She opened the fifth drawer of her desk, revealing another set of untouched pens and a stack of lined paper. She grabbed the pens and put them into the huge cardboard box along with the rest of her stuff. At least those untouched pens will be in good use for her new job.
"A resignation letter?" Her boss, Lee Sunghyun, asked with surprise in his voice. "Is there any reason as to why you're suddenly leaving the company?"
Eunji avoided eye contact, fiddling with her fingers as she replied, "no, sir. I was offered a position at the Wired."
He nodded his head understandingly, "and you're taking the position?"
"Yes, sir. I hope you understand." She looked up at him, smiling sadly, "my experience here was absolutely amazing and I never regretted obtaining a position here."
"I'm glad that you got a position at the Wired," he smiled, "it gives a good reflection on our company."
"I'll start packing my stuff tomorrow morning, if you don't mind." She insisted as he nodded, "tomorrow morning as in before the office opens."
"Oh, sure." He chuckled, "do you really want to leave that soon?"
She bit her lip, shaking her head, "Oh, no, I don't mean it that way. I just, I don't want to get any attention."
Eunji opened the last drawer of her desk and put her hand inside just to make sure she didn't forget anything. Her hand managed to grab something light in weight. She looked down at it only to see a pair of glasses.
"Why?"
She looked up, startled, to see Jimin standing leaning against the wall of her cubicle. She sighed, feeling her hand grip tightly onto the glasses. "What are you doing here so early in the morning?"
He completely ignored her questioning, shooting daggers at her as he repeated himself, "why?"
"I got offered a position at the Wired." She began, before looking at him with a blank expression.
"Why didn't you tell me?" He looked broken, but she was more broken than he was.
"It's not like you would care about me leaving." She explained, shrugging her shoulders, "after all, no one would notice, I was never friends with anyone."
"When?" He asked as she quirked an eyebrow in confusion, "when were you offered the job?"
"A week ago," she answered.
"So you're just going to leave us just like that?" She looked at him, their eyes meeting, and for a moment she saw his eyes turn glassy. "Leave me?"
She blinked her tears away, somehow hearing the old Jimin flow out of his lips through his words. She nodded her head, only to see him look up at the ceiling, a tear escaping his eye.
He wiped it, shaking his head before turning his back towards her. "It was nice meeting you, I hope you like it at your new job."
He began to walk away from her until she spoke up, "you know, I miss the old Jimin."
She managed to stop him from leaving, his back still facing her. "I miss the old Jimin who didn't care about what other people thought of him. I miss the old Jimin who didn't let anything or anyone get to his head."
He turned around, facing her with his head hung low. She held his glasses and walked to him, searching for his eyes.
"I miss the old Jimin who was beautiful," she began, pointing to his chest, "in there."
He looked at her, his eyes glassy and pink. She looked down at his glasses that were in her hands, raising them up.
"I miss the old Jimin," she put his glasses on, angling them on his nose, "the one that I fell in love with."
She pulled away from him, grabbing the box filled with her things. Eunji walked past him, only to turn back around halfway.
"Are you in love with Soyun?" She asked, still getting no response, but only his back faced her, "or are you infatuated with her?"
❃❃❃
6 months later...
"One tall coffee, specialized with two extra shots of milk, just for you." She chuckled, glancing at the tall cup of coffee that was placed in front of her mouse pad.
"You didn't have to, Sungjae." She shook her head, still typing away.
"But I wanted to," he sat on the leather chair that was in front of her desk. He fiddled with Eunji's name tag, and blew some dust off of it. "I've gotten some articles in the mail this morning and they seemed really good."
"Are you trying to find new people into the company?" She questioned him, as he shrugged his shoulders.
"That's what I'm not sure of." He replied, cocking his head to the side, "what do you think?"
She stopped typing, leaning back in her chair, glancing at Sungjae who grinned. Sungjae was the boss of the Wired who so happened to find her work, completely inspired and had the urge to hire her. He was lucky enough to have her in his company.
The two of them got scarily close after her first week in the company. She did earn a few looks and stares from her co-workers who looked pretty curious as to why she got the attention the most.
She sighed, "you're the boss, Sungjae."
"But I wanna hear your decision for once," he smiled, "after all, I read your works, one of the finest in the company. I wanna hear it."
"Oh, stop it," she gave him a look, "I swear you're just stalking me."
He burst out into laughter, "I was not! So, what do you think?"
Eunji bit her lip before nodding her head, "why not? I mean, give journalists a chance to have their moment. I remember how I was so shocked to actually get a call from you, saying you read my stuff."
"As I said," he clapped, "one of the finest and best I've ever read."
"You really need to stop saying that," she giggled, blushing, "those choice of words don't suit your voice, and compliments aren't really your thing."
"Oh, really now?" He asked, as she placed her hand under her chin, nodding her head, "well what about this?"
"What?"
"Go on a date with me." Eunji's eyes widened, clearing her throat.
"W-What?" She stuttered, earning a soft chuckle from him. "You're joking, right?"
"Do I look like I'm making jokes?" He smiled teasingly, "go on a date with me, just one."
