Chapter Text
“Come on, come on!” Sehun quickly pushed his kids out of the door, while balancing his 2-year-old and shutting the door behind him.
“We’re late… again!” Areum exclaimed in exaggeration.
“Again!” Her little sister, Hyejin, repeated after her.
“I know babies, you don’t have to remind me,” Sehun said in defeat, his daughters putting their seat-belts on and his little son, thankfully not cranky, getting strapped onto his car seat. The father of 3 quickly got into the driver’s seat, and drove as fast as he could with his children in the car to their kindergarten, before driving off to the building he worked in and dropping Seojun off at their building’s childcare. Thank goodness for that.
He rushed up to the 23rd level, he wasn’t late, no, he was cutting very close though. He reaches his desk at 8:59am, before breathing a huge sigh of relief and catching his breath.
“Hey man, you alright?” Chanyeol came over with a piping hot cup of coffee, and Sehun wished he had a cup now. His best friend placed the cup down, “You can take a sip.” God bless him, Sehun thinks.
“Yeah, just lost track of time again. Barely got the kids to school.”
The younger sighed, “You know what I'm going to say, Hun. Get a nanny. No, get your ex to come back and be a parent.”
“Zitao is busy and doesn’t give 2 shits about the kids, at least he gave us a house and is paying his share of child support. That’s already much more from what I expected of him -”
“Which wasn’t high in the first place,” Chanyeol pointed out.
“Exactly. Don’t interrupt me. We’re fine the way we are, I can’t afford a nanny anyway,” Sehun shrugged.
“Whatever, did you see the email we got yesterday?”
“About the new boss and his team? Yeah.”
“So I google searched him, right - Get this. He’s some old dude, boring. Didn’t they say they wanted younger blood?”
“I don’t know, I don’t even remember what his name was. We will just see later,” Sehun switched on his desktop, looking up to Chanyeol, “Aren’t you supposed to be working?”
“Ugh, party pooper,” Chanyeol rolled his eyes and walked to the table across from him.
As Sehun got settled down and began to start his own work, a loud clap resonated in the room.
“Ladies and gents,” Sehun recognized as one of the higher-ups called out, “I’m here to introduce to you your new GM and his team, who will be overseeing you with their fresh, young pair of eyes. They are very qualified, the shareholders and I agree, they are what we need in the company. Let us welcome, Mr Kim Jongdae, Mr Byun Baekhyun, Mr Kim Minseok, Mr Zhang Yixing and Mr Kim Junmyeon.” The entire office stood up to applaud the newcomers, only to be awed by the beauty standing in front of them.
‘These guys look like they belong at the MET Gala,’ Sehun thinks, especially paying more attention to the one standing right in front of the group.
“Good morning everyone. I am Kim Jongdae, you can call me Mr Kim. I’m your new General Manager,” He paused, looking towards his back and politely introducing the other three, before continuing, “I hope we can work and also take care of each other well. Any questions?” Mr Kim looked around as everyone shook their heads, eyes landing upon Sehun, who flushed a little pink, he felt, and the former smiled at him. He didn’t know how to react or whether Mr Kim was smiling at him specifically, but Sehun had immediately looked away.
Everyone was dismissed and Sehun sat down on his seat, catching his breath. He’s not going to lie, Mr Kim is attractive as hell, but he emitted a bossy, arrogant vibe, and Sehun definitely didn’t want to be in his bad graces.
The day went by slowly, as Sehun always feels like it. As an admin, he always does the same thing over and over again, nothing too exciting, but this job gave him a lot of flexibility and a relatively okay pay, enough to support his family, and Sehun is very grateful for that above all else. He needed the flexibility to be at his kids’ whim when need be and he knew how rare it was to get that, so he wasn’t going to complain… much.
Across the hall, in the GM’s room, there was a mini meeting called between the new staff.
“Did you see the guy with the broad shoulders at the left side of the room? He’s so fucking hot, Jesus.” Jongdae sighed in bliss at the thought of it.
“Don’t use his name in vain,” Baekhyun commented, “Besides, we’re here to work, for goodness sake.”
