Chapter Text
“Zoe, are you okay?” Worry etched all over Rumi’s face as she holds the girl on her lap tightly by the waist, scared that she’d fall.
Zoey’s eyes set on hers, mouth slightly agape. Her hands sliding down to the sides. And for a moment she’s quiet, just boring into Rumi’s worried gaze. It takes a few more seconds until she speaks up. “I’m sorry” She says, her voice softer than earlier. Jutting out her bottom lip, she grabs hold of Rumi’s arms. “Just thought of something” Zoey says, rubbing Rumi’s arm slightly.
“You should sit down…Come here” She lifts Zoey up her lap with ease, earning a giggle from the girl underneath. She sets her down on the couch beside her, pressing the back of her hand against her forehead. “You feel a bit hot”
“I mean we did make out” She sheepishly replies.
Rumi feels her face burn up as she averts her gaze from Zoey. An awkward chuckle leaving her lips as she scratches her neck. “Wait here, I’ll heat up the take-out” Rumi gets up from the couch, hurriedly making her way to the kitchen, which arguably just had to be the worst decision she’s made today.
It’s heating soup, how hard can that be? Rumi thinks as she arrives by the kitchen, staring at the take-out in plastic containers. She knows she can’t just toss the take-out into the microwave and let it sit for a minute or two maybe, not because it’s common knowledge for her but rather because of an experience that happened to her at three in the morning when she’s sleep-deprived and starving at the same time. She waltzes into her kitchen, grabbing the first take-out inside her fridge before tossing it into the microwave and tapping the numbers. Rumi had thought what was the worst that could happen?—The fire department arriving at your apartment after the take-out exploded and caused the microwave to burn up, that’s what.
So Rumi opens the cupboards underneath, trying to search for a pot. It should just be putting it into a pot and stirring it consistently until it heats up, right? She thinks as she finally manages to score a pot in between the cupboards. She gently grabs hold of it with two hands as she gets it out of the cabinet. But the thing about Rumi is, she never really was one to cook, not even for fun. The greatest achievement she’s done in the past weeks was to cook up egg without burning any of the sides, which had to be a miraculous feat for her even. But that was the extend of her duties at the kitchen. It didn’t help that this was Zoey’s kitchen. The last thing she needed was to accidentally burn a kitchen that’s not hers and have Zoey possibly ignore her for eternity for it.
She sets the pot down onto the stove, turning the dial up slowly until fire starts emerging from underneath. She opens the plastic containers and pours the contents into the pot. A ladle. Rumi thinks as she stares at the pot, wondering how in the world was she going to stir it. She searches the bottom cupboard once more, eyes frantically scanning around. She closes the cupboard doors when she doesn’t find the kitchen utensil and instead opens the drawers right above the cupboard. Rumi purses her lips. There’s a lot of kitchen utensils in the drawers—not that she hasn’t seen these, but it’s a lot compared to the ones she has in her own apartment, which just so happens to be the basic ones. Rumi carefully sifts through the contents until she finds the familiar wooden ladle.
“Aha” She mutters cheerfully as she takes the ladle out just in time for the soup to start bubbling and heating up. Placing the ladle in before slowly stirring the pot. She glances past the doorframe of Zoey’s kitchen and sees the younger girl still in the same spot she’s left her in.
It doesn’t take long until the soup starts to heat up again. Lifting the ladle up before her lips, Rumi blows on it a couple of times before eventually taking a sip. A satisfied smile makes its way onto her lips. She switches the knob down, turning the stove off. Rumi skillfully, or at least tries to, maneuver past the kitchen as she finds the bowls and places them down onto the marble countertop.
Zoey’s eyes light up as she sees the purple-haired girl rejoin her in the living room. But now with an addition of two sets of bowls in her hands and a pair of spoons wedged between her fingers. “Here” Rumi says as she sets them down onto the coffee table. “They’re still hot”
“Like you” Zoey teases, winking right after.
Rumi’s cheeks flare up as she takes her seat beside raven-haired girl back onto the couch. “Here” She grabs hold of one of the bowls, careful not to tip them over and accidentally spill the contents onto the couch. She grabs one of the spoons and dips it into the bowl. She blows onto it before lifting it up to Zoey’s lips.
Zoey smiles before leaning in and sipping on the soup. “This is really good, Rums. Did you make it?”
Rumi could take credit if she really wanted to and possibly score more points with Zoey, but then again that plan would get foiled almost instantly when she’d have to actually have to cook for the younger girl. And instead of this lovely and amazing cooking, Zoey would instead get whatever horrendous meal Rumi would manage to whip up without burning the kitchen to ashes.
