Chapter Text
Taeil did his best to blink away the sleep heavy in his eyes. There were still three hours left before he got off, and multiple unanswered texts from his friends wanting to meet up after work left in his phone. He really should go. He hasn’t seen his friends in over a month, and they had been nagging Taeil to go out with them all week.
He sighed, running a hand through his unstyled hair. His fingers catch a knot. He really needs to take better care of himself, he can’t even remember to comb his hair in the morning. Taeil took a sip of his third coffee of the day, it’s already gone cold. He should really text Johnny and Yuta back…
After a few more minutes of putting it off, staring blankly at his computer screen, a project he started working on hours ago left blank in front of him, he finally picked up his phone. Another sigh dragged out of him as he tried his best to somehow sound enthusiastic through a text.
“Work tomorrow is going to be fun,” he mumbled under his breath. Knowing the friends he has, it would be some kind of miracle if he ends up getting home that night completely sober. He leaned back in his chair stretching his hands high above his head, a yawn involuntary being drawn out of him.
He’s going to need another coffee.
Taeil’s eyes catch the empty desk next to his as he got up to refill his cup. His mind wandered back to the retirement party held a few weeks prior. It was somewhat surprising that no one has been hired yet. Not that it bothered Taeil much. Yeah he had a bit more work to do, but he enjoyed the quiet.
Taeil managed to make it back to his desk with a fresh cup of coffee. Only two hours and fifty minutes left to go.
***
Taeil walked into the bar last, quickly catching Johnny and Yuta’s eyes. They were sitting at the bar top, an empty chair left next to them.
“Taeil!!” Yuta practically squealed, sitting up a little higher to wave to him.
A smile found its way onto Taeil’s face. He really did miss his friends, regardless of how hard they had to try to get him out of the house.
Johnny reached out and pulled him into a hug. “You look awful, dude,” he chuckled as he let Taeil go.
“Nice to see you too Johnny,” Taeil responded shooting him a sharp look, smile still playing at his lips.
“Leave the poor man alone! He works so hard and is oh so lonely, of course he looks bad!”
“Thanks for having my back, Yuta,” Taeil said, a sarcastic tone evident in his voice.
“You know it!”
A glass was set down in front of Taeil as he took his seat next to Yuta.
“We ordered for you,” Johnny answered before Taeil had the opportunity to ask.
The evening pressed on as expected as Taeil caught up with his friends, Johnny was quick to order Taeil another drink at the sound of ice hitting the bottom of his glass.
“What? It’s on me,” Johnny defended as Taeil shot him a look. Although, Taeil was hardly protesting. A free drink was a free drink, and it was nice to let loose a bit. His friends weren’t wrong, he was pretty exhausted, and it was a nice change of pace. He internally made the decision to try to do this more often.
“Taeil just hear me out okay? I have this cousin-“
“Yuta, if you continue that sentence, I swear to god.”
“Oh come on!!! Let me set you up! You deserve to go on a nice date for once!”
“I do not deserve to go on a date set up by you. I can guarantee that it would be more of a punishment than anything. And let’s be honest, you’re just bored. Maybe if you just set yourself up on a date, you would stop bothering me about it.”
“Damn,” Johnny said mid laugh, his hand coming down to slap the bar top. “Talk about a call out!”
“I’m happy being single,” Yuta said, turning his back to Taeil to give Johnny a good shove. Johnny just laughed harder and pretended like he was falling off the barstool. Yuta looked back towards Taeil, rolling his eyes at Johnny’s shenanigans. “You, on the other hand, are so clearly not.”
***
Taeil’s head throbbed. He really let Johnny and Yuta talk him into a round of shots last night. He just woke up but it felt like he was stuck in a bad nightmare.
Just one more day, then it will be the weekend. He groaned and rolled out of bed, mouth feeling like cotton and stomach queasy. He wasn’t trying to fool anyone, but right then at that very moment, he knew for a fact that he wasn’t in his early 20s anymore. Why the hell did they drink on a weekday? His memories flitter back to Yuta’s text the day prior about it being thirsty Thursday or something like that. Half-priced drinks he remembers reading.
Taeil grimaced as he caught his reflection in the mirror. He really needed to find his phone, there’s no way he was making it to work on time.
***
“Fun night out?”
Running into his manager as soon as he walked in, clearly hungover, was the last thing Taeil needed when he eventually made it to work that morning.
“Is it that obvious?” Taeil groaned.