“Yes, work on that -”
“Continue that sentence, Jongdae and we all leave,” Minseok warned.
“Aww, you guys are no fun,” Jongdae pouted.
“You’re the General Manager, and we’re not here to play,” Baekhyun reminded him.
“Ugh, you guys are so uptight - no wonder you’re both married,” Jongdae snide, to which he got 2 glares in return, so he decided to stop.
“So, what’s wrong with this company again?” Yixing piped up, creating a diversion.
“Not enough sales, very high costs. The normal,” Baekhyun quickly read through the spreadsheets in his file, “Their designs are old and boring. Not creative too.”
“That’s where we come in,” Jongdae said, “We will meet with their creative team ASAP, then sales and marketing. Can we schedule everything today?” Jongdae looked at his assistant, Junmyeon, who was busy tapping away on the iPad.
“Done. First meeting at 3.15pm, second at 5.25pm.” Yes, efficient Kim Junmyeon coming through.
“Ok, team dismissed! I need to go talk to someone,” Jongdae announced.
“Nope, you’re not. Jongdae, you have a call coming in 10,9,” As Minseok counted down, he pushed Jongdae to his seat behind the large desk, “4, 3, 2, 1.” Just then, the phone rings, Jongdae grunts and Minseok shooes everyone out.
“That’s hot,” Jongdae heard Baekhyun tell Minseok. ‘ God, is that their kink? ’ Jongdae thinks, before picking up the phone and noting on the notepad in front of him to find out who ‘broad-shoulders guy’ is.
“Where do you plan on going today?” Chanyeol asked as he finished up the last of his presentation slides.
“Maybe Thai? I’ve been wanting to try the new menu at the restaurant down the road.”
“Yeah sure, just give me 5 minutes.”
“Yeah, I need to pee first. Meet you in the lobby?” Chanyeol nodded his head. Sehun did his deed and left the bathroom, only to bump into the new boss. He nodded and gave him a small smile, wanting to side step the other when his boss grabbed his arm.
“I’m Jongdae,” his boss introduced himself.
‘I know that ,’ Sehun thinks, instead he opted for, “I’m Sehun, pleasure to meet you, Sir.”
“What department are you in?” The other continued, and Sehun felt awkward considering they were conversing right at the entrance of the male toilet.
“Uh, Admin, Sir.”
“Okay, well,” Jongdae gave him a once-over, “Have a nice lunch.”
\\
“Appa!” Seojun reached out for his father once he saw him walking to the play area.
“Hey baby, let’s go?”
Sehun always brings his son out - just like he did with his other children when they were younger - to lunch without fail, but he had another child to bring out too ever since this new one started working together with him 3 years ago.
“Seojun-ah~” Chanyeol cooed, carrying the baby in his arms when the little one reached out.
“Lollie!” Seojun grabbed the other’s cheeks in excitement. Chanyeol jokingly screamed in pain, and Sehun thinks everything that has happened is worth it when his son squealed in happiness very, very loudly.
“The new boss introduced himself to me outside the toilet,” Sehun shuddered at the memory, “Super fuc-, super awkward.”
“Wow, I walked past him twice and he barely gave me a glance.” They entered the restaurant and got a high chair for Seojun.
“It was just really weird.” Chanyeol shrugged. They ordered an array of dishes to share, even with Seojun, since he’s at the stage where he wanted to eat everything.
“What’s Zitao doing now? Other than being a parent, of course.”
“Why are you so concerned about him? I’m not.” Sehun shrugged.
“I don’t know, he never gave me a good vibe, and I met him like twice.”
“Exactly, ONLY twice.”
“No, that’s not the point. Do you have any back-up plans?”
“What for?”
“When Zitao flakes?”
“He has been paying for me and the kids for 6 years, he won’t flake.”
“Still, it’s always best to have a back-up plan.”
“I don’t need one, so I won’t even waste my time thinking about it. The kids and I are complete as it is; we're a complete puzzle set with no missing pieces.”
