#my new officemate is making it impossible for me to do anything I want to do anymore

[hxneyfarm]

I have multiple messages waiting for me about the greatest hits update and it’s killing me that I’m so busy today I can’t take 10 minutes to scream about it

[exocium]

Still, it tasted great

Summary: You found a new way to taste dumplings using Kyungsoo.

Wordcount: 892

Pairing: Kyungsoo x You/Reader (Female)

Genre: Fluff, Romance, Food, Date

A/N: Kyungsoo has a choke hold on me I can't escape. Wrote this 3 days ago and I have at least 15 other fic ideas for him already. They just keep multiplying.

The smell of a variety of spices and dishes wafted through the air inside a small downtown restaurant that you frequented. It was a famous Chinese restaurant known best for their noodles, fried rice, and dumplings. They were so famous around the area that the place was often packed and even getting takeout was practically impossible; especially on a weekend night. This afternoon though, you and your significant other were on a leave from work. This gave you the pleasure of going to the restaurant on a weekday where there were barely any customers.

The sunlight from the open window beside your table illuminated the beautiful face of your boyfriend. And you couldn’t help but want to smack the shit out of that beautiful face right now. Did you call it beautiful? You meant annoying, displeasing, gorgeous, evil, attractive, charming… not… good-looking…

“The dumplings are amazing. But you already know that.” Do Kyungsoo said as he gently dipped his hundredth (it wasn’t but it didn’t matter) dumpling in his favorite sauce and slowly brought the mouth-watering dish to his mouth. You watched in annoyance (agony) as he sneaked a glance at you while chewing.

The thing is, you were having a wonderful date. This morning, he took you to a newly opened cafe that was highly recommended by his officemates and the coffee and salmon egg sandwich you had were amazing. Next, he brought you to a bookshop since you mentioned you’d been meaning to buy new books. He paid for all the books you placed on the counter and carried the bag of books with one hand while he held hands with you with his other. And as you two walked while holding hands, he talked to you about his week, his family, his friends, and everything and anything he might’ve left out during your nightly calls.

All in all, Do Kyungsoo was the poster boy of a perfect boyfriend that day. That is, until you got to the Chinese restaurant. You liked to think it was his fault that you were currently not stuffing your mouth with dumplings. But if there was a God of Dumplings, he would have disagreed.

See, after ordering your usual noodles-and-dumplings pairing, you decided to make lunch a little more fun by suggesting you play 1 ladder game. Kyungsoo disagreed. “Food shouldn’t be played with. Eating is not a game.” He said. But you thought he was being too serious over a silly game. So you wrote down dumplings on one side of a table napkin and X on the other, and urged Kyungsoo to draw the lines.

And when he won and you said it’s just a game, Mr. Boring suddenly decided to honor the game and refused to give you a single piece of dumpling the moment your food arrived.

And that’s how you found yourself staring daggers at your boyfriend as he continuously slurped, chewed, and enjoyed his noodles-and-dumplings pairing. “Your food’s getting cold.” He said in between bites. “Noodles are meant to be enjoyed with dumplings.” You huffed. He adjusted his glasses and put down his spoon. “You’re right. I guess that’s why I’m having the time of my life now.” Kyungsoo took a sip of his iced tea.

Have you mentioned wanting to smack this charming man’s dazzling face?

“Give me just one bite.”

“You lost.”

“You said eating is not a game!”

“It’s not, does it look like we’re playing a game right now?”

“Just one.”

“You lost fair and square.”

You raised your eyebrow and stared at him as threateningly as you could. You weren’t going anywhere with that though because between the two of you, Kyungsoo’s ability to shut out the world around him was stronger. Unfortunately, you were sometimes not exempted from said ability.

You tried not to pay attention to him and took a sip of the broth of your noodles. Damn, these were good noodles. For a while, the two of you ate in silence. You genuinely enjoyed your noodles but after eating almost half of your bowl, you couldn’t help but glance at Kyungsoo again. You gulped as he ate a piece of dumpling whole. His thick lips glistened from the sauce and looked to be moving so gracefully as he ate.

“Kyungsoo.”

“Hm?”

Smack!

On the lips.

“Wha-” Kyungsoo gawked at you. You simply shrugged and got back to your noodles. “Since you wouldn’t give me a piece of dumpling, I figured it wasn’t cheating if I tasted them through your lips. They’re as good as ever babe, love it, thanks.”

Red slowly colored Kyungsoo’s ears. “You-uh… go.” You raised an eyebrow at him. “What’s that? You’d give me a taste again?” Before he could move, you quickly reached for him and kissed him again. When you pulled away, you noticed his cheeks were turning red too. You simply gave him an innocent smile. Kyungsoo was dumbfounded for a moment before he regained his senses and started chewing on his dumpling fast.

“You’re a cheater.”

“Hey, technically I didn’t eat it!”

Kyungsoo took a sip from his drink before taking a piece of dumpling and leaning towards you. “Hm.” He nudged you. “You can’t resist me huh.” You teased, a playful smile on your lips. He wasn’t having any of it and started counting.

“3, 2...”

You quickly lunged for the dumpling.

-

A/N: Inspired by EXO Ladder S2 cause I've been watching it over and over again. Kyungsoo being so strict with the punishments whenever members lost in any of the games made me laugh so much. I figured even if he loved his girlfriend, a bet is a bet and he wouldn’t forgive her. But he might budge if his buttons were pressed....

[notyour-mariaclara]

𝐒𝐭𝐢𝐥𝐥

ᵃᵏᵃᵃˢʰⁱ ᵏᵉⁱʲⁱ ˣ ʳᵉᵃᵈᵉʳ

ᵍᵉⁿʳᵉ: ᵈʳᵃᵐᵃ, ˢˡⁱᶜᵉ ᵒᶠ ˡⁱᶠᵉ

ʷᵒʳᵈ ᶜᵒᵘⁿᵗ: 2635

ˢⁱⁿᶜᵉ ⁱ ᵍᵃⁱⁿ ˢᵒᵐᵉ ʳᵉᵃᵈᵉʳˢ ᶠʳᵒᵐ ᵐʸ 1ˢᵗ ᶠⁱᶜ (ᵇᵒᵏᵘᵗᵒ ᶠˡᵘᶠᶠ). ʰᵉʳᵉ'ˢ ᵃⁿᵒᵗʰᵉʳ ᵒⁿᵉ. ʰᵒᵖᵉ ʸᵒᵘ ˡⁱᵏᵉ ⁱᵗ.

I woke up one morning without you by my side. Nothing new, really. Not until I sat up from the bed. I sniff once then twice, the familiar scent of bacon and pancakes is not present.

Maybe she went to work early. I thought to myself and prepared myself to go to work too. Pushing the uneasiness in the pit of my stomach.

After fixing my tie, I grabbed my phone by the nightstand. No new message. It's not that we leave messages anymore if one of us leaves earlier. Not anymore. I sigh and headed to the dining to eat my breakfast. But the emptiness of the table welcomed me. That's when my gut feeling got stronger. Something is not right.

I hit the realization that you never went home last night. The house was empty when I got home, thinking that you just have to work overtime again. Which oftently happens lately but you always send me a message about it. I don't wait up for you 'till you get home because I always fall asleep.

My eyebrows met as I speed dial your number. It rang for few seconds then followed by a beeped.

