Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Hanbin liked to think that after 22 years of his laborious lifetime, he would have a pretty good understanding of what it meant to be royally fucked.

This is something he knew when he was a child, climbing up the biggest tree in his backyard without thinking of a route down; when he was in high school and decided it was a good idea to ‘reinvent' himself as a tough boy, the resulting beatings he took by real bad boys forever bruising his ego. Or most notably in college when he assumed he was smart enough to pass his classes without studying like in previous years, promptly failing miserably on 2 finals and wasting money he did not own to redo them the following year.

Now more than ever, Hanbin wished that his penchant for getting himself into these types of situations, would cease to exist.

He’d been working as the assistant to the CFO of ‘Account On Us’ for the last 4 months, and couldn’t fathom how someone so constantly infuriated could ever work for a place with such a chipper and cheesy name. He stood out like a sore thumb against the bright yellow walls with his dark and tailored suits; the frown always present on his face, souring Hanbin’s mood every single morning. And though Hanbin had somehow managed to not be fired, he knew his current mishap would 100% incur his boss's wrath.

He realizes that his habit of drafting up churlish responses to his boss's emails was not his brightest idea, but it was the only way he’d been able to unleash his aggravation without straight up cursing out the one who held his career in their hands.

He started this routine his third week into the job. After a particularly brutal day, Hanbin had been at his wits end; ready to tear his hair out and live the rest of his life bald if he had to deal with anymore of Junhoe’s peevish attitude. The taller man had spent the entire day nitpicking at everything Hanbin did. The final straw had been an incredibly brusque email detailing Hanbin’s failure at properly booking his appointments. Minutes prior, Junhoe had rushed out of the office and into the idling car Hanbin had ordered, cussing under his breath in irritation.

He scanned through the email a second time in disbelief, anger rising at every word he read before promptly smashing the reply button.

His mouse hovered over the send button as he had an internal battle. Did he value self respect more, or having a steady income?

With a deep-seated sigh he went back to the body of the email and backspaced to the beginning

Months later, Hanbin finds the emails almost therapeutic. It had been a habit to just write out his initial thoughts without any filter and then send a more acceptable version to his boss. This time however, Hanbin wished more than ever that he’d never written that first email.

“For the last time Hanbin, you can’t pre call an ambulance.”

“You don’t understand Dongie, I’m gonna die, I’ll need heavy medical attention. You need to come asap.”

“Just go in and apologize like a man,” Donghyuk tried to reason with him. He obviously had no idea who Hanbin was dealing with.

He could hardly contain his scoff, “Be a man? Be a MAN?! I told him that his ding-a-ling must be non existent if he needed to be on a power trip all the time!”

Hanbin could hear his friend unsuccessfully try to muffle a snicker on the other end of the line.

“Okay, well maybe you should just leave then if being a man isn’t an option? Either way, I gotta go, there’s a real emergency that needs my attention. Good luck!”

'Betrayer'.

Hanbin slowly placed the phone back in it's cradle and contemplated calling up Chanwoo in IT. Maybe if he bribed him enough he’d send a virus to Junhoe’s computer and destroy any evidence of his email.

A ping from his desktop stopped him mid dial. His IM had popped up with a message from his boss.

A very succinct, ‘Office, now.’

Hanbin tried to gulp but his throat was suddenly parched. Sweat beading on his forehead.

“I’m so fucked.”

Chapter Text

Passing in front of the large oak doors, Hanbin seriously contemplated bolting like Donghyuk had suggested. Aside from his childhood friend’s lack of sympathy, he knew that if he ever had to quit his job for any reason, Donghyuk would always have his back.

His decision was disrupted once more, this time via Junhoe calling through the door.

“Stop dawdling out there. Come in, now.”

“Shit,” Hanbin whispered out, rubbing his sweaty palms over his slacks.

He slowly trudged forward, stepping inside his boss’s den. The office was as bleak as the man who worked in it. No pictures in site, no paintings on the walls, which were stark white; his desk impeccable as always.

Hanbin gulped down the lump in his throat before attempting to speak. “You wished to see me?”

“Sit,” Junhoe commanded with a vague gesture towards the seat across from him, not once looking away from his desktop where he was fervently typing.

Sitting down as instructed, Hanbin clutched at his knees to stave away any trembling. Minutes passed with only the sound of the keys clicking.

Finally, after what must have been 10 grueling minutes, Junhoe clicked around a few times with his mouse, ‘probably submitting my termination papers’ Hanbin thought bitterly, before turning towards him.

Hanbin had taken that time to look over his boss. Aside from his awful attitude, it was easy to see why the rest of the company fell at his feet. He was slightly taller than Hanbin himself, and he was an incredibly handsome man. The girls in the office could always be heard gossiping about how good he looked in his fitted suits, how hot he was when he concentrated on his work, and to Hanbin’s utter astonishment, how nice he was.

Obviously the people he worked with were delusional.

While he could agree on the first two points, not once had Hanbin witnessed this so called nice behavior.

“I believe you know why you're here,” Junhoe questioned, eyebrow quirked as if to say ‘I'm asking because I know you’re an idiot and you might not actually know why.’

He released a shuddered breath before nodding, “Of course Mr.Koo, and I’m terribly sorry fo-”

What would have certainly become verbal diarrhea was cut off by a wave of dismissal from his boss.

“I don’t want your apology, I want to know it will never happen again, and that your obvious dislike towards me will no longer continue to affect your work.” Hanbin floundered for words, nodding in agreeance instead.

“Good. I need you to call Mr.Park from the sales department, tell him we need to reschedule our meeting. Push it until mid-next week.”

“Of course!” Hanbin exclaimed, standing up. He turned and briskly walked towards the doors, ready to prove his worth. He paused when Junhoe spoke up behind him.

“Oh, and Hanbin,” he waited until Hanbin looked over at him, a wicked smirk in place. “Get me a coffee. Black, like my soul apparently”.

Recalling the words written in his latest and regrettably sent email, Hanbin gulped before hastily retreating. With the door firmly closed he lent back against it and closed his eyes.

He took a deep breath.

This was going to be a long week.

Chapter Text

Monday the following week showed a harried Hanbin who’d spent the remainder of the previous week being harassed at every chance possible by Junhoe.

“I swear Donghyuk, he's just biding his time,” He whispered furiously, hand cupping the receiver to muffle the noise.

Hanbin could hear his friend moving around on the other side of the line and the faint sound of a protest before someone spoke again.

“Binnie, can we talk about this later? I know you're stressed but Donghyuk and I finally got some time off together and want to spend it cuddling and watching sappy movies,” Yunhyeong answered, obviously annoyed at the amount of time Hanbin had been complaining to his boyfriend for.

“Sorry…” mumbled Hanbin.

“Don't pout, it's unbecoming,” Yunhyeong chided, “We’ll see you tonight at that bar Bobby told you about. Don't be late or I'm not inviting you to dinner on Thursday.”

“Why does Bobby even want to celebrate on a Monday night? He's fucking crazy,” Hanbin snorted in derision. Honestly, couldn't he just wait until the weekend to celebrate his birthday like any normal human being?

“Don't know, don't care. Bye.” With that said, the elder hung up

“Bye friend, nice talking to you too friend, can't wait to talk to you again soon friend,” Hanbin grumbled to himself while placing the phone back down in its cradle. He obviously had the most wonderful friends a guy could ever ask for.

Stuffing the rest of his lunch into his mouth and packing away the empty containers, Hanbin continued reading through his current emails. Last week had been so hectic that he’d skimmed over 70% of his inbox and flagged non-essential emails to go over at a later date, which is basically Monday during his lunch break, as per usual.

“Hanbin”

Hearing his boss’s stern voice from behind startled him. Whipping around he titled his head back slightly to look into Junhoe’s eyes, realizing belatedly that his cheeks were still bulging quite unattractively with his food.

He gulped the rest down harshly with a strangled cough before answering, “Yes sir, what can I do for you?”

