Chapter Text
Wonwoo received an email this morning.
It wasn't any email. He will not even bat an eyelash during his commute to K&C firm if it's works related. But this email came from Eunha, and the title is...
"Category 3 – Nar. Storm Warning"
There isn't body mail aside from a short link.
Wonwoo clicked the link, and one of his eyebrows raised while he reads the title. While the content is good news, Wonwoo knows why Eunha sent it to her early in the morning. He needs to prepare himself.
***
For more than two years now, Jeon Wonwoo has been working for K&C firm. He's not always enjoying the firm life, but he finds himself looking forward to the jobs most days now. He no longer dreads the commute to the office. He still does not get his 6-hours sleep most weekdays, but he no longer sleeps all through the trip and doesn't rely entirely on a taxi to go home. He can take the last bus or train or even some days hang out with his close friends (which mostly dinner and drink with Soonyoung and Jaehyun).
As soon as he reached his desk, he turned on his computer, put down his messenger bag, and proceed to wipe his glasses. Almost his morning routine now – including a sip of coffee later.
"Morning," Soonyoung approaches his desk. "Something particularly good happens?"
"Hm," Wonwoo looks at Soonyoung while continuing to wipe his glasses, "Nothing, why do you ask?"
"Well, I saw a smile – although these days you no longer cry about work, this is still Monday morning. I assume something good happened,"
"Well, not something good happened to me, but..."
"Wonwoo!" That familiar voice.
"Here he comes," Wonwoo said under his breath and quickly wore his glasses.
"Yes, Mingyu-shi," he answered immediately, leaving his conversation with Soonyoung hanging.
"I need more clarity on the rectification actions and information on off-shore assets of some of these companies," Mingyu hands him over the familiar thick blue folder to him, "I already marked which one you need to search more, so no need to seek the other ones,"
Despite talking vaguely, Wonwoo knows for sure what Mingyu is talking about. The blue folder is the comprehensive legal due diligence result of target companies that their client wanted to acquire. Wonwoo and several other senior associates' hand it to Mingyu last Friday evening. Wonwoo quickly opens the folder and saw handwritten comments and questions on some of the papers, which means Mingyu spent his weekend reading the 350 pages due diligence report.
"I want them today at 2 PM or earlier."
Mingyu was about to leave his cubicle, but then stop on his track and ask, "You don't have any other deadline, today, right?"
"Well, most of the deadlines are for your other clients, so..." Wonwoo decided not to continue and look at Mingyu instead, hoping Mingyu can answer which he prefers to prioritize.
"Was it the legal opinion for Bank K?"
"Yes,"
"You can finalize the legal opinion first, distribute my questions and comments to the other team members,"
That will be the logical course of action because Wonwoo is not the only person under Mingyu doing the legal due diligence. Although, Wonwoo has difficulty in visualizing the distribution part. There are several older and more senior associate lawyers in the team. In his mind, Mingyu should hand this folder to them directly instead of making Wonwoo awkwardly telling the seniors to answer the comments and questions.
"Mingyu-shi," Haesung, a middle associate in their project team, suddenly appears near Wonwoo's cubicle. "I can take the blue folder from Wonwoo and address any of the questions you have,"
"Okay, you do that," Mingyu said dismissively, about to walk away without even sparing a glance at Haesung.
"Ah also, Mingyu-shi," Haesung said again, "Congratulation for being named one of the top lawyers in Asia for this year,"
Oh, Wonwoo said in his head.
Mingyu stopped in his track, and from where he sat, Wonwoo literally can see the twinkle in Mingyu's eyes.
"Ah, you know that?"
"Of course, most of us know that you just named one of the 40 outstanding legal professionals under the age of 40 in the whole Asia Pacific for this year,"
Mingyu is thrilled that someone mentioned this to him so early in the morning. From the link that Eunha sent to Wonwoo this morning. The 40 under 40 list was announced yesterday. Well, to be named one of the most outstanding lawyers under the age of 40 not only in South Korea but across Asia Pacific region is remarkable. Even Wonwoo feel proud on behalf of Kim Mingyu, to think that he actively works and under the mentorship of this outstanding lawyer is a fantastic feeling.
