Chapter Text
"Ahh! Jungwoo-shi! You can’t just do that!"
"Frankly Jaemin, I can do whatever I want."
That was not true of course. Jungwoo was just a lowly assistant, a PA if you would. Storming into the CEO’s office would definitely land him in hot water.
But, in his mind, he didn’t really have a choice.
Jungwoo started working for the production company six months ago and was well aware of his position. However; he was promised there would be opportunities to move up in the company, as well as continuous learning prospects. But for the past six months, all he had been doing was running coffee and making copies.
It’s like he was a glorified intern.
He was more than thankful to have a job that paid the bills, but he felt as though he had been well past the ‘training period’ and wanted to actually get his hands dirty for once.
"I know going to the CEO seemed rash, but I am all out of options, everyone I spoke to said that what I did on the job was not in their control, so I have no other choice." Jungwoo puffed his chest, false confidence would have to be enough. Fake it to you make it, as they say.
"Dude, you’ll get fired for sure!" Jaemin squeaked scurrying up the stairs after Jungwoo.
Jaemin was one of the lower level secretaries. A sweet boy, with a big heart and a smile that could brighten anyone’s day. They instantly became friends after Jungwoo almost spilled hot coffee down the front of him on his first day of work. Narrowly missing, instead, landing it on his desk, which arguably could have been worse. All Jaemin did was laugh and help clean up the mess, reassuring a flustered Jungwoo that none of it had burned him.
"All I am going to ask is if I could carry a little more weight, how can he say no!"
"But isn’t this really about working on the music video sets?" Jaemin threw out, eyes squinting. He would have looked quite adorable if he wasn’t outing Jungwoo’s real intentions.
"Hey! Be quiet! You’re going to make me sound like some crazy fanboy!" Jungwoo hissed as if anyone would actually come to that conclusion.
Jaemin was, in fact, right though. Jungwoo had gotten a degree in production and wanted nothing more than to work on the set of a music video. The fact that he had landed a job at the biggest production company in Korea had been a dream come true. But that dream quickly turned into a nightmare. He had never felt so close, yet so far from his dream. He had to push forward.
"Whatever you say hyung. But I swear, you better not get fired. I’ll be so lonely! Everyone else in this company sucks!" Jaemin proceeded to pout dramatically.
Jungwoo sighed, "So this is why you followed me up here… Don’t worry I don’t plan on getting fired just yet."
That was big talk for Jungwoo if it were anyone else he wouldn’t be able to speak that confidently to them. And truthfully, he was freaking out on the inside. The only thing that kept his legs walking toward the big office door was the hope of achieving his dream.
***
"Oh my god, you’re alive! Although apparently just barely. You look so pale are you okay?!" Worry was written across Jaemin’s face.
"Jaemin…"
Jaemin slapped his hands to the sides of his face. "Oh no! You got fired, didn’t you! Why did I ever let you go in there! What was I thinking?! Jungwoo what am I going to d-"
"Jaemin! I didn’t get fired okay!" Jungwoo managed to huff out, head still spinning, coming down from the adrenaline rush he got from talking one on one with the CEO. And it didn’t particularly help that Jaemin was having a freakout.
“Huh…” Jaemin stood there confused, he thought for sure Jungwoo got canned after walking out looking like he had just seen a ghost.
"He said okay." Jungwoo looked over at Jaemin who was looking more and more confused by the second.
"He said okay to what exactly"’ Jaemin spat out, for sure Jungwoo was just messing with him.
"Everything."
***
Jungwoo stood there in awe. He was finally officially working on a real music video set. He had been to a small handful during college, but never like this. Never in the context that he was actually working on set.
However, he still was just an assistant after all. But how could he complain?
Turns out he really didn’t ask for much when he talked to the CEO. He was too nervous to really bring up anything. All he managed to say was how he wished to do more and the next thing he knew the CEO was suggesting him to join Yukhei, one of their main directors, during the next music video shoot. He had worked with Yukhei a couple of times, but only with things pertaining around the office. Never on actual shoots. Yukhei first came off as a cold man but truthfully was very passionate and kind, and very loud. Yet still, it was probably best to stay on his good side.
