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Jisoo went to work with so much lighter and fresher feelings on Friday morning. Two weeks passed, now it's Friday. And Friday was consultation day.
To help her manage her time better so she can teach and take care of other responsibilities, Jisoo always created a work timetable. Class activities may only take place on Monday and Tuesday.  When she was unable to attend class, the graduate or doctoral students on her teaching assistant team were always willing to step in and take her place. Her aides were usually present in her class to keep up with the content she was teaching. On Wednesdays and Thursdays, she received invitations to attend events or meet with associates for research. She also served as the IRO in her deputy office. On Fridays, she met with master and doctoral students to consult on their theses and dissertations.
She had a lot on her plate today, since at least three pupils had arranged to meet with her after the Chuseok vacation and had been waiting since the morning. She met with them at her office from the morning till the afternoon. She was fortunate to have a kind student who knew she couldn't leave the room that day bring her a lunch box when they were supposed to meet at 1 pm. Jisoo was able to get to know Lisa, an international student from Thailand, as she was a very confident and outspoken student in class. She spent extra time with her, chatting about things other than her thesis while they finished their meal together.
It was about four thirty when the last students left the room. She stood up to stretch up her muscles and took some fresh air as she opened the window, watching the view outside. And she let the autumn breeze filled in her room by leaving it ajar to walk up to the drawer and fished out her phone. Just like any other day, there were about ten missed calls and hundreds of unread messages waiting for her reply. But from all those, she didn't expect Yixing to call and left her a message.
'hey, are you busy?' it read. The message was sent about three hours ago, after a missed call. He didn't seem to mind that she had let his message unreplied for that long since there was no other call or message after that.
Jisoo decided to give him a call.
"Hey, there." Yixing answered her call at the third ring, his voice was calm like usual.
"Hey, I'm sorry I just read your message. I was in a meeting with my students since the morning, and my phone was in the drawer all the time." she tried to explain the situation.
"Yeah, yeah, that's fine. I can see that it's a habit of yours." he said, referring to the same situation they had last Chuseok.
"Um, is it a bad thing?" 
"Well, you like to be focus, I think that's professional. I wish I could be just like you, but my father would castrate me if I were unreachable even for a minute." Yixing started to laugh, and Jisoo went with him.
Hearing his voice again is kind of pleasant. She had to admit that since their previous meeting, her opinions on Yixing had started to shift. Jisoo was somewhat terrified to confront him in the past because she knew how much of an impact he could have on her and that it would impair her ability to think properly.
Yixing's attempts to make amends and convince her that he wasn't as bad as she imagined softened her heart. Jisoo was very grateful to him for being ready to wait for her and that gave her the impression that he was serious in what he said. She was appreciative, and it was only right that she gave him the chance to show his commitment to their relationship. Now she wanted to be more approachable.
"I'm not busy right now. What exactly were you planning to say?" After a brief pause, Jisoo stated, she turned around and leaned against the window frame while gazing out at the wind rustling the trees in the park behind the university and bringing the leaves down to the lake. She felt at ease witnessing the sight since it was so peaceful. For the previous year, this had been one of her favorite views from here.
"It's, umm, I just called to ask if you want to have a date with me tomorrow." Yixing cleared his throat, trying not to sound awkward. "That, if you don't have any schedule."
"A date? Alright. I never have a work schedule on the weekends, unlike other people."
Yixing grinned happily at her playful taunt. "I'm now beginning to break away from it as well. These days, it seems more fun to spend the weekend with a real person."
"Oh my goodness, you are such a workaholic," Jisoo rolled her eyes.
"Said the one who makes a call back hours later." he shot back.
Jisoo couldn't help but laugh at the thought, 'well, he's right about that; at least that made the two of us.'
"So, I'll pick you up at ten tomorrow?" A little later, Yixing asked again for confirmation.
"Ten sounds good." 
"Alright, I'll be there. I enjoy whatever you wear, so there's no need to buy a new outfit." It's his turn to tease now, and Jisoo couldn't help but laugh.
She faked a serious tone, "I'll definitely take that into consideration."
He then hung up the phone, and she couldn't help but smile foolishly as she went over their chat again. How simple was it for him to win her over? She used to be quite credulous, which had been one of her flaws. Because she trusted what people said too readily, she was frequently taken advantage of after being used for their own gain.