"Hi! I might be busy as of this moment. Just leave me a message, I'll get back to you soon!" You giggled before the call dropped.

I stare at my phone, wondering when was the last time I heard you being cheerful.

<!-- more -->

"I'm home." I said as I removed my shoes and change into my house slippers. You welcomed me with your pout and arms crossed.

"What's wrong, love?" I chuckled because of your cuteness. 4 years of being together and I can't still get over you.

"It's Saturday and you left without me."

"It's too early for you to get up and I did text you, I need to drop by the office for the new storyboard." I pulled you closer as my arms snaked around your waist.

"But what took you so long?" Finally giving in and you put your arms on my shoulder.

"Because of this." I took a step back to show my bag.

"Yes, hun? That's still the same bag." You said in confusion.

I chuckled and tugged you towards the sofa to make ourselves comfortable. I pulled out 2 boxes from my bag and you gasped.

"Wh-what? But why? You don't have too." You said with a pout.

"Love, your phone will barely make it 'till next month. Your screen is smashed from last month's incident." I stated.

"Yeah, thanks to Bokuto-san." You rolled your eye but laughed.

"One for you and one for me." I said and you squealed.

"Thank you, thank you!" You threw your arms around me and showered me with kisses.

"Anything for you, love." I said and kissed your lips.

We both excitedly opened our new phones. That's how we spent the rest of our Saturday afternoon.

"Hello. I'm busy and I'm not sure if I can get back to you unless you're my husband."

I looked at you and you just flashed me your gummy smile.

"What was that?" I asked.

"It's for my voicemail." You said innocently.

I facepalm myself and shook my head at your antics.

"What will your officemate think if they hear that?"

"What? It's cute." You laughed. I scoff before laughing too.

"No, change it."

I whined and you refuse until I attacked you with tickles just so you change it.

"Stop! Stop! Okay! Okay! I will!" You surrendered.

I put my arms around you just to secure you that you won't run to hide because I know you well enough. You giggled at my action and started recording again.

"Hi! I might be busy as of this moment. Just leave me a message, I'll get back to you soon!"

You giggle and ended the record.

You looked up to face me and smile. I held you tighter as I snuggled my face in your neck. And traces some butterfly kisses.

"Now, it's time for you to pay back the phone."

"Ohhhhh, sir, I am more than willing to pay."

You said and we both fell into laughters.

It's been a year since you did that record. I sent you a message but I received none until I reached the office. Still no you. I can't help but to worry and be distracted the whole day. I'm already thinking of things, why you didn't come home and contacted me. Maybe, you slept over to some friends and your phone ran out of battery or maybe you suddenly went home to your family or maybe all of the hundred reason I thought of, doesn't make sense because you weren't careless like that and you don't want other people worrying about you.

That's when I started thinking of the worst that maybe you caught up in an accident. It was lunch time when I decided to go to your office.

______

"Good Afternoon, I just want to ask if she's in?"

I ask the receptionist. She's also your friend so she's pretty much familiar with me too.

"Eh? She's on leave for 4 days. It started yesterday. Didn't she tell you?" The lady behind the desk asked confusedly.

"I…" I was lost for words.

"Is everything okay between you two? She seems so distant lately and she's even the first one to go home every time." She explained

I can't mask my upset feeling bubbling in my chest.

"But she always works overtime." I stated.

"Overtime? Our company no longer extends our working hours due to our financial setbacks for months already. Surely, you know that we're considering to file bankruptcy, right?"

I was surprised because I don't know a thing about the bankruptcy let alone her lying to me about her overtime.

"Is boss there?" I heard some random staff ask the receptionist.

"Thanks." I said to her and walk my way to the exit but stopped when I heard her replied to the staff.

"Nah, boss is on leave too. As if the company ain't crumbling already." She scoffed.

My hand shakes and exited the premise. I sent a text to the office saying I have an emergency before trying to contact you for the nth time. My emotion is slowly rubbing in me, I lossen my tie. To no avail, I can't still contact you. Frustration slowly creeps in me. I drove home, my thoughts driving me crazy.

You said you're going to work yesterday but the thing is you filed for a leave since yesterday. You lied.

"She lied." I threw my briefcase without a care and crashed myself on the couch.

You've been working late recently, I can't even remember when it started but you lied. You're lying for some time now. Slowly, anger is penting up inside me. Inno Kei, your boss. He use to hit on you, is it only a coincidence he's on leave too?

I untangled the tie and whipped it on the floor. Unbuttoning my dress shirt because suddenly, I feel suffocated. I raked my hair, shaking my brain to reason out your action. I don't even want to think the worst. Because you're not like that but why does everything's falling into pieces. The possibility of you cheating on me, is no longer impossible.

The day went by, by me contacting your phone, I even called your family just to check but they don't know a thing. I even lied to them because I don't want them to worry. I called your best friend Kiyoko but she's not answering my call. I resorted into alcohol while waiting but still no traces of you.

The next day, I didn't go to work in case you come home. I tried to look to for you. Places where you like to go. Places I hope where you'd be. But still no you.

I don't want to think that you'd go to another man but I realize, these past few months after that incident. Everything changed, the cold shoulder, the emotionless responses, just everything. My chest starts to heave as I slowly see things clearer. Even if you do go for another man, I wouldn't blame you. There, I realize what truly is happening lately, how come I didn't see this sooner.

"Oh, God." I buried my face in my hands. Brimming tears of frustration, worry and sadness, consumed me. I don't want to lose you. It's all my fault. The day goes by, waiting for you to come home as I drown myself in alcohol and regret.

_________________________

3 days since you've been gone. I plan to stay home to wait again but my team called because the pitching for the new book is today, as much as I want to be alone and wait for you, I can't risk other people's job. So, I went to work, still thinking of you.

"Hey, Love. Please come home. Let's talk, please or just tell me you're fine. That'll be enough for me. I love you. I love you, please." I sent my 18th voicemail to her number. 115 missed call and 84 unseen messages, still not enough for you to come home.

_______

When I saw your shoes by the door, I don't know what to feel. Ecstatic? Anxious? I don't know. I quickened my phase inside our house. No signs of you in the living room and even in the kitchen. I went to our bedroom. My heart increased it's beat, nervousness is eating me the moment I saw the room empty but the closet was left ajar. I open it only to see most of your are clothes gone. My hand began to shake.

"Love?"

I went to the next room. My hand slowly reached for the knob. When was the last time I went inside this room? 3 months ago? I took a deep breath and open the door.

There I see you on the floor. Your body leaning on the crib. I felt my chest tighten and I took a step forward but you woke up. Fluttering your eyes open and snapped your head towards me. Your eyes widened in surprise. Your lips quiver.

"Keiji…" you call me breathlessly.

Why do you sound as if you're leaving me? I glance at your bag beside you. You followed my gaze and I heard you took a deep breath.

"Where were you?" I asked worriedly and took another step forward. You stood up.

"I…" You look on the floor looking for answers.

"I can't get a hold of you for 3 days. I was worried, Love." I enveloped you in my arms. Nourishing your scent that I miss for days, scent that I took advantage for months.

I hugged you tighter, feeling your warmth. Caressing your hair, letting you know how glad I am that you're back. You started to sob in my arms. After awhile you break off the hug and I swear I heard my heart break.

"Keiji," No, call me love.

"I waited for you for 3 days, where did you go? I got worried. I even went to places to look for you." I said pushing the stinging pain in my eyes.

