Chapter Text
During lunch a few weeks later, Jihoon is at his usual spot on Sanghyeok’s table when the loud screeching of a chair getting dragged against the floor echoes through the cafeteria. The noise is even more bothersome to him since its source stops at their table right next to his colleague.
Jihoon looks up as a tall man flips the chair and sits down, chest pressed against the back of it. His suit jacket is draped over his shoulders and his dark hair falls over his eyes that are currently staring at him with indifference. All in all, Jihoon wouldn’t find it hard to believe that this man accidentally walked into their building thinking it was where his modeling interview was held.
That’s exactly why he’s absolutely stunned when the newcomer turns to his colleague and smiles at him brightly.
“Hi, Sanghyeok-hyung,” the man greets, ignoring the way Jihoon’s jaw almost drops to the floor. “How’s lunch today?”
“Why are you asking when you’re just going to eat the one you brought from home anyway?” Sanghyeok answers without bothering to lift his eyes from his food.
“Are you jealous?” The man smirks, as he puts his elbow on the back of the chair and rests his chin on his palm. “I can ask Wooje to make one for you too.”
Jihoon watches in silence as Sanghyeok finally looks at the newcomer. The lack of annoyance in his eyes is enough to tell him that this is how the conversation usually goes between them.
“He struggles enough with picky eaters like you,” he answers calmly. “Now tell me what you’re here for.”
The smile disappears from the man’s face as he looks back at Jihoon before asking, “That’s the guy?”
Sanghyeok only nods in response and turns to him as well. Jihoon can’t help but feel like an artifact in a museum. On top of being uncomfortable because of the four eyes that are currently on him, he also gets pissed off at the fact that a random guy who is obviously younger than both of them has interrupted their lunch and is close enough with his colleague to speak to him informally. And on top of everything, he’s fucking handsome as well which is just amazing.
“I’m Mun Hyeonjun from Human Resources,” the man supplies. “Jihoon-ssi, right?”
The cogs start turning in Jihoon’s head, as he desperately tries to figure out what exactly he’s done to catch this guy’s attention and force him to come to the cafeteria even though he doesn’t even eat lunch here.
“Was I reported for something?” He asks at last, unable to figure out the reason. He can’t help but find it ironic if true, since he was the one threatening Siwoo with the same thing just last week.
“Unfortunately, yes.”
“Huh?” Jihoon replies in disbelief.
At the same time, Sanghyeok throws an accusatory glare at the man, “Hyeonjun-ah, don’t joke around with things like that.”
The guy’s eyes turn into crescents as he laughs at the scolding and Jihoon can finally breathe when he realizes he’s just being messed with.
“Very funny,” he replies flatly. “Can I report members of HR to HR?”
“You sure can,” Hyeonjun grins at him. “But I don’t think you’re gonna win Sanghyeok-hyung over by fucking up his friend’s career.”
Jihoon chokes on his saliva and involuntarily glances at his colleague who looks away from him and awkwardly adjusts his glasses with his middle finger and his thumb. And then it hits him – friend. That’s why the guy looks so familiar – Jihoon had seen him multiple times in Sanghyeok’s posts.
“Then I guess I won’t be doing that,” he replies lamely after he recovers from the embarrassment.
He doesn’t try to deny Hyeonjun’s claims because he knows he’ll end up sounding like a little kid whose crush just got exposed. The man is also not wrong so Jihoon lets it slide.
“You pass,” Hyeonjun says as he gets up from his chair and turns back to Sanghyeok. “Bring him to dinner this Saturday, the others want to meet him too.”
Then he leaves just as abruptly as he came.
Jihoon’s never seen Sanghyeok looking as perplexed as he does in this moment. His colleague scratches his head and clears his throat before looking back down at his food.
“Sorry about that,” he says after a couple of seconds. “Not exactly the best introduction but it’s his style so–”
“He seems fun. I’d love to meet your other friends too,” Jihoon replies and then adds quickly, “If you’re comfortable with that, of course.”
Sanghyeok looks up again, “How about you join us for dinner this week then?”
Jihoon ends up having dinner with them not only then but also a couple more times in the next month, so he adds four new people to his list of acquaintances. Sanghyeok’s friends are all younger than him and Jihoon feels his heart melt into a puddle every time his colleague gets into the role of the big brother. He’s also amused to find out how they’re grouped when it comes to work – two scary but reliable guys in HR and two silly but soft-hearted ones in Product Management.
