puzzle piece | jeong jaehyun

1

"You look..." Doyoung trailed off as he looked towards the woman that sent him a glare, his statement breaking the small moment of silence that she had since this morning. Yunhui showed up to work with almost a bare face, maybe the tiniest bit of concealer creasing against her evident dark circles due to the disturbed sleep she had that night

"Beautiful." He lied, pursing his lips and turning back to his computer as she sat down on her chair in the cubicle beside him

"Thanks." She mumbled in reply, taking out the painkillers in her bag to help her erase the headache that had started to progressively get worse under the bright lights of her corporate office

"Did you not sleep last night?" Doyoung asked again, the wheels of his office chair rolling as he peeked over the partition to look at her head resting against her desk already

"Someone moved in next door...and decided to cosplay a 9.5 earthquake" She said with a sigh, praying to every deity she could name to provide her strength to get through the working day before lifting herself back up and straightening her shoulders

"Atleast you weren't late today. The boss seems to have had a pretty rough morning too. He chewed Haechan's ass earlier for showing up hungover" Doyoung said, quickly filling her in on the work drama even though she really didn't have much of a care for it

"He's lucky he's still an intern" She mumbled and Doyoung hummed in agreement

"Do you want me to get you a coffee?" Doyoung asked and she narrowed her eyes at him

"You're using any excuse to not do work, aren't you?" She said, seeing through his sweet demeanour

"Yes I am" he agreed, standing up from his chair and walking towards the staff kitchen to prepare a cup of coffee as Yunhui logged into her office computer

It was just another mundane day of work at her accounting firm where she completed balance sheets and attended meetings with her clients. It wasn't anything out of the ordinary—however today was particularly hard to get through after the night of disturbed sleep.

Her mind wandered more towards the wellbeing of her son throughout the day. As a mother, she naturally wondered if he had eaten his lunch, if he had liked what she packed that day, if he was getting along with his friends at school or if he was just like her and falling asleep in class due to the rough sleep last night. It was normal for her to worry about these things, after all, she was his sole caretaker.

Her work day ended right on time like every other day, she always tried to get her work done as quickly as she could to ensure she could leave to pick up her son on time and be able to spend time with him at home like they did everyday. It was just them two.

"Did you have a good day at school today?" Yunhui asked with a wide smile as she saw her son walk towards her, slower than usual and with tired eyes. She squatted down to his height as he approached her and loosened the load of his schoolbag off his shoulders and onto hers instead

"Yeah" he said simply with a small smile, reaching for her extended hand before she stood back up and walked with him towards her car parked by the school's parking lot, in the space she used every single time.

If you hadn't caught on by now, Yunhui has her routines that she tends to stick to no matter what. A certain time she wakes up every morning—even on weekends—and no, she never hits snooze. She parks in the same spot everyday at work as well, and it wasn't even her designated parking space, no one has just dared to take it from her just yet. Being a single mom required routine, structure and most importantly organisation.

And like mother, like son, Minhyuk had also grown up to have things done a certain way. Although he was only seven, he had picked up on a few things from his mother. His lunchboxes had about 4 compartments, one for bread, one for fruit, one for vegetables, and one for whatever protein is mom decided to pack in that day. It was so important that one food group just can't touch the other food. He liked to read the same book out loud to his mom every night before bed and he liked to play with the same set of toys each day, not getting bored or tired of them at all.

The two had their lives together—or so it seemed—but with the loud noise of the drill from the house next door as Yunhui reached for her house keys made her realise that whoever moved in next to them didn't live life the same way.

"Why are they so loud?" Minhyuk asked, tugging on her sweater. Her eyebrows furrowed as she froze for a second, picking up the sound of a little girl's voice next door singing a song—off key, by the way—and Yunhui sighed. She knew kids could be a handful, boisterous and noisy 24/7, but why was the kid's parents not calming her down?

"I'm sure they'll stop before tonight. Come on, let's go wash up and have dinner" she said, reassuring him before unlocking their door. Minhyuk took off his shoes, placing them neatly beside her black high heels before scurrying off to his room to change out of his uniform, while she did the same before they both met again in the kitchen for a meal.