Surprisingly to Jungwoo, the CEO himself was very kind and easy to talk as well. Seo Johnny always had a reputation of being someone not to mess with. He had a very strong personality and knew how to get exactly what he wanted. He had no room for people who wouldn’t fight for themselves, Jungwoo quickly found out. Which he always found as a very frightening piece of information, however, it turned out to work perfectly in his favor. Once Jungwoo was able to stand up for himself and vocalize what he wanted, it was like Johnny turned into a whole new person. He shed his cold demeanor and gladly helped Jungwoo get started in the direction he desired.
But Jungwoo still knew there was a long road ahead of him, and many people’s trust he had to gain. He couldn’t let anything stand in the way of his dream.
***
Working under Yukhei turned out to be a lot more tedious than he had in mind. He was a needy man and kept Jungwoo on his toes. He had a lot less time to watch the process and learn from the experience than he had hoped to.
At least he was doing more than just running coffee, Jungwoo thought.
"Am I being too greedy?" Jungwoo nervously asked Jaemin who was sitting across from him at the corner café they always met up at before work.
"Yeah, probably?" Jaemin took a sip of his tea. "You’ve been here for like, what? Seven months? And you just got the opportunity to go out on set locations. Plus, you’re finally getting to do more work like you asked!"
Jungwoo looked at him through squinted eyes. "Aren’t you supposed to be on my side?"
"What, you asked me a question and I answered honestly, is that wrong?" Jaemin looked up at him innocently but didn’t hold back from hiding a smirk. "I am right though, you know."
"Yeah, I know." Jungwoo slouched down into the seat sighing. "It’s just, not what I expected I guess. When I left Johnny’s office… I don’t know… I just thought I finally got an opportunity to jump into my dream job, but I guess moving up the corporate latter takes more time than I thought."
"You’re just naïve. It’s okay, it’s just your nature." Jaemin deadpanned giving Jungwoo a pat on the head.
Jungwoo swatted his hand away, sitting up straighter. "Who even is the hyung here?"
"Yeah… but I’ve been at the company longer!" Jaemin giggled, standing up and quickly scurrying off to work before Jungwoo could get a hold of him.
***
It became a continuous thing, working under Yukhei. Even though it felt as though Jungwoo hadn’t worked harder in his life, he really ended up enjoying the opportunity. Yukhei was good at what he did, so he occasionally ended up with high-class clients. When he directed music videos for some popular groups, Jungwoo couldn’t help but be amazed. Not only by what Yukhei could accomplish but from the celebrities that he would occasionally be in the presence of. He didn’t like to often admit it, but he was a bit of a fanboy in all actuality.
It’s what lead him to want to be involved with producing music videos in the first place. Which is an embarrassing fact, and one that Jungwoo does not often share, but it was the truth.
So, finally getting the opportunity to be on set, even if he wasn’t actually creatively involved in anything yet, was good enough for now he decided. At least it entertained his secret fanboy heart.
"Jungwoo get over here!" Yukhei yelled, poking his head into his cubical gesturing for him to follow.
"Why does he always have to be so loud?" Jungwoo mumbled, shuffling out of the small office.
"Guess what!" Yukhei grabbed Jungwoo by the shoulders and shook him a little. While they were both tall men, Yukhei still had some height over Jungwoo, frighteningly enough.
Jungwoo wondered if he was now officially Yukhei’s PA, instead of just a general assistant since he had been working solely with him for over a month now. He wasn’t against the idea per se, Jungwoo genuinely enjoyed working under him. Yukhei was just a little too enthusiastic on a Monday morning for a barely awake Jungwoo to handle. He promised to remind himself to ask Yukhei about his official position later.
Jungwoo awkwardly laughed, wriggling free of Yukhei’s hold. "What?"
"No, no, no! Jungwoo you have to guess!" Yukhei whined with a blinding smile still plastered on his face.
It wasn’t strange for Yukhei to be a bit of a pest, Jungwoo tried hard to make it seem like it didn’t slightly annoy him. But for the most part, he was quite endearing. Like a puppy.
"I’m sorry Yukhei," he laughed shrugging. "I really never know what’s going on in that head of yours."
"It’s so exciting Jungwoo!" Yukhei beamed. "This will probably be my biggest client yet!"
At this Jungwoo was officially interested. "Really? Oh my god! Who?!" He asked getting a little too excited than he probably should have. But Yukhei was just as excited, so it really didn’t matter. Except that his excitement most likely came from the opportunity to work with a client that could really push his career forward, not because of the prospect of meeting famous idols.
Regardless Jungwoo slapped his hand over his mouth and turned a bright shade of red. Almost no one knew of his secret fanboy tendencies, let alone his boss.
