Chapter Text
When Seungcheol finally got accepted as the branch manager at Choi enterprises, he was not surprised. It's not like his father owned the company, but he does own a big part of the shares in the company and basically co-owns it with a bunch of his relatives.
And no, he did not get the job because of nepotism, because then he would've chosen the biggest branch in the heart of the city and not the smaller, forgotten one in the outskirts of mainland Seoul.
He is, in fact, not going to throw a hissy fit about this to his father because that would only make the old man smirk and go on a rant about how he lived a much simpler, hard-working life at his age and he should be grateful for even getting a job in the first place. It doesn't matter if he graduated from one of the top business universities in the entire country. He should not complain about not getting better opportunities, and instead work hard and be deserving of them.
He sighed and finally announced that he’s going to move out of his brother’s place (also his place) and get an apartment close to his new job, over dinner with his family. His brother, who was sitting next to him, shamelessly stuffing his face with the home-cooked food, raised his eyebrows and made a face that automatically made him ten times more annoying. Seungcheol gave him the most threatening glare he could, until he heard his father’s satisfied huff and saw the proud gleam on his mother’s face.
A week later, he did find a decent place near the company, but not that near the company because he had a car and wanted to drive it to his job and maybe even flex the Audi rings on the front of his car.
He walked into what was supposed to be his home now, it was a clean, furnished apartment on the tenth floor (the highest in this building) with 2 bedrooms and modern interior design. He immediately went to the glass doors to the balcony in the living room.
The view is honestly a little underwhelming, but at least he could see some stars, and the air was probably less polluted. He quietly pondered how this would be the first time he would be living on his own.
Three days after adjusting to his apartment, he wanted to get out. Luckily, it was his first day at his new job. He would never be late on a first day, like his parents said, first impressions matter the most. He was also supposed to be their boss and it would not be professional if he showed up late on the first day.
He wore the best shirt in his closet, wore the pants that he knew would make his ass look good, not that he expected anyone to look at his ass but it’s better to be prepared than not. After mulling over his hair for at least half an hour in front of the mirror, he left his house with something close to excitement for a new beginning.
He reached the office earlier than expected and sat in his car in the parking lot designated for the branch manager, but with the name of the person previously in his position, he wondered what happened to that person.
After mentally preparing himself and practising his charming smile, he walked into the building and met the receptionist. She was a sweet-looking woman, probably older than him or maybe that's the tiredness on her face. She recognised him and greeted him with the already familiar receptionist smile.
He took the elevator to his floor and walked past the dimly lit empty office chairs and shut down computers in their cubicles. This bothered him a little because it was almost time, and there was no one in the building yet.
He walked into what's going to be his cabin and absolutely got his life knocked out by a sudden 'hello, sir' from someone sitting in the chair in front of his desk.
Thankfully, he did not scream, but his face seemed to show enough because the guy on the chair got up with an amused expression.
“I'm sorry, sir. Did I scare you?”
Seungcheol just shook his head as the embarrassment of the situation finally caught on. He cleared his throat before speaking.
“No, hello, I'm Seungcheol, the new branch manager.” he managed to give a hand and the guy smiled before taking up the handshake. Seungcheol had to admit that the guy is handsome.
“Hello, sir, I'm Hong Jisoo, you can call me Joshua, and I will be your assistant manager.”
He then settles into his very cosy chair, and Joshua sits in the chair opposite him.
They talked briefly about the company, and Joshua told him that the branch didn't have a manager for almost three months, during which Joshua himself had taken up the responsibilities and also how this branch in specific almost always gets the shorter end of the stick with the budget. Off to a great start then.
Joshua also suggested that he give him a walk around the office building during lunch break and Seungcheol was glad he didn't have to ask for that himself.
In the meantime, he fiddled with the stuff on his table, logged his accounts onto the office system and sat in his chair, astonished by this branch’s consistent stagnation in profits for the past three years. No improvement, no downfall and there was also not much contribution to the overall growth of the enterprise, which was interesting.
