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Jisoo's days were full of meetings and completing invitations. She spent much of her first several days on the Politics department's campus with her research collaborators. It was basically easy comparative study, but the workload was very useful in completing her tenure for the next year. Jisoo spent more time in her hotel room than on campus, occasionally making calls to her team in Seoul to prepare paperwork or writing at the library. She was not interested in going out alone or with the campus reps, despite being offered.
Besides, maybe because Chanyeol was also busy. He currently worked as a junior lawyer at a law firm owned by a professor at Brown. At the same time Chanyeol was also completing his doctoral program and becoming his boss's assistant to handle his classes.
If one learned that Chanyeol was a lawyer, they might not believe it since his persona was so unlike from the image that his professional life projected. When Sehun first introduced Chanyeol as a law student, she thought he was kidding. Jisoo did, however, attend his trial once, and she was startled to discover that someone like Park Chanyeol could be so serious and aggressive while questioning and accusing the defendant.
Chanyeol visited her at lunchtime, or after work, which was usually almost late at night. And as they usually did, they talked a lot, and Chanyeol would take her to the 24-hour diner to enjoy midnight snacks.
And then they talked about Baekhyun. He was fuming when she told him about the divorce, especially in the part where it happened because he wanted to get back with her. She had no idea why Baekhyun would do something like that, she was actually dying to know what it was inside his head, what made him like that, what made him recklessly think that his decision was the best option. They didn't talk to each other anymore since that fight in her office, he showed that move like he wanted to approach her and said something but she always made an excuse to run away from him.
She was so disappointed in him. And Chanyeol despised him, which was actually quite funny seeing that he never met him in the first place. But from the way he blasphemed him, it's as if he had known him that he hated for a long time. It seemed like he hated Baekhyun much more than she did. But after that Jisoo ended their topic about Baekhyun, the time wasn't at all worth it to discuss him.
Jisoo remembered Yixing's birthday from a week ago on her eighth day in Seoul. The fact that Yixing said nothing about it at all during their phone conversation made Jisoo feel foolish since she had realized it a few days before taking off for the US but had forgotten to write it down. She called Chanyeol and asked for his ideas for a birthday present considering she never made an effort to offer people birthday gifts. She had previously given Sehun and Minseok birthday gifts, but it was primarily what she knew they liked the most. And she had no notion what Yixing would like.
Chanyeol took a day off to take her to Wrentham Village to look for something to buy. They went for a stroll and made a visit to some stores but nothing caught her attention. Chanyeol suggested her to buy a shirt, but it was too typical. Then he suggested her to buy a pair of running or working shoes for him, but Jisoo had no idea about Yixing's size. She wanted to buy him a watch, but she remembered that he had his collection which probably cost a fortune and she wasn't sure that something like Patek Philippe was up to his standard.
"Just buy him something, Jees, really. He will like anything you buy for him even if it's not his style." Chanyeol started to get agitated after five hours of window shopping and Jisoo hadn't decided on what to buy for the gift.
"I don't want it to be ordinary. I want something special to give him." Geez, Jisoo had no idea that even picking a birthday gift would be this difficult.
"Then let's just buy some socks and print 'special' on each of them. It's a special gift already."
Jisoo hit him with her bag. She couldn't blame Chanyeol, he's probably tired of walking all day and she could understand that. But socks actually had given her an idea since she one saw CK had those collections of shocks where you can combine the alphabet for one's name initial. She was thinking of getting Yixing something custom, something that was made especially for him. Right, it's special already.
"Hey, do you remember that workshop where I bought a rollerball pen for my dad three years ago?" she put her pace on halt suddenly to ask Chanyeol that. While Chanyeol tilted his head, trying to recall which it was that she meant.
"Uh, yeah, what about it?"
"Do you still have the owner's number?"
"No. But I still remember the name, you want me to google it?"
Jisoo nodded excitedly and let Chanyeol searched it up on his phone. 
He gave her his cellphone when he got the contact number and Jisoo used it to call the owner. Given that the order was supposed to be completed in two weeks, but she needed to return to Korea in one, she inquired about the possibility of an expedited order. Jisoo informed the owner what she wanted, as well as her model and ideas, and after some discussion, they agreed to do it within four days at an additional cost. Jisoo urged Chanyeol to drive her to the workshop that day so she could design her concept.