"I was at Kiyoko-san's--"

"But I went to her apartment. She said you weren't there." I grab hold of her hand

"I told her to lie."

"I-Is there something you want to tell me? How come you didn't tell me that you're having problems with the company? When did you start keeping things from me?" I can no longer hide my frustration and pain.

She shrugged off my hand and took a step backward.

"I-how? How can I? I cannot even talk to you about our own problem. So tell me how, Keiji?" You said exasperatingly. Trying to conceal your emotions but everything can be seen in your eyes with welled up tears.

"Is that why?" I asked.

"What do you mean?"

"I-Is that why you went to ano--"

"Oh my god!" She scoff and laughed bitterly while tears stream down her face.

She lost it. She went back further in the room. Putting good distance between us.

"You actually thought I was with someone else!? Tell me!?" She challenged. My breath hollowed as I brushed my hair due to frustration. My other hand on my hip.

"What do you want me to do!? I came to your office and found out everything. That you're lying about your overtime and you filed for a leave when you didn't said a thing to me. You grown distant and cold the passed months--"

"Did you just realize that in the past 3 days that I was gone? You just suddenly notice, just now!?" I shut my mouth because she's right. I only took notice of everything, too late. She started to cry harder. I took a step closer to reach for her but she moved back. She's hurting so much.

"What I want you to do? I just want you to see me again. To talk to me again like we used too. I want you to look at me without hurting. Without pain."

I tried to call your name but you only shook your head.

"You waited for three days? I waited for six months! Ever since…" you choked on your tears.

"Ever since I lost the baby, I lost you too." She look at me in the eyes. I can no longer control my tears .

"The first three months was bearable, because I know we're both mourning but it seems that we never got the chance to go back to each other. We got lost. I lost my husband." You sobbed.

"I was scared. It was my fault that I can't provide for the both of you. That you needed to work too because my salary is not enough. I-I should have insisted you not to work but I didn't. Then we lost our baby. I saw you broke. It hurted me so much because there's nothing I can do to take the pain. I fought strong in front of you but by the end of the day, I'm so weak. That's why I pretended as if nothing happened because I don't want to make the same mistake. I worked hard for the promotion because I know that will help us a lot. That promotion, is enough for us. Even if you stop working. I-I... didn't know this was the consequence." I explained with tears and shaky breath. Feelings from losing our baby came back again. But this time it hits harder because I might lose you too.

"You are by my side but I still miss you everyday. You slowly fell out. I waited for you everyday, waiting for you to look at me with love again. Until one day, I realize that I can't continue like this anymore. It hurts me to see you but I can't even feel you. I can only take so much pain, love. That's why I stayed late outside drinking or I'll crash at Kiyoko-san's. I was hoping you'll come through and ask me but you never did. I don't know what to do anymore with our marriage." You broke down and fell on your knees.

"I have my fair share of regret, love. We both struggled. There was never a day passed without thinking of our angel. I thought losing you was my consequence because I failed to protect our baby." I rushed by your side and nestled you in my arms. We're both on the floor. I held you tighter than ever.

"No, don't say that. I don't want to lose you. I'm so sorry. It's not your fault, okay? I'm sorry, if I hurt you." I buried my face to your hair, until you tangled your arms to my waist and cried harder. I shifted our position and cradled you in my arms.

"I'm so sorry, love. I didn't mean to push you away. I neglected you all these time when you needed me the most. I'm so sorry. Please, don't leave me. I beg you." I cried as I held your head to my chest.

You shook your head and look up to me.

"I won't. I-I can't. I love you too much."

"I love you too." I said as I wipe your tears away. I held your face as I brushed your hair away from your face and tried to dry your face but you kept crying. I place a kiss on your forehead.

"I love you so much." Then kissed your lips and you hiccuped because of crying to much.

"Let's try again. Let's fix our marriage, hmm? Let me make it up to you."

You nodded and I carried you to our bed to tucked you in bed and hold you all night.

[junionigiri]

and you say, stay Chapter 5 - Fly Me To The Moon

[former title: just another secretary story!]

Summary: Director Todoroki takes Secretary Uraraka out after work.

Rating: T

The Office of the Executive Director begins the next day in abject and utter suffering. Struggling through their hangovers, they each draft out their gravely-worded apology letters while passing out a bottle of aspirin between them.

“Oh my god, I can’t even remember how we got home, Kiri!” Mina whines, slapping a cold compress over her forehead. “I woke up on the bedroom floor feeling like I got punched in the face! Where were you? You should have carried me to bed!”

“I was home too,” Kirishima groans through a hefty chug of his protein shake. “I passed out on the stairs, remember? I felt so bad I couldn’t do a single dragon flag this morning! Not manly!”

“I, too, awakened in a most uncomfortable position! My head was at the foot of my bed, my feet were on my pillows, and my pyjamas were inside-out!” Iida adds in utter humiliation. “How did we arrive home safely? Did the Director teleport us home, somehow?”

“No, he drove all of us home,” Ochako answers, gathering all their letters for them. “So you should all thank him when you can, okay?

“Really? The Director was there last night?” Monoma grumbles irately. “Figures. All I remember is the vague stench of evil and existential dread. I bet I drank so much so I can ignore his demonic aura.”

Camie snorts. “Cuz, you sat right in the bossman’s lap. You got no rights anymore.”

“What?!”

Monoma demands to see evidence, and Camie happily complies to everyone’s horror. Her many blurry selfies of the night before painted an awful, embarrassing picture. Only the owner of the phone finds this amusing. Her promises not to upload anything can only do so much to stave off the shame.

“Utsushimi-kun! I implore you to get rid of this evidence!” Iida begs.

Camie hums. “Change my mind. You can start with an orange frappuccino~”

As another argument goes forth, Ochako leaves them with an amused smile and makes her way to Director Todoroki’s office.

With a gentle knock, she enters the room and finds him seated behind his computer. Unlike her officemates, there is no evidence of a headache or exhaustion in him. It would have been infuriating if she had the same terrible hangover as the rest of them, but luckily she watched her intake last night and her head’s clear.

Not-so-luckily though, she clearly remembers laughing at the Director and everyone else. And she can’t pretend to forget if he asks her about it, because just thinking about everyone cuddling the Director makes her want to burst out laughing again.

Because of that, she places the apology letters over to his desk with her own letter on the top of the pile. “Here is all that you asked us to accomplish, Director,” she says as politely as she can.

Todoroki hums in disinterest, eyes not moving from a set of data on his computer. It’s obvious that he’s going to ask her to shred these documents later without so much as reading them. It’s some small relief for them at least, because then they can pretend none of this happened. “Asui from Marketing requested an emergency meeting with us about the art center project. You have all the proposals for the launch ready, right?”

“Of course, Director. We just need the Chairman’s approval. I’ve already sent an email to their office about it.”

He clicks his tongue and tugs on his tie in thought. “Send another reminder to Takami-san. I need an answer before lunch.”

“Yes, Director,” Ochako says, eyeing his fingers on the tie. While at first she hated that she had to fix his tie for him so often, it’s now a point of pride for her to keep the Director looking neat at all times. So much so that it annoys her to see it so crooked.

