Hoseok did not remember the exact juncture of time when he fell asleep last night. And although it might sound ludicrous at the moment, had it not been for the boisterous ringing of his phone— which had considerably petered out in the meantime for reasons unknown— he would not even have realised the exigency of waking up again either.

With lips parting in a drowsy yawn, it seemed like he was finally bothered into peeling open the bulky drapes of his eyelids. His bleary eyes struggled to fixate themselves at the origin of that mind-numbing noise, only to flutter shut again almost instantly. It was as if even the idea of reverting to the real world had begun to induce a lurch in his stomach. He scrunched his nose in repugnance, a frustrated grunt shallowly arising from him. 

"Just one more minute," he drawled, squirming on the floor as he readjusted himself to a more comfortable position. 

That bit, however, was way too evanescent to be deemed as a moment of respite. Nothing other than his phone harbored those exploitative powers of course, and Hoseok could not restraint himself from cursing internally for having failed to identify a villain so obviously in the making. A melody that was supposed to please Hoseok's ears, was causing them to bleed instead. A muffled groan was released by him as his eyes flew open, and he hysterically started to locate his phone beside him.

He still was not using his vision, nonetheless. Merely gliding his palms across the carpeted floor, though definitely not beyond the radius of his reach, his pupils fell into a lull for a disturbingly long couple of seconds when it became apparent that everything except for his phone had brushed against the tips of his fingers in the process. 

Tumbling on his back, he sat up on his bottom, swivel-eyed until he had not scanned every nook and cranny of that granary-resembling spare room. Even multilayered cobwebs and thick coat of dust appeared endurable to Hoseok right then, because it was only amidst them that he could later spot a flickering projection of light, accompanied by the same unexciting tune that had been driving him up the wall all this while.

He scooted closer to it, immediately picking it up. Rendering it what gave an impression of a thorough examination, he blew over the phone's screen in hope that it would get rid of the dirt that had gotten stuck on it. A scrape that had now been sprawling across it was exposed as a result, stirring Hoseok into wincing in dismay. 

"I must've hurled it while I was still asleep." He murmured, rubbing his eyes as he simultaneously unlocked his phone. "What time is it?" A fleeting yawn interjected him. "It's barely past nine right now. Who the hell wanted to talk to me so badly to leave five missed calls already?"

Enraged, Hoseok ventured to phone the unrecognised caller, the line straightaway beginning to trill. He had hardly been kept waiting for ten seconds when the person on the other end answered. 

"Hello, this is Aurum Entertainment. How may I help you?" 

"Mirae, is that you?" The silence that followed was indicative enough for Hoseok to confirm him of his suspicion. "Was it you who had been calling me nonstop? What's wrong? Has something urgent come up?"

"For you. Urgent for you, Hoseok. You have a class to supervise in ten minutes. You got me wondering when you didn't arrive until nine-fifteen." Mirae paused, anticipating a response only to no avail. "Didn't you receive the schedule that I sent out yesterday? Please don't tell me that you didn't get the time to check your messages? That didn't happen, right? You're aware of how important this is for you to get noticed by the Managing Director, aren't you? Actually, you know, let's not waste time any further. If you don't want to lose out then be here in ten. Quick."

A static beep thrummed in Hoseok's ears, signaling that the female had hung up.

✧

There must be a person somewhere, in neck of the woods, who had learned how to fast-forward time, and was currently testing the waters before officially presenting the mechanism before the whole world. For if that was not what had been transpiring in the background, what would explain the blurring of full ten minutes into a single wink, and the consequent, unaccountable popping up of Hoseok into Mirae's line of sight? 

She had not clocked him promenading into the main hallway, but that could also be easily attributed to her not paying attention to who walked in and out of the building. However, to further top it off, the fact that she could not piece together how Hoseok had managed to actually mark his attendance before her, and that too without having crossed the threshold of the deadline that had been set for him, had quite distinctly wound up contouring the confusion that now nestled between her eyebrows. 

It was almost spectral how he had shown up out of nowhere.

"Mirae!" Hoseok called worriedly, gaze boring into hers.

"Y—yes?" She had snapped out of her wool-gathering. "Ah, right. The class," ducking under the counter to browse through the day's timetable sketched all over the computer screen, she resumed, "it's hall number 209, on your right hand when you exit the elevator."

Hoseok nodded briskly, lips pressing into a thin line as he pivoted on his heels, heading to tread onto the instructed path. Nevertheless, his feet had to cease their pedaling for a while when a distracted yelp from Mirae dropped into his ears. He half-turned his torso around, glancing at her from the corner of his eye, regarding which she proceeded.

"Never mind. Visit me before you leave for home, no? I have a little something to discuss with you." She fumbled with her fingers underneath the shield provided to her by the table-top, lips upturning once she had caught Hoseok squinting at her.

"You just made me extraordinarily curious, miss. What must it be that you want to talk to me about..." Hoseok dragged suggestively, prompting Mirae to roll her eyes.

"Shut up and go, do your job. You don't earn money yet, remember?" She mentioned heedlessly, eyes widening when the epiphany hit her at long last.

"I didn't mean to—"

"Strike two. Another one and you'll be sent back to the pavilion. Keep that in mind." Hoseok deadpanned, rotating and pushing himself onto his track instantly after. 

✧

"Goddamn, the kids here are so talented. How long have they been training for? They're, in all seriousness, not some amateurs who are trying their hand at the idol life." Hoseok blabbered as he leaned against the counter. "How would you grade my analysis?"