Jisoo spent the remainder of her days there, relaxed. She took a road trip to Yale to visit her senior instructors and supervisors while studying there, and she stayed the night to see some old acquaintances. It was genuinely enjoyable to meet them again while making new contacts. She never had this much free time in Seoul due of her profession, so this vacation may be considered a healing experience for her.
Yixing called almost every day in her first week, but he didn't make any call after the last weekend to tell her that he would be traveling abroad again. It was to Macau and Hong Kong, and it seemed like he was too busy because he didn't pick up when she called and only message her back, telling her that he was in the middle of a meeting. He made a video call several days after, just a day before she was scheduled to fly back home. They didn't talk much, Yixing looked so exhausted and he mostly listened to her talking about her days while yawning a lot. He promised to pick her up at the airport because he was in town, it was off-office already when she landed.
"So, what's your plan?" Chanyeol was her driver again today to send her off at the airport. He just took her to check her baggage in, and they had about three hours until she boarded and they decided to have their last talk at the lounge.
"What plan?" Jisoo asked back, didn't seem to get where the question was going while sipping her hot breakfast tea.
"Your wedding plan. You said you both are busy people, you guys travel a lot, with loads of crazy works. How do you keep up with that? What will you do with the wedding, you must have some plans, right?"
"Hm," the question was actually unexpected, even Yixing never asked her that. Yes, she was busy, and she had loads of crazy works. And Yixing did too. And what about the wedding? "I don't, have any plan for the wedding, yet.If you ask what date it would be, I can't answer you that. We're working on it, I mean, I still try to work on it. My schedule is really jam-packed until March, but after that, I do have a plan to, you know, lay low a bit." Jisoo swallowed hard, a bit hesitant in explaining this.
She was not used to telling people unclear things. She was a very organized individual. She was usually planning something, which might explain why Chanyeol posed the question. But it was too sudden, and she didn't want to respond as if she didn't know what to do since he would simply call her irresponsible. And she wasn't reckless.
"I"m thinking of, um, balancing my working hours with my personal life, you know."
"And how are you going to do that?" Chanyeol kept asking, now was getting more serious.
"I'm not really sure if it would be applicable, but I'm thinking of reducing my conference abroad for some more lectures. You know, I have two or three international flights on average number in a month this year, I'll filter more invitation so I'll fly only once at least for a month. I'll be doing more researches in the office, and perhaps writing more books. It's worth the effort, don't you think?"
"Well, if you said so. What about him?"
Jisoo tilted her head and then shrugged, "We never talked about it, Chanyeol, I don't know. He's a very busy person. I make this adjustment because my schedule is more flexible than his, so I don't know how this will work on his side." she shrugged again, and Chanyeol seemed like he wasn't really happy with her answer because then he frowned.
And Chanyeol didn't frown that much. He only did it for two reasons; first, when he was in deep thoughts; second, when something was bothering him. Jisoo had no idea which one of them this time.
"You have to talk about it with him, Jees. You have to because you can't be the only one who makes an effort. It would be big trouble if you guys don't settle it."
Jisoo nodded her head. Chanyeol was right, someday in the future, there would be the time where she would need him by her side. And she had to see how much Yixing was willing to invest his time for that need, especially when he didn't seem to even care about his own sleeping habit at the time being, how would he care about her in the future? She made a mental note to have this conversation someday, maybe in the near future.
She sipped on her tea again, there's actually something that had been bothering her these past days. She's been thinking about it since the day she had Chanyeol be known by Yixing, and how he acted a bit nonchalant at his presence next to her.
"Chanyeol, do you think," she paused for a second, "Do you think I should tell Yixing about us?"
"What? Why?" 
She cleared her throat, "I don't know, I've put my mind into it and I can't stop thinking that he deserved to know the truth. He likes me because of the sparkling fairy tales that people feed him about me. He might think of me as a virgin Mary or something. But I'm not that person, you know. I'm not that saint, or pure or whatever you call it."
