“Whaaat do yooou want………. Dayun?”

*Yawns*

Insoo asked Dayun sleepily.

“Come with me. I have a place to show you!” Dayun babbled with excitement.

Insoo couldn’t comprehend her words for he was still half asleep as he only managed to absent-mindedly let out a drowsy, “Hmmm?” and with that, without waiting for her answer, he was about to turn his heel to return to his bed but Dayun stopped him holding his arm, as she shook him saying, “C’mon… Let’s go. It’s getting late!” Urging him.

He paid no heed to her words and it was not until she screamed a “Moon Insoo!” that he jolted up alarmed with a, “Yeah, yeah. Tell me… I’m awake. I’m awake.” As he rubbed the sleep off his eyes. After which, “What do you want?” He asked her again but now more conscious.

“Let’s go outside! I want to show you something.” She spoke still not losing the enthusiasm in her voice.

“What?” He couldn’t be more confused. “Yes!” The girl nodded her head rapidly closing her eyes.

“Where do you want to go now? It’s still dark out there…”

To which, “I’ve got a list!” She announced holding out a piece of paper in front of his face. “But now we’re only going to the-”

Before Dayun could complete her statement, Insoo with an expression of ‘What-the-hell-is-that’ grabbed the paper from her hands reading it by himself. He read the things on the list out loud.

‘That place, This place, Flower shop, Vegetables, Another flower shop, My office…' He started off alright but with each passing things, his voice too raised in vexation as his eyes grew wider and wider.

And his eyes grew the widest at ‘My office’ as he stopped reading further.

“What. Is. this?” Insoo dropped the list in dismay as Dayun grabbed the floating piece of paper casually before she spoke, “That’s the whole list. But!” She pointed her index finger upwards and said “We’re only going to this-”

Cutting her words again Insoo let out some incomprehensible words in confusion interrupting her and blurted out, “The time- What is the time now? Tell me the time-” And before she could open her mouth to answer his question, he pulled her hand to see the time in the digital watch that hung around her wrist.

And when he read what the time was… His whole system went non-functional as he let go of her hand shocked.

“ARE YOU SHITTING ME?! IT’S F*CKING FOUR IN THE MORNING! AND YOU-” He paused for a moment in dismay. “You FREAKING want me to go to THE OFFICE?! THE OFFICE! YOU ARE UNBELIEVABLE. ARE YOU CRAZ-”

“Whoa… Whoa… Shh… Stop shouting. You’d disturb others. They’re sleeping.” She shushed him by closing his mouth with her hands not giving a damn about him.

Insoo who was still confused on why he was being bullied like this, could do nothing except to let out low whimpers as he looked at her with furrowed eye brows as to say, ‘Others? What about me then-’ He didn’t wake up at four for this!

The girl didn’t stop there. “Damn, you swear a lot when you wake up” She mercilessly mumbled under her breath with her hands still on his mouth, looking at the door to ensure if anybody had waken up, which made him really confused and sad as he sniffed, pouting disheartened.

“We’re not going to the office now. It’s on the list. But we aren’t going there now. At least it’s not the first place we’re going. Because firstly we’re going to ‘This place’.” She explained in detail taking her hands from his mouth and taking a step back.

Insoo who wasn’t very much liking the conversation could do nothing except simply ask “And what would that place be?” demanding answers.

And she was offended. “No, not ‘That place’. We’re going to ‘This place’. The second one on the list.” She said pointing her hands at the second item on the piece of paper. To which Insoo just let out a pitiful ‘Oh I see.’ Making her move on with her talks,

“So… Are you coming?” She asked now, looking at him.

By this point, Insoo understood that there was no way out and he let out a heavyyy sigh. “You should’ve asked this question earlier. What is the point of asking me after you’ve rudely woken me up?” He asked rolling his eyes.

“So, does that mean you’re coming?” The girl wasn’t a least bit concerned.

“Do I have a choice?”

“No.”

And with that Insoo stared at her unamused while Dayun too started at him.

They both started at each other for a complete five seconds before,

“What?”

“What ‘what’?”

“Aren’t you going to freshen up or something? You should do that… Or are you coming like this?” She asked him. And with that Insoo just headed to the bathroom but not before murmuring a, ‘Of course, you’d say that too.’

After taking a full 15 minutes in the bathroom, Insoo came out and Dayun was still there sitting on his bed patiently waiting for him.

In fact, Insoo would’ve fallen asleep in the bathroom if not for Dayun who kept on asking him not to fall asleep inside.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

And as soon as he came out, “Ah! Finally.” She rushed to him as she spoke, “C’mon let’s go! It’s getting late!” And Insoo nodded at that saying “Yeah.” still not completely over the fact that she ruined his sleep to take him to some unknown place at 4 in the morning.