Junhoe eyed him wearily before minutely shaking his head, “I need you to make sure my schedule is fully clear tonight and field any late phone calls. I have an event I need to attend and don't want any distractions.”

“I can clear your schedule no problem, but as for tonight…”Hanbin trailed off, noticing Junhoe's narrowing eyes as he spoke. “Yes, absolutely, no problem at all sir.” He finished lamely; too nervous that one refused task would end up with his ass on the curb.

“Good,” Junhoe stated while walking past him towards his office. He paused just before opening his door, “I’ll need you to pick up some clothes for me from the dry cleaners before the end of the day.”

“Of cour-”

“I can't show up looking like the grim reaper now can I?” Junhoe finished saying before he finally entered his lair.

Hanbin let his head fall onto his desk with a painful thud. Nothing was hurting him more than hearing his boss reiterate his idiotic email day in and day out. He’d told Donghyuk that he was being harassed, what Donghyuk didn't know was that he was being harassed with his own words being repeated by his straight faced employer.

Picking his head up, Hanbin looked quickly at the time and mentally calculated how long it would take to get to the dry cleaners and back. If he left now then he’d have just enough time to stop off at home for a quick shower and a change of clothes before meeting the others at the bar.

At least he’d still get invited to dinner on Thursday.

-------

Walking into the crowded bar Hanbin cursed his luck when he managed to bump into a total of 3 people in the span of 2 seconds. The others couldn’t be fully to blame since his eyes were pretty much glued to his phone, furiously texting Yunhyeong, promising that yes he was in fact there, and no he wasn’t lying and actually at home still.

Glancing up he scanned the area to see if he could find his friends platinum blonde head, with no luck. The place was really just too crowded.

Why Bobby insisted on coming here of all places was lost to him, but Hanbin was a curl up at home kind of guy; the type to want to stay in his boxers and lounge on the couch from Friday night to Monday morning. He wasn’t a hermit by any means, but he was incredibly awkward in nature and always found it much easier to avoid dealing with people in general if possible.

His phone pinged with a notification, causing him to pause his search. He opened his notifications to see an urgent request requiring Junhoe’s attention. Letting out a heavy sigh he typed out a quick reply, stating that unless this ‘urgent request’ couldn’t wait until the following morning, then they would need to settle for their controller. He read though the email one more time and CCed in their controller before sending it.

He moved further into the bar hoping to catch sight of someone he knew, silently praying he didn’t get the name of the bar wrong or Yunhyeong would really kill him this time.

He felt someone slam into his shoulder from behind him and turned around to give them a piece of his mind. Noticing the larger body wrapped in a fitted leather jacket he quickly changed his mind, muttering a quick apology before looking up towards the strangers face, wondering if their face would be as attractive as their chest. Just as soon as the words left his mouth he was left speechless.

Standing before Hanbin, looking as good and grumpy as ever, was Koo Junhoe. His jacket was worn over a simple black t-shirt, paired with dark jeans that showed just how long his legs really are, and though the sight of his boss wearing something other than a suit shocked him, he was more surprised to see that Junhoe would be caught dead in a place like this. Hanbin always imagined that Junhoe would frequent those upscale swanky bars that sold drinks that cost more than his entire paycheck.

Another ping from his phone broke him out of his stupor. He unlocked his phone quickly to see a sting of texts coming though

Hanbin whipped his head around, finally spotting his friend glaring at him from across the room.

“Sorry about that, he’s a brute but I swear he didn’t do it on purpose.”

When Hanbin turned back around he saw the petite brunette beside Junhoe, having completely overlooked him he was quick to reply, “Its ok! I’m sure it was just an accident.”

He glanced up at Junhoe from the corner of his eye, unsure if his boss wanted their working relationship to be known. It was uncomfortable meeting a work acquaintance out in the real world as it was, let alone his ill-tempered boss. Focusing back onto the smaller man in front of him he couldn’t help but appreciate his delicate features. He wondered if Junhoe’s ‘event’ that he needed to attend tonight was actually a date. His eyes widened unintentionally, trying to dispel the thought of his boss needing uninterrupted time to get laid.

The other man smiled apologetically before pulling Junhoe away and further into the bar.

Shaking his head to finish ridding his mind of unwanted thoughts, Hanbin turned around for the last time and headed towards Yunhyeong who was still eyeing him.

“I swear on all of my precious albums that I was not late,” Hanbin implored once he as close enough for his friend to hear him.

Yunhyeong just huffed and ruffled his hair, making it messier then it already was.

“Where’s Bobby?” He asked, not seeing him or Donghyuk anywhere still.

“They’re getting drinks, nothing for you though, only people who are on time get their drinks ordered right away,” Yunhyeong replied, the slight upturn on the corner of his lips giving him away. He couldn’t stay annoyed at Hanbin for any lengthy amount of time.

They both take a seat at the large booth; sitting across each other, and Hanbin placed the small bag he brought onto the table.
“You actually bought him a gift?” Yunhyeong joked, quirking an eyebrow.

“Unlike you, who thinks their presence is gift enough, I actually take the time to go out and personally pick out the perfect gift for my friends,” Hanbin huffed, head tilting up in a taunt.

“You bought that from the store across your apartment, didn’t you?”

Before Hanbin could defend his honor, though he had in fact bought it from that very same place, he was being called by a very cheerful Bobby.

“Glad you made it!” Bobby exclaimed, clamping him on the shoulder, hauling him up for a hug, “Let me introduce you to a couple people,” he gestured to behind him. Donghyuk was the first person Hanbin saw, so he reached over to help him place the drinks he was carrying down.

“I know I wasn’t supposed to get you anything, but I just grabbed you a beer,” Donghyuk told him when he saw him eyeing the large amount of liquor they brought back to the table.

Yunhyeong rolled his eyes at the ceiling; he should have known Donghyuk would have gotten Hanbin something regardless of his newly implemented rule.

Bobby coughed lightly and nodded his head to his other side,” These are the friends that I told you about from the gym, Jinhwan and Junhoe,” Bobby pointed to each male and gestured for them all to take a seat.

Donghyuk slid in beside Yunhyeong, while Bobby followed beside him. Jinhwan pushed Junhoe toward Hanbin’s side of the booth, and the next thing Hanbin knew, he was sitting beside his boss, trying with all his might not to make a complete ass out of himself.

He remembered Bobby mentioning meeting a couple of guys at the gym a few months ago that he got along with very well. If he recalled correctly, which for some odd reason he could easily, that meant that Jinhwan was Junhoe’s brother in law, having married into the family.

“Oh, it’s you!” Jinhwan pointed out, grinning when he saw Hanbin for the second time that night.

“You guys know each other?” Bobby asked, looking between them curiously.

Junhoe stayed silent and left Jinhwan to explain their earlier encounter. Bobby’s attention waned though as soon as he noticed the bag that Hanbin had placed on the table.

“Binnie, hand that over!” He shouted, holding his hands out to collect his present.

Hanbin chuckled before tossing it over, “Happy birthday loser.”

Hastily opening up the bag, he pulled out a yellow bear wearing a cute blue hat. Blinking Bobby looked up at Hanbin silently questioning his choice in gift.

Blushing, Hanbin mumbled, “It’s so Pooh won’t get lonely while you’re away…” he trailed off, feeling stupid for coming up with such a lame idea. At the time it seemed like the perfect gift, but looking back on it he realizes that it might be a bit childish.

He glanced up and noticed Bobby’s widening smile, eyes crinkling like they do when he’s really happy. ‘Well, Bobby can be pretty childish sometimes, so I guess I was right after all’

“Thanks Hanbin, Pooh will love him.”

Hanbin smiled, glad that Bobby seemed happy with it.

The conversation progressed from there; Donghyuk and Yunhyeong talking about their upcoming plans for a vacation; Jinhwan expressing his annoyance at the price of alcohol now a days, and Bobby happily inserting comments here and there. The only two not engaging in any form of conversation was Junhoe and Hanbin himself. Of course they answered when asked a direct question, but the awkwardness burned between them, almost palpable.

