“Ugh, my legs,” Siyoung groaned. She threw herself at one of the couches in the Gathering Room. Shortly, the other two girls who looked just as lifeless came in and rested on the other two couches. Today’s work—2 welcoming operations, 3 departure operations, and other individual errands—had really taken its tolls on them. As they were waiting for the Chief for usual daily evaluation, they heard footsteps walking in to the room.

“Omo omo, why is my Jaeyeon so colorless? You must be really tired,” Junsu’s squeak was the first sound heard as he quickly approached Jaeyeon and scooted to her side.

Both Siyoung and Haejin groaned. “Have mercy, Junsu-ya. I’m already dying over here. Let me at least finish the evaluation,” Siyoung pleaded.

“But I’m not doing anything, Siyoung-ah… I’m just worried about her. Are you okay, babe?” Junsu touched Jaeyeon’s cheek. The latter weakly nodded as she slightly leaned to his hand.

“Oh my god,” Siyoung snapped. Haejin already covered her eyes with her hand, choosing to save her last bit of energy for the evaluation.

As her eyes were closed, she felt someone’s presence on the top of her head, sitting on the armrest as her body left no space on the couch. She didn’t move to see the person as she could tell just by his scent. The masculine, yet mild scent of earthy woods that lingered around her more these past three days. Yes, it had been three days since that emotional moment in his mansion when he asked to enter her heart and by not rejecting the request, she implicitly let him to. A hand gently caressed her forehead, loosening the crease on it she didn’t realize forming. She felt her lips curling up as another hand lightly pinched her nose. Quietly, those hands found their place on her temple and massaged it. They only stopped when she opened her eyes. His tender gaze met hers and a smile graced his face upon the contact. He mouthed ‘are you okay’ to which she nodded with a reasurring smile.

“Chief! Finally!” Siyoung exclaimed, breaking the gaze between Jaejoong and Haejin. It turned out that Siyoung witnessed their silent scene of affections, though it was more like a cruel, heart-eating scene for her. Siyoung never looked happier to see their chief entering the room. The Chief looked puzzled, though he replied. “Hey, girls. Tough day, huh?”

“Down to the last drop of blood, Sir,” Siyoung retorted, earning restrained chuckles from Jaejoong and Junsu, who at the same time threw a meaningful look to Yoochun. The latter only smiled inwardly, knowing what they—and Siyoung—expected. Being one with natural expertise in captivating the hearts of women, Yoochun had gotten used to see females falling for him whether he wanted them to or not. One golf match with Siyoung was more than enough for him to know that she'd already fallen for him. He did find himself quite fond of her, but he wasn't sure if he wanted to catch her.

The Chief examined the faces of his girls—daughters in his heart—and immediately grasped the situation. While motioning Jaeyeon and Haejin to sit up, he lightly flicked their foreheads. “Let’s start the daily evaluation,” Chief instructed.

♦♦♦

On the next morning, the girls were a little late to join the breakfast as they almost couldn’t open their eyes. They got to the dining room by 7.15 though, only 15 minutes late. But quite a surprise, Chief was the only one on the table. They greeted the chief while still wondering why the others didn’t join. The Chief, on the other hand, didn’t say anything about it through the breakfast—which was suspicious to the girls who knew their papa very well.

As soon as the chief left, Jaeyeon checked her smartphone. “Guys, Junsu just sent me a chat. He only said sorry for not joining the breakfast, but didn’t say why,” she told the other two.

Haejin was as puzzled as Siyoung, and that confused the latter. “Yah, why do you look like that? Jaejoong didn’t say anything to you?”

The youngest shook her head. “No, I didn’t expect he would, though. I told you I’m still figuring things out. Yoochun didn’t tell you anything either?” she asked Siyoung and made the leader lost her appetite.

“He won’t be telling me anything. We're not that close,” Siyoung's voice trailed down. Seeing her teammates’ questioning eyes, she added though her tongue started to feel numb, “We just don’t share quite the mutual feelings, I guess.”

Haejin and Jaeyeon widened their eyes in surprise, but Siyoung quickly shrugged it off with a weak smile. “Don’t mind it. Jaeyeon-ah, you’re assigned to check on their mansion today, aren’t you? Just let us know as soon as you know what happen, okay?”

Jaeyeon only nodded. And with that, they finished their breakfast and got going with their own schedules.

♦♦♦

As soon as Haejin finished her first schedule which was holding a session with all staffs in housekeeping department to review their services, she was going to head straight to the hospital. But on her way to the basement, Jaeyeon startled her with a sudden grab on her wrist.

“Haejin-ah, someone’s sick. Hurry,” Jaeyeon said with tense on her face. Having the reflex of a doctor, Haejin found herself already half-running with Jaeyeon before she knew it.

“Who is it?” Haejin asked without looking. There was a brief pause before Jaeyeon answered also without looking, “A visitor in mansion number one.”

This time, Haejin turned to Jaeyeon while still keeping up their pace. “A visitor? In JYJ’s mansion?” her tone voiced bewilderment.

“Yeah. I think the visitor came without notice last night. That explains why they didn’t join us this morning,” Jaeyeon replied, sounded slightly irritated.

They entered the mansion and saw Junsu was already waiting for them in the living room. His face didn’t look good either. A millisecond after seeing his face, Haejin got a hunch and it wasn’t good. But she kept it in, as she had other priority—the sick visitor. Junsu led them upstairs, to the room on the right side. Jaejoong’s room. The hunch grew stronger. Still, she tried to brush it off her head.

The first person she saw behind the door was Yoochun, who gave a smile when their eyes met. His smile looked apologetical which actually worsened her suspicion, but she chose to ignore it. She promptly walked in to the room and went straight to the bed.

 And she was flabbergasted.

Thank you for reading and commenting :D What do you think of this chapter? ^^