herself to swallow down her mirth. “Okay, I know. It was just a big surprise to me.”

A slight pause.

“But honestly, I hate working in this company too,” she continues. “Oops, was I supposed to say that in front of the CEO’s son?”

That earns a chuckle from the aforementioned young man. “It’s chill,” he shrugs in that nonchalant way of his.

They sit for a little while longer, until he wordlessly sticks his key into the ignition and allows her to guide them to her apartment. The clock on the car dashboard reads 10:34pm.

“Thanks for the ride,” she says thankfully as she gets out.

“No problem,” he cracks a rare smile. She decides that she kind of likes it.

“You know, you’re a lot different than what I had thought.”

“Go figure.”

She returns the smile with an ear-to-ear grin. “See ya tomorrow morning, I guess?” her tone is slightly hopeful, she notices, causing her to blush.

“Yeah, see ya.”

She leaves, hoping that the frigid night air would calm her beating heart and burning cheeks. The world throws some very interesting things to you sometimes. And no, this time, she isn’t being sarcastic.

`author's note: this was written for lj's aupairs 4th challenge, on sept. 10, 2012. one of my personal favorites simply because i can imagine this happening, keke. i'll post my next one tomorrow! thanks for commenting/subscribing <3

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