Yang Ruqin was buried under a mountain of her half-completed sketches. She had sent in the finalized drawings a couple of days ago and had worked very hard with her team to design the clothes as similar to the drawings as possible. Today, she was finally catching a break and it was in the form of sleeping like a dead body on a couch. Crumbled paper littered the floor, occupying the areas on the couch that her body didn’t touch. She was snoring in blissful oblivion when a rough knock at her door jolted her awake. Her heart drummed at the memory of waking up to Mu Ting’s rash banging on her door. Even though it was in the past, her brain could never forget the terror she felt.

The person outside of the door only knocked once, yet it was urgent and loud enough to startle her from her sleep. She tiredly rubbed her eyes and looked towards the clock that indicated her two-hour nap became a full-blown twelve-hour sleep. Oh well. ‘Not like I have anything better to do with my life.’ She carelessly thought to herself, yawning and stretching before trudging to the apartment door.

Yang Ruqin wondered who it could’ve been. This was her private apartment and not the one she would meet with her team to design clothes. No one should know this location except for Zhao Lifei. She hoped her Feifei was going to show up with an Americano or Iced Macchiato… Speaking of which, she knew she would need to catch up with Zhao Lifei about what recently happened to her.

Yang Ruqin opened the door to Huo Qiudong holding a paper bag with a green circle logo of a famous coffee branch. “Good morning—”

She slammed the door shut.

Yang Ruqin placed her hand over her heart. ‘My goodness, I must be dreaming again!’ Her legs retracted to the mirror a few steps away and she wanted to dig herself a hole. Her appearance was far from perfect and she looked as if she went through hell and back. Dressed in her comfy sweats and an oversized t-shirt with cartoon prints on it, she wondered if she should just jump out of the window and escape down the streets.

Huo Qiudong awkwardly stood outside, scratching his head. Maybe good morning was too cheesy for her? He didn’t know what else to say since this was the best thing he could think of. Before coming here, he was practicing things to greet her with but in the end, settled with a good morning as the best idea. Seeing her immediate reaction, he began to chide himself for using such a bland greeting. Look at what it had done for him! It scared away his crush! He wanted to bang his head on the door for feeling so stupid, only, the door opened again, but by the smallest crack.

“U-uhm…Do you mind waiting outside for… say, ten minutes?”

“Is everything alright?” Huo Qiudong forced himself to come back to reality.

“Yes, it is. But uhm… I don’t look my best right now.”

“Really? You looked fine to me.” Huo Qiudong was never the type to compliment women in hopes of making them feel better. He did see her messy appearance, even if it was only for a second, but because it was her, he didn’t mind. He was happy to say he had seen her in her best and also her worst.

“That…I….” Yang Ruqin stammered, finding the right way to respond to him. As a previous supermodel, she was used to compliments thrown at her from left and right to the point that flattery and compliments had become meaningless to her a long time ago — even if it was said by someone close to her. However, to her surprise, her heart skipped a beat at his compliment, her face flushed like that of a giggling schoolgirl.

“T-thank you.” Her flustered voice sounded foreign to her ears. She was always used to being confident in front of men with her blinding appearance. She knew her charm and the things she had to offer. Utilizing every bit of her appearance and playful behavior, charming men was not hard; yet, when faced with Huo Qiudong’s blank expression and distant eyes, she found herself struggling to keep her act.

“May I come in?”

“A-about that…” Yang Ruqin wanted to cry to the Heavens. She swore if she got up there, she would kick the butts of the people forcing her into this highly embarrassing situation.

“What? Are you hiding a man in there?” Huo Qiudong joked, even though his eyes darkened at his own words. Great, just great. He angered himself because of his joke.

“What?! No! Of course not!” Yang Ruqin panicked and in doing so, she flung the door open to show she wasn’t lying. Huo Qiudong’s eyes widened when he saw the messy apartment. His instincts to clean the place kicked in.

“Your office…”

“Is messy, I know! Please don’t look! I also look messy! But I promise I’m not like this son a daily basis. You have to believe me.” Yang Ruqin yelped, standing on her tippy-toe to cover his eyes.

Huo Qiudong was momentarily shocked by her actions, his body stiffening at the attack of her feminine scent. It tickled his nose and prompted him to breathe in her sweet scent.