Mingyu is swamped by the other junior lawyers congratulating and discussing the list and some of his notable transactions mentioned.
"Hm," Soonyoung's smiling face suddenly popped in front of Wonwoo, "I guess now I know why you're smiling this morning."
Wonwoo simply waves his hand and (literally) said shoo to Soonyoung in response.
***
It's lunchtime, but Wonwoo has ordered lunch from Soonyoung instead. He's pretty sure he can't go outside with how busy Mingyu is these days anyway. He heads to Mingyu's office to discuss the legal opinion's final version when he saw Eunha.
"Is he inside?"
Eunha rolls her eyes, playfully, "Where else he would be? Oh yeah, the category three warning still stands,"
That's Eunha's playful warning whenever she feels Mingyu feels incredibly narcissistic and needs more praises than usual.
"Didn't he already have a lot of people raving about it?"
"Oh, trust me, he's still waiting for more," Eunha said, looking at Wonwoo expectantly. "Anyway, I want to have a quick lunch, so go ahead and see him,"
After several strides, Eunha stopped, "Wonwoo, don't forget to ask Mingyu about your mid-year assessment. Remind him that you also need to diversify your practice group and cases to have a good year-end assessment,"
Wonwoo gave Eunha a thumbs up at the reminder. However, he is unsure how to ask Mingyu for other types of clients for him or ask him to be placed under different practice groups for a single case. He enters the room after knocking.
"Mingyu-shi," Wonwoo said as he approaches Mingyu's table, "I already send you the opinion's final version. You can give a quick skim over them, and we can directly focus on page 5, where I formulated the answer to..."
"I'm still waiting, Wonu," Mingyu cut him.
"Eh?" Wonwoo stopped in his speech, "Yes, what are you waiting?" he looked at Mingyu, confused.
Mingyu shakes his head slowly and crosses his arms over his chest like a petulant child. Remembering what Eunha said just now, Wonwoo finally realizes. He can't help but giggles a bit.
"Oh, congratulations for being named one of the outstanding lawyers this year, Mingyu,"
"That's it?" Mingyu pouted. "It's not only in this country, you know, but it's also across Asia Pacific region, and only two people from Korea made it to the list,"
Wonwoo laughs out loud now. "Oh yes, yes, silly me. How can I eliminate that important part?" he tapped his temple playfully.
"You're not sincere, Jeon Wonwoo,"
Wonwoo can't believe it; here, Kim Mingyu, one of K&C's rising stars, literally pouted because Wonwoo has not congratulated him properly.
"No, no, I am seriously happy for you," Wonwoo said. "To think that I am working for one of the best lawyers in Asia, and he is actively mentoring me..." Wonwoo think for a bit, trying to articulate better, "I am proud that I work with you,"
Mingyu visibly perks up at that.
"Okay, I'll take that," he finally smiles, "But I want a present from you as compensation for being so late in congratulating me,"
"Eh, what? Should I remind you who is the senior lawyer here, why are you asking a present from me?"
***
It took another week for Mingyu to stop referencing the 40 under 40 list to Wonwoo and Eunha. A lot of it also comes from the two of them flat out saying, "we're not here to further massage your ego, but there is important work to be done,"
"Wonwoo, you should print and compile the asset list," Haesung toss the bundle of paper to Wonwoo's desk.
Wonwoo looks up from the case briefs he's working on, "Is this for the acquisition?"
"Yes, you do that today," Haesung said flatly to him.
"Uhm, I can hand this over to the secretary. They can arrange documents better than..."
"No," Haesung urged, "They might have the asset category wrongly. You know better how Mingyu-shi wanted these documents to be categorized right," Haesung unnecessarily emphasized Mingyu in his statement.