“Hun, just think about it, I’m worried about you and the kids. I can’t believe you have 3 kids with this man who doesn’t give any shit about all of you.” Sehun only ignored whatever Chanyeol had said. Honestly, they fell out of love a long time ago, and as long as his ex doesn’t do anything bad to them, he can do whatever he wants outside of the family. Sehun just needed the financial help, as long as he gets it, he really doesn’t care.
“Hurry the hell up guys, I’m starving,” Yixing complained, “Where’s Jongdae?”
“You know I’m your hyung and boss, right? I was just in the toilet,” Jongdae appeared from behind.
“Lovebirds, let’s go!” Yixing shouts to Minseok and Baekhyun leading the way out of the door and towards the lobby. “Anyway, I saw a Thai place down the street, we’re going there, oppositions not accepted,” Yixing piped up. As they walked in, Jongdae's eyes fell upon a particular table at the corner. He doesn’t think twice, and walks over to them.
“Fancy seeing you, Sehun,” He greets. The man of said name looked up, a spoonful of green curry chicken halfway to his mouth. He drops it into his bowl, and quickly stands up.
“Sir, hello,” He looked over at his friend who completely ignored their boss, nudging him to stand up. He hesitantly does so, “Good afternoon.”
“Hi,” Jongdae glanced at Chanyeol for a second, before turning his attention onto Sehun again, “Enjoying your lunch?”
“Yes, Sir.”
“None of this Sir business outside of the office, it’s Jongdae,” The GM flirted, lowkey batting his eyes at the other, but don’t tell on him!
“Ah, yes yes… Jongdae-ssi.”
“Just Jongdae is fine,” He settles down on the remaining seat at their table, his own friends looking very puzzled, before joining the other by standing behind him.
“How old are you?” Jongdae asked.
“29.”
“Oh, I’m your hyung then~” Jongdae giggled happily, his eyes crinkling at its sides, almost like he was… flirting, one of his friends (Baekhyun) thinks.
“Ah, I see.” Sehun awkwardly replied. He was saved by his son though, who decided to squeal loudly for his dad, “Muh-mum!” He opens and closes his fist, putting it towards his mouth. Everyone at and around the table looked at said toddler.
Jongdae eyed him skeptically, “Your nephew?”
Chanyeol rolled his eyes, and Sehun answered, “My son.”
His boss’ eyes widened, so did his friends, “ Son ?”
“Yes.”
“How old were you when you adopted him?” Yixing asked curiously.
“He’s not adopted, he’s mine biologically.” Awkward silence ensues for a minute, before Jongdae continued, “Well then, we will let you get back to it...” He quickly stood up and walked out of the restaurant.
“Dude! I wanna eat here!” Yixing chased after him, the couple staying behind as they looked for a table.
“I don’t wanna~” Jongdae whined
“Well, suck it up! It’s either that, or you have lunch alone,” Yixing crosses his arms.
“ Alone then, goodbye!” Jongdae walked back fast to the office.
'Fuck he has a kid, A KID. He’s only 29 - Wait, I guess it’s fine… right? I can date someone who has a kid right? But how would we have sex if his kid is going to cry all night?’ Jongdae vigorously scribbled whatever his heart desired on his notepad, it helps him focus, he convinces himself. He was interrupted by a knock on the door.
“Boss, got you some Pad Thai, because I know you didn’t eat at all so here,” Yixing dumped the container on his table, which the other graciously took because he was starving. “Are you going to like… date that guy?”
“That guy?” Jongdae feigned innocence.
“Sehun-ssi.”
“Uh, I don’t know who you’re talk-”
“The guy with the kid. You blatantly flirted with him. Yes, we know.”
“I wasn’t flirt- I was just getting to know him.”
“You were.”
“Oh, he was definitely flirting with you,” Chanyeol laughed.
“He was just being friendly .”
“He didn’t even care that I was there!”
“Well, even if he was interested, he bailed the second I told him Seojun was mine so… It can never happen.”
“That’s true, but at least we know he’s rich. He can be your back-up plan.” Chanyeol carried Seojun out of the chair and headed to the exit, “Thanks for paying, Hun!” Sehun sighs.
