Our Winter

the day i die

A Tuesday morning had never felt better. Mei suddenly found the motivation to wake up on her own and even cook breakfast for Jun and Jia. Although they enjoyed it, Jia was too tired for her enthusiasm, the nurse duties taking the toll on her sleep. Jun on the other hand, was constantly throwing snarky comments despite hogging the food she'd cooked. Her favourite line he'd said that morning was "look at her feeling sunshine and rainbows, all because she got a boyfriend." It reminded her of what Minghao was to her now. Her boyfriend.

The pair had barely any reaction to the news, especially after the sudden escalation in their relationship three days prior. Basically, they saw this coming. With Jia letting out a "finally" and Jun throwing a "took you long enough", she knew that they expected this. Deep down, so did she.

She walked in to her desk as usual, except with a skip in her step and the brightest grin on her face.

"Mei?" Renjun called out. Renjun had been the man sitting next to her the whole time, and although they weren't close, they sometimes had small chats and shared snacks. "You good? You seem... giddy, to say the least." He asked, genuinely looking concerned. Mei smiled from ear to ear as she nodded. "Never better. I feel so light and happy, it's crazy." She said.

"Wow. Good for you. Oh, and I think I just saw Mr Xu walk in a few minutes before you came in. You know, morning agenda and all that." Mei's eyes sparkled at the mention of Minghao, as she happily nodded and gathered the materials to be shown to him. Walking over to his office faster than usual, Mei did her usual triple knock on the door, hearing the 'come in' as she did everyday. Only today was different; today he was her boss and her boyfriend.

She opened the door slowly, watching as he looked up. The smile that grew on his face when he saw her was magical. His eyes developed an unforgettable sparkle, and grinned brighter than she'd ever seen.

"Morning Ms Xiao." He said playfully.
"Morning sir." She returned.
"You seem to be in a good mood today. May I ask why?"
"You see sir, the boyfriend from my imaginations is now my boyfriend in real life." She said, giddiness overflowing. "Wait, you imagined me as your boyfriend?" Minghao asked, seeming pleased with this new knowledge.

"You wanna hear something crazy?"
"Oh I love crazy."
"I had a dream this one time where we were married." She whispered, but loud enough for him to hear. "Oh damn."

"I gets better, we had a kid. Man I thought that was a nightmare, I even woke up screaming." She recalled. Minghao's face lit up when he remembered.
"Oh my god, I remember, I was with you." Mei nodded. "Yep." She giggled. He flashed a gummy smile. "You don't know how pretty you look right now." He said truthfully. "I feel like I just want to kiss you." He gushed, looking at her like she was the eighth wonder of the world. Mei blushed, but lowered her smile a bit.

"You know, someone's going to start suspecting something if we're this gushy around each other."
"No one's here to listen."
"Those walls aren't soundproof."
"Valid." He finally accepted, straightening his back. Remembering why she was here, Mei opened her iPad, putting the files Minghao needed onto his desk.

"So, you have to attend the meetings about the new department store idea your father's got. That meeting's at eleven o' clock, so you've still got around an hour for that. That's scheduled till twelve-thirty. After that you've got your usual lunch break." She recited, taking a pause to scroll.

"Do I get a break?"
"Break? Oh yeah, you've got an hour now, and then-"
"Not like that."
"Like what then?"
"Like a break with you. It's hard for me to know you're right outside that door, but I can't even flirt, let alone kiss you." He sulked.
"Hao, you have got to stop thinking about kissing me all the time, we've literally been together for less than a day."
"It's hard." He sulked. Mei gave him a look, after which he straightened up and focused on work, but deep down, she knew the butterflies flapping in her stomach weren't going to leave anytime soon.