Thankfully Yukhei was too busy being excited in his own right to notice.
"It’s the new boy group SM is debuting! This is going to be huge! Do you know how many eyes are going to be on them! We are going to get to work for SM, how crazy is that! This is going to do wonders for my reputation as a director!”
As Yukhei continued to go on and on about how excited he was to work with SM, Jungwoo stood there petrified. How was he going to keep it together being in the same room as the future of SM?
***
"You’re going to be fine Jungwoo. I mean with how busy Yukhei keeps you normally, you won't even have any time to even think about it."
Jaemin was right, he had nothing to worry about. I mean this was his dream anyway, right? Getting to work with the biggest idols Korea had to offer.
Yet the anxiety was creeping up on Jungwoo faster than he had anticipated. And it wasn’t even about meeting the idols. He was most worried about his co-workers finding out about his reason why he wanted to work in this industry. If they knew, he worried he would be stuck in the position he was in for the rest of his life, or worse, fired.
"I literally can see you overthinking this." Jaemin said, trying to get his attention back. "You really don’t have anything to worry about you know. Even if they do find out, there are definitely some others who have the same motive as you. Like it’s really not that big of a deal I don’t know why you are always freaking out over this."
"Don’t say motives like that!" Jungwoo whined. "You make it sound like I have weird intentions!"
"Well don’t you?" Jaemin was clearly joking, as it was obvious that even if Jungwoo had heard the second part of what he said, it didn’t mean he would choose to listen.
That resulted in a flick on the forehead for Jaemin, yet a laughing fit from him still followed.
"But hey," Jaemin conceded, "at least you are following your dream! Don’t end up like me and get stuck in a job you hate just for the money."
"Shut up Jaemin, you sound like you’re forty. You still have time to do something you love."
"Yeah, but there’s no way you could survive at the company without me, so I guess I’m stuck for now!"
Jungwoo rolled his eyes, yet he still felt concerned for his friend. Jaemin had to find a job right out of high school to help support his family. While Jungwoo could relate to family struggles in a way, he still was able to follow his dream in the end. He hoped that one day Jaemin could too, whatever that dream was.
***
After a few weeks of preparation, the day had finally come. Yukhei and Jungwoo were on set extra early, giving them plenty of time to make sure everything was in order before the “stars” arrived.
Just like Jaemin said, Yukhei kept him extremely busy, even more so than usual, but that made sense. This opportunity could essentially make or break Yukhei’s career, yet he did not seem to hold an ounce of nervousness in all six feet of him. His confident resolve also made Jungwoo feel more at ease.
Before he knew it, the new boy group, calling themselves NCT, were already there and getting prepared for the shoot. Jungwoo had been so busy he didn’t even have the chance to get a good look at them until an hour into the process.
But when he did, he instantly regretted it.
All five of them were quite beautiful in their own right. But one, in particular, stood out to Jungwoo. So much so that when he first saw him it was like the wind got punched out of him. The way his brown waves danced over his forehead. The way he danced, with so much passion and fever, yet when the music cut it was like he transformed into a baby dear, soft and innocent, bubbling with nerves. Jungwoo could not seem to look away, he was transfixed on this boy, who he had never met, he didn’t even know his name. How could he be so enamored by him? Truthfully, he didn’t even know what to feel. He wasn’t gitty or nervous like he usually felt when he got to see an idol up close, this was different.
Maybe it was because he really wasn’t an idol yet, he thought. But that still didn’t explain why he was so taken aback. He always knew he liked boys, and girls too, he didn’t really have any preference. But he always was either too busy to date or frankly, uninterested.
Yet when he looked at this boy, it felt like he needed to give him the whole world and maybe even more.
"Hey yo! Snap out of it lover boy." Yukhei snapped, trying to break Jungwoo out of his obvious trance. "I need you to go find the set designer, this is all wrong!"
"Who is that?" was all Jungwoo managed to squeak out.
"I think the one you’re drooling over is Jung Jaehyun. But Jungwoo you don’t understand, do you see that thing? What even is it!? A shower?! Ugh, my vision! Please Jungwoo as soon as you get off cloud 9 please find the set designer. Are you even listening?! THE SET DESIGNER JUNGWOO. Ugh, you're hopeless, I’ll do it myself."
After that Yukhei stomped off. But Jungwoo only managed to hear one thing.
"Jung Jaehyun."