Chapter Text
Lee Chan tightened his grip on the strap of his sling bag as he stood before the building which he will call his second home for the next six months. Having just completed his 2nd year of college, he decided to sign up for the internship program at Seventeen magazine. His college counselor has been pestering him to gain workplace experience over the past year and he could almost hear her voice at the back of his head screaming, “Lee Chan! Getting workplace experience is important, you need to know how difficult it is to meet deadlines, how to connect with your workmates and most importantly how challenging your job is!”
Also, it didn’t help that his college counselor is also his mother.
He sighed and walked towards the building. The building was tall and mighty and it was surrounded by countless white-collared workers. It was relatively easy to spot them. They typically have one hand clutched onto their bags and the other onto their phones with their thumb furiously tapping away. They would always walk briskly, even if they weren’t rushing to somewhere and look like they could survive on coffee alone.
Chan hates coffee and it would be his worst nightmare to turn into a soulless employee. Nevertheless, it’s the only place where he could do what he likes; to provide readers an aesthetically pleasing magazine with good design.
He entered the building and immediately walked towards the receptionist. She looked immersed in her work and did not even realize someone was standing by the table.
“Good morning. I’m Lee Chan, the new intern at Seventeen and-”
“Okay,” the receptionist interrupted without taking her eyes off the computer screen. “let me just get your ID real quick.”
Chan nodded as he watched the receptionist go through the pile of ID cards.
“Here’s your ID, the office is on the - oh, hello!”
Chan jumped in shock at the receptionist’s sudden change in voice and expression. From a dull monotonous tone she suddenly became chirpy at the sight of someone walking past by.
“Good morning, Nana.” An unknown voice greeted from behind.
Curious, Chan turned to his side to see a man standing next to him. At that moment, he understood why Nana (as he learnt the receptionist’s name was) immediately plastered a big smile across her face as soon as she saw the man. Now, Chan thought it was simply an expression from books and movies when you’d describe a good looking man as “tall, dark and handsome” but this man standing next to him was literally the definition of tall, dark and handsome.
“Mingyu, this is-” Nana stopped midway to look at Chan, trying to remember his name.
“Lee Chan.” He answered and offered his hand for a handshake which Mingyu returned promptly.
“Yeah, Lee Chan.” Nana snapped her fingers. “He’s your new intern at the office.”
Chan swore this guy was a model. No way he would have thought that this guy could potentially be his co-worker. He placed his hands on his cheeks as he got conscious of his looks.
“Oh, you’re the new intern! Nice to meet you, Lee Chan. I’m Mingyu.” Mingyu smiled. “Let me take you to the office.”
Chan nodded and followed Mingyu from the back. Every step Mingyu took, Chan had to take two because damn, not only does the guy has long legs but he walks fast too. He eventually caught up with him and they went into the elevator together.
“Wait! Hold up!” a voice called from outside.
Mingyu instinctively pressed the open button and a boy who looked almost the same age as Chan ran into the elevator. He had round cheeks and brown hair gelled neatly to the side. He was huffing and puffing while he used one of his files to fan his face.
“Boo Seungkwan!” Mingyu exclaimed. “Amazing, you’re only 10 minutes late to work today!”
“Excuse me, I’m on time everyday!” Seungkwan pursed his lips. “You guys just arrive, well, earlier!”
Mingyu chuckled and shook his head. “Anyway meet your new friend, Lee Chan. He’s the new intern.” He gestured towards Chan who was standing at the corner of the elevator.
“Oh, hello!” Seungkwan greeted. “I’m Boo Seungkwan, Head of the Interns.”
“And also, the Head of Self-Giving Titles.” Mingyu interjected. “He’s just another intern.”
Seungkwan glared at Mingyu which earned him a hit on the back in return.
“I’ll give you a tour of the office and introduce you to the rest of us later.” Seungkwan said with a smile.
“Thank you.” Chan smiled back and bowed with gratitude. Maybe his job wouldn’t be as dull as he imagined it to be.
***
“Right here,” Seungkwan opened the door to an office. “is the interns’s office.”
Inside the office was a large round desk and one part of it was already occupied by another boy with a mop of blonde, brown-ish hair with soft features.
“That’s Vernon.” Seungkwan said, as if he could read Chan’s mind. “Vernon - Chan, Chan - Vernon.”
“Hey.” Vernon greeted with half a cookie in his mouth.
Besides the round desk which three of them will share, there were glass notice boards nailed onto the walls, a photocopy machine on the other side of the office and stacks of paper situated next to it. The notice boards had various dates and notes scribbled onto them with the exception of one which had drawings of what seemed to be poorly drawn portraits.
“My desk is next to Vernon’s and your desk will be next to mine.” Seungkwan tapped on the empty desk next to his. “After you settle down, I’ll introduce you to the other departments and the editors.”