“Appa, look it! I got a smiley on my drawing!” Areum flings her drawing as soon as she gets in the car.
“Wow! I’ll see the drawing later, okay? Buckle up first.” His eldest daughter nods her head.
They soon arrived home and Sehun cooked up a quick dinner, bathed his kids and got them settled down for dinner.
“Appa, can we get churros?” Hyejin asked, picking up her chopsticks to start eating.
“During the weekends, okay? So, shall we all talk about our day?” Areum raised her hand first.
“So today, Teacher Sandi wanted us to draw our family! So I drew Appa, Hyejin and Junnie~ Then, we got to play at the sandy playground and Chaengie gave me stickers!” The 6-year-old showed her family her masterpiece, Sehun already thinking about framing it up in the many frames he bought and kept in storage for moments like this.
Hyejin piped up, “You didn’t draw Appa Zitao?”
“Oh, I forgot,” Areum shrugged, but Sehun knew she didn’t particularly like her other dad.
It wasn’t like Zitao was a horrible dad, he’s just… forgettable. He was occasionally there on their birthdays, showcases, and maybe there is a picture or two of him in the house. Other than that, yeah, forgettable. They only knew he was just their other dad, never questioned why he was so absent either.
“You forgot, unnie!” Hyejin scolded, “He’s our dad...” Well, you could tell which daughter liked Zitao more. Areum shrugged again.
“Anything else, Areum?”
“Ummm,” She taps her little fingers on her chin, “No… Hyejin! Your turn.”
“Uh… I played with Sunnie, Byullie and Wheenie! That’s all…” Hyejin was always the quiet one.
“Are you sure, baby? What did you do at kindergarten?” Sehun encouraged.
“We played? Uh… we did origami~”
“Where is it? Can I see it?”
“Um… it’s not very nice…” She shyly looked down.
“Don’t say that Jinnie~ Come show us,” her older sister prodded. Hyejin nodded before digging through her bag, and pulled out 2 crumpled origami. She looked a little disheartened, and it broke her father’s heart.
“Hyejin-ah~ They look so pretty,” Sehun gently took them away from her and smoothed them, “You don’t have to be shy about it, we will love it no matter what, okay?” His daughter nodded. “Anything else, baby?” She shook her head.
“Appa’s turn!” Areum exclaimed.
“So Appa went to work, then he met his new boss, who seem… okay. Then Appa brought Seojun out to eat Thai food with Uncle Chanyeol.” At the sound of his name, Seojun squealed in his seat.
“I miss Uncle…” Hyejin commented.
“We can see him soon, I’ll ask him when he’s free.”
“What else did you do, Appa?” Areum asked in between bites.
“Nothing much, just boring work stuff.”
“Appa, can you sing to us tonight?” Hyejin spoke up after helping him wash the dishes.
“Of course baby. Anything for all of you.”
The next day starts early with a 9am meeting. Sehun has to attend these meetings, unfortunately, just for formality and to take down notes where necessary.
This time though, he feels slightly… uncomfortable. He could feel his new boss staring at him so intently, and he didn’t know whether to look at him or look away. He eventually chooses the latter, but even that takes his focus away from the meeting, because when Jongdae talked, he still stared at Sehun. Creep.
After the meeting, Creep Jongdae called, “Sehun, please meet me in the office for a while.” As much as Sehun’s head is screaming ‘No!’, his legs followed the other instead, and he then found himself in the GM room with the door shut.
“Sehun, I have a proposal for you.”
He didn’t want to know, but: “What… is it?”
“I’m promoting you to be my assistant.”
“What? Don’t you already have one?” Wait, he didn’t mean to be rude-
“I do, but Junmyeon needs the help. You can like,” Jongdae looks around, “Look after my other stuff?”
“Uh, will that affect my… hours because I have kid-”
“Oh! No, no. In fact!” His boss exclaimed, “You can work whenever you want. Pick your hours.”
“What? Sorry, I do not understand.”
“Just decide on whatever hours to attend to me and my needs, and you can leave whenever you want.”
“Wher-where will I work at?”
“In my office, of course! I’ll set up a table for you right here.”