Oh
"Okay, I will do that today,"
"Don't forget the assets list from the overseas companies as well," he smirked as he leaves Wonwoo's desk.
***
"I think some of the seniors dislike me," Wonwoo said as he blows into his ramen during lunch the next day. They are out for lunch at the nearby ramen restaurant. Luckily, not a lot of the other associate lawyers love to dine in here, so most of the time, they can talk about office issues freely.
"You think?" Soonyoung asked disbelievingly, "We all know some of them hates you, it is clear as day,"
Seeing Wonwoo's sad face, Jaehyun quickly kicks Soonyoung's leg under the table.
"What Soonyoung means," Jaehyun tries to rephrase. "Some of them probably disapprove of how close you are to Kim Mingyu, but I think it's nothing personal," he said while Soonyoung wails from the kick.
"What I mean is – we don't need everyone to like us. Come on, admit it – this working environment is highly competitive." Soonyoung said as he munched on the gyoza.
"You should swallow first before you continue," Seokmin said, "It somehow lose the importance impact because you look like a hamster,"
Lee Seokmin is a recent addition to their small group. Quite differently, he is not a junior lawyer or paralegal. He is a Business Development intern from the other floor who somehow got attached to Soonyoung and started following their little group.
"I mean Wonwoo-shi," Seokmin continues.
"Just Wonwoo is fine,"
Seokmin smiles at that, "Even in BD division, not many people wanted to be friends. The relationship is transactional. But you choose who you want to hang out with and built a more meaningful relationship, right?"
From the look of it, it seems that his BD peers also exclude Seokmin, so probably he understands what Wonwoo said. (Plus, Soonyoung probably also fills him with a lot of information and details on the side)
"To be honest," Jaehyun started, "I think it might also be partially Mingyu's fault, don't you think? The two of you are closer for sure, and even with several other mid associates, he chose to talk and brief you directly. I am not part of your team, but I can understand a little bit of their attitude towards you,"
Wonwoo silently slurps his ramen at that observation. He tries to minimize their interaction and sometimes even conceal how closer he becomes with Mingyu. He speaks more politely if they're not in Mingyu's office or other people aside from Eunha are present.
"Come to think of it, Wonwoo," Soonyoung finished swallowing his food now. "I'm curious, is there something going on between the two of you?" he asks while wiggling his eyebrow.
Wonwoo choked on his ramen at that.
"What do you mean? There is nothing between Kim Mingyu and me!"
***
Soonyoung is observing Wonwoo, who just smiles as he read something from his phone. They're currently at a Starbucks after their lunch. They still have around 15 minutes before they must head back to the office.
"Guys, I'm heading to the office first,"
"We haven't ordered, though?" Jaehyun, who was busy looking at the seasonal beverage menu just now, is confused.
"You guys can stay here longer; I have to go back earlier. Mingyu asked for something," Wonwoo explained, "Soonyoung, can you bring me ice coffee? I will transfer the money to you,"
"Sure," Soonyoung answered. He was so close in teasing Wonwoo but decided against it.
Several minutes after Wonwoo left, Soonyoung can't help but quip. "Who in their right mind would be eager to come back immediately to see their supervisor and talk about work during lunch break?"
Seokmin laughed at him, "Well, you know, when you have other types of incentives to stay at the office..."
"Not this again," Jaehyun said as he took his spice latte.
"No seriously, Jaehyun – you always dismiss my observations on Wonwoo," Soonyoung insist, "But hear this, Wonwoo dragged me to a clothing store three days ago,"
"And..." Seokmin asked, lost as to the importance of that bit of information.
"I thought to myself, oh, wow! Finally, our Wonwoo will think about his appearance more and stop using simple black or white collared shirt to the office, right? But no!"
"What did he do?" Seokmin and Jaehyun asked, annoyed at Soonyoung's unnecessary pauses and suspense.
