Archive of Our Own ^beta

kiss

It all started with a kiss.

"Ooooh," Jeonghan sang as she folded herself into one of the spare chairs in Wonwoo's office, reading glasses perched on her nose in preparation for a long night of hunching over her laptop and reconsidering her career. "Someone has a crush on you..."

Peering over Jeonghan's head, Wonwoo bit her lip to temper her smile. On her desk sat a little pile of foil-wrapped chocolates on one of Wonwoo's pale purple post-it notes. Further inspection revealed a scribbled heart, along with the words Don't work too late! Fighting!

"Don't be ridiculous," Wonwoo murmured, running her finger across the note. It was hardly a crush. They had met each other's families, for goodness' sake. They were one of Chan's fancy kitchen gadgets away from from basically living together. There was already a space for the stand mixer in Wonwoo's kitchen. Half of Wonwoo's surfaces were home to some bottle of Chan's skincare, or one of Chan's art projects, or some toy that Chan had sent Wonwoo a photo of with the caption it's you! or it's us!

"It was Lee Chan-nim," Wonyoung, the intern in Wonwoo's room, piped up, without pausing her rapid typing. Registering Wonwoo and Jeonghan's silence, she finally looked up.

"She told me to tell you," she shrugged, before going back to wearing tiny holes into her ergonomic keyboard with her impeccably and impossibly manicured fingers.

"Ah, young love," Jeonghan sighed, reaching across Wonwoo's desk to pinch a chocolate. She grinned at Wonwoo's scowl.

Pulling out her phone, Wonwoo snapped a picture before the pile could dwindle further. Thank you, love, she texted. Her phone buzzed almost immediately.

Come home soon, unnie!

cake

Lee Chan (Human Resources - Graduate Recruitment)

wonwoo-unnieeee

coffee?

🥰☕

Jeon Wonwoo (Commercial - Media and Technology)

Sorry, Chan-ah.

Just got pulled into a meeting. 😔.

Enjoy your coffee! 💜

"So what you're telling me," Seungkwan narrowed her eyes, "is that you only asked me for coffee because Wonwoo-unnie was busy?"

"Obviously," Chan chirped, popping her fork into her mouth. Bitter chocolate and rich, smooth cream made her eyebrows furrow with satisfaction. "Why else would I voluntarily see your face?"

Delight glinted sharply in Seungkwan's eyes. She tucked a curl of short hair behind her ear. "And does Wonwoo-unnie know how mean you are?"

Chan fixed Seungkwan with a flat look. She took another bite of her cake, tasted the fresh burst of strawberry jam and thought of the tips of Wonwoo's ears, the way she would rub them when she was shy, or pleased. "Obviously."

Seungkwan's face dropped like a stage curtain. Her upper lip curled. "You two are awful."

"You started it!" Chan huffed, jumping to her feet. "Now watch my things, I'm going to get a slice of this cake for unnie before they sell out."

ice cream

"This is what gives law firms a bad rep, you know," Jeonghan muttered, wiping a hand across her forehead. "Coming into an office with broken air-con, in the middle of summer. What's next - coming in during a snowstorm? A regular storm? A blackout?"

"The power went out once when I was here at 3AM," Jisoo said pleasantly. She wasn't even sweating - just slightly glowier than usual, which Wonwoo thought was extremely unfair. "The internet too. I had to hotspot. And then I slept in one of the pods downstairs."

"The technicians are on their way," Wonwoo interrupted, before Jeonghan could bring up the time she spent three consecutive nights on a sofa in the office, and Choi Seungcheol had caught her in the morning with toothpaste on her blouse. Wonwoo flapped the front panels of her shirt in an attempt to ventilate, but the fabric still clung stickily to her. She gave up on decorum, and angled her handheld fan down her collar.

"You said that thirty minutes ago," Jeonghan whined, tilting her head over the back of her chair. She really did look like she was melting, Wonwoo thought. Or maybe the heat was getting to the both of them.

"It was true thirty minutes ago, and I'm sure it's true now," Jisoo murmured, just loud enough for Jeonghan to hear. Wonwoo resisted the urge to cover her ears, like a child forced to watch their parents flirt. She was saved, miraculously, by the buzz of her personal phone - all three heads whipping towards the sound, desperate for a distraction.

"Unnie!" came Chan's voice through the phone. Wonwoo let the sound wash over her like a cool spray of water. Ah, water. Wonwoo should drink some of that. "Where are you? You're not in your office!"

Wonwoo squinted at her phone. "Ah, sorry Channie, we relocated to Jeonghan's office. Bigger windows. More breeze. You know?"

"Stay put, okay?" Chan said, as if Wonwoo had the strength to move. As if Jeonghan had the strength to move. Jisoo could probably do it, though. "You poor thing. And stay hydrated!"

"'Kay," Wonwoo smiled, and the room fell into silence again.

"Not the technician?" Jeonghan asked. Jisoo threw a pen at her.

But Chan was better than a technician - Wonwoo would have said this on a regular day, but today, on their day of suffering, it was especially true - because some groggy, unknown number of minutes later, Jeonghan's door slid open, and Chan appeared, bearing—

"Ice cream!" she cried, sweeping into the room like a cool breeze. "I've got mint choco, and regular choco, and double choco, and red bean, because it was on sale..."

And when she bent down to greet Wonwoo, Wonwoo couldn't help but kiss her, tasting chocolate on her lips.

+ paint

When Chan had mentioned that she had a gift for her waiting at home, this wasn't quite what Wonwoo had in mind. Under Chan's eager eye, Wonwoo turned the tube around in her hands, rereading the label.

"And this is… paint?"

Chan nodded patiently. "Mhm."

"And it's… made of chocolate?"

"You've got it, unnie."

"And you said you were giving it to me… for motivation?"

"Yup," Chan smiled serenely, popping the 'p'.

"Even though I… don't paint?"

Chan reached across the dining table to pat Wonwoo's hand. Wonwoo tried not to feel patronised – which was pretty easy, actually, with Chan smiling prettily at her.

"Painting skills are irrelevant here, unnie—" Chan balled her hands up into small fists, "confirmed!"

Wonwoo stared imploringly at her. "You've lost me."

Rolling her eyes, Chan walked around the table to perch on Wonwoo's lap, Wonwoo's hands coming instinctively up to hold her waist. She smelled vaguely of strawberries, and the glitter at the corners of her eyes winked at Wonwoo in the dim light. She leaned in, sliding a hand across Wonwoo's hair, and whispered into her ear.

"Oh," Wonwoo blushed. Swaying backwards in Wonwoo's hold, Chan gave her a little eyebrow wiggle in response. Her hips wiggled a little, too. "I can see why you couldn't give this to me at work," Wonwoo said, before swooping a giggling Chan into her arms and making a beeline for their bedroom.

They would have to put some towels down, probably, but Wonwoo didn't mind - she was in the mood for some dessert, anyway.