She found herself finishing her friends' papers and being the only one who contributed the most in group work when they stated she was a really good person and that they like hanging out with her only to be dumped on weekends because she was too young to go to a club or drink alcohol. She was almost kicked out of her own dorm room after she once got into problems for lying to the head security about her friends' illegal party at the lodging facility since they had requested her to. After graduating from school and returning to Korea, she believed she had learnt her lesson sufficiently, but when she met Baekhyun, she was drawn into the same deceptive cycle.
And now there was Yixing, and Jisoo was again giving him the benefit of the doubt. She was risking everything now; it might either be a joyful ending for her or the same pain she had experienced with Baekhyun. Though she really wanted to quit, she couldn't help but feel that perhaps, just maybe, Yixing was different. She wanted to believe Yixing when he stated she could trust him, since unlike in her previous relationship, she now had her family's support. And she was the one who understood the best—that if Yixing foolishly did something to harm her, Minseok wouldn't spare him a single detail.
A knock on the door snapped her out from the reverie, she turned her head to the door and invited whoever it was to come in and see Baekhyun poking his head in.
"Hello," he greeted as he made his way in to her office. He held two paper glasses on his both hands, and hand it to her soon as he stood next to her. "Your fave caramel latte with extra whip."
"Thanks." she took a sip on it and hummed on its perfect blend of the espresso and the caramel syrup and the hint of sweet taste of the whipped cream. It was what she liked the best on her favorite drink. Baekhyun was one of the few who knew it well.
"What did you do last weekend?" he asked.
Jisoo's head tilted. Last weekend, she spent more time at home. While Yixing was out of town, they talked using a chat messaging app. She also did laundry, prepared her lunch and dinner, and binge-watched a few programs. It's personal stuff, and she didn't think Baekhyun needed to hear.
"Nothing much. What about you?" she asked back, only to be polite.
"I texted you, but you didn't respond. You never even returned my call." Then he sulked. It was his usual response to disappointment. He meant it as a joke, yet in the past, all it needed to fall in love with him repeatedly was that face. It was adorable, Baekhyun. He enjoyed making jokes and was a kind boyfriend. She remembered how he used to lighten the mood and play the clown to make her laugh, back when they were still dating.
He may be serious at times, but he was more likely to mock his seriousness. She first fell in love with him because he gave off the carefree impression. He fell for her for who she was, not because she was the youngest lecturer, the face of the faculty, or popular among graduate male students. At least that's what he told her—he fell for the Kim Jisoo in her.
"Oh, that. I apologize; my schedule with family and conference work kept me too busy since last weekend." Jisoo truly did recall reading his message, especially now that he brought it up. He sent her two messages exactly, the first asking her to come over for dinner, to which she had previously declined, and the second asking if she was alright because she hadn't responded to his earlier message. She certainly read them, but because she was still in Hong Kong at the time, she neglected to remind herself to respond. "Why were you so eager to invite me over dinner?"
"Well, can't I?"
"Baekhyun, you're a married guy. It is not appropriate for us to have a private dinner together." She made a suggestion.
"Remember that I'm divorcing her?" Baekhyun clicked his tongue, moved forward, and rested his upper body on the window. "I will deal with Taeyeon's refusal to sign the petition through a lawyer. I am providing her with everything she desires; all I want is to be free of this." and he turned to face her after finishing his comments. "I want to get back with you."
Jisoo gave a heavy sigh. This was something she detested. If this had happened a year ago, when she was still completely smitten with him, she would most likely start to hyperventilate. Every time she gazed at his face and considered making him hers again, she used to fantasize that he would simply leave his wife for her. However, Jisoo was aware of her boundaries and felt that it would be inappropriate to continue wanting him back when there was no chance. She also attempted to keep her distance from him, and for the first semester, he cooperated. However, she started to notice that he was changing at the start of the previous semester.
Baekhyun didn't hesitate for a walk together when they met in the corridor after class; he was no longer afraid to visit her office alone; he even invited her to lunch. He also stared at her with wistful eyes. All of this almost caused her to give up, until Yixing entered her life.
