In Hindsight (Today Wasn't Such a Bad Day)

In hindsight, it probably wasn't a good idea for Jonghyun to be running across busy streets with equally busy people passing through them. But it wouldn't be a good idea to be late for work today either. His boss, Minho, had explicitly warned him that if he were late another day then his ass would be axed. Which, he thought begrudgingly, was a bit of an overreaction. He'd only been late to work thrice if he were being completely honest with himself. He didn't think the other times counted because he had been out for drinks with Minho the previous night and he had gotten into work before he did. Apparently, it doesn't matter if you're there before or after the boss; "clock-in time is clock-in time, hyung" (insert an indignant roll of the eyes here).

Still, he considers himself lucky. If Jonghyun minded cleaning up piss and crap from all over the floor, then Minho would own a very unhygienic and smelly dog cafe. He knows deep, deeeep in his heart that Minho wouldn't really fire him; still, it would save him an earful of scolding - from a dongsaeng for that matter - and embarrassment in front of their dogs and his fellow employees.

He turns down one alleyway hoping to cut through his travel time. Despite his fortunate innate talent at being an incredibly fast runner, it was unfortunate that he wasn't gifted with an innate talent of incredibly strong friction (unless it involved his hips, that is). As soon as he's out of the alley, his body collides with another's.

He feels cold liquid seeping into his clothes before he can register anything else. His mind then clears and all of a sudden he's cursing because he's definitely late now and his clothes are all wet. He shifts his glare up to the person who had supposedly spilled their drink all over him and paled when he noticed that she was just as soaked as, if not more than, he was (disregarding, of course, his natural soft spot for women).

"Are you okay? I'm sorry, I wasn't looking where I was going," he apologizes immediately in hopes that he'd be forgiven as soon as possible so he can leave just as quickly.

Her lower lip juts out into a pout as she examines the extent of the damage to her clothing. Jonghyun would feel embarrassed and guilty were it not for the fact that he was going to be yelled at and not to mention his nipples were definitely going to be showing through his standard white tee. Talk about first impressions.

"No, it's okay. I just... really liked what I was wearing," she replies, looking up at Jonghyun and offering him a smile.

Jonghyun blinks for a moment because he's not used to women being so complacent about ruined clothing. But then again, he thinks as he looks this girl over, she doesn't look like the same type of women he usually surrounds himself with either.

"Oh, I'm late."

Jonghyun doesn't realize he had been staring at this poor girl's water-stained chest area until she spoke and he had to lift his head up to look at her face. It was scrunched up in disappointment and frustration as she checked the watch on her thin wrist.

"You have somewhere to go?" Not that it was any of Jonghyun's business, really, but it was only polite to ask.

"Ah, neh, I have work to get to. So, uh, it was ... uhm. Bye," she replies in a bit of a flustered hurry, already making to walk past Jonghyun in the direction she was meant to be headed before their untimely meeting.

Without much thought, his hand flies out and brushes against her shoulder.

"Wait, what about your clothes, though? Wouldn't they mind?"

"There isn't really much I can do about it anyway." She shrugs nonchalantly and Jonghyun's really starting to get intrigued by this woman (and maybe just a little bit more than interested).

"Uhm, well, I work at a dog cafe nearby and we've got a drier and some extra work clothes back there if you're willing to wait," he offers; which was kind of stupid if you were to ask anybody else. He's late to work, he's unsightly, and now he's going to be bringing a girl over so she can borrow some clothes while he dries out the ones she has on now.

"Really? I mean, you don't mind?" The bright hope that practically radiates from her face does it in for Jonghyun. He's never had much strength against anything and everything cute. It'll be the death of him one day; or so Taemin constantly claims after bagging another free lunch from him.

"Well, I did kind of bump into you. It's the least I can do. Besides, we can't really have you walking around town with your shirt all wet."

A furious blush covers her cheeks and peppers her nose just then and Jonghyun thinks he'll end up losing his mind if he spends any more time around her.

"It would be a really big help...," she murmurs shyly, tugging at the collar of her shirt.

"Is there anyone at your work place that you can text and tell them about why you're late?" he queries as he leads her further down the street, closer to the dog cafe. And even from this far he can already see Minho's tall figure waiting out in front of the building, looking up and down the street for any sign of his presence.

He can only hope that maybe having this girl with him would alleviate the other man's anger.
"Yeah, there is. I should probably do that now."

And just as she's reaching into her bag, Minho's stomping closer to them, his nostrils flaring with anger.

"You know, if you keep making that face, it'll stay that way for a long time," Jonghyun tries to joke with the other to no avail.

"And if you keep being late, you'll end up without a job for a long time. What happened to 'I promise I'll be there on time, boy scout's promise'?"

Jonghyun kind of resents the mocking tone that Minho takes on when he quotes him, but he supposes he deserves it.

"I got kind of held up." He tilts his head towards the girl next to him, whose name, by the way, is still unknown to him.

