Chapter Text
Pai is fully convinced that her boss is gay. Not only gay, but also hopelessly crushing on his secretary.
It hasn’t even been two weeks since Vivian has started working at the office, and Khun Lee has transformed into an entirely different man.
Her boss has never been unfriendly by any means, but he also has never seemed particularly approachable. Tailored suits, polished shoes, rigid posture and that stubborn, slight crease between his brows. His days are planned down to the minute, and he will make sure that his routines stay in order.
Khun Lee isn’t really the type of coworker to hang around at the coffee machine, generally a little too authoritarian and intimidating.
Intimidatingly handsome, to be precise.
But ever since he got his new secretary, Khun Lee has been a changed man. He now stays in the break room after pouring his coffee, trying to make conversation, and hovering around the new guy like it’s his job.
And Pai loves every second of it.
She’s a shipper at heart, and she feels like she’s been served a Michelin-grade meal with these new developments.
Her office is diagonally across from Vivian’s, and she hears everything. It started on the very first day that her new coworker introduced himself. She’s immediately been smitten by Vivian, the guy shuffling in with some cookies to hand out, beaming with a smile the whole time.
And for whatever reason, her boss was a step behind him all day instead of disappearing in his office as he usually did.
Interesting.
So Pai does what every normal person would do: leaving the door open the entire time, so she could hear Khun Lee’s awkward attempts at conversation.
She even asked the intern to move her desk a bit closer to the door for better lighting. Definitely not because she can now catch a glimpse of Vivian’s office.
Her boring admin job has never been more entertaining than in these past few days.
Currently, Pai is preparing paperwork. She’s rushing because she knows that her boss will be ending his lunch break in precisely seven minutes, and he will be stopping by Vivian’s office afterward. And today’s mission is to witness that with her very own eyes.
Just like clockwork, she can hear Khun Lee’s footsteps in the corridor, slowing down as he’s coming closer. Just a few weeks ago, he would have proceeded right back to his desk, but Pai has picked up on the change of his routine immediately.
“Oh, hello, Khun Lee!” she hears Vivian’s cheerful tone. Hurriedly, she collects all the papers and tiptoes to the door.
“Have you eaten already?” a soft voice responds. She feels giddiness bubbling in her stomach, pressing against the doorframe, waiting for the perfect moment to cross the corridor.
“Oh, no, not yet. There’s just so much to do, and I don’t really feel hungry anyway,“ Vivian replies with an awkward chuckle.
“Please, Vivian,“ their boss responds with an exasperated sigh. “I cannot watch you burn out within your first few weeks here.”
She has to suppress a squeal.
Lee reaches out, fingers softly caressing his secretary’s cheek. “I could not bear losing you.” Vivian’s eyes automatically close, eyelashes fluttering. His heart is beating so loud that the whole floor has to be hearing it. They lean closer, breaths mingling and-
A squeaking chair rips Pai out of her daydream. Damn it, she actually needs to hand over the documents.
She finally steps out into the corridor, just to promptly collide with a chest. The admin stumbles, and a hand shoots out to stabilise her.
Pai looks up into a pair of wide brown eyes, framed by wired glasses, that look back at her equally surprised.
“Oops, are you alright?” Vivian asks, still holding her upright. “Oh, dear, I am so sorry!” Pai nearly shouts as she scrambles backwards.
Vivian’s eyes narrow on his hand holding her shoulder, like he’s waiting for something. She shakes him off and steps back a bit.
“I wanted to bring you the paperwork you requested this morning!” She practically shoves the documents in his hands and tries to retreat into her office.
Mission failed miserably, abort!
But Vivian, sweet, goodhearted Vivian, stops her. “You also haven’t had any lunch, right? Let’s go take our break together, Pai!”
Listen, Pai really likes the new secretary. But what she does not like is having problems with her boss, who is currently standing in the doorway to Vivian’s office, trying really hard to look nonchalant.
She hesitates for a second, but then a thought starts building in her head.
Pai has to suppress the victorious grin, that threatens to form on her face. She knows how to sail her ship. And if she has to suffer the consequences, so be it.
She smiles sweetly, linking her arm with Vivian’s. “Sure, let’s go!”
Oooh, yes, let’s go.
•
Vivian, to his own surprise, actually really likes his job. Not that he had much of a choice to begin with.
His coworkers are really friendly and everyone has been trying to help him from day one, showing him how the coffee machine works, where to get new stationary, or which copying machine to avoid when you are in a hurry.
And his boss is very accommodating as well. Sometimes a little bit too accommodating.
He isn't very knowledgeable about a human workplace, but from the series he’s watched, Vivian is pretty sure that he should be the one bringing Khun Lee his beverages, and not the other way around.
Still, every morning at 9 o’clock on the dot, he hears a knock on his office door and his boss comes in to place a sugary banana pudding latte on his desk. He had mentioned once, on his second day, that he really likes that particular drink from the place down the street.
Khun Lee is somehow always around him, assigning tasks, holding a door open, or asking him if the office’s temperature is to his liking.
And he’s always looking at Vivian with these huge brown eyes. Very distracting, if you ask him. Not like his boss wasn’t already unnervingly handsome in the first place. Whenever he notices these eyes on him, the secretary is suddenly very prone to stumbling or dropping things.
Vivian knows that this is turning into a very real problem. He has 30 days to find his true love, and he’s busy with work piling up and thinking about his boss’s eyes.
Stupid!