Hanbin noticed Yunhyeong eyeing the two of them and just as he went to open his mouth to probably ask a bothersome question, Hanbin was saved by his phone pinging for the nth time that night.

He pulled it out of his jacket pocket and read through his recent email. It was from the same employee as earlier that night, and with a sigh he went to reply. A shadow fell across his screen so he looked up to see Junhoe leaning over, trying to see what was written.

Hanbin instinctively pulled his phone closer to his chest. Boss or no boss, looking at someone else’s phone was an invasion of privacy. He glared at him and turned back to his phone, the screen pointedly turned away from him.

“Hey! Put that away!” Bobby complained when he noticed Hanbin’s attention focused elsewhere.

“Sorry this is important; I just need to answer really quick.”

Bobby huffed, leaning across the table to try and take his phone away from him,” This is my birthday, I’m declaring no working allowed, I don’t care how much of a demon your boss is, today is about me!”

Hanbin felt Junhoe tense beside him, and quickly protested, “Come on Bobby, it’s not that big of a deal, someone is just being a bit persistent that’s all. Just give me a second and I’ll be done.”

With a sigh Bobby sat back down arms crossed, undoubtedly pouting. “You already work ridiculous hours, can’t you have one day off?”

“Ya Binnie, even when you’re not at work, you’re working at home. You’re never going to get a boyfriend at this rate,” Donghyuk interjected, though Hanbin couldn’t tell if it was in concern or amusement.

“Wow, does your boss even do anything? Sounds like your being run ragged for someone who doesn’t appreciate what you do,” Jinhwan added in, looking at him from across Junhoe.

Horrified, Hanbin tried to derail this conversation, “No, no, no, everything is fine, just peachy at work. Either way, this is Bobby’s birthday we’re here for, not me.”

“That’s right! Stop talking about Hanbin’s dumb job.” Hanbin sighed in relief when Bobby replied exactly as he’d hoped.

He took a small drink from his bottle and peeked over to see if Junhoe looked as pissed as he was expecting but couldn’t make out his expression. He’d been silent the entire exchange, and Hanbin wasn’t sure if that was a good or bad thing. He looked down at his phone and the start of his drafted email; letting out an exhale he began finishing it.

Abruptly Junhoe stood up beside him and excused himself to the bathroom. Sweat started to form on Hanbin’s forehead. At least this time if he actually does get fired, it would be his friends fault and not his.

Just as Hanbin was about to push send on his reply, a notification showed a new email from none other than Junhoe. He must have answered the email as he was walking away.

Opening it up he couldn’t help but feel sorry for the poor stubborn bastard that wanted to talk to his boss, Junhoe’s email having been more vicious then most Hanbin had ever seen. Hanbin doubts that neither Junhoe, nor Hanbin will be getting another email for the remainder of the night. Locking his phone he placed it back into his pocket and wished that nothing more would go wrong that day.

Chapter Text

The next morning Hanbin stood in front of familiar oak doors, hand firmly wrapped around the bottle of homemade hangover smoothie. He recalled Junhoe consuming a rather frightening amount of alcohol the previous night once he’d returned back to their table. Without thinking much about it, he’d made enough of his secret cure for both himself and his boss.

Now that he was standing in front of his office, doubt started to sink in. He couldn’t fathom what had made him decide to make enough for Junhoe; the alcohol must not have been fully out of his system.

He was about to go back to his desk with his extra drink when the door opened. Junhoe was dressed as impeccable as ever, but it was clear to see he had a headache from the extra tension in his shoulders, and the depth of his frown.

Without any deliberation, Hanbin thrusted his hand out, accidentally misjudging the distance and hitting Junhoe square in the chest with the bottle.

“I um, thought you might need this. Maybe, or maybe not, I mean maybe you don’t even get hangover’s, or maybe you d-“ Getting cut off was something Hanbin was getting used to, however this time he managed to cut himself off as he noticed Junhoe wincing at the sound of his flustered prattling. “Sorry, it’s a hangover smoothie,” he lamely finished.

Hanbin was surprised when Junhoe reached out and grabbed the offered drink, instantly gulping down a quarter of it in one fell swoop.

Junhoe turned back around to head back into his office, motioning for Hanbin to follow him inside.

Walking into the room Hanbin closed the door behind him and headed over towards the chair across from Junhoe’s desk.

Junhoe sat down and gestured for Hanbin to sit before looking at him. “I think we have some things to discuss that shouldn’t wait until later.”

Hanbin had been expecting something like this to come up, what with the conversation that happened last night, and his email incident.

“First things first, Jinhwan and I have become good friends with Bobby, and it’s easy to see that you too have been friends for years. The chances of having to meet outside of the office are rather large now, so we need to set some boundaries.”

Nodding his head Hanbin wondered what type of boundaries Junhoe meant.

“If, or when, we have to be somewhere at the same time as each other, I’d rather not discuss anything related to work, or the fact that we work together. Especially not since they think I’m the devil’s spawn now,” Junhoe added on, taking a break for another chug of his smoothie.

“I’m really sorry about that,“ Hanbin implored, but was shrugged off.

“No, that’s another thing I wanted to talk about. I’ve been thinking, not just since last night, but since that email you sent; maybe we need to go over what your position requirements actually are. It’s been awhile since I’ve had a competent assistant, and I think that since you started here and proved that you we’re able to handle the work load, I might have started to unconsciously lean on you a bit more then I should have.”

Hanbin was completely floored; never would he have expected Junhoe of all people to admit that he may have been wrong about something. Obviously Hanbin didn’t know as much about his boss as he's previously thought.

“I’m going to write down a list of everything I think you’ve been doing, and I want you to write out a list of what you have been actually doing. We should be able to shift some of the work to other departments, or other employees if needed.”

“When do you want me to have this completed?” Hanbin asked, already thinking of the work load he has waiting for him.

“Tomorrow morning,” Junhoe answered. The sooner they get this resolved, the quicker he could get his guilty conscious cleared.

Nodding his head Hanbin prepared to stand, watching Junhoe polish off his drink with a few more gulps.

He leaned over, reaching for the empty bottle only to have Junhoe pull it out of reach.

“I’m not done sucking its soul out.”

Flushing, he uncharacteristically placed a hand on the desk and leaned in further, snatching the bottle out of his boss’s hand with a frown, “I think you’ve had enough soul sucking for the day. Wouldn’t want you to get drunk off of it and start dancing on the table.” He smirked when he saw Junhoe’s eyes widen as his words sunk in.

“There’s no way I did tha-” Hanbin gleefully walked towards the door when Junhoe's phone began to ring, cutting his boss off.

It was nice to finally have the last word.

Chapter Text

The next few weeks chugged along fairly well considering Junhoe’s and Hanbin’s new tendency to try and one up each other verbally.

Since that fateful morning after, which for once didn’t infer towards any form of one night stand, Hanbin had found it easier to push back against Junhoe’s irrational requests by simply hinting at how sad his friends would be that he had to stay late another night, or anything along those lines. They typically prompted a grumpy scowl, followed by his boss conceding in one way or another.

To be fair, Junhoe had also stuck by his word, and handed over a lot of Hanbin’s work load to other employees of various departments. The amount of work that not only didn’t belong to Hanbin, but also to their section, was astounding. Hanbin had always just assumed that it had been his responsibility, but after hearing Junhoe chew out 3 individual section chiefs, he realized he was sadly mistaken.

After being told to inform Junhoe on all work given to him that was not in the outline he handed to him, Hanbin found his days a great deal easier to manage.

So far they’d also both been able to avoid any more awkward meet ups outside of work hours. Not for lack of trying on Bobby’s end.

Bobby was the type of person who liked to surround himself with all his friends, all the time.

Despite Hanbin’s penchant for being a homebody, his friend had managed to drag him out 4 times in the last two weeks, much to Hanbin’s displeasure. All occasions, thankfully, we’re boss free.