Realizing what she had done and the proximity of her actions, Yang Ruqin jumped back and retracted her hands. “I-I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to intrude into your personal space.” She brushed her strands of hair behind her ears and stared at her white cedar floors, wishing a hole would open up and swallow her.

Huo Qiudong was awestruck by the adorable sight of her blush and the way she fidgeted under his gaze. He never realized his charm towards a woman until he saw her sneaked glances at him, only to look at the floor. Stepping into the apartment, he closed the door behind him and placed the cup of coffee down. “That’s alright, I don’t mind. Why don’t you get ready for the day and I’ll clean up your apartment?” He offered her, even though he was adamant on tidying this place. His hands itched to organize the spacious apartment.

“T-that would be perfect, thank you.” Yang Ruqin wondered where her poise and confidence went. She couldn’t help but behave like a childish girl in his presence.

“Feel free to throw away the crumbled paper, but please leave my drawing and painting supplies where it is. As for the multiple opened sketchbooks, they can go onto the bookshelf.” She pointed towards her labeled bookshelves before escaping into the bathroom in her apartment. Hurriedly, she brushed her teeth, washed her face, fixed her hair, and then ran to the closet. Subconsciously, she reached for the clothes that matched the color of his.

Eventually, she found herself an ivory cashmere sweater that matched his shirt. It was loose and baggy to which she tucked it into a small, plaid skirt that emphasized her small waist. She tied the belt that it came with into a loose ribbon tumbling down her right side, adjusting the black buttons so that she didn’t accidentally flash him. She curled her hair in waves, threw on some decorative rings, wore minimal make-up that would bring out her natural features, then waltzed out of the room thirty-minutes later.

Her eyes widened at the sight of her clean apartment. It hadn’t been this tidy and organized for a while now and she felt like she stepped into a completely different place. Even the decorative throw-pillows were fluffed and neatly organized on the couch, albeit the position was a bit too perfect for her liking. She wondered why they seemed to be evenly spaced apart. Then she saw the ruler sitting beside Huo Qiudong who was occupying himself on the couch.

His stern expression but polite seating position made her want to laugh and tease him. “Did you use a ruler to organize the pillows?” She curiously asked him while lessening the distance between them.

His head snapped up and for the second time today, he was blinded by her beauty. He thought she looked perfectly fine before, but now that she had gotten ready for the day, he found himself tongue-tied and unable to say anything. He did his best to not stare at her long, smooth legs. “I-is it weird?” The tables had turned on him and it was his turn to be flustered and stuttering. She was just so enticingly beautiful, he didn’t know how to react to her presence. He gulped and held his breath when she sauntered to him, her fingers brushing onto the angled ruler.

Huo Qiudong’s rapidly beating heart felt like it could jump out of his chest at any given moment. He was particularly worried about her reaction toward his tendencies. He knew most people found it weird and some might even find it repulsing, by his desire to have small objects equally spaced out. His parents had always reprimanded him on his behavior, claiming that no woman wanted an overbearing strait like his.

“Nope. I think it’s cute.” Yang Ruqin placed the ruler onto her lap, then seated herself beside him. Her fingers accidentally brushed against his, and the smallest touch was enough to make him stiffen.

“Hm, you smell different than last time. Is it cologne?” She asked, leaning closer to him in hopes of identifying the scent. It was a bit woody, but with tinges of a refreshing ocean breeze. She liked that scent and was inclined to come closer, not realizing he was going to die from a heart attack at any given moment.

“No, I changed my body wash this morning.” He was attempting to remain as still as possible, not daring to touch her more than needed. Now that he was sure he wanted to court her, he tried to remain as polite as possible. But with her constant movement and her scent clouding his senses, he felt his hand reaching up to brush rogue strands of hair out of her eyes.

Yang Ruqin’s eyes widened at his actions, caught off-guard. She knew what she was doing to him. Her playful nature came out at how nervous he was behaving. She wanted to pinch his cheek and hug him. He was simply that cute! But now that he had turned the tables on her, gently lifting her chin to look at her better, it was her turn to nervously licked her lips.

His eyes were focused on the small action, but then he lifted his eyes back to hers. He never realized this prior, but her eyes were truly lovely. They were oddly darker than his, but there was so much emotion buried within them that he found himself looking into the second most beautiful thing in the world — the first being her.