Hi readers, 

Here's Chapter Nine. I am sorry it is late and i have let you down once again. I have finally finished my exams (hooray!)
This chapter was a bit of a rush so I hope it's not too bad. I really needed to upload something after a long while.
Thanks for all your continued support

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Chapter Nine 

“So the invitations have been printed and just arrived.” Sooyoung announces as she walks into Yoona’s office. She notices how the blinds are down in Yoona’s room for once – blocking the open view of the courtyard which Yoona usually enjoys.

“What’s wrong Yoona? This is the first time I’ve seen you draw your blinds.”

“Oh I just have a headache and the sunlight’s making it worse.” Yoona says and after seeing Sooyoung’s look of concern, adds “no need to worry.”

“Well if you need to go home or anything, just let me know, alright?” Sooyoung says worriedly.  Yoona nods quietly.

“So, they still haven’t given us a guest list yet right?” she asks curiously.

“I think they mentioned something about them organising that themselves.” Sooyoung’s reply strikes a curious look from Yoona.

“Then… what about the seating plan?”

“They don’t need one apparently.” Sooyoung says simply. “You know what? I’m going to get you medicine. You look too pale.”

Yoona takes the medicine obediently and without hesitation. She reassures Sooyoung that she can continue working and so resumes her reviewing of documents on her computer.

…

In the dressing rooms, Hyoyeon adjusts the back of Yeonhee’s wedding gown with clips to keep it together.

“You don’t think this one is a bit daring do you? Yeonhee says as she fixes herself, and checks her reflection in the mirror. She is in a hi-low wedding dress. It features a crystal embellished bodice – glimmering under the bright lights of the dressing room. The dress shape accentuates her tiny waist and flatters her figure. 

“you have really long legs, which you should flaunt on your special day. In fact that's why Yoona selected this particular dress for you.

“really?” Yeonhee turns from Sooyoung to Hyoyeon.

“Yes” Sooyoung agrees.

“well this is my favourite one so far.” Yeonhee exclaims as she swings around to have a look at the back of the dress. ‘do you think we can do a lace up instead of buttons on the back of the dress?”

“Absolutely.” Sooyoung says as she takes notes.

“Speaking about Yoona ssi, does she have another errand today?”

“Oh she’s feeling unwell today and will be unable to join us for this fitting.”

“Shame. I really need to thank her for her choices.” She says, touching the material of the chiffon skirt without removing her gaze from the reflection.

“Would you like to try on the other dresses?”  

“Sure. we’ve gotten this far already. Might as well.” Making both hyoyeon and sooyoung giggle.

“a lot of brides find it hard to stand up that offer.”

“It’s definitely wise to try out all the choices, otherwise you won’t know if you’ve missed the best one. Same rule applies for men.” Yeonhee remarks. 

“So how did you know he was the one?” hyoyeon asks curiously. But to everyone’s surprise, Yeonhee only laughs and shrugs “who knows?” trying to change the topic.

“So is Yoona ssi alright?”

Just then Changmin walks into the dressing room.

“Oh she’s just in her office resting, she’s probably tired after taking some medicine. She should be fine.” Sooyoung reassures.

“That’s good. She needs some rest.” Yeonhee says just before she looks up back at the reflectiona dn finds Changmin standing behind all of them. She spins around and teases him

“You’re late.”

“OH, well, the meeting ended late. Sorry. Actually I don't have to be.” He reasons “in fact I gave you more time to try on more dresses.”

“that’s true. Thank you” she grins happily back at her refletion.

“there are a few suit sets chosen for you. You can try those on while I go through the rest of this rack.” Yeonhee says and points at the rack filled with the many different styles of dresses. Changmin does not even take a look at the rack before he started.

“Actually …”   He pauses and traces his thoughts. “I left my phone in the car, I’ll be right back. Sorry. ”

He exits the building as quickly as he came in.

However, Changmin does not find himself walking back to his parked car, instead he has taken himself to the building in which yoona’s office is. He enters, greeting the receptionist who stands up nervously.

“I’m here to find Miss Im please.”

“Sure, I’ll just let her know.” She says as picks up the phone.

“No, it’s alright.”

“Do you need me to take you there?”