"If you want him to totally over you so go ahead." He challenged her. "Look, no male in this world wants to hear about that, okay? I don't want to know what my girlfriend has done with her ex; it is not my business. No shit, Jees; no matter how awful a woman is, a guy will always want to see the best in her. I don't mind if my girlfriend isn't a virgin, but I don't want to know how she got into that situation. So, no. Do not tell him anything. Nothing good will come of it if he knows, and it isn't his business."
"But Chanyeol, he's a good guy. And he's very understanding. I don't want him to hear it from someone else, it will hurt him more."
Chanyeol sighed, "Yeah, yeah, he's a good guy, whatever. But he's not Jesus, for Christ's sake. I swear to you that he must have his dark side himself, don't think of him that highly. You wouldn't know if he's done things worse than having sex for fun unless you're digging it up."
"Ugh, no. That's disgusting."
"See? You say it yourself, I don't understand why you're still thinking of telling him that."
"Fine. I will not tell him." She gave up. Everything Chanyeol stated made sense; her previous sex life was not Yixing's concern. It wouldn't matter if he didn't know about it; after all, no one knew save them both. No one would know, unless someone dug into it, which is doubtful.
And maybe she was too much overthinking. This whole new relationship with Yixing could be very overwhelming sometimes. She had her own resolution when it came to dating life, she didn't want it to end up like her previous one. She did a lot of stupid things back then, she was too young and naive. But she was much mature now, and even though she could be clueless sometimes, she wanted to do it better. 
Jisoo tried to not think about Yixing too much on her flight back. She was being idle, and when she had nothing to do her mind tended to roam around her head and it drowned her into thinking mode. And she tried not to get influenced by it and watched some movies instead. But when she was too bored with it, she got back to her laptop and wrote some more chapters for her book just to ease her mind.
Yixing fulfilled his word by picking her up at the airport. There was no plaque or flowers as there had been previously, but she didn't mind. It's better that way since she's never been into flowers. Yixing's flowers died on the kitchen counter due to her lack of knowledge about their proper care.
"Welcome home." he greeted her with a hug and a small smile. His eyes were drooping, and he really looked like he didn't get any sleep for days that Jisoo was a bit worried. She offered to drive the car but Yixing said no, assuring her that he was okay enough to drive her home.
"You want to come in?" she offered when they reached her apartment, Yixing didn't say anything and only nodded as a reply. He parked his car at the garage and helped her with the trunk and still insisted to lift it for her as they climbed the stairs.
"I've done reading the first book, now I need the second one." he said as they got inside the house. Jisoo pushed her trunk into her room and told Yixing to find the book himself while she made him a hot tea. Once she'd done, she put the cup at the coffee table and joined him at the library,
"Just make yourself at home, I'm going to have a quick shower."
 
"Yeah, yeah. Go ahead, I'm going to look around for some more books."
"Okay." Jisoo spun around immediately and sprinted to her room to use the bathroom as the nature had called since half an hour ago.
She took a quick hot shower to relax her muscles from the long flight, while thinking of cooking some dinner to feed Yixing. Like really, that guy seemed like he'd been overworking himself. The last time she saw him with that face was when they had their first date in Seorae, he was preparing the first launch of his new jet fuel at that time. What about now then?
It was about ten o'clock when she got out from her room, and she was about to see what Yixing was doing when she found him laying on his stomach on the couch, one arm dropped to the floor holding a book. He fell asleep.
She only sighed when she crouched by the couch and took the book from his hand. Even when he was sleeping he still looked exhausted, she felt so bad about him.
 
"Yixing, wake up." she shook his back softly, "Yixing, you're going to hurt your arm if you sleep like this," she said on his ear.
"Hm, five more minutes. Okay." he hummed, but only moved a little to retract his arm from the floor and used it as a pillow.
She rose up to take a spare pillow and blanket in her room and went back to the couch to roll him onto his back. She loosened the tie on his neck and unbuttoned the upper two of his shirt, then put the pillow under his head.
Yixing stirred for a second only to adjust his position and laid on his other side facing the wall, Jisoo waited for a moment if he woke up, but he didn't. So she put the blanket over his body and let him rest there. It seemed like he would be sleeping for good hours, and maybe stay for the night.
Poor Yixing, she was wondering if this was something that she would regularly see in their future days. Would he keep torturing himself with this lacking sleep? 
What Chanyeol said to her was back on her mind; what Yixing would do as an effort to make their relationship work?
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