Tonight however, neither Junhoe’s polite refusal, nor Hanbin’s vehement ‘not on your life Bobby’, could deter Bobby’s determination for a group dinner at his place. Regardless that he couldn’t cook, and would poison them all, Hanbin knew what a dinner at Bobby’s would entail.

Game night.

Game night always ended with Hanbin morbidly embarrassed, and was not something he needed his boss to hang over his head.

“Hanbin, hurry the fuck up already, everyone's waiting on you,” Bobby so kindly called from the adjacent living room. His impatience was understandable though, seeing as Hanbin had dawdled in the kitchen for the last 15 minutes, pretending to contemplate over which drink would get him less plastered.

Taking his time was in no way connected to the fact that his partner in charades ended up being Junhoe, because of course who else could it be, nor the fact that Yunhyeong was a closet pervert and insisted on playing adult charades. ‘He probably just wants to give Donghyuk a lap dance, that voyeur.’

With a sigh, Hanbin grabbed the closest drink and shut the fridge; a strange concoction of jolly ranchers and vodka was the drink of the night apparently. A new experiment that Bobby had wanted to try after seeing it online, and had easily convinced Donghyuk to help make.

Despite his previous reservations on getting too drunk, Hanbin brought the bottle up and took a large swig, grimacing at the taste. A little too strong and a little too sickly sweet. You couldn't trust Bobby near any type of food or beverage, even supervised it appears.

Thank goodness Yunhyeong and Jinhwan had arrived earlier than the rest and took it upon themselves to feed their little group.

Walking into the living room, Hanbin glanced around for an available seat but the only spaces unoccupied were the arms of the couch or the floor.

He decided on the floor, leaning against Bobby’s legs.

“Okay, who wants to start first?” Jinhwan questioned, holding out the cards for the game.

“Please, anybody but the gross couple over there,” Hanbin joked while Yunhyeong glared and chucked a pillow at him.

“How kind of you to volunteer Binnie,” Donghyuk mentioned; his smile a bit too nice to be genuine.

Sighing, Hanbin made to stand up but was surprised to notice Junhoe reach out for the first card instead.

Standing in front of everyone, Junhoe cleared his throat and stared Hanbin straight in the eyes. He pulled on his shirt for his first clue.

“Uh, shirt?”

Rolling his eyes rather impressively, he started to tug on it harder, exaggerating his movements. As if flailing about would suddenly make it clear. Hanbin just gave him a dubious look, not understanding what he was trying to make him guess.

“Tug…?”

With a huff, Junhoe glanced around and focused on Bobby’ red shirt. Pointing at it, he crossed his arms and tugged at his again.

Hanbin finally caught on, “Not red, but blue,” He was encouraged with Junhoe’s nod. “Okay, so blue what?"

Junhoe clenched his left hand into a first, pretended to grab it with his right hand and throw it, following through with a mimic of swinging a bat.

“Ball? Oh, blue balls!” Hanbin shouted, now standing and celebrating their first win. He heard Jinhwan snort from his left and turned to see him smirking at Junhoe.

“Wow that was rather PG for you. I expected something more obscene and animated,” Jinhwan commented, ignoring Junhoe’s glare.

“Oh, you want something more R rated? You’re on,” Junhoe replied, obviously rising to Jinhwan’s taunt. Hanbin didn’t know his boss was so easily baited or competitive, but he supposed it made sense given his ‘must succeed’ attitude at work.

Junhoe reached for the next card, a slight wince showing for but a moment before his poker face was back on.

Pretending to sit down and type on a computer, and pick up a call made it easy to assume the setting.

“Office; Job; work,” Hanbin began rattling off. He paused when he saw Junhoe gave no indication that those were the exact words he needed.

Junhoe raised his head and stared off to his side, away from everyone else and waved his hand, as if giving someone permission to enter. It was odd to see here, in the home of his close friend, the same look in his eyes that he held when at work.

“Employee, boss,” At the last word Junhoe looked at him and nodded. He turned back to this imaginary employee and scowled severely; another expression Hanbin was very familiar with. He made as if to scold this person, before his mouth snapped shut. His lids grew heavier; a sultry look that Hanbin was 100% not used to seeing, and leaned back in his fictional chair. He beckoned the person over and made a motion towards the floor, between his now spread knees.

Hanbin’s face immediately flushed, he’d originally imaged himself in the position of the employee, seeing as it was an everyday occurrence for him. Now however, it took a turn far out of any realm he could’ve imagined, though he should have expected it since it was adult charades. He tried to dispel the image of himself kneeling before Junhoe in that way and cleared his suddenly dried throat.

“Taking care of the boss? Giving the boss a hand?” Junhoe shook his head, and went back to his little demonstration. He pretended to weave his hands into the hair of the employee and leaned his head back, eyes closed in pleasure.

“Pleas-,” Hanbin gulped down and started again, “Please the boss?”

Junhoe grinned; another sight unknown to Hanbin, and threw his card on the table, “Your turn, try and beat that,” was directed to his brother in law, smug as hell.

Hanbin wasn’t sure if he could handle the rest of the night if it was just going to escalade from there.

How the hell was he supposed to act out sexy shit to his boss?

Chapter Text

He wasn't entirely sure what color his face was all morning, but if Hanbin had to guess, he’d assume it probably flittered between various hues of red.

In a desperate attempt to block out the prior night's events, Hanbin had tried to bury his head into his work. It was rather unfortunate then, that his work revolved the one person he was trying to erase from his memories.

He could still remember the sound of Bobby goading him into drinking shots with him, which surprisingly didn't leave him blackout drunk, though Hanbin would have preferred it if it would have at this point.

Flashes of him grinding up against a wall in an attempt to have Junhoe guess ‘wall sex', was not something Hanbin was particularly fond or proud of.

Junhoe, who had not had as much to drink, would have had no problem remembering all the shameless actions Hanbin had performed for the sake of game night. He hadn’t brought it up yet, but there was no doubt in his mind that Junhoe was just waiting for the right time to cause maximum embarrassment with the least amount of effort.

In actuality, the schedule for the day was pretty packed for his surly boss, and he had not had much time to talk, aside from a quick peek inside the office to inform him of his next meetings.

The second half of the day seemed to be much more open, which was when Hanbin was expecting the jibes to come rolling in.

This led to him trying to scramble for more work to distract himself with. He contemplated trying to call Chanwoo from IT again and complain about his computer not working or something. At least then he could take the laptop down to the basement level and hide away there for the remainder of the day. For some reason though, the little jerk has been ignoring his recent calls, to be fair though, Hanbin had been bored the previous week and had spam called him with one liners. He thought the nerd would appreciate them, especially ‘Is your name Wi-Fi? Because I’m feeling a connection.’ which was his personal favorite.

Chanwoo had apparently thought differently though, as he was now persistently refusing to answer any of his calls, emails or IM’s, which was just rude.

Just as Hanbin was about to unhook his computer to storm the IT department, Junhoe walked by, dropping a folder onto his desk on his way by to his office.

“Look through those for any errors and come see me when you're done,” Junhoe instructed without a glance in his direction.

Hanbin stood there for a moment, staring at the now closed office before sitting down with a
grumble, “Yes of course, anything for you boss, whatever you say boss.”

Opening the folder he skimmed over the first page before buckling down to work. It took slightly over 20 minutes, but he had completed his review, making a few notes in the margins and adding a slew of sticky notes with additional information required. He closed the folder and stretched his arms behind his back, hearing a satisfying pop before sighing and dropping his pen back onto the desk.

A quick glance at the computer showed the current time to be just before his lunch break. His stomach grumbled just in time; his own internal alarm clock. He figured it wouldn't take too long to go over the work, and then he could dash out for a bite to eat.

Hanbin scooped up the documents and walked over to the office door, rapping against it quickly before ducking his head inside.