It’s pure muscle memory at this point that she’s stepping over to his side and her hands are flying to his tie, pulling at it expertly until it’s tidy. She took all the trouble convincing him that morning that he can wear this diamond-patterned tie instead of the solid dark blue ones that he preferred. She has to make sure that he looks perfect.

“You’re perfect.” Satisfied with the results, she looks up at him and directly meets his eyes.

The demon Director’s stare is famous for a lot of reasons--the color, the intensity, the way they make you feel like you’re both burning alive and freezing at the same time. It’s not a metaphor Ochako likes because being burned must feel terrible (his scar tells a story all on its own), and also she’s used to being the target of that stare when he’s irritated or dissatisfied, so she knows it in a way that cannot be enjoyed.

But now he’s staring at her the way he was last night at her doorstep. The burning feeling behind it is less like fire and more like the warmth of her blood rushing through her veins and the throb of her pulse. It’s intense, unwavering. Ochako’s hypnotized for exactly half a second too long.

“Thanks,” he says absentmindedly. “I could have done that myself.”

She snaps herself out of the trance. “With all due respect Director, you didn’t. But, noted.”

All the strange thoughts fly out of the window of the 65th floor office. It’s good that she’s reminded of how infuriating he is. His vague warning about how he shouldn’t underestimate her might be making her see him in a different (inaccurate) light, but she should know better. She bows and turns with a suppressed huff when he calls to her again, “Secretary Uraraka.”

She turns to him. After a thoughtful pause, he asks, “You speak with your colleagues differently, don’t you?”

She blinks. “Not that I know of, Director. Has anyone sent a complaint about the way I speak? I should apologize and clear up any misunderstandings--”

“No, not them.” He gestures out the door. “Iida and the others. Last night you spoke with them informally. Using ‘ sure thing’ or ‘ yup’ instead of ‘ of course,’ for example.”

“I… see.” Gosh, he sounds so weird just trying to talk in a casual way. “It’s only when we’re drinking. But if it offends you...”

He shakes his head. “It’s… fine. In fact, you may use that sort of language with me. Provided that it’s just the two of us, of course.”

Ochako stares at him incredulously. “Beg yer pardon?” she mutters by accident.

“Yes, like that.” Todoroki gives her a reassuring nod. “That’s what they call the Kansai accent, right?”

She tries not to slip into her accent again when she asks, “May I know what brought this on, Director?”

“Are you offended?”

“No, but… this is a strange request.”

He shrugs. “You seemed more comfortable speaking that way instead of the usual way you converse with me. Since I am giving the same freedom to Utsushimi, I am granting you the same thing.”

Well, Camie hasn’t talked to him directly since the interview and since she got drunk in front of him so she can’t say that it’s exactly the same freedom. Plus Ochako isn’t sure that the Director is just telling her that she can talk more naturally around him, or if he’s commanding her to do so. Frankly it’s making her sweat figuring out what he wants.

“If you say so, Director. Of course I’ll--”

“Not of course, ” Todoroki insists. “ Sure thing .”

Ochako gives him a strained smile. “S-sure thing, sir. I’ll keep it casual in front of you.”

Director Todoroki nods in satisfaction and gets back to work. Ochako walks out of the office and tries to do the same thing, but it’s suddenly hard to concentrate.

*

A few days later Ochako comes home tired as all hell and not in the best mood, as she does when the Demon Director is extra demonic. Honestly, for all his talk about wanting her to be more comfortable around him, he’s making it impossible for her to even breathe normally within his vicinity.

The art center project is now top priority to beat their competitors, so suddenly the office is rushing through all the things they were scheduled to do for the next two months, over the course of three weeks. The stocks of energy drinks and orange juice in the pantry is running dangerously low from their efforts to keep awake. It’s so bad that Monoma was even caught drinking ‘peasant’ instant coffee instead of his usual French press ones.

And Camie… oof. Ochako knows that she’s trying her best and that this is a lot of pressure for someone who’s new to the team, but she missed one of the financial reports completely during the staff meeting. And while both of them apologized for her mistake, Todoroki only directed his ice-cold glare at Ochako.

“Is this how you do transfer of duties, Secretary Uraraka?” She flinches just remembering the cutting edge of his voice. She hates it when he uses that because even though his standards are impossibly high, it tells her that he expected more from her, and she let him down.

Well at least she’s home an hour earlier than usual. Director Todoroki told her not to collect Victoria at his home as previously ordered. There’s just enough time for her to eat the convenience store katsudon she got on the way home, take a bath, and watch her soaps before angrily passing out on her couch.

… if only her phone would stop ringing! It takes all of her strength not to throw her food over her kitchen table when she fishes for her phone. The name on the screen gives her pause, however, and she’s extra careful to mind her tone when she answers, “Chief Midoriya?”

Midoriya Izuku opens up their conversation with another alarming cough. Ochako wonders if this is merely an unfortunate butt-dial until he stammers over the line, “A-ah! Hi, Uraraka-san! This is Midoriya Izuku from Endeavor’s Marketing Division! Oh, wait, you know that already, haha.”

Ochako laughs cautiously. Even over the phone, Midoriya’s usual nervousness is palpable. “Yes sir! How may I help you?”

“Er, yeah! So there’s this urgent thing that I need your help with that’s, um, related to work. It… it’s not weird or anything, it’s totally normal, nothing to be alarmed about. So the Director wants--no, not the Director, I mean-- koff koff koff! ’

Midoriya suffers another coughing fit so violent that it sends Ochako close to panic. “Are you okay sir?! Do you need someone to take you to the hospital?!”

“No, I’m fiiine. Please don’t ask. ” The chief takes a deep breath through the phone which seems to calm him down somewhat. “I’m expecting a package for work, but Secretary Hagakure made a mistake with the shipping address. You’re the one closest, so I was wondering if you could pick it up for me?”

That sounded like a weird mistake to make, but she also knew about the time Tooru-chan accidentally ordered twenty Hawaiian pizzas instead of the single calzone that Chief Midoriya wanted to eat for lunch. “Where do you want me to go?”

Midoriya gives her the exact address and pleads with her to be there in twenty minutes. “I hate to be a bother, but this is important for the company, so you can’t be late, okay? I’m counting on you, Uraraka-san!”

“Okay Chief! I’m heading out,” she says, rushing to her door. Twenty minutes to the address given to her is tight, but she’ll make it if she runs to and from the train station.

It’s good that she changed out of her office heels and into sneakers. She makes it to the address in fifteen minutes. It’s only then that she realizes that she’s in the location without knowing who to look for and what to expect.

Also, she’s in front of MightyLand, the amusement park in the middle of town dedicated to their governor, All Might. It’s closed today for some reason. It’s dark, quiet, and scary as amusement parks which are completely dark tend to be.

Ochako calls Midoriya in pure confusion and tells him, “I don’t think I’m at the right place, Chief.”

Midoriya laughs. “You’re exactly where you should be, Uraraka-san.”

Wondering what he means, she turns around just as the lights click open all around her, and the stagnant water of the fountain at the entrance springs to life.

She almost drops the phone from her hand as the fake castle gates of MightyLand flash and glow in pinks and blues and greens, sparkling prettily under the night sky. Soft string music plays in the background. The lights along the pathway light up one-by-one like fireflies, guiding her eyes to the entrance of the park.

Breathless, she watches Todoroki Shouto emerge from the gates. And while her eyes dart everywhere trying to make sense of what’s happening, his eyes are on nowhere else but her.

