"Happy Birthday!" Eunji's coworkers merrily crowed out. They huddled around her cubicle with grins so wide, Eunji wasn't sure if she could take their pearly whites seriously. She cautiously set down the numbers she was studiously crunching, turned on her padded rolling chair, and gave her five coworkers, and sometimes friends, her full attention.
"We all pitched in to get you this," Youngmi said. The woman brushed her shoulder length bleached blonde hair from an unholy flawless face, and bumped shoulders with the gawky Woojin. He started, his dulled brown irises sparking back to attentiveness, and bent his unnaturally long limbs to dig for something behind his desk. Youngmi clapped her hands from excitement, the tips of her red gel manicure clacking together.
"It's not like you guys to buy me a present for my birthday," Eunji mumbled suspiciously. Her coworkers weren't about the kind, drama free work life. They seemed to thrive on turmoil and discord like dinosaurs from the Jurassic Era. Eunji couldn't get through one single day of work without Youngmi popping out of tiny cabinets or Woojin using his creepy talent of twitching his long limbs like the Grudge whenever the lights were out. Usually, birthdays in the office were filled with cakes and prank candles. This present business was something Eunji was unaccustomed to, therefore, there was trouble on the horizon.
"Don't worry about it," Youngmi sing songed, flicking her hand nonchalantly. You never would have expected such a well put together woman (red make-up done just so, hair meticulously quaffed, dress suit tailored to fit her Atlantic Ocean curves) would be Satan in human form. Or maybe one would. Either way, Eunji was always grateful that Youngmi was her friend and not an enemy.
"Here we go," Woojin said while heaving up something long from the desk/ hiding place. This something was as tall as Woojin, which was roughly six feet and two inches. Woojin kept his black hair shaved close to his skull, which Eunji always thought of as a bad move. Without a curtain of hair to hide behind, his entire face was subject to scrutiny. The man did not know how to lie, and as he held onto the thing the office got for her on her birthday, his fluffy black eyebrows began to twitch. Twitching eyebrows always meant that Eunji was going to have to break into her chocolate stash at the end of the day due to hair pulling stress. Rarely did the eyebrows lie.
"Tadaa!" Youngmi snatched the thing from Woojin and flipped it around, impatient for the reveal. Eunji immediately blanched. She was glad that she was already sitting. What did those two think they were doing? The others around her desk burst into healthy fits of laughter, and Eunji knew her cheeks had drained from all color.
"Why, just, why did you get me a Jumin Han body pillow?" Eunji moaned.
"Because you have a crush on him!" Woojin chuckled. He moved the pillow just so, making the character's head wiggle as he made fake kissing noises.
"I do not have a crush on him!" Eunji smacked her forehead, nonplused. "Jeeze, you tell your coworkers that you admire someone's work ethic, and you get a body pillow of the man in return."
"We thought that you should get practicing on winning him over anyway. You need a boyfriend in your life, even if he is made of cloth and stuffing," Youngmi chortled.
"Ugh, just, gimme that!" Eunji roughly grabbed the pillow, almost toppling over from how surprisingly heavy the thing was. She had a better look at the pillow now. The image was obviously hand drawn fan art with Jumin Han laying down on a bed of the softest looking feathers she had ever seen. His usual attire the media portrayed him in, a suit, vest, tie, and dress pants, were ruffled with a bed ruffled charm to them. The suit was even unbuttoned, revealing a creamy curve of a defined pectoral, drawing the viewer's attention down to his thin waist and hips. His gray fire eyes were alight with passion, and even Eujin had to gulp down the whip of excited uneasiness she received from just looking at the pillow.
"How much was this, anyway. It feels like 500 count. This couldn't have been cheap." She had to change the subject.
"It was whatever you'd want it to be, hun. Just sit back and enjoy the gift." Youngmi smacked her friend on the back, and Eunji coughed from impact.
"Well, how am I going to get this thing to my apartment without being seen?" Eunji's office was just a few walking blocks away from her comfortable apartment. The only problem was that she'd have to pass the company, C&R, that the Director printed on the pillow she was holding worked at. She could only imagine plugging down the walkway with the body pillow and THE Jumin Han sauntering out from the office, tired and worn from the day, finding his own likeness bobbing up and down and carried by what would look like a crazy woman. A very crazy and obsessive woman. Ugh! She frantically shook her head.
No. From the two years she had lived in her apartment, she had not once caught a glimpse of Jumin Han exiting the building. She could deal with patrons of the city staring at her and the new pillow. They were strangers and their opinions didn't matter as much as the man whose accomplishments she envied. Alright, she believed she could make it home with present in tow. No problem.
"It's often common for people who go out as a couple to be seen walking together," Youngmi answered Eunji's previous question. "You two look cute."
Eunji sighed, knowing that Youngmi was only joking. It was no use being a spoiled sport in this office, so Eunji slapped a dazzling smile onto her features and held out her pillow like a trophy. "You're right, Youngmi. Woojin. It was about time I got myself a boyfriend. And this one is a cheap date. This is the best birthday, ever!"
The office cheered, and they progressed to eat chocolate and vanilla cupcakes topped with candles that never went out.
Don't mind me. Just your normal 25-year-old carrying around a provocative body pillow coming through. Eunji thought as she cut through the evening rush of blue and white collar workers intermingling to go home to their families. She had let down her long, curly red coils of hair, covering her freckled pale face and deep hazel eyes, taking her own advice of using hair as a shield. If only Woojin could learn from example.