“What would I be doing exactly?”
Jongdae ponders, he didn’t exactly need anything personal to attend to…
“No! You can be my assistant and continue being the admin.”
“Not to be rude, but that sounds like a lot of work and I still need to-”
“Again, come and go as you will. Really. I’ll raise your pay, increase your benefits-”
“Is that even legal?”
“No! I want someone from the admin department who oversees everything, to work directly for me as well so it’s more efficient. We’re new too, so it’s better if you know, come together .” That’s obviously a lie, but no one needs to know that.
“I, uh, need a contract for this? For my own safety.”
“Of course! Just, uh, draft it yourself, I’ll approve it and-”
“I’m not going to do that... “
“Fine! Junmyeon. He will pass you the contract.” He calls his assistant over and tells him what they’ve been discussing, or more like enforced on Sehun. Junmyeon narrows his eyes, already seeing where this would all end up, before nodding his head and walking away.
“Okay… I’ll go no-”
“No! Have lunch with me, as like a welcome-on-board lunch!”
“No… it’s alright.”
“Why not?”
“I… I usually take my son out to lunch. It’s uh, inappropriate to have lunch together.”
“No, no! I’m fine with it, if you’re fine with it, of course.”
“Are you sure?”
“Very sure. Yep, I’m very sure.”
“Uh… okay… sure…” Sehun gets up, looking back and forth between the door and Jongdae, before his boss says, “1pm, at the lobby.” Sehun nods and excuses himself, wondering how the fuck he had gotten into this mess.
Sehun awkwardly shifted in his seat, Jongdae looking expectantly at his son.
“This is Seojun,” Sehun starts, turning back to his son and using his Daddy voice, “Seojun-ah, wave to samchon here~” His son follows what his father says, and waves at the older man, with his boss waving back.
“He’s really cute, how old is he?”
“2.”
“Wow, a father so young… Where’s his mom?”
Ugh, a question Sehun hates the most, nonchalantly answering, “I carried him to term myself.”
And of course, the most natural reaction that comes next was the other widening his eyes, “You can get pregnant?” Sehun nods once, not explaining himself.
“Oh.”
“The previous boss was fine with that. Are you?” The single father challenged.
“O-of course.”
“Everything you need to know is in my personal file. HR knows everything, from my hometown, to my first job and that I birthed 3 children.”
“THREE ?!”
“Mr Kim, don’t you think it’s very unprofessional to have a reaction like that towards one of your employees?” Sehun narrows his eyes, and furrows his brows. It wasn’t uncommon that men could get pregnant, but not as frequent either.
“No no! I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it to come out that way. I’m just surprised that’s all.”
“Appa!” Seojun squeals, very unaware of the tension, reaching out for the straw in Jongdae’s drink that’s just arrived.
“No Seojun-ah, the drink’s not yours~” Sehun switches to his dad-mode in a millisecond, which would be quite amusing to the other - going from having an angry voice to a cute-like one - but in the midst between panicking and trying to impress the other, Jongdae says, “Oh no! He can have my drink.” He was about to feed the baby his drink when his father stopped him.
“Uh, as much as I appreciate the gesture, I think as a GM, you should at least know not to feed toddlers alcohol .”
Jongdae widened his eyes for the umpteeth time that day, looking at his cocktail , “I- I didn’t mean to, it completely slipped my mind that my drink has alcohol, I’m very sorry.”
Sehun sighs heavily, reaching out for his own non-alcoholic drink to feed it to his son.
“Thinking twice about the whole admin-assistant arrangement now?” Sehun speaks up after a while.
“No! I mean,” Jongdae clears his throat, “I still think it’s a great arrangement.”
“I still don’t understand my job scope.”
“Junmyeon is currently handling my personal as well as business affairs, and you’ll be handling the office ones as well as sharing some responsibilities with him.”
“That’s not fair, isn’t it? I mean, I’m handling three things and Junmyeon’s only handling two.”
“No, he will still be holding the bulk of his current responsibilities, and you’ll help him when needed. I promise it wouldn’t be a lot more than what you have now, you’ll get paid accordingly, and you can work any hours-”
“That’s unfair on the others now, right? Why this proposition anyway?”