“Secretary Uraraka,” he calls as soon as he’s in front of her. He’s in the same three-piece suit and tie she picked for him this morning, but somehow he looked impossibly devilish in it tonight. “Fancy meeting you here on this ordinary night.”

She should pick her jaw off the floor any second now. “G… good evening, Director Todoroki,” she stammers. “Chief Midoriya sent me here on an important errand. I’m afraid I don’t understand what--”

“I allowed you to speak as you normally do around me, Uraraka.”

“Er… yeah, so,” what the fuck, she wanted to say, but instead she squeaks out, “What’s goin’ on?”

Satisfied, he says with an enigmatic smile, “Nothing special. Come.”

He signals her to follow him with a bend of a forefinger, and with very little strength in her to ask any further questions, she silently follows him into the park.

*

She should have known that there wasn’t anything ordinary waiting for her that night.

Even though everything is lit up and functional, the park is entirely empty except for them. While Ochako is busy gawking at all the sights, Director Todoroki is leading the way with brisk, purposeful steps. It takes some effort for her to keep up with his relentless pace until he gets to the destination in mind. Before she realizes it, they’re at the Smashville area of the park, where all the big, scary rides are.

Ochako stares up in horror at Todoroki’s first choice of activity: The Carolina.

“It’s a drop tower, 100 meters tall. We rise to the top at an excruciating pace of 10 km/h and drop at a speed of 100 km/h. Not the tallest or the fastest in the world, but it’s in the top ten,” the unfazed Director explains like he’s talking about the latest performance review. He holds a hand out to the seat at the very center and says, with a smile that looks evil, “After you.”

Ochako doesn’t know how she wills her feet to move, but with nobody to help her escape, she gets strapped in right next to her calm boss.

“D-Director--”

“I know you’re excited,” Todoroki says when they’re fifty meters above ground. “Don’t hold back.”

There’s nothing to hold back, not even her internal organs, when the first drop occurs. And the next one, and the next one. Ochako screams as she’s never screamed before, while Todoroki is so silent that she legitimately worries if he passed out in the middle of the ride.

He didn’t. With a spring in his step, he hops off from the ride and assists her shaking body off the ride. “You must be excited. Don’t worry. There’s more to come.”

Oh, god.

He takes her to the other extreme rides: The Nebraska, The California, The Detroit. Ochako never imagined that there’s more than one way to drop and spin and tumble anyone via a machine, but with each new ride she loses part of her soul and all sensation of her legs. Todoroki’s unnervingly steady after each ride, however, and just brings her to the next one without an ounce of hesitation.

By the time he brings her to the coup de grace of all the rides--The United States of Smash, the biggest roller coaster in Japan--she’s sure of it. The Demon Director brought her here to punish her for all her misdeeds.

“You must be looking forward to this one all night, Secretary Uraraka,” Todoroki says with that same dark smile. “If you’re ready to get on, then…”

He wants to kill her.

Rushing to the nearest wastecan, she hurls up an entire rainbow consisting of all the colors of the energy drinks she ingested that day.

Dammit, how embarrassing! She would have cried but it already takes a lot of effort to stop the earth from spinning in the wrong direction. She hurls for another solid minute when she feels a cold, comforting hand tentatively rubbing circles on her back.

The rush of cool surprisingly makes her feel better in an instant. She stands up and bows to him apologetically. “Director… sorry. This is really icky,” she whimpers helplessly. “I’m super weak when it comes to rides like this. I get dizzy real easy.”

He holds out his expensive silk handkerchief to her. “No, it’s my mistake. I should have anticipated that you had weak labyrinths.”

Were her ears deceiving her, or did that sound like an apology? She takes his handkerchief and wipes her face gratefully. “No… you looked like you wanted to do all those things, so I did my best to keep up.”

Todoroki blinks. “Ah. But I thought you wanted to…” When Ochako stares at him curiously, he pauses and considers his next words carefully. “I assumed that you liked this amusement park like everybody else does. I must have made an error in judgment.”

She laughs weakly. “Nah, I’ve always wanted to go back to MightyLand… just not Smashville.”

He ponders on this briefly. “... okay.” He holds his hand out ahead of them and tilts his head ever so slightly. “Secretary Uraraka, for tonight, you lead and I’ll follow. What do you want to do next?”

She doesn’t hide her surprise at that. And thinks about it. And smiles excitedly.

A long walk to the other side of the park later, Director Todoroki looks up at her ride of choice blankly. “Space World.” he deadpans.

It’s a cutesy, slow ride made for kids that simulates a gentle ride through outer space, complete with planets and aliens and constellations. In front is a statue of Thirteen, the famous space explorer that she idolized when she was in grade school.

“Let’s go in right now!!! Hurry, Director!”

She can hardly believe it. She had promised herself to get on this ride after her resignation, and she’s even willing to line up with all the little kids on a busy weekend just to get here. Yet here she is, no lines, no embarrassing explanations necessary, just her and the Director and the fake stars. Once the little train brakes in front of her she’s climbing on it in an instant.

She doesn’t even notice that she’s dragging Todoroki by the hand until they’re side by side in the car and the lights grow dim around them.

“Oh. Sorry,” she squeaks, thankful that outer space is supposed to be dark and he doesn’t get to see her blush.

Even then, she feels his gaze on her. But he says nothing as the first comet passes them by.

Ochako gasps. It’s a lot prettier than she imagined. The narration drones above them as an emulation of the Big Bang blooms above and around them like a flower. “Oh my gosh, look at that! I can’t believe it, it feels so real! Director, isn’t this pretty?!”

She feels the subtle turn of Director Todoroki’s head toward her. “Yes. Beautiful,” he mumbles somewhere close to her. After a pause, he adds, “I don’t think it feels real, though. If it did, we’d be suffocating by now. There’s no oxygen in the vacuum of space.”

“Geez, Director, just enjoy it.”

“I am,” he assures her, as the little car follows Jupiter into orbit.

But just like that, the ride is over. Ochako is sad when they have to get off--that is, until Todoroki tells her, “We can stay here if you want to go again.”

So she happily pulls him down on the seat next to her, pulls the bar down, and goes through the ride again.

Seven more times.

To his credit, Todoroki sits with her the entire time without complaints. Although she hears him silently fuming in his seat every time she goes “again, again!” She’d feel guilty over it, but dammit he made her go through the Carolina and the Nebraska and the California and the Detroit--twice!--and she needed this after all that he put her through that week.

Anyway, she makes it more tolerable for him by telling him everything she knows about the planets and the stars that the narration doesn’t tell them. “You know, Saturn has 150 moons! Some of them are bigger on Earth, and most of them are frozen solid! Some of them might have oceans under the surface too!”

“I know,” he says quietly. “But keep going.”

Of course he knows everything. But he doesn’t seem to want to ruin her mood, so there’s that. She continues feeding him all the space facts she knew happily.

The moment she says “Okay I’m good,” Director Todoroki gets them off that ride so quickly he almost lifts her up off the seat. “Back to earth with you, Secretary Uraraka.”

She giggles. “Why, Director! Speaking figuratively? I didn’t think you knew how.”

He blinks, as if astonished with himself. “Huh. I guess there’s a first time for everything.”

He drives her out of the park and into a different part of the city. There’s a field decorated with fairy lights, flowers (all hypoallergenic, he says when she braces herself for a sneeze attack) and a table set for two. Below them is the city, and above them are the stars. It’s mind boggling how beautiful the set-up is.