As confused and harried looks were thrown in her direction, Eunji took the opportunity to pinpoint where everything went wrong. Maybe she shouldn't have gone to University. See where her degree had taken her? An office job with no opportunity to climb the ranks. All of her hard work was overlooked as others with less experience and knowledge were given passes up the corporate ladder, whizzing by her and sticking out their tongues while doing so. Perhaps she should have gone into a trade. Or maybe she could have taken over her mother's hotel business. Eunji sighed and unconsciously hugged the pillow close. Her high heels were killing her feet and the stiff work dress was somehow even constricting her small chest. The pillow was nice and soft and had a hot man printed on it.
Maybe that was why she admired the successful Jumin Han. He worked hard and got positive progress in return. Even when the company seemed to be sinking, he was able to confidently hold the main helm and direct everyone to calmer waters. What she felt wasn't a physical attraction, though she had to admit that his gray eyes were amazing. No. That seemingly effortless talent of taking charge of a situation and bending it to his will was what really attracted Eunji. One day, she would find that ability within herself. She was just tired of searching.
Eunji made it to the bustling crosswalk halfway from her workplace, huddled in between a man in his fifties speaking fervently into his ancient cell phone, and a pretty high school girl snapping a picture of Eunji and the pillow. Probably for Instagram. That was okay. She didn't care. Eunji had accepted her birthday gift, and she would walk it home with her head held up high. The crowd cocooned her as she passed C&R, a swath of clothing and faces. One step, and then another. Come on, she can make it past. Just a few more steps and she would be out of sight from the imposing C&R building. The older man had already set a faster pace leaving Eunji behind, but the high school girl was taking even more pictures flashing one after another. Eunji normally wouldn't have minded, but the ratio of picture per second was off of the charts and had to be stopped.
"Excuse me, could you please stop taking my-" Eunji started. The girl brought her phone down, brown eyes as panicked as a doe in headlights.
BAM!
Something collided with Eunji from her left. She let out an "ooof" of surprise. Her black heels already gave her a disadvantage in balance, and the person who had rammed into her was all she needed to topple over. She clattered to the ground, already hearing the contents of her backpack escape from their confines, littering the ground below. She had also expected to meet the sidewalk with a painful crunch. However, she did not. Instead, as she peered over to her side, the Jumin Han body pillow carefully held her in his soft, soft embrace. The pillow had taken one for the team. Eunji sighed, marveling over how close she could have been to breaking a bone, or at the very least bruising her side. She would have to thank Youngmi and Woojin in earnest the next time she saw them.
But something was still wrong. Her pillow was under her. She was on top of it. The poor expensive fabric had been roughed up. There was no way the pillow would look new ever again. So, those were the facts. Facts were true. If that was the case, then why did a perfect, flawless version of her pillow seem to be laying on top of her? And, not only that, the pillow was breathing. Her stomach dropped, and she bit her lip in dismay.
"My apologies. Are you alright, miss?" Asked the not pillow sprawled on top of her. Aka, the not pillow that was warm, pressed up against her body, and smelling like expensive cinnamon cologne. She gulped, watching the coal gray eyes examine her with a detached passiveness that unnerved her. Eunji felt his every move, no matter how miniscule. His arms over hers, the brush of his abdomen at her legs, the compression of his breathes. She overlaid her pillow's image to the real thing and thought she was going to have an aneurism from the increase of heated blood flow to her head.
"I was rushing home to attend to Elizabeth the 3rd. She is feeling unwell today, and so I called Driver Kim to the front." The man said almost absentmindedly. He then blinked, and finally focused on Eunji and all of her after work, worn out glory.
"Excuse me. You needn't have heard any of that." He shook his head, and his hair actually glimmered from its uniformity. "Let me help you up."
"I-I'm alright." Eunji wriggled underneath the man, horrified, absolutely horrified, at her situation. Her intellectual idol had just run her over on the middle of the sidewalk. Boom, ram rod into her! Jumin Han. Jumin freaking Han. Oh no, she was going to hyperventilate. Just like Woojin's eyebrow twitch predicted a chocolately future, so did the collective sweat that pooled at the base of her neck predicted word vomit. She never did well with meeting others she held to close esteem, and was unfortunately cursed with the symptoms of becoming starstruck, spewing whatever she thought straight from her brain completely without a filter. What made matters even worse was that Jumin Han was now staring at the pillow version of himself. Fabric facing skin in a showdown. Oh god!
"Gah!" Eunji shoved Jumin off of her. He quickly got to his feet, brushing off imaginary dirt from his suit, while she savagely scooped all of her spilled items back into her denim backpack. Eunji carefully flipped the sad pillow around so that Jumin Han could no longer see her blatant shame.
"I am so sorry for the trouble. If you would excuse me," she was able to gasp out. Oh no, her armpits were sweating. She had to leave, stat. Or else words would happen. Really weird words.
"Miss, your knee." Jumin Han's attention was now directed on a spot below her eye level.
Eunji glanced down. Yes. She did seem to have scraped the appendage, although any longer within Jumin Han's immediate radius would result in a degrading fan squeal. Escape it would have to be.
"I'm fine. Umm, have a good day! May the force be with you!" With that, Eunji turned tail and ran. Actually, she sprinted down the walkway, forgetting that she even wore high heels. That was what starstruck adrenaline did her: wonders.
Jumin Han observed the woman scamper away, his whole demeanor apathetic. She didn't matter to him unless the woman suddenly attempted to sue him for scraping her knee. Even then, she had verbally refused help. Case closed. Nothing to worry over in that particular case.
A small outcropping of onlookers and a camera happy high school girl began to encroach on his personal space, darkening his day further. Time to leave. Jumin stepped into the awaiting sleek black limos, engine humming at the curb. His fingers fumbled into his breast pocket to type instructions to Assistant Kang about Elizabeth the 3rd, meeting nothing but an empty space at his palm. His phone was gone.