"He said he was looking for gifts for Mingyu,"
"Oh wow,"
"The funny thing: he ended up not purchasing anything because he was confused on the proper price range for a gift to one Kim Mingyu," Soonyoung continued, "But, he ended up buying a baby blue shirt and light purple shirt for work, and..."
"What?" Jaehyun is now completely immersed in the story, ask again. "He finally decided to put more effort into his outfit now?"
Soonyoung grinned, "I remember several weeks ago hearing Mingyu saying to Wonwoo that the purple sweater he wore over his white shirt is cute – because purple looks good on him,"
The other two now stop to internalize that piece of information.
"OH, have I mentioned as well that once Kim Mingyu casually asked whether I'm dating Wonwoo somehow,"
"He what???" Jaehyun now asked while laughing.
"How did this happen?" Seokmin asked.
"We were just somehow bumped into each other at the office's elevator right. I just come back from getting more information on..."
"Yeah yeah," Jaehyun now urging Soonyoung to get to the point.
"Oh, someone is hooked on my stories now," Soonyoung teasing Jaehyun. "Anyway, Mingyu asked whether I was dating anyone in the office, carefully said he was seeing people when he was still a junior lawyer. Now that he's a senior lawyer, he has less time to do that. To which I said I don't, and he looked at me and implies whether I have something going on with Wonwoo or not,"
Jaehyun covers his mouth at this information, and the three exchange glances.
"No wonder you keep hinting things; you have all of these puzzle pieces!"
"Oh my God, I can feel something going on for weeks now, and whenever these two exchanges glance or just look at each other – I sometimes wanted to bash my head to the nearest wall!" Soonyoung wails, "The tension is so palpable that I am pretty sure other associates started to notice something too now. I'm just confused about how you missed all these signs, Jae,"
Seokmin took the iced Americano that was meant for Wonwoo from the pick-up corner and motioning for them to go back to the office, "But, here we have a dense Wonwoo on the mix,"
"Exactly," Soonyoung said, "I'm sharing with you two so you can also feel my agony whenever I watch them,"
***
Wonwoo sat in one of the empty chairs in the huge meeting room. The incoming meeting is one of their rare internal town hall meetings. In the emails circulated, Choi Seungcheol - one of the junior partners, mentioned that this would be a bi-monthly event. However, three months after his announcement, they finally have this town hall meeting, which requires everyone, senior to junior lawyers and even supporting staff, to attend. Wonwoo quickly checks the room's attendance and notices that some of the senior partners are missing. He checked his watch and see that it's only 10 minutes until the town hall was supposed to start.
He observed Choi Seungcheol, who talked with several of his staff and junior lawyers at the front. He looks super tired, and Wonwoo doesn't know why, but sometimes he feels empathy for him. Handling cases while managing the firm's internal issues must be exhausting. From the looks of it, Seungcheol made most of the office management improvement by himself without other senior partners' involvement.
"Yeap and here we go,"
Wonwoo looks to his right and finds Mingyu sitting with his leg crossed right next to him.
"Shouldn't you sit upfront?" Wonwoo asked carefully, "Somewhere there?" his hand gesture vaguely to the front of the room where most attending senior lawyers and partners choose to sit.
"Oh, they will see me even from here. It's hard to miss me," Mingyu grinned playfully.
"Whatever you said," Wonwoo answered, knowing there is no way Mingyu will change his mind.
"I hope Cheol will not keep us for long here; it's 6 PM on a Friday,"
"I don't think you're eager to go home anyway,"
"Nope, but we have lots of client's requests, aren't we?"
Wonwoo sighed again, "I feel bad for the staffs though; they usually will head home by now,"
"Well, once every other month is not so bad," Mingyu now chooses to side with Seungcheol.
As the townhall proceeds according to the schedule previously disseminated, Seungcheol gave several updates and reminders for them. The firm's notable transaction update so far to office policy, such as reminders to the supervising lawyers to do their mid-year assessment. Through all of these, Mingyu keep chatting softly with Wonwoo and dropped random information for Wonwoo.