Todoroki leads her to the table. As soon as she sits down, there’s fancy vintage wine being poured in her glass. From a distance, she sees Sato doing finishing touches on a pretty plate. He winks at her when she catches his eye.

They’re served steak, and pasta, and fancy vegetables with violets on them. They’re all delicious as expected, but then Sato comes out with what seems like an unlimited supply of strawberry mochi for them and she’s instantly melting.

“Everything is so good, I can’t believe it,” she gushes. Oh man, the mochi is so good. If she kept up at it, she’s seriously going to explode.

“Good. I’m glad you like it.” There’s a smug look on his face when he says this. Dangerous…

“Director... what’s this about?” she asks suspiciously. This isn’t another ploy to get her to not quit, is it? If he ends up proposing again, she is seriously going to break something expensive (and probably regret it later).

He hums as he cuts up his mochi neatly. “We had a welcome party for Utsushimi. It’s only fair that you had a goodbye party of your own to show my appreciation before you leave. Nothing special, but something ordinary that you liked.”

No proposals then? That’s a relief. She was going to say no (really, she was!) if he had asked, and that would have ruined such a beautiful night. “Director… I’m sorry, but there’s nothing ordinary about what you did for me!”

He blinks. “Taking you to an amusement park and treating you to dinner isn’t ordinary?”

It’s almost amazing that he’s genuinely baffled, but then again she expected nothing less from Todoroki Shouto. “Closing an amusement park so we had it all to ourselves and then treating me to a five star dinner prepared by a famous chef to a picnic under the stars is not what I’d call an ordinary date, Director.”

Wait. Date? Did she say date? Is she out on a date with the Director?

“I see. I’ll take note of that.” Oh no, he didn’t deny it! “For next time.”

Next time?! Oh no. No no no. She can’t date the Director! Reiko and Yui would kill her if they found out! And she didn’t mean it, he suckered her into it, she didn’t want to, not really--

“But you really enjoyed yourself, so I consider this a success,” Todoroki says, satisfied. “You made me ride Space World seven times. I’d give you a salary deduction if you said you didn’t enjoy yourself.”

He is never going to let go of this, is he? Despite that, she laughs again. “I went overboard, didn’t I? It’s just that I’ve wanted to ride that since I was a little girl. You wouldn’t wanna hear it, it isn’t exactly a happy story.”

He stares at her. “Tell me.”

She swallows a bit of mochi reluctantly before starting her story with a sigh. “Well… Director, if you remember from my job interview nine years ago, I told you that I started working for you because I needed to earn money as quickly as possible. It’s obviously because my family wasn’t well-off, and I was the only one who can earn money somehow.”

“... I remember.”

“Well… even when I was little, we were poor. We lived where MightyLand was before the houses there got demolished, so that space is kind of special to us. Sometimes Ma and Pa had extra money to bring me and my cousin Yui there, but the money wasn’t ever enough for passes to get to rides like Space World. Even though I wished for it so hard, I never had the chance.”

Todoroki unexpectedly watches her tell her story in rapt attention. “I see. Why Space World?”

She shrugs. “Why not Space World? Outer space is great, isn’t it?”

She would have studied astrophysics in university if she could, but there’s no point in telling the Director that. He doesn’t seem like the type who feels guilty over anything, but she doesn’t want to test that by admitting that she chose to stay by his side instead of doing what she really wanted.

“So, that’s the sad, sad story of my youth. How about you, Director? You must have been a more interesting kid than I was.”

Todoroki keeps those distinct eyes on her--a black hole and an entirely blue galaxy, she suddenly thinks, moons with oceans hiding under frozen wastelands, the waves beneath straining to reach the surface. He seems to want to reveal them to her, just for a second, but the second passes, and time remains locked.

“No, not really,” he finally decides on saying. “Nothing much happened to me. I grew up as Enji’s heir from the start and worked hard from the moment I learned how to talk. I had no choice, because my older brother failed. Fuyumi and Natsuo were never given the chance to try.”

An older brother? Is he talking about Natsuo? While it’s true that Todoroki Natsuo won’t ever be the heir of Endeavor because he chose to become a physician instead, Ochako could have sworn the Director was talking about someone else.

“It was difficult, but I met most of his expectations, and now I’m here.” His eyes become cold again. Knowing that he gets this way after talking about Todoroki Enji is just the basics of dealing with Todoroki Shouto.

It was her mistake to even suggest bringing up his childhood. Now it’s her job to ease him out of it. “You did great, Director. If we were friends when we were kids, I’d have been the first to cheer you on.”

He freezes for just a second, a look of pure enigma in his eyes. “... is that so? Do you think we would have been friends if we met earlier?”

He seems to be expecting an honest answer out of her. Ochako guesses it has to do with certain parts of his past that he obviously doesn’t want her to see. She can’t blame him, but in all honesty, if they were both young and innocent, being friends with him wouldn’t have been hard. “Yes Director. I don’t doubt it.”

He looks genuinely taken aback by this. A second passes before he allows himself a relieved smile. “Thank you for your vote of confidence. I’d believe you more if you don’t quit.”

“Don’t even try it, sir.”

He clicks his tongue. And then, in true Todoroki fashion, the conversation’s suddenly over.

With the taste of strawberries lingering in her mouth, she follows as he leads them to a grassy knoll some ways away from dinner. Flowers of all colors surround their feet, glowing ethereally under the moonlight. The city below, the stars above. It’s a beautiful night.

And… cold. Ochako is painfully reminded that she’s in a thin silk blouse and the denim shorts she wore at home when a particularly sharp gust of wind blows past them.

Todoroki observes her with a stern look. “You’re not in appropriate clothing.”

“I didn’t know you were going to bring me to such a windy place, Director.”

“You weren’t supposed to know. This is a surprise, after all.”

Still, he looks frustrated that she’s so cold--not a good look. Her secretary instincts tell her to do something about that. Trying to smile meaningfully through her chattering teeth, she suggests, “You know, ordinary guys offer their jackets to their dates when it gets chilly.”

He blinks twice before he makes that eureka! face again. “I have an idea, Uraraka. Since you’re cold, you should wear my coat.”

“Oh--but you’ll get cold.”

“No, I’m always temperature regulated,” he says with a voice that doesn’t leave her much room to (pretend to) argue.

He drapes his coat around her easily. He’s much taller than her and has wider shoulders, so naturally she’s swallowed instantly in fine woollen bliss. She suppresses a sigh when she feels the toasty warmth, and suppresses a shudder when she feels his fingers brush around her shoulders and her neck.

“Is this okay?” he asks earnestly when he notices her shiver. His warm breath tickles her ear.

She nods through the overwhelming feel of his voice vibrating through her body. Oblivious to this, he nods in satisfaction and looks up at the stars. She stares at his profile against the moon, feeling light-headed and mesmerized at everything.

Oh, gods, this is a date . Reiko and Yui are going to kill her in her sleep.

When he notices her staring, he gives her an odd, puzzled look. “Secretary Uraraka. Since you like the stars so much, you should take advantage of this. I suggest keeping your eyes off me and keeping them to the sky.”

A vein pops on her forehead. Okay, so the Director is still the same clueless demon with no sense of romance. No surprise. This isn’t a date, after all.

