Songs [BANG CHAN ONE-SHOTS]

Chill ❤️

The clock on the wall behind me kept ticking, being the only sound breaking the silence of my office aside from my occasional sighs. For already few minutes I just stood in front of the tall mirror and stared at my reflection, trying to calm my nerves and think positive.

"Get yourself together, woman," I spoke through my gritted teeth, "Everything will be alright."

I nodded and lightly slapped my cheeks before letting out another deep huff and straightening my posture in the mirror. I corrected the lapels of my white cotton blouse, tucking it more into the hem of my black pencil skirt, tightened the knot of the thin strap bow around my neck, and pushed the strands of hair which escaped my bun behind my ear. I nodded to myself one more time and put on the big round tortoise frame glasses that I hated to wear but my mother absolutely adored the frame (and bought them for my birthday). I had a couple of incidents with contact lenses, so I had to accept my fate and wear the glasses, promising myself that I'll change the frame for my next birthday and buy it myself.

"Our artist is here, miss!"

A voice of my assistant, followed by two knocks on the door, caused my heart to speed up again. But I had no time to chant another set of calming spells or give myself a long motivational speech - an artist whose exhibition my gallery will host has arrived and I didn't want to make him wait for too long.

I opened the door and a younger girl smiled at me, holding a stack of files and binders in her arms. She clipped her golden hair with a pink bow behind her head while her overgrown bangs still fell on her face, so she had to huff in order to blow them away from her eyes.

"You look very nice today, Marie," I commented and tucked a strand of her hair behind her ear, supporting it with a small bobby pin I took from my hair. The younger girl smiled and thanked me, following me in suit as we exited the hallway and turned to enter the big room.

At the sight of a tall btown-haired man walking around the room further away from us, I took a deep breath and put on my best professional smile before walking up to him.

"Mr. Hwang," I called and he turned, beaming a smile as soon as our eyes met.

"There's my June," he spoke up and took my hand, kissing the back of it ever so gently.

"I see that you're still using that name for me, Hyunjin," I kept smiling as he straightened up, not releasing my hand from his.

He chuckled, "It fits you perfectly - not only is your birthday in June, but you were also a wonderful model for the painting," he leaned and kissed my hand again.

What Hyunjin was referring to was "Flaming June", an amazing art piece by Sir Frederic Leighton, which I modeled for back in school, given that I had the longest brown hair out of all the females in our class and everyone agreed that the orange dress looked the best on me. It was the final exam of our first year and the moment this man and I became friends. Hwang Hyunjin and I studied art together for years and often helped each other with assignments and other schoolwork. And while other girls hissed and wanted to kill me for hanging out with the school's prince, we ignored all of that and just used every moment generously, having the best time of our lives. We were never a couple, even though the rumor circulated the school up until we graduated, but we sure had some steamy moments together. I blamed it all on the hormones and "those years" that build up our sexual tension.

So, when we graduated all of that disappeared - Hyunjin focused on putting his art out in the world and I wanted to open my own gallery or museum, working different jobs in the field - from the lame low positions in small galleries, climbing to a manager position and eventually a curator, to working with some big names in art restauration and archiving old pieces. My last year in working on different restauration projects helped me earn enough to finally open my gallery. Well, technically, it's not opened yet...