“it’s fine,” he says as he starts to walk away. He realises something then stops to add “thanks.”

 He walks towards her darkened office to find Yoona asleep on her table. Her computer just as asleep as she is. Finding the door open, he invites himself in after a light knock on the glass door. Seeing her relaxed expression, he cannot bring himself to wake her up as he considers this as a rare opportunity to see her without her guard up, no contempt towards him, and no nervousness, only a peacefulness.

Heaving a heavy sigh, he instinctively slides his suit jacket off and is about to place it over her shoulders. Just before his suit jacket reaches her, he stops himself, shaking his head. ‘what are you thinking shim Changmin?’ he asks himself.  

He straightens up and scans the surroundings of the office, and locates a shawl on the couch facing her desk. Leaving his jacket beside her desk, he retrieves the shawl and gently places it on her. He is careful to the point of almost holding his breath in fear of waking her up. In the end, she does not even stir. And so he takes the opportunity to leave, picking up his jacket and hanging it casually on his arm.

As he makes it back to the reception, he notifies the girl saying

“it looks like she’s occupied, I’ll see her another time.”  He says casually, walking out of the building.

***

Yoona wakes up, finding it difficult to lift her heavy head. She stretches and checks the time on her computer, only shocking herself to find that she is half an hour late into the fitting appointment with Yeonhee and Changmin. She pulls the shawl off from her shoulders, throws it onto her chair and runs towards the dressing rooms whilst ignoring her throbbing head.

Passing by the receptionist, the girl stops her and tells her that there was a client who was looking for her but she was occupied so he’d see her another time.

She suspects that it is him and wonders whether he could have possibly seen her sleeping.

Just as she runs in, she finds nobody, and deduces that hey are all probably in the fitting roosm – sooyoung and hyoyeon probably helping Yeonhee.

So she heads towards the rooms, just then the door to one of the dressing rooms opens, revealing a person she wanted to see least.

“Yeonhee, can you please help me fix my bo…”

The occurrence startles Yoona, and she kind of jumps and presses her hand to her chest. She looks up apologetically.

“oh hello” he says, but Yoona can identify (she actually imagined) a tone of sarcasm in the voice. “I’m just as surprised to see you.”

“Sorry.” Her pounding heart underneath her palm does not calm down. And it does not help whne she sees him dressed smartly in his tuxedo. Her heart skips a little beat. She continues to breathe heavily, trying to catch her breath from the puffing from the running and the shock. All she can do is stare at him, trying to find the right words to say.

“Perfect timing. Maybe you can help me fix my bow tie.”
“sorry?” she asks blankly. He merely gestures to the unfinished bow tie hanging off his lapels.

“oh.” She reaches up. And tiptoes a little to fix it together.

With a little more proximity. Changmin stares at Yoona amusedly, he covers his mouth with a fist and chuckles silently.

“What’s so funny? That you can’t do your own tie?” she asks sarcastically. “It would help if you weren’t moving around so much.”

“Before you get so grumpy that your face is flushed. Or maybe it’s because you were so busy.”

Yoona steps back and immediately peers into her reflection in the mirror behind Changmin. She finds herself with her cheeks flushed –probably because of the rush of adrenaline, the running and the embarrassment from the proximity. However one side is redder than the other – with a hint of fading imprints in the pattern of her cardigan sleeve which she had leaned her cheek on during her nap.

He chuckles again, and she looks up with a glare that contains a mixture of embarrassment, warning and partly anger from his provocations.  

“Very professional.” He says sarcastically but she is too flustered to identify the joking element of his remark.

“I was…” she stops trying to explain. In her exasperation “never min-“ she looks down at her feet, biting her lip.  However his tone changes and it is replaced by a seriousness.  

“I know, you were unwell, it’s not your fault. I was only teasing. ”

She looks up with surprise. He looks back directly meeting her eyes. She wishes and tries to search for a comment to make. She did not even realise she had been holding her breath until they hear the sound of an unlocking door and she exhales deeply. Yoona takes another step back and says to Changmin.

“Mr shim you’ll need one size smaller of your tuxedo.” She said. Yeonhee and Hyoyeon emerges with sooyoung following behind. She is an immaculate ball gown with a long train. Yoona admits enviously that Yeonhee looks close to a princess.