“Uh, no” Rumi sheepishly replies, cheeks still red. “I got this from real hole in the wall restaurant. You’ve got to try it; they have the best noodles”
“I’m sure they do” Zoey giggles. She scoots close to Rumi, careful not to tip off the soup off in Rumi’s arms.
Rumi quickly scoops up another batch of soup, blowing on it before offering up the soup to Zoey. The latter reciprocates the action by opening her mouth and drinking in the soup. “So good” She mutters, mouth full of the delicious noodle soup her date brought in. “Here” She grabs hold of the other spoon on the coffee table before scooping up some of the soup. Zoey carefully blows on it before offering it up to Rumi, effectively mirroring her previous actions.
Rumi’s blush grows deeper as she drinks up the soup. Her eyes twinkling in response. “I missed eating this”
“We should go visit it!” Zoey suggests, her cheerful and bubbly demeanor making its way back.
“Sure, Zoe” Rumi grins in response.
The two go about the next few minutes just feeding each other soup and the noodles that came with it. A soft and domestic act of gesture exchanged between the two that sparked Zoey to have the same thoughts from last night make its round to the forefront of her mind again.
“Rums” Zoey says softly. The bowls were long forgotten already as they’re placed back onto the coffee table along with the spoons. Now Zoey’s slightly pressed up against Rumi again with her head pressed up against the latter’s shoulder. “I was thinking” She leans back as she looks at Rumi, eyes boring into her brown orbs. “We’ve been going out for a while, well we’ve known each other for a lot longer than that too” She averts her gaze as her fingers fiddle with each other, holding onto her rings. “That maybe it’d be best if we y’know actually go out with each other”
A dumbfounded look spread all over Rumi’s face as soon as those words leave Zoey’s mouth. Her eyebrows now knit together in thoughtful crease. “I thought we already were going out with each other” She asks, innocence clearly visible in her voice that has Zoey laughing in response.
“We are!” Zoey giggles, her lips curled up into a smile again. “I mean like if we made things official and actually went out with each other, unless—”
“—No no I want to!” Rumi interjects, a little too fast for her liking. “I mean” She clears her throat, acting as if to pass it off like she just hadn’t responded a little too soon, even after she had completely misunderstood Zoey’s question. “I’d love to, Zoe. You’re really nice and you just deserve a lot of good things in life” She rambles on.
“And I hope one of those good things happen to include a certain Ryu Rumi”
And as if Rumi couldn’t get impossibly redder, she just did. She feels herself shrink under Zoey’s gaze as her cheeks turn a bright red color. “I hope so too”
“Of course it would, dummy” Soft melodic tunes which were Zoey’s laugh echoed between them. Rumi thought she’d never have enough of hearing it. “Which is why I asked if it was fine with you if we, y’know, went out together like officially”
Rumi nods wordlessly, like a little dog being asked if she had wanted a treat, which earns another round of Zoey’s laugh. “You’re really cute, Rums” Fingers moving up to squeeze and pinch Rumi’s cheek.
Rumi grins toothily at her, completely smitten by her deskmate that she’s lucky enough to call hers now. “Not as cute as you”
“I feel like we’re too cheesy” Zoey giggles. “Doesn’t matter though” She mutters right after.
And as Rumi’s watching Zoey in front of her, the way her freckles shined underneath the dim illumination that the television emanated, she knew there were at least a dozen violations that came with their new relationship, and she just knows that if a certain redhead knew about their encounters then it’d definitely be the end for them both. But for now, Rumi just pushes that to the farthest depths of her mind, because that was how Ryu Rumi was—a do now, think later person. Acting on impulse was one of Rumi’s unfortunate habits, and planning something way ahead like a relationship wasn’t exactly her strong suit.
But things would work out in the end, right? Rumi had hoped it did. Hands cupping Zoey’s round cheek, squeezing and pinching it slightly in amusement. “So cute” Rumi murmurs as her eyes bore into Zoey’s. Her eyes holding only admiration for the younger girl.
⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯
The next days that had followed felt like cloud nine for Rumi. Things had gotten better for her and Zoey and never mind that Jinu had stopped pestering her. Well, it was too soon to say that yet; it had only been half the week. But so far things were smooth sailing for the two. Or at least Rumi thought.
See, there was still one thing that was bugging her, which was a pertinent hindrance to the blossoming relationship between her and her deskmate, which was the HR. Now normally the HR would always be in the way of a budding relationship between to employees or even worse if it had been between a boss and an employee, but this certain HR made things a lot worse, at least that’s what Rumi had thought.