He and Doyoung thankfully have always had a good relationship. When Doyoung first started at the company Taeil was just his coworker, but his natural knack for the job on top of his insane work ethic got him quickly bumped up a position or two. Although, Doyoung was young, and relatively new at the company so he tended to lean on Taeil for feedback. Why him? Taeil wasn’t too sure. But Doyoung would always say something about them being close so he knew he could trust Taeil to tell him the truth.
“I didn’t think the bags under your eyes could get any darker,” Doyoung elaborated, unhelpfully, in Taeil’s opinion.
“Honest as always Doyoung, glad you are sticking to your principles,” Taeil said rolling his eyes as he b-lined it to the break room.
Doyoung was quick on his heels. “Coffee number two already? That can’t be healthy.”
Taeil squinted at him, plastering on the fakest smile he could muster as he turned on the coffee machine.
“Oh hey, I actually had something to talk to you about.”
Doyoung had pulled out his manager’s voice, Taeil braced for impact.
“So, we hired someone… and I should probably introduce you to him.”
If Taeil wasn’t feeling like he was moments away from passing away, or maybe even throwing up, he might have felt a bit excited to meet the new guy.
“Oh wow, what an interesting first impression I am going to make, with you know, my oh so obvious dark circles, among other things...”
“You’re such a pessimist!”
Taeil let Doyoung lead him out of the break room and to his desk. He was met with the back of his head first, but he could already tell he was young. He was strangely leaned in way too close to the computer screen in front of him. Taeil wasn’t sure if he was just concentrating really hard or if he just needed some glasses...
“Donghyuck?” Doyoung called out.
He spun around at the mention of his name, a bright smile already plastered on his face. Taeil almost wanted to squint. His new coworker hadn’t even said two peeps and yet his demeanor was all too sunny for Taeil to properly digest at that moment.
“This is Taeil, he’s at the desk right next to yours, so if you have any questions feel free to ask him!”
Taeil tried and failed to scream at Doyoung through telepathy, eyes boring into his skull. He did not sign up for this!
“It’s super nice to meet you Taeil!” Donghyuck said, getting up out of his chair to close the space between them reaching a hand out towards Taeil.
It took him a second too long to realize that he was supposed to be shaking Donghyuck’s hand, which resulted in a swift nudge straight to his ribcage from Doyoung’s elbow. But Donghyuck didn’t question it, he didn’t even react. Not to Taeil’s slow processing time, or his appearance, to which Taeil knew was a rough one. He just kept a steady smile on his face, unassuming.
Or at least that was until Taeil finally caught his eyes. There was a trace of something in there that he couldn’t quite place. A glint of something bordering mischievous. It had Taeil linger a bit too long, but Donghyuck seemed to have no intention of letting his hand go first.
“Okay?” Doyoung finally commented. “I’ll leave you two to get to work. Oh, and Donghyuck if you need any extra help accessing the training materials you can message me, or come find me in my office anytime.”
Doyoung was quick to scurry away, Taeil finally dropping Donghyuck’s hand as his manager’s back turned. He instinctively rubbed his hand on the back of his pants, awkwardly pointing with his other hand toward his desk.
“Well... I’ll, um, get to work then.”
“Me too!” Donhyuck responded cheerily.
Taeil did not get to work.
As soon as he got logged on to his computer Donghyuck was popping his head over the short wall that separated them. He didn’t say anything at first, he just sat there, staring.
“Can I help you?” Taeil finally asked when he realized that Donghyuck was waiting for him to speak first.
“What if I told you… I needed help?”
Donghyuck’s smile was more uncertain this time, but still as annoyingly bright.
“What is it you need help with Donghyuck?” Taeil’s tone bordered on robotic.
“Well… I’m trying to work on this training program that Doyoung set me up with, but it’s telling me to open Excel, but when I do, it says I don’t have access.”
Taeil hummed, turning his chair just enough away from Donghyuck that he didn’t have to look directly at him.
“That sounds like an IT question, I’m not too sure. Maybe get Doyoung involved.”
The truth was, Taeil knew how to fix it. It wasn’t a hard fix, in fact, it happened to him before.
“But… but I don’t want to bother anyone,” Donghyuck whined.
Taeil made the mistake of turning back towards Donghyuck at that absurd comment because he was, in fact, being bothered. But what he was ultimately faced with was the worst puppy dog eyes he had ever received.
He should have never turned back around.
Although in retrospect, those eyes were bound to get him at some point.