invested ☆ l.dh / m.l | ✔

03

"No freaking way!" Yeeun squealed, spitting pieces of half-chewed rice out her mouth.

You couldn't stop from laughing, wiping at the few that had gotten on your blouse, "No, I'm serious!"

"You're telling me... that Huang Renjun actually asked Director Jo out?"

"On a dare from Jaemin, yeah. I'm surprised you hadn't heard about this!"

"No!" She wiped at her mouth before fanning at her face where her eyes were starting to well up. "I'm going to freaking cry! That's so funny. Wait, no I'm not going to cry, I'm going to fucking piss myself, oh my god!"

Yeeun stood up, dabbing at her eyes with one hand as she stumbled away from your desk.

"Where are you going?" You asked through laughs of your own.

"I'm serious! I'm going to pee myself!" She cried over her shoulder before disappearing around the corner that lead to the bathrooms.

Left chuckling to yourself, you eagerly dug into your food for another mouthful of noodles. The elevator bing!ed behind you. Spinning your chair around, you were expecting it to be another one of your coworkers coming back from their lunch break a little early. Instead, the form of Assistant Director Mark Lee came into your vision. You spun yourself back around, hoping that he was just coming to deliver a message to your boss or something. Hoping that news of your breakup hadn't traveled all the way through N-City to reach his ears. Hoping that he'd ignore your figure that was slowly sliding down in your chair in an attempt not to be seen.

Miraculously, he did. His footsteps sounded as though they were in fact approaching your boss' office, then came closer again. The bing! of the elevator let you know that he was leaving, allowing you to breathe a sigh of relief. You were alone.

You were alone.

You were alone.

Not just physically, in this room, but in all aspects of your life now. You would be coming home to an empty apartment everyday now, sleeping in a bed that was all too large for one person, and only making one cup of coffee every morning instead of two. You wanted to scream so badly, to just holler and shout and screech and yell until your throat was raw and sore, and then keep going. You wished for nothing else than to just tear your vocal cords apart. If you couldn't ever tell Donghyuck that you loved him again, what the point in having them?

You hadn't even realized that there were two heavy rivers rushing down your cheeks again until the motherly cooing of Jang Yeeun was beside your ears and her delicate fingers wiped a tissue across one, and then the other. She let you cry, continuing to clean you up and minimize the damage your sobbing would do to your appearance. You blubbered out something akin to 'excuse me' before launching yourself out of your chair and running to the bathroom.

The door slammed behind you, a garish sound that you barely registered. You fell to your knees in a stall, making sure to lock it behind you before you practically collapsed in front of the toilet bowl. Ghastly gathering of saliva pooled on your lips, which you spat along with half-chewed pieces of your noodles into the water below you. You felt yourself heaving, but nothing came out despite the full meal you'd just consumed.

☆  

Your throat burned.

According to Chenle, who for some reason had been the one to find you in the women's bathroom dry-heaving and shaking, it was from the stomach acids that had risen up in your body's failed attempts to expel your stomach contents.

Director Jo sent you home, with Chenle as your escort, and he'd even insisted on coming inside with you. He promptly fixed you a glass of water and a pill to relieve the near-migraine you'd developed while crumpled on the bathroom floor. The lines of the tile you were lying on for hours were still deeply ingrained into your legs, and you rubbed at them in an attempt to relieve the tender grooves. You were sitting nearly stark naked on your bed, having been ordered by Chenle to get into comfortable clothes.