Because had this been any other then things wouldn’t feel so big and complicated. But this is Jeong Mira, and Rumi feels like she has eyes everywhere in the company, and even worse is she feels like she just has eyes everywhere. Which, of course, wouldn’t be true. Mira’s just a human after all. But still, Rumi couldn’t shake the feeling of paranoia seeping in her blood as she feels like Mira’s watching her every move.
And this feeling gets worse and heightened when Jinu—speak of the devil—walks up to their desk.
“Another set of fuc—“ Zoey pinches the bridge of her nose, eyebrows knit together. She heaves out a long and dragged out sigh before opening her eyes again. “Another set of paper works for me to file in overtime?” Her voice tired and flat. And if looks could burn, Park Jinu would be obliterated into ashes.
“Not for you” Jinu replies. The infamous smirk missing from his lips for once that Zoey thinks she’s somehow at least won over something. He turns to his side, facing the oblivious purple-haired woman instead. “For you”
Rumi’s work interrupted instantly as the stack of papers land on her keyboard. “Hey I was typing up this month’s report!” She grumbles as she hurriedly moves the stack to her lap. Another frustrated groan leaving her lips as she sees the letter T just spread throughout a line in the document. She swivels in her chair, stack in her lap, eyes staring directly at Jinu. She’s shooting daggers with her glare, hoping that one of these days she’d actually pierce Jinu. “What’s this?”
“The business proposals. They need revision. Finish it by today” He replies, the edges of his lips curling into a half smirk.
“Business wha—Jinu, this isn’t my expertise”
“I know” He replies innocently. “But Zoey can’t do them for you. Apparently something about overtime being given twice a month being against the code” He grumbles. The cheery façade he puts on almost returning instantly as he clasps his hands together. “So you will do it for her instead, yey!” His voice anything but excited.
Rumi glares at him for a few seconds before turning back to her desk and placing the stack of papers by the side of her computer. Retreating footsteps echoed at their side of the room as Jinu walks back into his office to do god knows what, much to Rumi’s interest. All she knows is how much work he hasn’t been doing, and instead would pile it on top of other employee’s workload.
“Rums” Zoey peeks out from above, standing on her tippy toes so she can peer past the computer and the stack of papers. “I can help you wi—”
“No, Zoe” Rumi cuts her off. A smile on her lips despite the previous encounter brought to them by their insufferable team leader. “I don’t mind” She playfully scoffs. “I’m almost done with my work anyways”—She was, in fact, not done with her work. Hell, Rumi wasn’t anywhere near finishing her work. Thanks to the little stunt Jinu had pulled, she had to redo a couple of lines in the document. But Zoey hadn’t known about that and Rumi would like it better that way. Better it be her to do overtime rather than Zoey having to go through it for the third time this month.
“Are you sure?” Concern etched all over her deskmate’s face as she continues to stand on her toes just to peer into Rumi’s side of the desk.
“Yep” Rumi holds two thumbs up as she flashes a smile at Zoey. “I haven’t had overtime this month anyways so don’t worry”
“Okay” Zoey replies before retreating back onto her side of the desk.
Hours pass like a flash and suddenly it was time for them to clock out. And Rumi would’ve celebrated—she managed to finish up the document just in time for their work hours to be over. But of course, the celebration becomes short-lived when she remembers the stack of papers beside her computer.
“Are you okay with walking home?” Rumi’s swiveled in her seat to completely face Zoey. “I can drive you there and just come back” Her hand holding Zoey’s as the latter had walked over to her side of the desk as soon as their office hours ended.
“Yeah, Rums, don’t worry about it” Her hand gently caressing Rumi’s. “Just text me when you’re done, okay?” She squeezes Rumi’s hand; it was the most that they could do or at least get away with without garnering suspicious looks from their co-workers. “I’ll get going now” Zoey says as she walks back a bit, their hands no longer intertwined.
“Okay. Text me when you get home”
Zoey nods as she beams up a smile at her deskmate.
Rumi waits until Zoey walks out the entrance of their office, until she’s no longer in her field of vision before she swivels in her seat again to face her computer. “Revisions” Rumi mutters as she stares at the empty word document in front of her. “How hard can that be?”
Rumi would soon learn the answer when she starts going through the documents and suddenly it becomes a known fact to her that either her co-workers hadn’t passed second grade or this was made by an actual second grader. The sentences barely made sense and some of them hadn’t even been spelled right. Then Rumi makes it to the bottom of the page and she finally understands why the paper barely even held meaning.
“Park Jinu, you son of a bitch” She mutters under her breath, careful not to make a sound loud enough for the surveillance cameras to catch wind of. This looks like his ass typed it up for him while he drank coffee. She thinks as she goes through the long stack of papers.
