bestie anniv 2020

yoon haneul ;; network love .

" starting from today , you're not my secretary .

... and i'm not your boyfriend . "

haneul couldn't believe it . couldn't believe him .

but most of all , she couldn't believe herself .

since when did i fall for him this hard ?

yuta knew how bad she was taking the breakup the moment she arrived at her new desk . old makeup from the previous day stayed on her face , smudged and deathly and most definitely not good for her skin . her clothes weren't buttoned up properly and the steps she took were shaky . her puffy red eyes and the used tissues that fell out of her handbag were clear evidence that she'd been crying for the entire night .

" do you want a day off ? " the cfo asked worriedly , taking the stack of files off her desk in an effort to lessen the stress on her shoulders , " i promise i won't cut your pay . "

" i-it's okay , " she mumbled , " i can ... i can take it . "

" okay , well ... the least i can do is let nixie help you , " he replied , " plus , you two need to communicate about the ongoing projects and clientele anyway , so go ahead and make her do all the work if you want . "

" yeah ! " nixie chimed in cheerfully , " i can help ! "

" ... thanks , guys , i ... i really appreciate it . " haneul cracked an insincere , tired smile .

she spent half a day gathering her things in a huge box and constantly reminding nixie about her forgotten staplers and highlighters . then , when she was finally done and the younger had settled in , she walked out of the ceo's territory , heading to her new desk .

for some reason , she didn't look back .

don't get me wrong , she wanted to . but she couldn't . as if some cosmic force was physicaly preventing her from doing so , telling her that ...

it's not worth it . he's not worth looking back for .

obviously , the rest of the netwerkly groupchat kept her company for that week . they did their best to fill the hole in her heart , putting all their efforts into getting her back on her feet again . jace brought her to that samgyeopsal restaurant they'd both been craving recently . ahn let her tag along on his trips to " femboy hooters " , aka the gym ( none of them worked out , they just looked at boys ) . kiki shared sweets with her and always sent jungwoo to check in every morning . even taeil started forwarding her ( terribly outdated ) memes through whatsapp with his signature " haha 😂 " .

and , truth be told , haneul did feel better . she did acknowledge their efforts and tried to keep up with their pace and force herself to be happy . she ate the samgyeopsal . she stalked the hot gym trainee's instagram . she ate the sweets and told jungwoo she was fine . she replied to the memes with slightly better ones . she started to smile more at the office , she started to take care of herself , and she started to seem better .

but when night came , when she finished dinner and bid her gang goodbye and returned to her empty , cold apartment , when she shut the door and turned the lights on , that emptiness still came . the hole was still there , and although she filled it during the day , it would always cave in at night .

everything reminded her of him . the empty space beside her whenever she woke up during midnight . the couple mugs they'd gotten for employee day . the " how to get rich " books in the shelf . the ceo x secretary dramas airing on tv . the polaroid of them on her fridge . the stacks of paperwork left strewn all over the coffee table . the ugly red wine stain on her kitchen counter .

haneul did feel better , but at the same time , she felt worse .

worse than ever .

" you started this shit and now you left me in the ditch to deal with the aftermath all alone . "