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Priit doesn’t really know if it’s considered bullying if it’s true, but Emilia just loves to tease him about it.
“It’s not like I want to have a crush on my boss.” He argues emphatically as he leans against the desk, computer pushed away from him so he has the necessary space to vent about this. His cheeks are burning already at the mere thought of this childish thing.
“Mhm, sure.” Julia mutters as she pats his shoulder once, clearly not believing him.
Priit really really really thinks it’s not such an easy thing as Emilia assumes. Sure, everyone knows that Jona has a massive crush on Julia and Julia’s got an on-off crush on him, but it’s not like that for Priit. It’s more like…the universe forcing these feelings upon him.
What is he meant to do when the only person (besides Emilia) who puts any effort into actually including him is Jona frickin’ Antell. -Not fall for his stupid puppy-dog act?
Clicking through their draft posts Emilia comments offhandedly, “It’s not like he acts like our boss though.”
As strange as it seems, it’s true though, Jona acting more like a strange coworker than their superior. (But then again he does tend to act superior so maybe Priit has to reconsider things.)
While it is true he tries to be approachable it’s likely he only tries so hard to ‘fit-in’ because he knows he’s their boss and it’s better they DON’T see him as another Mikael.
Speak of the devil and he shall appear. -is that not how the phrase goes?
Oh well, whatever it means, Jona approaches now, Priit freezing behind his computer as he tries to hide the fact they were just talking about him, Emilia doing a far better job of that.
“Hey, just the man I want to talk.” Jona smiles as Priit mentally thinks that of course Jona wants to talk to him. He’s one of the few in this stupid company that can talk to him, being good at English.
“What can I do for you?” Priit forces himself to relax and ask. He says this in English, mainly because he can’t say it in Swedish and he doesn’t want to embarrass himself in front of Jona. (Emilia has been trying to help him build up his confidence in speaking Swedish but for now it’s mostly reading.)
It takes a moment more than expected for Jona to respond, likely translating it in his head, but he swiftly presents a letter to Priit. The other man takes it with only a modicum of hesitation as Jona seems excited.
“It’s our first international client!” Jona announces as Priit opens the letter, ruining the surprise before the Estonian can even read it himself. Yet Priit takes the time to read the letter himself as Jona moves around the desk to push in close and read over his shoulder.
“I could read most of it but I thought I should leave this with you to make sure they are asking what I think they’re asking. Since you're our resident expert.” Jona explains far too quickly, switching back to Swedish as Priit wonders what he’s actually meant to do and Emilia pretends she does not exist at this moment.
“Ha…yes.” Priit nods, agreeing in Swedish and watching as Jona backs away with a thumbs up before he deflates, sighing to himself.
“What?” He asks Emilia, turning on her and hoping she can translate.
“Read the letter, Jona can’t, confirm it’s good not bad.” Emilia explains simply, Priit breathing a sigh of relief whatever he’s just agreed to is not bad. He has a habit of just nodding whenever he doesn’t understand what is being asked of him, it’s ended him up in some very bad situations.
“Jona.” Emilia warns as Priit’s heart has just had the chance to return to normal, perfect for another encounter with his damn crush.
Trying to remain casual Priit, forces a smile as he shoves the letter under his computer, unsure why but needing to do something to counteract the panic rising in him.
What is it now? Does he want the letter back? Is he here to fire him? What did he do?!
“Priit, I-” Jona starts before pausing, looking like he is thinking about his choice of words carefully before saying them, “Do you want to come to my house? Practice reading English.”
The idea of being in Jona’s house, seeing it, being in it, and being with Jona outside of work is a terrible idea that should make him immediately say no.
But the idea of helping Jona…now that is an excuse he can use to justify why he says yes.
Priit watches Jona go with a wide smile on his face, focus completely absorbed in savouring the last couple minutes and replaying them in his mind.
Jona is trying, at least, and that warms his heart. (and damn near every other part of him.) Even if he’s not perfect, he’s pretty close. Plus he still has an accent when he speaks and that drives Priit up the wall.
“You are down bad.” Emilia tuts as Priit turns on her, his smile quickly being hidden by his hands and he once again forces down a blush.
“I can’t help it.” He argues once again, their entire conversation today seemingly being about his crush. It’s a slow day so he understands but still, what he wouldn’t give for something to distract them from this.
Emilia looks at him with a tilt of her head to really get across the ‘are you sure?’ message as Priit tries and fails to return to normal.
“You seriously need help.” She sighs before continuing, pulling up a blank document and looking at Priit.
“We’re going to list all the positive and negative about dating Jona.”
That is not going to help! -Priit thinks before actually thinking about it. He’s thought about all the bad and the good of his crush on his (technically) boss a million times.
Emilia begins typing before Priit can even open his mouth, a sure sign she’s also done the same. (Jona is a ‘good guy’ but he’s a little….entitled? Self-assured? A manchild?)
