change of heart | jumin han x reader

07

Walking into the office after leaving (y/n)'s home inevitably led to me, stuck in my office for the next nine days, forced to ignore calls and send one-word responses to her without a decent explanation. I spent day and night planted firmly in my chair, and if not I was in the conference room making sure everybody was doing the same. Any time I tried to sneak a moment away, Assitant Kang swiftly put me back in my office. I began to dread going to work as (y/n)'s messages changed from 'No worries' to 'Why haven't you been answering lately?', guilt eating me up despite being powerless.

I'm going on my tenth day in a row when Assiatant Kang knocks on the door to my office, keys in her hands. I wave her in, only looking up from my computer for a moment.

"I'm going to run and get something to eat, do you want me to bring you back anything?"

"No, thank you."

"Mr. Han," Worry paints her face as she gets ready to lecture me. "I understand there's a lot to do, but you can't neglect your health. I know you've been skipping meals and it's not good for you or your work."

"Fine," I sigh. "Bring me back anything. Whatever you get is fine."

"Thank you," she calls as she leaves, leaving me alone again. I take a deep breath and relax for a moment, making sure Jaehee has left before pulling out my phone, crossing the room and closing the door before clicking (y/n)'s name on the screen. The ringing went on, and I began to lose heart just when she answered.

"Hello?"

"(Y/n)," I breathe, relief washing over me. "I'm so glad you picked up. I'm sorry I haven't been around lately."

"Yeah!" She snickers, hopefully at least only half upset. "I was worried about you. I thought you'd worked yourself to death."

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry," I chuckle, happy to hear her voice even if it was just over the phone. "Everybody in the company is working overtime to finish this project we've got with another very large company. I'm only calling you now because my assistant left for a moment and she'd have my head if she caught me."

She Oohhh's in response, a few beats of silence between us making me uncomfortable.

"How have you been though? How is your work going?" I ask, desperate to fit in as much conversation as possible before Jaehee comes in and confiscates my phone from me.

"It's been great," she answers. "My gallery show for the pieces I showed you is only a week from Thursday now. I'm getting nervous." She gives a halfhearted laugh, almost self deprecating.

"Why are you nervous?" I ask, confused. "Those paintings are beautiful. Nobody intelligent would say they're not."

"I guess," she laughs. "I'm struggling with the final piece. I haven't done a proper gallery since I did this big event in Europe, which was almost a year ago. I don't even have a dress yet."

"I'm sure it will go great. Are you displaying just the pieces you showed me or anything else?" I'm surprised by my own curiousity, considering with V I couldn't follow along with the talk of his photography for more than a few minutes before I was confused. With (y/n) though, everything she said kept me on the edge of my seat, begging for more.

"There'll be much more. I think that's why I'm so nervous, because I'm displaying a lot of pieces that are really personal to me for the first time... I actually wanted to ask you something, Jumin."

"Of course," I say; as she begins to speak, though, my father enters my office and I feel like a child caught drawing on the walls as he stares down at me blankly from across the room. "Uh, Father. One moment please."