The beginning of an office romance

In public, we were the perfect couple. I became famous because of my friendly attitude toward others and my intelligence, and he became famous because of his intelligence and the mysterious aura surrounding him.

If I were to describe him by his looks alone, he looked plain like a typical quiet nerd. He looked boring compared to me, not that I was any better than him.

However, since his intelligence exceeded mine, stealing my top spot, he became a hot topic instantly. Due to my superiority complex, I worked harder and claimed my top spot again and again.

Dylan wasn't exactly the type to give up that easily, so he fought back for the top spot too. It went on like that till the high school ended. Naturally, other students started to compare and group us while saying we were different kinds of breeds.

But worst of all, there were many rumours of us dating each other secretly.

What was more annoying was the fact that Dylan didn't seem to be affected by the rumours. Probably because of the friendly facade I put on this entire time, other students often asked me about the rumours to the point I snapped and confirmed the rumour out of irritation.

I regretted it, and because of it, I was stuck with him for most of my high school years.

He confronted me about it. For the first time, I was able to see an emotion in his emotionless eyes behind the glasses he wore. He exhaled harshly and walked away from me. The next day, he went back to his usual aloof self.

How was he able to keep his emotions in check most of the time? I envied him for that because I had almost zero control over my emotions most of the time. He wasn't exactly an open book. It was hard for me to guess what was on his mind.

The atmosphere was ice cold as we sat next to each other. His eyes were fixed on the math workbook in front of him. He was busy thinking of possible ways to solve the tricky question while completely ignoring my presence next to him.

A pen being swayed in the air with my fingers as I secretly stole glances at Dylan.

"Stealing glances at me won't make my heart flutter for you.", he spoke without looking at me. A small smirk played on his lips. My jaw dropped at his remark as I slowly turned my head to him.

"The fuck?", I muttered. I gave him a nasty side-eye before turning my head back to my workbook.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk.", he tusked in return, followed by a low chuckle at the end.

After being stuck with him for months, I finally got to see a slightly odd side of him; he can be quite flirty and playful at times, which was odd of him.

.....

I fluttered my eyes open. That was a dream- or I could say a memory from the past.

My eyes felt heavy, I could barely keep my eyes open thanks to the cold air-conditioner. I snuggled my face into my hand pillow until someone slammed a can of coffee on the table right in front of my face.

I jumped at the loud noise, my heart was racing fast as I straightened my back. Forcing my eyes to open, I looked at the guy standing next to me and realized it was Dylan, that goddamn fucker that never knew when to leave me alone.

He looked down at me, sniggering with a satisfied smile on his face. Oh, I wished I could punch that face one day.

"Wipe that nasty drool off of your face.", he tapped his finger on the corner of his lips.

I blinked, still half awake. My brows knitted together when his words finally registered in my brain. My cheeks lightly tinted red as I rubbed the drool off of my lips, that was embarrassing.

Nothing beats sleeping during lunch break though, I couldn't help myself.

I eyed down at the coffee can on my table. It was the exact can that he used to slam onto the table. "I'm not drinking that.", I looked back at him with a disgusted look.

The history between me and him wouldn't allow me to accept anything from him. He scoffed as he opened the can using one hand, "Who said it was for you? Buy it yourself."

With that, he promptly gulped down half of the coffee in front of me without feeling any remorse. He breathed out a delighted sigh with a hint of mocking as he wiped his mouth.

That action of his pissed me off as always. If he hadn't planned to give the coffee to me, he could have at least drank it somewhere else peacefully and yet, he chose to drink it in front of me to annoy me.

If I could, at that exact moment, I'd love to yank his tie and give him a few slaps in the face to vent all the pent-up stress I got from him.

He hadn't changed, other than his appearance, his annoying personality towards me remained the same. He looked even more bearable looking, I refused to admit that he grew up looking more handsome than any men I've met.

It felt wrong to compliment his dashing look.

Not only did he grow taller, he also gained lots of muscles, making his body look even more sexy. His biceps and wide back alone were enough to make him qualified for modelling. His face was no joke too. Though he had rather soft features, his jawline and tall nose bridge were enough to make him look manly. To top it off, he had ears, eyebrows and lip piercings, and his right hand was covered in tattoos too.

Looking at him now, he looked like a main character coming out of a romance novel. I was surprised that the company let him keep his piercings on during work hours.

I wasn't sure if this was what people called fate, we parted ways after graduating from high school. After that, we had never- not once, met each other. None of my high school friends ever mentioned him to me as well, making it easier for me to forget about him.

I went to college and graduated with good results. I managed to get myself a job at the company I worked at currently, in the Finance Department.

The day I entered the company as an accountant, I met him, who was then an auditor in the same department as me. Needless to say, every single financial statement I've prepared needs to be sent to him to verify the accuracy of the financial information.

Just so you know, working under him was hellish. I wasn't sure if he still held grudges towards me because of the stupid dating rumours I had accidentally confirmed or if there was another reason I didn't know of.

If he was purposely making my life harder than it already was because of it, then I'd gladly say that he was the pettiest guy I've known.

"God, you're so petty.", I spoke openly. He chuckled as he shook his head lightly, "That's not the right thing to say to your saviour."

He earned a scoff from me, "What kind of nonsense are you talking about?"

His lips curled in a mischievous smile as he held back his giggle. He took out his phone and swiped his thumb on the screen a few times. He glanced at me repeatedly, his expression was as puckish as always.

He couldn't hold back a snicker as he showed his phone to me, there was a picture of me sleeping with saliva dripping out from my slightly parted lips with my right cheek squished into the pillow, it was a mortifying picture of me.

To think that he, out of everyone, had that picture of me was even more degrading. My face blew red, covered with embarrassment. My hands reached out for his phone immediately. It went without saying, he pulled his hand away quickly and snuck it into his pocket.

"Imagine if someone sees you in that state? Wouldn't that embarrass you?", he stepped back when I stood up from the chair to take his phone away. His hand was placed on top of his pocket, protecting it from my hands.

"I'd rather have someone else see me like that than him", I gritted my teeth. He smiled smugly at the sight of me scowling at him, "Delete that picture."

"Dun wanna.", he replied casually.

I clenched my jaws, "I'll make sure you'll return home bald if you don't delete that picture now."

He raised both of his arms in the air, mockingly feigning fear. "Even if you delete it from my phone, I've already saved it to the cloud.", he spoke with a slight smirk.

At that moment, I snapped. Knowing him since high school, I knew that he wasn't joking about it since this wasn't the first time he had taken embarrassing pictures of me and saved them to the cloud.

I reached out for his hair with both of my hands to pull it. My attempt was nimbly terminated, he placed his big hand against my face and pushed my head back until I lost balance and fell back onto the chair. I shot him my death glare and he returned it with a smirk.

"Sent me the files I asked you before 4 p.m.", he tapped on the watch around his wrist. Before returning to his seat which was just a row in front of me, he flashed me his hypocrite-friendly smile at me.