Junhoe waved him in silently, listening to someone on the other side of his desk phone.

“To be frank, I don't care how much work or time this is going to cause you, get me the numbers I’ve asked for or I’ll find someone else who can.”

Hanbin sat down on the other side of the desk and marveled at how much Junhoe could sound like a mob boss. He wouldn't be surprised if he'd been one in a past life.

Junhoe aggressively hung up while glaring it the phone, as if hoping it would cause the person on the other side to spontaneously combust.

“Sales trying to skirt the month end reports again?” Hanbin questioned and wasn't surprised at the derisive snort Junhoe let out.

“When aren’t they?”

Nodding, he had to agree that it was pretty typical of them. “Anyways, here are the files you asked for,” Hanbin leaned over to drop the folder in front of his boss.

Opening it, Junhoe began to read over some of the notes when the distinctive timbre of Jinhwan wafted through the door, thanking someone for showing him where his brother in laws office was.

Hanbin and Junhoe quickly looked at each other, panic mirrored in their eyes.

“What the hell is he doing here?” Hanbin furiously whispered.

“How should I know!?” Junhoe hissed back. His eyes skimmed the room quickly before he wheeled back in his chair, “hurry up, hide in here,” he motioned underneath his desk.

Hanbin's eyes bulged, “you’ve got to be fucking kidding me” he cursed, though he was already getting up and moving around to the other side.

Junhoe gave an exasperated eye roll,” just stay quiet, I’ll try to get rid of him quickly.” His hand was suddenly in Hanbin's hair, messing up his already disarrayed strands and pushing him down under the finely crafted furniture, before wheeling himself back in.

Hanbin squeezed himself as much as he could to the back, the only light source coming from between the spaces of Junhoe’s lower body and his chair.

They heard the door opening with a rather loud bang and Jinhwan declared his arrival.

“Hello there little brother.”

“Jinhwan, what the hell are you doing here?”

“Oh come on, can't a brother just stop in and see how his sibling is doing and ask them to come out for lunch?”

Hanbin could almost feel the scathing look he was sure Junhoe was sending to the shorter male.

“No, I’m busy, go away.”

“Oh? Can't your little assistant help you?” Jinhwan questioned, ruffling Hanbin's feathers. He wasn't little.

“He's also busy, go away,” Junhoe repeated.

Jinhwan seemed to be unaffected however and just chuckled. “I see, but I couldn't help but notice a lack of assistant sitting in the desk out there…” he trailed off.

“Not that it's any of your business, but it happens to be his lunch break,” Junhoe stated, leaning back further in his chair. This unfortunately tore Hanbin’s attention away from whatever Jinhwan replied with, and his eyes zeroed in on the stretched material across his bosses’ lap. He slammed his eyes shut and turned his head away, disturbed at the thoughts that filtered through his mind, most having been entirely too inappropriate.

He heard more then saw Junhoe tensing at whatever Jinhwan had said, the leather under his thighs creaking as his muscles flexed.

“Shut up Jinhwan,” was all Junhoe mumbled, leaving Hanbin to curse his momentary distraction.

Jinhwan full out laughed this time, “come on, you can't blame me for wanting to get a glimpse of this cute assistant of yours. He must be really something else if he's got you so hung up o-”

“Seriously shut up, let's go eat or something,” Junhoe abruptly stood up, cutting Jinhwan off mid-sentence.

“But what abo-”

“No, let's go,” Junhoe cut him off again, his usual MO.

Hanbin heard some more faint protests from Jinhwan before the telltale sound of the door being closed reached his ears.

He tried to make sense of what Jinhwan had been trying to say. Why would Jinhwan think Hanbin was supposed to be cute? What was he trying to say before he was rudely cut off?

Personally Hanbin would have to agree, of course he was cute, but as far as Jinhwan was concerned, they had never met before, so there should be no pre conceived notions towards his looks.

Lightly banging the back of his head on the wood he was leaning against, he shut his eyes and took a deep breath, hoping to let the silence take over his brain and remove all of the unnecessary and irritating questions that were buzzing around in his head.

A loud grumble snapped him out of his mini self-induced trance. Patting his noisy stomach he pulled himself out from under the desk and headed out of the office, intent on finding some form of sustenance and wondering if it would be best to ignore everything he’d heard for the sake of his sanity, or if he should milk the answers out of Junhoe since it had seemed to make him feel uncomfortable.

Hanbin figured he would decide after he had a full belly, but was always up for pestering his stiff boss.

Chapter Text

Two hours after lunch it was pretty clear that the one doing the avoiding was Junhoe. Hanbin, after gorging himself with his healthy and delicious breakfast; courtesy of Yunhyeong, aka Song Chef, aka new best friend, aka is going to be man-napped away from Donghyuk soon if he keeps making such damn good food; had determined that it was too good an opportunity to not try to wheedle information out of Junhoe while simultaneously annoying the hell out of him.

Hanbin was of a curious mind, and couldn't handle not knowing something. Especially when it seemed to affect someone else he knew.

Sadly, once Junhoe had returned from his lunch out with Jinhwan, he’d locked himself back into his office and had yet to ask Hanbin for a single thing.

Sitting at his desk, Hanbin couldn't contain the constant tapping of his foot against the floor. His thumbnail most likely ruined resulted from his inattentive gnawing.

He had now spent the last 3 and half hours after his lunch break, reliving those 5 minutes under that desk. No matter how hard he tried, Jinhwan’s words could not escape him, especially the ones he did not even hear.

Hanbin considered making up some random excuse as to ask Junhoe a question about some bogus work he had, in order to try to slip in a few innocently placed remarks and hoping Junhoe would spill some answers inadvertently.

Glancing around, he picked up a report that sat at the edge of his desk. His eyes ran through it to see if it was a good candidate for his subterfuge. There was only another half an hour left of work if they both left on time and Hanbin wanted to make the most of it by squeezing out information from the boss man.

Standing up, he made his way to the large door and gave it a sharp knock. He heard a muffled acknowledgement and before entering he cleared his throat, squared his shoulders, and gave himself a mental pat on the back, ‘You got this Bin, the fucker won't even know what hit him.’

Pushing into the room he was certainly surprised to note how disheveled Junhoe looked. His hair mussed, tie loose and crooked. He appeared to be suffering from some kind of headache, as his long fingers massaged at his temples. Hanbin almost felt sorry for the guy and for a minute thought that maybe he should wait and give him some more time to wallow in his dreary office, but that thought quickly diminished when a more suitable thought popped up. Reminding him that he was a man on a mission and that a pained Junhoe, was probably an easier target.

“ Hanbin, I suppose you should sit down. I’m sorry, I was planning to talk to you about this, but was secretly hoping the opportunity would never arise,” Junhoe revealed while gesturing to the chair directly across from him with a slight head nod.

Hanbin could feel his eyebrows furrowed in confusion, as this was probably only the second time he had even heard Junhoe apologize for anything. Both times at which had been directed to him.

He perched on the edge of the seat, ready to jump into his pre-planned, made up speech, on the issues he was having with the budget allowance for the break room supplies, when Junhoe finally looked up and faced Hanbin directly.

He kept his mouth shut this time, not in the mood to be cut off any time soon, and waited a bit impatient while he allowed his boss to gather up his words. The look in Junhoe's eyes made it clear that he had something to say and that it would be in Hanbin's best interest to wait and listen.

Junhoe took a deep breath before releasing it and started with, “ I know it might have been a shock for you to find out, and though it might not be completely against the code of conduct, I’m sure you must be feeling a bit uncomfortable and possibly worried about what this means about your position here. I just want to tell you that no matter what I may be feeling, your job is safe.”

Junhoe paused to asses Hanbin’s reaction, to which Hanbin could only assume was the picture of a perplexed individual, seeing as Hanbin had zero clues about what Junhoe was trying to say.