She stared at him, fixing her glasses that were slipping on the bridge of her nose. Leaning back in her chair, she pursed her lips into a line. He stood there, taking a sip from his cup of coffee, waiting patiently for her answer.
"I'll think about it."
❃❃❃
"I actually never thought you would go on a date with me."
"Oh, really?" Eunji stared at Sungjae from across her seat. "Well, at first, I was hesitating."
"Hesitating?" She nodded her head. "Why?"
"You're my boss, and I'm just your employer." She pointed towards him and herself as she spoke, "I've earned lots of looks from the others because we're getting pretty.."
"Close?" She nodded her head. "Is it bad to have a boss and an employer get close?"
"Well, from the looks of it and the looks of them," she bit her lip, "it kind of is."
"I don't think it is at all," he pursed his lips, "especially when he likes you."
She cleared her throat, trying to get some air. This was what surprised her when she was led into the company. Eunji didn't quite know why Sungjae always seemed to close to her than the rest. He would offer her coffee or a ride home late at night, but towards his other employees, he would give them the normal treatment.
"Have you picked any good works of writing, yet?" She completely changed the subject, avoiding his eye contact that was literally burning through her forehead.
"Well, I did." She looked at him, their eyes meeting. "I found this really great writer, he seems to be really interested in what he writes."
"Ask him to attend a job interview," she insisted, teasing him, "what did he write about that just seemed to catch your eye?"
"Infatuation." She choked on her drink, stopping herself from getting her water all over the place. Sungjae reached out towards her, handing a napkin. "Are you okay?"
"Y-Yeah," she chuckled nervously, "totally fine, just choked on my water. You were saying?"
"He wrote an article on infatuation, based on his experience with it in relationships and I thought that maybe we should give him a try." He shrugged, "don't you think?"
The subject of infatuation completely brought memories of Jimin back into her thoughts.
In fact, she wasn't over him. She couldn't get over him. Not a single bit. She waited for a least one phone call because she missed his voice. She waited for him to show up at her door so that she could pull him into a hug and breathe in his fresh scent that she loved. She missed him, even though she should be completely angry at him.
But this is what happens when you're in love. You forget about the anger because somehow it gets washed away by love itself.
"You're the boss," she smirked, shrugging off the thoughts that were troubling her.
❃❃❃
"Good morning," Eunji greeted her co-workers, sending them her genuine smile as always. They all nodded at her, returning the smile.
Eunji stepped into her office, plopping her butt onto the chair and letting out a sigh of relaxation. She cracked her knuckles, a cup of coffee catching her eye. Eunji felt her lips tug into a smile as she watched the steam still escape from the cup.
Shaking her head, she smiled, grabbing it and taking a sip. She took the fresh new stack of compiled articles and began to analyze them carefully. The very first article made her heart stop, the style of writing was so familiar to her, yet so foreign that she couldn't think of who it belonged to.
Infatuation.
You don't really know if you're in love with someone or if you're just attracted to the way he or she looked. You don't know whether you're falling in love with someone because of their personality or because they got attention for the cleavage that was shown through their clothes.
But this is where infatuation comes in. Infatuation is a term that is usually not considered and a person isn't aware of it when they're in love. You can be extremely blinded by love, and not by infatuation. But that's what they all think, even me.
I remember the first time I fell into the traps of infatuation. I fell for a girl who had a nice curve in her body, and yet she wasn't genuine to my co-workers. I fell for a girl who judged people based on their looks, and yet I changed the way I looked to please her. I changed the way I looked so that she would return the same mutual feeling that I had for her. I fell for a girl who had a beautiful face, and an ugly personality. I was infatuated with her.
That's when I started to believe that you really don't know what you have until you lose it. You will never know the true value of a moment until it becomes a memory.
All along, there was this beautiful girl that I had known for a long time. I guess you could say she didn't dress the way society dressed, or looked a certain way. She was extremely quiet, and yet worked in an environment that was required to be loud. She was unique in every different way, and I was beginning to get a sense of reality that there are beautiful people not only on the inside, but the outside. She was beautiful.
I fell in love with a girl who was beautiful on the inside. And this time, it wasn't infatuation.
Eunji looked at the bottom of the paper, searching for a name. She frowned, seeing nothing but a blank ending.
"Eunji?" She looked up to see her co-worker, Minhee, standing by her door. "Sungjae wants you in his office."
She stood up, grabbing the article in her hand, heading to his office. She felt her heart grow heavy, almost as if she was trying to hold onto it for her dear life. As she stopped in front of his office, she heard a familiar laugh that rang through her ears.
Eunji entered into his office, seeing a guy standing right in front of Sungjae's desk. From behind, he had silky brown hair that was parted in the middle.
She took a few steps closer to his desk, gripping tightly onto the article, "you needed me?"
Sungjae's eyes met hers, and he clapped his hands together, a bright smile plastered on his face. For the first time in a while, she felt a weird feeling in her gut.
"I'm glad you're here!" He exclaimed, "I want you to meet our new employer in the company."
Eunji bit her lip nervously as the guy turned around, and she felt her heart drop. Her small smile slowly began to falter. Trying to suppress a gasp, she stared at the boy who was standing right before her.
"Meet Park Jimin, he will be your new co-worker in the company."