after hours | jungri

14

a few steady weeks had passed since yerim's late-night incident, and everything had quickly returned to normal in the office.

at first, yerim's mind was riddled with jungkook; whether it was memories of him sat close and directly opposite her at the restaurant table, staring directly at her with so much focus and attention, or fleeting images of a grinning jungkook waving from his car at night, or even the warmth of his hand intertwined with hers so perfectly as they walked down an empty moonlit street — yerim couldn't deny that the first few interactions that had occurred with her boss after that specific night had definitely caused her cheeks to redden, her heart to race and her stomach to spin, with a simple yet routine 'morning, sunshine' or even a look towards her way.

but with important dates approaching, and the whole company working hard to meet quotas and deadlines, yerim pushed any unnecessary thoughts away and fully focused on all the tasks at hand (to sooyoung's disappointment).

it was an ordinary, mundane monday morning when yerim made her way to jeon co. as usual. with two iced chocos in hand (recently, yerim finally managed to sway jungkook in to the land of iced choco and he fell hard), yerim took her usual elevator up to level 10, greeted the guards and opened the door to jungkook's office.

except, unalike her routine, she was once again met with jungkook collapsed over his desk, at 8am in the morning. 'is this deja vu?' yerim thought, setting the drinks down on to her desk and approaching, what appeared to be, an unconscious jeon jungkook.

'sir?' she called out first, hoping he'd jerk back awake or something. but as she walked towards him, she noticed his whole body flushed in a pinkish-red — one that didn't seem normal or healthy.

'sir!' she yelled a little louder, yet no response. with a sigh, yerim stepped forward until she was at jungkook's desk, hovering above him.

with a gulp, she placed her fingers onto his exposed rosy cheek; once they came in to contact with his skin, she pulled away almost instantaneously, as her eyes widened with surprise.

his cheek was hot. dangerously hot.

again, she let her hand touch his cheek — this time the whole palm. almost cupping jungkook's burning cheek, yerim shook his head with her hand. 'sir, you need to wake up.' she whispered above him, gently.

jungkook's eyes half-opened, hazily — it was as if he was consumed by fatigue. 'hmm?' he mumbled, tiredly and confused.

successfully waking him, yerim tried removing her hand from his cheek but before she could do so, jungkook quickly placed his big hand above hers, trapping it.

'it's cold, your hand is cold.' jungkook whispered faintly, shutting his eyes again with comfort and ease.

's-sir...' yerim called out, a face of complete surprise and worry overriding her pretty features. 'y-you're not okay.'

jungkook didn't say anything. instead, with his eyes sealed, he used his free hand to find yerim's other hand and placed it on his other cheek, so that she was fully cupping them as if he were a baby.

yerim just gulped once more, her furrowed eyebrows causing a long, deep crease to run across her forehead. 'you're ill. you must have a fever... you need to go home' she told him, in a motherly kind of tone.

jungkook took a deep breath in. 'should i?' he questioned, his voice barely audible.

yerim nodded fervently, although jungkook still had his eyes closed so he couldn't even see. 'come on sir...' she spoke softly, trying to lift his heavy head so that it wasn't resting against his hard, uncomfortable desk.