She throws her head back in her desk chair, letting out the loudest groan as her hands fly to cover her face. A few seconds pass until she sits upright in her seat. Cracking her knuckles before typing away at the keyboard.
One hour felt enough for Rumi, but had this been done better then it would’ve been done in record time. But of course, their team leader held a grudge to everyone in the office that was beneath him, and it just so happened that he held a grudge for the two deskmates like his life depended on it that Rumi starts to think that perhaps in their past life Jinu was a monster and both her and Zoey had hunted him down that he vows to hunt them both in their next life.
Rumi shudders at the thought. But of course, Jinu being a monster wasn’t really that far off—he basically was anyways.
Rumi glances at her peripheral vision. The clock was way past half of five in the afternoon, and she had already finished more than half of the paper works. Rumi was feeling confident as she feels herself get fired up again to continue typing faster than usual, maybe then she’d manage to finish early and get home and rest.
Click-clack
Rumi’s eyes widen almost instantly as her fingers stood frozen on top of the keyboard. Sweat started forming at her forehead as she stared at the screen. Surely that had to be just her imagination, right?
But she stays silent for a while for good measure. Then she hears it again. Another click-clack, a bit louder and firmly than the previous. She feels her soul leave her body as she hears sets of click-clack echo in the empty office. No one else was here except her, unless somehow Jinu was evil enough to assign another poor soul overtime. But it was evident that he hadn’t.
The click-clack get louder and louder and Rumi just braces herself as she closes her eyes, mouth mumbling and muttering a cast of words put together as if she’d somehow manage to mutter a spell.
“Miss Ryu”
Was the devil calling for her now? Rumi’s eyes still remained shut as her hands were now clasped together as she continues muttering a mantra.
“Miss Ryu” She hears it again but this time it felt as if the voice was directly behind her.
Rumi feels a chill run through her spine when she feels a hand on her shoulder. She opens her eyes as she slowly turns around. Relief washing over her in an instant when she realizes it was no other than the pink-haired boss. It was one of the rare occasions where Rumi was actually glad to see Mira.
“Mir—Miss Jeong” She clears her throat to cover the slip of tongue. “What’re you doing here?” She asks so casually, trying to play it off as if her forehead wasn’t a waterfall at this point.
Mira removes her hand off of Rumi’s shoulder as she looks at the purple-haired girl below her. “I could ask you the same thing” An amused expression now spread all over her face.
“I, uh, overtime” Rumi manages to get out, her hand gesturing to the stack of papers by her computer.
Mira spares one glance at the unfortunate stack before darting back her gaze onto Rumi and muttering, “Pack your bags. You’re going home”
“M-me? But I’m not done—”
“Says who?” The curious expression on Mira’s face never faltering. Her arms now crossed over her chest.
“J-Jinu..?” An awkward smile spread over Rumi’s lips as she scratches her nape.
Mira shakes her head slightly in amusement. “He may be your boss, but I’m also his boss as well as your boss, and I say that you’re done”
“Y-yes, Miss” Rumi nods as she turns around and starts saving her files and document before shutting the computer off. By the time she had turned around, she had expected Mira would’ve at least started walking out and making her way to her own car to leave. But instead, the pink-haired boss had been waiting by her side.
“Oh you’re still here” Rumi says, surprised.
“Yes. Now let’s go, I’ll treat you to dinner” Not even waiting for Rumi to follow up, Mira starts making her way to the entrance of the building
“What for?” Rumi asks dumbfounded but still decides to trail behind the redhead.
“As compensation for overtime” She replies, her pace never slowing down.
“You don’t have to, Miss” Rumi politely declines, but Mira insists. And Rumi never really was one to go against pressure, always just accepting everything the way it was.
“I’ll follow behind you” Rumi says as she stops by her car.
Mira finally stops just a few feet away from Rumi as she turns around. Her eyes darting to the black automobile behind her employee before back to Rumi. Rumi feels herself shrink under her gaze, feeling shy about her car as she has the sudden urge to make Mira turn back around so she can look at anywhere but her car.
“Okay” Mira replies before turning back and continuing on her walk to the only other car in the parking lot.
Rumi gets in her car and waits for her boss to pass her by before following her right out and into the highway. She slows down in her pace as she trails closely behind Mira, making sure not to lose eye contact with the silver sports car in front of her.
After a few intersections and turns, they eventually arrive by a familiar district. Rumi parks her car right beside Mira as she gets out of the car. She walks right up to the sidewalk before peering out past the corner of the building. “Aha” Rumi mutters as she confirms her suspicions.