She follows his orders and looks up at the sky, lined by a myriad of shooting stars.

*

After the star-gazing session, they both decide that it’s late and he brings her home. He drives the car, and thankfully this time the drive goes by smoothly. He parks at the narrow street in front of her home and follows her out of the car, looking strangely self-assured.

“Director, thanks for the great evening,” she says. “I’m honestly speechless. For a surprise, that was…”

A small smile is on his lips when he asks, “Ideal?”

“Yes, exactly, ideal.” Wait. Ideal. Where has she heard that before?

“Hm. I thought you’d say that,” he says smugly. “I doubt that anybody else will give you as much mochi as you had tonight.”

Describe your ideal partner.

A tall, handsome guy with a stable job who will feed me mochi until I explode!

“And I don’t think anyone else will bring you to an amusement park and a picnic under the stars in the span of a single evening.”

Describe an ideal excursion with your ideal partner.

A date in MightyLand, where we can ride all the rides I like as much as I want!

A simple picnic with tasty food where we can go stargazing afterward is pretty neat too!

This guy is a sneaky, sneaky bastard. Ochako crosses her arms in front of her as Director Todoroki ambles confidently to the trunk of his car. “Finally, I doubt that any other ordinary man will give you…”

Describe an ideal product that you would like to receive from your ideal partner.

A giant stuffed toy that I can hug in my sleep!

(I don’t care what it looks like as long as it’s soft and cute!)

“Director,” she cuts him off with a controlled smile. “There’s… a giant stuffed toy in the back of the trunk, isn’t there?”

Todoroki freezes just as he pulls out the offending item--a giant stuffed cat.

“... how did you predict this,” he says stiffly as he presents the gift to her.

She laughs. “Chief Midoriya almost had a heart attack giving me that survey, you know. You should make it up to him.”

“... maybe,” he says, although the sudden dark look in his eyes tells her otherwise. She should apologize to the freckled Chief when things happen. “In any case, this is for you, if you’ll have it. It’s your very own Victoria. You should be grateful to have such a beautiful object.”

The cat is white and about half as big as her, with a squinty smile and a little bell on its collar. She won’t admit it, but she loves it immediately. She takes it from the Director. “Thank you, Director. I am filled with such gratitude.”

“Formal language, again?”

“I’m just teasing.”

He huffs. “You seem to be getting used to that, Secretary Uraraka. I don’t approve.”

She snickers. “Yeah? Well, approve this! ”

She playfully smacks the cat’s face right into his. She doesn’t know why she suddenly had the balls to do something like that, but the small surprised mmph he produces makes it all worth the risk. When he pushes the cat off of him to glare at her, she’s in another fit of giggles.

“I thought you had a good time. Is this how you say goodnight?” he asks in mild annoyance.

“I did! And, yes,” she says with a confident smile.

“Strange. That’s not what I know of ordinary people saying goodnight on ideal dates.”

Without warning, he steps closer to her, and closer, and closer. She should be backing up to keep a safe distance, far enough that he doesn’t hear her blood rushing or her heart beating or her mind racing into oblivion. She should, but she doesn’t--all she does is hold her breath.

Even when he meets her eyes.

Even when he leans in closer.

Even when her eyes are suddenly squeezing tight in anticipation of something she shouldn’t.

Whatever it is she was waiting for doesn’t come, however. Because what she feels in that cold, dark, anxious and excited void is something cold pressing into the very tip of her nose.

When she comes to, she’s staring cross-eyed right at his index finger.

Todoroki Shouto is poking her on the nose.

He gives a little satisfied smile and steps back. “That’s how they do it, right?”

She stammers, face impossibly red. “No? That’s not a thing anyone does in any planet! Where did you even learn that?!”

He chuckles lightly, the sound of it another shock to her senses. “I guess being ordinary is more challenging than I thought. Goodnight, Secretary Uraraka.”

Why is he so weird? Why is she feeling so bamboozled? Before she can make any sensible words out of her mouth, the Director is already behind the wheel and smugly driving off into the night.

God, all she can do is to run into her apartment, dive on the bed and hide her face over Her Very Own Victoria’s face to hide her blush. But then she remembers what she made this doll do (read: smack the Director in the face), and then she remembers that smooshing her face against it is exactly the wrong thing to do.

Great. How is she supposed to sleep now? Stupid Director!

[volumeupvolumedown]

I know this feeling. I've talked about burnout on here before, but I was burnt out on certain things.

I'm heading for full on burn out. A lot has changed. In 2020 we were running the office on four people. Now, it's two and it's been that way for most of the year. Just me and the person who trained me. In theory we have a manager but she's spread so thin being the director, the assistant director, on call and emergency field member, it really falls to us to do the day to day stuff.

Our field staff went from seventeen to nine with only three licensed to do a lot of the stuff needing to be done (and in my opinion, it's really two because one just doesn't want to do the job). this makes the office stuff near impossible because we can only do so much without approval and the people to give approval just aren't able to it, either because *they* need approval or they're running around trying to be four different people.

We are having the worst time getting new people because our parent company flat out refuses to pay competitive rates. My office mate and I are teetering ourselves because we are making far less than our work is worth, and not just because we have kept the office afloat through a pandemic, a buy out and a mass Exodus and we've done it as cheerfully as possible, but because we really could make more elsewhere. I don't know what her reasons for staying are, but mine are fairly simple. First, The people I work with, for all the crap they have to go through, are good teammates (the one I mentioned above is an exception). Second, it's close to my house. That's a big deal considering I don't drive. Any farther out and my transportation would be eating a huge chunk of my paycheck. Third, I admit it, my anxiety is getting in the way. This is hard and I don't make a lot, but what if I go somewhere else and it's worse?

Anyway, I know I'm heading toward massive burnout. I feel like I did when I was close to the end of my degrees. I use draft rants into my papers, I would edit them out, if course, but it was a struggle at times to not just let rip in the middle of a discussion. Because I was tired, tired of keeping my filter in place, tired of pretending that the guidelines for participating in these classes weren't insane and designed to help one fail rather than succeed. I was also tired of people acting like what I said and what I thought didn't matter because they had more letters behind their names. The number of times I had to stop myself from pointing out to a newly minted Phd who would not stop talking about how they have a doctorate so they will not take any feedback, that they only got said Phd due to the blood sweat and tears of their unpaid undergrad and grad students is too numerous to count. I did slip once when, during a class the professor asked us what the best advice we would give someone.

I said: "My MA isn't going to help me when my pipes burst. No matter how many degrees you have, you are going to need other people with other skill sets to help you and you are not *entitled* to that help by virtue of your education. So, don't be an ass."

Anyway, the struggle is back, I get people on the phone coming at me because, this thing isn't done or that thing isn't signed. I'm not allowed to tell these people to back the fuck off because we are working with less than half of our needed staff and our corporate is too busy aquiring more companies that they can throw into chaos, to do anything for those dealing with the fall out of that chaos. And I slipped, telling one of my co-workers to give me and my officemate a break because dealing with the day to day clusterfuck, and doing it with a smile is hard enough without the field staff blaming us for shit we can't control. I did manage to do it without the cussing.

It's the office drones who get blamed when shit goes sideways so I just hope the new year brings some help.