He was brainstorming ideas on how to figure out where the exact problem was and dreamt of proving himself by changing this branch and making it the biggest branch of the whole company. The Candy Crush opened on his system helped him brainstorm brilliant ideas actually.
Somewhere around an hour before lunch break, Joshua knocked on his door. He told him he could enter the room, and never in his life did Seungcheol think he would think of a grown man smiling as cute.
“Sir, I think that it would be nice if you held a meeting with the employees and introduced yourself.” Yes, team building, how could he forget that?
“Yeah sure, thank you, and also please, Joshua, you can drop the formal speech, we are of the same age”
Something flickered on Joshua's face, but it left before Seungcheol could figure out what it was. “Sure, Seungcheol, I'll arrange a meeting then, be at the meeting room next to the break room in ten minutes”, and no, Seungcheol’s eyes did not drop when Joshua turned to leave the room.
When he entered the meeting room, he was just stuck standing there because he had never seen an office so, for lack of a better term, noisy. There were fewer people than what probably should be, but they’re all talking to each other (more like talking over each other) and even laughing.
Until Joshua clapped twice. Exactly twice, and the whole room fell silent.
Now it's even more awkward with the people just staring at him, he looks at Joshua sitting in the front, and he has that cute smile, but now it looks like a preschool teacher’s encouraging smile.
“Hello everyone, I'm Seungcheol, your new branch manager. It's nice to meet you all, I hope we can work well together.”
The people just continued to stare at him.
“Wouldn't it be nice if you all introduced yourselves as well?”
The room fell silent for another second before Joshua spoke up, “Hello, I'm Joshua, I'm the assistant manager”, and he looked at the man sitting next to him.
The first thing seungcheol noticed is the guy's long hair (is that even allowed?) and his weird sitting position (that slouch must hurt the guy's back right?). The guy just sighs, pushes his hair out of his face and Seungcheol is stuck staring at the guy's androgynous (is that the word?) features, his high cheekbones and his big doe-like eyes. “Hello, I'm Yoon Jeonghan, the market strategist”
The remaining introductions went in a blur. This was a bad idea, honestly. he knew he wouldn't remember any of those names but he stood there listening until he heard a familiar name.
“Hello, I'm Lee Jihoon, media director”
Is this real? Is this actually happening? He meets his best friend, his Jihoonie, after all these years, and they’re working in the same company like they’ve dreamt since they were kids? He suppressed his smile and kept a mental note to talk to him after the meeting.
He somehow came out of the meeting alive, and Joshua approached him with a smile that was more teasing, really. “Good job, boss, you really got the whole team bonded”
“Please, Joshua, this is my first time overseeing an entire branch, cut me some slack”, and Joshua laughs. why is it unsurprising that even his laugh sounds really nice?
“Okay fine, want me to show you around the place?” it was not exactly break yet, but it was close enough.
The whole office building was nothing special, it was just smaller, probably designed to keep fewer people. The most interesting thing was in fact, the people, they seemed more like friends than co-workers. They were all young and probably inexperienced as well.
The more he explored, the more questions piled up in his mind with less and less probable answers; he should honestly talk to Joshua about it. The office tour ends shortly after and Joshua is a kind soul who gave him his number and told him
After going through some papers about the branch and its former projects, he called Joshua to his cabin, to discuss some business things, of course. Joshua sat across him, ever-so prettily looking at him, and Seungcheol tried his best not to blush.
They talked about the company for a while, but the conversation quickly derailed to something personal and the atmosphere of the room slightly shifted. They both looked straight into each other's eyes, Joshua slightly leaning onto his desk using his elbows and Seungcheol straightened on his chair, giving his full attention to Joshua.
Seungcheol had never been the type who enjoys slow burn. If he found someone attractive, he would just ask them out, and if he got rejected, which happened a few times, he would just move on. He knew he was a good-looking guy and that his looks definitely helped him here.
"We could discuss the remaining over dinner", Seungcheol suggested. Joshua's smile widened a little and he slightly parted his lips. Seungcheol hoped that he didn't just imagine the slight pink dusting his cheeks.
