Work Text:
(1)
“Team Leader Park”
“Yes, Miss Jeon?”
“You know you’re the one I look up to the most, right?”
Joong-Gil looked up from his paperwork to look at his youngest recruit. Her usually sparkly demeanour was cloudy with doubt and hesitation. Was today an intense training day? He tried to recall the training schedule he approved for this month, but Bo-Yun interjected before he could pursue it.
“Sir, may I speak freely?”
“Of course.”
Bo-Yun fidgeted with her access card before taking a deep breath and lifting her chin, staring intently at Joong-Gil from across his desk.
“Sir, you deserve to be happy.”
What.
Outwardly he maintained a cool, diplomatic front and showed no reaction to her statement, but internally he has a sense where this was going. This has been escalating for years now via subtle barbs and suggestive comments from different colleagues, and from the clumsier subordinates that didn’t hide their stares and whispers with enough care. He didn’t expect Bo-Yun to be caught up in all this as well.
His silence stretched out, causing Bo-Yun’s fidgeting to become more pronounced. He waited for her to elaborate before he shut her down her advances. He gave her some leeway in being more casual with him, as she will always be a child, and truthfully, he had a soft spot for her. It was like having a younger sister or daughter that he never had.
“Sir, getting to know you from the day you escorted me into the afterlife gave me peace and purpose that I didn’t have as a mortal. It is my childish wish that you can have that peace as well, and I just think that if you pursued it with as much devotion as you have for your work, you will achieve it.”
Joong-Gil leaned back in his chair and crossed his legs. Where did this generation find the audacity to be so brazen with their seniors? Maybe the transfer to the Risk Management Team wasn’t the best idea if this was considered acceptable communication etiquette.
“Miss Jeon, while that is very flattering I-”
“Sir, I promise I will never bring this up again, but you and Team Leader Koo should really consider-”
“We are not dating.”
Bo-Yun’s face crumpled with despair “But sir!”
“Miss Jeon-”
“Sir, we saw you two working together during team building day and it just. It makes sense sir! But only dating? After all this time? Make it make sense!”
“It makes perfect sense; Team Leader Koo is very capable-”
“Sir, respectfully, your girlfriend waited by your side for 200 years, anymore and she should be a saint. Please, she won’t wait around forever!”
“- and we are not dating.”
Joong-Gil put on his best poker face as Bo-Yun wailed and passionately made her case to him. He found that the best way to quell rumours is with the truth, though mortals and spirits alike will pick the truths they want to see regardless. Half of Jumadeung is convinced he and Koo Ryeon are dating, the other half are convinced they are fake dating to boost company morale and unity. Romantics and cynics unchanging across astral planes.
But they really are not dating.
“- all this for a bit of propaganda? That’s too cruel, to your girlfriend, sir!”
Joong-Gil had enough for today. He snapped a folder shut and sighed.
“Jeong Bo-Yun, I think it is time you head back to your office. It was nice seeing you adjusting so well, and don’t worry, I won’t tell Team Leader Koo about your visit today.”
Her shoulders sagged as she pouted, tired from her outburst as she slowly bowed in defeat… for now. Joong-Gil sighed, now distracted with the thoughts of pink rouge and how they look best on someone who is sadly so close, yet so far away.
(2)
“Team Leader Koo.”
“Yes, Manager Lim?”
“Your boyfriend sent us an updated workshop schedule for new recruits.”
“Call him my boyfriend again, and I will remember it when I have to write up your employee performance feedback form.”
“Yes ma’am. These final attendance lists for the training modules also need your signature... Courtesy of your not-boyfriend.”
“YAH!”
(3)
“Personally, I don’t see it.”
“Pardon, Director Ha?”
“You and Ryeon.”
“I see.”
“Personally, I think a man would be more charming when he has a woman. The most romantic thing you’ve done for her is grab my ankle and nothing since.”
“Very astute sir, contrary to the rumours you may hear from Jumadeung, we are in fact not dating.”