Jonghyun watched as Minho gave the girl a once over, eyes, without a doubt, lingering on her torso.
"Alright, just make sure it doesn't happen again; now get inside, customers are pouring in."

It wasn't exactly true and they both knew it, because it was a Monday; only a handful of tourists come in to play with their dogs and maybe an ahjussi or an ahjumma would pass by so their dogs can have the fun that they can't anymore. But since Minho's already pissed off at him, he's not gonna point that out. So he leads the girl into the store and for a moment he kind of forgets that she's there because the dogs all come running, barking up against the door that separated the front of the store to the actual play place of the dogs. He's always had an affinity for dogs and he's not sure why because only he and his sister seem to enjoy the playful animals, so they can't have gotten it from their parents.

"Wow, you work here?"

He turns to look at her and watches her step closer to the fence and try to pet at all the dogs excitedly. He could only chuckle as he approaches her and moves to unlatch the lock from the fence and lead her inside while trying to keep the dogs inside the play area.

"Yeah. It's loads of fun most times, but when you're in charge of cleaning up the mess it does get kind of redundant," he responds to her, locking the latch into place once more before he continues to lead her to the backroom for the staff so he can lend her a shirt.

"They're all really cute, though and- Oh!" He hears her gasp, turning around to find her crouched down in front of Roo - his own puppy - scratching just behind her ears and cooing at her. "He's so adorable!"

"That's Roo, and she's a girl, actually. She's my girl," he chuckles, grabbing a shirt from one of the hooks up against the wall inside the staffroom before he steps back out, holding it out to her. "You can change back there if you'd like. Just give me your shirt so I can dry it too."

She straightens up and takes the shirt from him with a bright and grateful smile, bowing her head just slightly. "Thank you, uh..," she trails off, a light flush coloring her cheeks.

"Jonghyun. My name's Jonghyun," he supplies her.

"Eunsook."

He flashes her one of his charming smiles as she steps around him, entering the staffroom to change and lets out a soft breath through pursed lips when the door closes behind her.

"So. She seems nice."

"Quit it, Taemin, I saw her first."

-

"So you work at a library?" Jonghyun asks over a cup of hot chocolate for the both of them an hour later when he'd finally annoyed a break out of Minho.

"Only part-time, though. I work as a tutor at this academy most other times; just to help with the finances." She tucks her hair behind her ear and grins just a bit, her eyes curving and her teeth digging into her lower lip as she raises her cup to her mouth to take a sip.

Jonghyun takes this moment to appreciate how his normally fitted and bland work shirt looks better when its practically swallowing her frame, making her look smaller and more delicate - something that he'd always found appealing because it caters to his protective side.

"I see. I wish this could be part-time and I don't have to be living with four other smelly dudes that don't even wake up their co-worker when he's obviously sleeping through his alarm clock." He gives a pointed glare towards the counter where said four smelly dudes were chattering, blatantly ignoring the two of them.

The light tinkle of her laugh called his attention back to her and he offered an apologetic smile.

"I get it. My roommate sometimes tends to forget about me. I can never tell if she's doing it on purpose or not, though."

They share a soft laugh and a comfortable silence afterwards, taking sips at their cups of chocolate. A small smile remains on his features, watching her interact with Roo who curled up in her lap some time ago and began nuzzling against her hand every time she'd pet at her head, even accepting food from her palm. This must be some kind of message from the heavens because he'd never seen Roo take a liking to any of the girls he'd bring home for her to meet. The small dog would always be on the offense, barking loudly and running away from the girls whenever they got too close, but here she was, actually lapping up all of the attention she was receiving from this girl.

"So sorry to break in on this little date, but there's a mess that needs to be attended to, hyung."
They both turned their heads to look up at Kibum, one of the more outspoken employees, who stands there with a bit of a smirk on his face as he places his hand on Jonghyun's shoulder, as if meaning to sound sincerely apologetic for cutting in.

"That's alright, I should probably be heading back to work anyway. Gwiboon's been looking for me for the past couple of minutes already." She laughs a little awkwardly and finishes her drink, reaching into her bag for, what Jonghyun assumed, her wallet.

"Don't worry about it; it's on the house. For, you know, getting your shirt wet and making you late for work and all," he tells her, standing up and taking the empty cup to throw in the trash bins, giving her a bright smile.

"Oh, uhm... Thank you, Jonghyun-ssi."

She bows to him and he returns the gesture before leading her out to the sidewalk with somewhat heavy steps; he'd actually enjoyed her company and wouldn't have minded having it for a while longer.

"I really am sorry for bumping into you like that; I would have liked to meet you under other circumstances," he told her honestly, rubbing at the back of his neck shyly and smiling sheepishly up at her.

"Don't worry about it. I don't mind so much, I mean, maybe we wouldn't have met any other way."
She smiles at him more confidently and he feels his worries ease, straightening his stance.

"Well, I'll, uh, see you around?"

She nods at him and waves goodbye, leaving him there grinning brightly and waving at her back, watching his shirt on her frame disappear down the street.