“Okay! So… First we’re going to ‘This place.’ And if we have time during our stay here, please take me to the office. I need your help to go there and I really want to go there. There are things I left there. So, please…” She asked him with pleading eyes.

Sensing her excitement, he said “Fine. Fine. We can go wherever you want if that’ll ensure me you wouldn’t wake me up again like this.” Then he couldn’t help but ask,

“But what’s so special about working in this branch anyway? It’s not like it made much profit. If it did I wouldn’t have to close it.”

And she looked at him like he asked something wrong “What’s special about working here?” She asked giving him a questioning look. “Well. Many things. A lot of things.” She replied and continued,

“I love the neighborhood. The environment. I love the silence. I love the safety of this place. Iseul too had a lot of friends here. I too loved my colleagues. They were super co-operative. And office dinners here were the loveliest! I also loved my boss. He was kind and supportive and he was the best!” She went on and on without breathing and the excitement in her eyes grew with each word as she completed her statement with her fists closed in delight.

Insoo wasn’t very much bothered and was patiently listening to her reasons until….

She spoke her last sentence.

About her best boss. Well, that… Can be interpreted as a direct insult to him.

And he quickly asked, “What? Best boss? You know, that best boss of yours is a manager of one of my branches, right? He was a good man and all, but he- works for me.” He couldn’t help but say the last words sharply, trying to play the CEO card.

But she was unbothered. “Yeah, so what... What’s the point? I still liked working under him.” She spoke mindlessly not looking at him. Because if she did she would’ve noticed his expressions turning serious.

“Oh! Is that so?” He asked stressing the 'Oh' and Dayun was too into 'her reminiscing of the past' to notice his tone.

“Yes!” She naturally said out of impulse.

And he asked it again, more clearly now,

“So, are you saying you liked working for him than me? You like him more than you like……… Me?” He slowly and carefully let the words out, stressing the last syllable, taking a step closer towards her.

The quick change in approach made her turn to look at him and that’s when she realized what her words could’ve meant as she took a step back and immediately felt the need to blurt out, “Actu- Actually- What I meant was- I- I-”

And all of a sudden the room became hot.

She paused. She couldn’t continue. All she could do was trace his moves growing anxious at the sudden alluring aura that surrounded him.

She grew weak at the sudden change in atmosphere and the sudden change in him.

To each step she took back, he took a step forward. And at the fourth step, her back hit the cupboard. She had nowhere to go now. Still, it didn’t stop him from moving closer. After moving dangerously close... Into her ears, he whispered words…

Words that sent chills down her spine.

“Should I…………… Fix that?”

He asked a question that didn’t quite really felt like a question, with his voice growing hoarse… And deep.

Dreamily deep.

Seductively deep.

Dayun was startled. She didn’t know what to say and even if she did she can’t form them into words. Her eyes started blinking rapidly as she let out some uninterpretable words.

And that too was until Insoo placed one of his hands behind her ear,

With his touch, she lost the ability to speak, as his thumb softly brushed her cheek. And his other forearm was placed flat against the wall, making her devoid of the option of moving away that way.

But that wouldn’t make much difference because she had already also lost the ability to walk when she lost her voice.

Not knowing what to do, Dayun looked down in an attempt to avoid his intense gaze but he made that too impossible by gently pressing the back of her neck, making her jolt up to directly stare into his eyes.

Deep brown eyes that always had the power in them to hypnotize her.

Only he could do this to her. Make her breathless with a stare and freeze her with a touch.

Her chest rose up and dropped down heavily. Her breath went irregular. No words left her mouth.

His either. Which further made the girl helpless.

She felt the moment to be intimidating. But she was the one who brought it upon herself.

And in the deadly quiet morning, all she could hear were her own heartbeats that grew louder and louder that they seemed to fill up the entire space in the room.

Then…

She watched. She watched his gaze slowly shift.

From her eyes to her………

Lips

And in that moment, she could swear, she died,

Due to a heart explosion of course.

Her mouth dehydrated, while in contrary, her palms that were placed against his hard chest started sweating. Thankfully now, at least a layer of cloth was present between her palms and his body.

But unfortunately, at the moment, it too wouldn’t make much difference for her.

She couldn't think of anything else now,

Not when Moon Insoo’s eyes were on her lips.

And not when the possibilities of her having a heart attack was as high as an opera singer’s voice if he continued with what she thought he’d do.