"We haven't done the mid-year assessment," Wonwoo whispered to Mingyu.
"What are you talking about – we did,"
Wonwoo looked judgingly at Mingyu, "If you're referring to that 10 minutes chat..."
"Yes. I told you, you did a great job Wonu, that's my assessment,"
Wonwoo pinched his nose's bridge, unsure whether Mingyu is teasing him or being serious right now. "I need more information than you did a good job. You need to elaborate on that. Plus, I must diversify my cases to improve my year-end assessment,"
If they simply did the mid-year assessment with their principal supervisor. Wonwoo will face several other senior lawyers for his year-end review. Wonwoo is currently also a floating associate, meaning he has not decided on a fixed practice group. Hence, he needs more cases than the corporate or Merger & Acquisition cases under Mingyu.
"And I told you, I will consider it,"
"It's been two weeks since then; you have to tell me with whom I should work with and on which case,"
"Do you want to work with Jonghyun?"
Jonghyun is another senior lawyer handling most of the taxation cases within their firm.
Wonwoo gasped in horror, "You know I hate taxation laws,"
"Oh well, I haven't thought of any other practice group that needs more people, so you have to wait," Mingyu answered back.
During their chat, Wonwoo easily missed the knowing glances three of his friends exchanged at his left. Soonyoung looks at Jaehyun and Seokmin while mouthing; they are in their little world.
Obviously, Seokmin mouthed back, and the three giggled silently.
If Wonwoo thinks that would be all, lo and behold, Seungcheol also mentioned the dang 40 under 40 list, effectively drawing all attention to one Kim Mingyu. Mingyu immediately stands up and graciously smile and gave a short remark before sitting back.
"It's almost an hour now, end it now, Cheol," Mingyu muttered under his breath. Despite the lovely attention he received just now, he's just so eager for them to finish this thing.
"Just a couple more miscellaneous announcement, shush," Wonwoo replies quietly.
"Okay, I know a lot of you are so eager to go home or return to your work," Seungcheol playfully remarks. "I just wanted to remind most of the junior lawyers here to think about fulfilling their mandatory 30-hour per year pro bono requirement. Although from the record, even some of the senior lawyers have not fulfilled this. As a way of encouragement, I wanted to announce that I am now handling three diverse pro-bono cases. If you are interested in labor or environmental issues, you can voluntarily sign up for the cases. I must announce as well that so far, we only have two volunteers, and I will need more than that. So, anyone wanted to volunteer?"
Seungcheol asked the room in general and met with dead silence.
"Two volunteers so far," Mingyu giggled beside Wonwoo, "Man, Cheol need to improve his advertising skill,"
Wonwoo doesn't know what compels him to do so. Probably the fact that he relates to Seungcheol's efforts, or Mingyu's giggles, or the fact that he also has not fulfilled his mandatory pro-bono hour.
Who knows?
As if taken over by a random spirit, Wonwoo found himself raising his hand and said out loud, "Seungcheol-shi, I want to volunteer for the cases,"
Notice the plural there. He stated cases, not one.
The smile Seungcheol gave Wonwoo after that makes Wonwoo happy, though. "Okay, great! Uhm – it's Jeon Wonwoo, right? Please write that for me," Seungcheol said to one of his staff, "I will get back to you on the case later."
"This is not the end, though, everyone! I will still remind you about the pro-bono requirement. Suppose I see people not fulfilling them despite being a senior lawyer, I might pull you into some of these cases. Okay, if there are no other questions, we will end our townhall here and don't forget you can send emails or questions to my team or me from time to time,"
The room immediately buzzes as people get up to leave or chat with one another.
"Jeon Wonwoo,"
Oh, that sounds alarming.
Wonwoo looks to his right and finds Mingyu fuming.
"My office, in 15 minutes," Mingyu said as he stands up and leaves Wonwoo there.
Yikes , Wonwoo, mentally said to himself.