She dragged him outside under a tree. Yoongi wasn’t sure how they’d fit so many trees into this little courtyard, but for a few minutes he could pretend he wasn’t in the middle of a bustling city. She sat down on the ground, and he glanced down at her.
“I see you’re finally wearing the shoes I bought you.”
She shrugged and looked up at him. “Seemed a shame to waste them.” She glanced down at her lunch sack. “Kinda like my lunch. I packed way too much today.”
She patted the ground next to her. “Come on. Sit down and eat with me.”
He gazed down at her, hiding his heart behind his hooded eyes. He finally heaved a deep sigh and surrendered to her request. He plopped down next to her and leaned back against the tree. He closed his eyes.
“I don’t need any food. I’m going to take a nap. Wake me when it’s time to work, okay?”
She glanced over at him. And was instantly captivated by that beautiful face. Relaxed in rest, it was even more compelling. She wanted to lean over and kiss the clean planes of his countenance. Until she’d run into his lips. And then she’d…
She shook herself and looked away. What was it about this man that so fascinated her? Hadn’t she learned her lesson? Never to trust a guy?
Not even this sweet man. Who had suddenly shut down and walked away from her. Without another word.
She opened her sack and pulled out her bento box. She flipped the lid and used her chopsticks to fish out a piece of chicken. She stared at it. Then she glanced over at Yoongi. Considering him.
As her eyes slid along the curves of his face, she had to acknowledge that he had definitely lost weight since she’d seen him five weeks ago. She just knew that he wasn’t taking care of himself. Her heart dipped.
She told herself it was an expected reaction. For a short time, he had been gloriously kind to her. It was only normal to want to see him happy and healthy. He had been her hero for a fleeting season.
She leaned towards him. Her gaze once again studying that captivating countenance. She drew even nearer to him. Her eyes tracing that beautiful mouth.
Yoongi felt something brush his lips. He opened his eyes.
“Eat it,” she whispered.
He opened his mouth automatically. Not even thinking. Her eyes had sparked as his had connected with them. He couldn’t think straight right now. She could have told him to fly to the moon. And he probably would have. Just to make her happy.
She shoved the chicken into his mouth. His lips closed around her chopsticks, and she pulled them out before helping herself to some of her lunch. After she swallowed that bite, she confronted him.
“You’re not sleeping.”
It’s your fault. Every time I lie in bed, I remember the scent of your sheets.
He smiled.
Thyme. He loved thyme.
As silence greeted her assertion, she continued, “You’re not eating.”
I want some black coffee. Your black coffee.
Again, a quiet pause. Yoongi refused to engage her. So she decided to thrust her sword at him.
“Are you living in a bottle?”
That got a reaction.
“I don’t drink. Not anymore.”
Not since you broke my heart, and I got so smashed my head pounded for two days. After I spent hours hovering over the toilet.
She stared at him. She debated several rejoinders.
Finally, she simply murmured, “Good for you,” before going back to her lunch.
He leaned back and closed his eyes again. Until some broccoli was being shoved between his lips. He opened his mouth and received her gift, but then he rebuked her.
“Really. You don’t need to feed me. I’m not accustomed to eating at this time of day.”
Her eyes raked him from head to foot for a moment. “Clearly.”
Then she took another bite of her lunch.
But she had disturbed his nap. So he slid a surreptitious gaze her way. She was even more beautiful now than she’d been five weeks ago. Her pert, little nose tilted up slightly at its tip. Her great, obsidian eyes still sparkled like gemstones. Her dark eyebrows still arched delicately over them.
Her lips, those luscious lips he’d never gotten to taste, seemed to invite his attention as she licked some sauce off of them. He swallowed. And looked away. But not before his eyes brushed her wavy, midnight locks. He still wanted to run his fingers through them. And bury his face in them. What would they smell like? Would they smell like thyme too?
A few moments later, his gaze slid her way, and her eyes suddenly collided with his. She stopped chewing. She seemed lost in his gaze for a minute. Then, she cleared her throat and looked down at her box. She didn’t really have an appetite today. She put the lid back on her box.
“You’re not going to finish your lunch?” His low rumble made her stomach flip upside down.
She shook her head. “I’m not hungry,” she whispered.
“You’ve lost weight,” he pointed out.
She had barely been eating.
“Do I need to feed you some dessert again?”
His voice was a caress. It surprised her. She turned her head in shock and stared at him.
“I…what?” She furrowed her brow at him. “You…left. I never heard from you again.”
He could hear the hurt in her tone. He glanced across the street.
“We both know your appa wouldn’t accept me. I wasn’t about to ask you to leave your family for me.”
“So, what? That’s it? You weren’t even willing to put up a fight for me?” Tears flooded her eyes as she stood up. “I thought…at the very least…we were friends. But, yet again, I was wrong. Stupid – stupid – me for believing in another guy after all I’ve been through.”
Then she ran back inside. To work.
It would be their sanctuary from each other over the next few weeks. They worked on opposite sides of the large room. So they could mostly avoid each other. They would speak only when they needed to.
But it would also become a place that she dreaded returning to each day. Because she had to see him. But she didn’t speak to him. Unless it was absolutely necessary. And it hurt like crazy to be near him. And yet so far away.
Because she had gotten her hopes up. She wasn’t sure why. Yoongi had been able to pierce her armor somehow. Just long enough to slide a sword between her ribs and devastate her heart.
He didn’t join her for lunch again. And she didn’t ask him to. She didn’t end up bringing that black coffee either. But every time she glanced his way, her heart broke.
—
“Yoongi, you’re being reassigned.”
Two weeks later, his boss approached him during lunch hour. A lunch hour he was working. He looked up in surprise.
“I am?”
His boss nodded and sighed loudly. “I knew it wouldn’t be long. As soon as I filled out your performance review for your first month and my boss saw it, I knew they’d give you more responsibilities. At the rate you’re going, you’ll be working for Mr. Beom by Christmas.”
Yoongi smiled.
That was his goal.
He thanked his boss and headed to his next job. Personal assistant to a junior executive. On a trial basis only. The guy’s personal assistant had fallen ill, and he needed someone ASAP. For at least the rest of the week.
As Yoongi headed for the elevator, he passed Nari on her way back from lunch. He frowned. She was looking even thinner than she had two weeks ago. And now it would be harder to keep an eye on her.
—
“Nari,” her boss called her into his office the next morning, “you’ve been asked to work on the fifth floor today.”
She raised her eyebrows. That was the floor that housed the junior executives. “As a janitor?” she asked dryly.
“Exactly,” he responded.
Her eyebrows flew north again. “Seriously? I didn’t think my appa could start me out any lower than the mailroom. But I guess I was wrong.” She winced. “What did I do wrong?”
“Wrong?” he echoed. “Nothing. Your work has been exemplary. I wrote an excellent review for your file last week.”
“Someone must have it out for me then. Probably Appa.” She smiled at her kind boss. “I’m sorry I’m moving upstairs. You’ve been a pleasure to work for. Thank you.”
Her words were unexpected. Such words were rarely uttered in his presence. His features softened.
“Why, thank you, Miss Beom.”
She quirked a dark brow. “Shall I head upstairs now?”
He bobbed his head. “Just tell the secretary why you’re there. She’ll point you in the right direction.”
A short nod, and she exited his office. She went to grab her belongings. She gazed longingly at the spot Yoongi usually occupied. She hadn’t seen him since yesterday when she’d been returning from lunch. He’d been headed towards the elevator. Had he gone home sick?
She sure hoped not.