“Okay.” Chan nodded and hastily placed his bag on his chair. He took out some of his documents, hard disk and stationaries and arranged them neatly on his desk.
“You look really nervous.” Vernon commented. “People here are super chill, don’t worry.”
“Ah, I do?” Chan answered, flustered. “I guess it’s because it’s my first time working at such a big company, everything feels very new and foreign.”
“You’ll get used to it in no time. Now,” Seungkwan looks over to Vernon and tips his head. “It’s time for -”
Vernon looked at Seungkwan with a crooked eyebrow before nodding upon understanding the situation. He turns on the projector, taps his mouse a few times and a picture of Seungkwan accompanied with cheesy background music appeared on the screen.
“Boo’s Seventeen Office tour!” Seungkwan raised his arms in excitement. “Vernon, get that flag I made.”
Vernon bends down to reach for something under his desk. He then produced a mini flag with the words “Boo’s Tours” printed on it.
“Did both of you plan that?” Chan asked out of curiosity.
“Only him.” Vernon pointed a finger at Seungkwan.
“I don’t have all day, let’s move, move, move!” Seungkwan ushers Chan outside the office while he waved his flag.
At this point, Chan tries to figure out if it’s ethical to hand in a resignation letter on the first day of work.
***
“Chan, my young grasshopper, our first stop is the writers office.” Seungkwan placed his arm over Chan’s shoulder. “We have 3 columns; the advice column, gossip and entertainment column and the lifestyle and fashion column.”
“Oh, Joshua Hong writes for the advice column, right? His advices are really good.”
“People actually follow his advices?” Seungkwan asked with genuine shock. “His advice ranges from actual advice to simply ‘Meet me at my church please.’ along with the address. We’ve actually gotten a few complaints for that, some people found it to be inappropriate.”
“Oh.”
“Anyway, here we are!” Seungkwan opened the doors to the writers office. “Hey, guys! This is Lee Chan, the new intern.”
The writers’ office was relatively small, with the large desks filling up most of the space. Two writers greeted them with a smile, one of them being Joshua. He stood up and walked over to Chan to offer him a handshake.
“He’s a fan, he reads your column.” Seungkwan stated.
“Oh, really? That’s nice to know.” Joshua smiled. “If you’re having any troubles, don’t hesitate to come to me.”
“Joshua,” The other writer deadpanned. “how can you relate to the youth when you don’t even know Zayn released a single?”
“Oh my gosh! He released a new single?” Joshua quickly goes back to his desk. “So he’s no longer in One Direction?”
The other writer rolled his eyes. “Anyway, I’m Jun, writer of the gossip and entertainment column. I hope you’ll have fun working here! We’re a fun bunch, it’s just that guy over there who’s stuck in the stone age.” He whispered the last sentence.
“Praise the Lord! Zayn is great!” Joshua exclaimed while he bop his head to the music.
“We’ll get going now.” Seungkwan laughed awkwardly as he guided Chan out of the office.
“Oh, by the way, Seokmin and Minghao are at the pantry!” Jun calls out.
***
“Here’s the pantry, feel free to eat anything which does not have someone’s name on it.” Seungkwan opened the refrigerator to look inside. “Or anything that’s not mouldy.” He said the last bit in disgust.
“Noted.” Chan answered. “Oh are they the other writers?”
Seungkwan looked over to the other side to see two males hovered over a pair of jeans.
“What are you guys doing?” Seungkwan inquired after walking up to them.
“For the next issue, we’re giving advice on how to remove stains from jeans.” A guy with a permanent eye smile answered.
“And we’re experimenting with other items - like lemons!” The other guy with pastel coloured hair held up a slice of lemon proudly. “Oh wait, who are you?” He asked, facing Chan.
“I’m Lee Chan, the new intern.” Chan answered and wondered how many times has he said this exact sentence.
“Nice to meet you Chan! I’m Seokmin and this is Minghao. We’re the writers for the lifestyle and fashion column.” Seokmin said while trying to rub off a stain with a slice of lemon.
“Your name is pretty generic. Seungcheol will probably give you a nickname soon.” Minghao said with a cheeky smile.
“Our boss is known for giving nicknames.” Seungkwan explains. “Seokmin is also known as DK and Minghao as The8.”
“Oh, that’s kinda cool!” Chan said in excitement “By the way, I think you can remove that stain with white vinegar.”
Both Seokmin and Minghao looked up with delight.
“That’s great! Thank you, Chan.” Seokmin thanked him before proceeding to look through the cabinets for vinegar.
“I swear they’re born for their jobs, they’re living trials and errors.” Seungkwan scoffed on their way out.