Jihoon’s personal friend group also changes, as Siwoo starts hanging out with Giin and his fellow Marketing Specialist Geonbu who quickly take a liking to him. Jihoon also meets a kid at his university reunion and makes the mistake of inviting him to one of their dinners where Siwoo immediately adopts him. That’s how Suhwan becomes a regular at their meetings as well.
Despite all of these changes, the one thing that stays the same is Jihoon’s relationship with Sanghyeok. But after his talk with Siwoo, Jihoon is now sure that he wants to be more than just one of his colleague’s friends. However, he has no idea how Sanghyeok feels about him, which makes pulling the trigger a bit too hard for an overthinker like him.
Here’s the thing – or, well, two things – Jihoon has zero dating experience and office romance is a big challenge for a beginner. He has to not only confess to his senior but also figure out how to keep their relationship a secret from their coworkers. That is if he doesn’t get rejected and resigns on the spot.
And all of his contemplations need to happen while he sees Sanghyeok at the office every day and needs a dangerous amount of self-control to stop himself from just walking up to his desk and blurting out something stupid like “You’re my first crush and I think I’m obsessed with you, please go out with me”. That is not an option.
It’s on a snowy evening two weeks before Christmas that he gets the best idea of his life. His scarf is covered with snowflakes and the yellow light of the street lamps is reflected in the wet concrete when he walks past a red-and-gold door before he immediately stops in his tracks and goes back a few steps.
Above the door hangs a wooden sign with a fat cat lying on top of a thick tome. Jihoon looks to his right and the first thing he sees is a massive bookshelf placed right behind the window. All of the shelves are stacked with books except for one – in the empty space a black cat lies down, its head turned towards him. The shop has already closed and is dimly lit only by a few lamps in the back, so the feline is almost invisible. But its eyes are hard to miss, glowing yellow and staring into Jihoon’s soul.
Jihoon decides that it can’t be anywhere else but here.
On the next day, he shares his plan with his love advisor (who’s unfortunately still Siwoo, since he doesn’t believe asking the other three will result in much) and receives the go-ahead from him. Two days later he wakes up buzzing with excitement, resolve subduing the fear in his heart.
Jihoon leaves his apartment earlier than usual. The cream scarf around his neck is a gift from Sanghyeok who had thrust a bag in his arms just last week, claiming he felt like he was catching a cold just by looking at Jihoon’s exposed neck and calling it a “late-or-early birthday present”. He doesn’t have to know that Jihoon has plenty of scarves that he had deliberately not used to keep his colleague’s attention on him.
The first thing he notices when he gets out of the bus is that there are people in front of the Geng.1 building. He can’t help but find it suspicious since he’s so early today that there is plenty of time until most employees’ shifts start. And even if they also came early, the building is already open so they wouldn’t be standing out in the cold for no reason.
Jihoon gets closer and realizes that most of them are familiar faces – people he’s seen once or twice in the elevator or in the hallways. He’s suddenly surrounded by unintelligible whispering that makes his skin crawl as he pushes his way through the crowd.
“Can’t believe–”
“Do you think that’s real?”
“That’s crazy, I guess my radar isn’t that good after all.”
Then he finally gets a glimpse of what they’re looking at and his heart drops.
Security guards scramble to remove the posters that cover all windows and glass doors of the lobby. They show different pictures of the same two people with blood-red text filling up the empty space on the paper. On some of them they’re embracing each other, on others the shorter one has their arm hooked through the other’s. But no matter what they’re doing, their faces are clear.
“Jihoon-hyung,” he hears a voice behind him and his hands start shaking. It’s the last person he wants to see right here and right now. “What’s all this commotion about? Are we getting a cool Christmas surprise?”
Jihoon turns to his right to see Minseok’s bright smile and rosy cheeks, painted by the cold winter wind. He opens his mouth but no sound comes out if. Let’s go, there’s nothing to see here, he wants to say. He wants to drag him away before it’s too late but there’s no point. It’s already very, very late.
“What are we looking–” Minseok starts and Jihoon can’t do anything but watch as he looks to the window. The smile and the warmth disappear from his face and Jihoons’s heart breaks into a million pieces, “–at…”