Mira’s just watching her curiously from the distant, waiting for Rumi to walk up to her before she decides to ask, “What were you doing?” Her arms crossed together as her eyebrows raised in curiosity.
“I was checking around because this place looks familiar, and that” She points out to a place in the distance. “Is the park near my house” She proudly says as she looks at Mira with a grin.
“What a coincidence” Mira replies. “I live quite near too”
Rumi’s mind flashes back to the awkward encounter by the park, her mind telling her and urging her to ask Mira about it, but she decides against it as she just follows the pink-haired woman inside.
The two of them get seated by a booth as Mira orders for the both of them. Soon after, their order gets taken to their table in a flash.
Rumi’s mouth watering at the bowl of noodles set in front of her.
“I hope you don’t mind noodles. I’ve been desperately craving for some today. I would’ve gone to my favorite today…” Mira wistfully says, picking up her chopstick. “But they’re closed today”
Rumi snaps her fingers. “The one two blocks away?”
“Yes” Mira replies, a smile on her lips. She gracefully traps the noodles in between her chopsticks before bringing it up to her lips and slurping it up.
Rumi does the same…or at least something half as graceful as Mira had and instead slurps up half of the original scoop. “I know that place. I love going to that place too!”
“Mhm” A smile etched on Mira’s lips. “They have the best jjajangmyeon there. You should try it sometime”
Rumi’s lips press into a thin line as she looks at Mira. The pink-haired girl had her eyes set on the noodles in her bowl, going about her way to trap it in between her chopsticks, while Rumi’s eyes just remained trained on her.
“I’m sure they do.” She replies, her eyes practically burning a hole onto the top of Mira’s head.
⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯
By the time Rumi and Mira had parted ways by the park with Rumi turning right and Mira going straight ahead, Rumi had quickly made her way up to her apartment wanting nothing more than to rest. She kicks off her shoes and fishes out her phone to send a message to Zoey.
6:10 pm
Me
hey Zoe just got home :)
She strips herself off of her work clothes, tosses them into the hamper, and takes a quick cold shower. Once Rumi was finished, she puts on a pair of shorts and a random shirt she’s managed to snag from her cabinet. Her phone was on, indicating a reply had come in
6:15 pm
Zoey 💚
HII RUMS <3
sorry im on a stream right now
ill reply after, okay?
Rumi’s eyebrows furrowed together as she reads the response. Because any normal person would think “oh, they’re just streaming on twitch” but her relationship with Zoey was anything but normal. So Rumi quickly sits down in front of her laptop as she boots up the familiar site, and sure enough, Zoey had been live.
But instead of being naked or stripping herself down on her normal shows, she’s instead just sitting on the edge of her bed. Mask still remained on as she wore a strawberry pyjama set.
“Yeah I think so too” Zoey’s eyes staring at the side instead of the camera. “Thanks for the donation, berry” She blows a kiss. “Well, yeah it’s pretty much—who was what?”
Rumi looks at the comments section. It seemed like Zoey had just been conversing with her viewers instead of her normal show. Her eyes darting to the title by the corner of the comments. ❁strawberry_princess❁’s 200k livestream special<3 (thank you berries!)
user319831: happy 200k!
ionic97_: yay congrats
grant_t: ur amazing
j_j_jjajeongmyeon: the person you were texting
Rumi’s eyebrows still knit together as she reads the comment. Her mind had already jumped to conclusions about their identity since earlier—it was surprising really that it took Rumi that embarrassingly long to piece everything together.
“Oh that?” Zoey’s voice interrupting her train of thoughts. She watches as the girl clasps her hand together. “That was my girlfriend”
Rumi feels her heart flutter at the mention, her eyes darting to the comments as she sees them flood and fill the section, some were congratulations while some had been comments about how they never even knew she was into women.
user2192332: have u been to the turtle aquarium?
user031930: Say hello plz imu r biggest fan!
fdjacjz: thoughts on peaches?
user79130: i love eating ramyeon too!
A bunch of harmless questions and comments filled the space. Up until the same person Rumi had been dreading had commented again.
j_j_jjajeongmyeon: Does she know?
“I haven’t been to the turtle aquarium you’re meaning but I’m meaning to—does she know?” Zoey stays silent for a while as she stares at the corner of her screen, perhaps reading it over and over to make sure she got it right.
And almost instantly she gets a respond from the same person again.
j_j_jjajeongmyeon: your girlfriend. Does she know?
Silence fills the stream before Zoey shakes her head. “She doesn’t know yet. But I’ll be coming around to telling her” Her voice shaking slightly.