Han Bora never thought she could ever feel so anxious in her life, but that was before Friday, the 3rd of April.
After Hayan had practically run away from work, she had no choice but to attend to Mr. Kim in her place. She pressed her sweaty palms down on her pencil skirt to straighten it as she made her way, through the glass door, inside Taehyung's luxurious office. She thought there couldn't be an irony worse in her life than her not wanting to see Taehyung for the first time when she was crushing on him all the time.
"This is so not what I wanted," Bora grumbled under her breath as she entered the office and the sight of Taehyung's gorgeous face blessed her vision. She bit down a teenage smile that was about to appear on her face as she walked closer to his table, where multiple papers were scattered and the image on the switched-on computer was reflecting in Taehyung's focused eyes.
"Mr. Kim," She bowed, grabbing his attention.
Taehyung's chocolate eyes shifted to Bora's figure immediately and she felt butterflies erupt in her stomach at the eye contact. However, the fluttering of her heart soon faded away as she noticed Taehyung's somewhat stressed expression.
"Ms. Han? What are you doing here? Is something the matter?" He asked, putting the file down on the table that he previously had clutched in his veiny hand.
"Uh, no, sir," Bora answered and tried not to stare at him as she mentally admired the art he was.
"Then?" Taehyung raised a questioning eyebrow.
"Well, you...you called," Bora fidgeted.
"I didn't call for you, I called for Ms. Yeon. Speaking of Ms. Yeon, why isn't she here already?" Taehyung demanded, looking at the entrance past Bora as if Hayan was going to come in at any moment.
"That's because..." Bora trailed off, not knowing what type of reaction to expect when she told him about Hayan. She was worried Hayan was going to get in serious trouble this time.
"Because?" Taehyung urged as he tapped his long fingers against the surface of the table, feeling irked by the delay.
"Because she left." Bora blurted out.
"Left? Do you mean left work? Where to?" Taehyung looked surprised and Bora had expected that much at least.
"I'm not aware, but she said it was something important and she had to go right away," Bora explained.
"What was so important that she left without even informing me?" Taehyung growled as his eyebrows came together in a frustrated scowl. Yes, he was frustrated. Frustrated with Hayan's non-serious behavior. He had let her off the hook one too many times to his liking. He was getting tired of her little tricks.
"I'm sure she'll explain things tomorrow," Bora convinced, trying to calm him down.
"She could've sent me a text at least. She's just pushing it too far this time. Her audacity is out of this world!" Taehyung fumed, raising his voice a bit too loud at the last sentence, which made Bora flinch. Taehyung let out an exaggerated sigh when he noticed that.
"You can go now, Ms. Han. Thank you for informing me of Hayan- I mean Ms. Yeon's absence." He dismissed her, re-maintaining his composure, as he rubbed his left eyebrow.
"I can do the work in her place if you need me to, sir," Bora suggested, secretly hoping she'll get to speak with Taehyung for a bit longer.
"Nevermind that, you can go." Taehyung waved her off, focussing his attention back on the computer in front of him.
"Okay," Bora internally pouted as she moved to leave his office. "um, by the way," she suddenly said as she whirled around to face Taehyung. Taehyung hummed without looking at her as if giving her consent to say whatever she wanted to. She just had to make sure.
"You're not going to fire her, are you?"
~~~
"Do you think he's going to fire me?"
Hayan wondered out loud as she stood leaning against the brown marble counter of the familiar flower shop. The vintage-looking shop was filled with the scent of different flowers and the colorfulness of the flowers was a pleasing sight to Hayan's eyes, unlike her sensitive nose that was allergic to pollens. She covered her nose with the tissue paper in her hand as she sneezed for the fifth time ever since she'd arrived.
"I hope not, I don't want my best friend to become unemployed right before my wedding, how will you buy me wedding gifts then?" Hayan's best friend since elementary school, Lee Sara, who stood in front of her on the other side of the counter, responded as she put the pink tulips in a cedar-colored vase.
Lee Sara was a half-Korean, half-Japanese girl who had dyed red hair and features fairly fluctuating between Korean and Japanese. She was a high school graduate who owned the flower shop they were currently present in. Halfway through the first semester in college, Sara decided studying wasn't her thing and dropped out while Hayan had finished her education. Despite them going on separate paths in life, their friendship had never wavered even once and they were just as close as actual siblings.
"You only care about the gifts, don't you?" Hayan snickered before she sneezed again, earning a concerned glance from Sara. The irritation in her nose was starting to give her the flu but the stubborn girl remained stood, pretending like she didn't notice she was having an allergic reaction to the flowers.
"Not at all, I care about you so much more that's why I've been telling you to leave, you're allergic to flowers, dammit!" Sara scowled at Hayan who shrugged her off.
"My allergy isn't that bad so I'll be fine."
"Hayan, don't be so careless. Allergies are allergies, you need to avoid whatever you're allergic to. We can talk after I close the shop, hmm?" Sara scolded her friend like a mother, softening her tone at the last sentence.
"Ha! I was so enthusiastic at hearing the news of your marriage that I came running here to congratulate you. I even risked my job for it, but here you are, telling me to get lost." Hayan sighed, sulking like a child as she turned away from Sara.