And God must be a really funny guy, because he thought it would be the perfect time for someone to knock on his door. Joshua glanced at the door and shrugged. Seungcheol didn't want to seem too annoyed, especially when it was just his first day.
The person entered the room and it was the pretty guy with the long hair from the meeting, Yoon Jeonghan.
"Hello, sir and hi Joshua", he smiled pointedly at Joshua, and Seungcheol knew he was missing something here.
"I was looking for Joshua because it is almost time to leave and also here are some papers you might want to read, sir" he kept a huge stack of papers that Seungcheol, in no way, could read and still be alive.
"Uhm, thank you, Yoon, you could've just emailed it" he winced at the sound the stack of papers made against the wood of his desk.
"I didn't get your email address yet, sir" Jeonghan shrugged and sat on the chair next to Joshua.
"And you wasted our printer ink over this?" Joshua looked at Jeonghan pointedly this time.
Jeonghan was absolutely not bothered about the question and shifted on the chair to sit in a postion similar to the one that he had in the meeting. "Also, boss, you might want to buy us a new coffee machine"
"Wasn't it just fine during the break?" Joshua asked the question, but Jeonghan gave the answer to Seungcheol.
"The office couple pushed the coffee machine off the table during their fifth make-out session of the day" Jeonghan rolled his eyes almost like it was a normal occurrence in the office.
"Shouldn't they be reprimanded for that type of behaviour in a workplace?" Seungcheol wasn't exactly against workplace relationships, but that seemed like it was crossing a line.
"No, it's okay, I've scolded the kids enough already, you just buy the new coffee machine." Jeonghan quickly replied like he already had the answer ready. He looked at Joshua because he seemed like the only normal person at the moment.
"They've been together for really long, we're only like 10 people in the office, and we didn't really mind so" Joshua explained and that probably made sense if he thought about it.
"Okay, sure, I'll look into it then" Seungcheol nodded, and that made Jeonghan give him a wide smile with a glint of challenge in his eye.
Did Jeonghan think he would not get them a new coffee machine? Well, lucky for him, Seungcheol was just a naturally competitive guy.
"Thank you, sir. " Jeonghan untangled from his chair. "Joshua, I think it's time for us to leave, right?" He gave a tight-lipped smile to Joshua and Joshua sighed as he got off his chair.
Jeonghan watched Joshua leave the room first. Then, when Joshua couldn't see them anymore, he gave Seungcheol a look with a similar glint as before smiling and waving goodnight to his new boss.
Two days later, a new coffee machine sat in their break room in place of the old one, perfectly working, expensive looking and definitely out of place.
Joshua was having his lunch by the table, and Jeonghan was having a serious staring contest with the coffee machine. Seungcheol walked into the break room with his red coffee mug that said world's best dad on it in ugly Comic Sans.
He went to the coffee machine and felt
Jeonghan's eyes almost make a hole in his skull.
Joshua spoke first, "Hey Cheol, thank you for the coffee machine"
Seungcheol loved compliments, but he had to stay humble, you know? "I mean, it was from the company's budget, so thank the company"
"We all know that the company doesn't give enough money to afford something like this." Surprisingly, it was Jeonghan who pointed this out. He was looking at Seungcheol with sincerity and something else that Seungcheol couldn't figure out.
"So, we mean it, thank you"
Seungcheol felt like he didn't need coffee anymore because the satisfaction was enough to fuel him for the rest of the day. He smiled at Jeonghan, "You're welcome", he said as he left the room with his second coffee of the day.
Later, Joshua left a few reports in his room, "Cheol, you knew the coffee machine wasn't really broken, right?"
Seungcheol smiled, "But Jeonghan wanted a new one, and I can't blame him, the old one was really slow and annoying"
Joshua raised his eyebrows in response.
"Plus, it felt like I was being tested, and I don't like failing tests."
Joshua laughed, "I think you might have passed with flying colours."