Chapter Text
Pran was standing by the front door of their apartment at 7:25 am, impatiently waiting for Wai to grab his bag so they could leave for Pran’s first day at work.
“Wai, can you please hurry up. We have to be there by 9 and with traffic we need to leave now.” Pran insists anxiously. Wai shouts something vague from his room in their apartment and Pran hears a loud thud as Wai staggers out the room, bag in hand.
Wai had worked for this company for nearly 2 years now. He left university and gotten a job on the architects team almost straight away, surprisingly spearheading an engineering/architects team that had grown the company greatly.
Pran, on the other hand, had been prompted by his parents to continue for another 2 years for his masters degree while adding on a class or two in business. This was to make sure he would be ready to take over his fathers business when it was time to be passed down to him.
However, until then, he had been able to convince them that he needed some real experience. Wai needed a new architect on his team for this larger project that had been handed to him, he had managed to get Pran an interview and a full time job on his team.
Pran could not have been more grateful to not only, work with his best friend, but to finally have some freedom in his life, out from under his parents thumb. Pran, however, was not grateful for Wai staggering around at 7:31 when they now really needed to leave for work.
“Okay, okay I’m ready. Don’t worry your pretty little head about being late. At least one of the guys is always running late, I’ve told you this. It’s all very chill, especially when we are only just starting a project.” Wai tell him, while attempting to pat his head, which Pran dodges easily as they leave the apartment.
“When we get there I will show you around the office a bit and then show you the plans for this project that we have brainstormed a bit before the others arrive. Then I'll introduce you to them. They are all good guys, even if we argue about designs and practicality, I’m sure you’ll get along with them great.” Wai explains as they walk down to the car park and get into the car.
Pran isn’t nervous about the job itself, he knows he’s a good architect and even though he hated studying business, he knows that it might help too. So suggestions he’s given Wai before have helped with his teams projects before. Meeting his coworkers is the issue. During his time at boarding school and even at university he had struggled to make friends. After the initial upheaval of his life from high school to boarding school and then to have his first university rejected by his parents “just in case that boy is there” he hadn’t really made any long lasting friends. Wai practically had to force himself into Pran’s life not to be shut out.
So he was a little nervous, but from the tidbits he had heard from Wai about Korn, he seemed like a bit of a joker but largely alright, and “the rest of the guys” seemed fine as well even if he really didn’t know much about them. So Pran tapped his fingers on his knee as Wai drove them towards the tall office building that would be his new place of work.
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“So the whole floor is pretty much ours. We do have our own little work spaces and I’ll show you to yours in a second so you can no doubt fill it with little happy smiley faces,” Pran rolled his eyes at Wai’s teasing. Just because it had been suggested to him by a therapist to assess his emotions in smiley faces, didn’t mean he needed Wai’s cheek. “But most of the time when we are working on a project we will all end up congregating in the main conference room to work together.”
Pran nods along, following as Wai walks him through, pointing out every bit he needs to know. On the way he was introduced to a few people who had arrived early and seem to be in their own spaces preparing for the day.
“This is your little office space, so you can leave your bag here. My office is on your left and Pat’s office is on your right and Korn’s is right across from us. So if you need help and I'm not in you can always ask them. Pat is probably your best bet, because Korn and I usually do a lot of work together.” Wai mutters, clearing his throat a little when Pran side eyes him. Maybe Pran should have asked a little more about Korn, when now that he thought about it, Korn was the only one Wai really spoke about. A topic for later on, Pran notes.
Pran would have lightly teased him about it for now but just as Wai turned him around to walk him back to the main area, he heard boisterous laughter from down the hallway coming towards them.
If he was being honest with himself, today would have been a sad face day. He hadn’t gotten the best sleep as he was nervous, he hadn’t gotten to eat much of his breakfast as Wai had thrown off his routine by accident, and neither of his parents seemed to remember he had his first day at work today so he had gotten no good luck messages to relax him a little.
But the second he saw two men coming down the corridor nudging and laughing at each other he felt like his whole world had been turned around like a sad face post it note to a smiley face one.
“The one with the long hair is Korn and the broad one is Pat. They went to the same university as me and we used to fight. Remember I told you about the gang the architects used to fight from engineering, well they used to be a part of it. We’ve moved past it now, but they still tease. It will be nice to have some back up from my bestie.” Wai tells him, while completely oblivious to the range of emotions landing on pure shock that is probably written all over Pran’s face.
Pran can’t do anything but vaguely nod and stare as Korn spots them down the end of the corridor and pulls Pat into a headlock and drags him down toward them as Pat struggles to fight back, not having seen Pat with all the messing around they had been doing.
“This must be the famous best friend we’ve been heard so much about. Wai won’t stop talking about you, and if we didn’t know any better we would have thought you were boyfriends the way he talks about you. I’m Korn and this guy is Pat.” Korn teases, pressing his hands together with Pats head still locked in place, causing him to make a fake choking noise as Pran watches him try to wriggle out again.
“As if Pran would put up with me being his boyfriend. He barely tolerates me in his space as a flat mate, I feel sorry for the man subject to his 6 am wake up calls.” Wai jokes with a fake shiver, making Pran roll his eyes and shove at him. 6 am is a perfectly reasonable time to start the day if you wanted to get everything done, he thought.
“Hello Korn, Wai has also told me about you but I’m pretty sure he would also try to put me into a headlock like you have poor Pat there, if I told you any details.” Pran tries to remain casual as he presses his palms together in a greeting but when he sees Pat stop wriggling and stiffen under Korn’s arm he knows he’s been recognised.
Now that he is an adult he doesn’t need to hide he decides. His parents are well aware of his interest in men and mostly try to ignore it until they will be confronted with. Pran is very lucky that Wai is fully accepting and has helped him a lot with accepting himself, but Pran never told him about Pat. The boy that started the seed of doubt in his assumed straightness and the boy from next door who he couldn’t forget. Now at work, he shouldn’t need to hide that he knows Pat, especially if they are going to be working together so closely. Wai won’t drop him as a friend even if Pran has kept this information from him, and he wouldn’t mention it to his parents either. So he decides to take the risk.
Pran shuffles around a little and bends down to look at Pat where he is trying to tilt his head up in Korn’s arm, to catch his eyes properly, seeing the surprise in them.
“Hello Pat, it’s been a while.”