***
“And here we have the stylists, they basically style all the models that appear in the magazine and are in charge of cover shoots” Seungkwan referred to the open studio with his palms facing upwards. “There’s Mingyu, you’ve met him earlier.”
Upon hearing his name, Mingyu looked up. “Guys, I was talking about him earlier. Everyone meet Lee Chan, the new intern.” He said when he saw a familiar face standing at the entrance of the studio.
There were two other stylists present in the room besides Mingyu. One of them had long hair and a face so kind Chan swore he was glowing as he walked towards him whilst the other looked like he never grew out of his emo phase. Chan later then learnt that they were Jeonghan and Wonwoo respectively.
“Jeonghan is the coordinator, Wonwoo is the photographer and I’m the stylist but we all work together and help each other out.” Mingyu mentioned.
Chan nodded his head in understanding.
The studio was probably the largest open space in the entire workplace. A long white cloth hung against the wall and a camera was placed on the opposite of it. Various photography equipment and props were placed along the perimeter of the studio. There were also racks of clothing situated next to where Jeonghan was sitting and photographs of models pinned onto the cork board.
“You can ask anyone around here for help if you’re unsure about anything.” Mingyu said. “We’ve all been in your position before so we know how confusing things can get.”
“Yup! Don’t hesitate to ask us anything, even like ‘Why is Wonwoo such a emo nemo.” Jeonghan pointed at Wonwoo who was sitting at his desk.
“I’m not emo!” Wonwoo cried from his desk.
“Sure you’re not.” Jeonghan answered with a wink.
Mingyu shook his head. “Alright, you should bring him to meet the editors.” He told Seungkwan.
“Members of Boo’s Tours, let’s move!” Seungkwan sang.
“I’m the only one.” Chan commented.
“Don’t sass me!” Seungkwan snapped with a glare.
The stylists laughed and sent the duo on their way out.
***
“And this is our final stop,” Seungkwan stopped in front of a meeting room with glass panels. “Meeting the editors.”
Through the glass panels, Chan could see one of the editors pitching an idea with animated movements. His movements and blue hair almost made him look like a cartoon character. One of the editors who was listening to the pitch clapped and gave him two thumbs up while the other with bright pink hair looked like he wanted to jump off a cliff immediately.
When they got closer to the door, Chan could hear the blue-haired editor going, “Okay, we should print our covers with lenticular printing! That way we can have two different covers at once, how cool is that! Am I right or am I right?”
“Soonyoung, please-” The pink haired editor said before stopping himself when he noticed the presence of two other people at the entrance.
“Good afternoon,” Seungkwan greeted. “This is Lee Chan, the new intern.”
“Good afternoon.” Chan bowed at the sight of his bosses.
“Let me introduce you to the editors of Seventeen.” Seungkwan said. “That’s Seungcheol, Soonyoung and Jihoon.”
A chorus of hellos and waves were exchanged between both parties.
“We look forward to working with you on the next issue.” Jihoon said with a welcoming smile.
“Newbie!” Soonyoung called. “Lenticular printing. Yay or nay?”
Chan became flustered at the sudden question but Seungcheol stepped in just in time. “Go easy on the newbie, Soonyoung!” He said. “Anwyay, welcome to the team!”
Seungcheol went over to Chan and gave him a tight hug.
“Our boss is quite the hugger.” Seungkwan whispered into Chan’s ears. “And a little weird.”
“Whoa, I can feel your strong presence in this room!” Seungcheol exclaimed at Chan.
“See what I meant by weird?” Seungkwan whispered again.
“You’re like tiny but huge. You get what I mean?”
Chan was confused and looked over to Seungkwan for an explanation to which he couldn’t offer him one.
“You’re like a dinosaur.” Seungcheol explains with hand movements.
“Seungcheol! That should be his nickname!” Soonyoung said with excitement.
“Aight, kiddo, I will now bestow you with the nickname, Dino!”
“What’s going on?” Chan quivered.
“Nickname party!” Seungkwan screamed at the hallway. Soon all his co-workers came to the room and everyone started congratulating Chan.
Jun started playing upbeat pop music and Jeonghan put on a party hat onto Chan’s head.
“Not gonna lie,” Joshua screamed over the music. “This song is cool beans!”
“For Gods sake, Joshua! No one says, ‘cool beans’ anymore!” Jun screamed back.
It was total chaos, everyone was jumping around while loud music played. Bickering was heard between Jun and Joshua, Jihoon was sitting at his spot with his thumb and forefinger massaging his temples and the rest were simply goofing around. However, Chan felt a certain warmth being surrounded by them. It was only his first day, heck, he only arrived for three hours but everyone welcomed him with big smiles and an impromptu party just because he got a nickname. It was odd but he felt comfortable and at home.
“We make things fun here at Seventeen.” Seungcheol said, standing next to him. “Welcome to Seventeen, Dino.”