“Right? I must tell Mr Maeng and Mr Bang. They’re worse than Huginn and Muninn from the Norse contingent that visited over the spring.”
Joong-Gil hummed absently as he continued to review the proposal for updating the underworld’s Escort Team rest stops. Ha Dae-Su scoffed as he prattled on about how ridiculous it is to fake date for morale.
“Who would even dream up of such nonsense? How trite.”
“The rumours say that it’s one of Ok Hwang’s many schemes to boost productively and interdepartmental cooperation, but you know how these things go…”
Joong-Gil smirked as the king of the underworld perked up at the mention of Ok Hwang’s name, successfully derailing him from badgering him about his not-girlfriend.
“Then maybe it does have some merit. Say, tell me, how is Ok Hwang these days?”
(4)
“Did you know that i'm being credited with your fake dating scandal?”
Ryeon did her best to not roll her eyes at the deity’s quip. They weren’t dating but the idea of faking dating is somehow worse.
“The rumours are untrue and I apologise for the disruption it has caused.”
“Why should you apologise for something that was manufactured in the minds of others? If anything, they should apologise to you both. If things get too uncomfortable for you both, just say the word and it will be dealt with.”
Ryeon dipped her head in gratitude, knowing that at least in this realm she would never have to face her demons alone.
“Though I have to say…”
Well. Maybe one demon in deity’s clothing.
“It’s funny how even after he reincarnated that he never gave much thought to his broken thread or was given a new one.”
Ryeon peeked up at Ok Hwang, who was leisurely leafing through yet another folder of documents before her, pointedly not looking her way.
“Strange, how things work out, isn’t it?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Now off you go, your fake-boyfriend will be here soon, and I’d rather not be accused of forcing you both into a closet to hash things out for the sake of company morale, no matter how much it has brought the community together. Even that Miss Jang from the Escort Team has started to organise social nights.”
(5)
They stood a respectable distance apart at the elevator doors with their backs to the atrium. To anyone passing by they looked like colleagues simply waiting to get from one floor to the next.
“Team Leader Koo.”
“Team Leader Park.”
“Am I correct in assuming that the badgering has increased in frequency on your end as well?”
Ryeon sighed and crossed her arms in front of her “You are correct. You would think that this being a workplace that actual work would take priority over gossip.”
The corner of Joong-Gil’s lips quirked up as he chuckled “Ever the optimist. Never a dull day in this place yet this is what keeps them going.”
“Do you think there’s a betting pool?”
“It is against the laws of Jumadeung to engage in such frivolity”
“Yet here we are.”
The pair eyed the backgrounds of their reflection in the elevator doors. Where the light columns barely conceal the glances of one of their nosier colleagues, and one of their subordinates was leaning conspicuously over the armchair by the green wall.
Ryeon huffed and watched another jump behind Mr Baek in an attempt at not looking suspicious “Should we tell them?”
“And miss out on this?” With a deliberate swish of his jacket, they both watched as the reflections panic while Mr Baek smacked the stray hands that tried frantically to manoeuvre him like a meat shield, lest they get caught staring.
They both suppressed their laughter and tried to school their faces into masks of indifference. It wasn’t too hard once they stopped looking at the background of their reflections and focused on each other instead. Through their reflections they looked at each other as though the world around them never existed in the first place.
Their respective lifts pinged to life and they both prepared to go their separate ways for the day. Joong-Gil made a show of offering her a polite nod and kept his voice low and soft to utter a parting promise reserved for her ears only:
“부인.”
She smiled and dipped her head towards him. To a bystander it looked like a simple parting gesture between two very professional and polite colleagues, but to Joong-Gil, she returned her affections with equal reverence and a promise of her own:
“서방님.”
As they stepped into their respective cabins and faced the rest of Jumadeung with schooled faces of indifference, their colleagues wept with despair, not knowing that the pair they wished to find eternal happiness, had already found it in each other all on their own.