The text that Hayan had received at work that made her run off from her workplace and come to Sara's shop was sent by Sara, informing Hayan that she was getting married soon. Hayan had waited for this for quite a few years so she was super eager to congratulate her friend. Sara and her boyfriend, Kim Hajun, had been together for 6 years and were absolutely in love with each other. Personally, Hayan thought Hajun should have proposed way earlier but, she thought, it was better late than never.
"Don't be so dramatic, I'm not telling you to get lost, I'm merely telling you to step out of the shop so your nose won't swell up like an ugly air balloon," Sara interposed, shaking her head at the childish adult in front of her. "and you didn't risk no job for me, you came running because you just wanted to test the limits of Taehyung's patience." She added, continuing to organize the flowers on the counter and make a bouquet out of them.
"Hey, I-" Hayan sharply turned around to say something but her words got cut off by the shrill ringing of her phone. She promptly fished out her phone from her purse and let out a long groan as she saw the caller ID.
"Speak of the devil!"
"By the devil, I'm assuming it's Taehyung?" Sara wondered without looking up. Hayan raised her phone to her face level so she could see the screen. On the glowing screen of her phone was the contact saved as 'the devil' meaning it was Taehyung's number.
"Well, we both knew he'd be calling when you suddenly vanished from the office," Sara stated as she wrapped the polythene sheet around the captivating red roses. Hayan sniffed and wiped her running nose with tissue paper, forcibly stopping a sneeze. Her nose had turned just as red as the roses.
She placed her phone on the counter and watched it ring again and again, bobbing her head to the ringtone. Sara ignored it too, continuing to work on finishing her order. Of course, Hayan had no plan of picking up Taehyung's call, not now, not later. She just wanted to see how many times he would call before giving up. But the smirk that her lips had stretched into soon faded away as the phone continued to ring nonstop for quite a few minutes. Sara seemed irritated and Hayan was starting to get sick of the sound of the ringtone too.
"Why won't he stop calling? Geez, man doesn't know when to give up," Hayan whined and hung up the call, setting her phone on silent mode so that they won't have to hear the obnoxious ringtone again. She didn't find it so bad before but now she ought to change it.
"That's Kim Taehyung for you," Sara chuckled.
"Well, I'm not picking up, he can call as many times as he pleases. I can imagine his face all screwed up in a rage, hehe." Hayan giggled somewhat evilly as she stuffed her phone back in her purse, ignoring the threatening texts she was receiving.
"And that's Yeon Hayan for him..." Sara sighed at how hopeless their duo was.
A gust of light wind entered through the open window of the shop and made Hayan sneeze thrice in a row.
"That's it, out, right now!" Sara dropped the bouquet and walked around the counter, forcing Hayan, whose nose had become swollen, out of the shop. Hayan moaned as she cast a last longing glance at the flowers inside the colorful shop before she was pushed outside with her view being the dull and grey roads of Seoul.
The tragedy of her life was that she was allergic to flowers but she absolutely loved them. She found them charming but it was almost sad that she could never enjoy sniffing their sweet scents.
Standing beside the welcome sign of Sara's shop, looking at the buildings and the cars speeding past each other on the road, the breeze brushed against Hayan's skin and a sense of reality dawned upon her. The weight of what she had done was finally felt on her shoulders.
"Look at yourself, you're such a mess! Your nose is..." Sara continued to rant beside her but Hayan had drowned her out.
If Taehyung told her parents how she had been behaving at work, she'd be in deep trouble with her perfectionist parents. Her mother was going to chew her out. Her father was going to be so discontented. Suddenly, Hayan felt stressed about the consequences her actions could bring. If Taehyung told his parents about her behavior, his parents were going to hate her and it might affect the friendship between his and her family.
Hayan liked to show that she enjoyed living carelessly, but being reckless can be terrifying sometimes.
"And with Taehyung..."
Taehyung's name being said caught Hayan's attention again and she turned to look at Sara, snapping out of her thoughts.
"Instead of being all grumpy with each other, can't you two just fall in love?" Sara proposed, waving her hand around in the air like she was talking to someone phantom and not Hayan.
Love? Fall in love?
"Are you mad?!" Hayan stated curtly and so loudly that it made Sara flinch. "I would never fall in love with the likes of him, no, I would never fall in love at all!" Hayan roared, startling Sara. She had said it with so much contempt that Sara stood stunned for a moment before she blinked.
"But you were so happy about the news of my wedding just moments ago, so why not-"
"I'm happy for you, Sara, I really am. But that doesn't mean I'd be happy in the same situation. Love isn't for me." Hayan said with a deep scowl decorating her features. Sara sighed. She'd almost forgotten that the carefree Hayan could become so edgy when it came to feelings.
"So you still haven't changed your mind." It was not a question but even if it had been one, Hayan was not going to answer it.
"I'm off, see you later." She told Sara briefly before walking off to where she had parked her car.
"Ah," Sara sulked as she watched Hayan get in her car and drive away. "it's like she's allergic to love too..."
__________________
A/N: I'm such a distracted person fr it's annoying 😔🔫
Took me hours to write this update because I kept doing other things.