Nevertheless, Junhoe pushed on, “ I expect that you will not try to use your new knowledge against me, and I will ensure that I maintain a professional attitude while in the office. Outside of the office though, I would appreciate it if you would keep our working relationship a continued secret, otherwise I don't think Jinhwan would ever let me live it down. Is that okay?”

Hanbin tried to clear his throat again, and tentatively answered with his own question,” Um, of course not, but could you maybe let me know what it is that I shouldn’t be worried about exactly?”

His bosses face immediately turned stormy.

“ Hanbin, don't make me say it out loud for the sake of just saying it. Jinhwan might have been ok with spilling my private life everywhere, but I personally don't want to have to repeat it.”

Stuttering out an apology, still confused as all hell, he knew not to press it. Apparently whatever it was Jinhwan had said in the office earlier today had been way bigger than Hanbin had anticipated.

Junhoe's face almost immediately softened. He gave a slight nod before standing up.

“ Thanks for not making this a much bigger deal. There's only 15 minutes left before work ends, why don't you take off early,” Junhoe suggested, ushering Hanbin out of his seat and towards the door.

Hanbin wordlessly nodded in agreeance before shuffling over to his own desk.

He didn't notice Junhoe lingering by his door, giving him one more contemplative look, before gently closing it behind him. Hanbin just started to shut down on autopilot after sending a quick email to Chanwoo. This was the first time since he had started working here, that Junhoe had suggested he leave early.

Chapter Text

Despite his friends’ misgivings about his aptitude at life, Hanbin thought he did pretty well by himself.

He had a furnished apartment, though no one is to mention from where said furniture was scrounged from, a steady job; very recently steady. He makes sure there is food stocked in his fridge; no matter what Yunhyeong says, frozen meals and prepackaged dinners were an acceptable form of sustenance for a single male with no one to impress but his own stomach.

And as a young, responsible adult, Hanbin knew when something was awry. His adult senses were tingling if one was so inclined to call them that. As he stood in the elevator, patiently waiting the arrival of his floor, the hair on the back of his neck raised as a shiver ran the length of his spine.

There was a chance he was just being paranoid, which would be no small coincidence due to their little gatherings horror movie marathon last night, courtesy of the little devil himself, Koo Junhoe. It would definitely explain the feeling of eyes following him as he left the elevator and headed towards his desk. However, when he reached the sleek wood of his work station, and saw an inconspicuous paper bag sitting innocently on his keyboard, Hanbin knew instantly that his adult senses were still finely in tune.

After weighing the pros and cons, he squared his shoulders and reached out to pluck the bag up. Eyeing it carefully, he couldn’t ascertain what could possibly be inside. It took more than a few tries of self-encouragement before Hanbin was able to peel the sides apart and take a one eyed glance inside the bag, praying to any high being that could be listening, that there wasn’t a severed hand, or God forbid a bug, in there.

A gust of breath left his lungs when it was revealed to just be a pastry.

“Who the hell left their pastry on my desk?” Hanbin wondered aloud. He looked around to see if he could ask someone if they saw who left it, but noticed that he was the only one in the office so far. It was quite early, as Hanbin had made a habit of arriving before Junhoe back when they still had a rocky relationship; a habit he had yet to be able to break away from.

Pulling the pastry out of the bag, he noticed a sticky note attached to the side of it

He remembered Yunhyeong and Donghyuk pestering him about his choice in morning meals last night, but wondered how the hell they managed to break into his office building, when his eyes zeroed in on the initial at the bottom corner.

His eyebrows shot up to his hairline, there was only two people with that initial who would have heard that particular tirade last night, and seeing as Jinhwan did not know that this was Hanbin’s workplace, it took him .2 seconds flat to figure out that Junhoe had left him this bag.

Moving towards the closed doors to Junhoe’s office, Hanbin hesitantly raised his fist to give a soft knock. After waiting a second and hearing no reply, he gently pushed the door open just enough to poke his head inside. Hanbin was under the impression that his boss never slept, despite the last few weeks pointing towards the otherwise, Hanbin still wasn’t entirely convinced his boss wasn’t some sort of vampire demon. So it made it even more shocking to see Junhoe slumped onto his desk, arms pillowing his cheek, and shoulders moving with his soft breathing.

He slowly crept inside to take a closer look; it was like a whole other creature. Hanbin has seen multiple layers of Junhoe already, like the steadfast boss, or the competitive brother, but never before has he seen Junhoe’s face look so relaxed.

The frown lines that tended to crease his face while at work, were smoothed out, the laugh lines around his mouth were not as prominent as they normally were like in comparison to when he’s hanging out with the rest of their friends. Hanbin took a moment to think about who got to see Junhoe like this or how often, and a sharp pang zinged through his chest at the thought.

The feeling freaked him out, Hanbin couldn’t pin point exactly what that ache meant, but he was smart enough to know that it probably didn’t bode well for him.

Turning around, he headed back toward the exit, deciding it would be best to not dwell on it, and let Junhoe continue his impromptu cat nap, when he heard the sound of papers shuffling behind him.

Looking over his shoulder, Hanbin watched as his boss stirred awake, unsettling a stack of, to be completely honest, very important budget papers, which were now threatening to topple over. Hanbin had spent hours the other day organizing those exact same pages in a very precise order and was not keen on having to repeat it. He quickly moved back to the side of Junhoe’s desk, and grabbed the papers before they had a chance to fall overboard.

In the meantime, Junhoe had stretched his arms out on either side and let out a ridiculously large yawn. Hanbin could see the effort he was trying to make to pry his eyes open, a fist coming up to rub the sleep away from his eyes, and couldn’t hold in a snort of amusement. Junhoe literally looked like an over grown cat, his hair mussed on one side, and flattened against his face on the other, wrinkle lines on one cheek from the folds in his clothes that it had been resting against. Heck, even his tie was askew, and Hanbin had very rarely seen Junhoe without his tie perfectly in place, the only other time that came to mind was his hangover debacle from a few weeks ago.

With his inelegant attempt to smother his mirth, he quickly caught Junhoe’s attention. It couldn’t quite be called a flail, but his boss had very clearly jolted in surprise and scrambled to stand on unsteady morning legs.

“Hanbin, when did you get here?”

“Just a few seconds ago, sorry to have woken you up,” he replied, trying to bite down his merriment, trying his best to not laugh in Junhoe’s face.

He could see an obvious flush run up Junhoe’s neck to his ears; this was certainly a first for Hanbin.

Junhoe cleared his throat and tried to fix his tie, but his fingers were swollen and weak from sleep, “Sorry, I shouldn’t have fallen asleep here.”

Hanbin took pity on him and reached forward to bat his hands away, skillfully untying the knot and smoothing the material out. “You don’t need to apologize, it was just me who saw you, and I’ve seen you do much worse than sleep at work,” he joked, and noticed Junhoe’s lip twitch in response. “Besides, I should be thanking you I suppose.”

Junhoe cocked a brow,”Thank me for what?”

“Breakfast, obviously,” Hanbin stated, retying the knot and sliding it towards the base of Junhoe’s neck. He could see the flush he was sporting darken and dip below the collar of his expensive shirt.

Junhoe’s eyes shifted to above his shoulder, staring at the wall behind him and gave a half shrug in response. “It’s nothing; I grabbed one for myself anyways, besides you need brain food in the morning if you want to give it your all during the day.”

Hanbin tugged the knot a bit tighter, slightly choking Junhoe. He glared at him through narrowed eyes, “are you trying to say I haven’t been giving it my all this whole time because I don’t eat breakfast?”

He allowed more slack when he saw the panicked look Junhoe shot his way, his hands had risen in an attempt to placate his disgruntled employee. “No, no, of course not, that’s not what I meant at all…” Junhoe trailed off, awkwardly trying to justify his words.

Laughing, Hanbin dropped his angry facade and let go of the tie completely. “I was just joking, calm down,” he stepped away to give a critical once over of Junhoe’s appearance, “You have a meeting this morning with the head of IT, so you might want to wash up a bit and fix that nest,” he suggested, pointing towards the disheveled mop of hair he was displaying at the moment.

