The Neighbours (Sahyo)

Chapter 13

Having Jihyo's number is both a blessing and a curse at the same time. If anyone told Sana when she first moved to Starling, that one day she'd have Park Jihyo in her phone contacts, she'd call them crazy and have them committed.

Because Jihyo's her boss (kind of) but also, because not only does she now have a friend in her (also kind of), but said friend happens to be extremely persistent and resourceful when it comes to wanting to help her. With anything.

She'd hovered at Sana's place all weekend, offering to run errands for her, do her chores, cook - she even came around to fix her heating the night before, and while Sana does appreciate how gung-ho she is about being a good neighbour, she's also... weirded out by it.

It's strange, endearing, and frustrating all at once, which is a combination of feelings that Sana has now come to associate with Jihyo , and Jihyo alone.

These feelings are further compounded when Jihyo makes an appearance at her work the first day she's back after falling ill, much to the shock and horror of all her colleagues. Jihyo turns heads wherever she goes, naturally, but Jihyo being in Park Consolidated is as rare as a blue moon. Sana hasn't ever seen her at the office since the day she started here, so she understands their surprise.

Jihyo swaggers in - because there really isn't any other word for the way she commands the entire room with her presence - around noon, and waltzes up to her assistant without a care in the world.

"I believe Minatozaki Sana  works here. I need to see her."

She hears Jihyo through the glass wall and shakes her head at her unapologetic demand. Jihyo oozes entitlement, leaning against her assistant's desk without a care in the world. It probably never even occurred to her that Sana might have been too busy for a casual walk-in.

"Uh, Ms. Minatozaki?" Sana's assistant pops her head through the door, visibly flustered. "You have no scheduled appointments today, but -" her voice drops into a frantic whisper. "- it's Ms. Park."

"Yeah, let her in," Sana says, making a 'come in' gesture with her hands.

She spares her desk a quick once over, making sure nothing is out of place and then Jihyo 's there, towering over her in a very, very, well-fitted suit with insoles.

Seriously, how does she pull off looking good in, quite literally, anything she wears?

"Hey," Jihyo greets. Her smile wavers for a second, her cheek twitching. "Nice office. Used to be Mom's."

Sana scrunches up her nose at the weird greeting. "Thanks... I think."

Why is she being awkward? Actually - Sana rolls her chair back and tilts her head up to look at Jihyo curiously - why is she even here?

"So..." Jihyo begins, as if she can read her mind. Jihyo's all pensieve and seemingly deep in thought, shedding all traces of the confidence that she swaggered in with. "I have to ask... if you just conveniently forget to tell me that you work for my family's company?

Ah. Right. She blanches. Sana was wondering when this would come up.

She doesn't feel guilty about it exactly, but it had occurred to her, between her very first 'Hey, hope you're feeling better!' text message and her subsequent check-ins with her throughout the entire weekend, that she probably should have mentioned it. But then she got all wrapped up in being looked after and doted on and it just slipped between the cracks and she didn't spare it another thought.

She opts for a diplomatic response that isn't an outright lie. "I didn't forget, it didn't come up."

"But I... we hung out the entire weekend," Jihyo pouts. She lets out a disgruntled huff as she settles into the chair on the other side of Sana's desk. She's not so huge but she dwarfs the poor, unsuspecting office furniture with just her aura HOT. "I went out and got you milk and eggs for breakfast, made you lunch..."