"An A plus, for sure. I can guess whom you're referring to when you say all that. They were traded by their previous company after all, it'd be exceptionally foolish to consider them as anything less. No one would barter their defective products when the deal extended by the other party is life-changing in every sense of the word. Isn't it so?" Mirae exhaled in exhaustion, stacking a pile of files nearby. 

Hoseok hummed in concurrence. "I saw Kangmin on my way back. Was he assigned a different class from mine?"

"Yeah..." Mirae croaked. "His and your schedules are very unlikely to overlap. Just when I thought he would gain something by enrolling in here... joke's on me, certainly."

"We should do something about it. Can't the timetables be swapped? No one would ever know what we did behind the curtain, y'know." Hoseok remarked, and Mirae could feel a hard-to-swallow lump forming in her throat.

"I had to hold my breath for a second to wrap my head around what you just said so casually." She narrowed her gaze at him. "Anyway, where were you really at when I had called you in the morning? You saying I was already out—"

"I was already out!" 

"—under the sun seriously won't sound plausible at this point so don't even try." Mirae tilted her head to the side. "Do away with 'em overused lies, Mister Jung."

"What makes you assume I was lying? And if I was not enroute to the agency, how did I arrive in here within ten minutes? Still got something to defend yourself with?" Hoseok's hands settled on his waist, his shoulders hunching as he concentrated on the mesh of nerves that was throbbing dully at a particular spot on Mirae's forehead.

"Y—Your voice... your voice— it was groggy. Too baritone to go with your face." She shrugged, though not daring to match eyes with the male.

"What are you talking about? My voice is as deep as the ocean," Hoseok growled from the pit of his stomach, his performance worthy of being acknowledged as stellar— at least for Mirae. "Tell me, don't you wanna swim in its bottomless trenches and forget about this outrageous world?" He bent towards her, whispering into her ear. 

"Get away," she gave a gentle shove, eyes blinking as if seeking to compose herself after having caught off-guard. 

"It's funny how I have a friend who naturally sounds like this. He doesn't even have to try to intimidate people, it happens effortlessly for him. Regardless, I think you'll like Taehyung if you ever get to meet him. He's very friendly."

"Says the extrovert of extroverts." Mirae chipped in, a smirk growing on her lips.

"Stop slandering me. There's no denying though," Hoseok bit his lip timidly, glimpsing about before fixing on Mirae again. "Anyway, you had something to brief me about, right? You had especially stopped me in order to deliver the message when I was already running late. So, what is it?" 

"Ah, right. There's a party— a small gathering, to be more precise... later in the evening. I require you to— if I'm not overstepping the line— be my date for the night. Not as in date-date, though. It's not romance that I'm asking of you, rather, it's your company that I'm in need of in order to survive through those presumably suffocating couple of hours that await me. Would you do that for me if it's not much of a trouble?" Mirae pleaded, her eyes locked on Hoseok's.

"It would've been better if you hadn't broken it down in such plain words. I'm up, nonetheless. So, what's our middle ground?" Hoseok quizzed.

"What would you mean by that?" Mirae quirked her brow, her expression amused. "And there's no middle ground. I'll send you the location, so kindly just stay prepared at the pub's entrance to chaperone me in?"

"Being straightforward leaves less room for ambiguity, and that spoils the fun of it." Hoseok stated, a smile flowering on his lips. "It seems like you were more in search of an escort, ma'am. Are you sure you wanna label me as your date for the people in there?"

"Would you rather things get complicated between us merely for the sake of your own entertainment?" Mirae sneered, shoulders tensing due to Hoseok's steadily proliferating unpredictability. "I'll go back on my word if you ask me again, so yeah, I'm confirming for the last time. I need you there tonight."

"Excellent, I'll be off then," Hoseok flashed a big grin, mirth abruptly being replaced by contemplation as he furrowed his eyebrows. "Before you interrogate me about it, I live far away from here. It's gonna take me a hellishly good amount of time to wash up and get dressed just fine enough so that I don't end up embarrassing you. Moreover, I don't even have anything to do in here now, I'll only be idling away. Please be the nice friend that you are and grant me the rest of the day off, I'll be highly obliged."

A dazzling beam expanded over Mirae's pretty face as Hoseok admiringly stared at her, every second ossifying in a torturous slow-motion. The only feature missing was a soundtrack that would have drawn an analogy between Mirae's beauty and the maturing spring. Had the current situation not lacked it, Hoseok would have already had his own romance drama drafted out— even slated to be aired right that instant. 

Sadly though, no one must have cared enough to write down his life in permanent ink, judging from the sudden alterations that he had to encounter every now and then. Nor had Mirae consented to be his heroine, in case he had deluded himself into believing that everything was in the palm of his hand.

His besotted visage soon dissolved, a straight smile eclipsing the former one. "I'm fine with anything as long as it's you I'm being named with," he waved her goodbye, spinning around and thereafter barreling through the enormous doors that constituted the structure's entrance.

✧

a/n

college officially starts for me tomorrow (in the sense that the classes will be held in physical mode ofc hehe🤡) ya girl's doing master's this time. wish her luck so that she fares just fine. also, for her to keep giving this book the updates that it deserves🥺
i've just finished watching 'my liberation notes' and dayum i feel so smug rn bcs it's very rare that i'm left disappointed by my choices (limited to only books/kdramas and other series. real life is tough😮‍💨)
anyway, pls vote and comment if you're still a reader. thank you <3