Junhoe’s hands flew to his head, as he twisted around to look at the clock hanging on his wall. “Shit! Fuck, shit!”

Hanbin couldn’t contain his snort again and slowly walked backwards to the door, “I mean, you could always meet with them like that, I’m sure they would love to hear about their budget cut while you look like you just finished a wrestling match with a raccoon.”

It was Hanbin’s turn to be fixed with a glare, as Junhoe took one second to send one his way before fleeing into the attached en-suite bathroom.

Hanbin shook his head in amusement, ‘Oh, it’s going to be a good day.’

Chapter Text

“You auto-complete me,” No response given.

“Can you un-zip my files, I tried but it’s too hard?” Slight uptick of the upper lip.

Hanbin took a breath before delivering the final punch, “There must be something wrong with my eyes, I can’t take them off you.”

He saw the moment where his resolve slipped and a chuckle was about to escape.

“Hanbin, my office, now!”

Wide eyed, Hanbin exchanged a look of confusion with Chanwoo before looking at Junhoe’s retreating back. It had been quite a long time since he had heard his boss raise his voice, at him anyways.

It was disconcerting to say the least, since he couldn’t for the life of him recall anything that he could have possibly screwed up to the extent that would warrant such wrath. He scanned over the work he did in the last few days and balked when he remembered something.

“Do you think he knows I stole all the creamer in the cafeteria?” He whispered, worried look amplifying tenfold. “What was I supposed to do? He was going to replace it with that chalk shit. I can’t survive off that crap Chanwoo, it’s unjust.”

Releasing an irritated sigh, Chanwoo swiveled in Hanbin’s chair to stare up at him, “I don’t know, and I don’t care. You should go see what he wants though before he rips your noodle arms out from their sockets.”

Indignation was rolling from Hanbin in waves, as he stopped leaning against his desk and walked to Junhoe’s office, all the while hissing, “They are not noodles!”

-------------------------------

Hanbin hadn’t felt this nervous around Junhoe in ages, if he were trying to be completely honest with himself. It had been getting ever more difficult to separate the two sides of him he got to see almost daily now, and they were starting to merge into this odd singular personality that was so uniquely Junhoe, that it was hard to find him anything else aside from amusing.

Sure, he still talked like a stunted toddler at work, barely managing more than a few syllables at a time when he wanted something. Outside of work though, he was kind of a blabber mouth, not that Hanbin would ever be brave enough to say so to his face. Junhoe was loud, competitive almost to a fault, and very clearly liked spending time with people he considered his friends.

So, despite their assurances to keep their private and work lives separate, it was clear to Hanbin that he at very least, was failing miserably.

This time however, he could feel that uneasy feeling creeping back into his stomach.

‘If he fires me, I’m selling his soul to our friends. Let them eat him alive for making me jobless,’ Hanbin determined, trying to make himself feel better.

It wasn’t helping much, as he sat with his back straight in the chair across from Junhoe’s. Rather than sitting down in his own chair behind his desk, his boss was pacing back and forth, more than likely wearing a line in the nice carpet. His hands kept rotating between sternly crossed at his chest, or stamped on his hips. Not once did he look at Hanbin since he arrived.

“If this is about the creamer, it was Chanwoo not me…” Hanbin attempted to throw his part time friend, full time nemesis under the bus.

That caused Junhoe to pause in his path, “Creamer? What are you talking about?”

“Nothing, forget that, forget I said anything, please continue,” Hanbin verbally backpedaled, gesturing with his hands to do so.

Junhoe released an audible exhale before leaning back against the wall, arms back to being crossed. Once again, he wouldn’t look at Hanbin.

Hanbin shuffled awkwardly in his seat before deciding to speak out again, “Did I mess something up?” he asked cautiously.

Junhoe’s eyes immediately shot up to meet his, “No, no. It’s nothing like that. Sorry, it’s just…”

“Just…?” Hanbin prompted.

“I need you to not do that here,” Junhoe stated.

Leaning further back in his seat, Hanbin tried to figure out what he was talking about. “Stop doing what exactly?”

“That thing, that you were doing out there,” Junhoe said nonchalantly waiving his hands towards the door, obviously gesturing towards Hanbin’s desk.

Hanbin couldn’t help his eyebrows from raising, “You mean talking?”

“I mean flirting. Here. In the office. In front of me.“

“Whoa whoa whoa, hold up a second, I was not, in any way shape or form, flirting with Jung Chanwoo,” Hanbin persisted, “That would be like flirting with Bobby,” he finished, a grimace of distaste crossing his face at the idea of him and Bobby engaging in anything romantic. I would be like flirting with his brother.

Junhoe seemed to have relaxed a bit at hearing those words, but remained stone faced. “Hanbin, I literally just heard you using one of the worst pickup lines I’ve ever heard, two seconds ago.”

Hanbin rolled his eyes, exasperated, “It’s a thing we do. I find the worst, most cheesy pickup lines, and spam him with them. He tells me they’re atrocious, and I get to piss him off by flooding his inbox,” he shrugged as if it was indeed a common occurrence.

Junhoe’s arms fell slack to his side, “Oh.”

Hanbin snorted, “Ya, oh. Really as if you thought I would flirt with Chanwoo of all people.”

“To be fair, I don’t even know who he is, or that you even knew him,” Junhoe tried to defend. He pushed off the wall and finally sat down in his own chair. For a second he seemed almost sheepish, rubbing one hand across the back of his neck, before turning his gaze up to look back at Hanbin.

“Listen,” Junhoe started, after a moment of silence, “I know I said that I would keep a professional attitude about all of this, so I’m sorry that I didn’t handle this as well as I was hoping I would. I really didn’t expect to overhear something that sounded much more private then it really was, but that’s really no excuse. I’ll understand if you feel the need to report me.”

“Wait, what?” Hanbin reeled back in shock, he’d been nodding along slightly, pretending to understand what Junhoe was talking about, but that had just thrown him for a loop. “Why the heck would I report you?”

“It’s clear that I can’t keep my feelings for you separate from our working relationship, if that little display wasn’t enough to prove it. I can’t keep myself from wanting to get you breakfast every morning, or keep my head cool when I even think of you flirting with someone else. If you don’t want to put in a complaint then we’ll work on having you moved somewhere else. You don’t have to worry about losing your job, you’re too valuable for that, I just don’t think I’ll get any better at holding my feelings in check,” Junhoe confessed, fiddling with his fingers while doing his best to avoid eye contact with Hanbin.

“Wait, What?!”

-------------------------------

Hanbin was still in a state of shock as he returned to his desk. He was completely unable to process anything Junhoe had expressed. His mind was still walking in loops, trying to sort through the wealth of information that had just been sprung at him.

Taking a seat, he finally noticed Chanwoo was nowhere in sight. He looked at his computer screen and saw there was an open document pulled up and nothing else.

Chapter Text

That weekend, Hanbin was still reeling from the fact that Junhoe not only had feelings for him but had admitted it to his face.

Bobby had yet again successfully bullied his friends into going to the same bar they went to for his birthday, however this time, it appeared that some luck was on Hanbin’s side, as he wasn’t forced to sit beside his boss all night again.

He’d been struggling to come to terms with Junhoe’s feelings and what it meant for him and his job. Looking back on the past few weeks, Hanbin kind of felt like an idiot for not noticing anything had changed in that way. He’d just assumed that their relationship was getting a bit better because of the talks they’d had about mistreatment, but if he was really honest with himself, there had been a few times he’d caught some strange looks aimed his way from his boss, that he’d shrugged off at the time.

After Junhoe’s confession, he couldn’t deny his feelings were valid, even if he’d spent that first night in a daze, questioning if he’d just witnessed his first hallucination. Now though, his thoughts were filled with what he should do about it, if anything at all.