“You said before that ‘he doesn’t exactly act like our boss.’ How is that a negative?” Priit has to ask, crossing his arms as Emilia scoffs.
“He may not act like it but there’s still a power imbalance there.” She reminds him as Priit can’t help but agree. If he makes a wrong step then goodbye his job here and goodbye his escape from…stuff.
Maybe that’s why he’s so attached to Jona. He came here with basically nothing but the ability to speak English. (He didn’t even speak Swedish well) And they gave him a job, an income and what can charitably be described as a home.
Now maybe somewhere along the line some wires got crossed and Priit thinks he has to repay that kindness with his own affection, latching on to Jona as the one who is just unattainable enough.
Maybe this is all some twisted thing his mind has made up to cope with the reality of the fact he has no where else to go.
‘I can’t lose this job if I made friends with the boss’. -But in this case the ‘friends’ part is not enough.
“Hey, snap out of it. We need a positive.” Emilia snaps in front of his face as Priit blinks, lost in his head as he refocuses on what they’re doing.
“Emilia, should we really be doing this?” He asks, looking around a tiny bit and feeling like maybe this shouldn’t be happening on company time. Don’t get him wrong, he’s happy to slack off work, but he’d rather not be caught with a pro’s and con’s list of dating Jona.
“No. Now positive.”
Priit rattles off one he’s been considering for a while, “He’s putting the effort in.”
Emilia just looks at him before shaking her head with an open mouth and wide eyes.
“Nooo, he’s just being nice.” She corrects.
“Well he’s nice then. Put that on there.” Priit huffs as Emilia finally adds one pro to the list, finally letting them move back to the easier con’s list. (Maybe it says a lot about Jona and this crush that the con’s list is easier in Priit’s mind than the pro’s.)
“He’s immature.” Priit states easily, remembering the many times Jona has tried to seem ‘down-with-the-kids’ and failed miserably. He’s hopelessly cringe and all too eager to put himself in embarrassing situations, Priit thinks with a worried expression. Jona deserves someone as unashamed and desperate as him.
(He should not be calling his boss or his crush ‘desperate’ but it’s a fact.)
Still, Priit thinks, Jona’s not childish to a cruel extent. He never partook in the prank that nearly made Priit quit in the second week of his time here. He wasn’t the one to say they needed a ‘cage tester’ and then trapped him in a cage too small for him. He didn’t laugh like the others as Priit’s knees and arms were pressed against his chest in an effort to fit in.
In fact Jona was the one who put a stop to it, telling them all to get back to work and unlocking the cage.
Sure, he didn’t stay to make sure Priit was okay but that worked for him, he didn’t want anyone to see his awkward crawl out of the cage and the tears in his eyes afterwards.
“He’s nice.” Priit says with a smile, thinking of that moment and getting something other than embarrassment and pain out of it.
Emilia either doesn’t mind about her friend’s apparent foolishness or chooses not to comment on it as she types that one in.
“He’s blunt.” Emilia suggests as Priit makes a face, not agreeing that that should be placed exclusively in the negatives section.
“What, he is. He doesn’t get other people’s feelings.” Emilia justifies as Priit can’t really argue with that. He can not count the number of times he has been kidnapped to help Jona understand something and then had his ear chewed off by that very same man for missing his deadlines. (It’s as if he doesn’t understand that other people have their own lives outside of his own.)
They place it on as Priit thinks of anything else positive about their dear young boss.
“Money.” He mutters before correcting himself, “He’s rich.”
Emilia snorts at the bluntness of it but can’t exactly argue, a big plus is Jona pays for things the company could never afford and he, knowing him, he would be the type to pay for basically everything on a date.
On a similar line of thought, though Priit is unaware of Emilia’s thinking, he begins to remember how Jona insisted on paying for everything the last time they went out.
It wasn’t anything special, just a small meeting between possible shareholders that preferred to converse in English. Hence why Priit was dragged along in Jona’s expensive and impressive car (at least compared to Priit’s).
After the meeting, despite Priit's wish to get back to the warehouse as soon as possible, Jona has decided to walk around the local town. To Jona, the deal had gone well as he couldn’t understand half of the slightly…pushy questions their (now) shareholders asked, and he wanted to treat them both to some food as the meeting went over into lunch.
“Mikael can’t fire you. It’s a secret.” Jona had explained as Priit had to admit he was glad of the air.
Looking back on it now the man supposes it could have been a date, the usual date activities being in there somewhere: Walking, talking, food. (Though if that’s where the bar is, Priit has been on a date with many people in his life.)
“He wants to be kind.” Priit adds to the list, work actually forgotten as he leans over to assess the list. There isn’t a lot on the screen right now but it certainly feels like a lot to him, a visual tally of his crush’s benefits and drawbacks.
