I Owe You One

Luhan looked uneasily between Jessica and I. He was still taken aback with how I called all the attention to him suddenly and why I was suddenly hooking my arm with his. Jessica was especially staring at him like a new specimen. “Uh, what did I miss?”

I gave him a hard look, holding on to his arm tighter and spoke slowly. “I just told Jessica that we were engaged.”

“Engaged?” He raised a brow.  “What... Oh, engaged!” Luhan nodded when realization dawned on him. I had been trying to telepathically tell him to play along. “Right. We’re very happily engaged,” he told Jessica.

Grinning at me, Jessica slapped my arm jokingly. “So that explains why the two of you were acting like that in your office when I walked in!”

Luhan casted his eyes down in embarrassment.

I forced a laugh. “Ha, yeah!”

“You bring your fiancé to work?”

I looked to Luhan for help. “Yes, we...?”

“W-We work side by side,” he finished for me, stuttering. “That’s how we met a few years ago. At work. And everything went on from there.”

“You have the same job? Well isn’t that convenient.” Jessica nodded in thought. “Do you live together then?”

“He lives—” I began at the same time Luhan said, “She’s staying—” He glanced at me to finish first.

I cleared my throat. “I live with him. We moved in together three weeks ago.”

Luhan laughed nervously, inching closer to me. “What she said.”

The miracle occurred when Jessica had to leave to attend to something she said was important, though I assumed it was probably something stupid like organizing her shoes according to colour. We said our goodbyes in front of the café—me still clutching at Luhan’s side—and parted ways from there. Luhan and I turned to walk back to the office in the same position. I checked behind me a few times and when I was sure she was completely out of sight, I removed myself from him, relieved that I wasn’t sweating on my arm from sticking to him so much.

“Well that’s finally over,” I breathed.

Luhan slapped his forehead. “Sora, why in the world did you say what you just said to her?”

I waved my purse around in frustration. “I don’t know! She said she was still single and I guess I thought that was the one shot I had at showing her up, so I told her I was already engaged. I wasn’t thinking! I’m sorry.” She had droned on endlessly about the money she rolled in and the places she’s been to that I could not find anything as amazing to retort back. The engagement-card was the only one I could play.

I slightly cringed away from Luhan, waiting for his little explosion on how I lied and it was wrong. Instead, he shrugged like I hadn't just lied about our identities. I guess I should have known because Luhan was the type that couldn’t say no to anyone. If I told him I needed him to paint my entire house pink, he would have agreed and asked what shade of pink I preferred.

He straightened his blazer. “I guess it’s not a big deal because I just kinda returned the favor. You know, you pretending to be my fiancée in front of my friends and all.”

I scoffed, trying to hit his stomach with my elbow. “At least you didn’t have to stick around for an entire day and cook something!”

He dodged me successfully, laughing to himself at the memory of the soup getting all over his stove because apparently simmer didn’t mean putting the heat on high. I should have used trusty-old Google for that little info. “You were just unlucky.” Luhan pulled out his phone from his pocket and shook it near my face. “But you know what’s really stupid? My phone was in my back pocket the whole time and I ran back to the office for nothing.”

“Sora.”

I ignored Luhan’s voice and continued to rub my temples.

There was a thud. I opened my eyes to see that Luhan had balanced a box on top of my desk in order for him to stretch his right arm. “Mr. Choi is waiting for you outside the building in his car. I would have redirected his call to you, but my hands were full.” He gestured at the box.

I groaned, wanting to slam my face on the drafts I was drawing in front of me. “But I have a headache.”

“What kind of excuse is that?” Luhan walked around my desk to stand behind me. Placing his hand on my shoulders, his fingers moved to massage them. “You’re just tense. Go downstairs and take the walk to cool off.”

“Can you please, please tell him that I’m in a very important meeting or something?” I had to admit that his massage was releasing some stress. “Reschedule me.”

“Alright, I’m going.” Patting my back once, he turned to leave the room, sp