“oh Yoona! If you’re unwell, you don’t have to come.”

Normally she would say snarky comment about not wanting someone to take the opportunity to call her unprofessional. But that was just rendered useless.

“Hello Yeonhee ssi, how did you go with the dresses?”

“I think I’m going with the one you chose.” Yeonhee says.  

“Oh really?” she smiles brightly “But you look perfect in this dress.

“Well, I prefer walking naturally than lugging this heavy thing around.” She laughs. “How heavy can this be?”

“well in that case, let’s just go with the chiffon hi-low.” Sooyoung confirms.

“I think it’s a good idea to be able to walk like a human on your big day.” Changmin teases.

“Oh be quiet.”  Yeonhee says, making everyone laugh.

Something in his sentence had caused a little tug inside her chest. So she distances herself from him for the rest of the appointment.

***

As Yoona and sooyoung walk back to their office, Yoona feels the breeze and hugs herself around the arms, feeling the coolness of the air.

“Oh that’s right. Unnie, did you put the shawl on me when I was sleeping?”

“what shawl?”

“the one on m- “ she stops abruptly in her thought tracks as a thought suddenly strikes her. A picture of him placing the shawl on her shoulder. But she shuts it down – forcing her eyes shut.

“I wouldn’t have put anything on you. I didn’t want to wake you up”

“Why didn’t you wake me up unnie?”

“Because you’ve been so busy for the past week, and now you’re sick. I can’t let that happen to you.”

“Aww thank you.”

“I have good news. Tonight might be the night” she queals

“Kyung ho oppa is going to pop the question?’

“I don’t know but he’s meeting me at the restaurant in the Shilla hotel”

“oh my gosh!” Yoona gasps covering . “This could be it!” she squeals

“yes it could be” Sooyoung laughs at how excited Yoona is.

“oH Finally!” Yoona pulls Sooyoung into a tight hug. “I’m so glad for you.” She cries and her tears escape her eyes. She breathes in relief, choosing to ignore the little concerned feeling behind her consciousness.  

***

As Yoona returns to her desk, she adjusts her chair and her feet accidentally kick something that slide on the tiles, and makes a clinking sound as it hits the leg of her table. She bends down in her chair to find a pen on the ground. As she picks it up, she holds her breath for a moment and bites her lip. Turning the pen to the lid, as she had expected (or dreaded) the engraving ‘ 심’ (shim) shines back at her. She clenches her fist, considering her options of giving it to Sooyoung and making a story about finding it in the dressing room or handing it back directly.

Considering the inappropriateness of the latter, she almost decides to go with the former. However, the memory of the pen’s significance as she had worked out that it may have been from Miss Yeonhee, she figures that he must be looking for it.

Before she realises it, she is already standing and walking back out of the office. To no surprise, Yoona finds Changmin walking to the office, his head down, searching.

She keeps the pen in her pocket as she approaches him.

“Mr Shim.” She calls, meeting his curious gaze.

“did you lose something?”

“Yes I lost…”

Yoona holds the pen out to him. As he is about to reach out for it, she pulls her hand back.

“Mr Shim, don’t you think that it's disrespectful to enter an office without permission?” she questions, then purses her lips while waiting for an answer.

“I did knock.” He says as a matter of fact.

“that doesn’t mea-. I can’t believe you'd say something so childish.”

“I did.” He catches her annoyed look and adds “-Knock I mean. ”

“Forget it.” She holds out the pen which he immediately retrieves and secures into his jacket pocket. As she watches him, she bites back her words. But in the end, the words leak out. “you realise that if it's such an important gift from Yeonhee ssi, you should put it in a place more secure than your pocket?” she does not wait for an answer before she leaves him with the words “You should be more careful Mr Shim.”

She turns and starts walking, the sound of her tapping heels against the concrete sounds louder than any other time.

“It’s not important because it’s from her. Actually it’s not from her. She doesn’t even know of this pen.” He tries to explain. She stops in her track in a few steps and turns to face him. There’s a tired smile on her face and she shrugs.

“You should still be careful not to lose it again. Take care Mr Shim.” And she leaves him without any chance to say anymore.