Jisoo nearly never thought of Baekhyun again once Yixing entered the picture. She no longer felt unique or felt her heart skip a beat when she thought about him. And because she now had what she had, she looked at him with disapproval, thus she no longer valued all of his attention. As though what he did was a shameful sin.
"Baekhyun, you have to stop doing this. It's not going to happen." She thought for a bit before telling him. She wasn't sure whether to be glad or upset about it, so she didn't tell him that when he informed her the first time. However, she was aware of her current desires and that she was done with him.
"Why?"
"Because I've moved on." she replied.
"Wait." Baekhyun furrowed his brow and pushed his body up straight to look at her in her eyes,
"Is it that guy you dated the other day? Who is he anyway?"
Jisoo was thinking if she should just let the cat out of the bag, but then again it's too early to tell anyone things since this thing between her and Yixing was relatively new, she should wait until they're steady enough to go public and told everyone about him.
"It's not important who he is. The most important thing is that, I like him and we're taking this relationship seriously." she declared.
With a disdainful snort, Baekhyun said, "Jisoo, really? You tell me now, after all this time?"
She was genuinely irritated when he just blurted out "After all this time," what did he mean? She never committed any wrongdoing! She never made an attempt to seduce him and never took any action that would have threatened their relationship. He's always the one who initiates contact; she never did. And she told him, or rather, partly shouted at him, just that.
"Jisoo, all of this was done for you! I don't love her, and I wasn't happy in my marriage. I cherish you! I want to spend my life with you! And how could you claim that you've moved on from me now that I'm leaving her?"
She was never one to lose her temper. She never challenged him about it, not even after he broke up with her and a month later when she found out he was getting married. However, he nearly brought her to tears today. Now, how dare he tell her something like that? Had he never bothered to look at himself in the mirror? She was the one who suffered as a result of his selfishness and was wounded by everything, so why was he now placing the blame on her? What right did he have?
"I never asked you to like me. I never begged for your love. Don't put me in your love drama because it won't work. I've made it clear where I stand since I came back. I don't want to be the reason your marriage fails," she admonished. She tossed her coffee glass to the trash can, turned to allow them some room, and went around the desk to unlock her office door.
"I think you should leave." she held the door wider and spoke in her most composed tone, "Now."
Jisoo averted her gaze as Bekhyun appeared to be about to speak. What a great way to spoil her plans—she was feeling extremely upbeat before he arrived. She couldn't help but condemn him endlessly in her head. She waited for him to move a little while further before holding the door, and when Baekhyun eventually left her alone, she threw herself into the couch and punched the cushion in her rage.
At the very least, Saturday brought wonderful weather. It wasn't too windy and it was sunny. It's the perfect day for a date. She had been waiting for it since the evening, so she purposefully went to bed early and skipped dinner—on the one hand, to get rid of her wrath, and on the other, to make the most of the early hours of the day. She got out of bed to prepare a simple breakfast of cereal and mixed fruit juice when she woke up, without even a trace of wrath in her thoughts. After doing her skincare routine for the weekend and having a shower, she had just left the bathroom when she heard a bell sound outside.
It's still 9.30 a.m., and she failed to recall having a morning appointment with anybody else. She thought about calling Sehun, as she remembered seeing his message last night but didn't intentionally read it. She was wondering whether it was Sehun.
Yixing's presence on the intercom screen surprised her.
"One moment!" she said, bolting from her room to change into a bathrobe that covered her improper underwear, and dashed to the front door.
"Hey, sorry, you're not late. I'm just being early, so take all the time you need, I'll just wait here." Yixing blurted that out as she opened the door for him.
Still feeling dumbfounded, Jisoo just raised her brow and then nodded.
"Okay, um, come in?" she held the door open wider for him to slip inside awkwardly, and Jisoo couldn't stop watching his back and admired how good he looked today.
He was so gorgeous with that wide v-neck brown sweater and long chino, his hair was effortlessly permed that strands of his bangs fell to the sides of his fine brow. And he looked awkward, and when he's awkward, he scratched the back of his head. And it was really amusing.
"I got a situation back home, so I just left earlier." he told her as she invited him to sit on the couch and made himself comfortable.