Glancing length wise across the booth, he took in Junhoe’s face under the dim lights of the boisterous bar. His eyes followed the way the light hit the top of his cheeks and noticed how cut and sharp his jaw looked. It was obvious to anyone in the room that Junhoe was handsome, but Hanbin couldn’t figure out if the slow burn in the bottom of his stomach was because of Junhoe or the beer he’d chugged down as soon as Donghyuk had set it onto the table. Maybe if he drank himself into a stupor, his brain would finally shut down and give him some semblance of peace and stop reminding him that Junhoe was as hot as the sun and apparently very interested.

 “Oi, Hanbin, instead of staring off into space, why don’t you go grab us another round!” Bobby shouted to be heard over the music.

“Do you think his noodle arms could handle carrying over all our drinks alone?” Yunhyeong joked, earning himself a solid punch to the arm. Hanbin resisted the urge to hold onto his sore fist while he glared at his supposed friend.

“My arms aren’t noodles! I’ve been working out a lot lately, and you can definitely see the difference!”

“Yeah, those bags of chips you scarf down everyday must be pretty heavy.” Donghyuk added on, encouraging his boyfriends’ bad habit of teasing Hanbin.

Standing up in a huff, Hanbin scowled down at them all, “We’ll see what kind of shit drinks you guys will get for that.”

As he moved towards the bar, he vaguely heard Jinhwan comment that someone should go help him, but resolutely walked forward without looking back at his ungrateful friends.

The crowd around the bar was thick, but he’d managed to wedge himself closer to the counter and tried to wave down one of the busy bartenders, with no luck.

“Am I invisible or something?!” Hanbin shouted, as once again one of the bartenders went right past him to help the newly arrived giggling girls on his right.

He was contemplating standing on the bar, to see if anyone would finally notice him, when he felt someone push lightly up against his back and saw an arm wave by his face, flagging down the other bartender, miraculously getting their attention immediately.

“Seriously!?” Hanbin swiveled around to see who the hell could get their attention so easily, and was met with a broad, white shirt cladded chest. Feeling a sense of déjà vu, he turned his gaze up, and saw Junhoe’s strong features up close. Junhoe was telling the bartender their order, while Hanbin just continued to stare at him, eyes straying from his dark, neatly styled hair, to the slight furrow between his brows that never seemed to go away, and lastly to his full lips, 100% not thinking about how nice they’d probably feel.

Junhoe’s eyes dropped down to Hanbin’s once he’d finished their order, and patiently waited for Hanbin to realize he’d been staring. A sudden jarring to his left broke his trance, as someone moved too close to them, and a flush that would hopefully not be seen in the bar’s current lighting, dusted across Hanbin’s face.

Clearing his throat, his eyes bounced around, looking anywhere but Junhoe.

“I totally had that under control. You didn’t need to come and help.” Junhoe’s eyebrow raised, obviously not believing him one bit.

“Jinhwan made me come help, but I’m sure you could have gotten the bartenders attention on your own eventually,” his lips twitched into a slight smirk, succeeding in making Hanbin sulk in offence. Turning back to face the bar, Hanbin was conscious of the heat emanating off Junhoe’s body against his back. He’d always been an ‘ignore the problem until it went away’ kind of guy, and right now he hoped Junhoe would take the hint and give him a bit of space. His mind had already been too full of thoughts of Junhoe recently, and really didn’t need the added stress of liking the feel of their bodies so close together.

Apparently Junhoe had no qualms over how close they were, as he’d yet to move away, and just as Hanbin was about to reach his limit and turn around to tell Junhoe he needed space, he felt him move back as coldness rushed along his back.

Looking over his shoulder he could see someone had grabbed onto Junhoe’s shoulder and had pulled him back enough for a greeting.

“Koo Junhoe! Wow, what a coincidence seeing you here!” The man was as tall as Junhoe and looked way too put together to be in this type of bar, with his pristine slacks, and collared button up. He looked very excited at the prospect of having bumped into Junhoe though.

“Park Hajoon, this is a surprise. I didn’t think bars were really your thing.” Junhoe responded, looking as surprised as he’d suggested. Hanbin could see Junhoe’s face beginning to shift into his business façade, though with a bit of annoyance slipping through. At the sound of the other name, Hanbin turned around again to fully face the two men, recognizing him as one of the company’s business associates. He’d seen him on occasion when Junhoe had been pulled into meetings with the Park group, from what he knew, they had been trying to show that they would be a great investment for a possible merger, but nothing had come of those meetings, meaning the answer had been a firm ‘no’.

“Well, sometimes you just got to give something a try first before swearing off it forever. I figured I’d trade in my usually cocktail bar for this for a night, and see what happens,” Hajoon said cheerily, hand still holding onto Junhoe’s shoulder, nursing what looked like a ridiculous Pina Colada in the other hand, tiny umbrella and all.

 Junhoe gave a strained, if not polite smile, and brushed his hand off him, before turning to Hanbin, gesturing towards the bar. Their drinks had just been placed down, and he’d leaned over to grab half of them, leaving Hanbin to grab the rest.

 “Well, it was unexpected to see you here, but it looks like our drinks are ready, and our table must be waiting on us, so we’ll be taking our leave.” Hanbin had seen Hajoon glance over his way and could tell the other man recognized him as well. Before either of them could push past him, Hajoon once again spoke, making Junhoe tense up.

“Oh. You brought your little secretary with you? I didn’t know you two were so close.”

Hanbin bristled at being called a ‘little secretary’, but before he could respond, Junhoe again tried to politely excuse them.

“My assistant Hanbin, is good friends with my own, and they have been deprived of their drinks for too long, so if you’ll excuse us,” he bit out tersely.

Hajoon had just been about to stop their retreat again with another comment, when Jinhwan appeared behind him, looking confused, and glancing at all three men, unsure as to why Junhoe looked so agitated.

“Junhoe, Hanbin, what’s taking so long? The others are complaining that they’re never going to get buzzed this century, it’s taking so long…”

Assessing Jinhwan, Hajoon turned to offer his hand for a shake, “You must be one of the mutual friends of Junhoe and his little secretary here.”

Before Jinhwan could raise his hand to accept the hand offered, Hanbin snapped, “I’m his assistant, not his little secretary.”

It took a few good, heavy seconds before Hanbin realized what a colossal mistake that had been, on two accounts.

One, being rude to someone who may be an associate in some way to the company would not only reflect badly on him, but Junhoe as well, regardless of whether or not this guy had been a massive dickwad first, and most importantly two, because Jinhwan hadn’t known about Junhoe’s and Hanbin’s working relationship.

Eyes wide, he looked over to Jinhwan who mirrored his expression, eyes darting quickly back and forth from Hanbin to Junhoe, as the information clicked into place.

Junhoe must have had an easier time controlling his own emotions about this all, because all he’d done was coldly tell Hajoon to respect the people who he worked with, and tugged Hanbin away, Jinhwan following in step.

“Holy crap! You two work together! You’re Hanbin’s god awful boss, and Hanbin’s your assistant that you have a cru-“ Jinhwan cut himself off, at Junhoe’s glare, arms springing up in a placating manner, “Okay, okay, sorry, but like why didn’t either of you tell any of us?”

“After being called a demon the first time, I wasn’t exactly in a rush to have everyone find out who I was.” Junhoe stated, causing Hanbin to wince in sympathy. He really hadn’t meant for the others to say those things. Junhoe continued, “just, please don’t say anything. Not yet anyways. Hanbin and I should talk about how to bring this up to everyone once we’ve figured out our own issues.”

Jinhwan contemplated it for a few second before shrugging and grinned, “Sure, whatever you want Romeo.”

He winked over at Hanbin before rushing over to the table first, taking Hanbin’s old spot, forcing him to sit beside Junhoe again.

He tuned out the sounds of his friends’ exclamations of ‘finally!’ and tried not to focus on the heat of Junhoe’s thigh pressed tight against his own, and how it made his heart race.

Hanbin couldn’t help but think, ‘where’s a cardiologist when you need one.’