Emilia hums as she types the exact wording, understanding as she always tends to what Priit is trying to say. Jona is not always kind, often he is pushy and ignorant and frankly rude, but he tries to be kind. It’s just what he thinks is ‘kind’ can often come across as controlling.
Maybe it’s an insight into his upbringing, the way he was treated, the duo don’t know, all they know is Jona doesn’t always land on the board when trying to aim for kind.
“Ummm…” He mumbles, thinking what else they could possibly put on there now. Despite it being the, admittedly, easier section of ‘con’, Priit’s mind is drawing a blank. -Which he finds insane. He is sure he has thought up a million different reasons why Jona is a very bad person to have a crush on, yet none of those reasons are making themselves known right now.
“Cringe?” Emilia tries as Priit makes a face, awkwardly smiling and silently communicating that ‘cringe’ is not a valid reason to not date someone. He’s cringe.
Oh god, why don’t they start making a list of reasons not to date HIM, that would be easier. -Priit thinks, once again sinking to lie against the desk.
They were meant to be making webpages today! -He swears to the sky mentally before the universe seemingly receives his plea to be free of this and sends the entire warehouse into panic as the fire alarm goes off.
As to be expected of a company such as Pro-Mink, the employees do not follow the regulated safety procedure.
Priit can not tell if it is Tommy who is screaming but he definitely sees Gun shouting at him, that being all he takes in before instinctually hiding under the table, heart beating out of his chest as his breathing picks up.
Emilia, at the very least, seems to look for the nearest exit, sighing as she sees’ it is very unsafely blocked by storage before looking down at Priit and thinking.
Knowing it’s really not going to help him in his panicked state but deciding she doesn’t care as there could be an actual fire, weighing his life against his discomfort, Emilia grabs his arm and starts pulling him towards the second nearest exit, already seeing the rest of their wonderful workmates heading out as Jona holds open the door.
While Priit is both taller and stronger than her, Emilia should not be able to drag him across the building and to safety but she does, thanks in part to Priit acting like a scared cat and scrambling against open air rather than actually focusing on escaping.
Once they are out and gathered, all looking relatively fine besides Tommy and Priit both looking visibly panicked, though in very different ways as Priit stares into space and Tommy is frantically questioning everything, roll call is called and they wait for the fire services. Jona exits the building a minute or two later than he should but Priit chalks that up to a strange ‘Jona’ reason. (That man is a mystery even to someone who spends a fair amount of time staring at him like Priit does.)
It’s unclear if there is a fire but the fresh air does eventually help calm Priit down as he looks around and finds everyone accounted for, breathing a sigh of relief.
“Okay, back to work.” Mikael shouts after three minutes as Jona immediately counteracts that demand.
“No, the fire service isn’t here yet.” Jona clarifies as if Mikael is struggling with understanding the concept of fire-safety and their procedures.
Priit and most of the other employees, bar Tommy, understand that Mikael just doesn’t care if they live or die, only confirmed by his rebuttal to Jona’s concern.
“Time is money, Jona, move it.”
And with that, Priit narrowly avoiding walking into Gun and her still-lit smoke that likely caused the alarm to go off, they get back to work in a building they hope is not actively burning down.
As Priit returns to their table he finds some new additions to Emilia and his little list, mainly in the ‘con’ list.
Those additions being: ‘Childish’ and ‘Attention-seeking’
Clearly someone added those and it sends Priit on a rollercoaster with a seemingly bottomless dip in it as Emilia returns soon after him and also reads the additions.
“At least we know Jona didn’t see.” She shrugs, teasing as she sits and Priit stands, frozen to the spot.
“If Jona did see..” He begins as Emilia rolls her eyes, sighing.
She tells him to try and not be so stressed but that is hard to do when he has so much to hide.
Finally sitting, Priit goes back to his work, the fire drill being enough to knock some sense into him.
He works until it’s eventually time to clock-out, returning to his car that is held together with prayers and a fair amount of bashed metal. (It’s the most he could afford before he came to work here.)
A small yellow piece of paper is on his windshield as he reaches the hunk of metal though, the fear of a parking ticket making him speed up his walk as he rushes to see what the problem is.
It’s no parking ticket though, Priit wondering why he would assume that now as he sees it’s just a folded company sticky note. (Yes, they have Pro-Mink branded stickynotes, Jona saying it would help ‘get their brand out there’.)
‘Nice list, wish I knew what half those words mean. Still, seems like I am boyfriend material! (If you discredit all the con’s.) ;P -Jona’ The note reads in Swedish, Priit tucking it in his pocket to translate later. Maybe this is a new game, he can read Jona’s name so maybe this is his boss repaying him for helping him with English, Jona’s going to help him learn Swedish.
Taking a moment to imagine the possibility and then swiftly dismiss it, Priit turns on the ignition and starts his long journey home, acquiescing that he’ll just have to put up with this crush until it goes away or he gets away properly.