And she was not doing much physical work, but internally her stomach was on fire as she quickly shut her eyes tight.

…

A moment passed.

And then another.

Then, she slowly and anxiously opened her eyes only to look at Insoo carefully noticing her moves in silence with a sly smirk playing on his face. The next thing she knew, he quickly walked back and waved his hands in a ‘Let’s go…' before turning his heel to go out of the room, like nothing happened as usual. And she definitely heard him say, ‘That’s what you get for rudely interrupting my sleeping hours.’

After which, Dayun couldn’t move at least for a complete minute. Her eyes wide, mouth slightly open, she gently caressed the part of her face where Insoo touched her. And she could feel it burn like a wild fire.

…

She took a heavy gulp down.

What just happened right now?

~

~

Not daring to think about the moment and trying to get her mind off of it, Dayun quietly drove the car in an almost inanimate street with Insoo sitting on the passenger’ seat.

After some time, Insoo grew more and more impatient as all his question about where they were going went unanswered by Dayun as she just said a ‘You’ll see when we reach there’ to answer all of them.

Losing all his calm he finally asked, “At least tell me, how long we’ll be driving. We’ve already drove for 20 minutes!”

He expressed his frustration. 20 minutes wouldn’t be a long time if he knew where they were going and if they were traveling during the day. But it was neither of the cases and he wanted to at least know, which place was so important that he had to go there when he should be on his bed sleeping peacefully.

“Oh, be patient! We’re almost there. Just 20 minutes more!” She simply said.

“Another 20 minutes!” Insoo was surprised at that and at the fact that she said those words, ‘almost there’ like they were 2 minutes away when it was actually 20 minutes.

His frustration was further fuelled when Dayun, looking and sighing at the street, casually said, “Hmmm… Why is the road sooo empty? It’s kinda sad, you know, to drive all alone?” She poured and that made him loose his cool.

“Are you even serious? Except people like you and unfortunate people like me, who else do you except to roam the streets at a time like this? Ghosts?” He spoke rushed and continued, “Ah! Please! Someone please save me from this crazy crazy woman! She has the audacity to complain about people not being on the street after deciding to drive at a freaking four-thirty in the morning! Not only that but she also dragged me into her madness. I’m stuck! Help!” He whined letting out his frustrations in words.

“Don’t over react, drama queen!” She said not giving a damn to his cries as she didn’t move her eyes from the road. “Waking up early for a day won't hurt you.” She further added and that shut Insoo up as he silently glared at her in a, ‘You maybe the Female lead but this is unfair and cruel.’

But didn’t speak anything further and exactly after 20 minutes Dayun parked the car, at what looked like…

A field?

“We’re heeree!” She screamed excitedly and got out of the car unbuckling her seat belt and Insoo did the same and followed her.

“What? What is in here? I see nothing.” He said with a frown.

“We have to walk. We can’t go there by car.” She said simultaneously holding his wrist and leading the way, holding the phone for light.

“Of course, we’d have to walk too, to reach ‘This place’.” Insoo mockingly whispered under his breath. Dayun ignored that too like she had ignored a lot of the things he has been saying.

...

They began walking.

In the moonless night, they walked and they could only see each other and a step ahead of them with the mercy of the flashlight. Not a bit of anything around.

Was the place even safe?

Insoo had to trust Dayun on that and he did. But even if it wasn’t, for some odd reasons he didn’t care.

Even though he was annoyed at Dayun for dragging him to some unknown place like this ruining his sleep…

He kinda… liked this.

He liked the silence of this uneventful night, the chill wind that brushed his body and the darkness of the moonless sky that was in one way intimating but in another way intriguing.

Also, walking together with Dayun alone at a peaceful time like this as she held his hand made him happy and giddy.

With her, even the rustling of the trees felt like music and at that he questioned his sanity.

But nothing else mattered much to him now, he savoured the moment.

After sometime into the walk, he casually intertwined his fingers with hers strengthening the grip and Dayun could feel the instant warmth that melted her.

And even though, she was a bit taken aback by his sudden gesture, it didn’t take her more than a moment to get used to it as she slowed down her pace, making the walk longer.

Both of them didn’t want the moment to end and were a bit disappointed when they reached the said place.

“Here.” Dayun said after reaching there and half-heartedly let go of his hands as she asked Insoo to sit on the grass as she herself sat down. And only a second later he too sat beside her without complaining.

“So, what are we here for?” He asked calmly for the first time looking at her and she was looking forward.

“There!” She excitedly pointed to the front and instinctively he too turned his head towards the direction she was looking at.

And the next moment, his jaw dropped…

To be continued…