"What situation?" she asked while she walked to the kitchen and took out a mixed fruit juice that she made this morning from the fridge for Yixing.
"Office situation. My colleague called me that she was on the way to my place for some work stuff, and I said I was heading out. But she said it's only for ten minutes, but her ten minutes could be hours so I just left before she caught me." then he let out an awkward laugh, which she mimicked, without the awkward one.
But of course, she couldn't unnotice the word of 'she' that he mentioned earlier. It was the only thing that caught her attention anyway, "She?" she asked then while serving the juice on the coffee table.
"Yeah, a very distressing she." he shook his head, but then he looked up and met her eyes, who were watching him with her brow raised and arms folded on her chest. "Who means nothing for me, if that look is what it is about?"
Jisoo nodded, trying to hold back her laughter. She was just teasing him, and it was fun. She didn't care about the colleague anyway, even if there's a big question that what kind of woman would visit her colleague in his house, to talk about work, but on Saturday morning. Jisoo was curious as hell, but she held herself from asking too much. She didn't want to put too much pressure on him on their second date, so she decided to save the topic for another day.
She then excused herself to retreat to her room, deliberately leaving it a jar so she could hear him if he said something from outside. She took out a oversized long shirt and the same color sweater tanks from her closet. She put it on in her ensuite bathroom and topped the shirt with the sweater tanks. The hem of the shirt ended on her thigh, which Jisoo was left with a bit of surprise, since it felt longer when she first bought it two years ago. So to save the feasibility of her fashion style today, she put on a high waist chino hot pants so it wouldn't look like she wore nothing from under.
"Hey, can I look around your library?" Yixing called out from outside the room, which she replied with 'go ahead' and let him do whatever he pleased while waiting for her to get ready. It took her about twenty minutes to dry her hair and rolled it to put some volume on it, and then put on some light makeup and sprayed a not-to-alluring perfume on her neck and wrist, until she was ready to go. She put on a black beret on her head for the last touch then joined him on the library, which was also her working room.
"Have you really finished reading all these?" Yixing asked, pointing to the huge book shelves that filled two sides of the room's wall when he felt her presence on the threshold, he looked up to her and held his eyes for a moment to (seem like) savor her look before he dropped them back to the book on his hands. Jisoo was trying not to smile when she caught him pursing his lips as he held back a smile.
"Most of them, yes, these book at the bottom shelf are the unread ones. I didn't get the chance to read nor finish them yet, you can see some of them are still sealed." she showed him the a row of books in the bottom on their feet. "You like to read?" she then asked.
"Yeah, well, a bit. I don't have that much time these days but I always try to finish at least one book in a month." he replied her and took the book on his hand back on its place.
"What book do you usually read?"
"Uh," he put his two hands on his chino pockets and shrugged, "It's mostly tutorials, like, How To Run A Business Tycoon 101." he joked, which was funny especially when he said that with his stoic face.
"Or How To Make A Girl Laugh: for Dummies?" she added.
"Yeah, something like that. My fave though, that one." Jisoo slapped him on his upper arm playfully and laughed with him again.  "But I am interested to read novels recently, I just have no idea what to buy. Any recommendation?" Yixing raised his brow.
She wasn't really surprised that Yixing showed an interest in her library, as he looked like a person of the intelligence himself. They might be a different type of readers, since Yixing said that he had no idea what to buy for a book, meaning that he was a picky reader. People like him would spend his time researching what kind of books that worth the breakthrough knowledge before buying them, while she herself was more to an impulsive buyer who would click the 'buy it' button for an experiment. It's kind of like a bet by only to read the short description about it, she might receive a so-so writing, but sometimes, she would get a book that worth a change of her life. She thought it's a pretty good bet for herself.
"What kind of novel do you prefer to read?" Jisoo probed to filter the recommendation. He came to the right person because she just had a good piling collection of them in this library.
"Something deep. Something melodramatic kind of thing." he shrugged again.
"Well then," Jisoo scooted aside to reach a book just right beside Yixing's right arm, "If you want to read something deep and melodramatic, try Haruki Murakami's books. His works are built around the urge to explore the inner core of the human identity. You can start from this." she handed him the English version of IQ84. "IQ84 is actually a series of three, this one is the first book. Go read."