“Because… you’re the longest staff on the admin team, right? It seems about right.”
“Just make me head then.”
“You don’t have heads here, that’s your company policy or something, right? So no one feels superior to others.”
Right, a stupid one. Sehun would’ve been Head surely if not for that stupid policy. Yes, he was salty about that. He did know that whatever proposal his new boss was offering him was good, too good to be true, at least, but that’s what the contract is for, so Sehun would only (procrastinate to think about it) decide then.
“Can I… can I still sit at my current desk though? I don’t mind just coming in everytime you need me, but I would very much like to sit with Chanyeol still.”
No, Jongdae was not pouting. He was close to, but he wasn’t, he hopes.
Trying his hardest not to let out the littlest of whines, he nods his head, hoping again, he wasn’t pouting (read: he was.).
Anyway, the food soon came, and Jongdae saw how tedious it was to feed his son and himself, while he had already finished half his food. The porridge Sehun had brought for his son was all over his face, his own food forgotten. Jongdae would offer to feed Seojun, but one , he didn’t know how, two , he doesn’t think the toddler would appreciate anyone else feeding him, like babies usually do.
When Sehun realises the lunch hour is almost up, he had started to gobble down his food while simultaneously cleaning up his son, but his boss stopped him, “I’m sure your boss won’t mind if you’re late,” adding a wink at the end, which had made the younger undoubtedly uncomfortable.
Sehun just nods slightly at that, distracting himself by cleaning his son, and about twenty minutes later, they were reaching the lobby of their building.
“Thanks for lunch… I, uh… need to drop off Seojun now. You can head up first…” Sehun says, trying to rid himself of his boss.
“Oh no it’s alright! I’ve been wanting to see the childcare and say hi, anyway.” Fuck , Sehun internally curses. The three of them walked in silence, with Sehun stopping now and then when Seojun stumbled.
As Sehun brings his son back to his class, Jongdae goes around introducing himself as one of the companies’ new bosses. He debates whether to just leave his superior there or not, but decides on the latter, if he was going to work under him directly soon.
“Thanks for waiting,” Jongdae smiles, with his employee just nodding his head once. “I’ll get Junmyeon to come to you later and discuss the contract.”
“Okay.”
“Oh Sehun?”
The person in question looks up, “Yes?”
“Let’s go to the meeting room to discuss.” Ah, this must be Junmyeon then, Sehun thinks, as he stands up and follows the other man into one of the empty rooms.
“So, Jongdae tells me you’re now his assistant too,” Junmyeon starts, “Not even a week here and I’m already getting replaced.” Shaking his head, he scribbles harshly on his notebook.
Sehun’s heart starts to race, quickly defending himself, “No! No, he suggested it and I even turned him down. I didn’t intend to steal your job I promise.” Junmyeon just hums.
“Anyway, you’ll keep your current job, and while Jongdae would give you direct orders occasionally, you’ll be helping me mostly, not like I needed the extra help anyway,” Junmyeon snided.
“Listen, if you’re not comfortable with the situation, I’ll gladly explain to Mr Kim that I do not want-”
“Nope, none of that. The last thing I want is for Jongdae to tell me I cock-blocked him, it’s fine, I’ll suck it up so he finally gets laid.”
“I’m sorry, what ?”
Junmyeon stops scribbling, “Nothing, forget what I said.”
“So… what ar- what are my hours like?”
“He said you can choose~ Lucky you, I work 24/7. Mr Kim ,” he says the last part mockingly, “Is very demanding.”
“I… I’ll just stick with my normal hours then...” The other continues to scribble down in his notebook, before asking, “That’s all?”
“Yes…”
“Hmmm…” The assistant stands up, “I’ll get you the contract by today.” He walks out of the room, leaving Sehun confused.
He still didn’t know why he got promoted, so suddenly too. But Sehun wasn’t dumb, he didn’t miss what Junmyeon had said and tells himself to be careful.
For the second time that day, how the fuck had he gotten into this mess?