[charriesjourney]

THE JHUNCHA OFFICIAL WEDDING VIDEO

12.12.12 @ TAGAYTAY

Officiating Priest: Father Sherwin Tristan Aromin 

Church: Our Lady of Lourdes Parish Church Tagaytay 

Reception: Casablanca Tagaytay 

Photo/Video: Nice Print Photography 

Preparation Hotel: Tagaytay Highlands 

Florist/Wedding Coordinator/Emcee: Mr. Arthur Castor 

Make-Up: Ms. Pong Niu 

HairStylist: George Aliben

To everyone who have been part of this wedding, and most especially of our lives - THANK YOU SO MUCH.

We feel grateful and blessed for having you all.

God bless us.

How did we met?

A LITTLE HISTORY:

Jhunie has never had any girlfriend since birth. Charrie has never been into another relationship after her first failed relationship.

And everything changes until…

Charrie gave her best friend a Square-shaped Photo Frame, Pen Holder with Music when you rotate it.

She bought Yellow Color for herself; and Blue for her bestfriend, Cathy. :)

Charrie placed pictures of her and Cathy on each of the four frames.

Cathy brought this gift to the office and place it on her desk.

Cathy is Jhunie’s officemate.

Jhunie first saw Charrie here.

Charrie shared her version of the story:

I have no plans yet of finding someone in my life despite my 26 years of age.

I have been single for some years now and i don’t mind being single for few years more.

Its a choice that I made.

There are instances where I can already be with someone but i still chose not to.

I had some suitors, but i always choose to just be friends with them and remain single.

My reason?

I find it hard to trust men again.

But I know and believe that God will still give me a reason to be happy.

True enough, I was enjoying my work, busy fulfilling my dreams, and just having fun as single.

Although I admit that whenever my best friend, Cathy, shares stories about Jhunie,

it gives me a reason to smile and feel appreciated.

“But I do not want to think about it that much because i don’t want to expect anything.”

“I am happy now being single, and i feel that since I have surpassed the stage of moving on and finding my new self, i dont want to be in that stage again where i’ll have love problems and be in pain.”

so after 3 months of sharing stories about Jhunie -

he finally asked for my number from Cathy.

But two (2) months have already gone by, and yet I still have not received a single text.

Unfortunately, Cathy was out of the country and so, i do not have a way to know.

It was after two (2) months, when i knew that he LOST my number.

Please do not laugh.hehehe okay, you may, cause im laughing too while writing this.hehehe

So after Five (looong) months…

He finally sent his FIRST text. 

He introduced himself to me in his text.

And he added that all he wanted is a new friend. That’s all.

And so, i said, it is better that way.

On my part - i made it clear that I do not want an “Eye Ball” or to meet, unless it is already at least three months.

He said, it is better that way too, since he does not want an “Eye Ball” either. (Wow!hehe Imagine the rules?hehe)

at first, i was not into entertaining him.

but God did His works.

He gave me signs - which i want to keep private (but some of my friends knows this)

I experienced situations which allowed me to give attention to jhunie and notice him.

Its like an eye-opener…

it felt like God is putting a spotlight on him.

and telling me, “LOOK AT THIS GUY”

and so, i tried.

but i still have doubts.

i still did not believe that he could be that somebody in my life.

as i begin to know him thru text, these were some of the things that were going through my mind - “he is just kind because we are starting to be friends. but he will just be like anyone else. he will soon hurt me and give me pain. i know. thats how it is. thats how love is”

i did not believe the things that he’s telling me.

i was not convince at all.

i felt - that this were all just his best food forward.

that its impossible to find a good man at this point.

and then, i felt embarrassed. why?

because after few events in my life, i was able to confirm that i was wrong, and he was right.

he is real. he is true.

and i know that it was God who showed me ways to know.

i felt so bad.

i got mad at myself for being the person that i was.

for not believing in him and not trying to trust.

i knew he did not deserve all this.

he deserves a clean plate.

i feel sad for him, and for myself.

and It was after three (3) months of texting

that i finally gave in and decided to meet him.

my mindset on this meeting was simply - to gain a new friend. thats it.

maybe God wants me to be friends with him because he needs my help in something.

i honestly dont want to expect anything. especially that i dont know him yet, and i dont know what will happen after.

but the day i met jhunie - it was happiness :)

a diiferent kind.

its a friendly group date but - somehow, its different.

as i am observing him and looking at him…

i felt the person that i am texting and the person who is infront of me is the same. he is true to his words - hindi siya bolero.

(photo taken: june 20, 2008)

physically - he looks very simple, which is what i really want. simple and presentable. :)

but what i really like about him is the way he carries himself. his humble, shy, hindi mayabang, and most importantly - he looks studious. :)

i love intelligent-looking men. i dont know why. i find it attractive when men wears eyeglasses and looks very studious. 

plus, singkit. i really like that. :)

so jhunie physically has things that i love - studious looking (wearing eyeglasses) and being singkit, plus quiet type.

so... pwede!!!hehehe

anyway, while i was looking at him, i realized that i want to take care of this guy. (hehehe)

that night, he was so quiet and looks so tired, and so i felt that if we became friends, i will help him with his daily life.

because maybe, my mission is to be friends with him so that someone will help him cope up with his busy and workaholic attitude.

i keep repeating on my mind that i am not expecting anything on this date. my mindset was just to meet him and gain a new friend.

but honestly, the way he sat down on that couch while we are having our coffee, i felt that i wanted to give him a warm hug to ease his tiredness.

may pagnanasa na?hehe

anyway, i dont know. but thats what ive felt at that time, and i just want to open it now.hehe

i wanted to be the friend that he might need.

a friend from far away (since we live in the province) and a friend thats outside his work and usual group.

at the end of the night, on the way home…

i was smiling, cause it was a good night.

and i knew that jhunie was different from the others.

And in my heart I felt that…

“IF it is Jhunie, its worth the try again, its worth the pain again.”

and then, somehow, i started to see him the way i think God wanted me to see him.

for me, its not so hard to fall in love with someone like jhunie.

he is genuinely kind.

i saw his innocence.

and i saw the fragile part in him.

i saw him this time, not in a friendship level.

im beginning to see him in a romantic side.

i ate all the words i said.

he is really someone with a good heart.

he is genuine.

he is really somebody else.

jhunie slowly gave color into my life.

im beginning to sing love songs again, in a different tune.hehe

he made my heart smile again...

and replaced all the pain and doubts with

honesty and genuine love.

and with him - i slowly learn to trust again.

Since then, my weekends are always spent with him.

And as i get close to him more, i saw what God is trying to show me.

“That sometimes, it only takes a true good man to make you see things the right way. “

As time goes…

I was changing - my views, perspective, feelings and beliefs.

I felt changed and renewed.

Jhunie unintentionally influenced me with his genuine personality.

And slowly, i fall…

(photo taken: dec 6, 2008)

Going to mass every Sunday was our usual activity.

Enjoying the weekend and each other’s company.

And after a year, everything was a history.

We became officially boyfriend/girlfriend.

“So if ever you’ll come to a point of loosing hope on love..

Our story maybe helpful to you in realizing…

That sometimes..

Dreams still come true.”

NOTE:

When Jhunie and Charrie started building their relationship,

Cathy decided to give her Blue Pen Holder to Jhunie.

She said that it has already served its purpose

and should be given to the person who deserves it more.

Jhunie’s version of the Story --> The JhunCha Journey

Full details of our Wedding: --> The JhunCha Wedding 121212