"What this book is about?" he asked while reading the back cover description.
"Just find it out yourself. Tell me once you finish it so I can give you the second book."
"What makes you so sure that I want to read the second one?" he probed back.
"I just know it." she gave him a knowing grin before spinning around to get back to the living room. "So, where are going to today?" 
Yixing followed behind her, putting the book on the coffee table and gulped down the remaining juice while humming to himself. "I had a plan or two, but I'm not sure if you're really up to it. So I was actually going to discuss it with you if you have a better plan to do."
"So, what did you plan?" she left to the bedroom to get her bag, which Yixing also followed but stopped at the door and leaned to it instead.
"I was thinking that we can watch some movies, and then go shopping, and then we'll have dinner." 
Jisoo stopped doing whatever she was doing to tilt her head and thought about his plan, and she couldn't help thinking how random his plans were going from watching movies to going shopping.
"Have to skip the movies, Sehun and I practically were out marathoning three movies last week and I don't think I can do it again for a while." she told him, hoping that he was not in an extreme mood watching the boring western movie about a dog and its sick owner on his death bed.
"Okay, that's fine. Do you have something you prefer to do?"
Of course. She was prepared about it instead. There was actually something she wanted to do with Yixing after she read the questionnaire that he filled for her the other day. He wrote there in one of the question that he had no time to explore the city since the first time he came to Seoul and she was thinking to take him for a sightseeing and had a culinary date in lieu of his plan.
"What do you think about taking a walk today?" she asked him back.
"Taking a walk? Is it nearby?"
"Not really. But the weather is nice, it's just a shame to waste it by taking a car. We're walking from here to the subway station, and it's about twenty minutes getting there." she turned to him to see his reaction, which he replied with his raised brow and a nod. 
"We can do that. But the problem is, I don't have any T-money card."
"I knew it." she snapped her fingers, "That's why I've prepared a spare card for you." she fished out the said card from her wallet and handed it to Yixing,
"Whoa, you're so prepared. I'm so touched."
She smiled, "Well, unlike someone I tend to go all out preparing my plan." she snapped her fingers again on his face playfully before they walked up to the front door to leave. 
Jisoo took out her sneakers from the shoe organizer as she watched Yixing put on his. She asked him to park his car at the garage provided for her unit just next to the building while she put on her shoes and made sure all windows and doors were locked. She met him in front of the garage and led him the way the nearest subway station.
"Are you going to tell me where we're going today?" Yixing asked as he sprinted from the car to catch up with her pace and placed himself on her right of the sideway.
"You'll see it yourself when we get there. We'll be doing both my plan and yours, it's a win win solution, everyone will be happy." she chirped lively.
Yixing smiled and started to laugh inaudibly, "You're funny." he purred under his breath, but she heard it and she chuckled to herself.
It's the first time somebody had said that she was funny. Even her very cousin always told her that if there's an award for being boring, she would get it for at least ten consecutive years ahead. Jisoo really had no idea if Yixing was just being sarcastic or genuinely said that, but she didn't have the mood to confront him, so she just let it slide.
There was something that caught her attention right away, when she thought their hands touched from the swing and Jisoo turned to find Yixing had pulled his hand to tuck it on his chino's pocket. She looked up to see him grimaced with another hand scratching his head. If they were never done this before, she wouldn't catch the meaning behind that grimace, but she then remembered what Yixing said once at the airport and she chuckled in an instant.
"It's okay if you want to hold my hand." She stretched out her hand for him to take. He did right away with a smile lingered on his dimpled face.
How cute he was.
"Hey, are you aware that we wear the same outfit today?" Yixing started the conversation again while they were walking hand in hand some moment later.
Jisoo stopped for a second to look at her outfit and scoffed as she realized the resemblance feeling that she felt just a moment ago. "You're right. I must have chosen this outfit unconsciously to match it with yours." she then said, a little embarrassed by her automaticity in mimicking his look.
"You look really pretty by the way." he voiced in his typical calm and collected tone, which successfully made her heart fluttered.
And Jisoo couldn't help to smile foolishly for the compliment. She drooped her head low to hide the blush on her face, and put her other hand on their intertwined ones to feel how warm his hand was in hers. She just knew the date would be worth of expectations.
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