So, he decides to take matters into his own hands. Vivian has started being very touchy around the office. Fingers lingering after handing over a file to the receptionist, shoulders pressing against his colleague during lunch, or leaning over the IT guy while he’s showing him how to open up a zip file. (He still doesn’t really know what that is.)
Still, no pink flames anywhere. Vivian is slowly losing his mind.
He is mentally checking off a list of his coworkers who haven’t produced the pink flames. After a while, there’s only one person left: the sweet admin Pai who works across from his office.
That has to be it. He wouldn’t be dropped into this office scenario, if his true love wasn’t around here somewhere.
Pai is nice, not really his type, but she would work out well enough.
So, colour him surprised, when bumping into her, there still aren’t any pink flames shooting up his arm. Pai really has been his last viable option around here!
Vivian still likes her company, so when they start spending time together after the incident, he doesn’t mind it at all. They have made it a habit of spending their lunch break together, sharing desserts, and gossiping about coworkers.
“You know, Khun Lee is still single,” she says to him one day. “Weird, right? It’s like he’s just waiting for the right person.”
He stares back at her. Weird, indeed.
“Maybe he’s too busy? I already feel like I’m drowning in paperwork, I don’t even want to know what’s on his plate. Whenever I’m staying late, he’s still in the office, too.”
Pai‘s eyes become very big at that. “You’re staying late together?”
“Well, yes? He’s always in the office when I am here, though.” Vivian replies slowly. Makes sense if Khun Lee doesn’t have a family.
“Interesting!” Pai smiles at him. He doesn’t know why, but Vivian is feeling uneasy now.
Later that day, Vivian looks out of his window, eyes drooping, watching the sun quickly vanish behind another skyscraper. He’s still finishing up paperwork, but feels his mind drifting, just kind of staring at the pages in front of him instead of filling out the form.
Then he hears a knock on his office door. His boss pokes his head in, smiling at him. “Are you getting ready to leave? I can drive you home, if you'd like.”
“Oh, that’s really nice of you, Khun Lee, but I still have to finish this. You can head out!”
Lee fully steps into the room now, brows pulled together. “You should head home, Vivian. You’re too diligent for your own good.”
Vivian is squirming in his seat now, Lee’s deep brown eyes are burning their way into his own again. His hands are getting more clammy by the second, and he starts feeling really hot suddenly.
Should’ve opened the window earlier, huh?
“Uhm. Yeah, you’re probably right. Yeah, I feel a little warm right now, too. Don’t want to get sick, haha,” he finishes lamely, avoiding eye contact at all costs.
The paperwork now at the very back of his mind, he grabs his jacket and tries shuffling past his boss, who is still hovering at the door. Just as Lee is opening his mouth to reply, Pai appears in front of them.
“Oh, what a surprise, Vivian, you’re still here.” She grabs his arm and basically pulls him away from Khun Lee, whose eyes suddenly look icy cold.
Pai links her arm with Vivian’s and throws a grin back to their boss, waving over their shoulders. “Vivian promised me dinner tonight. See you tomorrow, Khun Lee!”
Vivian lets himself be dragged along, still sensing the heavy gaze of their CEO burning into him.
As soon as they’re outside, he feels like he can breathe properly again. Maybe he truly needed some fresh air.
“I didn’t know we were getting dinner today?” he asks, still a little dumbfounded.
“Oh, perhaps I misremembered,” Pai grins at him like she just won the lottery. “You should go home, Vivian. See you tomorrow!” And with that, she’s off.
Humans are a little weird after all.
Well, more time to think about what he should do about the whole true-love-situation without being distracted by a particular man with the sharpest jawline on planet earth. And his cologne. And his broad shoulders. And his stupid, stupid eyes.
Stupid!
•
Lee Likhit is slowly losing his mind. He feels like a teenager experiencing his first crush.
Ever since his new secretary was hired, he can’t seem to control himself anymore.
Vivian looks like someone plucked Lee’s ideal type right out of his brain and served him on a silver platter. And if that isn’t bad enough, he’s also extremely sweet, smart, funny, and hardworking.
Lee has been smitten from the first moment he has laid eyes on Vivian. It still feels like everything else suddenly is highly irrelevant.
Schedules? Paperwork? Irrelevant. Waking up 15 minutes early to get Vivian’s favourite coffee? Very relevant.
Problem is, he doesn’t do relationships. He’s never been interested in anyone before; school, university, and then work always being at the forefront of his mind. But now someone seems to have plastered a billboard with Vivian’s shy smile across his brain.
So, how does one go about romancing his secretary, especially when he seems to have attracted everyone else in this office as well?
Of course people would love him, Vivian is sunshine personified. It makes Lee want to rip his hair out.
After having to witness the series-worthy moment, that was Vivian and Pai’s collision and then subsequently being practically glued to each other the following days, Lee is trying really hard not to lose it.
He knows it’s bad, when he opens WikiHow that night and starts taking notes.
1. Ask your crush about their life.
Easy.
Except it’s not easy at all because Vivian deflects basically every question about his personal life. All he has figured out, so far, is that he has two brothers.
2. Make eye contact and smile when you talk.
Easy, again.
Except that Vivian seems to hate eye contact and avoids looking at him directly all the time.
3. Touch their arm lightly during conversations.
Okay, not so easy. Lee tries to think back to the beginning and starts to realise that they haven’t touched once in the few weeks that Vivian has been around.
Touch him. Oh, god.